The U.S. Is Winning Its War On Europe's Industries And People
Disclose.tv @disclosetv - 10:03 UTC · Sep 26, 2022JUST IN - German economy deteriorated significantly in September. IFO business climate index continues to fall.
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On February 7 Professor of Economics Michael Hudson explained why America’s Real Adversaries Are Its European and Other Allies:
What worries American diplomats is that Germany, other NATO nations and countries along the Belt and Road route understand the gains that can be made by opening up peaceful trade and investment. If there is no Russian or Chinese plan to invade or bomb them, what is the need for NATO? And if there is no inherently adversarial relationship, why do foreign countries need to sacrifice their own trade and financial interests by relying exclusively on U.S. exporters and investors?These are the concerns that have prompted French President Macron to call forth the ghost of Charles de Gaulle and urge Europe to turn away from what he calls NATO’s “brain-dead” Cold War and beak with the pro-U.S. trade arrangements that are imposing rising costs on Europe while denying it potential gains from trade with Eurasia. Even Germany is balking at demands that it freeze by this coming March by going without Russian gas.
Instead of a real military threat from Russia and China, the problem for American strategists is the absence of such a threat.
What the U.S. needed was to provoke Russia, and later China, into reacting to U.S. arranged threats in a way that would oblige its 'allies' to follow its sanction policies.
The rather dimwitted European leadership fell for the trick.
The U.S. arranged for a Ukrainian attack on the rebel held Donbas region. This started on February 17 with intense artillery preparations against Donbas positions as recorded by the OSCE observers at that border. Russia had to react or see the ethnic Russians in those areas getting maimed and killed by Nazi devoting Ukrainians.
There was no way to prevent that but by other than military means. On February 22 Russia recognized the Donbas republics as independent states and signed defense agreements with them.
The same day the German chancellor Olaf Scholz canceled the launch of the undersea Nord Stream II pipeline which was to transport Russian gas to Germany's industries and consumers.
The Europeans launched a sequence of extremely harsh economic sanctions against Russia which, prodded by the U.S., had been prepared months in advance.
Russia's Special Military Operation, under Article 51 of the UN Charter, commenced on February 24.
A follow-up piece by Michael Hudson on February 28 stated that Germany had been defeated for a third time in a century:
The active military force since 1991 has been the United States. Rejecting mutual disarmament of the Warsaw Pact countries and NATO, there was no “peace dividend.” Instead, the U.S. policy by the Clinton administration to wage a new military expansion via NATO has paid a 30-year dividend in the form of shifting the foreign policy of Western Europe and other American allies out of their domestic political sphere into their own “national security” blob (the word for special rentier interests that must not be named). NATO has become Europe’s foreign-policy-making body, even to the point of dominating domestic economic interests.The recent prodding of Russia by expanding Ukrainian anti-Russian ethnic violence by Ukraine’s neo-Nazi post-2014 Maiden regime aims at forcing a showdown. It comes in response to the fear by U.S. interests that they are losing their economic and political hold on their NATO allies and other Dollar Area satellites as these countries have seen their major opportunities for gain to lie in increasing trade and investment with China and Russia.
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As President Biden explained, the current military escalation (“Prodding the Bear”) is not really about Ukraine. Biden promised at the outset that no U.S. troops would be involved. But he has been demanding for over a year that Germany prevent the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from supplying its industry and housing with low-priced gas and turn to the much higher-priced U.S. suppliers.
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So the most pressing U.S. strategic aim of NATO confrontation with Russia is soaring oil and gas prices. In addition to creating profits and stock-market gains for U.S. companies, higher energy prices will take much of the steam out of the German economy.
(Some people currently peddle a 'Secret RAND study from January 2022'. It is obviously faked. It is simply a write up of Hudson's analysis.)
Nord Stream II was created to make Germany independent from pipelines running through Poland and the Ukraine. Blocking it was the most stupid thing for Germany to do and thus chancellor Scholz did it.
In the following months Poland blocked the Yamal pipeline which also brought Russian gas to Germany. Ukraine followed up with cutting off two Russian pipelines. The main compressor stations of the Nord Stream I pipeline, which the German company Siemens had build and has the maintenance contract, failed one after the other. Sanction are prohibiting Siemens from repairing them.
It is not Russia that has blocked its gas and oil from European markets. It were the German, Polish and Ukrainian governments that did it.
Russia would in fact be happy to sell more. Putin has recently again offered to push as much Russian gas as possible through Nord Stream II to Germany:
After all, if they need it urgently, if things are so bad, just go ahead and lift sanctions against Nord Stream 2, with its 55 billion cubic metres per year – all they have to do is press the button and they will get it going. But they chose to shut it off themselves; they cannot repair one pipeline and imposed sanctions against the new Nord Stream 2 and will not open it. Are we to blame for this?
It is the German government that is to blame for rejecting that offer.
The economic war against Russia that the sanctions against were meant to win has failed to move Russia. The Rubel is stronger than ever. Russia is making record profits even while selling fewer gas and oil than before the war. Russia may have a small recession this year but its standard of living is not in decline.
As was easy predictable and, as Michael Hudson explained, the economic consequences of the anti-Russian sanctions within Europe have in contrast huge catastrophic consequences for the Europe's industries, its societies and its political standing in the world.
Governments and the media had so far refrained from noting the gigantic problems that are coming up and which industry leaders had pointed out early on. Only over the last two weeks or so have they picked up the urgent warnings.
Der Spiegel, Germany's major weekly, asks: How Bad Will the German Recession Be? and states the obvious:
The first German companies have begun throwing in the towel and consumption is collapsing in response to the fallout from exploding energy prices. The economy is sliding almost uncontrolled into a crisis that could permanently weaken the country.
The piece discusses the five stages along which the catastrophe will happen.
Act One: Freezing Production - It is becoming prohibitively expensive to produce in Germany.
Act Two: The Price Trap - No one buys at the high prices German products now cost.
Act Three: The Consumer Crisis - Needing to pay high energy prices German consumers buy less of everything else.
Act Four: The Wave of Bankruptcies.
Act Five: The Final Act on the Labor Market.
When Germany will have some 6 to 10 million unemployed people, and the government less tax income as only a few companies will be profitable, the social system will break down.
European industry buckles under weight of soaring energy prices headlines the Irish Examiner:
Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, warned last week that it could reallocate production out of Germany and eastern Europe if energy prices don’t come down.Europe is paying seven times as much for gas as the US, underscoring a dramatic erosion of the continent’s industrial competitiveness that threatens to cause lasting damage to its economy. With Russian President Vladimir Putin redoubling his war efforts in Ukraine, there’s little sign that gas flows - and substantially lower prices - would be restored to Europe in the near term.
OilPrice.com provides that Europe Faces An Exodus Of Energy-Intensive Industries.
In fact The EU is sleepwalking into anarchy:
All eyes may be on the Italian election results this morning, but Europe’s got much bigger problems on its hands than the prospect of a Right-wing government. Winter is coming, and the catastrophic consequences of Europe’s self-imposed energy crisis are already being felt across the continent.
As politicians continue to devise unrealistic plans for energy rationing, the reality is that soaring energy prices and falling demand have already caused dozens of plants across a diverse range of energy-intensive industries — glass, steel, aluminium, zinc, fertilisers, chemicals — to cut back production or shut down, causing thousands of workers to be laid off. Even the pro-war New York Times was recently forced to acknowledge the “crippling” impact that Brussels’s sanctions are having on industry and the working class in Europe. “High energy prices are lashing European industry, forcing factories to cut production quickly and put tens of thousands of employees on furlough,” it reported.
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It’s truly a sign of the feebleness of Europe’s politicians that despite the fast-approaching cliff, no one can bring themselves to state the obvious: that the sanctions need to end. There’s simply no moral justification for destroying the livelihoods of millions of Europeans simply to school Putin, even if the sanctions were helping to achieve that aim, which they clearly aren’t.
The U.S., while also going into a recession, will profit, as it had planned, from the European catastrophe.
The Handelsblatt, a business daily, reports that Germany companies are moving production to North America.
Washington is attracting German companies with cheap energy and low taxes.
The German government is claiming it wants to prevent that but that is impossible without ending the energy sanctions.
The New York Times is of course happy with the situation. As European producers get out-priced from their markets the U.S. is taking up their slack:
Factory Jobs Are Booming Like It’s the 1970s
U.S. manufacturing is experiencing a rebound, with companies adding workers amid high consumer demand for products..
The U.S., with the help of European politicians, is waging a war against the people of Europe and their standard of living. It is now on the verge of winning that war.
No help will come from outside to prevent that from happening:
Germany Secures Just One Tanker of Gas During Scholz’s Gulf Tour
Europe, and especially Germany, can only escape this obvious trap if it opens the pipelines from Russia. It now high time to do that.
Posted by b on September 26, 2022 at 16:34 UTC | Permalink
next page »The people cannot afford bread. Let them eat cake.
Posted by: circumspect | Sep 26 2022 16:48 utc | 2
I’m interested to see how elastic the narrative fiction be; how far will it bend before it snaps.
Europe and the U.S. are still “best buddies”, even as the U.S. applies more and more political pressure that is in direct opposition to the good of European residents (other than those very few who hold the leverage - or appear to).
To paraphrase Kissinger, it seems healthier to be an enemy than an ally. Enemies earn the freedom to act independently, in their own best interests (as long as they’re big enough). It’s no wonder so many are choosing to align with BRICS and SCO.
Posted by: LeoV | Sep 26 2022 16:49 utc | 3
Unfortunately nothing will change.
The Greens have their agenda. They may not have this opportunity again and therefore they will make sure energy prices remain high and all energy intensive industries which use fossil fuels are destroyed or move away.
They will make sure that industries cannot return once they have been thrown out of government.
It's too late for Germany and for Europe. The people will now have a much lower standard of living and be dependent on government.
Posted by: Justin | Sep 26 2022 16:52 utc | 4
Will not the German people, impoverished from self-defeating sanctions, end up hating not only their political class, but the US Government leaders, also? If not Americans, generally?
This is a terrible betrayal of what bonds of friendship may have developed after the low point of World War II.
thanks b....
i don't understand how this Olaf Scholz is allowed to get away with this bullshit.... can you offer any insights as a german citizen? thanks..
Posted by: james | Sep 26 2022 16:56 utc | 6
Well, resurrecting the Gas import will be difficult as Nordstream 2 is down due to sabotage (currently reported in german media).
Posted by: Calar | Sep 26 2022 16:58 utc | 7
Germans live under a cloud of guilt. They were defeated and sedated.
Posted by: dh | Sep 26 2022 16:59 utc | 8
News earlier this AM was that something happened to NS2 resulting in a rapid pressure loss. Could it be that the USG, fearing Germany is about to cave on the energy sanctions, would actually sabotage the line??
Posted by: JVC | Sep 26 2022 17:02 utc | 9
5
The germans and most Europeans have hated the US for decades, just like most other countries in the world. Although I think your comment is tongue in cheek, I'm not too sure. Sure even americans hate america, how bad does a country have to be for the whole world to despise one great shithole of a country.
Posted by: Eoin Clancy | Sep 26 2022 17:03 utc | 10
b said
It is not Russia that has blocked its gas and oil from European markets. It were the German, Polish and Ukrainian governments that did it.
Let's not forget Canada and Siemens turbines...
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 26 2022 17:05 utc | 11
Europe's politicians (aka 'leaders') are certainly as dumb as suggested. But they didn't come upon their stupidity and ideological blindness naturally. Most of them were either educated or re-educated in the United States.
That is why they really believe as Ukraine bleeds, the Donbas is crucified and Europe's economy grinds to a stop, that all is going accord to plans.
And so it is, as Hudson predicted.
Now we will just have to wait and see whether mass unemployment and raging inflation-reducing living standards across society, will- as the Green Party and the State Department seem to believe, lead to anger against Russia and a rush to enlist in the eastern crusade not just because it will be the only work going but because workers will be convinced that their bosses and the beloved government are blameless.
This is Operation Barbarossa repeated 'as farce.' A reprise of the thrust towards Stalingrad, urged on by neo-cons and greens who seem to have forgotten that bad as conditions then were for the people of the Soviet Union, they weren't much better for the people of western Europe including Germany. By the time that war ended most of european industry was devastated or crumbling after years of neglect while the United States waltzed in, bought up everything it wanted and lent money all round.
On the other hand, as the paper thin justification of the campaign against Russia is exposed (as it is in b's summary above) it might be that working people will think for themselves, realise that they have been sacrificed to fatten up the already obese US capitalist class and do something about it by removing Washington's sock puppets from power and making peace with the rest of eurasia.
BRI is after all a marriage made in heaven wedding rich resources with capital and labour hungry for them, in a world in which three children out of four go to their uneasy sleep in rags, under leaking roofs, hungry and malnourished.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 26 2022 17:08 utc | 13
BRI is after all a marriage made in heaven wedding rich resources with capital and labour hungry for them
Posted by: bevin | Sep 26 2022 17:08 utc | 13
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Indeed. Displaced Europeans have brighter pastures than the USA.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 26 2022 17:11 utc | 14
Posted by: too scents | Sep 26 2022 17:11 utc | 14
Indeed. Displaced Europeans have brighter pastures than the USA.
Please steer them away from my little heaven in Asia.
I could do without too many palefaces spoiling the view ...
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 26 2022 17:18 utc | 15
Eoin Clancy | Sep 26 2022 17:03 utc | 10
...even americans hate america...
Americans hate the American Empire. It's all cost and no benefit. And they hate the American oligarch class, but every nation hates their oligarch class. And right now they're learning to hate the organs of control, a bunch of psychopaths trained by the Israelis to treat citizens as Palestinians.
If elections mattered, we'd have socialized medicine and a stay at home military.
Posted by: jhill | Sep 26 2022 17:19 utc | 16
The EUcabal continues digging a deeper economic blackhole, because of their choice to select ideology above economy. In 20 years EU will be a backwater province of the Euasiaplateau.
Unfortunately my Family and me are living there... Powerless to change anything.
Posted by: DutchZ | Sep 26 2022 17:22 utc | 17
And if there is no inherently adversarial relationship, why do foreign countries need to sacrifice their own trade and financial interests by relying exclusively on U.S. exporters and investors?
Barnes, the anti-war, civil rights libertarian lawyer noted his left leaning allies falling for anti-America propaganda. Note, Barnes is an enemy of the current regime, but he warns the left not to become China fan boys just because it is seen as against America, as one example.
So Hudson has stated something completely idiotic. The US has a massive trade deficit. It is not an "exporter". And that is on purpose so the globalists can loot us. The friend of US exporters and investors was Trump. He is the one who put on tariffs. If the US wanted to support US companies it would put on tariffs. Period.
Ukraine was about one thing, sanctions. Because Putin is a threat against the WEF.
US motivation for the insane Ukraine policy is because the puppets are following their masters' commands. And that's the WEF/Soros/Davos, etc... who want a one world government.
Posted by: JackG | Sep 26 2022 17:22 utc | 18
spoiling the view ...
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 26 2022 17:18 utc | 15
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You should be more worried about skilled people devaluing your income stream.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 26 2022 17:22 utc | 19
another excellent compilation b, thank you.
Everything you point out is logical and necessary for the continuation of EU nations. Not the EU, just the nations. It is getting down to very few speaking for Biden. The people see individuals that are the new face of starvation, genital frostbite, economic collapse and an untimely death in the family this winter. Scholz, von der layen, Biden, Zelly, General X Y Z on the tv circuit. But other large voices have gone quiet. The fanatic Stoltenberg has clammed up and that in itself signals break with Biden that perhaps the Euro members of NATO are demanding.
Even Macron has turned 180 and calling out stupid things he was so proud of last week. Attacking Russia can do that to a country that has run out of gas, electricity, weapons, money, brains, support from their people and allies.
Seems like a mass psychosis has just lifted like a sunrise breaks darkness.
Posted by: Tard | Sep 26 2022 17:22 utc | 20
I don’t know, b. Since the New York Post has my attention today, I looked into their reports on Germany, and they paint a picture of descent from despair to total absurdity. It was “pixie-dust energy plans” on June 26, “cold showers, dark monuments” on July 28, “painful lesson” on Aug. 20 … then a “slime trail” on Sept. 16 (report by AP)
“ “Never in the history of the Duesseldorf customs office has a trail of slime led us to smuggled goods,” said its spokesman Michael Walk.”
Followed by a crisis report a few days ago, on German football/soccer players over bringing wives and girlfriends to the World Cup. It’s just all rather gloomy (except for that photo feature on Oktoberfest which really looked like a lot of fun).
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Sep 26 2022 17:23 utc | 21
Ye, i like Germans to explain why they allow such a stupid class of suicidal politicians to take power in the first place. Is it a fault of the System? How can it be fixed? Are Germans overall deranged?
Posted by: NotMsm | Sep 26 2022 17:24 utc | 22
@1 too scents
I could be a candidate, with a couple of post-grad engineering degrees in aeronautical, civil and eletrical.
But why emigrate to a country which is imposing even more insane political correctness than Germany, and with basically insoluble racial problems?
Posted by: grippo | Sep 26 2022 17:26 utc | 23
@ grippo | Sep 26 2022 17:26 utc | 23
East or South is obviously better than West.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 26 2022 17:28 utc | 24
"What the U.S. needed was to provoke Russia, and later China, into reacting to U.S. arranged threats in a way that would oblige its 'allies' to follow its sanction policies.
The rather dimwitted European leadership fell for the trick."
Speaking of which, the Germans are now--at the behest of their American masters--not only sabotaging their trade with Russia but also increasingly with China.
It is truly unbelievable that the Germans and Europe are so willing to commit economic suicide for Uncle Scam.
It's mass insanity.
From Suicide to Dead and Buried… Germany Now Provokes China
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/09/23/from-suicide-to-dead-and-buried-germany-now-provokes-china/
Posted by: ak74 | Sep 26 2022 17:29 utc | 25
Posted by: too scents | Sep 26 2022 17:22 utc | 19
... skilled people devaluing your income stream.
'skilled' people like Scholtz and Von der Leyen, yes ...
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 26 2022 17:30 utc | 26
Scholz: Germany is “in a situation in which we can say we will probably get through this winter, despite all the tensions, with the preparations we have made.”
The total German gas storage currently is at 91% of full storage, they claim, which is 23 billion cubic meters of gas max, or currently 21 billion cubic meters. Germany consumes about 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas per week on average. So Germany has about three months of gas in storage, probably less in winter months.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 26 2022 17:33 utc | 27
What's being done to EU provides a very important message to the rest of the world--shun the Outlaw US Empire. It ought to be equally clear that the EU is chained to the Empire's policy and the only way for Europeans nations to escape its grasp is to leave the EU. No, that won't solve the immediate energy problem, but it opens up better near future possibilities since fetters will be removed. Hopefully, the new Italian coalition will act boldly and do what's right for Itay and Italians as its pledged (I posted some Italy related items in the Week in Review thread). The EU reaction is already noted (Lavrov remarked at it in his presser), so Italy bears close watching.
Today, Putin and Lukashenko are meeting to finish the discussion they began in Samarkand but didn't have time to conclude. I repeat my linking to Crooke's al-Mayadeen column, "China, India and Iran Line Up Behind Russia", that provides further insight as usual. Hopefully, his SCF essay will be published later today.
By scanning RT's main page, it appears the Outlaw US Empire is emptying its pockets of what remained of its tools to attack Russia. Its terrorist sleeper cells within Russia are being put to work, and it's likely responsible for the sabotage to the NS2 pipe that caused the dramatic loss of pressure.
IMO, it's entirely justifiable to conclude that the Outlaw US Empire is waging a hybrid war on European nations, not the EU structure which as Lavrov remarked has become 100% dictatorial. Indeed, Lavrov mentioned as much in one of his presser answers, which I'll try to find.
B, we will see how America's economy does with this new windfall of manufacturing.
I have my doubts and the score on the dow board reflects this alongside reports on the domestic front that most everything is not well in the U.S. either.
Two things can disrupt further your thesis that this is a win-win for the U.S.:
1. The coming elections in the states could throw cold water on D.C.'s tactic of brinksmanship with Russia...and maybe a switch to antagonizing China?
2. The situation in the EU will deteriorate so much that they begin to accept Russian gas. There goes the EU at that point.
Both of these possibilities seem increasingly likely.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 26 2022 17:34 utc | 29
I'm asking the following question only in search of information. Does anyone on this site perhaps know how to obtain an actual written copy of the UN Commission report on Ukraine. I've seen attributions to this report in the press in several places and then went to the UN Human Rights website: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/iicihr-ukraine/index
I could not find the actual report: only texts of resolutions and videos of press conferences.
Again I stress-I'm only asking and posting this here thinking that someone might know.
Thank you.
Posted by: Chip Poirot | Sep 26 2022 17:37 utc | 30
'skilled' people like Scholtz and Von der Leyen
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 26 2022 17:30 utc | 26
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LOL. No. Journeymen with a trade.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 26 2022 17:38 utc | 31
Any one know the actual state of EU stored gas reserves? What percent is it of storage capacity?
Posted by: casey | Sep 26 2022 17:39 utc | 32
Very few of those in power in Europe rule for the benefit of their people. They are an international elite that have been made lax by being unopposed and who have morals that are even laxer. They don't care about the small people, they only want to do the right thing for those that employ and will employ them even more lucratively after they leave office.
Their policies, then, should come as no surprise.
Posted by: Jeremn | Sep 26 2022 17:40 utc | 33
Bruised Northerner | Sep 26 2022 17:23 utc | 21
Oktoberfest which really looked like a lot of fun
I went this weekend for the very first time. It is an event that must be experienced if only once (that is enough for me anyway). So many people just having a great time, for 3 days I didn't see any television news and did not even check MoA which I do otherwise do religiously every day.
Sure, it is crowded and the beer is kinda expensive but the girls are pretty in their dirndls and everyone is well behaved. Never saw a fight and the really drunk were peacefully escorted out to the hill of shame.
if you haven't done it, put it on your bucket list.
Posted by: dan of steele | Sep 26 2022 17:42 utc | 34
Here's the Q&A portion of Lavrov's presser I mentioned @28:
"Question: Allow me to draw some parallels. On the one hand, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, in fact, has openly threatened Italy with consequences if the election outcomes there are unfavourable for Brussels. On the other hand, the referendums in Donbass. When they were announced, practically all overseas and European politicians called these referendums illegitimate and began to compete with each other on describing them in unfavourable terms. This is the attitude to the expression of will of the people. What kind of approach is this? What reaction should follow?
"Sergey Lavrov: This is arrogance, the feeling of all-permissiveness, of one’s superiority, and exceptionalism. As if only they are entitled to make judgements. What Ursula von der Leyen said about the Italian elections was marvelous. I cannot recall if any EU leader sunk so low as to make threats of this kind. The EU, in principle, becomes an authoritarian, rigid, dictatorial institution." [My Emphasis]
@NemesisCalling | Sep 26 2022 17:34 utc | 29
The situation in the EU will deteriorate so much that they begin to accept Russian gas. There goes the EU at that point.Yes. It is a question of time. It is bound to happen.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 26 2022 17:47 utc | 36
According to this guy, a NS2 manager has suggested five possible causes for the leak
James Reed
@jreedipictures
1 - A weld between pipes could have burst. This is unlikely, source said, because on the ships that did the welds there were “3 test stations” that inspected every weld before the pipe section was dropped into the water
2 - Something was wrong with one of the pipes. The indicator for this is that the pressure was measured at 105 bar before rupture. The pipes are supposed to be able to handle “170 max” but are “tested for 200”. If a pipe burst at 105 then it shows how bad the pipe must have been
3 - A nearby ship’s anchor could have hit the pipeline. Source also found this unlikely since “We have checked the ship-tracking system” and no such events of anchor irregularities (like drag or pulling or disturbance) were reported
4 - Sabotage. A diver could have dropped to the 70m depth and somehow damaged the pipeline.
5 - WWII munitions lying on the seabed could have exploded and ruptured the pipe. The bombs have been there since the Soviets dumped them after the end of the war. This is a risk that has been known about for years. The route of the pipe was planned around the munitions.
Posted by: mk | Sep 26 2022 17:49 utc | 37
"What the U.S. needed was to provoke Russia, and later China, into reacting to U.S. arranged threats in a way that would oblige its 'allies' to follow its sanction policies.
The rather dimwitted European leadership fell for the trick."
They are NOT dimwitted. They would not be able to climb the greasy pole of political leadership in their home countries if they were dimwitted. They would not be able to attend prestigious unis and highfalutin conferences spouting profound sounding gibberish if they were truly dimwitted.
No, what they are is they are IN on the racket ... they are part of the team, part of the plan. They spend all their time studying, working, conferencing, and ruling with fellow teammates, promoting each other and gaining Board spots and millions of $$ as they go. It's a very sweet racket and the situation of their home countries does not bother them at all. Saying they are dimwitted lets them off the hook ... they are corrupt, not stupid.
Posted by: Caliman | Sep 26 2022 17:50 utc | 38
The politics are getting interesting, and perhaps a less-constrained press?
CNN:
The conditions are perfect for a populist resurgence in Europe
Europe’s conservative right certainly feels like it’s enjoying a revival after a few quiet years.
“Something is definitely happening. From France and Italy, major European powers, to Sweden … it feels as though a rejection of the manifestly failing pan-European orthodoxy is taking hold among our citizens,” says Gunnar Beck, a Member of the European Parliament representing Alternative for Germany (AfD).
AfD is a far-right party that became the first to be placed under surveillance by the German government since the Nazi era. At the time, the Central Council of Jews in Germany welcomed the decision, saying: “The AfD’s destructive politics undermine our democratic institutions and discredit democracy among citizens.”
The AfD sent shockwaves through Europe in 2017 after securing over 12% of the vote in Germany’s federal elections, making it the third largest party and official opposition. . .here
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 26 2022 17:52 utc | 39
@JackG #18
America is a net trade deficit nation - but it exports $1.76 trillion a year.
That is a lot of exports - and this number is not all IP.
It is, in fact, the 2nd largest country in terms of exports in the world - behind China but ahead of Germany.
As such, your criticism of Dr. Hudson is based on ignorance.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 26 2022 17:54 utc | 40
Not only Israel seems to have the Samson option. Germany was against sanctions and weapon delivery. But Scholz was ordered to Washington and came back with 100 billion for the Bundeswehr, sanctions and full support for Ukraine.
What did Biden tell Scholz to turn him around. He must have offered a future worse the poverty. What could that be? Nuclear devastation...
Posted by: Samson | Sep 26 2022 18:09 utc | 41
JackG @18--
Clearly, you don't know anything about Hudson's analysis. The #1 beneficiary for this episode within the Outlaw US Empire are the Neoliberal Financial Parasites who have taken over the remnants of manufacturing and thus guide what they do. Even Big Oil--the last remaining holdout--is captured. The entire Outlaw US Empire economy is now Financialized--there no longer are any remaining Industrial Capitalists. That's what Hudson said to Nader in their interview, and what he writes in Destiny of Civilization. And that's what the Empire's goal is in Europe--to drive out the remaining Industrial Capitalists and replace them with Neoliberal Financial Parasites.
The likely result is Russia and China will be allied and conduct commerce with the Rest of the World while the Outlaw US Empire keeps its hegemonic claws buried into Europe, Five Eyes and Japan. I have hope for South Korea because of its proximity to China. One Earthshaking event that's yet to happen is the emergence of a second international trading regime complete with new trading currency that will end dollar hegemony. But I don't see that occurring until next year.
Circumspect [2]
You do know what “cake” is ?
It is the Polish precursor to bread especially French breads …….. it simply means eating the precursor rather than baking the bread
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 26 2022 18:14 utc | 43
Large pressure drop in NordStream II, quite likely a leak - sabotage ? Exactly when Germany might have to use it. Just a coincidence I'm sure.
https://www.rt.com/business/563542-nord-stream-pressure-drop/
Posted by: FarminChimp | Sep 26 2022 18:16 utc | 46
Posted by: Passerby | Sep 26 2022 17:07 utc | 12
What if someone dragged an anchor across NS2?
Gas from Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline leaks into Baltic Sea
That would be the fast and cheap way to sabatoge the pipeline. Would the EU allow the Russians to repair the pipeline? No, let them eat cake.
Posted by: circumspect | Sep 26 2022 18:17 utc | 47
Exactly right. Ukraine is to the Davos crowd as Vietnam was to the military industrial complex. Sadly, Putins bluff was called and the RF military was not up to the task. This latest “mobilization” reeks of desperation. The reason patriotic Russian mil-bloggers are up in arms is the realization that there is no there there re Russian military capabilities. Thats what 23 years of Putinism gets you, incompetent bootlickers instead of a professional military. It was all a bluff, hence the nuke threats.
The EU may fall apart or more likely will end the sanctions. Putin sowed the wind, now he will reap the whirlwind.
Posted by: Muthaucker | Sep 26 2022 17:50 utc | 38
Ok, I laughed.
Posted by: Michigan Dude | Sep 26 2022 18:18 utc | 48
The US excells at making enemies and anyone who sees them as an ally is a fool.
Posted by: Bob | Sep 26 2022 18:25 utc | 49
the Titanic Europe has no one on the watch, everyone asleep at the helm, and the iceberg-sanctions are ripping the shit out of the hull in the middle of the darkest night over Europe since 1945.
the US will go down with that ship as Europe is and always has been a big part of the supply chains of the industrialized world. It doesn't appear so much that way now, but it will...... It will go down.
Posted by: michaelj72 | Sep 26 2022 18:40 utc | 50
The U.S. has one huge problem: the insane amount of dollars in the world that nobody needs any more.
What to do ?
The best thing would be a big economic block that needs to be rebuilt and that will need these dollars for that. Ideally, from scratch. The more dollars they need, the better. Ideally, the currency of that economic block has collapsed and is then replaced by the dollar.
Sounds like a plan to me.
Posted by: Franz Beckenbauer | Sep 26 2022 18:41 utc | 51
Europe and the U.S. are still “best buddies”, even as the U.S. applies more and more political pressure that is in direct opposition to the good of European residents (other than those very few who hold the leverage - or appear to).
To paraphrase Kissinger, it seems healthier to be an enemy than an ally. Enemies earn the freedom to act independently, in their own best interests (as long as they’re big enough). It’s no wonder so many are choosing to align with BRICS and SCO.
Posted by: LeoV | Sep 26 2022 16:49 utc | 3
Here's Kissinger's famous quote: “To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
Kissinger was inadvertently revealing an important lesson--one that American apologists and Pro-USA propagandists today are increasingly desperate to spindoctor and deny:
America does not have allies. It never did. And it never will.
America only has disposable vassals, which it will devour if need be, in order to sustain itself. That is true regardless of who the War Criminal in Chief is--whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden, Red State war criminal or Blue State war criminal.
Europe is learning this lesson the hard way. Ukraine also is learning this truth. And likely many other American stooges (Japan, Taiwan, etc) will learn this lesson as well.
In short, it's much better to an enemy of the American Evil Empire than to be its "ally."
Posted by: ak74 | Sep 26 2022 18:51 utc | 52
Hudson spelled out Europe's future in his talk with Nader:
"In the United States, look at the problem with consumer debt and education debt that you’ve pointed out. The government can’t really write down that debt because that debt is owed to private creditors. And basically you have one to 10% of the creditors in the United States owning almost all of the stocks, all of the bonds. So the 10% hold the 90% in debt. And basically, that’s why the economy is polarizing. More and more money is being sucked up out of the consumer economy, out of the economy of production and consumption, and paid to the financial sector. And that basically has accelerated since 2008 with a quantitative easing. The role of the banks, especially of the central banks, is actually to promote inflation, but it’s the inflation of stock market and bond prices, the biggest bond rally in history, and real estate prices. And instead of what the Federal Reserve is supposed to do, supporting full employment, its job is to make sure that there isn’t full employment, that there is a reserve army of the unemployed so that wages don’t rise. And when you have the current Federal Reserve head say, well, we’ve got to bring on a depression because with oil prices rising and inflation happening, there’s a danger that wage labor may try to catch up with inflation and ask for wages. And how do we prevent labor from asking for wages to keep up with the cost of living? Well, you make sure that there is enough unemployment that it’s somehow going to force them into work, and labor will compete with each other and hold wages down so that corporate profits can remain high enough to support stock market prices and the owners of the stock market, the 10%, are not going to lose their money; the 90% of labor will lose its money, but not the financial sector."
Hudson reviews quite a lot of his main points, particularly on banker control and how that was put in place. Nader asks questions about legal areas that Hudson seldom discusses but knows about, and they discuss why those issues aren't taught at universities. You realize just how intricate the system of Plunder is within the Outlaw US Empire and the degree to which the public has accepted its fate to be plundered. Europeans will now be subjected to the same immiseration unless they act.
EU is going to the forced, planned, centralized communist economy which forces everyone to lower quality of life. This will mean less demand of "stuff". This will cause a major global recession and commodity prices will fall, but the (temporary) deflation will be worldwide.
Russia will probably make the same amount of money whether selling it through NS2 or selling it to the east through another pipeline (more are being built which will eventually surplus NS1 + NS2), or one of their LNG terminals. The only one losing a lot of money, employment and suffering social upheaval is EU-rope. I can't really imagine that no one outside the EU would really give a damn if someone does a suicide. No more than a supermarket merchant would care if one of their customers commit suicide. Although of course, every suicide is a tragedy.
Posted by: unimperator | Sep 26 2022 19:06 utc | 54
Well if it aint brutally obvious that the EU technocrats and the WEF "summer camp" stooges do not care one iota for the citizens, then I dont know what to say. Best of luck? It's gonna be carnage come winter, then add another 10K migrants.
Posted by: Chevrus | Sep 26 2022 19:10 utc | 55
The RAND report is called fake by some but even if it is, it is quite explanatory. In the "i don't understand how this Olaf Scholz is allowed to get away with this bullshit":
The prerequisite for Germany to fall into this trap is the leading role of green parties and ideology in Europe. The German Greens are a strongly dogmatic, if not zealous, movement, which makes it quite easy to make them ignore economic arguments. In this respect, the German Greens somewhat exceed their counterparts in the rest of Europe. Personal features and the lack of professionalism of their leaders — primarily Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck — permit to presume that it is next to impossible for them to admit their own mistakes in a timely manners.
Thus, it will be enough to quickly form the media image of Putin’s aggressive war to turn the Greens into ardent and hardline supporters of sanctions, a ‘party of war’. It will enable the sanctions regime to be introduced without any obstacles. The lack of professionalism of the current leaders will not allow a setback in the future, even when the negative impact of the chose policy becomes obvious enough. The partners in the German governing coalition will simply have to follow their allies — at least until the load of economic problems outweighs the fear of provoking a government crisis.
However, even when the SPD and the FDP are ready to go against the Greens, the possibility for the next government to return relations with Russia to normal soon enough will be noticeable limited. Germany’s involvement in large supplies of weapons and military equipment to the Ukrainian army will inevitably generate a strong mistrust in Russia, which will make the negotiations process quite lengthy.
https://2ndsmartestguyintheworld.substack.com/p/bombshell-classified-rand-corporation
German seats: SPD: 206, Greens: 118, DFP: 92. The current German government can only replace the Greens with the CDU (= retarded Von der Leyen) if not there's no majority for a government. So the green fanatics have Scholze by the balls. (Although up till now he has shown he has no balls ;-) So nothing will change unless there is some kind of putsch. The German greens are beyond crazy and are perfectly fine with no industry not knowing what that actually entails.
Posted by: xor | Sep 26 2022 19:20 utc | 56
It's not like the world does not know what massive public unrest looks like in Germany... How sharply Germany can find a scapegoat. You don't wanna get The Fatherland up and about.
Posted by: Gerry Bell | Sep 26 2022 19:27 utc | 57
@ b who wrote about the European nations going along with "US" sanctions
"
The rather dimwitted European leadership fell for the trick.
"
When are the public in the West come to the understanding that US and all Western nation leadership is bought and owned by the same God of Mammon elite?
When are the public in the West going to understand that their nations are not sovereign if they don't control their own money/finances? The US public is no more calling the global shots than the European public.
Michael Hudson makes it quite clear that the current Central Banks are not organized to serve the public interest but the interest of a global financial elite...the God Of Mammon cult is what I call them.
This cult is being challenged by the Russia/China axis and the cult is going to lose. The question remains of how the long the transition from global private finance to global public finance will take and how much suffering will humanity endure to end the barbarism.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 26 2022 19:31 utc | 58
Dear b. I recently read that you block some IP's. Since a while I used VPN tunneling using psiphone via US-server-region. Since today I get "IP blocked"-response when using that tunnel for accessing moon. Now also "not available". (I never posted anything here before.)
Posted by: Gana | Sep 26 2022 19:36 utc | 59
"When are the public in the West going to understand that their nations are not sovereign if they don't control their own money/finances? The US public is no more calling the global shots than the European public."
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 26 2022 19:31 utc | 58
What do you expect the average person in the west to do? March in the streets by himself? And then he gets fired from his job for being "racist" or something and then he just becomes homeless and dies? There's no way to organize how to make anything better because nobody is allowed to talk to eachother online without bots shitting up the discussion because the people in power don't want citizens to have any freedom. So how exactly is anything supposed to get better? The only time there were violent revolutions in the past, was a time when the people didn't have TV, I'm pretty sure. So why would a person choose to die marching in the streets when that isn't going to accomplish anything anyway? Why not just watch porn on TikTok or whatever and hope that in the future somebody else does the work?
People in the west have been brainwashed to be completely narcissistic and not caring about anything that is not their own material wealth or popularity. You are supposed to be constantly psychotically smiling, "grinding" and "hustling" and watching the NFL and playing fantasy football. You are not allowed to talk about anything that would actually affect your quality of life or that is considered racist or "white rage" terrorism. You need to just stay in your wage cage, jack off to teenagers on TikTok and die without having any children.
Smartphones have made it so that people are constantly bombarded with propaganda on a level that people in the past could have only ever dreamed about. What does anybody here expect to happen? You I guess the question is, why would anything happen other than the slow degradation of everything until we are living in a society that resembles China? Does anyone expect a "levee" to break at some point?
Even if the people in power were going to lose, they would just launch nukes. Right?
Posted by: omninom | Sep 26 2022 19:56 utc | 60
"The U.S. arranged for a Ukrainian attack on the rebel held Donbas region."
When making claims, supporting evidence is usually expected. I emailed OSCE and their response was that they only record violations but do not attribute blame.
German's can't back out, they need a temporary ceasefire, change of government or nord stream I reopen to save face.
Posted by: Sean | Sep 26 2022 20:00 utc | 61
A defeatist troll @60.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2022 20:01 utc | 62
It's an honest question, and a more productive use of time than reading 500+ posts of people asking "Yeah man when are people in the West going to wake up?" as a rhetorical question. How can you keep reading that for hundreds of posts and not get bored? Why don't you actually discuss the reasons WHY they aren't waking up instead of just saying man people are stupid wow I hope Russia wins and saves us all from globohomo, come on now isn't that just a little boring and repetitive?
Posted by: omninom | Sep 26 2022 20:16 utc | 63
The European ppls will never protest if the elite is not backing and controlling them. The East Europeans are willing to eat mountains of crap before they stand up.
Posted by: Lars | Sep 26 2022 20:27 utc | 64
Posted by: Samson | Sep 26 2022 18:09 utc | 42
"What did Biden tell Scholz to turn him around. He must have offered a future worse the poverty. What could that be? Nuclear devastation..."
What could that be? Blackmail.
Investigative reporter Phil Stanford, author of "White House Call Girl", uncovered secret rooms in D.C. hotels where high-ranking political figures could cavort with gorgeous call girls, unaware that they were being photographed and recorded.
His research indicated that the FBI was collecting that and other sources, to be used to blackmail said high-ranking politicos if they refused to kow-tow to the billionaire owners of war factories, who also own the Congress. There's little doubt that the CIA is doing exactly the same thing, but mostly in foreign climes.
To know what was offered by Biden in particular, you should probably read John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."
Posted by: AntiSpin | Sep 26 2022 20:27 utc | 65
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 26 2022 18:14 utc | 44
"You do know what “cake” is ?
It is the Polish precursor to bread especially French breads …….. it simply means eating the precursor rather than baking the bread"
Actually, there is a French word that translates to the English word "cake," but the French word means the hard, black, charcoal-like substance that adheres to the sides of the baking ovens, that has to be cleaned out periodically. The English word also refers to stuff that gets "caked on" to the sides of the ovens.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Sep 26 2022 20:35 utc | 66
America is a net trade deficit nation - but it exports $1.76 trillion a year.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 26 2022 17:54 utc | 41
If you are the European branch of a US multinational, then oce a year you buy something - a manual, a machine, whatever - so no profits are made in high-tax countries. Disneyland Paris, for instance.
Posted by: Passerby | Sep 26 2022 20:36 utc | 67
@ omninom | Sep 26 2022 20:16 utc | 63 who wrote
"
It's an honest question, and a more productive use of time than reading 500+ posts of people asking "Yeah man when are people in the West going to wake up?" as a rhetorical question.
"
You misrepresented the question I raised by leaving off the part that continues to be left out....so lets repeat my questions
When are the public in the West come to the understanding that US and all Western nation leadership is bought and owned by the same God of Mammon elite?
When are the public in the West going to understand that their nations are not sovereign if they don't control their own money/finances? The US public is no more calling the global shots than the European public.
If you notice, b, yourself and others keep looking at the US as the national boogie man when the God Of Mammon cult is international and the US public is in the same boat as other nations.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 26 2022 20:36 utc | 68
Do not worry, the military putsch or Melonis, that is old fascism, are on the menu to navigate the worst of the economic crisis in Europe.
There is talk of already military walking the streets of London and starting from the 1st of October Germany too.
I have read about an urgent announccement by the Bank of England with regard the historic down of the pound...
There are already unions´ calls for mobilizations of workers claiming for a rise in wages to catch up with inflation...A dictatorial European Comission, accustomed to rule the fascist way during the whole pandemic, will not tolerate that nor will it allow the return of the "old normal", when people could go into the streets to make their claims. It has been so far so good for them up...
Answering the question by karlof1 on what to expect from Meloni, well, it seems she is a member of the Aspen Institute, which is full "deep state" and related, for what it seems, to the Order of Malta, whose leadership was all of a sudden "renewed" by globalist Bergoglio...
Meloni made clear even before the elections that EU and NATO were not issues under discussion.
Do your numbers.
http://t.me/NewResistance/12743?comment=201391
I knew Meloni was getting into the sidelines by the financial elites since she was the only one who got out of the "salvation government" leaded by Dragui, where, everybody including Meloni´s partners in coalition, Berlusconi´s and Salvini´s parties, got portfolios in Dragui´s government, the one which impossed the Covid dictatorship which brought us here, to the old European fascism of always, as soon as people starts to awake to the hardships of tecnofascism, which left without the right to work to millions of honest hard working Italian taxpayers...
Notice that neither the famous Italian mafia, allegedly robbing the rich, nor your typical ubiquitous European terrorists at other times of trouble ( I dunno, ETA, IRA, Red Brigades, Baader Meinhof..all these guys shitted on the lives of a whole generation of European young people...but, well, some are now in the Parnasus of European parliaments oblivious to the populations suffering and galloping towards scarcity and misery...) both, we know now for a while tools of the elites at the top, made their appearance to make some justice, like they allegedly continue doing in places like Iran, Rusia and the Sahel...One only wonders why they are such selective in fighting dictatorships and tyrants..in spite of the ongoing carnage..You tell me, is it not strange that there has not already appeared, you know, one Symbiotic People´s Liberation Army or the kind, which liberate us from venomous vipers like psychos Pustula von der Leyen, Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates or Yuval Harari?
Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Sep 26 2022 20:41 utc | 69
the link @ karlof1 | Sep 26 2022 18:55 utc | 53 is highly enlightening.. i recommend it to others.. i read it yesterday.. thanks again to karlof1 and juliania..
@ xor | Sep 26 2022 19:20 utc | 56
thanks xor.. i appreciate it.. i had heard this before... the greens of germany are the bridgehead for usa foreign policy objectives, along with nato of course and german people are incapable or unwilling to see this... based on what you are saying, germany is going to have to learn the hard way... there are very few politicians with balls... so this german leader Olaf Scholz is the norm, as opposed to an exception.. thanks for your perspective...
---------------- of course blackmail is a useful tool as well in the political world... i am sure there is a lot of that to go around... that is what we have the cia and other agencies like that for... wonder who the new jeff epstein is?
Posted by: james | Sep 26 2022 20:45 utc | 70
@ Ghost of Mozgovoy | Sep 26 2022 20:41 utc | 69
apparently my wife informed me that this new party in italy are homophobic.... clearly the media is doing its job here, lol.... if my wife says this, it must be true!
Posted by: james | Sep 26 2022 20:46 utc | 71
@omninom #60:
What do you expect the average person in the west to do? March in the streets by himself? And then he gets fired from his job for being "racist" or something and then he just becomes homeless and dies?
Ever heard of workers’ solidarity? Ten workers promise to each other that if one is fired for political activity, the rest will support him/her until he/she finds another job.
There's no way to organize how to make anything better because nobody is allowed to talk to eachother online without bots shitting up the discussion because the people in power don't want citizens to have any freedom.
Ever heard of private chats or group video calls? Or—the horror—actually meeting offline, e.g., at someone’s apartment?
So how exactly is anything supposed to get better?
It’s not supposed to get better by itself. You are supposed to act to make things better.
So why would a person choose to die marching in the streets when that isn't going to accomplish anything anyway?
Oh, now it’s dying marching in the streets? Please. Your Western dictatorships are not there yet and won’t be for quite some time.
People in the west have been brainwashed to be completely narcissistic and not caring about anything that is not their own material wealth or popularity.
People who care do exist, but are hesitant to act because they are isolated and thus demoralized. Find such people in your city or in a neighboring city, befriend them, meet them offline, try to find common ground on what you could do together to make things better.
Posted by: S | Sep 26 2022 20:57 utc | 72
Yes, RAND Corp already stated most of this: https://nyadagbladet.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/rand-corporation-ukraina-energikris.pdf
Posted by: Grant | Sep 26 2022 21:05 utc | 74
Has Thomas Piketty weighed in on these recent events?
I believe he takes a long time to research and formulate a hypothesis, but he seems to develop an understanding of dynamics.
Might be interesting…
Posted by: ritzl | Sep 26 2022 21:09 utc | 75
Don't worry, there is no "victory" here for the US. Producing in the US in only cheaper than in Germany, but it is not competitive. Any german factory that moves there will be dead in a few months/years. The prices of fuels/electricity will get as high in the US as in Europe, especially if new factories are started there. Moreover, the dollar is now too expensive compared to other currencies, making it very difficult to sell the production, at the same time when inflation is consuming US purchasing power.
Posted by: Howard Petz | Sep 26 2022 21:09 utc | 76
@omninom | Sep 26 2022 19:56 utc | 60
...until we are living in a society that resembles China?
If you are not living in China, you can't judge their post-communist system. It is their problem, and they are not eager to export it anywhere.
But if you are living in 'The West', you have bigger problem to be worry about. If you haven't noticed yet, industrial capitalism had transformed into financial capitalism and then into open fascism. With all this Russo-phobia and Chino-phobia it seems your system is running full ahead into Nacizm.
I would start to worry, and start to look around myself and not so far away.
Russia bad, China bad, communism bad are just diversions in globalist illusion, don't fall a victim into.
Posted by: ldragon | Sep 26 2022 21:13 utc | 77
Posted by: omninom | Sep 26 2022 20:16 utc | 63
Yes it was a reasonable question and not at all troll like.
There are many factors which have caused complacency or perhaps just inertia in the West. Certainly smart phones and the internet are amongst them. I would add a) the total decline of unionism or perhaps the shift from blue collar to white collar jobs,b) loss of community which was partly based on many people working together at the same place and living together c) greater mobility so people live further from community d)decline in education standards e) the complacency born of good times which have lasted for two generations f) decline in respect for politicians which has led to a decline in quality g) the probably deliberate splitting of any left wing agenda by diverting it from left economic and foreign affairs issues towards identity issues and green politics h) active infiltration of the left (and probably right wing populist) parties by USA spooks i) some bribery and corruption.
Karlofi is is not defeatism nor trolling to acknowledge reality. I was an activist against the war in Vietnam from childhood, led by my solidly left wing father and passionate if silly mother. The thing is so were nearly all my friends, even those from conservative backgrounds. We were passionate and active. However there is no such passion amongst the next generation. This includes my kids. They will not get into the streets. They believe the MSN. Nothing will shake them. The green agenda stirs two of them a little as does the identity politics (more so) but not enough to be activists.
Poverty, war, hunger may shake them.
Posted by: watcher | Sep 26 2022 21:15 utc | 79
DutchZ. U aren’t powerless. U see what’s happening. Make u and urs as safe as possible right now. Heavy curtains close rooms in ur house keep a tub full of water somewhere, alternative heating etc etc You are only powerless to effect things outside your sphere, within this space u will effect the change that matters. Seeing the wave coming makes it much easier to ride. The take away here is that u aren’t helpless.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Sep 26 2022 21:17 utc | 80
@Grant #74:
Yes, RAND Corp already stated most of this…
No it hasn’t. That “report” is fake. Whoever produced it did a disservice to the anti-imperialist cause. It’s unfortunate that Petri Krohn is promoting it.
Posted by: S | Sep 26 2022 21:19 utc | 81
Genocide by cold rather than heat (Nazi ovens). Vicki meant it when she said in 2014, "F the EU." That enmity she cultivates, race-based as it is, she will atone at a time and place not of her choosing.
Posted by: The Rev. David R. Gr | Sep 26 2022 21:20 utc | 82
Vicki Nuland took an axe,
and gave the Ukies forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave Old Europe forty one.
Posted by: The Rev. David R. Gr | Sep 26 2022 21:21 utc | 83
A magician really doesn’t deceive anybody. He winds his way through the gaps and holes in our perception. We do it ourselves.
IT is quite normal to think that politicians in the EU are confronted with the same uncertanity as we are. It’s normal to think we share a world.
Perhaps this not so.
Perhaps a way has been shown to them that leads from now beyond years to come. They’ve been convinced and believe that all that’s going to happen is unavoidable, necessary and leads to a better future. They hold the lines, they don’t shatter and run. Whatever might happen.
Because they’ve seen the way.
The way leads to UBI; social, health, climate and energy credit; world government, social impact investments etc. New OS is about to be installed, and it needs to be a clean install. War is the best excuse there've ever been.
***
On the other hand – sometimes somewhere someone has painted them a future that is far bleaker and more terrifying that we would ever imagine. They have already trained for it, they’ve gamed it in one of their special events for such things. SO they are ready to torture anyone to avoid this fictional future from ever happening. L. Cohen has been mentioned here for "Everybody knows", but he has another piece called "The Future”:
Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
I've seen the future, brother
It is murder
Altogether this means they are conditioned not to see the reality. They’ll think the pain is not half of what it could be otherwise. Except nobody has let the public into what they been shown.
BTW Destroy Europe and you destroy the richest market for both Russia and China.
Posted by: js | Sep 26 2022 21:24 utc | 84
The why is because it's still too early while always too late(?). I sort of think that might be it. I have no answers.
Brioche & the UN
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
If people have eaten brioche they might understand both that it's not a cake but also that "cake" carries the relevant meaning (of unrealistic entitled idiocy) when translating "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" ("Let them eat brioche"). Also: a misattribution according to Wikipedia.
Chip Poirot:
I can't find it either, it might not have been released to the public (or press for that matter) yet(?). Could be as simple as it not having been translated yet. Finding stuff at the UN can be an impossible task and when one does find a good place it can disappear if it turns out to be too popular. That happened with the WHO source material during Covid and all that was left behind was all the massaged PR pap. Speaking of PR pap it's a good description of nearly every UN web page :|
Try again next week?
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Sep 26 2022 21:36 utc | 85
No, what they are is they are IN on the racket ... they are part of the team, part of the plan. They spend all their time studying, working, conferencing, and ruling with fellow teammates, promoting each other and gaining Board spots and millions of $$ as they go. It's a very sweet racket and the situation of their home countries does not bother them at all. Saying they are dimwitted lets them off the hook ... they are corrupt, not stupid.
Posted by: Caliman | Sep 26 2022 17:50 utc | 39
Agreed but with one caveat: being in on the racket is a type of dim-wittedness....
Europe, and especially Germany, can only escape this obvious trap if it opens the pipelines from Russia. It now high time to do that.
There is zero chance of this happening. Even if Russia is willing, cutting off from Russia wasn't purely determined by attempting to weaken it but rather a kind of 'cancel culture' expressing disgust with their supposedly unprovoked attack on their former colony. This logic will not permit the reopening in the event of the end of the war. It will never be turned back on.
That is until the current ruling elite in the West is fully disposed. But that seems to be what they're trying to do to themselves, outside Denmark I don't see the mainstream parties taking any action to stop this neoliberal managerialism that just sort of careens from preventable crisis to crisis as if there was nothing that could be done. Eventually you run out of luck and hit the rocks too hard to keep going. They'll just keep going until they break their countries.
Social atomisation and individualism from the post 68 era combined with messing up the ethnic homogeneity with mass migration makes the resiliency of society worse and worse and makes society articulating it's needs and rights harder allowing parasitic social and economic actors to undermine it even more until something has to give.
Some fear what is to come this winter and next and the next, on the contrary, I see it as the shock to the system to turn things around.
There's nothing wrong with the European people. There's a lot wrong with the leaders and media of Europe.
Let's hope the mainstream political parties hit the floor because the alternative is submission and a kind of permanent state of inequality and political dysfunction like Italy or Brazil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8-sMJZTYf0
Posted by: Altai | Sep 26 2022 21:52 utc | 87
I hope I understand this - Biden convinces European leaders to impose sanctions, price caps and refuse to buy cheap Russian oil and NG via MordStream 2 pipeline. Russia earns more money on oil due to sanctions causing a sudden spike in prices for energy. The lack of cheap energy effectively shuts down all energy intensive manufacturing in the European Union and likely bankrupts a number of European businesses. No energy, no jobs, no income, no fertilizer, no food, no taxes to support the governments .... I don't see how Europe benefits? Seemingly the US cleans up. Did Biden write the book, "Art of the Deal" or was it some other president?
Posted by: KenCanuck | Sep 26 2022 21:59 utc | 88
Maybe the UK & EU governments can distribute more ukronazi flags among their citizens to help them keep warm.
Posted by: TEP | Sep 26 2022 22:00 utc | 89
Posted by: omninom | Sep 26 2022 20:16 utc | 63
Omninom, I was going to stick up for you and try to answer but then I read watcher's excellent comment at:
Posted by: watcher | Sep 26 2022 21:15 utc | 79
Let me just add: I think it's perhaps the most important question of all to be able to answer clearly. The saying goes that 'all that is necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.' True.
Where are the good men and women?
How many regard the meaning of life, the challenge of their life's journey as that of promoting the good, virtue and diminishing unvirtuousness? How many even consider such things? What is that which is driving them through each and every day? Is there learning? Is there meaningfulness? What is there?
Are most modern people in developed countries even really alive or are they sleepwalking?
To answer those questions we have to tune in a little bit to the atmosphere around them, aka culture or society. If goldfish swim in dirty, poisoned water they don't have long to live, their prospects are dim; the bowl was bad enough already instead of being in a river or lake but now.... what is their current life reduced to? We are those goldfish swimming in dirty water in far too small an area for normal, healthy life.
Sorry to say, but it seems like depopulation is in the cards one way or another. Or put another way: there is little foundation or ground to believe that a different fruition is in the offing. The future is the maturation of seeds now in the present. Human nature, like that of a goldfish, may be a marvelous thing, but absent proper conditions in which to thrive according to its nature....
That came out much darker than I feel generally, but there is a huge crisis at play right now, one that will not be fixed by new political arrangements or ideologies because such things never penetrate into the heart of complex, organic dynamics.
Paul Greenwood @ 44
I guess I lost that one in the translation from long ago. This what "let them eak cake" means from my understanding:
"Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", said to have been spoken in the 17th or 18th century by "a great princess" upon being told that the peasants had no bread. The French phrase mentions brioche, a bread enriched with butter and eggs, considered a luxury food. The quote is taken to reflect either the princess's frivolous disregard for the starving peasants or her poor understanding of their plight.
Actually she is a distant relative of mine according to some research done by others.
Posted by: circumspect | Sep 26 2022 22:16 utc | 91
Posted by: watcher | Sep 26 2022 21:15 utc | 79
Poverty, war, hunger may shake them.
China is going to do it for them. China prepares for war
Posted by: George | Sep 26 2022 22:17 utc | 92
Actually she is a distant relative of mine according to some research done by others.
Posted by: circumspect | Sep 26 2022 22:16 utc | 91
And according to research done by others she never said such a stupid thing. They had propaganda script writers back then too, though at that point in history they were called 'freemasons.' They put to the revolution together before, during and after proving - not for the first and last time - how powerful is narrative in the realm of human experience and polity.
Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 26 2022 22:10 utc | 90
Its just propaganda. The same they used on Yugoslavia, Serbia, Lybia, Syria and now Russia.
The thing is, Russia is much harder. It fights back.
Posted by: alek_a | Sep 26 2022 22:21 utc | 94
I have some queries for B or anyone else who knows especially those in Germany and i suspect also Poland.
1. What will be the effect of rampant inflation lasting another 6 months. It is already gone wild (more than 20%) in Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova and the three Baltic states and is now higher in Poland than in Russia
2. When as is inevitable there are short term layoffs in Germany (and elsewhere) who will be laid off first and what will happen to them. I am thinking of the many refugees who flooded to Germany since 2014. if they have no work will Germany continue to support them? How will they behave?
3. What will happen to the European budget, given that Germany is by far the largest donor nation. With Germany's economic model in tatters, how is hell will it donate to Poland and the minor states. Will this trigger collapse of the EU. After all the willingness of the minor nations to join depended on largess from Germany, Italy and the UK. The party seems to be over.
4. if a hot or lukewarm war breaks out ie sabotage meets sabotage, how would Europe cope is some LNG terminals or ships meet a sad fate?
5. How quickly will German industry react by closing and moving elsewhere? VW already has announced probable moves. what others and where will they go?
Posted by: watcher | Sep 26 2022 22:21 utc | 95
Speaking of gas, or the lack thereof, Yury Podolyaka (via John Helmer) expects the remaining gas flows from Russia into and through Ukraine to come to a complete halt once the SMO changes its nature, after the new oblasts are incorporated. That should be fun.
I also expect the Black Sea Grain Initiative to be either scrapped or halted, at least for a while. Wonder what the Spanish and the Italians are going to eat in that case. These two have been the main EU beneficiaries of the program. In terms of receiving countries, they come in second and third after Turkey.
Another thing, the US may be better off than us poor Europeans, but even so, they're not actually doing well, are they? The bond-market slump, anyone?
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Sep 26 2022 22:23 utc | 96
Dear s.
What shall we organize in your opinion?
Demonstrations? Done that, been there, useless.
A general strike?
Cool. So please help us convince the 60% of the population who is getting their news from msm to join in. Please convince them quickly that wkipedia, google etc do not offer neutral information but selected viewpoints. In other words: please explain to everybody thst the conspiracy is true. Quickly.
Or do you want us to organize riots and a revolution?
Well since the Americans havent done that yet they are the same cowards we are. And they had at least guns.
The fact of the matter is, that most people cant see the devastation yet. We can and do meet in private. We organize demonstrations. We tried strikes during covid.
Ask the yellow wests about their success.
And please explain: if it is the goal of a government to destroy the economy, how are they going to be affraid by the threat to interrupt the economy (by striking for example)?
It is a little easy to complain online.
Posted by: Orgel | Sep 26 2022 22:28 utc | 97
"The rather dimwitted European leadership fell for the trick."
Cowardly as much as dimwitted. And I don't all together blame them. Scandals, coup by lawfare, charges of antisemitism and assassination await European leaders who step out of line.
On the otherhand, toe the line and receive wealth and an escape hatch if things go sideways. The Empire's main means of control has always been the capture and collaboration of other nations oligarchs and leaders.
Posted by: Haassaan | Sep 26 2022 22:29 utc | 98
Trump got the ball rolling with MAGA and it has been successfully implemented with the help of EU puppet leadership. Now that industry is returning to the US it is only a matter of time before the US is in a position to challenge Russia and China militarily where Europe would be the battleground. US is not stupid and being cunning, deceptive and supported by the US dollar will not relinquish voluntarily its' hold on the world stage.
Posted by: John Mason | Sep 26 2022 22:31 utc | 99
Is there any hard evidence that the "Ukrainian offensive" east of Kharkov was anything other than a small attack?
There doesn't seem to be a single estimate of the number of Ukrainian tanks involved.
Doesn't anyone here know?
Surely someone here knows. Surely?
It seems no one knows. No one seems to have any idea.
Why is it that no one here nows anything much about the "Ukrainian offensive" east of Kharkov?
Posted by: Jack | Sep 26 2022 22:39 utc | 100
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Now the USA, whose industry was built by German immigrants, needs more German immigrants.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 26 2022 16:40 utc | 1