@ ld 3
War allows us to rise above our small stations in life. . . .
Randolph Bourne
War is the Health of the State
(1918)
“War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate co-operation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 21 2022 15:32 utc | 4

Here in the Global South there is a new wave of optimism and hope thanks to the revelations over the past year that the USA is a naked emperor and no more than a playground bully. There are two new kids on the block called China and Russia who are shaping up to be winners and everyone loves a winner.

Posted by: Thaisleeze | Aug 21 2022 15:38 utc | 6

Canadians do not like Chrystia Freeland.

Posted by: jonku | Aug 21 2022 16:21 utc | 8

Canadians do not like racists.
Posted by: circumspect | Aug 21 2022 15:24 utc | 4
nah. Trump couldn’t make a business case for investing in Canadian real estate. Neither could Buffett. Besides, Canadian tory parliamentarians are already running domestic and “world class” AEI graft, mining, and MIC operations.

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 21 2022 16:27 utc | 10

Oh. wait. I almost forgot pHarma R&D joint ventures with NIAID in “dual-use” vaccine marketing to AFRICAN nation-states. Z-Mapp ring a bell?

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 21 2022 16:30 utc | 12

For some reason, a post of mine seems to disappear automatically and almost immediately on more than one system (Blogspot/Disqus and Moon of Alabama) so I hope this works: https://vk.com/wall436046503?own=1&w=wall436046503_89
Perhaps there is something in there that forum software cannot / should not handle, that is, can cause problems?
The point, without taking chances of triggering antispam (or is it censorship) algorithm is that Strategic Culture’s hosting provider seems to be REG dot RU and that they are the ones apparently doing the blocking, perhaps seeing it as due to not being able to legally allow access to a sanctioned web site or, if they themselves are sanctioned (I do not know if this is the case or not) make the services it provides accessible due to being sanctioned themselves.

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 21 2022 16:54 utc | 14

Canadians do not like racists.
Posted by: circumspect | Aug 21 2022 15:24 utc | 4

LOL… Our much heralded Canadian multi-culturalism consists of groups living in ethno-cultural enclaves and pretending to like and respect each other.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Aug 21 2022 17:00 utc | 16

Circumspect was clearly being sarcastic.

Posted by: Watching the watcher | Aug 21 2022 17:02 utc | 18

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 21 2022 16:31 utc | 14
Have I got news for youse.
US government and its rude, faux frontier nobility have from time to time embraced “dictators” since the inception of their republic. I count at least four “dictator” administrations that do not coincide with the four “red scares.” John Adams, Johnson I, FDR, GWB. I exclude Trump antics, because I’m certain Trump has not ushered any legal, “illiberal” or “illegitimate,” authority into the office that was not already delegated to his predecessors by the US Congress. Let us count from J. Adams the disturbing number of marriages between “national security” privileges acrued in the Art.II, § 2 and whichever “war effort” against undesirable “aliens”.
Then let us ponder this overweening companion piece to periodic CRS reports (38th ed.), Military Intervention Project: A New Dataset on US Military Interventions, 1776–2019, because no one, AFAIK, has ever accused the UK House of Commons of “isolationism.”
When the peoples’ representatives abrogate constitutional authority to some titular head of state, the patina of innocence and helplessness flatters their constituencies’ belated and sanctimonious objections tactical judgment of a single political figure. What is this congress? It’s the group of people who cannot be shifted either to review, repeal, or replace their “institutional” superiority much less overide a presidential veto. These are phatoms representating people who couldn’t identify them in a line-up. A representation of civility for which voters and non-voters alike take no responsibility until their personal “wealth” is taxed. For that would surely, poorly reflect the values of the nation whose civic duty–turn out–is reduced to one ballot every four years.
“He’s doing our work for us, in a certain respect,” said the speaker of the House.

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 21 2022 17:58 utc | 20

Damn, people! Get some therapy for that “Trump Derangement Syndrome”! The guy is just a moderately obnoxious middle-of-the-road oligarch who likes to dabble in pro wrestling and beauty contests and decided on a lark to enter the biggest pro wrestling championship / beauty pageant in the world as a competitor rather than the host or promoter. Your continued freaking out over Trump is a solid sign of serious mental illness. It is the same as losing your shit over Elon Musk or George Soros.
It is perfectly reasonable to dislike oligarchs, and even to dislike some of them more than others, but your preoccupation with Trump is unhealthy.
As an aside, you should really have figured out by now that a chief reason many “deplorables” claim allegiance to Trump is precisely because it makes people like you to lose your shit and have massive emotional melt-downs. Who’d have ever guessed that a political hand grenade could explode so satisfyingly time after time?

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 21 2022 18:54 utc | 22

@Mr. Gruff – re: Trump
I agree, it’s nuts how people are still in on the the anti-Trump campaign, for the single reason that it’s punching down. I agree he’s a huckster, and half the time a clown, and the other half a stooge, so I don’t ever expect much from him.
However, as many seem to agree, when it’s a « company man » (stooge) in power, it’s actually worse, as it advances the evil empire’s plans more integrally and efficiently.
So it’s doubly ironic and absurd that folks are after him, when he’s only half a stooge, and not even « in power » !

Posted by: Featherless | Aug 21 2022 19:37 utc | 24

RE: sln2002 | Aug 21 2022 17:58 utc | 21
What about Wilson and WWI? This has the making of something worse. So much censorship and we do not have admitted explicit United States of Blackrock, Vanguard, and NATO involvement, let alone a declaration of war yet.
AKAIK, the Brits were not themselves doing what they accused Kaiser’s boys of doing. Now we have not only demonization but projection as well.

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 21 2022 20:32 utc | 26

Pakistan. Everyone and their dog seems be rooting for Imran Khan.
And they seme to have good reason for it.
Yet i can not shake some premonition…
Still, can any one has a coherent idea, why Twitter is supporting and organizing pro-Khan movement for last half a year?
Can you imagine Twitter we know to support Trump against Biden? To support Putin against Navalny? Maduro against Guaido? Lukashenko against Tikhanovskaya?
Would anyone of you believe in such a Twitter?
Yet this very Twitter seems supporting Khan for months. Promoting and organizing his movement.
Something is fishy.

Posted by: Arioch | Aug 21 2022 21:00 utc | 28

During a photo op with Olaf Scholz, two women took their tops off and bared their breasts, with « gas embargo now ! » written on them.
Us guys should try whipping our dicks out sometime, to make a political statement. Probably a shorter phrase.
Posted by: Featherless | Aug 21 2022 16:58 utc | 16
From the few examples, a counter demonstration of this kind may be difficult. Concerning the demonstrators, did they really bare their breasts, or just chests?

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 21 2022 22:00 utc | 30

As a Brit, do you acknowledge the present prosperity of Britain is from hundreds of years of stealing from Asian, African and other countries?
Posted by: RK | Aug 20 2022 13:21 utc | 33
************
And how is your average Brit in any way responsible for the historic and present crimes of their government?
Posted by: evilsooty999 | Aug 20 2022 13:47 utc | 36
************
Of course, you do!
You live off what you Brits have stolen from countries in Asia nd Africa.
Posted by: RK | Aug 20 2022 14:30 utc | 47

I am referring here to a discussion that took place on the last Ukraine thread and which was therefore off topic.
RK (aka rp aka ostro aka ppp) thinks that the damage done to the Third World necessarily implies that the colonising countries would have benefited greatly. The causal link is presupposed to be obvious. But it does not exist, nor do the claimed consequences. The benefits that the West has derived from colonisation are very small.
To take one example, in the 1950s France’s trade with its colonies represented a third of its trade and almost all of its foreign investment. Yet not only did decolonisation cause no damage to France, but it even seems to have been the condition for the revival of the French economy in the 1950s.
My source is Jacques Marseille’s book, Empire colonial et capitalisme français. Histoire d’un divorce, Albin Michel 1984.
The idea that colonisation would be extremely beneficial was the central theme of the propaganda of those who promoted it. It was a myth, rightly denounced by its opponents. Today, it is the « anti-colonialists » who propagate this legend.
As for the moral question of whether people should be blamed for things they have not done, I think it is pointless to discuss this with those who think they should.

Posted by: Leuk | Aug 21 2022 22:29 utc | 32

Charges have been brought against Imran Khan just after his party won a by-election in Karachi.
Apparently, the USA goons fear his party overturning their putsch via a no-confidence vote against them in parliament.
Civil war???
Can’t have democracy once we took power, can we???
INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Aug 21 2022 22:47 utc | 34

@Piotr
Well they looked like real women, not trannies, but unfortunately they blurred the boobal areas 😡

Posted by: Featherless | Aug 21 2022 23:30 utc | 36

* reference is not a verb.
Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 21 2022 21:57 utc | 30

According to the Fifth Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, “reference” can be used as a verb.

Posted by: David Levin | Aug 21 2022 23:45 utc | 38

Walks like supply chain discipline, talks like value chain patronage, must be …
The Biden administration challenge to Mexico’s sovereignty IN A PANDEMIC

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has worked to strengthen the dominance of Mexico’s two main state-owned energy companies — the Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, and the oil and gas company Pemex — in an effort to make the country more self-sufficient.
But [US] American energy companies say those steps have made it increasingly difficult for them to [compete on price] in Mexico, which they say gives its own giants favorable treatment, including on pricing, emissions standards LOL!, and contract terms.
Officials at the Office of the United States Trade Representative told reporters on Tuesday that Mexico’s actions appeared to violate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement [MCA]. That free-trade deal, which went into effect two years ago, bars the countries from adopting policies that discriminate [between multinational corporations] and requires them to [restrain trade with “government sponsored”] enterprises.

retail price cap LOL! sumbuddy tell Germany, collecting VAT to recap UNIPER trading losses is unfair to US exporters

Last week, Mr. López Obrador prodded President Biden on the issue of [crude & gas] prices during a visit to the White House. He told Mr. Biden that he hoped Congress would approve proposals to lower gas prices, and noted that Americans had been crossing the border to buy gas in Mexico, where, he said, it was a dollar cheaper.
[…]
“The Mexican government’s escalating pursuit of discriminatory policies that favor [government sponsored enterprises] and hinder private-sector investment [in private-sector P&E] directly threatens the prosperity LOL! of U.S. companies and their workers,” [the American Petroleum Institute and the American Clean Power Association] said.

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 22 2022 0:21 utc | 40

uncle tungsten | Aug 22 2022 0:27 utc | 46
I suspect that the west is heading for, at the very least, economic destruction. To be able to raise a family in peace and prosperity – as much as anyone could wish for.
I am hoping my children who are now raising families will be able to do so but the ideology of our glorious leaders takes the edge off that hope.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 22 2022 0:36 utc | 42

@ Leuk | Aug 21 2022 23:34 utc | 41
I also lack such deciphering abilities even as i have the patience and effort to examine what is being presented as at issue.
No offense intended to it, but that commentator is mostly indecipherable to me. It is as if it speaks a foreign language. Sometimes I think it is speaking arrogant grad student speAk, unrefined and course, presenting as refined and erudite, promulgating a species of dead intellectualism.
Could be I carry a bullshit sensor inherited from French Canadian ancestors I dunno.

Posted by: suzan | Aug 22 2022 3:05 utc | 44

One of my daily hubris checks is to go to the NASA astronomy picture of the day which changes every 24 hours with the current one being on the global warming issue and barflys might find it entertaining, if not educational
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
I can’t argue the issue but expose myself to information and note in the posting they state that compared to the past 250 million years the world is in a relatively cold spell….

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 22 2022 4:39 utc | 46

Posted by: Leuk | Aug 21 2022 22:29 utc | 36
Re no benefits of colonialism. Wow! Then why?
France ran the French Franc financial system in half of Africa out of good heart. France participated in killing Gaddafi after he started planning to introduce a pan African dinar just because. No economic interest.
I am not saying that people should feel guilty for their countries’ past policies, but denying facts and creating bogus narratives is a step to far.

Posted by: RB | Aug 22 2022 9:02 utc | 48

Bad Deal Motors On @54: “His [Trump’s] very long list of 25+ female victims. Who were both abused and assaulted by the same man over the years.”
And no convictions? We’re living through the most insane period of moral hysteria in America since at least Prohibition, and maybe since the Salem witch trials, with #MeToo mobs rampaging from coast to coast and innocent people’s livlihoods being destroyed for perceived “microaggressions” and “using the wrong pronouns”, and with the entirety of the Establishment mass media suffering acute “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and jumping on anything they could find to tar Trump with, but no convictions for any of these many “evil sex crimes” the clown supposedly committed?
You know what that tells me? Trump is actually as morally pure and clean as a monk and your brain is severely broken. All the sound and fury from talking heads and “influencers”, all of the throwable shit available to be flung hurled in Trump’s direction year after year, and nothing has stuck? I can see how that would cause brain-fucked people like you to go mad in frustration, but for Trump to casually saunter through that character assassination gauntlet for over half a decade unfazed shows who in our society have the real personality problems.
Note: I have never voted for Trump (or any Republican) and never will. I have never listened to a single Trump speech or even followed him on social media. It is possible Trump has actually said or done some horribly racist, sexist, and homophobic things and I missed them because I really never cared. What I have done over the preceding years is watch in horrified fascination as what remains of America culture self-destructs in obscene moral panic; like a cultural train wreck that just goes on and on. I’ve watched, unable to look away from the cultural gore, as millions of damage cases like “Bad Deal Motors On” degenerate into gibbering idiots babbling about demons and monsters that only they could see.
What I am certain of is that if Trump really had done or said anything truly evil then it would have been clung to tenaciously by the emotionally shredded TDS victims and would have received the incessant heavy exposure of Trump’s “covfefe” post. That these tragic wrecks of humanity fixated on things like “covfefe” is all that is required to know the rest of the innuendo and vague accusations are nonsense products of the diseased minds destroyed by our current era of moral hysteria.

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 22 2022 13:13 utc | 50

Leuk @33: “…decolonisation cause no damage to France…”
Define “decolonisation”. Were the corporate holdings and business assets controlled by French businessmen handed over to the people of the former colonies? Or did the French imperial stormtroopers just go home, but business continued as usual?
If you think the latter represents “decolonisation” then your conception of imperialism is that of an infant.

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 22 2022 13:22 utc | 52

There is an important essay in the sidebar of the Stat news link above which is more explanatory than the linked article. I found it reveals much in everything currently being allowed to be promoted as fact on the covid issue, so I am posting some exerpts here:

Medical Error: An Epidemic Compounded By Gag Laws
…In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published “To Err is Human.” This landmark report estimated that 100,000 Americans die of medical error every year. The authors called for a 50% reduction within five years. Twenty-three years later — after billions of dollars spent on quality improvement and mountains of analyses filed — we are not even close. Coverys, a large malpractice insurance carrier, released its analysis of 11,907 medical malpractice cases from 2010 to 2019, and concluded that over the past 10 years, “we continue to see high numbers of claims in largely the same areas.” Which is a polite way of saying: health care providers keep making the same mistakes.
The reason? Silence.
Despite much recent advocacy for physician well-being and “just culture” (chalking up many errors to systems rather than to individual providers), what has not changed in New York State since 1999 is that the day a doctor commits an error that may have hurt a patient, when you are desperate to process, to understand, to make amends, you are immediately warned to stay silent. Imagine a death in the family with no outlet for grieving.
Since we all practice in New York State, we are writing here about its culture of silence. But similar environments exist in Florida, California, and other states.
In New York State, anything a doctor says or writes — to colleagues, friends, partners, or even relatives — can be used in court against them.
New York State Education Law 6527 requires hospitals and health care facilities to form peer and quality review committees to investigate possible errors and patient harm. The law protects those discussions from later legal discovery, but then goes on to explicitly carve out an exception: “The prohibition relating to discovery of testimony shall not apply to the statements made by any person in attendance at such a meeting who is a party to an action.”
In other words, a hospital committee can discuss a possible error but no one involved in the case can speak — or even be present — because anything they say can be used against them at cross-examination in a future trial. The Catch-22 is obvious: doctors must prevent mistakes but they will be punished for honestly analyzing them. Driving home this code of omertà, medical malpractice plaintiff attorneys in New York State invariably open depositions with this question: “Have you discussed this case with anyone in any setting ever?”
To truthfully answer no, the defendant doctor must keep mum for years …

The article was written by three emergency room physicians. It does not refer to covid-19, but certainly does apply to what has happened in the US since day one of this ongoing tragedy. Bear that in mind as you read the penultimate paragraph here:

…As physicians who swore the Hippocratic Oath to “Above all, do no harm”, yet have still made mistakes that harmed patients, we and our colleagues can passionately attest that the exact opposite is true. We are devastated. We want to atone, to apologize, to grieve with our patients and their families. But we cannot…

My bolds. And please note well that the first excerpt puts physicians in the class of an arrested person who is told that anything they say can be used in court to convict them.
I apologize if this article has already been discussed. Even so, it is worth re-examination here. I will just comment that on the ‘Ukraine’ thread there is much not worth reading that is not Ukraine related.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 22 2022 14:19 utc | 54

Chronicles of Democracy.
Pink Floyd(!) co-founder Roger Waters(!) is included in the database of the Ukrainian extremist website “Myrotvorets”. Waters is accused, among other things, of “anti-Ukrainian propaganda”.
Savagery and barbarity of the 21st century – norm in “civilized”, “developed” countries.

Posted by: alaff | Aug 22 2022 15:00 utc | 56

Sometimes I think it is speaking arrogant grad student speAk, unrefined and course, presenting as refined and erudite, promulgating a species of dead intellectualism.
Posted by: suzan | Aug 22 2022 3:05 utc | 46
I have mentioned here that I’ve trawled internet URLs for 30 years. Usually daily, because I have more leisure time than many people and am motivated by curiosity to learn something I do not know about current events, public opinions, professional and political objectives of public figures whose actions affect the society that I inhabit in the real. But I also come to share my experience with and references to uncommon knowledge domains pertaining to topical interest to anonymous active participants and “lurkers”. Your comment is not the first objection to the data, information, discursive digression, typos, length or style of prose I’ve posted. Nor is it the most rude or crude.
What your response communicates to me and–I would like to believe some other readers–is relative ignorance which you could remedy or even refute were you willing an able to do so. Ask, “What do you mean?” Say or don’t say, “Thank you, it“, and be on your way.
Could be I carry a bullshit sensor inherited from French Canadian ancestors I dunno.
Posted by: suzan | Aug 22 2022 3:05 utc | 46
I am not surprised. iirc, you’ve disclosed some graduate school limitations. History of WHAT? I cannot recall.

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 22 2022 16:57 utc | 58

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 22 2022 3:09 utc | 47

I would agree that many of the recently introduced usages of existing English words tend to obscure or make ambiguous the speaker’s intent, often deliberately to constrain the receiver’s thinking or foster a particular reaction.

Posted by: David Levin | Aug 22 2022 17:46 utc | 60

Further to the question asked by sln2002 in my post at 62: “Which is this “version” of organized violence — secular or religious? profane or divine?” — the term ‘organized violence’ excludes both secular and religious governances, since it is not governance in the highest sense of the term. It is terrorism in the lowest sense of it, ‘it’ being that term, governance.
But you knew that. Sorry to be so redundant, but it helps my brain, which these days is hardpressed.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 22 2022 18:11 utc | 62

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 22 2022 18:28 utc | 65
“Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was indicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act after being accused of threatening police and magistrates. weekend.
Khan, who was ousted in a vote of no confidence in April, launched a series of popular anti-government protests.
Pakistan’s media watchdog banned Mr Khan’s live speech from being broadcast on his TV channel late Saturday night. On the same day, Mr. Khan held a rally in the capital Islamabad. In it, Mr Khan criticized the police and judiciary for the arrest of one of them. leader of his party.
Khan reportedly arrested the Islamabad police chief and a female judge on sedition charges for urging junior military subordinates to defy orders from their superiors. and threatened of alleged torture.
“We will spare you,” said the Khan, reportedly vowing to take action against them.
Reuters was unable to immediately reach Khan for comment.
The New York Times, citing local media reports, said a police report detailing the charges against Khan said his comments were in line with the country’s judiciary and police. alleges that it constitutes a deliberate and unlawful attempt to intimidate
Khan’s speech “is likely to undermine the maintenance of law and order and disturb public peace and tranquility,” the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) said in a statement on Saturday.
It accused Khan of “continuously leveling baseless allegations and spreading hate speech through his provocative statements against state institutions.”
News The channel was immediately banned from broadcasting his speech live, but an exception was made for recorded speeches.
The Pakistani government, police and its powerful military have been targeted by Khan’s statements.”
https://theworldnews.net/gb-news/pakistan-s-former-pm-imran-khan-charged-under-anti-terror-law
Looks like just as in USA, ‘they’ are bypassing election process and going to lawfare.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 22 2022 18:37 utc | 64

Maybe karlof1 already posted this but if so I missed it. IN this case via new PCR article on his website:
“Putin’s Take on Washington and the Puppet States that Compose the Western World
Putin finally realizes that the West is an enemy, not a partner
Excerpts from Putin’s address (introductory and closing comments excluded):
Putin’s Address to participants and guests of the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security
August 16, 2022
source: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/69166
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen,…..”
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/08/22/putins-take-on-washington-and-the-puppet-states-that-compose-the-western-world/

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 22 2022 21:09 utc | 66

@Leuk #59
Can you point to some national trade account level evidence?
Your anecdotes aren’t necessarily either useful or indicative; there are many examples where sovereign nations plowed lots of money into money-losing endeavors because of various forms of stupidity.
France’s possessions in the Caribbean are a fine example: France put a lot of money and effort into getting Caribbean islands to grow sugar cane, because sugar cane made so much money for Brazil.
But those islands are fundamentally unsuited for this type of agriculture: there just isn’t enough water.
No doubt there are all manner of other commodities in this vein capped by the South Sea Bubble and John Law.
However, the historical record of net economic benefit between colonizer and colonized is very clear: the absolutely are colonial trades which are immensely profitable starting with the Spanish import of gold and silver from the New World, to Portuguese with Brazil and sugar cane, to Portuguese with spices, to the British with cotton, etc etc.
As the present situation between Russia and the US/Europe show – the way economic profit is harvested isn’t automatically by seizure.
The Chinese harvested silver from Europe via tea and porcelain trade for generations until the West found a cash crop to compensate: opium.
The US/Europe today literally harvest by selling overpriced luxury goods ranging from iPhones to Louis Vuitton bags to Mercedes; this is in contrast to post WW2 where the US derived economic value by selling the machines to rebuild bombed out European homes, factories, roads and so forth.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 22 2022 21:28 utc | 68

Scorpion @68–
Putin’s rhetorical use of the word partners in no way describes his personal assessments of those entities. In many ways, PCR is well behind the curve when it comes to understanding how Putin feels about the West–he’s detested it since he learned it was behind the Chechen terrorists, and possibly even before that as Russia was being raped in the 1990s. Putin’s training is to not allow his emotions to influence his decision making, something PCR would have a very difficult time doing. One of the great assets of Russia’s team is they are dead-pan when it comes to emotions. I’ve seen Putin joyful and happy as well as deeply respectful and genuinely warm. And I’ve seen him matter-of-factly tell people they are 100% wrong and to take their crap and peddle it elsewhere. There’s also a specific fatalism present within Russians that IMO is related to their faith–and that faith transcends whatever their religion, which is a remarkable attribute.
The most inane question I’ve ever heard asked about Russians is if they love their children, which was asked by Sting when it should have been asked of us Americans.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 22 2022 22:52 utc | 70

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 22 2022 22:52 utc | 72
Thanks for your reply.
Good point about his language being reserved.
Personally, I didn’t see any great changes in his speech from much that has been said since the SMO. He has been calling the US/West out for a while as a dishonorable, destabilizing counter-productive force holding sovereign states world wide back from an inevitable change in the geopolitical world order already under way.
PCR sounds like many Russians (most of whom I am imagining because I don’t get to hear or read them) who are getting antsy with the seemingly slow progress of the SMO which might seemingly heighten escalation risks. No doubt the recent strikes against Russian airfields and now a well-liked young politico-journalist celebrity adds to this unease.
He’s not frightened of Russia. He’s frightened of the neocons take on Russia and that Putin is not reading them right. And he is almost a lone voice in raising this very valid concern, whether or not that concern is misplaced.
But as you know by now, I’m one of those deplorable types who suspects this is a bit of a managed conflict and that the US Establishment and the Globalistas / Eurasians may be coordinating various elements behind the arras. I still find it a bit too much to treat as coincidence that both sides seemingly want the same thing: collapse of the West. In which case PCR’s concern is indeed misplaced.
However, if they really are enemies and nuclear really is a risk, then his warning, though perhaps a little strident, is worth paying attention to because I suspect he does understand the Beltway / Neocons better than most pundits.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 22 2022 23:35 utc | 72

PS. One related explanation (non-kabuki take):
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/22/report-congressional-gang-of-eight-wants-to-see-fbi-affidavit-and-trumps-evidence-against-them-contained-in-confiscated-documents-from-mar-a-lago-raid/#more-236822
“These days in March 2017 became the narrative opening for the leaked FISA to support the installation of a special counsel a few weeks later. All of it carefully coordinated.
The background collusion and assist motive was also why SSCI vice-chair Mark Warner was covertly in contact with Adam Waldman (2017), the lawyer for Chris Steele, while continuing to operate the parallel Trump targeting and DOJ/FBI cover-up operation from the SSCI. Warner’s skill at this process is why Feinstein abdicated her chair to him at the beginning of Trump’s term.
If the Gang of Eight is currently trying to see what documents President Trump held in Mar-a-Lago, what they are really trying to see is what evidence President Trump has against them.
Watch carefully now….
Watch how the DOJ-NSD and FBI respond to the Gang of Eight. If they follow the pattern, then Main Justice will likely support legislative oversight only through the SSCI.”

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 22 2022 23:51 utc | 74

@ karlof1 | 65
The present mess in Pakistan between Imran Khan’s PTI and the Military top might affect China’s through going BRI road more than it would India which is cordoned off by a clear well defended border.
Pakistan itself is ‘negatively’ influenced by the militant Afghan neighbor regime. Pashtuns from both sides of the border might want to join together vs dominant uniformed Punjabis.

Posted by: Antonym | Aug 23 2022 1:23 utc | 76

@. sln2002 | Aug 22 2022 16:57 utc | 60
“I … come to share my experience with and references to uncommon knowledge domains pertaining to topical interest…”
Very good. I hope you will continue to be more knowable, more personable, as you have become on this thread. I know this is not easy — as someone who often has thrown others’ opinion to the wind.
Nevertheless, if your posts are valuable for us to read, please do try to be more accessible.
I was perhaps harsh with my words calling you out as an it unconcerned with communicating with us ordinary people here on the blog. I apologize. My graduate studies were in western history. I retreated to furniture making and gardening after reading the record and seeing the political landscape. I am now old but still active.
May young people know their history, never forget, and forge ahead with confidence to a better, understood, interdependent world. And may you help them along the path.

Posted by: suzan | Aug 23 2022 2:01 utc | 78

I don’t know if Alastair Crooke’s latest essay has been linked here or commented on yet. It’s the third in a 3-part series. And I suppose that he was all along heading toward the thesis of Mass Formation most recently popularized by Mattias Desmet:
Descent Into Madness – Alastair Crooke
The sub-headline of Crooke’s piece reads:

“Arguments no longer revolve around truth. You are either ‘with the narrative’ or ‘against it’, Alastair Crooke writes.”

Crooke’s article is tremendously useful because he does what I so far have not been able to do, which is to summarize and riff on the ground work of Desmet. Not only this, but Crooke blends in the work of other observers and thinkers from the ages to amplify and support the main theme. With these other voices, he adds greatly to the sources that Desmet himself included in his book.
Even the quote from Nietsche at the beginning of Crooke’s article is superb for an encapsulation of what’s being discussed here:

“Madness is the exception in individuals; but the rule within groups”
(Fredrich Nietzsche)

~~
I have something to say on this theme, having just recently read Desmet’s book:
The Psychology of Totalitarianism, Hardcover – June 23, 2022 by Mattias Desmet [Amazon]
But for myself, I’ve had no time since to think about this or to write out summaries here – I had a busy month and this had to wait. I do want to comment on it, because I keep feeling that something is missing from what has been said so far, and it has something to do with the notion that we are all in mass formation at every turn – mass or minor formation, depending on the group size – and this hasn’t been articulated well yet.
Crooke, however begins to break down the “mass” aspect into smaller groups – e.g. the elite group in any structure – and this is wonderful.
So. I encourage those interested in the weird occurrences of group think that manifested across entire societies during the pandemic, and that exists in strength today, to read Crooke’s latest article, and actually to read Desmet’s book, which is really good, and seminal in its own right in today’s world.
~~
I feel that the more of us who become familiar with this theme, and describe it and riff on it in our own words, the better we will bring into plain language and common parlance these somewhat ethereal notions of a hypnotic-like conformity. We see everyone we know at a loss to explain this conformity, but completely familiar with it in daily life. It needs explaining.
And to achieve that common parlance of this phenomenon would be an achievement as great, in terms of defeating propaganda, as the Occupy movement achieved with popularizing the notion of the One Percent, in my view.
So it is well worth achieving. It is a good part of the fighting back against the enemy and in support of humanity.

Posted by: Grieved | Aug 23 2022 3:10 utc | 80

Pakistan today:

PEMRA’S restrictions on the live telecast of PTI chairman Imran Khan’s public speeches is an attack on the constitutional right to the freedom of expression. Not satisfied with the ban, the authorities also disrupted the live stream of his recent address on YouTube.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1706363/banning-free-speech

Posted by: Antonym | Aug 23 2022 4:32 utc | 82

Grieved @82–
Thanks for linking to Crooke. Today’s blog was FUBAR and I got too disgusted to get into Crooke’s goods. I also suggest his other column, “The three ‘Trojan’ lighthouses feel the rope tighten” which is completely different.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 23 2022 4:50 utc | 84

A notice to those residing in the collective “West”: if you think inflation is bad today, just wait for next month, and the months thereafter. The year 2023 will bring an even worse economic fate; the year 2024, doubly so. Your financial security and that of your offspring will disappear like dust into the wind, and no matter how resilient you think you are, it will not be enough. My advice for you is to mentally prepare for a life of grace and dignity amidst scarcity and poverty. Decades shall ensue.

Posted by: HorizonsWhisper | Aug 23 2022 6:10 utc | 86

Coincidentally, I wanted to also raise the subject of perfect Beijing. I know with the transition to multi-polarity, criticism of China is almost forbidden but as a former resident of Vancouver, BC, I have to point the finger at them for the fentanyl epidemic there.
So – most fentanyl in Canada comes from China. Source: government of Canada – who notes the following:
“While some organized crime groups are dealing fentanyl, large cartels do not play a major role in fentanyl trafficking. Cartels and organized crime operations have large supply chains and distribution networks because they need to sell large quantities of the substances to turn a profit. The logistics of importing and distributing such high volumes mean that only a few groups are able to take on this role.
Because of its potency, fentanyl is moved using other methods. Small amounts of fentanyl can be imported and then cut into other drugs to increase volume. Fentanyl is also easily obtained from the dark web and transported through the regular mail service. Typically, fentanyl traffickers use the drug themselves or are mid- to low-level traffickers. Cartels may not get involved with fentanyl because it is too difficult to eliminate other potential competitors who are able to obtain small, potent amounts and because fentanyl-related cases attract significant media attention, increasing the risk of detection. Furthermore, while authorities are attending to fentanyl related matters, organized crime groups are provided the opportunity to traffic other substances (e.g. cocaine) with less risk of detection.”
https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/lw-nfrcmnt-rndtbl-pd-crss-2018/index-en.aspx
The Ottawa Citizen just reported on seizure of an unprecedented amount of fentanyl in Australia which came from Canada. What that means is it arrived through the Vancouver airport. I think speculation can be made as to where that drug shipment originated… and why no one will say it directly, and the RCMP had absolute no comments to make of any kind about this.
https://nationalpost.com/news/a-total-act-of-bastardry-australian-police-say-countrys-biggest-fentanyl-load-came-from-canada
I came across Ravi Batra’s Twitter account looking into something else … and he seems to be putting some pressure on China. From the US – but it’s appeared to me that he is potentially representing the New York (or East Coast?) US, not the US-proper from Washington, DC.
https://twitter.com/RaviBatra/status/1561180193124978688
Where’s the love (heart emoji), he asks China? What is he getting at here?

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Aug 23 2022 9:51 utc | 88

The Iranian agency Tasnim, citing its sources, claims that Erdogan and Assad may meet at the SCO summit in September in Uzbekistan.

Posted by: alaff | Aug 23 2022 12:26 utc | 90

Quick update on Scholz in Canada –
Agreement signed with Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen
“That includes the provision of Canadian cobalt, graphite, nickel and lithium needed for EV batteries, said the official, who spoke on condition they not be identified because the agreements had not yet been signed.” [its since been signed]
https://globalnews.ca/news/9078607/canada-volkswagen-mercedes-ev-agreements/
I watched some DW coverage on Canadian LNG being denied to Germany that I felt was very misleading. The concept that the LNG on the west coast of Canada can be run by a pipeline to the East Coast of Canada to then ship to Europe is not possible. It’s not difficult, under discussion etc. etc. etc. It just can’t be done. Geographically first off (Canadian shield) and politically secondly (Quebec for one will never agree to that). Not possible.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Aug 23 2022 15:10 utc | 92

c1ue wrote: “The need to toe the elite mob’s line is overwhelming, and the consequences of failing to do so are very real for all but the most powerful and/or wealthy.”
The purpose of the raid on Mar-a-Lago was to propel Donald Trump back into power. The FBI positively knows that they will get no prosecution or conviction from the evidence this raid produces. That means just like all the other deep state attacks on Trump it was designed to turn into a nothing-burger in the final outcome which has the predictable effect of increasing Trump’s popularity with voters.
Only an abject moron would need to ask why the power elites would want to propel Trump into power?
Trump has a proven durable record of delivering the goods to the benefit of the power elites.
Nobody else could deliver the permanent tax cuts for large corporations and the wealthy as Trump did.
Nobody but Trump could deliver the Supreme court justices that will be handing down decisions in favor of corporations and the power elites for years to come.
Nobody but Trump could deliver the US (and EU) funding for the the war in Donbass which predictably drew Russia into that quagmire. Trump not only delivered the funding but did it in such a way that produced the overwhelming backing of Congress and the majority of voters.
Only Trump could deliver the huge roll back of regulations that annoyed the elites. And again those changes have mostly stuck.

Posted by: jinn | Aug 23 2022 16:26 utc | 94

When I went shopping yesterday, I was quite surprised to see dry pasta selling for 50% more than earlier in the year when I bought my last batch. 50%!! And I know very well that rise in price isn’t related to any fundamentals, just additional evidence of monopoly pricing power. Today–Voila!!–Global Times has an editorial and infographic on the subject I highly suggest be viewed and shared. I’ll bet very few know this basic fact:
“In addition, on one side, it is the scene of people in poor countries starving, but on the other side, it is the feast of Wall Street and big grain merchants. The four companies known as the four “largest grain traders” [Cargill, ADM, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus] control 75 to 90 percent of the world’s grain trade, and three of them are US companies. According to US media reports, high food prices have made the wealth of US grain giants soar. Among them, three more members of the Cargill family joined the Bloomberg Billionaires list of the richest 500 people alive this year, while Bunge has raised its full-year profit forecast by over 20 percent this year. For the US, which has gained ill-gotten profits by provoking wars in other countries, food has also become a bargaining chip in its game of becoming rich overnight.”
This situation stems from massive Plundering since the mid 1800s, much of it subsidized by US taxpayers. The editorial continues:
“The international community cannot pin the hope on the US and the West that they will enhance their awareness and take the initiative to change. It needs to continuously increase public opinion and moral pressure, and urge them to seriously perform their international obligations and responsibilities.
“Third world countries have long been criticizing that sanctions imposed by the US and the West on Russia have intensified the global food crisis, to which the US has made various excuses, claiming that it has ‘no interest in weaponizing food to create humanitarian crises at the expense of vulnerable populations.’ One month ago, the US hypocritically put on a show to buy Russian fertilizers. But since the UN secretary general still has to worry about the issue, which demonstrates that the problem has not been solved and also shows that the US lacks sincerity and executing capability.”
That claim is 100% Bullshit. Hudson’s research over the decades shows weaponizing food is a basic part of Super Imperialism which is why I made becoming sovereign in food production the most important goal for all nations wanting to become free of the Plundering Nations–even more so when one examines how the infant USA needed to protect itself from British Free Trade Imperialism during the 19th Century. Back to my shopping. If pasta went up 50%, how come bread remains the same? As with gasoline prices, oil remains the same price, but gas has gone from $5.25/gal down to $4.45/gal. Plainly more clearly than in the late 1800s, the Monopolies must be shattered. The tools exist but there’s zero political will, which means the Duopoly also needs to be shattered. Within the EU, the fight is similar yet different as Europeans need to shatter the EU and NATO. The Struggle for freedom and sovereignty is global, with the enemies of all being the Plundering Nations and their Corporate Pirates.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 23 2022 16:49 utc | 96

@karlof1 #98
You said

When I went shopping yesterday, I was quite surprised to see dry pasta selling for 50% more than earlier in the year when I bought my last batch. 50%!! And I know very well that rise in price isn’t related to any fundamentals, just additional evidence of monopoly pricing power.

Incorrect. The price of wheat in June 2022 is more than double that of its price in June 2021:
Wheat price historical chart
The price increase you see is actually LESS than the increase in wheat price.
You then said

Back to my shopping. If pasta went up 50%, how come bread remains the same? As with gasoline prices, oil remains the same price, but gas has gone from $5.25/gal down to $4.45/gal.

In the real world, companies do hedging. There is also inventory. There is also the type of bread and the demographic it serves.
I historically buy – not the cheapest bread, but fairly close to it: a non-brand targeted at value shoppers. The price of this bread was $0.99 to $1.29 in 2020; it went to $1.49 to $1.69 in 2021 and is now $1.99
However, I just bought 2 loaves of a fancy $5.99 bread for $1.44. That bread has been about the same list price from 2020 to 2022 because its principal value proposition is brand.
Equally: gasoline pricing is not a direct lockstep function to oil – although your assertion that oil prices are the same now vs earlier is false.
Oil prices during the runup were $100-$120/barrel; oil price today and for several weeks is ~$90. The runup also occurred during the winter to summer transition which made the distortion worse.
Note I am not saying there aren’t sectors where monopoly pricing has undue influence.
What I am saying is that asserting monopoly pricing influence should only be done based on data and fact as opposed to (valid or invalid) commodity vs. finished price comparisons.
As for weaponizing food: I think you might need to read Super Imperialism again.
I believe you are confusing weaponizing the dollar, dollar debt, and purchasing power with a direct use of food to target the 3rd world.
The US “weaponized food” by passing laws to heavily subsidize ethanol production in order to reduce oil consumption – but this didn’t cause worldwide starvation despite the conversion of roughly 40% of the entire US’ corn production into ethanol – because this occurred during a time where the USD wasn’t in a tightening cycle. The US corn crop was 40% of world corn production in 2000-2004 vs. 32% from 2017 to 2020; either way, 40% of this number is a large fraction of corn production away from people to cars even compared to Ukraine SMO related sanctions and shipping impacted world wheat availability.
In other words, the food deprivation induced suffering that’s starting now isn’t specifically about the US and/or evil multi-nationals increasing food prices to hurt the poorer rest of the world.
Prices are increasing pretty much across the board for all commodities.
This is being exacerbated by a tightening cycle in the US/EU/Five Eyes. Tightening in the US/EU/Five Eyes historically has made those currencies stronger; this in turn disadvantages the 2nd and 3rd world economies because the 1st world not only has more economic purchasing power to start with – but this purchasing power is multiplied higher by currency strengthening.
So for example: in the US, the commodity price increases are being offset by a stronger USD. Things which are produced abroad get cheaper; frozen shrimp has been bumping along at prices unseen for a decade plus because they’re mostly imported even as chicken and egg prices continue to be very high because of avian flu.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 23 2022 17:28 utc | 98

In contrast, video of a Presidential son smoking crack, consorting with ladies of negotiable virtue and collecting money from foreign powers – that’s not worth prosecuting. Nor the concerted suppression of this story and evidence by the mainstream.
Posted by: c1ue | Aug 21 2022 17:55 utc | 20
Care to explain the missing 300 classified files in the fifteen boxes carried from the premises?
I expect the usual wave of a tsunami of denial, lies, fictional claims of innocence, false claims of theft, rants, and raves from all and sundry worshipers of the new mesiah DJT.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Aug 23 2022 18:27 utc | 100