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December 11, 2020
Open Thread 2020-97
Comments
Thanks for the open thread, b!
Russia signs contract for construction of space-based nuclear tug, which as the interior linked item says:
“The facilities needed to launch the craft in space are expected to be constructed at the Vostochny Cosmodrome located in Russia’s Far East, to be completed by 2030.” [My Emphasis]
It might be a translation glitch, but I interpret this as saying the craft will be constructed in Earth orbit. And since both Russia and China have announced they intend to build their own space stations, a tug will become very useful. IMO, the ideal would be to manufacture space vehicles in space mostly using materials found in space and thus avoid the massive expense in lifting material into orbit. Now we just need to find a way to defeat radiation.
China holds top level meeting to ensure 14th 5-year plan gets off to great start in 2021:
“The meeting pointed out that next year would be of special importance for the country’s goal of building a modern socialist country, adhering to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, building a new development pattern and continuing to do a good job in the “six stabilities” and “six guarantees” in a bid to maintain economic growth in a reasonable range.
“The meeting also called for expansion of the domestic consumption strategy, strengthening of support for sci-tech strategies and expansion of higher-level opening-up to ensure a good start to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period and celebration of the 100th anniversary of the CPC’s founding.”
And yet another book’s been published by a Western think-tanker that’s devoid of reality:
“Essentially, the West does not have an objective understanding of China. Take the example Blumenthal made. He reached the conclusion that China intends to rule the world just because the country wants to become a ‘prosperous, modern, and strong socialist country with a world-class military.’ Isn’t that explanation too hotheaded? China is boosting its economic and high-tech strength. But the goal is to improve modern social governance in order to guarantee common prosperity for everyone. China is getting stronger, with an ultimate goal of safeguarding its core interests….
“The West cannot decide what China is. Its choreographed arguments can hardly cover up the fact that China is recovering from the COVID-19 crisis while Western countries are not. If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, people might never have had a chance to witness how incompetent Western governments are. When Western elites keep smearing China while their own countries have not yet seen a silver lining ending the pandemic, they merely seem as either ignorant or jealous.
“Foreign Policy magazine added that the book ‘should be required reading for all those who seek to better understand China.’ How can a contradictory book full of ideological labels with an outdated mind-set help Westerners understand China better? As long as the West indulges in egocentrism, its conclusions about China will only remain self-deception.” [My Emphasis]
If Western nations ever hope to close the Time Gap, then they must look at themselves and solve their own huge problems. Perhaps by that time their leaders will have learned the hard lesson that it was better in the beginning to partner with China instead of seeking to impede its development.
China holds top level meeting to ensure 14th 5-year plan gets off to great start in 2021:
“The meeting pointed out that next year would be of special importance for the country’s goal of building a modern socialist country, adhering to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, building a new development pattern and continuing to do a good job in the “six stabilities” and “six guarantees” in a bid to maintain economic growth in a reasonable range.
“The meeting also called for expansion of the domestic consumption strategy, strengthening of support for sci-tech strategies and expansion of higher-level opening-up to ensure a good start to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period and celebration of the 100th anniversary of the CPC’s founding.”
And yet another book’s been published by a Western think-tanker that’s devoid of reality:
“Essentially, the West does not have an objective understanding of China. Take the example Blumenthal made. He reached the conclusion that China intends to rule the world just because the country wants to become a ‘prosperous, modern, and strong socialist country with a world-class military.’ Isn’t that explanation too hotheaded? China is boosting its economic and high-tech strength. But the goal is to improve modern social governance in order to guarantee common prosperity for everyone. China is getting stronger, with an ultimate goal of safeguarding its core interests….
“The West cannot decide what China is. Its choreographed arguments can hardly cover up the fact that China is recovering from the COVID-19 crisis while Western countries are not. If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, people might never have had a chance to witness how incompetent Western governments are. When Western elites keep smearing China while their own countries have not yet seen a silver lining ending the pandemic, they merely seem as either ignorant or jealous.
“Foreign Policy magazine added that the book ‘should be required reading for all those who seek to better understand China.’ How can a contradictory book full of ideological labels with an outdated mind-set help Westerners understand China better? As long as the West indulges in egocentrism, its conclusions about China will only remain self-deception.” [My Emphasis]
If Western nations ever hope to close the Time Gap, then they must look at themselves and solve their own huge problems. Perhaps by that time their leaders will have learned the hard lesson that it was better in the beginning to partner with China instead of seeking to impede its development.
USA descends into madness:
‘Stalin’ and ‘Save the USA’ trend on Twitter. Has America’s political warfare taken a turn for the absurd?
What is most needed is a space sweeper / compactor to get rid of some of the junk up there, instead of making more of it.
Posted by: norecovery | Dec 11 2020 18:50 utc | 5
More Machiavelli. I’m not so sure about us maintaining control.
https://thecommonsproject.org/
The Commons Project is a nonprofit public trust established to build platforms and services to make life better for people around the world. We believe that everyone should enjoy the full benefit of technology and data while maintaining control over their digital lives.
World’s Airports And Leading Airlines Join CommonTrust Network And Begin Roll-out Of CommonPass
“Azerbaijan’s saving its lands from occupation does not mean that the struggle is over,” Erdogan said during a military parade in Baku. “The struggle carried out in the political and military areas will continue from now on many other fronts.”
During the parade Erdogan read a poem with separatist content related to Iran’s province of Azerbaijan. This has caused serious reactions in Iran. Turkish Ambassador was called in by Tehran, a clear protest was delivered to the Turkish official.
In the recent years Turkey has been able to score a serie of geopolitical gains at the cost of Iran ( US sanctions ) and Russia (energy transport routes, Nato limitation policy, US and EU sanctions).
‘One nation, two states’ on display – France24 News portal
Posted by: Framarz | Dec 11 2020 19:08 utc | 7
Tass reports Nord Stream 2 construction resumption and says the pipeline is 93% complete. I’ll be curious to see if Germany’s approach to its relations with Russia alter one gas begins to flow.
norecovery @5–
Such salvage operations would provide a source of some building components. I’d expect such a task would be an excellent job for Russia’s nuclear tug.
Not even one day, and they’ve already sent the extraofficial propagandist:
Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine and Allergies: How Concerned Should You Be?
Her name is Denise Grady.
@norecovery #5
Sounds good in theory. The problem is that the junk is scattered in the 1,250 miles above the earth: a truly enormous volume.
The energy requirements to do so are immense and impractical just from a matching orbit perspective, much less actually meeting up with each piece of junk or finding said junk.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 11 2020 20:28 utc | 10
Blast from the past: New York Times article noting the relative prevalence of fraud with absentee voting NYT on absentee voting
Republicans are in fact more likely than Democrats to vote absentee. In the 2008 general election in Florida, 47 percent of absentee voters were Republicans and 36 percent were Democrats.
On the most basic level, absentee voting replaces the oversight that exists at polling places with something akin to an honor system.
“Absentee voting is to voting in person,” Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has written, “as a take-home exam is to a proctored one.”
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 11 2020 20:30 utc | 11
John Kerry is playing a con game with USA psuedo green sycophants to go to war with Russia to save the environment. And they love him.
The announcement drew praise from many professional climate activists and groups, perhaps assuming that Kerry was taking his lead from Bernie Sanders, who has for years been saying the same thing. Executive Director of the Sunrise Movement, Varshini Prakash said his statement was an “encouraging move,” while 350.org’s Bill McKibben, predicted Kerry would be an excellent climate czar. Yet, as media critic Adam Johnson argued, Kerry’s proclamation should deeply concern progressive activists and will likely lead to expanding the already bloated military budget.
Kerry is a founding member of the Washington think tank, the American Security Project (ASP), whose board is a who’s who of retired generals, admirals and senators. The ASP also hailed the appointment of their man, explaining, in a little-read report, exactly what treating the climate as a national security threat entails. And it is nothing like what Sanders advocates.
For the ASP, climate change constitutes an “accelerant of instability” and a “threat multiplier” that will “affect the operating environment,” and notes that Kerry will have three priorities in his role as President Biden’s right-hand man. What were those three priorities? Making sure people in the Global South could eat and have access to safe drinking water? Reparations? Disaster relief or response teams? Cutting back on fossil fuel use? Indeed not. For the ASP, the primary objectives were:
A huge rebuilding of the United States’ military bases,
Countering China in the Pacific,
Preparing for a war with Russia in the newly-melted Arctic.
Biden puts lipstick on another pig.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 11 2020 21:42 utc | 12
If you follow the link, the article does not note a relative prevalence of fraud with absentee voting. It specifically states that voter fraud in person is rare, which means if absentee fraud is more common than that, it is still rare. This is even more true since the article has to point out that “error” such as forgetting to sign the outside of the envelope containing the ballot are much more common. This is like the assholes who pretend every error on a welfare application means welfare cheat.
The Posner quote is typical of conservative thinking. (Posner as a law and economics ideologue is a conservative.) One problem with comparing a vote to an exam is that a vote is not an exam where you can cheat by looking up the right answers. This is gibberish Sending an absentee ballot to a registered voter has zero to do with letting random strangers vote. It is also an extremely stupid analogy because a take home exam is almost invariably one with short answer/essay questions where cheating would be noticeable. Posner may have hired ringers to write his essays for him, but the notion this sort of thing applies to votes is absurd. Massive cheating on absentee ballots requires massive falsifications of voter registration rolls to get ballots to nonexistent people and/or systematically rejecting absentee ballots on specious grounds, like pretending signatures don’t match, in a world where variations in handwriting *by the same person* are *inevitable.* Posner is trash, has been his entire life and the pollution of the judicial system by scumbags like him has been a crying shame for decades.
But to be upfront, Posner is deeply admired by right-wingers of many types, though too much of a evolutionay psychologist/Social Darwinist type for a few traditionalists.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 11 2020 22:03 utc | 13
#12 –
Thanks for highlighting the ASP. From their website:
“As counties in strategically important regions – like South America, the Pacific and West Africa – struggle to address climate change, the Chinese government offers them comprehensive climate and energy development packages, while they see U.S. focusing primarily on military cooperation…”
https://www.americansecurityproject.org/kerry-climate-envoy-national-security-council/
The analyst then proposes a concept of military cooperation plus lip service to climate change. That should work. The single largest source of harmful greenhouse gas emissions – by a wide margin – is the US military. The professional climate activists surely know this.
Posted by: jayc | Dec 11 2020 22:14 utc | 14
from librul – thanks librul…
“The author of the article referenced @27
that wants to “restore faith in the US Spy Agencies” (who were wrongly harmed by Trump when they tried to impeach Trump with years of leaking falsehoods, reports and dossiers…not to mention their history of torture and misleading this country into disastrous wars, and abusing the rights of The People, etc)
is none other than Israeli-Firster (?) Israel-only (?) other (?)
Jane Harmon!
Yeah, as Harmon suggests, Biden is the perfect man to restore integrity, or at least bow to power, and sell (propaganda)
faith in US Spy Agencies.
Ironically, Jane Harmon herself was outed by a spy agency or agencies
causing much embarrassment for Pelosi-Firster Nancy Pelosi.
It is suspected that this extortable embarrassment led Nancy Pelosi to back off Cheney/Bush and stick it to The People
by uttering, “Impeachment is off the table”.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/14/jane-harmon-and-israeli-spying/
It is astounding to find that one of the handful of prospects being floated to become CIA director following the fall of General David Petraeus is a person reportedly implicated in a 2005 Israeli spy scandal.
CNN, Politico, and others have all listed former Congresswoman Jane Harman as a potential new CIA head. Oddly, however, none have mentioned reports in 2006 and again in 2009 that an NSA wiretap in 2005 had picked up Harman promising a suspected Israeli agent that she would aid people indicted for espionage on behalf of Israel.
According to reports, Harman allegedly told the Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two top officials for the powerful Israel lobby organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
In return, the suspected Israeli agent (who may have been a dual-citizen American) reportedly pledged to help lobby for Harman to become chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Harman was already the ranking Democrat on the committee.
At the end of the conversation, Harman reportedly said: “This conversation doesn’t exist.”
Posted by: librul | Dec 11 2020 17:23 utc | 27″
Posted by: james | Dec 11 2020 22:19 utc | 15
“…Posner may have hired ringers to write his essays for him, but the notion this sort of thing applies to votes is absurd…” steven t johnson@13
One way in which the system can be corrupted involves the gathering together of blank ballots sent to actually registered voters. In some cases the voters are bribed or intimidated to hand over their votes; in others ‘bosses’, often the leaders of interest groups or ethnic blocs, collect the ballots together and fill them out before delivering them, through the mail or otherwise, to be counted. Where this happens the Judge’s analogy seems apposite.
The problem of people who are not able to act independently voting is one of the earlies in electoral systems: the Levellers ran across it; it was used as an excuse for disfranchising blacks in The New South; it has served as a justification for property qualifications. It was the original argument against women voting.
There is a very real fear that capitalists might insist on checking their employees’ ballots, just as English and Irish landlords checked their tenants’ votes-and evicted those who voted the wrong way.
The use of postal votes is wide open to abuse. Whether or not it occurred this year is another matter but it would be wise to ensure that the secrecy of the ballot was not breached by postal voting, as it most certainly can be.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 11 2020 22:44 utc | 16
Trivia of the day:
US death toll surpasses World War II combat fatalities
Here’s a good short vid on what’s going on !
In these days of chaos, it’s allway worthwhile to see a simple overview, this is it.
https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2020/10/december/why-brexit-is-capitalism-civil-war-george-monbiot
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 11 2020 23:02 utc | 18
latest baseless lawsuit thrown out by supreme court. what’s the next ploy to hang onto power gonna be? stay tuned. they’re both bowls of crap. one bowl of crap got the majority of the votes. just deal with it.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 11 2020 23:47 utc | 19
The use of postal votes is wide open to abuse. Whether or not it occurred this year is another matter but it would be wise to ensure that the secrecy of the ballot was not breached by postal voting, as it most certainly can be.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 11 2020 22:44 utc | 16
“Secrecy of ballot” can be breached in precinct voting, the scheme is actually simple and used: sometimes the “value” of a vote is large, e.g. Bloomberg spent 75 million on ads in 2001 to become mayor of NYC, and his victory margin was 35 thousands. Thus he spent nearly 100 dollars per vote, and the “marginal value” of the vote could be 1000. Here is the scheme from other countries: a voter is paid some amount, he/she uses a cell phone to record a filled ballot, and with that record he/she gets the rest.
The scheme with postal vote that was used by a Republican who won a tight contest for a Congressional seat from North Carolina was to have paid help visiting elderly voters to help them fill the ballot. That is legal, but they illegally took the unsealed ballots to complete them. Many voters would fill boxes for some offices only, say Governor or President, and the helping volunteer has a chance to complete it for other offices (or even correct?). In general, the schemes I read about are practical in elections with small numbers of voters, are “labor intensive” and not difficult to uncover. In statewide or national elections with high participation this is very hard and there should be much more solid proofs than “uncovered” by Trumpists.
Incidentally, on-demand postal vote was the norm in Oregon and Utah for quite a while. The argument that it is inherently inferior is Constitutionally void. The cases that Trumpists try to raise was about alleged irregularities in introducing it in some state, and according to the Constitution, this is outside Federal jurisdiction. If Supreme Court of a state decides that the “relief” from the alleged irregularities is not warranted, that is it, unless the constitution of that state does not vest that power in the state courts. What Trump lawyers want is that the procedure agreed by state legislature for the election would be retroactively invalidated after the results of the election is known. At least, that would be the case in Pennsylvania where I know more details.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 12 2020 0:02 utc | 20
@norecovery #5
Sounds good in theory. The problem is that the junk is scattered in the 1,250 miles above the earth: a truly enormous volume.
The energy requirements to do so are immense and impractical just from a matching orbit perspective, much less actually meeting up with each piece of junk or finding said junk.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 11 2020 20:28 utc | 10
However, selective junk removal is indeed a good option to have. For example, what can China and Russia do if US does something outrageous, say, extensive bombing of cities in Iran? One “elegant option” is to give “junk status” to American satellites, say for geopositioning and communication. A large proportion of residents of USA would not be able to reach their workplaces, homes and food stores — they never memorized the routes! Starvation would be epidemic in the suburbs, lost drivers would create impenetrable traffic jams…
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 12 2020 0:11 utc | 21
Dear All
I would like to draw your attention to this short 10-minute video on Clash of Civilizations and the Western European-North American White anger and angst…
https://youtu.be/HHhSvqwhYpg
Posted by: Fyi | Dec 12 2020 1:10 utc | 22
China shares its national plan”
Eight billion humans sorted according to their language, culture and genetic heritage and then incarcerated by private investors into one of 256 cells, called nation states. .
Once assigned into one of the cells, 9 different layers of activity coordinate things much like the OSI network model works. These layers are specialized to function. but they coordinate and communicate with each other. to control and direct the thoughts and to regulate their behaviors of those incarcerated in each different nation state. The layer by function analysis allows to see the specialization of the actors that direct the behaviors of 8 billion humans, to produce goods and services that produce wealth for those in control.
The well hidden international wealth-laden class (layer 1) that is the global between nation state manipulators are still not clearly visible.
I think it would be very product if we could address our activities in terms of the both the subject nation state and the appropriate layer within that particular nation state.
Of the nine functions, hat control our economics, politics, and societies (EPS) only two are public and only one of
those includes the governed deplorable while the other (the nation state one is the political layer).
I believe the classify of function into layer will facilitate investigating how private wealth (not the operation of the political structure used by our respective nation states) is responsible for the problems of our society and that it is essential to avoid claiming Russia did this or that, when in fact it was a particular industry or even a particular company with the industry that did the deed. Blaming or attributing outcome to the nation state is a cover up.. It fails to expose the true cause of the event or circumstance so nothing ever gets done to fix it and very few ever acquire sufficient knowledge to insist the need to do something about a problem relevant to the life of a human.
private layer 1:global nation state franchisor sets rules; establishes local nation state goals
_______Here are bankers and their quasi governmental bureaucracies, NGOs, established
_______functioning national governments in interactive cooperation with the needs of the
_______global corporations listed the major market and exchanges.
Private Layer 2: oligarch <= national (wall street beneficiaries who use their wealth to conform
_______national outcome consistent with global powers). The nation (i. e. local banking
_______and monopoly powered corporations control access by the deplorable governed to
_______opportunity.. (opportunity is a privilege open only to a few) Officer vs enlisted.
_______pseudo elected presidents. Also the road and bridge building, trucks, ships, and
_______plane contractors and transport providers..they have the privilege of license,
_______access to money, and qualification to do business with government. CIA and Israel.
Private Layer 3: the copyright and patent monopoly powers (90% of the Assets of market traded
_______corporations are monopoly powers (as in intangible assets. relatively new, this layer
_______encompasses the legal privilege to privately own all technology and is
_______at the heart of the modern feudal system. 5g. driverless vehicles, space travel
Private Layer 4: the think tank and other private organizations the bureaucracies regulate, fund
_______and direct. Millions even $billions in private money flows and is matched by
_______government funding. Its is where the secret services, home land scammers and
_______university system bureaucracy resides.
public layer 5: the elected 527 person government that regulate the members of the public
Private Layer 6: Intergovernmental Bureaucracies limit and direct elected power to global goals.
_______this is the huge government bought and paid for bureaucracy.
public layer 7: the 340,000,000 members of the highly public.
Private layer 8: Stimulus restrain economic system control
Private layer 9: media addresses diversity via content provider diversity used to control of narrative, limit
_______ information visible to target groups and keep the highly disparate minds of the governed deplorables
_______ individually_pacified. (content providers have access to substantial funding, many proven techniques.
________ To science ; which enables CPs to coordinate psychology with propaganda; to maintain crowd, mind,
________ political and thought control (CMPT) control. Layer delivers massive financial support to the media,
________ in that every market visible corporation contributes $ trillions in yearly tax deductible advertising
________ to support CMPT content over media which is used to control the governed deplorable.
Posted by: snake | Dec 12 2020 2:16 utc | 23
@22 fyi
Yes, that is what many here spout routinely. That the west has its panties in a bunch because it is losing market share to China.
The author does not bring up an important point that the U.S. and the big Euro countries have been effectively seized by globalists who hitch their wagon to where the money is regardless of nation, culture, or civilization.
The author also points out that the west is the sole guilty-party when it comes to our shared history of conquering/subjugation.
Has this scholar never heard of the Persian Empire, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Mongols, the Greeks, warring tribes in Africa, in the Americas, etc., ad infinitum.
Sorry, buddy, you add nothing new to the conversation.
And as a westerner, I can safely say, the more we are looked upon as a blight and slighted, the more our power over our countries will return, along with our heritage, which is nothing to scoff at.
It may not be millenia upon millenia wrt to the wonder of the Chinese as a civilization, but it is its own wonderful phenomenon to be celebrated.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 12 2020 2:30 utc | 24
bevin@16 conjures up a scenario where absentee ballots are either taken from registered voters or they are intimidated into voting them. This method has the problem of being easily caught, leaving every single person intimidated a potential witness *plus* onlookers seeing beefy gentlemen visiting all those homes. No, major election fraud is done by the authorities. In this election, that means Republicans falsified the presidential vote in most states while not falsifying down ballot races. And it means also that they conspired to do this across multiple jurisdictions, called states. Elections in the US are mostly rigged by things like setting up a Super Tuesday so only big money candidates can campaign in such a wide area or other corrupt but entirely legal means, such as making it hard for third parties to even get on the ballot.
There was one person who suggested the Democrats only rigged the close election states. The two problems with that are first, the polls didn’t say the election would be that close in very many states at all. The second of course is that the Trumpers are claiming Trump won by a landslide, meaning most states were fixed, a self contradiction on their part.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 12 2020 3:05 utc | 25
Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 11 2020 18:05 utc | 1
(Russia’s Nuke-powered space rockets)
Whilst I can accept the concept of a Nuke-powered jet, ramjet or scramjet engine without understanding the mechanics, it’s just not possible to build a Nuke-powered rocket for space travel UNLESS it carries a substitute for the combustible fuel normally carried by a rocket.
A jet engine scoops up air at the front, heats it to increase its pressure and volume, then squirts it out the back at a higher pressure than the incoming air. A rocket engine creates pressure by burning fuel and creating a high-pressure gas which it squirts out the back. If a rocket hasn’t got “something” to heat, turn into a gas, and squirt out the back, then it’s not going anywhere.
A Nuke rocket could carry water as the propulsion medium but, like any rocket, its range/duration would be limited by the quantity of propellant.
One suspects that the story is Russian Humor intended to keep Yankees awake at night.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 12 2020 3:20 utc | 26
I happen to have the best news of the night that will be kryptonite for all the post-Trump Debbie Downers on this thread, like MOA’s Crazy Uncle, and Trump bootlickers running out of spittle to keep Trump’s dirty boots shiny and clean.
Are you ready? Here it is:
Democratic congressional leaders are marshaling a message to President-elect Joe Biden “strongly endorsing” his promise to return to the Iran nuclear deal without preconditions, Gregory Meeks, (D-N.Y.), the incoming chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee told the Quincy Institute this week.
“We are sending a signal to our allies that America is getting back to the table!”
The letter, first reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, was organized by the members of the whip team that secured support for the JCPOA in 2015 — Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Rep. Jan Schakowski (D-Ill.), Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) and Rep. Meeks, in addition to Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.). It decries the Trump administration’s exit from the agreement and argues that a return to the deal will not only prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb, but also lay the “foundation for progress on other critical issues.”
“My colleagues and I — including all three contenders for the chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — decided it was important to send a strong and unified message from Congress to President-elect Biden that we support diplomacy, including taking early steps to return both Iran and the United States to JCPOA compliance,” Rep. David Price explained to QI.
Contrary to common perceptions that Congress is hostile territory for diplomacy with Iran, the swift organizing of the letter and the backing of both the Democratic leadership and the three contenders for the chairmanship of HFAC suggest remarkable support of the deal among Democrats. In fact, Rep. Sherman was a vocal opponent of the deal in 2015 but has since become supportive.
Lawmakers tie the growing support for the nuclear agreement both to “the need to figure out some common ground again,” and to the realization that the deal worked and put the United States in a much stronger position.
house-dems-unite-to-support-the-iran-nuclear-deal
PINCH ME! I wanna be sure I’m not dreaming.
Second bit of good news:
I do declare, what is that breath of fresh air tonight I feel? Why it’s the Supreme Court opening the door that will hit Ziofascist Trump’s ass on his way out! This was the stake through the heart of the attempted coup.
COURT TO TRUMP: NO! IT’S O-V-E-R!
Come January 20th, there will be dancing in the streets all over from New York to L.A. to Caracas to Tehran and Havana and bells will be ringing in the Notre-Dame, Saint Peter’s Basilica and Westminster Abbey and cathedrals all over.
Ding-dong the damn witch is dead, the 4-year nightmare’s over and the beginning of the end of the Pandemic is near and Trump’s spawning war on Iran is aborting! Oh sweet Jesus!
Posted by: Circe | Dec 12 2020 4:58 utc | 27
Hey snake@23 you ever read any Frederik Pohl? The Cool War, specifically? yers is a much more layered story. Same vibe. I notice pharma has a mandated income in the works. Growth baby.Yay Same team you stoopid fucks. Big Pharma play here. No hoax.The struggle is real. With fists raised in defiance cries of at least its not red. Behind the blue curtain whispers of Yay Same team you stoopid fucks from behind smirks thinly veiled. Government mandates corporation enforcement. tight lil package.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Dec 12 2020 5:14 utc | 28
Circe @Dec12 4:58 #27
COURT TO TRUMP: NO! IT’S O-V-E-R!
But it may not be over.
We have to see what happens on January 6.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 12 2020 5:30 utc | 29
german-newsweekly-der-spiegel-names-trump-loser
I know it’s DK, but damn I love this one!
Bwahahahahaha Stick a pin in him!
Trump was supposed to attend another Party tonight, but he never came downstairs.
Uh-oh! Someone should check on him. He can’t handle being called LOSER, and he lost to Biden! HA! Priceless.
Posted by: Circe | Dec 12 2020 5:33 utc | 30
Below are two links from Xinhuanet
Xi chairs leadership meeting on economic work for 2021
The take-away quote
”
The meeting also called for strengthened antitrust efforts and the prevention of disorderly expansion of capital, and stressed efforts to promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market.
Authorities will carry out a systematic assessment of efforts to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects while consolidating and expanding poverty relief results, the statement said.
”
Chinese envoy calls for prudent approach to issue of Syria’s chemical weapons
The take-away quote from Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.
”
Some countries have weaponized the OPCW, the implementing body for the CWC, to undermine and suppress other countries, substituting vote for dialogue, which leads to deep divisions, he said.
The working methods of the Investigation and Identification Team whose inception is enabled by those countries are opaque, and its reports do not reflect the integrity of the chain of evidence and therefore highly controversial, he said.
”
….
And lastly with no link, the latest posting at Wall Street on Parade details how the US Fed’s domestic portfolio was $576 billion in 2008 and as of December 9th of 2020 it is $6.5 trillion.
I am beginning to think it is sickly humorous how many commenting barflies at MoA are either ignorant of the influence of finance in the West’s form of social organization or paid to obfuscate the core source of the West’s social woes….global private finance. I was cautiously optimistic back in Occupy Wall Street days that the public was waking up to the cancer in our form of social organization but there still remains significant blindness as evidenced by ongoing commentary at MoA.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 12 2020 6:14 utc | 31
@davenitup #6
More Machiavelli. I’m not so sure about us maintaining control.
https://thecommonsproject.org/
More like Aldous Huxley. The smug patronizing tone of the bullet points and ‘mission statements’ is nauseating.
Posted by: timson | Dec 12 2020 6:34 utc | 32
The supreme court’s rejection of the trump petition was obvious a month ago.
As I have pointed out more times than I can count, so-called ‘highest courts in the land’ never overturn the actions or elections of a freshly mandated administration.
Sitting on ‘the highest court in the land’ is the cushiest number available to any lawyer’s lawyer as not only do they enjoy obeisance from virtually every other sleazy double-talking mouthpiece in their land, the opportunities to trouser massive wedges are both legendary and legion.
Being part of the ‘highest court in the land’ means decisions cannot be overturned any ‘legal’ way, the only way they can ever be ‘pulled up’ is if they are stupid enough to ignore a recent popular mandate.
Any ‘highest court in the land’, anywhere, foolish enough to do that will be lucky if he/she merely loses their gig when the masses rise up and toss ’em out, more frequently they are among the first to “go up against the wall motherf**er”.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 12 2020 8:07 utc | 33
Keith is the answer….
Only Antibodies From Keith Richard’s Plasma Can Save Humanity
Posted by: Ruben Chandler | Dec 12 2020 8:40 utc | 34
Indian farmers and workers strike continues after three weeks and thousands are massed at the Delhi gates.
The farmers are clear they will not retreat till the far-right BJP government withdraws the three farm acts. Passed in the parliament on September 26 without permitting a vote count, these acts deregulating the trade of agricultural produce seek to give a free reign for corporations to expand their control over the agricultural supply chain.
To sustain the protest, which is now into its third week, villagers back home send fresh vegetables and milk which arrive in vehicles every few hours. Slogans of “Long Live Revolution! Long Live Farmers Unity!” ring en masse as vehicles carrying more farmers from villages arrive the border well into the night.
Many of the pillars holding up the metro rail track towering over this stretch of the road are marked with slogans painted by the various Delhi-based student and youth organizations whose activists frequent the site to demonstrate in solidarity.
Around the world in 8 minutes from People’s Dispatch gives further context as well.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 12 2020 8:48 utc | 35
I was intending to provide this comment for the recent China post.
China seems to understand Irony well. For all the US and Australian naval bluff and bluster about so called ‘freedom of navigation’ in the South China sea, China seems to be about to put the boot on the other foot by constructing a massive ‘fishing’ base in Papua New Guinea only 100 miles from Australia. Despite propaganda from Australian politicians and the usual suspects these waters are teeming with fish. I have seen people fishing with chains and two foot long fish hooks from the beach in these parts. Funny how many far away countries fish in Australia’s nearby Gulf of Carpentaria.
https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/china-plans-200m-fishery-industrial-park-100-miles-from-australia
One take on irony is language having a meaning different from the ostensible one like ‘fishing,’ but understood correctly by the initiated.
Once hundreds of Chinese fishing boats are based in PNG then we shall see some more freedom of navigation up close from Cape York Peninsular.
Posted by: Paul | Dec 12 2020 10:04 utc | 36
Just now, Google browser informed me that “In the Christian faith, Christmas is the historical celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. …”. Until now, I thought that this is a religious celebration, somewhat detached from mundane history. So how historical is it?
2020 years ago Romans celebrated 753-rd anniversary of Rome becoming a city, so if “Anno domini” means “after the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord (Dominos) and Saviour” then JCOLAS was born in 753 AUC (ab urbe condita). But no! JCOLAS was born in 4 BC, 4 years before Christ. So in 749 AUC. But no! He was born 4 years before he was born. So in 745 AUC. But no! …
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 12 2020 11:42 utc | 37
@ Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 12 2020 8:07 utc | 33
Common, man, that lawsuit was ridiculous. It based its entire argument on the estimation that “Biden’s chance of winning all the swing States was 1 in 1 quadrillion”, therefore cosmically unlikely.
1 in 1 quadrillion according to which mathematical model? You polls? The same polls which failed to predict Trump’s very victory in 2016? Please demonstrate it in front of the courts.
Amid all of the articles & comments here on MOA I do not recall seeing a reference to FLCC:
https://covid19criticalcare.com/
Dr. Kory from this group just testified before congress and was completely slammed by the MSM. FLCC includes docs with impressive credentials and have published protocols for treating Covid 19. Central to the protocols is the drug Ivermectin. They present good clinical evidence that it is very effective – both as a prophylactic and treatment of infection. Unfortunately it is off-patent and ridiculously cheap, so we can’t be having that in western medicine.
Posted by: Citizen621 | Dec 12 2020 13:19 utc | 39
Concerning the “Clash of Civilizations” and the decline of empire, too many people insist upon misunderstanding the nature of the forces at play. The dynamic at work does not involve morals or morale. American and western cultures are not in relative and absolute decline because they are morally corrupt or because they have lost their work ethics. Those are just surface features of the underlying dynamics; symptoms rather than causes.
The cause is the same as that which led to WWI & WWII. The same boring old capitalist crisis of overproduction and saturation of markets and concentration of capital causing decline in profitability. The cure remains the same as it was over a century ago as well: Massive war that can destroy at least half the global manufacturing productive capacity. There can be no financial “reset” short of that, and no, the Covid cannot do even a small fraction of the destruction that is needed for a global capitalist reset.
As for America being triggered by some event, girding its collective loins, and rising to the challenge to once again be undisputed global hegemon, that simply cannot happen. America became global hegemon after WWII because then no matter where you went in the world when you found a proper, sanitary, well-built urinal to relieve yourself in it had “American Standard” imprinted in the ceramic and was manufactured in Pittsburgh. If you wanted a milling machine in West Germany then you’d have to buy a “Bridgeport”, made in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Today American manufacturing corporations are just hollowed out “brands”. There is no substance to them whatsoever. They just send specifications to contract manufacturing plants in China and Vietnam and get butthurt over copyright and trademark infringement because that is all they have left to sell. Logos and trademarks didn’t matter to American hegemony three quarters of a century ago because nobody else in the world could produce what American businesses were selling anyway, but now all America has is logos and trademarks and copyrights.
This state of affairs for the American empire cannot be turned around short of global war. It is terminal. Trump heroically but naively tried the impossible and predictably it failed. Now that the financial elites have effectively reasserted themselves and are in the process of purging the faction of the oligarchy represented by Trump that relies upon tangible assets, the prospects for industrial revitalization of the USA have gone from near 0% chance into negative territory. There will be no, can be no American renaissance, at least not with a capitalist society, and there will be no revolution in America so effectively rebirth is impossible.
The cyclical rise and decline of capitalism with a period of mass destruction as an obligatory part of the cycle is mechanistic; deterministic. The destruction part of the cycle cannot be willed or wished away. The only way to revitalize economic activity without war once capitalism has reached the end game part of the cycle would be to expropriate the wealth of the rich and powerful and put it back into play, but…
But in capitalism the wealthy are the de facto rulers, and where in history have society’s rulers yielded power voluntarily? That always involves revolution if the challenge comes from within the society. Sure, you can find instances of rulers capitulating without a fight, but in those cases the rulers had already lost their power though other conflicts.
There are those who will protest “But if American businessmen hadn’t been greedy and moved manufacturing overseas then we wouldn’t be in this mess!” This once again demonstrates a failure to understand the dynamics of capitalism. Had American businessmen not moved production overseas then America would have reached its current impasse decades earlier. Moving manufacturing to the East didn’t solve capitalism’s core contradictions, but it did buy the American empire decades of time. Now there is no more time that can be bought. We’ve reached the end game. It is war or death of empire. There is no magical escape from the end game that people of a century ago couldn’t discover. It is not as if they were stupid back then and we are smart now. Quite the opposite in many ways.
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 12 2020 13:48 utc | 40
@circe 27
A positive development. But hold the celebration until Senate Dems have their say. Schumer never liked JCPOA.
Posted by: ptb | Dec 12 2020 14:01 utc | 41
psychohistorian @31 (Dec 12 2020 6:14 utc),
Thank you very much for your tireless efforts to bring the private finance to the front. I first saw your comment about it at nakedcapitalism long ago while I still visited that site. Just would like to let you know that your efforts is very much appreciated.
Thank you and wish you and everyone a healthy and peaceful new year.
Posted by: LuRenJia | Dec 12 2020 14:41 utc | 42
@36 — Paul | Dec 12 2020 10:04 utc
Not to mention the various opportunities associated with unrest in Colonial ‘France’ just off the east side of Australia.
“Corporate buyout threatens civil war in New Caledonia.
French territory on edge of renewed ethnic conflict in a struggle for control of world’s fourth biggest nickel ore producer”
https://asiatimes.com/2020/12/corporate-buyout-threatens-civil-war-in-new-caledonia/
Posted by: imo | Dec 12 2020 14:49 utc | 43
Citizen 621 @ 41
When Richard Steven Hack posted here he regularly cited FLCC and the MATH+ protocols. In other posts he would just as regularly ridicule elements of the protocol so he probably never read them.
AFAIK I was the only one here who ever responded to his posts about FLCC. Most simply accept without question the narrative that absolutely nothing can be done except to anxiously await the vaccine. Attempting to say anything about treatment being possible is like talking to a brick wall. Please note that most of what FLCC is recommending can be done by anyone at home with basic items available at any grocery.
To get the #2 item on the FLCC list, Vitamin D, you don’t even need to go to the grocery. Step outside and get some sun. Where I live going outdoors for any “nonessential” reason is strongly discouraged. Walking the dog is to be completed in ten minutes. Those who would take a walk or sit in the sun are painted as killers.
Posted by: oldhippie | Dec 12 2020 15:07 utc | 44
Mr. Debsisdead
What alternative arrangements do you suggest?
Posted by: Fyi | Dec 12 2020 15:19 utc | 45
Gruffy
That sounds like your selling fascism Gruffy!!
You seem to be a bit of a ‘shape shifter’ for a long while telling us your on the left, then full on racist trump supporter,
Now your a finance guru.
If it walks like a nazi talks like a nazi it’s a nazi.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 12 2020 15:29 utc | 46
Mr. William Gruff
You be wrong then.
The Great Persian Empires, the First Universal Empires, which the English and the Americans tried to emulate but failed miserably, predated market-economy and industrial production. Yet it failed.
The reason was that her leadership became dumb, fat, and happy. Or like Ibn Khaldun observed in a different place and time, the first generation wins it, the seond keeps it, and the third loses it.
Decades ago, I concluded that Americans can never win a war again, even though they preferred war to peace. The generation of WW2 in the United States was one toughened by the Great Depression and led by men such as Marshsll and FDR.
Best that Americans can do for themselves as well as others in the world is to accept that they are a country just like many others.
Earth to the United States: “Come in America, come in!”
Posted by: Fyi | Dec 12 2020 15:29 utc | 47
Odds of the JCPOA being re-implemented dropped even lower with Germany now adopting Pompeo’s approach:
https://asiatimes.com/2020/12/germany-playing-a-more-aggressive-hand-toward-iran/
“In an interview with Der Spiegel this month, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said: “A return to the previous [2015 Iran nuclear] agreement will not suffice anyway. There will have to be a kind of ‘nuclear agreement plus,’ which is also in our interest.”
Posted by: Schmoe | Dec 12 2020 15:38 utc | 48
Once again the USA encumbered the Governed American People with major liabilities. 1. it authorized funding USA operations and 2. it approved the provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which limits Presidential authority to bring American troops home from foreign lands, which subsidizes foreign government purchases of Weapons used to kill dead more people?
Basically troops in a foreign place is nothing more than the USA being used to force Americans to finance a customer of the weapons industry. Why don’t the USA just give the money directly to the industry and let the Americans stay home?
Posted by: snake | Dec 12 2020 15:46 utc | 49
Re: “Amid all of the articles & comments here on MOA I do not recall seeing a reference to FLCC:
https://covid19criticalcare.com/ ”
-Posted by: Citizen621 | Dec 12 2020 13:19 utc | 41
I posted early home treatment stuff/links from the FLCCC Alliance, specifically with the I-MASK+ protocol with ivermectin, at least a couple of times. MoA deleted them without comment or explanation.
I would not be surprised if this post and yours, will also be removed in due course.
Posted by: gm | Dec 12 2020 15:53 utc | 50
RE: Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 12 2020 13:48 utc | 42
Very sobering, but very excellent and wise analysis of the current state of affairs, imo.
Posted by: gm | Dec 12 2020 16:36 utc | 51
@34 Ruben Chandler
😆 Keith Richard’s nicotine toxicity can kill any virus, but you’d have to strap me to a chair kicking and screaming to get his plasma!
@43 ptb
Rep. Brad Sherman is an uber-Zionist Dem like Schumer and he signed on. There’s no way Schumer will get in the way of Biden’s success on this.
Germany has been expressing getting a tougher deal, but that won’t fly with Iran, so whatever Biden wants I think Merkel will fall in line with cause she’ll be so relieved merely not having to deal with Trump anymore.
So this move by the HFAC is very positive news. With Gregory Meeks as the new Chair of the HFAC; the JCPOA without pre-conditions will happen. That’s if the Iranians are willing to disregard Trump scrapping the deal and subsequent crimes and acts of war committed by Trump against Iran.
Posted by: Circe | Dec 12 2020 16:48 utc | 52
South American update, 2 bits of news.
Ecuador’s high court just approved UNES alliance– former president Rafael Correa’s party– to run in upcoming elections scheduled for Feb. 7. That’s huge. UNES candidate Andrés Arauz was economic minister under Correa and UNES is leading in the poles. If they take power back from the neolib/neofascist sellout Lenin Moreno Ecuador will show a rapid growth of leftist power similar to Bolivia since the grassroots groups are organized, active and determined– like Bolivia they are not new and they don’t back down. I was in Ecuador in 2002 and was impressed with the depth of knowledge ordinary citizens had. My wife and I taught them English and they taught us about neoliberalism. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/12/10/ecuadors-electoral-council-approves-candidacy-of-andres-arauz-for-upcoming-general-elections/
Bolivia continues to amaze me, they are moving fast with public works programs, public assistance and also are relentlessly but patiently pursuing the killers of the coup government. One of the kingpins, Arturo Murillo, fled to Brazil, then Panama, then Miami where he purchased a $10 million mansion. He is also wanted for theft. Murillo’s sister was named consul in Miami for Bolivia by jeanine Añez so they likely funneled large amounts of money there. Murillo was actually fired from his minister post just days before the October 18 election when the Bolivian congress reacted to Murillo’s threats to foreign election observers including Grayzone’s group. Watch for how Bolivia handles their pursuit, investigation and prosecution of Murillo and Añez. That will tell you how strong the government is. Looks good for now…
Posted by: migueljose | Dec 12 2020 16:59 utc | 53
@ LuRenJia | Dec 12 2020 14:41 utc | 44 with the support for my commentary and wishes for a peaceful New Year
Thanks for that. It feels lonely out here occasionally but I continue to be confident of my broader perspective about private/public finance and its impact on our species evolution/extinction.
Are we a failed species, or about to become such? I hope not but the un-addressed emotional hurt imposed on all but the financial elite in the West is becoming a pandemic, in and of itself…..sad
Thanks again and best wishes to all humanity for a peaceful New Year
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 12 2020 17:23 utc | 54
Covid and the contining economic collapse (never discussed by b)
Niel Clark: https://www.rt.com/op-ed/509414-uk-lockdown-poverty-great-reset/
Some quotes:
“What’s pushed millions into poverty – in Britain, and in many other countries too – is a shift from a majoritarian economic system to a minoritarian one.
…
…the first two waves of globalization, in the late 19th century and the 20th century post-war decades up to around 1980, and the waves of globalization which followed.
The first two waves constituted relatively benign ‘trade globalisation’ with ‘immobile production.’ These waves, taken in tandem with government policies which favoured the majority of people, helped to reduce inequalities and poverty. In fact, by the mid-1970s inequality had fallen to historically low levels.
…
But the third wave, ‘production globalisation,’ in which Western multinationals moved their production to lower-cost countries, saw inequalities – both between countries and within them – sharply rise. Since then the wealth gap has got even wider following the financial crash of 2008, which saw the roll-out of austerity policies
…
You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy,” said a recent WEF video predicting what the world will look like in 2030 told us. The message is clear: we will own nothing, because they – the transnational power elites who meet each year in Davos – will own everything. But I doubt very much that we will be happy in our new impoverished servitude.”
Slavery has become such an issue in the US and UK today, that one is increasingly surprised that those cancelling everything connected to it in the past cannot see that they are destined for it in the future (and are supporting their enslavers, no less)
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Dec 12 2020 17:25 utc | 55
RE (2) : Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 12 2020 13:48 utc | 42
A major corollary impact of off-shoring “1st World” countries’ manufacturing capacity to ‘savvy’ functional countries like China and Vietnam, is that those countries inexorably gain influence->leverage->control, both direct and indirect (its called capitalism I believe), over the “1st World’s” high AND low tech businesses who are now completely dependent on China and other low cost manufacturers keeping the spigot open and flowing on smart(spy)phones, key drug API’s and fine chemical ingredients, electronic components, and a plethora of other processed and manufactured goods categories, crucial to western corporations’ bottom line.
Posted by: gm | Dec 12 2020 17:40 utc | 56
Mr. Psychohistorian
You posed the question:
“Are we a failed species, or about to become such..?”
betrays a provincial and limited outlook and experience which is not at all shared in East Asia: their energy and enthusiasm for a better future is quite palpable.
If such a sentiment as your question reveals be widespread among Western people, then ye will be ignored by the rest of Mankind since ye be unable to articulate a positive and credible future for non-Western people.
Already the United States & EU offer sanctions, war, and confrontation, for the most part.
Posted by: Fyi | Dec 12 2020 17:48 utc | 57
I gotta say, I am done with this shit show. Very, very few here are interested in engaging in a dialogue, very few here are interested in intellectual integrity, I seriously doubt most of the posters here even know what that means.
My greatest asset in life has been that fact that I am way smarter than almost everyone around me. It has also been my greatest curse. I took the moral from plato’s the cave to heart, later I took buddhist teachings to heart. People are deluded and it is not their fault.
All of my effort has led me to conclude that the vast majority of people are too stupid to understand how ignorant they are. (That last sentence is an intelligence test in itself, that most people are going to fail).
My donation is on the way b, I will continue to read b’s posts, but I wont be coming into the comment section anymore.
I look forward to all the responses that are going to prove my point.
Posted by: visak | Dec 12 2020 17:58 utc | 58
Mr. Visak
Plato’s allegory of cave had to do with the acquisition of gnostic knowledge, recapitulated in the New Testament, “…seeing through the glass but darkly”, and echoed in Buddha’s words: “I am awake.”.
Plato’s practical morality, to paraphrase, was for Rulers to learn to Rule and for slaves to accept to be the best slaves that they could ever be.
Freedom was not in his discourse.
Posted by: Fyi | Dec 12 2020 18:11 utc | 59
@ migueljose | Dec 12 2020 16:59 utc | 55… fascinating! thanks for the update!
Posted by: james | Dec 12 2020 18:48 utc | 60
Just have time for a drive-by this morning. Xi has delivered a major speech at the Climate Ambition Summit where IMO he displaces the Outlaw US Empire as World Leader on this issue and more rather subtly in the opening paragraph of his speech:
“It gives me great pleasure to join you in this Climate Ambition Summit. Five years ago, world leaders showed utmost political resolve and wisdom and adopted the Paris Agreement on climate change. Since then, the implementation of the Paris Agreement has received extensive international support and participation. At present, the international landscape is evolving more rapidly and COVID-19 is triggering deep reflections on the relationship between man and nature. The future of global climate governance is drawing greater attention. In this context, I wish to make three proposals.” [My Emphasis]
Trump removed the Outlaw US Empire from a very wise compact requiring resolve and a positive example from the proclaimed leading nation of the world. Trump and his team did the exact opposite and in doing so abdicated the Outlaw US Empire’s declared position as world leader. Then there’re China’s proposals and goals. Let’s see if the Outlaw US Empire can man-up and match what China says its capable of doing.
visak @63
All of my effort has led me to conclude that the vast majority of people are too stupid to understand how ignorant they are. (That last sentence is an intelligence test in itself, that most people are going to fail).
visak, some maintain that ignorance is bliss. Perhaps more people should become ignorant?
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Dec 12 2020 19:24 utc | 62
@Circe 54
I’ll take it as a positive development then, and hope you’re right about Schumer speaking his stance. Not holding my breath tho – seen this good-cop bad-cop routine enough times before.
Just to remind others reading this, approving treaties is a power of the Senate and not the House. However the House may be involved in repealing sanctions or some other anti Iran legislation, so they are still very important (but again, not holding my breath).
Posted by: ptb | Dec 12 2020 19:34 utc | 63
I ran into a neighbor I haven’t seen a while. We talked about the usual covid stuff and then about the election. She mentioned voting for Trump again, but conceded she understood the critique of his gruffness. She said she was going to give Biden a chance, but doesn’t like his appointees at all…John Kerry…puke!
I voted for Ron Paul and disdain both major parties. I explained how grievances from all sides are justified. I wondered out loud what thoughts people are channeling when they fly the american flag (she does). She explained that America is the greatest country on earth and she’s especially proud of the military. I asked if she really knew much about other countries or what the military does. She said she just knew. I proposed people maybe not fly the flag as well as doing other things to visibly withhold support from the obviously corrupt system…and then one day fly it again when things are cleaned up. She said I made her want to fly a bigger flag.
I see Germany is kissing Pompeo’s ring and getting excited about JCPOA WITH additional conditions. I gather Iran might seek total removal of the USAi sanctions as a first step of confidence building and then consider some talks AFTER the Zionist cabal have dropped their addional demands.
The Biden sweet talking scumbags have a long way to go but its pleasing to hear of their excited status.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 12 2020 20:21 utc | 66
@ imo 43,
You are right, New Caledonia has been simmering for a long time, the natives are restless and perhaps the independence vote was rigged by the arrival of many new ‘colons’ from France. Of course nickel is the prize. Nickel is important for both EV’s and stainless steelmaking.
The other nearby prize is the massive copper and gold deposits of the autonomous Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville. A colonial leftover with more in common with the Solomon Islands and New Caledonian people. Perhaps the Chinese can help some ‘moderate rebells’ achieve self determination, like the Anglo Zionists are ‘helping’ moderate rebells balkanise the middle east into a mosaic of feuding mini states? More irony. Of course the Anglo Zionists never help real moderate Palestinians they only help zionist extremists steal more land, shoot children and create more bloodthirsty wars.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/this-derelict-mine-caused-a-bloody-war-now-aussie-companies-are-fighting-over-it-again-20191113-p53a8y.html
My bet to run the Bougainville mine is Australian mining billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest. He has a track record of actually working with indigenous people, unlike Rio Tinto. Twiggy is moving into green renewable energy including a 22 million solar panel energy farm in Australia’s Northern Territory to supply, among others,Singapore with electricity. I expect Twiggy to start some huge mergers and acquisition plays in the green energy mining sector in coming months. Twiggy has suffered the wrath of the Australian government for inviting the Chinese consul to a government press conference allowing him to announce the Chinese governments donation of protective medical equipment to Australia. Twiggy didn’t do China bashing. Since then Twiggy’s FMG iron ore shares have jumped 40 per cent thanks to more orders from China. Australia should stop taking calls from neo-consin Washington and think about its own national interests.
Posted by: Paul | Dec 12 2020 20:23 utc | 67
William Gruff #40 and gm and fyi
Thank you for that discussion
I trust the states that find themselves captives of global private finance vultures can transition without war and strife. The odds are not good IMO. UKi might be the first and I suspect the Workers Party might surge there.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 12 2020 20:28 utc | 68
one of the first entries in the race for COVID vaccine was the company from Tübingen, CureVac. I have not heard much about it now, what happened?
Posted by: bystander04 | Dec 12 2020 21:11 utc | 70
MadMax2 # 72
Judges in Portugal highlight “more than debatable” reliability of Covid tests
– 20th November 2020
linked here
Why delete information in the public interest…? Cannot the people read and use critical thought in order to discover for themselves…? Is debate not a pillar of the great Western Civilisations…? Do we need to ask people to wear adult diapers before posting…?
Thank you and Blue Dotterel for your posts. Any person exercising the power to incarcerate another by means of mandatory quarantine based entirely on the PCR test alone is committing an abuse of power and a dereliction of duty of care. By depriving a person of their liberty and financial and social productivity because of a single PCR test and no supportive symptomatic diagnosis by a competent person is tantamount to willful negligence. It may even be considered mala fide.
I gather the medical profession has armoured itself with legislation that blurs or negates any responsibility and perhaps even frustrate any appeal to courts for remedies or compensation. That too is yet to be tested.
The case of the people incarcerated in the Azores was a compelling one to watch and the court has made a decision that will transform the debate IMO.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 12 2020 21:38 utc | 71
Paul #69
My bet to run the Bougainville mine is Australian mining billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest. He has a track record of actually working with indigenous people, unlike Rio Tinto. Twiggy is moving into green renewable energy including a 22 million solar panel energy farm in Australia’s Northern Territory to supply, among others,Singapore with electricity. I expect Twiggy to start some huge mergers and acquisition plays in the green energy mining sector in coming months. Twiggy has suffered the wrath of the Australian government for inviting the Chinese consul to a government press conference allowing him to announce the Chinese governments donation of protective medical equipment to Australia. Twiggy didn’t do China bashing. Since then Twiggy’s FMG iron ore shares have jumped 40 per cent thanks to more orders from China. Australia should stop taking calls from neo-consin Washington and think about its own national interests.
Well said Paul and thank you. I did appreciate Twiggy and his antics.
I am sure Twiggy Forrest is in a much better position than Hancock Prospecting when it comes to China relations.
The Australian League of Rights a neo-nazi, xenophobic gang of racists was inaugurated and financed by Lang Hancock who’s daughter Gina Rinehart leads the current Australian government around by the foreskin. Not a good bet for China contracts as far as I can tell. Between Rinehart and the pentecostals the ultra conservative Australian LNP party will lead the bunya nut republic into ruin.
Here is a peek at the Iron ore leaders in Oz.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 12 2020 22:08 utc | 72
Hoarsewhisperer @26–
Lots of info on nuclear space engines available at the touch of a few keys. Popular Mechanics about NASA’s plans. RT on ROSCOSCOM’s efforts prior to the latest announcement. And here’s the World Nuclear Organization with a long paper reviewing all the various nuclear engine programs. And last, Asgardia with more on ROSCOSMOS’s initial 2019 announcement. Fascinating, feasible and practical.
oldhippie #75
re search term “External peer view of RTPCR test” turned up a trove of documents. One of the good things about courts is that they become a depository of much evidence. As I recall the documents and critical review papers you mention were tendered as evidence to discredit sole reliance on that particular test.
I am currently reading this.
The case for the imprisoned people was made on the basis that relying on the PCR test alone without a multitude of covid symptoms and further higher specificity tests and diagnosis by further qualified medical personnel there could be no basis to conclude that quarantine/ imprisonment should be mandated.
I appreciate the work of authors Pieter Borger and Michael Yeadon and many others, all well known and distinguished. Science is an open frontier and should not be threatened by the cancel culture mania that has afflicted so many. There is much mala fide in the world and its scientific publishing industry I trust it stays well away from this place. I understand the logic of seeking the withdrawal of the Corman-Drosten paper after they are found to be flawed but I prefer them to remain accessible with a ‘withdrawn’ watermark superimposed.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 12 2020 22:30 utc | 74
Lavrov’s been very busy, but then, when isn’t he? He’s produced yet another very important read, this time at the 28th Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, Moscow, December 10, 2020. The easiest thing to do would be to copy/paste the entire set of remarks and bold them all. Yeah Karl, but you always say that sort of thing. Well, yes I do because they are. There are more important points raised by Lavrov after this small excerpt:
“The pandemic affected literally everyone. Clearly, this kind of global cataclysm can only be overcome by uniting and rising above fleeting differences. President Putin has repeatedly stated this firm position adopted by Russia. Unfortunately, a number of countries, primarily the United States and its allies, are trying to take advantage of this situation in their geopolitical interests and ignore the needs that are common to humanity.
“The term ‘common to humanity’ does not at all mean an average, consensus-based or accommodating understanding of how the inter-civilisational diversity should be respected. This manifests itself in way too many areas of modern international life, including the interpretation of multilateralism energetically promoted and propagated by our Western colleagues. This is also happening in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, despite the fact that people in America and Europe are suffering from COVID-19 as badly as people in other countries.’
“The need for conducting a mutually respectful dialogue and rejecting artificially created confrontational schemes is nowhere to be seen. Just think of the indiscriminate accusations against China regarding the spread of the disease. There was an attempt to blame the PRC for everything that happened. This undermined the efforts to achieve unity, including of the research capacities, in order to come up with effective responses. In addition to healthcare aspects, we must take a closer look at the international bodies in charge of the health and well-being of the people. The WHO-related developments are quite telling in his regard. Ideas are being put forward to create some non-governmental institutions mandated to determine the international community’s policy. This is a clear attempt to sideline the World Health Organisation. These developments are reminiscent of neo-colonial approaches and habits and show the attempts to restrain the formation of new global centres and to punish those who pursue an independent foreign policy. This can also be seen in the ‘vaccine race.’ We are well aware of attempts to oppose the new concept of the so-called rules-based international order to everything that has been created after establishing the UN and forming a large block of universal international legal instruments.”
As I said, much more follows, and you can tell it’s directed at Biden’s team. Will they continue the destructive process Obama began since most of them were on his team? Lavrov is telling them flat out that Russia’s prepared for it to continue and has developed countermeasures that include far more nations than those in NATO. Russia’s leadership’s words combined with those said by Xi today I posted above are telling the Outlaw US Empire it must change its tune or become the ostracized nation–the one without friends for the EU’s interests will never allow it to engage in suicidal policies like those of Trump and Obama.
@40 gruff
Of course, the non-marxists reading your post would disagree.
If China had not been the epicenter of American investment during the last 30 years of the 20th century, China would not be where it is today. Full stop.
It is true, however, that capitalism, if untethered to the nation-state, will pursue its own ends, literally to the end of the earth, without even the thought of loyalty or the good to hold them back in thought for a second.
And it is also true that perhaps China would have ascended inevitably past the U.S. wrt to GDP and technology, but this would have taken place decades later.
So where does that leave the U.S. in the wake of this globalist epoch?
An understanding of Hegelian-dialectics is needed to not fall asunder spiritually as the American empire proceeds to implode in the next 10 years.
This is, of course, if we are able to survive the further prodding of the Russian bear in the near future.
We can learn from a resurgent Russia, both in nationalism and Christianity.
The same will occur in the U.S., as we are able to shake off the globalist parasites as they make a run for China. Will China be able to handle globalist interaction without the trojan horse making it behind their great wall? We shall see. America has clearly not been able to handle this influence and maintain our sovereignty.
But this will no doubt change when the bottom falls out and the strength of Christendom and European heritage are able to reassert themselves, now aware of “tricks-of-the-trade” of the globalist class. It will be exceedingly ugly in the interim, but cest la vie.
Another question that arises is if Russia and China both want America to fall on its face? China has not flown solo without the American consumer and our economic system. Are they worried about this? Would they prop up brutish, neoliberals like Joe Biden’s admin which seek to defang the American conservative? Because if they do, I will never forgive them for it and will count them as the same globalist filth that undid all the hard work of red-blooded Americans who love peace.
We will not become Marxists. The strong, enterprising, and ingenious will again take their place. The moronic technocrats who are currently directing America and European countries will be dealt with one way or another.
If China can learn anything from America, it is to not play the game. Follow the Tao Te Ching. Take the money and run and turn away from global entanglements.
I am, of course, speaking to the Chinese people, not the CCP.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 12 2020 22:55 utc | 76
@Piotr Berman #21
Here in the real world – a move against another nation’s satellite is an act of war.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 12 2020 23:18 utc | 77
@NemesisCalling #80
Every developing nation has had its run of foreign investment money coming in.
The difference with China, and Japan as well, is that neither nation allowed the foreign investors to buy out what really matters to those respective nations.
Foreign investment will always come if it feels it can grow – it is preventing hot capital flight and loss of strategic assets that has to be managed.
As for China and the US as a customer: China’s exports to the US constitute less than 17% of China’s overall export trade. Complete loss of the US as a customer is not going to happen without something radical like a major government overthrow in the US or the US getting nuked.
Thus the idea that China “needs” to make do without the US is nonsensical – more like the US has to try really hard to exclude Chinese imports coming in.
As for the largely wishful thinking about “we are able to shake off the globalist parasites as they make a run for China” – this is ridiculous. The federal bureaucracy+oligarchy+minions_of_both are deeply wound all through American society. This isn’t some small external group that can be identified, much less excluded – it is an entire societal horde of people.
It would be more likely to posit that the federal bureaucracy, heads of corporations and non-profits, elected officials and “thought leaders” could be made to disappear – pure fantasy.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 12 2020 23:31 utc | 78
Putin attended a conference of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council and his remarks are here. Putin recaps the intense activity despite the pandemic to increase the interconnections between the EAEU, SCO and BRI project, plus announcement of the new free trade zones with Iran and Serbia, while Uzbekistan and Cuba became observers awaiting their becoming full members. The Eurasian Bloc now has its third member outside Eurasia–South Africa, Brazil and now Cuba.
@82 c1ue
17% is still quite the chunk, even if this tally is 100% true which I highly doubt.
As to your thought that we would not be able to shake off the technocrats, it is you who are mistaken.
You fail to understand that all that is keeping these morons in power is the continued greasing of the neoliberal skids. And as any intellect worth their salt will tell you, dialectics, whether Marxist or true-Hegelian informs us that neoliberalism is doomed.
Hence, at a certain point, the naturally superior will find the means, probably through a near, total-collapse of the U.S. economy, to reassert their control. The technocrats will be at that point fucked. We will be holding a pile of shit, no doubt, but we as westerners have shown an intense desire for the natural order and we build our worldview around it. We will rebuild just fine, provided we don’t poke the Russian bear before this, as I have mentioned repeatedly.
It is only those in the west who seek to blur every boundary, whether physical or linguistically, who will end up thrown in the historical trash bin.
That’s the fact, jack.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 12 2020 23:46 utc | 80
14th Amendment engaged in vote battle is curious relative to our discussions of modifying/reconstituting the Constitution. I’d like to ask those using the 14th in their argument why they continue to violate the Constitution with their continual violation of the UN Charter since such behavior ought to also be grounds for dismissal/Impeachment and removal.
@ NemesisCalling | Dec 12 2020 22:55 utc | 80
red-blooded Americans who love peace.
You forgot to mention the dodo, Santaclaus and unicorns.
Most of your beloved compatriots have been tacitly agreeing with the premature death of millions of brown children, if not outright fist-pumping to it – all for the sake of baby jesus of course. Yeah! Muricah!! It was worth it, wasn’t it?
Posted by: Lurk | Dec 12 2020 23:51 utc | 82
@ NemesisCalling | Dec 12 2020 23:46 utc | 84
the naturally superior
For an ugly fascist, you’re a pretty cretinous one.
Posted by: Lurk | Dec 12 2020 23:58 utc | 83
karlof1 #79
Thank you karlof1, yes Lavrov has it refined: “artificially created confrontational schemes” is exactly what UKUSAi initiate and NATO follow. This is a sad and stupid act to witness. I do not expect Biden’s team to do anything other than full onslaught at day one. They will try and inveigle Iran but there will be NO removal of the illegal USA sanctions and war posturing.
The SecDef Lloyd Austin is the man that ran the creation, training and arming of ISIS and all its head chopping ‘moderate rebels’ in Iraq and Syria. Remember the 12 year old boy murdered by Turkish backed Nour al-Din al-Zinki, bodies of children lying around after being ‘gassed’. This eloquent Austin is the goto man for war crimes trials as are the White Helmets and John Brennan.
Harris Biden promotes this filth while its protégées are still scheming in Idlib and the CIA and the US military.
My guess is that the Biden team will immediately exercise the immense latitude for operations after the Trump expansion of the theater of operations. Their chief of propaganda at this site is so totally over-excited that one can tell that the evil has arrived 😉 Trump was perhaps the teaser for the real deal – the trial balloon to see how far the envelope could be pushed. I believe we are about to see the Hillary shrieking dragon act.
Reading between the lines of Lavrov’s speeches recently I sense the UKUSAi has not fooled anyone there.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 13 2020 0:17 utc | 84
@ lurk
Must be nice in your leftest den having the privelege to yell “fascist” at anyone who is merely appealing to the rational.
You will go with them, I suppose.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 13 2020 0:24 utc | 85
Piotr Berman #21
One “elegant option” is to give “junk status” to American satellites, say for geopositioning and communication. A large proportion of residents of USA would not be able to reach their workplaces, homes and food stores — they never memorized the routes! Starvation would be epidemic in the suburbs, lost drivers would create impenetrable traffic jams…
Thank you, I like that concept. There will be new employment – night time market vans touring about the suburbs after dark playing serenade music and selling fresh produce. No GPS means even the cops will get lost and there will be peace in the land. taking the knee will be redefined as people tend to their vege patches and pull weeds rather than smoke them.
On a serious note the space junk is mighty difficult to remove as some is high velocity and dense mass like steel and ceramic so catching it in a net is like trying to catch a bullet with a tennis racquet. Methinks the space junk will be in place for some time.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 13 2020 0:35 utc | 86
William Gruff @40–
The cause is the same as that which led to WWI & WWII. The same boring old capitalist crisis of overproduction and saturation of markets and concentration of capital causing decline in profitability.
Unfortunately, I disagree with this premise and thus your entire analysis, although Capitalism does factor in Spades. WW1 primarily occurred because of competition related to the Scramble for Africa and the weakness of the Habsburg Empire, while lurking in the background was the Kaiser’s racist hatred of the Slav which was shared by his closest advisors. Another current that arose later but was begun in the early 1870s was an effort by the Royals and Rentier Class to retain their Free Lunch, which meant the absolute need to overturn the work of all Classical Economists and humanitarians that were working for more equitable societies within Europe–especially the UK. Related to that was the desire by Capitalists to forestall what Marx saw as the natural evolution of the workplace, then society into one where workers became the owners and Socialism ensued to be followed later by Communism.
The Kaiser knew Lenin would take Russia out of the war and almost immediately. That had to be done to negate the arrival of US forces onto the battlefield in enough numbers to turn the tide. Yes, the Kaiser knew all about Lenin’s radical Marxism, but felt German forces combined with Russian Royals/Whites would be capable of quickly removing Lenin from the scene before his ideas could gain any traction. Plans often fail and the Kaiser’s quickly fell apart, although Russia did leave the war as fast as predicted. But before Germany could utilize its newly won Russian assets–foodstuffs, coal and oil–the Americans and Spanish Flu arrived to force Hindenburg to plead for an Armistice–Hindenburg admitted it was the arrival of US forces that forced his hand–not the Allied Naval Blockade which was just relieved by the acquisition of those Russian assets.
Meanwhile in Russia the Civil War was just beginning. The US Army censored Hindenburg’s confession interview which later gave Hitler the use of the “stab in the back” excuse to purge all remaining Social-Democrats, Socialists and Communists from German life, the latter groups having revolted upon the Kaiser’s abdication. None of the Capitalist nations wanted anything Socialistic to succeed, so they joined with the White forces to defeat Lenin’s Red Army. Their own war exhaustion, Russia’s vastness, and its winters combined to defeat them finally in 1923. But the Capitalist world would still try to kill it, which is what WW2 in Europe is all about along with the final solution to back stabbers and Slavs.
By the end of WW1, no major university offered a course in political-economy that included the Classical Economists, they having been replaced by Neoliberal “economic mathematicians” as Hudson calls them, and the first Neoliberal splurge using the newly acquired Federal Reserve began and ended rather quickly with the famous Crash of the many Ponzi Schemes being run by the first generation of Neoliberal Parasites. That combined with the Neoliberal Reparations repayment arrangement to suck Finance capital out of the Gold-Backed system. Hitler was installed, ceased reparation payments, rearmed, violated all Armistice terms, and thus emboldened began his hegemonic policies, which were always aimed with an eye to the East and the Communist devils. France and England didn’t give a shit how many smaller nations might be devoured since the goal was the USSR’s elimination. And although that effort also failed, they were right back at it even before the war’s conclusion.
It’s the Class War that’s been ongoing for 4-5,000 years–those at the top don’t want to share their ill-gained loot with anyone. Equitable societies? No fucking way. The filthy rich’s attitudes towards commonfolk haven’t changed in thousands of years–OUR lives aren’t worth scratch. That’s what it was about then, and that’s what it continues to be about. What b revealed about the UK’s operations in Southwest Asia prove the greater point–no people are to have independence from Private Capital, EVER.
NemesisCalling #80
Thank you for that thoughtful post. Allow me to interrogate it a little;_ “The same will occur in the U.S., as we are able to shake off the globalist parasites as they make a run for China. Will China be able to handle globalist interaction without the trojan horse making it behind their great wall? We shall see. America has clearly not been able to handle this influence and maintain our sovereignty.”
I don’t think you will be able to shake off that ‘globalist parasite’ until it tires of you. Right now it has colonised your military industrial complex a finds that and your compliant political elite useful in its endeavours elsewhere in the world. All it needs do is create ‘hate russia or hate china’ stuff to scream at and they have your USA masses in hand. They have perfected that mechanism. And where that mechanism is vulnerable they will just stage a BLM after dark riot and turmoil and welcome the National Guard to restore order. The militarisation of the USAi police forces is a design not a flaw.
“Will China be able to handle globalist interaction without the trojan horse making it behind their great wall?” A century of experience and wounds from the last time the Chinese leadership failed gives the Chinese people AND the Chinese Communist Party every chance of destroying the trojan horse whenever they wish. They know it is a trojan horse and they have demonstrated that time and again. The global private finance capitalism is unable to penetrate the CCP or the people’s defences.
“But this will no doubt change when the bottom falls out and the strength of Christendom and European heritage are able to reassert themselves, now aware of “tricks-of-the-trade” of the globalist class.” Yes it could be ugly but I sense you are succumbing to optimism over realism. Collapse brings fear and nationalism and hatred of others. It could bring socialism or collectivism or beneficent anarchism but that is uncertain. I doubt that Christendom and Euro Heritage will save the day.
“Another question that arises is if Russia and China both want America to fall on its face? China has not flown solo without the American consumer and our economic system.” Why not let USAi fall on its face? That is better than putting up with it on its feet as now. China and Russia are easily able to diversify their global commerce – as they have been doing for the past few decades. They can tighten their belts, blame the parasite yankees and their running dogs and continue building OBOR in peace and with less disruption. They will create more markets as a result and offer financial and trade shelter to all those nations along the road.
Imagine a world of nations in a commonwealth sharing trade free from the threat of illegal economic sanctions. That is where we are trending.
“Are they worried about this? Would they prop up brutish, neoliberals like Joe Biden’s admin which seek to defang the American conservative? Because if they do, I will never forgive them for it and will count them as the same globalist filth that undid all the hard work of red-blooded Americans who love peace.” They are likely worried more about the true nature of the global threat that Biden and team represent. Russia and China and dozens of nations across the planet will be happy to see the demise of the USAi in its current form. They won’t prop it up. Are you? Why do you expect ‘them’ to defang your monster? The people of the USAi need to get up off their knees and defang this machine. The people of the USAi no doubt love peace and tranquility and they just had a chance. Now its up to you to build a third way that demands an end to the military industrial complex and an end to the private finance capitalism parasite.
“We will not become Marxists. The strong, enterprising, and ingenious will again take their place. The moronic technocrats who are currently directing America and European countries will be dealt with one way or another. Ok but good for you but I think you will have better, lasting success if you give Marx a chance. Look around you, imagine how Cuba would be if there had been no blockade, no sanctions, no constant state of belligerent heckling from the mightiest nation that used be on earth.
Imagine Marxism with full on global support.
“If China can learn anything from America, it is to not play the game. Follow the Tao Te Ching. Take the money and run and turn away from global entanglements.” China learned from America back in 1945 and has not forgotten.
“I am, of course, speaking to the Chinese people, not the CCP.” And I am speaking to you and the all the genuine leftists and Marxists in America including all the communist governments that strive to prosper under the deathening blanket of the USAi.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 13 2020 1:18 utc | 88
NemesisCalling @80–
In 1999, I wrote a very detailed research paper–essentially my Master’s Thesis–into the funding sources of China’s industrial rise and it didn’t come from the Outlaw US Empire or any other Neoliberal nation. The vast majority of capital came from the Chinese Diaspora spread all over Asia and from the Chinese state. The initial destinations of the Outlaw US Empire’s industrial capacity that began leaving in the late 1970s was Mexico, Pakistan, Central America, and some South American nations that were captured by the Empire at the time. Of course, much was already coming from Japan and South Korea–recall Reagan’s bashing of Japan and the physical bashing of its automobiles by him and many accomplices. Only after 911 did large moves into China begin. I’m old enough to recall the Made in Japan phenomenon from the late 1950s to about 1970. And other stuff went to Europe to help rebuild–capitalize on starving labor to promote the semi-fascist governments installed there after the war. Much can be learned by examining China’s past 5-Year Plans, although too few do so.
Thanks to karlof1 @ 63 for linking to Xi’s speech at the Climate Ambition conference. As one who lives in the shadow of mountains and close by America’s Great River, I liked this in his short speech:
“Mountains and rivers green are mountains of silver and gold.”
The best inaugural speech for whichever president we end up with would be one along the same lines as this,short and sweet and poetic, with clear environmental goals as a top priority and no mention of war or national superiority. I have to say I do like “Build back better” in that regard. There’s a lot we need to do better, whoever is in charge of doing it.
As for me, I’ve started planting already. Green is gold.
Posted by: juliania | Dec 13 2020 1:34 utc | 90
juliania @94–
Yes, let’s hope we get some US Executive sanity for Solstice. As you’ve been reading, tensions are indeed high between Russia and NATO. On this page is for me an unprecedented very recent video of a Russian Boomer launching a salvo of Four (4) ICBM missiles each capable of having 6-10 Nuked warheads, which is both an awesome and terrifying sight. The test was likely done prior to Lavrov’s recent remarks I linked to above, which have continued to be more serious in their rhetoric as we move forward but the Neoliberal nations say nothing. The message being sent was expensive. If nothing changes, the next message will probably have more than one sub involved and more missiles. I hope the photos of Biden together with his son are authentic and they love each other. Hopefully, the same can be said for the rest of his team.
AOC and her disgusting betrayal of her constituent calls gets totally outed at Jimmy Dore show.
AOC and the squad of craven cave in cowards are the same old face of the democrats – betrayal with a smile.
Welcome to the Pelosi pussy squad. Totally tame, wouldn’t scratch a fly, Bernie betrayer squad.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 13 2020 3:12 utc | 92
@96 jimmy dore is one of the few us political commenters i trust these days.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 13 2020 5:36 utc | 93
@96 uncle
You know, I do think that Jimmy Dore is onto something by constantly barking about Med4all.
It is one of the only issues that crosses the aisle, besides forever wars, that have real coalition power. If it will be voted on that is!
If these leftists were equally serious about reaching out and forming a coalition, they would concede a few points:
-No money for abortion ever
-No money for transgender mutilation/reassignment
-No money for assisted suicide
I know, I know, I went there. But will they do it? You don’t believe me but if the leftists just met us in the middle, we could actually do it. I don’t think they will, however, and this is just more evidence of the amazing urban/rural divide where rural and conservatives believe rightly that these leftists are just more death-cult technocrats who know nothing of spirit.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 13 2020 6:27 utc | 94
NemesisCalling #98
If these leftists were equally serious about reaching out and forming a coalition, they would concede a few points:
There is no advantage or progress in demanding concessions. That is the propaganda and coercion tactics that got the USA people into this pit. That is the reinforcing propaganda myth blathered on about via the media.
Digging with the same faulty tools will never get you up and out.
Come together on the common ground: Medicare 4 all, public funded schools and no student debt, guaranteed minimum wage. Whatever is the agreed primary goal.
Leave the differences off the partnership papers. Debate them elsewhere and later.
You can build your coalition one brick at a time. Some things will never be agreed to and never get a majority but so what – if you eliminate the primary social crippler – DEBT from health care and education, then everyone is freer and happier to open up discussions.
If you start with problematic conditions you will fail. Search this “fran peavey strategic questioning” and read it all.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 13 2020 6:50 utc | 95
@99 uncle
Do you live in America? It sounds like you don’t. If you did, you would know how great the urban/rural chasm has become.
If you feel that what America needs is more strong-arming by leftists to the detriment of our rural population and breadbasket, you resemble precisely the technocrats I was referring to that will be culled when America’s bottom falls out.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 13 2020 7:15 utc | 96
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 13 2020 7:15 utc | 100
I believe Uncle Tungsten is stating that one needs to seek to find commonalities and push them first before making conditions on debate in forming a coalition. Believe it or not both the Rural/Urban divide can agree on some things like universal health care, free public education and removing the student debt.
Once you get those things that will benefit the whole of society, you can work on your minority issues more easlily. The advantage the Oligarchs have is that they have people focus on minority issues to the exclusion of those beneficial to society as a whole. The purpose being to support divisions in society and exacerbate them while protecting their own hegemonic societal interests.
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Dec 13 2020 7:45 utc | 97
Frontline Covid Critical Care FLCCC and use of I-Mask protocol (with Ivermectin) to treat Covid-19 and as a prophylaxis
https://covid19criticalcare.com/
What do you guys think?
[b here
That link was already twice posted/mentioned up thread.
Why repost it?
Besides – I had linked to Paul Marik’s video explaining the protocol two month ago. It is nothing new with that.
As for Ivermektin – there are several large studies underway evaluating its clinical use for Covid.
Outcome from several smaller studies known so far was over all neutral – i.e. no statistically relevant change.
– b.]
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Dec 13 2020 8:17 utc | 98
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 13 2020 3:12 utc | 96
Excellent Jimmy Dore piece. Thanks. I have suspected AOC was not much more than a plant from the beginning with all the unusual MSM exposure, even before she was elected to a position. What was she allegedly, a waitress. Now would she be a part of the color revolution in reverse – to avoid a real revolution against the real powers that be by being a fake leader of the “revolution”.
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Dec 13 2020 8:27 utc | 99
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Dec 13 2020 8:17 utc | 102
Yes, but Ivermectin is cheap, out of patent, so hasn’t a chance in a world controlled by big pharma and their greed. Same as HCQ, it will likely face all kinds of oligarch propaganda, not just from Big Pharma, but fom our corp and gov control freaks.
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Dec 13 2020 8:39 utc | 100