“Haven’t read the article yet, but that must have been an incredibly slow train. The distance is something like 150 miles.”
From the article:
“A train ride between Princeton and Washington does not take all night—in 1953 it was a little over three hours. But if Wheeler spent the night in a Pullman car (see figure 4 for a schematic), he could avoid the extra inconvenience of checking into a hotel. He would take the train and sleep in a bunk. The train would begin its journey in the middle of the night and arrive at Washington’s Union Station early the next morning. The porter would wake Wheeler at a reasonable hour, and he could dress and tidy up before leaving the train. From there, he would head directly for his meeting near the Capitol, do his part to combat the enemies of the H-bomb, and return to Princeton by train that evening.”

Posted by: Madeira | Dec 8 2019 15:06 utc | 3

I used to frequent a Democratic site called DailyKos years ago before they purged Bernie supporters. This is an example of how bad this site has gotten.
“A heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Kamala Harris and to Shirley Chisholm, upon whose shoulders she stands”
This article tries to use identity politics to push Kamala who had the most billionaire donors to Shirley Chisholm who ran for president a long time ago actually standing for black people.
“Defense officials concerned about growing support for Vladimir Putin by US Troops.”
The red scare is strong here – I almost thought it was an Onion article.
To the author – “Have you no sense of decency”

Posted by: Stever | Dec 8 2019 15:49 utc | 5

Boeing knew of problems with wing parts, but told FAA planes were safe, agency alleges – Washington Post

Posted by: BM | Dec 8 2019 16:00 utc | 7

From Jay Caruso at the UK Independent: https:/www.independent.co.uk/voices/joe-biden-look-fat-iq-angry-fight-video-iowa-campaign-a9235936.html

Yes, it was Donald Trump who raised the issue of Biden’s role with Burisma. It was an attempt to deflect attention away from what’s now the center of Trump’s likely impeachment in the House of Representatives — holding up military funds to Ukraine until they announced an investigation into Biden and his son, despite the lack of any legal wrongdoing on their part.

This is the most circular reasoning I have ever come across. Trump deflected attention away from impeachment by raising the Biden’s role with Burisma. But the impeachment is because Trump raised the Biden’s role with Burisma?
As a forum with many great commentators, can someone please explain this to me. Or am I in some Back to the Future scenario?
Many thanks.
F.

Posted by: frinnt | Dec 8 2019 16:09 utc | 9

Imo, Daily Kos has been a hive of villainy, no doubt a CIA operation meant to mislead progressives, almost since its founding.

Posted by: paul | Dec 8 2019 17:22 utc | 11

BM @ 8
Yeah, that’s really pathetic. “Slap .. meet Wrist” ….. or Wing, as is the case !!

Posted by: polecat | Dec 8 2019 17:59 utc | 13

thanks b for the week of insights and more…
@9 frinnt… i think you have it right.. the article is wrong.. pelosi called the impeachment thing based on trump asking for info on bidens ukrainian activity.. that is the basis for the impeachment trail as i understand it.. the holding off on military funds was not the impetus for the impeachment process here..
as for journalist Tareq Haddad, paveway brought this to our attention on the opcw thread a day or two ago..something smells fishy about it.. i’d like to take it as it stands, but i wonder if there isn’t more to the story to revealed at a later date to poke wholes in the opcw’s opponents? spontaneous speculation on my part… we’ll have to wait til more comes out..

Posted by: james | Dec 8 2019 18:14 utc | 15

There has been quite a lot recently in RT about the sports doping scandal and how WADA are threatening to exclude Russia from all sorts of events. I get the impression that Russia may be trailing its coat here, at a time when the OPCW news comes out in drips and drabs. So maybe some bargaining is going on behind the scenes.
On quite another tack I came across this lovely conversation – translated from a contemporary record on papyrus – between the Roman Emperor Commodus and the head of the Alexandria Gymnasium (main school.) I think this is 2nd century AD.
Emperor: Do you know who you are talking to?
Head: Yes I know, I am speaking to a tyrant.
Emperor: No, to a monarch
Head: Do not say that. Your divine father Marcus Aurelius had the proper qualities of an emperor. Listen! – First, he was a philosopher; second, he did not love money; third, he loved the good. In you there are the reverse of these qualities: tyranny, hatred of the good, common ignorance.
(He was then led off to be executed). (From City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, by Peter Parsons)
Makes you think about our current rulers. In the UK, Clement Attlee seems to comes closest to the ideal.

Posted by: Montreal | Dec 8 2019 18:32 utc | 17

@14 karlof1
The soon to be passed defense authorization act includes strong Nordstream 2 sanctions against any company or executive of a company that assists in its construction. It has almost unanimous (ie, veto proof) support in both the House and the Senate. From what I had previously read, this is likely to halt construction for 2-3 years while legal challenges play out.

Posted by: Schmoe | Dec 8 2019 18:37 utc | 19

OPCW investigated the April 7th 2018 incident in Douma Syria and reported that: “chlorine, or another reactive chlorine-containing chemical, was likely released”.
An internal OPCW Email in response however said that the report: “is highly misleading and not supported by the facts”.
London based author and journalist Peter Hitchens has closely followed the Syrian conflict and Douma incident. He’s recently visited the OPCW whistleblower and now discusses with Rico Brouwer in café Weltschmerz what actually happened in Douma and what’s at stake with this misleading OPCW report not only in Syria but also with our governments, the international rule of law and the validity of the OPCW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxeylNJT7ws

Posted by: Mao | Dec 8 2019 19:00 utc | 21

The Syrian presidential press service criticized Italy’s Rai News 24 broadcaster over its decision to delay the broadcast of the interview with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“On 26 November 2019, President al-Assad granted an interview to Rai CEO, Monica Maggioni. It was agreed that the interview would air on 2 December on both Italian Rai News 24 and Syrian national media outlets. Early on the morning of 2 December, we received a request, on behalf of Rai News 24, to delay the broadcast with no clear explanation. This was later followed by two further requests to delay, with no date set for when the interview will air and no further explanation,” the press service said on late Saturday in a statement, posted on its Facebook page.
The Syrian presidential press service described the situation as one more example of Western attempts to conceal the truth about the situation in Syria.
“If Rai News 24 continue to refuse to air the interview, the Political and Media Office of the Syrian Presidency will broadcast the interview in full, on Monday 9 December 2019 at 9pm Damascus time [19:00 GMT],” the statement added.
The Syrian government regularly accuses the Western countries of waging an information campaign aimed at discrediting the country’s authorities amid the ongoing civil conflict.

Posted by: Mao | Dec 8 2019 19:05 utc | 23

“A botched assassination attempt against Ukrainian politician and businessman Vyacheslav Sobolev has resulted in the death of his three-year-old son, Alexander.
“While Sobolev and his wife were leaving his high-end restaurant “Mario” in Kiev this past Sunday, right-wing thugs opened fire on Sobolev’s Range Rover, missing him but hitting his son who was seated in the back of the vehicle. The three-year-old died on the way to the hospital.
“Police later apprehended two men who had fled the scene in a black Lexus sedan, Oleksiy Semenov, 19, and Andrei Lavrega, 20. Both are veterans of the war in Donbass in eastern Ukraine where they served as members of the fascist Right Sector’s paramilitary formation until June of this year.
“The Right Sector was instrumental in the US- and EU-backed, fascist-led coup in February 2014 that toppled the Yanukovitch government and replaced it with a pro-Western and anti-Russian regime. Since then, the Right Sector has been among the far-right forces that have been heavily involved in the war against Russian-backed separatists in East Ukraine.
“As is usual when members of neo-Nazi groups carry out political attacks, the Right Sector and their former battalion commander fraudulently attempted to distance themselves from Lavrega and Semenov, claiming they had lost contact with them since they left Ukraine’s armed forces in June. These claims are not credible.
“Lavrega, who has been identified as the principal shooter in the killing, has been a member of the Right Sector for at least half a decade. He had participated in the Maidan movement of 2014 as a member of the Right Sector and perfected his shooting skills as a sniper killing separatist soldiers in eastern Ukraine. According to his Right Sector battalion commander, Andrei Herhert, Lavrega—also known as “Quiet”—was “one of the best snipers in the war” and “very ideological.”
“As a thanks for his service to the right-wing Kiev government, Lavrega received a military decoration from former President Petro Poroshenko for “courage” just last year, in October of 2018.” ……….
“Whoever is ultimately responsible for ordering this political assassination and the murder of the three-year-old boy, it is clear that the same far-right forces that were instrumental in the coup in February 2014 and the civil war are now being employed to carry out political assassinations by the Ukrainian oligarchy.
“Since the 2014 coup, the number of targeted political assassinations by right-wing neo-Nazi groups like C14 and the Right Sector has skyrocketed. At least 15 people have been murdered in such hit jobs by the far right since 2014. Among them was the well-known Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet and the politician Kateryna Handziuk, who was killed in a horrific acid attack by right-wing thugs last year.
“In virtually all these cases, the perpetrators have been protected from serious legal prosecution. One of the murderers of Handziuk received a barely three-year prison sentence. A critical role in shielding the neo-Nazis is played by Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Arsen Avakov, who controls the country’s police force and possesses well-known ties to Ukraine’s most notorious fascist militia, the Azov Battalion.
“Avakov is one of the few members of the previous Poroshenko government that have remained in the current Cabinet of Ministers under President Volodmyr Zelensky. He was recently praised by former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch while testifying before the House of Representatives regarding the Trump impeachment investigation (see also: “The impeachment crisis and American imperialism”).
“President Zelensky, who was elected in April this year on the basis of promises that he would bring an end to the widely despised civil war in eastern Ukraine that has claimed the lives of over 13,000 people, has maintained a conspicuous silence on this latest political assassination attempt by the far right. Instead, the day after the murder, he posted a message on Facebook to honor two Ukrainian soldiers who were killed while fighting in eastern Ukraine this past weekend.”
The rest of the story can be found at the WSWS
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/07/ukra-d06.html
The Right Sector links with the former US Ambassador-Democratic heroine- are topical.

Posted by: bevin | Dec 8 2019 19:17 utc | 25

@17 montreal… thanks for the quotes and overview…
@ 18 john brewster..quote “So, I continue to read and post at MoA, but I have no expectation that it amounts to anything more than German’s listening to the BBC in WW2 did. What I do expect is that, sooner or later, MoA will be blacklisted for simply relating true facts.” i 2nd @24 tg comments to you.. thanks.. i’d like to think that is a long ways off, but maybe i am wrong..
@25 bevin… that is in exact opposition to the drivel chris brown – regular columist for cbc posts.. and typically his drivel is not open to comments.. here is his latest bs – In an obliterated landscape, war-weary Ukrainians hope peace summit ends fighting for an insight into completely lopsided reporting – read it.. you don’t want to, i totally understand..

Posted by: james | Dec 8 2019 19:48 utc | 27

TJ @ 24 ; james @ 27
Thanks for the predictions that MoA will persist.
I had hoped that people might react to my remarks on the reach of the immersive propaganda network we live in, rather than my pessimistic ending. I posted about the Nature article because, if people can’t see through the impeachment Kabuki or the Identity Politics divisiveness, what chance do they have to see through the constant omni-channel flood of Russophobia? (E.g., ?yesterday? at MoA, we heard about the latest nonsense: the “German Skripal”.)
They have completely cleaned house of any unbiased Russia scholarship. When Stephen Cohen, advisor to multiple presidents, is considered to be a Putin apologist and effectively banned, its quite clear that any corporate media or governmental words about Russia are nothing more than propaganda. In retrospect, I had not taken the words of Hannah Arendt to heart – there is no such thing as a non-political topic in our Surveillance State; and that includes science itself. America is well on its way to Lysenkoism.

Posted by: john brewster | Dec 8 2019 20:10 utc | 29

Germany’s economy in grave distress:

German manufacturing hit by biggest downturn since 2009.
Germany’s manufacturing sector is suffering its steepest downturn for a decade after industrial production fell 1.7 per cent in October, underlining how the powerhouse of the eurozone’s biggest economy is spluttering.
The figures, published on Friday by the Federal Statistics Office, mean that Germany’s manufacturing output has fallen 5.7 per cent in the year to October and indicate that the sector is likely to keep weighing on overall eurozone growth in the fourth quarter.
“Far from bottoming out, Germany’s industrial recession may be getting worse,” said Andrew Kenningham at Capital Economics. “The latest data support our view that a recession is still more likely than not in the coming quarters.”
And it was investment that was hit. The drop in German manufacturing in October was concentrated in production of capital goods, including tools, buildings, vehicles, machinery and equipment, which fell 4.4 per cent in the month. Production of intermediate goods and consumer goods both increased.

After the fall of the DDR, the Western Germans thought they had everything sorted out: capitalism had proved its supremacy over socialism, and History had ended. Their reward was the Hartz Reforms of the early 2000s, which marked the end of German welfare state — a token to the German working class to remember what was its place for the forseeable future.
Germany is now entirely on the USA’s hands. If the USA doesn’t collapse, the liberal financial architecture won’t collapse, and the EU will be able to continue to exist in a stagnated, 0-1% annual growth indefinitely and the European illusion will live on; if not, Europe will go back to be a periphery of the world system, as it has been since the fall of the Roman Empire in the West until the Second Industrial Revolution.
–//–
The game is over for the Superpower by 2020:
India’s industrial sector dives as the economy brakes hard towards a recession.
So much for the vaunted “world’s biggest democracy” (courtesy by the British Empire).

Posted by: vk | Dec 8 2019 20:16 utc | 31

@ 21 You’re right. And I would also be critical of the OPCW quote >: “chlorine, or another reactive chlorine-containing chemical, was likely released”.
see dictionary of chemical terms “reactive”. Table salt is reactive. It’s semantically meaningless rhetoric. Actually, as we learned in the 7th grade, it’s easy to get salt to make chlorine gas – or to make sodium bleach with table salt and a power-supply. OPCW is bsing the “report” with sexy sounding terms. About the only stuff that’s not “reactive” is platinum and helium…

Posted by: Walter | Dec 8 2019 20:20 utc | 33

@ 17 in re “…strong Nordstream 2 sanctions…”
We shall see how strong. I’d put money on the Germans doing business with their natural Eastern partners. Business is business, suzerain occupation since 75 years notwithstanding.
Actually I harbor doubts about the strength of imperial ability, as the natural reaction every time they use dollarweapon, is the weakening of the weapon…
That Good Man V Putin, I’m sure we all recall, recently spoke to this matter…signing off with “they (or the dollar) will collapse soon.”
zerohedge > “The Dollar Enjoyed Great Trust Around The World. But For Some Reason It Is Being Used As A Political Weapon, Imposing Restrictions. Many Countries Are Now Turning Away From The Dollar As A Reserve Currency. US Dollar Will Collapse Soon.”

Posted by: Walter | Dec 8 2019 20:32 utc | 35

frinnt #9
Hoho, The Independent is not a serious paper. Not as deceitful as the Guardian but neither classify as adequate for an arse wipe. The degeneration of these once reasonable reporting sites into trash has been rapid.
The most important antidote against their mind numbing ignorance is to read Vitchek, occasionally rewatch Harold Pinter, read or watch Vanessa Beeley. Most importantly pay no attention to the inane ‘content’ of the Independent or the Guardian. For comic relief I sometimes peek at the Gateway Pundit but first must scrape off the rabid foam.
I am sure other contributors could augment this list for pages but primarily one must hold in mind that yesterdays publishers and your preconceived notions are invalid today. If I find tosh dressed as news, I don’t go back for a while, hence Democracy Now is never for me.
Do peek at Dances with Bears, India Punchline, Empire Files and…. good luck as there is a rich media out there.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 8 2019 20:51 utc | 37

@ Montreal | Dec 8 2019 18:32 | 17
“sports doping scandal and how WADA are threatening to exclude Russia”
There is some suggestion that the LIMS database had been hacked, with
the hacks / changes being ascribed to Russia, but in fact originating
from parties intent on discrediting Russia..
STUXNET was a sophisticated Government (Israeli / US ) effort to
attack Iran’s centrifuge program. Stuxnet’s design and architecture
are not domain-specific and can be adapted to other industrial targets
Such as a LIMS system – often a unprotected visual interface to an SQL database
It is unlikely that the very capable team that gave us Stuxnet has been sitting around
bored and idle, with such a juicy target available

Posted by: David K | Dec 8 2019 21:21 utc | 39

mao@21 says ‘London based author and journalist Peter Hitchins has closely followed the Syrian conflict…’ and posts a video from a Dutch interrogator that had me interested until Mr. Hitchens blandly spouted a derogatory spiel about Assad that is the main source of all ‘Assad must go’ poppycockery from the west as if it were indeed fact. If he is going to base actual verifiable information upon such a shaky foundation, I would warn folk who proceed further to either accept this poster’s message or that of Mr. Hitchins – beware of the underlying falsehoods when you do so.
This video is highly suspect, in my view. I do believe there is merit to the claim that the Douma incident was fabricated. I don’t believe Mr. Hitchins is the one to elaborate on that claim.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 8 2019 21:46 utc | 41

To be fair to Trump, 66.7% of his wives left him, 100% of his casinos have been bankrupted, 100% of his universities and charities were shut down, and over 50% of his other businesses have failed, so WH staff turnover at 43% means he is over-performing by his standards.

Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Dec 8 2019 22:20 utc | 43

To the Bar–
What I see is copious amounts of wailing from the usual sources about the demise of what was supposed to be an era of Unipolar dominance by the Evil Outlaw US Empire and blame being thrown in all directions hoping some sticks instead of directing it at themselves for they are he true authors of the Empire’s decline–they being the Current Oligarchy and their Congressional, Administrative, and BigLie Media accomplices. The Empire’s current “defense” doctrine calls for war to be waged against the nation(s) impeding the Empire’s unilateralism. The brats are spoilt beyond belief and 100% believe they’re entitled to having Full Spectrum Dominance because of their exceptionalist ideology–they’ve destroyed their own basic law to attain that goal; the impeachment derangement is just the most overt symptom being shown at the moment. Just look at the unanimity on the two recent anti-China votes–Congress is in almost 100% lockstep with Marco Rubio’s insanity.
IMO, there were saner heads in 1962 than now, particularly in Congress. What’s worse than an Evil Outlaw US Empire is it’s becoming deranged.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 8 2019 22:32 utc | 45

Frinnt @ 9, Uncle Tungsten @ 37:
Slight correction: Vitchek should read as Vltchek.
Also add Sharmine Narwani and Eva Bartlett to the one-person list of Vanessa Beeley.

Posted by: Jen | Dec 8 2019 22:58 utc | 47

There is a sense in which everything on this blog comes back to international relations and neo-con attempts to build “A New American Century.” Which is to say hegemony and globalisation.
Immanuel Wallerstein, who recently died and will be greatly missed, had some interesting things to say about hegemonic powers.
He identified the Dutch Republic, for a brief period after emerging victorious from the Thirty Years war in 1648, the United Kingdom, after Waterloo and up until the Crimean War and the United States, from 1945 to 1973 as true hegemons with networks of alliances and designated enemies.
He also makes the point that, long after states have ceased to be hegemonic, they remain dominant in the areas of finance and culture.
So far as the United States is concerned it is hanging on in both those areas in which, long after the paper in its Tigerish foreign policy has been exposed, it retains enormous influence though its media/entertainment businesses and Wall Street’s command in finance. (It is interesting here that The City, long after the UK has become a US puppet, still has enormous power in the world of finance.)
Wallerstein prophesied (and this was in 1980) that the next contender for the position of hegemon was likely to be an East Asian alliance of Japan, Korea and China.
Not a bad guess but one, like the end of US hegemony, made premature by the implosion of the Soviet Union which provided the US with a new dawn and another chance-quickly blown- to re-establish its hegemony. Which it did if not in fact then in its own mind in the shape of the hubristic unipolar moment and Brother Fukuyama’s End of History celebration.
Significantly Wallerstein, arguing from history that the intervals between these brief periods of hegemony are periods in which several states compete for the ‘succession’-France and the UK in the period after the Dutch moment had passed; Germany and the United States after 1850- suggested that the European Community would be competing with the East Asian bloc for hegemony.
It is that prophecy which looks lame currently with the European countries probably more under the domination of the United States than at any time in the past. Wallerstein was writing at a period when it looked as if the the EEC strengthened by the accession of, inter alia, the UK would be capable of throwing off the domination of the US and taking an independent course of its own.
This is a dream, rather like that of the ‘Social Europe’ in which full employment, welfare states, free education and regional development defy the spread of neo-liberal values and strategies, which still leads a ghost like existence in the minds of Europhiles who don’t get out much and have never heard of Greece and the PIIGs.
Also of interest is the fact that Russia, which didn’t feature among the contestants for future hegemony in 1980, has now re-emerged in its ancient role as the ‘eastern’ version of expanding America, a mirror image with even more natural resources, a larger landmass and a natural affinity with China and the formerly Soviet states of central Asia.
It might be argued that it is because the hubristic United States cannot bring itself to treat the potentially enormously powerful states of Europe as anything more than contemptible slaves that it is never going to re-establish its global position. On the other hand a case can be made that the current thrust of the United States is to re-establish its ownership of the rest of the hemisphere. It treats Canada as a sort of Puerto Rico with snow and oil. Only recently was Mexico was threatened on the improbable-in historical terms- that it allows the CIA to run its drug trade and supervise its Death Squads.
As to the rest of central America and the southern continent: US interference and arrogance is as evident as it has ever been. What is less evident is whether, for all its military and financial power, US policy against Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and their increasingly rebellious neighbours has any chance of succeeding.
It wrote in 2001 that the War on Terror was destined to end with Latin American militias, wearing red armbands, patrolling the streets of Cleveland. Perhaps it will.

Posted by: bevin | Dec 8 2019 23:14 utc | 49

james #27 – ” the drivel chris brown – regular columist for cbc posts.. and typically his drivel is not open to comments.. here is his latest bs – In an obliterated landscape, war-weary Ukrainians hope peace summit ends fighting for an insight into completely lopsided reporting”
Is it my fading memory, or was the CBC once a relatively professional source of international reporting? This piece is notably bad – not just from the skewed account of 2014’s events, or the insistence on describing Donbass as “separatist”, or the map which includes Crimea as part of Ukraine. How is it that the Minsk Accords no longer seem to exist in the corporate media, or the upcoming meeting in Paris properly described as a continuation of that process (alleged failure to “live up” to said accords was used as a stick against Putin for several years, and now their possible realization is vaguely referred to as something bad). Why does a Chatham House spokesperson get to define Ukraine’s supposed “red lines”, which are in reality the political position of the badly defeated former government? Why is Zelensky’s oft stated policy position presented here as Russian-induced capitulation? Brown interviews four women of whom he says “none would tell us their last name out of fear of repercussions from local authorities” except they allowed for their photos to be taken and published. All of these story points result from conscious decisions, not sloppy errors.

Posted by: jayc | Dec 8 2019 23:27 utc | 51

@bevin, 25. – this article from The Stalkerzone provides information on the killers and suggests that they intended to kill the child as a message to the father
https://www.stalkerzone.org/ato-monsters-in-ukraine-a-market-of-hired-serial-killers-appeared/

Posted by: cirsium | Dec 9 2019 0:03 utc | 53

bevin #49,

Wallerstein was writing at a period when it looked as if the the EEC strengthened by the accession of, inter alia, the UK would be capable of throwing off the domination of the US and taking an independent course of its own.

Back in my pro EU days I used to hope that it might offer some kind of multi-polarity against the US, and then Yugoslavia happened where the EU marched in tune with the US. (Then the regular ignoring and repeat-until-conform of referenda in numerous countries happened and I lost confidence in the future of democracy and sovereignty in the EU.)
I had, however, hoped that the prospect of the UK leaving the EU might reduce the toxic influence of Washington in Europe via its Westminster poodle, given that the CIA and MI6 seem to be the same thing (see also CFR / Chatham House etc). I expect it is wishful thinking, but it was a factor in me voting Leave anyway. In reality I suppose the US has sufficient power over most European countries but Macron’s recent comments about NATO, and Germany’s Nord Stream 2 agreement does give me some hope.

Posted by: Ash Naz | Dec 9 2019 0:46 utc | 55

john brewster @ 18
Speaking of Shane Gustafson: this is an excellent book:
Crisis amid Plenty: The Politics of Soviet Energy under Brezhnev and Gorbachev (Princeton Legacy Library) Paperback – February 1, 1991

Although the Soviet Union has the most abundant energy reserves of any country, energy policy has been the single most disruptive factor in its industry since the mid-1970s. This major case study treats the paradox of the energy crisis as an essential part of larger economic problems of the Soviet Union and as a key issue in determining the fate of the Gorbachev reforms.

One of the theses of the book is that the Soviet industry had a “silo” structure: the various components (exploration, drilling, production, transport, export) didn’t coordinate with one another and depended on the glue of communist party apparatchiks to keep the system functioning. Gorbachev is said to have eliminated that glue and chaos ensued.
Schmoe@ 36
Re: “Due to an EU ruling related to foreign-affiliated pipelines (or some variation of that), it will likely be forced to operate at 50% of capacity.”
See my MOA @ 125
And MOA @ 136

Posted by: pogohere | Dec 9 2019 1:25 utc | 57

I just wanted to say thank you to “b” for continually posting these salient articles…although I rarely comment its greatly appreciated by me!!

Posted by: Gregory | Dec 9 2019 1:55 utc | 59

My third and last comment on this open thread. Three comments is more than the total comments I’ve left on all blogs combined in any year since commenting began so it’s back to lurking.

It’s a link a post by Rob Slane of TheBlogMire, the local man who covered that Cock and Bull Story in Salisbury so well.

This post, however, has nothing to do with the Scripal affair. What it is is the best description of the downward trajectory not just of Britain but of “Western Civilisation” that I’ve come across in a long time. It’s utterly damning and will doubtless not be to the taste many here, but some may appreciate it.

Here’s the link and goodnight:

The 2019 General Election: Tough on Hobgoblins; Tough on the Causes of Hobgoblins.

Posted by: Former IT reader | Dec 9 2019 2:13 utc | 61

@pogohere
I’m not sure how I missed those Nov 16 posts so thanks for forwarding. This quote will be interesting:
“With some 85% of the pipeline already laid, new congressional sanctions aimed at companies participating in the pipeline’s construction will not stop it.
Instead, they will become a new bone of contention between the United States and Europe.
That is just common sense…large Euro energy companies are partners in Nordstream and have invested billions…do you think they are just going to throw up their hands and say ‘Ok we give up’…?
Even a child can see this Spiegel diarrhea for what it is…
And supposedly the owners of those ships [there is actually only one company in the world, Swiss-based Allseas, that operates these deep sea pipe-laying ships] are going to drop Nordstream because they don’t want to lose potential US business in the Gulf of Mexico…
That is bullshit…what pipelines are being planned for the Gulf…?…Zero…
Yet the Russians are the world’s gas and pipeline superpower and have more pipeline projects in the works…
As if Allseas is going to risk their biggest customer for some bullshit US sanctions…[they are also laying the Turkstream pipeline…”
Any company whose operations are all international will unfortunately have to think long and hard about losing accessing to dollars. Open violations of US Sanctions are still almost unheard of – Rosneft in Venezuala, Reliance Industries might now be buying Venezuelan oil – so I would not be pollyanish about their power. Note that European companies will not use Instinex out of fear of losing access to dollars.

Posted by: Schmoe | Dec 9 2019 3:42 utc | 63

pogohere @ 57
Thanks for the Gustafson reference from the Cold War era. The guy has been around awhile, and seems to eschew blatant insults in favor of clearly constructed arguments.
I would be the first to agree that the last two decades of the USSR were a sclerotic, declining mess. The Communist ideologues walked the system into a corrupt and ineffective bureaucracy, with results across the board being much as Gustafson describes in your reference.
It remains to be seen if Russia can maintain the advances that Putin’s one-man show has given them. The whole thing could collapse after he leaves the scene; although he has saved their asses over the last two decades. Then again, it remains to be seen if the US can survive Trump, the Deep State, the Wall St. looting, the Israeli neocons, etc.

Posted by: john brewster | Dec 9 2019 4:35 utc | 65

@ 48 john brewster.. thanks for your ongoing comments john, in spite of how scary they sound in your last paragraph especially..
@51 jayc… yes, you remember correctly on all accounts.. now you can see how bad things have gotten at the canadian broadcasting corp – a public utility of sorts that has been completely propagandized as john brewster notes in an earlier post… generally chris browns articles are all on russia and they are all of the same terrible and useful value, except for brainwashing anyone who hasn’t been yet… ironically when they open up comments to his articles, he gets lambasted with many of the comments challenging him on how out of touch he is.. yes – chatham house.. there is only one reason for a reporter to quote chatham house and it isn’t about giving greater objectivity! thanks for your comments..

Posted by: james | Dec 9 2019 4:55 utc | 67

john brewster @ 65
Have you read Gustafson’s Crisis amid Plenty: The Politics of Soviet Energy under Brezhnev and Gorbachev ?
I did. It was very informative, seemed well researched and laid out the structure of the Soviet energy complex and the politics of the private consolidation of ownership of some of it as well as the circumstances that enabled the Russian government to maintain control of most of the assets for the benefit of the Russian people. A number of Gustafson’s predictions proved to be wrong, especially regarding the Soviet/Russian ability to maintain energy production.
I am not aware of whether or not he otherwise issues “blatant insults in favor of clearly constructed arguments.”

Posted by: pogohere | Dec 9 2019 5:58 utc | 69

john brewster @48:

They are busy setting things up so that when the critical point is reached, the protest will be aimed at the left.

My opinion also.
I wish more saw the direction that we are headed in and the manipulations that are taking us there. IMO what most people lack is a clue as to WTF the Deep State is up to. IMO they aim to destroy the upstarts – Russia and China – so that their plans for NWO/global hegemony are realized.
USA is EMPIRE FIRST, and has been for a long time (many would say since the end of WWII).
Media hype extremist views – like open borders and trans – so that they can be used as strawmen to knock the left while neo-McCarthyist smears are used to squash dissent.
IMO the Democratic Party has co-opted the progressive left. We saw Obama make a concerted effor to co-opt the civil rights Movement. He positioned himself as the culmination and terminus of their hope for equality.
There’s a saying that’s appropriate: No one cares until EVERYBODY cares.
Which is to say: no one cares to see the possibility of disaster. “Worry wort” skeptics and “debby downer” critics are marginalized while elite corruption of institutions/policies/etc. is rampant. In 2008 this led to the Global Financial Crisis. In 2020-2021, it could lead to another financial crisis or war.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 9 2019 6:22 utc | 71

jayc | Dec 8 2019 23:27 utc | 51 says:
‘Is it my fading memory, or was the CBC once a relatively professional source of international reporting?’
The CBC may have been, but that was a long time ago. Today, it is ‘Globalist’ propaganda outlet, not much better than CNN. What I find particularly revolting is how they use ’emotion’ to sell their propaganda, and how they work ‘Climate Change’ into every other story that they present.

Posted by: dh-mtl | Dec 9 2019 8:09 utc | 73

psychohistorian #68
Thank you for that insight. I cannot see how Zelensky will manage the Nazi Ukrainians short of a virtual civil war against one western district. The USA will foment a major insurrection to destroy him if he does a deal with Gazprom. Your suggestion as to where those issues are discussed would be welcome.
A User #72
Thank you and well said. The eurocentric kabuki does mesmerise the information providers. I too seek escape from that dominance and spent a good time today researching the Power of Siberia implications and issues of South America. The global assault on all things African is a matter of deep despair for me and I feel totally powerless to reverse the relentless assault on their world.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 9 2019 8:19 utc | 75

@ A User 72
All very true. I would place the de jure war onslaughts within the overall context of globalization and in particular the imperialistic assault of corporate industrial agriculture upon Africa, the last great semi-frontier which wasn’t fully assimilated by the first “Green Revolution” onslaught. A main goal as the global empire faces decline or collapse is to seize control of all land and drive the people OUT.
Globalization acts to destroy all local production and distribution. It destroys this outright or seizes control of it in order to force it into the global commodity framework. It seizes control of indigenous land and resources. It dumps subsidized Western goods. It destroys any functional politics and democracy. It imposes the control of multinational corporations over every part of life it can. It does this purely in the power interests of Western elites. Any benefits it lets trickle down to locals are purely calculated payouts to accomplices. Much of the global South has been crushed under the corporate boot this way, and Africa has already been subject to the IMF and World Bank’s debt indenture shock treatment (“structural adjustment”).
All this has been accompanied by the systematic ravaging of African ecosystems, culminating in the rising climate chaos driven by the patterns of energy consumption, waste, and ecological destruction practiced and imposed by Western industrialized productionism and consumerism. Climate change is caused by these actions. Since corporate state elites and their supporters have long known this and in spite of lots of lip service have refused to do anything to avert the worst of it, it’s long been true that climate change is an intentional campaign of aggression against the Earth and all vulnerable peoples. Thus climate change takes its place as the most extreme and far-reaching of the corporate campaigns designed to cause disaster, destruction, and chaos. According to this pattern of disaster capitalism the corporations then proceed to use the crises they intentionally generate as further opportunities for aggression and profit. All corporate sectors practice this, and corporate agriculture is the most aggressive and destructive practitioner of all. Today Africa is its primary new target.
Corporate control of agriculture and food has always been at the core of the globalization onslaught. In accordance with its food weapon the US government systematically has waged economic, political, chemical, biological (both of the former in the form of poison-based agriculture and other pretexts for systemic and systematic environmental poisoning), and often literal shooting warfare. Throughout this history of war and sublimated war, corporate agriculture has been a constant weapon and battleground as well as its aggrandizement being a constant goal.

Posted by: Russ | Dec 9 2019 9:32 utc | 77

More on “Western imbecilization”:
A (Grudging) Defense of the $120,000 Banana
These are the successors of Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Picasso, etc. etc.
–//–
This is Brazil’s “God’s Army”:
‘Soldiers of Jesus’: Armed neo-Pentecostals torment Brazil’s religious minorities
First Worlders commenting here seem to have the illusion Christianism is the good brother of the three Abrahamic religions. Although I understand the pro-Christian bias coming from the Europeans (since Christianism is an inextricable aspect of European identity), this opinion is a myth: we have already tasted this in the Bolivian coup, but it’s also a Latin American phenomenon.
Christians are wolves under sheep skins.
–//–
@ Posted by: pogohere | Dec 9 2019 1:25 utc | 57
The USSR had a relatively backwards transportation system (specially railways), that still used disproportional quantities of petroil to function, but that wasn’t an existential threat to the nation per se, it could be modernized.
Of all the theses I’ve read about the collapse of the USSR, the one that most convinced me was Angelo Segrillo’s “Decline of the USSR” – which I think only exists in Portuguese right now. Segrillo covers all the arguments of the time used to explain the fall of the USSR and refutes them all empirically before he lays out that the main cause of the fall of the USSR was its structural inability to implement the Third Industrial Revolution (“toyotism”).
When it became clear the USSR wouldn’t be able to keep up technologically with the USA, Gorbachev then decided (without knowing it) it would be preferrable for the USSR to disappear than to continue to exist as a non-superpower.
In that sense, yes, the Soviet then relatively inneficient energy use was a symptom of the underlying cause – but it wasn’t the cause.
–//–
@ Posted by: bevin | Dec 9 2019 3:03 utc | 62
The problem with Europe is its geography: it is a tiny, depleted peninsula. In the 17th Century, it was an advantage, since the lack of natural resources impelled it to aggressively exploit other continents, giving birth to capitalism.
But capitalism is a global system, not a regional system. When it reached maturity, Europe slowly, but inexorably, begun to lose its competitive advantages over purely capitalist formations – the greatest of them all being the USA. Then what was an advantage became a disadvantage.
This gordian knot was cut with WWI and WWII (both were only one war, in two parts) – a last desperate attempt by British capitalism to preserve its imperialist status.
But History is unasailable: it is the saga of class struggle, of the contradictions between the modes of production and the relations of production. The result couldn’t be any different: Western Europe was on its knees after WWII. The British Empire had just sold all its assets to the Americans and German men were literally prostituting themselves to American soldiers for on cigarette (and German children, for one chocolate bar). The USA was the undisputed sovereign of the European Peninsula from 1945 on.
The last leverage the European Peninsula had, in that scenario, was the USSR itself: it could ask the USA for good treatment and some dignity in exchange of not doing socialist revolutions backed up by the Soviets. The result was the Marshall Plan and a permission to revive their previous industrial parks.
That situation resulted in the rise of Atlanticism, the ideology that the USA is the legitimate heir of Western Civilization. Andy Warhol was the successor to Michelangelo.
–//–
@ Posted by: john brewster | Dec 9 2019 4:35 utc | 65
The USSR stagnated during the period that spanned from the oil crisis of 1975 until its fall in 1991.
But it only had a recession in two years of its history: the year after the Perestroika and its last year of existence. Both were very mild recessions (by capitalist standards).
Even during the infamous “Brezhnev stagnation”, growth was 1-3% per year – comparable to the developed capitalist nations since the 1990s.
But the problem is that its successor states are doing objectively worse: Russia will grown a little more than 1% this year; other ex-Soviet states are more or less in the same situation (with Ukraine doing outright worse). The mircle promised to the Russians didn’t come: Putin’s boom of the early 2000s was not comparable to the Soviet boom. Russia’s status today are completely dependent on China (which, ironically, has the Soviet system of government) and the modernization from the old Soviet weapons and know-how it already had.

Posted by: vk | Dec 9 2019 12:08 utc | 79

Japanese Nobel laureate lowkey defending American coup in Bolivia:
In Nobel speech, Akira Yoshino says lithium-ion batteries will play key role in future sustainable society
By “sustainable society” he must mean “a society without Bolivians”.

Posted by: vk | Dec 9 2019 12:37 utc | 81

What the nazis promise and what they do once at power….warning for angry people thinking of voting the “right wing populists”….Recognize the patterns followed in Bolivia…

It’s time to talk about the Banality of Evil.
The Nazis didn’t start with genocide…
Heck, they didn’t even start with the Nuremberg laws..
They started with mass privatization of public services!

https://twitter.com/historic_ly/status/1203534965230751744

They took public works projects and gave it to private enterprises.

https://twitter.com/historic_ly/status/1203536570428448769

Nazis promised that they would respect workers’ unions.
Well, first they cracked down on all union leaders

https://twitter.com/historic_ly/status/1203716446334922753

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 9 2019 13:58 utc | 83

Jackrabbit @ 71

Media hype extremist views – like open borders and trans – so that they can be used as strawmen to knock the left while neo-McCarthyist smears are used to squash dissent.

I completely agree. If you are interested in the trans issue, there is a horrifying story at National Review The Tragedy of the Trans Child. Apparently, blocking puberty of young children is now a standard thing (if one believes National Review). Guaranteed to make everyone despise the IdPol/trans idiots pretending to be leftists.

IMO the Democratic Party has co-opted the progressive left. We saw Obama make a concerted effor to co-opt the civil rights Movement. He positioned himself as the culmination and terminus of their hope for equality.

I would say that the DP has ejected the progressive left and substituted a bunch of IdPol phonies and Hillary-bots who act out the worst rightwing caricatures of progressivism. Obama was even slicker, convincing lefties that he was one of them even as he pissed away Congressional majorities in the name of bipartisanship and carried Wall St/MIC water all the time.

Posted by: john brewster | Dec 9 2019 14:20 utc | 85