@ KillWallStreet

From the article you cited:

As was reported by Benjamin Mathieu, Jean-Luc Mélenchon told press: "If I'm prime minister by Monday, Julian Assange will be naturalised as French — and given a medal"

Honest question: Would Mélenchon have the power to do so? Most power is invested in the French presidency. Even assuming that the French parliament went along with it, would it require Macron's approval?

Posted by: malenkov | Jun 19 2022 13:33 utc | 1

oopsie UPDATE! with "mostly muslim" SCO, EEU characteristics

akorda.kz | The Presidents of Kazakhstan and Iran held talks in an expanded format

During the meeting, the parties discussed in detail the state and prospects for the development of Kazakh-Iranian relations. Particular attention was paid to strengthening trade and economic cooperation in the areas of transport and logistics, industry and agriculture, as well as expanding cultural and humanitarian ties.

Welcoming the Iranian delegation, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that this year Kazakhstan and Iran are celebrating an important date - the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. According to him, during this period, both countries were able to establish close interstate contacts.

"We have established a constructive political dialogue based on good neighborliness and strong friendship. A solid legal base has been formed between the two countries. More than 60 contracts have been signed. The intergovernmental economic commission is actively functioning. Now we are planning to create a joint chamber of commerce. Inter-parliamentary relations have been established, inter-regional cooperation is being strengthened, close cooperation has been established within the framework of international organizations," Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 19 2022 14:03 utc | 2

In other news the UK ministry of truth officially declares the dirtiest players in the western sponsored regime change for Syria. The 'White helmets' , whose former leader took a head first leap out a window. Are all saints first class!

Blames Russian Journalist for exposing the very real inconvenient truth documents. Left behind in a cave..... They're, those documents were 'shopped' . Claims the UK 'ministry of truth' "Scouts Honor".........../s

Truth is truly stranger than fiction says the guardian of the evil empire truth and justice. All UK journalist will face true justice USSA style......... source "Ministry of Justice" 'D' Notice 'BoJo addendum'............./s

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 19 2022 14:34 utc | 3

EC | Opinion on the EU membership application by Ukraine

INTRODUCTION

The aspiration to belong to the European Union has for many years been an important priority for Ukraine, its governments and citizens. It has been an underlying motive for democratic changes over the past decade and a driver of a number of key reforms founded on European values. The decision in late 2013, of the then-President not to sign, the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which symbolised for many Ukrainians a path towards the European Union, led to large-scale protests against the authorities.

something something Crimea something Odesa something something Donbas something WHODAT?

Subsequently, the Russian Federation moved against Ukraine, not accepting the independent choice of the Ukrainian people. While losing control over part of its territory and suffering human and economic losses because of the conflict in the eastern part of the country, Ukraine continued throughout the years as a resilient democracy moving closer to the European Union and gradually aligning with the acquis.....

I will file this material in my browser folder labeled "Mental disorder is a communicable disease"

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 19 2022 14:42 utc | 4

Regarding the French legislative elections,

some brave guy on Wikipedia has finally assembled all the results of the 1st round, on a constituency basis.

Very interesting to me, who doesn’t know a thing about elections in France.

The country-wide results were 25.75% of the votes for Macron’s “Ensemble”, 25.66% for the left “NUPES” camp, 16.68% for Le Pen’s RN, and only 11.29% for the traditional conservatives, UDC.
In German msm, the tone was, oh well, Macron came out a little weak in the first round, but it’s only the first round, and he’s already in the lead. With push coming to shove in the 2nd round (you know, a tendency towards "moderation" among voters), he’s going to secure a parliamentary majority, not matter what.

I rather doubt that.

I went through all the constituencies and so far, Macron’s “Ensemble” had a majority (anything from slight to solid) in only 200 of the 548 constituencies presented in the Wikipedia article. The leftist “NUPES” gained a majority, however slight it may be, in 187 constituencies. The old conservative parties gained a preliminary hold in only 45 constituencies, while the “Rassemblement National” (Le Pen) had the majority in a stunning 106 of constituencies. Seems to me like quite a shift to left and right. In the outgoing National Assembly, I think RN only had 6 deputies or so.

This list here is also quite telling, MPs who lost their seat in the 2022 French legislative election. With just the 1st round complete, scores of Macron deputies have already been shown the door by voters.

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Jun 19 2022 15:03 utc | 5

I was wrong about Biden using clipless pedals when he fell. I have seen better videos now. He was riding in loose toeclip/traps and failed to get his foot out because he is Biden and the Reds are having a great time with it while Rome burns....America has the best Wag The Dog production available.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 19 2022 15:09 utc | 6

No way to verify but has a ring of truth.

https://t.me/asbmil/2240

"Donetsk today... Over 400 shells fired chaotically into the city, half a dozen civilians killed, God knows how many not yet found under the rubble"

https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1538284133826322433

A voice from the Past

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwwMF6biCJU

Posted by: Tom_12 | Jun 19 2022 15:11 utc | 7

With regard to an extended conflict in 404

Key to the duration and outcome of the 404 conflict are three issues:

1) Citizen Repudiation of the State
Citizen response to state mismanagement and errors in judgement. If increasing energy prices results in domestic mfg champions being uncompetitive (Germany), or increased rate of inflation due to feed through of high energy costs in the domestic economy (US, Canada, most of EU), or an increased level of citizen suffering in the form of 1) forced choice between eating or freezing in winter dwelling; 2) increased cost of living with no comparable increase in incomes; 3) citizen antagonism re diversion of state funds to 404 while elites ignore domestic impacts of conflict; 4) increased citizen loss of trust in media reporting.

The Canadian Trucker convoy was a domestic protest that sparked similar forms of protest in much of the west. It is believed highly likely that growing western domestic unrest may reach the point where a "trigger event" will result in similar widespread reaction within western states, a discontent caused by the elite's romantic crusade in support of 404 Nazis and the total abandonment of civic obligations toward their own populace.

2) Rapidity of De-Dollarization
Given the potential for US stock market collapse, or reversion to the mean, the loss of us consumer purchasing power, the FED policy choices with respect to interest rates, general recognition of western hypocrisy, elite self interests and the replacement of international law by western "order," that all of these factors are likely to promote the creation of an alternate G8 (China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Iran and Turkey)
SOURCE:
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/russia-to-form-new-g8-with-iran-and-china

The "new" G8 consists of the most rapidly growing global economies, a significant share of global GDP, and major share of world population (i.e. domestic consumer demand). If the western "system" is seen to be collapsing in an insane move toward autarkic sanction frenzy then it would be reasonable for states seeking agreement capable trading partners and a measure of stability to form new global organizations which deliver significant benefit not available from the deluded and collapsing west.

3) Collapse of the 404 Military Effort
In essence 404 is being stripped of its military capacity due to a rate of force attrition that is unsupportable. It doesn't matter how many women and 60 year old men you conscript, such a "force farce" lacks training and the capacity to achieve any positive outcome in the field.

The 404 military therefore becomes increasingly brittle, prone to mass desertion and surrender, and exhibiting an increasing antipathy toward the Z regime. It must be remembered that Z came to power with a majority derived from his promise to bring peace to 404; he has delivered the opposite to his electoral promise. At a certain point regardless of the number of "punishers" or "AZOV Gestapo" the population will turn on the regime. This becomes increasingly likely as they realize the RF treats the citizenry with compassion and delivers a quality of peace, order, and good governance, no longer found in 404.

The next questions are:
When does the above occur?
In what sequence do the above occur?

My crystal ball suggests the collapse of the 404 military may occur by the end of July. Western economic collapse will be promoted by the US FED and its policy choices and the effects of these policies will be delayed by six to eight months. Citizen repudiation of the state hinges on an unpredictable "trigger event" but becomes increasingly likely as we head into the fall heating season.

Your crystal ball may deliver an alternate forecast.

Posted by: Sushi | Jun 19 2022 15:21 utc | 8

The Brahmaputra, one of Asia’s largest rivers, breached its mud embankments, inundating 3,000 villages and croplands in 28 of Assam’s 33 districts.

“We expect moderate to heavy rainfall in several parts of Assam till Sunday. The volume of rainfall has been unprecedented,” said Sanjay O’Neil, an official at the meteorological station in Gauhati, Assam’s capital.

In Bangladesh, districts near the Indian border have been worst affected.

Water levels in all major rivers across the country were rising, according to the flood forecasting and warning center in Dhaka, the capital. The country has about 130 rivers.

The center said the flood situation is likely to deteriorate in the worst-hit Sunamganj and Sylhet districts in the northeastern region as well as in Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilphamari and Rangpur districts in northern Bangladesh.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/india-bangladesh-floods-leave-at-18-dead-and-millions-without-homes

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 19 2022 15:36 utc | 9

On or about April 7, 2022, ABC News 24 (Australia) broadcast a TV news report from DW News. The first item focused on a resolution proposed by the US of A to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. The reason was alleged crimes against Humanity committed by Russian troops in Bucha(?) Ukraine. The UNGA vote on the resolution produced the following result:

Yes - 93 votes.
No - 24 votes.
Abstained - 58.

Since abstensions are not votes the resolution was successful, having achieved the necessary 2/3 majority. I can't find the details on the UN website but it would be interesting to see the names of the participating countries and which stance each country took.

Posted by: Hoarsewhlsperer | Jun 19 2022 15:39 utc | 10

"To dismount with dignity.
First take your foot out of the stirrup."

Joe Tzu

Posted by: Jpc | Jun 19 2022 15:48 utc | 11

CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER AREA FOR NORTH-CENTRAL ARIZONA INTO EAST-CENTRAL UTAH...

...Utah/Arizona...
Strong mid-level winds and an enhanced surface pressure gradient near the boundary will promote 20-25 mph sustained winds from northern Arizona into parts of southern/eastern Utah. RH could once again fall into the single digits. RH should be lower in western Utah with some increase with eastward extent. Even with some uncertainty in RH in eastern Utah due to some lingering moisture and potential cloud cover, values less than 15% are expected for a few hours along with the strong winds.

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/fire_wx/fwdy1.html

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 19 2022 16:02 utc | 12

trending interrupted

UNGA tally board, attack on Ukraine, 2 Mar 2022
src: Al Jazeera

UNGA tally board, HRC susspension, 7 April 2022
src: Al Jazeera

and related poll smoke, illustrated
Politico.eu.com | Europeans support Ukraine joining the EU -- but not yet 16 Mar
• OVERALL SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE'S EU MEMBERSHIP
• "unacceptable" | "unacceptable but understandable" Reasons®
• PERCEPTIONS OF DANGER NOT DRIVEN BY GEOGRAPHY
• before | after the Russian invasion SUPPORT FOR EU ARMY

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 19 2022 16:03 utc | 13

thank you b, for this forum and all the insights and alternative viewpoints that get shared here..

i like John J. Mearsheimer more then noam chomsky... i know that is not fair to say that or compare these 2 men like this but i am saying it anyway..

@ juliania and bemildred... thanks for your responses on the previous thread...

@ richard steven hack.. thanks for your posts...

@ Jpc | Jun 19 2022 15:48 utc | 13 - good one!

" This is not what Gengis Khan would do"
joe tzu..

Posted by: james | Jun 19 2022 16:09 utc | 14

I don’t think a better visual result could have possibly come from Biden’s fall. The lefties are not openly saying it but I think Biden just put a period on his disastrous regime. Like I said the other day, a total fly by night con job on the nation, always destined for failure. Wheels are turning at the DNC now….

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 16:48 utc | 15

The West is more rapidly assuming the emotional outlook of a spoiled child not getting his/her way anymore. Here are attitude takeaways from the story featuring Canada’s Natural Resources Minister discussing the critical mineral market:

”The strategic mistake made in allowing Russia to have global dominance in oil and gas cannot be repeated…”

“…resilience will only come if western countries don’t allow a geographic concentration of mineral production in countries that can’t be trusted.”

“countries that do not always share our perspectives on global affairs, and that have shown the ability at times to use their control of some of these resources as a weapon…”

Canada has apparently already budgeted $4 billion towards a “critical mineral strategy” which does not yet exist. “…the government knew it couldn’t wait.”

“We do need to find ways to accelerate our ability to get things done”

Justin Tzu - "When faced with critical shortages, first help provoke crisis to make the situation worse and then complain."

Posted by: jayc | Jun 19 2022 16:53 utc | 16

Julian Assange

Not that I am a big fan of tucker carlson (last party I was registered as was Partitdo Socialista Estados Unidos - Socialist Party USA - with roots and lineage to Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas). There was things to like for me with the NDP in Manitoba, but I never voted up there. Why is it so hard to see posted on any other main stream media support of Julian Assange.

“Why isn’t every journalist in the West defended your brother?” - Well thats a good question Tucker"

https://twitter.com/i/status/1538167850212401154

Posted by: paxmark1 | Jun 19 2022 16:55 utc | 17

@ jayc | Jun 19 2022 16:53 utc | 18

jayc, i was reminded of that article from the saker that scorpion shared yesterday in all of this.. let me quote from it as below.. you might enjoy the full article
here great justin tzu quote btw!

"The panic of our owners and their politicians is understandable because we have come to the end of the line. We can no longer keep up our living standards by debt increase and parasitism. The debt is reaching beyond what we own as collateral and our currencies are about to become worthless. We will no longer be able to get free stuff from the rest of the world, or pay back our debt – let alone pay interest on it. The entire West is about to go bankrupt and our standard of living is about to go down by a massive percentage. This is what has our owners panicked and they see only two scenarios:

In the first scenario most countries in the West, and everything and everyone within them, declare bankruptcy and erase the debt by diktat – which sovereign states are able to do. This will also erase the wealth and political power of our owners.
In the second scenario, our owners take over the collateral during the bankruptcy. The collateral is us and everything we own."

@ paxmark1 | Jun 19 2022 16:55 utc | 19

the fact julian assange is not being discussed by the msm gives a clear read on why the msm is not to be trusted in anyway whatsoever.... if the west was concerned about the welfare of ukrainians, they wouldn't be letting assange rot in prison as they have... and of course the uk and usa are the 2 most ugly culprits in this grand scheme, just as they are always the lead dogs for war on the planet at present... julian assange highlights the absurdity of all of the msm and wests bullshit in spades..

Posted by: james | Jun 19 2022 17:13 utc | 18

"Canada says world cannot allow"

like the "world" gives a shit. i'm also pretty sure china and russia don't need "permission" to mine their resources. and i'm 100% sure that the minerals are where they are. are they supposed to be "teleported" to another country?

not that it matters. the french whore and his underlings are on obama's level when it comes to making promises they'll never keep. see also: doing anything at all about the real estate speculation that's driving up rents and causing a very 2008ish bubble.

taibbi is tardy to the party as usual. for someone who has been reporting on this nonsense for years and doesn't hold back articles for fear of TRAtards:

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/archive?sort=new

Posted by: the pair | Jun 19 2022 17:20 utc | 19

Posted by: Hoarsewhlsperer | Jun 19 2022 15:39 utc | 12
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1115782
There's a twitter link on the side, shows how each country voted. vague though on the reasons why they voted the way they did.
A resolution based on lies. Figures.

Posted by: Heavymetal101 | Jun 19 2022 18:14 utc | 20

20 - james

The article from the Saker site is complemented today by Bhadrakumar's latest: "West at Inflection Point in Ukraine War"
https://www.indianpunchline.com/west-at-inflection-point-in-ukraine-war/

Stoltenberg: "We must not let up in supporting Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices..."

Posted by: jayc | Jun 19 2022 18:37 utc | 21

@ jayc | Jun 19 2022 18:37 utc | 23

thanks. i enjoyed the bhadrakumar article... he does say something similar and ''inflection point'' is a good term to use here.. i like it better then the ''great reset'' term.. i would like to quote one paragraph from the article -

"Fundamentally, the Western economies are facing a systemic crisis. The complacency that the reserve-currency-based US economy is impervious to ballooning debt; that the petrodollar system compels the entire world to purchase dollars to finance their needs; that the flood of cheap Chinese consumer goods and cheap energy from Russia and Gulf States would keep inflation at bay; that interest rate hikes will cure structural inflation; and, above all, that the consequences of taking a trade-war hammer to a complex network system in the world economy can be managed — these notions stand exposed. "

burgeoning debt is very central to all this... it isn't sustainable... the punch bowl has to be removed, but those in power don't want it removed... instead they would like to include russia, china and etc in the pillaging.. that russia can see this infuriates them.... so they make this about a war in ukraine when in fact it is much larger and hinges on world finances and who gets to control it and dictate to others... but the sanctions haven't worked... i have always maintained sanctions is the soft version of war.. if they don't work, physical war is the next stop as we are witnessing today... i suppose the west thinks it can spend its way out of this by spending on the military industrial complex... i wonder how long it takes before people in these countries - including canada - question the sanity of this approach?

Posted by: james | Jun 19 2022 19:05 utc | 22

TO: retiredmechung from the Ukraine thread re: Canadian trucker protests.

And in so doing I was also talking about the "small subset" of whom there were videos circulating about at the time. Obviously not all of the Canadian truckers, not even most for certain, were/are fascists (I don't recall using the term "nazi"), but plenty in one video - at least - were sporting the tats and symbols on their clothing and flags. As to the American far-right, there were also Confederate flags, Don't Tread on Me and Qanon materials in view. If anything, my opinion was and is that the far-right (as they often have, including the "accelerationists" during the so-called George Floyd protests) was attempting to co-opt some parts of the trucker convoy. There were also numerous truckers 'of color' and just normal people in other videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kHdAumXvA

https://globalnews.ca/news/8621125/canadian-anti-hate-network-concerned-diagolon-coutts-border-protest-diagolon/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0w52V1toNw

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:39 utc | 23

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:39 utc | 25

P.S. I forgot to add that it's entirely possible that at least some of the nazi flags and such were staged pranks. I highly doubt the other stuff was, though.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:41 utc | 24

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:39 utc | 25

bernie farber - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Farber

these types seem to excel at telling others who the hate folks are... isn't it possible that there would be a desire to subvert the truckers convey and this is a likely way to do it? it is hard to tell who is zooming who is what i am trying to say...

Posted by: james | Jun 19 2022 19:45 utc | 25

Both above responses were misattributed to retiredmecheng (apologies again). They were in fact a response to S from their post in the Ukraine thread.

Posted by: S | Jun 19 2022 19:09 utc | 118

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:46 utc | 26

we typed at the same time... and i agree with farber, any protest is a potential vehicle for more malevolent intentions.. but i don't think it takes away from the main thrust of what the larger groups intentions were... but this is just my subjective take and i am not being paid by an ngo - as farber has, or is still ) to say what i say..

bottom line - i am not really into talking about it, but feel free to share more of your thoughts! cheers..

Posted by: james | Jun 19 2022 19:50 utc | 27

@Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:39 utc | 25

I think we are in agreement on this issue? Is there something that I said that contradicts your position?

@everyone else: I don't say this often enough, but I really appreciate this blog and the input of all posters. The reason I don't comment very often is because my perspective is normally addressed by several other people, and is documented before I can even get my thoughts together...

Posted by: retiredmecheng | Jun 19 2022 19:52 utc | 28

Posted by: james | Jun 19 2022 19:45 utc | 27

Certainly, as the person on the first page of the Ukraine thread mentioned, co-optation could very well have also been by TPTB.

When I was living in Austin not long ago, we were driving on the MoPac expressway on our way home. Along several overpasses, but most prominently the one for the exit we would take to get to the house, there were numerous anti-semitic messages and swastikas on flags and banners. Our exit happened to also be how you get to the biggest Jewish center in town, the one named for Michael Dell off of Far West Blvd.

I couldn't fathom that *actual* nazis and white supremacists would think to do this, and came to the conclusion (may have been proven incorrect in the time since; I never actually followed up) it was likely a 'false flag' or free speech extremist group and not fascists, nazis, anti-semites. I may look back into that today as it was pretty shocking at the time.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:53 utc | 29

Posted by: retiredmecheng | Jun 19 2022 19:52 utc | 30

See my corrections in attribution. Sorry again - I misread you quoting "S" as your own words in the Ukraine thread. Yes, we're probably pretty much in agreement.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:54 utc | 30

TomQ@26

If one is searching everywhere for “ fascists” one could probably find some. I will help you. Try the absolute disgrace of the 2021 inaugural in DC where Pelosi brought in the National Guard armed with high powered weapons and put fences up around the Capitol. All that was left out was a nazi salute for the regime when they slithered out to the grand stand.

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 19:55 utc | 31

Below is a quote from a ZH piece describing Russia/US conflict in Syria

US military officials have told The Wall Street Journal that Russia forces have carried out multiple military operations against the US-led coalition in Syria this month. This included a Wednesday attack on the al-Tanf garrison along the Iraq border in southeast Syria, though so far it appears the operations have targeted American proxies, namely local Arab and Kurdish factions that US trainers have been supporting.

Given that Russia informed the Americans of the attacks ahead of time via a military-to-military communications line, the Pentagon believes Russia "wasn’t actively targeting American troops but was harassing the US mission in Syria."

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 19 2022 19:58 utc | 32

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 19:55 utc | 33

As I and many others have often stated, the American Democratic Party is merely a corporation designed to shield corporate proto-fascists and the Republican party from the working Left. Hardly a surprise when the national Democrats, LLC of which Peloser is a prominent figurehead, embrace fascistic tactics. But the Republicans and American Right are also no strangers to the ideologies and tactics involved.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:58 utc | 33

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 19:55 utc | 33

You forgot about the 2016 DNC convention. I could have sworn I was watching the Bush/Cheney inauguration all over again. It's so creepy I can't even be bothered to go find the videos.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 20:01 utc | 34

TomQ@35

“ dem party merely a corporation”

Well gosh golly , just a corporation OK. So theyre in no way responsible for destroying the decorum of the inauguration. They are in no way responsible for the Stalin show trials of Trump. They are in no way responsible for the attempt to use Google and other tech media to control free speech and to criminalize republicans. But some guy with a tattoo in Canada is a fascist and responsible for the entire trucking revolt?….. time to get out of the sun Tom

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 20:09 utc | 35

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 20:09 utc | 37

It never takes much to turn you into Dinesh D'Souza does it, LOL. You aren't capable of having a rational, non-disingenuous conversation about US politics. Criminalize Republicans, LMAO. As I've said now too many times to count, the Democrat corporation is in place to serve as a bulwark for the Republican corporation, the FIRE sector and Silicon Valley giants from the *actual working class LEFT*.

You also suffer from a MAJOR deficit in reading comprehension. Before I respond to any more of your unmitigated bullshit, please show me exactly where I said that "some guy with a tattoo is a fascist AND responsible for the ENTIRE trucking revolt." Go for it; I'll wait.

- Dude, you're the one who needs to get out of the sun, or maybe try getting some vitamin D.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 20:13 utc | 36

France: French "centrists" did their best, under circumstances, keeping barbarians outside the gates. According to the projections in Politico, the party of Macron will have 39% of the parliamentary seats, and ideologically close Republicans should get 14%. Nevertheless, the huge increase of seats for anti-Atlanticist left and right should prompt the centrists to bestir themselves to some changes of the course.

There are no official results yet, and small changes can perhaps tip the balance.

Huge protest in Moldova today, perhaps the poorest country in Europe that elected very pro-Western president and parliamentary majority some time ago, but with minority of votes from the residents of the country, 1/3 of the electorate is abroad and Moldova exists as a remittance economy. Bulgaria and Slovakia seem other wobbly links in the chain of European Solidarity that imposed sanctions and reverse sanctions on EU and strongly associated country. Ideologues of ES exhort leaders to "do the right thing even if unpopular", we will see how long it can last.

Perhaps it is a lame metaphor, ideologues of ES and Atlanticism have to gracefully stop a bicycle without falling on the ground. From personal experience, it is tricky if you carry a heavy baggage, in this case, ideological baggage.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 19 2022 20:15 utc | 37

TomQ@39

You said that the tattoo guy was an “accelerationist” which implies that there was no natural and justified discontent among the truckers but that they were being led astray - identical to the smears of Trump and J6 fascist show trial.
Seriously are you are working for DNC? We’re not all as stupid out here as you think Tom.

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 20:25 utc | 38

Obviously not all of the Canadian truckers, not even most for certain, were/are fascists ...
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 19:39 utc | 25

What may be puzzling is why Trudeau thought that being a fascist is something bad. "Why, even some of my best friends, even important cabinet members are...". And in a UN vote, Canada made it official that it has no idea if glorifying Nazism is good or bad.

a rational, non-disingenuous conversation
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 20:13 utc | 39

It reminds me a scene from my high school English class when we were drilling antonyms. Teacher was giving examples and we were answering quickly

regular -- irregular
impossible -- possible
sufficient -- insufficient
important -- portant [ interruption of the drill ]

I wonder if "genuine" or "sincere" would be a better antonym for "disingenuous".

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 19 2022 20:28 utc | 39

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 20:25 utc | 41

"You said that the tattoo guy was an “accelerationist”..."

There's that reading comprehension deficit again. I never singled out any "tattoo guy" which is something a 9th grader would do. Here's what I said:

If anything, my opinion was and is that the far-right (as they often have, including the "accelerationists" during the so-called George Floyd protests)....infiltrated the movement. I never once called any particular individual an accelerationist or said that any significant percentage of the Canadian convoy was made up of people like that.

"which implies that there was no natural and justified discontent among the truckers but that they were being led astray..."

No, dummy, in fact I was saying that the ostensibly far right accelerationsists may have in fact infiltrated the movement - and done so loudly and conspicuously for their own ends - and in so doing given the corporate media and Trudeau government an excuse to smear the entire group as fascists, white supremacists, etc. Note that I never "implied" anything resembling that somehow a few accelerationists managed to lead the whole protest "astray." LMFAO dude, try harder.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 20:32 utc | 40

TomQ

You say tomayto, I say tomahto……. Yawn. Bye bye

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 20:36 utc | 41

What is winning in the present context?

Overall view.
For the US bloc, it is the reduction of both Russia and China to totally owned commodity sources. Under new "ownership" which can become a source for corporate and Banking plunder. Two forms; of either exclusion (of the poorest/weakest), or exploitation in favour of the One Empire.*1*
*
For the Russian, Chinese bloc,they want a multipolarity. Where Major players and minor players all get the possibility to profit mutually. Concretely, there would be three major groups. Russia, China and the US. The US would not be "excluded" from this system. There is acceptance that the US would continue to play a major role on the world's stage, even if it did not have the preponderant position for its personal advantage.

This would be the best result for all. Putin and Xi have both said so before.
***

Two Battlefields. Military and Financial.
for the US Unibloc, The Military was supposed to be the advance contingent for the support of the financial takeover of the world. Corporations were to be the final profiteers*2*, and Credit control (Banking) to be the straight jacket for the impoverished minions.*3*
This rosy image has been severly roughed up by the Russians.
Financially the worst is still to come for the US, which is loss of the dollar dominance.
*
For the Multibloc the military and financial blocs are still present and active threats. They have to learn slowly that US bloc dominance can be avoided or curtailled. Sanction avoidance is a learning process. Militaries have to be constructed outside US organised command structures (Bases, "training of commanders and elite troops within the US system etc.) A long process which has only just started.
***

Ok, perhaps I've oversimplified as most of the above is already known to you all.
**

*1* The "Empire" is a misleading term as it has not One but many parts.
As Joe Tsu said; Get as many advisors as you can, and you will be surprised how many new enemies you suddenly have.
**
*2* Corporations are immortal, and can be used by the principal "families", Oligarchs, and by Uni-ethnic based organisations, (ie Israel) to carry out plans over long periods of time.
The owners are not subject to legal threats personally, and it is the "corporation" that will pay out a minimal sum if caught.
**
*3* Finance and constraints on day to day living. In China they have already used QR tests as a means of stopping legitimate demonstrations against malfeasance by four Banks. The "App" that controls where you can go or meet, reads "red" if you get near those Banks. Police are called or you can get 14 days in prison/Quarantine. Coming to a city near you. (The "Capitol" riots, Canadian truckers and others now regularly consult movements and social media for individual repression.)
**

****
Sushi | Jun 19 2022 15:21 utc | 10
Suchi. I think there may be a change in tactics. Putin, and Lavorov, were really pissed off that the EU and US plus NATO are continuing to sends arms and increase the tension. The Ukie troops are falling to bits as their "command" structures, once under NATO personnel, have been subverted to EITHER, be directly commanded from the US (with loss of inter troop cohesion), OR Zelensky and the amateurs, OR uncle tom Cobbly and all who decide they know it all and act independently.
So direct hits on command structures leading to heavier human losses are possibly going to become regular. The Russian may even be getting fed up with the slaughter of poor conscripts, territorials (transcarpathians?) and kidnapped Russian speakers. They may want to make the Ukrainians and mercenaries pay more, to even up the score.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jun 19 2022 20:38 utc | 42

I wonder if "genuine" or "sincere" would be a better antonym for "disingenuous".

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 19 2022 20:28 utc | 42

To me, saying (non-)disingenuous makes it more clear that the other party is actively and knowingly being insincere or not-genuine rather than mistakenly regurgitating an already disproven or easily debunked statement. But yes, those are in fact the proper antonyms.

Canada has been a haven for nazis and their ilk since the end of WWII. Canadians also aided, abetted and joined the segregationist, white supremacist group responsible for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (under whose auspices I've forgotten - but I've read that there was strong support for the Confederacy in Canada).

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 20:38 utc | 43

My @45
"(The "Capitol" riots, Canadian truckers and others now regularly consult movements and social media for individual repression.)"
should read;
The "Capitol" riots, Canadian truckers and others. Governments now regularly consult movements and social media for individual repression.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jun 19 2022 20:48 utc | 44

@ KillWallStreet | Jun 19 2022 12:59 utc | 1
@ malenkov | Jun 19 2022 13:33 utc | 2

If Mélenchon were Prime Minister, could he have Assange granted French nationality?

No.

Article 21-16 of the Code civil:

No one can be naturalized if he or she does not reside in France at the time of signing the naturalization decree.

Moreover, Assange’s French nationality would have no more impact on his extradition than his Australian nationality.

Mélenchon is a professional politician, who as a socialist senator accompanied the absolute collapse of the French « left ». He knows what to say to his voters, even if he knows that what he says is false.

However, I have a certain esteem for him because he is respectful of the French language. His sentences have a subject, a verb and a complement. This is not so common among our politicians.

Posted by: Leuk | Jun 19 2022 20:56 utc | 45

French elections outcome
Macron conglomerate got less seats than the bottom side if any projection - so no majority, by far.
Democracy and parliamentary game may resume in France, possibly.
Thé LR party will be targeted for an alliance, but Macron was so confident that he has a long journey before being able to consider a compromise with LR party. Several former LR deputies were hired before the elections, and some elected (not many) under Macron flag. The remaining in my understanding are quite suspicious against any alliance with Macron who during 5 years did never consider their views seriously.
With the leftist and the rightist there is a huge number of deputies against alignment with US, NATO and EU.
It will be an interesting period going forward in France

Posted by: Daniel | Jun 19 2022 21:02 utc | 46

An article from the Postillon:

Russian hackers insert porn pages into married man's browser history

https://www.the-postillon.com/2017/08/russian-hackers.html?m=1

Posted by: Leuk | Jun 19 2022 21:08 utc | 47

To the Bobblehead - A note on my use of the word "merely" as an adverb.

When one has learned the true power of corporations over the US government, one has accepted innately that the US government is in fact subservient to corporations (including banks) rather than the American people. Prior to Bill Clinton, most of the Democrats at least played a believable role as the 'opposition' to corporate primacy or 'corporatocracy' which has been the de-facto Republican (and Trumpian) policy dating back to the Powell Memorandum and the rise of the national Chamber of Commerce. Creepy Uncle Joe was always one of the Democrats who could easily have been a Republican if he were to have resided in a state other than Delaware, which is the birthplace of modern predatory credit practices. On a side note, he was also against busing and a big supporter of Strom Thurmond (an avowed white supremacist who switched to the Republican Party - and spent much longer there than he had with the Democrats - after the Southern Strategy flipped the script on segregation, civil rights, etc.).

All of which is a long way of qualifying the notion that it goes without saying corporations in the US inverted totalitarian state have nearly complete primacy and the use of the word "merely" wasn't meant to minimize anything about the Democratic (or Republican) Party, but rather to describe them as "just another corporation" (and a powerful one at that).

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 21:14 utc | 48

TomQ

Corporations are a constituency and American people are another constituency. I am tired of people saying that voting doesn’t matter. In fact, it is your duty as a anti-fascist ( presumably from your post) to recognize the locus today of fascist activity and to oppose it at the ballot box. Today, the locus of fascist activity is unquestionably the Democrat party and the Biden junta. No more gobblygook please.

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 21:30 utc | 49

We can no longer keep up our living standards by debt increase and parasitism. The entire West is about to go bankrupt and our standard of living is about to go down by a massive percentage.

A major point of all the bullshit is to make sure that when the honest truth of the above quote starts to sink in, people don’t get too angry that the rich are doing just fine and dandy.

Posted by: Rae | Jun 19 2022 21:36 utc | 50

Hi barflies! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. At the end of the previous open thread I mentioned that I'm doing some research into the Car Wash thing in Brazil. I received a few links already! Thanks. Glen Greenwald covered it in depth. c1ue had interesting points. I read Portuguese to a certain extent, so Brazilian info would be really cool. Muito obrigado!
Thanks everyone! Especially the barkeep, b.

Posted by: lex talionis | Jun 19 2022 21:52 utc | 51

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 21:30 utc | 52

Corporations (and banks) are the ONLY constituency that has the ear of the Federal, and increasingly state governments. This has been shown to be true by at least a couple of analyses. If the voters, more correctly referred to in this framework as "consumers" are occasionally heard, it's usually by accident or having some powerful connections with the media, Silly Cone Valley or of course one of the major political parties.

At the local level, prior to being corrupted by the party regimes, of course voting matters and I vote as often as I can. This is just another example of you projecting and/or putting words in my mouth that I never wrote.

As far as me being 'anti-fascist' - certainly. And we live under capitalist corporate fascism that works like a pendulum. At the moment, the corporate Democrats are - on the whole - about on par with the Republicans (incl. Trump/Trumpists) - in terms of corporate funding and influence, and lead them in donations and infiltration by tech and possibly the big banks. And yes, SillyCon Valley is practicing a form of fascism by censoring certain viewpoints and narratives (including de-platforming Trump as well as leftist anti-war/pro-worker sites and individuals). If you can't see that, you're only paying selective attention.

First, we need to break up and/or heavily regulate the big tech firms and the big banks. How we do that is a subject for debate.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 22:25 utc | 52

Re: Corporate/Oligarchical control over our "democratic republic":

Abstract Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented.

A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy,while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

Something is out of balance in Washington. Corporations now spend about $2.6 billion a year on reported lobbying expenditures—more than the $2 billion we spend to fund the House ($1.18 billion) and Senate ($860 million). It’s a gap that has been widening since corporate lobbying began to regularly exceed the combined House-Senate budget in the early 2000s.

Today, the biggest companies have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them, allowing them to be everywhere, all the time. For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public-interest groups together, large corporations and their associations now spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/how-corporate-lobbyists-conquered-american-democracy/390822/

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 22:30 utc | 53

In fact, it is your duty as a anti-fascist ( presumably from your post) to recognize the locus today of fascist activity and to oppose it at the ballot box. Today, the locus of fascist activity is unquestionably the Democrat party and the Biden junta. No more gobblygook please.

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 21:30 utc | 52

If you somehow took away from anything I've ever written here that I don't oppose the corporate Democrats and the party establishment's abandonment of the working class in favor of cynical identity politics (that the Right/Republicans use to play to their own base in the form of the Culture Wars (TM)), then you're not reading me correctly. I'll never vote for a Democrat for President again (haven't since 2000), but I sure as hell won't be voting for a faux-populist Republican like Trump or a neocon like Tom Cotton either.

There is much continuity between the Biden administration and Trump. One recent example is the seamless transition in the persecution of Julian Assange; a man Trump - by well sourced reports - joined the Hillary camp ideologically (and in Trump's case literally) in wanting to assassinate. Trump's entire cabinet were Neocon Zionists.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 22:37 utc | 54

The "Canadian Truckers" protest seems to have begun as an attempt to put pressure on Ottawa to reverse its, moderate and minimalist, attempts to control the pandemic.
The 'truckers' had a Swedish 'let 'er rip' philosophy which put the interests of capitalists above those of society as a whole and the vulnerable in particular.
They were joined, intellectually, by those who made the peculiar argument that there was no pandemic and that the measures being taken (usually with great reluctance and much foot dragging) by governments to impose quarantines, identify sources of infection, treat the sick and, by advising the use of masks and social distancing, to stop the spread of an unusually virulent cause of illness and often death, all these measures were, it was argued, part of a coordinated campaign by unidentified powers, to control the population in order to exploit it.
There is nothing mysterious about the motives of those who were behind the "it's a shamdemic" ideology. Its appeal was that it underlined the "herd immunity" argument and protected capitalism from the real threat that epidemic disease and inferior public health measures always pose to the system because they scream out for socialist solutions.
An optimist, I was greatly surprised that Trump's appalling response to Covid did not lead to a massive public movement in favour of Medicare for All. I had no doubt that, at the very minimum the shocking and callous way in which tens of thousands were abandoned to die, as it were in the streets, because they were uninsured and because the Health Care system , geared to profit making, was incapable of dealing with a pandemic, would lead to the selection of a Democratic Party candidate calling for a major reform of the Healthcare system, probably on Canadian lines.
I was wrong. The calls from the left for socialist solutions were drowned out by the cacophony of those demanding that the capitalist show, especially in its retail sector, should go on and the lunacy of those who, hinting at the likelihood of lizards, the illuminati or perhaps the celebrants of a Saturday sabbath, if not the auld alliance between the City of London and the Comintern, insisted that there was no pandemic, that people were dying for all sorts of reasons other than the virus (a bad flu season...co-morbidity etc ) and that the aim was to take freedom away from the working man.
Such as the trucker.
What was missing was any explanation of why, suddenly, the capitalist class which has ruled the roost with increasing arrogance over a half century in which, by every metric imaginable, the living standards of the great majority of the population have declined and the wealth of the wealthiest class has enormously increased, in which taxation has become increasingly regressive, in which the power of the state in the form of police force, the military and the lockstep authoritarianism of the judiciary, has progressively grown. In which, in short, the ruling class could not have done more to enhance its interests at the expense of the masses.
And yet the "shamdemicists " insisted, that sitting at the table with its winnings piled up around it and the workers, shivering and shirtless, unemployed and deeply indebted, disorganised, unrepresented politically and brainwashed into blaming themselves at the other end, losers. The Powers That Be, The Establishment elected, for no discernible reasons, in the moment of triumph to kick the card table over and call for radical change.
That is 'radical change' to the precise social arrangements that they had assembled, protected, developed and from which they had so enormously profited. The ruling class had smashed the Trade Union movement, largely by de-industrialising the metropolitan regions of the Empire and exporting industrial work to jurisdictions where governments did not tolerate strikes, demands for better conditions and shorter hours, pay rates sufficient to live from and those social services which comprise the Welfare State.
And now we are told, being in total control, owning all the media and all the scenery in the Overton Window, they decide to risk it all by demanding complete change. And not just change but change which would be bound to lead to developments against their interests.

All of which is perfectly encapsulated in the "Truckers" complaint that the Capitalists' dream regime in Ottawa is in fact bent on communism or socialism. And that Trudeau a dyed in the wool neo-liberal with a deep belief in the dynamism and inevitability of a profit driven economy controlling an unequal society, is as Scorpion hints an offspring of Fidel Castro.

My optimism was born of the conviction that such stuff could not be made up. But it could be and it was. And, midwifed by millions from the Koch Bros and their friends, it lives among us yet, an ugly, improbable monster nourished by the blood of the poor.

Posted by: bevin | Jun 19 2022 22:39 utc | 55

Posted by: bevin | Jun 19 2022 22:39 utc | 58

Moving away from the truckers, I too expected a bigger ground swirl in favor of M4A as the result of COVID. Obviously much of what you describe about the larger picture in the inverted totalitarian corporate-banker controlled 'west' is and has been true for a while now.

But the Democrats (and some useful idiots - including erstwhile leftists in their sway) did themselves no favors in a number of ways before and during the pandemic.

1. The corrupt, secretive and full-of-lies vaccine development process very much fed into the existing anti-vaxx movement, and in fact grew it substantially. And why wouldn't it have? Why did Phizer hide those deaths and bad outcomes? Simple - They saw an enormous windfall coming their way courtesy of "the taxpayer" and in this capitalist "i want it now!" and "the only profits that count are quarterly!" culture, they knew they would most likely get away with keeping the process secret for 75 years after banking their millions/billions.

2. The likes of Peloser and her Republicon cohorts were definitively engaging in insider trading of various stocks, knowing - as did Trump - that the pandemic was about to have a very deleterious effect on the economy. Hence your comments about the elite capitalist class's profiteering and increasing their slice of the pie.

All the while, those and other elite and not-so-elite profiteers benefited from the anti-mask nonsense that was going around, knowing that this thing would kill off a lot of the undesirable plebes who were bound to start agitating for better treatment, pandemic or not, and further cement their stranglehold on wealth. Convince the deplorables that (even the right type of) masks simply don't work, in contradiction to basic physics. I mean seriously, how is a simple mask mandate (either corporate or governmental) any more of an infringement on one's civil liberties than a common dress code? Can truckers go to work nude? Do some companies 'force' them to wear steel toed boots? Isn't a mask just another piece of 'clothing' one wears?

3. The quasi-political actors like Anthony Fauci who were long involved (often secretly) in the development of awful viruses and other pathogens despite moratoriums and serious voices in the scientific and medical communities raising serious objections to GoF research and massively taxpayer subsidized research efforts for which the taxpayer would again later be on the hook for purchasing what turned out in many cases to be loads of worthless, if not actively harmful, vaccines? Such research was quietly off-shored to China and, apparently, Ukraine, among other former Soviet satellite states. In some cases, allegations point to gene specific research on Slavs and Asians, which of course could lead to targeted weaponized pathogens either "escaping" from labs or intentionally deployed as the US government and other fascist regimes like the Nazis or Japanese have provably done in the past.

I suppose all of this is to say that I expected much more from the left in opposition to these very real and easy to qualify/quantify/investigate things, and instead we got a (mostly) astroturf or 'influencer-status-seeking' right-wing (or independent), psuedo-libertarian narratives that built on conspiracy theories like Q and Pizzagate - and - a profiteering establishment Democrat capitalist class wipeout of any dissenting opinions on the left.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:00 utc | 56

Bobolinski@41
"Seriously are you are working for DNC? We’re not all as stupid out here as you think Tom."

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 20:25 utc | 41

and some of us are more dumber than we realize.

you are only the voice on this whole site who pushes this donkey vs elephant utter nonsense. sorry if i overlooked any of the neophytes round here who still think voting matters, at least as far as the US is concerned. hilary, donald, joe, obama, george, all the contestants, approved by the billionaire class, which is why they even got to the "your vote for prezzy matters" stage. at which point, the electoral college casts the deciding vote, because "democracy."

and both parties are full participants, babble-inski. neither hilary or donald dared to question the two votes that matter: the vote of billionaires, ratified by the vote of the electoral college. gee, if you look at them for 2 seconds, HRC and DT, you'll see they are clones of each other.

what tedium.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 19 2022 23:08 utc | 57

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 19 2022 23:08 utc | 60

Not that it matters in the least, and I'll not respond to any more of it, but Bobby here is pushing a variation on the donkey vs. elephant nonsense narrative wherein Trump (despite NOT running as an independent and CHOOSING the Republican party) is somehow this anti-establishment/anti-elite outsider who would fight for the working man in meaningful ways rather than do what he did and let the billionaire class get to keep even more of their ill-gotten gains, not to mention staff his entire cabinet with Ziocons and appoint hardened Neocons like John Bolton, Elliott Abrams and Mike Pimpeous to important positions. Next we'll "learn" about the wonderful Abraham Accords and how they brought "peace" to the Middle East.

I'm tellin' ya - the dude drinks Dinesh D'Souza videos through a firehose - AND - I can guarantee that prior to Trump, if he was actually of voting age and/or politically aware, he voted for Bush/Cheney not once, but twice, and probably engaged in the "you're either with us or the terrorists" B.S. prior to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in the same way he's spouting the du jour Trumpist talking points of today.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:20 utc | 58

Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 20:25 utc | 41
re: voting
the republican intervention into the electoral process across the nation is being conducted as it is because they are fascists.

the democratic non-response is because they don't disagree with the fascists. they are not going to fight to prevent their "enemies" from taking over the local election process, across the country. because they are not enemies.

they fight over pieces of the meat pie, like feral hungry dogs. they don't care how the sausage is made. if that weren't so, they'd fight to change the voting system at the macro level, not at a billion different points along the micro level, w/another armed thug, from ICE no doubt, asking to see people's ID papers before they can do another activity in this prison state.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 19 2022 23:21 utc | 59

Rjb@60

“Voting doesn’t matter”

You didn’t see the electoral results from France? Macron will likely now be deprived of his parliamentary majority by both the new left and right constituencies. This result will function as a roadblock to further fascist mandates both mask and “vaccine” it could also prevent erosion of worker rights. So who is stupid? The French people who have just won all that they could possibly given the circumstances or people who sit around and complain and obfuscate. Is the US system corrupt? Yes absolutely. Should we be negative ninnies and not vote? No! Do your duty, you are only 1 person but you must participate!

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 23:27 utc | 60

RE: Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:20 utc | 61

In order to close the book on this tired topic, I feel the need to provide balance to my opinion on Trump's faux populist status.

Namely, the same logic can be (and is) applied to one Bernard Sanders. Not only did he - and Independent - CHOOSE to run as a Democrat, not once but twice; he also did the same thing both times. Let the party's vast machinery slowly kneecap his campaign in cahoots with the legacy media, but use his campaign in my view cynically (or naively?) to fruitlessly attempt to drag the establishment's chosen candidate to the left on important issues with a lot of (bi-partisan even) support like healthcare reform and anti-imperialism. Ultimately Bernie proved to be a wimp, or again perhaps cynically, someone - like Trump - who never actually expected to ascend to the White House.

I'd argue that Bernie at least was genuine in his politics if not very adept at harnessing the popular anger like Trump did (at the same time co-opting many of Sanders's messages) at the establishment media and DNC. Bernie folded like a cheap suit on issues like Russiagate, Ukrainegate, that Russia was supposedly helping him and Trump in the primaries, paying for Afghanis to murder US soldiers and other B.S.

But he chose the conniving, corporate-owned Democratic Party twice, willingly. Whether he was intentionally serving as a Judas Goat or sheepdog, I don't care to get into here.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:35 utc | 61

OT comment to the other thread.

Ekranoplane is the best name for that type of vehicle. The only difference from Russian language is an "e" added at the end: экраноплан → ekranoplan → ekranoplane.

Wikipedia has decent pages on both "the Caspian Sea Monster" and the following "Lun" which has been recently updated concerning the ongoing aims of restoring it and displaying it as an attraction.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jun 19 2022 23:40 utc | 62

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 23:27 utc | 63

DUUUUDE, please do some research and let us know if France has a slavery era Electoral College.

Again, I agree with you in principle; at least at the lower levels, or when an anti-establishment politician can motivate voters to focus on the down-ballot races, such as what happened in Texas when (entitled moron from my home town) Beto last ran for Senate. For example, he brought on a 'blue wave' of progressive minded prosecutors in the big cities and most were surprised at the scale of it. But it's important for voters to understand when our votes do and when they don't matter.

But to mine and (I think) rjb1.5's points: It makes literally no difference in actual policies and legislation for whom you vote at the national level, and especially for President and Senate - by contrast corporations and their lobbyists almost always get exactly what they want in spite of whatever was said on the campaign trail. This was no different with Trump or the Republicans.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:42 utc | 63

Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:20 utc | 61
anybody that votes, again in the US, is merely (=simply, only) engaging in projection. what are they projecting? they are projecting their "ideal self".

and the two choices given are HRC and DT. or BD and DT, which is the same thing. for the family values voters out there, "wisdom is known by her children". who could tell Trump Jr from Biden Jr from Clinton Jr, if it weren't for the "pussy grabbing"?

Donald Trump and Joe Biden are America because they are Americans' ideal self. Americans actually want to be like these greed-animated shit golems. they want an MLKj who worships Wall Street and bombs the living fuck out of brown people and locks them up every day for 8 straight years, across the globe, incl Texas.

DT is a rebel and business genius precisely because of how much he fucked over native Americans. wow. imagine that. please don't take that comment as an endorsement of Senator Credit Card. the worst trash in world history runs every speck of this country. its cows and chickens can't die off fast enough. maybe at 150 F, Bobblezinski will stop swallowing his own BS.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 19 2022 23:46 utc | 64

@ Bobolinski, #63

Do “my duty”?
I “must” participate?
You are embarrassing yourself.
I’ve been there.
Sent money to Obama.
Got informed, before I embarrassed myself even more, by voting for him.
Keep preaching, Bono.
I like to be aware of where people who think like you, are located.

Posted by: Southpaw | Jun 19 2022 23:49 utc | 65

Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 23:27 utc | 63
nah, i'm let you do all that hard work of getting up, standing in line, registering, and stuff. i'm going to sit here and enjoy the last bit of 70F weather left on the earth and let you guys worry about the stuff that matters. like voting.

i live in the US, btw. i'm sure if voting mattered so much in France, there wouldn't be yellow vests and the like. regularly. all that extra special and wonderful voting power they have in France doesn't stop them, the country, from being the US lapdog or capitalist colonialist rapist warmongering shitbags, does it? so much for France's vote.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 19 2022 23:53 utc | 66

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 19 2022 23:46 utc | 67

I still believe that voting at the local level has real-world consequences, both good and bad. Of course increasingly the national parties are corrupting that process with...you guessed it...(dark) money.

But if voting didn't matter *at all* or *in any race* why would the Republicans invest so much time, money and effort to make an already unfair system even more unfair? Why seek to further disenfranchise already disenfranchised citizens and communities? Clearly the Democrats either 1) don't know how to fight 'dirty' or 2) don't even care to do so (especially on the national level) - in too many ways to enumerate here - and it's mostly kabuki theater with the donkeys playing controlled opposition or fake resistance to their elephant colleagues.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:59 utc | 67

good news from Colombia today

we will see about any true progressive changes in the country......

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/leftist-petro-wins-colombia-presidential-election-2022-06-19/
Leftist Petro wins Colombia presidential election

BOGOTA, June 19 (Reuters) - Leftist Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement who has vowed profound social and economic change, will be Colombia's next president after beating construction magnate Rodolfo Hernandez in an election on Sunday.

Petro, a current senator and previous mayor of Bogota, won 50.8% of votes, figures from the national registry office showed, while Hernandez trailed by 797,973 votes, tallying 46.9%.

Some 20 million people cast ballots nationwide.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Jun 20 2022 0:00 utc | 68

Here's a repost of my ongoing review of "The Master and Margarita" (posted last night on the midweek open thread). Thanks to james at 16 here, and Bemildred at the previous thread

[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.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 20 2022 0:00 utc | 69

bevin | Jun 19 2022 22:39 utc | 58
well-stated. covid is a staggering threat to the capitalist order, which is why the WW3 plans have been greatly accelerated.

and why there is so much disinformation, denial and fantastical delusion about the virus. people want supervillains, not "the banality of evil".

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 0:03 utc | 70

Posted by: michaelj72 | Jun 20 2022 0:00 utc | 71

Truly great news. Now cue up the US corporate media's inevitable response, the probable coup attempts, and the otherwise by-the-US-playbook attempts to sabotage his government. I mean, isn't that basically what happens ANY time a viable leftist comes to power in Uncle Scam's 'backyard'? Either way, it should be interesting, and hopefully he can walk the balance in the shadow of the corrupt hegemon to the north.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2022 0:03 utc | 71

@ Leuk | Jun 19 2022 20:56 utc | 48

Much appreciated, Leuk! I can add this little incident to my burgeoning "Mélenchon is a phony" file.

Posted by: malenkov | Jun 20 2022 0:03 utc | 72

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:35 utc | 64

"But he chose the conniving, corporate-owned Democratic Party twice, willingly. Whether he was intentionally serving as a Judas Goat or sheepdog, I don't care to get into here."

In fairness to both of these maybe-maybe-not 'outsiders' I believe that the likelihood of a Third Party getting anywhere in the current US system is widely regarded as impossible and in theory that's why they try to ride in on the coat-tails of the only two inroads available.

I think am beginning to understand your perspective a little bit more now and get that you are what can be called a cynic (viz. the two parties etc.). Quite understandable.

At the same time I also get those who are not willing to throw in the towel and feel compelled to do something rather than roll over and play dead.

Generally, I wish people were able to air political views without being insulted or insulting others. I think a huge amount of damage is being done by this unfortunate tendency. However, passion around politics is as old as the first caveman elections which were decided by the ancient 'last man standing system:' they didn't have ballots then but crude wooden instruments we now - thanks to modern university-derived vocabularies - know as 'clubs' many of them quite vicious owing to the caveman's disdain for things like planing, sanding and varnishing. They were a rough breed in a rough time. Anyway, after voicing their preference kinetically in time-honored gladiator style free-for-alls, the man left standing, and ideally still also with enough teeth in his head to sport a compelling smile for the witnessing topless ladies, lurking around the edge of vision where the flickering firelight barely reached, would scream their delight at the new champions victory and then start fighting among themselves to see which four of them would now become the Head Man's Signicant Other. (These four, of course, would actually rule the tribe whilst the Head Man was off hunting nearly every day and so it is to the venerable Lineage of Ladies that we owe the Deep State tradition!)

Anyway, we don't have clubs any more but we do often use our words as weapons and IMHO snark is generally unproductive for both giver and receiver.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 0:04 utc | 73

I still believe that voting at the local level has real-world consequences [snip]

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:59 utc | 70

In some localities, maybe. Some are small enough that the occasional non-sociopath stands a chance. Where I live, however, elections are all determined at the Republican primary level, i.e., which candidate can out-Trump the other. The Dims rarely bother to put up anything resembling opposition.

Posted by: malenkov | Jun 20 2022 0:09 utc | 74

bevin | Jun 19 2022 22:39 utc | 58
people are not going to believe the truth, the scientific truth, about the virus because such compels a *universal* response, because the truth is that every person on the planet is vulnerable and a potential carrier. thus every person w/o exception must be cared for and treated. as every person breathes.

nah, fuck that. blame a biolab or an agent (Fauci) of the system. much, much easier on the brain. easier to target and bomb.

who really believes that the laws of science apply to everyone equally? what a load of commie bull, right?

where's Norwegian to remind us that "there is no consensus"? (except on how to get oil out of the ground and the need to lie about the consequences.)

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 0:12 utc | 75

@ Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 0:04 utc | 76

As far as national politics is concerned, I think the only reasonable thing to do is wait for the whole rotten edifice to collapse. Help out with the local organization of a national strike, maybe, as if that would ever happen.

Bernie's campaigns were pure delusion from the get-go: What good would it do to have a President Bernie without sufficiently broad coattails in Congress to get even a tenth of his agenda out of committee? (That, and he's never had much interest in foreign affairs, so forget any intelligent leadership from him in that area. He's always been AIPAC Lite.)

Now disaffected Berniebros are talking about putting up Jimmy Dore as a presidential candidate for the People's Party. Yeah, as if we needed YET ANOTHER leftist party! Of course, missing are (1) the $1 billion or so necessary to get his name into the public consciousness and (2) 60 senators, about 220 congresscritters, and an entirely new SCOTUS. After all, not even The Fraud . . . oops, I mean The Squad . . . would support him on 404.

Posted by: malenkov | Jun 20 2022 0:17 utc | 76

Anyway, we don't have clubs any more but we do often use our words as weapons and IMHO snark is generally unproductive for both giver and receiver.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 0:04 utc | 76

Since that's a point - believe it or not - that I've made here in the past, I obviously don't completely disagree. However, it becomes tiresome to be accused over and over using tired formulaic, false and simplistic tropes of being some sort of operative for the DNC, always accompanied by claims that I said something I most definitely didn't say.

To your other comments, I've always been called a cynic, but I chose to identify as an informed skeptic. I've learned too much from reading and have been burned too many times in my long politically aware past by politicians who invariably end up representing not mine, but corporate/bankster/MIC/imperial interests and an ever growing police, prison and surveillance state. I refuse to play the Red = Good, Blue = Bad (or vice versa) game whenever I can, but sometimes it's important to me to set the record straight - occasionally using word like "dummy" in response to the aforementioned ridiculous assertions about my character or beliefs. I'll try to do less of that in the future.

Have you ever read "Killing Hope" or any other books by William Blum? Does a very good job of exposing the history and ill-intents behind (primarily) American anti-communism. What about any of Michael Hudson's writings? I'm just curious since we seem to be coming to a more definitive understanding of each others' politics and philosophies.

I've said a number of times that I don't share the total cynicism on voting with a few others here, but I've grown tired of nearly universal betrayals, fake-opposition, and corporate friendly actions both from politicians I've voted for and those for whom I'd never vote. I'll happily go vote for the anti-establishment candidate - even a Republican if my choice was say Ron Paul vs. Hillary Clinton - but I'd much rather have a Mike Gravel or Dennis Kucinich or even Bernie Sanders in the race fighting relentlessly against the forces of capital and the aristocracy.

Where I am definitely a cynic is in how the Constitution is written and for whom it was actually written - and the primacy of corporate/bank cash in our political system. Nothing I say or do; nobody for whom I could ever vote, will ever change the baked-in disenfranchisement, the sheer unfettered power of capital, or the politics of empire that pervade the history of these not-so-United States of America.

Cheers, and always a pleasure to correspond with you here regardless of some (I think minor in the big picture) differences of opinion.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2022 0:20 utc | 77

Posted by: malenkov | Jun 20 2022 0:17 utc | 79

I feel ya.

My personal feeling is that the US Constitutional Republic (or whatever it is) has failed. Badly. It needs to be dismantled and the entire central government experiment left to lie fallow for a decade whilst States rediscover themselves as such. Of course it can't happen, but it should.

That said, I have no quarrel with those who choose to vote or those who don't. No matter what, it's best that people express themselves without reservation in the way they find most meaningful and the more people do so the merrier. Some by trying to make something happen, others by throwing their hands up in despair and turning their back on the whole thing.

Ultimately, we are all in this together, and ultimately each and every one of us is born and dies alone. There are no easy answers to anything and at the same time it's all quite simple and things can change deeply and rapidly when the time is right - literally in days. Meanwhile, each of us can find our way to leading a decent, meaningful life with one or more others whom we love and otherwise just keep it simple.

My big issue these days is finding a local mechanic who isn't an idiot or a liar. I'll get there, but it could take half of my remaining life!!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 0:28 utc | 78

nah, fuck that. blame a biolab or an agent (Fauci) of the system. much, much easier on the brain. easier to target and bomb.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 0:12 utc | 78

I hope that wasn't an indirect response to my own statements about Fauci, corruption and GoF research.

If so, perhaps you've misunderstood me. I was pointing out how the establishment capitalist class Democrats somehow "missed" doing and saying things right - and being transparent in so doing - at literally every point along the way.

I mean, I think most of us with a decent background or education in science knows that the original anti-vaxxer movement was based on sheer lies and misrepresentations. It's also obvious that Fauci, et. al. have profited enormously from the pandemic while occasionally (even often in some cases) offering legitimate, reasonable suggestions in terms of over-arching policy. Hence the capitalist class - as we acknowledge - rolled out the usual divide and conquer splintering of the proles on masks, vaccines, lockdowns and it worked. However, it's the lack of transparency - heck outright secrecy - about the vaccine development process that really gives these narratives their power. If they lied about _____ why should I believe they aren't lying about ____, even if some of what they say is objectively true?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2022 0:29 utc | 79

My big issue these days is finding a local mechanic who isn't an idiot or a liar. I'll get there, but it could take half of my remaining life!!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 0:28 utc | 81

What type of vehicle are you looking to get worked on? I used to take my cars down to Mexico all the time for repairs when out of warranty or when greedy American auto shops wouldn't allow me to bring my own CSOP (customer supplied own parts) for installation. If you're not 100% fluent in Spanish you might consider bringing a local friend with you when visiting repair shops for the first time? Dunno, YMMV. Maybe they all think they can sucker the expat Gringo.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2022 0:33 utc | 80

My big issue these days is finding a local mechanic who isn't an idiot or a liar. I'll get there, but it could take half of my remaining life!!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 0:28 utc | 81

I hear you! I don't have a problem with mechanics, but contractors?. . . sheesh. The fourth rooter I called actually returned my call. (Well, I take that back somewhat: Roto-Rooter picked up, but then put me on infinite hold; I hung up after half an hour.) But yeah, try getting a tree guy or a plumber or an electrician where I live.

As for voting, actually, I still do it . . . most of the time (I discarded a primary ballot's worth of unopposed races not so long ago). I take some pleasure in voting for some socialist or the occasional libertarian, and am proud I don't commit immoral acts by voting for Team Red or Team Blue.

Posted by: malenkov | Jun 20 2022 0:36 utc | 81

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2022 0:33 utc | 83

I just picked up an 83 CJ7 Jeep. Why? Because the roads here have steep hills and terrible surfaces. The only things that last years seem to be Jeeps, serious trucks, and Volkswagen beetles. I also got it because I always prefer older cars to newer ones being a cheepskate and preferring right now to spend money on construction than wheels. But I also got it because the older cars have been driving - mainly old Ford Explorers which are a dime a dozen here - end up nearly always having computer-sensor issues which nobody can diagnose properly because the old 90's generation computers don't cut it. So I wanted something tough but pre-computer age. Got a Jeep. In the US these things are worth mucho $$$ now I gather but here not so much although old used cars cost much more than they usually do in the US. 1980's though is now way too old for most people.

To my surprise, have yet to find a good mechanic for it. Well, the first one I found is excellent old boy type but he's effed up with my Ford's transmission job: three weeks and nothing done yet. We are not bosom buddies any more! The other master mechanic in this small town was too frightened to open up the area to free up a blocked gear shift lever because he likes working on modern cars using fancy diagnostic scanners and this old heap literally terrified him. So then a 20 year kid from hill country an hour away, scruffy and skinny as hell, stripped it all down, jiggled something and put it all back together in about 30 minutes for $15.00 (I paid him a high amount for around here) but he lives 1.25 hours away so the gas cost to get him to come is more than it's worth plus he can probably only do basic stuff.

So, I need to find a good old school mechanic and once I do this thing will run forever without any computer issues. I am not mechanically minded but I respect and admire good machines and definitely like the old pre-computer ones better.

My Mexican wife helps with the Spanish but she doesn't understand a word to it's tough. I don't understand most English-speaking mechanics either. I try to find a good old boy who doesn't overcharge and doesn't need to be told what to do. They are hard to find, but once you do, life is peachy again.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 0:43 utc | 82

Vovan and Lexus interviewed JK Rowling :

https://sputniknews.com/20220619/video-jk-rowling-mulls-changing-harry-potters-scar-to-ukrainian-trident-in-new-vovan--lexus-prank-1096465291.html

Posted by: Featherless | Jun 20 2022 0:46 utc | 83

Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:59 utc | 70
i'm too cynical or realistic, depending on one's perspective, to care about local politics. the local officials around here are bought and paid for reps of the chamber of commerce, whose one goal is to maintain property values. the state gov't just up the street is there to keep the timber industry and the like running, and try to keep microsoft and amazon and boeing and starbucks happy, while coordinating these goals w/all the bombing ranges and target practice and rape of natives on the res's that also goes on around here, 24/7/365. let's not forget the casinos! more of god's sacred work among the benighted tribes.

they, the state apparatus, all work together assiduously to suppress any concern about: 1) coronavirus 2) wildfires 3) air quality 4) species collapse, esp fish 5) US militarism, Russia/Ukraine, etc. 6) suicide. at all levels of gov't and business. they all love Israel and can't wait for the next pro sports franchise to move in. they all vote for bigger highways. always. always. lots of guns and "yard sign politics" (so funny to watch the BLM signs pop up everywhere among the middle class beneficiaries of the prison state. "In My America, Love Wins!" = "please don't throw a rock thru my window.") never ask, never, where the drugs are coming from, or you'll find yourself in a David Lynch movie very fast.

i spent a bit of time a few days ago helping some poor "personal care attendant" review her "employee manual" about some piddling thing she did w/this 65 year old woman in 5th stage renal failure. the people who wrote and approved this manual do not give one fart about care for disabled people or seniors or vets or any of it. they are there to put as many hurdles as they possibly can in the way of anyone getting any kind of help or attempting to organize in any way outside of their gun-enforced, heavily-fenced bureaucracy. all of them are there to keep people helpless morons. in the hopes that the sheep kill themselves in their ovine stupidity, when they can no longer be easily fleeced.

no or few exceptions. the exceptions are in jail or dead. people's "sincerity" doesn't matter. the only thing sincere about such people is the delusion unmixed by reality that their motives, their supposed "sincerity", change how a system operates, when they neither speak, act, think or even burp in a way that is contrary to anything of how the system operates.

why the fight over voting if voting doesn't change anything? well, one obvious answer is that it wastes a lot of energy. but it also generates lots of energy, too, centered around paranoia and a state supposedly besieged by its own traitorous members in the other party. i.e., it may be very useful for controlling social anxiety and rage. something is obviously very wrong, and who is to blame? let's focus on the individual voter and further the police state and terrorize people in that supposedly sacred duty (lol). oh, i can see the utility of fighting over "voter fraud", while things like funding for summer school lunch programs and medicare premium increases just slip quietly through the bipartisan cracks. along with sending billions to Ukraine. yeah, let's fight over Diebold.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 0:54 utc | 84

Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 19 2022 23:59 utc | 70
or maybe my donkey-voting neighbor really is part of a transnational Soros-funded QAnon plot to suppress me, a peace-loving jew-hating Christian and constitutional originalist, from voting to expand my gun rights? maybe i really could be 'energy independent' if it wasn't for those tree hugging groomer fags in the voting booth next to me?

meh. this is murka. why do people get so worked up about the prospect of their neighbors bringing guns to the polling place? do they think that's something NEW in US history? juneteenth, and what does this country know about the african-american experience?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 1:05 utc | 85

The vast majority of anti-Jewish acts (let's dispose of the misnomer "antisemitic;" modern Jews are about as Semitic as Swedish Vikings) are committed by Jews themselves to manipulate public opinion. The overwhelmingly Jewish Biden junta has its fingers in all sorts of mischief to lend credence to the notion that genuine American patriots are a threat to the nation.

Looking overseas, the overwhelmingly Jewish Biden junta is celebrating the number of dead Slavic Christians resulting from its mendacious mishandling of the Ukraine, and encouraging the continuation of hostilities forevermore.

In financial matters, the overwhelmingly Jewish Biden junta fire-hoses the Zionist occupation regime with American tax dollars in order to continue a slow-motion genocide against the Palestinian people.

Not all who observe will lie quiet. Retribution is coming.

Posted by: Ken | Jun 20 2022 1:25 utc | 86

President Xi Jinping still keeps poking India: Designation failure: On China’s decision to block terror tag for Lashkar leader
Just to favor Pakistan, its link to Gwadar port on the Arabian sea.
Xi makes frequent mistakes, not just his "zero Covid" nonsense. The CCP needs a new leader.

Posted by: Antonym | Jun 20 2022 1:29 utc | 87

Patrick Lawrence (out at Scheerpost) on getting erased:

Note the language in Twitter’s notice of my “suspension”—the conditional verbs and the spongy phrases. Twitter may suspend an account, I may have been abusive, I may have trafficked in never-defined threats, a suspended account may or may not be restored. This is a bureaucratic device that dates to imperial China, when mandarins wrote plenty of laws, all phrased such that they could be interpreted however it suited the court on a given occasion. The point was to preserve maximum prerogative and maximum control as laws were imposed upon imperial subjects.

Same thing, really. It is by way of tricks such as this that apparatchiks at Twitter and other social media, who are wholly unqualified to judge work such as mine so far as I can make out, are threatening our press freedoms, the First Amendment, and at the horizon what remains of our democratic polity.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 20 2022 1:36 utc | 88

Below is a link to a posting at The Register that has a blazing hot comment section...grin

SpaceX staff condemn Musk's behavior in open letter

Also from The Register is the link below about the growth of China tech infrastructure

Tencent completes 50 million core migration of its own apps to its own clouds

The article states that the cloud capability they built is twice the current load of 50 million cores...I am interested in this stuff because it will be the underpinning to the China/Russia axis system of finance with lots of blockchain applications and users.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 20 2022 1:38 utc | 89

it lives among us yet, an ugly, improbable monster nourished by the blood of the poor.
@ bevin | Jun 19 2022 22:39 utc | 58

You articulate it well: the imaginary monster at the door, or under the bed, impeding our chance of surviving encounters with actual threats. My curiosity reverts to what's going on in the heads of those so gullible to crude manipulation. Whatever happened to their self-respect? Truth be told, I have the same question for some self-selected correspondents here at MoA: Which side are you on?

If you can't recognize the presence of a predatory side, nor the similarity of your views to those of predators -- then you're either a sincere shill, or a lost soul. How can correspondents accidentally wind up carrying so much filthy water, reeking of hydrocarbons, bowing down to corporate rule, here at MoA?

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 20 2022 2:06 utc | 90

My big issue these days is finding a local mechanic who isn't an idiot or a liar. I'll get there, but it could take half of my remaining life!!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 0:28 utc | 81

Have you tried searching for one at https://www.cartalk.com/mechanics-files or a similar customer-oriented site.

Posted by: David Levin | Jun 20 2022 2:06 utc | 91

Tom_Q_Collins@82
If they lied about _____ why should I believe they aren't lying about ____, even if some of what they say is objectively true?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2022 0:29 utc | 82

yes, this is precisely the position that they, the ruling class, have knowingly put us all in re covid. but it's the same thing re global warming, etc., etc. does tobacco cause cancer? oh, not nearly as much as we are told, compared to other "essentials" (cars, meat, stress, work) of the american deathstyle. because of my health problems, i've spent lots of time in and around medical facilities over the last 2 years. medical authority is as much to blame as anything, like lawyers and financiers and weapons dealers, for how the grade A wonderbread shit sandwich tastes. (it tastes yummy, like a big mac should).

the ruling class, not Trump, the ruling class, could not allow an unknown disease to interrupt the slaughterhouses or auto factories of the US for ONE SECOND. Bevin is right. the ruling class is far too lazy to engage in some "great reset" simply out of their own volition.

look at the spider on a dollar bill. they've spread that web thru every thread and fiber of existence. why ruin it? this sign $ is imprinted on our retinas, our consciousness of reality, so that we cannot see anything in the world except thru their monetized prism. why risk losing such control over the herd, which is so clearly content to munch and poop its way blindly to the killing floor? why upset the slave trade? just shoot the mad downer cows and throw their meat in the mix! welcome back to the Jungle, which should be familiar, since we never left it.

it's useless at this point to argue about vaccines and virus origins, if people won't accept the indispensable public health measures needed to stop the disease. people, we, argue ourselves into whatever position demands the least of us. the US society from top to bottom is so guilty of this. really, as if all the scientific evidence i need about masking is contained in how much i don't want to wear a mask. period. end of story. what matters is that it's annoying. that's it. i'll blame China if it keeps me from wearing a mask.

all that aside, the vaccine regime as being practiced seems like nothing more than medical experimentation. i'm not participating. it's a crapshoot whether the virus is worse than the vaccine. and people who blindly accept all the pointless death and waste from car culture, like the "working class" (lol, major lol) at wsws, might miss some things about the coronavirus. in any case, the severity of the virus sure doesn't seem to stop David "Onan" North from spewing the sterile Troskyite seed over the world *in person*. i hope the virus thinks he's as important as he thinks he is, since he's nothing to say that can't be said on twitter or via email. i hope all that waste of jet fuel and international exposure is worth it so he can bring them the glad evangel that it's not the ego that drives people, only 'class struggle', w/the SEP as Messiah. bunch of phonies.

anyway, long answer. short answer: they cannot allow the system to be interrupted, therefore it's not a "plandemic". they are not acting. they are reacting.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 2:15 utc | 92

If you can't recognize the presence of a predatory side...
Aleph_Null | Jun 20 2022 2:06 utc | 93

i bet you don't eat meat. empires run on meat. Achilles didn't sack Troy, or Caesar Gaul, because he sipped wheat germ ginko smoothies at the happy carrot health bar.

i recently rewatched Mad Max: Road Warrior. the bad guys want the gas simply so they can waste it, at post apocalyptic tail gate parties and smash up derbies and motosickle jumping and mudding in the rain. and chasing and killing people for their gasoline. it shows their dominance that they can wantonly waste anything they desire. sound like any country you know?

"they are stiffing us on the menu here!" random homeless guy bitching about the one meal a month at the local soup kitchen that wasn't cow or pig or chicken based. yes, that's right. by sticking animal in his toothless meth-addled yap, he gets to be somebody other than his degraded, debased, socially outcast self: a predator. a killer.

this predator mentality infects every pore of life under capitalism. unless you are killing something w/your chainsaws and gasoline and lawnmowers and SUVs, you aren't "doing something". it's all environmental depredation, isn't it?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 2:35 utc | 93

unless you are killing something w/your chainsaws and gasoline and lawnmowers and SUVs, you aren't "doing something"
@ rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 2:35 utc | 96

Thanks for your streams of consciousness. I shouldn't mention his name -- your Mad Max reflections remind me of a longtime wacko with a putatively "environmental" blog who advocates wasting fossil fuel as quickly as possible "in order to bring down western civilization". It has long been very challenging to distinguish fools from shills, in that realm.

You're right: I'm an evangelistic vegan. Here's a package of Rancho Gordo heirloom beans -- little black, red, or pink ones (pinquitos). Six bucks for admission to nirvana. Heavens they're tasty and expeditious! Planning a day ahead, I start with a cup or so in a quart jar of warm water, in the sun. Let 'em let off steam all day: sun beans. Further fascinating preparation details available upon request...

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 20 2022 3:02 utc | 94

Posted by: sln2002 | June 19 2022 16:03 utc | 15

Thanks for link to UNGA vote on Russia's suspension from HR Council. Much appreciated.

Posted by: Hoarsewhlsperer | Jun 20 2022 3:05 utc | 95

Posted by: David Levin | Jun 20 2022 2:06 utc | 94

Nope. Am in rural Mexico! But thanks for the thought!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 3:23 utc | 96

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 19 2022 23:27 utc | 63
obama spent so much time praising and imitating the man he repeatedly called "my favorite president", ie Ronnie Raygun, because of what? how good those commies are at playing chess in 14 dimensions? he's so devilishly devious, satanically sinister, that he couldn't admit that Obamacare was a clone of romneycare? that might confuse poor people like you. you remember romney? the clown prince from Bain Capital? gee, obama is supposedly a constitutional scholar. plagiarism much?

oh no, it's part of some big jew commie soros plot, run by people who just so happen to be the archcapitalists of the I in the FIRE sector.

isn't it funny how Schiff and Pelosi and Schumer spent the whole of the Trump presidency manufacturing fake crises, all centered on how much Trump is Putin's lapdog, while now Trump & co accuse the liberals of being a bunch of commies? aren't they accusing each other of the same thing and thereby both admitting to what this country has been up to for a long, long time: fomenting war with Russia? their opposition to each other consists of a bunch of rabid birchers braying at each other about who's a bigger traitor to the country, but it's all in the name of furthering the war cause, which they profit immensely from.

kudos to you for lapping it up like kitten's milk. hey, did you notice that biden and the dems didn't lift a finger to remove the disney space force from the defense budget? god, those liberals are crafty. they are so crafty, they have adopted HRC's strategy of supporting Trumpsters in the midterm primaries w/the fond hope that it will make it easier for stupid jackasses to win in the generals. what could go wrong? they've got their finger on the pulse of the "deplorables", don't they?

of course, these are the people who dumped tens of thousands of guns on drug cartels with the bright idea that the criminals will be easier to catch after they shoot these gifts from Uncle Sam. shoot them all over Tijuana and Juarez etc, killing thousands and thousands. did any of this change under your hero Trump?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 20 2022 3:29 utc | 97

Antonym @90 comments is precisely why some have to tell them off.
"China needs a new leader based on and article by a racist Hindu news site regarding some terrorist". India's government ridiculed Islam recently with their racist views and recieved a large backlash from all Moslem countries.

Anyone, anywhere can pick up garbage to promote feelings. Some people, in line with their ignorant stupid leaders, always ask for other countries leaders to be replaced.

Biden said Putin must be replaced-80% pop, Xi-jing ping 95% and the list is large. But tell me which western leader has more than 37%. Some people belong on the front lines with the Nazis in the Donbass, for their views.

@12 hoarshwlsperer, the UN human rights vote did not matter. Russia withdrew from that part, prior to the vote. They are in the process of withdrawing from WHO&IMF and many other western institutions. Western institutions, just like international law means absolutely nothing.

To bobolinsky, most elections in the west are a sham. In Colombia today, they elected a leftist ex- guerilla fighter against us controlled past governments. We will see how long he is allowed to last.

Posted by: Karl luck | Jun 20 2022 3:31 utc | 98

@ Scorpion | Jun 20 2022 3:23 utc | 99
Sorry to hear about your bad luck with Mexican auto mechanics; my experience is the opposite (in the Baja) with my '78 VW van. I've got the stories!

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 20 2022 3:32 utc | 99

@ 101
re: India dissing Muslims
India has roughly as many Muslims as Pakistan, both second to Indonesia. India also has a number of Christians; when I was there I witnessed a parade in honor of St George. India has a large number of other minorities, untouchabales (dalits) and others. Modi is going too far.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 20 2022 3:41 utc | 100