Don’t be long, we’ll sanction you

Posted by: albagen | Dec 21 2019 18:49 utc | 3

Merry Christmas B. Enjoy yourself, you deserve a break for all the hard work you do here every day.
What are the chances Hillary is going to get in the race? Right now the liberal establishment is not happy with the election situation seeing as that they don’t trust Warren, they think Biden will lose, they love them some greasy mayo Pete but don’t think he can win the primary, they love Klobuchar but she can’t win either, and they of course hate Bernie, Yang, and Tulsi–and will do anything to stop them. That means Hillary would solve their problems, and a recent poll confirmed that she is more popular than any of them. Check this out about why Hillary attacked Tulsi, The Ballad of Tulsi and Hillary

Posted by: Kali | Dec 21 2019 19:05 utc | 5

Merry Christmas b.

Posted by: Per/Norway | Dec 21 2019 19:13 utc | 7

UPDATE Hong Kong Riots.
Hong Kong Police Arrest 4 Alleged Financiers Of The Protest Movement
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hong-kong-police-arrest-4-alleged-financiers-protest-movement
Mysterious Bags of Cash Trigger Major Hong Kong Protest Arrests
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mysterious-bags-cash-trigger-major-032653021.html?guccounter=1

Posted by: JC | Dec 21 2019 19:22 utc | 9

Here in central Australia, I start my days with Moon of Alabama. It seldom, if ever, disappoints.
A quick thought on the Hong Kong riots: As an old adage (I am sure there is a Chinese equivalent) has it, give them enough rope and they will hang themselves.

Posted by: Hal Duell | Dec 21 2019 19:57 utc | 11

Good trip: have yourself a Merry Christmas, b.

Posted by: Copeland | Dec 21 2019 20:09 utc | 13

Merry Christmas b.
I have been reading your blog for years and years. It is an international treasure. Thanks for all you do.

Posted by: Mark Stoval | Dec 21 2019 20:15 utc | 15

Happy Holidays to bernhard, and to you all!

Posted by: David G | Dec 21 2019 21:08 utc | 17

Have a safe and fun time. We’ll be here when you return.

Posted by: jo6pac | Dec 21 2019 21:25 utc | 19

Thank you for all you do to keep us in the know. Have a wonderful holiday!

Posted by: CD Waller | Dec 21 2019 21:37 utc | 21

Happy solstice break b and I note that you no sooner zip off and Boeing blows its space launch: faulty clock they say.
Whilst NASA put it down to bad timing, I can only see it as perfect timing for a failed corporation. There goes the rescue plan B.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 21 2019 22:16 utc | 23

Wesolych Swiat Oraz Happy New Year to All. A

Posted by: ANNA . I | Dec 21 2019 22:23 utc | 25

Wonderful news, b – you deserve a holiday and the company of family. Have a blessed time!

Posted by: juliania | Dec 21 2019 23:43 utc | 27

Happy Solstice, b. Have a good break!

Posted by: Ash Naz | Dec 21 2019 23:57 utc | 29

Posted by: DontBelieveEitherPr. | Dec 21 2019 21:30 utc | 20
>>I just hope next year will finally see Idlib liberated,
Very high probability for this to happen.
>>Turks and Erdogan getting a bloody nose in his Syria and Lybia aggressions,
This will happen too.
>>more falling apart of MSM narratives like now with Douma, MH17, etc..
This will too.
>>Zelensky and Putin being able to move ahead despite ukrainian facists minority and US inteference,
Russia got a bad gas deal, will be paying 3 billion $ fine to Ukraine and giving a 25 % discount for gas for 5 more years. From what i have seen from russian people commenting on this they do not like the deal.
>>further steps to the end of the undemocratic neoliberal EU,
The EU will decline gradually but probably it won’t implode before 2025 – 2030, although this also depends on the severity of the coming recession.
>>End of Merkels reign
MiniMerkel will replace her, she is an Atlantic. You have another Merkel Atlantic in the EU comission. Personally i believe that europeans have degenerated due to their long puppetry and have Battered Wife Syndrome – learned helplessness. Do not expect anything big there.
>>Lybias Jihadis getting finally broken by Haftar,
It looks like it.
>>South Americas becoming more free from US coups..
This will not happen anytime soon. Maybe after 2030.

Posted by: Passer by | Dec 22 2019 1:36 utc | 31

Have a great holiday season and a better 2020. Thanks for your always good research.

Posted by: Merca | Dec 22 2019 2:20 utc | 33

What would have happened if Trump actually succeeded in getting Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race?
Why did the other candidates support impeaching Trump when his supposed crime was to try to get Joe Biden out of their way?
New article from Pam Ho called Impeachment For Dummies explores their idiocy.
Are they insane? Or just corrupt?

Posted by: Kali | Dec 22 2019 3:11 utc | 35

happy christmas and merry new year to b (more great work this year!) and all the fine barflies who buzz around and hang out here

Posted by: michaelj72 | Dec 22 2019 3:30 utc | 37

happy solstice b! love you ~ a

Posted by: annie | Dec 22 2019 4:12 utc | 39

Bio on Bruce Fein;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Fein

Posted by: ben | Dec 22 2019 4:44 utc | 41

No,vk @ 38, “America” didn’t all turn bone mean on that horrible day. There were plenty of people demonstrating against that illegal war; plenty writing letters, townships passing resolutions against it. There was an ongoing protest movement worldwide as well. We all, including young people, had a brief moment of sheer joy – I remember it vividly – when Obama was elected. Because he was going to be the presider over change we could believe in, as was his Democratic party – and they were elected overwhelmingly as the anti-Bush remedy.
He had the chance then and there, with the people behind him, to bring us all back to peaceful times. He chose not to. And yes, that was a choice – only look at where he is now. He chose money; he chose to be one of the rich guys. He was so shallow as to betray his own chance to be one of the greats, and all so he could have millions and live like a king.
That’s when the real rot, which had been festering under Clinton, though the Supreme Court started the ball rolling in the election of 2000 — oh yes — that’s when the real rot set in.
You are interested in history. Get that straight. Those who were first time voters in 2008 weren’t infected with any rabies. All they wanted was to stop that illegal rush to war, and they campaigned their hearts out and they voted their hearts out and they cheered their hearts out when he won.
And he turned around and shafted them.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 22 2019 5:26 utc | 43

I have expressed my doubts about surveys before but do find some showing interesting results like the one linked to below
Most Americans Lack Savings
The take away quotes to show the cognitive dissonance the US lives in
”
The economy might be strong in the U.S., but nearly 70 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 stashed away, according to GOBankingRates’ 2019 savings survey. The poll, released December 16, revealed 45 percent have nothing saved. The survey questioned 846 respondents November 25 to 26.
…………………………….
As he faces impeachment, President Donald Trump has lauded the strong U.S. economy, saying the American people care more about the economy than the impeachment inquiry.
“The Stock Market hit another Record High yesterday, number 133 in less than three years as your all time favorite President, and the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, want to impeach me. Don’t worry, I have done nothing wrong. Actually, they have!” he tweeted December 17. “The new USA Today Poll, just out, has me leading all of the Democrat contenders. That’s hard to believe since the Fake News & 3 year Scams and Witch Hunts, as phony as they are, just never seem to end. The American people are smart. They see the great economy, & everything else!”
”
I keep thinking of the phrase, “When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose”. It looks like 70% of Americans have nothing to lose when the SHTF. How much longer will that SHTF inflection point be kept at bay?
And because this 70% are kept brainwashed and ignorant of the global private finance cult that put and keeps them in this position, the response will not be directed at them but who knows where……it won’t be pretty and doesn’t make me think of happy holidays when I live in such a repressed nation that is seen by others as the cause of the world’s problems.
Ho, Ho, Ho! Bah Humbug!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 22 2019 6:03 utc | 45

Paora #44
Thanks for that reminder, humans have been doing launch technology for quite a while but it just looks dodgy. Given the failure is being attributed to a timer fail and the inability of the projectile to identify its absolute location, you have to wonder at the capacity of any contract manager to competently oversight these programs. Maybe its the lead or C8 in the municipal drinking water throughout the U$A. Not a Boeing software issue at all.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 22 2019 6:24 utc | 47

@juliana #43 about obama

He had the chance then and there, with the people behind him, to bring us all back to peaceful times. He chose not to.

There never was any chance. Obama was an evil conman from the very beginning, groomed by the trilateral commision. Nine members of his administration were trilaterals. He reminds me of Gus Fring.
I admit I was conned too at the time and so was about everyone here in the netherlands.

Posted by: Joost | Dec 22 2019 7:41 utc | 49

Merry Xmas to B and all! Seeing as it’s that time of they year, let’s get all Dickensian because in this little tale (which could also be called The Prince who was flown to an exclusive private hospital by helicopter and the Pauper Boy who was treated for pneumonia on a hospital floor)you can see that, and I’m sure it would be much to Mr. Dickens’ disappointment, that things really haven’t changed a great deal since the 19th century….
https://richardhennerley.com/2019/12/21/a-tale-of-two-cities/

Posted by: Richard | Dec 22 2019 7:56 utc | 51

Merry Christmas everyone,
I enjoy MoA everyday and I am getting a feeling pride, everytime my PayPal notifies me of my monthly payment to this blog. It is truly rare content: Independent, thoughtful and solid reporting.
If you value this as much as I do, install a monthly payment as a gift for Bernhard this Christmas.
Doesn’t have to be much. If 3k people spend one Euro a month, that would already totally suffice and it is peanuts compared to the mindless spending almost everybody has in its budget in some form.
Collectively we have to gratify, what we think is reliable journalism. Because MSM has its mechanism in place with a supportive business model even if we click with disgust on the sources like wapo, times etc. Here is, in my opinion, one of a few opportunities to crowd fund an alternative and set a positive example. Right now, everyone in the media business that still depends on his income, is hindered to perform truthful in this huge fake news machinery. We applaud Haddad, which is actually sad, considering the state of our media.
In my estimate there are at least 100k monthly visitors to this blog which could easily translate into a more than supportive regular financial base. The continuous, reliable part, is the important one. So please pledge a euro, dollar or ruble a month, or 10 per year. I know you can afford it.
Start with MoA, apply the principle to more and more projects you see a role model for the future in.
Frohe Weihnachten Bernhard
Keep up the good work

Posted by: Supporter | Dec 22 2019 8:53 utc | 53

Happy solstice (winter) when the sun is directly over 23.5° south latitude (the Tropic of Capricorn), to everybody.

Posted by: V | Dec 22 2019 9:49 utc | 55

Re: Wesołych Świąt i szczęśliwego Nowego Roku! Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 21 2019 19:12 utc | 6
Where is the Christmas in that? An earlier expression of “Happy Holidays”?
szczęśliwego – now that’s the kind of Polish word us monoglot English speakers “love” to attempt to pronounce.
In the 19th century, in my country, tangata whenua likened the sound of Polish arrivals speaking to that of buzzing bees – no c,s,z sounds in standard Maori.
Meri Kirihimete!

Posted by: tucenz | Dec 22 2019 11:35 utc | 57

Re: Richard | Dec 22 2019 7:56 utc | 51
I appreciate the general sentiment of your website posting, however it contains some errors
“The second is the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip; an unpleasant, misogynistic, racist 98 year old man who has led a life of privilege and leisure by poncing off British tax payers and who has given the world nothing (except fathering yet another generation of inbred, royal parasites) and achieved absolutely nothing of any import whatsoever despite being given every advantage life can offer. Now, Prince Philip fell sick yesterday and was rushed from the royal estate of Sandringham (in Scotland) by helicopter”
Sandringham isn’t in Scotland. Phil allegedly didn’t father Andrew and Edward. And he has given the world some outrageously offensive comments over his many years. A small example – about 6 years ago a relation of mine witnessed him ask a Polish scientist at a research laboratory he was opening – “Did you originally come over to pick strawberries?” hehhehheh..
I must say it was jolly decent of HRH Camilla’s Tampon to stand in for both fathers at the Harry/Megan wedding. Did any prestigious British biscuit company issue by Royal Appointment chocolate covered gingernuts after the birth of the taxpayer parasite?

Posted by: tucenz | Dec 22 2019 12:28 utc | 59

I would like to spend my Christams holidays in Syria….guess in what part…

On the left the Syria of Assad and the Baath Party, on the right the Syria of the opposition.
Western governments, why do you support barbarism? #Syria #Idlib #Assad #socialism

https://twitter.com/PartidoBaaz/status/1038111745963945985

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 22 2019 12:37 utc | 61

Merry Christmas…the US way….
Yesterday it was 30 years of the assasination by a US marine of Juantxu Rodriguez, Spanish journalist covering US invasion of Panama. He died camera in hand. He was 32 years old.
Juantxu Rodriguez once fallen dressed with characteristic press identifying stuff
Juantxu Rodriguez
Juantxu Rodríguez, the Spanish witness who denounced the US outrages in Panama

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 22 2019 12:50 utc | 63

Although made by CIDOB ( Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, kinda Soros funded officialist Catalan think tank..), in partnership with EsadeGEO ( Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics ), not for that less accurate and out of focus in this information related to 2020 and next decade´s prospects, and not so useless for analysis by the resistance…
Thread an link to document: The 10 themes that will mark the global agenda next year (and the decade), with a Bonus Track at the end: mark these 60 dates in your calendars…. Elections, summits, anniversaries and major global events.
https://twitter.com/solerlecha/status/1207015035098275841

1. If 2019 has been the year of the protests, 2020 is the year of the responses. Accommodation or repression? It depends on the degree of violence and the solidity of the states. We will see learning processes between protesters, but also among security forces.
2. The politicization of the climate. The Paris agreement underway. Pressure on the defaulters? The force of the climatic movement faces in 2020 an increasingly uncompleted denialism. The urgency of change VS the politics of fear.
3. The UN will commemorate its 75 years between unfulfilled promises of reform and having faced major humanitarian crises with fewer resources. On the other side of the scale, agendas such as #SDO ( Sustainable Development Objectives ) as a mobilizing factor.
4. Economy: uncertainty and questioning of orthodox approaches. At the intersection between inequality, technological disruption and growth model, digital taxation will be one of the main themes of the year and the decadevvv.
5. Technology as a new frontier of power. The year of 5G and the decade of Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing technological bipolarity, competition for the control and use of data, cyber-vulnerabilities and tension between activism and technorepression.
6. China divides between those who fear it as a rival and those who see it as the alternative or as the indispensable partner. Africa is already in focus, but we will talk more and more about the divisions in Latin America and the European Union.
7. On November 3, the United States votes and the world watches expectantly. The electoral calendar will condition foreign policy, we will wonder what a second Trump term would be like and how it could change if a Democratic candidate wins.
8. The post-Brexit EU. Macron unleashed. Merkel leaving. Russia and Turkey challenging. And the transatlantic alliance in low hours. This is the area where the new Commission will try to realize the promise of a more geopolitical Europe. It will need allies and resources.
9. Afro-optimism and Afro-realism. Continent of opportunities, lung of vitality and with new hopes. But the bases are fragile and its appeal will increase competition between global and regional powers.
10. Many of these issues converge or affect the Mediterranean. In 2020 25 years ago of the launch of the Barcelona process, with the need to manage crises, adapt to a different context and the challenge of generating a positive agenda.
Bonus track: you can mark these 60 dates in your calendars…. Elections, summits, anniversaries and major global events. Via @maydeuO
[END] So far the 10 topics that we have thought the teams of @CidobBarcelona and @EsadeGeo. Which of the ten do you think is most important? Or which one would you add?

Link to the whole document with CIDOB 2020 Calendar of relevant events included at the end: The world in 2020: ten themes that will mark the global agenda

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 22 2019 13:56 utc | 65

Japanese scholar criticizes Abe over historical revisionism
Contrary to Germany, Japan was able to negotiate its surrender with the USA using the USSR as a leverage in 1945.
As a result, Japan never had to reform itself. It was allowed to keep its own narrative.
That’s why I’m not invoking Goodwin’s Law when I state Japan is a fascist nation. It literally is. The only difference is that the Japanese know they are a vassal of the USA, so they keep their fascist creed hidden from the rest of the world.
But make no mistake: the Japanese would be invading East Asia again if they could. They would genocide the Chinese again if they could. All the atrocities they did from the end of the 19th Century to 1945, they would do that all over again and be very happy to do so.

Posted by: vk | Dec 22 2019 14:32 utc | 67

@Posted by: Sasha | Dec 22 2019 13:56 utc | 65
Discovered that the Twitter link I provided leads to the final Twitt of the Thread with the 60 items agenda ( compossed by a summary in three images you can keep in your mobile phone ).
To get to the first Twitt of the Thread, just role up…

Posted by: Sasha | Dec 22 2019 15:29 utc | 69

psychohistorian 70
I just tried my usual link
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/
and it worked ok.

Posted by: Russ | Dec 22 2019 16:51 utc | 71

psychohistorian “I am unable to get to the Catlin Johnstone web site as my browser says it has moved to a new server.”
Same problem here, but this link works:
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone

Posted by: Trond | Dec 22 2019 17:13 utc | 73

Short-Term Thinking Is Poisoning American Business: Free-market capitalism won’t survive unless it makes structural changes toward long-term investing.
This is utopian, because capitalism is a system projected to be short-term thinking oriented.
The lesser the time of rotation of capital, the more it rotates in a given time frame, the higher the profit rate after said time frame. Many times, a smaller capital with, say, half the profit rate of a bigger capital with double the rotation period will accrue the same profit rate. That’s why Walmart is as viable as Boeing as a capitalist enterprise: the first deals with much less advanced products in technological terms, but it rotates in one week what the second would take one decade to do.
Besides, short-term thinking is essential for the political organization of capitalism, which is the basis of the concept of “freedom”. The beauty of the capitalist system is that the part is equal to the whole, which is greater than the union of the parts. To put it another way, the whole is structurally equal to the parts, but it reinforces the survival of the parts, which expand the whole. This is what Kant once called “commercial spirit” and, later, Adam Smith called “the invisible hand”, that is, that the pursuit of the capitalist of his own wealth automatically generates the wealth (and thus prosperity) of the rest of society. The capitalist must think short-term if he is to exist as such.
The real problem with 21st Century capitalism is that it is old, its profit rates are secularly depressed, as per Marx’s theory.

Posted by: vk | Dec 22 2019 17:23 utc | 75

Happy Winter Solstice (slightly belated), Merry Christmas, and Happy Other Than Christmas Holidays to B. and the barflies!
I trust that B.’s meatspace family also reveres him as a gift that never stops giving. 😉
PS: I hope Santa grants my wish and enables the non-functional underline tag on this forum; to date, if used the “U” tags just disappear and the text doesn’t get underlined, to wit (pasted directly from “Allowed HTML TAGS:“): Text → Text

Posted by: Ort | Dec 22 2019 19:12 utc | 77

@ Sasha | Dec 22 2019 13:56 utc | 65
Sasha, CIDOB is not simply a “kinda Soros funded officialist Catalan think tank”, but in fact was listed on the Integrity Initiative website as a partner organization. Caveat emptor.

Posted by: Lurk | Dec 23 2019 18:33 utc | 79

Russ @72: That dustup in Bolivar state seems to have been the interim President Guano trying to re-assert his relevance. Aparently his secuity has not improved and it didn’t get far, but I haven’t checked today. Notable that the English media has little to say about it yet.
So my third offspring (son) with his girlfriend showed up to spend Christmas with us. I seem to be old enough that people want to take care of me now …
Best wishes for the holidays and the new year. Let’s hope things look up for all of us for a change. Let’s hope for functional benign government and fewer selfish jerks in the mix.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 25 2019 14:00 utc | 81

Bemildred 81
Thanks. Since I couldn’t find anything about it anywhere else I figured it must be another nothingburger.
Best holiday wishes to you too.

Posted by: Russ | Dec 27 2019 1:02 utc | 83