Posted by: D.G. | Oct 11 2021 11:23 utc @67
I’ve had the same issue with twitter.com using Safari on a Mac. Your post inspired me to try another browser, and the same popups don’t happen with Chrome, Brave, or Firefox, at least not on my Mac. So maybe give a different browser a try. I agree it’s an annoying change.

Posted by: Chris | Oct 11 2021 22:15 utc | 104

Eisenhower warned us about the MIC.
the man must be turning in his grave.
You aint seen nuthin yet Ike !

Who is behind this SARS2 [covid] madness? I accept the risk of triggering your “conspiracy theory” buttons by identifying the widely recognized “global military-medical-petrochemical-pharmaceutical cartel” as the only suspect that can wield the powers necessary to effect these frightening outcomes.

http://whale.to/a/sars2.htm

Posted by: denk | Oct 12 2021 4:16 utc | 106

Below is a short Xinhuanet posting of news I haven’t seen elsewhere
”
MOSCOW, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) — Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Ukrainian issue during their phone conversation, the Kremlin said in a statement Monday.
“The worrying stalemate in the effort to end the internal conflict in Ukraine was discussed in detail, with the three leaders noting the importance of implementing the 2015 Minsk agreements as the only possible basis for a settlement,” the statement said.
“Interest was also expressed in further coordinating efforts in the Normandy format of Russia, Germany and France,” it added.
Given the difficulty of settling the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine, the leaders asked their political advisors and foreign ministries to step up contacts and work in the Normandy Four format.
Some other international issues were also discussed during the phone talks, including counter-terrorism efforts on the African continent, according to the Kremlin.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 12 2021 4:47 utc | 108

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 12 2021 4:47 utc | 109
Ukraine is back in the front burner, Cookie Nuland finally made it to Moscow after some deal to take her off the sanction list in exchange for some Russian diplomats visas. Ex president Medvedev published an article in Kommersant, with no diplomatic language accuses Ukro president of forgetting who he is to accommodate the nazikis, and basically there is no reason to have any presidential meetings just for the sake of meeting, since all documents signed by Ukraine are not worth the paper or ink spent on them.
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5028300#id2123318
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 12 2021 7:56 utc | 110
What really p*ssesss me off is how the guardians of copyright for shitty hollywood movies, defective software programs, and all sort of uncultural garbage are so quick to use classical names like Pandora, no royalties I guess, just like Gates not paying the Maya for their inventing the zero.
It’s more than clear where this Pandora comes from, Langley or not too far from it, I wonder where Castro kept the billions their propaganda claimed he had. So hard for those subhumans to understand that up in those heights the personal purse does not have any meaning, like Putin hoarding billions, what for? he has the Kremlin, Sochi, and the whole of Siberia to go fishing, and that you do not measure with billions.

Posted by: Paco | Oct 12 2021 8:48 utc | 110

@Roger
The Plaza Accords didn’t have to be deadly for Japan. It was Japan’s reaction that was deadly.
The logical reaction would have been to accept that certain industries were no longer profitable. So you get a transition period where factories are closed and unemployment rises. But after some time the economy adjusts. Of course you can help with worker training programs, etc.
Instead Japan chose to inundate the economy with money. That resulted in real estate and stock prices rising into the stratosphere. And then the roof came down and the bubble burst. And again Japan reacted unwisely. It didn’t force companies with a negative net worth to go bankrupt. Instead it created a kind of zombie economy by keeping all those companies alive.
The problem with all this trickery is that it created a highly artificial economy. And that harms growth.

Posted by: Wim | Oct 12 2021 10:44 utc | 112

i agree with @ 114 roger… watch ‘princes of the yen’ on youtube… very informative and an indication of what is happening now in the west..

Posted by: james | Oct 12 2021 16:22 utc | 114

Clipping of the day:
–//
This is your average “South Korea expert” in the West:
In land of ‘Parasite’ and ‘Squid Game,’ a hero rises: In equality-obsessed South Korea, a fiery working-class warrior wins the ruling party’s presidential ticket
“equality-obsessed”? My man, South Korea is the most Confucian country on Earth. They’re not only obsessed with inequality, they veneer it. That’s why series like “Squid Game” are created in South Korea. South Korea is the “everybody should know their place” nation par excellence; for them, equality is North Korea, it’s “communist darkness”, therefore, everything that’s wrong with the world.
–//–
How “Terror Capitalism” Links Uyghur Oppression to the Global Economy: The camps in Xinjiang and undocumented work in the US are part of the same continuum of unfreedom.
Honestly, I don’t know to which public The Nation intends to. They sound like a bunch of hallucinated fanatics, a bunch of hippies on mushrooms.
The American Leftist media practicing the same selective ignorance the MSM is using against, among others, the leftists themselves. The whole hypothesis of Uighur concentration camps rests entirely on the “works” of one man: anthropologist Adrian Zenz, a far-right apocalyptic Christian ideologue, whose work is entirely pseudo-scientific. The Nation (among other leftists), take his “evidence” at face value. However, if Fox News dares to shit on Bernie Sanders or AOC, you bet your ass The Nation would be on the depths of the Dark Web and social media to find the root of the fake news against them.
Also, related:
Why it now suits America to cool the talk of Beijing’s Uighur ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang
–//–
Polish ruling ‘risks EU collapse’: Row over values threatens bloc’s unity, warns official
The true news here is not the article itself (which is a Reuters routine article), but the fact that it is (to my memory) the first time Chinese official media (in this case, the Global Times) is reporting it. The Chinese don’t fuck around with such things, so the Polish imbroglio may be more serious than we thought.
–//–
Harvard moves Chinese language programme from Beijing to Taipei

Course to be based at National Taiwan University, replacing a partnership with Beijing Language and Culture University
Covid-19 restrictions had forced the course to be suspended, with its director also citing a perceived lack of friendliness from the host institution

Let me translate this from NGOese for you: this “Harvard Chinese language programme” was busted by the Chinese authorities as a center for color revolution in China. To save face and preserve its assets, it is – in a humiliating fashion – fleeing to the rebel province of Taiwan.
Harvard University is a known center for regime change in Latin America. Every defeated neoliberal presidential candidate in a Latin American country immediately flies to Massachusetts for one of Harvard’s “recycling courses” of “public governance” (which exist for decades now), and go back to their countries of origin three years later, in time to win the next elections.
–//–
A clearer picture emerges:
Chinese premier stresses stable energy supply, energy security
Li Keqiang essentially replicated the official stance, which I linked here some days ago: China has double the energy output of the USA, but with a lower GDP, therefore it is energy inefficient. It needs to modernize its energy architecture in order to prepare for the new challenges ahead and it must do it now, while it has some cushion to fall onto.
However, in the middle of this transition, an unexpected spike on coal prices happened due to shortage (including heavy rains which forced the closure of 60 coal mines in China) of the commodity. China is working to soften this landing:
Coal output hiked to address power shortfalls
Long story short: China will eventually abandon coal, but it will do so in its own terms, without any Western power dictating how it should do it.
–//–
Don’t blame women for our low birthrate – we need to fix our precarious [i.e. the UK] society
Notice the difference of treatment between China and the West (in this case, the UK).
The Chinese are essentially treated like cattle by the British. They commemorated when China enforced its one-child policy for decades, as “the only good policy ever implemented by the CCP [sic]”. After the Chinese implemented the two-children and then the three-children policy, the British commemorated the “imminent and irreversible demographic collapse of China” and “the end of China”. They ignored that the problem of low birth rates is a worldwide phenomenon save for a few countries.
Now that the problem is visible in the UK, The Guardian sends one of its miscellaneous op-eders to do some hyper-humanizing fluffy articles, as if the British were some kind of precious endangered species. This is a very dangerous ideology: hyper-humanization is the obverse of dehumanization – by hyper-humanizing one people, you automatically dehumanize the rest. This is the basis of Nazism and Social-Fascism.

Posted by: vk | Oct 12 2021 17:56 utc | 116

Escobar reports on the Iraqi elections. Here’re the basics:
“Let’s start with the abstention rate. Of the 22 million eligible voters able to choose 329 members of Parliament from 3,227 candidates and 167 parties, only 41% chose to cast their ballots, according to the Iraq High Electoral Commission (IHEC)
“Then there’s the notorious fragmentation of the Iraqi political chessboard. Initial results offer a fascinating glimpse. Of the 329 seats, the Sadrists – led by Muqtada al-Sadr – captured 73, a Sunni coalition has 43, a Shi’ite coalition – led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki – has 41 and the Kurd faction led by Barzani has 32.”
So we’ll see yet another coalition government.
“What happens next are extremely protracted negotiations, not to mention infighting. Once the results are certified, President Barham Saleh, in theory, has 15 days to choose the next Parliament speaker, and Parliament has one month to choose a President. Yet the whole process could last months.”
Most barflies want to know what’s happening to the Imperial Stormtroopers. Pepe says:
“The American ‘withdrawal’ in December is a euphemism: 2,500 combat troops will actually be repositioned into unspecified ‘non-combat’ roles. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis – Sunni and Shi’ite – won’t accept it. A solid intel source – Western, not West Asian – assured me assorted Shi’ite outfits have the capability to overrun all American assets in Iraq in only six days, the Green Zone included.”
Pepe concludes with what seems obvious:
“Geopolitically, looking ahead, Iraq’s future in West Asia from now on will be inextricably linked to Eurasian integration. Not surprisingly, Iran and Russia were among the first actors to officially congratulate Baghdad for running a smooth election.
“Muqtada and the Sadrists will be very much aware that the Axis of Resistance – Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah in Lebanon – is strengthening by the minute. And that is directly linked to the Iran-Russia-China partnership strengthening Eurasia integration. But first things first: let’s get an ‘honest’ prime minister and Parliament in place.”
It appears that the Afghan debacle has forced the Empire to retain its troops in Iraq and Syria even though it can’t afford to keep them there.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 12 2021 18:44 utc | 118

Here is the RT version of the post by Karlof1 at @117 above
https://www.rt.com/russia/537272-ryabkov-relations-russia-us-worsen/
They put it a bit more clearly “ The Americans are not listening to us“.
Seems like Nulland is doing a Blinken and just telling others what to do. The Russians probably are being more polite than the Chinese were, but the result will be the same.
*****
Wim | Oct 12 2021 10:44 utc | 113, Roger and James.
“Instead Japan chose to inundate the economy with money. That resulted in real estate and stock prices rising into the stratosphere. And then the roof came down and the bubble burst. And again Japan reacted unwisely. It didn’t force companies with a negative net worth to go bankrupt. Instead it created a kind of zombie economy by keeping all those companies alive. And that harms growth.”
Roger “inflating asset prices, then kept squeezing to deepen the crash.”
This is an interesting line of thought. The “reset” actually doesn’t give many precisions about the future situation of the masses (Except “you wll have nothing and be happy”).
Would a Japanese situation be workable in the west? It gives hard workers, no chance of change and the top dogs keep it all for themselves. The Japanese consecrate themselves to their “boss”. Even going so far to give presents TO the boss (For birthdays, festivals etc). One executive/top secretary(?) lady I met worked for four years non-stop for her Japanese boss, (including weekends) and was to have a week (maybe at maximum two) of holiday to visit her sick/old mother. At the last minute the “Boss” told her that she should stay as he had work for her to do. She never went.
The effect of a Japanese” economic situation might be just what the Schwabs of this world want. Dedicated financial slavery for some, vast possessions for the others. EVEN IF the Corporations or companies are inefficient – they would continue to be kept “alive” by injections of virtual “liquidity”. Those “slurping at the life-blood of society” would be protected from failure, and as immortal as all vampires are supposed to be.
All the others become zombified, and you don’t even need co**d to get obedience.

Posted by: Stonebird | Oct 12 2021 19:26 utc | 120

John Cleary @ 59; Great post!!
Posted by: vetinLA | Oct 12 2021 0:26 utc | 69

Thank you LA vet 🙂
Can I just repeat this part on this thread:

It is the second clearest case of projection.
The clearest was quite obviously “Evil Putin controls everything in Russia. Evil Putin has stolen enormous sums from the Russian people. Evil Putin weaponises everything. Evil Putin is being aggressive again.”
That’s exactly what Queen Elizabeth has done within her own empire.

There is an interesting contrast to be drawn between how the Commission treats Russia, an outsider, and the United Kingdom, also an outsider. Look here.

Northern Ireland EU ready to scrap most post-Brexit checks on British goods
Offer to lift up to 50% of customs checks aims to turn page on troubled relationship with Boris Johnson
Explainer What next for the Northern Ireland protocol?
Frost Failure to rip up protocol would be ‘historic misjudgment’
Car industry Brexit rules ‘are denting competitiveness’
EU ready to scrap most post-Brexit checks on British goods

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/12/eu-ready-to-scrap-most-post-brexit-checks-on-british-goods-entering-ni
The Euro Commission is kicking Russia in the balls at the same time as allowing the United Kingdom to have its cake and eat it. All the while pretending the opposite.
Why is this?

Posted by: John Cleary | Oct 12 2021 22:08 utc | 122

why I will never ride any airline again but southwest
denk @ 123 the definition of the deep state is private owners of monopoly power. your list is too short.. .. and the deep state is far greater in span than military and its contractors.. and their pharmacy.
You are looking at monopoly power in copyrighted software, in patented hardware, and in government contracting. .. what monopoly power does, is that it eliminates all competition and at the same time it makes portable where industrial and technical complexes operate completely independent of local anything. So the PIGO owners seek the place where labor is the cheapest and environments are of no concern.
Just recently Hitachi pulled up states in the USA and moved the local wire factory to Mexico.. but because Hitachi has a patent on its process and the software it uses is copyrighted, no American can start up a wire company to fill the void. This is how the monopoly monsters moved all industry out of the USA governed America.

Posted by: snake | Oct 13 2021 1:50 utc | 124

Reported on RT (accuracy of list unknown)
https://theintercept.com/document/2021/10/12/facebook-dangerous-individuals-and-organizations-list-reproduced-snapshot/
Page 50 onwards, lists hundreds (if not all) of US militia groups, US regime keeping eyes on potential uprisings?

Posted by: awaiting approval | Oct 13 2021 4:15 utc | 126

This is an interesting line of thought. The “reset” actually doesn’t give many precisions about the future situation of the masses (Except “you wll have nothing and be happy”).
The effect of a Japanese” economic situation might be just what the Schwabs of this world want. Dedicated financial slavery for some, vast possessions for the others. EVEN IF the Corporations or companies are inefficient – they would continue to be kept “alive” by injections of virtual “liquidity”. Those “slurping at the life-blood of society” would be protected from failure, and as immortal as all vampires are supposed to be.

Stonebird @ 120
This is what Antony Sutton predicted that would happen. Wiki:

Sutton’s next three published books (Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Wall Street and FDR and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler) detailed Wall Street’s involvement in the Bolshevik Revolution to destroy Russia as an economic competitor and turn it into “a captive market and a technical colony to be exploited by a few high-powered American financiers and the corporations under their control”[9] as well as its decisive contributions to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose policies he assessed as being essentially the same “corporate socialism,” planned by the big corporations.[10]
Sutton concluded that it was all part of the economic power elites’ “long-range program of nurturing collectivism”[7] and fostering “corporate socialism” in order to ensure “monopoly acquisition of wealth” because it “would fade away if it were exposed to the activity of a free market.”[11]

Posted by: Down South | Oct 13 2021 6:35 utc | 128

energy crisis released from the lab excellent article, people in the North might need to move south for the winter?

Posted by: snake | Oct 13 2021 9:46 utc | 130

Who run Pakistan? Not elected politicians including the PM: it is the Army generals, called the “Establishment”.

The reported clash between the prime minister and the security leadership over the appointment of the ISI chief is symptomatic of the widening gap between the two. The fault lines are hard to fix.
Editorial: The intense discussion on new DG ISI’s appointment is a sad reflection of state of affairs in Pakistan
It’s obvious that the prime minister chose the wrong issue for asserting his authority. His reported insistence on retaining the outgoing spymaster raised questions about possible political motives. The military leadership reacted by notifying the appointment of the new chief apparently without the prime minister’s approval and in violation of the rules, leading to a stand-off.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1651744/systems-widening-cracks

Posted by: Antonym | Oct 13 2021 12:49 utc | 132

@Roger #110
Have you actually spent time in Japan?
I lived and worked there for 3 years. In many conversations with Japanese at both high and everyday levels – the Japanese made a specific choice.
You insist in seeing the American troops in Okinawa and Yokosuka as an occupying force, but in reality they are why Japan gets away with spending almost no money on defense – a symbol of how Japan uses the United States to balance its role against China and Russia.
The Tokyo metropolitan area has at least 30 million Japanese in it. How exactly do 25000 American soldiers in Yokosuka and 14000 in Yokota “occupy” 30 million people? Nor do they Thunder Runs or shoot anyone (well, hardly ever).
I’ve visited both Yokota and Yokosuka out of curiosity as well. They do not resemble the Green Zones in Iraq or Afghanistan in any way. Nor is there a DMZ like in Korea.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 13 2021 14:35 utc | 134

c1ue | Oct 13 2021 14:46 utc @ 135,

China never successfully invaded Japan, but they tried numerous times. China’s immensity has loomed over Japan for literally millenia.

If you don’t mind, could you cite the reference about the “numerous” claim?
From what I understand, China attempted to invade Japan twice during Yuan Dynasty (established by Mongols). It may be a little tricky here whether to categorize Mongols as Chinese at that time. Other than that, China does not invade Japan. China did have wars/conflicts with Japan in Korea peninsula that could date back to Tang Dynasty. But those were related to Korean affairs, not an invasion to Japan. During Ming Dynasty, Japanese did invade Chinese villages in Chinese southeast shores in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces like pirates though.

Posted by: LuRenJia | Oct 13 2021 15:50 utc | 136

@LuRenJia #137
The Mongol fleets (which were the government of China at the time, and included many Chinese soldiers, sailors, bureaucrats etc) were not the first attacks on Japan from China.
There were at least 3 or 4 before that which failed due to logistic reasons.
Was taking Japan ever a primary goal for China – either as a unified nation or any of the smaller predecessor states?
No but that is really irrelevant from the Japanese point of view.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 13 2021 19:49 utc | 138

Price Waterhouse Coopers gave Evergrande a clean bill of health and a complimentary whitewash this spring (March).
In today’s nine minute utoob Patrick Boyle examines the entrails of this chicken and reveals some interesting history. In summary – Capitalism sux but PWC is sucking harder.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 13 2021 20:47 utc | 140

@LuRenJia #142
The web doesn’t talk about this because these events were pre-Mongol (1200s). However, there are references to the Divine Wind wrecking the 2 Mongol fleets as being the latest in a series of attacks from China.
This is what the Japanese believe, and that is what matters. Japan was a pimple on the butt compared to China – between that and China’s multiple history cleansings in the past 1000 years, it is not surprising that memory of this is nonexistent outside of Japan.
Here is an oblique reference to what I am talking about: China was never able to mount a proper invasion into either Japan or Korea. When she finally did, it failed not once but four times.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 14 2021 15:53 utc | 142