from the ray mcgovern article –
““According to several current and former intelligence officers who must remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue,” as the Times says when it prints made-up stuff, there were only two “handpicked analysts.” Clapper picked Brennan; and Brennan picked Clapper. That would help explain the grossly subpar quality of the ICA.
If U.S. Attorney John Durham is allowed to do his job probing the origins of Russiagate, and succeeds in getting access to the “handpicked analysts” — whether there were just two, or more — Hill’s faith in “our intelligence agencies,” may well be dented if not altogether shattered.”
it goes with larry johnsons articles on this topic and where it might head in the next 2 months..

Posted by: james | Nov 24 2019 17:38 utc | 3

Fiona Hill, the subject of the sort of hagiography at wikipedia that used to be reserved for the Lives of the Saints, is an expert russophobe, and far from being an expert on Russia. The product of the Pipes/Harvard school of anticommunism so deep that it includes Russian capitalists and everyone else as well.
What is interesting about her position is that it is an indication of the increasingly demented nature of the US government. Just as US Middle East policy is dominated by people whose primary qualification is allegiance to zionism, so policy towards Russia is dominated by Ukraine oriented fascist sympathisers who hold views on Russia that are, frankly racist.
The same thing happened in the late 1940s when everyone in the State Department who knew anything about China was kicked out and kept away from any position of influence on the grounds that they were too sympathetic towards (in other words tried to understand what lay behind) Communism.
That resulted in decades of US stupidity in South East Asia where anti-communist zealots saw Chinese influence and ambition behind everything that happened. It might have been funny had it not led to such tragedies as those in Indo-China and (Obama’s school of life) Indonesia.
Similarly the employment of monomaniacs like Fiona Hill on the ‘Russian file’ is pretty well guaranteed to lead, in the short run, to imperial defeats.
So, here’s too Fiona: Cheers!

Posted by: bevin | Nov 24 2019 17:58 utc | 5

“Will the pan-dems claim voting fraud if they do not get a majority?”
Of course. That’s in the playbook. The pan-dems will moan… more pan-dem-monium from the spoiled brats and useful idiots. Unlike Bolivia, though, they do not have the military on their side.

Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 24 2019 18:20 utc | 7

@ psychohistorian | Nov 24 2019 18:01 utc | 6
the lifeblood of our economic intercourse is a public utility managed for all or a private cult benefitting only a few at the top and forcing the rest to live or die based on their fealty to the God of Mammon religion
wrap your head around this interview with Dr. Mark Skidmore on the missing $21 trillion which MSM waves away as a conspiracy theory not worth discussing.

Posted by: Likklemore | Nov 24 2019 18:33 utc | 9

@ Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 24 2019 17:22 utc | 1
With the way information is controlled and channeled, almost none of them have probably even heard that anything is amiss with the OPCW.

Posted by: AshenLight | Nov 24 2019 19:19 utc | 11

Sorry, I meant to give a hat tip to wendy davis @ cafe-babylon.net for linking to the Stockman article in recent comments. Very good piece from an old Reagan appointee – and that’s heartening, isn’t it? We oldies do improve with age, some of us 😉

Posted by: juliania | Nov 24 2019 19:25 utc | 13

From Michael Roberts’ Blog’s Facebook page:

Europe’s PMIs for November show that Eurozone economic activity is teetering close to recession, while UK is in a recession.
The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) is a survey of company management on the how they see the state of production, employment and sales. PMIs are the most reliable and up to date indicators of the health of a country’s business sector. The PMI indicator level of growth is 50. Anything above means growth and the higher the level, the faster the expansion. Anything below 50 means recession and the lower the level, the bigger the contraction.
While in Q3 2019 Germany narrowly avoided an ‘official recession’ (ie two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction), Germany’s composite PMI (a combination of manufacturing and service sectors) for November was in recession territory at 49.2 (slightly up from October).
The overall Eurozone PMI was 50.3, just above stagnation and down from October. The UK composite PMI fell to 48.5 in November, the lowest level since the mini-recession of 2016 and indicating a slump.
Japan’s composite PMI was also in negative territory for the second consecutive month at 49.9.
And of course, most countries’ manufacturing sectors have been contracting for some time.

Long story short: it’s not that the European is already dead. No, not only it has been long dead, its corpse is already at an advanced stage of decay.
There are a lot of vultures on the European corpse — but this is not the refounding of Rome.
–//–
At the end of the world, in the British isles, the situation is no better:
Labour’s economic policy: the challenge ahead

Whatever government is formed in the UK after the 12 December election, it faces an immense challenge. The British economy is in a mess and its society is riven with division.
After ten years of austerity measures under Conservative/Liberal Democrat governments, public services and welfare benefits have been cut to the bone and beneath. The British state pension is the lowest in Europe! The NHS, after being hollowed out by outsourcing and internal privatisation and then starved of funds, is on its knees. Social care for the old and infirm has been decimated and/or hideously expensive. School classroom sizes are higher than ever, higher education colleges are going bust and students are racking up huge debts. The housing shortage is so bad that young people are forced to live at home with parents or in crowded, unfit private rental accommodation. Transport is an expensive nightmare: rail, energy and fuel prices are the among the highest in Europe.
Inequality of wealth and incomes are as high as in the 1930s. While Britain boasts of 135 billionaires, 14 million are officially classed as poor and 4 million children are living in poverty. Regional disparities in living standards between London and the south east and the rest of the UK are the widest in northern Europe. Millions work in the poorly paid self-employed ‘gig’ economy, and one million people work on zero-hours contracts often for wages below the official minimum wage; while the disabled and ill are forced back into low wage work through the removal of benefits.
[…]
Most important, on the economic front, Britain’s growth of national output is slowing as the population expands, making it increasingly difficult to provide the resources to meet these challenges. Britain’s economic growth is disappearing fast. The capitalist sector of the British economy has failed to deliver for the needs of people, although it has delivered higher profits and house prices and a booming stock market for the rich. Real disposable income per head has more or less stagnated since the end of the Great Recession, the longest period in 167 years!

Posted by: vk | Nov 24 2019 19:45 utc | 15

This news is a good oportunity to debate another aspect of the American 2020 presidential election:
‘I’m Running to Defeat Donald Trump’: Michael Bloomberg Officially Enters 2020 Presidential Race
Rumor say the bigwigs in Wall Street have already accepted the fact that another big recession will come — probably in 2020.
Micheal Bloomberg is a big billionare, whose USD 21 billion estimated fortune makes Donald Trump (estimated fortune: USD 3 billion) look like a street beggar. He’s also from New York City, having being mayor of it.
As everybody here knows, you can’t be mayor, senator or governor in NY without the direct blessing of Wall Street. As a billionaire and ex-NY politician, Bloomberg is certainly receiving real time updates on the situation of Wall Street.
He probably was forced by Wall Street to enter the Democratic presidental race.
This is because, if this big recession comes in 2020 (or even sometime until 2022), Wall Street will need a legitimated POTUS to bail them out. Remember: the 2008 crisis broke out in September, when George W. Bush was still president. His Congress wasn’t able to pass the bail out, amid mass protests in NY and DC. He was already a very demoralised POTUS, after the defeats of Iraq and Afghanistan. This crisis of legitimation left Wall Street in a four-month limbo — a limbo which almost collapsed the USA.
The crisis was only solved because Obama won the election. In January, the first thing he pushed through Congress was the bail out bill. Some months later, the largest bail out in History was passed, a total USD 1.1 trillion rescue package (not counting the QE operations, which had already begun under Bush). If any other candidate not called Obama had won that election, there was a real possibility the bail out would not pass with such ease. It took the first black, liberal to the bones, “yes we can”, president in the History of the USA to save Wall Street and crush the revolt (“Occupy Wall Street”) without creating a domino effect on the rest of the American territory.
My hypothesis is Michael Bloomberg is, in the mind of Wall Street, this new POTUS cloaked with that aura of popular legitimacy Obama had in 2009.
After the bail out, Obama lost both of his majorities in the regional elections of 2010. He then became a de facto figurative emperor (the “lame duck”, the American Romulus Augustulus). Didn’t need to be any more than that: he had already served his purpose in the two years he was effectivelly a president.

Posted by: vk | Nov 24 2019 20:06 utc | 17

AshenLight @11:

… almost none of them have probably even heard that anything is amiss with the OPCW.

Well, the point I made addresses this by pointing to how the most partisan and most politically aware people on each side have failed to attempt to use the OPCW revelations to their advantage.
The implication of this dog(s) that didn’t bark goes beyond media control (which is already well known), to political control.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 24 2019 20:13 utc | 19

@ Likklemore #9 with the $21 trillion dollar link…thanks
I remember reading a bit about that in 2107 but the purposeful pace of the propaganda machine and obfuscation events ripped it from my consciousness as I am sure it did to others that might have seen it go by. I agree with the author, Dr. Mark Skidmore that a world-wide crash is our best hope for getting a grip on the insanity that has become commonplace in our world.
Unfortunately or fortunately as part of that crash, it will be outside interests like China/Russia et al that force the change/reevaluation in the West to occur…..lots of weeping and gnashing of teeth….and we hope not nukes….
It is the responsibility of those of us in the West to stand up, when that process unfolds, and overcome what remains of the system of propaganda that fuels the brainwashing of the masses. I have 5 more books about public banking headed my way and hope to share my learnings and work with other like minded folk as best as I can.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 24 2019 21:04 utc | 21

Pat Lang writes again about the President’s Constitutional right to manage foreign affairs: Punch foresaw The Borg.
Note: pl apparently changed the title from “The Trump Impeachment Hearing Whistle-blower Blew Up a non-Story Mulshine(ht)”
Pat, and other Trump apologists that have jumped on the same bandwagon, LIE BY OMISSION when they fail to mention that imperialists have created the ‘Imperial Presidency’ which has upset the checks and balances that the Founders put into place to protect against just such a power grab.
Among other things, the ‘Imperial President’ has circumvented Congress’s “power of the purse” by funding covert action/war via extraneous activities and secret agreements with other states (especially Gulf States like Saudi Arabia) that constitute unratified treaties.
The US President DOES have the power to manage foreign affairs but that power is not, should not, and never was intended to be, absolute and unchecked.
Impeachment is not the only measure available to Congress. If they were serious, they would make the emergence of an ‘Imperial President’ to the Supreme Court. But the Empire is a bi-partisan project so don’t hold your breath.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 24 2019 21:33 utc | 23

Cynthia Chung invaded my brain and wrote the short essay that’s been on the tip of my tongue for some months now, “On Churchill’s ‘Sinews of Peace'”. Within its body is linked two extremely important items, the first being Elliott Roosevelt’s book about his father Franklin As He Saw It (available limited preview at link), and the second being an excerpt from that book of paramount importance.
The more well known name of Churchill’s “Sinews of Peace” speech is “The Iron Curtain Speech” given at Fulton, Missouri on 5 March 1946, not quite 11 months after FDR’s passing. Here is the opening appetizer from that speech Chung bases the rest of her essay upon:
“This threatening message was not only meant for the Soviets, but was also directed to the Americans and in between the lines Churchill stated ‘Things are going to be very different from now on. Your dead president cannot protect you any longer.’ Some may be surprised to hear such an aside comment, more likened to the outer ruminations of Shakespeare’s Iago.” [My Emphasis]
Things did immediately become different. I consistently point out that the Evil Outlaw US Empire immediately began violating the UN Charter and thus its own Constitution and Law of the Land upon its coming into force; however, what I’ve neglected to point out until now is that the UK also began violating it just as immediately as did France, although neither has anything similar to the US Constitution’s Supremacy Clause that might be used to curb illegal behavior. I often point to historical What Ifs? as in this case regarding the coup made against Henry Wallace, FDR, and the wholesale overturning of the reasons given for waging the war and winning the peace. Ms. Chung does an excellent job of highlighting what those were, how they were smashed, and why. I really can’t stress the great importance of her essay enough; its educational importance is second to none! Read it, save it, make sure its read by your entire family, take it to your kid’s teachers, share it with everyone you know and those you don’t. The only people I can conceive of who wouldn’t want to know its contents are racists/imperialists–dare I say fascists–like Churchill. Three generations of people were subjected to a geopolitical power play that never should have occurred–the deaths, destruction, and wasted opportunities likely total in the Quadrillions of Dollars. I must admit some admiration for Chung’s an optimist as she clearly shows in her conclusion; my adding it here in no way diminishes her essay’s power and importance:
“The intended policies by Franklin D. Roosevelt for the post war world are still waiting to be implemented today.
“So what can we the people do about this? We can wake up to the fact that this has occurred and recognise that the mainstream presentation of world dichotomy today is just continuing this sickly narrative. That Russia and China are not some monstrous race and that we should weigh what is currently being offered as an olive branch with great and serious reflection. That is namely the Eurasian Economic Union and the New Silk Road which also applies immensely to the US.
“Let us not continue to remain shackled in despair and inaction but rather realise that there is a great opportunity still for the Century of the Common Man.”

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 24 2019 21:41 utc | 25

I’ve lurked here for a while; but this is my first lengthy comment at MoA. It’s an analogy. Of course, no analogy maps perfectly, so I’m sure there will be objections. Also, please let me know if this material is appropriate for an open thread. Thanks.
Trump is to America what ISIS was to Syria – Orange ISIS
Trump, like ISIS, is a cover story used by the CIA to demolish an existing government (i.e., what little is left of the U.S. Constitution) under the excuse of stopping “evil”.
Just as ISIS was put in play after the Syrian people began to rebel against Assad, in order to hijack legitimate resistance by the classic hybrid war playbook, Trump was put in play to make sure that Americans did not get genuine change (i.e., the 2016 version of Bernie Sanders) at a time when people were fed up with the status quo, exemplified by Hillary and Jeb Bush.
The truly evil deeds done by ISIS were an undeniable talking point for its elimination. As one would expect from the Mighty Wurlitzer, the ISIS narrative never mentioned the fact that the Saudis funded, the CIA armed and coordinated, and the Israelis supported ISIS from day one. But at least the ISIS theatre had the fig leaf that it was “foreign policy”, the purview of the CIA.
The truly evil deeds done by Trump also make it easy to write a regime change narrative. The problem is that the completely unconstitutional, CIA-led impeachment effort is in plain sight. (As “plain” as possible when the original hearings leading to the impeachment resolution were secret, the witnesses anonymous, and the testimony hearsay.) The corporate media is working overtime to deny that this is a CIA-led, oligarch funded coup; but the star witness was supposed to be Ciaramella, a CIA officer at the White House. Anyone with an ounce of awareness recognizes the heavy involvement of the Ukrainian wing of the CIA (e.g. Vindman) – the same folks behind Russiagate – who were rewarded at the beginning of the public hearings with declarations that the Ukraine was our “strategic ally”. The Ukrainian wing itself is a Banderite protege of the CIA’s ex-Nazi protege, Reinhard Gehlen. They’ve been, literally, “our Nazis” since the early 1950s, anchoring the Russophobic stance of the US MIC and facilitating the neo-Nazi Maidan coup.
But that’s the beauty of the ISIS-style regime change operation: long-running false flags confuse politically unsophisticated folks. Just as Syrian Kurds became enthusiastic proxies of the US and Israel, and fought ISIS (only to be screwed in the end), idiot Democrats and identity politics charlatans have become cheerleaders for the continuous hybrid war on Trump’s legitimacy, backing every ludicrous propaganda trope from the Steele document to Russiagate, to Ukrainegate. If the CIA puts Mike Pence in office, and he starts WW3, those clueless Dems find themselves to be the new Kurds. That’s why, despite all the words about impeachment, you never ever hear about Pence. Don’t want to start a stampede in the veal pen.
Just as in Syria, the “evil” to be eliminated in America, Trump, has been funded by the US/Israeli Deep State. Trump isn’t Russia’s puppet, he’s Sheldon Adelson’s and MbS’s puppet. Trump has delivered huge budgets for the US MIC. He has delivered politically for Israel and KSA: recognized Jerusalem as the capitol, recognized the theft of the Golan Heights (and now the settlements), ignored settler massacres and Palestinian massacres, ignored the Kashoggi butchery. Hence, the corporate media gives us the same kind of schizophrenic “pretending to attack a person who is, in reality, helping us” narrative that played out in Syria. Trump is evil, unless he is launching cruise missies at Syria, threatening Iran, sanctioning Russia, selling weapons to KSA, tearing up precedents about Israeli occupations, or stationing US troops in Israel. Then he is a good guy.
Trump, like ISIS, has been put in place to paralyze and then destroy the existing government and replace it by a CIA-run puppet show. In our case that would be the completely corrupted corpse of the Democratic Party, with the ghoul, Joe Biden, currently tapped to be the figurehead comprador, despite publicly admitting doing what Trump is being impeached for. (Although, it looks like relief pitcher, Mike Bloomberg, is being called in from the bullpen.)
A legitimate and popular government – something along the lines of saving what’s left of the New Deal and social programs – is “off the table” in duopoly America, just as supporting the legitimate government of Assad, instead of the Kurds, was in Syria. Bernie Sanders gets the same blackout and vilification treatment as Assad did.
Just as America has done the heavy lifting of the Yinon Plan for Israel, now Trump will fulfill the Deep State plan for the U.S. That is to create civil war conditions to balkanize the U.S. so that the global oligarchs can dominate post-collapse America. Hence the constant attempts to set groups violently against each other: Identity Politics divisiveness from the Dems, White Supremacy and anti-immigrant agitation from Trump, constant massacres with assault weapons by people with dodgy ties to US intelligence, constant police murders. The right has a whole spectrum of fake leftists from Antifa to Mayor Pete to despise, while the left has Trump and the deplorables. We also have the completely manufactured Boomer vs Millennial narrative, and the Coastal vs Flyover states animosity. Its a perfect hybrid war, with legitimate democracy caught between two Deep State jaws.
—-
I do not see any miracles on the horizon. The DNC will continue to run its war of attrition on the socialist-lite Sanderites and AOC followers. New candidates (Patrick, Corporate Party-identity politics; Bloomberg, CP-Oligarch) will keep emerging to be touted by the corporate media, while Sanders gets zero coverage and Elizabeth Warren tries to steal his clothes. Trump will not be convicted in the Senate unless the Deep State has calculated that they must have WW3 right away (e.g., because their position, across the politico-economic board, is about to completely implode). If they need WW3, the delusional fundamentalist whackjob Pence will give them that. Otherwise, impeachment will fail; the corporatist Dem candidate will be defeated; and Trump will get four more years to start a civil war.
I don’t see any Russian air force coming to bomb our Orange ISIS. There isn’t anyone on the planet who wants to rescue America from itself. We’ve spent 75 years running our neo-colonialist rackets all over the planet: South American compadors, African dictators, Middle Eastern Sunni kings and generals, East Asian militarists, Russian oligarchs. We’ve murdered tens of millions of non-white people, stolen their resources, crippled their economies, and turned them into debt slaves. For the last thirty years we’ve been cannibaliizing our own middle class. Why would anyone lift a finger to help us? Instead, they’re doing the smart thing – getting out of the US financial network, stepping back, and watching us crash. The distance between reality and our financial markets is already unfathomable, and the solution is not to print more money. “Not QE4” is going to end up like 1929. But that’s probably what the international Deep State wants.
In closing, it seems that Syria has a better prognosis for the future than the US does. They beat back their CIA coup attempt. They are politically united. Their economy is not a Wall St. casino. They are supported by the Russians. Their president is not a narcisistic idiot.

Posted by: john brewster | Nov 24 2019 22:03 utc | 27

@8 steveK9
Thanks for that link and embedded video.
@27 thanks for looking and the ruminations
Here is a thought, tariffs are a kind of sanction karma. After dealing sanctions out to most the world, the PTB are deploying them (sanctions) in the form of tariffs against the civilian population.
One of these days they might clue in, but I’m not holding my breath

Posted by: les7 | Nov 24 2019 22:29 utc | 29

Sanctions restrict other nations’ access to goods, technology, finance, etc
Tariffs limit your own peoples’ access to goods, technology, finance, etc

Posted by: les7 | Nov 24 2019 22:35 utc | 31

vk @ 17
Hmmm… Bloomberg coming on board — definitely a message. Certain elements wanting a ‘controlled’ messenger ‘injected’ into the illusion to try and maintain this crazy paradigm that is crumbling at an exponential rate. He’s tried it before — not sure why he/others think it will work this time? Is is just preceived damage control LOL?

Posted by: Jayne | Nov 24 2019 22:42 utc | 33

vk @ 17
Never got to visit his London Mithraeum project while visiting London. Will try next time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Mithraeum
Would be interesting to know more about him…

Posted by: Jayne | Nov 24 2019 22:53 utc | 35

While his country is on the verge of civil war…Netanyahu, in his last cabinet meeting, talked mainly about protests in Iran, no mention of his indictment…Guess now who is highly likely behind those protests…
https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1198717174849974272
https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1198652498694856704
It seems to me that what has just happened in Bolivia could well be a general rehearsal with everything for other scenarios where the losers of elections will not be willing to accpet the result or an indictment on them by the judiciary…I fear that what we are witnessing happening in Israel, will be repeated in the US in case Trump would lose the coming elections…The difference with Bolivia is that in both cases, Israel and the US, people there are armed to the teeth…Thus it is expected that the deads will multiply into the hundreds…
And it is that this is always a danger accepting in any way, slightly or strongly, fascist coups in other locations, since once kinda legitimated by some in the international community this method of achieving power, the same scenaro could be repeat at any other place where the supporters of the coup have an interest, especially when it is their own countries…..

Posted by: Sasha | Nov 24 2019 23:06 utc | 37

Will anyone with any common decency give this woman and public send-off… Je***
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ruth-bader-ginsburg-released-hospital-infection-1257695

Posted by: Jayne | Nov 24 2019 23:26 utc | 39

I don’t often cite Eric Zuesse, but it appears his 4-part report published at The Saker’s blog will be an exception. All 4-parts are compiled into one long article. Here’s his hook:
“Furthermore, the American public should have been far more skeptical about the Ukrainegate narrative than they were, because, at first, Democrats were trying to use, as their ground on which to impeach Trump — and thereby to install the current Vice President Mike Pence as being America’s President — Trump’s having colluded with Russia in order to win the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, but that effort failed because it was false and was based on highly questionable evidence, supplied largely through a firm, Crowdstrike, that the Democratic National Committee had hired in order to find dirt against then-candidate and now-President Trump. Now the Democrats’ ground, for replacing President Donald Trump by his Vice President Mike Pence, is that in Trump’s 25 July 2019 phone-call to Ukraine’s new President Volodmyr Zelensky, Trump supposedly pressured Zelensky to have Joe Biden investigated.
“One of the first signs of a liar is that the person switches his story — changes to a new and different reason for ‘justifying’ his actions (in this case, impeachment) — and this clearly is being done now by the Democrats and the ‘news’-media, in order to replace President Donald Trump by his Vice President Mike Pence. Consequently: Americans are insufficiently suspicious against the present impeachment hearings. Americans need to examine carefully beyond the mere surface — much deeper.” [My Emphasis]
I very much like the way Zuesse approaches this important event because like me he has zero affiliation or affinity for either side and is only concerned with digging out the Truth of this entire affair that began during Obama’s second term as quite a lot hangs in the balance for those willing to see. And Zuesse is 100% correct to say the Media is actively participating in trying to “bend” the citizenry’s opinion as it conducts its own–falsified–trial by media.
As I’ve often written before, there are ample reasons to Impeach and Convict Trump, but none of them suit the politicos and their Oligarchic masters as they are all guilty of the same crimes. The result is an attempt to railroad a sitting POTUS out of office on completely false grounds–and they know they’re false which is why they’re lying and obfuscating so much. And such a result would indeed be a High Crime committed against the American People. Gabbard said Trump must be beaten at the ballot box, and I agree.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 24 2019 23:40 utc | 41

Carolyn Sissoko has a very good handle on the derivatives market and how it ties in to the recent massive bailout of the repo system.
She is a lawyer and derivatives expert and is now a Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of the West of England
I first noticed her in 2015. From an email I wrote at the time:
–Finally found someone who is researching what I think may be the next financial crisis: bailing out the shadow banking system.
The ground is already being set for this as with ‘bail ins’. This is already on the books and means if a bank makes a bad investment it can use depositors money to bail themselves out. Also the Fed looks to be setting up to bail out money market funds on derivative losses rather than getting them out of the derivative business in a more controlled manner.
financial matters
October 23, 2015 at 8:31 pm
Timely and important work.
Sissoko:
“the lender of last resort role of the central bank should be limited, and, in particular, should not extend to the support of asset markets and “shadow banking.” Work in progress re-evaluates the reasoning behind the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act and argues that the Act was designed to prevent commercial banks from intermediating markets in what we would now call repurchase agreements, because of the prominent role such lending can play in fostering asset price bubbles.”
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/10/negative-real-rates-signify-a-broken-financial-system.html. ——
———————————————
also:
csissoko
January 13, 2016 at 1:06 pm
One additional points:
The whole tri-party repo market (at least to the degree that securities other than treasuries serve as collateral) was explicitly prohibited by Glass-Steagall. In fact, there is still a law on the books, 12 USC s. 374a that reads: “No [Federal Reserve] member bank shall act as the medium or agent of any nonbanking corporation, partnership, association, business trust, or individual in making loans on the security of stocks, bonds, and other investment securities to brokers or dealers in stocks, bonds, and other investment securities.” (All banks regulated by the OCC must be Federal Reserve members.)
Only due to the absurd fiction that repos are not loans, but sales and repurchases can JPM and BNY play the role they do in this market.
——————
She has a recent excellent post on her site ‘Synthetic Assets’
https://syntheticassets.wordpress.com/2019/05/23/the-dismantling-of-the-economys-legal-infrastructure-v-3-portfolio-theory-replaces-banking-theory/
“”In fact, over the course of the 2007-09 crisis we learned that banks are special – because they have access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window – and a major part of their business was providing guarantees to non-banks that effectively gave the non-banks indirect access to the discount window.””
“”In 1971 the first money market fund was created. A money market fund (MMF) is an investment product offered by a brokerage firm or mutual fund company that invests only in short term assets and that treats its shares as having a fixed value that earns interest, just like a savings account. These “interest-bearing” accounts also offer some check-writing privileges. As the accounting treatment for MMFs was first addressed by the SEC in 1977and only formally approved by the SEC in 1983, this was a case of industry pushing boundaries and being successful after the instrument had become “too big to fail.” By the end of 1982 nearly as much money was held in MMFs as in demand deposits at commercial banks.“”
“”Thus, issues of non-bank commercial paper were – and are – typically supported by a bank guarantee.””
“”Portfolio theory, by concealing the true nature of the transformation of the financial system, also concealed the fact that in this new system of indirect rather than direct bank intermediation, the largest banks had a significant advantage. Wholesale funding carries risks for the lender that deposits don’t and therefore wholesale funding markets favor large, too-big-to-fail banks. For the same reason, too-big-to-fail banks had an advantage in providing the guarantees supporting commercial paper issues. In short, the principal effect of the shift from banking theory to portfolio was not the advertised effect, that of promoting competition and facilitating the growth of “market-based” lending, but instead to promote the interests of large, too-big-to-fail banks which played key roles in making the so-called “market-based” lending work.“”
———————————
It should be clear that ‘too big to fail’ means that this is where the government is spending our public funds.

Posted by: financial matters | Nov 24 2019 23:51 utc | 43

financial matters @43
That’s important info that very few understand or care to take the time to understand, though they certainly should.
Without getting into the details, IMO what they’ve done is bet the whole economy on the success of the Empire. There’s no turning back. It’s global domination or ruin. Dollar hegemony MUST prevail. Markets MUST expand. And setbacks MUST be immunized (no deep recessions). Until the whole world is integrated under the Western markets and no further expansion is possible. THEN and only then can they unwind by sticking the masses with the bill (resulting in a deep and long recession).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 25 2019 0:40 utc | 45

john brewster @40–
Mike Ruppert posited that Bush/Cheney crossed the Rubicon with 911 in Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, which was morally/mentally crossed in August 1945 and on numerous subsequent occasions, perhaps most famously at the beginning of 1962 well before missiles and pigs with the request for and authoring of Operation Northwoods–911’s blueprint.
The bankers and nascent industrial titan classes began to coalesce during Grant’s terms, primarily with the Railroads, and became known as The Money Power and arch foes of the Populists–recall initial Anti-Trust legislation was aimed at Railroads. At about the same time, reactionary forces were combining in England with their American allies to pushback against the agenda of the Classical Economists, whose aim was to eliminate the Rentier Class and its Free Lunch. Hudson calls that aspect of what I call the Current Oligarchy the FIRE sector, which are the actors most responsible for the current global condition–more of which here.
Many opine about when the “Great Betrayal”–the repudiation of American democracy and soiling of the “American Dream”–began. The “Dream” has always been hypothetical and the USA has never been an actual democracy. One of the best introductions to the messy history of the Outlaw US Empire is Empire As A Way of Life: An Essay on the Causes and Character of America’s Present Predicament Along with a Few Thoughts about an Alternative by William Appleman Williams, one of the best and perhaps least known historians of the US Empire. I’m highlighting this section of the linked open preview because of its significance:
“The empire as a territory and as activities dominated economically, politically, and psychologically by a superior power is the result of empire as way of life. This is particularly important in the case of the United States because from the beginning the persuasiveness of empire as a way of life effectively closed off other ways of dealing with the reality that Americans encountered.” [Emphasis Original]
In other words, the US polity was Imperialized/Colonized from its inception and has never gained its independence. Lying within the rhetoric used by Sanders and Gabbard is the fundamental threat to the Current Oligarchy of liberating the American polity for the first time in its existence. And it’s a threat seen more easily by the D-Party than by the R-Party factions supporting Trump. Indeed, Trump’s election was caused by the above and other never articulated reasons the media and D-Party still try to suppress.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 25 2019 1:07 utc | 47

@25 karlof1
Good piece by Chung – many thanks. And yes indeed, the policies intended by FDR are still waiting to be implemented, and it is now more than one dead president who cannot help us.
We inhabit a tragedy, multiple tragedies. This is why it feels so tragic.
Only when we in our resistance attain the scale of the injustice done to us will we ever be able to challenge and throw off the yoke placed upon us.

The reason fascism was still able to enter the US despite the defeat of Hitler was because Hitler was never the kernel of this vision. It is now out in the open, that Hitler was funded by several Western banks, including the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of England. This is really nothing surprising. Fascism is another side of the face of colonialism. Colonialism is a tool to subjugate nations that have not yet found their independence, fascism is the tool used to subjugate nations who have already found their independence. The goal is the same; to have them all conform, in one form or another, to one body of central control. This is also nothing surprising. This has been the vision under the British Empire since its inception, and yes Britain continues to look at world policy through this lens, this is what continues to dictate the fallacious “rules” of geopolitics today.

That link again: On Churchill’s ‘Sinews of Peace’

Posted by: Grieved | Nov 25 2019 1:16 utc | 49

Pro-establishment trounced in the HK elections.
Many people belived the blatant use of violence would be detrimental to the so-called “pro-democracy” (they also call themselves “pan-democratic”) camp in the upcoming elections.
The people who believed that didn’t learn the lessons we’ve discussed here in this very blog in the post about the “lessons learned in Bolivia”. There, we discussed on the role violence has in human History. Violence is accepted as along as it acts under one’s interests.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe these elections are over council seats, not legislative seats.
If that’s the case, then the Hong Konger capitalist elite will have a decision to make: either it conforms to the socialist hegemony from Beijing and crushes the localists (“pan-democratic”) or it turns on the “fuck it” mode and goes all in in installing a beach-head by trying to attract American military personel to the island-city by whatever means necessary.
But that’s not the most important thing about these elections.
The most important lesson is that it confirms my hypothesis that China indeed honors the 1C2S social contract, and that HK is really and sincerely capitalist. Carrie Lam took this drubbing because, albeit the common people is not satisfied with the destruction and chaos by the liberals, they are also not very happy with her capitalist masters. Lam is not a communist: she’s a capitalist and represents a very specific ilk of HK capitalists who, somehow, were able to survive both British and Communist rule. The HK elite has its own agenda.
The only chance Lam had of winning these elections would be if she followed the advice I posted here once: take the shotguns out of the armories and massacre the pro-USA protesters. That way, the “lesser of the two evils” part of the population (which is the majority) would vote for her camp out of sheer fear and respect.
But she dig her own political grave by going too soft on the liberals.
If that was an imposition from Beijing, then that’s an interesting thing to consider, because I’ve also speculated here about the communists’ options on HK.
It’s already known that these protests have, as a background, the collapse of HK capitalism, not of Chinese socialism (no matter what the NYT or The Guardian publish).
Beijing may be considering essentially two broad strategies: 1) wait for HK capitalism to fully collapse and simply march on the island and install socialism over the remains or 2) wait for the HK elite to come begging and rise the price of maintaining the 1C2S.
Sincerely, I think they will wait for the HK capitalist elite to make the first move.
And one last lesson: nothing substitutes a good historical and concrete analysis of reality. Polls are imperfect and do not, alone, configure an acceptable tool of complex social relations in the context of an election.

Posted by: vk | Nov 25 2019 1:25 utc | 51

Likkelmore – 9
Pentagon having “lost” trillions isn’t new, that’s been going on and mentioned from time to time at least since the advent of W. Bush. Though of course the amount was lower back then, just a few trillions. Every few years, it pops up again, of course an inflated sum since the looting has been going on since then.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Nov 25 2019 2:03 utc | 53

Jesus, another word about Biden & son, and I’ll barf. Investigate him, of course, everyone knows he’s a sycophant for the empire, but while people are “leg humping” folks about him and his son’s corruption, let’s take a good look at DJT’s children
also. But, we all know that’ll NEVER happen, because big organised money owns everything. Top to bottom.
As long as the US dollar reigns supreme, nothing can change..
“It’s just business, get over it”

Posted by: ben | Nov 25 2019 3:12 utc | 55

@54
Gee, it’s almost like the protest movement in Hong Kong has genuine popular support, or something.
I look forward to seeing how b will spin this to support his claim that it’s a fake CIA color revolution.

Posted by: Merasmus | Nov 25 2019 3:54 utc | 57

karlof1 @ 47
It is not my intention to disagree with your characterization of the US as being broken from the beginning.
But, as an unemployably-old citizen of that benighted state, I do not find any prescription for how to proceed in your bleak, but accurate, recital. Perhaps you are not a US citizen, so it does not concern you. Unfortunately, I must live out the rest of my life in a society that is deliberately being destroyed. I am looking to minimize the damage.
I don’t think you understand my definition of “crossing the Rubicon”. Its clear that TPTB have looted just about everything they can from the US, and they are preparing to let it go smash. They are willing to countenance the civil war that I mentioned. The Rubicon is that, as never before, TPTB are quite willing to see massive governmental failure, rioting, and martial law going forward. There are already threats of civil war from the Trump camp. The average day in the US contains at least one shooting of multiple people. Once a month or so, there is a major mass murder. And that’s without a civil war.
The international class that the US elites have migrated into simply don’t care about America, except as a supplier of mercenaries and weapons. They already cashed out the US manufacturing base to China. They have juiced the stock market for all that it is worth, and will try to leave the impending collapse for the suckers. They will let Social Security go bankrupt by malign neglect (if governmental collapse doesn’t kill it first), because they don’t want to pay for “useless eaters”. The bespoke MIC is already private, and they will try to keep the US taxpayer funding it. The MIC was outsourced by Rumsfeld to outfits like Blackwater/Xi/Whatever. The economy was turned over to looters like the Carlyle Group. The private equity vultures are occupying every high-return tollboth they can find.
To me, their willingness to turn the US into some low-grade version of Somalia is a major escalation. I do not have the luxury of a historian’s view.
I welcome any advice you might have for how to survive.

Posted by: john brewster | Nov 25 2019 4:40 utc | 59

james @ 57
Thanks for getting it. I hate Trump as much as anyone; but the Democrats have sold their souls to the CIA. We all know what a pack of sociopathic gangsters the CIA is, yet the Dems are licking their asses 24/7 and salivating to go to war with someone/anyone.
Yes, Trump is a disaster. But we can vote him out in a year. Once the CIA proves it can destroy anyone with leaks, innuendoes, secret testimony, anonymous “witnesses”, and dog knows what kind of blackmail (can you say Jeffrey Epstein?), our country can’t even pretend to be a democracy anymore.
I will put up with another year of Trump to avoid being run by the CIA.

Posted by: john brewster | Nov 25 2019 4:52 utc | 61

karlof1 @ 41

there are ample reasons to Impeach and Convict Trump, but none of them suit the politicos and their Oligarchic masters as they are all guilty of the same crimes. The result is an attempt to railroad a sitting POTUS out of office on completely false grounds–and they know they’re false which is why they’re lying and obfuscating so much. And such a result would indeed be a High Crime committed against the American People.
I completely agree. They want to destroy the process of government, possibly even more than they want to destroy Trump.

Posted by: john brewster | Nov 25 2019 5:09 utc | 63

@ 60 john brewster.. thanks john.. i live in canada, but the fate of canada is unavoidably linked to the fate of the usa.. the same craziness is happening here in canada, of which i won’t go into.. bottom line, i agree with your viewpoint and desire for a way towards greater sanity in an increasingly dangerous situation here for the world..

Posted by: james | Nov 25 2019 6:03 utc | 65

I understand the situation Mr Brewster finds himself in. The only reason that I and many other contributors to this thread are not doing as bad is that we either live in states that still practice social welfare programs for the aged which look after retirees cos the political activists believe old f++kers still vote in large numbers and/or we have super/pension investments which are as yet untouched by the finance industry parasites.
The first gig I got in england was working in a pub off Fleet St just around the corner from the Daily Mirror, more than 40 years ago the printers, clerks n journos who drank in our house were yer basic decent humans. Robert & his daughter Ghislaine Maxwell stole all of those decent humans pension contributions, they died on the bones of their arses. The S&L scandal in amerika did the same for many amerikan workers and that scam has been repeated many times since. By slowly hiving off entitlements the result has been the same for retirees as workers whose conditions of service were denied to more recent recruits faced. Unity collapses in the face of difference.
I am not so silly as to delude myself that either state pension or investment funds are likely to outlast my existence. amerika is merely the first ‘developed’ nation to conclude that once humans become too old to earn the price of food & a roof, they must quietly die.
Wherever we currently live, whatever investments & funds we may still be fortunate enough to possess will be snatched by the arseholes in the coming bust and as more n more boomers fall off the twig, those same political smarties who are protecting out state pensions for political reasons will conclude that the tipping point has been passed & there are more votes from gen x, y & z in being seen to slap us down than sacrificing govt revenues that the greedies have been eyeing up for years to buy a handful of votes. I plan on living a coupla decades more, but I doubt that my current income will last more than one decade.
Some of us will stave off starving, many will not. If we could get past “I’m OK jack” right now when we still have the numbers and support those in Mr Brewster’s position now, we would maybe succeed in protecting all older people long after we have karked it. If we don’t, & instead imagine we’ll be alright, then we will all go down one by one, underseving of any consideration.

Posted by: A User | Nov 25 2019 9:42 utc | 67

The Cynthia Chung essay on Churchill seems to accord closely with my own understandings, and it’s fair. (Karlofi mooted the essay in a previous post)
Groves of the bombproject is quoted in Alperovitz as saying in March of ’44 (prior to the exit of FDR) that the bomb was “for the Russians, not for Japan”. Groves had to be associated with the Churchill policy coup in order to know that. He also ran a “vast intelligence operation” (Britannica) The liquidation of Dresden was evidently a demonstration to the Red Army, as were nuketests # 2 and #3, which were over Japan – and also demonstrations. So were the tests at Bikini in ’46.
My only criticism is that the lady does not entirely understand the matter of meanings under the rubric of “racist” or “racism”. Instead, she uses these terms in a narrow and generally pejorative way. This fault seems not to have materially detracted from an otherwise good job.
Some may recall that the term was entirely obscure and generally unknown, until Trotsky was translated to English – and it was used to describe as unworthy of consideration those who wanted to keep their own long-established ways of knowing and being…pretty much anybody who didn’t agree with the Revolution’s demands was a racist.
Racism has very little to do with race, it’s a code-word, just as a “terrorist” is somebody the speaker wants the audience to consent to murdering or torturing, and of course not entitled to any rights at all, so a racist is somebody from whom you wish to remove any recourse to remedy at law, and whose position you wish to deny.
Fact is most people most of the time prefer the peace and prosperity of living in stable relationships with their own people. If then they object to disruptions and rapid change they are racists, or terrorists, depending on the circumstance and the speaker.
Winston was a drunk, a criminal, an art forger, corrupt, and a bigot. I’d have left out “racist”, through it’s also true.

Posted by: Walter | Nov 25 2019 10:40 utc | 69

psychohistorian @ 21 says:
I remember reading a bit about that in 2107 but the purposeful pace of the propaganda machine and obfuscation events ripped it from my consciousness as I am sure it did to others that might have seen it go by
i linked to that story when it broke toward the end of 2017, and have linked to it at least 4 or 5 times since, including the ensuing passage of the fearsome FASAB Standard 56 …and never heard a peep out of you…or much of anyone else.
john brewster @ 60 says:
I will put up with another year of Trump to avoid being run by the CIA
after having said in his original screed @ 27:
Trump, like ISIS, is a cover story used by the CIA to demolish an existing government (i.e., what little is left of the U.S. Constitution) under the excuse of stopping “evil”
and then again @ 60 says:
Yes, Trump is a disaster. But we can vote him out in a year
you trying to confuse me, john?

Posted by: john | Nov 25 2019 12:06 utc | 71

@ Clueless Joe 53
a trillion here, a trillion there. It becomes $21 trillion, unaccountable, and the data is classified as “National Security.”
Global debt is said to be $250 trillion that will never be repaid. Negative or Zero interest on retirement funds rob retirees. Their money has no value.
Add salt and hot pepper to the wound; Credit card companies have access to free money yet charge CC holders at north of 27%.
We entered the financial collapse in 2007-2008. Prosperity is not built on adding more debt.
The FED disagrees:[.]”… the same “apolitical”, private Federal Reserve, which is owned by a handful of commercial banks and whose members have never been subject to election by the general population…
now wishes to formalize its wealth redistribution agenda, and effectively become a political force which determines who gets richer and who gets poorer.” [.]
IMHO, I thought that is what the FEDs were doing for the last 11 years.
Fast forward 2019. This figure is very troubling…. $120 billion in daily overnight repo operations.
Fed Braces For Year End Repo Turmoil

Posted by: Likklemore | Nov 25 2019 14:19 utc | 73

@ Posted by: Merasmus | Nov 25 2019 3:54 utc | 56
Every color revolution has a genuine structural discontent background, by definition.
The essential here is that this color revolution happened in Hong Kong, and not in, e.g. Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen. Why is that? In my opinion, because only Hong Kong is capitalist.
Hong Kong has been terminally declining since the end of the 1990s (the Asian crisis of 1997), like all other capitalist societies. It has been growing just half the rate of socialist China since that period. It lost its luster.
Meanwhile, the lack of growth was combined with the fact that HK continued with the structural contradictions that exist in every capitalist society: declining wages in real terms, rising inequality, etc. etc. The moment it lost its relative privilege in relation to the socialist part of China, it lost the good side of capitalism, but retained all of its bad side features.
As a result, Hongkongers are suffering from all the onuses of capitalism, without reaping any of its benefits.
That is, except from one small group: the Hongkonger capitalist class. And who represents this class? You guessed it right: Carrie Lam.
The “pan-democrats” will pay dearly in the long term for confounding Carrie Lam with Beijing. That is the incorrect conjunctural analysis. In politics, the incorrect conjunctural analysis if often fatal when you’re the weakest side of the war.
Now, the socialists can wait for the “pan-democrats” to destroy Carrie Lam, thus dealing a heavy blow to the Hongkonger capitalist class. This will weaken, not strengthen, Hongkonger capitalism. Beijing will be able to accelerate the integration of HK, albeit in a more traumatic form.

Posted by: vk | Nov 25 2019 14:50 utc | 75

This news will likely make America soil its XXL pants in spittle-flecked rage when it comes to pass:
The death of the US Dollar–and with it, the American Empire’s ability to live beyond its means and extract imperial tribute from the rest of the world.
Putin announces the death of the dollar, and soon…
http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/2019/11/putin-announces-death-of-dollar-and-soon.html
It will be interesting to see how America handles getting a taste of its own economic medicine, when chaos pays a visit to the USA.
Goodbye and good riddance to the American parasite.

Posted by: AK74 | Nov 25 2019 15:18 utc | 77

#76. How behave. Good question. SoJ may morph into succession instead of statehood. We have already some outliers to suggest how people will behave. Violence might be expected. Dissolution of the allegiances might also be expected. People like Russel Bentley may be expected to stay and fight rather than go and fight…and murkaz full of guys like Comrade Texas. When things get tough it’s reasonable that China will see investments as bargains in say, making a deal with Hawaii or California – Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs tells you pretty much how it goes. Ugly, really horrible, then, well, they say the Sun rises in the East, eh? (Texas said he’ll repatriate when he can drive a Red Army APC down a US highway as part of peace-keeping ops – he’s joking, I think…) Ultimately, as I have seen elsewhere, the OBOR project includes rail through Bering Strait (under) and down through northamerica, central America, and south America..running north/south, not eastwest – new rail on new routes….the obvious implication is that a real fubar in the US will attract actual “foreign intervention”…so one may see the fake total bs from billary and others as harbinger. Fake now, real later, but not until much horror is burned through. Nasty.
Last civil war involved much foreign influence…both Russian and English…and the Lincoln murder traces to what we now call MI6…
Somebody said americans ought to buy (while they can) Chinese and Russian flags, and hide them until they see the APCs with the red star…. Joking, who would doubt it?.

Posted by: Walter | Nov 25 2019 15:28 utc | 79

You’re so worried about the pain that Trump’s sanctions, i.e. collective punishment and tyranny against Iran, Venezuela and Cuba inflict on so many people in those countries AND YET HERE YOU ARE DAY IN AND DAY OUT PROTECTING AND DEFENDING THAT ASSHOLE WITH SPIN THAT FAVORS HIS RE-ELECTION AND ENCOURAGING DEBUNKED CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAT HE HIMSELF PEDDLES. WHY DON’T YOU WRITE THAT TRUMP IS THE ONE WHO REINSTALLED SANCTIONS ON CUBA?

Posted by: Circe | Nov 25 2019 15:46 utc | 81

Similarly the employment of monomaniacs like Fiona Hill on the ‘Russian file’ is pretty well guaranteed to lead, in the short run, to imperial defeats.
So, here’s too Fiona: Cheers!
Posted by: bevin | Nov 24 2019 17:58 utc | 5
It corroborates the point I was making since Trump presidential campaign, the guy is incoherent and to some degree stupid. He is not senile and has wide knowledge and experience in domestic politics and international relations when they pertain to real estate development, resorts, casinos, pandering to ridiculous tastes of a significant subset of rich people etc. But the further we go away from those topic the less impressive he is.
Tragicomically, his idea of useful nominations in spheres of defense and foreign policy could not be more wrong. Domestically, he probably knew who can reliably wreck havoc to the benefit of assorted business tycoons with whom he played golf, sold real estate and country club membership etc., but people in charge of the foreign stuff that he collected are outright dangerous, as he is experiencing. It is hard to predict where this circus will lead, but there exist “realist” and “paleo-con” right wingers that he could choose, say, from Claremont Institute. They tend to be obscure, given the domination of imperialists in D.C., but they do exist. And not all of them are idiots like Gen. Flynn who have fallen into a trap that he should foresee.
So he sticked to nominations like Bolton and Pompeo, people who recruited dangerous zealots like Fiona Hill (or failed to replace them).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 25 2019 16:10 utc | 83

Current main headline at Reuters:
Special Report: ‘Time to take out our swords’ – Inside Iran’s plot to attack Saudi Arabia
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-attacks-iran-special-rep/special-report-time-to-take-out-our-swords-inside-irans-plot-to-attack-saudi-arabia-idUSKBN1XZ16H
Big surprise – anonymous sources:

This account, described to Reuters by three officials familiar with the meetings and a fourth close to Iran’s decision making, is the first to describe the role of Iran’s leaders in plotting the Sept. 14 attack on Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company.

Everyone is aware that Netanyahu wants and needs an attack upon Iran right away and
John Brennan, etal, are feeling the heat with the imminent release of John Durham’s investigation and IG Horowitz’s report.
They all need a major change in direction and diversion and a useful pretext for attacking Iran.

Posted by: librul | Nov 25 2019 16:34 utc | 85

juliana @44
The Sept. 11, 2013 NYT Op-Ed by Putin.

Posted by: Evelyn | Nov 25 2019 16:41 utc | 87

@86 Have you ever been to Hong Kong james? vk seems to be missing the point IMO. The situation there has less to do with class struggle than it does with cultural clash.

Posted by: dh | Nov 25 2019 17:00 utc | 89

I see zerohedge has an article from naturalnews that facebook is now banning any content that questions the efficacy, safety, and questioning as it pertains to mandating forced vaccination onto children.
Do we all think this to be such a fringe, loony issue still that this action shouldn’t raise further alarm? That the mere motion of facebook censorship isn’t inextricably tied to big government pulling the wool over our eyes? Oh no…it is an eye-rolling topic I can see with much of the commentariat here. How dreadfully sad. Very few it seems can put the pieces together, that we are being ushered all into a Franz Kafka’s the trial, and further led out to the cobblestone street by a pair of bureaucrat muscle, a tweddle-dee and -dum, to be knifed and gutted “like a dog.” oh how clairvoyant Kafka was with regards to our predicament. He know the only help we would get would be the vague figure peeling back the curtains from a 2nd story window, looking down at the murder scene with passive disinterest.
B, thank you for allowing these comments. I promise to not belabor or hijack the off-topic thread. I will hopefully be starting my own blog soon.
I would appeal to all to peruse the last open thread and read my comments in addition to the responses, in particular the one from old microbiologist. I am still awaiting his response to my questions for him.
Thank you all.

Posted by: Nemesiscalling | Nov 25 2019 17:21 utc | 91

I had misread Trumps complaints that EU was not carrying their fare share of NATO cost:
https://www.rt.com/news/474285-germany-huawei-nsa-scandal/
Now I see is more of a threat that we will take ball and go home if things don’t go our way.
Was Merkle Evo’ed?
BTW (not wanting to be Russian agent, but this was rather heart-warming as well):
https://www.rt.com/news/474230-spiegel-magnitsky-browder-fraudster-west/
And this one, I worry for the students:
https://nypost.com/2019/11/25/oberlin-college-students-erect-memorial-to-palestinian-terrorists/

Posted by: jared | Nov 25 2019 18:12 utc | 93

@85 librul
Whut? That is more bunk and hogwash than I can handle. FYI, your god Trump is Netanyahoo’s and KSA’s biggest supporter! If there is an invasion of Iran it will be orchestrated by Trump with those two favorite cohorts. It’ll have Trump’s stamp all over it! So quit with the b.s. already! And one more piece of news you missed: it’s already been reported that the Horowitz report will confirm that there was no bias in the Mueller investigation and only a sloppy FISA report in the case of Carter Page, but the rest of the investgation is cleared of bias of any kind.
Now I can’t stand Brennan myself, but none of the above has anything to do with that thug. Quit with the deceptive spin already! Your boy Trump has been after Iran since day ONE.

Posted by: Circe | Nov 25 2019 18:13 utc | 95

Colombia has been the centre of imperialist attacks in Latin America for many years, pretty well since the Presidential candidate of the ‘left was assassinated in 1948. It has been ruled by a vicious alliance of the Army and, doing the even dirtier work, paramilitaries financed by the narco traffickers and, at risk of repeating myself, the CIA.
Now there is big trouble in Colombia, which is going to have the immediate effect of preventing the imperialists from using the country as a base for attacks on Venezuela. Perhaps the Venezuelan movement will spread and over turn the fascist rulers of Colombia. We shall see.
Here is an article from the British Communist paper the Morning Star online
“PANICKED President Ivan Duque called for a “national dialogue” today after three days of mass protests across Colombia against inequality and state and paramilitary violence.
“Following a giant demonstration by hundreds of thousands of people in Bogota on Thursday, rallies continued, with crowds banging pots and pans outside Mr Duque’s residence and chanting: “Get out, Duque!” and “No violence!”
The state deployed 7,000 troops in the capital and tried to impose curfews there and in Cali for the first time in over 40 years. Three protesters have been killed so far and one teenager seriously injured when riot police charged a crowd and fired tear gas into it on Saturday. Mr Duque says he is ordering an urgent investigation into who was responsible for the young man’s injuries and claimed to be in “solidarity with his family.”
“He has promised a week of meetings with “different social sectors” to address the people’s grievances. These include his government’s plans to raise the retirement age, increase pension contributions from employees, cut public spending and lower the minimum wage.
Outrage at paramilitary murders of social activists, trade unionists and former Farc guerillas – despite 2016’s peace agreement with the communist organisation – has also prompted protest, with a military attack on a rebel camp that killed 18 children cited by demonstrators. Art student Katheryn Martinez said: “This is a government that kills children.”
“Another, Oscar Javier Diaz, said he was demonstrating against attacks on indigenous people and accused the government of imposing terror in response. He told al-Jazeera: “Imagine you’re in your bed, calm and thinking nothing will happen, then you begin hearing the helicopters, the military trucks passing through the streets. You hear weapons, next screams, shots from the security forces.”

Posted by: bevin | Nov 25 2019 18:24 utc | 97

Regarding the HK District Council elections… I read on RT that a local Councillor who is pro-Beijing told RT that from his purview the reason for the high percentage For the “pro-democracy” candidates was that a lot of the voters were from among the age group most responsible for the riots/violence/demos and this was their first time voting.
As for the continuing MSM propaganda on this whole (underhanded, NED funded, color revolution) business…on NPR’s “Morning Edition” this a.m. one of the male presenters talked very cheerfully (of course) about how the high voter turn out for “democracy” made clear that all those who believed that many in the population were against the “pro-democracy” demonstrators and their “disorderly” behavior.
Now I don’t think you could get much more Newspeak than that: For NPR (and presumably many in its audience) beating people up in the airport and shopping malls, setting fire to a man who disagreed with the “demonstrators”, throwing petrol bombs, bricks and firing arrows at the police and those people trying to clear the roadways, not to mention shutting down subways, destroying property, such violent, amoral, vicious acts are merely “Disorderliness.” Not what they really were.
One wonders, seriously, what words they would use to label like actions taken by American youth in, say, DC? Let alone how they would describe police reaction to it (restrained? violent?). Or British, French (oh wait, they don’t even report on the Gilets Jaunes now and when they did they ascribed the violence of facemasked perps to the GJs; ad they definitely have never reported on the really existing literally bloody violence of the French police toward the GJs),German authorities when dealing with like violent actions?

Posted by: AnneR | Nov 25 2019 18:39 utc | 99