The MoA Week In Review – (NOT Ukraine) OT 2022-84

b, thank you for the Week in Review. When I read that CTV News piece about right-wing US influencers spreading Russian disinformation in Canada, I thought of how Calgary was called “Texas North” since it’s home to so many head offices of oil and gas companies. “Everything’s bigger in Texas!!”
The actual report surprised me with its… unTexan tone and feel. The number one US influencer, more than double the next influencer, is Tulsi Gabbard. So the number one Russian-influenced account, more than double the score of the next influencer, is one I hadn’t heard of before: @ richimedhurst who’s based in Vienna. Richard Medhurst. Of the report, he tweets the following:
https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1535711147407593477
“Lol look at this McCarthyist smear campaign.
I’ve been put on a list of “Russian-influenced accounts”, along with
@ggreenwald, @MaxBlumenthal,@BenjaminNorton, @TulsiGabbard
and others.
This is a paper written by people who are funded by the Canadian military.”
These are Pentagon talking points. The only way you provoke a revolution in Canada is by separating the populace from the protection of its military which reports to The Queen. They have to see the Canadian military as the enemy, and another more humanitarian military, like perhaps the one just across the southern border, as the rescuer, the heroes. (It’s slightly more effective if one of the European militaries plays the humanitarian role.)

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 12 2022 13:27 utc | 3

LBJ was in on the planning for the Israeli attack on the Liberty. Indeed, the evidence suggests that the whole thing was his idea.

Posted by: Lysias | Jun 12 2022 13:47 utc | 4

“Lol look at this McCarthyist smear campaign.
I’ve been put on a list of “Russian-influenced accounts”, along with
@ggreenwald, @MaxBlumenthal,@BenjaminNorton, @TulsiGabbard
and others.
This is a paper written by people who are funded by the Canadian military.”
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 12 2022 13:27 utc | 3
Anyone wanting to read the original document can read it at https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/sppp/article/view/75449/55875 .
If it doesn’t open, one can go to https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/sppp/article/view/75449
and click the PDF button at the right.

Posted by: Ursula Zandt | Jun 12 2022 13:47 utc | 5

Back to Bruised Northerner above, these are the five narratives that make you “pro-Russian” (and possibly someone to be analyzed by specialists) according to the paper that they sited.
The predominant narrative justified Russia’s invasion as a response to NATO expansionism. It tended to characterize the Russian invasion as a reasonable or expected consequence of the military alliance’s continued admittance of former Eastern Bloc states, placing the borders of the alliance closer and closer to Russia.
A related but distinct narrative portrays NATO as an aggressor in the conflict, using Ukraine as a proxy to wage war against Russia. This narrative posits that, among other things, NATO staged a regime change within Ukraine to install a more friendly government; that NATO troop placements within Eastern Europe were intentionally provocative toward Russia; and that the continued funneling of funds and material into Ukraine is an act of aggression by the alliance.
The third narrative expresses a mistrust in institutions and elites. It suggests that mainstream media outlets and international observers or institutions are mouthpieces for NATO and its goals. The institutions cannot be believed as they are largely funded by western governments. Additionally, it is suggested that the media cannot be trusted as it has lied to justify conflicts like the Iraq War that benefited the West or focuses strongly on Russian actions while ignoring those taken by NATO.
The fourth narrative justifies the invasion by framing it as a war waged against a state that is either fascist or heavily fascist-influenced. They point to the presence of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in the Ukrainian National Guard as proof. The Tweets spread the common Russian government talking point that Ukraine is run by a fascist regime.
The fifth narrative fosters mistrust in the Liberal government of Canada, especially Prime Minister Trudeau. Though very similar to the general mistrust in institutions, this example was pervasive enough to form a distinct narrative. It characterizes Trudeau and the Liberals as lying about the conflict to further their own political goals.
If someone were to blame me as “pro-Russian” for agreeing with the above, my only response would be, “All right, what is your evidence to the contrary? I eagerly look forward to your responses.”

Posted by: Ursula Zandt | Jun 12 2022 13:53 utc | 6

Venezuelans greeting their #2 President
https://twitter.com/freedomrideblog/status/1535756817648721920

Posted by: Tom_12 | Jun 12 2022 14:06 utc | 7

That U of Calgary paper is just laughable.
How little effort one needs to do to get published these days. They merely critique public policy dissent as a foreign influence campaign without evidence and put up a boring graphic of a graph of retweets.
Embarrassing.

Posted by: bobzibub | Jun 12 2022 14:07 utc | 8

Conscripting wenches
Puts men in the trenches
Joe Tzu

Posted by: Sushi | Jun 12 2022 14:15 utc | 9

…I’d probably reply something like … Fine, Ursula (vdl ??) you and your humanitarians can enter into the highest public and military offices to redeem poor blind Canada from its quagmire of oppression. Okay? Otherwise, the reports will use whatever language they choose, and problems with propaganda will be handled domestically. As always, thank you for your interest and concern. See you at the G7 or whatever summit is up next.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 12 2022 14:27 utc | 10

Several months ago I said that “civilized” is the new Aryan. Actually, I now think it is worse. The idea of civilization that belongs to a specific hemisphere, alliance or nation underlies racism, nazim and any other form of discrimination, exploitation and abuse. The very term has discrimination built in. Here is why.
The idea of culture is universal and egalitarian. Every nation, every people, every tribe, every ethnicity, community, etc. has a culture. Even the truest Aryans had to admit it, though they would always add the word “primitive” when speaking about anything South of Rome or East of Warsaw. The notion of civilization is different. Created and appropriated by the Western Europe (Adam Ferguson was among the first to use it), it was later spread to most willing colonies and dominions. That’s why North America and Japan, and South Korea are all considered parts of the so-called “collective West” in non-civilized countries like Russia.
https://readingjunkie.com/2022/06/11/civilization-cancels-fruits-of-culture/

Posted by: Ian Kummer | Jun 12 2022 14:33 utc | 11

Working title for the anthology of Joe Tzu’s collected wisdom: “The Art of Bore”.
“The journey of 1000 gaffes begins with a single misstep.”

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jun 12 2022 14:38 utc | 12

(Last one on this, but my @ 10)
The even more Canadian response might be to agree to urgently set up a committee, task force or Royal commission to thoroughly investigate the matter. And produce another report.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 12 2022 14:42 utc | 13

Posted by: Tom_12 | Jun 12 2022 14:06 utc | 7
MSM ‘ministry of truth’ claims Juan Guano is being assaulted by the ruling party execs ………..

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 12 2022 14:47 utc | 14

thanks b!
the articles from calgary look interesting.. bruised northerner is having a field day, lol… pro nato disinformation sounds about right… i guess ordinary canucks aren’t supposed to think of this…. apparently propaganda only runs in one direction and never in the opposite direction…. we fooled them, lol.. of course i have been saying for some time csis runs cbc and the media outlets these days… csis is gunning for nato.. who whudda thunk it?

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 14:48 utc | 15

That June 9 Daily Beast article is comedy gold:

The Biden administration, for its part, is trying to stay out of it.
“We will not push Ukraine to make concessions, and we have consistently stated that sovereign states have the right to choose their own alliances and make their own decisions about their security,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We believe it is for Ukraine to define what it considers success.”
“We are focused on giving Ukraine as strong a hand as possible on the battlefield and at the negotiating table,” the spokesperson said.

The State Dept. spokesperson must have gotten an A+ in the course on “Lie, Cheat & Steal” at Princeton or Stanford.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jun 12 2022 14:54 utc | 16

The essential content of the notion of “civilization” (which at root means something like city-living) is to divide people into “advanced” and “backward” categories, and in which it is always the “advanced” types advancing the division with the idea or expropriation from the “backward”, who are thought to be easy pickings.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 12 2022 14:57 utc | 17

@Bruised Northerner #3
The issue is that Canada is multiple provinces.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are fossil fuel producers and are more “Texas”, but a huge part of Canada’s population is in the East – which cities are right up there with New York and LA in terms of limousine liberal, woke, warhawk nonsense.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 15:01 utc | 18

@ Bemildred | Jun 12 2022 14:57 utc | 17
it seems to be the divide and conquer strategy applied differently…. the concept of people getting along and working towards a better world for everyone is still out of vogue these days… i mean – how are you going to generate profit off an idea like that?
then there is the idea of putting economic priorities over environmental priorities… what self serving capitalist cares about the environment? munk? lol… they give it lip service, or if they are more brazen they skip with the lip service.. if they think it will make more money – they talk it up.. i am getting off track..

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 15:08 utc | 19

Gasoline prices actually hit $5 yesterday, but I was too busy actually doing stuff to post. Another (2) day, another set of record prices.
gasoline

Current Avg. $5.010
Yesterday Avg. $5.004
Week Ago Avg. $4.848
Month Ago Avg. $4.418
Year Ago Avg. $3.077

diesel

Current Avg. $5.771
Yesterday Avg. $5.765
Week Ago Avg. $5.636
Month Ago Avg. $5.557
Year Ago Avg. $3.211

Again, the US uses about 100 billion gallons of gasoline and 40 billion gallons of diesel – so the delta in prices from today vs. last year can be multiplied by the above numbers to arrive at just how much more money people are paying for transportation.
It looks like we are just about done with this oil price band; next to come in a couple months.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 15:09 utc | 20

„Winning is for looser.“
Joe Tzu

Posted by: rico rose | Jun 12 2022 15:12 utc | 21

Corruption in the US is nothing new
Lewis Lapham on American elites
Note this video is from 1993. The specific examples given illustrate that Lapham isn’t talking about generalities or is projecting, it is analysis based on first hand witnessing.
The Commerce Department “special entrance” is exactly the kind of egotistical bullshit associated with decadent Eastern potentates of stereotype, nor does Lapham restrict his incisive commentary to Democrat or Republican targets.
Nancy Reagan’s peccadillo with red is something I had never heard about, either. Quite in contrast with her public image as the kindly grandmother of out-of-touch “Just Say No” fame, and entirely consistent with HRC’s recent red carpet antics replete with dark skinned skirt straightener…

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 15:13 utc | 22

How Amish use technology – wired.com
Pretty interesting article, but the conclusion I drew was far removed from what the author was clearly trying to promote.
In particular, the capability to withstand technology is only possible with extremely tightly bound communities – and even then, it is quite clear that the “fence straddlers” that are the focus of this story are far more like those selling organic produce to rich non-believers than some progressive Amish variant.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 15:16 utc | 23

“it seems to be the divide and conquer strategy applied differently….”
—
Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 15:08 utc | 19
Xenophopia is old and wired in for good reasons (humans can be nasty creatures), so it’s very handy when you want to stampede a crowd into doing something stupid. Takes many forms. “Anybody who tries to make your angry or afraid is not your friend”, is the way I look at it.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 12 2022 15:29 utc | 24

The urban/rural divide is heavily influenced by straight out class divisions.
The urban pretty much always include the rulers, their bureaucrats and enforcers, and the wealthy. The rural always include the “essential workers”: farmers, miners, etc.
The industrialized nation proletariat is kind of in the middle: they’re “essential workers” but aren’t wealthy, but are urban.
Another part of the divide is simply segregation: urban elites who enjoy the fruits of the hinterlands can sip their wine and look down their noses at those spreading manure and harvesting cabbages, even as the basis for their own literal survive rests on those same people.
Keeping that base working and working for cheap is a urban elite class priority…

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 15:38 utc | 25

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 15:41 utc | 26

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 15:38 utc | 25
Agree, some of the things the Chinese are trying to deal with these issues are interesting, but I think you put your finger on it, you have to maintain communication, interaction. I think people living in groups tend to have class issues sooner or later, as they get bigger, size does matter.
The ten years I spent in a sawmill in my youth affected my attitudes ever after. Back in the day Bosses would make a show of having their appointed offspring work in the mill for a while to give them some cred. Now, not that many of those jobs left, and the mill owners sold out long ago.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 12 2022 15:49 utc | 27

Working title for the anthology of Joe Tzu’s collected wisdom: “The Art of Bore”.
“The journey of 1000 gaffes begins with a single misstep.”
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jun 12 2022 14:38 utc | 12

Beautiful one, Opport!
I loved this observation on a previous post, LOL:

we turned MoA into a Joe Tzu thread with some Ukraine info slipping thru… 🙂
Posted by: albagen | Jun 11 2022 21:54

If you’re really going to compile the quotes, here’s a little tool to capture it all.
You need the browser extension TamperMonkey, paste the following on a new script; this code will only show comments that have “tzu” on their text on any MoA thread.


// ==UserScript==
// @name         MoA's Joe Tzu
// @version      0.1
// @description  ...
// @require      https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.6.0.slim.min.js
// @match        https://www.moonofalabama.org/*
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==
/*global $ */
(function() {
'use strict';
if (location.pathname === '/') return;
$('div.comments-body').each(function() {
let tzu = $(this).text().toLowerCase();
if (/tzu/i.test(tzu)) {
//console.log(tzu)
} else {
$(this).hide();
}
});
})();

The Tzu wave started on this thread: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/bidens-foreign-policy-is-one-big-mess.html
I just posted the text of a meme that I saw on Telegram 😀

Posted by: Ricardo Ramirez | Jun 12 2022 15:56 utc | 28

regarding the slew of articles in the ”disinformation” category, it seems to me if our own governments would stop paying organizations, or university professors (University of Calgary Assistant Professor Jean-Christophe Boucher) who led a team of researchers, and the various bellingcrap, integrity initiatives and etc. etc. of the west – we would be in a lot better shape…. all this gov’t funded money telling us who the propagandists are, when they are leading the propaganda charge, is incredibly dishonest, not to mention, stupid… it is as if we aren’t supposed to be able to think for ourselves… the gov’t approach has come down to this… maybe canucks get singled out for special treatment here.. i am not sure, lol… either way, if the gov’t could just cease and desist and get on with the role of leading the people in an honest direction with integrity – we would be fine! but no… instead, it is the opposite.. no amount of bellyaching about trudeau or biden is going to change any of it, but i think if nothing else, we need to start making justin tzu jokes to keep up with the joe tzu dialogue so us canucks can feel the love!

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 15:56 utc | 29

Head offices, c1ue @ 18, is what I wrote. Not production. It was the cluster of head offices that led to Calgary being referred to as “Texas North”. (So Canadian subsidiaries of the ones based in Texas, as well as others, home-grown and whatever.)

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 12 2022 15:57 utc | 30

@ Bemildred | Jun 12 2022 15:29 utc | 24
that is a wise strategy bemildred… i can think of a few posters here at moa who try to make me angry or afraid, lol…. i generally always skip over them, so i must realize on some level – they are not my friends!
Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 15:41 utc | 26
Thank you, I hope it serves you well too. There are not a whole lot of things that I believe, but I do believe that.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 12 2022 15:58 utc | 31

@james #29
Why would Western governments stop funding these orgs that are doing what said governments want?
Do you think US/EU governments are about justice, truth and liberty or something?
I would put /sarc, but I don’t think I need to…

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 16:05 utc | 32

@Bruised Northerner #30
Is not Calgary in Alberta?

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 16:06 utc | 33

Inflation, its not just the US
Food and Energy prices in Denmark hit 40 year high

Prices for consumers have increased in Denmark by 6.7 percent across the last 12 months.

So now the Danish can get high food and energy prices to go along with their highest electricity price in Europe distinction:
Electricity prices, household in Denmark

Denmark, the country with the most expensive electricity in Europe
The average price of electricity in Denmark, in December of 2021, has been 0.3448€ per kilowatt hour. Electricity price has increased € 0.0548 kWh, 18.9% since the previous semester. Meanwhile, the average price of electricity without taxes in Denmark in that period was € 0.1485 per kilowatt hour, compared to € 0.104 kWh in the previous semester. The price of electricity excluding taxes increased by 42.79%.
In the last twelve months the price of electricity in Denmark has increased by 63.55%.
In Denmark, the price of electricity reached its maximum price, € 0.3448kWh, in December of 2021. Its minimum price was €0.2401 kWh, corresponding to December of 2007.
Denmark is the country in Europe with the most expensive electricity.
When looking at the difference between the price of electricity with and without taxes, we see that households in Denmark paid € 0.1963 in taxes for each kilowatt hour, which means that 56.92% of what consumers pay for electricity is in concept taxes.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 16:10 utc | 34

@ c1ue | Jun 12 2022 16:05 utc | 32
i see it as a sign of just how degenerative and debauched our gov’ts have become… maybe they have always been this way… okay, i suppose they always have..
calgary is a city in alberta, but edmonton – the other city – is the capital… other places like red deer and medicine hat exist too, lol…
here is a writer born in edmonton who more people ought to know about – wp kinsella..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._P._Kinsella

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 16:13 utc | 35

@james #35
Check out the 29 year old interview I posted above.
The notion that the US government, at least, was ever different is false.
The only difference is that times are harder now – so the excesses of the American oligarchy are far more exposed for everyone to see.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 16:20 utc | 36

@ c1ue | Jun 12 2022 16:20 utc | 36
thanks… i enjoyed reading that amish article in wired.. cheers…

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 16:31 utc | 37

I made the attempt early this morning to post my continuing thoughts on The Master and Margarita on the previous not-Ukraine open thread. I was not completely successful, so I will post them again here, with a careful Preview this time!
Early morning of Pentecost here. And, returning to The Master and Margarita>, I find I do not have all my ducks in a row. That was hubris. But here, at least, they are:
Duck One: Berlioz/Rimsky/Stravinsky — a wiki runthrough was very helpful — Symphony Fantastique/Sheherezade/Firebird
Duck Two: (also wiki) There are two Bulgakov memorial entities in an apartment building opposite “Patriarch’s Ponds”, where Bulgakov and his wife lived: downstairs first one, privately maintained; upstairs government run. They are in conflict, with a staircase wall that has been covered with graffiti, said graffiti being periodically painted over, an apparently ongoing occurrence since the death of Bulgakov in 1940
Duck Three: Putin’s statement, here paraphrased and shortened: You are on the same path.
Contextual observation: My ducks are not in a row mostly to my own shortcomings but also my computer keeps jumping about and erasing things – this seems to be another duck but I won’t give it a number, just as I don’t give a number to yesterday’s experience going to watch on my tv the one weekend sports event that unrolls sequentially there during spring and summer: golf. Only to discover that golfers are missing … not only that, but they have been cancelled by the powers that be, seventeen of them. Three are left for Sunday’s play . . .
[music faintly heard of the sci-fi twilight zone sort – not classical as that has already been cancelled]
My three thoughts:
1. ‘Dr. Zhivago’; 2. ‘Master and Margarita’; 3. ‘The Gulag Archipelago
Only two so far as to relevance: two segues to pseudo-Scripture, the first by Satan, the second by ‘Ivan Homeless’. Two characters in them: Pilate (Biden?); Matthew Levi (us?)
Disappearances of people; disappearances, changes, of money. [as well, in the golf situation: people/money! Same path! Same path!]
The second segue focused on the disciple who had been a tax collector, Matthew Levi.
In the surrounding tale of the Performance of magic, money is the focal entity causing the one remaining official in charge to be arrested, the revenue from ticket sales having morphed into all kinds of foreign (therefore illegal) bills…
At the halfway point, looking just a page ahead, Berlioz comes back in the form of his uncle.
I’m sorry, my ducks keep bobbing about like those on a carnival booth, or perhaps like the images on the wall of Plato’s cave.
Make of it what you will! Happy Pentecost! As I said, old men dream dreams; young men have visions. . . my ducks are not in a row, which is okay as I am neither of those persons.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 12 2022 17:14 utc | 38

the description of canada in #18 is pretty apt but then it also describes the US; a bunch of flat useless middle with some oil and such bookended by coastal yuppies. and of course in both cases they hate each other.
it’s so funny being in alberta and seeing the covidiots and the “derp oil sands is good for teh invirenment” types fret over “disinformation”. even our premier (canada’s version of “governor”) is well known for social media bullshitting.
https://pressprogress.ca/conservative-mps-photo-of-empty-canadian-grocery-store-actually-taken-in-northern-england-not-canada/
it’s also ground zero for ex-pat ukie nazis after WWII. their spawn are probably part of the crowd spewing this nonsense…just like chrystia freeland and her “my gramps being a nazi collaborator is putin propaganda” bullshit.

Posted by: the pair | Jun 12 2022 17:16 utc | 39

“Fervently believe your own disinformation.”
Joe Tzu

Posted by: Jpc | Jun 12 2022 17:25 utc | 40

@ the pair | Jun 12 2022 17:16 utc | 40
thanks.. do you live in alberta? it sounds as though you do..

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 18:02 utc | 41

Three weeks without mentioning covid on your “week in review” posts.
When will you “backtrack” about the covid vaccines b? Sunk cost fallacy is hard to overcome but it’s better to do it sooner than later.
A lot of data has appeared against their “efficacy”.
Even the higher ups are going to great lengths to dodge the vaccines.

Posted by: jouven | Jun 12 2022 18:07 utc | 42

This is from Rappler, a (US mimic) news site in Philippines, its CEO Maria Resa a recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize.

It’s a new world. Are the world’s leaders, diplomats, defense, and security experts ready for it?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rightly shaped discussions at the 2022 Shangri-La Dialogue. Even the conversations about the United States and China rivalry were steeped in anxieties brought about by the blatant attack on the rules-based order that has kept at bay a third World War.
If Russia can occupy another country, kill civilians, destroy a way of life, do our rules work? What’s stopping another power from doing the same?
Ukraine’s war-time President Volodymyr Zelensky framed it best, as he addressed a room full of Shangri-La Dialogue participants from an undisclosed location in Kyiv: “It is on the battlefields in Ukraine that the future rules of this world are being decided.” . .here

Rappler gets real involved in Philippine politics.
from pna.gov – Mar 5, 2018:

Rappler conveniently used the “confessions” of perjured witnesses Matobato and Lascanas and compounded the incredible claim of the two that between them they killed over 1,200 victims on orders of [ex-president] Duterte, who they said organized the Davao Death Squad. . .Coming this late with a statement from Omidyar Network (ON) that the huge sum of $1.5-million dollars was a donation to 14 Rappler beneficiaries . . .Billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar funds a network of US regime-change organizations that work with CIA cutouts like USAID and the NED. . .here

but Rappler isn’t always successful
from Manila Times, Mar 25:

FOUR US-funded, local news websites are campaigning one way or another for the pro-American Leni Robredo to become president.
The Constitution bars any foreign money in media — a means, even if a modest one, of ensuring Filipinos are in control of the apparatus that mold its citizens minds. You may not agree with that, but that is our Constitution and we are duty bound to follow the basic law of the land.
Yet four local news websites, run by Filipinos (one by a Filipino American, Maria Ressa) have defied this ban, and spat on this constitutional principle, by taking in foreign funds, in two cases, for more than a decade now, totaling P170 million, which is their outfits’ main means of funding, and apparently a lucrative source of their individual incomes.
In the past five years trying — unsuccessfully, obviously — to pull down President Duterte’s political support and popularity, these media firms have now mobilized to campaign both subtly and overtly for Washington’s candidate, Leni Robredo. here

The US fave Robredo lost the election.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 12 2022 18:13 utc | 43

jouven@43
Did Cuba or Iran denounced the Covid plandemic yet? I find strange them having participated on such sham. Do you have any info about it?

Posted by: Ricardo Ramirez | Jun 12 2022 18:14 utc | 44

Hard keeping track of what Bernhard has linked to in his magnificent blog. But just in case he has missed this one (doubtful): https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/06/10/how-monsters-who-had-beaten-jews-to-death-with-hammers-in-1944-became-americas-favorite-freedom-fighters-in-1945-with-a-little-help-from-their-friends-at-cia/

Posted by: Maracatu | Jun 12 2022 18:21 utc | 45

An additional comment to mine at 39:
Thank you, Mildred for responding in the previous post. Yes, the focus of the heart of the novel is indeed on finance, but your musings on the character Berlioz are well taken. I remind you that Berlioz is the only fatality among the ‘present day’ human tragedies that occur during the novel. Would that it were so today!
There are three great musicians whose names Bulgakov has appropriated: Berlioz, Stravinsky and Rimsky. I went to wikipedia for their biographical details – very interesting reading! I had not known Rimsky-Korsakov’s late affinity with student protests in Russia in 1905. That was a revelation!
In the novel, his character, Rimsky, is the financial director of the theatre that hosts the stage performance that is the last part leading up to and surrounding the second segue to Jerusalem and the account of the Crucifixion the central character of which is the former tax collector, Matthew Levi.
We see here an intertwining of three modalities: Bulgakov’s own life story, his character’s activities in the novel, and another unspoken reality – the lifestory of a great musician. The Bulgakov character, Rimsky, undergoes a horrific personal encounter and flees, throwing money to the wind, escaping to Petersburg.
I discovered (thanks to wiki) that Rimsky-Korsakov, the musician, was actually briefly fired from the Petersburg Conservatory in 1905 for his support of student protests, and a police ban issued on performance of his works. He was reinstated in December of that year, but retired the next, and died in 1908 on his estate near Saint Petersburg, where he is buried.
The names are important.
Berliotz, the musician and the author, Bulgakov have much in common. They both trained in medicine, though Berliotz was so offput by the mandatory dissections that although he completed the training in deference to his father, he only briefly pursued it as a career,(though memorably, see wikipedia!),in Kiev during the Revolutionary years.
And, to bring Stravinsky in to his character in the novel, the composer studied with Rimsky-Korsakov and was able to emigrate, which both Bulgakov and Berlioz were unable to do. I was interested to read of the student uprisings in 1905, as there were also as I remember, student uprisings in Paris under German occupation. Glazunov was there then, I believe, as was my own parish priest. And of course, many of us rememeber the student uprisings in the Vietnam era, and last but not least, Occupy.
The beat goes on.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 12 2022 18:45 utc | 46

realizing i said “bullshit” twice. saw the boucher (related to ‘grimes’?) guy who came up with the “disinfo” rubbish on the news and he looked like a 20 year old bro. according to his bio he has
“a BA in History from the University of Ottawa, a MA in Philosophy from the Université de Montréal and a PhD in Political Science from Université Laval”
so normally a perfect resume for waiting tables.

Posted by: the pair | Jun 12 2022 18:54 utc | 47

Pardon, I misspoke @ 47 above: “… which both Bulgakov and Berlioz were unable to do…” Wrong!
Berlioz was of course, French, so of course only Bulgakov could not emigrate, though his family did, emigrate to Paris. In that, he much resembles Dr. Zhvago. Apologies – the fascinating life stories of the musical components of the novel got tangled – it was Bulgakov of course, who in his medical career returned to Kiev, and details of that are to be found at wikipedia.
I now retire, suitably humbled! I am sorry to have messed up the biographical details. It is still a mighty engrossing novel.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 12 2022 19:11 utc | 48

General Austin in Singapore: “Do rules matter? Does sovereignty matter? Does the system that we have built together matter? I am here because I believe that it does. And I am here because the rules-based international order matters just as much in the Indo-Pacific as it does in Europe.”
“We’re determined to uphold the status quo that has served this region so well for so long,” he said. “So let me be clear: We remain firmly committed to our longstanding one-China policy — guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. We categorically oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We do not support Taiwan independence.
UN Charter Article 2(1)
The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
So Taiwan is a domestic affair! China’s sovereignty matters!

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 12 2022 19:28 utc | 49

“umm, umm, ahh, umm”
Justin Tzu

Posted by: wallflower | Jun 12 2022 19:44 utc | 50

Glenn Greenwald on the massive hypocrisy of US-Saudi relations.
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/joe-bidens-submissive-and-highly?s=r
Appear weak when you are weak, and weak when you are weak.
-Joe Tzu

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 12 2022 20:04 utc | 51

Posted by: Maracatu | Jun 12 2022 18:21 utc | 46
Thanks for the Covert Action link. I read that earlier this morning.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 12 2022 20:05 utc | 52

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 16:13 utc | 35 et. al.
The US Constitution was written precisely to disenfranchise the un- or under-propertied masses and is remarkably scalable in terms of its ability to cement intentional mass inequality. I’m not sure about Canada; you know more about that.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 12 2022 20:06 utc | 53

Also apologies to Bemildred for leaving off the “Be” at 47 – sometimes the fingers have a mind of their own ;( Totally unintentional mistake.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 12 2022 20:12 utc | 54

If you’re Canadian and dun mind watching YouTube, may like this website… they’re from Mainlander provided socialism with Chinese characteristics…. (CPC) points of views….. I am one of their earliest supporters and donated to keep them on the air so to speak, you may or may not like them, check them out….. me stopped donating… forgotten banks’ passwords… will continue once taken care….. THANKS a Million
Difference Frames the World and DFTW English the same but split it Youtube not only demonetize but also make it almost impossible for them to “remain on the air…” so much for freedom and democracy…. FXXking the USA…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU6yQR4517E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo8DBOlJeO8
Main site
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEx3_ZX9jTZHimMMrQ4aGsA/videos

Posted by: JC | Jun 12 2022 20:14 utc | 55

The plandemic plot thickens, China and Cuba announce the Pan Corona vaccine:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/China-Cuba-Present-Jointly-Produced-Pan-Corona-Vaccine–20220603-0024.html
Btw, I’m still waiting one of the Axis of Evil countries promote the dog dewormer medicine.

Posted by: Ricardo Ramirez | Jun 12 2022 20:20 utc | 56

Google engineer who thinks that the company has created sentient AI

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 12 2022 20:29 utc | 57

McDonalds re-opens in Russia under new ownership and brand/logo.
HERE

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 12 2022 20:36 utc | 58

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 12 2022 20:06 utc | 54
thanks for the link @ 59.. that was interesting… regarding canada – although we don’t have the same type of constitution, it is basically designed the same way – those with power of inheritance or whatever – retain all their power, and those with no power – remain a part of the masses and have very little of any say over anything.. take the issue of this report from the university of calgary as an example… why is our government funding disinformation, or propaganda? meanwhile some individuals in our society who follow it more closely are calling them out for this… our politicians are very corrupt and the worst part is they are oblivious to how corrupt they are.. they think they are being helpful indoctrinating us, or worse – enforcing us to go along with an agenda that serves corporations, as opposed to – us… i am not sure how we change this power structure, but those running for politics are generally not in any way interested in changing this power equation… they mostly want to profit from getting in a place of power.. it reminds me of mice fighting over morsels… we are people are better then this.. how long does it take for people to figure this out?

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 21:50 utc | 59

“In those difficult times” it is a challenge to find material to improve optimism, reduce stress and so on. But there are many ways and today I liked three of them.
1. Cute furry animals.
2. RosAtom channel on YouTube. Today, delivery of cargo to a remote mining projects in the vicinity of Arctic Ocean. Near ocean shore, hydrologists check the thickness of ice (and signs of cracks?), and put flags to mark a route and its end. Icebreaking cargo ship with nuclear propulsion comes and stops exactly as design, flat wooden platforms are placed on ice, flatbed trucks come one-by-one to each platform, lifts place containers on the trucks (or some pieces of heavy machinery? that is perhaps left for summer), unloading is brisk and efficient. Truck go back to the continent in a route checked by hydrologists (mind you, it is tricky to do all of that at the end or start of winter, hence thorough checking of ice).
Even more cheerful, all those nuclear reactors need more uranium, and we see how cleanly and safely a mine near Kurgan expands production: there is a series of paired bore hole, sulphuric acid flows done into one bore hole, and the matching borehole pumps it back up, but as the acid travels through the rock, uranium is getting dissolved. No pollution at all! No dust, no tailings. Female presenter looks educated and intelligent, I trust her completely.
3. Most cheerful: leadership of Boris Johnson (check in Wikipedia if needed who he is). How to prevent inflation turning into stagflation, i.e. a combination of inflation with stagnation. Cut the wages! Bye bye stagnation, give welcome to a recession, hopefully one that is short and nice. This chap should get a raise, but discretely.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 12 2022 22:34 utc | 60

@57 Ricardo Ramirez | Jun 12 2022 20:20 utc
Thanks for the link to the Cuban-Chinese vaccine embracing the whole family of coronavirus bioweapons.
I’ve watched Cuba’s efforts on this and was aware of their multiple vaccines. Also, I believe China has at least two developed for Covid alone.
One doesn’t hear of injury from either the Cuban or the Chinese vaccines.
One does of course hear nothing but calamitous injury from the western vaccines. We now live in a time where vaccine injury as a result of institutional corruption and corporate venality will outstrip any of the true Covid injuries. [And as we know, the reported Coronavirus cases in the west were exaggerated by 900% – i.e, only one-tenth of the deaths attributed to the virus were actually from the virus itself.]
~~
My take at this time is that the virus was very real – the evidence in support of biowarfare by the US through Fort Detrick is more substantial than any other body of evidence coming out of the pandemic (except for the body of evidence demonstrating vaccine injury and death, that is).
Cuba and China in their deep counsels must surely accept this as their working premise also, unless they actually have proof through their own intelligence that makes it more than just a “working” premise.
I note the strange appearance and character of the Omicron variant. We speculated at the time that a benevolent actor (China? Cuba? Both?) had introduced this variant in order to kill the pandemic. This would fall completely within what we see now with the new vaccine from these two actors, aiming not just to react to one virus or strain, but to wipe out an entire class of threat.
Personally, I’d like to see a couple more “beneficial occurrences” such as these, from actors such as these, to begin to draw a distinct pattern. But even the whisper of such a possibility gives me great hope.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 12 2022 22:53 utc | 61

On the matter of the pandemic – and more specifically the lockdowns and the push to tyranny that jumped fully grown out of that Pandora’s Box – did anyone catch the discussion between Bret Weinstein and Neil Oliver?
If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. Weinstein of course is the Dark Horse Podcast scientist, and Oliver is a British TV commentator (with a beautiful Highland Scottish accent) who has beguiled the population of Britain with his 10-minute monologues on the pandemic and the disappearance of freedom and civil liberties in those islands.
The two got together during a conference on the truth of Covid held a couple weeks ago in Bath, England:
Keeping Sane: Bret Speaks with Neil Oliver
These are two voices of sanity and dispassionate analysis during the pandemic who have both been thanked countless times by strangers for “keeping me sane.”
If you’re into this matter, you’ll enjoy this very much.
~~
Oliver raised a point I had not thought of (neither had Weinstein), namely that today’s populations have lived in that magic time of relative peace and social safety in which they have not had to experience how life can destroy your world in a short time – the kind of thing that generations of WWII for example, understood.
Oliver reminds us that the oligarchs and schemers planning to enslave us all have also lived in such a time – and he theorizes that they simply may not have the “bottle” for the “wet work” when it comes to culling the global population.
I’m not so sure about that, but I love the canvas he introduces for us to sketch on. It’s a new thought, to me at least, and I think the criminal masterminds have yet to prove it one way or the other.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 12 2022 23:08 utc | 62

The US Constitution was written precisely to disenfranchise the un- or under-propertied masses and is remarkably scalable in terms of its ability to cement intentional mass inequality. I’m not sure about Canada; you know more about that.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 12 2022 20:06 utc | 54
I am not sure. US Constitution leaves the details of franchise to the states, although after the “War Between The States”, a.k.a. “Yankee Aggression”, states have some limits on how they can disenfranchise. Constitution what a document of its time, and I am not aware of ANY example of unlimited franchise in 18th century.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 12 2022 23:30 utc | 63

Guaido on the comeback tour, visiting Venezuela, got a standing ovation, and some chairs, and rocks, and tomatoes :
https://sputniknews.com/20220612/video-juan-guaido-chased-out-of-venezuelan-restaurant-as-chairs-go-flying-once-again-1096233047.html
The people of Venezuela made sure to make a ruckus, to celebrate Guaido’s return.

Posted by: Featherless | Jun 12 2022 23:37 utc | 64

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2022 15:09 utc | 20
Thanks . This just goes to show us all. How the reformed evil sisters of ‘big oil’. Are in reality. Stealing from the gullible sheeple of the “Union of the Soviet States of Amerika” ./s
The elusive free market USSA principle “Is buy at the lowest contract forward price.
Then proceed to price gouge and steal from the consumer at the retail end” !!!!
Who are the biggest losers????????????

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 13 2022 0:08 utc | 65

Also apologies to Bemildred for leaving off the “Be” at 47 – sometimes the fingers have a mind of their own ;( Totally unintentional mistake.
Posted by: juliania | Jun 12 2022 20:12 utc | 55
Juliania, I would never be annoyed with you. I am still thinking about your comments, but I don’t really have the proper education for it, my Russia knowledge comes strictly from reading, and most of it a long time ago. I have read M&M three times, the last in the oughts. I’m pretty sure I gave my last copy to the library last time I was clearing some of the debris here. I’ll see if I can find a copy on the archive.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 13 2022 0:13 utc | 66

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 12 2022 23:08 utc | 63
Interesting. Conspiracy theories of much ado about absolute zero.
Back in the time of the lethal past pandemics. Where baby boomers plus subsequent generations benefited from both antibiotics and multiple vaccines. As was given when these fools were young children. Who benefits?
Then again do these same fools compare the death toll from COVID – 19 . Of mainland China versus the rest of the world. Or even mention the million plus USSA citizens killed by an under manned and over charge super size me non universal health cover.
Nah lets ignore the inconvenient truth and go peddle the useless nonsensical conspiracy theory. The one that will never pass “Occam’ Razor Test”…….

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 13 2022 0:25 utc | 67

Posted by: Featherless | Jun 12 2022 23:37 utc | 65
Venezuela, a country where 80 % of the citizens polled. Would love to see this fake president fraudster, jailed . Sentenced to do 15 to 30 years at “Sabaneta Prison, Maracaibo” !
MSM along with the well known German “DW” ‘ministry of truth’. Blame this action on the exec’s from the popular democratically elected people’s party ruling elite.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 13 2022 0:38 utc | 68

Below is a quote from a posting at The Register

Facebook and Instagram’s parent biz, Meta, was hit with not one, not two, but eight different lawsuits accusing its social media algorithm of causing real harm to young users across the US.
The complaints filed over the last week claim Meta’s social media platforms have been designed to be dangerously addictive, driving children and teenagers to view content that increases the risk of eating disorders, suicide, depression, and sleep disorders.
“Social media use among young people should be viewed as a major contributor to the mental health crisis we face in the country,” said Andy Birchfield, an attorney representing the Beasley Allen Law Firm, leading the cases, in a statement.
“These applications could have been designed to minimize any potential harm, but instead, a decision was made to aggressively addict adolescents in the name of corporate profits. It’s time for this company to acknowledge the growing concerns around the impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of this most vulnerable portion of our society and alter the algorithms and business objectives that have caused so much damage.”
The lawsuits have been filed in federal courts in Texas, Tennessee, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Missouri, according to Bloomberg.

So, how long before social media is reigned in within the West?
Will these lawsuits get anywhere? Is there any limit on what might be done for profit?
I can only hope that the QEEG type of neuromodulation therapy that I used to heal my TBI is more mainstream soon to help re-regulate the traumatized neural networks of these kids.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 13 2022 2:21 utc | 69

@ psychohistorian | Jun 13 2022 2:21 utc | 70
i mentioned how it is bizarre how some continue to support these social media platforms – linking to them – youtube, fb, twitter and etc. etc… they are worse then covid and we do have a cure for it, but the gov’t isn’t interested in giving it…. i hope the lawsuits make a dent and raise more peoples awareness of just how sick these outlets are…. 95% bad and maybe 5% good.. ultimately, they aren’t worth it…

Posted by: james | Jun 13 2022 2:35 utc | 70

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 12 2022 23:08 utc | 63
Thank you, Grieved, very much! I know I am going to enjoy this as I totally agree with the following paragraph:

Oliver raised a point I had not thought of (neither had Weinstein), namely that today’s populations have lived in that magic time of relative peace and social safety in which they have not had to experience how life can destroy your world in a short time – the kind of thing that generations of WWII for example, understood.

I was born on the cusp of WW2, my father leaving when I was two weeks old — other members of my family born later. The difference of outlook between us is totally radical. Of course, I was only an infant and then barely in school when my father came back, but I do remember that time of war, the fear,the uncertainty, the spare life we mostly female and elderly persons led. Even when it was not something spoken of; it was like breathing different air. Far, far different from the post war years.
It’s perhaps what I see in “The Master and Margarita”. A differend kind of breathing, of quality of life. Of dedication to something better and its preservation.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2022 2:56 utc | 71

On question more news.
A sad tale of a corrupt retired general who cannot makes ends meet in Washington DC on a pension circa $110K Air dollars PA. Seeks reinstatement in his no brainer rubber stamp job $200K “Brookings Institution” salary. Clearly, he just cannot afford the annual green fees at his local DC golf club………….
I am innocent he says. It was just a simple finders fee!/ssssss
If you do the crime, do the time
Such is life…………….

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 13 2022 3:42 utc | 72

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 13 2022 0:13 utc | 67
Thanks, Bemildred! I have to say, I am as well just an amateur with respect to the events sketched by Putin in his speeches that reach back to other experiences in Russia, and the novels barely skim the surface of history — just his warnings to the west I deeply feel indicate somehow we’ve lost our way.
I wanted to be an American — I mindfully chose to be, after having been educated and raising my family here. And I don’t think the reasons I did so were invalid – it was between Bill Clinton’s first and second term that I became a citizen. Not a consumer, a citizen! And during his second term was when the scales began to fall from my eyes and I realized what this country was becoming, and that it was leading my dear native land along the very same path!
If I cheer Putin on, and I do, it is only because I want this country, the US, to become what it set out the path to be: a nation of checks and balances of, by and for the people — not a better mousetrap, but a courageous and trustworthy member of the community of nations; not the biggest bully on the block, now bullying its own people! And having myself lucked into a very fine education, I really wanted that to be available for all. There cannot be a great nation without that. Greatness is not a matter of size or clout; it’s integrity and love. Where’s the love now?

Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2022 4:41 utc | 73

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 12 2022 22:34 utc | 61
“In those difficult times” it is a challenge to find material to improve optimism, reduce stress and so on. But there are many ways and today I liked three of them.
If only things were that simple.
How ever, there is a very long list of “Yeah buts”………….. Associated with drill hole hydraulic fracking!

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 13 2022 5:05 utc | 74

Below is a link to a Xinhuanet posting with pictures that barflies should see.
McDonald’s successor reopens in Russia after U.S. giant withdrawal
I cringe at the deep fried food shown and hope the nutritional value changes over time but it really speaks to the social manipulation that profit oriented folks have been able to do around feeding ourselves all around the world……why should food be fast over good and why no focus on nutritional value?….sigh

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 13 2022 5:58 utc | 75

Below is a Xinhuanet posting relevant to our world

GENEVA, June 12 (Xinhua) — The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) opened Sunday at WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
During the four-day meeting, members of the trade organization will hold discussions on such issues as TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver for COVID-19 vaccines, pandemic response, fishery subsidies, agriculture, food security, as well as the WTO’s reform and its future work priorities.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that the world is currently facing multiple crises such as the epidemic, food shortage, climate change and regional conflicts, and she called on all parties to work together to overcome the difficulties.
“No one country can solve these crises on its own, this is a time that you need the world to work together,” she said.
According to her, the work of the WTO has made progress, and draft documents have been formed on key issues such as TRIPS waiver, pandemic response, fishery subsidies, agriculture and food security. She hoped that more results could be achieved at the ministerial meeting.
China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, who attended the meeting in Geneva, said that the WTO-centered multilateral trading system is the cornerstone of international trade, and China is willing to work with all parties to promote the WTO to play a bigger role in world economic recovery.
Wang noted that China will continue to safeguard the multilateral trading system with concrete actions and support the WTO reform to move in the right direction, adding that the reform of WTO needs to reinforce its functions and promote economic globalization to benefit all members.
The Ministerial Conference, which is attended by trade ministers and other senior officials from the organization’s 164 members, is the WTO’s highest decision-making body, and is generally held every two years.
Kazakhstan was originally scheduled to host MC12 in June 2020, but the conference was postponed due to the pandemic.

Notice that China, like other countries, want to see the WTO more representative and supportive of all countries development. I expect the UN and bodies under it like the WTO to undergo major reform and refocus as part of this civilization war and end of the global private finance jackboot.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 13 2022 6:05 utc | 76

On the Ukraine thread there ended up a lot of stuff about Winston Churchill.
For free open source books by Churchill I do recommend fadedpage.com – the gutenberg like site that utilizes death plus 50 copyright laws that used to exist in Canada. Myself, I never proofed or foofed any Churchill, but did do a lot of Nevil (Norway) Shute. Oh yeah, the do have a few of the Nuermburg books, some with testimony, evidence from Ukraine.
https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Churchill,%20Winston%20S.%20(Spencer)
And if you are interested, you can alway proof some yourself.

Posted by: paxmark1 | Jun 13 2022 6:23 utc | 77

@ c1ue 23
It’ll be interesting to see that as their populations grow so quickly whether the ethno-religious groups like the Amish and Mennonites will just continue to export non-compliant surplus population to leave their communities entirely and assimilate into the mainstream or if the in-between populations will grow much larger and essentially overtime backwash assimilate the core. Or if it’ll be stalled by people from the core constantly leaving to the in-betweens forestalling their going farther as they start to surround their core communities as land grows short.
Either way the issue of land and communal tension form these previously small groups who in a time of low infant mortality grow insanely quickly isn’t one that gets discussed much.
For example, in New York City the Hasidic population just keeps growing, how much of the total population will they compose in 15 or 20 years? Already lots of conflicts as they buy up and colonise entire apartment blocks and retrofit them to fit their idiosyncratic religious needs and refuse to allow tenants who aren’t one of them in. They also incubated covid at spectacular rates. (One of the reasons Israel went so hard for a vaccine, Hasids didn’t do social distancing and their other social practices meant they had a high burden) I fully expect a monkeypox outbreak among them in a school for young children to be the big moment where some children might die from it.

Posted by: Altai | Jun 13 2022 8:01 utc | 78

If I cheer Putin on, and I do, it is only because I want this country, the US, to become what it set out the path to be: a nation of checks and balances of, by and for the people — not a better mousetrap, but a courageous and trustworthy member of the community of nations; not the biggest bully on the block, now bullying its own people! And having myself lucked into a very fine education, I really wanted that to be available for all. There cannot be a great nation without that. Greatness is not a matter of size or clout; it’s integrity and love. Where’s the love now?
Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2022 4:41 utc | 74
Good, that’s better.
I was born here in June 1945, a few weeks before Hiroshima. And I agree, there is a lot to criticize here, like any empire, any over-aggressive political actor, but there were also some things that are worth keeping, just like Russia/USSR in the 90s, despite all, there was a lot there worth keeping. It is the excesses that came after WWII and the National Security State(tm) that we need to get away from.
Anyway I’m not leaving, there is no place else that I am “from”, or want to be from, and I’ll be gone soon enough anyway, and glad to be so. A strange ride start to finish.
I found copies at local library, but I think I’m going to buy one.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 13 2022 9:58 utc | 79

To attack your enemy is to lose a friend you didn’t have.
Honor, courage and commitment are 3 sides of the same coin.
In battle you cannot use Google Search to find the enemy without an internet hook-up.
Joe Twoshoes is not my real name.
– Joe Tzu

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 13 2022 11:55 utc | 80

“Sure, true enough, but only among Stalinists and other dogmatic types is Marxism some sort of revealed religion to which no updates are possible. There have actually been a number of very bright people who have made refinements to Marxist thought without discarding Marxism in the process like the Frankfurt School did. One of those was Trotsky with his deep dive into Permanent Revolution.”
Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 12 2022 15:47 utc | 254
Marxism is not a religion, this is a ridiculous statement we’re both in agreement against.
But Marxism cannot be advanced only by theoretical analysis of historical, economical, political and sociological facts – even though such theoretical components are absolutely necessary.
It also has to be advanced by organizational and political practice, and all these tentative advances are only definitively confirmed by successful revolution.
As such, the theoretical content and organizational principles of currents like the Frankfurt School or Trotskyism will always be accessory until such a moment when a successful revolution is carried out with them at their core. Regarding these two particular currents I’m not convinced that such a thing will happen, but I don’t discard the notion, it remains a possibility.
What is certain is that it hasn’t happened yet.
Failure to acknowledge this results in deviationism of different types:
-Reformism, where the need of a revolution is negated, this is very common and usually ends in rejection of Marxism and a folding back into social-democracy (Which in imperialist countries is certainly neither social nor democratic).
-Academicism, where unproven theoretical developments are held above proven revolutionary gains and achievements. This is a form of elitist ideological puritanism, where the intelligentsia in itself is confused for a vanguard, and the needs and active roles of the working class are eschewed.
-Involution towards trade-unionism and anarchism, where the need for a workers’ state is forgotten or negated, thereby also negating the core notion that the state is the apparatus of class control and repression in the hands of a dominant class, and that its creation and continued existence is a necessary step for the working class to claim victory over the bourgeoisie and feudal remnants.
TL;DR: I’ll trust the likes of Trotskyists and Frankfurtschulers when they have a revolution to their credit.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 13 2022 11:56 utc | 81

There cannot be a great nation without that. Greatness is not a matter of size or clout; it’s integrity and love. Where’s the love now?
Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2022 4:41 utc | 74
Wow!
Yes…

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 13 2022 13:30 utc | 82

@ wallflower | Jun 12 2022 19:44 utc | 51
thanks wallflower… there is the love right there! cheers..

Posted by: james | Jun 13 2022 14:32 utc | 83

Perplexing to me, why Bill Browder has so much influence over Canada’s bureaucrats. Although he recently complained that Canada is not using the Magnitsky Act sanctions, but instead the Special Economic Measures Act to apply sanctions over Ukraine. (I think he possibly has less influence over the elected officials than over those who work in the relevant departments.)
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/look-into-barrier-preventing-canada-from-using-magnitsky-sanctions-against-russia-mps-told
One of the much talked of Ukrainian-Canadians, Joseph Hnatiuk, wrote a review of Browder’s book last week for the Winnipeg Free Press. Hnatiuk is possibly the wrong kind of Ukrainian.
( https://nupge.ca/content/ukrainian-labour-temple-national-historic-site )
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/following-the-money-576562982.html

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 13 2022 14:36 utc | 84

Very off topic but it made my day better 🙂
The idea of “Grabby Aliens” and what it might mean for such things as “the Fermi Paradox” and “the Great Filter”.
https://grabbyaliens.com/
Interesting despite any flaws or mistaken assumptions, and there’s room for plenty of those.
The videos (on YouTube) are very well made and charming; nice to represent us and aliens as cartoon dogs with superficial differences. I haven’t looked at the paper yet.
I don’t know what the inside joke (in the videos) about holding your cup with your toe is about, maybe it’s joking about “advanced civilization”?

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jun 13 2022 14:38 utc | 85

Arganthonios@82
Nothing is less useful than a debate at a site of this sort about factional differences among socialists. And I have no intention of becoming involved in one.
However it ought to be recognised that Trotsky was deeply involved in both the 1905 and 1917 revolutions. You know this but passing strangers may not.
It is a common mistake to think that the Bolshevik faction and the Communist Party were monolithic politically. In fact they were always constantly alive with debate, discussion and disputes. Had they not been they would never have produced the volume and quality of the thought that they did. And which still enlightens and is still being built upon.

Posted by: bevin | Jun 13 2022 15:02 utc | 86

Posted by: bevin | Jun 13 2022 15:02 utc | 87
“However it ought to be recognised that Trotsky was deeply involved in both the 1905 and 1917 revolutions. You know this but passing strangers may not.”
Absolutely, and a very important figure, and I have no problem with you underscoring this.
It is a common mistake to think that the Bolshevik faction and the Communist Party were monolithic politically. In fact they were always constantly alive with debate, discussion and disputes.
Again: absolutely, and I have no problem with you highlighting this.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 13 2022 16:22 utc | 87

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jun 13 2022 14:38 utc | 86
We might as well turn out to be the precursors.
If we last long enough, that is.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 13 2022 19:54 utc | 88

Any of our Frenchies here, would anybody care to give his/her take on the legislative elections yesterday and how they will play out next Sunday? Is the Macron camp really going to scoop up most of the seats in the 2nd run, like the msm predict?

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Jun 13 2022 19:54 utc | 89

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 13 2022 9:58 utc | 80
Thanks, Bemildred. I’m sort of disappointed in Part Two of TM&M so far — not the start of it describing Margarita, and the broomstick ride is fun, but I’ve skipped through the actual satanic ball — as I’ve done other times with parts of ‘The Inferno’. Gruesome descriptions aren’t my cup of tea, which goes for realistic gore in movies and such as well. (I’m a ninny I guess.) Hopefully Part Two will improve – I can’t remember if it does.
I’m not as troubled by the new slant Borodin gives to Gospel scenes – the evangelists themselves differ in their own interpretations. I might have to go back and revisit the ball (ugh)– Margarita earlier compares herself to Matthew Levi in that they both were too late to ‘help’ their friend — so she in reading the Master’s manuscript sees the same description that has been described by Ivan Homeless. It all is that very manuscript, even what Woland quotes early on, though he might be its inspiration.
Bulgakov begins Part Two in very similar fashion to Dostoievski’s explanation of Alyosha’s reaction to the death of his elder. That is, he enters the narrative himself to describe Margarita. Interesting that he does this with Margarita rather than the Master, who has described himself to Ivan in terms I find endearing:

“…you’re not violent, I hope? Because, you know, I cannot stand noise, turmoil, force, or other things like that. Especially hateful to me are people’s cries, whether cries of rage, suffering, or anything else. Set me at ease, tell me, you’re not violent?”

Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2022 22:55 utc | 90

i guess ordinary canucks aren’t supposed to think of this….
Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 14:48 utc | 15
James, you did not grasp the fundamental truth: Canada is a democratic country, with equal rights for all. NO ONE is supposed to think. Same goes for all genuinely democratic country. To cite Gilbert and Sullivan:
I grew so rich that I was sent
By a pocket borough into Parliament.
I always voted at my party’s call,
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
(He never thought of thinking for himself at all.)
I thought so little, they rewarded me
By making me the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee! [ = 1st Lord of Admiralty]
(He thought so little, they rewarded he
By making him the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!)
That was under imperfect democracy, more than 100 years ago. Now even Prime Minister is not supposed to think

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 14 2022 1:26 utc | 91

@ Piotr Berman | Jun 14 2022 1:26 utc | 92
clearly, i did not understand the basic premises of canada or being a canuck!!
neither did these folks at a well known canuck theatre festival in 2017..
When I Was a Lad – HMS PINAFORE | Stratford Festival 2017

Posted by: james | Jun 14 2022 2:13 utc | 92

It seems most unlikely to me that Macron will win the next round. Less than 50% of the electorate bothered to vote and he got a quarter of those who did. For an incumbent President with a recent win under his belt that is not very inspiring.
So he goes into the second round with the support of about 12% of the electorate. And bear in mind that he was widely predicted, before the polls, to be winning-which is always worth a few percentage points.
His major opponents will be the Melenchon led coalition NUPES(??) which is a very curious but cleverly constructed thing. It includes Greens, Communists, the Socialist Party(now almost defunct Praise God!) and various other factions mainly of the left. Herding cats is nothing compared to putting such a grouping together. And doing it in France is something else again.
This coalition is running on a very broad platform almost every clause of which has a little appendage to the effect that, for example the Communists will not agree to this point, or this is not going to get the support of the Greens. The one that stuck out on my brief review was that which promised to take France out of NATO- the Socialists disagree.
Anyway is strikes me that, of the voters already involved- some of the right (Le Pen and others) hate Macron so much that they will not support him even against ‘the Reds’, And then there is the fact that LePen’s platform on economic issues- jobs, pensions, wages etc- was almost as anti neo liberal as Melenchon’s. A lot of Le Pen’s supporters used to vote Communist, they could go back to doing so.
But the real question is whether in the next week the campaign is going to burst into life and bring those who stayed home on Sunday, out to vote. If it does them Macron is going to lose and both neo-liberalism and Imperialism are going to suffer a major defeat which will have wide repercussions.
Caveat: It could work the other way if Macron and the MSM, which of course he owns, scare enough of the population to drag out an anti-Melenchon majority, the way that the Presidential election gave Macron the victory, just because he wasn’t Le Pen.
I hate to link to an article in the Spectator- a Tory sheet that BoJo used, I believe, to work for- but this article has some interesting information.
“Into the three-ring circus of the French legislative election campaign has stepped Jeremy Corbyn. The papi magique arrived on the Eurostar last weekend to campaign for candidates of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose insurrectionary ultra-left campaign is threatening to deny the recently re-elected Emmanuel Macron a presidential majority in the parliament. First round voting is on Sunday. A runoff will be a week later.
“Those tempted to overlook the continuing appeal of Mr Corbyn and dismiss him as a political has-been or even an unreconstructed Marxist clown, would perhaps have been startled to see him mobbed by adoring fans in Paris.
“Corbyn was feted as a red prince from over the water….”etc etc
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-jeremy-corbyn-is-being-feted-by-the-french-left

Posted by: bevin | Jun 14 2022 3:12 utc | 93

if the media and friends managed to keep corbyn out, how does anyone think the same gang are going to let macron not stay in power? democracy is shit… the queen and friends wouldn’t have it any other way..

Posted by: james | Jun 14 2022 4:45 utc | 94

Oriental Voice | Jun 13 2022 23:54 utc | 206 re: Social Security Trust Funds
posted @ https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/media-tune-down-ukraine-hysteria-continue-to-print-falsehoods.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02a2eec7aded200d#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02a2eec7aded200d

Social Security Trust Fund Investment Practices

The Trust Funds Section 201 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401) requires the managing trustee of the Social Security trust funds (the Secretary of the Treasury) to invest Social Security tax revenues in special “nonmarketable” federal public-debt obligations called special issues (i.e., securities available only to the trust funds, not to the general public. The Secretary may invest in marketable federal securities, which are available to the general public, if that is determined to be “in the public interest.”[emphasis added]
. .
The holdings of the Social Security trust funds represent the amount of money that the U.S. Treasury’s general fund owes to the Social Security trust funds. There is no separate pool of cash set aside for Social Security purposes. However, that is not to say that the holdings of the Social Security trust funds are not “real” assets. The U.S. government obligations purchased by the trust funds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States and guaranteed with respect to both principal and interest by the United States, as specified in Section 201(d) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401[d]).

[emphasis added]

How Is the Social Security Trust Fund Invested?
It’s in interest-bearing government securities, redeemable as needed
12-18-21
Does the Social Security Trust Fund Earn Interest?

The Social Security Trust Fund has no direct connection to the stock market. On a daily basis, funds left over after payment of all benefits are invested in special-issue government bonds.4 They are similar to U.S. Treasury bonds, except that they don’t trade publicly. These interest-bearing bonds are a form of IOU to be paid from future Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax receipts.6

[emphasis added]

Posted by: pogohere | Jun 14 2022 6:07 utc | 95

re james | Jun 14 2022 4:45 utc #95
I wouldn’t be so sure about the ability of the neolibs & neocns to bring down M.Mélenchon, James.
Liberation my be a pale shadow of what it once was but France has never suffered the oppressive style of monopolistic propaganda of a Murdoch or a Springer.
The French media still lacks the coordinated wall to wall bullshit of england.
The other obstacle to the neolib bullshit is that M.Mélenchon belongs to a committed leftist political party, unlike Mr Corbyn who was white-anted by the crooks, careerists and opportunists who wrestled control of the englander Labour Party courtesy of Blair, Brown and Mendelsohn towards overtly pro-corporate zionist policies.
Many supporters of M.Mélenchon, who have a Mid-East, African or South East Asian heritage were too concerned about the anti-immigratiion racist platform Le Pen and particularly her father had previously run on to consider voting Le Pen in the two horse race second round, but the parliamentary election doesn’t work that way, meaning those who either held their noses & ticked the Macron box, or who stayed away altogether will be out in force for this ballot.
M. Mélenchon’s party should romp home.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 14 2022 10:56 utc | 96

Cheers to Piotr Berman and james for your comments on this thread (and the others). You guys made my morning.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 14 2022 11:21 utc | 97

The entire situation reminds me of the Book of Job, where Satan says ‘Skin for skin’ in his attempt to ‘dethrone’ Job and is given carte blanche to do so. But it is Margarita who holds the fort, and an unpleasant fort it is!
Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2022 22:55 utc | 91
A few comments this morning:
I too sort of lost interest towards the end, as with “Dead Souls”. I think this is a difference with modern works, they tend to emphasize endings more. Back in 19th Century they were not so goal directed. Russian writers in general are a lot more discursive than is thought well of now. “The journey is the reward”, in these old books it is not about the ending.
As a modern reader I had to adjust my expectations to enjoy 19th Cen. literature, because they spend a lot more time on description and dialog, the play is the thing. They want to be entertained and they are not in a hurry.
Margarita is an enigmatic figure in the book, it is not clear exactly why she is there, a sort of Mary Magdalen to accompany the Master. I was married at the time I first read the book, to a woman named Margaret, so it sort of resonated with me, and still does.
I think the ambiguities are intentional, ambiguity has meaning too. Melville meditates on the same subject. In any case it causes me to think of “Pierre”, which is pretty obscure Melville.
Modern lit tends to ignore the moral dimension in human interactions too, if you win you are good, anti-heros and bad/good-guys. This, of course, is a big mistake. Actions have consequences.
I think G_d was being somewhat immature in his treatment of Job and I don’t blame Job for complaining. I suppose I will have to pay for that …
Regards

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 14 2022 11:55 utc | 98

@ Debsisdead | Jun 14 2022 10:56 utc | 97
that is interesting debs.. thanks… i just made an assumption that the media is all controlled in france, like it is everywhere else…. you might be right… i never understood how macron a complete unknown pretty face, could get in the first time so easily… and especially after all i had read about him…. i figured it was again the media being king maker… we will see soon enough about melechons possible success here…
@ Bemildred | Jun 14 2022 11:55 utc | 99
interesting observations… thanks for sharing..

Posted by: james | Jun 14 2022 14:36 utc | 99

Posted by: james | Jun 14 2022 14:36 utc | 100
Always a pleasure. My wife got herself a lit degree after I retired so I got to graze around in 19th Cen lit for a while.
One doesn’t get to blather about these sorts of things every day, either.
“We can misuse only things which are good.” — Montaigne “Of Practice”

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 14 2022 16:19 utc | 100

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