Looks as if the US is going to get it's sanctions in place one way or the other.
Given the non invasion and the refusal of the Russians to react to provocation.
What does the US do next?
Oh European opinions don't count because they are spineless.
Pathetically so!

Posted by: Jpc | Feb 20 2022 15:05 utc | 1

The UK appears to quietly be having a non-Texas winter storm energy crisis

Two More Energy Companies Go Under As Crisis Worsens - on Oilprice

From April, the price cap will rise to £1,971 per year for average use, with industry experts warning of further price rises this spring.

The price cap is currently set at £1,277 and had prevented suppliers passing on soaring wholesale costs – which rose five-fold over 2021.

Following XCel and Whoop exiting the market, 28 firms have collapsed since September while Bulb Energy has entered de-facto nationalisation, being propped up by public money in the biggest state bailout since RBS in 2008.

This has directly affected over four million customers, with 2.3m being switched to surviving suppliers by Ofgem.

The UK only has a population of 67 million broken up into 28 million households. Utility customers are households I believe.
4 million/2,3 million is a very significant part of the population.

Between this and COVID - no wonder Boris Johnson is so eagerly looking outward.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 15:18 utc | 2

START vs non-STARTER

The U.S. MSM is so in bed with U.S. govt officials by repeating everything that they say, you might as will just call Russia's Security Agreement, 'non-Starter'.

Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Feb 20 2022 15:19 utc | 3

@Jpc #1
Why do you think so?

The sanction that matters is Nord Stream 2.
That's still on the table, as far as I can see.

Nord Stream 2 is critical because it completes the strategic redirect of Russian natural gas from transit through Poland and Ukraine, directly to Germany. Western Europe and Germany/France in particular are what matters in the EU, and NS2 means the periphery Eastern European EU members can no longer simultaneously stick costs on transit natural gas nor threaten availability.

Energy is a serious problem in Europe - note the link I posted above showing severe problems in the UK as well over natural gas.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 15:39 utc | 4

Christian J. Chuba @3: "The U.S. MSM is so in bed with U.S. govt officials by repeating everything that they say..."

I think you might have that power arrangement backwards. The corporate mass media is Big Business, and Big Business holds the real power in the US... well, almost the entirety of the western world actually. It is thus more accurate to say that the US government is in bed with Big Business. It is true that Big Business allows the US government to provide the score and to be the conductor for the mass media orchestra, but that is just to coordinate the oligarchy's efforts and provide a united face for the Empire. Never forget that America's previous President was silenced by Big Business, not the other way around.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 20 2022 15:59 utc | 5

Christian J. Chuba (3)

Ditto.

Here in the UK its non-stop 24/7 from all media sources that Putin is on the verge of invading Ukraine, not just that but they are parroting Boris Johnson's speech that Russia is about to invade and surround Kiev, WTF, I'm wondering how many folk in the UK, (of which I hope Scotland leaves as soon as) are buying into this shit.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 16:02 utc | 6

California gas prices at record highs

California gas prices

It just got even more expensive to fill your tank as California regular unleaded gas prices hit a record high average. As of Friday, the statewide average gasoline price was $4.72 per gallon, about 7 cents more than a month ago and roughly $1.28 more than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association.

LA county gas prices at record high - ABC7

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County resumed increasing Saturday, rising three-tenths of a cent to $4.784, its 14th record high in the last 16 days.

A run of 17 increases in 18 days totaling 11.3 cents ended Friday when the average price was unchanged. It is 3 cents more than one week ago, 11 cents higher than one month ago and $1.18 greater than one year ago, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.

San Diego gas prices

For three consecutive days starting Wednesday, San Diego has set a record for the county’s highest gas price in history.

The average price of a gallon of regular, unleaded gas ticked upward just slightly to $4.740 Friday, according to AAA. That’s after Thursday’s record-breaking $4.736 and Wednesday’s $4.726, which also briefly set the region’s high mark.

Gas is at its most expensive since 2012: Before this week of eye-popping prices, the record was set on Oct. 8 of that year at $4.725. That’s over $5.70 in 2022 dollars, but that’s likely little comfort to consumers.

We're not at the highest US gas price in history - that was in 2008 @ $4.103 - but I strongly suspect we're going to take a run at it. Note that $4.103 was when oil peaked at $147 in 2008; we're at low $90s at the moment.

OPEC can't pump enough to meet its quotas; US shale is ramping up but overall industry investment is significantly lower than past oil price spike periods.

It seems Harris Kupperman is going to make a lot of money on his 2023, 2024 and 2025 oil calls @ $100.

Bigger picture wise - this drip torture of ever increasing gasoline prices can't possibly be good for incumbent governments - Biden/Democrats federal; Newsom/Democrats in California.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 16:02 utc | 7

@2 C1ue

Centrica (British Gas patent company) are making money rather well though. Increases always get passed onto us, whereas any reductions are kept in house...

I'm starting to get worried if I'm honest. There is speculation that the price will increase massively again in autumn.

Rising profits

Apologies for paywalled link

Posted by: Some Random Passerby | Feb 20 2022 16:03 utc | 8

Biden approval now lower than Trump at same point

Biden poll shows he is less popular than Trump

The problem, of course, is that Biden does not have a core of fervent (fanatic, rabid is what Democrats would say) supporters like Trump does.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 16:04 utc | 9

Some Random Passerby (8)

"I'm starting to get worried if I'm honest. There is speculation that the price will increase massively again in autumn."

Its doesn't look like speculation.

"Rishi Sunak has predicted a further energy price rise in October after announcing support for Brits facing a hike in their bill.

It comes after energy regulator Ofgem announced bills will rocket by close to £700 a year on average from April 1 once the price cap is lifted.

That is a rise of 54% as the energy cap increases from £1,277 to £1,971 a year."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/energy-bills-prices-ofgem-cap-26126169

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 16:07 utc | 10

@Some Random Passerby #8
If a utility company hedged its natural gas supply and/or has long term supply contracts, they definitely should be doing well now.
However, the question is whether those long term hedges/contracts will outlast the natural gas price spike. Note the caps on how much a utility can charge customers noted in the original post - that's why smaller/stupider utilities are getting crushed.
Note also the big jump in the cap coming in April.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 16:09 utc | 11

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 15:39 utc | 4

I don't think that NS2 is still on the table – Chancellor Scholz just can't state that publicly due to claims for compensation etc.

And, to be honest, I think that is the only way to make the Europeans ultimately realize into what they maneuvered themselves. The general public plus the economy of Germany has to feel the pain to finally stand up and reject the US hegemony.

The new German administration still thinks that they can somehow get around those sanctions but they are slowly starting to realize that they will be implemented one way or the other. Some members of the government are beginning to prepare the public for hefty drawbacks now.

Posted by: qubix | Feb 20 2022 16:12 utc | 12

Biden won't like this, especially with his poll ratings in decline.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have agreed to take urgent measures to halt escalation of conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Elysee Palace said in a statement.

During their Sunday phone conversation requested by Paris, the leaders agreed to resume work within the framework of the Normandy format, which consists of French, German, Russian, and Ukrainian leadership. It was also decided that a meeting of the trilateral contact group would be held “in the next few hours” in order to “obtain a commitment from all the stakeholders” to cease fire on the line of contact."

https://www.rt.com/russia/550045-putin-macron-call-ukraine/

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 16:23 utc | 13

@c1ue | Feb 20 2022 16:04 utc | 9

Biden approval now lower than Trump at same point

This is just a comment on the comparison btw., not an endorsement of Trump.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 20 2022 16:26 utc | 14

Yesterday air pressure dropped sharply then rose quickly after. I predicted there would be a helluva storm today.

Today was sunny and almost no wind. I stopped the storm by making it publicly known. Trick I learned from da prez!

Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Feb 20 2022 16:28 utc | 15

c1ue @9: "The problem, of course, is that Biden does not have a core of fervent (fanatic, rabid is what Democrats would say) supporters like Trump does."

I believe there is quite a bit more to Biden's low approval than that. The corporate mass media made their hate for Trump, and those they felt were his supporters, painfully obvious. Just as obvious has been the presstitutes' efforts to buff Biden's popularity. Particularly since the astonishingly warped narratives that the mass media tried to hard-sell in 2020 that they doubled-down on ridiculous narratives in 2021, many Americans have grown wise to their brainwashing and gaslighting efforts. The result is that the more they try to sell Biden the more damage they do to him. The corporate mass media basically has the reverse Midas Touch now; every narrative they touch turns to shit.

At least that is the case with domestic narratives. It remains to be seen how much people are buying the international narratives. I'm willing to bet that any popularity bump Biden gets from being a war president will be brief and small.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 20 2022 16:37 utc | 16

Oh great just what we need more BS from Whitehall.

"The UK government has revealed that it is setting up a unit tasked with combatting disinformation from Moscow for the first since the end of the Cold War.

The new Russia-Ukraine Government Information Cell (GIC) will expose and fight “false information,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told The Mail on Sunday."

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 16:46 utc | 17

Jpc 1 "Given the non invasion and the refusal of the Russians to react to provocation.
What does the US do next?"

US/UK will do what they always do - a false flag. But these sanctions are going to make the EU squeal so the false flag will have to be big.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 20 2022 16:46 utc | 18

Reportedly Queen Lizardbreath have got a Corona. I thought that was 70 years ago?

Anyway, this will either lead to the narrative finally and totally imploding, or it will be used to create the ultimate martyr and totalitarian hell will follow.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 20 2022 16:52 utc | 19

This from the head of (MI5) of whom I'm ashamed to say is a Scot.

"Another major problem, according to the intelligence heavyweight, is so-called “online cultivation” of ordinary people - experts, scientists, and others - by Britain’s “adversaries.” This “cultivation,” as he explained, manifests itself in approaches by people “making some very complimentary remarks about some seminar they have given or a paper they have written or inviting them to a conference.”

The scale of these adversaries’ activities is so grand that MI5 faces a tough choice over whom to prioritize: home-grown terrorists or foreign spies, McCallum confessed."

https://www.rt.com/news/549997-intelligence-russia-china-interview/

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 16:55 utc | 20

Actual CNN headline: “US official says 75% of Russian forces are deployed against Ukraine”

Posted by: Platero | Feb 20 2022 17:08 utc | 21

"...Will the police do the job? Does the Canadian state have the equipment necessary to do the job?
"It seems that the Canadian military do have equipment like armored recovery vehicles which could be deployed to remove the trucks - 11 specialized tank recovery vehicles in total. But they are deployed in training grounds far from the action in Ottawa or the US-Canadian border..."
That's Adam Tooze wondering aloud whether Canada has the capacity to remove the trucks in Ottawa (it turned out that the Ottawa Bus company did the job- no tow truck operators dared).

What I wonder is where those Armed Forces' 'tank recovery vehicles' are, that they cannot get to Ottawa? Could they be in 'training grounds' in Ukraine?

Posted by: bevin | Feb 20 2022 17:15 utc | 22

@Norwegian #14
@William Gruff #16
There is some truth to what you're saying, but then again - MSM ratings these days are so low.

Here is a Scribd document showing audiences for various news shows in 2016.

Note that the top 5 shows collectively had over 10M viewers.

The top 5 shows today are probably half that; many of the top shows from that era have fallen off the map.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 17:19 utc | 23

thanks b.... i appreciate this place and your work..

@ bevin | Feb 20 2022 17:15 utc | 22.. good question.. maybe adam tooze will figure that out as well??

regarding possibility of war - here are a few questions to an astrologer friend.. we talk back and forth, but it is not usually about gloomy stuff like this. - my questions -
"what do you think of the possibility of war action on around march 2nd with the mars-pluto conjunction, new moon and mercury-saturn conjunction?

or do you think about a month later in early april with the mars-saturn conjunction there will be a concern for war, in ukraine or elsewhere?"
those are more likely flash points for the dynamic in ukraine, if it is to erupt.. i keep hoping nothing will happen..

Posted by: james | Feb 20 2022 17:36 utc | 24

i guess something happened to jackrabbit.. he never came back.. debs is dead has been missing for some time as well.. who else?

Posted by: james | Feb 20 2022 17:37 utc | 25

@William Gruff | Feb 20 2022 15:59 utc | 5
I think Chris has it in the right order. I believe you are arguing about ownership in an opaque manner.
In the West (US especially), the illusion must be made that the government doesn't do propaganda directly, when it has been established for a long time now that the intelligence agencies, especially CIA is heavily invested in the media through front corporations/cutouts as well as countless well placed assets on editorial boards and in journalist pools. These components work together in an orchestrated fashion, citing each other as well as amplifying their volume through ceaseless repetition.
Ever wonder why so many so-called private media outlets, suddenly all use the exact same descriptive language to describe the same events in near identical terms? If they were truly private interests, why/how would they need to coordinate the discourse so obviously? There's obviously money at stake as you suggest, after all that has always been the easiest way to get people to do/say what you want them to, but the optics indicate a far broader and coordinated agenda that crosses all international borders.
War is typically the domain of governments (often in collusion with business interests). In the west (especially the USA) the MSM (and increasingly 'alternative' media) has been weaponized for decades. The information war is a pivotal element of full spectrum dominance.

Posted by: Spinworthy | Feb 20 2022 18:00 utc | 26

Enjoyed When the Levee Breaks multi player version, reminded me of Guantanamera.

Sholz might think that what's going on in Donbass is not genocide, but it breaks my heart to see people abandoning their homes. A group of ~250 children from an orphanage were some of the first ones to go. Deracinating people at that young age leaves a permanent scar.

Posted by: Paco | Feb 20 2022 18:09 utc | 27

I am about halfway through reading Robert B. Stinnett's "Day of Deceit" book concerning whether FDR knew about Pearl Harbor and whether there was a plan to provoke Japan into attacking the US.

In my previous post looking at the McCollum memo - there were 8 actions which McCollum recommended to incite a Japanese attack. At the time, a quick web search showed half of them were implemented between the time of the McCollum memo (October 1940) and August 1941.

So far, 2 more of the remaining 4 are also confirmed from FOIA documentation examined by McCollum, including:

D. Send a division of long range heavy cruisers to the Orient, Philippines, or Singapore

A series of "pop up" appearances by US Navy cruisers in and around Japan's periphery were conducted - 3 cruises were conducted between March 1941 and July 1941 including in Japanese territorial waters.

G. Insist that the Dutch refuse to grant Japanese demands for undue economic concessions, particularly oil

Details of a close interaction between Dutch government and intelligence with US counterparts is detailed. Dutch resistance to Japanese demands including both quotas on amounts of oil sold, as well as things like requiring oil sold to be transported by Japanese tankers (which was not the previous custom).

But more importantly, the role of McCollum is detailed. McCollum wasn't just a random analyst, he was literally in charge of all Far East intel. He sent direct reports to FDR's office.

Stinnett further details that the US had actually broken numerous Japanese codes - not just the diplomatic ones but also portions of the "Kaigun Ango" - which were the naval codes. This intel allowed ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) to track some significant number of Japanese merchant and naval ships and their locations - and that this intel was not being passed on to Kimmel.

Stinnett then details that ONI certainly knew about a significant number of Japanese warships headed east - these ships being part of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor.

A normal criminal investigation requires 3 things: means, motive and opportunity.

The Motive is clear:
Get the US into World War 2. As Japan had signed a "defensive" alliance with Germany and Italy, a war with Japan would enable the US to say that it was also at war with Germany and Italy.

The Means:
Get Japan to attack the US, because US public opinion was against joining the World War even if it was also against making a treaty with Hitler.
The McCollum memo wasn't just a theoretical exercise by a low level analyst buried in a desk - it was by the head of intel from all East Asia who had a direct line to the office of the President of the United States from October 1940 to December 7, 1941.
The actions detailed in the memo were carried out in large part or in full by subsequent US actions from December 1940 to September 1941.

Whether FDR knew about the Pearl Harbor attack or not - there is no definitive proof nor is it certain that FDR would be hands-on in such detailed naval activity, but it is 100% clear that the US Pacific Fleet was put in Pearl Harbor both to provoke the Japanese and to be a target. Not just the US Pacific Fleet, but also US cruisers repeatedly sent into Japanese territorial waters.

Stinnett says "Roosevelt's fingerprints were on all them" - the 8 actions in the McCollum memo but these aren't all documented.

The Opportunity:

Not only were the 8 actions supposedly executed, there were also numerous personnel changes constituting enablement of the opportunity.

1) Changes in organization and personnel - a definite migration of intel types vs. naval commander types. This included the posting of Howard Rainsford Stark - chief of Naval Operations who ordered unrestricted submarine warfare on Japan, 4 hours after Pearl Harbor and without official government approval; the removal of Admiral Richardson and replacement with Admiral Kimmel (more on Kimmel below) - for protesting the extended stay of the US Pacific fleet in Hawaii; the Director of Naval Intelligence, Captain Walter Adnerson was promoted to rear admiral and put in command of the Pacific Fleet battleships.

2) The unexplained lack of intel provided to the Pearl Harbor admiral (Admiral Kimmel) in charge. Note that the former Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Anderson, was under Kimmel's command. Anderson and Kimmel's assistant war plans officer, Commander Vincent Murphy, likely both knew about the McCollum memo - yet Kimmel complained twice in writing about his lack of access to updated intel on Japanese plans.

This certainly doesn't look good.

Now consider what is going on re: Ukraine today, vs. the above and vs. Iraq, Afghanistan etc.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 18:12 utc | 28

@Spinworthy #26
What you speculate seems unlikely as it requires a Stasi-level of control.
My personal view is that the utter lack of originality/individuality between MSM - particularly the CNN/MSDNC types is due more to Twitter and other social media.

The PMC collective on those platforms brings forth an emergent meme, and then the spokesmodels (dummies in news speak) spew it out.

That is, unless "unnamed sources" are quoted in which case it is just a case of overpaid stenography.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 18:16 utc | 29

Posted by: bevin | Feb 20 2022 17:15 utc | 22

The Canadian military is not involved in removing heavy vehicles in Ottawa because the Canadian government has not requested the military's help. These vehicles are likely still located at the three bases where armoured training occurs...Borden, Kingston and Gagetown.

Posted by: Victor | Feb 20 2022 18:20 utc | 30

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 18:12 utc | 28

I see a problem with false flags I Ukraine: the US has been very loud about their existence. That makes them a lot harder to use, since you depend on people believing what you say. And not just the peppy and gullible USains in this case, but the slightly more sceptical Europeans as well.

Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Feb 20 2022 18:22 utc | 31

@25 james- Well, Circe is back. After all, US midterm elections are in November. Maybe Bernie is running or something.
Just a joke, Circe. I like reading your comments. ;)

Posted by: lex talionis | Feb 20 2022 18:26 utc | 32

Scholz on the MSC shows the problem: for him also there are no security interests of Russia NATO could respect. Its Putin fake for him. He is such stupid.
So the general problem is: Putin is regarded as someone who has not the power to claim respect. It is still the „gas-station“-hoax of McCain.
The only guys that know better are the military. Kujat e.g.
Putin has no choice but to Tracht them respect. This is bitter.

Posted by: njet | Feb 20 2022 18:30 utc | 33

@bevin | Feb 20 2022 17:15 utc | 22

Petawawa must have some. The dragoon's are there. They're a reg force unit with leopard 2's. Gotta have some recovery capability.
Petawawa is 2 hrs away.
There are also engineer units around that may have something.
Justin said he wouldn't use the military for what that's worth and it may all be over soon anyways.

Posted by: PleaseBeleafMe | Feb 20 2022 18:38 utc | 34

@Jörgen Hassler #31
Iraq wasn't a false flag - it was a false narrative.
Stinnett also doesn't say Pearl Harbor was a false flag - he said it was a result of a deliberate policy of provocation.
Japan still has responsibility for actually carrying out the initial surprise attack - but there is a big difference between attacking unprovoked vs. attacking after being under economic warfare and military provocation.

My personal view of Ukraine has always been that it will be the Azov battalion/Pravy Sektor/Svoboda types to kick off hostilities. They are getting nowhere in terms of expanding their national voting profile and cannot expect to retain their undue influence over Ukrainian politics without a major change.

The other political parties can only gain if the Minsk Accords are followed; Donetsk coal is vital to Ukrainian electricity generation and steel production.

I actually suspect China's Olympics have served as a damper on hostilities kicking off this time around.

China's economic backblast as a a result of Lithuania's recognition of Taiwan shows that China's economic power is no longer just passive.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 18:39 utc | 35

Ottawa Police shoot Rebel reporter poing blank
view with caution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc1rjRH3TEk

Posted by: ld | Feb 20 2022 18:43 utc | 36

i guess something happened to jackrabbit.. he never came back.. debs is dead has been missing for some time as well.. who else?

Posted by: james | Feb 20 2022 17:37 utc | 25

There's a pretty hard-line censorship policy here, especially concerning humor which the mods seem to lack any appreciation of. I think they've farmed all that stuff out to Poland.

Posted by: Berndt Braincell | Feb 20 2022 18:47 utc | 37

@c1ue | Feb 20 2022 18:16 utc | 29
"...it requires a Stasi-level of control" is a strawman critique and reflects the crude/clumsy way of making propaganda. It is too obvious and lacks deniability. I'm talking about perception management without the visible strings. I believe that nothing is left to chance when it comes to the information space w/ respect to controlling narratives.
Another factor is the coordinated silence or lack of exposure on matters that would contradict or undermine the desired narrative. A lack of Tweets cannot be a viable answer for such large scale omission.

Posted by: Spinworthy | Feb 20 2022 18:47 utc | 38

Insightful post by Scott Ritter listed above "The Evidence for Invasion the US Could Produce."

Ritter states in part:

"Russia is not bluffing. This does not mean that Russia is going to invade Ukraine tomorrow, this week or even next month--far from it."

Yes, but his important point is that Russia is not bluffing.

Another great point by Ritter. "Now, only a fool would take the Russians at face value.
"Trust but verify" isn't an age-old Russian aphorism for nothing."

Near the end of his article Ritter also adds "Russia will continue to reiterate its demands regarding security guarantees in order to exhaust all possible diplomatic channels for resolving the Ukraine crisis. But Russia will continue to up the ante."

Also love Ritter's drawing out of the distinction between a time-phased force and deployment list for a major military exercise and the same type of list supporting a major military operation.

Posted by: Gulag | Feb 20 2022 18:49 utc | 39

French banks are upping efforts in joining cIps, china's swIft alternative in cross border payment. It looks like that They are going to accept RMB payment and add RMB to its reserve currency list in the future.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252541.shtml

People are getting ready for the post usd world.

Posted by: cindy6 | Feb 20 2022 18:52 utc | 40

Jörgen Hassler | Feb 20 2022 18:22 utc | 31 "That makes them a lot harder to use, since you depend on people believing what you say."

They will be used. The US false flag propaganda is so that any provocation they use to bring Russia into the fight in donbass, US will simply claim as a Russian false flag as the have already been doing. Evacuating the civilians seems to have put a spanner in the works at the moment as lots of dead civilians in Donbass would help bring Russia into the fight. Blinken has been talking about chemical weapons again so it is a good chance that is what they intend to use on Donbass to try and draw Russia in. Once Russia caqn be seen to be joining the fight in Donbass, the the big hit on Keiv to separate Europe from Russia.
This may well drag out for sometime if Putin keeps throwing spanners in the works.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 20 2022 18:52 utc | 41

i guess something happened to jackrabbit.. he never came back.. debs is dead has been missing for some time as well.. who else?
Posted by: james | Feb 20 2022 17:37 utc | 25

Well for one, gordog just disappeared too. I think he was well appreciated. I think he left after some harsh words with vk.
He could/should return now that vk is history, but he seemed a bit driven and maybe it isn't worth his time.

I liked snake's 'in-depth' summaries on the comments of others. He at least gave a short goodbye post.

But, Debsisdead | February 01, 2022 at 00:03 | & a couple other comments in late Jan. He sounded a bit disenchanted about commenting,
due to some differences with another poster. I appreciated his opinion.

btw, Sunday evening here, enjoying your trio with the Stevie wonder tribute.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Feb 20 2022 18:57 utc | 42

Victor and bevan

I read the other day the companies names on the tow trucks are covered. The will simply be civilian heavy recovery operators contract by the government or police.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 20 2022 19:00 utc | 43

Don't have much to say today other than this bit regarding the Canadian trucker protests.

https://badnews.substack.com/p/what-the-left-can-learn-from-the?utm_source=url

Excerpt below. I should note that while the socio-economic (or just economic) breakdown of the *supporters* of the truckers in the poll skewed to the lower income brackets, the actual donors have been shown to be a mix, with most of the donations coming in large amounts from people in the US and Canada that are financially well off (i.e., "the 1%).

Don’t do a carbon tax unless somehow you’re making it up to working people so they don’t pay anything extra. That lesson, translated to Biden’s Build Back Better Act, made it heavy on investments in clean energy rather than policies that would purposely raise gas prices.

But the lesson elites drew from Paris was way too narrow. The real takeaway is that people have been so driven into the ground by 40 years of neoliberalism and austerity – a system that smashes communities into little individual pieces – that they’re simply not willing to take any more crap for any reason. During the pandemic, instead of calibrating restrictions with a cost-benefit analysis, many governments went as far as they thought they could take it, and were enthusiastically cheered on by many of the upper and upper-middle class people who form the backbone of center left coalitions around the world.

This anti-mandate trucker protest is the backlash. The media has zeroed in on the white supremacists who have inserted themselves into it, but taking a closer look at public opinion toward it should be sobering for the left. In recent polling done by Ipsos, Canadians were given two statements to agree with:

One: “I may not agree with everything the people who have taken part in the truck protests in Ottawa have said, but their frustration is legitimate and worthy of our sympathy.”

Two: “What the people taking part in the truck protests in Ottawa have said and done is wrong and does not deserve any of our sympathy.”

What the poll does is take out somebody’s opinion on the tactic of shutting down Ottawa or jamming up the Ambassador Bridge and asks directly about the grievances.

Overall, 54% of Canadians said the protesters do not deserve any of our sympathy. That might be a comforting number for Canadian progressives, but the trouble lies deeper in the numbers. For people 55 and up, only 37% sympathized with the protesters. But among people 18-34, that number was 61%.

Meanwhile, people who made less than $40,000 a year were supportive of the protesters, 54-46%. People who make over 100k are the least supportive.

Ipsos also asked whether people agree with the statement, “The truck protest is mostly economically disadvantaged Canadians letting governments know that they are struggling.”

51% of People making less than 40k agreed with that assessment. For those making over 100k, only 32% agreed. Now, who would you say is more plugged into the feelings of working-class Canadians – those making less than 40k a year, or those making more than $100,000?

Ipsos also asked folks if they support the Black Lives Matter movement. Overall, Canadians say they support BLM by a 68-32 margin. Among Gen Z, the support was 86%, which is practically universal. Among 18-34 year olds, it was 77%. Ipsos doesn’t offer economic crosstabs for this one, but they do have a category for people with only a high school degree, and among those, support for Black Lives Matter is 64%.

Now of course no poll is perfect, and none of this is precise, but the general picture is clear: The people in Canada most likely to sympathize with the truckers are young and working class. And most of those people also support Black Lives Matter. This is a frustrated group of people who are up for grabs politically. If progressives simply write them off as right wing reactionaries, the right wing is all too happy to tell them that yes, that’s exactly what they are, and welcome them in.

In keeping with the Canada theme, here's a fun video of a dude who learned all of the main drum fills of the late Neil Peart (RIP) of Rush, who died about 2 years ago today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpcEuR4YNU&t=1s

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 19:09 utc | 44

Less than two weeks ago Cressida Dick was finally prised out of her position at the top of the Metropolitan Police. Within days an investigation was opened into more of the criminal antics of the ruling British family (which had been suppressed by Dick), this time the eldest idiot son. He has been caught selling honors.

In turn within a further few days he sent out one of his creatures to put forth his "side of the story", which amounts to the usual bollocks….He didn't know.

Prince Charles’s biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, has claimed it is “extraordinarily unlikely” the prince knew of the alleged “cash for honours” scandal, saying the idea he could have been aware “frankly beggars belief”.

Dimbleby defended the heir to the throne as the Metropolitan police launched an investigation into claims the Prince’s Foundation offered to support a Saudi billionaire donor’s application for citizenship and upgrade his CBE to a knighthood.

The broadcaster and friend of the prince, who wrote Charles’s authorised biography, criticised claims it was “inconceivable” Charles would not have known of the honours offer. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That is a very colourful thing to have said. ‘Inconceivable’ suggests that there is no possibility other than that he knew. I think it is extraordinarily unlikely that he knew. I think if he had known, he would immediately have taken action about it.”

Clarence House has said the prince had “no knowledge” of the alleged scandal and was “happy to help if asked” with the police investigation, but had not been. His former close aide Michael Fawcett, who has since resigned as chief executive of the Prince’s Foundation, allegedly wrote a letter to the Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, making the offer apparently in return for a generous donation.

Dimbleby said Charles believed in the honours system, understood it, and had conducted many thousands of investitures. “If there has been some scam, some breaking of the law, you honestly think he would have been party to that? It beggars belief,” he said.

This has happened before. Nearly twenty years ago Fawcett was caught dealing in stolen goods. Naturally the story was the same..Charles "knew nothing of what was going on". This was the time that we all learned of Fawcett's nickname amongst the staff. Fawcett the Fence.

Trouble is, that makes at least twice that we know of that Charlie Mountbatten-Windsor has been caught presiding over a criminal enterprise. The man just does not learn, and considers himself to be above the law, or even decency. You will recall that when challenged by his wife about his mistress, his response was

"But Princes of Wales have always had mistresses"

This time around, what exactly is it that he doesn't know? What exactly is the creature Dimbleby claiming Charles did not know?

He may well not have known the specifics of every crime, but he knew full well that the man to whom he lent his authority was a proven thief, that he was running a portfolio of "projects", and that the "portfolio of projects" was producing a healthy positive cash flow for Prince Charles to do with as he wished.

Yummy. Charlie LOVES positive cashflow.

What we are dealing with here is, at best, a case of willful blindness. At worst a clearly designed criminal enterprise.
And the man just does not learn.

You will recall that in 1999 he lent his authority to another of his creatures, Sir Jimmy Savile. He and his entourage ambled around Glencoe dressed in their full "Son of the Highlands" outfits, kilt, sporran, the whole works, while Savile went to collect his pension.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2222878/Jimmy-Savile-scandal-Inside-paedophiles-Glencoe-lair-20-suffered-abuse.html

Thereafter bulletproof, the youth of Glencoe paid the price for ignorance of this stupid, stupid man.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224672/Jimmy-Savile-The-Beast-Graffiti-vandals-target-paedophile-DJs-Highlands-cottage.html

He is stupid. He does not learn from his mistakes. He has no sense of right or wrong. He believes himself above the law. He lends his powers to monsters and charlatans.

And this is what they think they will make king? With his mistress by his side as queen?

I don't think so.

Much better he looks for a village in need of an idiot. And applies for the job.

Posted by: John Cleary | Feb 20 2022 19:10 utc | 45

@ lex talionis | Feb 20 2022 18:26 utc | 32... i am fine with circe, lol....

@ waynorinorway | Feb 20 2022 18:57 utc | 42... thank you! you pay attention, lol! yes, i miss gordogs post as well.. and before him - paveway... paveway was here during the syrian war dynamic and was very knowledgeable.. i would like to do that project again, but have been sidetracked due covid and all else... cheers..

Posted by: james | Feb 20 2022 19:10 utc | 46

waynorinorway 42

I liked reading what debs had to say though I disagreed with some of his more ideological view points and that he didn't take well.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 20 2022 19:11 utc | 47

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 19:09 utc | 44... thanks for that.. interesting data.. regarding the issue of funding coming from sources outside canada - why is it that this is made an issue when george soros donates a shit ton to the liberal party? does anyone go around saying this is wrong? i can't remember seeing it.. i suppose this is in keeping with our movement towards being controlled by corporations and vested financial interests that no no nationality... from my own point of view, this issue of outside funding is some cocked up cia-csis bullshit that those hostile to the truckers protest have latched onto without thinking it thru.. and i don't believe they realize how this information was made available to them either - the intel agencies.. so for me, the choices are fairly stark here... people either side with the narrative the msm and intel agencies spin, or they take a more independent perspective on it.. i think this issue is a very divisive one and our present leader and the media have made it much more divisive... thanks for the info!

Posted by: james | Feb 20 2022 19:19 utc | 48

Peter & c1ue

The question of what defines a false flag was discussed in a recent thread. It’s when you attack your own dressed as your enemy. Which I have a hard time seeing the US pull off I Ukraine. It’s not like they will sneak into Russia, steal a tank and roll across the border to attack the Ukraine.

Trying to provoke Russia to go to war is something else. That they will, but I don’t think it will work unless they can get regular Ukrainian troops to attack the country. Which would make the whole operation quite meaningless, because an invasion under those circumstances would be legitimate.

Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Feb 20 2022 19:20 utc | 49

Posted by: james | Feb 20 2022 19:19 utc | 48

I don't disagree that the hack of the funding site was conducted by the CIA or one of their cutouts precisely to label the entirety of the trucker protests as neo-nazis or white supremacists or whatever. I also don't disagree that those groups have inserted themselves into the movement/narrative in the same way as the so-called accelerationists and "boogaloo bois" did with the George Floyd protests. We all know that the US and Canadian government don't have any problems with actual nazis as evidenced by the abstention every time a vote comes up in the UN to condemn that kind of thing or, you know, the entire history of the US and Canada from before WWII and Hitler's rise to power.

And when Soros funds stuff it does make its way into the right-wing media; has for a long time now. Speaking of nazi collaboration allegations...

That having been said, it's not a lie that prominent and/or financial elites among the American (and Canadian)_right have made significant contributions to the truckers (btw, who's managing this funding site for them and how are the funds actually distributed? I genuinely don't know.) But as Grim's article points out, it's also a lot of regular people in lower economic brackets supporting the movement, and it makes perfect sense. These people have no relation whatsoever to white power or other racist/exclusionist causes. Personally I'm still on the fence about it for the main reason that I don't know all the details. Just as was the case with the BLM and George Floyd protests, each "side" attempts to paint the other "side" with a broad brush for political purposes, but in real life such large movements are much more complex than how the media (both corporate MSM and corporate right) describe them. The one thing we (and anyone on either "side" of the mostly fake left-right divide) can take away from it is that a LOT of people are pissed off at their governments for the symptoms of years and years of neolib/neocon policies even if not everybody understands or agrees on the root causes. I suppose another thing we can take away from it is that there is power to be wielded by large groups of people and that we shouldn't give up on this kind of protest, especially now that governments try so hard to crush them and the media vilifies them.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 19:35 utc | 50

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 16:02 utc | 6

Would it not also be a case of how many care? I mean here in Oz even among relatively well-educated people the Russia-Ukraine news is not being followed or else is misunderstood (a colleague of mine casually remarked "looks like Russia's trying regain her empire" to which I did not respond mostly from the prospect of the fatigue it would create trying to explain). Among the wider population even maps don't really help. They're not following it, they have no history, no context, no way in to grasp it, no understanding, no stake. Unlike 1914, when the Empire was everything and we threw ourselves into the grinder over parts of the world of no geostrategic importance to Australia, a century later your average Aussie struggles to care about local issues let alone European ones. They're happy to leave it at "Putin is kinda like Hitler" (assuming they know who the latter is) and move on. What we talk about here would mystify most people. My guess is that it's the same in the UK and exponentially so in the US.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 20 2022 19:36 utc | 51

@ld | Feb 20 2022 18:43 utc | 36

That is beyond crazy horrible. A lot of people need to be prosecuted, including especially those on the top making decisions. Very difficult to comment.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 20 2022 19:44 utc | 52

@Spinworthy #38
Perhaps you can elucidate how such a tight synchronization can occur without an enormous amount of overt control.
The much-derided Soviet media didn't have such synchronization...

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 19:46 utc | 53

Re: #28
One for the NWO conspiracy theorists:

One thing I had not seen before was that the Greater East Co-Prosperity Sphere which Japan wanted to enact was also supposed to be a yen-denominated trade zone...

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 19:48 utc | 54

Patroklos (51).

Thank you for that insight, what do Australians think about China, what I mean by that is that other countries see Australia as the USA's tip of the spear in the economic war on China, and is there any truth in the matter that Australia has damaged its economy in trade with China, such as Australian aggression has saw beef farmers lose out in exporting beef to China, beef that they once sold in abundance to the country.

Also is it true that Australia cannot put a proper army in the field so to speak now without US input, and has the Australian government agreed to buy nukes from the US? I know about the UK/US/AUS sub deal.

Oh and do Australians know or even care what happened to Gough Whitlam?

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 19:49 utc | 55

What is happening in Canada is heartbreaking. The transformation of the Canadian democracy into a tyranny is mind boggling.

Trudeau and his WEF handlers have managed to bring the country into a very dark territory wherein peaceful protests to end the idiotic covid mandates are labeled unlawful, or an insurrection against democracy.

The Ottawa police are charging ppl with all kinds of imaginary crimes, threatening to take away their pets, their children their assets and freezing their bank accounts.

This would be unthinkable 2 years ago but here we are.

The pandemic was the pretext for all this and it worked in the worse possible way.

PS: The silence of our host on all things Canada is deafening

Posted by: DG | Feb 20 2022 19:52 utc | 56

Clearly the incorporation of the Ukraine in NATO followed by the instillation of NATO ballistic missiles and the potential denial of Crimea as a Russian warm water naval base has continued to be the strategic objective all along. A return to the Great Game.

The tactics are pure projection, accuse Russia of preparing an invasion while credible reports indicate 150,000 Ukrainian government troops and paramilitary crazies have assembled around the borderlands, which remains unreported in 'western' MSM. Obviously Russia noticed the force posture and understood US/NATO/Ukrainian motivations and intentions.

The implications unconsidered by the crazed neocon rulers of the US pulling the strings are truely frightening:
https://johnmenadue.com/the-ukraine-crisis-could-trigger-a-nuclear-catastrophe-nobody-wants/

Posted by: Paul | Feb 20 2022 19:53 utc | 57

Maybe shale oil production won't grow that much in the US...

Shale Oil Giants won't drill more even for $200 oil - oilprice

"Whether it's $150 oil, $200 oil, or $100 oil, we're not going to change our growth plans," Pioneer Natural Resources' chief executive Scott Sheffield told Bloomberg Television in an interview. "If the president wants us to grow, I just don't think the industry can grow anyway," Sheffield added.

The capital discipline from the public independents in the U.S. shale patch doesn't bode well for U.S. gasoline prices and for President Biden's approval ratings. Yet, companies like Pioneer Natural Resources, Continental Resources, and Devon Energy are keeping discipline and plan to grow production by no more than 5 percent annually.

"We project generating flat to 5% annual production growth over the next five years as we have previously noted," Continental Resources CEO Bill Berry said on the Q4 earnings call this week.

Sheffield said on Pioneer's call, referring to production growth: "Long term, we're still in that 0% to 5%. It's going to vary. We're not going to change, as I said, at $100 oil, $150 oil, we're not going to change our growth rate. We think it's important to return cash back to the shareholders."

I believe these 3 companies are among the top 10 shale oil producers in the US.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 19:55 utc | 58

Patroklos 51

My sister questions or at least wonders about the narrative on a number of issues but with the big current lie which is the total demonization of Russia and China, she thinks there must be something in it. Getting through to people, even though they may question the narrative, that 'its all a lie - or we live in a lie' is the hardest part. Things like the last 20 years of the war of terror rather than the war on terror and the last 8 years or so of the 24/7 demonization of Russian and then China. We are democratic and have human rights whereas the target countries have neither - everywhere you look its a lie. I guess for the majority of the US west, the culture and understanding of the world is one based on propaganda. That coming to a point where we realize everything we understood or thought to have at least some truth in it is, I guess a point not many people get to.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 20 2022 19:59 utc | 59

@Platero | Feb 20 2022 17:08 utc | 21

"Actual CNN headline: 'US official says 75% of Russian forces are deployed against Ukraine'”

This made me LOL as the Russian Army alone is variously estimated between 1-1.5 million. The Western media have been claiming 100,000-200,000 Russian troops allegedly poised to attack—has this shot up to 800,000+ overnight?

Posted by: Vintage Red | Feb 20 2022 20:05 utc | 60

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 20 2022 19:55 utc | 58

Then maybe we should finally end the depletion allowance. I'm not sure how or whether it applies to fracked/shale oil, but I assume it does. Rumor has it that the last prominent politician who openly pondered doing it was shot in the back front of the head with a magic bullet.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 20:07 utc | 61

Republicofscotland

Our wine, crayfish, and coal exports to china is gone (China now buying those goods from the US)
Beef market to china was just getting going, I think it was up to 130,000 tons per year and China is a very fast growing market for as their people achieve some prosperity but I believe that is mostly gone. Iron ore prices went up a lot and I think the losses from those exports was not noticeable on the trade balance in dollar terms, but China is now in the process of diversifying its iron ore suppliers to we will feel the effects of that in a few years time.
One of the best deposits or high grade iron ore appears to be in Africa. Rio Tinto I think have approached China about build a heavy rail into that deposit.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 20 2022 20:15 utc | 62

i seriously doubt Kennedy was going to end the oil depletion allowance. maybe to piss of LBJ who Kennedy hated, but no I think this is just more hagiography. the myth of Obama's second term being a full scale resurrection of the New Deal was similar. that was discredited by Obama's second term. Kennedy never got one.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 20 2022 20:16 utc | 63

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 20 2022 20:16 utc | 63

I assume this was a response to my comment. Here's a pretty decent writeup on it.

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-oil-industry-tax-breaks-2011-5

An excerpt (there are many embedded hyperlinks in the original, so it's best to just click through and read the article):

The sordid history of just the oil depletion allowance alone reads like a Grisham thriller. Bad things happened to those who seriously threatened the allowance.

You’d like some particulars, you say? Here is a really long linked set of excerpts on the subject, collected from throughout the book:

…To head off this larger threat, it was clear to John F. Kennedy’s political advisers that he would have to campaign in Texas, along with Florida, in 1963. Kennedy was interested in revoking the oil depletion allowance, a decision that would have meant steep losses for Texas oilmen, and he continued voicing his support for civil rights, always a contentious issue in the South.…

President Kennedy demonstrated his willingness to buck big money during the “steel crisis” of April 1962, when he forced a price rollback by sending FBI agents into corporate offices. But Kennedy’s gutsiest—and arguably his most dangerous—domestic initiative was his administration’s crusade against the oil depletion allowance, the tax break that swelled uncounted oil fortunes. It gave oil companies a large and automatic deduction, regardless of their actual costs, as compensation for dwindling assets in the ground.

Robert Kennedy instructed the FBI to issue questionnaires, asking the oil companies for specific production and sales data. “The oil industry—in particular, the more financially vulnerable Dallas-based independents—did not welcome this intrusion. The trade publication Oil and Gas Journal charged that RFK was setting up a “battleground [on which] business and government will collide.”

FBI director Hoover expressed his own reservations, especially about the use of his agents to gather information in the matter. Hoover’s close relationship with the oil industry was part of the oil-intelligence link he shared with [CIA director Allen]Dulles and the CIA. Industry big shots weren’t just sources; they were clients and friends. And Hoover’s FBI was known for returning favors.

One of Hoover’s good friends, the ultrarich Texas oilman Clint Murchison Sr., was among the most aggressive players in the depletion allowance dispute. Murchison had been exposed as far back as the early 1950s—in Luce’s Time magazine no less—as epitomizing the absurdity of this giveaway to the rich and powerful. Another strong defender of the allowance was Democratic senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma, the multimillionaire owner of the Kerr-McGee oil company. So friendly was he with his Republican colleague Prescott Bush that when Prescott’s son, George HW Bush, was starting up his Zapata Offshore [oil] operation, Kerr offered some of his own executives to help. Several of them even left Kerr’s company to become Bush’s top executives.

…Lyndon Johnson shared in the prevailing oil belt enmity toward Kennedy. In fact, he was the one person in the White House the oilmen trusted….After Johnson ascended to the presidency, he and newly elected congressman Bush were often allies on such issues as the oil depletion allowance and the war in Vietnam….[oil executive Jack] Crichton (close with Bush and head of a secretive Dallas-based, oil-connected military intelligence unit that deeply immersed in aspects of the tragic events of November 22, 1963) was so plugged into the Dallas power structure that one of his company directors was Clint Murchison Sr., king of the oil depletion allowance, and another was D. Harold Byrd, owner of the Texas School Book Depository building.….

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 20:26 utc | 64

Posted by: james | Feb 20 2022 17:37 utc | 25

There once was a barfly vk
Who posted the odd Marxist essay
He annoyed not a few
So b formed the view
That banning vk was okay.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 20 2022 20:31 utc | 65

RE: JFK and how FDR-ish he may have become in his second term, I recommend checking out the Oliver Stone reboot documentary on Showtime and listening to some of his interviews. Of course as the President during the height of the Cold War, Kennedy was bound to say and do things that would contradict any anti-war narrative, but Stone is 100% convinced that JFK was going to pull out of Vietnam and make overtures toward peace and mutual existence with the USSR. Any links on this subject from other MoA barflies are always appreciated. It's a complex and convoluted story full of dead ends and conspiracy theories.

Either way, I seriously doubt that JFK's second term would have been anything like Obomber's unless he was given a very, very grave but non-lethal "warning" behind the scenes.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 20:33 utc | 66

I don't trust either Robert Kennedy, JFK, or lord help us Business Insider on the oil industry. I do trust the Kennedy family's long history of support for big business and for warmongering. that speaks to me much more loudly than all these speculations about the things he was going to do in his second term. Maybe RFK was sincere and had changed, or maybe he too was just another Obama or Bernie Sanders. Bernie has been doing his gatekeeper thing lately, supporting the warmongering in Ukraine.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 20 2022 20:35 utc | 67

he wasnt bound to be a close supporter of Joe McCarthy during McCarthy's heyday, and even after, nor was he bound to lie about the USSR having a fake nuclear superiority, or to give the goahead to the Cuba invasion, or take the world to the brink of war over a similar situation to today, with the US again insisting on its right to target Russia but treating Russian defensive responses as provocations to war. He could have simply backed down and reached the same agreement that was eventually reached, for both sides to withdraw their respective missiles from Turkey and Cuba. I dont think we would have gotten the last Democratic attempt to maintain and expand the New Deal under Kennedy, the guy who cut taxes for the rich. We did get a version of that with LBJ.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 20 2022 20:40 utc | 68

@Posted by: ld | Feb 20 2022 18:43 utc | 36

Just stop this misinformation already, she was hit with a tear gas canister in the leg, this is all you have! Compare this to the treatment of people at the Toronto G20, or indigenous protestors, or a homeless encampment in Toronto last year. These people are being treated with kid gloves compared to other protestors. In France the police were blinding people with tear gas canisters and blowing their hands with hand grenades!

So sorry the right wing white privilege bubble was burst a teeny weeny amount! This is Canada not the US, same with all the anti-vaxx demonstrations that were treated with kid gloves.

How they dealt with peaceful homeless people in an encampment, the local residents hadn't even complained:
https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/advocates-speaking-out-after-homeless-encampment-forcibly-removed-by-toronto-police/

How they dealt with opposition to the G20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgmGxKvGFWU
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/settlement-class-action-g20-summit-1.5689329

Ongoing police violence against indigenous people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqWLuCzAAds

P.S. I am white and live in Ontario.

Posted by: Roger | Feb 20 2022 20:45 utc | 69

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 20 2022 20:35 utc | 67

Whether or not you trust the Business Insider is irrelevant in this case because the stuff about JFK/RFK/LBJ was directly from a book called Family of Secrets by Russ Baker about the Bush Crime Family.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 20:48 utc | 70

Posted by: Roger | Feb 20 2022 20:45 utc | 69

Same with the anti-Castro protests in Florida which occurred well after a bill criminalizing the blockage of any public roadway was signed into law as a "response" to the George Floyd protests. Unsurprisingly, that law was not enforced when the demonstrations blocking numerous roadways and highways happened to be against the Cuban government. God forbid one needs an ambulance trip to the hospital when pro-capitalist demonstrations are occurring.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 20:51 utc | 71

Posted by: DG | Feb 20 2022 19:52 utc | 56

The Ottawa police are just following in the boot steps of the Montreal and Toronto police. Just search for Montebello Montreal 2007; Toronto G-20 police provocations 2010; and anti-austerity Montreal demonstration police provocations 2016.

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Feb 20 2022 20:52 utc | 72

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 19:49 utc | 55

what do Australians think about China?

That's complicated but at the core Australia is sinophobic and racist. It's a generalisation and it should be qualified, but in the end conservative Australian governments can always rely on mobilising latent anti-Asian racism to shore up support. It's happening right now. Other than that, we live in a schizoid nation that rattles the sabre against the hand that feeds us. Our future is clearly with Eurasia but our ethno-nationalism and colonial hang-ups make us easy bait for Anglosphere fear campaigns.

Also is it true that Australia cannot put a proper army in the field so to speak now without US input, and has the Australian government agreed to buy nukes from the US?

We haven't agreed to buy nukes from the US. Australia is staunchly non-nuclear even though this makes little sense from an energy POV. We have 40% of the world's uranium. As to the army, it is small but historically very effective. The one thing I do respect about our regular army is that it is a serious professional outfit and has been since WW2. The US military has nothing to do with our defence force. What you may be referring to is at the strategic level. We have a fine military but idiots in power and the US determines our foreign policy.

Oh and do Australians know or even care what happened to Gough Whitlam?

A lot of baby-boomers do; the younger generations don't remember him and have no context for what he achieved. I was 5 when he was deposed but I remember the deep sense of shame felt by an impotent left (my family revered him). Whitlam was a different order of human being and his dreams for this country were vast and inspiring. What he achieved in 3 years was truly astonishing and his gift for true leadership comes once a century. He did his best to transition Australia from settler oligarchy to decisive nationhood—the Opera House, land-rights to the indigenous, free education and health-care, arts funding, rapprochement with China, got our troops out of Vietnam, the list is long. The establishment all but assassinated him for it.

I took my daughter to his public memorial event outside Sydney Town Hall when he died. Thousands attended. Thousands wept. We need him now more than ever.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 20 2022 20:56 utc | 73

RE: JFK and Joseph McCarthy -

In the Senate, meanwhile, Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunts were still going strong, intimidating even the popular new president, Dwight Eisenhower. JFK's relationship with the Wisconsin senator had cooled somewhat, but he still refrained from joining the few voices willing to speak out against McCarthy. Eventually, though, the witch-hunts self-destructed, after a disastrous attempt by McCarthy to take on the U.S. Army. On December 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate officially censured McCarthy, by a vote of 67 to 22. JFK was listed as absent–he was in the hospital again, undergoing back surgery.

Overall, JFK's record during the McCarthy era was mixed. He opposed some of McCarthy's more extreme attempts to curb civil liberties, but in general, he voted with the Wisconsin senator on most issues. Nevertheless, it is difficult to blame JFK–McCarthy held immense influence for a time, and he attracted strong support among the working class Irish Catholics who had voted JFK into the Senate in the first place. In failing to criticize McCarthy early on, JFK was no more blameworthy than most of the other politicians of the era.

https://www.sparknotes.com/biography/jfk/section5/

It's not "hagiography" to point to the "good" things that the president of a country that has always been and always will be at war said or did. It's also not hagiography to point out the many suspicious and suspiciously buried snippets of history that we're not allowed to discuss. Again, I suggest the Oliver Stone documentary and interviews on the subject.

Was JFK a warmonger? Definitely not by the Bush Crime Family or Obama standard. And both of the latter were making up wars for which no reason actually existed. Nobody's perfect; least of all any American President, a job for which - in my opinion - one must be a sociopath to even want.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 20:57 utc | 74

@Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 19:09 utc | 44

In Canada we are somewhat behind the US timeline due to the strength of certain social institutions, but we are being given the same false choice; neoliberalism with social progressivist wokeness (Liberals, Greens - the NDP add a few crumbs for the people), and neoliberalism with right-wing fake libertarianism ("ma freedums"). Slightly different configurations of elites are behind both (perhaps international big business plus US donors for one and more national businesses and extractive industries plus US donors for the other), with many funding both wings. Its the classic divide and conquer, just keep the gaze away from the capitalist ruling class.

Lets remember that Canadian Prime Minister Harper (right-wing) went to the WEF and praised Klaus Schwab, its not just Trudeau and his Ukrainian side kick.

Many of the truckers and others in Ottawa are just patsies being used by the right-wing, shame but thats what always happens. Turn the people against their own interests. If we had a real democracy taxes on the rich and corporations would be way higher, the healthcare system would be properly funded (including dental care and drugs for all), capital gains on houses over a certain amount would be taxed, capital gains taxes would be higher than earned income - wages and salaries, Canadian soldiers would not be fighting abroad, and there would be limits on immigration to manage the integration process in a controlled fashion etc.. The left and right wing Canadian parties are against all of the above (the right wing lies about immigration are just rhetoric, never turned into action when in government).

Posted by: Roger | Feb 20 2022 21:03 utc | 75

Check out this warning from the US Mission in Russia:

Security Alert: U.S. Mission Russia (February 20, 2022). {not able to post link because MoA blocks it)

Location: Russia

Event: According to media sources, there have been threats of attacks against shopping centers, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russian border with Ukraine.

Actions to Take:

Monitor local and international media for updates.
Avoid crowds.
Notify friends and family of your safety.
Be aware of your surroundings.
Stay alert in locations frequented by tourists/Westerners.
Review your personal security plans.
Carry proper identification, including a U.S. passport with a current Russian visa.
Have evacuation plans that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.
Assistance:

U.S. Embassy Moscow, Russia
-------

Who exactly is going to be mounting attacks in St. Petersburg and Moscow??
Why would the US government use "media sources" as the basis for such a warning??

Posted by: Perimetr | Feb 20 2022 21:05 utc | 76

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 19:49 utc | 55

Addendum to Whitlam: his wit was legendary (check out a book called "The Wit of Whitlam"). For example, he championed the right of a woman to have an abortion. When a journalist tried to corner him on the question and asked "Mr Whitlam, what's your position on abortion?" Whitlam replied straight back: "I think in your case it should be made retrospective." The intellect on the man was very sharp and you fucked with him at your peril.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 20 2022 21:06 utc | 77

ld @36, Norwegian @52

You are not looking at Ottawa Police. If you watch the videos closely you will sometimes see real city police. By this time you can tell them, even behind masks, by the wildly sad and mournful eyes. The stress level must be impossible. And it shows. The Imperial Stormtroopers are all young and always look fresh. These are special formations with training and discipline. They are also being extremely restrained. They would gladly be more violent. Ordinary thug police, which even Canadian police departments would have, would not have such universal restraint.

Where did le petit Justin get his Stormtroopers? Who controls Justin?

The video leaves out a point which I will make for them. Alexa is well and widely known by now. She was singled out. This was no accident. Create a moment of confusion and get the shooter to his target. Well planned, well scripted, well acted. Totally professional.

How many other rubber bullets have been used in Ottawa? The guns are seen regularly. The first bullet went to a special target. You will know it if there is a fusillade from those guns, it has not happened yet.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 20 2022 21:14 utc | 78

first article at Yahoo "news"--Report: Russia gives order to proceed with invasion. f/n lickspittles.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 20 2022 21:18 utc | 79

Perimetr | Feb 20 2022 21:05 utc | 76

"Have evacuation plans that do not rely on U.S. government assistance".

Well I suppose there are not that many US diplomatic staff left, are there? (It is either a threat or a warning)

Biden seems to not be going to Delaware and has gone to his safe space....err my bad, the National Security Council room.

It would be advisable to watch the front line around the Donbas breakaway republics as the shelling has increased. (Possible attack now the Olympics are finished?)
**

Macron and Putin talked together but there is already a discrepancy in the versions given by their respective countries.

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 20 2022 21:34 utc | 80

@ c1ue | Feb 20 2022 19:46 utc | 53
They are now two sides of the same coin.
You're probably familiar with Operation Mockingbird and the available documentation on that program, also Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent. Caitlin Johnstone gives some examples: "https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2104/S00073/the-cia-used-to-infiltrate-the-media-now-the-cia-is-the-media.htm". There are many sources out there on this subject for quite a while now.
I believe this is a normal part of what intelligence agencies do and have been doing since their inceptions. With that much experience and an ever more centralized/hierarchical media industry it becomes more difficult to separate the forest from the trees.
Your question implies a degree of difficulty due to scale. This is only the case if the constituent parts are effectively neutral. In the case of the media (as B has clearly shown in several blog posts) they love to sing in unison. They are anything but neutral. How much easier is it to coordinate and mobilize a propaganda media when it has been designed that way?

Posted by: Spinworthy | Feb 20 2022 21:43 utc | 81

The new US foreign policy?
What we are dreaming of we declare as fact:
Warning of terror assaults in Moskau and St. Petersburg:
https://tass.com/world/1406763

Posted by: njet | Feb 20 2022 21:47 utc | 82

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 20 2022 19:49 utc | 55

Agree fully with Peter and Patroklos.

Australia has destroyed its relations with China, which saved us during the 2008 economic crisis. Iron ore is still holding up, but not for long. (The reaction of the WA state government may become very significant here).

Tourism and education are gone too which many may assume was COVID related but I suspect will never return.

Sadly you need to be over 60 to even remember Whitlam. Oddly enough the guy who destroyed him, Malcolm Fraser changed direction and became a force for peace and justice -guilt I imagine, and realisation he had been a patsy. Former Prime Minister Keating is now the only rational political voice and while he was not a progressive like Whitlam he is super smart and has a following, but again mostly with the ageing boomers.

As in the USA, Australia is not producing leaders with ability and flare. I see no one capable of galvanising the younger generation to political awareness or even interest. To the extent that people under 50 are involved in politics it seems mostly to be via the extreme right wing fascists or the limp Greens who seem to have lost the fire they had in the days of Bob Brown (one may speculate they are well down the German Greens path)

Posted by: watcher | Feb 20 2022 21:47 utc | 83

the whole us political system on the federal level is set up to avoid leaders with ability and flare, hence Joe Biden. the closest we have gotten in 50 years or so is Sanders, and what a disappointment he has turned out to be.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 20 2022 21:55 utc | 84

John Cleary #45

Much better he looks for a village in need of an idiot. And applies for the job.

Great post John. Unfortunately a fish called sturgeon would get that job ahead of Charles.

Down under here, I cannot see that he would be all that popular and could accelerate the great stumble forward to our republic. Charles is best rated on the loathsome chart than on the popularity chart.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 20 2022 21:55 utc | 85

oldhippie | Feb 20 2022 21:14 utc | 78

The main change has already taken place. Crystia Freelend has stated that the Financial restrictions, seizures etc. will remain in place no matter what. The Stormtroopers do NOT want to make victims out of the truckers as the principal reset (Later, undercover, individualisation of repression for specific people) is installed but not yet fully operational (legalized?).

Note that Australia is now questioning why they need Wellness (Orwellness) camps for thousands when the Covid "menace" is being reduced. Gates is already talking about doing it faster NEXT time (He's talking about serial production of vaxxs, and probably the installation of Non-Governmental Command(ers) aka Health Expert coercion.
**

Stormtroopers;
It is a very good question where they came from. As an example, a Anglo-Jewish Oligarch has a "ski-centre" in Chile with a International sized airfield nearby in Argentina. It has (reputedly) seen thousands of IDF soldiers (both sexes) coming for ski holidays. As Canada is so large it is easy to imagine there could be "camps" set up by various Oligarchs and others who want to avoid detection, in an area that would only be minimally affected in case of a nuclear disaster/war, or could be isolated in the case of a real pandemic.
*

James Bond scriptwriters were visionaries?

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 20 2022 21:58 utc | 86

"i guess something happened to Jackrabbit.. he never came back.. ..."

There's an alternative to deleting a post and that is to edit it. It can be a shock to a poster to have a post deleted, but to edit a post is kinder to the poster and lets him or her know just what was found to be offensive. A note could be added to the bottom of a post to let everyone know it had been edited. For instance, VK would have been easy to edit. He wrote in paragraph form and it would have been simple to eliminate paragraphs. If I were editing VK I would have kept his accounts of Russian history, which I found interesting, and cut nearly everything else. I tend to edit posts as I read them by skipping over them altogether or reading only selected parts. Certainly there are posts b has no choice but to delete, however, I, for one, would be happy to have it left to the reader whether to by-pass a post, or not.

Posted by: Chas | Feb 20 2022 22:04 utc | 87

<<@Spinworthy #26
What you speculate seems unlikely as it requires a Stasi-level of control.>>

c1ue- The U.S. *has* had a high-level of control over information processing and reporting in the US since the 2nd World War. The wartime censorship for that period was revived and really extended with the Cold War. The U.S. forbid the entry of printed and film material from “Iron Curtain” countries for approx. 15 years, until the Supreme Court used a technicality to end it in 1965.

The massive interdiction program was run by the U.S. Customs and Post Office departments. Together they destroyed millions of pieces of incoming mail *a month* eviscerating US libraries and archives, and depriving even US intel analysts of materials they needed to understand scientific developments in the Soviet Union. (Hence the shock over Sputnik!)

Both the outlines of this program and the fight against it is something that barely exists now in written histories, though primary documents exist in Congressional hearings testimony and a few law journals.

My attention to this was the result of trying to understand what happened to the evidence of US use of biological weapons during the Korean War, particularly evidence published by North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union, and various East European countries.

I’ve written about this major forgotten history of US totalitarian control of the media, but I’m only one guy, and it’s hard to get even left-wing media interested in such “old” material.

See “Massive Mail Censorship Program Hid North Korea Accusations of U.S. BW, Collaboration with Unit 731 War Criminals” ( https://jeff-kaye.medium.com/censored-north-korea-accused-u-s-of-working-with-unit-731-war-criminals-on-bw-attacks-d7fd819ed8b7 )

Posted by: Jeffrey Kaye | Feb 20 2022 22:07 utc | 88

Chas / 87
Editing means an awful lot of work. Too bad if MoA can't manage that or let us read and skip. Guess he likes his house tidy.

Posted by: chb | Feb 20 2022 22:18 utc | 89

@uncle tungsten | Feb 20 2022 21:55 utc | 85

Thanks uncle.

Have you seen post #48 on Open Thread 014?

Interesting goings-on in your neck of the woods.

Posted by: John Cleary | Feb 20 2022 22:59 utc | 90

The hysteria continues. Meanwhile, there's a genuine reason to actually worry if you reside in Europe, "Europe Has Next to No Gas Left":

"Underground gas storage facilities (UGS) in Europe were 95.3% empty as of February 17, Russia’s state energy giant and major gas exporter Gazprom said on Saturday, citing data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

"This means that Europe now has only 4.7% of its gas reserves left for the remainder of the winter season.

"The volume of active gas in storage facilities is 21% or 8.3 billion cubic meters less compared to the same time last year. In total, 44.8 billion cubic meters have already been withdrawn from Europe’s UGS this winter."

Then there's this item, "Europe is running out of space for LNG":

"The European Union has a limited capacity of LNG import terminals where the superchilled gas is regasified before it is sent along pipelines to its final destinations. Spain and France have the biggest import capacity in the EU, with the UK coming in second in Europe as a whole with 50 billion cubic meters in annual nameplate LNG import capacity. Germany, on the other hand, the biggest gas market in Europe, has zero LNG import terminals."

The initial Nord Stream pipe carries close to 60 BCM of gas annually. The 2020 pandemic decreased deliveries and thus storage but rebounded in 2021; however, that apparently wasn't enough to replenish storage, a reality admitted by EU sources at the end of December, but delivery orders weren't escalated. As the LNG article notes, Germany is the big loser.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 20 2022 23:14 utc | 91

Peter AU1@43
As Tooze says none of the tow truck firms dared risk the boycotts that would inevitably have followed any co-operation with the authorities in this matter. In the end the Ottawa Bus Company supplied its equipment and they did the job.
I would be very surprised if the Armed Forces had not supplied Ukraine with the means of removing armoured vehicles when broken down. Canada has gone overboard in supplying the Lviv fascists militarily, with equipment, training and weaponry. Trudeau announced another $500 million, in 'lethal aid' yesterday.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 20 2022 23:14 utc | 92

Posted by: Jeffrey Kaye | Feb 20 2022 22:07 utc | 88

Fascinating history there. I've always been keenly aware that our history books whitewash or downplay the atrocities of 'anti-communism' abroad (see: "Killing Hope" by William Blum) and even that the CIA and "defense" department had a big role in what Hollywood was putting out (and what was left on the cutting room floor) as well as the McCarthy-ite witch hunts used to stamp out any viable socialist left, but I didn't know about the totalitarian censorship of materials coming from the Soviet bloc.

Both the outlines of this program and the fight against it is something that barely exists now in written histories, though primary documents exist in Congressional hearings testimony and a few law journals.

Which, to me, says that the program probably spanned much wider and went much deeper than what we're able to piece together today. America the free, LOL - free to do virtually everything but upset the capitalist status quo.

Thanks. I'll definitely be doing some research on this including the link to your bit at Medium.

RE: Jackrabbit - Is it possible that he had a health emergency? Same goes for Gordog and others. I didn't always agree with JR but thought he brought an alternative perspective to the conversation and Gordog's posts were almost always full of very informative technical details. Hope to have them both back here in the future.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 23:19 utc | 93

@82

Far from new. Proxy alliances with terrorists are pretty much the central pattern of "active" US foreign policy for the past 40 years. As probably everyone has noticed by now other than whichever State Dept employee who thought this would be a clever thing to say.

Posted by: ptb | Feb 20 2022 23:33 utc | 94

Roger @ 69 and 75

Unfortunately,the crazy is strong with the Canadian protests...not just with the protestors but also with some of the commentators here. The protestor’s numbers have been greatly exaggerated and their demands are illogical (Canada should open the border to unvaccinated truck drivers despite the fact that the US will not allow unvaccinated truck drivers to cross the border), absurd (that the federal government should drop covid restrictions throughout Canada, despite the fact that the federal government cannot do this because these restrictions fall under provincial jurisdiction) and seditious (demanding that the Governor General must fire the government because a mob demands it). Basically, the core of this group are right-wing conspiracy theory nuts who hate Trudeau, talk about the impending Great Reset, promote Bitcoin and make lots of noise...what they consider “freedom” is actually selfishness and anarchy.

I am Canadian by the way, and yes, everyone here is tired of covid restrictions, but Canada’s restrictions have been pretty mild when compared to the rest of the world…there have been no lockdowns and only certain group gatherings have been restricted for short periods of time. No one is being forced to get vaccinated, yet over 85% of the population has had at least one vaccination. It’s nothing like, for example, in Australia, with their hard lockdowns, and I could understand why a popular anti covid mandate uprising could happen in Australia as a response to how they dealt with covid. But in Canada…no. This is not a popular uprising by any stretch of imagination. And we will soon find out who was funding these protests.

Posted by: Victor | Feb 20 2022 23:40 utc | 95

@91 karlof1

Those two news items are contradictory, and both are exaggerating the situation. This far into the season, the balance of supply is past the point that there can be a short-term emergency. What is driving pricing now is the balance looking ahead to the 2022-2023 winter.

The reason there isn't a shortage is because much of the EU can afford to eat the higher prices and another part of it is under either fixed-price oil-linked-price contract and are okay for the time being. So gas came in from the seaborne markets to EU, basically taken from somewhere else on earth who got outbid.

I'm concerned about the indirect impact on global fertilizer prices, and thus food, in 2022. Higher oil prices don't help, since any place that blends ethanol into their gasoline (like the US!) will now have a higher price ceiling for corn or whatever crop is used for the ethanol, increasing demand there.

Posted by: ptb | Feb 20 2022 23:43 utc | 96

Republicofscotland @ 55, Patroklos @ 73:

I recall watching the episode "The American Colony of Australia" in Carlton Meyer's "Tales of the American Empire" video documentary series on Youtube last year. Just past the halfway point before the 5th minute, Meyer mentions that the Australian military is integrated with the US military to the extent that "the Australians can no longer conduct major operations without American support".

I recall reading somewhere online (forget the site unfortunately) that in Afghanistan, Australian forces were mixed with other Western forces and took orders from US military leaders - likewise, Australian leaders gave orders to mixed forces. This of course means that if Canadian, New Zealand, Danish or other soldiers are accused of human rights violations or atrocities in Afghanistan - or indeed any other area - where Australian forces are also operating, our soldiers and officers may well have some responsibility in those violations as well.

Posted by: Jen | Feb 20 2022 23:58 utc | 97

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 20 2022 19:35 utc | 50... thanks tom... i am curious if the article you shared changed your mind on any of this... i especially liked what @ Roger | Feb 20 2022 21:03 utc | 75 had to say about all this... the divide and conquer strategy is in operation... witness @ Victor | Feb 20 2022 23:40 utc | 95 who remains convinced this is just some fringe group and nothing more.. perhaps victor would benefit from reading your linked article @ 44 too..

@ Patroklos | Feb 20 2022 20:31 utc | 65..nice poem! yes - vk is also gone, but for different reasons based on b telling him to back off or he would remove him..

@ Chas | Feb 20 2022 22:04 utc | 87.. it appears this format of b's doesn't support editing, but i agree - would be nice..

Posted by: james | Feb 21 2022 0:00 utc | 98

Private media conglomerates are PERFECT for coordinating whatever bullshit propaganda spin is in order.

1-They contribute a huge part of the very terms which people use to talk about day-to-day events. Good to coordinate masses.

2- They are hierarchical. Content is published if it suits the members above, most often in the manner that suits them. Good for coordinating top-to-bottom.

3- Different outlets with different brands are operated or controlled by the same business entities. Good for coordinating horizontally between media and good for either obfuscating or emphasizing said coordination depending on needs. Tripleplus(un)good.

4- They are overwhelmingly bourgeois media and thus the class interest is uniform. For those averse to Marxism: the ownership and administration models are similar, therefore those in positions of responsibility are promoted, perpetuated and demoted following to similar sets of rules; and will engage in similar behavior according to similar values in relation to preserving their livelihoods and status. Good for coordinating baseline, often unspoken rules across different outlets.

5-They are strongly tied to banking, finances, insurance; and other commanding heights sectors of capitalist economies. Good for coordinating in favor of existing economic power.

6-They are self-censoring. Public censorship is frowned upon, but private companies have no obligation to report stuff "they don't like". Perfect for leaving out takes that clash with the narrative sponsored by the editorial line. Remember 2, 3 and 4.

7-They are dirt-diggers by trade and vocation, good for keeping in check anybody who might rock the boat.

8-They benefit from ties with "intelligence", security, law enforcement, judicial, legislative, executive, etc. They benefit from ties with every established power in society that I haven't yet mentioned. These ties come back a knocking.

9- They are commercial outfits that need a positive stream of money and always will want an ever increasing>/i> positive stream of money. Where does that money come from exactly is a different matter.

Posted by: Misotheist | Feb 21 2022 0:16 utc | 99

ptb @96--

The Spring Equinox is several weeks away, and Arctic cold remains very possible. Running out of storage is a huge deal for Germany which has no LNG facilities. I suggest you reread those two articles. They suggest a reality you're denying.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 21 2022 0:20 utc | 100