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The MoA Week In Review – Open Thread 2020-85
Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama:
Michael Tracey @mtracey- 18:34 UTC · Oct 24, 2020
Tried to get into Biden’s “drive-in” event with Bon Jovi this afternoon in Dallas, PA and was told attendance is limited to “party officials and donors.” Registration is not open to the general public. Kinda weird how these campaign rallies have effectively become private affairs
Mark Sedwill said the UK had sought to exploit Moscow’s “vulnerabilities”, including through the deployment of its recently declared offensive cyber-capability.
He said the aim of such actions had been to “impose a price greater than one they might have expected” in response to aggressive Russian behaviour.
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Other issues:
Class wars:
Proxy wars:
That proxy wars are essentially anti-democratic goes some way to explaining the adoption of a proxy doctrine, traditionally the preserve of the intelligence services, by the conventional US military. Proxy warfare is officially condemned in Washington and London as a device of undemocratic enemies, but it is precisely for its anti-democratic possibilities that the West embraces it.
Covid-19:
Should Trump be blamed for Covid-19 deaths. Sure, he did not help. But the states are responsible and they differ very much in their approaches. Vermont and Maine are doing okay. The two Dakotas and many others seem to have different priorities. What would a different administration have done? To what effect?
Virus pictures:
Lebanon:
Use as open thread …
As revealed by Lavrov at the Valdai Club discussion, diplomatic language employed by Russia is becoming more directly explicit as seen in Lavrov’s interview with Croatian newspaper Vecernji List:
“The sanctions spiral inspired by Brussels and a number of Russophobic EU countries at the direct orders from Washington remain a serious obstacle for further strengthening Russia-Croatia ties. But this is a different matter. They have been stepping up this anti-Russia policy lately. I hope that our European colleagues will have the wisdom, vision and simply common sense, so that our dialogue with the European Union and its member states is fully restored based on the principles of neighbourly relations, good faith, predictability and openness….
“The project to build an LNG terminal on Krk Island is Croatia’s internal affair. If our Croatian colleagues believe that liquefied gas would be better for their economy compared to cheaper pipeline gas, so be it. Everyone has the right to decide what is profitable and what is not.
“Our country has been a reliable and honest energy supplier for many decades now, and officials in Zagreb are perfectly aware of this. They also know that there is no political rationale behind these gas contracts. This is nothing but business. Of course, we heard allegations that Croatia and other European countries depend on Russian gas, but we have seen nothing but attempts to sow groundless doubt. We do not impose anything on anyone, and we responsibly perform all the contracts we have.”
And in particular, the following Q & A:
“Question: Russia is being frequently accused of interfering in elections, in particular in the US, of masterminding cyberattacks (even last year’s Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency report mentioned those attacks), of using false news and misinformation, of poisoning its political opponents, Alexey Navalny being the most recent case, and of destabilising the Middle East and the Balkans. What is the reason for this? How do you respond to such accusations and how do you intend to rectify what is going on?
“Sergey Lavrov: Unfortunately, we have to admit that recently, Washington and a number of EU capitals have redoubled their efforts to contain Russia’s development; they are trying to punish us for an independent foreign policy, for consistently upholding our national interests. To justify their actions, the introduction of ever new anti-Russia sanctions, they throw in various accusations and insinuations, including those you just mentioned. At the same time, no one has shown any facts or evidence. This rhetoric is always being kept at the ‘highly likely’ innuendo level; those claims are based on fabricated accusations and run contrary to even elementary logic. All the proposals we make to set up a professional dialogue on any concerns remain without any reaction. So we have no other choice but to conclude we cannot count on a mutually respectful consideration of the emerging problems, because the West has made it a rule to talk with Russia based on the presumption of its guilt. Consider Berlin’s arrogant refusal to respond to numerous requests from our Prosecutor General’s Office on the so-called Navalny case, a direct violation of Germany’s obligations under the 1959 European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. Instead of respecting this international legal document, representatives of Germany and France initiated another batch of illegitimate EU sanctions against Russian citizens. All this deplorably and clearly illustrates the inability of the European Union to adequately assess what is happening in the world, and its tendency to put itself beyond the law.
“We never avoid responding proportionately to the anti-Russia attacks by our Western colleagues who seem to have forgotten what diplomacy is and have sunk to the level of vulgar rudeness. Our retaliatory steps in the US and EU are well known.
“At the same time, we continue to pursue a multi-vector foreign policy, to build up interaction with those who are open to honest joint work on the principles of equality, mutual respect and a balance of interests. The overwhelming majority of such international partners we have are in Eurasia, Africa and Latin America. Among them are our friends and allies in the EAEU, CSTO, CIS, BRICS and SCO.”
And so it goes in line with Crooke’s article. At the direction of the Outlaw US Empire the EU is slowly strangling itself. And do take note of Lavrov’s direct accusation of the Outlaw US Empire’s guilt in this ongoing affair. IMO, once Nord Stream 2 is made operational, little commerce will complement it since the EU will keep its irrational sanctions at the behest of its boss, the Outlaw US Empire. By the 10th anniversary of the 2014 EU/USA coup in Ukraine, I expect a lower volume of trade in real terms than in 2012 with the trend continuing downward unless there’s a huge mindshift in Brussels. But old habits die very slowly in Europe.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 26 2020 22:32 utc | 172
oldhippie 139# AtaBrit
“In olden days public executions involved an axe, a chopping block, an executioner. Notably even experienced executioners did not always succeed with one fell of the axe. This is why the French invented the guillotine.
In modern media any mentally ill person with religious delusions can accomplish an impromptu beheading anytime anywhere. With a dull pocketknife. This is dubious. When you read of such executions the first response should not be infinite credulity.”
Very true words.Every time one starts looking closer into major,minor and attempted attacks there are some incongruities that would wake up any detectives-reader.But those are left out of the narrative,and witnesses to what happened relayed to dubious websites.For some decade there is a pattern in media changing arab perpetrators names to french names,all those perpetrators get out well before the end of the sentence,and french people are witness of police letting those”Territoires perdues de la République” neighbourhoods in peace while heavily handed breaking peaceful demos with infiltrated nato-scum and black blogs in uniform or is it the other way around.
And then as houseowner you are the unwilling victim of several to up to fifteen times a day you are rung up with 09 numbers to sell you government subsidized isolation.Wary of running to the phone ten times every working day and even french holidays,because on the other end it is not France.Had to change my habits and take only known numbers,and I listen to the answering machine,mostly empty.Why is it that I get what must amount to thousands useless calls over the years,and there has never been one tiny little brochure with the isolating proposition in my letterbox?It is a mafia operation,I’ve seen it done,lousy jobs where two or three guys show up and in few hours coat some chemicalstuff on your beautiful cellar vault.(I’m quite sure the goal is to tax people who did not well isolate their walls.)But as many small operators benefit from it,who would be out of work without it,and of course the system pays a lot of money to foreign telephone call centers to make the contacts,and one could wonder how big such call campaigns are compared to the small percentage of people who become customer.Now ,you easily make out it is an arabspeaking french voice though sometimes they present themselves as Alain Duval or Olivier Dupont,thus contributing to the ever growing mistrust among french on to each other and unto maghrebins and african people.It is all Jim Carey on the scale of a whole country that’s what it is.
French oligarchs Arnaud,Pinault,Dassault,Bolloré,Niel,Bouygues,etc,they own ports and harbours,arms factories,radio and television stations,all of the press,heavily subsedized by the way,with 7500 euros tax advantage if you have your journalist card.They have telephone companies,shares in big supermarket chains,airfields in Africa,ports in Cote d’Ivoire,Cameroun Senegal,they own it all.They own all politicians.Did not Sarkozy put in power Alassan Ouattara in Cote d’Ivoire after french intervention to put Laurent Gbagbo in prison in The Hague?After he had married him and his jewish wife at the time he was mayor of Neuilly sur Seine,the richest place in France.
Some african ministers claim that Sarkozy threatened them personally before attacking Khadafi.
Too many narratives clash with witnessed facts the day after,but it doesn’t hold.
The first that comes to mind is the strange suicide of respected Police Investigator Helric Frédou a few hours after the januari 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack.
I agree with Atabrit about trusting neither narrative,in mainstream or “other” media.
I fell on this article which gives a very clear sighting on the situation in France,with historic references by French Author Jacques-Marie Bourget,it is called
The Mad love of France and the jihad,Bloody Boomerang.
I did try to have it translated in english,on yandex and google,but couldn’t get it in its entirety because rather long,(and surtout because je suis nul avec l’ordi)but this is real good stuff.It makes me wonder if the Macron Erdogan antagonism is scripted as well,as part of the great muslim brotherhood endgame.
https://www.legrandsoir.info/l-amour-fou-de-la-france-et-du-djihad-sanglant-boomerang.html
Cheers ,keep talking,we are bound for another lockdown,radio says so….Etat d’urgence sanitaire renewed until february .In a few days it is Toussaint and a lot of people go visit their origins and take care of the graves of their parents and family.You can tell it by the license plates from faraway departments.
Posted by: willie | Oct 26 2020 22:32 utc | 173
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