Open (NOT Ukraine) Thread 2022-154

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September 22, 2022

News and views NOT related to the Ukraine conflict …

Posted by b on September 22, 2022 at 10:33 UTC | Permalink

Comments

New article by Snowden ; illuminating
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/09/no_author/americas-open-wound/

Posted by: Exile | Sep 22 2022 10:39 utc | 1

repost from the old thread for more eyes.
—
Russian Aluminum Imports Are Hurting US Market, Rio Tinto CEO Warns

• ‘It just looks strange,’ CEO says about Russian shipments
• Aluminum imports from Russia are up almost 60% since April
…
Russian imports, which remain exempt from US sanctions, are flowing into the country unrestricted …
…
“It’s actually very difficult to have a profitable aluminum industry in North America at this point in time because Russian aluminum is flowing in,” Stausholm said. “Right now we have the lowest aluminum price this year and you would have thought the Russia-Ukraine crisis would have led to higher prices in aluminum.”
…
… Producers across the US and Europe continue to shutter smelter capacity that has become unprofitable in the wake of the energy crisis and global growth slowdown.
…

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-21/rio-tinto-ceo-says-russia-aluminum-imports-are-hurting-us-profit

Posted by: too scents | Sep 22 2022 10:40 utc | 2

Frozen conflict between Tajikistan and Kyrgzstan has defrosted, 100 soldiers/border guards dead. Another action taken by the stronger side as in the recent attacks by the Azeris against Armenia to set up new ‘facts on the ground’ after the latest escalation commitment from Russian military following Izium. Arguably these two conflicts deserve to be included in the casualties of the Ukraine war.
Can’t find a good news aggregator so there is the wiki page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan_clashes

Posted by: Altai | Sep 22 2022 10:43 utc | 3

Pepe has just published at the Cradle- https://thecradle.co/Article/Columns/15975 and at the Saker- https://thesaker.is/the-real-us-agenda-in-africa-is-hegemony/
An article on US attempts to strangle Africa, written with the usual Pepe verve
To add to what he says –
There is also this West Africa Nigeria to Morocco pipeline under similar threat as per linked article
https://orinocotribune.com/as-african-countries-kick-off-local-energy-projects-west-rolls-out-climate-agenda-based-opposition/
And the use of the so called ‘Green Revolution’ misnomer, Bill Gates once again !, to push intensive industrial agricultural projects such as those afflicting East Africa, which generally spell Death Row for the poor and transfer resources to the rich, and mimic the situation in the oil industry, where food producers ship raw product overseas and import transformed foods
Nothng could be more colonial than that, except the network of Africom CSLs
RF has made careful proposals to ship out fertiliser and grain, as cheap prices some even for free, so far frustrated by the failure of the UN sponsored deblocking of grain shipments
https://allafrica.com/stories/202209130008.html
https://thenationonlineng.net/discontent-against-agras-role-in-africas-agric/
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/our-africa-our-agriculture-failed-green-revolution-agra

Posted by: Gerrard White | Sep 22 2022 10:55 utc | 4

@too scents #3
No surprise, given US electricity prices are up almost 50% in the last year due to natural gas price increases…

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 11:02 utc | 5

I hadn’t checked up on Pozsar in a while – he posted this about a month ago:
Inflation and energy rationing threatening Europe – Gareth Vaughan on interest.co.nz

Zoltan Pozsar is typically interesting and his recent note War and Industrial Policy is no exception. Credit Suisse’s global head of short-term interest rate strategy, Pozsar sees some pretty big changes afoot around the world.
Global supply chains work only in peacetime, but not when the world is at war, be it a hot war or an economic war. The low inflation world had three pillars: cheap immigrant labor keeping nominal wage growth “stagnant” in the U.S., cheap Chinese goods raising real wages amid stagnant nominal wages, and cheap Russian natural gas fueling German industry and Europe more broadly. Implicit in this “trinity” were two giant geo-strategic and geo-economic blocks: Niall Ferguson called the first one “Chimerica”. I will call the other one “Eurussia”.
Both unions were a “heavenly match”: the EU paid euros for cheap Russian gas, the U.S. paid U.S. dollars for cheap Chinese imports, and Russia and China dutifully recycled their earnings into G7 claims. All sides were entangled commercially as well as financially, and as the old wisdom goes, if we trade, everyone benefits and so we won’t fight. But like in any marriage, that’s true only if there is harmony. Harmony is built on trust, and occasional disagreements can only be resolved peacefully provided there is trust. But when trust is gone, everything is gone, which is the scary conclusion from Dale Copeland’s book: Economic Interdependence and War.
Reviewing 200 years of history, including the Napoleonic and Crimean wars, the book explains that “when great powers have positive expectations of the future trade environment, they want to remain at peace in order to secure the economic benefits that enhance long-term economic power. When, however, these expectations turn negative, leaders are likely to fear a loss of access to raw materials and markets, giving them an incentive to initiate crises to protect their commercial interests”. This “theory of trade expectations” holds lessons for understanding not only today’s conflict between the U.S. on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other, but also the outlook for inflation. Put simply…
…if there is trust, trade works. If trust is gone, it doesn’t. Today, trust is gone: Chimerica does not work anymore and Eurussia does not work either. Instead, we have a special relationship between Russia and China, the core economies of the BRICS block and the “king” and the “queen” on the Eurasian chessboard – a new “heavenly match”, forged from the divorce of Chimerica and Eurussia…

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 11:07 utc | 6

Fed raised rates another 0.75% and is targeting 4.4%-4.6% “peak” – wolfstreet
No surprise on the latest increase, but a little surprising that there wasn’t some talk about possible leveling off. But then again, maybe the Democrats think the gasoline price summer fall will not resume and also that the fertilizer/other farming input price increases won’t offset. LOL.
The above also clearly assumes inflation will fall from the 8.x% to 9.x% down to the ~4.5% level. LOL again.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 11:25 utc | 7

On topic and off topic posts.
The “Russia Announces Partial Mobilization” thread scored 560 replies as of now.
It was a reasonably worthy thread. Trolls of course. But what’s *worse* than trolls IMO is the bar regulars who knowingly go off topic.
Example: Yet another excursion into the fall of the Roman Empire.
I’m curious. You guys that do this. You KNOW it’s off topic, you KNOW you’re shitting up a hot thread .
Why? Why do you do it?
Some of the OT replies are a lot more than a quick quip… they’re long screeds… so the whole time you’re composing….. you KNOW it’s completely irrelevant and off topic.
Why do you do it?
What is your thinking ?
And more to the point.
Can you stop?

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 11:27 utc | 8

@Watcher.
I’ve been watching….. so far I’ve seen nothing beyond that late Wednesday Reuters release about the Australian Reserve Bank being bust.
You?

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 11:30 utc | 9

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 11:27 utc | 9
“Why? Why do you do it?”
Maybe because they are self absorbed arseholes that don’t think the ‘rules’ apply to them.
Or maybe just intellectually vacuous fools with no self awareness, desperately trying to show how ‘learned’ they are.
Just another mystery of the internet.

Posted by: ted001 | Sep 22 2022 11:58 utc | 10

And an opposing viewpoint to Pozsar
Emerging Market Crisis Pathologies

The Rise
Emerging markets now constitute 49 percent of global GDP and have contributed 67 percent of growth over the decade to 2021. They also account for nearly 45 percent of global exports. This has been pivotal in lifting more than a billion people out of poverty and improving the lives of many more. For advanced economies, it has provided cheap products and services as well as export opportunities
Underlying this are several factors. Over the last 30+ years, advanced economies shifted production to emerging markets to reduce costs, by accessing cheaper labour alongside access to inexpensive raw materials. In part, developed nations also circumvented domestic environmental, work safety and other regulations.
…
The Fall
These factors are in reversal. Focus on sovereignty, security and the backlash against migration of jobs overseas has created a new climate which will see retrenchment of the aggressive globalisation of the last few decades. The move to re-, near- or friend-shoring will diminish opportunities for some emerging nations.
At the same time, developed countries are belatedly withdrawing monetary stimulus, increasing interest rates and tightening money supply. These actions reduce the availability of capital and increase its cost affecting emerging market growth. The sharp increase in US dollar interest rates is, in part, driving instability in currency markets. The dollar has risen 14 percent since the start of 2022 reaching a 20-year high against a basket of currencies. Given large dollar borrowings by borrowers in developing countries, the combined effect of higher interest expense and currency losses compound the pressure.
…
Traditional Weaknesses
These external development have implications for emerging markets, many of which exhibit familiar susceptibilities.
High twin deficits (budget deficit and current account deficit as percentage of GDP) indicate economic deterioration. In June 2022, Fitch Ratings forecast that more than a quarter of emerging markets will experience budget and current account deficits of at least 4 percent of GDP in 2022, reflecting higher budget deficits caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and larger current account deficits from rising energy and food prices.
Out of total global debt of over $300 trillion, emerging markets debt is over $90 trillion (approaching 250 percent of GDP), up from $21 trillion (145 percent) in 2007 and $63 trillion (210 percent of GDP) in 2017.
…
Other familiar failings are also evident. Structural problems such as over-reliance on one activity (tourism) or one market (China) are apparent. There is over-investment in Ozymandias-like projects unlikely to ever generate adequate returns, extension of credit and contracts to favoured cronies, generous subsidies and handing out public money to buy votes and friends. Naturally, there are profligate ideologically based monuments and initiatives to feed monstrous political egos. On the other hand, there is a failure to invest in health, education, transport and other infrastructure to expand the growth potential of economies. Corruption and weak governance have never gone away.
…
Feedback Loops
Central to any emerging market crisis is currency weakness and changes in capital flows.
Emerging market currencies have fallen by around 10 percent since the start of 2022. Eastern European currencies, the Turkish Lira and Argentine Peso have fallen by more. Asian currencies have experienced smaller but significant declines.
The trajectory is well-known. Reduced economic activity and declining earnings drive falls in asset prices, such as bonds, stocks and property. This is accompanied by currency devaluation which, in turn, leads to capital withdrawals. Decreased availability of finance and higher funding costs further reduces growth. It also increases pressure on over-extended borrowers, triggering banking problems which feed back into the real economy. Credit rating and investment downgrades extend the cycle through repeated iterations.
…
Local currency debt has increased but unhedged foreign currency debt remains significant. Where the debt is denominated in the borrower’s domestic currency, foreign ownership, attracted by higher returns, is substantial. While it shifts the loss from devaluation to the investor rather than the borrower, it aggravates capital outflows. Currency weakness and resultant losses cause foreign investors to exit exacerbating currency weakness, increasing borrowing costs and decreasing funding availability.
…
No Way Back
Irrespective of whether an emerging markets crisis eventuates, the always flaky optimism of the BRICS era has faded.
With a debt overhang, stagnating productivity, an aging population, limited policy options and political paralysis driving economic stagnation in developed countries, emerging markets cannot rely on exports to generate growth or foreign currency income. This is compounded by trade frictions which reflect fierce geo-political and economic competition between the US and China.
For emerging markets, the path out of any crisis is difficult. Weak demand and trade barriers limit the scope for lower income countries to develop through export-oriented industries, such as textiles and manufacturing, reliant on cost advantages. Automation reduces demand for low skilled cheap labour and the cost differences between on- and off-shore production. Only about 18 percent of global goods trade is now driven by labour-cost arbitrage. The less dramatic cost advantages alongside minimising exposure to supply chain disruption, currency fluctuations and political risk make re-shoring more feasible.
Higher income emerging markets must overcome rising costs, labour shortages, infrastructure constraints, industrial shifts and growing restrictions on intellectual property transfer. Asia’s emerging markets remain heavily reliant on manufacturing are weak in services, with some exceptions such as India (ICT).
…
Wasted Years
The diminished outlook for emerging markets means that the promised improvements in employment and living standards will be harder to realise, at least for large parts of the population. For example, India needs to create around 10 million jobs each year to accommodate new entrants and urbanisation as well as reduce chronic underemployment. The struggle of many educated workers in emerging markets to get jobs consistent with their training and expectations will intensify.
Larger countries with substantial domestic markets, such as China, India, and Indonesia, or rich in resources may muddle through but will fail to reach potential or deliver on promises made to citizens. Most will remain trapped in an unending struggle to not go backwards feeding civil unrest and political and economic volatility.
The last two decades represents a tragic lost opportunity for emerging markets. Policy makers assumed that the favourable conditions would continue indefinitely. The failure reflects short-termism, poor decisions, political expediency and, above all, hubris.

Let’s address Das’ points in order
1) The “Focus on sovereignty, security and the backlash against migration of jobs overseas has created a new climate which will see retrenchment of the aggressive globalisation of the last few decades. The move to re-, near- or friend-shoring will diminish opportunities for some emerging nations.”
This isn’t untrue, but it is false in the sense that the genie is out of the bottle. Emerging markets were >20% of global GDP in the past retrenchments; they are now nearly half of global GDP. That makes a difference.
More importantly, Das has outed himself as a paper currency flow economist as opposed to one that actually understands economies. “Retrenchment of the aggressive globalisation” is a non-trivial, multi-decade process which also presumes the past G7 economic dominance of global GDP and its attendant price depression on commodities imports. That era is gone.
The next level is even worse: China provides an overwhelming percentage of the industrial inputs used by “manufacturing” in the West. The West must build the tools to build the tools to build the inputs to rebuild its manufacturing. Can be done but not without massive economic re-orientation AND attendant sovereign government focus – neither of which is in evidence. Europe, for example, is going backwards.
2) “High Twin Deficits”
Notice how Das ignores that the emerging market – which is 49% of global GDP – is only 30% of debt. Hmmm. Why is massive debt a problem for the emerging markets, but not a problem for the developed ones?
Furthermore, note that the emerging markets are going to grow faster than the 1st world/West even during global economic contractions. Das has now also outed himself as a closet Austrian, but only for emerging market debt.
Again:
Debt which promotes growth is positive; debt without growth is highly negative.
3) Structural problems
China has an issue with its property bubble, but the extent is vastly overstated. Unlike similar bubbles in the US and EU – China’s bubble was not driven by mortgage debt. This is a very important difference.
Also important: the amount of China’s real estate related losses is going to those people who can most afford it (investors), as opposed to overall society. Note this is in complete contrast to what occurred in the US and EU – where the lenders were bailed out but the borrowers were SOL. Consumer based asset losses depress overall consumption, but investor based asset losses only depress private jet and Maybach consumption. BFD.
China’s real estate bubble will deflate their GDP growth, but since their economy is not based on real estate – it won’t change the overall dynamic.
4) “debt overhang, stagnating productivity, an aging population, limited policy options and political paralysis driving economic stagnation in developed countries, emerging markets cannot rely on exports to generate growth or foreign currency income”
This is not untrue, but is again false upon viewing the broad context. Those countries shipping traditional “cheap crap”, are going to suffer: Vietnam and wherever the latest incarnations of the Asian Tigers et al.
But as I noted above, China isn’t just shipping “cheap crap” – it is shipping the industrial inputs to almost everything. This is another example of Das not being a real economist, but is instead a “capital flows whisperer”.
5) “The diminished outlook for emerging markets means that the promised improvements in employment and living standards will be harder to realise, at least for large parts of the population.”
This statement is valid, but not for the reasons Das thinks. Das is still living in the world of 1990 – where the G7 was the supermajority of global GDP. Some nations are going to be hurt by foreign currency denominated debts – that is true – but it won’t be China (cough Sri Lanka). Some nations are going to be hurt by their reliance on super cheap labor – Vietnam gets my vote there. But the main driver of emerging market GDP growth – China – isn’t going to get derailed by either foreign currency denominated debt or disposable income dependent trinkets because cutting off China imports means the failure of many “first world” industries, much as the cutting off of Russian energy is causing EU industries to fail across the board.
Contrast this with what Pozsar is saying: China’s industrial manufacturing capability married with cheap Russian energy and minerals. The rest of the emerging markets now potentially having trade partners that won’t try to feudal economic dominate them, and collectively being smaller, but on par with the 1st world in terms of GDP.
The difficulty will be that it is always hard to continue to grow at rapid rates as an economy becomes richer. The ROW today looks like it is going to try to make this transition by uniting its strengths rather than subjugating other populations to feudal economics. We will see.
Scratch Das off the (very short) list of useful economic thinkers.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 12:03 utc | 11

@Melaleuca #9
People post for a lot of reasons, and there are no limits to their behavior except what are self imposed.
It is a complete waste of time to try and reason with them or encourage them to be more considerate than they are. Only time and/or death will do that.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 12:04 utc | 12

Bankrupting Rio Tinto would be a good thing.
The problem the west has is its high cost structure, and the high cost structure comes from all the rent-seekers taking their cut, their 10%. If you are going to screw the poor and the middle class, they won’t be able to pay your high rents while manufacturing stuff for you cheap.

Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 22 2022 12:30 utc | 13

Twitter:
Stephen Stapczynski. @SStapczynski. Sep 19
Germany may soon sign an LNG purchase deal with the UAE.
Chancellor Scholz is likely to ink a contract during a trip to UAE this weekend. He is also visiting Qatar.
Germany is rushing to replace Russian gas after Moscow shut a key pipeline.[lol]
Negotiations with Qatar, one of the world’s biggest LNG exporters, have been especially difficult, according to German government officials.
They have described Qatar’s strategy as playing hardball over the price and duration of potential agreements.
[from what I have gleaned, the Qatari “hardball” terms involve long term contracts…. Like Germany had with Russia for decades, right up until the EU insisted on spot market pricing. …
https://twitter.com/SStapczynski/status/1572058444760502274

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 12:34 utc | 14

Interesting ? – https://www.cryptogon.com/?p=64791 – Pope says transfer all assets to the Vatican Bank by Sept. 30th. Includes all Institutions. Are we getting a hint or is this SOP ?

Posted by: GMC | Sep 22 2022 12:37 utc | 15

@Bemildred #16
I wish it was only 10%…
The characterization of rent-payers vs manufacturers is wrong too.
The poor and middle class in the West are there to serve the wealthy, not make stuff (anymore): build and maintain the roads; grow, process and deliver the food; chauffeur on the roads; clean the house; pour drinks in the bar etc etc.
The question is: what will they do if they cut themselves off from foreign imports? What can they do?

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 12:40 utc | 16

And second, what was Charles signing when he had his two meltdowns?
Posted by: John Cleary | Sep 22 2022 11:46 utc | 11
I believe it was his document of accession! Does not bode well…

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 22 2022 12:48 utc | 17

On the subject of information flow:
We little people have a problem. We’re bits of flotsam afloat a torrent that’s taking us over the falls. We have no voice, so we can’t change the direction of the torrent. We don’t yet communicate well enough to help one another get out of the torrent, and into a current (flow) more suitable to our long-term well being.
Everyone knows all this perfectly well. So we have two basic alternatives:
a. Hunker down and try to hide from the prevailing torrent consequences, or
b. Communicate and collaborate to swim ourselves to a better place
When the internet hit the scene, many of us identified the internet as a tool to help option b) happen. And it certainly did. The predators quickly realized the risks, and took some steps to curtail that effect. (e.g. Google, Facebook, etc.)
They are only partially successful. There are several alt-info internet outlets which do a great job of helping seekers such as yourself find alternative narratives to build a more accurate situation analysis.
Why not take steps to expand, enrich and better utilize the tools which are clearly viable/working?
I suggest that we need:
* more writers. Some of you posters have considerable writing talent. Consider directing that talent to writing articles, or historical summaries (e.g. “how did Ukraine get where it is”). When the trolls show up, we say “RTFM * (e.g. the historical summary). Either correct that historical summary, by providing verifiable sources, or STFU”.
* more promotion of existing writing. Some of you are excellent at seeking out and linking (promoting) the great works that other authors are publishing. This cross-promoting function is vital, takes little time, and routes traffic to deserving authors. We’re doing it now, let’s do it more-better.
* more venues. What if NC or MoonOfAlabama gets blocked? What then? We need more blogs, hosted in different countries, by more people (such as yourself) which make it much more troublesome to shut down or interfere with. It costs about $10 a month to host a blog. That blog could readily be nothing more than a list of links that help a newbie seeker find alt sources of info to update their situation analysis. More sites, more links, and more promotion makes us harder and harder to squash.
* more translation. People like karlof1 do a terrific job of translating the works that emanate from sources the Predators deem unhelpful, like those from Russia, or Iran, or China, or even India. This is exactly what the predators don’t want to see happen, because, of course, it mucks up the narrative they’re selling
Each of the items noted above can be done with a few hours a month of work. It needn’t be a heroic or invasive activity.
Think about the impact that MoA has had already. Just one blog made a lot of difference, did it not?
====
This problem of oligarch-sponsored propaganda torrents isn’t new. This is why oligarchs own printing presses.
So let’s adopt this clearly workable strategy as our own. We need some printing presses! It’s never been easier and less expensive to create one. We need more writers, and it’s never been easier or cheaper to become one.
Last point: when you began your seeking activity, nobody made you do it, and nobody was there to show you the way. You just started asking questions, right? OK, then: we need to be there when that (next) person starts asking questions. We need to be easy(er) to find.
====
* RTFM is I.T.-speak for “read the fuckin’ manual”. That’s what you say to people that whine for help before they read the documentation. I assume everyone already knows “STFU” means.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Sep 22 2022 12:50 utc | 18

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 12:40 utc | 19
Well, it is all confused these days, you are right about that. Is Apple a manufacturer or a re-seller/retailer? And they are ALL rent-seekers these days, the big ones, it is like you would be incompetent not to be rent-seeking.
We used to have company towns here, every big mill would have housing for the employees. I understand the Chinese still do that sort of thing, get attacked for it (work camps), and other places too. But not any more here, that would mean taking some responsibility for the employees, and we are ideologically opposed to that sort of thinking. Think of the lawsuits.

Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 22 2022 12:51 utc | 19

Truss considers moving British embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
Liz Truss has told Israel that she is considering moving Britain’s embassy to Jerusalem in a move that would mimic Donald Trump’s controversial decision as US president and signal a major shift in Middle East policy.
Downing Street confirmed that the prime minister had told Yair Lapid, her Israeli counterpart, “about her review of the current location of the British embassy in Israel” during a meeting last night in New York during her visit to the UN General Assembly.
Lapid tweeted his thanks to Truss for considering the move. “We will continue to strengthen the partnership between the countries,” he said.
Both Israel and the Palestinian leadership regard Jerusalem as their capital.
The international community has been loath to base their embassies in the city until there is a two-state resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Most embassies remain in Tel Aviv out of neutrality.
That arrangement was however broken in 2017, when Trump’s presidency announced that the US would move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognise it as Israeli’s capital.
On the day the new embassy was opened in May 2018, around 60 Palestinians were killed in clashes with the Israeli army on the border with Gaza.
Britain was one of 128 countries that voted for a UN resolution condemning Trump’s decision.
Though re-establishing ties with the Palestinian Authority, President Biden’s administration has made it clear that it intends to keep the embassy in Jerusalem open. Honduras, Guatemala, and Kosovo are the only other states to have moved their embassies in Israel’s capital.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/truss-considers-moving-british-embassy-in-israel-to-jerusalem-lksjk9qgf

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 12:51 utc | 20

@7 c1ue:
Thanks for bringing up Pozsar’s work. That’s about as concise a summary of the “why are the western oligarchs freaked out” as you’ll get.
Assuming that somehow the NeoCon & predator-oligarchs cabal don’t do nukes as their swan song, at some point we here in the West will have to devise an economy that isn’t so entirely dependent upon enormous energy and material inputs. It seems like the West will have progressively less access to those sorts of inputs.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Sep 22 2022 13:05 utc | 21

“Can you stop?”
Very unlikely.
People can fall in love with the sound of their own voices on a discussion forum. And can believe the rules don’t apply to them anymore because they can begin to feel they ‘own’ the place and so can do no wrong. It’s quite a common thing actually. Old timers, resident drones, can strangle the life blood out of popular site forums. But here is quite pristine and well balanced imo.

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 22 2022 13:07 utc | 22

reply to 13
I think too much is made about China’s BRI investments not going well. They have a trillion US dollars they need to get rid of – because those reserves can now vanish with a few keystrokes. And all the more so if they invade Taiwan. So, they can throw money as they wish.
We haven’t mentioned Japan – as the Yen hit 145+ this morning, with predictions of 150 soon. They are in for a world of hurt.
Who could have imagined that poorly fed and trained goat herders in Afghanistan would defeat the US? Eventually nations just get tired. If Ukraine ends in a ceasefire, will they enforce sanctions? Or quietly compromise?

Posted by: Eighthman | Sep 22 2022 13:11 utc | 23

Altai @4, re: Tajik-Kirgiz conflict
More details at New Eastern Outlook, the usual shenanigans, the big conflict has definitely started, no end in sight to US escalation, this is all very tragic and scary.
https://journal-neo.org/2022/09/21/who-is-to-blame-for-the-escalation-of-the-situation-on-the-border-between-kyrgyzstan-and-tajikistan/

Posted by: htyul | Sep 22 2022 13:15 utc | 24

Anyone else got eyes on Iran?
With the JCPOA renegotiation probably dead, Iran selling drones to Russia, and joined BRICS and SCO….
That all adds up to… yep. It’s color rev time (again)
https://twitter.com/Love4mAdil/status/1572667781346365440

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 13:39 utc | 25

Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 13:39 utc | 25
‘Eyes on Iran’ This is NATOspeak
Please do not spread westie propaganda: RF denies using Iranian drones
TASS 16 SEP, 21:36 – Russia has enough drones, federal service chief assures
We have the best drones, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation stressed
SAMARKAND, September 16. /TASS/. Russia has the best drones, Dmitry Shugayev, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, assured on Friday when asked by journalists whether the supplies of Iranian or Turkish drones were planned.
“We have no problem with drones. We have the best drones,” Shugayev stressed.
“We have enough of everything,” he added.

Posted by: Gerrard White | Sep 22 2022 13:49 utc | 26

@Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 12:51 utc | 20
Most embassies remain in Tel Aviv out of neutrality.
We can recall when Obama the political guy was amusing on Jerusalem (as in other matters).
June, 2008
Obama in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” the Illinois senator said.
July 2008, after Hope-and-Change got the nomination:
“You know, the truth is that this was an example where we had some poor phrasing in the speech. And we immediately tried to correct the interpretation that was given,” he said in an interview aired on Sunday on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria — GPS. . . .The point we were simply making was, is that we don’t want barbed wire running through Jerusalem, similar to the way it was prior to the ‘67 war, that it is possible for us to create a Jerusalem that is cohesive and coherent,” Obama said

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 22 2022 13:58 utc | 27

Why do you do it?
What is your thinking ?
And more to the point.
Can you stop?
Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 11:27 utc | 8
Agreed. I am sometimes guilty of such behavior and will try to be more considerate going forward.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 22 2022 14:08 utc | 28

@ Exile | 1
great link to Snowden’s own article.
Didn’t know that already in 1963 President Truman wanted to shackle the creature he had co-conceived, the CIA: https://archive.org/details/LimitCIARoleToIntelligenceByHarrySTruman/page/n1/mode/2up
Guess he didn’t know enough about the other 3 letter creature starting with a C, the CCP.

Posted by: Antonym | Sep 22 2022 14:15 utc | 29

@Bemildred | Sep 22 2022 12:51 utc | 19
It is everyone’s responsibility to be a rent avoider. Starve the beast.

Posted by: too scents | Sep 22 2022 14:36 utc | 30

@Bemildred #19
Apple is a brand.
They are a little bit vertically integrated on the design side, because they have to be in order to stay in front of the Android train, but they don’t own any of their supply chain outright. But that’s ok as they are basically Louis Vuitton for technology.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 14:43 utc | 31

@Tom Pfotzer #18
More kazoos won’t overcome the Foghorn.
I’ve been observing sentiments like what you have expressed for literally 2 decades now – independent, objective media has only declined more in that period.
That’s why I believe change will only occur once terminal decline starts and it is impossible to hide any longer, plus a significant period of time where the truth will take time to percolate.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 14:47 utc | 32

It is everyone’s responsibility to be a rent avoider. Starve the beast.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 22 2022 14:36 utc | 30

I am a small landlord, over 70 years old. Rents plus dividends from financial/insurance companies, energy companies and pipeline companies pay for my retirement.
If you are part of a public or private pension plan, those same income streams are paying for your retirement. Go ahead, starve the beast. It would make the number of covid deaths look like a walk in the park.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 22 2022 15:40 utc | 33

Hat Tip to VK friend Dee Hunt for providing this link to UNGA presentations which begin at Page 1 (of 11 at this time), Day 1, all video in English as far as I can tell. Pepe Escobar highly suggests the speech by Colombia’s president as well as that by Iran. I’ve yet to find the link to the transcripts. Hopefully, we’ll have a discussion about what the world’s leaders have said, but so far that doesn’t look promising.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 22 2022 15:56 utc | 34

This 4-Book Review by James Galbraith is a marvelous survey of the apologias for the status quo called Economics.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/dismal-economics/
It is highly recommended as is the website The Delphi Initiative and Defend Democracy Press.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 22 2022 16:06 utc | 35

@32 c1ue
Your presence and posting here @ MoA, for ex, indicates that the kazoos are effective.
We agree that most people are listening to the foghorn. It’s always been that way. Fog-horns are the means of maintaining the status quo, the existing socio-econ order, etc.
But change happens anyway, despite the foghorns. Linux and all open-source. Farm markets and local ag in general. PGP. Cryptocurrency. All examples of kazoo-propagated notions that made it big.
I posit that:
a. Most innovation – social, technical, artistic, etc. originates on the fringes and is propagated inward the center of the herd
b. The fringe is small, and fringe-members have kazoos, not foghorns
c. the fringe-members actively seek out other kazoo-players, because that’s where the creative action is
How does that fringe-toward-the-center propagation happen? Via foghorn? No. Foghorns are center status-quo-maintenance devices.
Kazoos are where the news originates. The kazoos are the origin and for most of the traversal toward the center, they are the propagation mechanism. Only after the kazoos have done their work does the FogHorn pick it up, or try to drown it out.
That’s why so many main-stream reporters monitor the blogs….looking for something new to talk about. It’s also why the Hallway Monitors lurk @ kazoo-sites, in order to spot emergent themes which need a fog-horn blast in order to neutralize them.
That’s also why really clever investors and trend-monitors watch the fringes, not the center.
When the crash comes, yes, it’ll be easier, maybe, for the kazoos to be heard. Maybe. Do you think the fog-horns will be silenced by the crash, or will they be in over-drive mode?
And what about spin-up time?
If you wait to begin the comm and collaboration work until the collapse happens, it’s too late. Why?
Because alt methods take time to develop and test. Best not to wait till conditions are chaotic and extreme before starting work. Better by far to do it now, when conditions are much more conducive.
I’m not asserting that kazoos can be used to reach the masses. I’m saying kazoos are very useful to reach the creative types, the more communicative and aware members of society, and from there, the new ideas get moved into the center.
You’ll recall the marketing strategy of reaching opinion-leaders first, then the early adopters, and from there it goes “mainstream”?

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Sep 22 2022 16:14 utc | 36

“..If you are part of a public or private pension plan, those same income streams are paying for your retirement. Go ahead, starve the beast. It would make the number of covid deaths look like a walk in the park.”
Opport Knocks@33
It would not cause any problems if the revenue collected from taxing rents and profits was used, as it ought to be, in providing decent pensions, living conditions and healthcare for everyone. That way not starving to death in the cold would not depend upon lucky investment decisions, inflation proofed savings and capitalist markets dominated by monopolists.
(For more details see the Review by Galbraith- practically a neighbour in Brantford- recommended above. In the meantime good luck- my neighbour worked more than quarter of a century for Nortel and had the shares to prove it.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 22 2022 16:14 utc | 37

And second, what was Charles signing when he had his two meltdowns?
Posted by: John Cleary | Sep 22 2022 11:46 utc | 10
A really dumb parochial inane mindless political hit-piece trash cartoon. Sad really. What is the editor-in-chief of “Guardian Propaganda” thinking?
Clearly an old QE2 loyalist. Overdue for retirement newspaper cartoonist. Who was not happy about the red termination of service letters issued by King Charles III first reform step? To overhaul and modernize his late mother’s royal estates!
One that also ignores the fact the Magna Carta on guarantees limits of Royalty regal powers. Was stripped from all UK royalty in the 1830s!
King Charles III is merely a constitutional decorative figurehead and UK goodwill ambassador puppet! At the beck and call of the current UK-elected PM.
“In a monarchy, a king or queen is Head of State. The British Monarchy is known as a constitutional monarchy. This means that, while The Sovereign is Head of State, the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament.
Although The Sovereign no longer has a political or executive role, he or she continues to play an important part in the life of the nation.
As Head of State, The Monarch undertakes constitutional and representational duties which have developed over one thousand years of history. In addition to these State duties, The Monarch has a less formal role as ‘Head of Nation’. The Sovereign acts as a focus for national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognises success and excellence; and supports the ideal of voluntary service.”
When he inherited full control of the properties belonging to the “Prince of Wales”. It was in a very poor state. He completely turned them around and then proceeded to modernize the run-down housing. To full 21st-century internal building standards.
We tend to forget. When Regina Elizabeth II ascended the throne long ago. It was full of archaic royal protocols. Two men step forward to completely overhaul and retire a major portion of the wasteful ceremonial royal court long winded protocols. One of them was his late father Prince Phil the Greek! The other was the late Lord Louis Mountbatten(nee Battenberg)!
King Charles III took another mass long overdue UK royalty reform step. Unfortunately, the late QE II was in her declining years. Her personal staff after the death of Prince Phil the Greek. Were very busy re-introducing some wasteful “old is better” pre-reform protocols by stealth.
Onwards and upwards fly the reforms required to bring the house of Windsor to life in the 21st century.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Sep 22 2022 16:16 utc | 38

What is really going on in Iran? https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/many-killed-as-iran-protests-spread-over-mahsa-aminis-death/article65922366.ece

Posted by: Antonym | Sep 22 2022 16:31 utc | 39

@Tom Pfotzer #36
Everything you said, except for replacing a few items with older versions, I have seen said and done multiple times before.
And yet here we are: things are worse than they were then, and have been progressing downward continuously.
So while I wish you well for your sentiments – neither history nor precedent shows any promise whatsoever that such optimistic and naive viewpoints will actually come true.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 16:51 utc | 40

Paul Rogers the retired Professor pf Peace Studies writes a perceptive column at Consortium News. What is happening on the UK is likely to be mirrored in political developments across NATO.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/09/21/truss-brews-tempest-while-spending-on-defense/
Those who cannot believe that there will be public protests in the NATO countries might be forgetting that, for the past thirty odd years the western world has been taught-by media and state- how courageous and praiseworthy rioters and protestors against government corruption and cronyism are.
That, after all was the message that brought John McCain and the Nuland thing to Kiev- or so the media told the world. After years of Colour Revolutions and popular awakenings heralded by all parties in NATOland it will be interesting to see what the media that is praising rioters in Tehran today will have to say about those in Munich, Toulouse and Leeds tomorrow.
Perhaps the Maidan regime will live to see Maidans across the EU-won’t that be fun!

Posted by: bevin | Sep 22 2022 17:03 utc | 41

After years of Colour Revolutions and popular awakenings heralded by all parties in NATOland it will be interesting to see what the media that is praising rioters in Tehran today will have to say about those in Munich, Toulouse and Leeds tomorrow.
Perhaps the Maidan regime will live to see Maidans across the EU-won’t that be fun!
Posted by: bevin | Sep 22 2022 17:03 utc | 41
Wish I could agree, but the mainstream media have been very selective in their reporting of protests. For example, the yellow vest protests which went on for months and months in France were hardly mentioned.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 22 2022 17:13 utc | 42

it will be interesting to see what the media that is praising rioters in Tehran today will have to say about those in Munich, Toulouse and Leeds tomorrow.
@bevin | Sep 22 2022 17:03 utc | 41
—
Of course now the police has been militarized, and the press only reports what cannot be denied, but the story remains the same as ever. Dissent put down by the state monopoly on violence.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/05/archives/4-kent-state-students-killed-by-troops-8-hurt-as-shooting-follows.html

KENT, Ohio, May 4—Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gun fire. At least 8 other students were wounded.
The burst of gunfire came about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus gathering spot, by lobbing tear gas at a crowd of about 1,000 young people.
In Washington, President Nixon deplored the deaths of the four students in the following statement:
“This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy. It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident will strengthen the de termination of all the nation’s campuses, administrators, faculty and students alike to stand firmly for the right which exists in this country of peaceful dissent and just as strongly against the resort to violence as a means of such expression.”
In Columbus, Sylvester Del Corso, Adjutant General of the Ohio National Guard, said in a statement that the guardsmen had been forced to shoot after a sniper opened fire against the troops from a nearby rooftop and the crowd began to move to encircle the guardsmen.
Frederick P. Wenger, the Assistant Adjutant General, said the troops had opened fire after they were shot at by a sniper.
“They were under standing orders to take cover and re turn any fire,” he said.
…

Posted by: too scents | Sep 22 2022 17:24 utc | 43

the yellow vest protests which went on for months and months in France were hardly mentioned.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 22 2022 17:13 utc | 42
—
The gilets jaunes protests were used as a testing ground for new crowd control technologies.

Posted by: too scents | Sep 22 2022 17:38 utc | 44

On Tuesday, it was announced that, by 2023, Tehran would be pursuing membership in a security pact alongside Moscow and Beijing – SCO [Security Cooperation Organization – a counterweight to NATO..]. Just the next day afterward, Iran’s Colour Revolution protests began.. I get the ayatollah’s regime’s got problems. The people would be right to be free from them – the timing of this particular flareup of unrest though seems suspect. The Western Bloc barely lifted a finger to assist the Iranian people when they tried revolting in 1999 and in 2009. Now, suddenly, they’re all in, fomenting the most internal unrest there’s been in Iran since 1979? It’s about Iran’s stated pursuit of SCO membership by 2023; the NATOcrats can’t allow Iran and their natural resources to join with Russia and Mainland China in any legitimate power bloc.. The Western policy toward Iran for decades has demanded that Moscow and Beijing be kept out of the Persian Gulf and their oil fields – the ’79 toppling of the shah to take the Revolution away from Left wingers and give it to “anti-communist” Muslim theocrats instead, Iran-Contra, the Iran-Iraq War.. An Iranian membership in SCO would run completely counter to the neo-Brzezinskyite West’s longstanding desire to keep Iran out of an alliance with Moscow and Beijing. The shah was starting to pursue a more neutral position for Iran in East-West affairs just prior to ’79. Then, suddenly.. Now Iran is going a significant step farther than the shah went in pursuit of Iranian membership in an actual security pact alongside Moscow and Beijing. By some miracle, what follows for the Iranian people will be freedom, and not another Syria or Libya.

Posted by: JohnTheBaptiststanMa | Sep 22 2022 17:43 utc | 45

That way not starving to death in the cold would not depend upon lucky investment decisions, inflation proofed savings and capitalist markets dominated by monopolists.
(For more details see the Review by Galbraith- practically a neighbour in Brantford- recommended above. In the meantime good luck- my neighbour worked more than quarter of a century for Nortel and had the shares to prove it.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 22 2022 16:14 utc | 37

“lucky investment decisions”… were nothing more than applied common sense. Understanding how the world really works is not that difficult. Trying to make the world work the way you want it to… that will take far more than unusual luck and common sense combined.
The Nortel anecdote is cute, I bought a nice new Volvo with the Nortel gains on the way up. My losses buying dips on the way down meant I kept the car for 10 years. I honestly believed the federal government would step in to protect jobs in a globally significant sector. In retirement my risk tolerance is far lower.
I tried to read the Galbraith book reviews, but could not. Any tenured university economist does not have a clue, why read a critique of other university economists who are equally clueless.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 22 2022 18:32 utc | 46

Many, many thanks, Exile.
New article by Snowden ; illuminating
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/09/no_author/americas-open-wound/
Posted by: Exile | Sep 22 2022 10:39 utc | 1

Posted by: juliania | Sep 22 2022 18:42 utc | 47

@ Exile | Sep 22 2022 10:39 utc | 1
thanks for that… the usa will continue to go down the tubes until they address the issue of the cia..
@ Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 11:27 utc | 8
many possible answers.. in spite of the fact that many at moa seem to have an open mind, i can see from reading the comments that this is not the case… in fact they have their mind made up and are unwilling to listen or change… i know this is a bit tangential but i think it is relevant to your questioning..

Posted by: james | Sep 22 2022 18:42 utc | 48

nothing more than applied common sense.
Opport Knocks | Sep 22 2022 18:32 utc | 46
—
I’m glad I had the common sense to be born in a rich country.

Posted by: too scents | Sep 22 2022 18:44 utc | 49

@ too scents | Sep 22 2022 18:44 utc | 49
lol… great response as it highlights so much that is missing in the statement you quoted..

Posted by: james | Sep 22 2022 18:55 utc | 50

I’m glad I had the common sense to be born in a rich country.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 22 2022 18:44 utc | 49

I regularly express my gratitude for a better than average outcome in the genetic and place of birth lottery. That also means volunteering to help the less fortunate.
When I got married in the mid 1970s, our combined net worth was negative. That also was the time of the OPEC price shock, high inflation and few employment opportunities. Unlike many of my cohort, I did not abandon the financial discipline learned in those lean years, when things eventually improved.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 22 2022 19:22 utc | 51

“..why read a critique of other university economists who are equally clueless.” ? Opport Knocks@46
Read the reviews and find out. He tells the story of the replacement of Classical Political Economy with the marginal theories of the Marshalls and Jevons.
What would interest many here is that he explains why Henry George has been turned into a ‘non-person’ and Thorstein Veblen is almost forgotten.
He points out that US Universities were Land Grant institutions and that predatory land speculators descended on them and took over their government and curricula.
Having just read of a Texas Universities massive oil holdings and vast income it was a timely reminder of the forces that helped ensure that in the USA Economics became-pace Samuelson et al- an elaborate apologia for the capitalist status quo.
Now I’ve spoiled the ending for you.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 22 2022 19:23 utc | 52

“…things are worse than they were then, and have been progressing downward continuously.
So while I wish you well for your sentiments – neither history nor precedent shows any promise whatsoever that such optimistic and naive viewpoints will actually come true.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 16:51 utc | 40
Apologies for not reading your very long post above, c1ue. There are just not as many minutes left in my shortening lifespan to spend them, however usefully, reading other than the very useful links and brief comments that often come forward on these open threads.
To answer the above italicized comment, I disagree. We ordinary folk have, thanks to b and other helpful commentators, had our misconceptions and unawareness remedied in no small way since the turn of the century by the nuggets of clarification others have generously provided here. If that is happening to me, it is happening to others as well.
Thank you all.

Posted by: juliania | Sep 22 2022 19:33 utc | 53

Do we so quickly forget the millions in Europe and Canada that defied mandates and lockdowns to the complete media blackout, including from our hardworking barkeep?
The media will similarly try to keep the situation focused on the enmity deserving of Russia, to the point where the screams of protest will be heard alongside the broadcast studios of the presstitutes.
How do all those here who felt the lockdowns and mandates were needed now feel when it has become known that the priming event of covid was not the bioweapon at all. In fact, it was the control over us plebs by unleashing covid that was the real bioweapon: unfettered subservience and utter cognitive dissonance.
Now I would venture that a majority of those who support the covid lockdowns are also those who would support continued action against the Neo-Hitler, Putin.
How does it feel to have aided and abetted the run-up to the most spectacular conflagration in world history outside the dinosaur-killing comet?
Oopsies.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 22 2022 19:44 utc | 54

I’m glad I had the common sense to be born in a rich country.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 22 2022 18:44 utc | 49
heh, good response.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 22 2022 19:49 utc | 55

@ bevin | Sep 22 2022 19:23 utc | 52
I recall Thorstein Veblen “Theory of the Leisure Class” as recommended reading from university days. I doubt that I read the whole book, just enough to get the gist.
The last author of the “Dismal Science” that I read attentively was the original Canadian J.K. Galbraith in the last century, not the current namesake. He also seems to have been forgotten. I have tried a few others since, most recently Piketty. Impossible to finish even a chapter, so straight to an online synopsis.
There was no ending to be spoiled, unless Texas finally secedes from the Union. I would gladly read about that.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 22 2022 20:04 utc | 56

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 22 2022 20:04 utc | 56
given the performance of the Texas energy grid, probably would not work out.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 22 2022 20:05 utc | 57

According to a new study by cretinous doofusi from the Canadian University of Calgary called DISINFORMATION AND RUSSIA-UKRAINIAN WAR ON CANADIAN SOCIAL MEDIA, Tulsi Gabbard tops the list of purveyors of anti-establishment messaging aka pro-Russia influencing. They gave scores to the various people they want to demonize and censor–with Tulsi Gabbard having by far the top score of 552. The closest to her is vlogger Richard Medhurst with 409, then far below in 3rd place is vlogger Jack Posobiec at 279, then journalist Aaron Mate at 259, and many more. Why do they target Tulsi Gabbard as their Enemy of The State?

Posted by: Kali El | Sep 22 2022 20:22 utc | 58

@pretzelattack #57
Yes, the Texas grid is troubled due to Texas having installed 34 GW of solar PV and wind, including 25 GW just in the past 5 years. This is the most of any US state by far.
These alternative energy electricity sources contribute ~25% of overall Texas electricity generation but cost a lot more – due to curtailment costs but mostly due to feed-in tariffs and replacement/backup costs.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 20:30 utc | 59

@juliania #53
The MoA traffic is high for an alternative blog but is tiny compared to MSM outlets.
Furthermore, it wouldn’t surprise me if the average age of posters is 50+ with the biggest clusters in the 60-80 range.
A large kazoo, but a kazoo nonetheless.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 20:32 utc | 60

Britain must be the worst example of going down the drain for American interests. New PM Liz Truss is throwing cash at an inflationary problem while the pound drops daily. Nice article of this….
https://watchingromeburn.uk/news/liz-truss-and-britains-0-17-democracy-monocracy/

Posted by: Don Stevens | Sep 22 2022 21:03 utc | 61

New PM Liz Truss is throwing cash at an inflationary problem while the pound drops daily.
Posted by: Don Stevens | Sep 22 2022 21:03 utc | 61

LOL… While I have no doubt she will not be able to right the Titanic, it is grossly unfair to blame her for any of this. She has likely not finished changing the curtains wallpaper or china yet and still needs a map to get around 10 Downing.
All currencies are down against King Dollar, though supposedly the King is on life support.
Long live the King!!!

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 22 2022 21:31 utc | 62

@htyul #24
I also note that the mass protests in Iran are depicted as purely a matter of a protest by women and completely ignore the ethnic dimension. The main subject was a woman from Iranian Kurdistan and the main protest is in Sari which is a Mazanderani city. Even the manner of the public burning of the hijabs were clearly meant to invoke Zoroastrian practices and ritual.
Iran is very much a successor to the Persian empire and the amount of it’s territory which could be described as an ethnic periphery is large with many ethnostates being able to make claims on it. (Indeed Iran made a prominent comment on Azerbaijan’s attacks on Armenia saying no border changes should be accepted since a significant amount of it’s territory is populated with Azeris.) The US has for decades funded and stoked the ethnic separatist movements there.
The timing is just too convenient and the lack of any discussion of the ethnic angle of this also telling, the issue of the hijab being a proxy for Persian dominance of the state as it is associated with the theocratic government. It’s the perfect form of protest for Western consumption. The Iranians are claiming the woman in question died of a heart attack but there is no way to confirm this but the idea that in 2022 even Iranian police would just murder a young woman like that over hijab sounds extreme. It’s the perfect in to take an increase hostile posture towards Iran and support ethnic separatism without much discussion in the West.

Posted by: Altai | Sep 22 2022 21:44 utc | 63

Putin speaks in Veliky Novgorod on the occasion of Russia’s celebration of 1160 years of Russian statehood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OrsVgkqWns

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 22 2022 22:10 utc | 64

@Exclile #1
I would appreciate it if you made the effort to find Snowden’s original article rather than conflate him with Lew Rockwell.
https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/americas-open-wound

Posted by: Figi Refugee | Sep 22 2022 22:24 utc | 65

Onwards and upwards fly the reforms required to bring the house of Windsor to life in the 21st century.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Sep 22 2022 16:16 utc | 38
Great post. I don’t know what to think about the British monarchy and the Windsors but the response by the masses when things happen to them signifies some depth to the whole thing which I for one will not deny or begrudge. The economists, and politicians, and socialists, and capitalists, and communists and bla bla blas can’t buy that sort of connection for any money nor even begin to understand it.

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 22 2022 22:26 utc | 66

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 20:30 utc | 59
typical horseshit from you. the texas grid is in trouble because it wasn’t regulated effectively due to privatization. and it should never have been delinked from the national grid.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 22 2022 22:35 utc | 67

Cuban/Haitian migration
By land and by sea, more than 230,000 Cuban and Haitian migrants have attempted to reach the United States this year to seek asylum, marking one of the biggest migrations to the United States either nation has witnessed.
U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered more than 175,000 Cubans at the Southwest border this fiscal year through July — a bigger Cuban exodus than the Mariel boatlift that saw 125,000 Cubans flock to South Florida shores on boats over six months in 1980.
https://archive.ph/B0YUR
Haiti has been in trouble this year because of low intensity conflict in the country. Russia might be thinking of transporting Haitians to Cuba and providing boats that could get to Florida from Cuba. Can you imagine if 1,000,000 Haitians landed in Florida over the next 6 months?

Posted by: muni | Sep 22 2022 22:49 utc | 68

NemesisCalling | Sep 22 2022 19:44 utc | 54
it feels great to live in a world filled to the brim w/fascists and nazis like you who don’t give a shit what the coronavirus or anything is doing to people who aren’t as strong, white, rich, able, male, straight, etc., as you. what a world of comfort and privilege and disconnect from reality you live in, just based on the retarded shit you bitch about.
ditto for the rest of you covid idiots. everyday new orphans wail and new widows howl. and you could care less.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 22 2022 23:03 utc | 69

Posted by: JohnTheBaptiststanMa | Sep 22 2022 17:43 utc | 45:

On Tuesday, it was announced that, by 2023, Tehran would be pursuing membership in a security pact alongside Moscow and Beijing – SCO [Security Cooperation Organization – a counterweight to NATO..].

As of September 16, 2022, Iran is officially a full member of SCO.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Sep 22 2022 23:06 utc | 70

Kali El #58
Thank you for the link to the Pam Ho report at medium.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 22 2022 23:23 utc | 71

rjb1.5 #69

it feels great to live in a world filled to the brim w/fascists and nazis like you who don’t give a shit what the coronavirus or anything is doing to people who aren’t as strong, white, rich, able, male, straight, etc., as you. what a world of comfort and privilege and disconnect from reality you live in, just based on the retarded shit you bitch about.
ditto for the rest of you covid idiots. everyday new orphans wail and new widows howl. and you could care less.

Uganda community based health care
A report from Dr John Campbell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCfFLUTENp4

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 22 2022 23:29 utc | 72

Some random thoughts about China:
1) From Edgar Snow’s “Red star over China”:
“When China really wins her independence, then legitimate foreign trading interests will enjoy more opportunities than ever before. The power of production and consumption of 450,000,000 people is not a matter that can remain the exclusive interest of the Chinese, but one that must engage the many nations. Our millions of people, once really emancipated, with their great latent productive possibilities freed for creative activity in every field, can help improve the economy as well as raise the cultural level of the whole world.” Mao Zedong.
When Snow met Mao in 1936, the remnants of the Long March were holed up in caves somewhere in the north of China. It’s pretty astonishing to hear Mao speak in such an optimistic and visionary manner. The last sentence in particular seems to hint at the role that China could play in helping the Global South industrialize. It’s gonna happen. It’s in the DNA of the CCP.
2) The hysteria of the West about the rise of China is the panic of charlatans about to be exposed.
3) China’s soft power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgEgOi32CE0

Posted by: Robert Macaire | Sep 22 2022 23:34 utc | 73

Why do they target Tulsi Gabbard as their Enemy of The State?
Posted by: Kali El | Sep 22 2022 20:22 utc | 58
I think it is because she is such an excellent communicator who so easily connects with people on an emotional/personal level. That and she is typically speaking the truth and can back it up with facts, rational arguments, personal experience and wise insights.
iow she is an enemy because she is an excellent leader with solid humanist values and moral fiber. She’d probably make a good president which automatically makes a dire enemy.

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 22 2022 23:45 utc | 74

Apple… Louis Vuitton for technology.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 14:43 utc | 31
LOL, good one.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 23 2022 0:07 utc | 75

@pretzelattack #67
There is horseshit but the smell is coming from yourself.
Unlike you, I actually have been both looking at ERCOT’s reports and external indicators.
What I posted above is actual data, not nonsense passed forward by morons. But then again, it has been apparent for a long time that you get all your (lack of) knowledge from Twitter.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 23 2022 0:07 utc | 76

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 20:30 utc | 59
The only way that would matter is if a corresponding (or more than such) amount of traditional LNG fired generator stations had been taken offline and replaced with ‘renewables.’ That hasn’t happened. Coal has been declining for years. It was natural gas generators being taken offline for delayed maintenance and other failures of the natural gas system (storage issues, lower production in-state, pipelines and plants, high demand causing line low pressure) that accounted for the bulk of the last grid failure in Texas.
If you have some countervailing data specifically showing that wind and other non-hydroelectric ‘renewables’ have actually replaced gas at a rate/amount sufficient to significantly weaken the grid’s ability for a reason other than simple petro market economics and logistics, I’m open to entertaining it.
If there was an economic case for LNG producers and generators to ramp up capability, they’d do it. And to my knowledge there is very little besides the price of doing so, which has little to nothing to do with state or federal regulations and a lot to do with the business case.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 23 2022 0:18 utc | 77

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 23 2022 0:18 utc | 77
To add to my first paragraph, although it’s obvious to any of us in Texas, the bulk of the grid failure was attributable to failure to properly plan and winterize in the natural gas generating sector. Far more MWh were lost due to frozen gas powered electrical generation plants than frozen wind turbines or lack of sunlight. I’d have to check, but when it was happening I think it wasn’t really close. Even if it was, what difference did it make when *both* types of systems failed due to the cold?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 23 2022 0:21 utc | 78

Posted by: juliania | Sep 22 2022 19:33 utc | 53
I stand with Juliana on the point she raises.
The same issue is also obliquely raised by NemesisCalling | Sep 22 2022 19:44 utc | 54
Our form of society atomizes people and deprecates any social bond which might give rise to solidarity. As can be seen by reading MoA posts, there are a number of people who find it liberating to discover they are not alone in their doubts and concerns. It is even more liberating when posters such as bevin and karlof1 introduce a conceptual framework which illuminates the reasons for our mode of social structure, and the ways in which individual alienation acts in the service of predatory others.
The best example of the process described by Juliana is found in the Canadian Truckers Convoy protest. This event galvanized public opinion, made thousands of alienated Canadians aware of the fact their concerns were not marginal but were shared by a significant percentage of the population.
Even worse, from the perspective of the state, was that the protest resulted in debate of the suppressed science, the suppressed safety studies, the secret profit making of private sector firms, the action of the government in violating the constitutional rights of Canadians by forcing them to have injected into them materials which had never been subject to a scientifically validated safety screening, the further action of the government in acting to suppress medical professionals who had the temerity to point out the inadequate scientific foundations of the forced VAX, and the manifold negative outcomes.
The disciplining of the public was brutal. If you raised an objection you were subject to job loss, ostricization, and denounced as some form of uncivil reprobate. Trudeau himself cheerfully labelled the Ottawa protesters as “Nazis.”
What the press was unable to conceal, and the state unable to suppress, was the outpouring of support for the protest. It was evident the public was upset as hell and not taking it any more. The Trudeau government so feared its loss of control of the narrative that it resorted to implementing the Emergencies Act which afforded it draconian powers gleefully imposed by Ottawa’s genuine Nazi ostfrau Chrystia Freeland.
This small spark of protest resonated around the world and resulted in similar protest erupting in other states. I am confident Trudeau was embarrassed by the number of foreign heads of state who called him to complain over the fact he was unable to control his public and was therefore making all of them look bad.
But they were not only bad, but stunningly evil, as the events subsequent to February 24th of this year demonstrate. Much debate on MoA concerns exactly this topic and the present threat of nuclear immolation because the self pronounced “elite” are happy to fight to the death of the last Ukrainian regardless of the wishes of their domestic electorate.
I assert Juliana is correct in her assessment of the benefits afforded to us by b, that our endless debate attracts and educates others and, with any degree of good fortune, may result in a return to a truly enlightened democratic multi-polar mode of governance.
c1ue may disagree. But if it becomes impossible to hold the belief in a better future for all of humanity, then there is no reason to stick around – may as well exit the world before Biden-Truss-Trudeau-Scholtz-Putin end it for you. Camus remarked on the fact the salient characteristic of the human species is that we have the capacity to voluntarily terminate our own lives. No other species acts similarly.
Since c1ue is still with us, I can only conclude he is more naive then the rest of us, or that he holds a secret belief in an unspoken future full of promise.

Posted by: Sushi | Sep 23 2022 1:18 utc | 79

Keeping eyes on Iran?
Yes Melaleuca@25, two dumpsters were set on fire. Oooh. What’s that saying? If it bleeds, it leads.
Don’t get your hopes up for a color revolution. Iran has had to deal with this bs for over four decades. Doesn’t mean the empire will stop trying.
But know this: Never again will Iran be a kingdom, satrap, vassal, or the empire’s poodle. Iranians have freed themselves from the yoke of the empire, and will not be moving back anytime soon.
The boot of the empire is firmly on Iran’s neck, and everyone in Iran, including the construction worker that I was conversing with, in a bread line, knows it.
Also, for a color revolution, who is the replacement? The despised MEK/PMOI? US just sanctioned Iran because there were cyber attacks in Albania, where the empire’s favorite terrorist group now reside. Just ask Rudy J.
As for the dead-letter JCPOA, well, it was always dead. No need to revive it. As soon as it was signed, it was abrogated. Not when the orange man exited.
Re drones: It is what the empire fears most, along with the missiles that they try shoe-horn into any agreement. It is to leave Iran defenseless. That’s why so much hay is made of it.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Sep 23 2022 1:41 utc | 80

@73 Robert Macaire | Sep 22 2022 23:34 utc – “the role that China could play in helping the Global South industrialize. It’s gonna happen.”
Yes, I agree. China I think is so abundant that it cannot help overflowing its largess to the rest of the world.
What Mao said in your quote is also the thought that struck me from Sun Yat-Sen. He said in his early writings, before even the revolution, that it seemed clear to him that such a huge population as China’s could only exist in such a size in order to be a force to assist all the world. From a man still trying to theorize the way forward for China to gain its sovereignty, it seemed to me an extraordinarily generous concept to hold. I had wondered how deeply such a view might have taken root in China, and your quote from Mao seems to indicate a great depth.
Many thanks also for the latest from Li Ziqi – that will be a pleasure to watch amid all the stirrings of trouble and strife.

Posted by: Grieved | Sep 23 2022 2:05 utc | 81

It is with great disgust that I watch “Law And Order” tonight.
It continues the current Hollywood meme of Russians being the villains – as terrorists, pedophiles and so on. A real “go to” cheap plot component.
But it can’t go forever. EU/US will tire of supporting Ukraine and Taiwan is on the horizon.
So, next up, I guess we’ll see Evil Chinese Villains instead. I doubt they’ll go overtly racist as with the past but who knows?

Posted by: Eighthman | Sep 23 2022 2:19 utc | 82

Oligarchy in action, poking a Prince:
https://imgur.com/a/hdTXBGa

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 23 2022 2:31 utc | 83

4B win for Airbus:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-22/airbus-wins-4-85-billion-china-jets-deal-in-blow-to-boeing?srnd=premium-asia

Posted by: Paul GV | Sep 23 2022 2:40 utc | 84

seems like a conversation about the glass is half full or half empty…. i share the belief that it is more rewarding to look at it as half full – the position that juliania and sushi are taking as opposed to c1ue… but maybe i am reading it all too superficially!

Posted by: james | Sep 23 2022 2:42 utc | 85

Nah, there is no managed collapse. That’s just silly…
“Engdahl evokes a case very few know about across Europe: “On May 12, 2022 although Gazprom deliveries to the Soyuz gas pipeline through Ukraine were uninterrupted for almost three months of conflict, despite Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, the NATO-controlled Zelensky regime in Kiev closed a major Russian pipeline through Lugansk, that was bringing Russian gas both to his Ukraine as well as EU states, declaring it would remain closed until Kiev gets full control of its pipeline system that runs through the two Donbass republics. That section of the Ukraine Soyuz line cut one-third of gas via Soyuz to the EU. It certainly did not help the EU economy at a time Kiev was begging for more weapons from those same NATO countries. Soyuz opened in 1980 under the Soviet Union bringing gas from the Orenburg gas field.”
Hybrid War, the energy chapter
On the interminable soap opera involving the Nord Stream 1 turbine, the crucial fact is that Canada deliberately refused to deliver the repaired turbine to Gazprom – its owner – but instead sent it to Siemens Germany, where it is now. Siemens Germany is essentially under American control. Both the German and Canadian governments refuse to grant a legally binding sanction exemption for the transfer to Russia.
That was the straw that broke the (Gazprom) camel’s back. Gazprom and the Kremlin concluded that if sabotage was the name of the game, they couldn’t care less whether Germany received zero gas via Nord Stream 1 (with brand new Nord Stream 2, ready to go, blocked by strictly political reasons).
Kremlin spokesman Dmity Peskov took pains to stress “problems in [gas] deliveries arose due to sanctions that have been imposed on our country and a number of companies by Western countries (…) There are no other reasons behind supply issues.””
https://telegra.ph/Germanys-Energy-Suicide-An-Autopsy-09-07
Coincidental incompetence many seem happy to say.
Looks like coordinated demolition to me…
That’s not so big a deal, these things happen, but:
What are the implications, that is what is interesting.
And yet most insist there’s no there there
so nothing to consider
Despite there quite obviously being one…

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 23 2022 2:52 utc | 86

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 23 2022 3:00 utc | 87

The unlamented Canadian Truckers Convoy is taking on an importance in retrospect that it never had at the time. It was not, contrary to a couple of posts above, very popular. Most people supported the quarantine programme, social distancing, mask wearing and vaccination. Very few people were vaccinated because they felt forced to; most welcomed the chance to mitigate the dangers of the pandemic. The figures on that are not easily refuted.
And there was widespread agreement that those whose jobs involved travel and contact with members of the public ought to be ready to fall in with measures designed to protect the general public, in particular the most vulnerable. The truckers protesting this were not generally supported.
It is a pity that so many people come to this site, which has earned over many years a reputation for allowing free speech and entertaining all sincerely held opinion, simply in order to repeat assertions about Covid as if not agreeing with them was an indication of treachery to the oppressed.
In fact whether or not the panoply of measures taken in Canada to control the spread of the virus was entirely justified- in restrospect- is not a matter with which anyone should be concerned. The danger of the virus was perceived, by the great majority of the population, to be such that emergency measures- to protect the most vulnerable, who were dying like flies after the first reported outbreaks- were called for by common sense, historical precedent and public opinion.
It is true that from the first there were minorities making extraordinary claims- generally self contradictory- of the ‘Shamdemic”, Vaccination as euthanasia, Tax Grab by Big Pharma nature, and that these claims were supported by ultra right wing, falun gong and others who can always be relied upon to fight against social solidarity in any form. But these people, far from being representative of the public were regarded as weird extremists- western separatists, fans of the US 2nd Amendment anti-communists and the sort of individualists who will not allow their children to be vaccinated to attend school.
As to the ‘millions’ of Canadians who are said to have supported the Convoy- they are yet to come into existence. Last year they could be counted in the thousands. Nobody would have cared-we are a tolerant lot- provided that they didn’t cough on us or our grandparents.
Now, after millions have been vaccinated and those catching Covid report that its symptoms are much milder than were the first iterations which were so deadly, people are relaxed, mask wearing is diminished and ‘passports’ are no longer required. Perhaps that is why the myth making is so active. Last year’s convoy has become this year’s bigfoot- the less people know about it, the larger it looms and the more dangerous it seems to become.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 23 2022 3:26 utc | 88

@Tom_Q_Collins #77
I have already posted, previously, exactly what happened:
the 34 GW of added solar PV and wind were accompanied by 8-10 GW of coal and natural gas powered electricity plants taken offline.
The problem is that the behavioral profile of the 8-10 GW of fossil fuels is different than the 34 GW that replaced it (note that the capacity factors of solar PV and wind are such that the actual electricity produced by the 34 GW is only a bit more than was taken offline).
So: Where there was once redundancy in consistent electricity production – now there is much more enormous variability in system production AND less margin for failure.
Yes, maintenance issues were a major factor in the 2021 storm – but the difference between 2021 and say, 2011 was the amount of slack in the system NOT dependent on the vagaries of wind and sun. The 2021 storm would still have caused outages, but they wouldn’t have been anywhere close to the extent or the duration which actually occurred.
The diversion of resources away from maintenance to the massive installation of solar PV and wind were certainly a factor in 2021 as well – consider the literal miles of transmission lines, the dozens of substations needed to service all those West Texas solar PV and wind.
I’ve also talked directly with the Director of Grid Coordination at ERCOT: one of the things he mentioned is just how dynamic the solar PV and wind farm installers are. ERCOT doesn’t own the transmission grid – it is actually owned by companies under them. This is not unusual in the least: the SPP which extends from North Dakota to the northern tip of Texas is exactly the same way.
Anyhow, what said Director told me was pretty interesting. In the interest of promoting alternative energy (there it is again), ERCOT for the first time paid for a tranmission line along the West Texas region. Such a process is a multi-year affair, but what happened as construction was ongoing was the most interesting: so much solar PV and wind generation was installed along the path of this pending transmission line that the capacity was filled literally before it was installed. And not only that – since West Texas has almost no people, there is no “load” to stabilize the grid. ERCOT wound up having to tie in the city of Lubbock because otherwise this unanchored subgrid was highly unstable due to the varying inputs from the solar PV and wind farms.
This is the real world data and happenings – not the fantasy-based desires of those who have no idea how grids actually operate and assume grid-scale behavior is no different than flipping on the light switch at home.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 23 2022 3:33 utc | 89

@james #85
I am completely pragmatic: my views are based on 20+ years of direct observation.
And I do not see improvement in the past 20 years – I see the same “hope and change” spouted over and over without any actual results. And I use the term “hope and change” specifically because the misdirection/redirection performed by the smarter bits of the oligarchy, work.
I would love for change to occur – but desire is not the same as results.
As this point, I post simply to provide some data and analysis to those who might personally benefit. I have zero belief based upon analysis and experience that any grass-roots based societal change for the better is going to happen barring a significant uprising/revolution.
Please prove me wrong.
But I won’t hold my breath in the meantime or base my future on groundless hope – been down that road too many times already.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 23 2022 3:39 utc | 90

And along the lines of “bastards”: looking forward to seeing Phil Gramm in person Monday – where this son of a bitch who co-sponsored the bill that repealed Glass Steagall is pushing his book: the Myth of Inequality in America.
It is going to be an eventful month in Hoover:
Kevin Rudd – ex-head of Australia – is coming in to talk with Condi Rice about the US-China War: can it be averted?
Followed by some AEI professors including the Kissinger endowed chair at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies – the economics version of the School for the Americas.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 23 2022 3:42 utc | 91

Deutschland muss sich auf einen Konflikt mit China vorbereiten… auch wenn es Wohlstand kostet

Sounds like Morrison ?
But while the Aussies perform their tribal duty instinctively, [blood thicker than water !], Sholtz and co seem to have their own agenda .
The plebs are suffering, yet their elected elites sounds positively ecstatic.
Christine Lambrecht

Germany must meet NATO’s 2% of GDP military spending target over the long term even after a 100 billion euro ($101 billion) special fund is used up and accept a military leadership role it earlier shied away from,

Was there a deal with the devil itself ?
The great satan to Sholtz

Do you wanna be a first tier country again, befitting the economic/industrial might of Germany ?
Re join the ENA 2.0 family and you can be my deputy in euro.

Posted by: denk | Sep 23 2022 3:54 utc | 92

Very few people were vaccinated because they felt forced to; most welcomed the chance to mitigate the dangers of the pandemic. The figures on that are not easily refuted.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 23 2022 3:26 utc | 87

Garbage! Every person but one in my and my partner’s extended families who got the inoculation (not a vaccine) only did so because it was mandated by their place of work or for travel. She and I did not bother. My sons, both in their 30s, got one shot and skipped the rest after it was announced that the inoculation does not prevent infection or spread. Her daughters both had mild Covid before the inoculation was available, but were told by their offices that they has to get injected anyway.
The inoculation program was nothing more than fraud on a grand scale. Canada ordered 400 million doses for 37mm people, over 10 per person.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 23 2022 4:17 utc | 93

The best Canadian resource for Covid-19 related issues from credible virologists and doctors is here…
https://www.canadiancovidcarealliance.org/

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 23 2022 4:36 utc | 94

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 22 2022 12:51 utc | 2
So Serbia hasn’t moved its embassy to Jerusalem ; as it appeared when he was shanghaied into it live on a video when he was meeting with Trump? Good on you Serbia. He was a laughing stock in the vid ; as he was visibly surprised that he had signed a document promising that the embassy would in fact be moved. Someone in the Yank Office slyly changed the wording of his copy of the document, and his minders didn’t pick up on it.

Posted by: Brother Ma | Sep 23 2022 4:42 utc | 95

“…it wouldn’t surprise me if the average age of posters is 50+ with the biggest clusters in the 60-80 range.
A large kazoo, but a kazoo nonetheless.”
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 22 2022 20:32 utc | 60
Then I am above average, c1ue – even just above your cluster, although I’m not sure what the point to that is … lesser or greater respect? ( Best not to ask.) We are those who have more time on our hands, though even so, with Socrates, we be not wealthy. The wealthy have no need to puzzle things out, though I suspect many are not really happy these days. There is a worry…
Well, it was lovely to read Putin’s Novgorod speech, and there it is, Saint Sophia, Holy Wisdom! So early in Russia’s history that cathedral took the name of the great Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. And I will say the Orthodox are not exclusively religious, spurning other faiths or other nations even. There ought not to be fear and trembling at the thought of Russia defending its heritage. That heritage is rich in diversity, multipolar in spirit.
That heritage includes in its prayers all mankind. There is nothing to be afraid of in that. All mankind – think of that. We are all included, to our last breaths, whoever, wherever we are. Russia will be Russia; and we will be what we make ourselves to be. That’s the great gift, the hand extended even to enemies, but from strength.
Thank you, Russia. Be well. Honor to you. And to your compassionate friend, Great China, honor to you as well.

Posted by: juliania | Sep 23 2022 4:56 utc | 96

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 23 2022 3:33 utc | 88
More later (it’s late already) but that’s a very nice way of papering over the **massive* failures of the Texas natural gas fired electricity generating plants/stations. Hah. It’s almost funny how well you think you can hide the failures behind raw – often unrelated – data.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 23 2022 5:30 utc | 97

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 23 2022 3:33 utc | 88
Just got to the part where you said you **talked to* Ercot. You told someone else you’d read a lot of reports and such about them. This is progressing in a strange fashion. Which is it?
And if you’re privy to some sort of information about Ercot’s expenditures (or those of others who aren’t Ercot funding “west texas power transmission lines”) could you ask their permission to release it to the public, in raw form?
I’m interested in reading it. I was in grid management for a short time with El Paso Electric (not ‘managed’ by Ercot) and I’m sure many would love to see this information in writing.
Thanks in advance.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 23 2022 5:33 utc | 98

I’m especially interested in the specific OPL that is claimed Ercot (it’s ERCOT but I’m lazy) financed themselves. This should be good. I hate to sound like ERCOT’s own public information department, but they don’t buy, own or operate any O/U PLs. It’s a monitoring and so-called regulatory body. How’d this person get on a call – much more an informational one with a lot of data exchanged (in writing as well) – with Blevins? ERB is the director of cybersecurity at EPE. Did someone impersonate such a figure with PGE or another utility/co-op?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 23 2022 5:44 utc | 99

@87 bevin
You really are a piece of work, bevin.
“The Canadian trucker protests weren’t that popular.”
Wow.
Wow.
I know I am not a Canadian, and I realize they didn’t have 10s of millions of dollars like Lenin was given 10s of millions of rubles by Germany to foment insurrection in St. Petersburg, but all the protest videos I watched were rife with amazing examples of scores of happy, supportive Canadians throwing their weight behind the truckers.
Go ahead and spend five minutes searching on jewtube and you will likely see some pretty impressive sights…this also coming in deep winter in the great white north. No small feat and hats-off to all those truckers who peaceably did a nice sit-in and where their bank accounts were frozen, their trucks impounded, and all beacuse they merely were pointing out the absurdity of having to be innoculated as a trucker.
As if the global pandemic was really snagged at ANY border in the west. It certainly was not.
I am grinding my teeth at your willful obfuscating of the facts. But I will persevere to keep pointing it out until the job is done.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 23 2022 7:45 utc | 100

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