Open Thread 2020-52
News & views ...
Posted by b on July 2, 2020 at 14:36 UTC | Permalink
next page »My father married a Russian! Yay! She's views the Russian government as corrupt and is no real fan of Putin. She seems to believe alot of western media about Russia actually. She offered this quote though: "Russia needs Putin. Russia needs a strong leader or we would fall apart".
To those of opinion (hopefully Russians) would u agree and is Putin really so seemingly essential to Russian identity that they may need to transfer his consciousness to a super computer to run the country in the afterlife? Who would likely take over if Putin choked on a chicken bone?
Posted by: PleaseBeleafMe | Jul 2 2020 15:06 utc | 2
More evidence for the "byzantinization" of the US Armed Forces (police):
The Growing Police Union-White Supremacist Alliance
The logic is pretty much straightforward: revolt is irrupting within the USA through the Leftists ("Wokeist") flank. To contain it, the police power in the USA (Armed Forces + police forces) will, by necessity, have to resort to recruiting soldiers/policemen from the far-right ("alt-right") in order to put down the revolts without risking loss of morale. This will lead, in the medium to long term, to the Christianization of the USA, as the monopoly of violence is the source of all legitimization in societal formations.
As shown in this article, recent research shows that the SARS-CoV-2 virus existed long before governments would have us believe:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-origins-of-sars-cov-2-virus.html
It certainly appears that the blame for the COVID-19 pandemic should not be laid at the feet of China and that the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus could well be far, far wider than we are being led to believe by "the experts" and government officials.
Posted by: Sally Snyder | Jul 2 2020 16:03 utc | 4
@ 2 pleaseb.... russia is lucky to have putin... when i see what other countries have for leadership, i can see why russia is so lucky... we are given peanuts for leaders..
Posted by: james | Jul 2 2020 16:06 utc | 5
Lt. Clint Lorance pardoned by Trump please read the entire story https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/For-the-forgotten-men-of-1st-Platoon-Trump-s-15381879.php . We all have our preferred narratives, 'split second decision' vs. 'yet another war criminal' but these cases must always be judged individually on the specific facts.
My take:
1. Lt. Lorance was newly transferred from a permanent base to a remote post and was both inexperienced and temperamentally unfit this command.
2. I see why so many veterans blow their brains out when they get home (the sensitive ones).
3. This was not the 'split second decision' case. The favorite meme used by the tools Sean Hannity/Pete Hegseth to excuse war crimes.
4. There is something off about Pete Hegseth. His service record is too Forrest Gumpy. His demeanor does not match the seriousness things he has allegedly seen or he is a full bore sociopath (possibly both).
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[Excerpts from the long article, I consider it immoral to post a link w/o giving a synopsis]For the forgotten men of 1st Platoon, Trump's pardon of an officer they helped convict of murder is a crushing betrayal
"three men on a motorcycle approached a cluster of Afghan National Army troops at the front of their formation. Lorance and his troops were standing about 150 to 200 yards away in an orchard, tucked behind a series of five-foot-high mud walls ...At the trial, Lorance's soldiers recalled how he had ordered them to fire.
"Why aren't you shooting?" he demanded.
A U.S. soldier fired and missed. The motorcycle carrying the three men, none of whom appeared to be armed, came to a stop. Upon hearing the shots, McGuinness began running toward Lorance, who was closer to the front of the U.S. patrol, to see out why they were shooting.
The puzzled Afghans were now standing next to the stopped motorcycle, "trying to figure out what had happened," according to one soldier's testimony. Gray, who was watching from a nearby armored vehicle, recognized the eldest of the three men as someone the Americans regularly met with in the village. He recalled the Afghans waving at them.
"Smoke 'em," Lorance ordered over the radio.,,,
... [two men were shot and killed by U.S. troops]
It took the jury of Army officers three hours to find him guilty of second-degree murder, making false
statements and ordering his men to fire at Afghan civilians. The jury handed down a 20-year sentence."
Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Jul 2 2020 16:10 utc | 6
vk@3
" the monopoly of violence is the source of all legitimization in societal formations."
what a foul sentence.
why must it be "Christianized"? why does violence need ideology (Christian, whatever, no matter) to legitimate itself?
where's the monopoly of violence in this gun-crazed society?
i'd like to think my mom's authority came from her care for me, not because she could go all Lady Macbeth on my toothless gums any time she felt like it. as pay scales show, the sentimentality of parents to children is worth zero in capitalist society. such labor, esp female, is just raped by the monopoly.
not for long. capitalism's monopoly of violence in its disdain for the mother is about to end. the River never stops being a brown god, however much violence the machine worshippers inflict on the planet.
monopoly of violence is sheerest delusion. Hubris.
Posted by: jason | Jul 2 2020 16:10 utc | 7
@ the pair | Jul 2 2020 15:01 utc | 1
As an anarchist, I wish we were funded by billionaires like our opposition thinks we are (and the conservative fraction of which does actually receive ample funding from billionaires and multimillionaires - look at Charlie Kirk, whose existence is subsidized by conservative business owners who pay him to parrot their disinformation and ideology).
Posted by: fnord | Jul 2 2020 16:22 utc | 8
USA, doing its stuff as it's always been doing: mafia-style:
Ghislaine Maxwell has been arrested by the FBI
--//--
@ Posted by: jason | Jul 2 2020 16:10 utc | 7
Because, by chance of destiny, the American far-right is Christian. If it was Islamic, it would be Islamicized; if it was Buddhist, it would be Buddhicized.
That the USA is becoming more Christian since the Cold War is not a figment of my imagination: we know that the CIA initiated operations relative to the de-secularization (in favor of the fundamentalist variations of Christianism) of the American working classes after the mid-1970s in order to keep fighting against communism; we also know that, since Reagan, the GOP also initiated an operation for the consolidation of a strong electoral base structured around the Southern Baptist Church and others. George W. Bush culminated this process with never seen before billionaire subsidies from the USG to the evangelical churches during his two mandates.
Just a note about Russia's vote. This falls under the heading of "Pragmatic": Russia's Constitution now provides a guarantee that the minimum wage will not be lower than the basic cost of living. I know millions within the Outlaw US Empire would greatly desire such an Act to "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity;" but such an Act would be 100% against the ethos of Neoliberalism and thus unthinkable. Now we know why Moose and Squirrel are constantly barraged with "Bad Russia" bologna. So yes, today's Barbarians are most certainly Neculturny and speak English.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 2 2020 16:33 utc | 10
About the seizure of the 'ISIS-captagon' in Italy: Does anyone have better info than the mainstream one? We hear that it presumably was produced in Syrian chemical workshops in territory under ISIS 'control' and then came to Italy by ship from Syria.
How does this add up? Where are those workshops situated? How where the drugs transferred to the port where they were picked up by the ship?
Posted by: signorRossi | Jul 2 2020 16:34 utc | 11
"greater love hath no man than this..." (why can't the KJV be more inclusive????)
like all national leaders and many others, mr monopoly of violence in the white house surrounds himself with people who have pledged to die on his behalf, make the ultimate sacrifice and all that. not from love, from duty, but no matter. (for the record, anyone taking a bullet for any POTUS is a goddam fool.) and every person in this world pays lip service to the ideal of noble self-sacrifice, at some time or other. everyone.
"Caesar and Antony ever do more in their officer than in their person". All "success" is theft. all "successful" people do is lie about their interdependence on others, whose labor, honesty, and good intentions (and naivete) they steal. (indeed, can't even get a job in the US w/o signing over intellectual property rights.) as they lie and dissemble w/o ceasing about "free markets" and "competition", committing every crime imaginable along the way. they are "unmarked graves" who defile and corrupt people merely by being near them, as violence and deceit are the only things ever coming out of their orifices.
like the trees, air, water, etc., the goodness of people must also be raped and exploited. how else can a nation be built and made great by putting casinos on tribal lands and flipping houses in the real estate market? what could being a "great nation" possibly mean beyond having the biggest aircraft carrier groups and privatizing the school system?
Posted by: jason | Jul 2 2020 16:36 utc | 12
@ Posted by: signorRossi | Jul 2 2020 16:34 utc | 11
Provided the story is legit (I didn't even research it), then it is probably American drugs given to ISIS through the US Army, so they could sell it and get clean cash.
I say it is probably American produce because no American MSM has reported it so far, so they're probably burying it.
signorRossi
Most likely US off loading surplus stock. SDF could be cooking it up in Syria under the protection of US or perhaps its coming from eastern Europe where US sourced much of the weapons it fed into Syria.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 16:49 utc | 14
@ Posted by: vk | Jul 2 2020 16:46 utc | 13
Nah, it's reported, even by CNN. How couldn't they, when the street value of the seized drugs is of one billion €. The 'from Syria' angle is just too vague...
Posted by: signorRossi | Jul 2 2020 16:52 utc | 15
America is not becoming more Christian, Christianity has transformed into a business, an industry even. Since the Cold War, everything has become an opportunity to exploit for maximum gain and religion is not an exception.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 16:59 utc | 16
1.5 billion people transformed into ravenous consumers in the span of two decades as though they are a superorganism devouring the planet is a form of violence in and of itself. Egregious, rapacious violence. Anyone supporting that and defending it is complicit in the murder of this barely living planet.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 17:03 utc | 17
There is no true, organic revolt in America and there never will be. The recent "protests" and CHOP and #BlackLivesMatter are a sick joke designed to fracture and fragment America even more than it is already. All of it will accomplish nothing more than that.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 17:06 utc | 18
@6
Don't think Putin and Xi aren't smiling at Trump's pardon. They're laughing, actually. If Trump didn't exist, they'd have to invent him he's been so good for and to them. Same goes for Israel. Trump has been great for everyone and everything BUT AMERICA. His mission is the exact opposite of his 2016 campaign slogan. His mission was and is not to make America great again, but instead to destroy America entirely. The mission is almost accomplished. A second term will do the trick.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 17:10 utc | 19
Now US is 'files suit' in a district court to give their military authorization for piracy.
"U.S. prosecutors late on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to seize the gasoline aboard four tankers that Iran is shipping to Venezuela, the latest attempt by the Trump administration to increase economic pressure on the two U.S. foes."
"In the civil-forfeiture complaint, the federal prosecutors aim to stop delivery of Iranian gasoline aboard the Liberia-flagged Bella and the Bering, and the Pandi and the Luna, according to the lawsuit, first reported in the Wall Street Journal. It also seeks to deter future deliveries.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also aims to stop the flow of revenues from petroleum sales to Iran"
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 17:26 utc | 20
Posted by: Down South | Jul 2 2020 17:26 utc | 21
@ 450.org | Jul 2 2020 17:06 utc | 18
The recent "protests" and CHOP and #BlackLivesMatter are a sick joke designed to fracture and fragment America even more than it is already
Exhortations for "unity" paint over really existing contradictions between the material interests of the working class and the ruling class. Ultimately they tend to buckle down into Italian fascist style corporatism (corporatism as in "corpus" or "body" with the ruling class and working class "cooperating" as if a single organism - think also of the post-WW2 situation between unions and corporations in America that was tore asunder with the advent of neoliberal policy, which itself was a response to a prevailing institutional rot that was dragging down corporate profits).
These contradictions are only going to deepen and with that deepening we will see a more militant working class and a more unhinged ruling class. Already we're seeing that with figures like Tucker, a ruling elite if there ever was one, and certainly a beneficiary of the status quo. Tucker's job is to recuperate working class resentment against the ruling class, or in Tucker's terms, "the elites" (which Tucker evidently thinks is a category he's outside of despite being a multimillionaire media mogul and professional propagandist). Don't fall for it. There's no such thing as "unity" in a class society. There are classes with diametrically opposed interests and incessant, never-ending, conflict between the two. Attempts to wed the classes inevitably decay as the contradictions reassert themselves.
Posted by: fnord | Jul 2 2020 17:29 utc | 22
Russia faced unprecedented opposition [cyber attacks] to constitutional amendment vote, says speaker
Fbi just arrested gislane maxwell! I hope she doaent get suicided
Posted by: Bob | Jul 2 2020 17:42 utc | 24
@24, word is she will be getting Epstein's old cell and the same guards have been rehired to give close watch until she hangs herself. Bill Barr has a plan, you can be sure of it. He's meeting with Mossad as we type, I'm sure.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 17:45 utc | 25
@19 450.org
this is exactly what Trump proposed - MAGA. Not the opposite.
Once upon a time the former colony became a great power. Later, even a super power. No it is going back to became a great power again. MAGA!
Posted by: BG13 | Jul 2 2020 18:34 utc | 26
I rather liked this, as likely to be the case (no doubt there are other sources)
Trump has 'gone awol' as president amid coronavirus pandemic, says ex-CIA director
Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 2 2020 18:49 utc | 27
@22 fnord
Wrong. Tucker has admitted that he is not in favor of populist government. He does not advocate any kind of socialism or class unity. He wants a tentative balance between the classes which can only be brought back via curbing neoliberalism and governmemt regulation. He has admitted that the problem then is both in the private and public spheres of life.
Tucker is merely pointing this out and I say kudos to him.
There is a recent push in the internet sphere being leveled against Tucker. It is the same kind of preemptive strike that was leveled at the "alt-right" back when terms like neoliberalism and globalism and duopoly were reemerging in the public lexicon. In short, amy type of nationalist sentiment being floated anywhere is to be crushed and obfuscated on sight.
Similarily, the poster vk seems to pipe in every time I mention America must bring back its manufacturing sector. This line is always greeted by vk as, "it will never happen."
Market and economic fundamentals says that it MUST happen and it will as neoliberalism's reign is curbed in the coming decades.
The push against Tucker is because of two reasons: 1) his growing popularity and his 2) speaking truth to power.
...
I remember back in the day during the height of John Stewart's tenure as maestro of liberal info-tainment, he went on Tucker's show saying he was "hurting America."
Since then, Tucker has come a long way and I would say has come further in spirit towards truth. Stewart has sunken into making appearances on The View. Kudos to Tucker. The globalists in our country should be worried about him.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 2 2020 18:53 utc | 28
Maybe it’s time to form a new third major political party, directly opposing both Republican and Democratic party’s.
Standing for true law and order, defunding the defence industry, and encouraging a peaceful multicultural society with peacefull cooperation between other countrys.
OK call me a dreamer.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 2 2020 18:58 utc | 29
@28 addendum
I meant more regualtion is of course necessary to thwart neoliberalism.
...
Which makes me think about the theory of neoliberalism.
Some experts seem to think or want you to think that neoliberalism is, in a way, decentralizing of planned economies. I guess we get into semantics because, the way I see it, neoliberalism is hyper-centralization of economies via supranational authority of economies and governments supranational like the EU, NAFTA, TPP, etc.
So when you here people say things relating neoliberlaism and decentralized economies, you should question this thesis.
National governments, by regulating neoliberal monolopies, allow decentralized economies, which sounds like a contradiction. (government making way for decentralization) But it is like this: governments shoild not grease the skids for monopolies and this is what is meant by decentralizing economies. It is not to allow these monopolies via government and international neoliberalism to hold sway.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 2 2020 19:03 utc | 30
Harman Cain has been hospitalized with Covid-19. "Sure, Mike, I'll do anything for my Godfather. You know that." Anything. Die even. Trump's martyrs. Marching over the cliff into the abyss. He's worth it, you must admit. Nothing beats having your pussy grabbed. It's awesome. It hurts so good.
Trump Surrogate Herman Cain Hospitalized With Coronavirus Weeks After Attending Tulsa Rally
Cain has frequently downplayed the risk of Covid-19 on social media.Former presidential candidate Herman Cain announced on Thursday that he has been hospitalized with Covid-19, almost two weeks after attending President Donald Trump’s Tulsa, Okla., rally.
Cain was diagnosed with coronavirus on June 29, nine days after the president's Tulsa rally, and his symptoms worsened and required hospitalization on July 1, according to a statement from his Twitter account.
“He spent the past night in a hospital and as of today, Thursday July 2, he is resting comfortably in an Atlanta-area hospital,” the statement read, adding that Cain did not need a respirator. “There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus.”
Sure, yeah, right, whatever, there is no way to know how, why or where he contracted the virus. As if. Even to the bitter end, on his death bed, he still can't see the error of his ways and continues to be a poster child for Trump's version of Jonestown. Jonestown 2.0 on the Potomac.
I have one niggle (sorry #BlackLivesMatter) with the tile. It should read "sycophant" versus "surrogate."
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 19:18 utc | 31
Covid19 U.S.A. WINNING! https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-deaths-per-million-7-day-average?country=~USA
I'm sick of the Republican / Neo-neocon warriors alternating between, 'it's no big deal, deaths over counted and only only Centenarians in nursing homes dying' vs 'China attacked us, time to attack them!'
This chart measures the U.S. death rate, it peaked at 8 deaths per 1M, got to a low of 1.8 June 24 and has recently climbed back to 2.7. Nothing to see here. The combined population of countries around China (minus India, N.Korea) is 500M and the total number of deaths are less than 10k vs 130k for the U.S. with a population of 330M.
BTW I find Laura Ingraham's shilling for Trump on this issue especially annoying, it's that know-it-all tone in her voice. Wow, liberals are always wrong and Trump/Hannity/Laura are always right.
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Politically based travel bans ... the FOX news crowd is going ape because the EU is going to ban U.S. travel but open it up to China if they reciprocate. And this shows why the next pandemic will crush the U.S. again. Like everything else, we treat our travel bans as a punishment for our enemies and reward for our allies. Base it on actual science of which countries have infections? Unheard of, no, China is evil ban them but let us in. This is why we banned China after a mere two weeks but not the EU for another 6wks and did nothing about Brazil until a couple of weeks ago.
Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Jul 2 2020 19:24 utc | 32
"the USA (Armed Forces + police forces) will, by necessity, have to resort to recruiting soldiers/policemen from the far-right. This will lead, in the medium to long term, to the Christianization of the USA, as the monopoly of violence is the source of all legitimization in societal formations.
That the USA is becoming more Christian since the Cold War is not a figment of my imagination"
Posted by: vk | Jul 2 2020 15:37 utc | 3
...
Politely said- I'm not following you. Or what the hell are you talking about?
I certainly do not get the impression you even live in the U.S.?
Examined separately-
Christianity's origins and history are steeped in violence.
U.S. history is stepped in violence and crime.
The U.S. is mainly viewed as a Christian Nation- "In God We Trust" printed on every Dollar Bill. "God Bless Amurika" from every politician. Yet Amurikan policies suck Zionist Dick.
America no longer tries to "legitimize" its violence- Violence is the American Flag and always has been. There is neither a Domestic shift towards Christianity or any spiritual growth happening in this Country. Narcissism and ignorance are the dominant "religions" here.
Posted by: CitizenX | Jul 2 2020 19:48 utc | 33
@ Posted by: CitizenX | Jul 2 2020 19:48 utc | 33
Christianism can surive in a political form. Indeed, that was when it was at its best: using the Roman State machinery to force conversion from paganism and exterminating pagans. That's its greatest strength in comparison to, e.g. its Jewish fathers: the Jews were (still are) outright imperialists - the Chosen People - who wanted to destroy the Roman Empire from the outside; the Christians were Jews who wanted to take control of Rome from within.
For Christianism to survive, you don't need every of its followers to be an expert of Christian faith: it only needs a strong Church with direct access and control of the State.
The rehabilitation of Christianity from the High Cold War in the USA as a weapon against communism is a known fact. What I hypothesize here is that this process didn't stop: either it continues today with full-fledged support from the USG (as seen in George W. Bush's reign) and/or it got out of control (i.e. the new rapturist churches gained a life of their own, as seen by the ones funded by billionaires with the aim of aligning American Christianity with the geopolitical interests of Israel).
What I'm speculating here is that this process will suffer another metamorphosis, thanks to the rise of the so-called "woke leftism" which are allegedly commanding the Floyd revolts. This metamorphosis - I'm betting - will result in the far-rightification of the US Army and police forces (or accelerate it). Since the far-right in the USA is blatantly Christian (as we can read by their manifestos), this would result in the Christianization of the USG - even if, ultimately, it serves the more immediate interests of the Zionists (in the case of the rapturists).
The interesting point of the Christianization of the USA here is not in Christianity itself, but in the socioeconomic process it represents (on the right; on the left, we already have the "wokeist" phenomenon). The USA is degenerating as a world empire and, if the USG chooses an escape route through the right end of the political spectrum, it could potentially result in a Fascist USA - an extremely virulent, fundamentalist and nihilist (and thus very dangerous) empire.
signorRossi #11
How does captagon make the journey from Turkish occupied Syria to Italy?
Ask the White Helmets.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 2 2020 20:17 utc | 35
World Socialist Web Site reports more attacks on USA youth.
On Ghislaine Maxwell, I trust Les Wexner is not overlooked. We are in interesting times Mr Barr.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 2 2020 20:29 utc | 36
NemesisCalling @Jul2 18:53 #28
Tucker is not in favor of populist government. He does not advocate any kind of socialism or class unity. He wants a tentative balance between the classes which can only be brought back via ... [a long drawn-out process that might take decades]
Tucker serves an establishment which is just fine with the corrupt system that they have constructed over many decades.
Tucker is irritating when he cherry-picks statistics, engages in whataboutism and 'gotcha' politics (expressed as "SHOCK" at this or that), and pretends that there's nothing fundamentally wrong/broken about US politics/empire.
=
... neoliberalism's reign is curbed in the coming decades.
What you believe to be an optimistic view is disturbing to most of us. Decades more of neoliberalism?!?! Your patience with the establishment is very Tucker-like.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 2 2020 20:34 utc | 37
Just spoke to my sister who lives 15 miles NE of Bradford. In rural New Hampshire that is not far. She said it was an open secret, everybody knew. Certainly the local constabulary was aware. It’s New England, good fences make good neighbors. Anyway the victims were just “trash” and “little tarts”. This coming from an LCSW on the far left fringe of her profession, someone with a BLM sign in the yard. Nothing ever matters except class.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 2 2020 20:38 utc | 38
Some of the international media are reporting that Putin's renovated Russian Constitution, and extension of his Presidency for up to 16 more years, have been approved by 78% of voting Russians.
I've been wondering why he would commit to so many years as President of Russia. i.e. even he, himself, couldn't possibly believe that he's the ONLY Russian citizen capable of fulfilling that role for the next 16 years. So what's going on?
My guess is that Chinese President-for-Life Xi Jinping and Russian President Until The 12th Of Never Vladimir Putin, have jointly given themselves, and each other, a maximum of a decade and a half to save the world from the Insanely Insatiable Vampire Squid known as the United Shitholes of AmeriKKKa.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 2 2020 20:46 utc | 39
PeterAU1
This might interest you regarding U.K. govenment curuption (if you haven’t already seen it)
Shows how the politicians do the bidding of the greedy elite ! At the expense of the voter / public.
Admittedly small scale but is a good insight into the much larger and darker curuption, that you speak of, And is hinted at here.
https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2020/30/june/george-monbiot-on-tory-corruption-robert-jenrick-richard-desmond
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This Link is ‘DoubleDown News’
Ther are many very good posts, that ALL here might find interesting ! So dig deeper than the latest post.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 2 2020 20:49 utc | 40
Belgian king offers 'deepest regrets' over 'violence and cruelty' during colonial era
“At the time of the independent State of the Congo, acts of violence and cruelty were committed that still weigh on our collective memory,” he said, referencing his ancestor King Leopold II’s private ownership of the country from 1885 to 1908.Leopold is believed to be responsible for the deaths of up to 10 million people in the 19th century, using the country to generate revenue from the production of rubber through forced labor. In addition to millions of deaths, his rule was marked by other atrocities such as the amputation of laborers’ hands for failing to meet quotas.
Belgium and the King want to avoid or minimize payment of any reparations so there is lip service but no true apology.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 2 2020 20:51 utc | 41
Old hippie @ 38
In my opinion the entire Trump political party are ‘’ Trash and Tarts’’
And the same goes for the Democrats !!
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 2 2020 20:59 utc | 42
Yes, jr, there are many elites left in both China and the U.S that would like to see the status quo continue. Shocking I know.
It will take longer to unfold if Biden wins, this for sure.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 2 2020 21:03 utc | 43
Posted by: vk | Jul 2 2020 20:04 utc | 34
There is no "Christianisation" of the US. On the contrary, record number of people identify themselves as non-christian. The Dem party is rising too (as California goes, so goes the US), and that party is not very fond on Christianity.
You have good comments, but on the supposed move towards more and more Christianity in the US you are dead wrong. The US is moving towards liberalism, not towards more social conservatism or more Christianity.
Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most
Patriotism, religion and having children rate lower among younger generations than they did two decades ago, WSJ/NBC News survey finds
Posted by: Passer by | Jul 2 2020 21:06 utc | 44
Hillsboro, New Hampshire is one of the choice locations where higher level CIA operators "retire". While the CIA's hired dirtbags and goons who have to be evacuated from where they "worked" (Cuba, Chechnya, Venezuela, etc) mostly end up in Miami, there are large numbers of older "elite" spooks in the Hillsboro area in expensive estates. Bradford NH is a short walk from Hillsboro.
Who'd a thunk they'd `ave found Maxwell hiding out in the open in a place like that?
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 2 2020 21:10 utc | 45
Ghislaine Maxwell arrested
1/2 Having now read the SDNY indictment of Ghislaine Maxwell, one thing stands out. The charges are mainly for enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts specifically w Epstein and there is also a perjury charge ....2/2 However, the indictment says Maxwell herself sexually abused the victims but WASN'T charged for that. In other words, they admit that she sexually assaulted minors but is only charged her for enticing minors to travel for abuse by Epstein, NOT her. Slap on the wrist incoming
<> <> <> <> <> <>
Now trending on twitter: #Ghislanemaxwelldidntkillherself
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 2 2020 21:10 utc | 46
re: religion in the US...
Down 10% in past 10 years [Pew].
That said, the influence of religious organizations in politics is overweight, because few other institutions that can turn out large blocs of voters. Unions used to, once.
Nationalists claiming to represent "Judeo-Christian values" (a euphemism if ever) have been disproportionately visible in media for years. This is hardly new. Certainly as of the Bush administration.
Posted by: ptb | Jul 2 2020 21:28 utc | 47
@39 - I would also add the name of Kazakhstan's First President Nursultan Nazarbaev to President Putin and Xi who are doing their best to save this world from the vampires. Should we add Lukashenko? Has he been chastened by the "slippers?"
Posted by: lex talionis | Jul 2 2020 21:32 utc | 48
Jackrabbit #37
Tucker smooths the pillow for the dying corpse. Tucker is the voice of the 'reasonable and intelligent' rightists.
Tucker is the maidservant of the oligarchs.
Tucker sounds reasonable like the swish of a guillotine blade. But he is not your friend.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 2 2020 21:36 utc | 49
@ Posted by: Passer by | Jul 2 2020 21:06 utc | 44
I'm aware of the numbers. The matter of concern here is not the Christianization of the American people per se, but of the US Army and police forces (in the form of the allegiance to the "alt-right").
The alt-right is clearly a Christian movement, which they identify as an essential moral-ethic component of the "white race" - this is specially clear when they talk about their ideal relations with the Arabs (Middle East).
William Gruff #45
Well Ghislaine Maxwell could have hidden in Salisbury UK with all those spooks about.
She has UK citizenship so maybe a prisoner exchange for Julian Assange is possible.
Mind you the englanders do like their torture toys.
But where is Les Wexner, the chief, the founder of this racket.
For that matter where are the Awan family spy and blackmail gang?
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 2 2020 21:42 utc | 51
Hint:
"Religion is poison"
-Mao
(Don't argue with success)
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Jul 2 2020 21:48 utc | 52
@49 uncle
It is too bad that the quality of your writing does not correspond to the strength of your ideas.
Perhaps you think us Americans should just imbibe the diatribes directed at us from places like this fine establishment and no place else.
Are you an American?
If you are not, then it should come as no surprise that anyone not crying "uncle" in American media and begging for continental Europeans to take a big dump on our chest is missing the boat in your mind.
Like you said, we are already a corpse. So why concern your self with our ungodly stench?
Hitch your wagon to the east. What do we care?
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 2 2020 22:13 utc | 53
Bradford NH is home of Burton Hersh who has written about the CIA and FBI.
Posted by: Marc B. | Jul 2 2020 22:13 utc | 54
Excess deaths year-over-year in US:
And I must add, screw Trump. No matter what else he is accused of (whether or not the accusations are true or false and no matter who has uttered them – forget all that other BS), the truth about Covid19 is that he has totally fucked up the response to it and a LOT of people died who otherwise would still be alive. A lot more will lose their lives because of this administration. We could have starved the virus of hosts with a strict couple of months on lockdown, followed by testing and tracing.
This country that, during WW2, went through 6 years of food shortages, gas and food rationing, women suddenly leaving the home to work, kids entering daycare when such was unheard of before, teenagers replacing men at work and at home as the men were off to war, etc., couldn’t suck it up for a couple of months to stop the virus. Now we have a president who says we won’t shut down again (as if what we did was a proper “shutdown”) and who simply doesn’t care how many of us die.
Lots and lots of information coming out about the long term health effects of Covid. Life expectancy in the US will be plummeting for the foreseeable future. No-one has written an article about this as yet that I have seen, but I expect there will eventually be studies that show how many years the average lifespan has decreased thanks to this disease. No doubt some politicians will see this as an answer to the so-called social security shortfall.
Posted by: teri | Jul 2 2020 22:15 utc | 55
A US court now trying to auction stolen Venezuela fuel.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-gasoline-lawsuit/u-s-auction-of-fuel-allegedly-destined-for-venezuela-receives-no-bids-idUSKBN2432KJ?il=0
A U.S. court auction of 100,000 barrels of gasoline that a shipping company suspected was destined for fuel-starved Venezuela received no bids, according to a late Wednesday filing, raising doubts about the fate of the cargo.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 22:18 utc | 56
@lex talionis, 2 Jul 21:32
Should we add Lukashenko?
I think so taking the following articles into account.
https://sputniknews.com/europe/202004031078824468-belaruss-president-warns-global-elites-using-covid-19-crisis-to-try-to-reshape-world-order/
https://sputniknews.com/europe/202006071079546236-belaruss-lukashenko-slams-global-elites-says-theyve-made-trillions-as-economy-burns-to-pandemic/
After I read these two articles, I wondered when he was going to be the target of a "color revolution". Plain speaking like this does not go down well with Exceptionalistan. Then, right on schedule, the slipper protests were reported. I note that there are a number of NGOs, funded from abroad, which are allowed to operate in Belarus.
Posted by: cirsium | Jul 2 2020 22:19 utc | 57
Facebook exec marky Mark sugar Mountain is meeting with banking executives whom have withdrawn advertising for the month of July to punish Facebook for not censoring abusive material.... Lol
"we have to strengthen our guidelines to fall more in line with the values of our sponsors whom of course are our Greatest source of income". That's my quote but a version of it will soon cross Zuckerberg's pie hole!
Another version of oppression where even banks r being passed off as moral for doing so.
Posted by: PleaseBeleafMe | Jul 2 2020 22:36 utc | 58
Hint: "Religion is poison" -Mao (Don't argue with success)Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Jul 2 2020 21:48 utc | 52
Hint:
"Consumerism is a religion"
-Colonel 450.org
(Success is failure)
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 22:39 utc | 59
I found this on Naked Capitalism today:
"The best COVID-19 response in the world"
I quite agree.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 2 2020 22:55 utc | 60
As I wrote on mental illness in the last open thread, people don't even know where to begin with Christianity.
They want it to do something with their life, unaware that it is the Christian who learns how to act because of his Christianity.
Being a Kierkegaardian, I would liken the despair we feel in this neoliberal age to be the result of the false promises that neoliberalism's consumer-driven culture centered around selfishness has wrought.
Christianity will reemerge in a more nationalist paradigm. It does so because nationalism means government does little else but guarantee basic services and regulate monopolies which infringe upon liberty.
In effect, nationalism results in an apolitical age, provided it is not imperial or in the throes of its desire to seize upon its neighbor (neoliberal capitalism).
When people aren't poking about in other people's business and your national elites are within arm's reach so you can ram a pitchfork up their ass if need be, culture returns and so does spirit.
Because Christianity values self-denial and hard work, it will advance and regain its footing as the dominant expression of our people. It was at this point, also, that the level of despair is at its greatest, however.
People today are so ill aware of the hold of evil on the west that they are borderline indifferent or marginally idealistic about eastern expressions. We have seen this in America with the counter-culture and the yoga moms, etc. They simply do not care about their own despair and wouldn't have the foggiest how to remedy their soul or even what questions to ask.
I'm afraid that the Christianity that many in the west bemoan for its historical evils is the only iteration they can conjure in their mind. They view Christendom as a sports team to be joined in fandom where you can buy a jersey and wear it to the game on the Sabbath and that'll be that.
But read press releases for the CCP.
We are talking some heady, Godless shit being thrown out. Here in the west, we are dying for Hegel and Kierkegaard to save us from our sleep. But we may wake and it will be too late and the CCP, having realized the power of Hegel and Marx, will erase Kierkegaard from history.
I am building my collection of his writing and imparting it upon my daughter to be sure it doesn't die. She will be a Holy Missile. A pin-up painted on the side with, "Xi eats shit!"
...
So, like I said. Hitch your wagons to the east you damn fools.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 2 2020 22:57 utc | 61
Texas govener has just ordered maditory wearing of face masks.
Could this be the moment reality bites America on the arse.
It’s defiantly locking the door after the horse has bolted.
The question to ask is - what do they know that their not telling you about. ?
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 2 2020 23:01 utc | 62
Posted by: vk | Jul 2 2020 21:36 utc | 50
The US army and police will be getting more and more minorities who are going to push them away from the Alt Right. Simple demographics, there is no getting away from that.
Thus, there should be less Alt Right activity in the security forces after 10 years and far less in, say, 2050.
In the long run, the Alt Right perspectives are poor in the US.
If you look at California, Republicans there are being wiped out.
As California goes, so goes the country.
Posted by: Passer by | Jul 2 2020 23:30 utc | 63
vk@9 (and several other places) Well, John Kennedy was a Christian, and so was Jimmy Carter - different sorts, though. It does take all sorts. So is Putin. He's more like me (heh). But there are other Americans who are of the same eastern Orthodox sort, though even there are different sorts - and actually, we're allowed to be. We do have a creed, but other than that it's a diverse faith. We can even appreciate other faiths, as Putin does in the heritage that is blossoming in Russia. And since you bring the subject up, here's what I think is a thoroughly Christian, and thoroughly American poem -- enjoy:
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
[With thanks to the blog "Almost Orthodox"]
Posted by: juliania | Jul 2 2020 23:32 utc | 64
Here’s Maxwell with Trump.
So what has she got on trump. ?
https://mobile.twitter.com/the_resistor/status/1278834914540937217/photo/1
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 2 2020 23:55 utc | 65
how many intel agencies are behind this blackmailing duo?? can't be just one...
Posted by: james | Jul 3 2020 0:11 utc | 66
The question I highlight is how would a diminished American Empire look like.
When the British Empire fell, it fell while causing two world wars - the greatest wars humanity has ever seen. But the two world wars weren't waged in the name of religion: on the contrary, they were pragmatic, secular wars, wars of Reason. Whatever its merits or demerits, the WWs caused a sufficient trauma on the Western intelligentsia over the illuminist concept of Reason that it turned a relativist, borderline nihilist corpus of intellectuals (what we know today as the "postmodernism"). This gave, in part, a second chance to religion (in the West's case, Christianism, which was the religion that was already there).
But now it's time for the USA to fall as the world empire. Now we see a world empire fall under postmodernism, not Reason. On the contrary: the USA is consolidating itself as the irrational empire. In this sense, I wonder: if the USA is to fail in its bid to remain the world empire (against an openly rational power: Marxist/Socialist China).
When Europe emerged from WWII, it certainly emerged as a bunch of completely defeated peoples willing to accept anything - literally anything - that would come from the USA. In other words, it finally accepted it was part of the periphery of the world again. This peripheral reality ossified both in the form of social-democracy (welfare state) and in the form of the idea of a North Atlantic Civilization (Atlanticism), which we now refer to as Western Civilization: Europe was Greece to the USA's Rome. It took dozens of millions of dead, but Europe was finally put on its knees by the American and Soviet behemoths.
But, this time, there won't be an USSR to USA's Third Reich. China, best case scenario, will be able to impose a multipolar order where the USA will still be able to impose itself as one of the "poles" - certainly in the American Continent, probably also over Western Europe and Oceania + Japan and South Korea. It will still be a first among equals.
In this hypothetical context, I imagine how would the American people come to terms with this new - much less glorious - reality.
My hypothesis is that, if the USA would still be willing to revert multipolarity and restore unipolarity, it would necessarily have to convert itself into a fundamentalist Christian empire - much like the byzantine phase of the Roman Empire.
I discard the possibility of the USA collapsing overnight and peacefully a la USSR. Its economic structure simply doesn't permit that. Worst case scenario, it would collapse under a sequence of brutal and savage civil wars, leading to balkanization, resulting in what I like to describe as a "Mad Max scenario".
It is normal for the Armed Forces of a given Nation-State to represent the ultimate reserve of the traditions of said Nation-State. Nobody here doubts the PLA is the most pro-Communist institution of the Popular Republic of China.
However, the post-war Western Democracies have a particularity: they are not reigned by a unique ideology/doctrine; they are instead governed by what Arthur Schlesinger Jr. called a "vital center", i.e. a confederation of ideologies that hate each other and perpetually compete for power every electoral cycle (the so-called "political spectrum", which goes from the Left to the Right). That leaves the Western throne inherently empty.
The post-war European countries found a curious solution to this problem: they put the non-essential institutions of the State up to grabs in elections (which are still held today) while reserving their Armed Forces to the hard-right and the far-right. This was done in order to, at the same time, keep the illusion of democracy and keeping the nation safe from a socialist revolution. That's why soldiers of the British Army were caught practicing target shooting with Corbyn's portrait, and why, frequently, we read of neonazi cells within the Bundeswehr.
That's why I think that, in order to keep the country safe from socialism (or, as the American like to say, communism), the USG will gradually resort to the far-right to fill their ranks in the Army and the police. I think this is a solution that will occur naturally to the American elites, in a way that, in one generation space-time, even West Point will be a far-right (Christian fundamentalist) nest.
Speking of the devil, Bloomberg has just published a series of tweets under the theme "Is this the end of America as we know it?"
Tried sending you some money and the pay site went wonky. If I had a mailing address, I'd send you a money order or something. Online pay sites make me crazy since I had two bank accounts get wiped out nearly two years ago now, then my union retirement trust sent my estate a death notice!
Posted by: Chuck | Jul 3 2020 0:46 utc | 69
NemesisCalling @Jul2 22:57 #61
In for a penny, in for a pound, Nemesis. That's how you get played.
You want to support the West somewhat, thinking you're reasonable and its in your best interest, but then you'll find that the value of your work is siphoned off by the rich. And you're kids have to go to war. And the poor and downtrodden are banging at your door because the system has f*cked them and now its YOUR problem. And your daughter is going to marry an undocumented immigrant because the government sent all the good jobs overseas for the last 30 years and brought in immigrants.
You think you can be "OK" with living in a militarized banana republic run by scoundrels intent on world domination but they will get you in the end. Because they don't think like you and they don't give a sh*t about you. You are a means to an end.
Instead of falling for the scare-mongering about foreign enemies, we need to clean our own house. It's very clear that in terms of quality of life and bettering their lives, Europeans and Chinese masses have done much better then USA masses in the last 30 years. USA mal investment in things like financial bubbles/scams, weapons, and gold-plated healthcare for the rich has impoverished the rest of us. And yet we keep falling for the bullshit that media stenographers push our way.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 3 2020 1:01 utc | 70
@ 67 vk.. a new social organization or social development will happen on the upcoming saturn-neptune conjunction in 2026... many social-communist type movements have been started on this conjunction and russia and china recent history parallel this conjunction... last time it happened was approx 1989 - with the end of the soviet union... 1953 as another example - interesting developments in egypt and etc... 1917 was the one previous to that - Bolshevik revolution.. the conjunction of these 2 planets has an interesting history as far as socialism and communism is concerned.... maybe a new political movement will start up in the usa to parallel this..
Posted by: james | Jul 3 2020 1:15 utc | 71
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 2 2020 21:36 utc | 49
"Tucker smooths the pillow for the dying corpse. Tucker is the voice of the 'reasonable and intelligent' rightists."
I respected your views in noisy MoA but in this instances not exactly correct two persons’ standout disproves your assumptions - I supported Venezuela President Maduro MSM, FOX's Tucker Carlson allows Anya Parampil to speaks freely - Anya Parampil hosted RT Question More before moving to Graystone News. I donated Tulsi Gabbard presidential campaign she was another progressive allows in FOX News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6LV93jKkXs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrLgOYvR6No
Posted by: JC | Jul 3 2020 1:22 utc | 72
As "Oh well." shrugs are exchanged, the pariah state I live in continues to meet exceptional expectations as COVID counts explode in the US. The "flu" rages on in this petri dish...remember that refrain; "It's only the flu it'll be gone by summer."
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
The US as a whole identified a record 51K new cases yesterday firmly retaining its grip on global exceptionalism in pure number terms, although sitting at only #12 in terms of total cases / million population. Today we're well on the way to breaking yesterday's record.
The US is #27 globally for the number of tests / million population.
The number of positive cases relative to the number of tests is rising quickly in some states - this is bad news. Austin TX for example:
Austin health officials last week saw the highest rate of positive coronavirus tests of any metro area in the nation, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement Saturday.
FL appears to have finally breached 10K new cases in a day in their bid to outdo NY's sordid history. Disney World resort is supposed to reopen in nine days and schools are scheduled to reopen in August.
Nationally daily new deaths remain steady for now at only 600-700 / day, you know nothing to see here numbers. The next two weeks and beyond will tell an important tale; will deaths remain suppressed or will they follow the path of new infections? Today may mark a break with improved death rates. OTOH the US may pull off a surprise with improved treatments keeping a lid on deaths. Well documented reports of data manipulation is a wild card. In this category the exceptional US is #9 globally when looking at deaths / million population.
Excessive deaths analysis:
Findings In this cohort study, the number of deaths due to any cause increased by approximately 122 000 from March 1 to May 30, 2020, which is 28% higher than the reported number of COVID-19 deaths.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2767980
So the exceptional experiment in the exceptional US is well underway while the world watches. Re-shutting down is bound to meet resistance, cause strife and possibly get ignored altogether. The mask issue remains a confusing mix of compliance and defiance. Stopping or turning an ocean liner already in motion takes time and with half the crew and passengers fighting to remain on the "Reopen damnit!" course, we're headed for the rocks.
Fauci predicted 100K daily new COVID cases in our future. If death rates climb accordingly we're looking at 3K-5K daily deaths for a while at some point. Again, normal flu "Nothing to see here, move along now." numbers.
Posted by: snow_watch | Jul 3 2020 1:23 utc | 73
@ JC 72
Tucker is allowed to speak limited truths by those in control of Fox for a reason. If he were not part of an agenda, he would not say those things on a major outlet.
If I had to bet money, I would guess Tucker Carlson is being used to fool intelligent people like you so that you and any and all "conspiracy theories" will be lumped in one pile, which is easily discredited to most media consumers if that pile watches Fox News.
I too like what Gabbard and Parampil say, for the time being. Don't be fooled by Tucker Carlson and his truths. They are not well-intentioned.
Posted by: Rutherford82 | Jul 3 2020 2:03 utc | 74
@vk, both at 50 Jul 2 2020 21:36 utc |
and 67 Jul 3 2020 0:15 utc |
I am no fan of Christianity, historically or in its current manifestations, and keep close watch on its political influence. There is a great deal of truth to Sinclair Lewis's observation that "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying the cross."
I broadly agree with @Passer by | Jul 2 2020 21:06 utc | 44 that by percentage of the population people in the US are if anything becoming *less* Christian. Just as we are becoming less white, less restricted to traditional US and Euro-derived culture and, due to both globalization and the deepening Great Depression 2, ever more indebted, impoverished and doubtful of capitalism. This freaks out both the racists and the fundamentalist Christians, who feel that if they don’t act now they will in ten or twenty years lose any chance of retaining whatever power and privilege they ever imagined they had—now emblemized in MAGA. As Passer by noted @63, California where I live is the trendsetter—the US right looks at us and shivers with rage and horror at their prospects.
And this freaks out the capitalists, whose normally hidden power struggles are spilling into open view, over how best to save their system and rule.
The Christian right is, however, far more organized and vocal now than in decades past, in no small part because the Republican-aligned section of the capitalist class is—hearkening back to the Sinclair Lewis quote above—relying on them as a mass base in their rearguard action. Correct me if I’m wrong but at no time in history has fascism ever been elected to power through a majority vote—even the Nazis’ victory in 1933 was a minority government in coalition with the Nationalist Party (one month later the Reichstag burned and democracy didn’t matter anymore). Fascism doesn’t need a majority; a sufficiently organized substantial minority—say, the 25% or so of US people who are fundamentalist or evangelical Christian—works for them just fine.
The military... I’m a lot less worried about the Army—sure there are racists in it but since the end of the draft it has to rely on having way too many non-white soldiers in its rank and file. The Pentagon needs to preserve the Army’s functionality for global domination; as recent events have demonstrated it doesn’t want to break itself politically by repressing people *within* the US (ordering enlisted soldiers to fire on their own families and communities). Whether through fear, revulsion or some combination, this sentiment has even reached into the ranks of the West Pointers you mention. I’m not saying what you forecast is impossible—and it would certainly begin with the officer elite—but it will be much more of a struggle than a “natural solution” as you write.
I’m much more worried about the Air Force, where your suspicions are already being realized. The Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs is in the grip of fundamentalist Christianity and this has spread throughout the officer ranks up to the highest levels. And the Air Force—far whiter than the Army—are the keepers of most of the US’s stocks of WMDs. If and when we have a general uprising here the Army may well split—at least the rank-and-file—but the Air Force will happily launch Shock-and-Awe on the heathen and multinational urban working class. Why else are all those bases out in the middle of nowhere? They’ve already “gamed” this out in many scenarios.
The police… Yes they’ve been trained by Israelis, equipped with IED-resistant military vehicles and are full of racists and fascists, but there are less than a million of them, perhaps half at most really front line repressive material. If 400,000 US military couldn’t handle 30+ million Iraqis, what chance do US police have against even a significant minority of the US’s 330 million? US capitalists know that while they have lots of force to call on, they have to keep control politically, not militarily. If they lose control of the ideological narrative and their political structures become unstable they will either be overthrown by some form of revolution or the country may fragment as you predict.
As far as the international influences on this process, I believe Russia and China are well aware of these possibilities, which is why while resisting US domination they still offer US capitalism a “soft landing” in a multipolar future. They are understandably cautious in dealing with a psychotic empire in the process of collapse—whether it be in the hands of the Sore Losers of Unipolarity or some desperate fascist faction in a new civil war, 7000 nukes can be very, very bad news…
ps—not all Christians in the US are white and to the right. A huge percentage of African-Americans are devout Christians and rest assured they will align against any racist/nationalist/fascist regime. And though they are understandably quiet about it, given the history of racism in the US quite a few are armed. And—see above—combat veterans.
Posted by: Vintage Red | Jul 3 2020 2:08 utc | 76
I know everyone is getting Covid-19 fatigue, so I hate to even post this. However, I ran across what I thought was an unusually clear, honest, a-political, and non-hysterical article explaining pretty well the history and science of the mixed signals on the benefits of mask wearing. It's a fairly long article, but worth reading. In sum, while there may have been some legitimate questions over how much protection could be afforded (to the wearer and those around him or her) by wearing a mask, at this point the evidence is pretty irrefutable that there is a pretty significant benefit to mask wearing.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-masks-went-from-dont-wear-to-must-have/
Posted by: J Swift | Jul 3 2020 2:17 utc | 77
Re: California and Christendom
I would posit that just because Godless and hedonistic California is overpopulated with self-tagging "Atheists" does not necessarily mean that California will be able to infect the rest of the U.S.
If anything, the poorly run, overcrowded state will choke on its own inability and people will cease visiting there. Hollywood has already taken a huge nose dive (lol) and people are fleeing in droves.
Other states where conservatives hold sway will not simply let them transfer their BS into local policy. Portland and Seattle has allowed this to occur to great ruin (as well as gentrification which is pushing lower class and blacks out into the suburbs which are increasingly ghastly), but now other places have wisened-up.
Negative ghost rider. Traditional Christianity will be on the rise and this will be in part due to people flocking to assurance when the greenback loses its value and the government says, "What, us fix this?"
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 3 2020 2:27 utc | 78
@60 Bemildred
That's a wonderful article, thank you. This story of Mongolia should be told more. Mongolia didn't flatten the curve of Covid infection, it simply didn't allow any curve. It destroyed the virus, and it began acting in January - with no letup since. Thus, it shows the correct response for those who have ears to hear.
The author is prolific, I must read more of his many articles over on medium. At first I felt he was having fun in his writing, which I always see as a writer's self-indulgence, but by halfway through the article I was having fun too, so I think now that he was on top of his subject, and he nailed it perfectly well - including taking the reader through every ingrained prejudice regarding a "developing" country, and demolishing each prejudice in turn with the realities.
Here's the link again, and a snippet from the piece that gives us the whole answer to this viral event, and what we would have done if we were grown-ups:
At the slightest provocation from COVID-19, Mongolia would — in public health terms — go apeshit. If there were zero cases, they reacted like it was a thousand. With one case, they reacted like it was ten thousand.Given a virus that multiplies exponentially, this is exactly what you’re supposed to do. Either you’re going apeshit or the virus is. Those are the only choices, at least if you want to win.
- COVID Underdogs: Mongolia - The best COVID-19 response in the world
Posted by: Grieved | Jul 3 2020 2:32 utc | 79
Posted by: Grieved | Jul 3 2020 2:32 utc | 78
My pleasure. I've been of the same opinion about COVID-19 since around late January too, so of course I liked it. Nothing like having your opinions confirmed. That's the only way to really save your economy too, as we have so effectively demonstrated here, things won't get back to "normal" until everybody feels safe. The author has a nice salty style too.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 3 2020 2:54 utc | 80
Posted by: Rutherford82 | Jul 3 2020 2:03 utc | 73
Thanks for your respond. Did you know how long I've been a follower in RT? Different RT presenters and hosts starting with Thabang Motsei, unfortunately she passed away in late last year after leaving RT. I'm not so easily fools or being taken for another rid. FOX has many agendas and motives but what both said were the truth and not FAKE news. especially when the US trying to regime changed Venezuelan president Maduro in their embassy in DC as Anya Parampil said in FOX News.
Enjoy archived RT videos...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DbsHw0Tri0
Another witty and intelligent Americans in RT Tim Kirby
Breaking Point: The New Cold War? Dec 19, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=UzfcBFP9hCo
Posted by: JC | Jul 3 2020 2:55 utc | 81
Posted by: fnord | Jul 2 2020 16:22 utc | 8 As an anarchist, I wish we were funded by billionaires like our opposition thinks we are
We can be. Learn to hack and take their money. :-) That's my plan.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jul 3 2020 2:56 utc | 82
@64 juliania
dammit, woman, that's a wondrous poem.
How to thank you enough for the key to unlock the chains they continually try to put on us? It's a brilliant key, a silver bullet to end all the nightmares.
Lose your mind, so they can't find it. Throw them off by being guided by the spirit and not by the world - the world to which they enchain themselves in their ambition to control it.
And we see that we can lose our minds, and act in selflessness, and confound all their calculations. Simply from being good, and conscious, and with a bit of cleverness too, like the fox and her footprints.
I have to quote:
"So, friends, every day do somethingthat won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed."
-and-
"Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit."
I have to quote, because it rings in my mind. Like the clarion call. This is the guerrilla response to the terror of these times.
As Black Panther Fred Hampton said, we're not going to fight the enemy in terms of his divisiveness, we're going to fight that with solidarity, which neutralizes his weapons.
So too, Wendell Berry, and this poem I had never heard before. These are the keys and the antidotes that will confound all the bullshit, which after all is not really real. Not as real as reality. Not as real as the entire universe and all its forces and all its laws.
Many thanks, juliania, for the reminder from the spirit world, here in this hard-pressed earthly world.
Posted by: Grieved | Jul 3 2020 2:57 utc | 83
Just read that article on how Mongolia crushed the virus.
Outstanding. Everyone - especially some of the morons here - should read it.
Meanwhile, in the "land of the free and the home of the stupid":
Daily number of new coronavirus cases in U.S. tops 50,000: The new record was hit on Wednesday. The total was 52,789 new coronavirus cases, which is the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jul 3 2020 3:06 utc | 84
About Afghan bounty:
https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/taliban-demand-release-of-convicted-afghan-drug-lord/30699057.html
Bhadrakumar has a good reflexion on consequence: speeding US withdrawall.
Posted by: Charles Michael | Jul 3 2020 3:13 utc | 85
Posted by: J Swift | Jul 3 2020 2:17 utc | 76 https://www.wired.com/story/how-masks-went-from-dont-wear-to-must-have/
Just read that article.
What stands out to me are the references to people at the WHO that were "resistant" to the evidence of aerosol spread, and also how much the "balkanization" of science led to aerosol people not caring about "droplets" and medical people not caring about "aerosols" - because neither side understood the language.
Too much specialization. Too much politics.
Plus the idiots who early on said that if you recommended mask wearing, people would stop washing hands. This is called "overthinking the problem". It's not their goddamn job to worry about the morons among us. It's their job to recommend all the precautions that could reasonably be expected to be adopted (wearing a full hazmat suit would not be, for instance, while wearing a mask obviously is.) This is what happens when you get a committee together to discuss something: there's always someone who has to raise an irrelevant issue and bog down the whole process, just to prove that he was relevant to the discussion. You know what they say, "if two people agree, one is redundant." No one wants to be redundant, so humans spend a lot of time bitching about everything until they're acknowledged as "not redundant" - whereas they should be acknowledged as human potholes on the road to success.
"People like Fineberg think the WHO fell victim to a classic scientific fallacy—that the absence of evidence is evidence of absence. “When the WHO said there’s no aerosol spread, that was an utterly misleading statement,” says Fineberg."
Iron that statement comes out on World UFO Day. (Look it up.)
And then there's this:
It couldn’t have helped that prospective attendees at a (non-socially-distant) Trump campaign rally in Tulsa had to sign waivers saying they wouldn’t sue the campaign if they got Covid-19—and that even after the sparsely attended rally, two campaign staffers and a one-time presidential candidate who attended tested positive for the disease. Suddenly, Trump adherents knew people who were getting sick or dying.
Trump, seriously? You had people sign waivers not to sue you if they got sick? Apparently we *still* don't how low this asshole will go.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jul 3 2020 3:26 utc | 86
Posted by: Vintage Red | Jul 3 2020 2:08 utc | 75
This is a repeat and may upset many includes the host MoA, I'm sorrie so be it.
I was raised in a christian home, mission school and debated between the believer and nonbeliever.. I was also taught to steadfast remained with the christians flocks. Onward christian soldier marching to onto wars.... Don't let satan distract you, blah, blah, blah..
How long and how many innocents’ victims need to die for the god in heaven are beyond my imagination. I can't stop the endless wars so what can I do? Can't start my own wars so took the next best option. god keep your freaking heaven. I ain't interested!! Let all the Clintons, Bushes, Obamas and Bibi Netanyahu be together in heaven...
Posted by: JC | Jul 3 2020 3:27 utc | 87
@80 JC
It is always shocking, for me at least, when I hear actual truths in mainstream news.
I do not doubt your abilities to ascertain true news. My previous post was possibly just my own desire to self-affirm that I am not going crazy; that Tucker Carlson and Fox News are not in fact honest truth dealers. They are not, but that is how shocking it is to hear these ideas in any major outlet, especially Fox.
Parampil is a fascinating part of the puzzle. It is certain that what she currently speaks of about Venezuela is much more accurate than how Western media interpret the country and Maduro. Perhaps Fox is self aware of their public image among Democrats and is using their own detestability to smear Parampil and the Gray Zone? Sort of a Tucker Carlson Gambit, where they put his credibility on the line in an attempt to trigger the left against Parampil.
I really do think they, the controllers of information and their wealthy advertisers, just want to lump any real truth about war and foreign policy in with any and all "conspiracy theories" and then drop them all off on some right wing outlet, ideally folding in neo-Nazi and other hate ideology in amongst it so that the speech might be legally censored.
Back to how Tucker can get away with being a part of it...
Tucker Carlson is an established media figure, but he isn't doing enough of these pieces to entirely change his image. Perhaps the core of Fox News audience would not change their minds about Venezuela so easily and could readily consume Fox all day long and discount the few hard truths from Tucker Carlson. This would create the potential to draw in rational thinkers to Tucker Carlson without losing much of their audience loyalty. A rather clever gambit on the part of Fox and quite possibly only centered around ratings and profit and not some grander desings. In any event, Tucker Carlson is playing the role quite well.
I am not familiar with the works of Thabang Motsei, but now I will have to look into them. I do really enjoy RT America programming and have for a few years, but I am afraid that I have only really watched and read for a short time.
Posted by: Rutherford82 | Jul 3 2020 3:43 utc | 88
@grieved 78
Thanks for that! Got a good chuckle out it. May have to follow the author.
Posted by: PleaseBeleafMe | Jul 3 2020 3:43 utc | 89
"Christianism can surive in a political form.
For Christianism to survive, you don't need every of its followers to be an expert of Christian faith: it only needs a strong Church with direct access and control of the State.
What I hypothesize here is that this process didn't stop: either it continues today with full-fledged support from the USG (as seen in George W. Bush's reign) and/or it got out of control (i.e. the new rapturist churches gained a life of their own, as seen by the ones funded by billionaires with the aim of aligning American Christianity with the geopolitical interests of Israel)."
Posted by: vk | Jul 2 2020 20:04 utc | 34
...
Gotcha, thanks for clarifying. Trumps recent Bible photo op comes to mind. Pence is one of those rapture nutters.
"Every robber or oppressor in history has wrapped himself in a cloak of patriotism or religion, or both."
Posted by: CitizenX | Jul 3 2020 4:20 utc | 91
@ JC | Jul 3 2020 3:27 utc | 86
"god keep your freaking heaven. I ain't interested!! Let all the Clintons, Bushes, Obamas and Bibi Netanyahu be together in heaven..."
Here you go: The Rapture
Posted by: Vintage Red | Jul 3 2020 4:20 utc | 92
A Covid-19 vaccine may be available earlier than many think:
Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate is the world's first to enter phase three human clinical trial which will begin in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday.
This means the Phase III trials may have started already.
From an earlier article about Sinopharm,
The Beijing institute, which is under the Sinopharm China National Biotec Group (CNBG), said in a statement sent to the Global Times that all 1,120 volunteers in the first and second phase clinical trials successfully produced high-titer antibodies against COVID-19 after accepting two doses of the vaccine.
If this vaccine comes out, I wonder if Trump will attack the company (Sinopharm) as aggressively has he has been tormenting Huawei.
Posted by: Cyril | Jul 3 2020 4:25 utc | 93
"Taipei is expelling two Taiwan-based mainland Chinese TV reporters who produced and broadcast political talk shows from Taiwan in violation of local regulations...."
Warning SCMP the latest mouthpiece for the regime change. Trump strongest desire to start an endless civil war in China and Taiwan. Xin Jinping and former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou a KMT to reconnect after the terrible civil wars. The US regime is best when opposing nationalist start fighting... North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, Syria and Kurds, HK riots and HKSAR, Shia and Sunni Islam and more...
The next China's civil war will be the mother of all civil wars... EU, 5eyes, Vietnam, US Regime, Japan, India all go after China the evil commies empire!!
Look closely since 2019 SCMP recruited reporters - writer(S), country stationed and how many writers.. in USA, HK, Mainlands and elsewhere preparing for the currents events decouplings.
Xi Jinping, Ma Ying-jeou talks about Chinese mainland and Taiwan relations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Jz7LxaxPE
Posted by: JC | Jul 3 2020 4:29 utc | 94
"My guess is that Chinese President Xi and Russian President Putin, have jointly given themselves, and each other, a maximum of a decade and a half to save the world from the Insanely Insatiable Vampire Squid known as the United Shitholes of AmeriKKKa."
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 2 2020 20:46 utc | 39
...
I sure hope they do- Americans are far too busy being in denial or blaming everyone else for bad behavior.
The Oracle claims that all Chinese manufactured mirrors have been cursed for the Ghostly Western Foreign Devils penance.
Posted by: CitizenX | Jul 3 2020 4:36 utc | 95
Posted by: Cyril | Jul 3 2020 4:25 utc | 92
Sorrie old News, China have more than 11 new vaccines in the process of approval or approved, three are in phase 3 clinical trials. They even has new facilities being build or completed. Brazil, Canada, and UAE overseas clinical trials... China or Xi Jinping philosophy the vaccines are for "worldly good" for mankind and not for profit like the Trump regime...
Do search China vaccines... CGTN, XinHua or Global News
"If this vaccine comes out, I wonder if Trump will attack the company (Sinopharm) as aggressively has he has been tormenting Huawei." Yes, he hates Chinese!!
Posted by: JC | Jul 3 2020 5:34 utc | 96
My take on Tucker and Maddow: both serve those who write their paychecks, but one of the two bosses is a better businessman.
Tucker does not duplicate Hannity which lets them serve different (if overlapping) segments of the audience. Showing Paralimpil and Gabbard to the viewers did not lead to any major perturbation in American politics, but it lets his viewer feel that they are better informed than the fools who watch Maddow. And it helps that to a degree they are.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 3 2020 5:43 utc | 97
J Swift 76
We'd expect Wired to push its usual technocratic agenda. But the science does not support mask-wearing, which on the contrary is a coerced ideological-religious ritual.
This post from Vanessa Beeley's blog reproduces a study which compiles all the evidence including all the studies to date.
"but it lets his viewer feel that they are better informed than the fools who watch Maddow.
I dun owned TV and never watch Madog and MSNBC or NBC PERIOD! I dun watch PBS nor NPR, CBS, ABC. More or less who’s telling the truth or fake news - if cross checking between known sources since Dubya Bush first got elected with the regime changed in Iraq. I'm no smarter than anyone here, but am willing to listen. But when you talk god, democracy or freedom of speech. I'll say fuck off! Am I fair?
I never said Tucker Carlson is fair and balance. He’s a pain in the arse across the political spectrums.
Posted by: JC | Jul 3 2020 6:07 utc | 99
Hint:
"Religion is poison"
-Mao
(Don't argue with success)
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Jul 2 2020 21:48 utc | 52
When I was in Grade 6 (mid-1950s), our teacher tried to prepare us for life in the Real World using anecdotes.
My favourite was: Russians characterise religion as "There's a Pie in the Sky - by and by."
My least favourite, and hardest to swallow, was his perspective on the White Australia Policy. He assured us that would-be immigrants were required to complete a Dictation Test. The test could be in ANY LANGUAGE and 'undesirable' applicants were given their test in the most incompatible, for the applicant, language the Immigration wonks could dream up.
And that turned out to be true...!
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 3 2020 6:20 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
yesterday saw a very peaceful and uneventful dismantling of CHOP or CHIP or CHAV or whatever they called that loose coalition of anarchists, hippies and other dorks in seattle. not sure how that fits in with the grand "color revolution" theories of the "derp we live in a truman show staged by soros and the other lizard people" types. maybe they can roll their 12 sided dice and come up with a new malevolent plot by single all-powerful billionaires (with the aid of their minions in the street who MUST be getting unmarked bills for their troubles as they have NO actual grievances) that take place 3,000 miles from DC.
i kid the plandemic-level idiots.
Posted by: the pair | Jul 2 2020 15:01 utc | 1