There is something about the USA and its extraordinary conspiracy theories that reminds me of George Carlin. 7 mins of utoob.

The USAi Capitol was invaded by an organised riotous brigade, yes?

Well they are having trouble making the prosecution case and RT has something good to say about it: "In some regards, the prosecution of Caldwell seems to be developing along the same lines as other cases widely reported on by the US media as sinister plots. In one case, a man named Eric Munchel was photographed carrying zip-ties inside the Senate chamber, so many commentators assumed he came prepared to take hostages. It later emerged that he picked up the plastic restraints from a table inside the Capitol building, where they were left by the police."

There is much more and it is worth the short read to get a sense of the utter nonsense. But the great George Carlin got there a long time ago.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 15 2021 9:42 utc | 101

oooops the RT link to go with 101.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 15 2021 10:02 utc | 102

A real surge in anti-Assad articles and radio programs in treacherous government and soros-funded french press might indicate that there will be military action soon,and they need some public support.

On government radio France Culture they are doubling down on Assad.This is the stance of the Quai d'Orsay ,the name by which goes the french ministère d'affaires étrangères,that is infested with atlantist cockroaches.France Culture equals french policy abroad,without any critical evaluation.It is colonial,it is treacherous and 90% of its editors and "journalists" have been there for decades and hail from jewish background.

I still remember how in their daily news program in 2011 in a live sequence an actress impersonated the syrian ambassador to France and said she was with the opposition now.Of course this evil act was without follow up,but then again,it was never talked about again,in any media,not even the alternative ones.They can dothis without the public even noticing it.

The war criminals in France are as vile as the Obama-Biden Cabinet-ones,and go by the names of Sarkozy,Juppé,Hollande Ayrault,Le Drian,Kouchner,BH.Levy,Macron and so many others who push the crimes for the israelimericans.All have been chosen graduates "young leaders" of the French-American Foundation,that delivers practically all the political personnel in this very undemocratic country.

Whenever there will be attacking of Russia via Ukraine and Syria,I think the RF should seriously consider bombing,Washington,Langley,Paris,Brussels and London.Not Berlin.But as there are atomic bombs in Germany,the Netherlands and Belgium they will receive precision bombs on the same moment.

It is a terrible thing to write,I'm conscient of it,but public opinion isn't aware in the slightest of the terrible nuclear sword that hangs over our european heads.

Still it would be better to help the Donbass if under attack,march to get Odessa,Mariuopol and stop at Kiev and then retreat voluntarily so as to show europeans they should not be afraid of the russkies.

Posted by: willie | Mar 15 2021 12:00 utc | 103

@Norwegian

Except there is no evidence that great pyramids (Giza for example) contain 'mortuary temples' or even tombs.

@uncle tungsten

I did not intend to say that Pyramids were all built for burials as the evidence shows clearly otherwise.

I usually enjoy the informed and sometimes erudite geopolitical comments here. OTOH, stating the pyramids were anything but burial monuments is, Not even wrong.

@Bluedotterel

True, I do not think the pyramids have had any bodies of Pharoahs actually discovered in them.

Because 4,500 years - almost the entirety of written human history - is rather adequate time for people to have looted those tombs. The 3 Giza pyramids were likely looted in the first intermediate period - about 300 years after Khufu & Khafre. And the robbers who did so almost certainly found the pharaoh's bodies.
BTW, when tomb robbers were caught, the punishment was impalement.

Posted by: azzron | Mar 15 2021 12:17 utc | 104

Wokeism: A mechanism for marketing closed-mindedness, self-censorship, and censorship of others to people who adamantly proclaim they support open-mindedness and free inquiry.

How do you sell censorship to people who have convinced themselves that they stand for free thinking and open discourse? You make it all about "protecting the little people". Never mind that western societies have a 100% failure rate in the "responsibility to protect" that they have assigned to themselves; that is, in all cases they burn the village to "save" the village, and they "free" people by killing them. The intentions always seem like good ones, but in all cases those "intentions" are just empty marketing blurbs created by capitalist mass media, and the actions western societies take to realize those intentions invariably bring terrible harm to those they profess to trying to help.

Martin Luther King Jr's dream was for people to not notice the skin melanin content when interacting with others, but what are the "woke" upper middle class white people who profess to oppose racism doing? They are focusing all attention on that single characteristic. Race is said to be a social construct, but it is the "woke" upper middle class white people who are socially constructing it, reinforcing it, and guaranteeing that everyone resents it, including the "poor little brown people" that the delusional "woke" upper middle class whites tell themselves that they are "helping".

Unfortunately, "wokeism" is a closed logic loop. Those afflicted with it cannot break out. The only response they can see to failure of their "wokeness" is yet more "wokeness". What's more is that "wokeism" can only fail because it cannot address the real causes of unequal distribution of opportunity in capitalist society because "wokeness" is to its core a capitalist ideology. As a consequence we will be treated to more and yet even more "wokeism" from the institutions in society controlled by the "woke" upper middle class whites: Mass media, entertainment of all sorts, universities, and workplaces. Americans in particular should expect in the near future to be forced to attend "sensitivity seminars" based upon various "critical grievance group theories" as a condition of employment. For sure that will make people sympathetic to those grievance groups, right? The marketing of "wokeness" will move on to the hard-sell level and be mandated by law... a "deal you cannot refuse!"

More importantly for capitalist elites, anyone who opposes, or is perceived to oppose "wokeism" will be "cancelled", ostracized, "deplatformed", marginalized, and even imprisoned. You must first create witches if you intend to use witch hunts to silence opposition.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 15 2021 12:22 utc | 105

Thanks for the replies on that ugly wokeness topic; seems I thought too long and too hard about this. Maybe it really is nothing special: just the currently used wedge to drive between people unfortunate enough to fall for it. I'm too young to be able to tell when the wokeness train took off; my first contact with these "ideas" has been around 2012-2013, when being a somewhat regular visitor to a online forum dedicated to hacking video game consoles was enough to make me a misogynist for some people; a couple of years later (as I was working towards a CS degree at a technical university in Germany) I had an interesting conversation with two feminists on campus who told us sternly and politely that all men needed to die for the world to become a better place. Obviously these girls were rather alone with their opinion, but it amazes me how people can end up believing things like this in the first place.

Reading this Patrick Armstrong essay is what made me start thinking about this again a couple of days ago. I would have expected the military to be one of the last institutions - if ever - to embrace this kind of lunacy, and I don't know enough to be able to pinpoint just how widespread wokeness is around the armies of certain countries (or whether the things mentioned in the essay are just individual slip-ups irrelevant on the larger scale). Then again, I still remember the plans for pregnancy-friendly uniforms and tanks brought up by the previous German minister of defence (clueless and corrupt Ursula von der Leyen) and couldn't believe that people can come up with things like this keeping a straight face. (now though, given the physical condition of the current American president: lol who would have thought we'd end up here)

Anyhow: thanks for replying and sorry for wasting your time on things like this -- wokeness isn't really a typically-MoA-thing to talk about.

Posted by: pachinko | Mar 15 2021 12:34 utc | 106

Pachinko,

I think you ask a very important question.At fist sight it puzzles me as well why so many leftists put their energy and readiness-for-change in this kind of societal subjects.Do antifa and BLM oppose exploitation of the people in africa?No they do not.Do they oppose bombing of innocent elderly,children and women in Yemen or Syria or Donbass?No they do not neither.

My take :it is all about essentialation of sexual preferences,of accidental properties of the human,like skin-colour.At a moment of time in which all kinds of people are mixed together in most countries,and we could overwhelmingly understand each other delivered from such racial and sexual markers,the criminals in power have worked out the idea to utilize frustration giving birth to anger,to use and direct this anger to make us into one-dimensional thinkers and feelers.They want us to live by impressions,rather than by facts.

In France they pushed homosexual mariage,under the presidency of François Hollande.Not withstanding the fact that many homosexuals are perfectly happy the way they lived before this law.But hey,who is such a bore to oppose it?Only conservatives and catholics etc.There were large demonstrations against this law (Le manif pour tous.) assembling over a million in the streetsof Paris,very undercounted as 40000 in the news.Mothers and little children were teargassed,people wearing some slogan teashirt got four months prisontime.Now french people must say :parent 1,and parent2,instead of father and mother.

Minister of Education at the time was "philosopher" Vincent Peillon,who in a book has written about the intentional tearing apart of family because family as a concept is outdated.The children must be taken violently from their parents and be re-educated by the government.Of course he did not mean his own children,and he got a nice job for his daughter after her studies,to become attaché-culturel at the french embassy in Tel-Aviv.

This all goes hand in hand with deculturization,deletion of history and historic conscience,and of course we never know the persons behind the politics who push this.A lot of them are from McKinsey,and communication coaches really run the country,while the guy you voted for is just an actor.

Macron and Merkel have McKinsey advisors to guide them.

There's a lot more to say about it and in trying to answer your very good question,but I do not have the time for it at the moment.Happy to read other posters's insights though...

Posted by: willie | Mar 15 2021 12:58 utc | 107

@ William Gruff | Mar 15 2021 12:22 utc | 105 (haven't seen your reply at the time I typed up my post):

I fully agree with your notion that wokeism is circular logic leading nowhere. There's nothing wrong with everyone being woke (if that's what they want to be), but when it guarantees that the people afflicted by this thinking can't get anywhere anymore (societally, scientifically et al) what's the point of doing it in the first place? To me it seems like voluntarily locking yourself up in a room and throwing the keys away for no reason other than "I wanna be woke and that's what you gotta do to be woke".

I'd understand it if it was a niche movement by people who try hard to be different and don't know any better - sort of a "growing up and trying out" phase by people who haven't been into any big movement yet. Who knows -- the Internet doesn't have to be representative and maybe wokeness is primarily a social media phenomenon to mold public opinion with as litte actual action required as possible (but then, what's the military doing with this?)

Listening to both proponents and critics of wokeness (which, by the way, are for the most part just as bad as the proponents; mostly incapable of coming up with anything beyond the likes of "you are infringing on muh freedom") I can't help but feel that this is what's generally referred to as decadence: things are getting less ordered and more chaotic as time goes on and Quality takes a dip. On the other hand: I can't speak for the whole world, only the small corner I'm currently living in, and there's no reason why other peoples should follow us on our way to the trash heap :)

Posted by: pachinko | Mar 15 2021 13:17 utc | 108

Someone in this thread just used the phrase "closed logic loop", I did a refresher of it's definition.

The phrase brings to mind an experience I had decades ago. The experience really stuck with me.

I was seated on a plane next to someone that asked if they could "witness to me".
"Witness to me", as you probably already know, means: can they tell you their story of how
they found Jesus. I don't remember whether I said yes of no, but I do remember saying that
I don't believe *every single word* in the Bible is true. The witness-er gave me such a look, not
hostile, more like when a bird-watcher catches sight of an extremely rare and unique to them
bird. His response was what I will always remember and is a fitting example of "closed logic loop".

He showed me where in the Bible it says, "every word in the Bible is true".

Posted by: librul | Mar 15 2021 13:46 utc | 109

pachinko @106: "but it amazes me how people can end up believing things like this in the first place."

Says the guy in Germany!

Who here really believes that decent German people woke up one morning eighty or so years ago and said to themselves "Let's be the meanest and nastiest mofos this world has ever seen!" and they turned into Nazis? They too were stuck in a closed logic loop in which they were certain that they were doing the right thing. They viewed themselves as unquestionably the good guys who were making things better for everyone in the world. The same is true for the Japanese of that period. They were certain beyond question that they were doing the Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, etc a huge favor.

They believed themselves to be exceptional. They felt themselves to be outside the rules of history that they saw everyone else to be trapped in.

As you no doubt have seen, the "woke" are the current period's fascists, even the ones who call themselves "antifa". It is a nice practical example of the interpenetration of opposites found in Marx's Dialectical Materialism and in Taoism.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 15 2021 13:47 utc | 110

Librul,@ 109
That's a good story.

Posted by: arby | Mar 15 2021 14:17 utc | 111

American ideologue (priest) finally admits the USA is a virulent and extremely aggressive empire, needs perpetual wars of conquest to survive:

Will China get our country moving again?

Also from the WaPo (well spotted by Radio Free Amanda):

China’s rise is exactly the kind of threat NATO exists to stop: The alliance has been adrift for years. Countering China would give it focus.

Posted by: vk | Mar 15 2021 14:27 utc | 112

Now we can say it's official: the F-35 is dead:

NYT EDITORIAL BOARD -The Fighter Jet That’s Too Pricey to Fail: The F-35 is a boondoggle. Yet we’re stuck with it.

Posted by: vk | Mar 15 2021 14:29 utc | 113

@Mao Cheng Ji #5
It is more complex than just reshoring.
Economies prosper via complexity. If a nation is really poor, it can get its first leg up by mercantilist export surpluses.
However, true prosperity arises from the parlaying of these surpluses into a diverse and complex ecosystem.
This is what Japan did, for example, to become the 2nd largest economy in the world prior to the rise of China despite having pretty much no natural resources.
The crimes committed by the US oligarchy isn't just the offshoring of manufacturing jobs - it is the mass destruction of the base layer of the American ecosystem: China from without and Walmart and Amazon from within. The small shops, manufacturers and what not have been systematically crushed in favor of chains: from CVS to WalMart and now Amazon.
The same process is being attempted now with food. COVID lockdowns have caused something like 1 in 6 restaurants in the entire US to close their door in 2020. McDonald's, dark kitchens and the like rush to fill this void.
In any case, you are absolutely right that raising minimum wages is not going to fix anything if there is almost nothing to pay minimum wages for.
Having Walmart greeters and Amazon packers be less dependent on food stamps is not a real benefit for anyone.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 15 2021 14:47 utc | 114

@Posted by: librul | Mar 15 2021 13:46 utc | 109

Addendum

I think I responded to the witness-er
that he was using circular logic. Or maybe I am
remembering what I *should* have said.

I think circular logic is a subset of closed loop logic,
but not all closed loop logic is circular logic.

I am open to be corrected.

Posted by: librul | Mar 15 2021 14:53 utc | 115

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-19/euro-tops-dollar-as-payments-currency-for-first-time-since-2013

Could the world suddenly flip on the dollar? If SWIFT can work with euros and digital yuan gets used in Venezuela and Iran - along with huge currency swaps between nations..... I wonder if -contrary to 'experts' - the reign of the dollar could come much more quickly than they think.

Posted by: Eighthman | Mar 15 2021 15:23 utc | 116

BEN 100
'Now the military has declared open-season on the protestors and the body count is trending toward 150'

UNVERIFIED

aFTER TAM, Tibet, Xinjiang, HK, Iraq,
Yugo, Syria, Libya ....
Lesson learned,
ASSUME INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.

This is classic fukus MO,
Manufacture crisis,
Manufacture consent,
R2p[lunder]

we are into stage two now.
The last thing we want is to uncritically swallow the official story
, thus unwittingly abetting fukus in
manufacturing consent.

Posted by: denk | Mar 15 2021 15:37 utc | 117

Gruff@105

"You must first create witches if you intend to use witch hunts to silence opposition." Two thumbs up.

Posted by: spudski | Mar 15 2021 15:47 utc | 118

willie@103

Yes, even his wife as I noted @50.

Posted by: spudski | Mar 15 2021 15:52 utc | 119

@Eighthman #116
You said:

Could the world suddenly flip on the dollar? If SWIFT can work with euros and digital yuan gets used in Venezuela and Iran - along with huge currency swaps between nations..... I wonder if -contrary to 'experts' - the reign of the dollar could come much more quickly than they think.

Short answer: no.
Long answer: until there is a viable alternative - which there isn't today - it will not happen. Once this viable alternative arises, then maybe. This alternative has to be big enough, liquid/open and willing to take on the job.

China is the economy big enough to do so but they can't open up the RMB; the last time they opened the petcocks a big, $1T left China (2015).
The EU zone is another but they have never shown any interest in expanding the role of the euro thanks to German control of the ECB. There is no other.
Both the Germans and China are also not particularly interested in being world trade reserve currency because it would hurt their export oriented economies.

Historically, changes to reserve currencies happen only with the acquiescence of the former regime. The UK pound sterling/Commonwealth handover was by surrender (to the US after WW1) but the Spanish era was ended by war.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 15 2021 15:54 utc | 120

@c1ue 114,
of course it's more complex; the blog-comment genre calls for simplicity.

"Having Walmart greeters and Amazon packers be less dependent on food stamps is not a real benefit for anyone."

They'll do the cost/benefit analysis for the $15/hr requirement, and it might compel to get rid of the greeters altogether. As for Amazon packers, they'll probably make them work faster, raise productivity norms.

Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Mar 15 2021 16:08 utc | 121

PROTEST OUTSIDE Chinese embassy,
now Chinese enterprises in Myanmar
attacked by thugs,.

Rings a bell ?

WHO want Chinese outta Africa, ME,
Apak, SEA ...
AKA GLOBAL CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT ?

Who want China outta Myanmar ?
Who is blaming the ouster of Aung San
on China , supposedly the puppet master
of Rangoon ?

Posted by: denk | Mar 15 2021 16:29 utc | 122

Mr. Crooke brings up Dostoevsky and "Demons" again, and continues in a rather apocalyptic vein:

Leviathan Mobilises for Decisive Battle

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 15 2021 16:30 utc | 123

Woke: blacks have been kept down by racist policies and whites continue to benefit from that and to defend their privileged position (aka 'white privilege') that was acquired via steeling Indian land and slavery.

Anti-woke: The 'woke' are racists! They HATE whites! Police kill more white people every year than black people!

Woke: So why aren't white people fighting for better policing?

Anti-woke: Oh c'mon, BLM is political! NYTimes 1619 project is a witch hunt!

Woke: And yet, USA dragged its feet on banning slavery, Jim Crow persisted for 100 years after the Civil War, and the 'war on drugs' has locked up millions of black people on minor violations.

<> <> <> <> <>

'Woke' is about more than race. What I wrote above is just an illustration of the desperate push-back from the Anti-woke crowd.

AFAICT 'woke' is the Millennial Generation's 1960's-like counter-cultural movement.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 15 2021 16:30 utc | 124

@ librul | Mar 15 2021 13:46 utc | 109 and William Gruff | Mar 15 2021 13:47 utc | 110:

I did haphazardly turn "closed logic loop" into "circular logic" in my reply; maybe I missed the point of your posts because of that, but I'd expect both terms to have the same meaning.

Your comparison with Nazi Germany caught me by surprise through. So is - in your opinion - the substance behind wokeness just that? Just another group of people hypnotizing themselves with delusions of grandeur? Believing to be, if I may take your words, outside the rules of history everyone else is trapped in; and at the same time displaying how they are trapped themselves by re-enacting self-delusions that have been noted countless times in history already? Just another fad that'll fade away on its own after finally consuming itself (inevitably due to its inherent circular logic preventing it from solving its existential problems)?

Posted by: pachinko | Mar 15 2021 16:33 utc | 125

Blinken presses China on Myanmar, Uighurs, HK in first call Top US diplomat talks tough on Myanmar, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, as Beijing notes more room for cooperation than with the Trump administration.

In his call to Beijing, Blinken also pressed China to join the international community in condemning the military coup in Myanmar [Saul Loeb/AFP]
In his call to Beijing, Blinken also pressed China to join the international community in condemning the military coup in Myanmar [Saul Loeb/AFP]
6 Feb 2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Beijing on its treatment of Uighurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong and the coup in Myanmar in the first conversation between top officials of the two powers since President Joe Biden took office.

“I made clear the US will defend our national interests, stand up for our democratic values, and hold Beijing accountable for its abuses of the international system,”

Posted by: denk | Mar 15 2021 16:56 utc | 126

@azzron | Mar 15 2021 12:17 utc | 104

Because 4,500 years - almost the entirety of written human history - is rather adequate time for people to have looted those tombs. The 3 Giza pyramids were likely looted in the first intermediate period - about 300 years after Khufu & Khafre. And the robbers who did so almost certainly found the pharaoh's bodies.
BTW, when tomb robbers were caught, the punishment was impalement.

There is also no evidence that the dynastic Egyptians built the pyramids, or that they were capable of doing so. Remember high up in the core of the Great Pyramid of Giza are found multiple 70-ton granite blocks from Aswan 500Km away. They are perfectly fitted. Then add ~2.5 millon limestone blocks of 1-2 ton each. No remains of burials in the pyramids are seriously claimed, and there are no hieroglyphs in there. Then add the places like the Serapeum with more than 20 high precision granite boxes built from single slabs weighing ~100ton each and placed underground in narrow bedrock niches. Then add the water erosion on the Sphinx enclosure, it shows it has been subject to running water erosion over a very long time even though the sphinx has been buried under sand most of the time the last 5000 years, and it hasn't even rained much during that time.

A much more likely scenario is that the dynastic egyptians found the pyramids. They were built much further back in time by a civilization with high technological skills, witnessed by the circular granite bore holes, saw marks and many other things you can find there (and in places like Peru, Bolivia, Cambodia and many other places).

As has been mentioned before, a very likely theory is that the earth was hit by a comet 12900 years ago. More specifically it hit the Laurentide ice sheet over north America, killed the megafauna there. The whole of north america was bombarded with secondary impacts of giant ice boulders, in some places like the Carolinas the remnants are still found in the form of Carolina Bays, ref. Antonio Zamora
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM8bvhhFAB-Wmr-PeEVkGTA
The impact caused the Younger Dryas cold period that lasted 1200 years and well documented in the climate history.

On the other side of the Atlantic, this probably caused "The Great Flood" we know from the Bible, and I would guess it gave even the Giza pyramids a thorough rinse, notice that one of the pyramids have casing stones intact on the top, but not further below. Perhaps they were washed away. There are many signs of such a cataclysm in Egypt and also in places like Lebanon and even Bolivia.

So in my book, human history is much older than 4500 years. Human civilization was interrupted by the comet 12900 years ago to the degree that it took about 7000 years for civilization to recover and return to Egypt. We are closer in time to the pharaos today than the pharaos were relative to the pyramid builders.

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 15 2021 17:01 utc | 127

@William Gruff | Mar 15 2021 13:47 utc | 110

the "woke" are the current period's fascists, even the ones who call themselves "antifa".

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 15 2021 17:12 utc | 128

Watch the price of the critical mineral palladium and other platinum group elements plus nickel skyrocket following the closure of two mines in Russia:

https://www.mining.com/web/nornickel-shares-drop-after-partial-suspension-of-operations-at-two-mines/

These minerals are necessary for green energy and are very hard to find. Australia has recently discovered significant new deposits. Chalice Mining, Impact Minerals and a few others lead the charge. Some miners extract PGE's as a byproduct of other mining, like Australian Vanadium. Usually this PGE group are found together, often with copper and zinc.

Playing hardball with Russia is a loose - loose game. Is dividing Syria into a mosaic of mini states so important for "American" security?

Palladium is necessary for catalytic converters in auto manufacturing. It is far more valuable than gold.

Posted by: Paul | Mar 15 2021 17:16 utc | 129

re:Wokeness

Here is my opinion about achieving right relations.

Everyone has the same thing written on their forehead, so go ahead and read it.
Often.

What does it say?
"I want to be treated with respect."

Got that? Everyone has the same thing written on their forehead:
"I want to be treated with respect."

Respect/Equality/Justice

Posted by: librul | Mar 15 2021 17:23 utc | 130

@librul | Mar 15 2021 17:23 utc | 130

Got that? Everyone has the same thing written on their forehead:
"I want to be treated with respect."

I agree it is a fundamental right to be treated with respect. That is why the psychopaths in power are busy demolishing all forms of respect towards common people. They know what they are doing.

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 15 2021 17:33 utc | 131

@Posted by: pachinko | Mar 15 2021 16:33 utc | 125

"Your comparison with Nazi Germany caught me by surprise through."

I remember watching one of those history programs some years ago.
It dealt with the Nazis invading the USSR and hanging every
communist they could get their hands on. Not everybody, the communist leaders
of the villages.

The program interviewed German soldiers that were there.
I remember them saying that they had been taught that they were
"saving civilization".

That should scare you.

The Nazis were *not* unique human beings that suddenly descended upon Earth
during that period of history and have now been erased. The real scary part
is that they were very human, they were like everybody else is right now and before, made of
the same stuff. I am reminded of an RBG quote: (roughly) "people are not evil,
some ideas are evil".

Posted by: librul | Mar 15 2021 17:39 utc | 132

@Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 15 2021 17:33 utc | 131

good point

Posted by: librul | Mar 15 2021 17:45 utc | 133

Grieved @86--

On the Woke concept. The wife and I towards the end of last year had a conversation about the term since I recall it as being Black slang related to being aware (as one would expect); and since she had far more experience with Blacks from living on the border of Georgia and Alabama while working at factory jobs alongside many, I asked if she had any input. She affirmed my recollection, which leads me to form the following hypothesis: Woke is yet another example of an aspect of a sub-culture being co-opted by the dominant culture for nefarious ends--the usual Divide and Rule. Note how there's no attempt to bring humanity together simply as humans; rather, humanity's atomized into sects of this, that, the other, and worse. That Woke is paired with Cancel Culture makes sense from a standpoint of exercising control, which is their purpose.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 15 2021 18:30 utc | 134

pachinko @125

Had the Soviet Union not defeated Germany in WWII the Nazis would still be here. The modern expressions of fascism will likewise not go away on their own. So long as the ideology of capitalism remains unchallenged the internal logic of "wokeism" will remain compelling for those who see injustice in the world while at the same time depending for their comfort and security upon capitalist property relations. The bunny's post above helps illustrate what it looks like from the inside. "Wokeism" seems self-evident to those afflicted with the delusion.

Of course, that is just one contemporary expression of fascism, and it isn't very compatible with some of the other ones out there right now (Bolivian or Brazilian fascism, for instance). It would be nice if some of them would crash into and annihilate each other without any collateral damage, but that is unlikely.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 15 2021 18:37 utc | 135

@Jackrabbit #124
My view is wokeness is the oligarchy executing divide and rule tactics.
Why not focus part of the ruled into anger against another part - rather than where said anger deserves to be focused on?
This is no different than iron works owners pushing Swedes and Norwegian extraction immigrant workers to rail against their Hungarian and Czech coworkers in the 1920s - thus letting management keep wages down.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 15 2021 18:52 utc | 136

The Global Times editor is becoming more sophisticated in his taunts:

"All of the US' problems should be attributed to the decline in its competitiveness in the era of globalization. It is too addicted to military and financial hegemony. Its ability and speed of innovation is declining, and its labor force as a whole is becoming lazy. To maintain its advantage, the US wants to keep the existing stock of advantages instead of creating more advantages. The country will inevitably face problems in the long run if it goes on like this."

Truth mixed with sarcasm is an excellent formula as numerous comedians have known. An interesting question is posed by the prose: Do Japan and South Korea really require the Outlaw US Empire to provide their "security"? IMO, there are no hostile nations in the region aside from the Outlaw US Empire--open up commerce and cultural interaction and North Korea will become quite friendly if cautious, particularly with South Korea. China and Russia pose zero threat to either, so the same formula applies. Indeed, it's the Empire's forces that are the genuine regional threat that once removed will remove that threat. I wonder how many Japanese and Koreans have figured that out?

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 15 2021 18:57 utc | 137

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 15 2021 18:52 utc | 136

Yes, "wokeness" is clearly being driven from the top. They may come to regret it. The mob is headless and can easily turn on its masters.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 15 2021 19:01 utc | 138

c1ue, Bemildred

My sense is that 'woke' developed as an independent off-shoot of Bernie and BLM. Both of these Movements are channels for hyper-partisan 'divide and conquer' psyops but 'woke' (a certain level of awareness) has not been compromised. And that really really annoys the establishment because the see it as a challenge similar to the counter-culture of the 1960's (I think that's true).

The 'woke' are likely to be anti-war once the shooting starts.

<> <> <> <> <>

Note: 'Woke' is not Antifa. Anyone with children of a certain age (like me) know this.

IMO those who try to make a connection to Antifa are just trying to undermine the 'woke' community.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 15 2021 19:29 utc | 139

Atop the Woke discussion I offer Alastair Crooke's latest, "Leviathan Mobilises for Decisive Battle," of which Woke is but one aspect. It ought to provoke some keen discourse:

"But its essence – the root to this meta-historical struggle – always has been the world order, open society focus on dis-embedding humans from all forms of collective identity. Firstly, to dis-embed Renaissance Man from his notion of being a microcosm interpenetrating within a vast surrounding, living macrocosm (this aim being largely achieved via the advent of empirical Scientism); then the de-coupling from Latin Catholicism (via Protestant individualism); and lately, liberation from the secular nation-state (through globalism). And finally, we reach the shedding ‘late-stage’ – the severance from all collective identities and histories, including ethnicity and gender (both now to be self-defined).

"It is the passage to a new kind of liberalism, one that sweeps gender and identity into full, liquid fluidity. This latter aspect is not some secondary ‘accessory’ or add on – it is ‘something’ essentially embedded within in the logic of liberalism. The logic is inescapable. And the ultimate logical end to which it leads? Well, to the dis-embedding of the subjective self into trans-humanism. (But let’s not go there; it is dark – i.e. being human is to impose the subjective on the objective – 'We need to liberate the objects from the subjects, from humanity, and explore the things as they are – without man, without being a tool of man')."

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 15 2021 20:12 utc | 140

vk | Mar 14 2021 15:03 utc | 4

I will repeat what I told the British when Labour sabotaged Corbyn to put Starmer in power: you could have an Aurelian, but instead chose a Priscus Attalus.

Yers! Pretty neat analogy! No doubt the majority of the Blairite Labour MPs and the the other 'Public' Schoolboys that are a large part of the Tory Party understood you, but I doubt that most of Corbyn's supporters had a clue as to what you meant.

Posted by: foolisholdman | Mar 15 2021 20:27 utc | 141

@140 "And finally, we reach the shedding ‘late-stage’ – the severance from all collective identities and histories, including ethnicity and gender (both now to be self-defined)."

Actually, I also believe that 'ethnicity' is self-defined. How else would Mr Alastair Crooke define it? Gender, no.

As for the 'woke' thing, I think it's nothing more than an agitprop campaign carried out by one of the two wings of the establishment, as an attempt to increase the turnout of their disillusioned (as we observed in 2016) voters. In a two-party political system, inciting hatred towards the opponent is by far the most efficient tactic, especially when you don't have anything to offer (see Biden's "No one's standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change").

Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Mar 15 2021 20:36 utc | 142

vk | Mar 14 2021 15:51 utc | 6

The reason manufacturing jobs are seen as naturally more highly paid in the post-war era is because the manufacturing workers were in the vanguard of class struggle during the 19th-20th Centuries, therefore they fought more - and got more - rights, wages and benefits.

E.g. the railwaymen in the UK are still well unionized and, almost alone amongst the blue-collar workers in Britain, are still well paid.

Posted by: foolisholdman | Mar 15 2021 20:41 utc | 143

@140 Crooke is certainly pushing all the right buttons. Progressive minded young folk love to feel they are at the vanguard of something revolutionary and exciting.

Posted by: dh | Mar 15 2021 20:52 utc | 144

vk | Mar 14 2021 17:07 utc | 11

1) reshoring could theoretically lower unemployment if we exclude the factor of automation. However, even if that happened, it would lower the profit rates even more, thus lowering the ceiling of the wages; and

2) it would happen at the cost of the deindustrialization of the rest of the world - specially China.

I don't think it would lead to the "deindustrialization of the rest of the world - specially China" as exports to the Us are not that big a part of China's exports. (About 3% I think it was, last time I looked.)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Mao Cheng Ji | Mar 14 2021 16:07 utc | 8

Which is exactly what happened during the Trump administration: the lowest unemployment and highest wages in 50 years.

And of course limiting inflow of desperate undocumented foreigners, suppressing wages by playing (roughly speaking) the role of scabs, cheap replacement workers - that's another factor.

How real were those figures? The unemployment figures left out the people who had stopped looking for work.

Posted by: foolisholdman | Mar 15 2021 21:02 utc | 145

karlof1@137 approvingly (for some reasons) cites a Global Times editor: "All of the US' problems should be attributed to the decline in its competitiveness in the era of globalization. It is too addicted to military and financial hegemony. Its ability and speed of innovation is declining, and its labor force as a whole is becoming lazy..." Competitiveness is not some spiritual quality or even an act of will, notwithstanding the ignorant superstitions of clowns hypnotized by MBA programs.

The competitiveness of an economic system is a product of investments in capital (yes, human/social too but first, physical capital.) In a capitalist system, these investments will, by raising the organic composition of capital, lower the long-term general rate of profit. The increase in the mass of profit, of surplus value, can keep the system expanding only so long. Crisis is inevitable and every crisis leads to further centralization and concentrations of capitals, that is, leads to financialization.

The Chinese system has not been so successful for so long because the US businessman imitating capitalist roaders are so much smarter, but because so much of the Chinese economy is still not driven solely by profit. That's why Xi keeps raving about increasing the role of the market in making investment decisions, Yes, in the long run, or maybe in the very short run, such reform and opening up will act like Gorbachev's reforms, i.e., sabotage the economy. But then, trying to undercut US financial hegemony also means trying to wreck the world market by trashing the main institution that keeps the banks open, leaving the simple question, who will buy Chinese exports?

As for the notion that the US workers are too lazy, this is of course the viewpoint expressed by every flunky for the bourgeoisie as well as the bourgeois themselves. A man digging a ditch with a shovel is working harder than the man digging the ditch with a backhoe. So much for "hard" work in a serious economic analysis. The idea that US workers are too be blamed for unemployment is personally contemptible. This asshole is a nice example of the moral imbecility of the capitalist roaders.

Note to vk, stop idolizing Global Times editorials.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 15 2021 21:48 utc | 146

vk | Mar 14 2021 18:02 utc | 20

Long story short, the American people cannot have the best of the two worlds: either it accepts a lower life standard while it accepts to not be the hegemon or it goes all-in with protecting its hegemon status and deepens its aggressiveness toward the rest of the world so as to maintain its exuberant life standard.

I don't agree. The USA has nearly everything, in the way of resources, it needs to give all its inhabitants a decent standard of living. The few other things it needs it could get by trade. The problem, what stops it doing that, is its Socio-economic system. The people running it are a small collection (class) of greedy bastards. They don't want the mass of the people to have a comfortable, secure life. They like having poor people around.

Posted by: foolisholdman | Mar 15 2021 21:55 utc | 147

"How real were those figures?"

The numbers for 2019 are exactly as real as the numbers they are being compared with (for previous years), calculated every quarter using the same methodology.

Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Mar 15 2021 22:02 utc | 148

vk | Mar 14 2021 18:02 utc | 20

Long story short, the American people cannot have the best of the two worlds: either it accepts a lower life standard while it accepts to not be the hegemon or it goes all-in with protecting its hegemon status and deepens its aggressiveness toward the rest of the world so as to maintain its exuberant life standard.

What "exuberant life standard" is that then? Looking at videos of the tent dwellers in SF, I don't see many that look all that exuberant! Half a million of the others are dead. This must be some new form of exuberance of which I was formerly unaware!

Posted by: foolisholdman | Mar 15 2021 22:03 utc | 149

@145,
plus, there is this:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/285593/say-better-off-past-elections.aspx

Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Mar 15 2021 22:11 utc | 150

snake | Mar 14 2021 18:09 utc | 21

The ruling class has in the past ruled by brute force, police and armed forces were always primarily set up to protect the ruling class from the under class(es). Since WW2, the present western ruling class has hit on a superior scheme: control of information and education + "Democracy". The MSM are the eyes and ears of the populace and the education system has convinced the under classes that they can control how the country is run by voting occasionally for politicians.
When the country is managed to the disadvantage of the majority the MSM tell them (and most believe) that they made the wrong choice, next time they should vote for the other politicians, who promise to do better. Curiously, it has worked every time! So far. It may be changing, failing.

Posted by: foolisholdman | Mar 15 2021 22:20 utc | 151

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 15 2021 19:29 utc | 13
& others RE: wokeness

It reminds me of the 60s. The young people wanting better chances in life and looking for "reform", or a chance to define their own identity ("do your own thing"), the government trying to manage and control it for its own purposes, the media being used to drive the narrative about it. That was the tragedy, this is the farce.

But of course acquiring a new identity is not so easily done, unless it is also easily given up.

I have read in a couple places that there are pressures being applied to the media and corporations to do the training programs and other sorts of posturing and indoctrination of "wokeness". I don't know that myself, but it does look that way.

If I was running things I would make sure all those young people had useful and well-paid jobs both to give them experience and to keep them happy and out of trouble. If we are going to compete, we are going to have to do that anyway. "Biden" seems to have some clue about that, but I'm not optimistic.

I find it interesting that all of these guys, Dugin, Crooke, Unherd come to center on identity as an object of attack, to be pushed on people. And that seems one of the greatest forms of oppression, to have an identity forced on you to suit someone else, or to have your identity attacked and undermined.

Yet we all need an identity, a center, something to belong to, something to be and do, a meaning. At one time you would belong to a tribe, that would be your identity. Now they get invented in the movies and people adopt them like a new pair of shoes.

And it is a very bad sign, now as back then.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 15 2021 22:23 utc | 152

This is an interesting article about "originalism" and the conservatives' ongoing attempt to get the Supreme Court (and the US legal system) to actually attempt to understand and enforce the law as opposed to enables laws that change society.
It is particularly interesting given a different article I read which attempted to paint originalism as Christian fundamentalism transplanted into big bad conservative ideology.
Of course, both could be right...
Liberty's Journal on Conservative law
Long article also talks about the coming showdown between libertarian and "anti-SCOTUS society framing" conservatives.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 15 2021 22:27 utc | 153

@153 "It reminds me of the 60s."

In the Sixties you had issues like Vietnam and the Civil rights movement. Things were clearer and it was fairly easy for middle class kids to decide where they belonged. Dropping out, doing your own thing, smoking pot etc. were acts of rebellion.

I don't understand how some people can think that the CIA orchestrated the whole hippie movement. Did they create the bands, write the songs and con people into going to Woodstock? What about the collapse of morale in Vietnam itself? If the CIA were in charge they must have wanted to end the Vietnam War.

Posted by: dh | Mar 15 2021 22:39 utc | 154

At its start, the hippie movement is one of the best things that ever happened to the USA. Before that wars were never questioned. Due to the counter-culture, conscription is nearly impossible. I also appreciate the changes the counter-culture brought after the fascist 50's. A lot of positive ground was made in the way of race, gender and environment.

The CIA didn't create the counter-culture, it conquered the counter-culture and changed it into what we see today. Hippies became yuppies, drug use went from pot and psychedelics to alcohol, cocaine and pills. Fighting the good fight...the hard fight for social justice was manipulated into virtue signaling and identity politics, with no real substance.

Without the counter-culture, I doubt we make it out of the 60's without nuclear war. The 50's were an ugly time, a time when America took up the mantle of the Nazis, genociding North Korea and Vietnam. Brutal death squads across the world. Good riddance to that, it is just to bad most of the hippies sold out or were coopted or became so addicted to raw hedonism that they lost sight of what really mattered.

That is the nature of the Borg...resistance is futile, no matter what you will be assimilated, and by the early 70's the counter-culture was largely assimilated.

Posted by: ArtherDent | Mar 15 2021 23:02 utc | 155

@155 Nice post. Those young people back in the 60s were really sticking their necks out. Look at Kent State and Chicago. Burning a draft card is a serious matter.

Hippies became yuppies but in a way it was inevitable. They had kids, bought houses, got mortgages, went to work for Morgan Stanley, Mick Jagger got a knighthood.. it's the way life is.

Posted by: dh | Mar 15 2021 23:15 utc | 156

Norwegian #127

Thank you for your precise response regarding the myth of pyramids as burial chambers. There are mortuary temples scattered about on the surrounding plains but there is no absolute coincident dating. The extraordinary 'boxes' at the Serapeum defy logic as to the place they are in and simultaneously challenge construction technology available in the day.

Thank you too for linking to Antonio Zamora. His analysis is precise and succinct.

In addition to the overwhelming evidence for a meteor strike some 12,900 years and its catastrophic aftermath:

The Burkle meteor impact 5,000 years ago did create a tsunami that impacted Madagascar AND the south west coast of Australia. That tsunami likely headed north as well and severely impacted the Red Sea, Persian Gulf etc. Parts of that meteor fell on Australia and Argentina from recall.

The Tempest Stele records a later event 3550 years ago that was a severe weather disaster in Egypt and almost destroyed that society. Origin is speculatively linked to the Santorini volcanic explosion.

The Santorini volcano disintegrated in its entirety in one explosion some 3550 years ago and likely created massive Mediterranean tsunamis. This event ended the Minoan civilisation immediately.

Large catastrophic events interrupt earths development periodically it seems. They also enrich flood myths and reinvigorate expiring myths.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 15 2021 23:55 utc | 157

Yep, nobody every protested against war (image) before America's war on Vietnam.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 16 2021 0:03 utc | 158

Seems Banksters are hip to capitalize on the Woke/Cancel inanities, "Oligarch bankers are using woke PR campaigns to whitewash the greatest wealth inequality and economic plunder in history". I offer the following outtake:

"None of these banks care about equality—racial, economic or otherwise—unless it directly impacts their paycheques. And that remains evident from yet more hollow pledges. More to the point, after the heinous actions banks took bankrupting America over the past several decades, should we really believe that these same bankers are going to make a serious effort to end wealth inequality? Or should we see this latest verbal diarrhoea for what it really is: a bulls**t PR campaign by people who really don’t care about equality? After all, this program is coming from a company with 45,000 employees, where less than three percent of the senior management are ‘black or African American.’"

Add that and the other content the author provides to Crooke's essay, and we might be able to measure the 1%'s growing desperation.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 0:19 utc | 159

@ 157 william gruff... the ''original'' woke membership, lol...

unrelated to wgs pic... cynicism is too easy.....'sold out'... not everybody sells out.. bankers as @ 158 karlof1 points out- sold and sell out all the time on the other hand..

Posted by: james | Mar 16 2021 1:50 utc | 160

@152 Bemildred

I'd like to quote you please:

I find it interesting that all of these guys, Dugin, Crooke, Unherd come to center on identity as an object of attack, to be pushed on people. And that seems one of the greatest forms of oppression, to have an identity forced on you to suit someone else, or to have your identity attacked and undermined.

Yet we all need an identity, a center, something to belong to, something to be and do, a meaning. At one time you would belong to a tribe, that would be your identity. Now they get invented in the movies and people adopt them like a new pair of shoes.

It's so useful that you drop these major themes into the discussion on wokeness and wokeism. I hadn't quite put them together, but of course, they are all part of the same thing. Wokeism is part of the attack on identity, and is one of the few tools remaining to the powers that be, albeit a very powerful tool.

~~

I must interrupt myself here to notice Jackrabbit's idea that woke also falls organically to today's young, and can perhaps evolve into a full-on force of anti-establishment. In the same way that the 60's were very interwoven with CIA mind-control experiments, and yet, even so, lost out on the more sublime levels to the natural wisdom of the Universe itself when the LSD actually kicked in for millions - in just such a way, the woke theme may well have been created in a psy-op lab, but may also turn into its own thing. We shall see.

~~

Back to identity. It's almost as if the new battleground is that of identity. And if, as Crooke implies, and as his ex-CIA analyst author claims, the powers that be have largely lost control of the very workings of their agenda, then the battle raging could be won by anyone.

And if so, perhaps it can be won decisively by choosing the identity of victor. Human trumps non-human - a slogan, perhaps, for the rallying cry that will emerge as the Awakening gathers force.

And I say this because Dugin's theme, which has become for Crooke now an obvious pillar of his own analysis, also liberated me in some way to choose a bedrock belonging, one that cannot be challenged or overturned.

When the enemy became so clearly revealed as trans-human, anti-human - humancidal, in fact - then it became effortlessly simple to identify myself as human, and rooting for the humans, and fighting for the humans.

So this is the future. And battle is already joined, here in the present. But now, finally, we know the sides.

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 16 2021 3:40 utc | 161

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 16 2021 3:40 utc | 160

Anything I post here is free to use.

Identity is central. You can look at "wokeness" as a demand for identity from people who haven't got one, they don't really know who they are, so they are looking. As in the 60s, that lack of a chosen identity leaves you open to manipulation.

And I remember that as part of the 60s too, looking for meaning, when being an "Organization Man" did not appeal. After all the cowboy drama on the TV back then, being a obedient grunt or corporatista did not appeal to a lot of us.

And young people commonly set out on a search for identity and an occupation in life. It is convenitent if you like it where you are and what is on offer, but not everybody is so lucky.

Here in the USA, we have the Mighty Wurlitzer working night and day to keep us divided and confused, so no wonder. And if you go to say Vietnam and find out that you are really the bad guys, well that's pretty disorienting too.

So I'd say we have been asking for this. They want our support and they want us broke and confused. Well which is it? You can't have both.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 16 2021 5:14 utc | 162

Grieved @160--

When the enemy became so clearly revealed as trans-human, anti-human - humancidal

Yes. I've been calling the enemy Parasites for quite awhile. Vampires are another analogy; but IMO, Parasites is best as it's more apt. Humans versus the Anti-humans is another theme I put forth. Collectivist versus Atomistic. Humans versus the Mind Snatchers. Dignity and the Sanctity of Life versus Profit about all else. Again, the Dualistic Good versus Evil. You're Either With Humans or Against Humans.

Big Picture-wise it's Humans versus Western Human History and the dominance of Parasitic Creditors on Human Development and Peaceful Evolution. That Historical Narrative has yet to be properly espoused.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 5:18 utc | 163

Bemildred @161--

And I remember that as part of the 60s too, looking for meaning, when being an "Organization Man" did not appeal. After all the cowboy drama on the TV back then, being a obedient grunt or corporatista did not appeal to a lot of us.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit from the early 1950s plus Death of a Salesman spoke to those themes. But not nearly enough people saw or read either to make a difference.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 5:22 utc | 164

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit from the early 1950s plus Death of a Salesman spoke to those themes. But not nearly enough people saw or read either to make a difference.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 5:22 utc | 163

That would apply to most, but not all, of the people I knew in High School.

There was still back then a robust indy political print media, lots of little magazines popping up like mushrooms. Commies everywhere, Mao's litle red book. The anti-war movement started there, old school hard-nosed political (and infiltrated). "The Lost Generation", "The Beat Generation" they called them.

But always a minority, though the crowds grew as the war went on. And when the inductees came home it became impossible to hide what was going on there.

And then came the Summer of Love etc., and that sold much better, and everything changed after that. That was the beginning of the media circus, "The Summer of Love", and they were all pumping it out then too. And here we are now, still living in that media bubble.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 16 2021 5:50 utc | 165

@ Bemildred, Grieved and karlof1 about humanism and media bubbles we live in

While I agree with what you say I kept thinking while reading that along with the new humanism need to grow communities....like the MoA bar...grin instead of the religions/communities of old that never have walked the talk.

As the old world fails around us we have to see to the future we want to happen and build it....its not like we stop having sewage treatment plants or grocery stores but the narratives go to the humanistic side rather than the individualistic in their creation and operation.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 16 2021 6:09 utc | 166

@162 karlof1 - That Historical Narrative has yet to be properly espoused.

I think perhaps this is now happening - with Dugin, and Crooke, and us, and others.

And the warrior side of me feels potent energy arising from correctly identifying that narrative, seeing the war for what it truly is, and long has been, and seeing the battle lines beginning to draw up clearly. Watching the enemy come into the light, to be destroyed.

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 16 2021 6:30 utc | 167

@165 Bemildred

The summer of love may have fueled a media bubble, on the outside and following along behind, but for the people in it what happened was an experience rush.

So if in fact there are people living in a media bubble - and I'm not disagreeing - there are also people living in that same rush of experience.

Imagine: people living in their own experience; deciding for themselves; knowing their own identity, because that's the only place experience exists. One identifies where one's experience is found. This is where one's truth is found. And the only thing that external lies or internal delusion can ever achieve is to obstruct the path towards belonging in that experience.

And if there is a gift to society from the sixties that endures, it is this gift, of the knowledge that truth can be known through self experience.

And this was the gift that some people in the sixties believed they were bequeathing, even as the dream died, as the drugs were changed from psychedelic to narcotic, and as love was crushed by the straight world and its vicious tools of oppression. And it is all that survived that extinction, but it was also all that needed to survive, as the people of that time also knew, as that time died.

This, my paeon to that time.

~~

So they can spin whatever they want to, out there on the periphery of personal experience, but the great war, the battle in progress, is for the triumph of the experience of the real over the narrative of reality. It is a war of authenticity.

The great war is one of existence itself. And it is almost entirely fought in one's own mind. And I suppose that those who think in terms of the Father of Lies would connect a lot of dots here.

If the war is between the humans and the non-humans, and we see clearly that the fundamental weapon of the non-human is the lie, then we also see that the definition of the human is of being in the truth.

And so - the war of self-electing non-humans against self-accepting humans is a war of lies against truth.

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 16 2021 6:43 utc | 168

"Verkada Breach Demonstrates Danger of Overprivileged Users" headline

Astonishing story. Reminds me a wave of attacks by creepy clowns that spread over all English speaking country. In both cases, no one linked the crisis to Russian or Chinese.

There is also a note of resentment against the "overprivileged", i.e. the most productive citizen that keep our house in order economically. Is a revolution coming?

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 16 2021 11:05 utc | 169

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 16 2021 6:09 utc | 166

Yes, until we allow ourselves to have a clear and unsentimental view of who and what we really are, as humans: big apes with possibilities and a lot of nasty baggage, very much a part of this world, we will continue to have "problems".

The additions by others here (Grieved, karlof1) I have no issues with, we live on the Hinge of History, lucky us, best watch carefully.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 16 2021 14:38 utc | 170

karlof1 @ 164, 'The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit' was one of the last movies I saw as a teenager in New Zealand. There were three together that I remember as actual movie theatre movies then. The other two were "The High and the Mighty" and "The Purple Plain". All three figured quite vividly in my resettlement in the US as memories. I recently found 'The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit' through youtube. It holds up well. I found "The Purple Plain" as a novel in a thrift store. The movie is very close to the novel. And soon after arriving in the US, I, mother and sister relived the 'High and the Mighty' disaster as we flew from San Francisco to New York,(first time on an airplane) only not the extreme drama of that. I was sitting over one of the engines and noticed oil leaking out. Fortunately the crew had also noticed, we weren't far from takeoff, so turned around, landed, and the matter was quickly resolved.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 16 2021 15:39 utc | 171

@Jackrabbit #139
I disagree.
In particular, the most rabid woke-enforcers are the wannabes towards oligarchy.
This is not the hallmark of true ideological believers, but of climbers hoping to either be accepted into the chosen or to at least self-identify as chosen.

Studebaker's article on Song dynasty wannabes shows an example of historical "class identity" being converted from reality (i.e. "meritocratic" bureaucracy positions in the Chinese ministries) to virtual (class based acts and beliefs).

The repeated pwning by Bernie, Obama et al reinforces the notion that these people are just plain naive (or stupid) as opposed to reasoned, and more importantly highly motivated drivers of a specific agenda.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 16 2021 16:39 utc | 172

An interesting article on NFTs primarily because the authors (and Yves) apparently have never read Veblen and his concept of the Veblen good.
And yes, the ongoing trend is at least partly due to ZIRP, stimulus checks and ongoing oligarchic rampaging through the economy...

Why would anyone buy NFT art

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 16 2021 16:42 utc | 173

Here's an example of the type of activity required to boost Humans over the Anti-Humans. It should come as no surprise that no Neoliberal nation has anything like it or planned for. When I write about developing Human Capital, what's described is exactly what I mean. It's as close to an Academic Eden as humanly possible. When I read Putin's proposal for this project several years ago, posted it here and commented upon it, I had very high hopes and expectations that also served to put the very dire situation here within the Outlaw US Empire into stark perspective. Now instead of promoting the future as Russia and China are, elites here are busy shredding it by further atomizing society and turning culture into an unrecognizable pile of junk. Indeed, the most glaring point being made here is the utter lack of vision present in Neoliberal-land as the Parasites ingest vitality and don't give a damn about human development.

Clearly, Russians will have an unfettered understanding of their identity and an understanding of how a successful society works, just as the Chinese do--Everybody works together to maintain and increase the wellbeing of everybody: Nobody is to be left behind (Remember that Bushism/lie, No Child Left Behind). That the Outlaw Empires do their utmost to debilitate such advancement shows their utter degree of bankruptcy.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 16:46 utc | 174

Hudson has penned another short memo on the need to deal with debt so economic growth can be promoted, "Removing The Debt Barrier To Economic Growth"--the implication being without its removal growth will not occur and economic shrinkage for the masses will continue unabated.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 17:14 utc | 175

Update on Twitter's illegalities which will enable Russia's regulators to ban it "without a court order" by month's end. As I predicted earlier, the Outlaw US Empire will sanction Russia to support censorship and won't even recognize the absurdity of its action.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 17:41 utc | 176

New study faults Neoliberalism for EU's botched COVID response:

"'We are calling on government leaders and international organizations to fix the fractures in our societies and stop turning a blind eye to the conditions that allowed the novel coronavirus to inflict such grave damage on the world,' Monti said. 'We have a choice: to ignore the evidence and risk being even harder hit in future pandemics, or to heed the warnings and implement the lessons we have learned.'" [My Emphasis]

The bolded passage is the great obfuscation for the ideology responsible for the immorality inflicted on Neoliberal nations particularly as they lead the world in deaths from COVID--The Outlaw US Empire, EU, then Brazil are the top three. But I doubt this report or any other will oust the Parasites or debilitate their ideology. After all, they have NATO to defend against such threats, although NATO was a complete failure in this instance.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 17:51 utc | 177

Interesting speculation on the outcome of Lavrov's recent trip to UAE, Saudi and Qatar, and the invitation for Hezbollah to meet with Lavrov in Moscow. The speculation's sensible yet rather complex since that's the nature of the situation. Here's the meat:

"According to my analysis, the deal that Moscow is most likely to suggest is a mutual withdrawal of Iran and Hezbollah from Syria on one hand, and an end of the Saudi war on Yemen. It is simple, Saudi Arabia to leave Yemen and Iran/Hezbollah to leave Syria. I believe that Lavrov has already secured the Saudi acceptance of those terms, terms that will not only end the war in Yemen, but also the return of Syria to the Arab League and a possible easing of the Western economic sanctions on Syria. Had Lavrov not secured the Saudi assurance, he would not have invited Hezbollah for talks."

We shall see, but I don't think the Outlaw US Empire has much leverage to derail such a complex arrangement. After far too many years, it seems hopeful that the region's rulers have finally come to accept the logic that only a collective security arrangement provides what the region's nations desire (aside from the ouster of the Outlaw US Empire and vassals from the region).

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 18:27 utc | 178

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 17:41 utc | 176

Twitter has been warned, they have a month to come to terms or they will be blocked. But not only Twitter, Apple thought it over and their phones will offer the alternative to be launched with local software, like VK and Odnoklasniki for social media, Yandex browser and search tools. Apple must have checked the numbers and figured that it cannot afford to lose that market. Interesting that what is asked of them is to offer the alternative, let the user choose. It does not look that bright with Google, the smart boys at the do no evil empire figured that the age limit will turn off a lot of users and they applied that “no evil” mechanism to a patriotic film related to the recent inauguration of the monument in Rzhev, quite a beautiful monument that hopefully I’ll get to see sometime, the movie about the Rzhev Battle was tagged as having violent content and requires age check, they have been warned, lift that restriction or else. Defending your digital turf, so sad that here in Europe we are the absolute digital colony of those felons.

Posted by: Paco | Mar 16 2021 18:55 utc | 179

@ karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 18:27 utc | 178 with the ongoing valuable links and commentary...thanks

I think that any agreement that does not factor in Occupied Palestine may be crippled at birth. The agreements may provide a framework for Arab countries to confront Occupied Palestine but that seems quite a stretch at the moment, IMO

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 16 2021 19:04 utc | 180

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 17:41 utc | 176

Here you have the inauguration and some scenes from the film partly blocked. The song is the poem by Tvardovsky "I fell near Rzhev", a beautiful poem, a quick search for a translation gave me no results and I now, machine translation of poetry is something out of reach for now, but in any case here is the link for the song and images plus the poem in Russian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peK_KYGQjhs

https://lev-shlosberg.livejournal.com/1097017.html

Posted by: Paco | Mar 16 2021 19:08 utc | 181

@Grieved #168
The Summer of Love would have almost certainly been different if all those people were on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.
And that's what the present generations are doing: mass social media.
It is quite different to travel from all over the US into SF and "experience" in a bubble as opposed to everyone reading the same nonsense on social media.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 16 2021 19:34 utc | 182

Karlof 177
Here is the report (not linked in the RT article)
https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-policy/european-programme-of-work/pan-european-commission-on-health-and-sustainable-development/news-and-multimedia/rethinking-policy-priorities-in-the-light-of-pandemics-a-call-to-action

Posted by: Mina | Mar 16 2021 19:35 utc | 183

Much thanks, Paco and Mina!

Christopher Black I know as an international lawyer but is also an essayist who calls out the Outlaw US Empire's all too familiar habit of creating a Straw Nation for it to destroy:

"The [Longer Telegram] repeats the mistake inherent in all American thinking about the world, of inventing a rival that does not exist, and then positing strategies to deal with this fiction. This delusory thinking has led the United States into one defeat after another and caused the world untold troubles as it tried to throw its weight around to secure markets and resources for its industries and capital. The destruction of one country after another to achieve that objective, the deaths of millions, the immiseration of entire regions of the world are nothing to American capital so long as it can make money. [My Emphasis]

Black is excoriatingly frank about the Outlaw US Empire, which I find oddly refreshing perhaps because I've had it with obfuscations and apologetics. The paragraph following the one cited above is an excellent example:

"All their rhetoric about 'human rights' 'democracy' and other such platitudes is just a cover for maintaining their economic hegemony and keeping everyone else down. They even sometimes admit this. In the National Defence Strategy issued in 2018, the real reason for the slanders against China, the constant provocations in Hong Kong, and the South China Sea is stated clearly. 'Failure to meet our defense objectives will result in decreasing U.S. global influence, eroding cohesion among allies and partners, and reduced access to markets that will contribute to a decline in our prosperity and standard of living.' Of course even this is a lie since American capital does not care at all about the standard of living of the American people, only about the prosperity and standard of living of the big capitalists. The world can see what conditions are in the United States. The failure to protect their people from the Covid pandemic, the almost daily extrajudicial killings of blacks and poor people, the hollow promise of Biden to institute a higher minimum wage, the collapse of the power grid in Texas are eloquent expressions of the contempt and disregard big capital has for the common people." [My Emphasis]

Black notes that "The Long Telegram" is merely a "fantasy [that] is in fact a mirror image of the United States" such that:

"The author sees China as he has been conditioned to see America, and then projects that outward to any nation that attempts to develop its economy and improve the conditions of its people."

Thus, Black sees the Anti-Human aspects of the Outlaw US Empire and the Parasites running the show. Black then writes what ought to be shouted from rooftops although it's tacitly understood by those in the Global South:

"For decades the Americans have claimed to support nations trying to raise themselves from the poverty created by European and American colonialism, to achieve economic prosperity and a better life for their peoples. But when a country achieves those goals it suddenly becomes an enemy. [My Emphasis]

Those that really need to hear and understand those words are the people of the "New Europe," although in many cases gaining that understanding is already too late. Yet, those in Old Europe ought to ask themselves why they allowed themselves to be colonized and lobotomized by Neoliberalism.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 20:54 utc | 184

Well Goll-ly!! as Gomer Pyle intoned. A week ago, we read about the very sorry state of Afghanistan thanks to the obtuseness of Outlaw US Empire officials and the corruption they brought along with their invasion. Today we read that:

"[O]n March 10, they [All Afghans's woes] were all stated – clearly and unequivocally – by the most senior U.S. government official charged with monitoring the war effort in that unhappy Central Asian nation, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko himself."

He said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies:

"[That] the biggest factor destroying the credibility of the Afghanistan government among its own people is not the attacks and military opposition of the insurgent Taliban: It is the U.S.-dominated and directed international aid which has totally undermined and discredited the very government it is supposed to support." [My Emphasis]

Nor is this new information. Instead, it's very well known:

"Back in 2014, former ISAF (NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan) Commanding General John Allen was not hyperbolic when he told Congress that corruption, not the Taliban, was the existential threat to the Afghan government.”

The author declares:

"Therefore not only have the Americans generated their own corruption and wrecked their own strategy in Afghanistan: But a very senior U.S. official charged with monitoring these issues has admitted it."

But is that really the case? Catch-22 presented a very strong if fictional hypothesis for the very behavior we've seen in Afghanistan and elsewhere as murky, unseemly interests profit hugely from the installed corruption. Furthermore, this admission will be used to invalidate Trump's deal to withdraw forces and keep them there until at least 2024, which means yet more money for those murky interests and many more billions for the CIA's narco-based Black Budget. It appears the Outlaw US Empire invented the first ever Geopolitical Hole Deepener and patented it in Vietnam and has now upgraded and modernized it with its latest Afghani model.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 22:37 utc | 185

Dirty War in Scotland

David Davis (a Tory liberterian!) takes down the Scottish junta.

https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/67a700ab-4500-4fdb-802b-f2e06854f6e1

Best comment: "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Posted by: John Cleary | Mar 16 2021 22:44 utc | 186

sorry. go to " point of order" at 19:25

Posted by: John Cleary | Mar 16 2021 22:46 utc | 187

David Davis transcript. It's devastating.

https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-stories-that-are-true/

Posted by: John Cleary | Mar 16 2021 23:07 utc | 188

Joaquin Flores writes a rather different hypothesis for the recent developments within the Outlaw US Empire that IMO merits consideration. Strategic-Culture editors provide the following synopsis:

"America’s deep state and oligarchy have landed upon a type of civilizational about-face, where the legitimating social ideology is increasingly being made into the legitimating ideology of the military."

Flores sees it this way:

"The real problem is that the lack of public support for military imperialism mirrors the public’s aversion to the new cultural revolution underway in the U.S.

"We are forced to return our focus to the Syria theatre, for it is here that we are seeing the ugliest and most contemptible return to Obama-era policies, where ISIS terrorism and YPG separatist terrorism were both supported.

"But rather than reverse a truly Anti-American and misanthropic policy, the American oligarchy has cynically decided to simply change the ideology of the military so as to redefine the rationale for America’s disastrous adventurism without reversing the policy of adventurism itself. This also happens to be a reflection of a deeply problematic problem inside the U.S. as well: rather than confront the role of the financial institutions and the billionaire oligarchs running the U.S., there has been a decision to ‘punch downward’ and lay the blame for America’s problems at the feet of the American people themselves. ‘Racism’, we are told, is not an institutional phenomenon shaping public and corporate policy. which historically benefited the oligarchy’s divide-and-conquer motifs, but rather an ‘attitude problem’ at the level of the average private individual." [My Emphasis]

IMO, Flores is very close to the Truth as we've discussed what he says above in different ways that say the same things. Along with others, Flores makes these two critical observations:

"The military is a microcosm of society itself. A society that believes in itself, has a military that believes in society’s mission. A people with high morale, has a military with high morale. A society that is openly corrupt and lacks legitimacy, has a military that is openly corrupt and lacks legitimacy. That military begins to operate more and more like a large mercenary outfit, and a dysfunctional class-system within it between reluctant potato peelers and misanthropic paid killer specialists. That type of military can work to an extent so long as the conflicts do not require a full mobilization of society, and do not strain the military itself. Those may be low to medium intensity conflicts with only several hundred actually involved in live-fire operations.

"Every society has a legitimating ideology. There has to be some degree of tangible reality that connects the legitimating ideology to the actual facts on the ground. One of the reasons the USSR collapsed is that the ideology of socialism became increasingly and publicly at odds with the very real and actual role that Communist Party chiefs had as privately interested oligarchs who were in it for themselves and themselves alone. When that reality sank in, the society collapsed. It only required a few extra bribes and nudges from its great geopolitical rival, the U.S., to pull the final thread out for the whole sweater to come undone." [My Emphasis]

One of the more important aspects that's occurring Flores has discerned and describes thusly:

"A new form of indoctrination is afoot, where the founding fathers must be ritualistically introduced first as being ‘flawed people’, before the actual reference to those leaders’ relevant ideas can then be discussed."

IMO, that's extremely important as it directly impacts the two preceding paragraphs. Unfortunately, it appears Flores was cramped by the infamous restrictions on essay length which renders his conclusion rushed and non-cohesive. Nevertheless, IMO he's ferreted out some important strands describing what's happening that aren't readily seen, but when added to other observations start to form a coherent whole. Discerning what's actually happening within the Outlaw US Empire often invokes the Elephant Dilemma where many of its parts are well described but not its entire being.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 23:20 utc | 189

Some movement's afoot; we'll see if it gains traction. One of the proponents:

"We have a duty to invest in the American people more than we invest in defense contractor profits and Pentagon slush funds."
—Rep. Mark Pocan

He sent this short letter signed by 50 other Congresscritters to Biden. It opens thusly:

"Our federal budget is a statement of our national values, and part of undoing the damage of the
last four years is re-evaluating our spending priorities as a nation. That re-evaluation should
begin with the Department of Defense. Hundreds of billions of dollars now directed to the
military would have greater return if invested in diplomacy, humanitarian aid, global public
health, sustainability initiatives, and basic research."

Yes, it's dishonest, but it was written by a politico so that must be expected. It's the aim that IMO is honorable.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 16 2021 23:39 utc | 190

@189 katlof1

Thanks for the Flores post - when I saw it, I thought, of course, Flores would understand and dive deep into the waters of woke. He has the mind to follow those twisted strands.

I really like what he says in your quote, calling the identity massacre a "cultural revolution" - that's the right scale for the thing we're in. And I totally admired his articulation of the underclasses being blamed for their supposedly racist attitudes, rather than the system that creates racism.

And, seeing as he does, and as you quote, the turmoil used as a weapon to destroy all undesired messages by killing their messengers - and reaching now to the Founding Fathers, no less - the psy-op becomes ever more clear.

Flores is an uncertain quality, but sometimes he can knock one out of the park. I will now read his article.

Many thanks!

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 17 2021 1:18 utc | 191

@188 John Cleary

That's explosive - many thanks for keeping us abreast of this unfolding crime story.

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 17 2021 1:41 utc | 192

Finally a voice of reason in the NYT:

Manufacturing Isn’t Coming Back. Let’s Improve These Jobs Instead.

Mr. Winaut must be a closeted Marxist. It is class struggle that determines the exact level of wages, not the nature of the job (i.e. if it's manufacturing, services etc.). There is no difference between manufacturing and services in Marxist theory: the services sector is merely the end of the entire manufacturing process, therefore it is also manufacturing.

Posted by: vk | Mar 17 2021 15:25 utc | 193

Big news in the Outlaw US Empire's efforts to stymie China's development, "China’s ion implanters reach 28-nm chipmaking capacity, break bottleneck":

"China's domestic-made ion implanters can now produce 28-nanometer chip wafers, breaking a bottleneck in the nation's chip sector amid a technology stand-off with the US....

"China did not have its first ion implanter until 2017, and the development of ion implanters covering 28-nm wafers is a crucial step in the advance of chipmaking technologies....

"Last year, China imported 11,619 devices and machines to produce semiconductors at a cost of $13.66 billion, according to customs data. The value of imports grew 31.2 percent compared with 2019.

"The government has designated self-reliance in technology as a strategic goal, and it aims to realize a chipset self-sufficiency rate of 70 percent by 2025, media reported."

Did the Anti-Human Outlaw US Empire expect the Chinese to do nothing in the face of the Trade War?! The actual results of the Empire's Hybrid War against the Russia/China Bloc has turned both into even more Can-Do! nations and partners than they were prior to Munich 2007 when Putin told the Empire what to expect, which the Empire ignored as usual. In ten years, most Western tech product corps will be out of business because of the actions that began during Obama's reign.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 17 2021 17:02 utc | 194

Grieved | Mar 17 2021 1:41 utc 192|

My pleasure. It's fascinating to watch, isn't it?

TO ALL KEEN GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

I'd like to use my own version of the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Royal+Coat+Of+Arms+Of+United+Kingdom+&atb=v92-1_g&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Can anybody take the basic design and make two changes:

1 Remove "Honi soit qui mal y pense" and in its place substitute "go fuck yourself if you don't like it"

2 Remove "Dieu et mon droit" and in its place substitute "The God I deceive"

If anybody can do that please send to me (b has my email) or place it where I can retrieve a copy.

Many thanks (:

Posted by: John Cleary | Mar 17 2021 17:45 utc | 195

Preparing for Retaliation Against Russia, U.S. Confronts Hacking by China (The New York Times, March 7, 2021)

A typical NYT article pack full of false allegations presented as well-established facts. What caught my attention was the following paragraph:

The first major move is expected over the next three weeks, officials said, with a series of clandestine actions across Russian networks that are intended to be evident to President Vladimir V. Putin and his intelligence services and military but not to the wider world.

So, not only the Israeli-linked attack is blamed on “the Russians”, but “the Russians” will now be attacked “in response” to it. It could be another lie, of course (“Biden is tough on Russians—unlike Trump!”); still, it is an open admission of planned aggression against Russia (note the use of “officials” instead of “anonymous sources familiar with the matter”). The comments under the article are so crazy I laughed out loud.

Posted by: S | Mar 17 2021 21:16 utc | 196

Just saw this on Global Times and burst out laughing, they draw Huawei as a liberal bulb-head:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1218707.shtml

Global Times is unintentionally hilarious sometimes.

Posted by: Smith | Mar 18 2021 3:24 utc | 197

Exclusive: Chinese enterprises in Myanmar receive no order to evacuate after attacks, deny such reports

Posted by: vk | Mar 18 2021 4:00 utc | 198

Russia has recalled its US Ambassador for consultation and the meeting between China and the US in Alaska on Thursday looks to be a barn burner.

It will be interesting to see what comes after this phase of rhetoric.

The shit show continues until it doesn't. What is going to stop the music? We may be about to find out.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 18 2021 5:15 utc | 199

A fool is a lot more dangerous than an enemy. Hard not to pity the dotard Biden and the USA.

Posted by: Paco | Mar 18 2021 7:09 utc | 200