|
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-049
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
—
Other issues:
New Cold War:
Julian Assange:
Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled – 21:35 UTC · Jun 26, 2021
Great reporting by @GunnarHrafnJ on the FBI’s key witness—a serial child molester, fraudster & embezzler who was granted immunity to work as an informant & continued his crime spree while under FBI protection — to build their case against Assange.
Covid-19 – Spread:
Two Delta variant cases in Sydney were traced back to a man who had only passed those he infected and had kept some two feet away from them. That is a measles level of infectiousness, way higher than older variants.
Covid-19 Therapeutics:
Covid-19 Social consequences:
> Results: Between 2010 and 2018, the gap in life expectancy between the US and the peer country average increased from 1.88 years (78.66 v 80.54 years, respectively) to 3.05 years (78.74 v 81.78 years). Between 2018 and 2020, life expectancy in the US decreased by 1.87 years (to 76.87 years), 8.5 times the average decrease in peer countries (0.22 years), widening the gap to 4.69 years. Life expectancy in the US decreased disproportionately among racial and ethnic minority groups between 2018 and 2020, declining by 3.88, 3.25, and 1.36 years in Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White populations, respectively. In Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black populations, reductions in life expectancy were 15 and 18 times the average in peer countries, respectively. <
Use as open thread …
Max @Jun28 1:17 #92:
@ Jackrabbit (#87), once again you continue with your misleading assertion and false accusations. Your statement, “You are wrong in your assessment that the Empire is on the ropes and close to falling apart,” is FALSE. Stop your fake accusations.
@Jun27 16:48 #17 You painted a bleak picture of the Empire on the cusp of failure:
The Five Eyes and EU have reached a strategic inflection point and need to face reality to change… it has reached its critical limits internally and externally… It has ran out of luck and isn’t getting new innovations.
I responded:
The Empire has been moving to meet the challenge since at least 2014. You seem to think they just woke up and will be forced to roll over any day now. The reality is that the Empire is stressed but not on the ropes. Cold War II is likely to last many years.
Then you wrote back referencing something you call “the Financial Empire”:
Nope. The Financial Empire has been working to build a global empire for many centuries and its plan of challenging China and Russia was finalized around 2010. However, it is failing and falling apart.
This is shocking in both scope and confusion: the Empire that pre-dated the US Empire was the British Empire and it was a real Empire with global force-projection. Yet, it failed despite decades, if not centuries, of planning. Nor was the outcome of WWII certain, despite planning. Furthermore, you offer no justification for why “finalized” plans were made only in 2010. Centuries of planning yet such hesitancy. LOL.
And, when they made those “finalized plans” they did so within years of failing/flailing (as per your thesis). Centuries of planning yet so little foresight. LOL.
You offered a rabbit hole that few would care to visit yet charged me with “sour grapes” when I made an unrelated comment.
=
I shared the Empire’s failures and you can’t share its successes since 2014.
Your cherry-picked list was meant only to support your biased analysis.
When one examines each item on the list, one finds that most, if not all, are still “in play”. Yes, the Empire has experienced set-backs but no “Waterloo” that justifies a belief that it’s teetering. Notably, those who predicted imminent collapse of the Empire during “Erdogan is turning East!” hopium proved to be wrong. But you weren’t here for that or for the many other conversations that would provide a more balanced view.
Furthermore, recent Empire successes have outweighed the set-backs (not an exhaustive list):
- Key countries like Turkey, Brazil, and India have been siding with the Empire (as noted, Erdogan never turned east, is still occupying Idlib, and is talking about providing troops for Afghanistan);
- The Empire has not killed NordStream2 (yet) but they have done a good job in keeping the Europeans on-side. Europeans now pay more into NATO than ever;
- The Empire is still in Syria, Iraq, and the withdraw from Afghanistan is questionable (US troops and contractors will remain and NATO Turkey seems likely to increase their participation just as they are in Iraq);
- Empire citizens are not much disturbed by the New Cold War or the prospect of a hot war: propaganda and distractions employed by the Empire narrative managers have worked well;
- Ukraine is a financial drain but a rich source of anti-Russian propaganda;
- A mere 5 years ago China was our friend, today China is under pressure across many fronts from trade to human rights to Taiwan;
- Trump initiated an arms build-up that included a space force and development of hyper-sonic missile tech.
Furthermore, the Empire’s plan for the new Cold War was stated by Kissinger in 2014 after the Donbas rebels beat Ukraine. That’s why I date the Empire’s response to 2014.
<> <> <> <> <>
Although you make some reasonably good points at times and display an admirable moral quality, you also show muddled thinking at times. In addition to what I’ve noted above, there’s another @Jun27 21:10 #57:
It is time nations and individuals be SOVEREIGN.
How can individuals AND nations be sovereign? Either individuals (each and every one) are sovereign resulting in a constitutional government, or a single individual (king, dictator), or group (religious sect or military junta); or a nation is sovereign (socialism).
You also have an unchecked bias and it’s matched by an over-enthusiasm that is combative at times. This shows in your:
- ‘hall-monitoring’ behavior (@Jun27 21:10 #57):
Please don’t assume, generalize and group when engaging with someone. One needs to clarify, comprehend and then conclude.
- frequent challenges to others (@Jun27 22:16 #64):
You don’t come across concerned. If you did then you would be probing. One can be sure that you don’t have a clue of your plantation’s values, development themes and money supply. If you know then please state them.
- As well as you’re shoot-the-messenger responses to me.
Advocacy without realism is just biased hopium. Nitpicking & point-scoring is annoying and tiresome. The more you can avoid these things, the more worthwhile it will be to engage with you. I hope this comment helps you in that journey.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jun 28 2021 16:32 utc | 144
Today’s clipping:
Why I like socialism? by Djoomart Otorbaev
Important to read this, as it portraits the point of view of a relevant historical figure.
Soviet foreign policy was extremely successful in the colonial and Asian worlds. The picture of fanatical communists with messianic complex trying to desperately force communist revolutions at any cost is essentially a Western European point of view.
This also puts to rest the notion the USSR was an imperialist nation:
The Soviet Union, as a socialist country, first introduced the basic principles on distributing the national wealth fairly and bringing less developed and less privileged regions to a reasonable level of development. That is why the primary beneficiary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was my region of Central Asia.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Warsaw Pact nations and the Western ex-USSR nations had to come up with a revisionist narrative so that they could be absorbed by Western Europe (EU) on the most favorable terms possible. Hence the fabrication of the myth of Soviet imperialism/oppression in Eastern Europe.
–//–
Development, not ideology, is the hard truth
“It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice.”
The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s words go straight to the truth of China’s rapid growth – the country has chosen a development path that suits its actual conditions.
Yes, China is a socialist country. But socialism is not a sclerotic system. It varies in strategy and practice in different periods. This ensures that capitalism is not held in binary opposition to socialism.
Translating Deng’s words: Communists don’t have a style, they make things happen.
Socialism takes different forms in different places in different times for one very simple reason: so does the world. Capitalism also isn’t the same in the USA, Sweden, Brazil, Iraq and Congo.
–//–
World’s largest hydropower project under construction starts operations marking China’s world leadership
Meanwhile…
India moves 50,000 troops to China border in historic pivot
Now we know the real reason the Indians fabricated that border conflict with China.
By the way, the Indian Navy is also preparing a sea blockade of oil to China. That means it is clearly preparing for a total war against China, that is, a war for the entire Tibet (and its precious water sources to China) and maybe even a chunk of Xinjiang – not just a defensive war for reassurance of the Ladakh border.
India has now degenerated to the proverbial pigeon playing chess.
–//–
Speaking of adapting in a changing world:
China adds 37 new college majors, one third in AI, information technology
As all 31 provincial-level regions involved in the gaokao have released their scores and unveiled the undergraduate admission bar, it is time that incoming freshmen file their college application forms. According to the latest undergraduate major catalog published by the Ministry of Education (MoE), a total of 37 majors have been included by 43 institutes for the first time in 2021.
About one-third of these newly approved majors are related to electronic information and AI. These majors include intelligent mining, intelligent transportation, the energy internet, flexible electronics, and intelligent vehicle technology.
[…]
Among the 37 new majors, 12 belong to the humanities, arts and social sciences, but that’s still far fewer than the number of additional majors in science and technology, triggering concern from some students and netizens. But experts pointed out that the MoE’s decision is in line with job market.
“It’s harder for China’s liberal arts graduates to find jobs than for their science and technology classmates,” Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, told the Global Times. “This is also an important reason why universities do not increase the enrollment of liberal arts majors.”
Xiong pointed out that the decision is also related to China’s urgent need for talent in related fields.
“China lacks core technology in some high-tech fields and suffers the bottleneck problem as China’s development faces technology blockade launched by the West. Chinese higher education is also currently working to address this problem and train more relevant talent,” Xiong noted.
–//–
Double standards:
Women Are Having Fewer Babies Because They Have More Choices
So, what’s a “catastrophe”, a “failure”, a “disaster”, “for the CCP [CPC]” becomes a beautiful story of the liberation of women in the USA. Sure, sure… and I was born yesterday.
–//–
Possible Failure Point Emerges in Miami-Area Building Collapse
Some engineers looking at the failure of a 13-story condo tower in Florida said the collapse appeared to have begun somewhere near the bottom of the building.
No shit, Sherlock!
–//–
About Israel’s demographic bomb I’ve been talking about, and its relation with the haste in occupying the rest of Jerusalem:
Eco-study warns Israel’s open spaces will SHRINK as its population grows – and the settlement question is the elephant in the room
Israel is in a very precarious condition. I can’t see any way out.
–//–
The (neo)colonial question in the Ukraine:
Top Ukrainian magazine names US ambassador as country’s ‘most influential woman,’ highlighting extent of American leverage in Kiev
–//–
US Professor Lauds Stalin’s ‘Tactical Ability to Successfully Defeat World’s Greatest Invading Army’
I agree with the Professor.
As I’ve been saying here some threads ago, Stalin is the typical example in History of “the circumstances made the man”. The Bolsheviks always knew forced collectivization was on the table. They always knew “Socialism in One Country” was on the table. They all knew that from day 1. They just had to rule out all the other (better) alternatives before they could find the political and social environment to do it. It just turned out that its executor was Stalin and not, say, Lenin (if he hadn’t died prematurely in 1924).
Posted by: vk | Jun 28 2021 17:09 utc | 146
@ Jackrabbit (#144),
Thanks for putting together our interaction and responding to questions. My responses below will show that you instead of trying to comprehend the comments are once again making misleading assumptions, distorting reality and aren’t demonstrating integrity. Also, your detailed response further validate a pattern of one-upmanship, which is not a constructive conduct. You could have questioned me yesterday and I would have been be happy to respond and it would have been a better engagement. But that was never your intent. Then once again you respond in a condescending way. I hope formatting comes out clearly in the response.
“This is shocking in both scope and confusion: the Empire that pre-dated the US Empire was the British Empire and it was a real Empire with global force-projection. Yet, it failed despite decades, if not centuries, of planning. Nor was the outcome of WWII certain, despite planning.”
I don’t see this as the “the US Empire,” but as stated in my comment (#23) ‘The Financial Empire’. What is the difference between two? I don’t use the term that you used for the current Empire. Why? Please answer these questions. If you understand the differences then you won’t make this absurd statements and dramatize by calling them “shocking.” You have consistently in this post interactions resorted to attacking and accusations instead of clarifying and understanding. The British Empire didn’t fall, it morphed into what?
“Furthermore, you offer no justification for why “finalized” plans were made only in 2010. Centuries of planning yet such hesitancy. LOL”
One can only lead by examples. Did you offer any justification in your first comment when you asserted, “The Empire has been moving to meet the challenge since at least 2014”? Why would you expect me to offer any justification? If I didn’t, then you could have probed further. I had shared links previously on other posts to back my assertion of 2010. This shows your double standard, making baseless accusation and lack of integrity.
“When one examines each item on the list, one finds that most, if not all, are still “in play”.
‘Success’ is defined at the end of accomplishment. Programs or projects are not successes.
In my comment (#23) I clearly stated, ‘It didn’t achieve success in Ukraine (2013), Syria (2016), Bolivia (2019), Venezuela (2018), Belarus (2020), Nord Stream 2 (201x) and in the China trade deal (2019).’ I have previously defined them here as frozen conflicts. Even in Afghanistan after 20 years it is still there. Is the Financial Empire so incompetent that it can’t achieve success in a reasonable time? The Financial Empire thought it had Bolivia in 2019, but lost it in 2020. Similarly, your list of “Turkey, Brazil, and India,” are all in play. What a hypocrisy. An Asian diplomat called G7 meeting as a “G7 circus.” What happened at the recent NATO meeting? What were the key contentious issues?
I have number of times at MoA corrected commentators who have said that “the dollar will collapse,” by informing them that the dollar will devalue like its previous defaults of the last century. I haven’t promoted collapse theory of the U$A.
“How can individuals AND nations be sovereign?”
Individuals become sovereign when all gain equal rights and aren’t enslaved in any form. Similarly, nations become sovereign, when they use sovereign money and define their destiny. Who creates money in the U$A? Let’s see your integrity and intelligence from your answer to this simple question clearly and accurately. Why call a private plantation, “the U$A”, a democracy? Is it a nation, suzerainty, or Empire?
I don’t have time to engage further on this comment. However, the core proposition of your improper engagement with bad intent stays. Please learn to engage with integrity. Deceivers decay to demise!
“Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.”
– Robert Kennedy
Posted by: Max | Jun 28 2021 18:41 utc | 155
Hard to know which thread to post this to. I don’t recall anyone providing a link or mentioning what IMO is Sergei Lavrov’s seminal essay about the current state of affairs between those supporting the UN Charter and genuine Multilateralism and those from the NATO/EU Bloc trying to establish what they call a rules based order and multilateralism by diktat. Yes, it’s Lavrov, so you know it’s extensive and complete in most every detail.
After setting the table, Sergei delivers the meal:
“It is much harder to accept the diversity and competition of ideas in the development of the world than to invent prescriptions for all of humanity within a narrow circle of the like-minded, free from any disputes on matters of principle, which makes the emergence of truth all but impossible. However, universal platforms can produce agreements that are much more solid, sustainable, and can be subject to objective verification.
“This immutable truth struggles to make it through to the Western elites, consumed as they are with the exceptionalism complex. As I mentioned earlier in this article, right after the talks between Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden, EU and NATO officials rushed to announce that nothing has changed in the way they treat Russia. Moreover, they are ready to see their relations with Moscow deteriorate further, they claimed.
“Moreover, it is an aggressive Russophobic minority that increasingly sets the EU’s policy, as confirmed by the EU Summit in Brussels on June 24 and 25, 2021, where the future of relations with Russia was on the agenda. The idea voiced by Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron to hold a meeting with Vladimir Putin was killed before it saw the light of day. Observers noted that the Russia-US Summit in Geneva was tantamount to a go-ahead by the United States to have this meeting, but the Baltic states, siding with Poland, cut short this “uncoordinated” attempt by Berlin and Paris, while the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the German and French ambassadors to explain their governments’ actions. What came out of the debates at the Brussels summit was an instruction to the European Commission and the European Union External Action Service to devise new sanctions against Moscow without referring to any specific ‘sins,’ just in case. No doubt they will come up with something, should the need arise.
“Neither NATO, nor the EU intend to divert from their policy of subjugating other regions of the world, proclaiming a self-designated global messianic mission. The North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation is seeking to proactively contribute to America’s strategy for the Indo-Pacific Region, clearly targeted at containing China, and undermining ASEAN’s role in its decades-long efforts to build an inclusive cooperation architecture for Asia-Pacific. In turn, the European Union drafts programmes to ’embrace’ geopolitical spaces in its neighbourhood and beyond, without coordinating these initiatives even with the invited countries. This is what the Eastern Partnership, as well as a recent programme approved by Brussels for Central Asia, are all about. There is a fundamental difference between these approaches and the ones guiding integration processes with Russia’s involvement: the CIS, the CSTO, EurAsEC and the SCO, which seek to develop relations with external partners exclusively on the basis of parity and mutual agreement.
“With its contemptuous attitude towards other members of the international community, the West finds itself on the wrong side of history.” [My Emphasis}
But what does that all mean, Sergei:
“As for Russia, it is high time that everyone understands that we have drawn a definitive line under any attempts to play a one-way game with us. All the mantras we hear from the Western capitals on their readiness to put their relations with Moscow back on track, as long as it repents and changes its tack, are meaningless. Still, many persist, as if by inertia, in presenting us with unilateral demands, which does little, if any, credit to how realistic they are.” [My Emphasis]
And of course, there’s still more of importance to it all, but I rather doubt anyone in the West aside from a few interested citizens will understand:
“The policy of having the Russian Federation develop on its own, independently and protecting national interests, while remaining open to reaching agreements with foreign partners on an equal basis, has long been at the core of all its position papers on foreign policy, national security and defence. However, judging by the practical steps taken over the recent years by the West, they probably thought that Russia did not really mean what it preached, as if it did not intend to follow through on these principles. This includes the hysterical response to Moscow’s efforts to stand up for the rights of Russians in the aftermath of the bloody 2014 government coup in Ukraine, supported by the United States, NATO and the EU. They thought that if they applied some more pressure on the elites and targeted their interests, while expanding personal, financial and other sectoral sanctions, Moscow would come to its senses and realise that it would face mounting challenges on its development path, as long as it did not ‘change its behaviour,’ which implies obeying the West. Even when Russia made it clear that we view this policy by the United States and Europe as a new reality and will proceed on economic and other matters from the premise that we cannot depend on unreliable partners, the West persisted in believing that, at the end of the day, Moscow ‘will come to its senses’ and will make the required concessions for the sake of financial reward. Let me emphasise what President Vladimir Putin has said on multiple occasions: there have been no unilateral concessions since the late 1990s and there never will be. If you want to work with us, recover lost profits and business reputations, let us sit down and agree on ways we can meet each other half way in order to find fair solutions and compromises.
“It is essential that the West understands that this is a firmly ingrained worldview among the people of Russia, reflecting the attitude of the overwhelming majority here. The ‘irreconcilable’ opponents of the Russian government who have placed their stakes on the West and believe that all Russia’s woes come from its anti-Western stance advocate unilateral concessions for the sake of seeing the sanctions lifted and receiving hypothetical financial gains. But they are totally marginal in Russian society. During his June 16, 2021 news conference in Geneva, Vladimir Putin made it abundantly clear what the West is after when it supports these marginal forces.” [My Emphasis]
Always the diplomat, Lavrov reminds any remaining Western readers that Russia is still open to conversations made on an equal footing:
“We will persist in promoting the emergence of an international relations culture based on the supreme values of justice and enabling all countries, large and small, to develop in peace and freedom. We will always remain open to honest dialogue with anyone who demonstrates a reciprocal readiness to find a balance of interests firmly rooted in international law. These are the rules we adhere to.”
Unfortunately, IMO the West is 100% consumed in its Messianic “exceptionalist complex,” although Merkel seems an exception. Lavrov’s essay is equally as important as a Putin speech and sets out the policy direction of Putin and Russia. I refrained from citing any of Lavrov’s table-setting from the essay’s first halve because it all must be read to see the Russian reality versus the West’s illusions. I feel my description of what’s actually happening is confirmed by Lavrov, Putin and Xi. Even Lavrov comments about the end of the 500 year period of control the West’s trying to maintain via its delusions. I also suggest reading the text from today’s Putin/Xi’s video meeting to see that all three are reading from the same page.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 28 2021 23:04 utc | 178
|
