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June 3, 2022
How Russia, And Putin, Are Weaponizing, Losing And Running Out Of … Everything

Moon of Alabama earlier explored how Russia was weaponizing everything. This after Donald Trump had done so many good things for Russia. Then Putin lost everything he ever might have had.

It has been getting worse since.

Now Russia, and Putin himself, are 'running out' of whatever may have been left.

Posted by b on June 3, 2022 at 07:46 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Poland can’t into spave geopolitics.
https://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=2912
LOL. Talk about lost empire phantom pains.

Posted by: Arioch | Jun 4 2022 10:32 utc | 301

I think the communist business comes up because there is such a heavy bias in favor of Putin here – mainly for good reasons I might add – that it seems that any reminders of some of the nasty aspects of Russian or Chinese communism is taken as an insult. It’s not meant that way rather to remind us that there are valid reasons for people to distrust the Russians (if they feel they are still communists at heart or because of what they did as Russians years ago) or Chinese (same).
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 3:15 utc | 256
Ok then, what valid reasons? Name the incidents that Russia or China has acted in a way that would justifydistrust in the past 20 years?
“Which means I also don’t take at face value Putin and Xi’s push for the United Nations. They don’t explain how it should work practically speaking in terms of what executive powers or not it should possess, only praise it as an ideal to strive for”.
Actually I am aware there has been a lot of dialogue on this topic and not just between Putin and Xie, there are many other signatories to the Friends of the UN. One thing I recall seeing was that nations are in favour of a completely equal vote rather than the current system of vetoes. The UN Charter is very clear so why fix it if it ain’t broke? the main intention of the signatories, as I understand it, is to actually abide by International law rather than the Empire’s Rule of Law ie do what ever the hell it wants.
“But I still don’t trust the WHO. And think that new legislation sucks”.
I’m with you on that one, it is a farce, but again with a functional UN this should be straightened out.
“So apologies for not having a clear bias.”
I find most people who criticise people here for bias have a very strong and opposing one themselves. You seem to be in that category, by your posts over time, but as you say writing is revealing so maybe you weren’t aware of how often you criticise Communism in a way that shows you don’t understand it, or the historical context and the evolution of Marxist Leninism in China, Cuba and other countries.
I am also only learning (or actually still unlearning) history. If you want to truly have an open mind then try to let go of all your pre-suppositions and be open to what you don’t know yet.
Like the poem you posted which was beautiful:
The highest goodness, water-like,
Does good to everything, and goes
Unmurmuring to places men despise;
But so, is close in nature to the Way.
If the good of the house is from land,
Or the good of the mind is its depth,
Or love is the virtue of friendship,
Or honesty blesses one’s talk,
Or in government, goodness is order,
Or in business, skill is admired,
Or the worth of an act lies in timing,
Then peace is the goal of the Way
By which no one ever goes astray.
When i read this I feel it us a great description of human life that is honourable and principled. I see socialism as the type of society that most embodies and freely enables these principles.
I am more open minded about Putin and Xie than biased. Putin is a capitalist, however I judge both on their track record which I can’t find much to be upset about given the historical context of what they have had to overcome for their countries.
In contrast I cannot think of any local or international western leader who measures up to their standard of dedication as public servants. It matters in the west what our politicians do in private, because it is always a perfect reflection of their public hypocrisy. With leaders like Xie or Putin , I don’t care because they actually do the job they are employed for, and then some. Like you are doing I’ve watched countless hours of speeches and I try to find out how these are followed up in the respective countries. Fortunately for us there are still many good English speaking independent journalists around the world. Politicians in my country are lucky if they can scratch a few words together when reading a teleprompter, that how vast the chasm is between the cultures.
I don’t know if this is a helpful reply, I apologise if I judged you harshly, to be honest when the whole world and all the media is coming down on Putin and Xie like a ton of bricks, this place is a refuge and I have no problem if its Russia and China positive, someone has to be. And I refute the notion that people here are not discriminating enough to see the failings of these nations. But just look where we are in this out of control violent world and how does it matter if China or Russia are not perfect? by what standard are they being judged?

Posted by: K | Jun 4 2022 10:34 utc | 302

Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 3 2022 21:47 utc | 192
First of all, thanks for the link.
Now I’d like to reply line-by-line to a few things, and I’ll try not to go too much into useless polemics and refrain from ideological attacks.
“There is a theme that I repeatedly raise here which is the embrace by “liberal” western society of philosophical idealism.”
In my opinion, liberalism has always been Idealist. Materialist traits were either extraneous (influence by science) or anecdotical.
Bear in mind that I follow a marxist definition of what liberalism is: Liberalism is the ideological and cultural superstructure reinforcing Capitalism, conversely, Capitalism is the economic understructure that sustains liberalism.
The core is economic liberalism, political and cultural liberalism are ideological window-dressing to entice those who don’t profit from economic liberalism, which are necessarily the majority of any population. They are accessory and incidental, the reason for their existence is that they garner political support and give opportunities for profit. The moment they’re not helpful means for those two ends, they are discarded.
“Warning to Stalinists and other weirdos who think Trotsky was a secret Zionist agent of the Rothschilds: Article written by British Trotskyists”
I’m a Stalinist and I don’t think anything of the sort. I also don’t think that anything written by Trotskyists is automatically and entirely suspect, or that anything written by Stalinists is automatically and entirely trust-worthy.
Furthermore. Reactionaries cannot care what shade of red you are, unless they can use it to manipulate you into fighting with other reds – these matters should be internal.
“The article is pretty good and touches on how the contemporary faux left (including the Frankfurter Schule) is anti-Marxist (anti philosophical materialism… “delusional” is the term I frequently use).”
First we should decide clearly what we mean by “left” in order to determine what “faux-left” means in turn.
“Left” in the parlamentarian sense inherited from the French, they are not “faux”, they’re simply the less outwardly reactionary and less privileged wing of the privileged and reactionary strata of society and political power.
“Left” in the sense of opening up of political and economic power to the whole population, they’re certainly faux. They have accepted that political and economic power should not be shared, and are scurrying all over the place to give the “whole” population anything but that.
And yes, they are delusional.
People who self-identify as conservatives might be somewhat surprised by what real modern Marxists profess and might even find some points of agreement. But I digress.”
Yes, I agree with this.
This is why they believe weird things such as “microaggressions”, in which one laughs to oneself about a Black boy’s “radically sagged” pants or an obese girl’s fluorescent hair, are attacks on par with genocide and mass murder.
Not only are they not on par, these are matters of fashion and taste – some of the pettiest concerns possible.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 4 2022 11:38 utc | 303

Don’t fix what’s not broke.
@ juliania | Jun 3 2022 22:25 utc | 201
I second the motion. This site is near-perfection, imho.
I doubt that it’s mere coincidence: MoA is simultaneously the most lo-tech and the very best hangout in the known universe. From this confluence, it’s reasonable to conclude that technology’s helpfulness has an inverse proportion to its bulkiness.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 3 2022 23:19 utc | 220
Complete agreement.
There is a mania to make everything as high-tech as possible. This makes everything frail, not to say expensive.
It is good to have the research done to be able to do so, because in some cases it will be beneficial.
But it has to be applied selectively and judiciously.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 4 2022 11:49 utc | 304

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 4 2022 6:38 utc | 281
“He urges students to stick with what was handed down to them… ”
Excellent advice. But not all of us nowadays get handed down anything.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 12:27 utc | 305

@watcher #252
Agreed. My primary reason for spending time on MoA is to read the views of all types, including those I disagree with.
This is what freedom of expression is supposed to be.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 4 2022 12:28 utc | 306

@Debsisdead #277
You have an inaccurate understanding of how easy/difficult it is for US and EU financial authorities to track money flows.
Even with the massive sanctions on Russia, there are still thousands to tens of thousands of transactions in any given day covering oil, coal, nickel, wheat, fertilizer, steel, etc etc exports and imports.
Is that $10M payment for oil? Or is it for natural gas? Or some country in Africa buying food?
It can be done, but it requires tracing far up and down sender and receiver account histories, one by one – and even a small break in continuity makes the job even harder.
For example: above said $10M deposit into a Gazprombank account is converted to rubles. But this conversion occurs inside Russia, not the US/EU and so is untraceable. This conversion doesn’t have to be $10M all at once; typically forex desks in a bank will have an aggregate target of all forex to be obtained/sold in a single day and trade towards the target, so there isn’t going to be a $10M transaction on the other side of the ruble/dollar exchange ledger.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 4 2022 12:36 utc | 307

Wow, I realize the tourist season has been on for a while here but that’s a lot of tourists in the same bar 🙂 Desperation? After 200-something posts I stopped looking.
So many suspicious characters jumping into the same little bag and some regulars dragged in as well. Maybe that also includes me now? B’s catnip is powerful stuff! 😀
Now run out, the bag is open. Learn something.
At least the one who pretended not to have (repeatedly?) seen or read (or studied?) all the posts containing the precise answers to the questions he/she asked provided some comical relief. Was that an attempt at side-channel communication? Well congratulations it sort of worked!
Nothing has changed: “the west” must deescalate to survive. It’s not because I or anyone else here says so (that would really be very stupid not to mention absolutely horrible), and in my case circumstantial is all I can be.
Okay, this will do 🙂

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jun 4 2022 12:38 utc | 308

“Left” in the parlamentarian sense inherited from the French, they are not “faux”, they’re simply the less outwardly reactionary and less privileged wing of the privileged and reactionary strata of society and political power.
“Left” in the sense of opening up of political and economic power to the whole population, they’re certainly faux. They have accepted that political and economic power should not be shared, and are scurrying all over the place to give the “whole” population anything but that.
And yes, they are delusional.
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 4 2022 11:38 utc | 301
well said.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 12:41 utc | 309

Posted by: K | Jun 4 2022 10:34 utc | 300
“I find most people who criticise people here for bias have a very strong and opposing one themselves.”
I was being criticized for being all over the place with no clear position.
I don’t understand communism or capitalism or fascism or left or right. And my impression is that nor do most people – even those who think they do. I just don’t like wars and mass murder and corrupt leadership and so forth. Hundreds of millions of lives may be cut short very soon. Russia just rolled the dice on that for all of us. China might soon as well with Taiwan.The West is run by sociopaths and morons.
I like what karlov1 posts here which offers a clear, sane path forward. But although the offer is clear it lacks specifics and so there’s quite a lot of hopium in the mix.
Meanwhile RF artillery is chewing through young Ukrainian lives, many of them related to those bombarding them. Famine looms, clearly engineered like possibly also pox which the Chinese and US scientists have been working on together like they did with covid.
Why do so many lives have to be ruined because we are seemingly unable to close down a corrupt credit cartel system?
I still smell a rat…

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 12:42 utc | 310

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 4 2022 12:36 utc | 305
True. A fact that cannot be stated to often.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 12:46 utc | 311

I’ve been rereading “Foucault’s Pendulum “. It should be mandatory reading for newbies here. It explains the believe system of most of the bar flys here
Word of the day synarchy.

Posted by: Wobblie | Jun 4 2022 12:53 utc | 312

“To refute the solipsist or the metaphysical idealist all that you have
to do is take him out and throw a rock at his head: if he ducks he’s a liar”.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 4 2022 6:54 utc | 283
Fair enough. Good point. I envy your certainty.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 12:53 utc | 313

UkrArmy conditions… About a week ago: https://t.me/boris_rozhin/50983
The dresses are… convincing.
Soldiers openly throw F-bombs at their commanders, like “i am not gonna defend street X, which you surrendered to Russians two weeks ago, check you f-ng records!”
In another news, exhausted RuArmy is going to collapse any second now.

Posted by: Arioch | Jun 4 2022 12:57 utc | 314

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2, p. 302: “How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and hard it is to undo that work again!”
According to wikiquote, that’s what he actually said. The familiar paraphrase, alas, he did not say: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.” Nah, that’s no mere paraphrase. I think Twain meant it more profoundly — possibly with a hint of reflective regret.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 4 2022 8:54 utc | 292
My own experience suggests that there is an insidious problem here. Many years ago, I made an experiment on innocent students, unwittingly. I found a much simpler way of explaining something a day or two before a lecture, and, alas, after the lecture I found a mistake. Hell on earth! I got impression that his lecture was the ONLY thing memorized by the students, and no amount of clarifications would undo it. Needless to say, there were brights students too, and I should not over-generalize, but we need to realize how memory works.
First, it is easier to remember the unusual that the usual, and good lies and unfortunate mistakes can strike a harmonic in the nerve system that makes them memorable. (My mistake make something “unnecessarily complicated” simpler, after doing that, I had to convince students that it is actually a bit more complicated.) Second, it is hard to remove such “memorable” bits, so we may discard new information that is patently contradicting (It is not so simple? Perish the thought — literally). There is an entire science, a specialty of psychology, that exploits such traits for advertising etc.
Marketing is about convincing people to pay for stuff, democracy is about convincing people to vote for you, techniques have a lot in common.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 13:13 utc | 315

Marketing is about convincing people to pay for stuff
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 13:13 utc | 313
Marketing is the distribution of goods for sale at specific locations.
Advertising is the distribution of information about goods for sale at specific locations.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 13:40 utc | 316

Henry David Thoreau inspires me to find truth:
“Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through church and state, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say, This is, and no mistake. . .`

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 4 2022 13:54 utc | 317

314
In our business, distribution of goods is the responsibility of Sales. As Marketing Director my job is researching markets, finding out what the customers want and relating what I find to R&D.

Posted by: Walt | Jun 4 2022 13:55 utc | 318

This is some Grade-A bullshit.
Germany approves constitutional change to boost military

A vast majority of lawmakers voted to put a special €100 billion military makeover fund into Germany’s constitution.
[…]
In a speech before the vote, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, whose business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) usually don’t support big government spending efforts, emphasized the significance of the step, comparing it to Germany’s decisions to rearm and join NATO in the 1950s.
“We are facing up to our historical responsibility,” Lindner proclaimed, noting that negotiations to strengthen the military were occurring at the premises of the former Reich Aviation Ministry, where “Germany’s aggressive militarism was advanced decades ago.”
[…]
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, from the SPD, said the war had shown Germany must be able to have a military that can defendits values — and aid its allies.
“We also owe that to our allies in EU and NATO now that Putin has destroyed the European peace order,” she said, adding that beyond the special fund, Germany would now live up to its NATO commitments.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 13:57 utc | 319

Intra-EU27 trade in goods
DE exports €751B
DE imports €7.6B

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 14:00 utc | 320

In our business, distribution of goods is the responsibility of Sales. As Marketing Director my job is researching markets, finding out what the customers want and relating what I find to R&D.
Posted by: Walt | Jun 4 2022 13:55 utc | 316
exactly: Marketing is the distribution of goods for sale to specific locations.
“finding out what the customers want” is an ex post facto statistical exercise, describing distribution of sales by specific locations (usually “major markets).

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 14:06 utc | 321

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 13:57 utc | 317
“We also owe that to our allies in EU and NATO now that Putin has destroyed the European peace order,” she said, adding that beyond the special fund, Germany would now live up to its NATO commitments.”
Oh what delicious irony! Every word of Trump the Barbarian’s epic takedown in those conferences with EU leaders has turned out to be right on the money!
(If you ignore the obvious fact that alignment WITH Russia and Russian gas is the no-brainer best way forward for Europe rather than remaining stuck following Pathocracy USA diktats!)

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 14:07 utc | 322

The Ukrainian forces took a bit of a beating here.
“A number of units of the Ukrainian troops lost up to 90% of their personnel in the battles for Severodonetsk and are retreating towards Lysychansk, said colonel-general Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation.
“Subdivisions MAT, having suffered critical losses (in some units – up to 90%) during the battles for Severodonetsk, retreat in the direction of Lisichansk.”
https://ria.ru/20220604/ukraina-1793161713.html

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jun 4 2022 14:14 utc | 323

two recent State Department notices:
Tomorrow, we commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, where tens of thousands of pro-democracy protestors peacefully joined together to call for democracy, accountability, freedom, and rule of law. The 50-day protest ended abruptly on June 4, 1989, with a brutal assault by the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) military. Countless were imprisoned and the number of deaths is still unknown today.
Acting Coordinator for the Global Engagement Center Leah Bray will travel to Brussels, Belgium, from June 5 to 9 and to London, United Kingdom, from June 10 to 14. Acting Coordinator Bray will be accompanied by Bureau of Global Public Affairs Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Bill Russo. In Brussels, Acting Coordinator Bray will attend the Atlantic Council’s 360/Open Summit and co-host the Technology and Trade Council’s first conference on countering disinformation. The conference will include a joint GEC and European External Action Service analyst-to-analyst workshop to improve shared capabilities to counter disinformation.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 4 2022 14:14 utc | 324

Russian fighter jets destroy US Howitzers, along with Ukrainian troops and trainers who were training Ukrainian forces on how to use them.
“Russian aviation destroyed the center where foreign specialists trained the Ukrainian military to use American howitzers, Said official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov.
“High-precision air-launched missiles struck at the center of artillery training MAT in the vicinity of stetskivka village Sumy region. In this center, the arrived foreign instructors carried out practical training of Ukrainian servicemen in the operation and fire control of 155-mm howitzers M777.”
https://ria.ru/20220604/ukraina-1793104367.html

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jun 4 2022 14:17 utc | 325

@318
You got something wrong.
Germany had a positive trade balance in 2001 (56B) and now has a trade deficit intra-Eu of -18B

Posted by: Rudi Ruessel | Jun 4 2022 14:25 utc | 326

@Sunny Runny Burger #306
I disagree with your notion that the West must de-escalate to survive.
I hypothesized, early in the SMO, that the EU’s actions were at least partly motivated because fossil fuel/Russian fossil fuel dependence would be weaponized to drive Green New Deal politics.
There is no question, whatsoever, that this hypothesis has been confirmed.
The EU has tried everything possible to cut off Russian imports reasoning that high energy prices can be blamed on Russia and also can be used to justify new spending on alternative energy.
Thus the economic suffering in the EU (and UK and US) is considered useful by the limousine liberal politicians – why de-escalate from a good situation? Especially when the suffering isn’t being experienced by those exacerbating it?

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 4 2022 14:25 utc | 327

“The United Nations has warned about a full-on global food crisis as the war in Ukraine risks aggravating inflating prices, with no end to the conflict in sight.”
If I recall correctly the West is storing Ukrainian grain in mostly Eastern European countries taking it out by road and rail, the US is also taking the grain as part payment on the Lend-Lease deal with Zelensky, a deal that was prepared a month before the SMO in Ukraine began.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/06/04/683298/un-food-crisis-russia-Ukraine-war

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jun 4 2022 14:29 utc | 328

@Debsisdead #277:

…this is why I got so angry when russia backed off by agreeing to allow euro corps to deposit in euros and gazprom converts it.

Russia has not backed off, and Gazprom is not converting anything. Let’s review the process:

  1. A European company transfers euros/dollars to its euro/dollar account at Gazprombank.
  2. Gazprombank exchanges these euros/dollars for rubles on the Moscow Exchange and deposits them into the European company’s ruble account at Gazprombank.
  3. Gazprombank transfers rubles from the European company’s ruble account to Gazprom.

Steps (2) and (3) are carried out automatically by Gazprombank on behalf of the European company based on a standing order signed by that European company. Furthermore, the payment for natural gas is considered done only after the ruble transfer to Gazprom has been made; that is, if there’s a problem with exchanging euros/dollars for rubles at the Moscow Exchange, the payment will not be considered done and the supply of natural gas to the European company will stop. While technically, it’s Gazprombank that’s doing the work, legally, it’s the European company that is exchanging euros/dollars for rubles and paying Gazprom in rubles.

The sums involved are huge, far more than what Russian bond payments require and if one of India’s or China’s financial institutions are pushed to the point of illiquidity, whole-hearted support for Russia will disappear.

Humans’ need to eat something is huge, far more than their need for anything else, and if one of the countries is pushed to the point of hunger, whole-hearted support for the West will disappear.

Posted by: S | Jun 4 2022 14:32 utc | 329

I wonder how these US weapons will fair in Ukraine, of course training will be required on how to use them.
“The Kremlin says the plan by the United States to sell armed drones to Ukraine will not change the parameters of Russia’s military operation in the ex-Soviet country.
Washington plans to sell Ukraine at least four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with Hellfire missiles to be used in battleground.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jun 4 2022 14:36 utc | 330

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jun 4 2022 14:36 utc | 328
lol am i the only one to see it?
“in the ex-Soviet country.”

Posted by: Svorane | Jun 4 2022 14:41 utc | 331

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau inspires me to find truth:… through poetry and philosophy and religion
Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 4 2022 13:54 utc | 315
LOL
An economic interpretation of the Constitution of Britain France Prussia the United States: random excerpt selction, pp 40-41 of 362

PERSONALTY IN MANUFACTURING AND SHIPPING — The third group of personalty interests embraced the manufacturing population, which was not inconsiderable even at the tim. A large amout of capital had been invested in the several branches of industry and a superficial study of the extensive natural resources at hand revealed the immense possibilities of capitalistic enterprise. The industrial revolution was then getting under way in England and the fame of Arkwritght was being spread abroad in the land. In the survey of the economic interests of the members of the federal Convention, given below, it is shown that a few leading men were directly connected with industrial concerns, although it is not apparent that the protectio of industries was their chief consideration, in spite of the fact that they did undoubtedly contempleate such a system. But outside of the Convention vehement appeals wer made by pamphleteers for protection, on the score that the discriminatory measures of Great Britain were disastrous to [British-] American economic independence.
As early as April, 1785, a memorial from prominent merchants and business men of Philadelphia was laid before the legislature of the state lamenting that Congres did not have “a full and entire power over the commerce of the United States,” and praying that the legislature request Congress to lay a proposal conferring such a power before the states for their ratification. The memorialists assured the legislature that there was a “disposition in the mercantile interest of Pennsylvania favorable thereto.”1 Among the singners were T. Fitzsimmons and George Clymer, who were destined to sit in the constitutional Convetion as representatives of the state of Pennsylvania and of the mercantile interest which they had so much at heart.
The supporters of the Constitution were so earnest and so persistent in their assertion that commerce was languishing and manufactures perishing for the lack of protection that there must have been some justification for their claims, although it is impossible to say how widespread the havoc really was. The exaggeration of danger threatened by a tariff reduction is not peculiar to our times; it was sharply marked in older days. That the consumer suffered from the lack of the protection sought in 1787 by merchants and manufactures is not apparent. …

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 14:43 utc | 332

Grey Eagle drones , like all remote piloted craft are entirely reliant upon electronic signals for observation and control, thus subject to jamming through EW!
US has already admitted RF had the most sophisticated EW jamming capabilities around!
Keep sending that crap over, US; guess the RF could use the practice!

Posted by: Garry Owen | Jun 4 2022 14:45 utc | 333

As Marketing Director my job is researching markets, finding out what the customers want and relating what I find to R&D.
Posted by: Walt | Jun 4 2022 13:55 utc | 316
[a joke, just a joke!] I wonder how long your company will stay in business.
[more serious] To prosper, companies identify what customers could want if proper communication techniques were applied. To my, the saga of “American love with SUVs” is a great example. Believe or not, the acronym stands for “sports utility vehicles”, designed for their ability to ride through difficult terrain, like farm tracks, forest roads or, more imaginatively, canyon bottoms and rugged mesas of Utah and nearby states (actual images on TV), so great for hunters, farmers, lumberjacks and suicidal maniac (driving on rugged mesas in TV ads). However, there was another need: safely driving with a larger load, something that in the old times was done with station wagons, often only minutely larger than sedans, something required by moms driving children to school or sport fields, major shopping, taking dogs for a walk, and some geniuses discovered that
there are more moms and other drivers who like safety and having larger loads now and then compared to combined number of hunters, farmers and lumberjack
you can convince them to pay extra 10 thousands dollars for the dubious benefit of SUV
Safety turned into an arms race, a zero-sum game (or worse). You want better visibility? Have a vehicle that is higher than others. Better survivability in a crash? Have a heavier and stiffer vehicle that pancakes softer and lighter cars in a collision (does not work well with concrete obstacles when stiffness works against the driver, and in encounters with metal bands on road turns where SUVs flip over rather than getting deflected).
Promoting SUVs took years of brainwashing effort.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 14:55 utc | 334

Intra-EU27 trade in goods
DE exports €751B
DE imports €7.6B
Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 14:00 utc | 318
Please use your link and correct the mistake. Intra-EU27 trade of Germany is almost perfectly balanced, unlike in 2002.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 14:58 utc | 335

Again, this is a highly experienced Western scientist / physicist making the non-materialist case.
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 3 2022 22:17 utc | 199
Whom do you want to convince with such ad autoritatem fallacy?
Such a physicist has no education in biology and especially no education in neuro-science. Such a title is indeed baloney. To compare whirlpool and water with brain and mind tells you how HIS mind is out of the reality.
Afterlife? ROTFL! It is what almost all religions are trying to sell. To enslave people at a lower cost.
https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/1782793623/ref=acr_dpx_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=one_star&reviewerType=all_reviews#reviews-filter-bar

Posted by: Olivier | Jun 4 2022 15:00 utc | 336

Micron and at least a few other posters here are sockpuppets for the same person. Here’s Micron replying to itself in what looks like a whoopsie moment, forgetting which handle is in use:
Posted by: Micron | Jun 3 2022 17:25 utc | 132

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 4 2022 15:00 utc | 337

AsiaTimes on M777 Howitzer (and more). . .

Ukraine’s Western-supplied artillery is longer range than what Russia is deploying. The US gave Ukraine 108 M777 155mm towed howitzers while Canada and Australia sent smaller numbers.
Recently the M777 has been upgraded with M982 Excalibur artillery shells that are GPS-guided. These longer-range shells – up to 70 kilometers – offer a significant advantage to Ukraine’s forces. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 4 2022 15:03 utc | 338

Posted by: james | Jun 3 2022 23:37 utc | 224
Yep. Most probably Micron == Et Tu == whatever other concern troll is about. Note that none of them have made a single post since you called it out over 100 comments ago. LOL

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 4 2022 15:08 utc | 339

Please use your link and correct the mistake. Intra-EU27 trade of Germany is almost perfectly balanced, unlike in 2002.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 14:58 utc | 333
2021 aggregate
“Intra-EU trade in goods by Member State > Table: “Exports of goods to other Member States, 2002-2021”;
“Intra-EU trade in goods balance” > Table: “Intra EU goods: exports divided by imports, 2002-2021”
algebra, bro, equals x

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 15:15 utc | 340

Cracks….
https://www.newsweek.com/western-coalition-against-russia-beginning-founder-opinion-1712690
“While U.S. and European officials won’t admit it, there is a growing rift between Washington and some European countries as to what constitutes success in Ukraine. There’s an agreement on what the ideal scenario would be: Ukraine establishing full control over every inch of its territory (including Crimea), and Russian troops withdrawing from the goodness of their hearts.
But as is often the case in international politics, the ideal is sheer fantasy, an outgrowth of our hopes and dreams rather than a reflection of reality. Therein lies the fundamental disagreement within the West. There is a divergence about what it will take to end the war in Ukraine and what a so-called victory in Ukraine is supposed to look like. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the U.K. and Poland, simply don’t buy into the logic of a ceasefire when Russia troops have the momentum in the Donbas and occupy approximately one-fifth of Ukrainian territory. “We must avoid a bad peace,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tweeted on May 25. “A badly negotiated peace for Ukraine would mean a bad peace for us all.”
For German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, however, a negotiated peace is exactly what the situation calls for. Last weekend, the two European leaders held a three-way telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and implored the Russian leader to begin a direct dialogue with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi went a step further, tabling a draft peace proposal that included an immediate ceasefire along the current front-line, to be followed by discussions over Ukraine’s neutral status, security guarantees for Kyiv and autonomy for Crimea and the Donbas. That Moscow and Kyiv rejected Italy’s proposal doesn’t paper over the fact that different European governments are starting to view the war in different ways.”

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 15:19 utc | 341

It was bound to happen, since a couple of days ago as the front line approached Svyatogorsk I feared destruction would visit the sacred place, well partially it just happened, a beautiful wooden church burnt. War may have victors but no winners, we all lose. Damned be the masters of war, the profiteers, the faceless rotten assholes behind it all. The biggest wooden church in Ukraine is gone.
https://www.bfm.ru/news/501538

Posted by: Paco | Jun 4 2022 15:20 utc | 342

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 14:58 utc | 333
Why else do you think DE-bashing has been a national pastime for 25 years in the other members of the “single market”?

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 15:25 utc | 343

Correction, the biggest wooden church in Donbass, they declared independence and are recognized not by many but by Russia which seems to be enough.

Posted by: Paco | Jun 4 2022 15:31 utc | 344

“Nearly 10000 military casualties in one hundred days from just one of the separatist militias…”
Posted by: Wobblie | Jun 4 2022 2:25 utc | 250
____
I don’t often read your posts which usually parrot Western “narratives”. Providing links to sources would help support your unique narratives and also help readers better know which from which orifice(s) you source your arguments. Then again, citing NYT, WaPo, Guardian, Wikipedia, Pentagram, etc. might also prompt readers to simply skip your posts; it could go either way.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Jun 4 2022 15:31 utc | 345

Posted by: vetinLA | Jun 4 2022 15:03 utc | 337
That’s exactly why I instructed by Z-informant at an early age to define your terms before you, ahem, propound any proposition or thesis.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 15:33 utc | 346

“Whom do you want to convince with such ad autoritatem fallacy?”
Just pointing out the guy is a scientist not a meditation master, that’s all. And there is no fallacy in terms of his authority: he DID work at CERN.
I won’t bother answering the rest. I find scornful mocking tedious moreover not worthy of reply so feel free to claim victory crowing on your rhetorical dung hill!
And keep worshiping at the shrine of materialism which has brought us all such huge whopping fallacies as random genesis evolution theory, climate change modelling, capitalism, communism and the ridiculous superstition that mind is merely an epiphenomenon of brain matter.
Posted by: Olivier | Jun 4 2022 15:00 utc | 334

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 15:37 utc | 347

@331
They’re not likely to get the models with the ‘latest and greatest’ comms package, for obvious reasons. However as it is a US tool, it likely has a satellite link directed upwards, so jamming that not so simple.
Sounds like it could be used (and wasted) for its larger payload on one-way trip attack missions, same as Bayratkar. Compared to Bayratkar, supposedly has a nice small AESA radar, which in principle has many options for use, including in passive mode / in pairs (one transmit, another receives). Though per the wiki (big grain of salt here), the range of its ground-object targeting capabilities is still too short relative to RF air defenses. In that respect, not comparable to fancier radars found on dedicated airborne platforms or pods. Regardless of use, short life expectancy as soon as it does anything other than flying low (ideally also in front of a hill, or along coastline), far away from air defenses AND perpendicular to the line of sight to air defenses (kind-of impossible in most of the existing battle zone).
That said, it could have applications for localized air defense, counter-air-defense, or anything where it can stay next to a coastline.

Posted by: ptb | Jun 4 2022 15:39 utc | 348

German KFC is running a new ad campaign: “Chicks from Ukraine are very welcome to Germany”. The posters depict a king size bed with Colonel Sanders lying under the blanket, while the other corner of the blanket is left open, inviting a Ukrainian “chick”. This is yet another proof that Euromaidan was truly the Revolution of Dignity! After all, what could possibly be more dignified than a Ukrainian woman getting plowed by rich old foreigners for food and shelter while her husband is being sent to a sure death in Donbass?

Posted by: S | Jun 4 2022 15:42 utc | 349

@Paco #341, #343
The church did not have any historical significance. It was built in 2009. I’m sure it will be rebuilt.

Posted by: S | Jun 4 2022 15:48 utc | 350

Posted by: S | Jun 4 2022 15:42 utc | 348
ewwwwwwww

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 15:50 utc | 351

@336
Sloppy reporting. M777 (and some Euro counterparts) are longer range than artillery of the same caliber. I.e. the Soviet legacy of 152mm stuff that is in abundance on the field (and are now rather depleted on the Ukrainian side).
But there are also 200mm (ish) Soviet artillery systems (again found on both sides, again depleted for UA) well upwards of 50km, and most importantly, the variety of “field-use” rocket systems, which many ammunition options that outrange the M777 even with the fancy ammunition. Plus of course the even bigger variety of long range strike stuff. Which is why UA wanted so badly the HIMARS (the MLRS type version, not the ballistic missile version).

Posted by: ptb | Jun 4 2022 15:53 utc | 352

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 14:58 utc | 333
a/b=c
751/b=98
Have you found quantity b for the year ending 2021, given in the doc –OR–destatis yet?

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 15:54 utc | 353

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 15:37 utc | 346
Why then did you bother to reply? You are saying one thing an do the contrary.
By the way your reply is full of more fallacies, the first one being the strawman fallacy.
You used the fact that he worked at the CERN when the CERN has nothing to do with biology and neuro-science, hence the appeal to authority and the fallacy.
Obviously you understand little if not nothing about evolution nor about climate change. Capitalism, white supremacism and racism are the babies of western xianism. If you want to look for lies, study the gospels. Mostly if not only terrorists were crucified by the Romans.
Educate yourself with Max Weber (capitalism) and Karlheinz Deschner:
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=Kriminalgeschichte+des+Christentums&ia=web

Posted by: Olivier | Jun 4 2022 16:11 utc | 354

“How Russia, And Putin, Are Weaponizing, Losing And Running Out Of … Everything”
Translation: America and its stooges are running out of their world famous lies and bullshit to spew.
America is truly the Empire of Lies.

Posted by: ak74 | Jun 4 2022 16:21 utc | 355

What rankles me the most is this story about cauldrons. I see that some people replied to me about this, but sorry ; the essence of a cauldron is to isolate a group of soldiers from resupply. This absolutely hasn’t been the case, the Ukrainian troops in the east seem to be resupplied without any issue, except maybe for the Severodonetsk-Lisichansk group, although the cauldron isn’t totally shut.
And the most glaring problem for me is that Donetsk is still being shelled. On 25th February many people optimistically predicted that within a week Donetsk would be safe. Three months later it’s still not the case;
Posted by: Micron | Jun 3 2022 17:25 utc | 132
A fellow alerted me to that post, because it curiously engages in a dialogue with another post with the same “handle”. But the “cauldrons” are genuinely a puzzle. Perhaps they only “look” like cauldrons?
In my language there is a word matnia used as a synonym for a very tough situation, especially when created for purpose, a trap, but literally it means a seine net: easy to get in, hard to get out. You open a net and let fish in and you close it only when you have enough fish, pulling the net out of the water turns it into a sack. Ever since Putin order the army to refrain from sending troops into Azovstal, it became clear that “force preservation” is one of his top concerns, however, there seems to be just enough Russian activity to stimulate more fish to enter the net, so the second paradigm is at work too, “asymmetric losses”.
The analogy is imperfect because the fish lack commanding structure that can order them to enter “cauldrons” or “seine nets”.
Note that Russians seem to put a lot of effort into “closing the cauldrons”, and Ukrainians resist those efforts ably and successfully, but at a cost. Especially if they need counterattacks and eagerly come in.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 16:23 utc | 356

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 4 2022 15:00 utc | 337 / 340..
thanks tom… i think they will show up again, but it is bad form to reply to yourself like micron did, lol.. cheers james
@ karl luck.. i replied to you in the newest thread… cheers..

Posted by: james | Jun 4 2022 16:24 utc | 357

Re: Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 15:54 utc | 354
Data for Germany
Intra EU trade in goods balance, 2002 and 2021
2002 ____ 2021
53 _______ -18
Exports of goods to other Member States, 2002 and 2021
363 ______ 751
Computed for Germany
Imports of goods from other Member States, 2002 and 2021
310 ______ 769

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 16:36 utc | 358

@ K | Jun 4 2022 10:34 utc | 302
Your dialectic with Scorpion is much appreciated. I might get a little Trumpster-flag vibe from your interlocutor — some discomfort for a “dirtbag leftist” recovering from a wanna-be dictator aspiring to legendary status as all-time Jabba-the-Hut of sadistic domination… I got off-track there, somewhere. In sum: That asshat Trump’s miserable pus is an offense to humanity, an excrutiatingly ugly one. Along comes Scorpion to rub my nose in any vestigial shreds I might retain of Trump-loathing, now that such deadly deep-state goons — the Straussians Sullivan, Blinken, Nuland — have seized the imminent doomsday.
My sense of both of you is you’re not stuck on your current perceptions, and honest about your struggles to understand what’s going on. Knowledge is a moving target, I think. You have to always be unlearning while learning. This is one of the advanced theological teachings — withheld from novices because easily misunderstood — in the apophatic tradition of Denys the Areopagite.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 4 2022 17:34 utc | 359

> …And Running Out Of … Everything
B is blatantly wrong here!
It is not “of everything” until we see “Putin runs out of patience”

Posted by: Arioch | Jun 4 2022 17:54 utc | 360

Posted by: vetinLA | Jun 4 2022 15:03 utc | 339
I am not very interested in “internal” definitions of liberalism – such concerns are for liberals – and as you can see the definition I gave is entirely formal.
It is also correct whether you enjoy it or not. Capitalism is the hand, liberalism is the glove.
If you want to contradict this you have two options:
Option 1: Prove that liberalism overall reinforces some other economic system, different from capitalism, over capitalism.
Option 2: Prove that capitalism overall nurtures some other ideology, different from liberalism, over liberalism.
Liberalism, at the point in history where it emerged and quickly became the vanguard of progress, was opposed to absolutism; and it was unavoidable because exorbitant royal and noble privilege were hamstringing economic development.
Now, with the capitalist system being completely consolidated, it is the turn of liberalism to stifle economic development with exorbitant business-owner and manager privilege; which again forebodes its destruction.
I don’t believe that capitalism will be displaced necessarily by socialism; I’m not convinced that history is that deterministic.
But capitalism (the economic system) and liberalism (its ideology) will eventually be displaced by something else, and eventually destroyed except as residual economic practices and residual ideology; just like slave economies are a thing of the past but slavery continued (and continues) to exist as ever-more residual phenomena.
And I do think that socialism is best positioned as next-in-line.
As a personal note, I would have infinitely more respect for capitalism, liberalism, and liberals if they had dared to finish the historical task they were born for: Abolition of monarchy and elimination of every trace of feudal society.
But unfortunately, liberals would rather marry and conduct business with those they were meant to destroy. And after some 300-400 years it is pretty clear they have become very comfortable with this state of affairs – because it is profitable, and profit is the cardinal value of liberalism.
As a result, we still have monarchies [spit] crawling all over Europe; and most liberals see no problem with it. These monarchs, their nobles and other arselickers introduce additional degrees of corruption within capitalism, and have twisted what liberal societies were meant to be; parasitizing and puppeteering them.
TL;DR: I’ll take liberals and the shit they say seriously the day they make crowns roll again 🙂

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 4 2022 17:59 utc | 361

: Scorpion | Jun 3 2022 22:17 utc | 201
“Why Materialism Is Baloney How True Skeptics Know There Is No Death and Fathom Answers to life, the Universe, and Everything” by Bernardo Kastrup.
Unless Mr. Kastrup is able to “shred” his own “non-materialism” views, he is simply another dualist hoisted on the horns of his dilemma.

Posted by: donten | Jun 4 2022 17:59 utc | 362

First, it is easier to remember the unusual that the usual, and good lies and unfortunate mistakes can strike a harmonic in the nerve system that makes them memorable.
@ Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 13:13 utc | 315
Your reflections on convincing your students brings to mind an argument I recently had with a career nurse (a dear family friend) about the placebo effect. She’d attended impressive professional seminars about so-called homeopathy, and heard some impressive claims. Homeopathy is close to the pinnacle of pseudo-scientific garbage, so physically implausible as to be difficult to top. The problem no sincere Homeopath can explain comes from Avogadro’s constant: essentially how many molecules you can cram into a given space.
Basic homeopathic theory posits: The higher the dilution, the stronger the medicine. At the highest standard dilution, 30C (one to a hundred, thirty times), because of Avogadro’s constant, you’d need a vial larger than planet Earth to retain a 50/50 likelihood of that planetary vial containing a single molecule of the diluted substance. You could not possibly distinguish such a “medicine” from a placebo, not with a mass-spectrometer. There’s no difference: homepathic therapy is placebo therapy.
But here’s where it gets interesting: Not all placebo therapies are equally effective. Throw someone a pill with no instruction whether to swallow it before or after dinner, just however — that technique of administration is provably, markedly less effective than fancy dancing. You put your left foot in, and then you shake it all about. You do as much hokey-pokey as possible to maximize placebo effectiveness. It works for people. My friend the nurse thinks it’s compassionate treatment. Still, it bugs the crap out of me, because you’re treating adults like children, you’re surrendering reality to make-believe.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 4 2022 18:00 utc | 363

the ridiculous superstition that mind is merely an epiphenomenon of brain matter
@ Scorpion | Jun 4 2022 15:37 utc | 347
It’s possible you might enjoy “The Self and its Brain: an Argument for Interactionism” by Popper & Eccles, the philosopher and the neurologist. They alternate chapters, playing discipline-volleyball in a bold plot to trap that slippery self — someplace it can be held and interrogated.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 4 2022 18:15 utc | 364

Clue: I simply don’t see them succeeding with that. Most of their efforts are nonsensical if not directly counterproductive and what little they’re proposing that could give real results take a long time to scale up.
They’re no better at this than they are at “defending” or “supporting” Ukraine.
This isn’t new.
However that’s only the current status quo and I expect things to change for the worse or for reality to become increasingly undeniable and then perhaps paradoxically if we’re lucky it will make our “leaders” (or any new ones) give in and undo the worst of their own self-injuring madness. Again: if we’re lucky, but time is running out.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jun 4 2022 18:17 utc | 365

You do as much hokey-pokey as possible to maximize placebo effectiveness. It works for people. My friend the nurse thinks it’s compassionate treatment. Still, it bugs the crap out of me, because you’re treating adults like children, you’re surrendering reality to make-believe. Aleph_Null | Jun 4 2022 18:00 utc | 363
There is no clear separation between mental and somatic. Our mental state has a part of physiology, brain is affected by molecules and it produces molecules. Knowing that you are taken care off by people who wish you well and know what they are doing may have beneficial effect, especially if those people are careful not to harm you — if a homeostatic medication is based on something harmful, it is better to dilute it so much that is harmless (does not have to be zero level). One said thing is that it is not effective for skeptical people, although in my case, projecting into possible sad future, I would feel better knowing that the nurse cares about me doing all those “fancy dancing”.
Where it touches upon politics, knowing that you are ruled by people who wish you well and know what they are doing may a beneficial effect on your health etc., and conversely, being disabused of that notion may be a serious shock with assorted effects, including but not restricted to “self-medication” (substance abuse), consolation in sexual phantasies (that may get you entrapped) and so on. That makes many, if not most, people resistant to suggestions, however true, that our rulers do not wish us well, and on top of that, they do not know what they are doing.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 18:41 utc | 366

CM of Berlin

“As a former East German, I never once felt threatened by the Soviet Union or now by Russia.”

WBerliner

“I am loosing friends arguing about anything related to media coverage of this war – or most other wars, for that matter.”

When I was still working for a US publication and this “Czech-German embassy drama” stumbled towards its climax, the editorial staff said “you’re German, you do it now. Go take a few photos there”.
I felt much more comfortable in NYC, but I couldn’t do anything being drafted back to my original homeland. First photographed all the “refugees” in Hungary, Prague, etc. and then, when the gentlemen in their dachas had still not recovered from the shock of a mutiny, they had to agree to the opening of the border… It was like it was ordered from the top…
Then, a few days later in Rostock a crew of a well-known U.S. TV station got upset that I photographed them while they had begun giving some youth 100 DM bills if they would do the Hitler salute in front of the camera…
When they saw that I also represented a US publication they wanted to make themselves important. But when I threatened to prosecute them for inciting a crime, because in Germany it is a crime to publicly display Nazi culture they shut up.
This was not an exceptional event, it was the first time I saw such thing and it has become kind of journalistic standard for all who want to survive in this profession. It’s useful footage and can be used when a situation occurs.
The photo with the Hitler salute (Hiltergruss) was published a few times till I demanded to be taken off from the agency’s stock archive. But not the photos that would explain the cause and that they had been done for lousy 100 DM. I saw all this nazi insignia posing up later in all the conflicts that followed and have in my archive from HOS (Croatia) and Kosovo. In Iraq, in the kurdisch region these sign have been standard since 2004, even this book “Mein Kampf” was on sale.
This Nazi-“culture” has sneaked into our lives without being noticed. And when you talk a bout it now openly here in France or Germany people do not care.

Posted by: Ted | Jun 4 2022 18:44 utc | 367

Arganthios@361
Consider the case of Jeremy Bentham, one of the architects of modern liberalism. And the Panopticon.
Bethan tried to sell the Panopticon in a mega project form to the British government. His reaction when he was turned down became one of the characteristics of his ‘liberalism.’
Bentham had an idea, which he also tried to get government to sponsor, of solving the problem of poverty by, virtually enslaving the poor and putting them to work in factories.
It was not a new idea but the scale he proposed was. And in 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act put the idea into widespread practice, setting up workhouses in which poor families were divided up into women, men and children and made to work. Often the children were sent to the colonies as cheap labour.
One of the neglected aspects of Bentham’s life is that his brother Samuel was a General in Catherine the Great’s army: Samuel was a valued and important aide to Prince Potemkin and one of those who helped in the conquest and settlement of what is now eastern Ukraine-New Russia. Bentham spent some time with his brother in Russia and lobbied Catherine’s court to adopt his ideas.

Posted by: bevin | Jun 4 2022 19:29 utc | 368

@Sunny Runny Burger #365
I agree they won’t succeed, but that doesn’t mean they will either recognize failure or change course.
Maybe Europe is different – the US since the 1990s is the model of failure repeated over and over again, labeled as victory.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 4 2022 19:42 utc | 369

Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 13:13 utc | 315
Alternative hypothesis about memory and the unusual and the usual.
Basics
First, when teaching it is usual to do three “passes” with information so it becomes acquired. a) Lesson, b) homework and c) repetition of the original in class. The first section makes a synaptic link (if the student is listening), which is reinforced twice. This is one reason it is tiring for kids to learn. Something physical is created which takes energy…..
Each repetition reinforces the original link. The repetition of propaganda increases the solidity of the synapse each time the original link is “used”.
Second part.
I reckon the brain has a double circuit of “software”, to process incoming information. The primary (sub-conscious) gets the info, compares it to the “already learnt” (via previous synaptic connections and neurones) and either “classifies” it as not interesting/dangerous, or, if it cannot be slotted into an existing framework, will bring it to the attention of the conscious – the you. Who will then react as deemed necessary.
Some support for this can be found as you do not “see” everything to be of the same importance. (A leaf on a tree, will be classed as “leaf-green-deja-vu” and only a notion will be remembered, if at all- But if the leaf is fluo-red then the you will notice it distinctly. Your attention will be drawn to it.
****
It is also said that to brainwash people you have to derange their sense of time, space and security. Only when they are ready, can “new” information be implanted. It is then harder to re-brainwash a second time with even newer contradictory info.
“Woke thingies and extremists” have been subjected to a form of brainwashing over a period of years, repeated ad infinitum. There is probably no easy way to correct this. As all new information HAS to fit in the framework of ideas that now forms the core of their beliefs. Anything else is rejected by the conscious, who will refer to the mass/majority opinion before it will be allowed to become added to the reserve/memory of information. Which becomes a reflex in itself as part of “behaviour required for action in case of meeting non-propaganda supported information.” (Many people literally walk away from it and do not return. Classified as “dangerous” or something)
****
This actually fits in with one theory that brain “velocity” can be explained by there being multiple computational nodes all working at the same time. Not one “linear” action by the conscious (the you). Newton, Einstein and others found fully formed “keys” during sleep, that they then expanded for the rest of us. Their brains were apparently working “independently”.
The speed of the subthreshold brain is said to be in milliseconds. “We” follow on sometime later.
***
I doubt that this hypothesis is general, as I can claim most of it.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jun 4 2022 20:16 utc | 370

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 4 2022 18:15 utc | 364
Nothing more recent than 1977?
Wiki:

In the philosophy of mind, mind–body dualism denotes either the view that mental phenomena are non-physical, or that the mind and body are distinct and separable.

I would like one example of something “non-physical”.
To separate the mind from the body? Easy, Alzheimer disease. But wait, memory is destroyed… and the “mind” as well.
Otherwise the usual arrogance of men who think that they are anything more than animals.

Posted by: Olivier | Jun 4 2022 21:57 utc | 371

I would like one example of something “non-physical”.
Posted by: Olivier | Jun 4 2022 21:57 utc | 371
If you are a materialist, the need of “non-physical” arises when we want to understand, predict etc. Suppose that the equations of physics reveal all rules that determine, up to inherent randomness, what happens in the Universe. But using those rules to fully explain behavior of even smallish molecules is too hard, so people invent various shortcuts. So even chemistry has to use “pseudo-rules” that do not work all the time, but allow to “understand”, produce and manipulate useful substances. Psychology has similar needs.
Will we understand better what makes effective political propaganda, seduction, teaching etc. if we know more about biochemistry, anatomy of nerve system (including the brain) etc.? Not necessarily. Like sailors could travel, even in Paleolithic, without knowing what is there deeper under the surface of the waters.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 22:59 utc | 372

Marketing is the distribution of goods for sale at specific locations.
Advertising is the distribution of information about goods for sale at specific locations.
Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 4 2022 13:40 utc | 316
Logistics is the distribution of goods
Marketing is the message or propaganda for the thing, idea or service you are selling
Advertising is where and how you sell the message, product or propaganda ie social media, newspapers, posters, flyers etc etc
Marketing and advertising overlap a lot.

Posted by: K | Jun 4 2022 23:46 utc | 373

I would like one example of something “non-physical”.
Otherwise the usual arrogance of men who think that they are anything more than animals.
Posted by: Olivier | Jun 4 2022 21:57 utc | 371
How about Energy = Matter x Speed of Light squared
How do you define physical? can you touch light? Taste it or smell it?
How about energy? can you see it tase or hear it?
Is abstract thinking physical?
If so how? Do brain waves equal a thought?
Humans have thinking brains but all animals including humans have intuition and psychic awareness. Can this be proven?
of course but only subjectively by participatory experience and observation.
Only abstract science and the abstract human brain requires “proof” that existence is only physical.
This to me is the biggest absurdity that an abstract brain is claiming that there is only the physical LOL

Posted by: K | Jun 5 2022 0:04 utc | 374

Posted by: bevin | Jun 4 2022 19:29 utc | 368
I had a vague notion of the panopticon thing; but really.
I was already thoroughly convinced that liberals and their ideologues are entirely devoid of ethics and morality.
Almost without fail, these “great luminaries” of thought are covetous bastards with a double-faced history climbing over piles of bodies.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 5 2022 0:11 utc | 375

I trust Russia will transfer key essentials from Motor Sich to Russian manufacturers and block supply of engines to Turkey and others. This factory is clearly vital to NATO
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 4 2022 8:47 utc | 292
IF I am not mistaken, China had started a judicial motion to get access to Motor Sich after having bought a controlling share of the Company. So China will have to take part in the decision making process on Motor Sich.
It is of utmost importance for China to obtain this jet making factory. The Chinese produce good jet engines but have trouble as the hot sections do not last long enough. Metallurgy or design, me dont know.
But htis could be a bone of contention between RF and China.

Posted by: CarlD | Jun 5 2022 1:14 utc | 376

The time seems ripe for a leadership implosion in Kiev … Lukashenko in Belarus has been commenting, so consider the source. Still it seems Zelensky has been scheming with Poland, infuriating the Ukie ultra-nationalists and NeoNazis.
Keep an eye on this… it may be a developing story.
https://www.rt.com/russia/556583-ukraine-zelensky-lukashenko-poland/

Posted by: posa | Jun 5 2022 5:26 utc | 377

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 3 2022 22:10 utc | 198
“I quite understand that position given how things turned out the past few centuries, though of course a good deal of what one has heard about the aristos is slander written by the victors and a good deal no doubt more or less justified – hard to tell.”
Look, you smarmy f***er.
I’m living under a monarchy right f***ing now.
I don’t need to look at “past few centuries” to see that monarchy is bullshit.
I can see it in f***ing realtime.
” let us assume that Putin, for example, is a great and noble leader of historical importance as many here seem to believe. […] Now what happens when he leaves public office and, later, public life altogether, finally dying? How does that heightened sense of ‘we’ continue?
Translation:
“I believe that statemanship is transmitted through semen”
This is an absurd proposition that doesn’t merit more consideration.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 5 2022 10:09 utc | 378

Posted by: K | Jun 5 2022 0:04 utc | 374
Lol, what a load of ignorant bullshit.
All those things are constitutive parts and phenomena of the material world and have always been so.
Handily and easily proven by the little fact that none of them can be found disembodied. Which is an oxymoron anyways, “finding” anything requires embodiment.
>can you touch light?
Absolutely.
The photons radiating from the lamp currently turned on in the ceiling are touching my eyes, both directly and after reflecting off the surrounding surfaces, allowing me to see.
Those coming from the sun or from the stovetop have the properties required to effect a change in temperature that goes above the threshold required to activate heat receptors.
If light couldn’t be “touched”, we would not be able to see, we wouldn’t experience heat except by contact, and shadows would not exist.
Your. Question. Is. Stupid.
“Taste it or smell it?”
Another freaking stupid question.
Nitrogen is odorless and constitutes some 80% of Earth’s atmosphere.
Whether something can be smelled or tasted or not isn’t simply a function of its intrinsic properties, it is also a function of the properties of the chemical receptors in our bodies.
How about energy? can you see it tase [sic] or hear it?
WHICH type of energy?
Again, energy isn’t something that exists disembodied.
If I throw a stone to your head, you’ll certainly “touch” the kinetic energy I imparted to it, minus the amount soaked by air resistance.
You can also try sticking a fork in the nearest power outlet on a wall, and see if you can “touch” the electrical energy flowing.
“Energy” isn’t “a thing in itself”, “energy” is a catch-all term for every sort of different properties things might have that allow them to effect changes in other things.
Is abstract thinking physical?
I don’t know, have your own brain removed and come back to tell us how it fares.
I’ll wait, judging by your post it won’t make much of a difference.
If so how? Do brain waves equal a thought?
Brain waves are an instrumental reading of brain activity, a subset of which is what we call thought.
Humans have thinking brains but all animals including humans have intuition and psychic awareness. Can this be proven?
of course but only subjectively by participatory experience and observation.
Participation, subjectivity and observation that require being somewhere, sometime, and interacting with other things. All of which are hallmarks of physicality.
Only abstract science and the abstract human brain requires “proof” that existence is only physical.
Au contraire.
Non-physicality cannot be proven, because every possible method of proof is physical.
Even mathematical theorems – they can be proven in paper, they can be proven in a computer, they can be proven in your head, they can be proven in sand – all of which are physical, and therefore their existence is embedded in the physical.
Seriously.
Go brush up on the most elementary concepts of physics.
You need it.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 5 2022 10:54 utc | 379

Eduardo Galeano, in his excellent book Soccer In Sun and Shadow, wrote in each entry for every World Cup since 1960, “Well-informed sources in Miami announced the imminent fall of Fidel Castro, it was only a matter of hours”.

Posted by: Gryunt Scarhide | Jun 5 2022 12:29 utc | 380

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2022 22:59 utc | 372
When I think, I use my brain which is working thanks to some biochemical stuffs and electricity. In hospital one body can live on without its brain. In case of a coma, death is usually defined as a flat EEG, but the body can be kept like a vegetable.
It is a common mistake done by too many scientific people: to think that nature can be reduced to mathematical models or equations. There is always a margin error. For instance there is no way to predict the exact position of the planets of our system several thousands years in advance. Biology, evolution is even a much more complex matter.
In your examples I see nothing non-physical. Only the inability to forecast complex matters. One’s behaviour depends on his memory, education, experience, values, etc. everything embedded in his brain physically through biochemistry and electricity.
Posted by: K | Jun 5 2022 0:04 utc | 374
Well, Arganthonios | Jun 5 2022 10:54 utc | 379 already answered quite well…
If E = MC2, I guess you know the meaning of the “=” sign, don’t you?
It means that energy is a form of the matter, hence energy is no example a something non-physical. From your questions, it looks like you never got a sunburn on your skin. Do you know what is the chlorophyll? Obviously plants can “taste” light and use it. Our food depends on it.
Abstract thinking? What is that? All thoughts are formed in one’s brain thanks to physical stuffs. It looks like you are not conscious of how your brain is functioning. Too bad. It is so true that alcohol and several drugs modify the way the brain is working. Look for neurotransmitters. Without them, one’s brain does not work, and you can kill one’s brain with some drugs blocking the natural transmitters or replacing them. Look for Sarin or VX.

Posted by: Olivier | Jun 5 2022 22:28 utc | 381

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