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The MoA Week In Review – Open Thread 2020-73
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
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Other issues:
Covid-19:
The greater depression:
Civil War of 2020:
Liars:
> Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented U.S. President Donald Trump with a doctored video which showed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas calling for the murder of children, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Bob Woodward in his new book "Rage". <
Dune:
- Dune (1984/2020) side-by-side comparison (vid)
A side-by-side, shot-for-shot comparison between the trailer for Dune (2020) and the 1984 film adapted from the same novel by Frank Herbert. This video is meant to show the variety of choices made by two different groups of filmmakers 36 years apart when adapting the same written work.
The David Lynch original looks better to me.
Use as open thread …
Someone noted Lavrov’s conception of friendship and alignments in international relations. That came from this presser, which also included the following long, detailed comment about dealing with sanctions and relations with EU:
“The Western sanctions have been an eye-opener for us. They started long before the events in Ukraine or the referendum in Crimea. This process can be traced back to the Obama administration, when Edward Snowden found himself on Russian territory. He may have broken the US law, but he was persecuted for exposing activities by US structures, which were totally illegal, illegitimate and in many ways criminal, consisting of using unacceptable approaches abroad and undermining legitimate governments. Since then, we have grown used to sanctions. Reducing our response to all this to the so-called import substitution would be a narrow way of looking at things.
“In principle, the geopolitical response over these years consisted of recognising that our Western partners were unreliable, including, unfortunately, members of the European Union. We had many far-reaching plans, and there are documents setting forth the path to developing relations with the EU in the energy sector and high technology, and stepping up economic cooperation in general. We share a single geopolitical space. Considering our shared geography, logistics, and infrastructure across the Eurasian continent, we benefit from a substantial comparative advantage.
“It would certainly be a grave mistake for us and the European Union, as well as other countries in this space, including the SCO, the EAEU, and the ASEAN, which is also nearby, not to use our comparative geopolitical and geoeconomic advantages in an increasingly competitive world. Unfortunately, the European Union sacrificed its geoeconomic and strategic interests for the sake of its momentary desire to match the United States in what they refer to as “punishing Russia.” We have grown used to this. We now understand that we need a safety net in all our future plans related to reviving the full partnership with the European Union. This means that we need to proceed in a way that if the EU sticks to its negative, destructive positions, we would not depend on its whims and could provide for our development on our own while working with those who are ready to cooperate with us in an equal and mutually respectful manner.”
Lavrov’s comment about friendship then followed, with the above providing further context. TASS provides more as it seems Putin/Lavrov have decided to take a new stance toward the EU:
“Western countries are showing their arrogance when they doubt the verdicts and the professionalism of Russian medics who treated Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RTVI channel….
“‘Western partners are looking at us with arrogance in this regard: we have the right to doubt if they are right and to doubt their [Russian] professionalism [over Navalny’s alleged poisoning]. If this is so, then they [representatives of the West] dare doubt the professionalism of our doctors and investigators,’ Lavrov said. ‘This stance unfortunately reminds us of the past. Europe used to be arrogant and felt infallible before, which led to tragic consequences.’
“Had there been no Navalny case, Western nations would have invented another pretext to impose more sanctions on Russia, the top diplomat insisted. ‘I agree with our political analysts who say that had there been no Alexei Navalny incident they would have invented anything else as a pretext to impose more sanctions.'” [My Emphasis]
Today Putin agreed to provide Belarus with a state line of credit equivalent to about 1.5 billion dollars. Over the past few days, Putin has met with the entire policy making structure of the Russian government, but very little info is available about the content of discussions. Given recent events and Lavrov’s changing tone, think it quite possible a sea-change will occur in Russia-EU relations as Lavrov has just announced they are not friends in any sense.
Thanks to Euroidiots, the world seems to be developing into two differing blocs yet again divided by ideology–Collectivist and Win-Win versus Individualist and Zero-sum. Population-wise, many more billions inhabit the first bloc and desire its outcomes versus those who once held-reign and whose technological advantage no longer exists.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 14 2020 17:15 utc | 104
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