The comments section has “previous page” and “next page. Perhaps it would be interesting to also have a “single page”, for easy searching.

Posted by: Passerby | Jun 16 2022 18:05 utc | 104

Putin’s crimes are positively infinite…
https://www.insider.com/tampon-shortage-what-you-need-to-know-2022-6
And just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted the availability of plastics and absorbency materials needed for tampons, it impacted cotton. Both nations are major exporters of fertilizer, which is needed to grow cotton, CNN reported.
….can i humbly beg all American women to forgive all Russian men for this transgression? Well, if this wording is not a transgression of its own. Because, you know… https://twitter.com/SouthernKeeks/status/1536426897957130242

Posted by: Arioch | Jun 16 2022 20:38 utc | 106

US media other than Fox News (which of course puts a huge anti-consumer/citizen spin on it) is not covering the unprecedented Republican Senate blockage of Biden nominees, including one erstwhile left-leaning FCC chair.
https://fair.org/home/action-alert-urge-msnbc-to-cover-biden-fcc-pick-blocked-by-big-media/
Tucker calls her “radical” and “scary” which is enough reason for me to take a closer look at someone who’s probably exactly what the FCC needs. Carlson is right about one thing, and one thing only – ever – his mostly pretend anti-war beliefs.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 16 2022 20:49 utc | 108

Before the proxy war in Ukraine, my appreciation of Pope Francis was profound, mainly because of his great ecological encyclical Laudato Si.
I’ve read it many times. In times like these — “that try men’s souls” — recent readings lead to fresh conclusions. I struggle to reframe familiar words into today’s context, newly illuminated by the volcanic eruption of thousand-year-old Russophobia. Thinking on my feet was never meant to be easy — not to mention writing at the same time!
Now I’m faced with re-interrogating this beautiful work — transformative in my life. Burning questions such as “Is it all just a pretty façade — wallpapering for imperialist hypocrisy?” really do burn through actual calories. Michael Welton just published some thoughtful reflections, to help me along:
The Critical Theory of Pope Francis II: The Gospel of Creation (Laudato Si)

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 16 2022 20:56 utc | 110

Serious and casual investors see Jerome Powell stomping hard on the brakes, “even if it causes a recession” (?!) as they say. We’ll soon see.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 16 2022 20:31 utc | 105
Good one from PCR on this: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/06/16/betrayed-americans/

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 16 2022 21:38 utc | 112

Gazprom had to stop 2 gas turbines on compressor station due to Rospotrebnadzor’s (regulator body in Russia) demands on technical conditions requiring planned repair and diagnostic, and blamed Siemense compliance on sanctions.
https://ria.ru/20220616/gaz-1795815000.html
“North stream 2 is already pressurized and filled with gas, and it can be transported to the Germany, but it is not operational becuase of certification problems” said Miller
Extract from Garprom head Miller speech during Saint Petersburg Economic forum (google translate is needed)
https://tass.ru/ekonomika/14933169
“First we sold gas, then we got it. Our goods are our rules. We don’t play games whose rules we didn’t come up with,” Miller stressed.
You may come up with your own conclusion whether all this move is intentional or just a coincidence.
————————————–
Recently released photos of 2 USA mercenaries caught by Russians in Ukraine:
https://t.me/ssigny/28390
US DoD replied that “we are aware of this fact and monitoring situation …”
yet, there are some rumors about third USA mercenary caught today by Russsion too.

Posted by: asehi | Jun 16 2022 23:51 utc | 114

Posted by: asehi | Jun 16 2022 23:51 utc | 114
Until last night, despite months of Macron’s equivocation, and the EP enthusiastic vote for UA candidacy, I was willing to entertain Team MoA’s EU6 “face saving” Ukraine solidarity Polish rump-roast conclusion to PUTIN’WAR with Austin sympathy — mostly because I am not fluent in psycho.
But this evening, I just can’t: Germany, France, Italy back EU candidate status for Ukraine. I’ve no reason to be surpised by a psychotic break from reality “read out” tomorrow by vdL. After all, the pretexts for inciting UA is utterly inexplicable: (1) EU energy independence (not: sanitizing RU gas through UA antique transit); (2) Pandemic Recovery (not: exporting raging eurozone sanctions *flation to ROW); (3) Fit for 55 and REPowerEU (not: stocking COAL rations with 4Q2020 60% freedom molecules); (4) indivisible security (not:All power to the Councils treaty reform”); (5) UA Reconstruction?!! (not. just, no.) No sane person could fall twice for Ukraine’s sabotage, assisted by Habeck’s € 10B payola cut to Seimens Energy AG rehearsing for the ROLE of Gazprom Germania under new management–Securing Energy for Europe GmbH.
EU is all in. ENLARGEMENT, not colonization. Beyond redemption.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 17 2022 1:12 utc | 116

China’s new aircraft carrier 003 Fujian has launched.

Posted by: too scents | Jun 17 2022 4:45 utc | 118

RUSSTRAT

And, since we are at the forefront of a hybrid war, we can really assume that war with the West is going on for the fate of humanity. And the West today has no image of the future. Universal chipisation, artificial intelligence and dehumanisation, LGBT people, the destruction of the family, the termination of all forms of human identity – this is an image of death, not the future. This is what the West brings us. Since we are in direct confrontation with it, we can assume that we are really fighting for the preservation of humanity.

~ Sergey Glazyev

Posted by: Tyrus | Jun 17 2022 8:58 utc | 120

~ Sergey Glazyev
Posted by: Tyrus | Jun 17 2022 8:58 utc | 120
Wow! Says it all. But as a lifelong resident of the Empire of Lies cannot help but wonder if that just isn’t a good line for the other side to take and their true agenda isn’t basically the same but with their bad guys in charge instead of ours.
Wish I didn’t think this way but…
It would help if they started to spell out their vision for the future not just trash unipolar model which clearly is for the scrap heap and the sooner the better.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 17 2022 12:19 utc | 122

ALL OUR PLANS ARE THREATENED’
Their madness and rage when Corbyn inadvertently won party leadership than not only refused to stand down but rewon an unprecedented challenge within a year aided by half a million supporters joining a party finally returning to its post war senses; and than a snap election which blew up in their faces with mass registration and votes which their simple postal vote manipulation barely kept him out in 2017.
The New Musical Express got CANCELLED and their staff got scattered as punishment.
It fell on the whole deepstate and media moguls and MANY infiltrators in the Labour Party to yet again engineer a totally stitched up , unprecedented, mid December election which would not fail to defeat Corbynites through fair means and foul – mass postal vote fraud.
So that he would have to step down and they could gain control over the Official Opposition party again for the future of contrived free elections and supposed democracy.
As our secret policeman Dearlove said ‘the election of Corbyn as PM threatens ALL OUR PLANS’!!!
As his partner in crime Pompeo said a GAUNTLET was set against Corbyn from America a overt statement of interference in free elections in another country, a western one and the home of the City!!
Not a murmur from anyone because the MSM ignored it. As they and the social media propaganda machinery sold dark ads and lies about Corbyn.

Posted by: V123ren@gmail.com | Jun 17 2022 12:31 utc | 124

Saw this on ZH:
(Aus’s energy minister) Chris Bowen isn’t having any of Uhlmann’s ‘wind doesn’t always blow’ rhetoric.
(continuing to say…)
“the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment”
From a country that generates more than half their electricity from coal.
Politicians are a limitless source of wind.

Posted by: Parfum | Jun 17 2022 12:34 utc | 126

@Cabe #74
Re: Buttigieg and Harris
I think you are underestimating the value “charisma” and “popularity” have in Democrat party decision making. Was Biden the most charismatic and/or popular Democrat in the field? I am not sure he was even top 3.
Re: gas
I don’t see $10 gas. I do see $8 or even briefly, $9 national average gas. But even $6 national average gas is recordmaking. The main reason I don’t see $10 gas is that demand destruction is definitely occurring – but of course the absolute amount of demand destruction possible in the US economy is not nearly as much as people think.
Re: economic meltdown
This is one of those terms that need to be defined before discussing. I see what’s coming as a reprise of the 1970s. Is that an economic meltdown as opposed to say, 2008? My view is no, although years of stagflation aren’t fun either – and this one is going to include the (largely negative) effects of de-dollarization.
Re: elections
Meh. What is Russiagate but the contesting of the 2016 election?
Nor is Russiagate groundbreaking – don’t you remember the year 2000 chads?

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 17 2022 13:44 utc | 128

@Arioch #95
The Baikal cannot “drag and drop” to be manufactured elsewhere; every fab including internal TSMC fabs vs each other – have different process characteristics.
Any design will have to be recharacterized and tweaked to work in a different fab/process.
On the other hand, 28 nm is well behind leading edge these days so the process is likely not nearly so involved as designing into any leading edge.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 17 2022 13:48 utc | 130

Today we read on antiwar.com that the US/Israel are planning more air strikes on Syria.
Why is it that Russia cannot defend Syria against these airstrikes?
https://news.antiwar.com/2022/06/16/report-us-secretly-reviews-and-approves-many-israeli-airstrikes-in-syria/

Posted by: Saggy | Jun 17 2022 13:54 utc | 132

More climate change fun:
A book review of ‘Is It Getting Hotter In Fresno

Throughout the book, Christy’s uncompromising integrity is obvious as he devotes several chapters to explaining how and why temperature data MUST be adjusted before any comparisons between weather stations can be meaningfully evaluated. He readily admits however those adjustments are part science and part an art form, requiring a thorough knowledge of the landscapes surrounding each weather station. Without understanding those landscape effects Christy warns “the adjustment procedure is heavily influenced by what the scientist expects. So rather than objective information, we have pre-determined information>”
…
Christy saw firsthand how each change in the location of Fresno’s weather station brought it to a new landscape. He witnessed the effects growing urbanization on various areas of the region. Too many climate skeptics readily assume all adjustments are driven by a political bias. Indeed, without a thorough knowledge of the surrounding landscape changes, applying a one-size-fits-all algorithm and the expectation that any warming must be driven by rising CO2, will certainly bias temperature adjustments. But good skeptical climate scientists, like John Christy, understand there are several important variables affecting weather, and good adjustments must be made.
…
Image of Yosemite temperatures, 1900 to 2010
[note that despite global warming/climate change, Yosemite has not reached the 1930s “maximum” temperature peaks still but the “minimum” temperatures have been steadily increasing and eclipsing the 1930s levels]
Fresno Tmax record
Fresno Tmin record
Using Christy’s adjustment methodologies, maximum Fresno temperatures declined as did Yosemite’s between 1930 and 2010, while minimum temperatures behaved very differently, steadily warming. After accounting for urbanization effects, he concluded, “I have more confidence that the natural climate of Fresno has not warmed over the past 130 years and the upper bound of the natural TMAX (maximum temperatures) would be about +0.05 °F/decade.” And despite the uptick since 2010, there has been no statistically significant daytime warming in Fresno.
In contrast there has been a significant rise of 0.51°F /decade in the minimum temperature. As illustrated in the lights of the satellite photo, the current location of Fresno’s weather station (KFAT) is the Fresno airport located in the heart of Fresno’s increasing urban heat island. Due to human alteration of that landscape, KFAT is now 6°F warmer than in the late 1880s. Clearly maximum and minimum temperatures are being driven by different dynamics.
…
Days of T>99.5 vs. Days of T<32.5, per year
[This shows the extreme divergence in behavior in Fresno maximum temperatures vs. minimum]

As I’ve noted many times before: the global increase in average temperature is highly misleading because it isn’t a unilateral shift up across the board. It is an increase of the daily minimum temperatures without a corresponding increase in the daily maximum.
The main reason that Christy and others suspect that it is urban heat island effects as opposed to greenhouse gas effects is precisely because greenhouse gas effects should be consistent throughout the day: more greenhouse gas means more greenhouse effect regardless of time of day.
Daytime means more energy(sunlight) coming in, reflecting off the ground as infrared, then getting “greenhouse gased” while night-time, you should see the same re-radiation relative impact.
But the data isn’t showing this.
Thus either the greenhouse effect during daytime is getting offset somehow or else it isn’t the primary driver of increasing temperatures.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 17 2022 14:07 utc | 134

The new report suggests “A very significant proportion of methane emissions appear to be caused by a small number of super-emitting leaks.”

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/the-us-oil-and-gas-industry-has-a-methane-problem-1031523342?op=1
… with some leaks in California heavy enough to ignite! It’s beyond senseless that our system allows us to condemn the planet with carelessness, like this — but it goes on and on. Powers that be, in the oil industry, won’t lift a freaking finger to even model compliance with toothless, performative laws and regulations. They are not even required to monitor methane emissions from their facilities, and the government doesn’t do it either.
Basically nobody is systematically monitoring methane leaks, so it’s Katey bar the door, folks! Once in a blue moon, we see airplane or satellite surveillance reading out the usual huge non-surprises: astonishingly massive leaks. So long as the usual authorities decide when to do something about this, such insane carelessness — global fossil nihilism — will continue.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 17 2022 14:11 utc | 136

To put the above comment on ‘balls’ in an appropriate context, the Most Honourable Ms Penny Wong has been in a long-term lesbian relationship. Make of that as you will.

Posted by: Ant. | Jun 17 2022 14:35 utc | 138

“…Ward Churchill is the finest exponent of gonzo history I can name. Churchill made it okay for scrupulous historians to get really angry.”
Aleph_Null@139
NOTE to all: That is WARD Churchill. Ward not Winston.

Posted by: bevin | Jun 17 2022 14:53 utc | 140

you submitted your paper yet clue? refuting human caused global warming? oh wait, you’re not gonna try cause the evil scientists will suppress you. the Best scientists tried to find an alternative explanation. newsflash, they didn’t, and the fossil fuel companies haven’t funded a comparable study yet. that lying scumbag Watts said he would retire if the study supported the consensus science, and it did, and he is still selling bullshit about climate change.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Jun 17 2022 14:57 utc | 142

@143
To no-one’s surprise, they are all just political animals that care only about theirselves and their own corrupt future.

Posted by: Ant. | Jun 17 2022 15:29 utc | 144

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 17 2022 14:38 utc | 139
re Gonzo: gotcha…

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 17 2022 16:58 utc | 146

@Aleph_Null #136
50,000 parts per million = 5%
Now let’s see how much methane would have to be leaked in order to raise the concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere by say, 100%
Present methane presence in atmosphere by volume: 1.7 parts per million
volume in atmosphere: 51000 trillion liters
1.7 parts per million of that is 86.7 billion liters – so we would need 86.7 billion more liters of methane to double the presence of methane in atmosphere.
1000 liters per cubic meter – so 86.7 million cubic meters of methane needed to double atmospheric methane levels, assuming no extra leakage.
World consumption of natural gas = 3.8 trillion cubic meters
86.7 million/3.8 trillion = 0.0023%
Seems that the leaks can’t possibly be anywhere close to 50,000 parts per million on an industry wide basis, otherwise we would already see it in atmosphere.
Furthermore, the methane that is already there, is not only released by humans. IPCC estimates 40% is natural. Of the remainder, it isn’t all natural gas producers: there’s land use, there’s cows, etc etc.
The usual nonsense alarmist enviro article.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 17 2022 17:59 utc | 148

@ c1ue | Jun 17 2022 17:59 utc | 148
Can anybody translate post 148 into something coherent or comprehensible? Clueless One thrashes about so; I honestly have no idea what to make of it.
We can start with the greenhouse effect. Anti-science barflies dispute even that much, though the science is 200 years old. Can we at least inhabit a common universe in which there exists a greenhouse effect? From there, can we accede to commonly-accepted calculations for methane’s Global Warming Potential (GWP) respective to CO2?
Probably not. We probably can’t even get to the grown-up desks. In which case you can’t expect grown-ups to join in your silly kindergarten disputes.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 17 2022 18:44 utc | 150

4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people
According to Cipolla, we continually forget the danger that stupid people represent. He says that “Stupid people are dangerous and unfortunate because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand a stupid behavior.”
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people
According to Cipolla, we continually forget the danger that stupid people represent. He says that “Stupid people are dangerous and unfortunate because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand a stupid behavior.”
——————-
Typical garbage pseudo-analysis. If non-stupid people make the same error again and again, can you remind me how they were classified as non-stupid?
A rigid classification all too easily leads to self-contradiction, like omnipotent God being able to create a stone so heavy that He cannot lift it, or not being able to do it.
Anyway, creatures are endowed with nerve system so they find nutrients, partners and other necessities so successfully that they reproduce before they die, with sufficient frequency. As the mental resources are limited, we must prioritize and invariably, the prioritization may fail in one way or another. A failure may seem like stupidity. Consider nutrients and safety. Neglecting either one may cause death. Being too shy makes you run away too easily, leaving too little time to munch grass. However, being too bold can lead to grazing on the other side of a roadway, and becoming roadkill on the way back to your burrow — not a personal experience, but I have witnessed the prelude and the result. His transit Gloria woodchuckoviensis.
Presently, our glorious leader pick a fight with a certain Putin, and is deeply surprised that that fellowed has found the time and ability to create inflation where none was before. Intellectually, it is comparable to crossing the highway to find better grass, and neglecting the necessary precautions on the way back. At this point, the salient issue is not stupidity or cleverness, but if Democrats, clobbered in the coming elections so badly that there will be no well funded think tanks left to nurse them in their political exile, will develop correct Pavlovian aversion to such adventures?

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 17 2022 20:37 utc | 152

https://www.insider.com/tampon-shortage-what-you-need-to-know-2022-6
And just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted the availability of plastics and absorbency materials needed for tampons, it impacted cotton. Both nations are major exporters of fertilizer, which is needed to grow cotton, CNN reported.
….can i humbly beg all American women to forgive all Russian men for this transgression? Well, if this wording is not a transgression of its own. Because, you know… https://twitter.com/SouthernKeeks/status/1536426897957130242
Posted by: Arioch | Jun 16 2022 20:38 utc | 106
Maybe Prince Tampon and recepticle, his Consort of the Order of the Garter, will show some concern.

Posted by: tucenz | Jun 17 2022 23:10 utc | 154

@ c1ue | Jun 17 2022 19:49 utc | 151
Notably omitted from the customary insult-response of our resident rentier extractivist: any mention of the greenhouse effect — this is not accidental. This is what deliberate ignorance looks like. There’s no possible means of ever breaking through to the deliberately ignorant. I know: I was brought up by people of this stripe.
Clueless One’s intellectual dishonesty and cowardice is on full display whenever the greenhouse effect is mentioned. For some reason, they want to appear scientific while eschewing all pretense of putting the cart (data) before the horse (conclusions). Can they just admit out loud to their anti-science hostility? That would at least be honest.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 17 2022 23:48 utc | 156

Deliberate objectivity: putting the horse (data) before Decartes.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 18 2022 0:38 utc | 158

Below is a Xinhuanet posting that I would like to find more information about….any China folks at MoA that can provide more detail?

BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) — Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Friday presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to deliberate on a report on the rectification of problems discovered during an inspection over financial institutions.
The CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core attaches great importance to the inspection, and regards the work as a strategic institutional arrangement for advancing self-revolution of the CPC and exercising full and rigorous governance over the Party, said the meeting.
Recognizing the progress in the inspection and rectification of the financial institutions, the meeting said some major problems and risks have been resolved, while violations of Party disciplines and laws have been punished.
The meeting called for deepened understanding of financial work principles and enhanced Party leadership over the financial work to forestall and defuse financial risks and carry out further reform and innovation.
The meeting stressed strict adherence to relevant disciplines, and urged a long-term mechanism to provide a strong political guarantee for the healthy development of the financial sector.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 18 2022 4:35 utc | 160

Some good questions being posed on a trip to Turkish historical site.
One being, “How did these columns get buried when they are already on a hill ?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTQBI1cve6o

Posted by: Tom_12 | Jun 18 2022 8:43 utc | 162

A significant piece of news from Canadian foreign policy from June 10th, as reported by the minister for agriculture and agri-food:
“Our gov’t has announced a new Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee featuring former ambassador Dominic Barton, a champion of #CdnAg!
Thanks to his expertise, the sector will continue to play a crucial role in our economic relations with the region.”
https://twitter.com/mclaudebibeau/status/1535310608752693248
That’s Dominic Barton, former global managing partner of McKinsey & Co., former Canadian Ambassador to China (during the Meng Wangzhou saga), and current chair of RioTinto. Frank McKenna is also on that committee, who is currently deputy chairman of Toronto-Dominion Bank. It’s a large committee, the other members are listed in the attached press release.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 18 2022 13:06 utc | 164

163 waynorinorway – Thank you!

Posted by: lex talionis | Jun 18 2022 15:30 utc | 166

Free rein, that is — as with horse reins, held slack so the horse does as it pleases.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 18 2022 16:12 utc | 168

@Aleph_Null #156
As I noted long ago – the hallmark of the idiot is the inability to discuss without immediately resorting to ad hominem.
You are, as always, quick on the trigger to self identification.
This latest set of self-identification has further expanded your range to apparently include even the most modest mathematical and reading comprehension capability.
So be it.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 18 2022 20:12 utc | 170

Hi c1ue and everyone else. Thank you! I really appreciate the level of analysis and respect for one another, even when there are deep divisions in opinions. And please. anyone with any points of view on the “Lava Jato” car wash business in Brasil, please add. I send you my thanks in advance. I won’t fill up the message boards with individual thanks. I will save them for a big one.
That said. Thank you c1ue & waynorinorway (that is almost a palindrome. I can see the black metal band logo for your handle. Thank you!! )

Posted by: lex talionis | Jun 19 2022 0:21 utc | 172

@ karlof1 | Jun 18 2022 18:37 utc | 169
Bahrain plans to introduce the Russian payment system “Mir”
That’s a kicker — US Naval Support Activity Bahrain is situated in the (small) Kingdom of Bahrain, deep in the Persian Gulf, and is home to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (CENTCOM) and U.S. 5th Fleet

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 19 2022 2:48 utc | 174

[Spoiler alert:- This is my ongoing review of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I find it difficult to proceed without revealing elements of the plot, so for anyone wishing not to become aware of them, please shelve the following until you have gone beyond this point, readingwise.]
In sort of a reverse operation to that of Orpheus with Euridice, Margarita has suceeded in her visit to the nether regions, becoming an active participant in ghastly revelries in order to do so. Here is how I see this segment of the novel:
Bulgakov is paying tribute to a real life juxtaposition – real life in respect to his own experience; real life in respect to the experience of his ‘Master’ – as expressed on the opening, epigraphic page of The Brothers Karamazov.
On that page, at the top righthand corner of a Russian copy I have, is placed the dedication to the author’s wife, with the epigraph placed below that. To my mind, Bulgakov has noted this, and he has elaborated upon it using the satanic ball as his instrument of dedication. Which brings me to a further observation: that this satan figure, Woland, is, like Goethe’s Mephistopheles, very aware of his own ironic participation in good/evil/goodness. Which is also the full weight of Dostoievski’s novel’s epigraph, verses that are frequently meditated upon as consolation by those in anguish at a loved one’s death:

“…if a wheaten grain, falling to the earth, does not die, it remains alone, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.”

And here again is Bulgakov’s:

‘…who are you, then?’ ‘I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.’

Both epigraphs are an expression of mystery, in that they don’t explain the unexplainable; they simply present it. And Bulgakov’s being a satanic response as befits the times – his dedication is reserved to that apex in reverse, Margarita’s descent into hell.
She gets there on a broomstick, a primitive means of transportation I would recommend for its green qualities — well, not quite. The last part of the journey is by automobile; it is hell, after all.
What is happening in Ukraine is war, and war is hell.

Do you know what you have done?

[Putin’s question addressed to the west in the time of ongoing wars of destabilization]
Here we are. One last segment of the novel remaining. . .

Posted by: juliania | Jun 19 2022 12:39 utc | 176

Here is my take on Chomsky. He is controlled opposition who during the time when the Empire of Lies had no serious problems or foreign opponents, was tasked with “talking trash” about the Empire. He was a safety valve to make the Empire look democratic.
Now that the wheels are falling off and the Plebs are better informed in larger numbers, he has been tasked with damping those “conspiracy nuts” who are getting too loud.
“The Shame of Noam Chomsky & left gatekeepers”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhrZ57XxYJU

Posted by: Tom_12 | Jun 19 2022 14:37 utc | 178