From Michael Roberts Blog’s Facebook:

Chile – it’s not just the level of inequality and austerity in the country that triggered the social uprising against the elite. On the OECD’s ‘better life’ index, Chile scores very badly even compared to other Latin American countries.
Chile’s insurgency and the end of neoliberalism
The OECD index allows you to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life.
OECD Better Life Index

—

The Indian economy is heading into trouble – to all intent, in recession. The second-largest country in the world by population grew only 4.5 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2019, below 5 percent in the previous period and market expectations of 4.7 percent. That’s the weakest pace since the first three months of 2013, mainly due to a fall in factory output and exports and a slowdown in investment.
Investment, sluggish for nearly a decade, grew a mere 1 per cent year-on-year, down from 4 per cent in the previous quarter. Manufacturing output contracted 1 per cent. Infrastructure investment has collapsed.
The government has announced several measures to boost growth including a reduction in corporate taxes, concessions on vehicle purchases, bank recapitalisation. Meanwhile, the central bank has already cut borrowing cost 5 times this year and is seen lowering rates again next week.
See my post of last May on India:
India: another China or another Brazil?

–//–
This is a very interesting example of how Western (i.e. libera, capitalist) propaganda works, and also a very illustrative example of how capitalism declined from the point of view of a person who benefitted the most from it when it was at its apex:
Perhaps it’s time to remember Yuri Gagarin

The shock in the US was that the Russians were not only competitive, but had embarrassed US science and engineering by being first. In 1958, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act, and this enabled talented students to flow into science and engineering. The shock waves were felt throughout the entire educational system, from top to bottom. Mathematics was more important than football.

He’s right in the abovementioned paragraph. If you interviewed people who were 12-14 years old between 1958 and 1963, and asked about what would be the future of the USA in the year 2000, most of them would have more or less the same answer: that the future of America was scientific, bright, of high technology; a nation where scientists and engineers would be more more venerated than tv celebrities and football/baseball players. It would be the world of the infamous “flying cars” and space exploration and colonization.
Nobody in 1963 would imagine that the USA of the 2000s would be the USA of finance, of Wall Street; of football players, of the anti-vaxxers, of the flat earthers and of the Kardashians.
But they should’ve. The reason this degeneration happened is the fact that the USA is a capitalist society. In capitalism, scientific progress is accidental. What matters in the capitalist system is the valorization process, not the process of use value creation. Like any other societal formations, capitalism has a revolutionary period, an apex period, a decline period and a collapse period. In my opinion, world capitalism has just exited its apex phase and is now entering its decline phase.
Here’s the propaganda part of the article:

As demonstrated by the USSR, socialism does not prohibit scientific prowess. There is a difference, of course. Socialism’s success in the USSR came at the expense of millions of lives, the slave labor of millions more, and a lower standard of living. Nevertheless, the fact is that Yuri Gagarin was the first person to orbit the earth. In comparison to the US today, Soviet universities were not plagued by whining children – nor are today’s Chinese universities. The Soviets thought it wiser that their young study calculus and physics.

This paragraph encapsulates all the elements of Cold War propaganda about the USSR. When I read it, it felt like a blast from the past.
First, the image of the USSR as essentially a slavery society is a Western chimera. They come from Weber — who once theorized the USSR as a “modern Ancient Egypt” — and the propaganda from Solzhenitsyn, who hugely exagerated the number of prisoners in the USSR.
In fact, even at the height of the GULAG era, the USSR’s jailed population never went beyond 1.5% of its overall population (as we know now from Soviet official archives). That’s well within the world’s average. If only 1.5% of the population is able to sustain the other 98.5%, then even I want to know how the Soviets operated such an economic miracle.
Besides, the USSR obviously didn’t kill “millions of people” in order to send someone to space. That’s obviously absurd by any metric, logic included. First of all because this would never gather political consensus among the population, second because it is impossible to do rocket science with slave labor.
The quick rise of the Third Reich gave birth to the myth in the West that slave labor can operate miracles. Nothing is further from the truth. In Ancient times, both the Greeks and the Romans already knew slave labor was only economically viable in very basic and simple tasks, such as agriculture, mining and other domestic services. Athens achieved naval supremacy over Greece by using wage labor for its rowing and sailor crews, so that they could be professionals with high morale in the battlefield. The reason for this is that maneuvering triremes was an extremely complex art, too complex and valuable for the Athenians to trust to slaves. They also had, by the nature and complexity of the task, a naturally high degree of freedom from their “bosses”. Either way, the task was simply too complex for a slave to phisically learn, since a slave was kept into his/her place through physical deprivation and domination, and a sailor had to be always fit physically and mentally to wage wars at sea. The Spartans didn’t slave their coastal colonies, giving them a much larger degree of freedom (perioikoi), probably in exchange for a supply of sailors, ships. The Romans also did the same: when a slave became specialized enough in the family business (such as acting as a middle man in the paterfamilias’ businesses in some coastal city), he usually “gifted” him with his freedom.
In sum: even the ancients knew that, for more complex tasks, free people were a must. Slavery was only economically viable for very simple and denigrating tasks (specially, agriculture and mining).
As for the “lower quality of living”, that’s highly debatable. Surely, on average, the USSR certainly didn’t enjoy the same life quality than the top of the capitalist chain of the time. But inequality was much, much lower (almost negligible) except for the rural-urban divide, and there was no deprivation.
On average, life quality in the USSR was much better than the vast majority of the capitalist nations with the benefit inequality was negligible (so the average approached the median). Sure, it was no post-1980s Norway or Finland — but those are microscopic capitalist nations, with negligible population.

Posted by: vk | Dec 1 2019 16:45 utc | 3

vk @ 3
Thanks vk. The Soviet achievements in space were the achievements of a free people who had to make superhuman sacrifices in order to preserve their freedom. Here’s Boris Chertok, a remarkable Soviet space designer whose experiences stretched from the crowds of 1917 and Lenin’s funeral to the construction of the international Space Station:
“I am part of the generation that suffered irredeemable losses, to whose lot in 20th century fell the most arduous of tests. From childhood, a sense of duty was inculcated in this generation – a duty to the people, to the Motherland, to our parents, to future generations, and even to all humanity.
…
Currently … it is ideological collapse that threatens the objective recounting of [Soviet] science and technology … motivated by the fact that its origins date back to the Stalin epoch or to the period of the ‘Brezhnev Stagnation'”

Posted by: Paora | Dec 1 2019 20:04 utc | 5

@ jayc in comment #6 who wrote
”
Craig Murray says that Boris Johnson was notably drunk at the Cenotaph ceremony for Remembrance Sunday in London.
Why do the UK polls appear to show the Conservatives headed to big victory?
”
Polls are more tools of propaganda in this human time frame. Add to that in the US we (s)elected a pussy grabbing misogynist and serial bankruptcy grifter and you might start to understand that Boris Johnson may be an alcoholic tool of the elite that run Western nations….and they will propagandize his mythical wonderfulness in spite of his moral vacuousness….to a degree that enough of the masses believe in him.
I refuse to take polls anymore because the questions are always worded to get the answers whomever is paying for the poll wants.
We hope for structural change to the Western system/social contract but keep our eyes wide open to the obvious perfidy by the elite of today in the West…hence my steady drum beat about those of the cult that own global private finance

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 1 2019 20:37 utc | 7

The corruption in ukraine is off the charts.
The article discusses land privatization but reveals a truly diabolical
purpose for the $7.4 billion that was stolen from ukraine.

Posted by: evilempire | Dec 1 2019 21:33 utc | 9

#7 psychohistorian I’m with Peter on this one. Opinion polls are a device for influencing public opinion, not a device for measuring it. Crack that, and it all makes sense. Peter Hitchens
I treat polls the same way my dog does. Two recent polls, BREXIT and US POTUS election 2016 were wrong and we are still living with the outcomes years later because people can’t accept the results. Those who lost are still trying to change the results.

Posted by: Tom | Dec 1 2019 21:47 utc | 11

stimulating / entertaining article from john helmer if you are interested..
GEORGES SIMENON ANNIVERSARY — INSPECTOR MAIGRET MEETS THE SINCERE, LYING LADY FROM THE CIA’S RUSSIA OFFICE, ANDREA KENDALL-TAYLOR

Posted by: james | Dec 1 2019 21:59 utc | 13

These are some of the brutally violent “moderate rebels” in Hong Kong that the US government, the corporate media, and the neoliberal “human rights” industry are wholeheartedly supporting

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1201234262219001856
As previously happened with the Syrian “moderate rebels” who then were disguised as White Helmets but continued oding the same, according to the last bill approved by the two cameras of representatives with the beneplacit of the two US parties, these thugs will be granted US visas so as to avoid law enforcement and trial…

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 1 2019 22:06 utc | 15

@Posted by: Sasha | December 01, 2019 at 22:06
If you notice, the thug who try to assasinate the citizen by beating him unconscious, by his size and phisical characteristics, is hardly a Chinese, but a foreigner….I bet he is one of those who got unemployed in Syria….

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 1 2019 22:10 utc | 17

Psychos armed to the teeth running amok in land of the brave, land of the free…what is to be surprised about what happnes in HK?
https://twitter.com/manumerimm1/status/1201148639495827459

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 1 2019 22:23 utc | 19

Sasha…They hunt. They are hunters, not “police”. My perception since more than 70 years is that US ordinary people, all of whom have either guns or access to guns, almost never wave them around and will offer deadly violence (actually pointing the thing at somebody’s guts) only under great provocation.
It has also been my observation, directly, that these hunters almost always offer deadly violence. At my own guts…dozens of times. And I am not a criminal…rather more a boy-scout. It does depend on how “they” perceive the class of the target of their “affection”…if you’re seen as upper class they still wave the guns, though it’s less likely that they’ll shoot… US Negros and mixed race persons are treated like rabbits in a plowed field. As you showed us. Thanks.
Maybe that’s what they mean by “police-state”
Telling twitter video. Thanks…at least they didn’t murder the kid. Ya think they made an enemy?
Kid’ll never forget. And when somebody shoot a “hunter” the kid will not cry.

Posted by: Walter | Dec 1 2019 22:46 utc | 21

@Posted by: Walter | Dec 1 2019 22:46 utc | 21
Well, sorry, but reading through the comments under that Twitter, someone commented that this scen belongs to a film…I was already finding out way too outdated the policewoman spectacles and general style…But seems quite real indeed…
In fact, from videos I have seen lately on teenagers being reduced and detained by US police, for making noise at a party or something similar, this one gets even in the category of civilized, in spite of the patent cruelty…Past day I saw one where a girl was reduced for just selling food in the street in a poor neighborhood, and in the process the policeman, a great man, mounted over the girl´s knee hurting her badly…No cry coming from the girl or expression of pain stopped the obvious psycho from continue pressing on her knee with his own…
Yeah, it must be scary living there…except for those making six figures income…

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 1 2019 23:11 utc | 23

VK @ 3
Thanks for challenging my old cold war paranoia. What would have the Soviet Union become if Stalin never reached power? They may have easily achieved a much higher standard of living and better relations with the West.
Nobody in 1963 would imagine that the USA of the 2000s would be the USA of finance, of Wall Street; of football players, of the anti-vaxxers, of the flat earthers and of the Kardashians.
But they should’ve. The reason this degeneration happened is the fact that the USA is a capitalist society. In capitalism, scientific progress is accidental. What matters in the capitalist system is the valorization process, not the process of use value creation. Like any other societal formations, capitalism has a revolutionary period, an apex period, a decline period and a collapse period. In my opinion, world capitalism has just exited its apex phase and is now entering its decline phase.
It is not just capitalism, it is the whole Euro centrist model that ran the world for the last 500 years that is collapsing. As you aptly point out, the current cultural model is a failure. At its apex of the Soviet Empire was glued together with the sheer terror of Stalin. Marxism has clearly been relegated to the dustbin of history prior to capitalism and capitalism lasted much longer.
As far as Soviet workers achieving higher standards of living under their form of government, I would have to see some documentation. Ownership private property creates wealth for an individual so inclined and educated. Free subsidized housing for all organized by the government would create less of a need to be productive. A hope one would have in retirement, a paid off house and free to be less productive.
Collectivization of farming and sharing of the benefits would not motivate all to place equal effort into the endeavor. For their part Soviet farmers were not caught in the capitalist production cycle of expensive equipment and inputs to their farms yet I am sure the same vagaries of the weather affected all.
Savings of excess capital by a worker placed into securities creates wealth over time. I see that every day. Salaries paid by government and capped at a certain level does not. There are always people who achieve under any system and inequality exists in every system. I watched the losses as well but stayed clear of the foolishness of 2008 as I could easily see through the mass psychosis of the masses and the propaganda of the capitalists on that one. Actually I made some pretty good money. It appeared to be based on a noble goal, everyone should own a house weather they can afford it or not and capital was made available. In the Soviet Union I imagine you were given a flat for free.
My view of the life in the Soviet Union may be tinged by the empire but life under a government where all is owned and controlled by the government is living death. That is where Marx and the German scholars of his era fails. All the deep theories of Marxism cannot get away from the fact that the government owns you.
The Third Reich did not rise on the basis of slave labor, slave labor came after they achieved their success and started to lose. It was a pure capitalist endeavor supported by the large business cartels of the era. That capitalist form of socialism (fascism) was mixed with a dose of eugenics.
It is interesting to note that the empire now paints the picture that life under Putin is terrible and the masses yearn for the old days of pure Marxism. Truth or fiction? It is hard to tell from so far away.
More work is needed on understanding these eras and issues on my part, fair enough. It is difficult to sort out the truth between the two sides. As both paint a vastly different picture.
I guess I will have to wait in my capitalist comfort until the modern era Marxist head choppers come for me as they try to make a comeback. Living under Stalin rent free is not for me.

Posted by: dltravers | Dec 2 2019 0:01 utc | 25

@25
Trump 2016: “I love Wikileaks.”
Trump 2019: “I don’t know Wikileaks.”
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 2 2019 0:19 utc | 27

Bush Doctrine still in play as the Evil Outlaw US Empire’s Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell gets irked that more nations are joining the INSTEX mechanism for commerce with Iran as shown by his Tweet:
“cc: @TreasurySpox @USTreasury sounds to me like all these people and groups should be added to the US Sanctions list. We should ensure that they don’t get to work in the US market. Iran or the US – they decide. But not both.” [My Emphasis]
The nations saying we’re not with you are Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden–what might be termed the more enlightened Europeans.
And here we have Germany’s CDU acting in a manner reflecting the Bush Doctrine as it debated Germany’s 5G rollout:
“The moderates, represented by Merkel, believe that Germany should not rule out any company over political issues, but focus more on objective factors such as whether its technological security and standards meet German requirements. However, some hard-liners make it an ideological issue and believe Huawei should be excluded. The reason they provided is ‘no Chinese company is an independent company,’ adding that Huawei’s involvement is principally “an imminent question of national security….
“After decades of following the US, Germany has somewhat lost the ability to independently decide its development and destiny. But in recent years, the US has been pursuing unilateralism. The export-oriented German economy is affected by not only China-US trade conflicts, but also US threat of imposing tariffs on German products. Thus, it is time for Berlin to stop its fear of threats from Washington and make choices that are in line with its own interests.” [My Emphasis]
Every Evil Outlaw US Empire chartered corporation in the tech realm is not an “independent company” since they work hand in glove with CIA, NSA, FBI, other government organizations, and are also funded by the government. The same is likely true of every Western tech company. A double standard excuse in service of continuing the Bush Doctrine.
To paraphrase Grenell, Now is most certainly the time to declare your independence and reclaim your sovereignty and cease acting in the service of another nation.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 2 2019 2:10 utc | 29

@24
There is an article at fortruss about the imf and ukraine’s gold.
What i find really sick, and it attests to the sick sense of humor
of the mf’ers, is that the wise guys are charging ukraine interest
on the money they stole from them.

Posted by: evilempire | Dec 2 2019 2:30 utc | 31

In the last Open Thread I provide a number of quotes from Ellen Brown’s Web of Debt which I am enjoying and being educated by reading…..karlof1 provided a link to get the PDF form of the book online.
Anyway, in the beginning of chapter 41 is another part I want to share as follows:
”
William Jennings Bryan, the Cowardly Lion of The Wizard of Oz, proved his courage by challenging the banking cartel’s right to create the national money supply. He said in the speech that won him the Democratic nomination in 1896:
”
[W]e believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government…….Those who are opposed to this proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the bank and the the government ought to go out of the banking business. I stand with Jefferson……and tell them, as he did, that the issue of money is a function of government and that the banks should get out of the governing business…..[W]hen we have restored the money of the Constitution, all other necessary reforms will be possible, and …..until that is done there is no reform that can be accomplished.
”
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 2 2019 4:00 utc | 33

Here’s Bryan’s “Cross of Gold Speech” psychohistorian references @32. As I wrote when I initially provided that link, the national debate over who and what would control the nation’s finances dates back to 1776 and continued to be one of the–if not the top–political issue until the 1913 Fed Act and subsequent removal of that debate from the nation’s main newspapers. Its removal from the public discourse wasn’t accidental nor due to a secret conspiracy of Jewish bankers. Who coopted and promoted John Bates Clark seems to be the pertinent question.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 2 2019 5:22 utc | 35

In the previous thread I suggested that the leadership of the OPCW should be taken to The Hague to be convicted as accessories to mass murder. It was a joke, but not because the OPCW is already in The Hague. In reality the ICC is as corrupt as the OPCW. They are nothing but cheap whores who allow themselves to be used as a tool of imperial aggression.
Examples:

• The ICC accepted to prosecute the Libyan leadership based on a referral from the UN Security Council but with no substance to the fake allegations. The fake case was then used to murder Muammar Gaddafi and hunt down Saif al Islam Gaddafi. When Saif was finally imprisoned and ready to defend himself in The Hague, the ICC wanted to have nothing to do with him.
• In March 2014 the Ukrainian parliament referred prosecution of the Maidan sniper massacre to the ICC. The ICC accepted. The murderers are by now well known. Yet the ICC has taken no steps to prosecute them or have them arrested.

The coup government in Bolivia now wants the ICC to prosecute Evo Morales for “crimes against humanity”. If the ICC acts in their usual manner, they will soon be issuing arrest warrants.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Dec 2 2019 7:44 utc | 37

that’s why he was whacked, so the story goes away.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 2 2019 9:17 utc | 39

Sunny Runny Burger says:
Is it interesting that the only result of Epstein’s “death” so far might at a stretch be prince Andrew getting into “trouble”
yeah, i see the queen canceled his birthday party.
pretzelattack says:
i don’t know what was going on there, seems highly suspicious, but marijuana use is well down the list of concerns
ya know, i forget who said it, but in answer to the question of whether or not marijuana is an aphrodisiac, he said, “it depends on who you’re with when you’re stoned”

Posted by: john | Dec 2 2019 11:19 utc | 41

Yesterday, nine people were brutally killed by the Brazilian police in Paraisópolis, São Paulo during a surprise raid on a “street party”. They were allegedly deliberately cornered so they couldn’t scape and killed execution style:
União dos Moradores de Paraisópolis: “Jovens foram encurralados em becos e vielas e levados a caminho da morte”; vídeo
The reason they did that was it did a lot of noise at night. The adjacent neighborhood (Morumbi) is one of very wealthy, very influential individuals. The Paraisópolis/Morumbi divide gave birth to that infamous photograph that perfectly illustrates inequality everybody can see on the internet. One of the residents from Morumbi told the press “I would sent a drone with granades every weekend [to Paraisópolis]”.
Entertainment in Brazil is all privatized and expensive. The poor people from Paraisópolis do those “street parties” because that’s their only option, not because they want to. The police brutally killed nine people because they spoiled their rich neighboors’ landscape.
Brazil is a capitalist country. It is what during the Cold War was defined as a “free country”, a “Western/liberal Democracy”. Allegedly, it would be governed through the principle of the infamous “rule of law”. It should have what is called “freedom of speech” and “freedom of association”. It should be what is widely called “free”.
But here we are: nine people killed for the simple reason they wanted to have some fun. Is this freedom? Is this not that “totalitarianism” the liberals love to talk about?

Posted by: vk | Dec 2 2019 11:48 utc | 43

Just wondering about Le Mesurier’s death and a possible motive. Maybe it was suicide, driven by fear of imminent exposure or failure of his enterprise. Have also wondered about the SAA front in Idlib and why the liberation seems to be delayed so long.
Pure speculation, but maybe the background understanding between Russia and Turkey is key. Assad knows that a full-on offensive to liberate the whole of Idlib would be very costly and possibly counter-productive with the risk of a fake chemical attack bringing on air-strikes, so he needs to be careful. Turkey is key to controlling the militias but he has demanded a price, being the corridor in northern Syria to protect him from the Kurds. If this is not an unspoken understanding, then why is SAA not being more aggressive in punishing Turkey ?
As events progress, SAA checks Erdogan’s commitment to allow SAA advance into Idlib (probably as far as controlling the main Lattakia-Aleppo road and no further) by starting small advances to see how MSM reacts. Erdogan will have promised no fake chemical attack accusations. This was evidenced in the recent liberation of Khan Skeikhoun where there were no chemical weapons accusations flying around. In order to be able to make those promises, Erdogan will have had to take control of the White Helmets propaganda machine and if this is the case, then it does suggest a reason why Le Mesurier may have committed suicide. His team have been lured away to another orbit and are no longer answerable to him. The link to British intelligence and control is being weakened and so the likelihood of Le Mesurier’s exposure increased to the point where he wanted to exit the situation. Incidentally, the sacking of the Daily Mail journalist for repeatedly smearing Peter Hichens over the OPCW affair smells of the same drift. Daily Mail owners are seeing that Whit Helmet sympathisers are soon to be a liability and so have made a bit of a stand.
If I am right, then expect more downplaying of the rights of the “opposition” in Idlib. Erdogan will get his territory in north Syria and populate it with repackaged AlQeada sympathisers, and Assad will get enough of Idlib to be able to develop the area economically. Down the road there will be negotiations about ‘final status’ conditions in these areas, but the main thing will be that US and Israeli influence will be kept out and Syria will continue to stand proud and start to prosper.

Posted by: aniteleya | Dec 2 2019 12:42 utc | 45

I stumbled upon a site that is new to me. The author there says some things that are probably true, and others, and in a form, that I do not grasp. With a large dose of salt and so forth… He’s evidently rather ardently antizionist, but then so are many undeceived Jews. Even if some of his statements are incorrect, he’s innarrestin’ as Burroughs would say.
The guy’s name> “Benjamin Fulford”
site: “benjamin fulford’s translations” (duckduckgo)
I’d like to know what y’all think Here’s a fragment…
“… The real battle, of course, is over control of the Anglo-Saxon navies, agree Pentagon and MI6 sources.
Here, “the Trump purge began with the firing of Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer for insubordination, and may be followed by Obama flag officer holdovers, as ‘the Donald’ has won the loyalty of warfighters and special ops forces needed to take down the Zionists and the deep state,” Pentagon sources say.
MI6 sources, for their part, say, “There seems to be a lot of infighting now and attempts to strip the Queen of things like the CIA, U.S. DOD, etc., so this latest fiasco may be an expression of all this.”
In a sign of just how serious a battle this is, the Pentagon sources say that “Since Vice-Admiral Andrew won’t be extradited and may hide behind diplomatic immunity, he may be renditioned by the U.S. military, since the Queen is also Commander in Chief of UK forces.” Needless to say, such an operation would be tantamount to a declaration of war….”
and… ” “Trump’s soon-to-be-next move is that the Green Hilton Memorial Agreement signed by [then President] John F. Kennedy and President Sukarno at Geneva in November 1963 becomes a reality. Trump can, with the stroke of his pen by Executive Order, reinstate Executive Order 11110 or an amendment thereof, thus allowing the Department of the Treasury to issue the new United States dollars. This may be the reboot of the U.S. dollar, as Trump leaves the debt of the Federal Reserve to be resolved by the actual owners—the Khazarian Zionist cabal,” the CIA says…”

Posted by: Walter | Dec 2 2019 13:15 utc | 47

Walter @ 47.  Interesting
I think it’s interesting to examine this in light of MMT type thinking.
The Fed is a creature of Congress and the Fed and Treasury work very closely on a day to day basis to keep everything financed.  The Fed will basically create money for whatever Congress wants to do and give it to the Treasury.  Politicians don’t want us to believe that it’s this easy.  Especially when it comes to social security, medicare for all, etc rather than being used to line their own pockets.
Trump understands this and could at some time ‘with the stroke of his pen’ use this power for the general good which could be very popular.  Although not for the status quo.

Posted by: financial matters | Dec 2 2019 13:47 utc | 49

Israeli Mossad danced with glee in Liberty Park
holding up cigarette lighters as they mocked the
World Trade Center towers burning in the background.

Posted by: librul | Dec 2 2019 14:25 utc | 51

@Walter. Careful with Fulford, son of a Canadian ambassador, with purported insider info who needs his Paypal account replenished weekly. A type of debka disinfo agent cum limited hangout/political fiction writer..

Posted by: Lozion | Dec 2 2019 15:20 utc | 53

Here is a really informative and fascinating/scary piece on Ukraine in the Saker
https://thesaker.is/war-in-ukraine-the-one-you-are-not-been-told-about/
My apologies if someone already linked it– a “must read” in my opinion.
The writer details the internal fights that have been happening and continue as the Trump/Biden fights move forward.
I think there are two concepts which greatly help me/us understand the actions of the power elites: how parasites flourish (and eventually die) and the concept of addiction which is explained with lots of detail, humility and stories by Gabor Mate, father of Aaron Mate, who is a holocaust survivor and psychiatrist in Vancouver, B.C. This link is an interview in which Gabor Mate explains “Russiagate”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR07OtEhKPE

Posted by: migueljose | Dec 2 2019 15:27 utc | 55

OAS published report about Bolivian elections before investigation results came out and without any evidence of fraud either way:
OEA”>https://operamundi.uol.com.br/politica-e-economia/61924/oea-divulgou-relatorio-sobre-eleicao-na-bolivia-antes-do-prazo-mesmo-sem-indicios-de-fraude-diz-site”>OEA divulgou relatório sobre eleição na Bolívia antes do prazo mesmo sem indícios de fraude, diz site
According to Argentinian newspaper Cohete a la Luna, OAS supressed its own preliminary report, which indicated there was no fraud. It gathered a random sample of paper minutes from random ballots and compared them with the polls predictions. The results indicated no fraud, i.e. neglibigle differences between the results on the ballots and the polls. This preliminary report was supressed, and the OAS, before the official result came out, published a final report declaring there was fraud.
So here we have a modus operandi – the same of the OPCW.

Posted by: vk | Dec 2 2019 15:40 utc | 57

@ # 10 (Mr S, and the radar)
I looked at the Russian site. I gather it’s essentially a fancy software development project supporting rather ordinary electrical and electronic engineering. OTH radar really goes back to the beginnings of the art, it’s the nifty ability to decrypt or decode the returns that’s changing…and I assume also the use of solid state T/R elements, in part to reduce power consumption for several practical reasons – logistics, reliability, IR emissions, etc.
searchterm> “german radar see f35 air show”
Time is necessary, a period to teach the software, I believe. This implies that US development can’t be done quickly.
If I were a criminal planning a war on Russia I’d place my bets with jamming the Russian system. I remember when the zionists stole an Egyptian Russian Radar…so as to RF it. The Red Army better hang onto those radars like glue…
Belinko, the Soviet traitor who stole a MiG 25, said the 25 was a “flying restaurant” (according to his cia bio book). Maybe, maybe not…
But the F-35 surely is…as it provide a buffet of easy money, and a “restaurant” shaped like a coffin. A major blunder.

Posted by: Walter | Dec 2 2019 15:46 utc | 59

#38, #39, etc Re: Epstein, Andrew, Maxwell
Surely it is relevant that since the reopening of the case against Epstein in June, and especially since Epstein’s “suicide” in early August, Prince Andrew has kept in “near constant” contact with Ghislane Maxwell: https://nypost.com/2019/12/01/prince-andrew-in-constant-contact-with-epstein-ex-ghislaine-maxwell-report/
Why would Prince Andrew want to keep in contact with Maxwell? Here’s one reason: he is being blackmailed and instructed by her to follow a particular course of action or else….
This would offer a rationale for Prince Andrew’s otherwise inexplicable and disastrous recent television interview, which succeeded in further removing press attention from the larger trafficking/blackmail aspects of the Epstein op and focusing it instead on one of their favorite topics: the royalty and their shenanigans.
Remember: in the modern state pedophilia and blackmail go hand in hand…
Maxwell was likely Epstein’s handler and, in some respects, he was working for her, not vice versa as it is usually portrayed.
Andrew is still afraid of her. Who else is afraid? Perhaps Andrew’s interview was a veiled message from Maxwell to many others that the compromising tapes did not “die” with Epstein…

Posted by: WJ | Dec 2 2019 16:06 utc | 61

@Posted by: migueljose | Dec 2 2019 15:27 utc | 55
Thanks for your (first) link. A worthy read.
Now I will check out your second link.
Thanks again

Posted by: librul | Dec 2 2019 16:31 utc | 63

Thousands of indictments finally hit the printers on 9th December! Or do they?
Years of rumours and hope spread by Q-anon and many others, including very recently and very directly by Trump, himself, finally come to a conclusion on the 9th December!
9th December is when the Horowitz Report is finally released. Comey was not charged with anything resulting from the Mueller Report because, as it was let-known, such charges would be minor when compared to what was going to befall Comey with the release of the Horowitz Report.
(It is worth recalling that the main message from the outcome of the Mueller Report was that Trump did not collude with the Russians in their attempts to interfere in the US elections but that the Russians did interfere [based on no or weak evidence] in the US elections.)
It was believed that the Horowitz Report would, in part, actually investigate the evidence of Russian interference and collude that it was rubbish. But it seems that is not what the Horowitz Report will be saying at all.
Indications are that the Horowitz Report will determine that the investigations into Trump were warranted because they were based on manipulated reports by a junior FBI officer – in other words, Obama, Comey, etc. acted in good faith (and as they should have) but were misled by a junior FBI Officer. Russian interference in the US elections will (like in the Mueller Report) be accepted as fact. In other words the Horowitz Report will be a whitewash, no one did anything wrong, apart from this Junior FBI Officer (who, I believe, has already been dismissed).
So let’s summarise the outcome of the Mueller Report and Horowitz Report (and at the same time appreciate Barr’s role as a Deep State Fixer [can anyone really doubt that Barr didn’t fix the Epstein issue as well?]):
TRUMP DID NOT COLLUDE WITH THE RUSSIANS.
COMEY, OBAMA, MCCABE, BRENNAN, CLAPPER, STRZOK, (Lisa) PAGE, ETC. ACTED IN GOOD FAITH AND WERE MISLED BY A JUNIOR FBI OFFICER.
THE RUSSIANS DID INTERFERE IN THE US ELECTIONS.
Soon only one loose end will be left and that is the Trump Impeachment and Biden’s situation (really the US deep state corruption of finance and resources from Ukraine – but, do Americans really care about the destruction the US inflicted on Ukraine?) but, dare-I-say, an obvious trade seems to suggest itself?
So now TRUMP, CLINTON & OBAMA, shake hands and say after me, and, at the same time, all you Americans and westerners join in “IT’S ALL RUSSIA’S FAULT! RUSSIA’S TO BLAME! SANCTION RUSSIA! LETS PREPARE FOR WAR WITH RUSSIA!” (Rest of the world looks on while their jaws hit the floor!”)
Trump will have nothing more to worry about and all it took was betraying all his promises and all the people who voted for him but “IT WAS THE RUSSIANS!”
Q-anon? Drain the swamp? Indictments? All I have to say to Americans (and westerners) is just wait until’ JP Morgan collapses and then you will know that you have been fiddling while everything has been hallowed out – that, really you knew all along and did nothing – and it will be too late to do anything! And you will be left with no money, no jobs, huge, unpay-able debts, a situation far worse that Russia in the nineties and with only one option (war) as a possible solution.

Posted by: ADKC | Dec 2 2019 16:52 utc | 65

I just watched the video provided by BM in #54 and encourage others to watch it.
I wrote in comments before that the real reason for BREXIT is because the UK does not want to adhere to financial transparency requirements of the EU and that video further cements that belief of mine and others.
Follow the money……
Humanity is in a civilization war over public/private finance…believe that and see what is going on through that perspective.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 2 2019 17:32 utc | 67

First, to karlof1 on winter and fall – my framework for both of these is that Thanksgiving (when in my part of the world we usually have the first winter storm – and did this time with severity) is the beginning of winter. And then, the winter solstice is the beginning of spring. That gives me only a month of winter – I can live with that!
Then, to your post @ 20, reading Pepe’s piece and viewing the photo of the peasant trudging along, I wonder what effect global warming will be having there this spring? We already know, or should know, how drastically Alaska is being changed, and reading de Toqueville’s descriptions of the actual land mass occupied by the US, the peoples affected by colonization and the changes as expansion sea to sea was happening – shall we see something similar there?
What happens with climate change is that different areas become crop growing places, and basically communities develop around that. Aridity affects established metropolises as farmlands can no longer supply and at Chaco, the farmers simply moved elsewhere.
The other link you gave had this: “…Unfortunately, the only global solution would be a second American Revolution…” But, this seemed a contradiction to what he, Zuesse, was already describing – how could there be such in the heart of the problem? Surely forces are ready, willing, and waiting here in the US for any such occurrence – they are so swift to glom onto the least sign of protest in other countries, and we’ve already seen how our own true whistleblowers are treated. That era, revolutionary times, has passed; we no longer can rely on those methods simply because they are being used against us.
It doesn’t mean we can’t resist. It is still very important to speak truth to power, in whatever manner we still have the freedom to do this. But force against force – really? I think the days of color revolutions, and even of actions such as the one in Bolivia are going to come to an end. I don’t foresee how, except that I can’t look at what psychohistorian is saying without bemusement. The financial ice is so thin, supported only by unfriendliness, brute force, isolating factors like shock and awe. We are on a drifting iceberg and the seas are warming…

Posted by: juliania | Dec 2 2019 17:36 utc | 69

Sorry, misspelled – de Tocqueville!

Posted by: juliania | Dec 2 2019 17:46 utc | 71

I am grateful for the psychological explanation by Gabor Mate (video), I have had a very hard time reconciling how
so many intelligent people I know fell for the Russiagate folly.
@Posted by: migueljose | Dec 2 2019 15:27 utc | 55
So thanks again migueljose (I thanked you already for the first link @63)
for the second link, the link to Gabor Mate’s video.
A particularly fun fact (and good catch by yours truly) is that
at the 22.41 mark of the Gabor Mate video there is a hysterical Newsweek headline:
Why Clinton Lost: What Russia did to control the American Mind and Put Trump in the White House.
The headline is the title of an article by Jessica Kwong written two years ago – 11/18/17.
As you may recall Newsweek said, “You’re Fired!” just one day ago
to Jessica Kwong because she got caught producing blatant fake news. In all the fakery that has transpired
a Newsweek writer gets fired over a “Trump is golfing story”. Ha !
Makes me laugh!
Starting at the 9:23 mark of the video there is a replay of a few choice snippets from the utter lunacy and hysteria
the MSM subjected it’s viewers to during Russiagate – my first reaction was embarrassment for
my fellow Americans and then fear, fear that seemingly sane people are potentially just one slight
tilt
away mob mania.
At the 12:30 mark (“incredible historical amnesia”) is also a good history reminder about Robert Mueller.
Even though in total I give the video high marks, I take extreme exception to what Gabor Mate said at the 22:51 mark.
He lets the MSM off the hook
saying, very roughly, that he didn’t think anyone (the MSM and various pundits) was deliberately trying to peddle
anything or scare people but that they just got caught up in a tsunami of fear and paranoia and shock reaction.
A bit later, though, he got closer to the truth when he said, “They signed on to the elite narrative”.
Gabor Mate offers an explanation for how the public fell for and bought into the Russiagate narrative
but he makes no mention whatsoever of the role of the Deep State, in particular the intelligence services,
in originating and pushing the delusions. The MSM **sourced** ceaselessly from the Deep State to push the Russiagate narrative.
It wasn’t an innocent act “they got caught up in a tsunami of fear…” ,as Gabor Mate says, by the MSM,
**rather** the MSM was the essential mouthpiece driving the Russiagate creation of the Deep State.
Again, I am grateful for the psychological explanation by Gabor Mate, I have had a very hard time reconciling how
so many intelligent people I know fell for the Russiagate folly.

Posted by: librul | Dec 2 2019 18:22 utc | 73

59 Walter;Red Army?

Posted by: dahoit | Dec 2 2019 18:26 utc | 75

librul @73 I appreciate you taking the time and sharing your thoughts about Gabor Mate. I agree with you about the crucial and diabolical role people in the intelligence agencies play in the deceptions which build our collective perceptions which are no less than fairy tales– lies and exaggerations interlaced with a certain percentage of truths to elicit conformity from an addicted public dependent on their source (the dealer)of information, food, etc.
I read Mate’s book “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts” which details his work with mostly heroin addicts in Vancouver; he continously interjects personal stories of his addiction to classical music, exploring the roots/causes that triggered and fed his addiction, the impact on his family along with stories of his patients. The book is masterful, deep insights into how he has developed as a human being, very humble, very honest, courageous, he is a true role model for those of us who have chosen to take the risk of probing deeper and speaking out in favor of humanity and against the rot of our dying empire. There are more youtube videos of him if you are interested. His son Aaron is also a good investigative reporter with his show “pushback” which can be found on the Grayzone website.

Posted by: migueljose | Dec 2 2019 18:59 utc | 77

Hong Kong.
>University president Teng Jin-guang reveals that of more than 1,100 people arrested over campus siege, only 46 were PolyU students<
CGTN is reporting that the PRC will sanction 5 US non-profit organisations (fake NGOs) including Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and National Endowment for Democracy, for their role in the Hong Kong riots – aka interference in China’s internal affairs.
A Google search for “China sanctions 5 US NGOs” turned up fresh stories on the subject from The Usual Suspects (Christian Colonial MSM) revealing that the 5 NGOs have offices in China/Hong Kong.
It’ll be fun observing the verbal contortions deemed necessary to paint lipstick on those 5 Little Piggies…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 2 2019 19:28 utc | 79

Re: Post by Walter @80
For entertainment I like to compare English language articles in Wikipedia to articles on the same topics in other languages (the CIA has relatively limited manpower [gender-fluid-term]power to doctor articles in all languages).
Compare the articles on China’s “Green Wall” program to fight the growth of the Gobi Desert in English and Russian to see just how jingoistic and jaundiced the material intended for consumption in America is.
The typical American is so immersed in this crap that they would not be able to see anything wrong with the English language version. Nearly every piece of media they consume is warped this way, so it seems normal to them. Once one recognizes this then the hysteria and delusion in America begins to make more sense.

Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 2 2019 20:56 utc | 81

Did you remember that on the video I posted yesterday where a guy in HK was beating a citizen unconscious with a huge metal bar, I make you notie that the guy i nquestion did not seem a Chinese but a foreigner, and that I pointed at him being one of the unemployed from Syria
Well it seems that I failed the shot for centimeters…it seems that it was one from the unemployed in the Ukraine…But, well, in the end it is the same trainning school of death squads…
Some strange tourists have arrived in HK…
https://twitter.com/27khv/status/1201524247052652545
Now that Janine Añez has taken power in Bolivia, and that in the next elections they will have asured the victory since no other party but theirs will be allowed to concur…one guess some squad the Juventud Cruceñista will be landing in HK soon too…
The people in the comments below are wondering how these thugs could have arrived in HK…Well, how they arrive anywhere? With the unestimable help of the US Embassy and NGOs and Fascist International network…

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 2 2019 21:08 utc | 83

thanks sasha and s for that info..

Posted by: james | Dec 2 2019 22:14 utc | 85

@ Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 2 2019 20:56 utc | 81
I don’t think the American people is inherently stupid.
But I do think they are stupid – and they are stupid because they want to, not because they genetically are.
The reason the American people chose to be stupid is very simple in my opinion: because it is in their geopolitical interests to be so. Well, if the very survival of your Walmart cheap goods, cheap gas and cheap services depend on the invasion of Iraq and Syria, on constant regime changes in Latin America and on keeping China in its place, then you better choose to live in ignorance in order to be morally and politically coherent. It’s like whistling in the dark: you know the menace is out there, but there’s nothing you can do about it, so you choose to pretend it doesn’t exist — this is the postmodern creed of appearance over reality (which is necessary to state here is also one of the fundamental principles of nazifascism).
To put in simpler words: the Americans are reasonably stupid, i.e. they are stupid because stupidity suits them in this historical conjuncture, because it is a conscious political decision they, as a society, made decades ago.

Posted by: vk | Dec 2 2019 22:53 utc | 87

Sorry buy the HTML codying went obviously incomplet…
May be someone can corect it before the people start complaining…

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 2 2019 23:01 utc | 89

sashas link@ 88
Why Are Ukrainian Neo-Nazis Joining the Hong Kong Protests?

Posted by: james | Dec 2 2019 23:15 utc | 91

@ james. It may be that the Strategy of RU and CH aligns with the idea that “they will collapse soon”, as President P recently said. (some say dollar, some say they…zero difference in outcome)
If so, if the Strategy is to play the game out while their “partner” is weakened by his own contradictions, then it might not suit RU and or CH to do as you suggest. Stoking the fire generally leads to massive conflagration. The time for Trials is suited to Victory, not conflict, is it not?
It’s a bit like mathematics… (VVP)

Posted by: Walter | Dec 2 2019 23:54 utc | 93

@93 walter.. i think you are right about that… thanks! this craziness can’t go on for forever..
protest tourism, lol.. i missed that dh!

Posted by: james | Dec 3 2019 0:13 utc | 95

@96 Monitoring this thread? I’ll bet the Chinese security people got these guys number at the airport when they flew in and they’re keeping a very close eye on them.

Posted by: dh | Dec 3 2019 0:29 utc | 97

@ William Gruff and dh in comments #96-98
The tell for me that there were CIA agents in the Hong Kong mix at the university was the organized escape of a few of them. I remember reading and seeing pictures about a few escaping off ropes or such down onto a road where they were quickly picked up by motorcyclists and hurried off.
Given China’s ability to monitor internet traffic/messages I conjecture that they had a private frequency radio/internet link going short distance from the university to “headquarters” to coordinate such and pull it off…trained and highly supported saboteurs (death squads if you prefer)

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 3 2019 0:55 utc | 99