Open Thread (NOT Ukraine) 2022-73
News & views not related to Ukraine ...
Posted by b on May 26, 2022 at 12:48 UTC | Permalink
next page »An American vet, long living down under, told me, "I have heard everything about America since I lived here from: 'I hate America to I love America', now it is: 'I feel sorry for America'..."
Posted by: Paul | May 26 2022 13:34 utc | 2
If the Original Settlers at Plymouth Rock had any sense of destiny and purpose before God they would be astounded at how far from that purpose the country has now deviated...........into a veritable Perdition
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 26 2022 13:39 utc | 3
Hankyoreh | Is Yoon prepared for the consequences of cold-shouldering China?
QUAD: US, AU, JP, IN
CSIS brief | Regional Perspectives on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Apr 22
Centralizing coordination four “pillars” of work:(1) fair and resilient trade (encompassing seven subtopics, including labor, environmental, and digital standards); (2) supply chain resilience; (3) infrastructure, clean energy, and decarbonization; and (4) tax and anti-corruption
(1a) USTR (2-4b) Commerce + State, Treasury, USDA supervising members' commitments to U.S.-preferred rules and standards; "perception of an anti-China"; "The U.S. government has explicitly stated that the IPEF will not be a multilateral trade agreement akin to the CPTPP."
IPEF: US, AU, JP, IN, NZ, KR; ID, BN, MY, PH, SG, TH, VN
APEC: PH, ID, SG, VN, CN, CN-hk, CN-tw, RU, TH, MX, PE, CL, BN, PG, MY; US, AU, JP, NZ, CA, KR
ASEAN: BN, KH, ID, LA, MY, MM, PH, SG, TH, VN
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership , Mar 2018
2020 GDP: USD 52.3T; AUD trade $570B
CP-TPP (FTA): AU, CA, JP, UK*, NZ, PE, SG, VN, BN*, CL*, MY*, MX (* app pending)
EAS (East Asia Summit: AU, CN, IN, JP, NZ, KR, RU, US + ASEAN
This is an annual ministerial klatsch
Posted by: sln2002 | May 26 2022 13:43 utc | 4
Thanks again to karlof1 for his post on the last completely open thread of Lavrov's talk to the Primakov Institute pupils. My comment will relate to that post -- it comes on the final page of the open thread. Again, I was extremely interested that when asked what book had most influenced him, Lavrov replied "The Master and Margarita". I will be returning to that book, influenced as I also have been, and reflecting that it is an excellent followup to previous classics of Russian literature.
I'll just begin by saying that when I first read the novel, I sent copies of it to my children I knew would also enjoy it, and having depleted my limited supply of same, was on my way (by bus) to a bookstore to purchase a further copy for myself. At our town bus stop area we have a 'freebies' shelf -- much to my surprise, there sat a very battered copy of "The Master and Margarita." Now, that is not a particularly popular novel, nor was it back then, about ten years ago. So, my surprise was warranted, but really it went with the theme of the book, which is that the devil returns to Moscow and finds a society that has lost its Christian moorings, so sets about re-establishing certain facts.
The interesting thing is that the book was never published in the author's lifetime, but one of the themes is that manuscripts cannot burn -- it actually had at one point been burned by the author, Mikhail Bulgakov, who had memorized much of it and had thereafter kept his recreated manuscript locked in a drawer, very much afraid of persecution by Stalin, as he assuredly would have been had it been discovered.
So, back to my mysterious, battered, paperback copy, which I treasure...do join me in my journey, particularly if, unlike me, you can read it in the original language. I will be coming to it fresh, in the Pevear translation which this copy is.
Enjoy!
Posted by: juliania | May 26 2022 13:50 utc | 5
Original Settlers at Plymouth Rock
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 26 2022 13:39 utc | 3
were 'fugees from the 30-Years War in Europe.
The soldiers of fortune at Jamestown (ever visited?) had no "sense of destiny" either. They arrived without sustance, basic ag skills, a ton of ammo, and resorted to cannibalism.
Posted by: sln2002 | May 26 2022 13:52 utc | 6
Deep State angry over conservatives changing views on unelected bureaucrats making society wide decisions: Threat Lurks to STBs independence - railwayage.com
I don't know whether to laugh or cry...
Posted by: c1ue | May 26 2022 13:56 utc | 7
Gas prices have stabilized for now - next: summer driving season.
In the meantime, even Bloomberg is starting to notice that capex in oil producers, shale included, is simply not increasing: World's oil growth engine is about to slow despite $100 crude price - bloomberg.com
Commodity supercycle looking ever more confirmed.
Posted by: c1ue | May 26 2022 13:57 utc | 8
Privacy 2-fer:
Duckduckgo confirms ongoing sellout - bleepingcomputer.com
However, while performing a security audit of the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, security researcher Zach Edwards discovered that while the browser blocks Google and Facebook trackers, it allowed Microsoft trackers to continue running.Further tests showed that DuckDuckGo allowed trackers related to the bing.com and linkedin.com domains while blocking all other trackers.
In response to Edwards' long thread on the subject, DuckDuckGo CEO and Founder Gabriel Weinberg confirmed that their browser intentionally allows Microsoft trackers third-party sites due to a search syndication agreement with Redmond.
Note this is the duckduckgo browser itself, not just search.
In reality, it is unlikely any browser can confer privacy so long as it permits cookies. Brave gets around this (when in private mode) by putting cookies into a temp space which is then supposedly discarded, but in practice it is either not working completely or makes exceptions for "elected" cookie placements.
Thus only a true virtual machine plus varying IP address can confer possible privacy; even then the ISP service provider and the OS have effectively infinite access.
2nd privacy note: Proton going after Google home IT space
Proton offers mail, calendar, storage but with privacy - wired.com
The current plan is the launch of the Proton ecosystem. It's one account that gives you access to four privacy services: Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, and Proton VPN. One subscription that gives you access to all those services. It's the first time anybody has taken a series of privacy services and combined them to form a consolidated ecosystem. That doesn't match all of Big Tech’s offerings, of course. But I think it provides, for the first time, a viable alternative that lets people say, “If I really want to get off of Google, I can now do it, because I have enough components to live a lot of my daily life.”
Glad this is being offered, but basically useless without:
1) VPN
2) browser control
3) ISP obfuscation
Posted by: c1ue | May 26 2022 14:05 utc | 9
I will add to my post at 5 that, as perceptive readers will surmise, this will be my third attempt to absorb the novel:
"Fool me once, shame on you;
fool me twice ... (dither, dither);
fool me three times ... ah! there's the rub!Before I begin, there are parts I do remember. But I just opened to the author's biography, and there's a kicker there already, in that Mikhail Bulgakov died in the year of my own birth. 1940.
Okay, book; you got me, again. I did not remember (or take note of) that. Now, I do.
["Mikhail" -- "Who is like God" ...Question mark?]
Posted by: juliania | May 26 2022 14:14 utc | 10
Third and final post for today.
Returning to Sergei Lavrov's talk with students: A lovely part of his biographical comment was of his own birth place, and that he wished it could be returned to its original name, which to him is more beautiful than the present one.
In the novel I consider at #5, Pevear's first note concerns the opening scene in the first chapter. "The Patriarch's Ponds" is the original name for that place, which under the Communists had been renamed "Pioneer Ponds". Pevear: ...'Philaret, eighteenth century patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church had his residence'... there. Originally three ponds, now, (Pevear says) one.
My preliminary thought is that the novel begins, as does the Book of Job, with the arrival of the devil. (And, as does Genesis.)
Mighty bold stuff.
Posted by: juliania | May 26 2022 14:36 utc | 11
So 'we' (that means you) have the almost dead Joe Biden in the US and the disgraced clown Boris Johnson in the UK. Both are likely to disappear any day. Then the happy result could be Harris + Truss with their combined IQ < room temperature.
How would that pair impact international relations? I looks like an even worse disaster than today.
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 14:47 utc | 12
do join me in my journey
by: juliania | May 26 2022 13:50 utc | 5
Thanx much for your reflections on Master and the Margarita. I was impressed by how little we US Americans know of Russian lit -- then malenkov popped up to additionally recommend We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The obscurity of We is even more amazing. Anyways, I've got those two on order.
I just finished a piece which came up in a previous thread: The Deputy by Rolf Hochhuth (translated by Richard & Clara Winston). It's a play much too long to produce, but well worth the read. Hochhuth dedicated years to collecting the story of how Pope Pius XII failed to so much as mention -- let alone protest -- the Final Solution taking place as deportations of Jews to Auschwitz, with arrests of whole families just across the street from the Vatican.
Hochhuth knew such an amazing story would be vigorously suppressed, so he preserved it as best he could in the form of a dramatic work like no other. It's not merely historical; Hochhuth draws many classic scenes between iconic characters, to convey historical reality on a profoundly compassionate level.
When I saw Costa-Gavras's version, a film called Amen, it forever changed my opinion of Costa-Gavras, as this film is really a shocking assault on almost everything Hochhuth stood for. While Hochhuth's overriding goal was to preserve history, Costa-Gavras inforgivably sets out to turn everything upside down, to utterly demolish Hochhuth's historical resonance by simply making stuff up, to arbitrarily, ahistorically replace the film's literary basis. That film is a piece of dirty work.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 14:53 utc | 13
My preliminary thought is that the novel begins, as does the Book of Job, with the arrival of the devil. (And, as does Genesis.)
Mighty bold stuff.
Posted by: juliania | May 26 2022 14:36 utc | 11
It is good to know that the Pevear couple have done a translation of The Master & Margarita, I will have to dig up a copy.
Posted by: Bemildred | May 26 2022 14:59 utc | 14
Harris + Truss with their combined IQ < room temperature.
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 14:47 utc | 12
Celsius or Fahrenheit? Plus that of Canada's Segundo... room temp yet?
And by the way, what's going on with that Australian honcho? Proud of his funny name, I've heard, but nary a word concerning comrade Assange. Maybe I'm making too big a deal out of just one persecuted journalist, but Assange is a litmus-test issue for me, in assessing whether to expect anything meaningful from Australia's new government. New boss just like the old box?
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 15:08 utc | 15
@ Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 14:53 utc | 13
Hochhuth's Deputy really is something special. And if you're not daunted by its length, you might then try Karl Kraus's Last Days of Mankind, which, as a savage indictment of the kinds of human scum that lead others (never themselves) into perdition during World War I, unfortunately remains topical.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 15:14 utc | 16
@ Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 15:08 utc | 15
There have been lots of expressions of hope by users on this site regarding the new Australian government. They're all -- I'll put this gently -- naive. Check out the Australia-related articles on the World Socialist Website (wsws dot org); these (genuine) Trotskyists understand what Albanese and his gang are all about.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 15:18 utc | 17
We travel a lot. I tap into a Facebook "See The USA via Road Trips" and today encountered a discouraging comment from a foreign visitor which is really an accurate view of faulty government IMO. . .from Antony Popov. . .
My 50 days road trip in America is almost over (today is my last day)
It was pure fun and it was great seeing all these places, going to events and having such experience, meeting people.
It was 98% enjoyment.
I want to share some other thoughts though. Thoughts that bugged my mind for some time now. I don’t want it sound like a rant, because it isn’t. But I think your country and people should address that asap.
Most of my trip went through the country, visiting nature and wild life. But driving 7000 miles and walking 400 made me see also another picture.
What have you done to your cities people?
LA, San Francisco downtown looked like where Mad Max went to buy his water in the movies. Junkies, homeless, crazy people living on the streets. Endless tents, trash, misery, smell of urine and shit. It’s I don’t know … unbelievable. My friends in Europe had totally different image about LA, SF, Portland…any major west coast city I visit was like that. I don’t want to go to the politic side of things, because I am not local...but let me tell you. Misery on such level in the center of the cities it’s just not normal. It ruins business, tourism, everything.
Talking about business …every place I went, bar, eatery, restaurants, hotels …are short staffed and have “we are hiring” sign. Like almost every freaking place.
So reason for this people to be on the streets is not unemployment…there is work literally on every corner. So what is it? What’s wrong? These people should be like moved out of the Center of the city, crisis shelter should be build in the perimeter where this people can get like a cheap hot meal, maybe some help, shower, haircut and send to find a job…and judging by the above it should NOT be hard. Even if you are not qualified, those places look just for people with will you work, they will provide training.
I don’t know what’s your opinion on this…but as a foreigner visiting your country I can tell you are already on a slippery slope. If you don’t fix that somehow …it maybe not able to be reverted.
Just my 2 cents.
And because I don’t want to be off topic and to finish on a positive note, posting my top selection pictures from my travel in USA. Some of them I already posted but yeah. Enjoy. And thank you for the adventure your country unveiled for me.
Posted by: Don Bacon | May 26 2022 15:18 utc | 18
@Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 15:08 utc | 15
Celsius. We are using the SI system you know.... (Yes I know, that would really be Kelvin).
Maybe I'm making too big a deal out of just one persecuted journalist, but Assange is a litmus-test issue for me, in assessing whether to expect anything meaningful from Australia's new government.Assange is a BIG deal. Certainly the litmus-test to apply wrt. the new government.
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 15:33 utc | 19
@ Don Bacon | May 26 2022 15:18 utc | 18
Thanks. It's always charming to hear from someone with a social consciousness or, if you prefer, a conscience.
My two cents:
(1) Inner-city collapse serves several useful purposes. It encourages hatred of "liberals" (even beyond that which they deserve), and it provides a useful class of down-and-outers one can hate as well. After all, one hates what one fears, and a lot of Americans know they could be the next ones on the street. Combine that with the every-man-for-himself frontier attitude, and the "you're poor because God hates you (and vice versa)" Calvinist attitude, both of which are major components of American consciousness, and you have a toxic but very attractive poison.
(2) Every employer is short on laborers, but there's very little actual hiring going on. If anything, employers are more selective than ever, especially since their materials and labor costs are increasing. The only reason the unemployment numbers are so low is because several groups of the unemployed are kept out of the statistics.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 15:38 utc | 20
Don Bacon@18
"...So reason for this people to be on the streets is not unemployment…there is work literally on every corner. So what is it? What’s wrong?.."
Unfortunately at this point the observer from abroad takes a very American view of things: the problem is laziness. And the solution is to move the poor out of sight, to clean up the places where they camped. And to hide them somewhere far away from customers and tourists. Perhaps in jail or hospital? Or a camp...
We all know the first answer to the "What's wrong?" question.
There are jobs but are they full time or even permanent?
Are they offering work by the hour or the means of building a living?
And what are they paying?
Is it enough to live on in the city? Will it cover costs of commuting? Will it pay enough to rent a place to live? Does it come with any protection against predatory employers, wage theft or unreasonable demands? At the end of the day will there be enough to buy food to live on?
Posted by: bevin | May 26 2022 15:41 utc | 21
@ Don Bacon | May 26 2022 15:18 utc | 18
Quite a question you've reprinted -- sounds like a brother from another planet parachuting into any American metropolis and going WTF, people?
I have to back up so far to explain how my formerly beautiful San Francisco Bay Area got the way it is. Hypodermic syringes found on the streets of San Francisco are huge news, it seems, while the same in Houston or Baltimore -- not so much.
That intra-city rivalry is one key, come to think of it: Some people are invested in making a negative example of some cities. US Americans are generally at war with each other, individually, municipally, and at the state level we're passing laws against the laws of other states. The wheels are falling off, in general.
More to the point: I see right here in Richmond an absolutely disgraceful homeless encampment on Rydin Road, just next to the dog-park at Point Isabel. We also have a virtually abandoned shopping center called Hilltop Mall -- a ghost town -- which could quickly, cheaply, and efficiently be outfitted to accommodate the campers and trailers of homeless folks, in some dignity.
But dignity is precisely the problem. It is essential that homeless folks not be according anything resembling dignity, as their misery is an essential glue spanning the last shreds of social cohesion. Without the negative example of homeless people to horrify us daily, we could not tolerate the indignities of wage-slavery. The so-called problem of homelessness is actually the top solution to the unaffordable expense of human dignity.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 15:43 utc | 22
From RT, Imran Khan issues ultimatum in Pakistan. This can get ugly.
Ousted Pakistan’s PM issues ultimatum
Imran Khan has warned the government he will march with millions into the capital unless elections are held in six days.
Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan warned the country’s government on Thursday that he will march on the capital with millions of people in six days unless provincial assemblies are dissolved and new elections are held by that time.
Khan issued the ultimatum during a rally of thousands of demonstrators in Islamabad, where he called for the “imported government” to be brought down, insisting it is backed by foreign powers.
A former cricket star-turned-politician, Khan served as Pakistan’s prime minister for over three and a half years before being ousted in a no-confidence vote by parliament last month. He insists that his removal from office was orchestrated by the US in collusion with members of the current government headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Khan has suggested that he received threats from US officials over his refusal to bow to Washington’s demands and support the sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
(my emphasis)
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 15:47 utc | 23
Posted by: juliania | May 26 2022 14:36 utc | 11
The Russians with Attitude podcast just did an episode on Bulgakov. Their treatment of Russian history, literature and film is always a treat because it’s not filtered by the west. I guess I’m putting the master and margarita on my list. It’s been many years
Posted by: Lex | May 26 2022 15:59 utc | 24
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 14:47 utc | 12
Add von Lugen and Georgieva at IMF (or Lagarde at ECB) and you've got the four mares of apocalypse...
Posted by: Bloke from block 8 | May 26 2022 16:00 utc | 25
@malenkov 20
Inner-city collapse serves several useful purposes. It encourages hatred of "liberals" . .
Thanks back to you.
But these are liberal cities in liberal states with a liberal governor in California who has been saying for years that the situation is unsatisfactory and must be fixed. . .but isn't.
There has been progress in San Diego, but it's from Father Joe charity which operates the soup kitchens and lately has built a high-rise apartment building to accommodate homeless in a city where the median home price is now almost a million dollars.
Posted by: Don Bacon | May 26 2022 16:00 utc | 26
Seems like the non-Ukraine subject that should get the most discussion is chaos descending in Pakistan. The army’s never been shy about taking political power but this seems like a dangerous time for that move. There are a lot of angry people in the streets and the conflict with police likely to make more people more angry.
Posted by: Lex | May 26 2022 16:01 utc | 27
@Lex | May 26 2022 16:01 utc | 26
Seems like the non-Ukraine subject that should get the most discussion is chaos descending in Pakistan.Indeed. I made a mistake and posted about it in the Ukraine thread (#28, apologies). The main point is that Imran Khan has issued an ultimatum:
Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan warned the country’s government on Thursday that he will march on the capital with millions of people in six days unless provincial assemblies are dissolved and new elections are held by that time.
I wonder how this will turn out, it seems it could get very ugly.
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 16:10 utc | 28
If the Original Settlers at Plymouth Rock had any sense of destiny and purpose before God they would be astounded at how far from that purpose the country has now deviated...........into a veritable Perdition
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 26 2022 13:39 utc | 3
This reminds me of a quote by Malcolm X: we didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | May 26 2022 16:10 utc | 29
juliania ,
i didn't enjoy the book - The Master & Margarita.... maybe it got lost in translation for me... on the other hand dostoevskys 'brothers karamazov' was truly amazing! i am presently reading another long book - 'long walk to freedom' - autobio of nelson mandela... i think what i learn from books that are written by people who spend a lot time in prison is how our life is much like living in a prison.. we just generally don't see or know this... of course like is what we make of it.. if anyone knows of any interesting books written by those who have spent a long time in prison - please recommend them to me... i read albert woodfox's autobio a year or two ago and i read both jay jarvis masters books too... i don't know if there is a genre name for books written by those who have spent a long time in prison, but for some reason i find all of these works extremely insightful in some bizarre way..
Posted by: james | May 26 2022 16:16 utc | 30
@ lex and norwegian... yes - pacifica advocata mentioned this topic in the previous ukraine thread.. i agree with you all... we'll see how it develops very quickly..
Posted by: james | May 26 2022 16:18 utc | 31
I love Master and Magarita. If I remember correctly, since it has been several years, there is a great scene at the four statues atop Moscow University. I think Dead Souls by Bulgakov is a great book as well. And We, by Zamyatin is excellent. One of the first, if not the first "modern" dystopic novels. I love the pink curtains touch, too!
Besides reading about molten salt nuclear reactors fueled by thorium, ( super-interesting! ) I am reading Resistance to Evil By Force (О сопротивлениии злу силою, 1925) by Ivan Ilyin.
I'm sure to catch some flack for that admission, but maybe it will spark an interesting and educational conversation!
Hope everyone is well!
Posted by: lex talionis | May 26 2022 16:43 utc | 32
Gas prices have stabilized for now - next: summer driving season.
In the meantime, even Bloomberg is starting to notice that capex in oil producers, shale included, is simply not increasing: World's oil growth engine is about to slow despite $100 crude price - bloomberg.com
Commodity supercycle looking ever more confirmed.
Posted by: c1ue | May 26 2022 13:57 utc | 8
It is a blessing to live in stabilized times. In USA, in the last 12 months, the benchmark prices of crude oil, heating oil and natural gas increased by 70%, 90% and 200% respectively.
Natural gas is key to chemicals like precursors of plastics and nitrogen fertilizer, and the main fuel in USA for making electricity. Electric vehicle still need natural gas to move.
Heating oil is almost the same as diesel and jet fuel. Key to moving trains, trucks, ships, farm machinery etc. Different refining than gasoline, thus the prices may differ one way or another.
Gasoline allows ordinary Americans (i.e. not me, walking and bicycling) to move around.
Note that natural gas and diesel are inputs to production and distribution, so the price goes directly to production costs. In other words, it will impact the consumer price index with some delay.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 26 2022 16:43 utc | 33
I feel that the collapse of the inner cities in Canada and the US is the result of deliberate policy. Eventually cities reach a point of diminishing returns, where adding addition population, makes the city more and more unlivable as the very act of commuting to and from work becomes impossibly impractical due to the sheer volume of people commuting. When we worked in the office, some of my co-workers commuted 4 hours per day going back and forth between their homes & the office. Normally, at this point, a proper government would step in and incentivize businesses to move out into smaller cities. Heck with highspeed internet I was able to work remotely in the middle of the wilderness for most of the past year during the lockdown. However, the large established cities in North America are huge reserves of political influence, taxable assets, inflated land value, so they are using this influence to retard the natural forces, preventing the develop of new large urban centers (indeed, large cities like Toronto go out of their way to steal the business in outlying cities and try to reduce them in status to just "feeder cities", where the working population commutes in from to work).
I imagine the "urban planners" who are pushing the development of megacities are hoping to eventually create real-life hive cities like those from Warhammer 40K or Judge Dread. Even with all of our modern technology, people will not accept glorified prisons over actual homes and nature so these cities will eventually collapse from their own weight, not necessarily violently, people will simply refuse to live there and move out into more rural regions.
Posted by: Kadath | May 26 2022 16:54 utc | 34
If the Original Settlers at Plymouth Rock had any sense of destiny and purpose before God they would be astounded at how far from that purpose the country has now deviated...........into a veritable Perdition
Mr Greenwood, you typically share some excellent perspectives - this is unworthy of your intellect, though. the US has continued in the exact vein that those "original settlers" began, theft and murder and rape, of people and the planet. their sense of destiny and purpose has been rewarded by what we see today.
Posted by: Oso | May 26 2022 16:59 utc | 35
Slippery slopes are being consciously constructed, seemingly in a fog. The west is isolating itself and incubating a fascist polity, seemingly without awareness of what it is doing.
EU turning to asset seizure/forfeiture as compliance tool. This will soon be the “new normal”:
EU to Make Breaking Sanctions Against Russia a Crime, Seizing Assets Easier
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-05-25/eu-to-make-breaking-sanctions-against-russia-a-crime-seizing-assets-easier
Canada’s national broadcaster publishes article describing OUN nationalists as “ordinary Ukrainians”
“Lawyers, a factory worker among the ordinary Ukrainians holding the line against Russia at Izyum”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukrainian-nationalists-izyum-1.6463544
“During the Second World War, the group fought for Ukrainian independence under its controversial yet revered leader, Stepan Bandera, allying itself with whoever served its nationalist aims.”
The CBC article should be read alongside the WSWS article which Bevin recently shared, outlining extensive and deliberate policies of support for far-right political forces in Ukraine cultivated by the Canadian state:
“How Ottawa provided the Ukrainian fascists refuge and incubated and promoted far-right Ukrainian nationalism”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/05/24/orre-m24.html
Canada did a trial run of asset seizures several months ago in response to the “trucker rallies”.
Posted by: jayc | May 26 2022 17:17 utc | 36
Thanks to juliania for her enthusiasm and to her good fortune--having/making time to read classics.
Thanks to Don Bacon for providing that appraisal. My reply comment would be extremely long, unfortunately.
The Pakistani situation is escalating. This report is rather superficial as it doesn't do any sort of deep analysis.
A microcosm of the Big Picture is on display in the South Pacific as this article explains. This excerpt paints the picture well:
"No one wants to be controlled and made use of by others while receiving very limited benefits. So the West, or Australia's presence in the region, was not welcome. But due to the weak national strengths, the island countries didn't have many choices in the past, analysts said. But now these countries have found that China is a major power which is willing to treat them equally and can provide win-win cooperation and seek no control over them."
China will take no crap from NATO's Stoltenberg:
"Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg has been making groundless accusations and smearing attacks against China, making reckless comments on China's political system and domestic and foreign policies, and promoting a 'China-threat' theory, which China firmly opposes and strongly condemns, declared the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday.
"Wang Wenbin, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, made the remarks during a routine press conference on Thursday, responding to inquiries on the NATO chief's recent remarks calling China an 'authoritarian regime' and a threat to the alliance security during an interview on Tuesday....
"Wang also questioned that China does not use force to threaten other countries like some NATO countries do, it does not engage in military alliances, does not export ideologies, and is never the one to take the initiative in initiating trade wars, has never meddled with other country's internal affairs and has never unreasonably suppressed other countries' enterprises. So how can China threaten NATO security in any way?"
China then showed it can also diplomatically tell NATO's chief propagandist to shut the fuck up:
"Wang urged Stoltenberg to immediately stop spreading unfounded rumors against China, and abandon the practice of drawing imaginary ideological lines. 'NATO has already messed up Europe, and it must not be allowed to do the same to Asia and the rest of the world.'" [My Emphasis]
That's the most direct truth told to NATO that will certainly be heeded by the Global South.
lex talionis@31
Dead Souls is by Gogol. It is one of the greatest works of art ever published. It was written in Russian by a Ukrainian Russian.
Posted by: bevin | May 26 2022 17:26 utc | 38
bevin - Shame. Head held in shame. OOPS. I'm glad Malenkov didn't correct me, though. ; ) Thank you. I'm at work cheating peaks at MoA. Thank you.
Posted by: lex talionis | May 26 2022 17:29 utc | 39
james@29
Just to keep the Book Club going. The Brothers Karamazov might be a better book than Dead Souls. If there is third book to compare with either of those two I don't know what it is. (Tristram Shandy?)
Posted by: bevin | May 26 2022 17:29 utc | 40
@Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 15:08 utc | 15
Someone has taken the time to map out those involved with the persecution of Assange. No conspiracy here...
Posted by: Some Random Passerby | May 26 2022 17:35 utc | 41
@karlof1 | May 26 2022 17:17 utc | 36
"Wang urged Stoltenberg to immediately stop spreading unfounded rumors against China, and abandon the practice of drawing imaginary ideological lines. 'NATO has already messed up Europe, and it must not be allowed to do the same to Asia and the rest of the world.'" [My Emphasis]I agree with the Chinese Foreign Ministry wholeheartedly on this and repeat that Jens Stoltenberg is nothing but a despicable Quisling the way he behaves on orders from Washington.
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 17:45 utc | 42
I read somewhere that Hungary has declared a state of national emergency or something, no doubt because of the US and EU putting pressure on it to follow the Western sanctions against Russia. But I have no details.
Does anyone know more ?
Posted by: Featherless | May 26 2022 17:50 utc | 43
Interview of Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov by TASS covers topics mostly related to security, cyber security in particular. I find it quite odd that when these are machine translated the name of the person interviewed is always eventually altered to Maria Zakharova--except when Lavrov's interviewed. As usual, the interview's in Russian, so I'll post the complete machine translation at the end of the dead 23 May Ukraine Open Thread. So far, Lavrov's interview with RT Arabic hasn't been posted by MFA. That will hopefully be done later today.
@ Kadath | May 26 2022 16:54 utc | 33
Very interesting comments. The collapse of the inner cities, as here in Philadelphia, has been completely reversed by gentrification and a real estate bubble affecting all neighborhoods, especially those closer to the city center, which are appreciating the most. Downtown townhouses are now mostly over $1 million. At the same time, the public school system is falling apart and the gentrified inner city is no place to raise children. But a lot of millenials don't want children anyway. Nothing is sustainable, and the exact future is unpredicatable. On the whole, I would rather be in Southern Chile, not that that is safe either.
I would imagine, however, if all is not wiped out by nuclear war, a big if, that transportation will become more difficult in the future, and especially car-dependent places will drop in value. Japan, for example, shows that one can have a denser population using public transportation in large cities. Even there, it is not sustainable, but density can be maintained for a time on an order of magnitude greater than in the US or Canada. But people will have to rely entirely on subway systems and train networks, as well as walking and bicycles. I see the latter two on the rise, but I see nothing being done on mass transit at all in the US. Probably this will enhance the effects of a hard landing here, because people will be loath to part with their cars.
Posted by: Cabe | May 26 2022 17:55 utc | 45
@Featherless | May 26 2022 17:50 utc | 42
Yes, it is likely in preparation for attack from EU. The "EU Oil Embargo" is an attack on Orban/Hungary because it is landlocked and dependent on pipelines, but other EU countries can by-pass via ship import.
The Duran has covered this, here are a couple of recent videos by Alex Christoforou on this topic
Orban prepares for battle. Soros hates Putin. Biden pretends to bankrupt Russia. Update 1
Orban plays chess. Elensky regime; no retreat, calls west 'dumb f****.' Upside down flag. Update 1
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 17:57 utc | 46
@malenkov 20 Inner-city collapse serves several useful purposes. It encourages hatred of "liberals" . . Thanks back to you. But these are liberal cities in liberal states with a liberal governor in California who has been saying for years that the situation is unsatisfactory and must be fixed. . .but isn't. There has been progress in San Diego, but it's from Father Joe charity which operates the soup kitchens and lately has built a high-rise apartment building to accommodate homeless in a city where the median home price is now almost a million dollars.Posted by: Don Bacon | May 26 2022 16:00 utc | 25
Indeed. I should clarify: Just because inner-city collapse serves a useful purpose doesn't mean the collapse was intentional. It's grist for the socially conservative mill, of course -- it serves their purpose. As for the liberals actually in charge of the cities, I think we can chalk up a lot of the malaise to bureaucratic incompetence and corruption -- as well as, in a lot of cases, a declining tax base.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 18:09 utc | 48
Posted by: jayc | May 26 2022 17:17 utc | 35
yeah? well, Canadians are pikers. No body knows the refined arts of asset forfeiture like US law enforcement.
asset forfeiture, US Marshalls
asset forfeiture, DOJ
asset forfeiture, DEA
asset forfeiture, US Treasury
asset forfeiture, "Americans for Prosperity"
hy should innocent property owners have to prove their innocence in order to get their property back from the government?It's a feature, not a bug.
Posted by: sln2002 | May 26 2022 18:12 utc | 49
Posted by: bevin | May 26 2022 17:29 utc | 39
"The possesed", also translated as "The devils", by Dostoevsky stands on its own against "Brothers Karamazov"; it's my favorite novel of his.
IMHO, the "Karamazovs" contains a lot of moments with great polemical phylosophy, but is a bit uneven (too descriptive) in places as a novel I feel from my perspective. Dostoevsky was publishing Karamazovs in installments and did not have time to edit it further before he died few months after the last installment was published.
Posted by: Bloke from block 8 | May 26 2022 18:13 utc | 50
errata
asset forfeiture, DEA
asset forfeiture, DOJ
asset forfeiture, by US state
Posted by: sln2002 | May 26 2022 18:18 utc | 51
I see Lavrov's interview was just posted to MFA's website, but the same problem with type pad will likely prevent me from providing the complete machine translation. There's a video that might provide translated sub-titles those interested might try. Here's the first Q&A. The overall discussion then moves to contemporary events and is long and detailed as the audience again is Arabic speakers.
Question: Your recent visit to Algeria and Oman aroused great interest. How do you assess its results? Why were these states chosen to visit?Sergey Lavrov: We are in contact with all interested countries. As for this tour, it was planned quite a long time ago. Some time ago we agreed on the program of my visits and the timing.
In Algiers, we had good and lengthy talks with President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Armel Tebboune and Foreign Minister of Algeria Robert Lamamra. We stressed that our relations for many years were based on the Declaration on Strategic Partnership, which was signed by the presidents in 2001. These include regular political dialogue, trade (in 2021 it grew by several percent, exceeding $3 billion, despite the pandemic consequences), the economy, joint investments, work within the framework of OPEC+, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, rich military-technical ties, cultural and humanitarian exchanges.
We came to the conclusion (it was an initiative of the Algerian side) that our relations are reaching a new quality. This should be recorded in a document that has already begun to be prepared. We hope that during President of Algeria's visit to the Russian Federation, in accordance with President Vladimir Putin's invitation, we will sign a similar document.
We appreciate that the countries of the Arab world refuse to follow the lead of the West and objectively assess what is happening in Ukraine, understanding the reasons that led to the current situation and consist in the categorical refusal of our Western colleagues to agree on equal and indivisible security in our common region, and do not join the anti-Russian sanctions.
As for Oman. This was the first visit since the accession to the throne of the new Sultan Haytham bin Tariq Al Said, who received me kindly and devoted a lot of time to me. He particularly appreciated this gesture of His Majesty (the protocol practice of the Sultanate of Oman does not imply communication in such a format with persons at ministerial level). Detailed negotiations showed that we have good potential for the development of trade and economic ties. We want them to catch up to the level of our trusting political dialogue. There are many opportunities in the energy field, in information and communication technologies. In the field of culture, we have interesting projects. Just in March of this year, a semi-annual exhibition at the National Museum of Oman, dedicated to Islamic art in Russia, ended. Since 2015, the Hermitage and the National Museum of Oman have been working closely together. Both of these museums have deployed their own expositions on the territory of the partner museum.
I believe that this planned and agreed visit to both countries was very useful.
Given the problems with type pad, I'll likely post the complete translation to my VK page, but that's not going to happen until later today.
The Brothers Karamazov is a fine book, but I still think that Dmitri was the murderer and not Smerdyakov. ;-)
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 18:19 utc | 53
To Don B. a those who responded to his post.
I have struggled to hire people for at least 9 months, and yes I am offering living wages (about 15 to 25% above what my competitors are paying) and a good working environment where I "share the spoils" of our combined work.
This is lawn care, landscaping, and snow. Not a skilled job, most children over the age of 10 are capable of doing it, I've even seen old women doing it.
Every employer around is offering inflated wages and are still unable to fully staff their business.
I don't understand why this is happening, but I don't think homeless folks have much to do with it.
Posted by: David F | May 26 2022 18:27 utc | 54
... if anyone knows of any interesting books written by those who have spent a long time in prison...
Posted by: james | May 26 2022 16:16 utc | 29
Whenever Solzhenitsyn's opus is discussed the emphasis is always on his gargantuan works like Gulag Archipelago and similar, but for me, his first very short novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" was never matched by his later literary efforts.
Posted by: Pagan | May 26 2022 18:28 utc | 55
@ 29 james - Soledad Brother - George Jackson
Spoiler alert - He didn't make it out.
Posted by: lex talionis | May 26 2022 18:40 utc | 58
Putin spoke today via videolink to those assembled at the first plenary session of the Eurasian Economic Forum. The Kremlin provided the following information:
"The key theme of the EEF in 2022 in Bishkek is 'Eurasian economic integration in the era of global changes. New opportunities for investment activity'. Promising directions for the strategic development of integration, deepening cooperation in the industrial, energy, transport, financial, and digital environments are discussed."
Here Putin illustrates the global situation as he views it, and we ought to be able to see how that translates to Russian policy:
Second. We already began to build relations – I will talk about this later – within the framework of the so-called Greater Eurasian Partnership. And this was not due to the political situation, it was connected with global economic trends in the world: due to the fact that the center of economic development is gradually, gradually – we know this very well, and business representatives are well aware of this – moving, and this movement continues to this day, to the Asia-Pacific region.Of course, we understand the huge technological advantages, high-tech advantages in developed economies, needless to say. We are not going to cut ourselves off from this – they want to squeeze us out of there a little, but in the modern world this is simply unrealistic, impossible. If we do not separate ourselves with some wall, then no one will be able to separate a country like Russia.
Well, if we talk not only about Russia, but about our partners in the EAEU and in the world as a whole, then this is an absolutely unrealistic task. On the contrary, those who seek it are primarily self-harming. And no matter how stable the economies of those countries that pursue such short-sighted policies are, the current state of the world economy shows that our position is correct and reasonable, even if you look at macroeconomic indicators.
In these developed economies, there has been no such inflation for 40 years, unemployment is growing, chains are breaking, global crises are intensifying in such sensitive areas as, say, food. This is not a joke, you see, this is a serious thing that affects the entire system of economic and political relations.
But these sanctions, bans to deter, weaken the countries that are conducting and will continue to carry out – I have no doubt about this for a second, it's not only in Russia and not even only in China, it's in many other countries of the world ... There are more and more countries in the world that want to pursue and will pursue an independent policy. And no "world gendarme" will be able to suspend this natural global process: no forces will be enough, and the desire will simply disappear, facing problems within their countries. I hope that we will come to the realization that this policy is absolutely unpromising.
Violation of the rules, norms in the field of international finance, trade does not lead to anything good. And in simple terms, this will only lead to problems for those who do it. The theft of other people's assets has never brought anyone to good, especially those who are engaged in this unseemly business. Disregard for the interests of other countries in the field of politics and security, as it has now turned out, leads to chaos, to economic upheavals, and this affects the world globally.
In Western countries, they are sure that from the world economy, politics, culture and sports it is possible to exclude any undesirable who has his own point of view and is ready to defend it. Nothing like this is really happening, and as I said, it is impossible to achieve this.
There's quite a lot I'd usually emphasize above but refrained from. As with all of Putin's speeches, this one's important. Unfortunately, his beginning remarks above aren't provided with the preceding context which makes his later shift in focus rather visible. I find Putin's concluding paragraph very important:
"In conclusion, I would like to say the following. Greater Eurasia is, without exaggeration, a large civilizational project, and the main idea is to create a common space of equal cooperation for regional organizations. The Greater Eurasian Partnership is designed to change the political and economic architecture, to become a guarantor of stability and prosperity throughout the continent and, of course, taking into account the diversity of development models, cultures and traditions of all peoples. I am sure that it is already clear that this will be a center that will interest a lot of people." [My Emphasis]
I imagine Xi will also speak at the forum. We should be able to see why the Outlaw US Empire opposes this "civilizational project" as it's one well beyond its control. And as with everything it can't control, it must destroy or at least destabilize it as much as possible. Thus we can certainly and correctly call the Outlaw US Empire Anti-Civilizational and Anti-Human.
... if anyone knows of any interesting books written by those who have spent a long time in prison... Posted by: james | May 26 2022 16:16 utc | 29Whenever Solzhenitsyn's opus is discussed the emphasis is always on his gargantuan works like Gulag Archipelago and similar, but for me, his first very short novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" was never matched by his later literary efforts.
Posted by: Pagan | May 26 2022 18:28 utc | 54
. . . and to my mind, Ivan Denisovich can't hold a candle to the story "Matryonin dvor," which seems to have been begun after Ivan Denisovich but completed first.
As to James's question, well, most of the Marquis de Sade's doorstops were written while he was incarcerated, and they're not entirely without interest, at least in small doses.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 18:47 utc | 60
Regarding Ivan Denisovich, the protagonist even mentions what a nightmare it was to have the Banderites in the GULAG with him.
Nothing changes!
Posted by: lex talionis | May 26 2022 18:51 utc | 61
I mentioned Hochhuth's "Deputy" above. A compelling point of discussion emerges from this book's historical appendix: the contrast between Pius XII's enthusiasm when it came to condemnning abuses of Stalin, as contrasted with his studied obliviousness of the Final Solution. Both sides of that affective contrast are profoundly institutional -- not mere quirks of Pius XII's personality. Its institutional quality makes me wonder about the true nature of so-called "anti-Communism" -- so strict a priority as to require indifference toward Naziism.
Anyone who walks into a Catholic Church sees a little box "for the poor" -- some folks grow up with a community-oriented feeling for this church, so whence originates the heedless blind fury against "Godless Communism" as they called it? (After all, there are many other things in the world to pick out as "Godless" -- among them: Capitalism.) Now that we see McCarthyism on steroids flooding all the venues, the "anti-Communist" pretense is fulsomely exposed as a ridiculous joke. Most US Americans probably think Russis is still communist. No matter, the whole point was Russophobia all along, wasn't it, since the fifth or sixth century?
This piqued my interest in official Catholic Russophobia: when Francis called Kirill "Putin's altar boy" -- an epithet with sick sexual undertones, given accounts of Catholic altar boys. What a profound, warmongering insult! Has there been anything resembling an apology? No chance. Was even Pius XII so Russophobic? That's the subject of my investigation. LBP, professor Slobodan Antonic shows up this very day at the Saker, with something to say about "Vatican Hatred":
Entire scholarly monographs on the West’s hatred of Russia have been written, and three of them have been translated in our country: “Russophobia: Two Paths to the Same Abyss” (translated in 1993) by Igor Šafarević; “Russophobia” (translated by 2016) by Giulietto Chiesa; and “Russia and the West – a Thousand Years of War: Russophobia from Charlemagne to the Ukrainian Crisis” (translated in 2017) by Guy Methane.
https://thesaker.is/vatican-hatred-and-russophobia/
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 18:54 utc | 62
Thank you Norwegian !
GRRR... Be strong, Hungary !
Posted by: Featherless | May 26 2022 19:00 utc | 63
Don Bacon | May 26 2022 16:00 utc | 25 and David F, Kadath, Cabe, et al
cost of housing is key.
the goal, the task, of city councils is to prop up their part of the FIRE sector of the economy, real estate. everything else flows from there, incl the negative effect of Father Joe's risible "charity". yes, negative. As the whole of society goes backwards, who is helped by such measures? Father Joe gets to be a hero, the religious props to the capitalist state get to polish their self-portraits, the state/city points to such "charity" to justify itself, which charity is a write off btw so Father Joe and co ain't actually doing shit. Proof of the shell game: people will commit suicide at a higher rate between the beginning and end of this post. The city/state takes some of the pennies they make off of property values and throw them at "behavioral services" (=more drugs), which is only a tiny fraction of what they throw at cops and prisons and fences and CCTV everywhere. and "transportation", cars.
centralization has already occurred by having the goal of economic activity being profit, first and last. in this system, every contract is fake, b/c every word, every breath is already an effort to screw people out of their money, ie, to take more than one gives. all speech is advertisement, false speech, every trial a show trial. treaties mean nothing, as much of the rest of the world knows.
so who cares what a tourist thinks about the US? somebody so lazily indifferent to the world that they and their diseases all go on holiday. so sorry that the homeless interrupted this guy's journey in Disneyworld. maybe he should have visited an ICE facility, plenty of 'em around.
maybe he should have considered that the US announces proudly its true nature, from the torture center it runs very publicly, in a foreign land called GITMO.
and what theories people have to construct that explain nothing when the coronavirus is massively suppressing economic activity. the US will make it illegal for teachers to quit their jobs because of how fake the virus is.
they organize everyone's life around their values by their control of money. now where's the weed and booze? at least that's real, unlike the stock market.
"Unreal city". what's the thunder saying?
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 26 2022 19:16 utc | 64
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 26 2022 19:16 utc | 63
I'm offering people 1k a week. Where I live you can house yourself for between $800 - $1200 a month, in decent housing.
Where the fuck did the work force go?
Covid certainly didn't kill all the working age folks, and the generous federal government benefits were shut down at least a year ago. Furthermore, Wisconsin is not a generous place for public benefits.
How are all of what used to the work force housing and feeding themselves?
I'm completely baffled by this.
Posted by: David F | May 26 2022 19:50 utc | 65
Just how much of a Zach Snyder/JJ Abrams fairytale are we living in?
The "Black Justice League" can take credit for destroying supervillain Joshua Katz because, apparently, he can't control his libido b/c he's pure Poison Ivy. Destruction meaning the very temporary interruption of someone's career, that is.
Katz gets to present himself as a new "founding father," defending freedom and integrity against the armies of woke SJW's, whom he likens to "terrorists" for what they are doing to the temples of wisdom he and his peers are laboring to build.
meanwhile, no one, no one, talks about Ivy League endowments, tuition, student loan debt, much less how places like Princeton are encouraging the reintroduction of segregation, and worse, into their fantasy "multiverse," all while they could stop charging tuition today and not dent their endowments one bit (h/t to J St. Claire for that info). again, the admin is happy to put in the middle of campus the "Malcolm Garvey Center for Safe Spaces", segregated according to the whims of 20 year olds whose minority status never caused them to bat an eyelash at +/- 100k a year for an "education", all the while seeing a name on a building (Woodrow Wilson) terrorizes them. (gee, terror much, Amerikkka?)
no one mentions how the university's desire for academic rock stars and superheroes makes faculty into James Bond, whose sex life consists solely of conquest of the needy young, since who has time for anything else? isn't young tail (now w/more LGBTQXYZ!) part of the perks of such a career?
and how exactly does not having time for personal life, incl family, make one a better classical linguist? how does torture in medical school make one a better doctor?
both the Black Justice League and Dr Katz SuperMan/Darkseid are only heroes or villains within a conflict whose terms are defined by capitalism. Their labors and struggles are solely for success within the system, every bit as much as NFL's Pete Carroll vs Bill Belichek (or whoever.) Their criticisms, grievances and heroic martyrdom are all pieces of self-promoting efforts to steal a bigger piece of the capitalist pie, while they cry and whine endlessly about how their only concern is "justice."
but what of their lives has contact w/a reality that is outside of the artificial construct of academia? these conflicts are so fake, how could anyone possibly take this crap seriously? maybe easier to burn these schools down? oh wait, nature is doing that for us.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 26 2022 20:02 utc | 66
In the Catholic parochial school in New York City I attended as a boy in the 1950s, we prayed for the conversion of Russia. The hostility was only to Communism, not to Russia.
Posted by: Lysias | May 26 2022 20:28 utc | 67
thanks guys!
actually juliania did mention the book - "The possessed", also translated as "The devils" that @ Bloke from block 8 | May 26 2022 18:13 utc | 49 mentions.. she said i ought to read that one after brothers karamazov! i have yet to read it... so now on the list i have -
Dead Souls by Gogol - lex and bevin
Soledad Brother - George Jackson - lex
"The possessed", also translated as "The devils" - bloke from block 8
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" - pagan
a Marquis de Sade's book - malenkov
that is a lot of books to read, but i thank you all.... here is some jazz music from some polish musicians.. my friend here in nanaimo has her brother living in poland.. he is also a jazz drummer and is more supportive of russia in the present dynamic on polands border.. so, like in the west here i think there are a number of people who don't like what they see and they are not buying into the propaganda that seems to strong... thanks for everyone's comments..
Manu Katche "Playground" feat. Tomasz Stanko - JazzBaltica 2008 ( polish band, lol!
JazzBaltica 2022 program - late june 2022 - happens in Timmendorfer Strand, Germany
Posted by: james | May 26 2022 20:45 utc | 68
Regarding unemployment / hiring difficulties: it is possible that people alienated by mandates represent a disproportionately large number of the best workers.
Posted by: Rae | May 26 2022 20:59 utc | 69
David F | May 26 2022 19:50 utc | 64
why isn't capitalism working? you just mentioned two things: lack of local support, and lack of national support. because of this, people are being forced to choose between work and things like caring for a family member whose sickness comes from a fake virus that has killed what? 210000 primary caregivers (mostly parents) of children?
what else? inflation? what's the impact of relatively low/high (very, very relatively) rent/wages compared to inflation?
teachers and support staff quitting, incl bus drivers, so parents are now forced to take on other tasks?
maybe waiting two months for "routine" care (like a cardio check up) discourages people? maybe people are in too much despair to care? nah, not in the bestest bravest newest world ever! not when lifespans dropped by two years in two years, thanks to a virus wholly manufactured by Soros in Davos!
i'm not sure how to answer your question. all i hear is people mystified by how workers don't want to fulfill their class role given how great and wonderful and vibrant and dynamic the US economy is. maybe landscaper is a dying career, unlike ICE security guard? or Friedmanesque (=Krugglesmanic) "content generator"?
it's a big ass production, for all the lack of reproduction. i assume that people not working is nothing but a good thing.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 26 2022 21:04 utc | 70
Rae | May 26 2022 20:59 utc | 68
and 100% of people are sheep, incl above all "the best workers". they are just best at herding other sheep into the slaughterhouse.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 26 2022 21:07 utc | 71
@ james | May 26 2022 20:45 utc | 67
I'm not recommending the Marquis de Sade, mind you, only mentioning him as someone who wrote novels while in prison. As for the novels, they're endless alternations between depraved sex acts on the one hand, and philosophical (that should probably be in irony quotes) discourses on the other. In both cases ennui sets in fairly quickly . . . and maybe that was the author's intention?
(Eerie parallel to Kraus's Last Days of Mankind, which alternates between scenes of World War I horrors and depravities on the one hand, and interminable bouts of wordplay between two characters called Optimist and Grumbler. Hmm, wonder if Kraus was aware of that?)
Actually, if you have to read something by that author, some of the short stories published under titles like The Crimes of Love are rather well written: horrible things happen without graphic depiction, and within a narrative framework that feigns outrage.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 21:12 utc | 72
I wonder how this will turn out, it seems it could get very ugly.
Posted by: Norwegian | May 26 2022 16:10 utc | 27
I asked about this situation and got a couple of posts in reply with links. the Pakistani Military doesn't yet seem to be taking an ultra hard line toward Khan's resistance to the coup, which is encouraging. but yeah a highly dangerous situation. We've got more than one bullet to dodge in avoiding nuclear war.
Posted by: pretzelattack | May 26 2022 21:28 utc | 73
the replies were in the "propaganda" thread, my replies thanking them toward the end.
Posted by: pretzelattack | May 26 2022 21:30 utc | 74
@ malenkov | May 26 2022 21:12 utc | 71
thanks.... i have found these books i have read of authors writing while serving a long prison term, or afterwards - especially insightful.. they seem to give me a better perspective on life in general... maybe i will skip Marquis de Sade! i have heard his name mentioned countless times...thank you!
Posted by: james | May 26 2022 21:35 utc | 75
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 26 2022 21:04 utc | 69
I get that capitalism sucks, but we live in a capitalistic society. If you don't work you don't eat, you don't have shelter.
I am not an exploitive employer, it's a big pie, plenty for everyone.
How are people surviving in this society if they aren't working?
What bothers me most is that I can't find a rational reason for it.
Posted by: David F | May 26 2022 21:37 utc | 76
Posted by: c1ue | May 26 2022 14:05 utc | 9
Good info, thanks.
On another general thread note, I'm not sure if this has been posted/discussed, but I just stumbled on it. Also not sure if anything truly new or surprising is revealed.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 22:00 utc | 77
RE: Joshua Katz, it appears that the Princeton students who work at their newspaper think *everyone* gets it wrong.
This mistake could have been avoided if the media giants had bothered to show evidence of talking to a single student in the process of writing their articles. Journalists talk a big game of respecting local news, but then completely ignore the people who know the controversies best when it comes to campus drama.I’ve always thought free speech on campus was worth protecting and under threat. But when I see The Washington Free Beacon and Bari Weiss, followed by the Journal Editorial Board and then the Times completely misrepresent a story on my own campus to lend fire to a free speech culture war, it rocks my faith in the reporting on free speech controversies at other schools. If you care about free speech, this faulty narrative must be rejected.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 22:04 utc | 78
oh, and Stone City by Mitchell Smith was a good thriller involving a prisoner trying to solve a murder in a prison.
Posted by: pretzelattack | May 26 2022 22:08 utc | 79
Pardon the (tabloid) source, but to some of the underlying themes in this thread about capitalism and the culture wars:
*Netflix laid of 150 employees on Tuesday, many of whom were working on creating and promoting projects focusing on marginalized communities*Firm additionally fired nearly 70 employees working for its social media and publishing teams, including Strong Black Lead, Golden, Con Todo and Most, all that catered to marginalized communities
*The struggling streaming giant claimed the layoffs were carried out amid 'a slow down in revenue and decline in subscribers'
*The layoffs once again targeted members of content arm Tudum, weeks after laying off dozens from the department in April
Hence we can all see just how (not genuinely) important the "woke" segment is to corporate America when profits and share prices are concerned. After the NFL blackballed Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the anthem, and in the wake of the George Floyd protests, the NFL suddenly reversed its policy and is using "woke" to sell itself. We can count on them to abandon this when it's no longer a perceived selling or virtue signaling point. Corporate America will brand itself as left-leaning (fake, really just faux woke) when it is convenient and considered profitable. They will also fire or cancel any celebrity on their platforms for speaking out in dissent of the status quo narrative (Phil Donahue), especially when a war looms, because they are 1) captured by the US surveillance/security state and 2) owned by the same majority shareholders who also control the big "defense" contractors; i.e., part of same portfolios as Rayetheon et al.
It's far from a coincidence that Netflix axed mainly the "woke" departments. And it's very likely that it wasn't a political decision.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 22:14 utc | 80
Hi James, Jack Henry Abbot wrote " In the Belly of the Beast" about his long period in jail, for cashing a bad cheque. There is much more to the story than time permits me to tell but a quick search will fill in the context for you.
Also Lermantov's " A Hero of Our Time " concerning Tsarist Russia's southern expansion is an excellent though unsettling read. Cheers
Posted by: Foxbat | May 26 2022 22:18 utc | 81
There's a simple reason that nobody seems to mention when talking about why so many homeless flock to California in addition to the ones who are natives: The weather and the fact that in many places* they aren't treated *as much* like criminals as they are in other states. Throw in the cost of housing and it explains the **employed** homeless who live in their cars or a tent. California is one of a few states where the weather is temperate enough to live outside year-round.
For a city as opulent as San Francisco, it's long been jarring to see the extreme poverty of those experiencing homelessness on its streets. If you walk around downtown, tents, makeshift cardboard beds and human excrement can be seen littering the sidewalks. Impoverished people lie on the ground as a blur of highly paid professionals whiz by.In 2018, a U.N. official visited San Francisco on a world tour examining housing conditions. She was shocked by what she saw. Her official report concluded that the city's treatment of unhoused people "constitutes cruel and inhuman treatment and is a violation of multiple human rights, including rights to life, housing, health, water, and sanitation." The number of homeless San Franciscans has only grown since then to more than 8,000 people, most of whom sleep on the streets, not in shelters.
San Francisco is pretty typical of major American cities these days, especially on the West Coast. Tent cities filled with poverty-stricken people have sprouted up from San Diego to Seattle. As of January 2020, California alone had about 151,000 inhabitants experiencing homelessness.
There are many contributors to the problem. The horrors of childhood trauma and poverty, mental illness and chronic drug abuse surely add to the likelihood that someone lives on the streets. But Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, says the primary cause of the crisis is simple: Housing has gotten way too scarce and expensive.
* Still doesn't mean they aren't treated badly in CA
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 22:23 utc | 82
i have found these books i have read of authors writing while serving a long prison term, or afterwards - especially insightful.. they seem to give me a better perspective on life in general...
Posted by: james | May 26 2022 21:35 utc | 74
The great Donald Goines is in a class by himself, imho. I know of no finer exemplar of jailbird literature, seriously. I read a lot, but the images Goines leaves me with are as memorable as anything from Dickens or Tolstoy -- that is: it's the kind of literature that really sticks with you. That's a test of serious vividness, or perhaps vivid seriousness, as in Goines' Dopefiend, and Black Girl Lost. Transcendent novels, in my humble experience.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 22:26 utc | 83
@ Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 15:08 utc | 15
There have been lots of expressions of hope by users on this site regarding the new Australian government. They're all -- I'll put this gently -- naive. Check out the Australia-related articles on the World Socialist Website (wsws dot org); these (genuine) Trotskyists understand what Albanese and his gang are all about.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 15:18 utc | 17
That's a bit condescending malenkov.
Don't confuse naivety with openness to change.
I'm not interested in being a depressed armchair critic. I try to work positively but not naively with the conditions we have here. And that includes supporting any true socialist movement and anyone in parliament with a conscience. My own take on grass roots socialist movements is that we need to be compassionate inclusive and cooperative. Not divisive, abstracted and ideological.
in the light of this, I'm not too sure about Trotsky and the WSW, however the series of articles about Aus politics by Oscar Grenfell is quite good (i'd never heard of him)
Posted by: K | May 26 2022 22:33 utc | 84
Try "Borstal Boy" by Brendan Behan, james.
Posted by: bevin | May 26 2022 22:35 utc | 84
There you go, I remember that one.
Then there is "In the Belly of the Beast", by Jack Henry Abbott,
and
"You Can't Win" by Jack Black
Posted by: Bemildred | May 26 2022 22:40 utc | 86
Hence we can all see just how (not genuinely) important the "woke" segment is to corporate America when profits and share prices are concerned. After the NFL blackballed Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the anthem, and in the wake of the George Floyd protests, the NFL suddenly reversed its policy and is using "woke" to sell itself. We can count on them to abandon this when it's no longer a perceived selling or virtue signaling point. Corporate America will brand itself as left-leaning (fake, really just faux woke) when it is convenient and considered profitable. They will also fire or cancel any celebrity on their platforms for speaking out in dissent of the status quo narrative (Phil Donahue), especially when a war looms, because they are 1) captured by the US surveillance/security state and 2) owned by the same majority shareholders who also control the big "defense" contractors; i.e., part of same portfolios as Rayetheon et al.It's far from a coincidence that Netflix axed mainly the "woke" departments. And it's very likely that it wasn't a political decision.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 22:14 utc | 79
A consistently underestimated aspect of the success of the gay liberation movement is the role of money. While gays (and lesbians) have been traditionally paid less well than their heterosexual counterparts (less job advancement in corporate offices, for instance), they have more disposable income, as the likelihood of their having children is drastically less. This is all still true, if considerably less true than in, say, the 1960s.
In fact, this may have been the turning point in the gay liberation movement: the moment when gays ceased to be ghettoized perverts and became a marketing demographic. Coors -- the beer company -- is instructive: THe family foundation is notorious for donating to antigay groups like Focus on the Family, but the beer company itself, long before it became part of the Molson conglomerate even, started bragging about nondiscriminatory hiring practices and gets all rainbow-y at just about this time of year (just in time for the Pride Parades).
Which is to say that the change of heart has everything to do with money, and if gays suddenly became as marginalized a community (i.e., one with a greater prevalence of outright poverty) as some of the others, Coors would dump them just as Netflix is dumping their more marginalized communities. Fortunately beer ads and minor sponsorships cost less than teevee program development, I guess. The situation at Netflix must be particularly dire if they're dumping LGBTQ programming as well . . . but then all one needs to do is look at recent developments in the Netflix share price.
This isn't to say that there hasn't been greater and even broad acceptance of sexual orientation difference in the American public -- but it would be foolish to think that the change of heart was effected solely by moms deciding to love their gay sons.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 22:41 utc | 87
Housing has gotten way too scarce and expensive.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 22:23 utc | 81
Not really. In every city in US America, there's way more housing capacity sitting vacant than there are vagrants to house in them. This is especially true where property values are most expensive, as here in the SF Bay Area. The glut of empty retail space around here is astonishing -- hardly any of the little family restaurants on San Pablo Avenue have held on through this pandemic. But that's not what I'm talking about. Look around and you'll see empty houses flipping between investors, with the condo-units just sitting there. All this housing has to sit vacant while people sleep in the street, because absurd cruelty is not a bug where I live; it's a feature.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 22:43 utc | 88
james...playing jazz in Nanaimo Bars sounds like a sweet life.
Posted by: bevin | May 26 2022 22:44 utc | 89
Before there can be any serious talk of "International Laws" or 'rules based order' the outstanding injustice of the international system must be addressed. Ramzy Baroud relentlessly advances the case of Palestine, which is the cause of all people of good will.
"...Israel is now an apartheid state in the real meaning of the word. Israeli apartheid, like any such system of racial separation, aims at protecting the gains of nearly 74 years of unhinged colonialism, land theft and military dominance. Palestinians, whether in Haifa, Gaza or Jerusalem, now fully understand this, and are increasingly fighting back as one nation.
"And since the Nakba and the subsequent ethnic cleansing of Palestinian refugees are the common denominator behind all Palestinian suffering, the term and its underpinnings are back at center stage of any meaningful conversation on Palestine, as should have always been the case."
https://dissidentvoice.org/2022/05/right-of-return-nakba-are-back-on-palestinian-agenda/#more-129927
Posted by: bevin | May 26 2022 23:02 utc | 90
Posted by: Rae | May 26 2022 20:59 utc | 68
The vast majority of people in america dont have $500 in savings for an emergency, but I am expected to believe that they have the resources to "sit out" because of mandates they dont like?
This is america, where if you dont have money, you dont have anything. Period! I dont like it, but that is reality.
And obviously, nobody else can explain this "phenomena" either, or at least nobody has felt the need to offer up a feasible answer.
As I said, incredibly baffling.
Posted by: David F | May 26 2022 23:07 utc | 91
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 22:43 utc | 87
The glut of unoccupied commercial real estate is exactly due to pricing being too high.
I have relatives in California who struggled for years to find a house they could afford (barely) and that they liked. There is a definite shortage of affordable real estate in CA and many other places in the US and Canada.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 23:08 utc | 92
There is a definite shortage of affordable real estate in CA and many other places in the US and Canada.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 23:08 utc | 91
Affordable, available, empty... these concepts are not acts of God. The meanings behind these words are decisions concerning whether housing will be affordable (etc.) for human beings, or whether it's more appropriate for real-estate to function as some kind of monetary backstop, like gold. Money doesn't have much else left to hang onto, these days. So there's no room for you poor people under any of these roofs. These roofs were erected for finance, not for you.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 23:17 utc | 93
In a continuing effort to p*ss off the nations of the planet, the US in what the Iranians have called an act of international piracy has seized an Iranian tanker. I'm sure repercussions will follow that will cement the American PR machine that the Iranians are indeed terrorists and deserve to have their oil stolen.
Now if they Iranians had played nice and agreed to sell the US the oil, I'm sure none of this wouldn't have happened, or maybe not. You will follow our "rules of international order, or else".
The circular logic of all of this is insane, and will lead to further isolation to the land of the free (to steal).
Posted by: Michael.j | May 26 2022 23:22 utc | 94
The vast majority of people in america dont have $500 in savings for an emergency, but I am expected to believe that they have the resources to "sit out" because of mandates they dont like?This is america, where if you dont have money, you dont have anything. Period! I dont like it, but that is reality.
And obviously, nobody else can explain this "phenomena" either, or at least nobody has felt the need to offer up a feasible answer.
As I said, incredibly baffling.
Posted by: David F | May 26 2022 23:07 utc | 90
Or maybe not quite so baffling. The Federal Reserve statistic usually trotted out, from 2019, is that 49% of Americans have less than $400 in emergency savings. Even if we ignore the unemployment statistics, which are highly fraudulent, and look at the more realistic-seeming labor participation rate, we have 62.2% from just last month. One can't therefore assume that those lacking emergency funds are necessarily those playing hooky from the labor market. My anecdotal experience suggests otherwise: I know lots of people, at the local supermarket for instance, who were terrified of COVID when it was a Huge Thing in 2020, but couldn't afford to stop working. Now that it isn't much of a Big Thing anymore, well, they're still working.
Since the government is unlikely to do it for us, I hope there's a squad of budding young sociology doctoral hopefuls collecting decent data on who is "sitting out" and why. I imagine a lot of these have more than $400 in emergency savings, or if they don't, they have Mom and Dad, or are handling their debts the good old fashioned way: credit cards, or are relying on spousal income (in cases that have more to do with "take this job and shove it" than with COVID). Or they're on the street: even in my small town I see them on every major intersection or shopping center exit, and this simply wasn't a small town thing two years ago.
Posted by: malenkov | May 26 2022 23:43 utc | 95
Posted by: c1ue | May 26 2022 13:57 utc | 8
A nanoscopic twinge of guilty conscience . By the very bad reformed sisters of "Standard Oil". Currently guilty of stealing from and completely ripping off the entire Trucking industry and motorists of the "Union of the Soviet States of Amerika". By excessive free market(fake). By price gouging and excessive profiteering,,,,
To deflect the blame. The bad sisters of "Standard Oil". Have hired the second generation of bad pooaganda writers and gasbag talking heads. All of whom had been hired by "Bad Tobacco Industry". To blame "Sleepy Joe" ! Thus evade public notice they steal from the end user on a daily basis.
Clearly the vast majority current residents plus imported slaves of the "Union of the Soviet States of Amerika" . Are mostly mindless drones and dim one thought a time mononeuron bulbs. Since these dimwit residents. Prefer daily lies, fake news and a daily doses of poopaganda . Supplied by vested corporate interests to fool the brainwashed mononeurons often.
The double irony is in reality "Diesel fuel", the first off the refinery stack. Should be cheaper than petrol. How ever.....lol
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | May 27 2022 0:03 utc | 96
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 26 2022 23:17 utc | 92
Oh, I completely agree. Homes and retail/commercial space are mainly built as investments, not to provide needed space for viable small businesses and people. Just another facet of the FIRE sector dominated inverted totalitarian economy and way of life we find ourselves living.
Regardless, something has to break at some point. As we stand, too much real estate - and especially homes and small retail - is too unaffordable to too many people. This greatly contributes to the homelessness crisis in both CA and elsewhere.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 27 2022 0:05 utc | 97
MIKHAIL BULGAKOV
MASTER AND MARGARITA
RICHARD PEVEAR AND LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY
ENGLISH TRANSLATION AND NOTES
CHARLIE STONE
ILLUSTRATIONS
JOSEF NYGRIN
PDF PREPARATION AND TYPESETTING
free pdf here
file:///C:/Users/MAIN-U~1/AppData/Local/Temp/bulgakov-master-and-margarita.pdf
Posted by: downtownhaiku | May 27 2022 0:05 utc | 98
The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov
Translated from the russian by Michael Glenny. Published by Collins and Harvill Press,
London, 1967
free pdf here
file:///C:/Users/MAIN-U~1/AppData/Local/Temp/bulgakov-master-and-margarita.pdf
Posted by: downtownhaiku | May 27 2022 0:09 utc | 99
@c1ue #9
The only thing about Proton mail, like Nord VPN is that if you have a centralised entity that exists to allow people who want (For whatever reason) their use to be secure, surely that makes them a very easy singular point of attack or infiltration by intelligence services.
All the most interesting email inboxes with all the most scandalous things are all on there.
Posted by: Altai | May 27 2022 0:11 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Thanks to all those who post in good faith and thanks to b for the environment. When I read a powerful thread here I know that I am part of something greater than myself. Some call it the Tao, some call it God. For myself, a militant agnostic, it is the Overmind. In the end call it what you like. Transcendence is a gift from the many to the one and I wish my gratitude to be known.
Posted by: Foxbat | May 26 2022 13:31 utc | 1