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August 30, 2020
The MoA Week In Review – Open Thread 2020-69

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:

> There has been some improvement in the symptoms caused by the inhibition of cholinesterase activity. Mr. Navalny continues to be treated in an intensive care unit, where he is being kept in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator. While his condition remains serious, there is no immediate danger to his life. <

> As an economic system, capitalism (at this point) is showing an advanced decline in capacity to underwrite a stable society. What follows after such a disintegration of a system is a prolonged period of social entropy and disorder. For a significant length of time, a society would slip into less than a society – a society-lite — until it may or may not recover and again become a society in the full meaning of the term. <

  • August 29 – Cut To UNIFIL Forces Is (Not) Another Great Trump Achievement
    Related:
    Since July 20 the Israeli army is waiting anxiously for Hizbullah's response to the Israeli assassination of a Hizbullah fighter in Syria. With Israeli troops expensively kept on high alert at the norther border Hizbullah has all the time it needs. It will not fall for stupid tricks like this one:

> WATCH: #IDF tries to bait Hezbollah with a dummy. Obviously they failed. You can see merkavas parked to the side. Desperation at its finest 😁 pic.twitter.com/Ka5E71IVPC <

—
Other issues:

Assange:

The War on Journalism: The Case of Julian Assange – A film by Juan Passarelli (vid – 40min)

Bloody CIA meddling:

The CIA and MI6’s secret war in Kenya. – Declassified UK

Covid-19:

A 29-Year-Old’s Strange, Unforgettable Trip Into a Covid Coma and Back – Washingtonian

Biden's foreign policy would be more horrible than Obama's:

‘Muscular’ Foreign Policy: Media Codeword for Violence Abroad – Alan MacLeod / FAIR
The Rotten Alliance of Liberals and Neocons Will Likely Shape U.S. Foreign Policy for Years to Come – Naked Capitalism

Use as open thread …

Posted by b on August 30, 2020 at 13:24 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Hello
I’m running into sites that don’t load. It’s like part of the server world is down. Stay safe.

Posted by: jo6pac | Aug 30 2020 13:36 utc | 1

I hope you have included that Saker blogpost just to show what a horrific writer he is 🙂

Posted by: v | Aug 30 2020 13:43 utc | 2

The emerging new question is:
how to give the governed in every society control over those who they allow to govern?
the nation state system of divide and conquer must be changed.. Humanity can no longer stand by and allow a few to sequester in copyright, patents, and privatization monopolies all of the resources of the world, all of the military force in the world, all of the wealth in the world, and expect itself (humanity) to remain free and capable to live an independent democratic life.
world wide in one form or another this question is being formulated.

Posted by: snake | Aug 30 2020 14:11 utc | 3

Trump’s ardent supporter, rabid Neocon Senator Tom Cotton, who spoke at Trump’s Convention Production, seems to think Trump has a better foreign policy than Biden, in other words, more horrible than Obama and Biden.
And I agree. Trump’s foreign policy is the worst. But you keep spinning like Trump’s the greatest diplomat of all time. China, Iran, Venezuela, Palestine, Yemen, North Korea, Lebanon, and Syria all beg to differ.

Posted by: Circe | Aug 30 2020 14:21 utc | 4

The teachings of Marx are the best hope for UK’s beaten-up working class
–//–
The myth of the “riots that are destroying the American petite-beourgeoisie”:
Beware the zombies (From 2017!)
The problem with the petite-bourgeoisie is that it is, in essence, a parasitic class. It is more inefficient than the big bourgeoisie and it offers worse working conditions and wages to the working class. In macroeconomic term, we can say the petite-bourgeoisie is a drag on the economy.
During the End of History (1991-2008) era, the First World countries had to increasingly rely on the promise that “everybody will be a capitalist”. They used their immense financial surpluses from the deregulation of the world finance (specially the privatization of pension funds from the USA and Japan, but also other European nations) and from their super-exploitation of the Third World (outsourcing the “dirty jobs”; importing cheap commodities) to distribute their respective middle classes a beneficia, i.e. a grain dole for being born in the right country, at the right time (imperial privilege).
In the USA, this took the form of the entrance of the main pension funds in Wall Street (“what is good for Wall Street is good for America”). In Japan, this took the form of “create your own local small business (generally, a restaurant or grocery store) after I retire” (grandma/grandpa’s local store).
This resulted in the deproletarianization of the First World, i.e. the inhabitants of the First World either became petit-bourgeois or became precarious workers from the “services sector” with a petit-bourgeois mentality.
But, as I mentioned earlier, the petite-bourgeoisie is a parasitic class. It doesn’t create net wealth. The overgrowth of the petite-bourgeoisie in the First World created an imbalance in their economies, a social pyramid that couldn’t sustain itself. They became “Zombie Economies”.
The Zombie Era (2008-present) is characterized by absolute falling profit rates in the First World, a very reactionary (fascist) and overstretched petite-bourgeoisie, a completely alienated and precarious working class (postmodern, “immaterial” workers, “producers of ideas and not things”), a crescent mass of unemployed (Third-Worldization), the decline of the State infrastructure and auctoritas and the imbecilization of the population in general, of the intelligentsia in particular.
It is expected, by the American elite, that this pandemic will finally get rid of the parasitic petite-bourgeoisie. Bezos is already gobbling up the market share of local businesses in the USA, while directly attacking the ones he can (e.g. the recent restriction on sales of used items on Amazon.com). His wealth is increasing fast, and I expect this process to result in the USA having a completely integrated and modernized logistics infrastructure by the time the deskulakization (extermination of the petite-bourgeoisie) is over. It will be good for the American people, overall: no more corrupt deliverer workers (drone delivery), faster deliveries (centralized logistics), more places included (expansion of the logistics) and cheaper prices (no more “aunt Mary”/inefficiency tax).
So, if you’re an American small/medium business owner, don’t look at the random tranny who torched your 50-year old decrepit barn in the middle of nowhere. Look at your new daddy, Bezos, behind you.
–//–
France should fix its own home before playing empire in Lebanon, Turkey and Africa:
France records ‘exponential’ increase in Covid-19 cases
Let’s see how long the Macronite Plague will last.
–//–
I called it (in February or March):
India sets new world record with 78,761 virus cases daily
So much for the “World’s Greatest Democracy”…
–//–
Imbecilization is not only an American phenomenon. As mentioned earlier, it affects the other First World countries, too:
[VIDEO] Coronavirus: anti-lockdown protests erupt across Europe in UK, Germany and Spain
German Police Push Back ‘Anti-Corona’ Protesters as They Attempt to Storm Parliament – Videos
The culprit here is the same: the petite-bourgeoisie.
–//–
BONUS NEWS: More on your typical American petit-bourgeois cowardice:
New Yorkers Are Fleeing to the Suburbs: ‘The Demand Is Insane’
The problem is these dislocations help spreading the virus. Self-quarantine is not vacation.

Posted by: vk | Aug 30 2020 14:44 utc | 5

Circe: Know who else agrees with you that Trump’s foreign policy is the worst? Robert Kagan and Max Boot – they’re voting for Joe.

Posted by: expat | Aug 30 2020 14:46 utc | 6

Russian scientists have developed an economical atomic battery with power increased by 10 times
Scientists from NUST MISIS have presented an innovative autonomous power source – a compact atomic battery that can last up to 20 years. Due to the original 3D-structure of the beta-voltaic element, its dimensions have decreased by three times, the specific power has increased by 10 times, and the cost has decreased by 50%. The results have been published in the international scientific journal Applied Radiation and Isotopes.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/russian-scientists-have-developed-an-economical-atomic-battery-with-power-increased-by-10-times-301117873.html

Posted by: Mao | Aug 30 2020 15:08 utc | 7

U.S. GDP shrank by nearly a third last quarter on an annualized basis. The European Union’s economy contracted by 39% and the U.K.’s by almost 60%, also on an annualized basis.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-27/historic-economic-contraction-in-canada-masks-strong-rebound

Posted by: Mao | Aug 30 2020 15:11 utc | 8

Want more wars? You’ll get ’em with Biden and friends.
CNN News – Aug 21
More than 70 former GOP national security officials and Congressmen endorse Biden

Washington, D.C. (CNN)More than 70 former national security officials from multiple Republican administrations along with former Republican members of Congress announced Thursday they are endorsing Joe Biden.
The group, Former Republican National Security Officials for Biden, includes former NSA and CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, former Deputy Secretary of State and Director of National Intelligence Amb. John Negroponte, former CIA and FBI Director William Webster, and former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff under President Trump, Miles Taylor. . .here

. . .Of course “security” means war — always believe the opposite of gov-speak.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 30 2020 15:14 utc | 9

“Former Belarusian presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, now exiled in Lithuania, believes Russia could be the mediator in discussions between President Alexander Lukashenko and the opposition about the country’s future.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/499409-putin-belarus-elections-legitimate/
“If we need foreign mediation in talks, we will definitely see Russia as one of the participants in the process. Russia is a country we have friendly and close relations with,” she said.
https://tass.com/world/1195073

Posted by: daffyDuct | Aug 30 2020 15:17 utc | 10

The world’s leading language experts have noted that young people are ‘fundamentally’ altering written communication based on what they perceive to be aggressive or offensive.
In particular, the use of the full stop, or period, in sentences is diminishing according to linguists because it has come to signify annoyance or offence.
“Full stops are, in my experience, very much the exception and not the norm in [young people’s] instant messages, and have a new role in signifying an abrupt or angry tone of voice,” notes Owen McArdle, a linguist at the ­University of Cambridge.
Fellow linguist Dr Lauren Fonteyn of Leiden University said “If you send a text message without a full stop, it’s already obvious that you’ve concluded the message. So if you add that additional marker for completion, they will read something into it and it tends to be a falling intonation or negative tone.”
Professor David Crystal says that the period is perceived as “ominous” by younger people, particularly because the use of text messaging means that the end of sentences are becoming a thing of the past. Each one now has its own text message.
The professor claims that the full stop is no longer the end of a sentence, but is now an “emotion marker.”
…
The gradual erosion of Language was predicted by George Orwell in his classic dystopia 1984.
In the novel, the all powerful Party mandates Newspeak, which focuses on diminishing vocabulary in order to control the range of thought among the general population.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLOc9UenFqc
https://summit.news/2020/08/28/linguists-young-people-refusing-to-use-full-stops-in-sentences-because-they-see-them-as-aggressive/

Posted by: Mao | Aug 30 2020 15:26 utc | 11

US lawyer Larry Klayman has suggested that the breaking of Geneva Conventions means a loss of diplomatic immunity/ The goose he was trying to cook was China, the gander is all the folks that fomented the Libyan disaster or the other what have yous.. Let justice be done though the heavens may fall. They only care for their reputations despite the ugly realities they create. I suggest tracking devices and body cameras on all politicians, lobbyists, and hey, anyone making over $500k per year. Mandatory televised vax for Bill Gates. If they’re not doing anything wrong then why would they mind?

Posted by: failureOFimagination | Aug 30 2020 15:33 utc | 12

Posted by: failureOFimagination | Aug 30 2020 15:33 utc | 12

US lawyer Larry Klayman has suggested that the breaking of Geneva Conventions means a loss of diplomatic immunity/ The goose he was trying to cook was China, the gander is all the folks that fomented the Libyan disaster or the other what have yous..

The biggest gander I’d like to see cooked in that pot is a certain European squatter camp in the middle of Palestine.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Aug 30 2020 16:07 utc | 13

China strikes back in the US tech war with new restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence. Chinese companies must seek governmental approval before any transfer can occur:
“AI interface technologies such as speech and text recognition, and those that analyze data to make personalized content recommendations, were added to a revised list of export-control products published on the Ministry of Commerce’s website late Friday. Government permits will be required for overseas transfers to “safeguard national economic security,” it said.”
TikTok Assets Can’t Be Sold Without China’s Approval
China decides to play the national security card against Trump trying to steal valuable assets for US companies at fire sale prices.

Posted by: One Too Many | Aug 30 2020 16:15 utc | 14

@jo6pac | Aug 30 2020 13:36 utc | 1
I have seen the same thing today. Apparently, it affects mostly/only non-MSM sites. Probably Covert-19.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 30 2020 16:20 utc | 15

CNN: Fighting against food wastage in China is Authoritarian™ because Freedom®
Yup, the sinophobic propaganda has gotten this hilariously bad.

Posted by: J W | Aug 30 2020 16:24 utc | 16

@ 14 OTM
China strikes back in the US tech war. . .
Has China Already Won? You Bet
Forbes, Aug 27

China is on its way to surpass us in many, many ways, and they’re cleverly run in a way that’s different from the way we would ever want to run. We need to take them seriously… they’re going to end up with a bigger economy, more R&D investments, better quality research, wider applications of technology, and a stronger computing infrastructure.
…China’s form of government and the reinvention of state capitalism carried out by Xi Jinping has produced any number of large, decisive and top-down initiatives, which implies a much higher degree of efficiency.
…the way to fight China is not through a trade war, sanctions or executive orders, which is the approach taken by the Trump administration, but instead by moving faster and leaving China behind. Right now, the problem is not only that China is able to develop technology faster, more efficiently and with less resistance, but also that it is enjoying success in attracting and retaining talent.
… China has already won: the macroeconomic data has yet to prove it, but it has become the world’s leader in generating data to feed its algorithms, has more artificial intelligence patents, and is streets ahead in implementing cutting-edge developments. is streets ahead in implementing cutting-edge developments. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 30 2020 16:39 utc | 17

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 30 2020 16:39 utc | 17
China already won, it’s a no brainer. I posted that article in the previous open thread. US is just trying to delay the inevitable, but instead they are isolating themselves and pissing off most of the world.
“People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.” – John Kenneth Galbraith
I love that quote because it’s so prescient with regards to the US regime(s) and their behavior.

Posted by: One Too Many | Aug 30 2020 16:52 utc | 18

thanks b… i appreciate all the posts and the additional links you have shared… i am especially interested in the matt taibbi article…
thanks also to the many thoughtful posters here at moa.. @11 mao… i don’t even know what a ”full stop” is! i can’t figure it out from the article either! i suppose i am supposed to just ”know”…

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2020 16:54 utc | 19

Pat Lang’s blog has been appropriated by the Larry Johnson section of the CIA.
Larry Johnson is famous as the “No Quarter” blog–find it on the Internet Wayback Machine. Larry famously deleted the ENTIRE SITE after the 2008 election, after he violently–and frauduently (demonstrable)–advocated on Hillary’s behalf, against Obama.
My guess is that Pat Lang is currently in a vegetable state, his wife needs the money brought in by the blot, and Larry Johnson is bringing in a bunch of “his people” (i.e.: propagandists and frauds) to hijack the blog into something it has never been.
For one clear instance: Pat Lang has been famously critical and antagonistic against both the CIA and the FBI.
Oddly, the blog–since recently being taken offline in an unanticipated and unannounced action–has come back online with a weird “J” posting a lot of FBI/MIA (so-called “closed-case”) investigations into “Chinese collaborators.”
Meanwhile, Pat Lang’s so-called “friend”, Larry Johnson–a clearly current CIA officer who had demonstrably lied on many, many occasions–is increasingly featured on his blog.
Meanwhile, Pat Lang’s personal posts have increasingly mimicked…Larry Johnson’s current posts: anti-#BLM, increased use of the word “communist,” increased connections between “leftist” and “communist”–
Pat Lang used to make a clear distinction between “leftists” and “communists.” Once-upon-a-time, he said he’d vote for Bernie Sanders.
In the last 9 months–well within the timeline I suggest his dementia has allowed Larry Johnson to, on behalf of the CIA, take over his blog–Col. Lang has declared Sanders to be a “Communist.”
Go back and read the “No Quarters” blog in the Wayback Machine. The fact that the ratfucker deleted his entire blog after Hillary failed to win the election should be enough to paint the current arbiter of Pat Lang’s blog as a CIA plant: what TRUE blogger deletes their record after an election?
Nobody in the corporate sphere; nobody in the OPEN corporate sphere; nobody in the OPEN military sphere–
Only people who want to hide their previous political RHETORIC try to hide their past words–and who in the human world thinks that they can simply delete their Internet past?
Obviously, someone who has NSA/CIA/USMIA ties.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Aug 30 2020 16:55 utc | 20

Posted by: vk | Aug 30 2020 14:44 utc | 5
Deskulakization , finally the soviets came, I am contemplating the painting American Gothic, the rabble overwhelming the farmer with his rake… And you guys always thought that it was going to be with tanks.!!

Posted by: Paco | Aug 30 2020 16:58 utc | 21

@ Pacifica Advocate | Aug 30 2020 16:55 utc | 20.. interesting speculation… thanks…. i am not sure i agree with it, but i appreciate you saying it!

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2020 17:02 utc | 22

so covid coverage is reduced to one individual’s harrowing journey through corona contagion country…
how appropriate

Posted by: john | Aug 30 2020 17:14 utc | 23

@ 20 PA
For one clear instance: Pat Lang has been famously critical and antagonistic against both the CIA and the FBI.
Really? That shocks me b/c Lang cut his military teeth as a Green Beret implementing CIA’s Operation Phoenix in Vietnam. Lang defended it (to me) by saying that they were just carrying our President Diem’s wishes.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 30 2020 17:14 utc | 24

Glenn Greenwald on the multi-dimensional crisis in the US and its expression in mass psychological diseases like depression, suicide and substance abuse.
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/28/the-social-fabric-of-the-u-s-is-fraying-severely-if-not-unravelling/
—
The problem with liberal hysteria about Trump is that it isn’t rooted in class analysis. I highly recommend the linked article below, which considers Trump and his base through the prism of Marx’s theory of the lumpenproletariat, as told through his history of Louis Bonaparte III. The author also has a new book on the topic, with University of Michigan Press.
https://socialistproject.ca/2020/08/donald-trump-a-new-emperor-of-the-lumpenproletariat/

Posted by: Prof K | Aug 30 2020 17:17 utc | 25

@ Posted by: Paco | Aug 30 2020 16:58 utc | 21
Some say the woman pictured in the American Gothic is the man’s daughter; others say she’s the man’s wife.
Since I’m a centrist/moderate and a pacifist/humanist, I like to consider her to be both. Makes sense (they are American kulaks, after all) and leaves both sides of the debate happy.

Posted by: vk | Aug 30 2020 17:27 utc | 26

Just came across this and you may find it interesting too.
https://qwerty.dev/whitespace/

Prevent information leaks
This idea comes from cyber-security guy Zach Aysan
If your company has a leaker, you can add zero-width spaces to sensitive documents—hidden in different places for each of the recipients.
Once the material is leaked, you can check it for zero-width spaces and find out the identity of the leaker.
HTML Entity &​#​8​2​0​3​;
Unicode U+200B

There is one ​​in the middle of this ​sentence. See ​it?
Experiment:
There is also one between these two characters >​< Can you cut & paste the three characters and then delete the two end characters and have the Zero-space character remaining? Useful Bonus! When I previewed my post the HTML Entity above was invisible (naturally) so I pasted some Zero-space characters into the entity and it displays!

Posted by: librul | Aug 30 2020 17:37 utc | 27

Posted by: librul | Aug 30 2020 17:37 utc | 27
Actually there’s four if you count “see it”.

Posted by: One Too Many | Aug 30 2020 17:53 utc | 28

The problem with liberal hysteria about Trump is that it isn’t rooted in class analysis. I highly recommend the linked article below, which considers Trump and his base through the prism of Marx’s theory of the lumpenproletariat, …
Posted by: Prof K | Aug 30 2020 17:17 utc | 25
The prime problem is not “analytical roots” but the hysteria itself. If you decide to be hysterical, you can find reasons. The decision, in my humble opinion, was by imitation, it worked for Republicans, it should work for us…

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 30 2020 17:56 utc | 29

@Posted by: One Too Many | Aug 30 2020 17:53 utc | 28
Yes, I was having fun. I didn’t say *only* one. 🙂

Posted by: librul | Aug 30 2020 17:57 utc | 30

@6 expat
I guess Zionist Kagan’s not happy Trump shred the Iran deal, moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, is stealing the West Bank and handing it to Israel, is trying to topple the Maduro government and so on. 😏
And it seems you love all that. Expat on the Settler reservation or just a Russian bootlicker?

Posted by: Circe | Aug 30 2020 17:58 utc | 31

@Don Bacon, #24:
Lang was a…what…20-something kid, back then?
I am *WELL* versed in the demonstrable proof that the heroin epidemic back during his time in Vietnam was attributable to the CKS-KMT/CIA secret-ops groups.
When I posted to Lang’s site that there was demonstrable evidence the CIA/KMT was involved in selling heroin to the US troops in Vietnam…yeah, he shut me down, insisting that “the communists” were the ones responsible for peddling heroin to the US troops, there.
There are precisely 3 ways one can interpret that reaction:
1) Lang is in on the lie
2) Lang believes the lie, and disbelieves the evidence (because of exterior factors)
3) Lang is stupid and has never reviewed the evidence
Now, for the counter-argument:
A) Pat Lang was one of VERY FEW blogs by members of Military Intelligence to come out and take down the Bush-era (Neocon/Israeli) Executive Propaganda on the Iraq Invasion.
B) Lang has done more than pretty much anyone else I have ever read to debunk the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations//Foreign Policy mag) perspective on how the US should “move forward” on its foreign policy
C) Lang has been one of my most reliable informants on the nuts-and-bolts of how militaries kill people; in fact, he briefly invited b, the author of this blog, into his inner-circle of commentators simply because b knows how to manage a tank.
None of A, B, or C has held true since Larry Johnson has started posting, there.
Now, with all that said, to address your main point:
Lang was a 18/20-something nobody, a corporal-captain at best, in a largely sidelined-at-the-times portion of the military, who–at best–heard rumors of what was going on by listening in on people the CIA already had duped, at the time.
Lang was PRECISELY the sort of person the CIA wanted to keep in the dark, at that time: he was a true-believer, who refused to accept the idea that the US would transgress “Law” (which included UN and International Law, at that time: both favored the US) to further its (in his eyes) entirely legal and justifiable means.
Lang has bought into the “No, the CIA never peddled heroin” because to REFUSE the purchase would call into question his entire existence.
Pat Lang endorsed MLK; post-Larry Johnson, we’ve seen a significant back-peddle, from that view.
More people who love that site (not me! I was banned after pointing out the proof that supports the KMT/Heroin history of Vietnam!) should remind the post-Larry Johnson era about how Pat Lang once wrote (paraphrase) “This generation does not see the mingling of black and white as a bad thing. This is the future! The Republican Party needs to embrace this!”

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Aug 30 2020 18:01 utc | 32

Russian smoke chases oil thieves, 4 injured, in Syria
A video captured by a Russian military police officer on a Russian armored vehicle shows a Russian helicopter coming to the scene where the heavily armed oil thieves convoy was stopped by the Russian military police. The helicopter flew very low over the Trump forces blowing sand and dust on the oil thieves which forced them to flee the site:

Posted by: snake | Aug 30 2020 18:11 utc | 33

@Don Bacon, #24:
Sorry if my point was obtuse; i suffer from that, sometimes.
What I meant was that Col. Lang was duped when he was a kid. He’s also being duped, now–when, i presume, he’s an invalid and his female protectors are worried about his “reputation”–something which he clearly disregarded back when he started his blog, but something which he clearly wanted to maintain back when he started his blog.
He’s a problematic figure–you got no trouble getting me to admit that.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Aug 30 2020 18:11 utc | 34

@ 27 librul, thanks – didn’t know about that! If I copy & paste your lines into the “Post a comment” box the characters don’t show there either, even though they actually are there. Trying it in the Name box …
@ 7 @ 11 Mao, interesting posts about the battery and the gradual erosion of language as predicted by Orwell.
@ 19 james, was that was tongue in cheek? I’ve noticed you never seem to use a period, and use ellipses instead, and also never capitalize … Are you possibly of the young people cohort referred to by the article?

Posted by: ​ | Aug 30 2020 18:15 utc | 35

I posted several times that it looks very much like the Dems don’t want to win 2020. (See also Jack.)
Ex. Biden is an abysmal candidate, almost on par with the disastrous Killary.
— I didn’t mention that one might attempt to read some rationality into a managed secretive loss – who wants to own an epidemic, another major financial crisis, the ballooning effects of global warming.. —
Now, I have a slightly different take.
The Dems last real victory (Obama I) was built on identity politics and image, political fluff, silly posturing and performing, nonsense, and lies. I need not describe the unspeakable crimes of the Obomber, etc. etc.
The election of Trump, despite attempts to attack him before he was elected, took the Dems by surprise. They had not understood the forces in play: PTB, often called the Deep State in the US – the hatred of Killary as a person, ex. the forgiving wife of Bill – Benghazi and more – the electoral dynamics in general – …. When noboby except paid participants listens to you, and the opponent draws crowds of 10s of thousands it is *Game Over.*
2020: a lame re-make. An attempt at replicating Obama, with his VP and the only F candidate labelled ‘minority’ (seen her described as Black, Asian, she is of course neither..) and is probably more murderous and cruel than Obama was. The Podesta e-mails are very informative about Dem. strategy (that was, I recommend.)
Attacking, discrediting, Trump, and attempts to color-revolutionise the ‘dictator’ racist, woman-hater, DT, are strategies applied at home following their use abroad. The Dems apparently haven’t noticed that the success of color revols. is not high, and the results are awful for those affected (at home should be different.) The strategy cuts deep into American Exceptionalism, which is unbearable. The US does not have ‘dictators’ – but a Wonderful Democracy – ‘Racists’ are Pilloried, etc. Finally, law-and-order discourse in times of violence and uncertainty is a sure winner (see prev. b posts, others.)
To sum up, Dems and Reps – a sorta phoney oppositional duopoly, the public fakey face of a totally corrupt political system upheld to divide ppl, is morphing as we watch. It is ‘real’ in a way, there are ppl jockeying for power and some will win. Many are running around hapless, what next, who to join, etc. The wires humming…

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 30 2020 18:17 utc | 36

@Posted by: ​ | Aug 30 2020 18:15 utc | 35
I see what you did there. Cute.

Posted by: librul | Aug 30 2020 18:20 utc | 37

@4 Circe: I will make the standard disclaimer of “Trump is bad” just as a way of showing I don’t support him … and I find myself wanting to believe that his foreign policy is the worst.
But I can’t help coming back around again and again to the fact that Trump has not started any new “hot” wars. None that I am aware of anyway; please correct me if I’m wrong. He may have escalated some, but every one of them was started by Obama or previous admins. He seems even to be dragging his feet on bombing Iran, despite the relentless beating of those war drums.

Posted by: Prairie Bear | Aug 30 2020 18:41 utc | 38

Shameful by Passarelli, to use Julian Assange just for an anti-Trump puff piece.

Posted by: michael | Aug 30 2020 18:45 utc | 39

Compare and contrast the coverage of the Kenosha shooting incident in mainstream media versus alternative media. Note the New York Post article describes the first man shot by Rittenhouse as a “local dad”.
If you read the article posted on the Burning Platform however, you will learn that this “local dad” was an ex-con who had spent nearly a decade in jail for sexual misconduct with a minor, who was required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
See this video link Every Angle + Timeline of Kyle Rittenhouse Kenosha Riot Shooting that shows the this “local dad” chasing Rittenhouse into a parking lot moments before he was shot; also shows Rittenhouse calling 911 for help and then having to run for his life followed by a crowd yelling “Get him!”; the subsequent chase scene going down the street is what has been mostly seen by the public.
The New York Post article article states that the second man shot by Rittenhouse was “trying to disarm the shooter with a skateboard” . . . kind of an interesting way to describe hitting somone lying on the ground in the head with a 15 pound skateboard (see the photo in the Burning Platform article).
And MSM/the Post finishes its unbiased narrative by describing the last man shot as “a volunteer medic” lol, who just happened to be carrying a pistol that he had begun to point at Rittenhouse when he was shot in his right arm. The Post also fails to mention that this “volunteer medic” had previously been charged with felony burglary, theft, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct.
See any difference in the narratives?

Posted by: Perimetr | Aug 30 2020 19:00 utc | 40

Before I would dare to claim the guy was murdered because he was a Trump supporter, i would double check who he was sleeping with, and who his wife/girl friend was sleeping with, and recent changes in insurance policy. But I suppose this shows us how people can be sure Putin poisoned the Skripals and Navalny, doesn’t it? They just go with what makes them…happy.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Aug 30 2020 19:07 utc | 41

Compare and contrast the coverage of the Kenosha shooting incident in mainstream media versus alternative media. Note the New York Post article describes the first man shot by Rittenhouse as a “local dad”.
If you read the article posted on the Burning Platform however, you will learn that this “local dad” was an ex-con who had spent nearly a decade in jail for sexual misconduct with a minor, who was required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
See this video link Every Angle + Timeline of Kyle Rittenhouse Kenosha Riot Shooting that shows the this “local dad” chasing Rittenhouse into a parking lot moments before he was shot; also shows Rittenhouse calling 911 for help and then having to run for his life followed by a crowd yelling “Get him!”; the subsequent chase scene going down the street is what has been mostly seen by the public.
The New York Post article article states that the second man shot by Rittenhouse was “trying to disarm the shooter with a skateboard” . . . kind of an interesting way to describe hitting somone lying on the ground in the head with a 15 pound skateboard (see the photo in the Burning Platform article).
And MSM/the Post finishes its unbiased narrative by describing the last man shot as “a volunteer medic” lol, who just happened to be carrying a pistol that he had begun to point at Rittenhouse when he was shot in his right arm. The Post also fails to mention that this “volunteer medic” had previously been charged with felony burglary, theft, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct.
See any difference in the narratives?

Posted by: Perimetr | Aug 30 2020 19:09 utc | 42

It has been unleashed a coordinated effort by the far-right to cause mayhem in Europe.
Apart from the intend of take over of the Bundestag by 200 nazi thugs cammuflated into the anti-Coronavirus demonstration in Berlin, some other thugs burnt a Koran in public square in Malmo, Sweden, with the aim to cause interreligious conflict…Riots followed and chaos seem out of control…
https://www.rt.com/news/499381-malmo-riots-koran-burning/
This was expected time ago as part of US foreign policy…after the arms twisting by Pompeo had few effect…

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Aug 30 2020 19:50 utc | 43

31 Circe – don’t think you get it. As between Trump and Biden, there’s really nothing to choose from. Or perhaps you think Biden et al will make nice with Maduro, lower the boom on Israel?
Also, better to be a “Russian bootlicker” as you put it in your characteristically charming way, than a dupe of the DNC. Ever notice how the MSM talks about all thing Putin/Russia? And how do they talk about the DNC?

Posted by: expat | Aug 30 2020 19:52 utc | 44

@ ​ | Aug 30 2020 18:15 utc | 35… that is pretty good how you did that as librul notes! no tongue and cheek on my part.. i truly meant that.. i had to ask a younger friend what it meant… i started writing this way based off an influence from bill bisset – poet in the vancouver area who does this… http://www.billbissett.com/ i liked the use of no capitals and more dots at the end of sentences and stuff like that… i was intrigued by libruls post… i am not smart enough to figure it out… cheers..

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2020 19:58 utc | 45

or maybe i am lazy…

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2020 19:59 utc | 46

@ james | Aug 30 2020 19:58 utc | 43
You will love e e cummings
see wikipedia

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Aug 30 2020 20:29 utc | 47

thanks t bear! maybe bissett got that from cummings??

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2020 20:37 utc | 48

@42 expat
I don’t know how to explain anymore that I could care less for Biden or Trump! I only give a damn about the truth and no one tramples it more than Trump!
I don’t need the media to tell me it’s sunny when it’s pouring rain either. I have eyes and a brain, so I don’t need the media to tell me that Russians are Trump bootlickers and never mind the consequences to others, just as long as Russians get their wish! I trust only my instincts, and my instincts tell me Trump must not get a 2nd term because too many people, other than Russians, will suffer needlessly. Period. So screw Russia!

Posted by: Circe | Aug 30 2020 20:43 utc | 49

@Posted by: Circe | Aug 30 2020 20:43 utc | 47
What price for a treasonous coup attempt?
The intelligence community attempted a treasonous coup against POTUS. The LSM (aka MSM) and the Democrats aided and abetted.
Is it without cost?
So many Democrats are taking it up the butt again and letting the DNC get away with their blatant corruption. They screwed Bernie *again*
yet many Bernie voters are supporting the DNC selected candidate – Biden. That seems so nuts to me.
Where is the appreciation of moral hazard? They are telling the DNC to just keep on sticking it to them, they’ll support the DNC
choice no matter what. Jeepers.
I only have one vote. The thought of going four years knowing that I gave Trump my vote is just sickening to me.
But there should be a price for treason by the Democrats !!
It is Howard Hawkins or (gasp) Trump. One vote.

Posted by: librul | Aug 30 2020 21:01 utc | 50

During the height of the Syrian conflict, b was often commenting at Turcopolier. And Lang ran good articles by Patrick Bhazad and others. At some point, PL got mad at b for being “anti-American” or something silly like that, just for pointing out factual things like US war crimes in Vietnam and elsewhere.
That site has now degenerated into anti-black racism and anti-China hysteria out of kneejerk support for Trump.
PL also maligned Bernie this time around but voted for and donated to Bernie in 2016. He also pushes the idiotic American conservative line about the neoliberal Wall Street Dems as being Marxists! So stupid.

Posted by: Prof K | Aug 30 2020 21:02 utc | 51

Multiculturalism is a failed and discredited ideology. And just like other failed and discredited ideologies were relegated to the history books when the German or Russian army withdrew, multiculturalism will be dismissed to the history books when the US Army withdraws from Europe.

Posted by: passerby | Aug 30 2020 21:11 utc | 52

just in case … I just installed a trial version of Kaspersky antivirus/security suite, and it keeps complaining about Katehon.com site that I had occasionally read, and it’s somewhere in my messed up bookmarks I imported from my previous system … kind of funny, because Microsoft Defender etc had nothing to say about it …my understanding is, that Katehon is funded by a Russian Orthodox Oligarch, it’s a kind of aggregate site presenting occasionally original content of interest if memory serves but I just wonder what could be the “threat”

Posted by: K.B. | Aug 30 2020 21:29 utc | 53

@Posted by: K.B. | Aug 30 2020 21:29 utc | 51
The “threat” could well be simply that the site tracks you to your end…
Any good IT security system shoud warn you about that…
Kaspersky is good…even in trial version…

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Aug 30 2020 21:49 utc | 54

Am I being blocked for trying to post a video of Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi?

Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Aug 30 2020 21:53 utc | 55

Here is the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=-eR1j9vqKi8&app=desktop

Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Aug 30 2020 21:54 utc | 56

Posted by: K.B. | Aug 30 2020 21:29 utc | 51
Domain name is registered to Tsargard Media:
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: OJSC PC BOS
Registrant Organization: Nonpublic joint-stock company Tsargrad Media
Registrant Street: ul. Tverskaya, d. 7
Registrant City: Moscow
Registrant State/Province: Moscow
Registrant Postal Code: 125375
Registrant Country: RU
Registrant Phone: +7.4953747773
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Email: administration@tsargrad.tv
Apparently the founder Konstantin Malofeyev is under US sanctions. YouTube blocked the channel back in May citing this reason. Solve the problem of anti-virus by using Ubuntu, Arch Linux, or Linux Mint and use Windows in a VM. You’ll be better off in the long run.

Posted by: One Too Many | Aug 30 2020 21:56 utc | 57

I had completely objective comments accompanying my video link of Prof.Sucharit Bhakdi. But I could not post them. So I am trying to repost just the comments separately. Strange….
“It has been my observation that in general, and on this blog, there is a certain bias on COVOD-19. I don’t say this to imply which narrative is correct – but to make an observation. At the same time, I am aware of other narratives…
Now I found this new video from Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi, a retired physician in the fields of microbiology, virology and infectious epidemiology. Before his retirement in 2012 he was head of the institute for medical microbiology and hygiene at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany. This video in an appeal to his colleagues in the medical and scientific fields, to have an open discussion about how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic – and more importantly, about issues related to a vaccine.
Considering Prof. Bhakdi’s subject matter expertise, career and accomplishments, it is hard to label him as a conspiracy theorist. And yet, his views continue to be silenced in the media in general and in the German media in particularly. One does not have to take a side on the bigger COVID -19 discussion (I don’t and take recommended precautions to protect me and my family), but why on earth are apparently legitimate and qualified counter opinions being silenced in the media?
I am no anti-vexer. But after listening to Prof. Bhakdi, my likelihood of getting a COVOD-19 vaccine has gone significantly lower. Remember, the main thrust of this talk is an appeal to the medical and scientific community to openly discuss some very important issues that sound appropriate to me. You decide.
I used to follow the German media quite closely, but ever since Assange was hijacked from the Ecuadorian ambassy, to which the entire German mainstream media have responded with a deafening silence, I have recategorized them as presstitutes as well. Now I scan them only at a very high level.
Since b lives in Germany, I’d love to hear from him how much Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi’s voice is being silenced over there.

Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Aug 30 2020 21:57 utc | 58

Bon vivants in the post-war West love to masturbate over the “Stalin Genocide” and the “Mao Genocide”.
But what about the endless, slow motion West Democracy Genocide, against the so-called Third World?
Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic — Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya’s rules on plastics and on imports of American trash.

Posted by: vk | Aug 30 2020 21:57 utc | 59

@48 librul
Sorry but I don’t see Trump as betrayed, the victim of treason or any kind of victim.
I’ll agree however that the Democratic Party, DNC engaged in subversion of democracy when it again derailed Bernie’s campaign and for that there should be a price, but not for supposed treason against Trump and the price should not be the re-election of Trump because that would be like cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
What might be effective is voting Biden to get rid of Trump, but giving him a minority in the House, and Senate as punishment and only allowing true progressives through and rejecting neolibs and blue dogs. That would send a clear message. However, are people organized enough to pull it off?

Posted by: Circe | Aug 30 2020 22:05 utc | 60

Prairie Bear @38 said,
“But I can’t help coming back around again and again to the fact that Trump has not started any new “hot” wars. None that I am aware of anyway; please correct me if I’m wrong. He may have escalated some, but every one of them was started by Obama or previous admins. He seems even to be dragging his feet on bombing Iran, despite the relentless beating of those war drums.”
Now there is something that you can really blame on Russia and Putin.

Posted by: arby | Aug 30 2020 22:12 utc | 61

Posted by: vk | Aug 30 2020 21:57 utc | 57
What an offer the US is making. Don’t take Chinese investment, don’t use Huawei, don’t let China manage Mombasa port, but instead take our trash and poison your children in the process. I wonder what Kenya is going to choose?

Posted by: One Too Many | Aug 30 2020 22:16 utc | 62

Posted by: jo6pac | Aug 30 2020 13:36 utc | 1
This is why you’re having Internet problems:
Internet users across the world report problems with accessing websites in major global outage
CenturyLink routing issue led to outages on Hulu, Steam, Discord, more
CenturyLink on Twitter:
“We are able to confirm that all services impacted by today’s IP outage have been restored. We understand how important these services are to our customers, and we sincerely apologize for the impact this outage caused.”
In short, it was a BGP routing issue – not a conspiracy.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 30 2020 22:31 utc | 63

librul @48 wrote
“The intelligence community attempted a treasonous coup against POTUS. The LSM (aka MSM) and the Democrats aided and abetted.”
__________________________________________________________
You have to be really stupid to believe that…
The Trump administration appointed Mueller. The Mueller investigation was a huge victory for Trump. The Mueller probe was designed from the beginning to lead stupid moronic democrats into the weeds for years following Mueller because the idiot liberals believed Mueller was eventually going to perp walk Trump in hand cuffs to a jail cell. The people who believed that was going to happen were many millions of idiots who were neutered for years because they believed all their hatred for Trump was going to be fulfilled. Now all that cheered for
Mueller look like idiots and Trump came out of it smelling like a rose.
The intelligence community has been helping Trump all along. Sure the IC has been saying things that make it appear they are against trump but only idiots believe what the intelligence community says.

Posted by: jinn | Aug 30 2020 22:32 utc | 64

Oh and I forgot to mention how stupid it is to say the MSM is against Trump.

Posted by: jinn | Aug 30 2020 22:34 utc | 65

perimetr @40 –
I am not going to get into another long discussion full of misinterpretations on this shooting (see the thread from b’s post on the conditions in the US right now) – and I agree there are competing narrative approaches depending on who is pushing the story. We still don’t know all the facts, and now things have gotten even more complex (also affecting a dialog I had with one of the new commenters in the other thread) because a supposed member of Antifa has now allegedly murdered a Trump supporter in Portland. What a mess this has become – and I would say on purpose. Both Trump and the Dims want as much discord as possible up to the election.
However, the only reason I’m really responding to you is that I also posted the same video in the aforementioned thread (in the effort to prove that there was only one of the people allegedly attacking Rittenhouse who was armed with a pistol – during a very specific frame of the video when he was lying in the street), and to tell you that there’s no way in hell any skateboard of that size weighs more than 5lbs, probably not even 4lbs. They have to be light so you can do jumps and tricks. I’m a former skater actually. A 15lb skateboard is unheard of to me, but maybe some of those really long ones they are using nowdays (not the kind visible in the video) could get over 10lbs?
Again, and either way – nobody is going to win out of these violent confrontations that I was initially arguing were mostly sparked by heavy handed police treatment of peaceful demonstrators as well as infiltration by people like “umbrella man” – but which I now can see are in many cases simply violence (and looting) for its own sake. The ruling class of the USSA loves it, of course as the plebes being at each others’ throats and the painting of the left as violent thugs bent on killing free speech only strengthens the donor class’s inverted totalitarian government and corporate/bankster owned economy as it always has dating back to the company town strikes as the country began to industrialize and carrying on through Civil Rights Era and Vietnam. Peaceful assembly is either laughed at or crushed by the media and law enforcement and no reform ever comes from any of it, so I am guessing people back in the USSA have decided only violence will work. Of course they are wrong, and it will only give the aforementioned classes and their strong-arm local, state and federal law enforcement agencies more agency to destroy civil rights with the excuse that rioting and looting are the only alternative.
I don’t envy anyone in the USSA right now, but things here have begun to fall apart as well – difference being most people aren’t armed and carrying in the streets (and haven’t needed to).

Posted by: _K_C_ | Aug 30 2020 22:43 utc | 66

Cory Doctorow describes what’s wrong about “Surveillance Capitalism”

I just don’t buy the thesis that Big Tech used Big Data to create a mind-control ray to sell us fidget spinners, and that Cambridge Analytica hijacked it to make us all racists.
So I wrote “How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism,” a short book that delivers a different thesis: Big Tech is a monopoly problem. In fact, it’s just a part of a wider monopoly problem that afflicts every sector of our global economy.
Accidentally and deliberately, monopolies create all kinds of malignant outcomes. If the company that has a monopoly on search starts serving wrong answers, people will believe them – not because of mind control, but because of dominance.
But monopolies have an even graver failure-mode: when a large, profitable industry collapses down to 4 or 5 companies, it’s easy for those companies to agree on what they think policy should be.
And being monopolists, they have lots of spare cash to convert that agreement to actual policy. What’s more, once an industry is monopolized, everyone qualified to understand and regulate it probably came from one of the dominant companies.
Think of how the “good” Obama FCC chairman was a former Comcast exec and the “bad” Trump FCC chair is a former Verizon lawyer.
There’s a name for regulatory outcomes driven by collusion among monopolists whose regulators come from their own ranks.
We call them: “Conspiracies.”

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 30 2020 22:51 utc | 67

jinn, 62 & 63 –
I totally agree with you there. And to add weight to your point, recall the manner in which Mueller presented himself and his case when he was called before Congress to summarize the investigation. He looked like he had been drugged or something. He was difficult to understand and he provided nothing in terms of further detail or confirmation for the Dimmocrats’ wild Russia fantasies that the corporate MSM has recently been trying to dredge up again.
Recall also, that Mueller had a history of botched and otherwise face-saving investigations such as the one which led to the death of Bruce Ivins (I think that was his name) resulting from the anthrax scare (and deaths) of 2001.
Mueller was appointed very specifically to provide a huge faceplant to the Democrats and a big “exoneration” for Trump. All very clever when you really look at it.

Posted by: _K_C_ | Aug 30 2020 22:51 utc | 68

Jinn 62 – “The intelligence community has been helping Trump all along. Sure the IC has been saying things that make it appear they are against trump but only idiots believe what the intelligence community says.”
Names John Brennan and James Clapper mean anything to you?

Posted by: expat | Aug 30 2020 22:53 utc | 69

And here’s Doctorow’s book – it’s a free read.

After all, in a world where sprawling and incoherent conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and its successor, QAnon, have widespread followings, something must be afoot.
But what if there’s another explanation? What if it’s the material circumstances, and not the arguments, that are making the difference for these conspiracy pitchmen? What if the trauma of living through real conspiracies all around us — conspiracies among wealthy people, their lobbyists, and lawmakers to bury inconvenient facts and evidence of wrongdoing (these conspiracies are commonly known as “corruption”) — is making people vulnerable to conspiracy theories?

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 30 2020 22:56 utc | 70

Sigh…forgot to double-check the goddamn HREF…

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 30 2020 22:56 utc | 71

@ 36 Noirette
Congrats.
Nice writing.
You make a sordid affair humorously entertaining.
We really shouldn’t take life seriously in the limited time we are given.
(Please forgive me if I misinterpreted your intentions. It could be my current mood.)

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 30 2020 23:00 utc | 72

Washingtonion story on 29 yr old covid case.
NINE DAYS wait for covid test results. USA is a basket case.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 30 2020 23:03 utc | 73

Pacifica et al, regarding Pat Lang, Imo his site was valuable during the Iraq/Syria fiasco due to his pertinent experience and expertise in the region, but domestically speaking, he has always been a shitshow, what with his Confederate affinities, Vietnam era RW politics etc. I still go there to filter out the useful bits of intelligence, but it’s definitely an exercise in critical thinking. Larry Johnson has provided some useful Russiagate analysis but he has long gone over the top with his frothing racism. I take them for what they are worth, making no mistake that they hold any common cause with myself. At best, anybody to the left of Tucker Carlson is barely tolerated there.

Posted by: Roy G | Aug 30 2020 23:03 utc | 74

The Fallacy of Denouncing ‘Both Sides’ Of The U.S.-China Conflict
Westerners – specially Americans – should not delude themselves into think their own decline represents the ultimate decline of humanity. Unless they are insinuating they’re willing to go full hot war with nuclear war.

Posted by: vk | Aug 30 2020 23:05 utc | 75

RSH #65
YES to that. Revolving door between corporates and regulatory authorities creates a totally corrupt system.
Corporate criminality then destroys an independent public service and then ensures all regulator appointments come from their own corporate ranks.
The corporates are criminals.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 30 2020 23:13 utc | 76

Matt Taibbi is right, but he doesn’t speculate on where this racism hysteria (everything trends to hysteria these days in America) is heading, and I think it is important to try to see what the possible conclusions are.
“[The movement that calls itself “antiracism”] sees the human being as locked into one of three categories: members of oppressed groups, allies, and white oppressors.”
Of course, this dynamic is unstable when capitalist oppression is ignored and instead identity issues are touted as the source of oppression. The biggest issues for Black Americans, despite what their notional “allies” among the white upper middle class try to convince them, are economic. Getting all of America’s “deplorables” to wear kenta cloth scarfs and think good thoughts about Black people isn’t going to get good jobs for Black Americans, or reduce crime in their neighborhoods, or get them decent access to healthcare. It certainly isn’t going to create an environment where Black men can ignore police officers and just walk away when the police officers say they are under arrest.
Of course, the upper middle class whites who pose as allies of Black Americans realize this to a degree, which is why they are proposing “reparations” be paid to people with darker skin. “Reparations” that will be paid for by taxing white working class “deplorables” whose ancestors never owned slaves, and whose ancestors in fact had to compete in the labor market against slaves.
These efforts towards “reparations” paid for by taxes on non-Black workers is an effort to shift some of the burden of capitalist oppression from Blacks to other workers. The other workers will resist that effort. Sadly, we can see what “resistance” that lacks ideological discipline looks like these days by observing the riots going on in the country. Even more sad is that though the “reparations” idea is being advanced by the white upper middle class and not by Black Americans themselves (though they will gladly accept free money), the lightning rod for this resistance from the working class will end up being Black Americans. When that happens the “allies” that Black Americans think they have among the upper middle class will be nowhere to be found.
It would have been nice if the various pieces of the fragmented American working class (Black, white, whatever) could have found their common ground to fight for together against capitalism, but it looks unlikely that can develop any time soon. The analysis by Taibbi indicates that there are very influential forces in society working hard to prevent that common ground being found by the working class. Instead, those broken pieces of the working class are being deliberately steered into bloody conflict with each other. Black Americans are being set up to take a terrible fall by those who are pretending to be their allies.

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 30 2020 23:22 utc | 77

_K_C_ @ 66 wrote:
recall the manner in which Mueller presented himself and his case when he was called before Congress to summarize the investigation.
________________________________________________________
Mueller appeared to be suffering from senile dementia. If that was an act (like the rest of the Mueller investigation was) it was an Oscar winning performance.
_______________________________________________
expat @ 67 wrote:
Names John Brennan and James Clapper mean anything to you?
___________________________________________________
Do you mean the guys who have 40 years of accumulated dirt on Trump 1but are telling you the worst thing trump ever did was say something nice about Putin?

Posted by: jinn | Aug 30 2020 23:58 utc | 78

Jinn 76
“…but are telling you the worst thing trump ever did was say something nice about Putin?”
No, I was thinking about stuff like this, from Brennan:
Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors”. It was nothing short of “treasonous”. Not only were Trump’s comments “imbecilic”, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???
In this case, the “dirt” he had on Trump was Trump’s daring to negotiate with the leader of another nuclear-armed state. Doesn’t sound like a friendly intelligence service to me.

Posted by: expat | Aug 31 2020 0:21 utc | 79

William Gruff #75
Taibbi never seems to get to that issue of ‘tax wall street’ or the oligarchs. Always steering clear of that sackable offence.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 31 2020 0:30 utc | 80

There’s a New Game of Thrones in the Mediterranean: It’s time to listen to Germany and take a step back.
There’s a lot to comment over this editorial.
First of all: What a show of Western hypocrisy. What a show of projection by the Americans. What a display of intellectual dishonesty (indirectly).
Second, some question for future debate and speculation:
1) will (can) the Turkey-Greece imbroglio be Germany’s Suez Episode?
2) is the USA giving up (albeit very slowly) the European Peninsula (a la the Roman Empire giving up Dacia during Aurelian)?
3) will (can) the second fall of Greece be the beginning of the end of the EU as a viable (serious) geopolitical project?

Posted by: vk | Aug 31 2020 0:50 utc | 81

Chinese data shows Beijing continues Iranian oil imports
The USA can keep whining, as it is the max it can do.
I changed my mind: now I want Biden to win – by a hair. My rationale is a civil war can only continue to build up in the USA if it is its right-wing that triggers it, and it will only happen if Trump loses but not by much (fraud claims). Biden would be one of the weakest POTUSes of the USA’s History.

Posted by: vk | Aug 31 2020 1:01 utc | 82

@75 Capitalism depends on investment. Surplus money i.e profits are reinvested in the hope of further profits. Banks lend money expecting a return. There is risk involved of course. If black people wanting to start a businesses find it harder to borrow money than white people it is because they are seen as a greater risk. This may be completely unfair and based on racism but it is the reality. Are there any banks or credit unions that are prepared to rectify this?

Posted by: dh | Aug 31 2020 1:11 utc | 83

fyi Canada’s Chrystia Freeland’s still hiding her Nazi Grandfather…
Chrystia Freeland Must Account for Her Nazi Collaborator Grandfather
https://readpassage.com/chrystia-freeland-must-account-for-her-nazi-collaborator-grandfather/
“…Being connected to someone who has committed repugnant acts or held awful views is one thing. Refusing to condemn or even acknowledge what they did, continuing to push a whitewashed version of their past, and admitting they’ve had a major influence on your political views and career is something completely different. That is exactly what Freeland had done. Freeland’s only public response thus far to being asked about her grandfather’s history, was to erroneously dismiss it as Russian propaganda…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Aug 31 2020 1:13 utc | 84

Prof K @25
Many thanks for the link. I’ve always thought that the concept of Bonapartism was the most appropriate to understand the Trump phenomenon, rather than simply referring to him as a fascist or an authoritarian. With the degeneration of the ruling class in the US and in the absence of an organized force from below able to take power, it seemed inevitable that a ‘Strongman’ would emerge as a solution. Perhaps vk or yourself would like to elaborate on the Marxist theory of Bonapartism on this or another open thread? When the bourgeoisie is no longer able to rule but the proletariat is not yet organized to take power, all manner of bizarre phenomena emerge…

Posted by: Paora | Aug 31 2020 1:28 utc | 85

Prairie Bear @38 said,
“But I can’t help coming back around again and again to the fact that Trump has not started any new “hot” wars. None that I am aware of anyway; please correct me if I’m wrong. He may have escalated some, but every one of them was started by Obama or previous admins. He seems even to be dragging his feet on bombing Iran, despite the relentless beating of those war drums.”
He isn’t finished yet. Clinton waited till his 2nd term.
Besides, maybe Trumps war is being fought at home against the working class. The King of Bankruptcies is doing it again using a hot virus and even hotter tests to produce a Casedemic that used to cover for a color revolution and pass out lots of candy to his rich friends.

Posted by: Kay Fabe | Aug 31 2020 1:33 utc | 86

We call them: “Conspiracies.”
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 30 2020 22:51 utc | 65
Actually, the term is “regulatory capture’

Posted by: lobsterman | Aug 31 2020 1:37 utc | 87

@ Posted by: Paora | Aug 31 2020 1:28 utc | 83
I don’t have the erudition to explain Bonapartism, but I immediately recommend you to read Marx’s 18th Brumaire – one of the best books of history ever published.

Posted by: vk | Aug 31 2020 1:38 utc | 88

That Saker post is on the bleeding edge of hysteria. It’s funny and sad to see how terror-stricken righties have become.
I had an encounter on YouTube a couple days ago. I posted a comment, on a classic rock song’s page, that the album cover had a connection to my NYC neighborhood and that I’d have a look to see if it had changed.
This guy tells me I should stay away from NYC if I know what’s good for me. I tell him I live in the heart of the city and things are fine, thanks.
He goes off. He’s from Texas and he’s been seeing the commie protesters burn down cities, and he wants me to know that down in Texas, he and his neighbors are “armed to the teeth,” his words, and just waiting for those BLM commies to start something.
I told it must suck to live his life in such fear. He said he wasn’t afraid, he was prepared. FFS. I told him I have a fire escape because I’m afraid of a fire in my building. He’s armed to the teeth because he’s afraid of a boogeyman who isn’t coming for him or his neighbors. I don’t think he got it. He’s probably sitting on his porch with his AR-15 every night. Sad!

Posted by: NoOneYouKnow | Aug 31 2020 1:47 utc | 89

Don Bacon #17
China celebrates another win.
5G formation flying drones, beats smelly fireworks any day.
short video

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 31 2020 1:48 utc | 90

Prairie Bear @Aug30 18:41 #38

But I can’t help coming back around again and again to the fact that Trump has not started any new “hot” wars.

Not for want of trying.
In fact, both Russia and Iran have rejected Trump Administration + Israeli demands that they be allowed to bomb Iran. They wanted to creep into a war with Iran by getting permission first.
So the real story is that other countries have not allowed themselves to be baited into a war. I expect Trump will redouble his war efforts in his second term.
Here are some of the things the Trump Administration has done in its first term:

  • Iran: He has assassinated an Iranian general and withdrawn from JCPOA.
  • Syria: He has unjustly fired missiles at Syria TWICE, occupied Syrian oil fields, and recognized Golan Heights as Israeli territory despite UN resolutions to the contrary.
  • Iraqi: He attacked and killed a group of Iraqi soldiers without cause.
  • Venezuela: He seized Venezuelan state assets and supported a coup in that country – and strangely, some US military guys tried to infiltrate.
  • Yemen: USA still helps Saudia Arabia to fight against Yemen.
  • Russia: He has terminated most weapons agreements with Russia while provided lethal arms to Ukraine and moving US troops into Poland.
  • China: He’s teed-up a conflict with China as he blames them for deliberately spreading coronavirus; he sells arms to Taiwan and explicitly rejects China’s claim in the South China Sea.
  • North Korea: Trump’s much-touted peace deal with North Korea has fallen apart because Trump and his Administration have reneged on key portions.

And then there’s the third-party sanctions on multiple countries that are designed to create a virtual embargo. And his militarization of space. And questions about just where the novel coronavirus came from.
And don’t forget the broken promises. He hasn’t brought troops home. He’s just moved them around the chessboard. USA is STILL in Afghanistan and Iraq nearly 20 years later.
<> <> <> <> <> <>
But Trump can’t take all the credit. The Empire is a bi-partisan project of the US Deep State + Five-Eyes, + Israel.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 31 2020 2:28 utc | 91

The South China Sea is creeping back into the news. It’s a complicated matter with a lot of false claims coming from Washington. It’s nothing new, but the US Navy is increasingly active there. So I gathered some facts in a brief summary which follows.
>The US makes a big deal about a ruling of four years ago regarding the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea) Treaty which the US has never ratified, because it didn’t want to be subject to UN rulings, so let’s hold China’s feet to the fire. You’ll read a lot about “illegal islands” and other such baloney.
>After WWII, Japan renounced all claims to Taiwa and Penghu (the Pescadores) as well as the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands. The rights on the latter should have gone to China but they didn’t.
>In 2013 Philippines brought an arbitration case against China primarily concerning a fisheries dispute at Scarborough Shoal, where China claimed historical rights. The Philippines was adamant that it was not seeking a ruling on the disputes about territorial sovereignty over the various features in the South China Sea.
>The UNCLOS tribunal released its ruling in 2016. The tribunal ruled that any other historic rights China might once have claimed in what are now the exclusive economic zones (EEZ – 200 miles out) or continental shelves of other countries were invalidated by its ratification of UNCLOS.
>The court found that Scarborough Shoal is a rock entitled only to a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea. The judges cannot rule on sovereignty over that shoal, but ruled that China has violated the traditional fishing rights of Filipinos by not allowing them to fish at the shoal. Notably the tribunal said it would have found the same regarding Chinese fishermen if they were prevented access to the shoal by the Philippines. So both countries can fish there was the major finding. By the way, there are dozens of fishing disputes all over the world, some involving the US.
>The Tribunal also found that none of the Spratlys, including the largest natural features—Itu Aba, Thitu Island, Spratly Island, Northeast Cay, and Southwest Cay—are legally islands because they cannot sustain a stable human community or independent economic life. As such, they are entitled only to territorial seas, not EEZs or continental shelves. (That makes no sense, that they are non-islands entitled to territorial seas!)
>Of the seven Spratlys occupied by China, the court agreed with the Philippines that Johnson Reef, Cuarteron Reef, and Fiery Cross Reef are rocks, while Hughes Reef and Mischief Reef are below water at high-tide and therefore generate no maritime entitlements of their own. It disagreed with the Philippines on the question of Gaven Reef, finding that it is a rock, not a low-tide elevation, as well as on Kennan Reef (which China does not occupy but was introduced into the case).
>The Tribunal also ruled that the Nine-Dash Line dating from 1948 which the West complains about but China never mentions is invalid. The Tribunal reiterated that it was not ruling on territorial sovereignty which challenges its rulings in this case. There is no precedent for an international tribunal deciding upon the status of a maritime feature when the sovereignty over that feature is disputed.
>Currently the US is sailing warships near the China Spratlys, where China claims seven islands compared to Vietnam’s twenty. But the major US territorial violations are in the Paracels close to China, where the US is challenging China sovereignty on islands where China has a heavy presence.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 31 2020 3:23 utc | 92

Don Bacon @Aug31 3:23 @90
There have previously been several very detailed discussions at moa about the South China Sea dispute. You might want to look back at those.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 31 2020 3:38 utc | 93

Pacifica Advocate | Aug 30 2020 16:55 utc | 20
Larry Johnson also used to post at DailyKos regularly. Not surprising of course. I would guesstimate he quit there in c. 2010.

Posted by: sleepy | Aug 31 2020 4:24 utc | 94

re: Posted by: _K_C_ | Aug 30 2020 22:43 utc | 64
I checked and you are correct, the total weight of a skateboard is about 7 to 10 pounds I would say that under the particular circumstances, it probably didn’t make a lot of difference if it weighed 15 or 7 pounds. Not a good idea to go to a riot with an AR-15 dangling around your neck, and not particularly smart to attempt to smash someone (laying on the ground) over the head with a skateboard who happened to be armed with an AR-15 who had just shot someone else.
I also agree with what you write, “The ruling class of the USSA loves it, of course as the plebes being at each others’ throats and the painting of the left as violent thugs bent on killing free speech only strengthens the donor class’s inverted totalitarian government and corporate/bankster owned economy as it always has dating back to the company town strikes as the country began to industrialize and carrying on through Civil Rights Era and Vietnam. Peaceful assembly is either laughed at or crushed by the media and law enforcement and no reform ever comes from any of it, so I am guessing people back in the USSA have decided only violence will work.”.
But I would qualify your last sentence by saying that most people in the USSA struggle with day-to-day existence and live in the informational matrix created by the corporate-owned MSM. The public schools in the US don’t teach them anything about “money”, they have no understanding of central banks or banksters, they have no idea that the Federal Reserve is privately owned or that the National Debt is a SCAM that allows half of their taxes to go to banksters. Most ordinary people here are weary of endless war but don’t understand that is a function of keeping the US dollar as the global reserve currency, they have never heard of such a thing on CNN or MSNBC lol. And they sure as hell are not taught about that in their shitty public schools.
What the “Deplorables” do know is that they can’t pay their bills even though they work two or three crappy part time jobs, while food costs keep going up and quality of life keeps going down. And they see armed “peaceful” protestors burning down businesses in their cities while the police are being defunded, and guess what, it makes them ANGRY. And with more than 50 million people here filing for unemployment in the last several months, it sure as hell isn’t going to get much better any time soon.

Posted by: Perimetr | Aug 31 2020 4:28 utc | 95

@ 89 JR
Your attempt to equate a a few killings, agreement-termination and sanctions with war which results in millions of people killed, wounded and displaced is amusing but of no importance.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 31 2020 4:33 utc | 96

Trip report:
Just returned from a work trip to FL.
CLT, DFW, MIA and MCO airports were all very busy. Not as busy as a Labor Day weekend, for example, but lines at security, 40-50% seats in waiting areas filled, etc. In comparison, SFO was a ghost town going out and extremely few people on my return.
Planes: SFO outbound was 1 per 3 seats or less, coming in was 1.5-2 per 3 seats. Other flights were 75%-100% full. Airlines and airports requiring masks and enforcing this.
On the ground: Florida is open. Pretty much everyone wearing a mask, but inside dining (with spaced out tables) is available.
Didn’t much like the toll roads – drove from MCO to MIA, but gas was under $2/gallon pretty much everywhere except Miami. Filled the rental car tank at $2.05, literally 2 miles from MIA.
If economic activity is any judge – Florida, North Carolina, Texas are much, much closer to normal than the Bay Area. The people I talked to on the planes and in FL were mostly very unhappy with the economic impact of COVID-19 and in turn were pointing the blame finger on their local governments. The people that I already know, that I talked to while visiting, were visibly more radicalized in terms of disagreement with the Democratic party line (they are mostly conservative to start with, but not ultra-religious or far-right by any means).
Definitely interesting.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 31 2020 4:42 utc | 97

Posted by: John Gilberts | Aug 31 2020 1:13 utc | 82
Freeland’s only public response thus far to being asked about her grandfather’s history, was to erroneously dismiss it as Russian propaganda…”
That’s being too nice. If I’m not mistaken, Freeland is on record as saying that she is PROUD OF her nazi-collaborating grandfather. Is it a stretch to take from this that she does not disagree with his actions during wwII?

Posted by: farm ecologist | Aug 31 2020 5:28 utc | 98

Don Bacon @Aug31 4:33 #94

… amusing but of no importance.

You’re ability to shut your eyes is also amusing.
Hitler didn’t start a war … until he did. And no, I’m not saying that Trump is Hitler. Like every recent President, Trump is just a spokesperson/figurehead.
USA/Empire is conducting hybrid war or 4th-generation war which includes multi-dimensional fields of battle: economic sanctions, cyber, propaganda, lawfare, intimidation, color revolution, assassination, proxy war, and possibly bio-warfare as well.
The Trump Administration has continued and expanded covert and proxy wars that Bush and Obama had started and added a Cold War/Hybrid War with China to the mix. When they have pretended to be interested in peace, they have soon shown that to be a ruse: no peace with Russia’ No peace with North Korea; no peace for Palestinians; no bringing troops home from Afghanistan (as promised by Obama, then Trump) or Iraq; no “Let the Russians handle ISIS in Syria” (which Trump said in 2016).
The world is headed to war. Trump will be happy to take us there on behalf of the Deep State but Biden would be just as happy to do the same. It really doesn’t matter which Deep State candidate you pick. Hillary, Bush Sr., GWBush, McCain, Obama, Trump, Biden – they are all on Team Deep State.
Trump didn’t start a war is pure propaganda. He hasn’t ended any either. He’s extended them. And anyone can see that he’s taking us in the direction of a major war that could break out any one of several countries.
So the glass isn’t half-full. It’s full of hot air from Trump apologists who want us to believe that up is down and black is white.
The push to portray Trump as peaceful is actually frightening. Like the water receding before a tsunami. Every WAR PRESIDENT pretends that despite his peace-loving nature he is FORCED to take the country to war.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 31 2020 5:30 utc | 99

https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/iiuixo/hi_im_bill_binney_nsa_whistleblower_the_russians/
Hi, I’m Bill Binney NSA whistleblower. The Russians never hacked the DNC, and I have proof — Round 2: Ask me Anything: Livestream edition
Much here, watch it before it gets scrubbed.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 31 2020 6:16 utc | 100

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