News & views …
Back to Main
April 15, 2021
Open Thread 2021-028
Comments
Further to the issue of treatment of the Uyghers
I find this what I would consider balanced, brief and inconclusive treatment.
https://francais.rt.com/international/77630-persecution-ouighours-ou-lutte-pour-deradicalisation-que-se-passe-t-il-au-xinjiang
I dont find it on the RT US site.
Posted by: jared | Apr 16 2021 17:35 utc | 101
Where are Asian Lives Matter protests?
70-year-old woman savagely beaten on LA bus, allegedly because she ‘looked Asian,’ amid rash of hate crimes in California
https://www.rt.com/usa/521244-asian-attack-woman-la/
Why on earth attack asian americans anyway what have they ever done to be subjected to this racism?
Posted by: Zanon | Apr 16 2021 18:39 utc | 102
@ 102 zanon…. people in west will claim trumps mantra ‘china virus’ and the steady demonizing of china has no bearing on any of this and i would disagree with them… how do we hold politicians and the media accountable?? i don’t know the answer, but the results of this steady hostility towards china that has ramped up the past year or more is very much connected to what you share… some will claim there is no such thing, but they are not looking at this seriously…
Posted by: james | Apr 16 2021 18:46 utc | 103
@Michael Weddington
I am more than happy to entertain it, though I sincerely doubt it.
There are liberals in prisons in Georgia. No stretch of the imagination there. But I don’t know if the prisons meet the criteria of camps. In particular: I don’t know if a convict is deprived or punished if he does not work. Which is a factor of all camps but not all prisons. And by work I mean not the operation of the prison itself (laundry, cafeteria) but work extraneous to the prison.
There is a limit to the jobs one does for the prison. The inmates enjoy the fruit of it (eg. a clean facility,) and that work saves the facility money. But there is no limit to the amount of work outside of the prison or the profits to be made by swelling with inmates and taking on ever more contracts. It is this external work that can really change the incentives and raison d’etre of a prison into a de facto camp.
It complicates matters that a camp is just, really, a more intense, lawless, and brutal prison. Who’s inhabitants are more ‘enemy’ than ‘delinquent.’ However, conditions optional for a prison are mandatory for a camp. eg. you will find prisons where inmates do nothing all day, and prisons where they work like dogs. But there are no camps where the inmates are idle, that is contra to their existence. I would ask the holocaust and Gulag aficionados to draw a firmer line, and then ask yourself if Georgia crosses this line.
I’m aware you could be pithy or sarcastic, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Posted by: Zynski | Apr 16 2021 19:53 utc | 104
@63 re cutting off gas to EU….
I seem to recall the actual Russian-Ukraine gas transit contract ends in a couple of years….so that could be used as an excuse by USA……
Posted by: Jo | Apr 16 2021 20:14 utc | 105
Uncle T @ 82:
Thanks for noticing the direct link to the PDF doesn’t work and for linking to the indirect link which does. Much appreciation for your effort in taking the time to look up the series I referred to. I am currently reading the series myself which covers quite a lot about how the Turkish Deep State operated over the 20th century and its reliance on the Grey Wolves as its de facto foot soldiers, as part of the narrative in how Turkey has been co-opted by Britain and the US in the past to penetrate Central Asia, with the Pan-Turkism propaganda stunt package.
Posted by: Jen | Apr 16 2021 20:39 utc | 106
michael hudson has an article up from 2 days ago.. my apologies if it has already been posted…
America’s Neoliberal Financialization Policy vs. China’s Industrial Socialism
Posted by: james | Apr 16 2021 20:59 utc | 107
Jo at 105
The current transit contract covers 5 years up to December 31st 2024. It is a ‘take or pay’ contract worth $1.5B per year so Ukraine is guaranteed at least that amount. Once NS2 and Turksteam are fully operational, including the onward linking pipelines in the EU, then the Ukrainian pipeline system will no longer be needed by Russia.
The only times in the past that Russia, a believer in honoring contracts, has cut deliveries was when Ukraine was stealing some of the gas destined for the customers in the EU. This resulted in pressure that stopped Ukraine stealing. It is unlikely therefore that any Russian will be caught by that clause stopping gas supplies to the EU.
Posted by: JohninMK | Apr 16 2021 21:23 utc | 108
In spite of US sanctions, the Chinese economy grew 18.5% in the first three months of 2021, compared to a year ago.
One can only wonder what the figure would be if there were no sanctions against Huawei, ZTE, CNOOC, SMIC (and others).
Posted by: passerby | Apr 16 2021 21:51 utc | 109
@ james
The article reads that the aggressor is an 20-30 year old black woman so I don’t think there will be much at this case.
The US MSM and protest movement is generally about minority vs majority, not minority vs minority, which goes contrary to their message.
Asian Lives Matter is also head overwhelmingly by the chinese americans, which aren’t trusted by the other asian americans.
Posted by: Smith | Apr 16 2021 22:35 utc | 110
@ Posted by: Zynski | Apr 16 2021 19:53 utc | 104
Prisons as an institution are a very recent invention. Probably not much older than some 200 years.
Before the invention of prisons, the condemned were usually sold to slavery, executed or ostracized (banished). The reason for that is that prison systems are very anti-economic: you’re subtracting a productive member from society; you have to keep him/her alive while he/she does nothing productive.
It was only capitalism that solved the problem of the anti-economic aspect of the prison system: through the wage labor system, you exploit the workers of the prisons, therefore extract surplus value. However, even the USA has to put its prisoners to work: the Californian fire brigades are almost entirely made of convicts; a lot of factories use de facto slave labor through the prison labor system. The USA Constitution allows slave labor for convicts, however the prisoners are paid a symbolic USD 1.00 per hour in order to get rid of this moral-propagandistic embarrassment.
The Soviet GULAG was openly a labor camp. Since socialism cannot extract surplus labor by definition (the system literally eliminates that possibility, it is not a question of will of the individuals and politicians), the Soviets had to outright put their convicts to do some socially useful labor somewhere. Those were usually the most undesirable labor. Even then, there are limits to forced labor, and the Soviets mostly avoided to put its population in prison. Unclassified documents show that, at any time, the Soviet population in the GULAG was negligible – it was no higher, no lower than any other advanced Western Democracy of the time. The Soviets had more to gain from prevention, i.e. universal employment, universal welfare and universal education.
Fidel Castro famously had the habit to free the Cuban prison population to the USA when it reached a certain time and capacity. Apart from the fact that it filled Florida with the scum of the scum (usually, far-right bandits and fanatics), it alleviated the Island-Nation’s economy, as prison systems are a burden to society.
Concentration camps are a much newer invention. I don’t think we can seriously search for them beyond the 20th Century. The generally used holotype is the German one. Concentration camps are forced labor camps of war prisoners, and those prisoners are usually marked to death – either by overworking or by systematic execution.
Thanks, james @ 107. Prof. Hudson always brings more clarity to his themes by taking a different historical journey to the core economical standoff in each essay. Here he uses Machiavelli/Brezinski to stir the pot. And as always, it is a worthwhile read, even more than once!
Posted by: juliania | Apr 16 2021 22:54 utc | 112
This excerpt from Prof. Hudson’s latest is well worth a quote:
“What the free world expected when it welcomed China into the free trade body [the World Trade Organization] in 2001,” explained Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr, trade advisor in the Reagan administration, was that, “from the time of Deng Xiaoping’s adoption of some market methods in 1979 and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 … increased trade with and investment in China would inevitably lead to the marketization of its economy, the demise of its state-owned enterprises.”
But instead of adopting market-based neoliberalism, Mr. Prestowitz complained, China’s government supported industrial investment and kept money and debt control in its own hands. This government control was “at odds with the liberal, rules-based global system” along the neoliberal lines that had been imposed on the former Soviet economies after 1991.
And our own oligarchs helped them do it, sending US industrial might (along with jobs) to China as if there were no alternative to siphoning off the wealth of the country. How many times did we peons hear the mantra – those jobs are not coming back because US workers expect too many frills?
Posted by: juliania | Apr 16 2021 23:23 utc | 113
My late father had a term for people like Sullivan. He called them educated idiots. Personally I think DC has got gobs of educated idiots who cut their teeth so to speak by working under criminally insane psychos. These best and brightest nincompoops have never produced anything. They do know how to lie and cheat. To make matters worse we really do have fake news whose primary role is to create a narrative for establishment. As I say to family, the educated professionals have had it too easy for too long. They simply don’t know how to operate when they can’t rig the system.
Posted by: Old and Grumpy | Apr 17 2021 1:37 utc | 114
General Valeriano Weyler herded Cubans civilians into concentration camps in the Reconcentracion campaign in Cuba (then still part of the Spanish empire) in 1896. The English herded Boer women and children into concentration camps in the Boer War (1899-1902.) It is nearly an article of faith among conservatives that the Nazis copied the concentration camp system from the USSR, except on a smaller scale, as conservatives also insist Stalin was worse than Hitler. Political conservatives are all liars, however.
The GULAG did not reach massive proportions till the Yezhovshchina, but the Tsarist habit of exiling prisoners to Siberian villages and the example of Tsar Ivan Grozny (“the Terrible”) seem to have served as inspirations.
In one sense, every plantation in the Americas concentrating slaves bought in Africa can be deemed forced labor camps of course.
Death or extermination camps are pretty uniquely a Nazi phenomenon. In ancient times, mining slaves were quickly worked to death. In the late middle ages/early modern period, galley slaves tended to have short lives as well. The mortality in sugar island slavery in the Caribbean was so high that the slave population could not reproduce itself, necessitating (for profit) continued imports of slaves. But the only anticipation of the modern death camp I am familiar with was the southern prison labor system, which was so extraordinarily lethal that it is hard to conceive of it as anything but a way to kill “uppity” ex-slaves under color of law. True slave owners in it for the profit no more indulge themselves in murdering their slaves than ranchers make a hobby of killing cows and horses, for approximately the same self-interested reasons.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 17 2021 1:57 utc | 115
Canada’s foreign policy still heavily influenced by Ukro-nazis and Zios:
Zelensky asks Trudeau to help clear path to NATO
https://www.newpathway.ca/zelenskyy-asks-trudeau-to-help-ukraine-clear-path-to-nato/
Stephen Harper joined ex-spymasters in company investing in Israeli security tech
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-fadden-israel-awz-cybersecurity-1.5989054
Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 17 2021 2:14 utc | 116
From the gray zone;
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/04/16/biden-afghanistan-war-privatizing-contractors/
Biden isn’t ending the Afghanistan War, he’s privatizing it: Special Forces, Pentagon contractors, intelligence operatives will remain
JEREMY KUZMAROV·APRIL 16, 2021
Posted by: vetinLA | Apr 17 2021 2:31 utc | 117
@ vk
I think jail and prison have existed in Asia or at least China for a long time no?
If you read ROTK or Suikoden, you will find some heroes being put in jail and later freed or earned pardon, and yeah, these books are romanticized accounts but I don’t think the authors can just make up the jails.
Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 2:34 utc | 118
@ Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 2:34 utc | 118
Jails exist since at least the Roman Republic. But they were usually reserved to the prisoners of the utmost importance (i.e. high class political prisoners). They were very few in numbers and very small, and used only as a very short-term stay until the judgement was over. They were a completely different beast from the massive prison industry in modern USA, designed to gorge poor people who commit petty crimes.
The famous Catiline was imprisoned in Rome’s only prison and executed there by Cicero. It was an adapted cavern that existed naturally in the Roman Forum region. It was reserved only for the VIP political enemies of the Republic. Besides that, the Tarpeian Rock was used as the legal execution site, and Massilia (modern Marseilles) was used as the banishment zone (also, only for the rich). Slaves who committed any crime were executed by their masters on the spot, and the freemen and citizens were usually executed in the arenas (devoured by the beasts). Senators were also usually executed on the spot by the Emperor, as were other traitors to Rome, i.e. the Emperor (Lex Maiestatis, from which we inherited the term “majesty”).
The Germanic barbarians probably had a very primitive justice system based on the “eye for an eye” principle: if you killed, you were killed, and so on, as we can deduce from post fall of the Roman Empire in the West codified laws. The justice was probably very quick, dispensing with any kind of sophisticated prison system (which certainly didn’t exist, as the Germanics were very poor and primitive at that time).
Either way, what I mean is that the concept of prison terms that we have today certainly didn’t exist before the Modern Era; and certainly not anything that even resembles a prison system.
–//–
@ Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 17 2021 1:57 utc | 115
The GULAG existed since the Tsarist times (only without the name, which is an acronym, hence all caps). Curiously, Stalin himself was sentenced to the Tsarist “GULAG” four times – the last one to de facto death, as it was to Siberia (usually, a prisoner sentenced to Siberia at that time either didn’t survive the trip or didn’t survive long in the frozen camp). Stalin managed to escape when he was condemned to Siberia, that’s why he survived.
The Soviets inherited the prison infrastructure ready made from the Tsar. It is a mistake to say the concept of the GULAG was a Bolshevik innovation.
Yes, work in the imperial mines (all mines were imperial during the height of the Roman Empire) may be the closest thing we have to a modern prison system before the Modern Age, but it was not quite so, as any slave could work in one – it’s just that they usually selected the one they liked the least to do so, was it was the most unpleasant labor to do in Ancient Rome (more deadly than cleaning the public toilets). It is more akin to the Japanese “coolie system” in colonized/occupied China: life expectancy in Japanese China for the coolies was less than one year, because the coolies didn’t have the right to wear clothes and the winter in Manchuria was harsh.
–//–
We don’t have an idea about how unique our present-day prison systems are because we were born with it. We take them as a fact of life. But if we could take a time machine back in time, certainly any people born before the Modern Age would be extremely impressed, bewildered and fascinated by it (specially the USA one, which impresses by the vastness and complexity).
@ vk
Every prison system is different depending on the culture/system of laws you are in.
But we can agree that the idea of a prison i.e. a dark place where you throw criminals in to separate them from society, existed.
Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 3:42 utc | 120
@ Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 3:42 utc | 120
Yes, but not en masse. That’s certainly a capitalist innovation.
The deceased victims of the FedEx mass shootings have been identified
The deceased victims have been identified as 32-year-old Matthew R Alexander, 19-year-old Samaria Blackwell, 66-year-old Amarjeet Johal, 64-year-old Jaswinder Kaur, 68-year-old Jaswinder Singh, 48-year-old Amarjit Sekhon, 19-year-old Karlie Smith, and 74-year-old John Weisert.
An observation that has been overlooked on the FedEx Massacre by the American MSM: 4 of the 8 victims should not be there. They should be retired, enjoying the rest of their lives comfortably in their suburb houses, making a barbecue on a Sunday with their children and grandchildren. They should not be in a dark and cold storage room in a random weekday of April.
Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 2:34 utc | 118
These prisons is usually only meant for temporary holding the criminal until they get their punishment, usually one time affair corporal punishment or execution. What makes these prisons different from our modern counterpart is that: just a place to caged criminal until they got their prescribed punishment. No mass incarceration or thing like that. More often than not ‘prisoners’ of these kind not given food to amplify their suffering.
Of course prisons for holding out an individual on a long period of time exist. But that’s the keyword again: individual prisoner. They are usually political prisoner that done nothing to break the law except thought crime to the kingdom. Yet they still influential or probably has their use sometimes in the future, which is why these prisoners being kept alive to begin with.
Posted by: Hangar | Apr 17 2021 4:01 utc | 123
https://asset.japantoday.com/img/store/d5/c9/b6c84f70da5f492ec8c11b5a5be93ab152d4/bidensuga.jpg
On a more humorous note, Sugar visits the US today, and lo and behold, Biden and his staff wear double mask, this is really a comedy set.
Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 4:26 utc | 124
Below is a link to a Xinhuanet posting about a video meeting on Friday with Xi, Macron and Merkel…mostly about Climate Change
Xi attends video summit with French, German leaders
It reports all the niceties which includes this
”
The three leaders agreed that it is necessary to uphold multilateralism, fully implement the Paris Agreement, and jointly build a fair, reasonable, cooperative, and win-win global climate governance system, and promote this summit to achieve positive, balanced, and pragmatic results.
”
So, are we going to have a multilateral world or not? Stay tuned….
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 17 2021 4:44 utc | 125
@ vk
Brandon Scott Hole, a 19-year-old Indiana [White] man, is suspected of opening fire at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis Thursday night, killing at least eight people and wounding more
***
Brandon Scott Hole, a 19-year-old Indiana man, is suspected of opening fire at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis Thursday night, killing at least eight people and wounding more Deputy Police Chief Craig McCartt said the gunman arrived at the processing center near the Indianapolis airport and opened fire at random in the parking lot before moving inside, where he continued to spray bullets
***
McCartt said that they had responded to Hole’s home last year after reports of a man voicing suicidal ideas, which he repeated to responding officers. He had reportedly just purchased a shotgun, and the police department’s behavioral unit took him into custody and then to a hospital for mental health treatment.
They also confiscated the gun.
***
Jeremiah Miller told WISH-TV he was between shifts at FedEx when he heard several shots:
“This made me stand up and actually look out the entrance door, and I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing…”
As always we don’t know much, just fed (up?) by official release.
As for Covid-19, the question is not anymore in facts but in “controled release” (aka narrative) “breaking news”
So, a young White man killed kind coworkers with assault rifle, and commit suicide, just in time for “Biden’s” agenda on guns
But you are right,
Some victims (with respect to All of them) should not be there. They should be retired, enjoying the rest of their lives comfortably
I’ll retire next month, no more fun to go to work.
” Métro, boulot, dodo” without any social life, “Abstand halten”, no more coffee break…
“Covid-19 m’a tuer”
*************
On Covid-19
I apologize b, I know on this disease opinions differ. (we don’t all have the same personal/relative health status, for example)….
I just read [ramadan’s morning…] PCR’s on Covid
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/04/13/where-did-the-covid-pandemic-come-from-and-what-is-its-purpose/
I agree with him: virus and desease are real, “pandemic” was over-played, is now orchestrated. And
The presstitutes served as the propaganda ministry for the “Covid pandemic.” The presstitutes obligingly spread disinformation and fear and censored all expert advice and opinion to the contrary.
Evil is at work. For believers, Evil is as real as God, for non-believers too (perhaps just without E)
Part of the success of evil is the discrediting of truth, a development that I have been observing and reporting on for many years. Facts and evidence have lost influence to emotion-based agendas. The subservience of facts to feelings permits evil to control the narrative.
*********
I browsed, MoA archives.
I advise new visitors to take a random dive into “le grand bain” .
What’s a great work, Bernhard. From the beginning, perfect choice, even technical and so many great peoples with “des plumes acérées (sharp pen ?).
Archive is a Gold Mine.
You help us everyday to stay focuse on fact and to connect dots.
I am just disappointed not to be there from 2004
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 5:18 utc | 126
@ Smith | Apr 17 2021 4:26 utc | 124
THIS is not [anymore] a mask
Unfortunately, not found an english translation
https://www.voltairenet.org/article212702.html
Un « faire voir »
C’est bien dans le cadre d’un « faire voir » que l’OMS recommande [3] de porter le masque, alors que, en même temps, il reconnaît que ce dispositif ne permet pas d’arrêter le virus et de protéger celui qui le porte. L’avantage que l’organisation voit dans cette incitation réside dans la modification des comportements des populations, qui sont encouragées à fabriquer elles-mêmes leur propre masque et à prendre ainsi activement part à leur destruction.
Machine translated (PONS)
A “show”
It is indeed in the context of a “show” that the WHO recommends [3] wearing the mask, while at the same time acknowledging that this device does not stop the virus and protect the person wearing it. The advantage that the organization sees in this incentive is that people are encouraged to make their own masks and thus take an active part in destroying them.
****
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 5:39 utc | 127
@ 110 smith.. it is still racism against chinese that is being encouraged by this nightmare usa media-political leadership.. canada isn’t much better either…
@ juliania… thanks! i am hopelessly falling behind staying on top of the threads… on the other hand we will have to talk literature soon!
Posted by: james | Apr 17 2021 5:55 utc | 128
@ james
Yeah, james, and I suppose it ain’t stopping any times soon, racial politics is incredibly useful for the USA, keep the working class from uniting.
Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 6:02 utc | 129
@ psychohistorian | Apr 17 2021 4:44 utc | 125
What did the leaders discuss?
Macron called “Macrounet le Mignon” just have a great need for recognition. To be “on Zoom” with Mutti Merkel and Xi, what an Ecstasy!
Thanks to Macron and the last 40 years of public and industrial management, french carbon footprint is on the move to none.
Rise and decline of dirigism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_France?wprov=sfla1
May I outline : Rise of subjugation.
Unfortunately not to multilaterality
The talks came as US special envoy for climate change John Kerry was in Shanghai for a meeting with his counterpart Xie Zhenhua.
German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said Merkel and Macron welcomed Xi’s reaffirmation of China’s goal of becoming carbon-neutral before 2060.
They also expressed support for China to adjust its shorter-term emissions goals.
At the talks, Xi is reported to have warned of the possibility that climate change could be used as a tool to disparage some countries for not doing enough.
“Responding to climate change is a common cause of all mankind and it should not become a geopolitical bargaining chip, a target for attacks on other countries or an excuse for trade barriers,” the official Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying.
wait for Kerry’s Anchorage-moment
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 6:15 utc | 130
on prison / forced labor
“rien de neuf sous le soleil”
Deutéronome 15:12-17:20
12 (A)“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold[a] to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
Or even Wikipedia
“Peonage, also known as debt slavery or bonded labour, is the pledge of a person’s services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation…”
Is this obligation to a person, a lord or “democratic society” is not relevant.
Even the “industrial” use of the “chain gang” was trully precapitalist. Just remember 2000 years of using galley as an efficient commercial or war ship.
The galley originated among the seafaring civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea in the late second millennium BC and remained in use in various forms until the early 19th century in warfare, trade, and piracy.
[…]
human effort was always the primary method of propulsion.
[…]
It is driven by oarsmen. They are voluntary rowers, slaves or convicts.
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 7:06 utc | 131
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 5:39 utc | 127
THIS is not [anymore] a mask
Unfortunately, not found an english translation
Bernard, I had to check the date on the article you quote and yes, that’s 2021 and not 2020. A long thesis exploring behaviours and psychological trauma of mask wearing entirely built upon the premise that masks do not protect the user.
Posted by: robin | Apr 17 2021 7:08 utc | 132
Syriana Analysis has a some good videos to consider at its twitter site:
First is a 14 minute review of the fake Douma gas attack incident and associated circumstances in the middle east.
Scroll down to the second video and you have EU MP Clare Daley examining the OPCW chief Fernando Arias.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 17 2021 7:37 utc | 133
Chinese technology company Huawei eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network KPN since 2009.
Posted by: Antonym | Apr 17 2021 8:36 utc | 134
Smith #94
“The situation in Myanmar is real bad, they already have a dual government going on.”
“We are approaching Syria in SEA, this is bad.”
Perhaps.
The junta is opposing a slow motion colour revolution. The neighboring southern state of Thailand has a strong democratic majority that just disemboweled the USA staged colour revolution. Good thing too. (yes the king is a turd but he is not ‘the people’). South east is Laos (golden triangle etc). North is Bhutan a country just moving through turmoil and change.
The USA will be up to its filthy neck doing dirty business in Myanmar with not one iota of compassion.
There is a strong smell of blockade China here too as in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cuba, Venzuela, Haiti, Syria, Iran, Iraq…
Yes the game is brutal and grubby and there is much to cause affront in Myanmar but the military seem to be certain that the civilian oligarchs and their USA conduits will not be running the country. It grieves me to see this happening to a good people and I would love to see a great statesman/woman emerge who can lead then down an independent path. For now, that appears difficult.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 17 2021 9:24 utc | 135
¡ Feliz cumpleaños 🇨🇺 !
Playa Girón
La verdad de la historia: la derrota yankee en Girón (Bahia de cochino)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr6QCcsRd1U
http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2020-04-17/giron-lo-que-no-ocurrio-17-04-2020-22-04-34
So,
Hit the road Jack [Sullivan or another] and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 9:25 utc | 136
France stopped using the AZ vaccine on ppl under 55. So for one week, they ve been using it only on 55+. Result? 9 thromboses, out of which 4 died.
https://www.leparisien.fr/societe/sante/vaccin-astrazeneca-neuf-nouveaux-cas-de-thromboses-chez-des-patients-plus-ages-17-04-2021-7HU5INZ7CZFMBCXECFDFF7CSLE.php
Posted by: Mina | Apr 17 2021 9:36 utc | 137
@ uncle tungsten
Myanmar has armed ethnic armies not controlled by the state, if these guys go to war, then yeah, it’s Syria.
This is another level than Thailand or HK, where it’s just students protesting. ASEAN and Russia/China should really have a meeting and stabilize this situation.
Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 9:45 utc | 138
Here’s Putin looking at you Rachel Maddow.
A brief explanation from Putin as to how much Russia has advanced courtesy of USA sanctions and ignorance.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 17 2021 9:51 utc | 139
Y en eso llegó Fidel*
«…La importancia de Girón no está en la magnitud de la batalla, de los combatientes, de los hechos heroicos que allí tuvieron lugar; la gran trascendencia histórica de Girón no es lo que ocurrió, sino lo que no ocurrió gracias a Girón».
“…The importance of Girón is not in the magnitude of the battle, of the combatants, of the heroic deeds that took place there; the great historical significance of Girón is not what happened, but what did not happen thanks to Girón.”
*Con sabor auténtico, Casa de la Trova
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 9:58 utc | 140
Posted by: Antonym | Apr 17 2021 8:36 utc | 134
Chinese technology company Huawei eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network KPN since 2009.
Did you spot the propaganda giveaway, or did it whizz right over your head?
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 17 2021 9:58 utc | 141
Plasma therapy versus ventilators, can someone explain why it does not seem to be used in the West?
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/not-all-covid-patients-need-plasma-therapy-say-doctors-amid-shortage/articleshow/82108706.cms
Posted by: Mina | Apr 17 2021 10:09 utc | 142
@ uncle tungsten | Apr 17 2021 9:51 utc | 139
Very good link!
“merci beaucoup !”
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 10:17 utc | 143
Myanmar
Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.”
Goldfinger, Ian Fleming
Belt and Road projects in Myanmar can now be expected to proceed rather more smoothly than has been the recent case
*****
Reuters:
Myanmar junta chief to attend ASEAN summit on first foreign trip since coup
*****
Ethnic armed groups as Democratic “résistance”, an opportunity to “pivot to East” from Afghanistan? A drug deal!
Along with Afghanistan in the Golden Crescent, it has been one of the largest opium-producing areas of the world since the 1950s. Most of the world’s heroin came from the Golden Triangle until the early 21st century when Afghanistan became the world’s largest producer.
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 11:02 utc | 144
@ Mina | Apr 17 2021 10:09 utc | 142
WHY?
$$$
“bon Pfizer”
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 11:13 utc | 145
Yes, the Gafam, weapon industry, privatized water, energy, intl transport and deliveries, Big Pharma, and the luxury industry seem to be enough to drive the markets up. After all, maybe the 1 percent realized that they simply did not need the 99 percent.
Posted by: Mina | Apr 17 2021 12:04 utc | 146
More on AZ
https://sebastianrushworth.com/2021/04/17/is-the-astra-zeneca-vaccine-killing-people/
Posted by: Mina | Apr 17 2021 12:23 utc | 147
On the Western front:
https://www.rt.com/russia/521359-fsb-stpetersvurg-ukrainian-diplomat/
On the Eastern front:
https://www.rt.com/news/521347-us-japan-statement-nuclear/
Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 15:14 utc | 148
@ Smith | Apr 17 2021 15:14 utc | 148 with the link to the US/Japan statement about nuclear bullying
I read that and am happy you provided a link. The posting I read noted that those words have not been used since Nixon used them in 1969.
Barflies need to understand that Nixon went to China because he was told to do so by the same elite running the show today in the West. That move is not working out as well as the Western elite had hoped and they are back to nuclear bullying which should tell folks at what point in this civilization war we are at.
As I reported earlier, China is buying up “cheap” gold that is manipulated down by the Western elite. France doing that caused Nixon to take US Reserve Currency off $35/oz gold standard and the fiat currency printing presses of the West have been going full tilt since then.
But now is time for humanity to evolve beyond being led by a private finance elite cult or die trying and I commend China/Russia for their efforts.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 17 2021 15:45 utc | 149
Just wanted to say thanks to all, specially b for the continued perspective.
I have been meaning to mention/share w James, julianna and the other gardeners here: an anecdodal global warming story.
In my hardiness zone Parsley is a annual, except this spring it came back making it a perennial.
Super exciting as Parsley doesn’t seed till its second season, which means by this fall I will be seed self sufficient in the parsley department:) as well as cilantro romaine lettuce spinach beets peppers Peas beans tomato cukes squashes
thyme chive sage asparagus quinoa and amaranth
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 17 2021 17:34 utc | 150
115 STJ
Average life expectancy in the French Caribbean for arriving quarantine survivors slaves, (3 out of 10) was seven years.
They did reproduce, but in order to prevent the newborns from being strangled by the african midwives, the soon to be mothers were induced into ¨la grande caille¨ to deliver their babies, where they were raised as “creoles” in opposition to “bossales” whose parents were in Africa.
Their kids never knew who their parents were and were taught to despise the “bossales”. their parents included.
Posted by: CarlD | Apr 17 2021 19:10 utc | 151
Posted by: CarlD | Apr 17 2021 19:10 utc | 151
It seems strange that those slaveholders, who went to so much trouble to get slaves, and who placed such a high value on them, did not think to take care of them better. Seventy percent losses on the way over, and then only seven years average life expectancy? Seems very stupid.
I suppose the new arrivals didn’t make as good slaves as the “domesticated” ones. And all to get rich and play the peacock, for a few.
Not what I would call civilized. And all taken for granted not very long ago, still going on in some places. You just want to weep at the viciousness of it.
Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 17 2021 19:34 utc | 152
@ Tannenhouser | Apr 17 2021 17:34 utc | 150… thanks for mentioning that! we are in a similar zone as we have parsley that comes up every year in our garden.. it is like a weed in fact! it grows in places we don’t want it to grow and is quite prolific… we like parsley salad fortunately! in fact when in malaysia on the island of langkawi we had one at a restaurant ran by syrian refugees that was fantastic… it is mostly all parsley with some lime and seasonings and very little bulgur which was quite good..
maybe a bit like this one?? https://www.yummly.com/recipe/Tabbouleh-310697?prm-v1
Posted by: james | Apr 17 2021 20:25 utc | 153
Hardiness zone is a 6b here. Or actually closer to seven as indicated by my Parsley overwintering. On the island you have 7ns and 8’s so that makes sense. Normally it would be lemon in a Tabbouleh, however in Malaysia I can see why Lime. My wife’s family are Lebanese expats 3 generations now, we like Parsley as well as Tabouleh. My amaranth and quinoa came from Salt Spring Seeds on Salt Spring island, a few years back. Thanks for your reply. Stay safe.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 17 2021 21:07 utc | 154
Smith #138
Myanmar has armed ethnic armies not controlled by the state, if these guys go to war, then yeah, it’s Syria.
This is another level than Thailand or HK, where it’s just students protesting. ASEAN and Russia/China should really have a meeting and stabilize this situation.
I think the Myanmar military have been doing that ‘stabilising’ for a while and simultaneously excluding the USA from its pathological will to ‘get in there and FIX it’.
The military change of leadership some years ago enabled the ‘transition’ to a civilian nationalist Buddhist government that drove the rohingya people back to Bangladesh. That stabilised the transit corridor for OBOR trade. Had the Rohingya remained, the USA would be using ‘ISIS insurgency method’ to attack China pipeline and routes to open ocean port. Indeed there were clear signs that process was under way.
Then civilian govt led by Aung San Suu Kyi cosied up to the pieces of silver offered by the great satan USA. The military and most other people could see what would happen next. The contained territorial violence between the Myanmar clans would be exploited by USA under its subterfuge of ‘fighting terrorism’ and the place reduced to ashes plus China blocked and trade smashed.
That is one reason the world needs a true UN force – perhaps. Leaving the world to the ‘Rules Based’ gang of murderers from the FUKUSAi and its five eyed minotaur would see the planet aflame and genocide as a sport.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 17 2021 21:57 utc | 155
Richard Medhurst has initiated a substack newsletter and this report is a comprehensive backgrounder for the forever wars and Bipartisan Murder
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 17 2021 22:23 utc | 156
New Economic Outlook has a report on the Jordanian foiled coup.
“Jordanian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi presented the first official version of what happened so far, although his story was sparse in details, since this issue is very sensitive to national security. “The country’s intelligence services have intercepted a conspiracy that was supposed to be carried out,” Safadi said, adding that Prince Hamzah was in contact with a foreign government to destabilize the kingdom. A man with connections in the foreign intelligence service contacted Prince Hamzah’s wife to advise her to leave the country by plane, but all communications were tapped, he said. Although Safadi did not name the foreign country or the person who allegedly contacted Hamzah’s wife, the person’s identity quickly became the subject of speculation. Israeli journalist Barak Rav wrote that an Israeli businessman with ties to the US government was in contact with the former Crown Prince of Jordan, Hamzah bin Hussein, when he was placed under house arrest, and offered to send a private jet to take his wife and children to Europe.
“Barak Rav informed that the unknown was Roy Shaposhnik, a politician of the Kadima Center Party in Israel and an adviser to the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert. Roy Shaposhnik said he had never been a Mossad officer, but confirmed that he offered to help Prince Hamzah and his family as part of their friendship. This friendship began even when Shaposhnik’s company provided assistance in the logistics of the prince’s company, which trained Iraqi soldiers in Jordan.
“These remarks brought some clarity to the story and contradicted previous rumors linking the conspiracy to the Gulf states. One Jordanian source told the weekly Al-Ahram that the Gulf states, Egypt and other states, including the United States, quickly issued statements in support of Jordan and expressed their full confidence in the leadership, promising to help keep Jordan stable and secure. Only the Netanyahu government did not.”
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 17 2021 22:42 utc | 157
Bemildred
The three out of ten survivors after forty days on these Islands was for every
newcomer, regardless of race. Yellow fever and malaria were the main killers.
Those born on the islands were immune to these diseases and were specially valued.
Posted by: CarlD | Apr 17 2021 22:42 utc | 158
Capitalism corrodes Korea. The April 7 election result was a major shift.
“early elections were held in the Republic of Korea for the heads of four administrative units, including the mayors of the country’s two largest cities: Seoul and Busan, as well as 17 deputies of local legislative assemblies. According to the results of the vote count, the opposition Power of the People party bypassed the ruling Democratic Party of Toburo by a significant margin. In Seoul, opposition candidate Oh Se-hoon received more than half of the popular vote. The ruling party’s representative Park Young-sun failed to win in any of the 25 administrative districts. In Busan, Opposition People’s Strength candidate Park Hyung-joon overtook the ruling opposition, Kim Yong Chun, to win all 16 administrative districts in Busan.
As you can see, in this case, the polls did not lie particularly, and the winning results of the conservatives, plus or minus, corresponded to the figures given by the polls.”
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 17 2021 22:50 utc | 159
@ uncle tungsten
That’s very bad news for S. Korea.
Hopefully the new Japan wastewater thing can again unite the koreans under Moon.
Koreans need unity and fast.
Posted by: Smith | Apr 17 2021 23:59 utc | 160
james @128 on literature – I look forward to that. You are much better at keeping up with the threads than I am, though I try to at least catch up by following the change of date indications on the times of posts. It doesn’t help when almost a full day passes whilst I am out ‘on the town’, as today. It mightn’t be much of a global climate change story but I can report that my male canary now has a potential mate.
Canaries used to be easy to keep (for me at least) until some ecosystem eruption forced the sellers of seed to sneakily insert in their packages seeds the canaries didn’t like or couldn’t eat. I had been saving and sprouting it, so I saw what was happening as the sprouts of ‘grass’ all got red stems and were bitter to the taste – the health of my birds plummeted. (Thankfully now the grass is back to normal, but birds have shot up in price and are hard to find any more in my region.)
Posted by: juliania | Apr 18 2021 1:07 utc | 161
Tannenhouser @150, parsley is a wonderful ‘weed’ in my garden as mountain desert soil is in need of a lot of help, and the parsley roots give that. So I’m always happy when it seeds itself other places. For my sandy, gravelly soil it helps by becoming a compostable easy to uproot plant, and in spring I can never get enough of it for omelets or scrambled eggs or mashed potatoes. Another good plant of that sort is bronze fennel. It’s too dry here for me to appreciate root plants much, but the fennel is so pretty and swallowtail butterflies have laid their eggs on it, even on the parsley as it goes to seed as well.
I’m really big on compost because my soil needs worms for added richness and my worms live in big tubs I have, plus leafmulched areas of the garden. After I’m gone there will be a small area of earth out my back door that’s alive and orcharded for whoever comes next on the great mandala!
I join you in enjoying harvesting the seeds of both. And if you do have garden shutdown in winter, the parsley can be grown inside for earlier than spring greens from your seed.
Posted by: juliania | Apr 18 2021 1:22 utc | 162
stop the infection don’t wait to be infected
a very simple explanation of PCR scam testing;
keywords: mRNA scripts, protein virus (very small % infectious, most non infective virus(100%-infective virus%).
warning I c/n find to read a copy of “Pandemics for profit and fun” by Fake Test, Cures and co.
so I may have missed something.
Posted by: snake | Apr 18 2021 1:41 utc | 163
James, many posts.
From the Webster dictionary:
Versus is a preposition meaning “against,” while its homophone verses is the plural form of the noun “verse,” such as a line from a song or poem. “Versus” has many variants and shorthands, like “vs.” and “v.”, but “verses” is not one of them.
Posted by: CarlD | Apr 18 2021 1:41 utc | 164
Comic relief: the US et al. keeps giving it away, see (Sputniknews) “Fishermen Find ‘Reconnaissance Device’ Secretly Placed by Foreign Country in Chinese Waters: Report”.
China again (where it has happened before), earlier Yemen (Houthis), and Britain (they were coy about taking it back from a civillian!), and likely many more less public instances.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Apr 18 2021 4:40 utc | 165
@ juliania | Apr 18 2021 1:22 utc | 162
You might look into using some powdered sulphur where you’re growing plants. Many places in a desert environment the iron in the soil is bounded and not available to the plant which needs iron to form chlorophyl, the sulphur liberates the iron. You might take samples of both undisturbed soil and garden soil to your county agriculture agent for testing to see what might be needed and advise.
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Apr 18 2021 8:48 utc | 166
A question I wanted to ask earlier about the anonymous datadumps. With the Integrity Initiative dump there was official confirmation that the documents were real (that means in their entirety). Has any confirmation/denial/partial denial of that happened in the followup dumps or do they simply not comment?
Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Apr 18 2021 9:20 utc | 167
Thanks for tip, T-bear(formerly)! My last lowpaying but enjoyable job was at a plant nursery – great occupation but labor intensive! Many of my best plantings are orphans not saleable but needing tlc. Still working on veggies though. Would like to have good live soil but most success in containers. Definitely small scale with juniper covered landscape outside the walls – it’s a challenge, but I love it! Except for the large norwegian rat that came overwall and ate my hollyhocks leaf by leaf. (He’s smart enough to tiptoe in and out of the live trap!) No offense, Norwegian; he’s just a pest I will relocate eventually out in the boondocks. Meanwhile I layer the top of the wall with cactus pads to discourage entry.
Posted by: juliania | Apr 18 2021 16:15 utc | 168