Oddly perhaps, I have always thought of those ‘think tank’ organisations as lobbyists, When have any of them been ‘off message’ when it comes down to it?
Posted by: MarkU | Aug 19 2021 13:56 utc | 2
Yes, that’s the one thing that annoys me in the Russian analysis, the Rand type think tanks have always been a high-tone version of BellingCrap, there has been no real degradation of talents there, they have always been tools. Whatever military intellectual excellence there ever was here, it was not in the think tanks, ever. They are propaganda and PR outfits.

Posted by: Bemildred | Aug 19 2021 14:15 utc | 3

Sorry, may have given a bad link. Try this:
https://russtrat.ru/en/analytics_/17-august-2021-2332-5589

Posted by: J Swift | Aug 19 2021 14:22 utc | 5

Most Russians dream of “USSR with gadgets”
I think that this poll’s results reflect more the reality of the Russian Federation than of the USSR. Experts lose too much time trying to decipher what makes the USSR so luring when the key is not that the USSR was an utopia, but that the Russian Federation is a failure.
If the Russian Federation wasn’t such a monumental failure, Russian people wouldn’t miss the USSR so much.
Also, it seems the researchers are the ones falsifying History: the shortage of goods started with the Perestroika, not with the old-style Soviet socialism. The interviewed can’t forget what never happened.
–//–
US needs a coherent tech strategy for China: The sooner the US recognizes the scope of China’s tech ambitions, the sooner it can devise a strategy with allies to compete
Wrong. The USA, by definition, cannot “devise a strategy with allies to compete”. It is a capitalist nation, therefore, the decisions of investment are entirely private (“free”) and, as such, anarchic. The State cannot intervene on such decisions, therefore it cannot devise any strategy on investment.
The moment the USA is able to plan investment on a strategic level, it will no longer be a capitalist, but a socialist nation, with a centrally planned economy.
That’s why smarter but still patriotic people like economist Jack Rasmus come up with more sophisticated theories:
Afghanistan & the American Imperial Project

But whatever the current decade portends, it is clear that after 20 years of wasting nearly $30 trillion on wars, tax cuts, and dealing with two great recessions and their economic aftermath, US elites realize they cannot pay any longer for middle east wars and confront simultaneously the costs of the new challenges to maintain the empire. The focus henceforth will be on the Great Technology War with China, cybersecurity conflicts with Russia, while attempting to raise investment as well to deal with the other war the US is now clearly losing: Climate Change. These are the key strategic interests of the American Empire in this decade and beyond—not Afghanistan.

Rasmus proposes that sheer existential pressure from China (and, to a lesser extent, Russia) will act as some kind of super-overriding factor on the “animal spirits” of the American capitalist class, in a way they will suspend the normal laws of free market competition (i.e. profitability) so that the American Empire can build another forced industrial surge like that of FDR in the 1940s.
Thing is: there’s no sources that corroborate with that. What Rasmus stated is merely the will of president Joe Biden, not a capitalist manifesto of the American capitalist class. The problem is the same: Biden is just a POTUS, and, as such, he has negligible margin of maneuver. He can declare wars because he has the Pentagon machine at his disposal, but, when it comes to the economy, the POTUS is essentially powerless. He will be able to use the federal budget to try to build something, but its a drop on the ocean.
Another problem is that FDR’s forced industrialization only happened because a literal total war was waged against the Empire of Japan. Before the war was declared, FDR’s “New Deal” was a abject failure. The American capitalist class needs much more than a conceptual-theoretical existential threat: they need a literal existential threat, i.e. a hot war of annihilation against the Communists.

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 14:40 utc | 7

Posted by: J Swift | Aug 19 2021 14:22 utc | 5
I was just about to tell you about the broken link, but in any case I checked a different article in that site and had a good laugh. It is about the Space Station toilet and the hole that someone drilled in it up in space. I had read before that during the incident investigation the US astronauts unlike the Russian cosmonauts declined to pass a polygraph test, suspicious to start with.
But according to that funny article the whole story was that the US ultra-technological shithole stopped functioning and the astronauts had to do with pampers, plus a hysterical she mate that drove everybody crazy, so someone up there after being refused to take the nervous lady down to earth since the taxi is Russian and not cheap, decided to cause a force-majeure to have a good shit back home, evidence of malfaisance would be destroyed with the module burning on return, but… Russian make do, first someone drilled in the wrong place since they hit a steel frame, and the russkies fixed the hole, like the Beatles, hilarious.
The supper duper technological shithouse remembered me of a fantastic US space pen that would function upside down, at a cost of thousands of dollars, the Russians took pencils to space. In any case I should not be surprised, I’ve seen them both work and know pretty well their ways.
https://glav.su/blog/2274/1566253/

Posted by: Paco | Aug 19 2021 14:47 utc | 9

Forgot to put this interesting article:
How China’s Gorbachev Was Flushed in 1989
What happened in China during that period was much more complex than a mere battle between Marxists and Transhumanists, but an interesting case nonetheless.
–//–
Who has a demographic problem?
Who Has the Cure for America’s Declining Birthrate? Canada.
The endless fountain of youth from Latin America will dry out eventually.
–//–
Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan is ‘moral victory of Islamism over the West’ – top Merkel ally
I disagree. The Islamic fundamentalists won’t change their minds, but the rest of the world is seeing the whole thing for what it really is: a huge L in the American Empire curriculum.
This isn’t Antiquity or the Middle Ages. Religion is not a factor in the grand scheme of things anymore.

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 15:00 utc | 11

Even at MIT
https://twitter.com/stephanieseneff
https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/stephanie-seneff
https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/23/51

Posted by: Mina | Aug 19 2021 15:03 utc | 13

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 14:40 utc | 7
“The moment the USA is able to plan investment on a strategic level, it will no longer be a capitalist, but a socialist nation, with a centrally planned economy.”
I feel that you are being a little simplistic here. If the capitalists dominate the state (e.g. Wolin’s Inverted Totalitarianism) and use it for their own benefit, including some required planning for the benefit of a major segment of the capitalist class it is still some form of capitalism. Was Japan not state capitalist during its heyday (before the US and the Japanese Central Bank helped destroy much of that planning), did the US state not carry out significant planning activities in the post-WW2 miracle years? What about South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan? Could we not call it authoritarian capitalism? Capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production (including cultural production), and the dominance of society by the bourgeoisie, “free” markets are not a requisite.
The issue with the US is not that it would not be capitalist if it planned effectively, it is that it is now so corrupted and focused on rentier activities and easy labour arbitrage that it is unable to plan effectively. The scum has risen to the top and infected much of the rest, a natural product of 40 years of neoliberalism and financialization. Why plan when you can recycle $trillions to your buddies through the war money laundering process, or just print $trillions and give it to yourselves during a “crisis”.
Below the true elite owner group, the effective planners and managers have been turned into courtiers – all about saying what is required to keep the money spigot open and pointed at the elites rather than being effective for the national interest (the raison d’état), “failing upwards” captures this so well. Obama truly perfected this art and is being well rewarded, but we have now gone a step forward where obvious imbeciles (Blinken, Harris, Buttegieg, Pompeo, most if not all senior military personnel etc.) are placed in senior positions. It is sad when you miss Bush Sr., Nixon, Eisenhower etc; they may have been imperialist bastards, but at least they were competent ones! Trump was of course the natural product of this process of degradation.
The US$ reserve currency status is the self-licking ice cream at the centre of this process. I trust that the planners in China and Russia understand the craziness that would ensue if the US elites suddenly realized that the basis of their wealth was about to be turned off and therefore plan a slow and steady withdrawal process. Addicts can get very nasty when their supply is threatened.

Posted by: Roger | Aug 19 2021 15:14 utc | 15

@ Posted by: Roger | Aug 19 2021 15:14 utc | 15
Then why is Japan four decades and counting in stagnation?
You cannot use the post-war miracle period as the rule for capitalism. During that period, the flow of capital was controlled internationally; there were no tax havens, and the USD was pegged to gold. Plus, there was the USSR at the apex of its international prestige, putting immense pressure on the capitalist classes of the First World to give in to their unionist movements (that’s why the building of the welfare states are from this time). Profit rates were through the roof thanks to the reconstruction of Europe and Japan, so capitalists didn’t need to be that much creative to get extremely rich.
Put it simply: the international financial architecture still didn’t exist during the post-war miracle.
Capitalist States can “herd” the private sector through what the neoliberals and Keynesians call “monetary policy”, i.e. they can toy with the tax structure, base interest rates and sovereign debt emission. Indeed, that’s what Keynesians insist even today: that the State just need the spark to ignite the “animal spirits” of the capitalist class (private sector); it is the private sector – not the public sector – that will work the magic. What the Japanese State did during the post-war miracle wasn’t planning, but using the savings of its working class to finance private initiative in heavy industry. Note the difference: the will to invest on heavy industry already existed in Japan; the State merely acted like demand and gave it money it already had.

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 15:29 utc | 17

Roger@15
your observation about the “elite” in the USA is spot on. I want to add another example of a person who spectacularly failed – Petreus – who should have been courtmartialled, but is again seen in the media spouting his idiocies. What is missing in the media, is the absence of other elitic heads Wolfowitz, Perle, Nuland, and her husband…One is tempted to make a list of the US “elite”…!
btw. similar process of elites dumbing down is occurring in Europe, especially in Germany.

Posted by: bystander 04 | Aug 19 2021 15:34 utc | 19

@Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 15:00 utc | 11
China and Shoxk Therapy
Ehret’s take on what happened to China’s economic policy in the 1980s is extremely simplistic, as well as very Eurocentric. A much more nuanced version is provided by Isabella M. Weber is “How China Escaped Shock Therapy”. The book is based on extensive interviews with participants and documentation of meetings etc., and shows that even Deng was in two minds between shock therapy and incremental change. Its a shockingly excellent book, one of the best that I have read over the years.
https://www.amazon.com/Escaped-Therapy-Routledge-Studies-Chinese/dp/1032008490/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=how+china+escaped+shock+therapy&qid=1629387263&sr=8-1
Canada and Immigration
On Canada and immigration, the main effect has been to turn the “Golden Horseshoe” around Toronto into a crowded, over-built shit-hole with tract houses in second-tier cities going for C$1 million+. Even more so for Vancouver. At the same time, incomes are held back by very low rates of productivity growth – wait, you increase the supply of labour and labour productivity is held back? Some of the issues are a lack of business investment and also some of our best talent leaving for the US (so we ship out our best talent and replace it with immigrant lesser talent). A good take on this in the article below. Canada is still fundamentally a digger of holes for exporting raw materials, it did a good attempt at escaping the “staples trap” in the 1950s and 1960s but fell back into it in the past few decades.
https://www.businesscouncilab.com/jobs-and-opportunity/productivity-part-three-canada-us-productivity-gap/

Posted by: Roger | Aug 19 2021 15:42 utc | 21

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 19 2021 15:39 utc | 20
Thanks. It is getting more and more difficult to maintain the Covid narrative.
And as the current Delta variant rages (which to actually test for is much more than a pcr test and also suggests mass psyops in play) and of course, the discredited, fraudulent, and soon to be abandoned PCR test is still in use to drive the numbers. And, of course, those going to a hospitable for whatever reason who test positive with the PCR becomes a “Covid case.”
I know it’s hard to admit one has been duped. But it’s getting more and more difficult to pretend not.

Posted by: gottlieb | Aug 19 2021 15:50 utc | 23

The Taiwan situation, especially its very weak army, similar in that respect to Afghanistan, is addressed by Politico here . .”The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban may not have immediate implications for the credibility of U.S. commitment to Taiwan. But the Afghan National Army’s rapid collapse and the American military’s hasty withdrawal highlight an important fact for decision makers in Washington, Taipei and Beijing: The U.S.’ future commitment to defending Taiwan is inherently interconnected with Taiwan’s own commitment to defending itself.”

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 19 2021 15:52 utc | 25

The issue with the US is not that it would not be capitalist if it planned effectively, it is that it is now so corrupted and focused on rentier activities and easy labour arbitrage that it is unable to plan effectively. The scum has risen to the top and infected much of the rest, a natural product of 40 years of neoliberalism and financialization. Roger | Aug 19 2021 15:14 utc
This is also a necessary footnote of the Afghan misadventure and misadventures to be completed — Iraq and Ukraine come to mind. 20+ years ago the “best minds of the West” had a beautiful concept: grab the control of several countries, and foster shining examples of prosperity and democracy that will erode hostile authoritarian states as their populations will envy the lucky and happy neighbors.
However, the missing detail was that they lost the concept of effective economic planning. It was as if the modern chemistry were abandoned in favor of phlogiston theory and outright alchemy. And they are not even aware of that.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 19 2021 16:00 utc | 27

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 15:52 utc | 26
Well, the PCR test itself is worthless (as are the ‘vaccines’ evidently).
But how can there be a daily dose of delta variant counts when it’s not being tested for? Where is the info coming from? It’s all BS.
As I say, I realize it’s hard to admit being duped…

Posted by: gottlieb | Aug 19 2021 16:11 utc | 29

“American media pivoted from “think of all the women & children we’re leavijg behind in Afghanistan” to “think of the lithium & other minerals we’re leaving behind in Afghanistan” in like 3 days”
Anti-war activists mock CNN as it cries over $1 trillion worth of ‘desperately needed’ minerals left behind in Afghanistan
–//–
@ Posted by: gottlieb | Aug 19 2021 16:11 utc | 29
Testing the blood of the patients. Since the variant was born in India, a lot of people died with a new set of symptoms until they decided to investigate. Then they discovered the new variant and mapped its genome.

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 16:20 utc | 31

@ J Swift | Aug 19 2021 13:31 utc | 1
well the usa / uk and gang could try growing up! i doubt they will though.. instead they will continue to listen to the advice of the intel agencies just as michael hudson articulated so well in that link gordog left a few days ago… here it is again…. thanks..
Biden forfeits his Afghan victory by defending his Deep State advisors
bonus! new article from michael hudson today! video.. transcript not up yet..
Global Financial Empire 1

Posted by: james | Aug 19 2021 16:25 utc | 33

A timely reminder for Ukraine:
America’s hasty retreat from Afghanistan should be warning to Ukraine that it can’t count on Washington – Russian security chief
This is indeed something that should worry the puppet regime.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 19 2021 16:31 utc | 35

@ Tom Pfotzer (#12), agree with Snake on sovereign money and self-reliance. It seems like he wants that Afghanistan to become North Korea (communism too?)?
The “script” idea isn’t pragmatic and doesn’t address Afghanistan’s internal and external CHALLENGES. Also, Iraq under Saddam tried it from 1993 to 2001, and it didn’t work. In fact, it is a strategy used by the Financial Empire to box a country to capture it at a later time. The Empire wanted to pursue the Eastern Europe in 1990s, so it boxed Iraq then after 1991. In the present times when the Empire wants to capture all nations, your idea doesn’t provide security in the long run.
Iraq issued its own money in 1990s. However, the Empire counterfeited its currency and used its only friend Jordan as a conduit to introduce those counterfeit bills in Iraq. What did Saddam do? Similarly, the Empire will counterfeit those bills again and introduce them through Pakistan. The real challenge comes not from adversaries but TRAITORS. Please read “International Monetary Power” by David Andrews to understand Empire’s financial shenanigans.
Where does the Taliban get their funding? Primary sources of the Taliban funding ($300 million to $1.6 billion annually): drug trafficking ($400m), extortion & ransom ($160m), mineral exploitation ($464m), tax collection, donations . The Afghan administration budget for 2020 was $5.55 billion. Money is extorted from shopkeepers, farmers, drivers,… Taliban’s biggest expenses are salaries, weapons and training. Bullies don’t want to work. The scrip idea won’t address challenges of extortion crimes and neither minimize corruption. How will these challenges be addressed in the analog world?
$ Bloc vs Non-$ Bloc
The Financial Empire dreams of a global empire and wants to capture and control nations. Afghanistan needs to align with the Non-$ Bloc to achieve security and maintain sovereignty. The strategy of the Non-$ Bloc needs to be driven by the realistic perception that they could resist the forces of the Empire. ASEAN is pursuing a strategy of nations being sovereign and only engaging in the external sphere on common interests and international trade. Afghanistan can pursue a similar strategy and align with its neighbors like ASEAN. Among the three powers, Russia and the U$A, have attacked it. It can explore a relationship with China on common interest. Since China wants to gain credibility and legitimacy in the external sphere, the probability of it attacking and exploiting is low. So the key focus needs to be on the common interest and sovereign security.
ANALOG vs DIGITAL
Analog and digital arenas are like fire. They are both tools to be used as needed. They can be beneficial when contained and channeled, but when “set free” they consume everything in their paths. The only way to achieve the right usage is by living the value of integrity.
Hopefully, Afghans will do the right thing for a better future! Best wishes…
How should nations address Monetary Imperialism & enslavement?

Posted by: Max | Aug 19 2021 16:38 utc | 37

@J Swift ” they have published a new opus suggesting that the very best way for the US to backfoot Russia and China is to be baffling and unpredictable.”
Maybe bring back Trump?

Posted by: ian | Aug 19 2021 16:45 utc | 39

Posted by: Roger | Aug 19 2021 15:14 utc | 15
Great analysis.
Love how you put O’bummer together with Imbeciles like Blinkered Blinkin’ Blink’n, Hairy Harris, Buttgig, Pompous.
I would add to that list the failing upwards champion, Bidet Biden, that compulsive obsessive hair-sniffing dotard who can’t organise a retreat without begging his enemy for more time.

Posted by: kiwiklown | Aug 19 2021 16:46 utc | 41

@ james (#33), so Michael Hudson finally starts using the term “Financial Empire”! He has followed us in using some other terms, “Monetary Imperialism,” “Dollar Empire”… It will be interesting when he uses the term “public credit” or “public credit for private gains”.

Posted by: Max | Aug 19 2021 16:50 utc | 43

vk @31:
“American media pivoted from “think of all the women & children we’re leavijg behind in Afghanistan” to “think of the lithium & other minerals we’re leaving behind in Afghanistan” in like 3 days”
Anti-war activists mock CNN as it cries over $1 trillion worth of ‘desperately needed’ minerals left behind in Afghanistan
Me: So the commentators and those above them in mainscream media realize that they need lithium, maybe their lack of insight is not as bad as I thought and perhaps their is hope for them yet.

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 19 2021 17:15 utc | 45

@ Posted by: Roger | Aug 19 2021 17:27 utc | 46
You used the right term: player.
Capitalist States can engage the free market as players. The rules of the free market are still valid, regardless if the player is “active” or not. The very fact that the State is considered “Entrepreneurial” already gives in to the fact that it cannot change the laws of the free market.
Being a big player in the free market is not planning. Planning that happens inside corporate walls is not central planning, because the endgame is different: stakeholders and CEOs operate with the goal of profit.
The Japanese government still washes its main private companies (keiretsu) with cash from the working class’ savings in banks. The reforms of the 1990s didn’t change that.
The difference between the Chinese State (a socialist state) and the rest lies in the fact that any free market is conditional, a borrowed privilege, a right of existence bestowed by the State to the private sector. In the capitalist nations, it is the opposite (i.e. the private sector fully controls the State; any freedom of planning the State gets is bestowed by the private sector). Put in simpler terms, it is a matter of who has the real power.

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 17:43 utc | 47

Paco @ 9
Thank you LOL
That reminded me of one of my favourite Donovan Songs
I was impressed like everyone,
When man began to fly,
Out of earthly regions,
To planets in the sky.
With total media coverage,
We watched the heros land,
As ceremoniously
They disturbed the cosmic sand.
In awe with admiration,
We listened to the talk.
Such pride felt they,
Such joy to be
Upon the moon to walk.
My romantic vision shattered,
When it was explained to me,
Spacemen wear old diapers
In which they shit and pee.
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me,
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem,
When you’re out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.
They don’t partake like you and I,
Of beefy burger mush.
Their food is specially prepared
To dissolve into slush.
Absorbed by multi-fibers
In the super diaper suit,
Otherwise the slush would trickle
Down inside the boot.
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me,
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem
When you’re out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.
You may well ask now what becomes
Of liquid they consume.
A pipe is led from penis head
To a unit in the room.
The water is recirculated,
Filtered for re-use.
In case of anti-gravity –
Pee gets on the loose.
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me,
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem
When you’re out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.
Wherever man has conquered,
On the quest for frontiers new,
(Da da da da)
I’m glad that he’s always had to do
The number one and two.
It makes it all so ordinary,
Just like you and me,
To know the greatest heroes,
They had to shit and pee.
The intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to there,
For cosmic constipation
There’s none that can compare.
If shitting is your problem
When you’re out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
The intergalactic laxative,
The intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to Mars.

Posted by: ld | Aug 19 2021 17:54 utc | 49

In the recent past, there have been no reports, or even rumors, about the John Dunham Special Prosecutor investigation — does anyone know if it is still functioning? If yes, is his Grand Jury still empanelled?

Posted by: chet380 | Aug 19 2021 18:13 utc | 51

Successful “resistance” countries in Latin America so far: Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, all took power through a dedicated, radicalized armed cadre. Bolivia is similar and more recent– while they took power through the ballot box the miners and farmers fought and died for years and became a formidable force as shown during the general strike during the one year of fascist rule. The Taliban ARE the military in the new Afghan government.
Castillo’s people in Peru don’t have the guns or the military. Same goes in Ecuador, Brazil and Chile. However, one key weakness of the right wing militaries especially in tribal countries like Peru is that the grunts have extended families who can influence them which gives countries like Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala a chance to break the fascist chain that binds them. Bottom line… it’s hard to shoot your cousins.
Castillo is being challenged daily and might not survive but my guess is the resistance will not back down, especially given the support and coaching from neighboring Bolivia
https://orinocotribune.com/peru-a-coup-brewing/
Look for China to ramp up their presence in Latin America. They are being well received. The U.S.? not so much
https://orinocotribune.com/cuba-china-latin-america-and-the-world/

Posted by: migueljose | Aug 19 2021 18:29 utc | 53

Posted by: chet380 | Aug 19 2021 18:13 utc | 51
There is reporting that Durham is currently presenting before a Grand Jury. There is speculation of coming indictments for some in FBI. We’ll see how deep it is permitted to go.

Posted by: gottlieb | Aug 19 2021 18:52 utc | 55

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 15:00 utc | 11
“This isn’t Antiquity or the Middle Ages. Religion is not a factor in the grand scheme of things anymore.”
Perhaps not, at least in the West. But the lack of religion is very much a factor in the grand scheme of things.
In Russia the Orthodox faith may be making a huge difference.
And consider Islam in Iran (and Afghanistan?).
Religion matters. In its different forms it binds people together.

Posted by: Hal Duell | Aug 19 2021 19:48 utc | 57

@Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 17:43 utc | 47
We are in the realm of debating the meaning of English words, so I will desist as there is no benefit going further in this discussion. Reminds me of some of the meetings at Left Forum events debating exactly what a certain man meant when he wrote something a century and a half ago.

Posted by: Roger | Aug 19 2021 20:12 utc | 59

Re: vk @ 11
Ask for religion not being a factor, weaponized fake versions are. The fake Islam of Saudi Arabia and the fake Christianity of End Times Protestantism comes immediately to mind. I am not so sure Catholicism and the rest of Protestantism is really any better. All we’ve gotten are politically motivated burnings of heretics and witches (Inquisitions, Witch Trials) in the case of both. Wahhabi, Catholicism, Protestantism, aren’t they like Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia?

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 19 2021 20:16 utc | 61

@ Posted by: Roger | Aug 19 2021 20:12 utc | 59
Central planning is completely different than being a player in the free market.
In a true central planning system, the State knows before hand all the inputs, outputs and growth rates of the entire economy of the nation-state before the fiscal year even begins. It knows it because it politically decided them beforehand, in the Politburo, the central control commission(s) and the Supreme Soviet. The only theoretical limitation to central planning is nature itself and the present stage of the development of the productive forces.
The free market is decided by the profit rates, which are a completely different – much more limited – system. More importantly, it is (and must be) anarchic by definition: the State can try to predict, but it must never know for sure, which the inputs, outputs, growth rates etc. etc. will be by the end of the year, trimester, etc. etc. It cannot know because it doesn’t own them, just observe them (in the quantum sense of the word: when it observes it, it affects it to some degree, e.g. taxation, but it doesn’t change the otherness and nature of the system).

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 20:18 utc | 63

William Haught @34, @38:
…..Repugnants as well as Demonbrats…..
Yeah, you called them spades, SPADES! And I feel your pain. These rots in our society are likely to linger on for a while yet, since I see no urgent fear among anybody, academia/intelligentsia/socialites/JesusFreaks, et al., waking up to the pain that you’re feeling and wanted something done. Sigh!!!
As for James Earl Carter, I’m sort of surprised that we haven’t heard a beep from him or his cohorts on this travesty that just passed. Mayhaps Ole Jimmy is in a deeper lull than the babbler sitting in that House on Penn Ave.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Aug 19 2021 20:22 utc | 65

@ Posted by: gottlieb | Aug 19 2021 20:18 utc | 64
With the Pfizer vaccine, which we know not to be effective against the delta variant (it is below 50% threshold, at just 41%).

Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2021 20:27 utc | 67

How about checking out what Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity is saying. In his last two or three videos the picture that emerges with the Delta strain becoming dominant is that we have a version with an R(0) of between 5 and 9 (spreads perhaps as fast as chickenpox) according to various studies and an IFR perhaps as low as about .05% (perhaps about as deadly as the common cold if we ignore spread) that will take us to herd immunity in about two months. He suspects that infections are far higher than claimed, for there are recently vaccinated (less than 14 days after second dose, if not even afterwards (I’m not clear on that)) with the same viral loads throwing caution to the winds.
Of course, hospital systems could still collapse despite a very low IFR if R(0) is so high, at least when 1) hospitals need 80% ICU capacity or they cannot service debt on their highly leveraged operations and can only go to maybe 125% or so before collapsing and 2) we have a very severe fractional reserve bedding problem. He mentioned an article on one metro area that has 2.3 million people, but only 180 hospital beds. That is a ratio of .0008% (percentage ratio, not fractional ratio which would be .000008). I doubt/bet hospitals are even legally required to even have hospital beds. As is the case with demand deposits in the U.S. since the early ’90s, the legal reserve ratio requirement for fractional reserve bedding is probably the same as fractional reserve banking: 0%.
The good news is that we should be at herd immunity very soon bar a new strain developing, especially one in a recently vaccinated individual where a mutation much better at evading vaccine-induced immunity occurs (which can cause very bad things to happen).
I only saw his free videos, since half are behind a paywall. Anyone else saying the sames stuff or contradicting it (besides feral, eurgh, I mean federal agencies and spin tank shills of the official narratives, of course)?

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 19 2021 20:48 utc | 69

PS Peak Prosperity videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/PeakProsperity/videos https://vimeo.com/user23554896

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 19 2021 20:51 utc | 71

Religion matters. In its different forms it binds people together.
Posted by: Hal Duell @ 57
This being an open thread, and for those wishing to understand how it matters in Russian Orthodoxy, do take time, if you haven’t seen it, to watch “The Island” by Ostrov. I used just those three words and it came up immediately for me, with English subtitles. Warning: you may end up watching it again and again. I know I will.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 19 2021 20:55 utc | 73

Iran’s raised the stakes at the table, and Hezbollah’s answered:
“Press TV: Unless the “Axis of Resistance” members take the initiative and move from a defensive to an offensive position and impose new equations that prevent starvation of the population, this pressure will remain and even increase with time. Writes @ejmalrai https://presstv.ir/Detail/2021/08/19/664759/Lebanon-maximum-pressure-Hezbollah-Iran-support
“Exactly what #Hezbollah SG Sayyed Nasrallah did today: Imposing a new Rule of Engagement and moving one step forward into an offensive approach by equating the attack on any Ship coming from #Iran to #Lebanon to the attack on the country: #Israel will pay.” [My Emphasis]
There’s further context in this Magnier article. Its Intro:
“Lebanon is under unprecedented economic and social pressure, paying the price for Hezbollah’s military capability that causes a threat to Israel. The options offered by those (US, EU and Israel) effectively participating in cornering Lebanon -notwithstanding decades of domestic corruption and mismanagement – are limited to two: either disarm Hezbollah or push Lebanon toward a failed state and civil war. However, the ‘Axis of the Resistance’ has other options: Iran has responded to the request of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah by regularly sending to Lebanon food supplies and medicine. It is now sending oil tankers, which are expected to reach the country in the coming weeks via the Syrian port of Tartous. Iran is rushing to support one of its strongest allies in the “Axis of the Resistance”, Hezbollah, which is suffering severe domestic pressure, as are the entire Resistance Axis members in their respective countries. Hezbollah’s supporters of all persuasions are affected by the acute socio-economic crisis. But will Hezbollah succeed in overcoming the inevitable result of the current long-term crisis? How serious are the challenges?”
As I wrote on the Afghan thread, there’s lots happening that we’re not talking about.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 19 2021 21:47 utc | 75

Iran’s raised the stakes at the table, and Hezbollah’s answered:
“Press TV: Unless the “Axis of Resistance” members take the initiative and move from a defensive to an offensive position and impose new equations that prevent starvation of the population, this pressure will remain and even increase with time.
“Exactly what #Hezbollah SG Sayyed Nasrallah did today: Imposing a new Rule of Engagement and moving one step forward into an offensive approach by equating the attack on any Ship coming from #Iran to #Lebanon to the attack on the country: #Israel will pay.” [My Emphasis]
There’s further context in the Magnier article whose link is censored. Its Intro:
“Lebanon is under unprecedented economic and social pressure, paying the price for Hezbollah’s military capability that causes a threat to Israel. The options offered by those (US, EU and Israel) effectively participating in cornering Lebanon -notwithstanding decades of domestic corruption and mismanagement – are limited to two: either disarm Hezbollah or push Lebanon toward a failed state and civil war. However, the ‘Axis of the Resistance’ has other options: Iran has responded to the request of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah by regularly sending to Lebanon food supplies and medicine. It is now sending oil tankers, which are expected to reach the country in the coming weeks via the Syrian port of Tartous. Iran is rushing to support one of its strongest allies in the “Axis of the Resistance”, Hezbollah, which is suffering severe domestic pressure, as are the entire Resistance Axis members in their respective countries. Hezbollah’s supporters of all persuasions are affected by the acute socio-economic crisis. But will Hezbollah succeed in overcoming the inevitable result of the current long-term crisis? How serious are the challenges?”
As I wrote on the Afghan thread, there’s lots happening that we’re not talking about.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 19 2021 21:50 utc | 77

The Romulans have left Bajor.

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 19 2021 22:20 utc | 79

Another interesting news item out of Nigeria:
https://www.icirnigeria.org/returning-boko-haram-iswap-terrorists-should-be-treated-like-brothers-muric/
Those Taliban, with their no-revenge pledge, really are inspiring.
As to the specific process for evacuating Afghan interpreters and others from the airport in Kabul to Canada, the Halifax Reporter has it covered! It goes like this (according to Stephen Watt of Northern Lights Canada):
1) get the Afghans to the airport from their safe houses. This requires passing through Taliban checkpoints. Delays can cause missed flights.
2) get past the US military checkpoints at the airport to get to the plane. This requires showing a G-number which proves you are in Canada’s system. Because of slow responses from Ottawa, large numbers of would-be evacuees have no G-number. Now, the Canadian Embassy in Lebanon has informed Watts that all evacuees must have a medical test. Not clear whether that is just for Covid or not.
https://www.halifaxtoday.ca/national-news/taliban-checkpoints-bureaucratic-hurdles-limit-hope-as-military-lands-in-afghanistan-4236868
Meanwhile, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Russia has arranged with the Afghan authorities to fly any Afghan nationals to any country on civil airplanes. (Maybe not to Chechnya though, yeah?)
https://tass.com/politics/1327935

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Aug 19 2021 22:45 utc | 81

@ Willy2 | Aug 19 2021 22:16 utc | 75 hey willy… good to see you posting… how are things in france with the lockdowns and etc?
it is true what you say, in some respects, but i think a closer examination shows the strength of the western economies is more of a facade, while the strength of china is not a facade… listen to the first 10 minutes of that link i left @ 33 from michael hudson… you might pick up on the differences that i am not able to articulate as well.. here is the link again.. cheers james
Global Financial Empire 1
here is a musical friend of mine playing a song we wrote together – fall of 2020… he’s a great piano player.. i know you play piano, so you might enjoy it..
improv song – fall of 2020 – solo piano cued up.

Posted by: james | Aug 19 2021 23:36 utc | 83

@ 79 roger… here is another source you might appreciate…. cheers james
Private Debt To Gdp – By Country

Posted by: james | Aug 19 2021 23:52 utc | 85

@Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Aug 19 2021 20:50 utc | 69
The inflation data in the US is heavily manipulated downwards, reducing government expenditures (inflation uplifts for social security etc.), inflate real GDP figures (and thus underrepresent Debt to GDP figures) and to hide the long-term decline in living standards for the bottom 90%. The Shadowstats web site does a good job of covering this.
We are at the zero bound of interest rates, and given the extreme levels of debt combined with low GDP growth rates, interest rates cannot be allowed to go up by much at all. Any normalization (e.g. 6% mortgagee rates at least) would crash the economy. The can will be kicked down the road until we run out of road.
The only way out, as Mr Hudson keeps reminding us, is massive debt forgiveness. Easier to do if the financial system is predominantly owned by the state, as in China, or most of the debt is with the State as in Japan (45% monetized by the Central Bank). In other nations debt forgiveness would massively shrink the private banking sector, and thus the profits of the rentier financial elites. It would also serve to free the masses from peonage. Why Biden immediately about-faced on student-debt forgiveness, debt peonage is a great way to keep the serfs under control – until they stick a pitch fork through you (that’s where the Democratic Party comes in to sooth the flames of revolution and redirect into meaningless SJW BS etc.).

Posted by: Roger | Aug 20 2021 0:03 utc | 87

@Max #43
I suggest you read the first paragraph of Super Imperialism.
Hudson wrote it in 1972.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 20 2021 0:10 utc | 89

just sitting around, idly wondering how this empire will finally end. I hope it’s with a whimper, but that’s me being optimistic.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 20 2021 0:13 utc | 91

Posted by: james | Aug 19 2021 23:52 utc | 82
Luxembourg and Ireland are financial tax havens, so their data is very misleading.
Canada has been in a debt bubble for a long time, with a slow-growing economy (2% at best) and a current account deficit, and no reserve currency, and a huge share of GDP in FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) and building housing and condos, and an economy which predominantly exports raw materials. Even worse in Ontario where I reside, when the shit hits the fan it will be epic …..

Posted by: Roger | Aug 20 2021 0:24 utc | 93

@Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Aug 20 2021 0:36 utc | 91
The wrinkle in the “financial repression” process for reducing debt is labour-arbitrage and the extremely weak unions, together with high rates of immigration increasing the workforce. Higher levels of inflation may end up not feeding through to incomes, as management can offshore and better maintain flat wages, squeezing the working people who are already stretched at nearly zero percent mortgage rates. Also, negative interest rates are very bad for the banking system and high inflation is usually bad for equities (as with the 1960s). We have blown a massive debt bubble, heavily driven into real estate prices, and cannot grow the economy out of it.
The “jingle mail” (house keys mailed to the bank) of the late 1980s may return to Canada at some point, it is well overdue.

Posted by: Roger | Aug 20 2021 0:53 utc | 95

@ c1ue (#86), who said it before Hudson? What terms was Michael using between 2010-2015?
Also, did you watch his video about the “Global Financial Empire”? What key things are missing and have been distorted?

Posted by: Max | Aug 20 2021 1:23 utc | 97

As the worldwide economic system toddles towards complete collapse and as the Earth’s ecosystem also heads towards collapse, the barflies discuss how Afghanistan might join the party?
Issue currency! Build infrastructure! Adopt western “democracy”. Blow up the mountains in order to get the minerals! (Blowing up Buddha structures is a travesty, but blowing up mountains is the modern way to go). Is it really the best course for Afghanistan to join the world’s race to destruction, just in time to overthrow centuries of sustainable living in order to become unable to feed themselves when the collapse is complete?
Meanwhile, barflies cluck over Japan’s 30 years of “stagnation” and “declining birth rates”. I’m not an expert on Japan, but I can look up statistics and see that their population tripled since 1900. Is that really a “demographic catastrophe”? Are the Japanese, in their “stagnation”, starving? Living under bridges? Shooting up heroin and nodding off on the streets? If Americans who live in a robust and expanding economy live in such perilous circumstances, the Japanese must be worse, right?
It is also pathetic to see Americans unable to process basic data available to all which has proved that the experiment with the mRNA product has failed. The widely advertised product was promised to stop infection, provide herd immunity and whiten teeth, but has now been shown to do none of those things. Bummer.
Undaunted, befuddled and scientifically illiterate Americans continue to insist that if the experiment failed, it is only because not enough people participated! Everyone must get inoculated and then it will surely live up to its promised benefits. If fear didn’t work, and bribes didn’t work, then surely repression will. So now we move into medical apartheid, with the population divided into the clean and unclean, and the unclean are forbidden to participate in normal society, while the clean jeer at them and wish upon them painful deaths, and, (what the heck), removal to concentration camps where they are unable to contaminate their betters.
This is not going to work out well.

Posted by: wagelaborer | Aug 20 2021 1:38 utc | 99