The MoA Week In Review – (NOT Ukraine) OT 2022-108

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July 10, 2022

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:

Jul 5 – 'Western' Media Spread Copium To Prolong The War In Ukraine
Jul 9 – 'Drinking The Kool-Aid' On The War In Ukraine
Related:
– United States is responsible for Ukraine war – SCMP
– UN says Ukraine bears share of blame for nursing home attack – AP
– Understanding Ukraine and Russia From George H.W. Bush’s CIA Briefer (vid) – Ray McGovern

Jul 6 – Will Johnson Finally Fall?
Jul 7 – Bye Bye Boris. I Hope We Will Never Hear Again Of You.
Related:
– My Boris Johnson story – Jeremy Vine / Spectator
– I was Boris Johnson’s boss: he is utterly unfit to be prime minister (2019) – Max Hastings / Guardian
– Boris Johnson Is Going, but We’re Stuck With the Same Right-Wing Nightmare – Jacobin

Jul 8 – The Death Of A Capable Revisionist
Related:
– Shinzo Abe: A controversial visionary – Indian Punchline
– Former Japanese PM: Zelensky’s Decisions Led to Outbreak of War in Ukraine – See.news
– Shinzo Abe Was ‘Trump Before Trump’—Except He Pulled It Off – Daily Beast

> His greatest achievement? Having so thoroughly discredited opposition parties and critical media that Japan isn’t even reminiscent of a two-party democracy. It’s a one-party democracy, where the media has its tails between its legs, and is likely to stay that way for decades. <

Jul 9 – Dysfunction
Related:
– Trump declared the decline of the US (vid)

> "We are a nation that is in decline, brought to its knees before the world, and we consider it permissible to lecture other people in other countries about their democracies …" <

—

Other issues:

Michael Hudson: From Junk Economics to a False View of History – Where Western Civilization Took a Wrong Turn – Naked Capitalism
An unstable encounter with a $50 billion stablecoin – Matt Taibbi

The NATO Summit: a Historic, Triumphant Exercise in Media Fakery – Michael Tracey
The Dangerous US Opposition to Eurasian Integration – Vijay Prashad / Consortiumnews

Use as open thread for things NOT related to the war in Ukraine …

Posted by b on July 10, 2022 at 13:27 UTC | Permalink

Comments

From the Michael Hudson article

……
Yet many generations of linguists, historians and even anthropologists have absorbed the economic discipline’s anti-social individualistic world view and imagine that the world must always have been this way. Many of these non-economists have unwittingly adopt their prejudices and approach ancient as well as modern history with a bias. Our daily discourse is so bombarded with the insistence by recent American politicians that the world is dividing between “democracy” with “free markets” and “autocracy” with public regulation that there is much fantasy at work about early civilization.
…….
This tax yield turned over to palace collectors was the original economic rent. Land tenure came as part of a quid pro quo – with a fiscal obligation to provide labor services at designated times of the year, and to serve in the military. It thus was taxation that created land-tenure rights, not the other way around. Land was social in character, not individualistic. And government’s role was that of coordinator, organizer and forward planner, not merely predatory and extractive.
…..
Today’s neoliberal economic mainstream has created a fairy tale about civilization existing without any regulatory oversight or productive role for government, and without any need to levy taxes to provide basic social services such as public construction or even service in the military. There is no need to prevent fraud, or violent seizure of property – or the forfeiture of land tenure rights to creditors as a result of debts. But as Balzac noted, most great family fortunes have been the result of some great theft, lost in the mists of time and legitimized over the centuries, as if it were all natural.
These blind spots are necessary to defend the idea of “free markets” controlled by the wealthy, above all by creditors. This is claimed to be for the best, and how society should be run. That is why today’s New Cold War is being fought by neoliberals against socialism – fought with violence, and by excluding the study of history from the academic economics curriculum and hence from the consciousness of the public at large. As Rosa Luxemburg put it, the fight is between socialism and barbarism.
….
So we are led back to why I was invited to speak here today. David Graeber wrote in his Debt book that he was seeking to popularize my Harvard group’s documentation that debt cancellations did indeed exist and were not simply literary utopian exercises. His book helped make debt a public issue, as did his efforts in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The Obama administration backed police breaking up the OWS encampments and did everything possible to destroy awareness of the debt problems plaguing the U.S. and foreign economies. And not only the mainstream media but also academic orthodoxy circled their wagons against even the thought that debts could be written down and indeed needed to be written down to prevent economies from falling into depression.
That neoliberal pro-creditor ethic is the root of today’s New Cold War. When President Biden describes this great world conflict aimed at isolating China, Russia, India, Iran and their Eurasian trading partners, he characterizes this as an existential struggle between “democracy” and “autocracy.”
By “democracy” he means oligarchy. And by “autocracy” he means any government strong enough to prevent a financial oligarchy from taking over government and society and imposing neoliberal rules – by force. The ideal is to make the rest of the world look like Boris Yeltsin’s Russia, where American neoliberals had a free hand in stripping away all public ownership of land, mineral rights and basic public utilities.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 10 2022 14:13 utc | 1

On Friday evening I learned that my longtime friend, Wendy Davis, had passed away last February. She was a spirited chronicler of world events, and her site will remain thanks to her devoted husband, until next spring. Here is his favorite post, “God in Pencil” which she penned last Martin Luther King day:
https://cafe-babylon.net/2022/01/17/18069/
I should have said this much earlier, had I known. Rest in peace, dear wendye, though I somehow doubt you will. Some spirits, a very few, live on.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 10 2022 14:16 utc | 2

Trump glorifies Palin yesterday. That’s news. The U.S. does not stand a chance especially with all the Cotton in Pompeo’s underwear.
And what of those liberal minded folks? Oh, heaven help us.
Alex at Duran calls it all a clown show but unfortunately it is much more sinister, coordinated and soul devouring. Not many can get away with such blatant incompetence without eventually being called to account. BoJo got the message, so there’s that.
What is the movement and what is the message? Many and varied.
I’ve lived to legally buy some herb at twice the price plus 20% sales tax. No wonder states are jumping into legalization. Complete bunch of dumb nuts. I honestly believe the herb plant (nature made) will be the final saving grace for our species on this planet. Accept it or what?

Posted by: thecelticwithinme | Jul 10 2022 14:34 utc | 3

@thecelticwithinme #3
The herb you mention is as GMO and artificially boosted as is possible to increase THC amounts.
It is no more natural than the corn we eat today – which was literally a weed in origin.
The coca and opium plants, however, still seem to be largely natural.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 10 2022 14:46 utc | 4

Sorry for your loss Juliania.
Speaking of MLK – I forgot the non-news of Biden’s handoff to Israel and KSA as his divine, messianic force to be in the Middle East. What could go wrong?

Posted by: thecelticwithinme | Jul 10 2022 14:47 utc | 5

@psychohistorian #1
It has been fascinating watching Dr. Michael Hudson evolve his political views over time.
When I first started following his work – at least 15 years ago after buying a used, 2nd edition Super Imperialism – he was a staunch Democrat and constantly railed at the Republicans as the source of all evil.
Today, he has progressed to the point of recognizing that the American oligarchy is distributed between both parties.
Maybe, someday in the future, he will further evolve to understand that this American oligarchy cannot and will not change without a full-on revolution. It can only be hoped that this revolution would not be extremely violent, although revolutions by definition involve the destruction of all boundaries.
In the meantime, I continue to enjoy and learn from that which he is incomparable at: economic history.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 10 2022 14:51 utc | 6

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 10 2022 14:13 utc | 1
I gather, he’s no closer than he was during The Pandemic to completing the 1000 piece puzzle of westworld civilization. I noticed with interest and some alarm in 2020, when he attempted to weave remnants of classical Greek political philosophy into his “supercapitalism” thesis. It occured to me, he had been unfamiliar with western canon of “democracy” and was struggling to reconcile the sum of the parts in his head with the whole autocratic foundation of christ Plato and Aristotle which he was finally reading. iirc, He published over a year, say, six of these political economy origin essays in “alt-media” blogs such as Counterpunch[!], Consortium[!], then Unz[!], but unwilling or unable to synthesize rentier ethics and methods which animated institutions of the “good life” attributed to antiquity or modernity are one and the same. Except for scale of competition between aristocrats.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jul 10 2022 15:30 utc | 7

@ c1ue | Jul 10 2022 14:51 utc | 6 about Michael Hudson
I use to be quite critical of Michael because he kept pulling his punches and not calling out the private system of finance directly. He still has his limits around how things could be it seems to me but his contribution to economic history is as you write, incomparable.
There is only one letter different between evolution and revolution with the assumption that one is forced and the other occurs “naturally”. I posit that they both occur naturally but the revolution one simply displays more system dynamics in the process of occurring.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 10 2022 15:35 utc | 8

Correction to my post at 2, wendy died at the end of March, not February.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 10 2022 15:38 utc | 9

There is only one letter different between evolution and revolution with the assumption that one is forced and the other occurs “naturally”. I posit that they both occur naturally but the revolution one simply displays more system dynamics in the process of occurring.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 10 2022 15:35 utc | 8
I think of it as a chain-reaction, you get enough people angry, and they start multiplying exponentially. Before you know it the President is on the run.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 10 2022 15:47 utc | 10

Ellen Brown has a new posting up which may interest some barflys
Achieving Self-Funding Local Sovereignty as Global Food Systems Collapse
She goes into detail about money

To be useful today as “money,” a currency is said to need these four main attributes. It should serve as:
A medium of exchange
A standard of deferred payment
A store of wealth
A measure of value or unit of account

She thinks food has both stable value and can be widely available as collateral in a local community trading system today and I think we will see that globally as well. Another human requirement for life is water but I have yet to figure out how it gets sliced and diced into money….
What Ellen didn’t include in her definition of money is the stability component for that store of wealth or measure of value. The inflation we are about to experience is a failure of money stability which the private finance folks think of as a feature rather than a bug.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 10 2022 16:03 utc | 11

@psychohistorian #8
The wordplay is cute but inaccurate.
Evolution is simply procreation faster than individual members of species dying, collectively. There is some expectation of improvement – even if just to current conditions – of successfully evolved species.
Revolution is deliberate destruction of existing social mores and structures.
If you study the history of revolutions – they fail far, far more often than they succeed, nor is there any expectation of “better” outcomes even when they do succeed.
Sparta’s successful slave revolt resulted in a slave-holding, imperialist Greek city state.
The French Revolution resulted in a dictator, Napoleon.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 10 2022 16:09 utc | 12

@psychohistorian #11
Brown has altruistic ideals in mind, but her solutions are hopelessly naive.
The rise of China from 6% of US GDP in 1984 to parity today, would not have been possible under simplistic systems as you note Brown describing.
Nor would a simplistic monetary system, nation, survive for long surrounded by fiat issuing, imperialistic neighbors.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 10 2022 16:11 utc | 13

Seasonally, it’s mid summer.
But it seems more like #EuropeanSpring
Albania
Massive protest:
https://twitter.com/The_Real_Fly/status/1545878203419484161
Visegrád 24 @visegrad24
Massive crowds took to the streets of Albania yesterday to protest against the rising costs of living.
Russia’s war in Ukraine will be a source of global instability for months to come. Unrest brewing in many corners of the world.
Bulgaria v North Macedonia
https://twitter.com/The_Real_Fly/status/1545895488272171011
>EU urges North Macedonia to back French proposed compromise with Bulgaria.
> Protests are growing in North Macedonia after the government in Skopje started considering a compromise agreement between the country and Bulgaria on historic issues that have so far made Bulgaria refuse to lift its veto on EU membership for Macedonia.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1544627613775368197?cxt=HHwWisC41bCoz-8qAAAA
Netherlands
Dutch police firing their weapons at farmers protesting in their tractors against the government’s nitrogen policy tonight in Heerenven.
Such cases are unheard of in the Visegrad 4.
The Dutch police has earlier been criticized for excessive violence by UN rapporteur @NilsMelzer
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1544453860537819137?cxt=HHwWgoCzlc6mgO8qAAAA
EU Holger Zschaepitz @Schuldensuehner
This chart shows why #Euro crashed to near parity w/Dollar this week. Eurozone’s trade surpluses have been completely wiped out b/c of energy crisis. #Germany has slipped into trade deficit for 1st time in 31yrs, shortfalls in trade were also observed in France & other countries.
https://twitter.com/Schuldensuehner/status/1545757569167261697
Comments:
>This is just the beginning. EZ economy will be wiped out completely, starting from Germany. From monday on, when NS1 will close down, it will be a Sri Lanka style shitshow.
>But Ukraine is winning…on twitter. So there’s that.
§§ >#World Spring
Sri Lanka
Sri Lankans Enjoying The Pool After Storming The Presidential Palace:
https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1545798911402463232
>Comments:
The Sri Lankan’s govt. mortgaged the country to China and this is the payback
> Partially due to price pressure resulting from the war in Ukraine protestors in Sri Lanka have forced the pesident to resign. They have taken over the old parliament building and the office of the president.
> PM Ranil Wickramasinghe’s residence is on fire:
https://twitter.com/tolgaozcelkk008/status/1545805668602580993
>They are finally figuring out who the real target of their anger should be.
Protesters broke through the front gate of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank.
https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1545820816692035584
[Some debate that this is the central bank….] [But some of us want it to be true, I’m sure]
Comments:
>And it all started with a Belt and road
>> IMF actually, their while “structural adjustments” did all this.
> Sri Lankan protesters watching their protest in the presidential house [Men lie on floor in front of widescreen tv; footage is of the protestors downstairs].
https://twitter.com/hemantsae/status/1546049765279797248
Times of India: How 4 Brothers Broke Sri Lanka’s economy in just 2 years
President: Gotabaya Rajapaska
Prime Minister: Mahinda Rajapaska
Finance Minister: Basil Rajapaska
Irrigation Minister: Chamal Rajapaska
https://twitter.com/timesofindia/status/1545967691852181504
Uzbekistan
video from the pro-autonomy protests in the region of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1544750153449578496?cxt=HHwWgIC9sZCFh_AqAAAA
___________
Kim Dotcom @KimDotcom
I’m watching the inevitable unfold. Not much anyone can do. I’ll be more active again in the critical phase. Spend more quality time with family and friends and use your savings for good times NOW. That money will be worthless soon.
—————
> Breaking! Sources say that Elon Musk will now acquire Truth Social and call it Qwitter
> My grandma called me this morning because she saw me in the USA Today newspaper so I had to check and sure enough:
>>Elon Musk is no longer buying twitter because he realised he can get it for free on the app store.
https://twitter.com/greg16676935420/status/1545789378307432454

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 10 2022 16:20 utc | 14

thanks b!
and thanks to fellow posters here at moa! i don’t know who wendy davis is, but it is hard to keep up with everyone, isn’t it??
@ c1ue – your responses to psychohistorian are interesting and mildly entertaining… thanks for all of that and to pscyhohistorian too..
the like the trump quote that b shared above…
some music from an iceland piano player and her husband -drummer – jazz improv..
Sunna Gunnlaugs 2013

Posted by: james | Jul 10 2022 16:24 utc | 15

the – i
use the preview option james, lol..

Posted by: james | Jul 10 2022 16:26 utc | 16

the corn we eat today – which was literally a weed
Posted by: c1ue | Jul 10 2022 14:46 utc | 4
“a weed”? Is that the Indo-yerpan root of the German word KORN? GRAIN? Or modern US-Eng. LAWN DOCTOR? You be the judge.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jul 10 2022 16:27 utc | 17

great to see trump derangement is alive and well at the daily beast. if abe was “trump before trump’ doesn’t that mean trump “was abe”? seems like basic arithmetic.
gave tracey another chance with those NATO articles but they’re pretty much “the media sucks but this time in europe”. seems like a waste of time and an expensive plane ticket but whatever.
as for “decline”, that was declared before trump was born.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_the_West

Posted by: the pair | Jul 10 2022 16:28 utc | 18

store of wealth
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 10 2022 16:03 utc | 11
She also did not mention women and children. Why is that?

Posted by: sln2002 | Jul 10 2022 16:30 utc | 19

Now the wave of defaults on the servicing of the foreign debt is on the rafar: Bloomberg article

Posted by: Richard L | Jul 10 2022 16:39 utc | 20

Germany has slipped into trade deficit for 1st time in 31yrs, shortfalls in trade were also observed in France & other countries.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 10 2022 16:20 utc | 14

As some cynics have pointed out, the US and Russia together have defeated Germany for the 3rd time in just over 100 years. (“F the EU” got back in the saddle after Trump was replaced by Biden)

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jul 10 2022 16:44 utc | 21

World is afraid to notice that the US developed it and China released it. The truth is better left unspoken.

Posted by: jared | Jul 10 2022 16:57 utc | 22

The baby care products market is projected to be worth approximately 88.72 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2026. This is a substantial increase from 67.35 billion U.S. dollars, the estimated value of the market in 2020.Jun 13, 2022[ https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=childcare+product+markets ]

Pope Postpones Trip to Africa, Announces Cardinals’ Meeting, Fuelling Rumors About His Resignation – 20.06.2022, Sputnik International https://sputniknews.com/20220620/pope-postpones-trip-to-africa-announces-cardinals-meeting-fuelling-rumors-about-his-resignation-1096489281.html

Posted by: Laurence | Jul 10 2022 17:11 utc | 23

c1ue @6–
In our last zoom Patreon meeting with Dr. Hudson on June 30th, I asked him directly about the need for a “political fight” as he called it in one of his interviews last year. No, it’s now beyond that as only a massive upheaval is capable of altering the system in the ways required to attain freedom from the Neoliberals. So, he’s come full circle as he’s linked almost all the dots together. But his devotion to attaining his goal has led him to lesser scrutiny of the ongoing evolution of Russia’s political-economy mainly because of his concentration on China’s, which he sees as the greater hope. I don’t see that as a weakness on his part as one can only concentrate on so much at once. Rather, it presents an opportunity to complement his work by providing the information he’s bypassing. His next two books will be as important as his others. And to be producing as much as he is at 83, we can only do our best to emulate his dedication.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 10 2022 17:33 utc | 24

maybe a tad OT but this article nails it in the continued slobbering and knee walking subservience to Israel:
America, be ashamed, be very ashamed:
https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2022/07/07/haaretz-on-state-department-findings-on-abu-aqleh-murder-be-ashamed-be-very-ashamed/

Posted by: Taras77 | Jul 10 2022 17:35 utc | 25

There are probably several reasons why a major “distraction” in world affairs will happen in August. Not only for the benefit of Zelensky and his handlers.
You can add the following to the list by “Melaleuca | Jul 10 2022 16:20 utc | 14.”
*****
Massive population decline becomes obvious. The biggest known calamity is in Taiwan which has seen a -27.66% drop in births. This can be put down to Vaxx only as the start of the nine month gestational period was before any large increase in Covid cases. Statistical horror show.
But they are NOT alone. Hungary, Sweden, Germany and even the UK and US (6.6%) are all showing significant reductions in birthrates below the norm.
The Chinese systematic lockdowns are to circumvent an attempt at the use of Bio weapons used against them. However, if Taiwan depopulates at the present rate due to Pfizer etc, the Chinese will only have to take a ferry.
*
shttps://alethonews.com/2022/07/09/taiwan-birth-rate-cratered-27-66-in-june-2022/
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/depopulation-of-taiwan?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web
****
Inflation. ?nuff said, spend it while you have got it?
*****
Gates and the greenies.
This item includes the theft of land from the “peasants” or “customary owners” (As is happening in Denmark or Africa), to make personalized “Wilding” Domaines, only accessible for the Rich. (Nature domaines without farming, but which would make lovely hunting grounds for the new overlords and their lackeys) This is the “greta…. sorry great reset”, where the unloveable populations are removed to “high-rise” buildings, to waste away their lives, and wreak violence on their neighbours.
Their safety would be ensured by increasingly brutal police repression, and they would generously be allowed to work for free in “Pay-as-you-stay” prisons, for their food upkeep (rationed of course).
***
Oil and Gas.
See it, take it. Syria, Yemen, and any other places including Ukraine. This was to be the idea for Russia and China at a later date. It will be expanded to include the “Stans” and African sources (Sudan).
We have got past the state where the inhabitants were supposed to be the ultimate beneficiaries of the assets in their own countries. Even quite recently there might have been some kickback for the “ruling” elites, but Corporate greed now overides any such particularities.
****
Himars
Ha-ha. The US seems to have decided that it is safer to train operators before they get sent to Ukraine. With this in mind, they are training terrorists in the AL-Tanf enclave in their use, (Syria) before sending them and the HIMARS to Ukraine.
Same area. Israelis are now stationed in Qatar as part of US effectives in the area. The obvious reason will be getting their hands on the vast Gas reserves (part of which are also Iranian). Expect to see a project for a pipeline through Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israel.
******
“When drinking a glass of Kool-aid,
always sip from the side with no cyanide”
Joe Tzu.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 17:37 utc | 26

The Economist:
Boris Johnson should go immediately
Britain is in a dangerous state
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/07/07/boris-johnson-should-go-immediately
Boris johnson’s government has collapsed at last. For months Britain’s prime minister wriggled out of one scandal after another. Now, irretrievably rejected by his own mps, he has accepted that his premiership is over. He has asked to stay until the autumn, but he should go immediately.
Mr Johnson was brought down by his own dishonesty, so some may conclude that a simple change of leadership will be enough to get Britain back on course. If only.
Although Mr Johnson’s fingerprints are all over today’s mess, the problems run deeper than one man. Unless the ruling Conservative Party musters the fortitude to face that fact, Britain’s many social and economic difficulties will only worsen.
Wew. Boris has done something that’s got the backroom boys badly bothered.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 10 2022 17:59 utc | 27

WHERE IS PATRICK LANCASTER?
He has not been in contact for 7 days
the barrage of negative press trying to discredit him shows the degree of attention he has attracted.

Posted by: ld | Jul 10 2022 18:00 utc | 28

Sydney Morning Herald: Front page| Abe Assassinated
Sydney flood coverage: pic of (new) Australian Prime Minster conducting the obligatory tour of submerged suburbs:
“Now is the hour for Albanese, small target man, to dare the snipers”
https://twitter.com/marie_sarjeant/status/1545766431253737473
Comments:
>The Coalition criticises the PM for going on a trip to repair international relations, which were made worse by the Coalition’s action, as opposed to visiting floods in NSW, which were made worse by the Coalition’s inactions.
These people have no shame.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 10 2022 18:02 utc | 29

Sounds like The Economist wants a Starmer government.

Posted by: Lysias | Jul 10 2022 18:02 utc | 30

Posted by: thecelticwithinme | Jul 10 2022 14:47 utc | 5
Thanks, celtic; she was all heart and her last post was a short one following events in Ukraine, on a lovely site, that post being in February. She then took note of Lavrov’s worthy accusation against the head of the UN – a pivotal moment just after Russia had begun its SMO.
So much has happened since.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 10 2022 18:09 utc | 31

Lysias | Jul 10 2022 18:02 utc | 30
Starmer is the “Law and Order” man, who has no chance of being elected against a reasonable opponent. He has no personal charm and follows the “strength is might and therefore I am right – wingers”. (Winjers?)
So the Conservatives will “choose” the person least likely to succeed, but who obeys orders. The Economist also pushes “Truss”, so that the most incompetent can take the reins, for the interregnum between something the population have a say in, and the Oligarchs’ carve up.
****
I am now firmly convinced that the reason that all the “leaders” in the west are so bad – is deliberate. As what is presumably planned is the rip up of whole societies along the lines of the Yeltsin years. This time in the EU, UK and the US. Where several Oligarch for each group live a life of absolute spoilation, behind a screen of imbeciles who are there to divert attention from them.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 18:26 utc | 32

#11.
Another look at both water and Nitrogen, This guy probably scares the large corps
Check out Gabe Brown’s U tube. Our farming practices world wide are a disaster

Posted by: Susan | Jul 10 2022 18:33 utc | 33

Massive population decline becomes obvious. The biggest known calamity is in Taiwan which has seen a -27.66% drop in births. This can be put down to Vaxx only as the start of the nine month gestational period was before any large increase in Covid cases. Statistical horror show.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 17:37 utc | 26
I see what you did there. Better known as misuse of statistics. I laughed so hard I fell off the chair.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jul 10 2022 19:36 utc | 34

One commentator provided an excerpt of an RT article without providing the URL or a link.
Okay, I’m a bit out of the loop here, but did something happen that we can’t post links/URLs to RT anymore?
Does it have anything to do with RT being blocked in Germany where thks site is hosted? (Because I remember that not long ago one could share RT links without restrictions)

Posted by: joey_n | Jul 10 2022 19:43 utc | 35

Bad Deal Motors On | Jul 10 2022 19:36 utc | 34
So we will see if next months statistics continue the trend (stay constant) or it was simply a one-off. However, the other countries mentioned are all experiencing lowered birth rates. This includes other items of interest such as lowered sperm counts (US) and unlikely high numbers of deaths in the first five days after birth in Scotland.
Note that testing was minimal for effects on pregnancies at the onset of Vaxx introduction.
****
One country may be an outlier, two is coincidence three or more is a trend.
*****

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 20:16 utc | 36

LOL sorry but why is it important that Trump got around to telling the truth, conveniently when he’s out of power and ignoring the fact that he himself doesn’t consider Venezuela, Iran and numerous other democratic countries to be democracies? He had no problem himself attempting to overthrow those governments. And the man is who brought charges against Julian Assange that the previous neoliberal president wouldn’t, but which the following senile one is apparently gung ho about.
Taibbi said it best: Trump can read a room. He’s also fast and loose with the truth like any politician or reality television star (see: Zelensky) and has a history of cribbing populist rhetoric – left and right – from people like Bernie Sanders, Noam Chomsky, Ronnie Raygun and even Nancy Peloser.
The US is a declining nation that deigns to tell other democracies how they should run their own. Duh. Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbcxmy0d9tQ

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 20:17 utc | 37

joey_n | Jul 10 2022 19:43 utc | 35
RT has been cut off for quite a long time here in France. Macrons’ idea which is “official” policy.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 20:19 utc | 38

Below is a ZH posting title since links are not allowed
”
Knives Out: WaPo, NYT Go For Biden Blood In Scathing Moment Of Honesty
”
The article goes on to say that Trump’s mental health was all over the press but the MSM has been silent about Biden until now when it is fairly obvious…..so there is nothing structurally wrong here, just get another Trump in and the world will sail off into the pussy grabbing sunset.
Who needs that TV show thing when current reality is plenty entertaining.
When do we get to start the kamala tzu jokes?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 10 2022 20:19 utc | 39

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 20:19 utc | 38
Tellin’ y’all: use a proxy/VPN service. They work and you’ll be able to see RT, The Saker (when not down of course) and any Russian hosted domain.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 20:31 utc | 40

“When drinking a glass of Kool-aid,
always sip from the side with no cyanide”
Joe Tzu.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 17:37 utc | 26
L’d OL at that one. The other day I almost made a similar comment with “novichok” instead of cyanide.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 20:32 utc | 41

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 17:37 utc | 26
Taiwan birth rate below, where did you source your data?
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/TWN/taiwan/birth-rate
Further, their birth rate is still higher than their death rate.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jul 10 2022 20:32 utc | 42

@Tom_Q_Collins (37)
Case in point,
What grinds my gears is visiting the comment section of an article discussing the gas crisis in Germany and seeing someone assert that Trump was correct when he warned Merkel about Germany’s reliance on Russian fuel.
Like, what point was Trump trying to make? Was it not said under a Russophobic context? And after what Trump did in his attempt to sabotage Nord Stream 2, among other acts of Russophobia, why is he still trusted among certain readers who are otherwise pro-Russian?

Posted by: joey_n | Jul 10 2022 20:38 utc | 43

U.S. life expectancy falls behind China’s. COVID is blamed. Nary a mention of opioids or lack of basic preventive healthcare.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vevb/us-life-expectancy-falls-behind-china
M’kay. I’m sure that Uncle Skkkam’s life expectancy will soon exceed that of China’s again. Not.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 20:38 utc | 44

Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 20:31 utc | 40
Use of proxy/VPN. Laziness on my part. (It happens) But I was put off by some Russians’ blog (Edward Slavsquat@substack.com) about Simonin and RT (did I spell her name correctly?). He tends to be rather rude which is why I like him. He is also rabidly anti-vaxx and against the Gold Fiasco of the Russian central Bank. (reserves).
He doesn’t think much of RT.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 20:44 utc | 45

@Stonebird (38)
I was thinking in the sense that anyone who lives in a country where RT isn’t blocked can follow a link to an article. Aside from attaching an excerpt for those who can’t access RT without a VPN.
If links are not allowed, then what’s with the Twitter and YouTube URLs above? Are some sites more restricted than others?

Posted by: joey_n | Jul 10 2022 20:45 utc | 46

Posted by: joey_n | Jul 10 2022 20:38 utc | 43
Like Obama did, but on steroids, Trump has fans, as in fanatical supporters among his most vocal base constituency. In my personal experience they’re willing to overlook literally every evil deed he committed. This is also true of Obama’s fans, but they did so more “politely.” You can take any American public figure, celebrity or politician and comb through their quotes to find them being “right” about something, but only from within the framework of what’s “acceptable” to Empire.
Kind of O/T, but I just binged a television program called “The Boys”, based on a comic/graphic novel series of the same name. It’s about corporate-created superheroes and their corrupt, evil ways. Very critical of US foreign policy, military adventurism, corporatism and of the United States as a whole. I usually cannot effin’ stand superhero movies/television, but this show was just too entertaining. One of the main characters (and the actor deserves an award) is called “Homelander” and he’s like a cross between Uncle Sam, Trump, Dick Cheney and Evil Superman. The man running the corporate show in charge of Homelander and all the other “Supes” is like a cross between Obama and Obama, guess who succeeds him. LOL.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 20:48 utc | 47

joey_n | Jul 10 2022 20:45 utc | 46
I can’t get any link or other connection to RT or Sputnick from France. This is probably due to my using “orange” as a server base for internet connections. It doesn’t really worry me, as all MSM (even Russian) is trying to sell a product => their viewpoint.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 20:54 utc | 48

On the SCOTUS case/ruling pertaining to the praying football coach.
https://fair.org/home/they-painted-a-narrative-of-this-coach-looking-for-a-quiet-corner-to-pray/

DZ: Here’s the issue; it’s a cliche, but it’s true: You’re entitled to your own opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own facts. And in the decision that was written by Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch, he relied on his own facts. Let’s put it more simply: He lied in describing what took place in the case.
And here’s the thing: Coach Kennedy was not off, as Gorsuch writes, praying on his own. He was not off quietly doing this, and he was not fired for doing it. So they painted a narrative of this coach looking for a quiet corner to pray and then this school board, with pitchforks and torches in hand, forcing Kennedy out of his job.
None of this happened. What Kennedy did in praying in the locker room, and then particularly his prayers after the game on the field, was draw in players to surround him in prayer, asking players to do testimonials about God. All of this thing creates this kind of maelstrom of pressure on the players, that if you are down with your coach, you will pray with your coach. And if you’re not down with that, then, hey, you’re free not to pray with the coach, but anybody who’s ever played high school sports knows that if you don’t do what the coach says, particularly in an autocratic sport like football, you’re going to pay a price for that.
You’re going to pay a price for it, whether it’s in terms of playing time or, maybe even worse for the high school level, you’re going to pay a price for it in terms of being outcast, in terms of being seen as a locker room distraction, or even worse in the parlance of sports, a locker room cancer.
And that is what the Supreme Court basically said could now take place, is a process of bullying in high school sports to make players feel coerced into praying with their coach, and that’s unconscionable. It’s absolutely unconscionable. And I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from folks, including tons of stories about what it was like to play high school sports at private or religious institutions, and the degree of religious peer pressure that would take place, and how it would alienate, ostracize and all the rest of it.
And I should probably add that we would be completely, completely naive if we didn’t just see this as an issue of prayer, but this is about Christian prayer. Like if the coach was Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, whatever you want, Shinto, or wanted to do a prayer of atheism beforehand, there would be a very different response from this Court than Christianity, because this Court has shown itself to be proudly in a relationship with a kind of Christofascism which is quickly overcoming the ruling structures of the United States, if not the people themselves.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 20:59 utc | 49

joey_n @35–
The ability for your comment to post with a RT URL comes and goes and is thus unpredictable. I do a test prior to writing my entire comment and adjust accordingly. I’m fortunate to have very little internet censorship where I live, although some pages load slow and sites like TASS have altered their URL to provide greater security.
/////////////////////////
Hudson’s latest is available at his website, here and is a “presentation to the Building bridges around David Graeber’s legacy conference, Paris, Friday July 7, 2022,” entitled, “From Junk Economics to a False View of History: Where Western Civilization Took a Wrong Turn,” a topic we might have discussed ten days ago except for the lack of time, although there was some allusion to it.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 10 2022 21:05 utc | 50

@anyone having problems accessing sites:
get better at IT
It is easy and important. The internet is not censorable. Platforms can be censored, DNS/ISPs can play silly buggers with redirections, but there are always ways around.

Posted by: Rae | Jul 10 2022 21:06 utc | 51

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 20:59 utc | 49
Katy is just up the road from me and it’s a public school district. This prayer in schools thing, and especially sports, is the tip of the Christo-fascist indoctrination spear.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Opinion-I-was-a-Katy-High-football-co-captain-17290739.php

Did the coach ever tell us we were required to pray? No. But I knew better than to question the coaches or their process. Sometimes players would volunteer to lead the prayer or if someone had a particularly good game, the coach would highlight their performance and ask him to lead it. I wouldn’t volunteer, but I did lead prayer when asked. I never thought to say no, especially if the coach had just praised the game I had.
It was not until after I graduated high school and moved out of state that I realized why the religious practices imposed by the team had made me feel so uncomfortable. I was being indoctrinated — whether intentionally or not — by a group’s beliefs. I had succeeded on the field based on my discipline and by doing what the coaches told me to do. Naturally, I thought I had to submit and conform by participating in the religious practices just as I was participating in the football practices. I do not know the exact legal nuances of what it takes to be “coerced” into religious practices, but I do know based on my experience that it should not matter that students don’t speak out when a football coach prays after a game. And because I was only exposed to prayer by one religious group, I was not taught “to tolerate diverse expressive activities” as the Supreme Court claims. For me, playing high school football was the opposite.

And again, what if these coaches were Muslims or Jews? But we’re supposed to be more worried when our kids are being taught correct history than when they’re being religiously indoctrinated and intimidated? Christo-fascism.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 21:06 utc | 52

Opport Knocks | Jul 10 2022 20:32 utc | 42
Source?
What you see is what you get. ie, the links I gave are the ones I used for the statistics. As far as I can see, he is using two months figures to show a deviation. This precludes any “rounding out”, and is subject to caution over the longer term.
*
It does fit in with one theory, that Gates, Schwab and the eugenists talk of reducing the human population down to 2 billion survivors. So how are they going to eliminate several other billions who just want to be left alone? One way obviously is some sort of targetted bio-weapon (As “found” in Ukraine boi-labs) However, as the Chinese seem to be doing, counter-actions can be taken once the threat is known.
So how to get sneaky and kill off billions on the sly?
One way might be to make the “cure” for a pandemic, the vehicle of something else, far nastier. So why are the US and Pfizer so desperate to vaxx the under 5’s? One thing may be that that way there are no “control” groups left to compare with. However, if the Kids have been sterilized (which is what we are talkinhg about), this would not show up until they had reached maturity. plenty of time to cover their trail. (The original idea for Pfizer was to keep all their documents about “trials”, secret for 75 years).
*
Maybe paranoia? I no longer trust blindly whatever is spread around by the Media.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 10 2022 21:10 utc | 53

@ joey_n | Jul 10 2022 19:43 utc | 35
i can read rt here on vancouver island.. let me try posting a link to the site now.. https://www.rt.com/
it hasn’t been banned from moa if that is what you mean..

Posted by: james | Jul 10 2022 21:21 utc | 54

@ joey_n | Jul 10 2022 19:43 utc | 35
as far as i know rt news hasn’t been banned from moa.. i get it on vancouver island… i tried posting a link but my comment didn’t go thru, so maybe you are onto something here that i missed… not sure what the prob is..

Posted by: james | Jul 10 2022 21:23 utc | 55

Posted by: james | Jul 10 2022 21:23 utc | 54
joey_n | Jul 10 2022 19:43 utc | 35
Are you guys sure that it’s your own ISPs blocking access and not sites like RT and The Saker proactively blocking access from certain Western IP addresses? That is the case for my own ISP and The Saker. They’ve added this block of IPs to their threat list. Not sure about why RT links aren’t allowed here at MoA.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 21:25 utc | 56

hi tom
i get rt here where i am… but when i go to post a link to the site, it doesn’t go thru… i am quite sure bernhard wouldn’t block it on his end.. cheers…

Posted by: james | Jul 10 2022 21:27 utc | 57

Another look at both water and Nitrogen, This guy probably scares the large corps
Check out Gabe Brown’s U tube. Our farming practices world wide are a disaster
Posted by: Susan | Jul 10 2022 18:33 utc | 33
Ah. a variation of ‘permaculture’ coined by Bill Mollison in 1978.
The so-called nitrogen pollution refers to the far deadlier oxides. These oxides form part of the triplex. Of photochemical smog/acid rain formation. Heat traping gas. Nitrogen Dioxide. Retains up to 300 times the same equivalent heat retention mass of Carbon Dioxide. Last, but most evil. A known Ozone-depleting gas…..
The fun fact is those protesting farmers of “The Nederlands”. Blocking all main roads with late-model near new low hours farm tractors Which are subsidized by….. These scum protesters are deliberately withholding 98% of the information.
A common tactic used often by those living in denial of reality. Is to supply 2% of the cherry-picked information.
One Farm waste is clogging the sewers……..
Two The government has an authorized buy back the farmland budget 2021-22 is 20 billion Euros. For the first year.
Three the current sea-level rise for the main sea dam. Is limited to two meters. For the two remaining primitive non-metric countries. That is six and a half feet.
Four Guess which EU country receives the maximum farm subsidies in Europe. The country is the home of the greedy for more cash farm protesters……..
Sadly Gonzo jumped off the cliff face without applying “Occam’s Razor Test”.
For the dumb&dumber lazy farmers. A quick tourist trip, to a town in Bavaria. Should be highly educational for these very greedy jerks, idiots, and wowsers……….. All of whom are sucking the EU dry with excessive demand for more farm subsidies……..
Perhaps these dumb&dumber farmers protesting much about nothing. Could do with a complete re-education farm permaculture course. Cancel all EU farm subsidies as well. Now that would be justice served……….
A coin has three sides………….

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jul 10 2022 21:55 utc | 58

Stonebird, #32
I am now firmly convinced that the reason that all the “leaders” in the west are so bad – is deliberate.
Agreed!
See last minute of video @5:12: (vile Klau Schwab bragging)
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/07/06/sky-news-rowan-dean-draws-the-connection-between-justin-trudeau-mark-rutte-dutch-farm-protests-and-world-economic-forum-global-food-program/

Posted by: Taras77 | Jul 10 2022 22:05 utc | 59

So convenient that Shinzo Abe’s assassination happened two days before the Japanese election, and resulted in the LDP (his party) getting a supermajority capable of changing the Japanese pacifist constitution? Such things tend not to be coincidences. I remember Bolsonaro’s “stabbing” during the Brazilian elections, which greatly aided his poll ratings, and thought the same thing.
Abe was more useful to the LDP dead than alive. The attackers always seem to be “crazed loners” such as the guy who shot Reagan (making Bush Sr. the de-facto President from then on – shooter declared insane), the guy who shot JFK (murdered soon after himself), the guy who shot Bobby Kennedy (declared insane), the guy who”stabbed” Bolsonaro (declared insane), the guy who shot MLK etc. (pleaded guilty, no jury – killed MLK with a single shot!).

Posted by: Roger | Jul 10 2022 22:05 utc | 60

psychohistorian | Jul 10 2022 16:03 utc | 11
re {Ellen Brown] “She thinks food has both stable value and can be widely available as collateral in a local community trading system today and I think we will see that globally as well.”
I now demonstrate: “Money only has value if FOOD [food + air + water] is available for consumption.” I.e., any form of money pre-supposes that FOOD is available in time to prevent death by starvation. No FOOD available =
“money” has no value.
The corollary is that FOOD, itself, was and still is the only real form of money. All other forms are only derivative substitutes, based on availability of FOOD.
This view aligns completely with M. Hudson’s history of money in “And Forgive Them Their Debts”. FOOD was the original “money” and codified so that other forms of “money” were proportionally valued with a system of weights and measures to a specified amount of FOOD, usually grain. This enabled a workable way for a King [or any ruling authority] to levy taxes paid not only in grain [“on the threshing floor”] but also any substitute [!] on the official list.
FOOD is the essential item, all other forms of money are substitutes for and derivative of FOOD…and you cannot eat/breath/drink derivatives…such as gold/helium/oil.
So yes, Ellen Brown, “food has both stable value and can be widely available…”, as demonstrated by warehouses of FOOD located in proximity to all populations.

Posted by: chu teh | Jul 10 2022 22:29 utc | 61

Melaleuca | Jul 10 2022 16:20 utc | 14
It is great to see that the people are pushing back in some pretty disparate communities: Albania, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands. As far as can be discerned from a distance the insurrections have been relatively leaderless. That is to say on the surface there doesn’t appear to be any up-for-rent, silver-tongued, double dealing, low-life politicians urging by remove, however there will be many hanging around the fringes hoping for a shot at the big time. Media interests will be avidly haranguing for somesuch to stick their head above the parapet, so that they will then be able to ‘massage’ his/her statements to suit best their proprietors’ needs.
Let us hope that in at least one or two of these early instances and the the many more that will soon follow, ‘the mob’ won’t fall for a new boss sold to them by the self-interested but will instead return to their communities after the current arseholes have been shit-canned, to work together with all the others in their communities to build back better from the ground up.
Yes that will be more difficult and will cause people, particularly those in allegedly developed societies to have to forgo many of their comforts, but it will also mean that they won’t be forced into going back to taws once more in another few years & again a few years after that, & again etc.
We do not need much at all of what we currently take for granted.
Positive interaction with those physically close by teaches one that a lot of what we had considered essential is frivolous.
Humans being what they are, any ‘leader’ will inevitably put their own needs ahead of everyone else’s needs and it is about time we all showed the maturity to accept that reality.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jul 11 2022 0:29 utc | 62

A profound difference between the two major parties in USA is un-appreciated by most posters here who comment about them at all.
Republicans are at their best when they throw raw red meat to those who appreciate it.
Democrats are more expert offering word salad.
Of course, “Russiagate” and “Ukraine” may be viewed as red meat type of content, and Republican do dabble in word salad, and there are touches of personal style (which politician promised to remove threat to Ukraine from Ukraine?).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 11 2022 0:49 utc | 63

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 10 2022 21:06 utc | 52
One may be puzzled, another terrified by the insistence of combining ball games with religion that is evident in some regions of USA, notably in Texas. However, this practice has thousands years of history. Wiki:
The Mesoamerican ballgame was a sport with ritual associations played since at least 1650 BC by the pre-Columbian people of Ancient Mesoamerica. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a newer, more modern version of the game, ulama, is still played by the indigenous populations in some places.
The rules of the Mesoamerican ballgame are not known, but judging from its descendant, ulama, they were probably similar to racquetball, where the aim is to keep the ball in play. The stone ballcourt goals are a late addition to the game.
In the most common theory of the game, the players struck the ball with their hips, although some versions allowed the use of forearms, rackets, bats, or handstones. The ball was made of solid rubber and weighed as much as 4 kg (9 lbs), and sizes differed greatly over time or according to the version played.
The Mesoamerican ballgame had important ritual aspects, and major formal ballgames were held as ritual events. Late in the history of the game, some cultures occasionally seem to have combined competitions with religious human sacrifice. The sport was also played casually for recreation by children and may have been played by women as well.
Pre-Columbian ballcourts have been found throughout Mesoamerica, as for example at Copán, as far south as modern Nicaragua, and possibly as far north as what is now the U.S. state of Arizona.
—-
The oldest culture in Mesoamerica with monumental sculptures and other hallmark of highly organized and presumably stratified society, the Olmeca, already had ball courts surrounded by stone walls from which balls could bounce. Figurines of ball players in their paraphernalia are carbon dated to 1700 BC. Mesoamericans made their balls from rubber, and those solid balls were bounced using protected hips, knees etc. With such remote ancient origins, it is not clear if the religion preceded ball games, or spawned the ball games, or if in some fashion they were united.
In myths, lives of humanity were saved by a pair of twins, two heroic ball players, who won a match with the lords of underworld.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 11 2022 1:28 utc | 64

@60 chu teh | Jul 10 2022 22:29 utc and @11 psychohistorian
Yes, agreed. No food means money has no value. Good work you two, and thanks very much.
And we are coming into a world where currencies will derive their value as representatives of their underlying commodities (with of course food at the top, after water and air), rather than the current system of money appropriating commodities on nothing but a promise.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 11 2022 4:02 utc | 65

This is slightly amusing:
Biden: We will send Russia back the 19th century.
Map: Russia in the 19th century….
https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1546196401155035136/photo/1
Comment: whoops!
… (Team Joe Tzu might find some raw material in this)

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 11 2022 4:16 utc | 66

BREAKING: A Bill Gates Foundation supermarket in the Netherlands that focuses on new-age foods like plant protein meat has spontaneously caught fire in the middle of the night. http://DutchUprising.com
https://twitter.com/TheRealKeean/status/1546284131729829888

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 11 2022 4:24 utc | 67

@64 more…
And here is an item that may interest you both:
Ruble Transfer: Russia Is Changing the Order of Payments for Strategic Raw Materials

Export duties on grain, sunflower oil and ground oil-cake will be calculated in rubles …
The formula uses the arithmetic average dollar exchange rate set by the Bank of Russia for five working days preceding the settlement date …
it’s not so much about the currency of export payments as about the adjustment of the formula itself. In fact, it was not the duties that were “recalculated”, but the rubles — based on the average exchange rate over the past five days.

We knew this is happening but there is something revolutionary about what Russia is doing here, shifting risk by bringing it back from the wild world of currency exchange and setting the domestic price where the domestic farmer and exporter can relate to it intimately, and leaving any necessary global exchange adjustments in the hands of the central bank. This is a government price guarantee and protection of the highest order.
I’m not quite grasping how important all this is (late, and tired), but something goes “bing” about this. This is an antidote to the sanctions, yes, but it’s also a model of how things always should have been, somehow…and Russia is casting this template into stone for all the world to follow, and this will prove to be a milestone in history, I think.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 11 2022 4:24 utc | 68

@ Grieved | Jul 11 2022 4:02 utc | 64 with the follow up on food is money myth/reality
The current Reserve Currency US dollar is fiat, and as such, can only be a measure of debt, not legally anything of value like food.
Watch the US dollar value whipsaw against all sorts of real things as this situation evolves….the thing to understand that if there is life after this civilization war, there will need to be financial settlements made to handle the global debt numbers as well as re-establishing a FOOD value for the US dollar……the printing presses have been running since 2008 full bore and the elite scum will want top value for its fiat script……this is when the rubber meets the road or will be an afterthought to the carnage.
I agree with chu teh that food is money more than today’s “precious metals” are but water and some physical things seem to have “equal” value to “food”.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 4:25 utc | 69

In response to
”
We knew this is happening but there is something revolutionary about what Russia is doing here, shifting risk by bringing it back from the wild world of currency exchange and setting the domestic price where the domestic farmer and exporter can relate to it intimately, and leaving any necessary global exchange adjustments in the hands of the central bank. This is a government price guarantee and protection of the highest order.
I’m not quite grasping how important all this is (late, and tired), but something goes “bing” about this. This is an antidote to the sanctions, yes, but it’s also a model of how things always should have been, somehow…and Russia is casting this template into stone for all the world to follow, and this will prove to be a milestone in history, I think.
Posted by: Grieved | Jul 11 2022 4:24 utc | 67
”
Yes with the “bing” about neutering the foreign exchange manipulation by the private Central Banks which has been a feature of private finance for centuries…..think about if you own the foreign exchange system and can create money from nothing. So why wouldn’t you create enough money of any country’s currency to manipulate the exchange rate whenever, and as often as you want? With foreign exchange its all about the spread and Russia is making that spread harder to game.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 4:38 utc | 70

ZH has a posting up noting that Trump at a speech in Alaska called Elon Musk a bullshitter and the intertubes are holding up all sorts of mirrors….grin

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 4:51 utc | 71

interesting company that seem to be spreading the propaganda around…. recorded future is the name of this corporation…
“Recorded Future is a privately held cybersecurity company founded in 2009, with headquarters in Somerville, Massachusetts. The company specializes in the collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination of threat intelligence. Recorded Future uses patented machine learning and natural language processing methods to continuously collect and organize data from open web, dark web, and technical sources. The resulting information is displayed within a software-as-a-service portal.”
“With more than 1,500 clients across 66 countries, including the governments of 30 countries, over 50% of the Fortune 100 and 40% of the Forbes Global 100, and the largest holdings of interlinked threat data sets, Recorded Future is the world’s largest intelligence company.”
is this the usa’s version of integrity initiative or cambridge analytics? looks like it might be… i tripped onto it accidentally and thought i would share what i found here…

Posted by: james | Jul 11 2022 4:52 utc | 72

@18, @3, @15, @35, @43, @47, Re: Trump accidentally being correct, statement and video at top by host. Trump has lifted this statement almost verbatim from Mr. Putin who made it during his famous 2007 speech at Munich Security. Please do not think Trump actually believes this. (Aside from the fact that he now calls Putin a war criminal, sent lethal weapons to Ukraine while pres., brags that he told Putin he’d bomb all the pretty turrets in Moscow Sq if he dared enter Ukr, all after campaigning in 2016 for normalizing relations w. Russia). Trump made many similar statements to fool us in 2016, knowing this was how we thought. Such as “US must stop being world’s Big Stupid Bully,” stop being world’s policeman, cut back foreign intervention. But once elected Trump forgot all that and merged with his Deep State pals, became a worse neocon than McCain. Further, he made Jared de facto pres. Jared followed his own agenda which was opposite of Trump 2016 voters whom he despised. Jared was 100% in charge of Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, now runs the entire Trump/Kushner post presidential scam “America First” and MAGA profit centers, has staffed them w. open borders globalists like himself, and has merged fundraising with RNC in a program called WinRed which generates a profit for Jared on each dollar. Trump will never win again. The only reason he won in 2016 was he got the democrat barrier Rust Belt states, which GOP has no interest in. He got 6-9 million former Obama voters. Jared cancelled tv ads for Rust Belt states in Oct. 2020 and Trump lost the Rust Belt states in Nov. 2020.

Posted by: susan mullen | Jul 11 2022 5:00 utc | 73

@ james | Jul 11 2022 4:52 utc | 71 with the tidbit on Recorded Future
So this oxymoronic wordplay is the source of US agnotology (manufacturing of ignorance) that would make Orwell proud/puke?
Think about the kind/volume of drugs these people are taking….I am in awe of their ongoing Wag The Dog control of the narrative capabilities but still think the end of the Western shit show is near.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 5:05 utc | 74

The next time someone expresses concern with the China social credit system I suggest you provide them the following link to the JPMorgan patented version
Here Are the Orwellian Details of the U.S. Patent JPMorgan Got Approved for Its Sprawling System of Spying on Employees
If its good enough for one of the biggest global private banks then it must be good enough for everyone……and you will pay for the pleasure…../s

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 5:13 utc | 75

Sorry, I should have said that last link is from Wall Street on Parade and read the take away quote

You might be wondering what prompted Wall Street On Parade to look for patent filings on this surveillance system. It’s because we are aware that the bank is paying huge salaries for more software developers than Google, and would thus expect to get patent protection for its money.
Dimon wrote in his 2014 annual shareholders’ letter that JPMorgan employs “nearly 30,000 programmers, application developers and information technology employees…” According to JPMorgan’s Anish Bhimani in an interview in 2013, JPMorgan has “more software developers than Google, and more technologists than Microsoft…we get to build things at scale that have never been done before.”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 5:31 utc | 76

Thank you b for the Matt Taibbi report on funny money and circle thinking.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 11 2022 8:31 utc | 77

Melaleuca #65

Biden: We will send Russia back the 19th century.
Map: Russia in the 19th century….
https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1546196401155035136/photo/1
Comment: whoops!
… (Team Joe Tzu might find some raw material in this)

It is beyond slightly amusing..
The treaty of acquisition of Alaska in October 1867 has been officially nullified by Biden’s statement.
He is the President and he has affirmed the borders of Russia to be those at the commencement of the 1800’s when Russia occupied Alaska.
I assume the Russian embassy will seek vacant possession or allow all those staying on Alaskan soil to be immediately made Russian citizens. That brings the liberator very close that other Ukrainian enclave in Canada. :))

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 11 2022 8:45 utc | 78

Feel-good stories to start the week:
La Presse captures Japanese outrage while they elect a super-majority for the party of former PM Abe
https://www.lapresse.ca/international/asie-et-oceanie/2022-07-10/japon/large-victoire-du-parti-au-pouvoir-aux-elections-senatoriales.php
Speaking of stereotypes, what do you think of when you look at this fun family photo? Comiccon is back in Montréal —
https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/2022-07-10/apres-deux-ans-d-absence/un-comiccon-haut-en-couleur-a-montreal.php
Trump era tariffs against Canadian-manufactured solar products are removed. What do you suppose inspired that act of magnanimity?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/solar-power-tariffs-scrapped-at-vancouver-trade-meeting-with-us-and-mexico-1.6516167

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jul 11 2022 9:41 utc | 79

Posted by: Roger | Jul 10 2022 22:05 utc | 59
Except that interpretation of the results is all baloney. The ruling parties scored some more seats, yes but that was completely in line with the forecast(s) in the various large opinion polls one week before the election. What according to some interpretation can be said is the parties in favour of revision of the constitution won a two-third majority needed to pass any amendment (I think that majority existed before as well, although not as clear along party lines). And that is only “on paper” – the various parties must first agree to the exact wording for a modified text, not a given and there is no guarantee that will happen soon…
See e.g this tweet by the SNA / Shingetsu News agency (and other tweetby the same) or this one. See also the twitter feed of Tobias Harris(Observing Japan). And many more.

Posted by: phiw13 | Jul 11 2022 11:33 utc | 80

numuves at utoob has an interesting seven minute summary of Australia as USA vassal state.
There are other tantalising subjects here that may be worth your time.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 11 2022 11:41 utc | 81

The story about the motivations of the killer of Abe Shinzo (frustrations about the Moonies, and anger at Abe for his support for Unification Church) [1] the appears to receive confirmation from various sources, even though the Japanese MSM is so far reluctant to tell much.
On the other hand, yes Kishida Fumio – current Japanese PM – is a happy man as he gained some more freedom of mouvement to move away from the Abe years, esp. the economic policies, and push back at some of the War party factions. That won’t necessarily be good for the policies of the US government.
[1] the Kishi / Abe family and the Moonies have a very long common history. See a synopsis here: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

Posted by: phiw13 | Jul 11 2022 11:47 utc | 82

iEarlGrey has interesting news.
US hypersonic missile goes bang at wrong place.
The kidnapped compressor returns to Russia for installation into NS1.
Liz Truss is sure she would make an excellent PM for the UK. [STOP LAUGHING barflies ;]
Zakharova expresses blunt thought about head of UK foreign Office
EU falls below $1.01 – lowest since 2002
New Kadyrov parody on Zelensky
see the links below the video description…

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 11 2022 12:16 utc | 83

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 11 2022 1:28 utc | 63
“The oldest culture in Mesoamerica with monumental sculptures and other hallmark of highly organized and presumably stratified society, the Olmeca, already had ball courts surrounded by stone walls from which balls could bounce. Figurines of ball players in their paraphernalia are carbon dated to 1700 BC.”
I live in Olmecalandia…. No ball courts any more…. Lots of Jeeps though… And overgrown pyramids some say older than ones in Egypt….. Worlds come, worlds go…

Posted by: Scorpion | Jul 11 2022 13:30 utc | 84

… (Team Joe Tzu might find some raw material in this)
Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 11 2022 4:16 utc | 65
All Empire’s rise and fall and right now it is my sworn duty and unquenchable conviction to lead our nation fearlessly into the latter. Joe Tzu.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jul 11 2022 13:37 utc | 85

Protests in Ecuador, too.
On June 30, the government of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso reached an agreement with the country’s leading Indigenous organization, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, or Conaie, and other civil society organizations to bring an end to social protests that had ground the country to a standstill for 18 days.
…Lasso, who has been in office just over a year, has been unable to secure votes from both allied and opposition parties to pursue his economic agenda of liberal reforms to stimulate growth and create jobs. According to the agreement with Conaie, Lasso now has 90 days to implement a 10-point agenda, which includes lowering fuel prices, establishing price controls on agricultural products and putting a moratorium on new oil and mining projects, as well as increasing investment in health, education and security.
https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/30668/for-lasso-ecuador-protests-create-a-catch-22

Posted by: farm ecologist | Jul 11 2022 13:40 utc | 86

For once I agree with Joe Biden
https://t.me/azmilitary11/10131

Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 11 2022 13:42 utc | 87

Well, well…., what do we have here? Australia’s biggest iron ore exporter is selling its product to China for Yuan:

Australian firms understand they cannot always play by their own rules in business partnerships with Chinese clients, their largest global buyer, and the use of the Chinese yuan for trade is a positive change and will unleash greater potential for the iron ore trade with China, Chen Hong, president of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies and director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Monday.
“It should be a consensus reached by both Chinese and Australian companies to balance the use of the dollar in trade for a more reliable and sustainable partnership, especially amid the high US inflation risks,” Chen said.

One brick after another is removed from the dollar hegemony wall:
“The launch of the yuan-based trade in iron ore marks an important step for the Australian company to get closer to the Chinese market, while balancing the possible risks and uncertainties from the US dollar ignited by high US inflation, industry insiders and experts said.”

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 11 2022 14:46 utc | 88

They may be small, but they still count, “Team China? Pacific Nations Start Snubbing US Allies as Kiribati Quits Key Bloc”.
There’s quite a bit of ferment out in the South Pacific which seems to be caused by uppity white colonizers:

It also alleged that other members had exhibited discriminatory behavior against Micronesian countries: the Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru, and Micronesia, among others.
“Solidarity and unity as a region is dependent on how we treat each other with profound respect and understanding,” Taneti Maamau, Kiribati President, said in a leaked letter sent to the 18-nation forum on Sunday.

The Outlaw US Empire has long used debt as a weapon over small nations, a ploy over 100 years old.
“However, the Pacific nations have started leaning towards China, hoping to achieve long-term sustainable economic development. Beijing said that the loans would come with “no political strings attached” and that it would never force countries to repay the loans if a heavily indebted nation is unable to.”
Looks like more nations are leaving the Empire’s Animal Farm.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 11 2022 15:17 utc | 89

Yet more bricks being removed from that wall, “India’s Central Bank Announces International Trade Settlement in Rupees”:
“The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) – the country’s central bank – said on Monday that it has decided to put in place an additional arrangement for invoicing, payment, and the settlement of exports and imports in rupees.”
This goes beyond the already well-established rupee-ruble trade and likely ends India’s membership in the Quad bloc.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 11 2022 15:25 utc | 90

@ karlof1 with the reports of countries dumping the Bretton Woods agreement and building custom foreign exchange arrangements…thanks
But the world needs a form of money that has intrinsic value because being stuck in fiat land will not get society more than deeper in debt….so we wait for the neutron bomb of our civilization war, intrinsic value (FOOD for chu teh)) money

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 15:34 utc | 91

@ psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 5:05 utc | 74
i saw a link to an intel report from this corporation… i was thinking of how this corp is receiving a ton of money from the gov’t to generate this bullshit! they are definitely a part of the narrative building process.. now they can claim they have software that proves russia and china are up to no good, lol…. maybe some folks will think that is scientific and be happy to know how this is confirmed via the software! it is so insane it defies logic and yet it goes on..

Posted by: james | Jul 11 2022 15:50 utc | 92

@ karlof1 | Jul 11 2022 15:25 utc | 90 / 88 and etc..
thanks karlof1 for these important details!

Posted by: james | Jul 11 2022 15:51 utc | 93

psychohistorian | Jul 11 2022 15:34 utc | 91
“The world”? What is “the world”? It’s those people whose opinions matter to you. The whole idea of the entire Earth under one value system is exactly what caused this mess and always causes this mess every time it’s tried. Stop reifying global totalitarianism just because you want to be able to demand a latte.
People who try to invent fake exogenous controls for humanity are the real fascists.

Posted by: sippy the shot glass | Jul 11 2022 16:01 utc | 94

@sln2002 #17
All of the grains we eat today – whether maize, wheat, barley etc were originally grasses, i.e. weeds.
And all of them have achieved nutritional significant via genetic modification – strain selection for the majority of human existence, later radiation mutation, and now direct gene splicing.
So not clear what you are trying to say.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 11 2022 16:22 utc | 95

run on chinese banks??
my friend is asking for comment on this.. twitter link below…
Bank runs are happening all over China.

Posted by: james | Jul 11 2022 16:23 utc | 96

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry reports that Iran will be admitted to the SCO this year. At the summit in Samarkand, a memorandum on the obligations of the country as a member of the organization will be signed.

Posted by: alaff | Jul 11 2022 16:24 utc | 97

@karlof1 #24
Thank you for the note – so Dr. Hudson has now reached the point where he understands only a revolution could change the course of (economic) history in the US.
The next stage is recognizing that this revolution is more likely to fail than succeed: the many revolutions in Central and South America were almost uniformly unsuccessful.
Admittedly, this was with the US putting its heavy thumb on the scales, but the reality is still that both the 200 families in each Central/South American nation and the global banksters have so much money that they will do the same thing.
The only way revolution really works in an advanced country is either co-opting the existing oligarchy (and more importantly, its large 2% to 5% of water carriers) or “replacing” them.
I see zero evidence of co-option going on right now in the US or EU.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 11 2022 16:27 utc | 98

@Bad Deal Motors On #58
Glad to see you are uniformly uninformed.
Nitric oxide is NO.
Air is mostly N2 and O2.
If you have a lightning strike, it creates NO and NO2.
The Haber-Bosch process uses natural gas to break the N2 bonds to form ammonia (NH4), while the Ostvald process converts NH4 to nitric acid.
Nitrogen fixing plants also break N2 bonds.
If you want to prevent nitric oxide in the atmosphere, let’s ban all electricity first.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 11 2022 16:36 utc | 99

@chu teh #61
Simplistic and wrong.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a basic concept you need to understand.
The base of the pyramid (food, water, warmth, safety) only has disproportionate value if there is not enough.
The actual value of the base layer is as an ante as in “in the game”.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 11 2022 16:40 utc | 100

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