I'm still very curious to hear more about the Russian evidence for British involvement in the Nord Stream attack. I admit to having a bit of a suspicion that the torpedoing of Corbyn, the second Brexit referendum, the ongoing Tory interregnum and Nord Stream (and the general tendency towards escalation in the war) attack are all related in that they were coordinated by the same group of people, and this same group of people colluded with the elements within US State Department to further goals really shared only by this small clique. Some links that seem to indicate this:

How an obscure intelligence-linked party fixed a second Brexit referendum and torpedoed Corbyn

Exclusive: Russian hackers are linked to new Brexit leak website, Google says

I also wonder if the death of QE2 contributed in a way to the Nord Stream attack, since I find it hard to believe there would have been rogue intelligence operations of that magnitude if she were around to potentially act as a countervailing force. But what if someone was selling the idea that with Nord Streams gone British gas from the North Sea could be piped in at a profit like the US is doing? When the Queen died someone could have made a beeline for the future King (known to be of lax moral character and always in need of more cash) with the pitch to get sign off for the next carousel of Prime Minister appointees. In the rush of changing PMs and the several weeks of mourning for the old monarch, a lot of fortunes could have been made.

Posted by: super extra | Nov 6 2022 15:10 utc | 1

Thxs for the Germany selection. To me this was the most important event of the week and I hope it helps begin to resolve the geopolitical logjam caused by a recalsitrant Hegemon whose approach is now hurting Germany and soon her people the hardest (among top tier developed nations). I believe that if Germany can align with Eurasia that will inspire the rest of Europe to follow suit and a (positive) Brave New World move forward beautifully.

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 15:42 utc | 2

@ Posted by: super extra | Nov 6 2022 15:10 utc | 2

Are you seriously suggesting that any British monarch would be consulted or asked to sign off on something like Nordstream sabotage?

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Nov 6 2022 15:50 utc | 3

Though leary of him, I love the way he explains things in simple, clear and often visionary language. The section on Twitter around 30 mins well worth a listen.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P7wUNMyK3Gs

He predicts it could become one of the most valuable companies in the world but also goes through the Blue check fees and speech moderation issues quite lucidly. He is a much better journalist that way than most of the professionals in that field...

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 15:52 utc | 4

thanks b... lots to ponder.. i appreciate all your work and all the posters that contribute to a great website here..

Posted by: james | Nov 6 2022 15:54 utc | 5

Pakistan today: The wounded Khan, worried Generals and political chaos

Posted by: Antonym | Nov 6 2022 15:55 utc | 6

The multiple takes on the Scholz Beijing visit are confusing to say the least. The offering above from PRC Foreign Ministry is as authoritative as we will see, reading it is entirely an exercise in reading between the lines.

A good additional perspective here:

https://theduran.com/xi-jinping-schools-scholz-during-quick-trip-to-china/

For once these two are fairly brief. 11 minutes.

Pepe Escobar seems to have a small piece of inside information and is running hard with it. Maybe.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 6 2022 15:57 utc | 7

@Opport Knocks: Are you seriously suggesting that any British monarch would be consulted or asked to sign off on something like Nordstream sabotage?

..

I'm not exactly sure. I'm a dumb American and I'm just a normal civilian observer like most others here. But the Nord Stream attack was wildly beyond scope of British military special operations, wasn't it? Who would manage plausible deniability and cover up or sign off on that? Liz Truss didn't come up with the plan, someone pitched it to Boris Johnson at the very least. But if there wasn't a real state need for something like that, wouldn't Britain long term be opening herself up for major international settlements related to the pollution released by the attack? Unless there was a really big reason it could be overlooked in the long run, like WW3? A new monarch might not want to be seen as leading the country into war overtly. Wouldn't he need to be in line with what the spooks or military intelligence were directing?

Posted by: super extra | Nov 6 2022 16:13 utc | 8

Here we go again….

🇺🇸🗳🇷🇺 It is part of what the group and other researchers have identified as a new, though more narrowly targeted, Russian effort ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections. The goal, as before, is to stoke anger among conservative voters and to undermine trust in the American electoral system. This time, it also appears intended to undermine the Biden administration’s extensive military assistance to Ukraine.

“It’s clear they are trying to get them to cut off aid and money to Ukraine,” said Alex Plitsas, a former Army soldier and Pentagon information operations official now with Providence Consulting Group, a business technology company.

The campaign — using accounts that pose as enraged Americans like Nora Berka — have added fuel to the most divisive political and cultural issues in the country today.

It has specifically targeted Democratic candidates in the most contested races, including the Senate seats up for grabs in Ohio, Arizona and Pennsylvania, calculating that a Republican majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives could help the Russian war effort.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/06/technology/russia-misinformation-midterms.html

Posted by: Down South | Nov 6 2022 16:29 utc | 9

the comment section of the article - US chip-gear makers told to wait for relief from China curbs - SCMP

is especially insightful... 10 comments all worth reading..

Posted by: james | Nov 6 2022 16:31 utc | 10

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2022/11/06/cost-of-living-in-europe-and-further-aid-to-ukraine/

Report from a good writer who lives part of the year in Europe and part in Russia. Always interesting takes. This is about cost of living in Europe right now which is clearly going to become an increasingly important part of the politico-social dynamic there this upcoming winter. Right now they have warmer than usual weather but it will still start to get pretty cold in the northern areas soon.

And so street demonstrations by tens of thousands of irate citizens against untenable increases in cost of living have arisen elsewhere in Europe. Even The Financial Times is today giving extensive coverage to yesterday’s march in downtown Rome which brought together the economic issue of unsustainable rises in energy costs and the political issue of the ongoing war in Ukraine and Europe’s failed policies in that regard. The banners read “End to Violence” and the overriding message was that Italy must work to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table, not feed the conflict by further deliveries of arms to Kiev. This is a movement that is sure to turn up in many other European cities in the coming weeks, and the European governments will be unable to ignore it.

I read somewhere a while back that Trieste has been designated as the main Belt And Road port into western Europe. There are already hundreds of thousands of Chinese in the textile industry living in Italy with Chinese language street signs and such and I remember the first time I went to Asia in the late 1980's being surprised by how many Italian businessmen I saw in every country.

So looks like Italy and Germany might be increasingly aligned in looking to increase relations with Eurasia rather than going along with the current bifurcation thrust. Indeed, it's possible that that overly rigid approach might precipitate the opposite of what is intended, namely causing western Europe to integrate with larger Eurasia. Time will tell.

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 16:32 utc | 11

The presidents of Venezuela and Colombia
met in Caracas last week and discussed bilateral and international relations.

Strengthen commercial / economical relations
Safety of the common border, which is under control of the Mafia
Re-vitalization of commercial exchanges in the border regions (farmers mentioned)
Investigate and reconstruct the strategy against drug trafficking
Protection of Amazonia
Re-entry of Venezuela in the Andes Community CAN
Re-incorporation of Venezuela in the Inter-American human Rights Commission CDIH
Strengthening of the Community of Latin American States CELAC
Multilateral mission for UN proposals
Common policy for the Climate Conference COP 27 in Egypt
...

This Source labels the meeting "historic" while Western MSM keep a total silence, probably still waiting for the official narrative of Guaido's handlers in D.C.

Posted by: OttoE | Nov 6 2022 16:34 utc | 12

@ super extra | Nov 6 2022 16:13 utc | 9

i think the flaw in your thinking is to think that the monarchy, or the politicians are running things here... it is the exact opposite.. it is the security dept - intel agencies) that are calling the shots now... monarchy or politicians are told afterwards... i realize this goes against the grain of the idea we live in a democracy - so does the concept of the monarchy) but that is how i see it..

Posted by: james | Nov 6 2022 16:34 utc | 13

@Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 16:32 utc | 12

Report from a good writer who lives part of the year in Europe and part in Russia.

Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 6 2022 16:41 utc | 14

@ james | Nov 6 2022 16:34 utc | 14

Thanks james, I agree the intelligence agencies are running things. I think where I differ a bit is that I see the politicians and in this case the monarchy as the PR arm of the state or the front of the house or political actors that ensure the long term viability of the state.

Too many of the events in the west since the war has started has seemed like the spooks are wildly out of their depth in terms of the events being unleashed. In many cases it even seems there are people working with the spooks directly or indirectly who are profiting off the knowledge they receive on the war (or future sabotage events, or whatever is planned). The first part of my original comment about the hackers releasing emails from the former head of MI6 seeming to coordinate Brexit and the various PM appointees - to me this points to a larger plan starting from at least 2018 to achieve some sort of end that, based on hindsight, seems related to the war. Well Dearlove wasn't chatting with the guy running the corner shop in these emails, it was the Tory big donors I presume. Isn't the monarchy the mascot of the party? Wasn't Charles' footman charged with selling access for peerage appointments a while back? My wondering is less about did Charles 'approve' so much as was he involved in the Dearlove plot and did that plot go on to play a role in the Nord Stream sabotage?

Posted by: super extra | Nov 6 2022 16:53 utc | 15

@ super extra | Nov 6 2022 16:53 utc | 16

thanks.. i'm in canada- not in the uk, so don't follow that as closely as you.. yes - politicians and the monarchy as the pr arm of the state - i agree... there is a lot of haphazard shit happening that is not easy to explain here.. corporations have an undue influence on the politicians, but i think so much of this 'get russia meme' is being driven by the intel agencies - 5 or 6 eyes, which have their own agenda which happens to align with the banking, military and energy complex... so in this sense - the intel agencies are aligned with many important corporations.. the politicians seem to cater to them more then anything else.. and i really think it is about the money... how to sustain this financial ponzi scheme for as long as possible? it seems to require eating up the resources of everyone, but russia - ukraine is an especially juicy target that hasn't come under western dominance yet... it is looking like it might not either, no matter how much russia is demonized.. and the uk excels at this with its novichok and etc. etc. bullshit... it seems like the uk is just another usual servant to these financial interests, whether that be serving the city of london, or the federal reserve... that is about as far as i can go in understanding the mess the world is in today... cheers..

Posted by: james | Nov 6 2022 17:05 utc | 16

Reminder: Russia is in Europe
Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 6 2022 16:41 utc | 15

Not according to wikipedia! (and common usage)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

That said, personally I find Russia is by far the most 'European' state in the world right now whereas nations in Western Europe have all lost the plot. Hopefully the pendulum will soon be swinging back, but this will involve either returning to a Christian-dominated civilization or crafting something built on quite different foundations which have yet to be determined. Will probably take about a century. But meanwhile just joining the Eurasian initiative would help greatly.

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 17:17 utc | 17

@ james | Nov 6 2022 17:05 utc | 17

In full agreement! I think I find this specific tidbit juicy since it seems like we may be on a path to de-escalation and the US washing it's hands of this affair and I am very curious to see which entities are shouldered with the blame. Cheers

Posted by: super extra | Nov 6 2022 17:19 utc | 18

Thanks james, I agree the intelligence agencies are running things.

Posted by: super extra | Nov 6 2022 16:53 utc | 16

Yes, they are involved in pretty much everything these days as shouldn't have been allowed to happen but as powerful as they are they are merely executive agents serving higher masters whose personnel and functions remain occluded. Somebody here posted a few days ago that this hidden aspect points clearly to one thing: criminality. I agree. So the West is an oligarchic (and pathocratic) keptocracy...

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 17:22 utc | 19

Fires from exploding e-bike batteries multiply in NYC, sometimes fatally - NPR.org

Four times a week on average, an e-bike or e-scooter battery catches fire in New York City.

Sometimes, it does so on the street, but more often, it happens when the owner is recharging the lithium ion battery. A mismatched charger won't always turn off automatically when the battery's fully charged, and keeps heating up. Or, the highly flammable electrolyte inside the battery's cells leaks out of its casing and ignites, setting off a chain reaction.

"These bikes when they fail, they fail like a blowtorch," said Dan Flynn, the chief fire marshal at the New York Fire Department. "We've seen incidents where people have described them as explosive — incidents where they actually have so much power, they're actually blowing walls down in between rooms and apartments."

Yet another example of unready technology being pushed into mainstream.

Note that I have extensive first-hand experience with electrical transport devices. I formed a startup in 2008 to map city parking regulations, so that people could both understand what the parking regs are (most don't, or learn by getting tickets) followed by parking availability notices when users left their spots.

In order to get the data, I determined that an electrical scooter was the best way. No city outside of New York has any idea whatsoever what the actual overall parking regulation situation is at any given point, much less things like utilization or inventory.

The first electric scooter was lead-acid. It worked great except it only had a 5 to 10 mile range. It meant I could only work about 3 hours before it ran out of juice. I then duly switched to lithium, eventually creating a custom rig with a literal double max pack of lithium batteries that would enable the scooter to go 50 miles between charges which was sufficient for a full day of mapping.

There were many problems: the electric motors were reliable EXCEPT they used a copper brush to transfer electricity into the motor. The copper brush, unsurprisingly, was not designed for heavy use such as what I was using them for, so I wound up becoming an expert at disassembling the engine to replace the rotor brushes. Electric cars and presumably the e-bikes today use brushless motors, so that problem is resolved hopefully.

The scooters themselves were not watertight. The company that designs the particular ones I used is in Utah and these were clearly never intended for operation during rain even when unmodified - much less after I had installed the double-decker max battery pack.

There were also other issues: the setup had a brake in front, but in practice this meant that braking hard would cause the rider to flip over the axis of the front wheel. Riding on the sidewalks wasn't illegal back then, but I learned quickly not to do so because it would literally scare the crap out of people; a 6 foot tall person raised another 6 inches off the ground, going at 15-25 mph, coming at you right when you step out of your doorway or a shop/restaurant exit is understandably a shock.

It actually turned out that riding in bike lanes or the side of the road was far more efficient, and the motor+brake setup to slow/stop/reaccelerate meant I never had any issues with car doors opening or whatever. Riding while standing upright also meant I had a better view of traffic than most cars (my height + the scooter lift meant I was looking over regular car rooftops).

I never had a fire, but I definitely experienced battery runaway, short circuits, etc etc although I never had a problem with the basic structure (framework, brakes etc).

So I am not the least bit surprised that the half-assed, over-powered, under-cooled, under-tested and heavily used e-bikes are having problems. Note that I will bet money that these fires are primarily occurring with people using them for work - specifically food delivery.

I do think that there is a future with e-bikes and delivery - I actually looked at a grocery delivery setup using e-bikes. Buy from restaurant supply stores, add a % fee and break up for sale and transport to consumers. Unlike with Uber Eats or Safeway delivery or Instakart, the objective would not be concierge type wannabe rich people whim deliveries, but fairly regular weekly or twice weekly grocery deliveries. And with e-bikes, you can employ teenagers to deliver food, don't have to worry about parking etc etc.

But ultimately, there are better efforts to focus on.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 17:24 utc | 20

@Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 17:17 utc | 18

Not according to wikipedia! (and common usage)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

You are arguing against facts. Europe goes all the way to the Ural mountains, look at the map in your own source.

Your "common usage" is wrong. I know the fascistic EU is trying to hijack the term Europe, but that does not make it right.

Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 6 2022 17:31 utc | 21

@Scorpion #5
I wrote about Twitter's valuation potential not only back when the purchase was first mooted, months ago, but again 2 days ago in the previous OT thread.

I think people are smoking crack if they think Twitter will be completely reformed any time quickly, equally that they are naive if they think Musk is doing this for ideological reasons.

But the profit potential is absolutely there - and that is something which is reliable. The complication then is that it will put Twitter in direct conflict with the Deep State; the infiltration of the Deep State and its minions into the existing tech companies (see Unit 8200 link above as well as previous reports of NSA/FBI ex- and present- employees working in the tech titans) wasn't all push, it was also some pull.

The thing is: Musk's track record is entirely in going along with PMC+liberal government initiatives: SolarCity, Tesla or sidestepping government (Paypal) - so it is far from clear how willing and/or able he is to withstand the regulatory/bureaucratic/societal attack that he is going to be subject to.

Time will tell.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 17:32 utc | 22

@c1ue - Mapping 19th street in the rain heading down toward Market and Castro must have been a lot of fun! Your job sounds like it was interesting.
Here is my favorite SF song.
The Animals-San Francisco Nights

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 6 2022 17:35 utc | 23

"If extraterrestrial life sent us a message tomorrow, how would humanity respond? According to researchers, we don’t know yet — and that’s a problem.

That’s why, for the first time in 35 years, a team of policy experts and scientists have united to establish a set of alien-contact protocols for the entire world to follow in the event of a sudden encounter with E.T."...

https://www.livescience.com/alien-contact-protocol.html

IOW the first thing the extraterrestrials will hear is woke/pedophile propaganda and how all the world "stands with" the persecuted Nazi saints of a place called "Ukraine". Plus supply-side economics.

The real answer to how humanity should respond, of course, is keep yer mouth shut. But no one any longer is capable of this, and least of all those with power or who worship power.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Nov 6 2022 17:39 utc | 24

From Global Times on the relations between Germany (or the EU in general) and China:
"We have also noticed that Scholz's visit to China this time has become a key target for some forces. Who, in the end, does not welcome, does not want, or even opposes Scholz's visit to China? Most ordinary people in China, Germany, and Europe welcome it, because the practical cooperation between the two countries benefits them. And the business community is certainly even more welcoming. Those who create a buzz and pile pressure on Scholz are those who play with ideology as a profession, outdated European elites obsessed with their presumed superiority, and geopolitical manipulators in Washington."

Global Times is thought to reflect the official China policies. They are (in articles and cartoons) very bitter about the USA, somewhat conciliatory towards the EU and friendly without exuberance towards Russia. Now what is next for the Ruhr valley....?

Posted by: Anthony | Nov 6 2022 17:47 utc | 25

That Russia is NOT in Europe, and is therefore fair game for invasion, has been a typical bullshit argument, used by Napoleon and Hitler, most probably used by Sweden and Poland as well in past centuries.
Interestingly, ancient Greeks hadn't a clear and definitive view of the borders between continents, but some actually put Europe all the way to the Eastern ocean - meaning basically anything above Caspian Sea and Himalayas (or Altai, but they didn't really know it) was "Europe", so at least the whole of Siberia. Of course, other Greeks put the limit on the Don. Then, with better knowledge of the area, some put the border at Don then Volga, and eventually it was settled on the Volga proper - still, Muscowy was most of the time considered to be in Europe, the key unsettled issue was more the South-Eastern border, in the Caucasus area.
Right now, the only possible dispute left is about border in the Caucasus - I tend to favour the Caucasus ridge as the best line, since cutting across lowlands of Georgia and Azerbaijan doesn't make much sense.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Nov 6 2022 18:10 utc | 26

9 -

"a new, though more narrowly targeted, Russian effort..." NY Times

Whatever this is, it surely amounts to much much less than the Democrats $53 million investment in far right opponents.

The claims that random social media postings are successful in "undermining" or "stoking" or "sowing chaos" derive from a Congressional report from 2017, investigating the underfunded click-bait campaign from the previous year. This investigation had all the means necessary to conduct a forensic analysis of the postings which should have revealed specific targeting based on polling data or whatever. An effort with specific intent could not be established, so the resulting report instead theorized an intent to "sow chaos" by somehow fraying Americans' collective neural capacities through the limited distribution of memes. The correct answer, of course, is that it was a clickbait scheme, but there was no political capital to be gained from that. It is one among the most mindless of contemporary conventional wisdoms.

Posted by: jayc | Nov 6 2022 19:09 utc | 27

I can't find any reference in my search to a "3rd Ecumenical Council of 435" The Orthodox Wiki has the following, as does regular wikipedia:

The Third Ecumenical Council was held in Ephesus, Asia Minor, in 431 under Emperor Theodosius II, grandson of Theodosius the Great. It is also known as the Council of Ephesus. Approximately 200 bishops were present, though procedings began in haste before the arrival of the bishops from the west. The procedings were conducted in a heated atmosphere of confrontation and recriminations. It was the third of the Ecumenical Councils, and was chiefly concerned with Nestorianism...

...According to the Council, Nestorianism overemphasized the human nature of Christ at the expense of the divine. The Council denounced Patriarch Nestorius' teaching as erroneous. Nestorius taught that the Virgin Mary gave birth to a man, Jesus Christ, not God the Logos. The Logos only dwelt in Christ, as in a Temple (Christ, therefore, was only Theophoros: the "Bearer of God.") Consequently, the Virgin Mary should be called Christotokos ("Mother of Christ") and not Theotokos ("Birth-giver of God").

The Council decreed that Christ was one person, not two separate "people": fully God and fully man, with a rational soul and body. The Virgin Mary is Theotokos because she gave birth not to a mere man but to God as a man. The union of the two natures of Christ took place in such a fashion that one did not disturb the other.

The Council also declared the text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed to be complete and forbade any additional change to it. In addition, it condemned Pelagianism...

It is to be noted that Rome apparently was not present, so I am supposing what Pepe refers to is a council in Rome itself, but my search came up empty. Perhaps another better informed can explain the discrepancy.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 6 2022 19:11 utc | 28

Sorry, Rome not present as the council began, I should have said.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 6 2022 19:12 utc | 29

@lex talionis #23
I've literally been on every single street in San Francisco because I did that whole city by myself over 2 weeks as a proof of concept. The hills and highways have created a lot of interesting little neighborhoods and quirky corners.

Among other things: the streets that are publicly called the steepest, aren't actually. There is one street which was so steep that my scooter - even fully charged - couldn't go more than a few feet up it. It felt more vertical than 45 degrees particularly half a block in, but I'm sure that was just the sweat blinding me...

The parts which tourists see are completely boring in comparison.

And no, 19th/Castro/Market isn't that exciting. Far more exciting was going through Hunter's Point/Bayview, the Western Addition, and the Tenderloin. I witnessed a known down, drag out fight between 2-50+ or 60+ dark skinned men using hardwood cudgels/walking sticks on a Sunday morning at 9 am...

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 19:13 utc | 30

Flying Dutchman:
Not being able to shut up nails it, a recent BBC program allegedly about "first contact" was filled to the brim with "not shutting up" despite how painfully slow, empty, and stupid it was.

The editing and the poor (non-)narrative based on abusing a handful of facts, references, and outdated hyper-conservative conceptual frameworks ended up portraying the relatively young but very highly educated people as being completely brain-dead. It managed to make them look as if they hadn't spared a single moment of reflection on anything in life, on this planet or off it.

If the portrayal of them had been close to true they would all lose their minds the first time they saw someone playing catch with a pet dog XD

It became a study in horribly bad propaganda without any clear purpose. Maybe it was only made to annoy people.

Anyway sorry for the small rant on something so unimportant.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Nov 6 2022 19:17 utc | 31

Yet more proof that the fossil fuel industries are not investing in capex - much less typical high energy price capex

US rig count still 305 below pre-pandemic levels - oilprice.com

The number of total active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 2 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count increased to 770 this week—220 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2021, and 305 rigs lower than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic.

Oil rigs in the United States rose by 3 this week, to 613. Gas rigs fell 1 to 155. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 2.

The rig count in the Permian Basin held steady again this week at 346. Rigs in the Eagle Ford also remained unchanged at 70.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells—a more frugal use of finances than drilling new wells—slipped in week ending October 28—the first decrease in eight weeks. The frac spread count is now 293, down 5 from the previous week. This compares to 290 a month ago and 266 a year ago.

Crude oil production in the United States fell in the week to October 28, to 11.9 million bpd, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates. U.S. production levels are up just 200,000 bpd so far this year and just 400,000 bpd versus a year ago.

Note average oil price was $64 in 2019 and average natural gas price was $2.57 per mcf vs. ~$92 and ~$6.40 now.

If you demonize an entire industry ranging from cancelling leases and pipelines, to cessation of new leases, to windfall taxes and to constant public threats to legislate the cessation of fossil fuels by 2035 (13 years from now), it shouldn't be too surprising that fossil fuel companies decide not to invest billions of dollars in continuing to explore and develop new supply of fossil fuels.

I have been saying this for some time - and despite now over a year of high gasoline prices, there is still no sign of structural changes on either side of the supply/demand equation.

Meaning unless the magical benefits of alternative transport/alternative fuels/smart grids/insert nonsense term du jour here start occurring real soon - the inflation and erosion of standards of living isn't going to go away any time soon.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 19:22 utc | 32

@juliania #28
I've mentioned this before: the first split was the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.
Christianity at that time had a variety of "angels on the head of a pin" type disagreements on the fundamental nature of God; Nicaea stated that one particular view was the correct one and so threw the Oriental Orthodox faithful in the Middle East and Egypt into heresy.
At that time, my understanding was that Christianity was divided into 7(?) Patriarchates which were basically independent. Rome wanted to be primus inter pares, and Nicaea was a way to subjugate the particularly troublesome Syrian and Egyptian churches.
And there are those (including me) who think that the rapidity of the success of the Muslims in overrunning the Middle East and North Africa was precisely that the Oriental Orthodox were far better off as "People of the Book" under Muslims than as heretics under the Roman Papacy to be.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 19:31 utc | 33

@ c1ue - Indeed. HP, Sunnyside, Visitation Valley, TL, the 'mo, Inner Mission were quite interesting. I remember the old SF, too. I was always in the outer avenues, though. Ocean Beach!

Sorry to everyone else for a little Bay Area reminiscing,

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 6 2022 19:46 utc | 34

I did some further exploration as I fortunately have a volume of all Ecumenical Councils. Pepe's assertion is: "...this is when only Rome (italics Pepe's) was attributed universal authority (italics Pepe's again). However, the Synod of Bishops had already decided the issue, as the Roman delegates arrived late. What happened then was that these lately arrived were in accord with what the Synod had already decided, and were therefore received enthusiastically.

I think "universal authority" is a strong assessment in this case. 'First among equals' certainly, but it will remain to be seen what happens to such universality when, as shall later occur, Rome as it were takes the bit between its teeth.

And just to press my point, here's a 'Note on the Emperors' Edict to the Synod', neither emperor of the time being present in person:

"Candidian [captain of Imperial bodyguard]is to take no immediate part in the discussions on contested points of faith, for it is not becoming that one who does not belong to the number of bishops should mix himself up in the examination and decision of theological controversies..."

Posted by: juliania | Nov 6 2022 20:09 utc | 35

Super Extra @ 1:

Many if not most of us MoA barflies would agree with you that elements within MI6, the 77th Brigade, GCHQ and the British Foreign Office work closely with their counterparts in the US to the extent that departmental and natiional loyalties are blurred and everyone involved is really working for his or her own financial gain.

Where your argument falls apart is in assuming that the British monarch has a role in this whole operation similar to that of a President or a Senate. The British monarch's role is meant to be strictly ceremonial and to defer to the Prime Minister, though in practice the monarch (and on past occasions, even Prince Phillip and Prince Charles through the latter's "spider memos" to Cabinet ministers and attempts to change the British FOI legislation so that his expenditures and sources of money are less open to public scrutiny) has been able to exert some influence on political decision-making.

If King Charles III has any role to play, it will continue to be in some form of behind-the-scenes lobbying on behalf of a company supplying equipment or staff to MI6 or other British intel agencies to carry out covert activities - a company whose owners or managers happen to be chums and/or financial benefactors of the King.

Posted by: Jen | Nov 6 2022 20:10 utc | 36

Juliania @ 28:

By the time the Council of Ephesus met in 431CE, the Roman Empire had already split into its western and eastern halves. The order for the Council of Ephesus to meet must have come from emperors in the eastern capital of Constantinople. Any involvement of Rome would have been in sending bishops to attend the Council meetings.

Posted by: Jen | Nov 6 2022 20:21 utc | 37

@ Jen, thanks. I know the monarch's role in the actual government is slim. The reason I think it is worthy of conjecture is that the Tory party has gone through 5 (I think) prime ministers since the last general election. One quits, another is chosen by the party, then that person forms a cabinet, and then the monarch is asked for their assent before the new government takes over. Here is WaPo on the ceremony:

King Charles III plays role his mother did in UK power transition

Britain is a constitutional monarchy and one of the few powers that the monarch has left is the ability to appoint the prime minister. In theory, the king could exert some personal choice; in practice, he automatically appoints the person who can command a majority in the House of Commons.

What if Charles had instead persuaded Truss to call a general election? I realize this is totally unlikely but I think it is really interesting to speculate why, after 4? 5? prime ministers since the last general election, and mounting domestic crises, the new king did not do so?

Posted by: super extra | Nov 6 2022 22:01 utc | 38

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 17:32 utc | 22

Could you elaborate on the statement that PayPal was a way to sidestep government? Or did I mis-read you there? I think I may have since PayPal has gone along with anything the government has (seemingly) asked of them behind the scenes. Dropping WikiLeaks, demonetizing Consortium News and Mintpressnews, etc. I always saw PayPal and Omidyar as very willing participants in the Empire's initiatives.

Agree with you about Musk and Twitter, BTW.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 6 2022 22:24 utc | 39

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 6 2022 22:24 utc | 39

In perhaps an answer to my own question about PayPal, yes, now looking way back in fact it was used as a way to avoid paying sales tax, so that's probably what c1ue was talking about. I was thinking more recently. Now most states have forced online retailers to collect their taxes, even when said retailer doesn't have a physical presence in the state (I could be slightly off on that part). Always thought that was more of an eBay specific thing though. I suppose that PayPal's cooperation with the deep state may have even coincided with the whole sales tax thing.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 6 2022 22:30 utc | 40

Lest we forget https://t.me/mig41/22010
Congratulations for the 105th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. All setbacks notwithstanding, it opened a new chapter in human history.

Posted by: aquadraht | Nov 6 2022 22:32 utc | 41

According to the FM PRC report REF BY B, Chancellor Scholz expressed :

Germany wants to maintain communication and coordination with China to better safeguard regional and global peace and security.

China is an important trading partner for Germany and for Europe as a whole.

Germany firmly supports trade liberalization, supports economic globalization, and opposes decoupling.

Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment between Chinese and German businesses.

On issues where the two countries’ positions diverge, Germany is willing to exchange views with China to increase mutual understanding and trust, and stabilize, cement and grow bilateral ties.

A multi-polar world is needed in which the role and influence of emerging countries can be taken seriously.

Germany opposes bloc confrontation for which politicians should be held responsible.

Germany will play its role in furthering Europe-China relations.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202211/t20221104_10800546.html

It's kind of schizophrenic ... does 'Germany' really know what it wants? Does Chancellor Scholz?

German companies hail Scholz visit as beneficial for business
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202211/1278794.shtml

Despite diplomatic words about what Germany and China have in common, experts say that Chancellor Olaf Scholz's trip both contravened German government strategy and endangered EU unity.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-leaders-trip-to-china-raised-more-doubts-than-congratulations/a-63658657

A European MP from Germany's Green Party, a partner in Scholz's coalition government, says China policy can't be 'unilaterally defined by the chancellor'
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/german-lawmaker-joins-talks-with-taiwan-e2-80-99s-president-criticises-chancellor-olaf-scholz-e2-80-99s-e2-80-98unilateral-e2-80-99-china-policy/ar-AA13I9rI

Meanwhile on Friday, G-7 diplomats met in Germany to rally support for Ukraine and coalesced around suspicion of China’s increasing assertiveness amid a wide range of global crises.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germanys-scholz-china-amid-trade-ukraine-rights-issues-92639554

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 6 2022 22:36 utc | 42

c1ue @ 20

A normal bike operated normally will not rotate around the axis of the front wheel. Anyway it is not the hub that matters, it is contact patch of front tire. Trivially this accident happens all the time.

It is entirely a matter of center of gravity. Front braking going downhill? Yes, then center of gravity is quite different and any who use two wheel transport in hilly areas must learn to ride, it does not happen all by itself. Heavy batteries or motors in exactly the wrong place can cause havoc. Heavy packages carried the wrong place the same. Hitting curbs or potholes changes contact patch and center of gravity and can be problematic.

The primary and overwhelming reason for over the bars excursions is a rider (heaviest part of ensemble) sitting too high or too far forward. An engineer should understand this. In hilly areas riders must learn to shift weight backwards when braking downhill. Not everyone learns that skill and it is a reason that bikes have always been best received in cities on coastal plains.

Bicycles are absolutely subject to operator error. Blaming the machine is silly. Were the basic design so flawed as you suggest bicycles would have been re-designed or abandoned long ago.

Whitt & Wilson Bicycling Science MIT Press. First edition available online free. Equations for braking forces. Not looking up exact reference, this is old stuff. Personally have 450,000 logged lifetime miles plus unlogged city errand riding, two very minor accidents both involving police misconduct, both with unexpected driver going wrong way in a one way, one driver drunk, the other driver not even licensed. 90+% of bicycle accidents are user error.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 6 2022 22:39 utc | 43

According to the FM PRC report REF BY B, Chancellor Scholz expressed :

Germany wants to maintain communication and coordination with China to better safeguard regional and global peace and security.

China is an important trading partner for Germany and for Europe as a whole.

Germany firmly supports trade liberalization, supports economic globalization, and opposes decoupling.

Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment between Chinese and German businesses.

On issues where the two countries’ positions diverge, Germany is willing to exchange views with China to increase mutual understanding and trust, and stabilize, cement and grow bilateral ties.

A multi-polar world is needed in which the role and influence of emerging countries can be taken seriously.

Germany opposes bloc confrontation for which politicians should be held responsible.

Germany will play its role in furthering Europe-China relations.

fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202211/t20221104_10800546.html

It's kind of schizophrenic ... does 'Germany' really know what it wants? Does Chancellor Scholz?

German companies hail Scholz visit as beneficial for business
globaltimes.cn/page/202211/1278794.shtml

Despite diplomatic words about what Germany and China have in common, experts say that Chancellor Olaf Scholz's trip both contravened German government strategy and endangered EU unity.
dw.com/en/german-leaders-trip-to-china-raised-more-doubts-than-congratulations/a-63658657

A European MP from Germany's Green Party, a partner in Scholz's coalition government, says China policy can't be 'unilaterally defined by the chancellor'
msn.com/en-xl/news/other/german-lawmaker-joins-talks-with-taiwan-e2-80-99s-president-criticises-chancellor-olaf-scholz-e2-80-99s-e2-80-98unilateral-e2-80-99-china-policy/ar-AA13I9rI

Meanwhile on Friday, G-7 diplomats met in Germany to rally support for Ukraine and coalesced around suspicion of China’s increasing assertiveness amid a wide range of global crises.
abcnews.go.com

2nd attempt

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 6 2022 22:41 utc | 44

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 6 2022 22:39 utc | 43

As an experienced mountain biker, I can also tell you that over the bars tends to happen when inexperienced riders attempt to descend too steep a hill without shifting their weight over the back wheel - essentially moving your crotch behind the seat and crouching while bringing the pedals on each side level in a horizontal position.

It's hard for me to imagine that anyone ever made a bike with *only* front braking, because obviously that would be the other main reason for over the bars accidents.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 6 2022 22:48 utc | 45

TQC @ 45

Couldn't count the times I've been asked to remove the front brake of a bicycle because it is "dangerous".

On braking weight shifts forward. Braking downhill rear wheel supports near zero weight. Front brake always does the heavy work.

That designers have no knowledge of bicycles is why so many e-bikes are so pathetic. Once the decision has bee made to toss off a design lightheartedly, because it's only a bike, nothing good happens.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 6 2022 23:11 utc | 46

The thing is: Musk's track record is entirely in going along with PMC+liberal government initiatives: SolarCity, Tesla or sidestepping government (Paypal) - so it is far from clear how willing and/or able he is to withstand the regulatory/bureaucratic/societal attack that he is going to be subject to.

Time will tell.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 17:32 utc | 22

Personally, I doubt the surveillance and analysis functions for Intel will be reduced since my working assumption is that all these large social media companies are just the latest manifestation of Operation Mockingbird. However, on the surface it will become more neutral and thus less blatantly manipulative on the surface in stepping into elections and suchlike. So the surface will become more of a bona fide free speech zone but underneath it will still be an Intel entity. It can still be used for influencing because presumably some people will attract hundreds of millinos of followers absorbing their messaging, but that won't be done by the platform per se. Something like that.

Musk also apparently has big plans to use Twitter for something far larger and it is on the basic of that vision that he says it will become a major company at some point. Users will be able to monetize their content, it will have a banking interface based on a plan from the early 2000s he had when developing paypal and perhaps much more so there is going to be much more than Tweeting going on there.

Personally I avoid all such services (except Amazon which is simply too convenient). My tiny anti-Empire contribution.

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 23:20 utc | 47

Your "common usage" is wrong. I know the fascistic EU is trying to hijack the term Europe, but that does not make it right.

Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 6 2022 17:31 utc | 21

I am glad to learn you are correct. I believe I have confused the term 'western Europe' with 'Europe.' I have always regarded Russia as part of European civilization/culture but thought it was technically outside. Probably this is because when I was growing up during the Cold War era it basically was.

So thanks for setting me straight on that. I didn't look carefully at the map on the wiki page - my bad!

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 23:25 utc | 48

Thank you b for

Berlin Goes to Beijing: The Real Deal - Pepe Escobar / UNZ
Scholz’s China trip raises hackles - Indian Punchline

Two very significant assessments and I wonder if Scholz (SDP) can lure sufficient CDU parliamentarians to assist in throwing away the Greens and Free Democrats and survive a no confidence vote in the Parliament? Certainly Scholz has attracted some significant industrialists to his side and they, no doubt, can put enormous pressure on some of those CDU politicians where they have presence in the local economy.

Would Scholz have the chutzpa to try? Perhaps in another month or two or would that fatally destroy his alliance with industry and sentence the SDP to the same doom that awaits the Greens and FDP at the next election?

"It is highly improbable, though, that Washington will allow Scholz a free hand. Fortuitously for Washington, Scholz’s coalition partners — the environmentalist Green Party and the neo-liberal Free Democrats (FDP) — are unvarnished atlanticists and are willing to play the American game, too."

The old atlantic alliance is pushed beyond its endurance - in the winter... Napoleon and Hitler may have learned never to invade Russia in the winter, but Scholz and Germany are learning what it is like when the Russian winter that led to the destruction of the German third reich actually invades themselves.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 6 2022 23:30 utc | 49

c1ue wrote:
Yet another example of unready technology being pushed into mainstream.
_____________________________________________________

For about 50 years during its infancy the internal combustion engine gave lead poisoning to everyone who was anywhere near it. But according to c1ue that's OK because it was all done for the benefit of the Oil Companies. Anything not for the benefit of the Oil Cos isn't allowed any room for error or any time for development.

Posted by: jinn | Nov 6 2022 23:42 utc | 50

Below is a Musk/Twitter related comment posted on the Ukraine thread
"
on yesterdays musk thread. today comes probably something that would give everyone a giggle.
Elon Musk said that journalists who have the pronoun "they / them" in their profile will pay 16 dollars a month for account verification, not eight, since "they" is plural.

LGBT people have never been trolled like this before.

Posted by: hankster | Nov 6 2022 23:13 utc | 92
"

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 6 2022 23:47 utc | 51

Regarding Musk & Twitter: he simply has no clue what to do with it, just look at the hundreds of text messages which got released by the court – you can watch billionaires throwing millions and billions around and talking like morons... totally clueless :-)

Here's the PDF, scroll down to page 82 for the text messages:

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23108357/redacted-version-of-exhibits-a-j-to-letter-to-the-honorable-kathaleen-st-j-mccormick-from-edward-b.pdf

(if you're on a Mac then select the relevant pages and press CMD-R to rotate the pages for better readability).

Oh, and if you're too lazy to then here's a good summary:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/09/elon-musk-texts-twitter-trial-jack-dorsey/671619/

Posted by: Zet | Nov 6 2022 23:49 utc | 52

Jack Dorsey (ex-CEO of Twitter) in a text to Elon:

"believe it must be an open source protocol, funded by a foundationof sorts that doesn't
own the protocol, onlyadvances it.Abit like what Signal has done. It can't have an
advertising model. Otherwise you have surface areathat governments and advertisers will try
t o influence a n dcontrol. Ifi t has a centralized entity behind it, it will beattacked. This isn't
complicatedwork,it just has to be done right so it's resilient to what has happened to twitter."

Elon replies: "super interesting idea"

Muahaahaaa :-)

Posted by: Zet | Nov 7 2022 0:02 utc | 53

Scorpion #17

Citing wikipedia as your reference!

Seriously?

Surely you jest or have been imbibing in the cellar.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 7 2022 0:14 utc | 54

Zet #52

On Musk, you say "he has no clue what to do with it"

He is going to militarise it, milk it for every $, just as he has done with SpaceX, Starlink and so on.

Musk is a military privatisation stooge. All else is diversionary tactics, lipsticking pigs etc.

Or as the 'sage' from Kharkov would describe him - a system pig.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 7 2022 0:19 utc | 55

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 6 2022 23:11 utc | 46

If you use the technique I mentioned for steep downhill riding, the back brake can be relied upon to provide plenty of braking because your weight has been shifted back over the rear axle. Of course the front brake is used as well. I've had numerous bikes with cantilever, V and disc (hydraulic, cable actuated) over the years and some of those front discs really have serious stopping power, to the point that some bike shops have decreased the tension or pressure on the front slightly when selling to novice riders.

As with any vehicle on wheels, like you said, the front brake is doing most of the work 90% of the time (back brake only for controlled skids and whatnot). I've owned a number of performance cars as well and invariably they have the multi-piston calipers and large diameter rotors on the front. Most people doing normal driving should probably only have to get their rear brakes serviced every third or fourth time the front brakes are, but shops tend to do both at once to make more money. I do my own brakes.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 7 2022 0:25 utc | 56

Posted by: jinn | Nov 6 2022 23:42 utc | 50

Not only that but leaded gasoline continued to pollute the environment for decades; even longer in third world countries like Mexico. I grew up along the US-Mexico border in a mountainous region. The city on the other side was much bigger than ours and continued to use leaded gas until I was in my early 20s. The geographic and climate conditions there lead to frequent inversion layers and you could see the awful pollution from Mexico for miles and miles. The University is situated literally two football fields from the river and one of the poorest parts of the city in Mexico and sometimes I think I may have lost a couple of IQ points from the age of 10-20 due to how much time I spent there (father was a professor and department chair). As you probably know, many surmise that leaded gasoline was a main cause of (relative) cognitive retardation in the heavily polluted inner cities w/ lots of vehicle traffic - and some of them believe the falling crime rates have coincided with the phasing out of leaded gasoline in the US.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 7 2022 0:32 utc | 57

Posted by: Jen | Nov 6 2022 20:21 utc | 37

That is true. Isn't that what I said? Rome sent three delegates, but they arrived late. And neither emperor attended. The point I was disagreeing with was Pepe's contention that the council asserted Rome's absolute supremacy. At this early stage I don't see that to be the case.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 7 2022 0:54 utc | 58

From twitter.
“Graph showing data from VAERS.
>The total number of miscarriages and stillbirths per year since 1990 attributed to a vaccine reaction.…
https://twitter.com/pvwell/status/1586464163827953664
https://twitter.com/OpenVAERS

“> It is hard to overstate the corruption inside the @CDCgov that
@thackerpd has uncovered.
The US CDC is, in effect, acting like the marketing arm of big pharma. Anti-science……
“>>Weber Shandwick Provides PR for Moderna and Pfizer, While Staffing the CDC’s Vaccine Office https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/weber-shandwick-provides-pr-for-moderna…
$50 million contract allows PR firm to be “embedded at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta as part of the Division of Viral Diseases team.” /1
https://twitter.com/thackerpd/status/1579792488801636352

“Here's the LinkedIn account of one Weber Shandwick employee "Embedded at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta as part of the Division of Viral Diseases team." https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/weber-shandwick-provides-pr-for-moderna… /3

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 0:59 utc | 59

Halfway expected b to include this link in today's Week in Review.

Why is the NYT still hyping Russiagate?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 7 2022 0:59 utc | 60

Oh, apologies Jen, you were responding to my earlier comment. I did find more info, which I posted at Posted by: juliania | Nov 6 2022 20:09 utc | 35

Sorry to be a klutz - thanks for responding to my earlier post.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 7 2022 0:59 utc | 61

Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 0:59 utc | 59

Have saved your comment with its links. I will go through them soon. I have been calling the mRNA US big pharma vaccines the 737 Max vaccines for some time now as like with the aircraft approval authority in the US, US big pharma will be in bed with the drug approval authority.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 7 2022 1:13 utc | 62

@59 Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 0:59 utc

Thanks for that. The link you supplied is broken, this is the correct one going to the article. There's no need to say what the article reports, because the headline says it all:

Weber Shandwick Provides PR for Moderna and Pfizer, While Staffing the CDC’s Vaccine Office

Moving at the speed of science, they've now eliminated the revolving door between the public and private sectors, and simply taken out the dividing wall completely.

Posted by: Grieved | Nov 7 2022 1:14 utc | 63

"I do think that there is a future with e-bikes and delivery - I actually looked at a grocery delivery setup using e-bikes. Buy from restaurant supply stores, add a % fee and break up for sale and transport to consumers. Unlike with Uber Eats or Safeway delivery or Instakart, the objective would not be concierge type wannabe rich people whim deliveries, but fairly regular weekly or twice weekly grocery deliveries. And with e-bikes, you can employ teenagers to deliver food, don't have to worry about parking etc etc."

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 17:24 utc | 20

Your dream came true in Shenzhen a few years ago. Now there are about four or five such delivery companies here, the bikes of each carry their trademark colour, red, blue, yellow etc. Riders are paid a pittance so they are ridden furiously to make any sort of income. (Reading this, my wife has just told me that they have to provide the bikes themselves!) Furthermore just about everyone in Shenzhen who does not have a car seems to to own one. I was looking in a shop yesterday, really smart scooters like the old Vespas start from about $300. They are supposedly forbidden from riding on the roads (though many do): on some pavements in busy streets the pedestrians are outnumbered by electric bike riders, walking has become a hazardous exercise. They do not obey traffic rules (in fact nothing with fewer than four wheels does) so they ignore traffic signals including pedestrian lights. I have seen the results of appalling collisions with vehicles at crossing points. I have been struck three times on pedestrian crossings while on a green light.

Fires seem rare but they do occur. There are vast arrays of public charging points, I suspect that they are built to high standards. Charging within buildings is discouraged or illegal, probably that is where incidents occur.

Be careful about what you wish. It may come true!

Posted by: Walt | Nov 7 2022 1:23 utc | 64

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 6 2022 19:31 utc | 33

Thanks, c1ue. I haven't researched that earlier council, so I will take your word on that. The subject of my posts was the rift between Eastern and Western churches which Prof. Hudson was comparing to today's economical stresses on the world stage. I will just say that as that earlier council concluded those entities were in agreement as they were during the council Pepe referred to, and even today were the theological concerns settled, the Orthodox church would be willing to accept that Rome is 'first among equals', because that is historically accurate. But that would mean the Bishop of Rome would not have the absolute powers Prof. Hudson was pointing out were such a problem after the Great Schism.

The term 'heretic' is much less in use these days than it used to be - we never used it in our little church which followed ecumenical practices as much as it could. We even had young Catholic seminarians serving during our liturgies -- their bishop felt it was helpful for them to see how historically earlier services were conducted. Back in the day, we even had visiting Carmelite nuns from their nearby monastery on Easter night, for the same reason. And also, our choir gave a commemorative concert in Santa Fe's Catholic cathedral at Christmas in l988. It was to celebrate Russia's baptism in 988. The Cathedral staff gave us an hour to perform Orthodox hymns; we didn't charge admission and the cathedral was packed.

So, as Dostoievski has Alyosha say in his final novel, not all Catholics are like the Grand Inquisitor.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 7 2022 1:24 utc | 65

“In Poland, crews are being trained on Abrams tanks. These will enter service with the 18th Mechanized Division, near the borders of Ukraine and Belarus.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/beverley_kyle/status/1587803189423783937

Also from “trust me bro” sources on twitter:
>Poland bought 250 SEPv3s and will get 116 M1A1 SA (which will be modified/upgraded) as an exchange for T-72s that were sent to Ukraine, also Poland bought 1000 K2 Black Panthers from Korea and will also have to modify them.
> 1000 Black Panther tanks from Korea are some serious hardware.
At least as good as the upcoming Abrams SEPv4 or better.
Plus Poland will be manufacturing locally under licence which allows for easier future modifications.
Poland will have the largest tank force in Europe
> Add the 96 Apaches
> Poland wanted 500 HIMARS but no one took itseriously (obviously) also USA couldnt deliver any HIMARS in the designated time frame (now).. that's why Poland reached out to Koreans coz they can do it.
> Manufacturing capacity is the issue at the moment for HIMARS. Lots of countries already with orders ahead of Poland.

Putin says Poland has plans for western Ukraine…
In Ukraine :
“Residents of one of the residential complexes in #Kyiv unfurled a large joint flag of #Ukraine️ and #Poland and walked with it down the street.
Ukraine and Poland - together!”
[= More theatrics. In other uploads queues for water are streets long.
But sure. People have time and motivation to create giant flags.]
[or is a paid psy op in play????]
https://mobile.twitter.com/Feher_Junior/status/1586675594162585604

While the number of killed Ukrainian soldiers is unconfirmed.
Scenes like this memorial are increasingly appearing on social media.
Each flag= 1 man
https://mobile.twitter.com/UAarmy_animals/status/1588188711065354240

I guess this is why they are called foxholes:
https://mobile.twitter.com/UAarmy_animals/status/1588188711065354240

Nice artwork. Shame it’s all theatrics.
“video of how the mural was created in honor of the "Ghost of #Kyiv"
https://mobile.twitter.com/Feher_Junior/status/1589194182224384001

[[twitter is loading reeeeeal slow for me today. Did Elon sack the guy that peddles the e-bike that keeps the show running?]]

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 1:45 utc | 66

re Berlin Goes to Beijing: The Real Deal - Pepe Escobar / UNZ and Pepe Escobar seems to have a small piece of inside information and is running hard with it. Maybe.

Appearances can and are deceiving. I don't believe him. I think he is making it up. If all his "insider/secret/sources" are not themselves made up, then at best they are nobodies making up their own guff to feed a gullible Escobar.

OR what is actually said in private (like the telephone game) is being twisted and distorted by Escobar to instead fit an embellished version of a made up entertaining attention-seeking story line to feed his fans.

And even if he does have 'real sources' what he claims they are saying to him never seems to come true anyway!

I've noticed his "insider" reporting has been wrong (in hindsight) so often that none of his 'analysis/insights' is credible/reliable enough to take him seriously as a journalist or commentator (but YMMV.)

What I see is that plausible deniability of "sources said" appears to be Escobar's mainstay - throw whatever "embellished claims" at a wall and see what sticks later? Most of his content is filler of 'cherry-picked' commentary already known/reported. Often content is not even related to the topic in the headline or the point/claim he is making at the end.

What he says does not follow. The logical fallacy of a Non-Sequitur is when the conclusion does not follow from the premises. What Escobar claims is not credible.

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 7 2022 1:56 utc | 67

Grieved | Nov 7 2022 1:14 utc | 63
Much appreciated.
Peter AU1 | Nov 7 2022 1:13 utc | 62
Pls see the correct link from Grieved.

There’s so much material out there now.
Look at that graph. Hug your grandchildren if you have them.

I wonder how people can’t see what is happening.
But then… there’s my post of a building-sized mural of the fictional Ghost of Kiev….. proving people believe what they want.
[I have screenshots of the 4chan thread where the Ghost of Kiev was created]
[And manifested into flesh within hours by retweets from Dan Crenshaw and Adam Kinzinger]
And then Zelensky gave an award to some guy who, it was claimed, was the “actual Ghost of Kiev”.
Pure Hollywood…. All just scripts…sometimes a real person has their life fictionalised and sometimes a fictional character is “brought to life”.
Which makes some of us wonder how … with the narrative so tightly controlled.. how so much damning evidence on what vexed us about both the experimental gene therapy and the Ukraine war is now being revealed.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 2:14 utc | 68

Walt | Nov 7 2022 1:23 utc | 64

"Your dream came true in Shenzhen a few years ago. Now there are about four or five such delivery companies here, the bikes of each carry their trademark colour, red, blue, yellow etc. Riders are paid a pittance so they are ridden furiously to make any sort of income...

Fires seem rare but they do occur."

Reading this alongside the discussion of Christian conventions in ancient Rome I couldn't help but think of the conflict between the Blues and Greens in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian, culminating in the Nika riots where most of the city was burned to the ground.

At least in the West and societies that imitate it, things do look like an irrevocable state of so-far sublimated WWIII internationally and so-far sublimated civil war within peoples, and neither momentum is capable of doing anything but escalating.

I'd wonder what Christianity might do about this, but all establishment churches I'm aware of apostasized in 2020, so they too can only have a malign direction.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Nov 7 2022 2:18 utc | 69

juliania | Nov 7 2022 1:24 utc | 65

"So, as Dostoievski has Alyosha say in his final novel, not all Catholics are like the Grand Inquisitor."

Dostoevsky didn't live to write volume two of Brothers Karamazov, but in a letter not long before his death he wrote that he expected Alyosha eventually to become an atheist.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Nov 7 2022 2:24 utc | 70

Tom_Q_Collins@60
Thanks for the link. A very good piece by Lawrence.

Posted by: bevin | Nov 7 2022 2:39 utc | 71

In response to
"
[[twitter is loading reeeeeal slow for me today. Did Elon sack the guy that peddles the e-bike that keeps the show running?]]

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 1:45 utc | 66
"

I read some headline today that said some of the laid off Twitter folks are being called back...maybe the techie part.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 7 2022 3:10 utc | 72

How typical that c1ue | Nov 6 2022 17:24 utc | 20 always desperate to white ant any alternative to the internal combustion engine much beloved by his energy corp backers beats up a small story about a few among hundreds of thousands of electric bicycles.

Anyone would think that petrol powered vehicles never catch fire! LOL
Unfortunately they do and contrary to amerikan car industry, it isn't just lamborghinis or south korean vehicles with this propensity. The ubiquitous Ford Explorer had to institute a recall of its models which had a habit of catching fire. There have also been fire problems with all sorts of recent cars from mini-coopers to mercedes benz's.

The tech on e-bikes is still quite new, combine that with the fact it is possible to buy a cheap e-bike for under USD $500 complete with spare battery, amerikans' habit of not reading manuals & using incorrect charging equipment and of course there have been a few incidents beaten up by fossil fuel spruikers.

This is the same old c1ue trick of since he is unable to confront the issues caused by fossil fuels head on as the science is just too strong, he picks around the edges with continual beatups of minor issues to mini-scandals such as a coupla hacked emails from more than 10 years ago. Its kinda sad really that the energy industry is incapable of defending itself credibly, but on the other hand their greed & indifference has made 'em deserve this.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Nov 7 2022 3:10 utc | 73

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Nov 7 2022 2:24 utc | 70

Thanks for responding. It's hard to imagine a Volume Two. I have a feeling it is still being written as he says in his 'From the Author' -- in our time.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 7 2022 3:14 utc | 74

@ Walt | Nov 7 2022 1:23 utc | 64 with the e-bike and other reports from China...thanks!

I am curious in general how China is evolving their management of e-bikes and other private initiatives that start to reflect on public policy....like human safety?

In America we developed regulations of industry and then did not continue to evolve those relationships. Over time, money buried/removed the regulations and PR took care of the public perception. Do you feel comfortable that China government will retain primacy over all national/international organizations?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 7 2022 3:18 utc | 75

Super Extra @ 38:

That would be an interesting scenario: the new monarch takes advantage of the crisis in the Tory Party to insist that a general election be held. This might have brought in a Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. (This could happen anyway, later rather than sooner, if the Tory Party's current woes continue.)

It would have been perhaps the only time King Charles III got the chance to act in the way he wants, to change the course of British politics and secure a unique place in British political history.

Why didn't he do it? Perhaps at this very early stage of his reign, the King was mindful of the impression any actions of his would have on the public during the leadership crisis. (Unlikely perhaps - does Charles have the self-awareness to know what effects and impacts on others his behaviour has?) Charles had already come under attack for dishing out honours to Saudi billionaires writing cheques to his Prince of Wales charities. He didn't need or want any other attacks insinuating some other underhanded actions. Even though insisting on a general election to find Liz Truss's replacement might have been the right thing to do, the media could have spun this in a negative fashion to make Charles look like an arrogant twit.

I understand also that Charles was on tour through Britain and Northern Ireland at the time Truss resigned.

Posted by: Jen | Nov 7 2022 3:29 utc | 76

TQC @ 56

Yes, that is standard technique. I've worn the seat of my shorts on the rear tire doing that. Reason to push it that far is on seriously steep stuff the rear wheel is still very light. Yes, butt crack is directly in a line from ground running through rear axle. Gravity is down and well ahead of that line.

Alternate technique for utility riders just wanting to get safely from A to B is start dragging the brakes from the top and never let speed build. Works well enough on shorter hills. And much faster than falling.

Fortunately most ride the e-bikes as electric motorcycles and put the saddle down to motorcycle height. E-bikes piloted by those who ride them as bikes and crash their normal bicycles a lot are qute dangerous.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 7 2022 3:31 utc | 77

Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 2:14 utc | 68

I read a US special forces training manual some years back. I wish I could dig up that pdf again. Very much about regime change via hybrid warfare. Perhaps CIA rather than pentagon. But there was a graph, it was a circle with a line across the lower part of the circle and a line across the upper part of the circle. 10%, 80%, 10%.

If it was a regime change operate the top 10% was the regime they wished to change but were aware. The lower 10% would be their in country allies. The middle 80% were the dumbfuck sheeple that are susceptible to psyops.

What we have now in the west is the lower 10% aware of the bullshit and inhabiting blogs like this, and the upper 10% is the neo-con pied pipers fully aware of what the are doing but the blind sheeples loyal follow the pied piper. It is going to take great hardship to break the trance the 80% sheeple group are in. All following the pied piper.

The crash of the western financial system is I think the only thing that will break the trance of the sheeple who are following the pied piper.

Have saved Grieved's link.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 7 2022 4:07 utc | 78

Juliania @ 61:

Apologies accepted.

During the period of the Councils of Nicaea (325 AD) and Ephesus (431 AD), the Eastern Roman Empire was wealthier and more powerful than the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire held territories in Egypt (the empire's granary) and in Anatolia and the Levant which provided most of the Roman Empire's wealth. Among other things, this allowed the Eastern Roman Empire / Byzantine Empire to continue pursuing an ultimately fruitless series of wars in the Mesopotamian region lasting some several hundred years against the Parthian and then the Sassanian Empires based in Persia. In this context, the Eastern Roman Empire could afford to treat its western junior counterpart as somewhat less than its equal.

As long as the Eastern Roman Empire / Byzantine Empire remained stronger than the Western Roman Empire, and the western empire stayed in contact with its eastern counterpart, Rome had to accept Constantinople's de facto spiritual authority.

Of course, after the Hun and Germanic invasions of the Italian peninsula and the historical core (Gaul, Hispania, Helvetia among others) of the Western Roman Empire, Rome and Constantinople went their separate ways politically and liturgically and this is when the separation leading to the schism in 1054 began.

It did not help either that all those wars against the Persians sapped both Byzantine and Persian political, cultural and religious strength and created the situation in which Islam was able to spread through the Middle Eastern heartlands of Christianity and Zoroastrianism. The Sassanians were made history by the Arabs. From then on, the Byzantines (with some exceptions) were on the backfoot politically vis-à-vis the Roman Catholic Church and its supporters in the kingdoms of western and central Europe.

There were other events over the centuries that weakened Byzantine political power and thus its cultural and religious power vis-a-vis Rome and its influence over Europe. The Byzantines came to rely on Swedish Vikings and other northerners to provide a bodyguard for the Byzantine Emperors. (Men from England and Estonia are known to have served in this bodyguard as well.) Norman rule came to Sicily and southern Italy and some other former parts of the Byzantine realm. The event that probably started the long-term decline of Byzantine power was the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 CE which the Byzantines lost against the Seljuk Turks: the Byzantines had to give up central Anatolia - prime grazing land for cavalry horses at the time - to the Seljuks.

Posted by: Jen | Nov 7 2022 4:16 utc | 79

@PeterAu.
Having now completely moved on from any attempt to inform/educate/coach family and close connections… I now amuse myself with drive-by truth-bombs in random public anonymous settings. Ie:
Saturday, local farmers market.
I’m buying eggs. Getting an assurance he’s known the supplier personally for 20+ years…
Woman {rudely} interrupts: “You got any peach jam.. (stall holder has 10 acre peach orchard)….(over should she says to companion - who is now overtly elbowing me away …I know he makes it himself) (smiles ingratiatingly at jam making | egg selling man).
He says: “I have the fruit in the freezer, but I can’t get the glass jars”.
As I take my change, I butt in with:
“Probably shouldn’t have gone to war with Russia”….
Dumbfounded dumbfuk looks.
“Well… gas prices are so high in Europe, Germany has closed down its largest glass making factory.
He says: My jars don’t come from Germany.
Me: shrug. “Close down one of the biggest factories in the world, it causes a knock-on global shortage. ~ His hand freezes mid transaction.
Me: Thanks for the eggs. Keep doing the organics. {smile}…Cheers…. (Move away at a semi-quick pace.)
Starting to excel at | thoroughly enjoy | this guerrilla truth-bombing ….
It’s fun to look back from a distance and see the body language = confusion and “what did I just hear?”

Anecdotal complaints from
Hairdresser…. Can’t get the hairspray she prefers… there’s none anywhere
Plumber …… treated pine.. some types of plastic fittings ……prices on small (but essential) items are doubling each month…
Pet store … the brand of “good” treats for goodboy not available for months now……

It’s probably nothing….

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 4:54 utc | 80

@Jen @76.
“……make Charles look like an arrogant twit.”
His red faced rage at the impertinent inkwell… no one could hope to make him look more of a twat than he himself..

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 7 2022 5:03 utc | 81

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 7 2022 3:31 utc | 77

Haha, yep. I've still got a pair of cargo shorts with a very strange wear pattern that might look like something really kinky to non-cyclists. Thing is, you don't want that if your tires are extra knobby. Your crotch dragging on the knobs could easily be a better mode of braking than the levers. Standstill, downhill.

But for sure, on steeeep downhill grades where you're not confident, start off with full braking force, modulate the levers and let gravity bring you down the hill nice and slowly. Not even professionals would look upon that negatively. I've done it a million times. Wish there was an equivalent technique for skiing ;-).

Posted by: bevin | Nov 7 2022 2:39 utc | 71

I think it probably hadn't hit b's radar by the time he hit publish. It was just put up at Scheerpost late this morning US time, IIRC. They could use some copy editors, for sure, but the article is maddening. The NYT is tabloid level bullshit now on anything other than movie and restaurant reviews.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 7 2022 5:43 utc | 82

What he says does not follow. The logical fallacy of a Non-Sequitur is when the conclusion does not follow from the premises. What Escobar claims is not credible.

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 7 2022 1:56 utc | 67

I just think he is hopeful and a good story teller so take it will a big grain of salt.
We have precious little propaganda for that side of the story so I don't find it troubling. its a drop in the bucket compared to western media slop.

To me the biggest tragedy of this war and all wars is that it young working class men (mostly) who are dying. If war, no matter how justified, is not a capitalist conspiracy against the working class I don't know what is. The thing I find most abhorrant is the business as usual activities in terms of trade and politics that goes on in countries at war. USA, Russia, Ukraine all of them. Its all about money and trade while the young are being shot on the battlefield. It is repulsive. Wouldn't you think that war is so extreme and existential a choice that there is no time or attention for anything else at all? But in our current world this is not the case.

Posted by: K | Nov 7 2022 6:34 utc | 83

@Scorpion | Nov 6 2022 23:25 utc | 48

So thanks for setting me straight on that. I didn't look carefully at the map on the wiki page - my bad!

Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 7 2022 6:42 utc | 84

@ 67

4th Nov ...

Pepe Escobar
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/11/04/berlin-goes-to-beijing-the-real-deal/

Berlin goes to Beijing.
What NATOstan media will NEVER tell you.
Written BEFORE the Scholz caravan trip.
It will take time - but it will happen.

[ end quote by Pepe on TG ]

Much could be said about the many distortions, but to keep it simple - If Scholz had a 'peace deal' to discuss, all he needed to do was pick up the telephone again and call Vladimir. But Scholz is not a player in any 'peace deal' with Russia. Nor are any imaginary German industrialists involved either. The beginning and end of this story.

Meaning, there is no story. Obviously.

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 7 2022 6:57 utc | 85

Having lived in Shanghai for coming close to a decade now I’ve never seen an electric scooter catching fire. Like the HSR it is one of China’s great liberators for civilian movements. They’re faster than bikes, much cheaper than cars and allow citizens of all social classes to head to work, send children to school, opened up the courier and delivery industry which has been a boon for the under-educated class who only has high school education, carry heavy tools and equipments across long distances which is handy for repairmen and and blue collar workers, while remaining easy to maintain or fix.

Posted by: bonks | Nov 7 2022 7:10 utc | 86

Olaf Scholz held telephone talks today with Joe Biden today

Topics of discussion:
1) About Scholz's visit to China

2) Affirmed further support for Ukraine

3)They confirmed their common commitment to support the "rules-based international order"

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/11/06/readout-of-president-joe-bidens-call-with-chancellor-olaf-scholz-of-germany-2/

Versus China FM PRC news release saying Scholz said:
Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment between Chinese and German businesses.
A multi-polar world is needed in which the role and influence of emerging countries can be taken seriously.
Germany opposes bloc confrontation for which politicians should be held responsible.
Germany will play its role in furthering Europe-China relations.
fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202211/t20221104_10800546.html

Absolutely no mention anywhere of any "secret peace plan" discussions by Scholz with Xi; nor any grandiose Beijing-Moscow-Berlin economic powerhouse arising; nor anything "eventually replacing the US with China as a key ally." (as per Escobar's 'theories'.)

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 7 2022 7:15 utc | 87

Here's a thought for all you USAians maybe casting your vote for something.

Ted Rall:

“Be realistic. Demand the impossible.” — Situationist slogan, 1968

Here's What a Progressive Platform Looks Like

Demand No. 1: The $30-per-hour minimum wage

Not phased in over so many years that today’s $30 is worth $20 by the time it takes effect. Thirty dollars an hour for all workers, no exceptions, now. This is an eminently reasonable demand. If anything, it’s too little to ask. The current federal minimum wage, $7.25, is a sick joke. Congress’ abdication of its moral duty to reward American workers for their extraordinary productivity by increasing the minimum wage at or faster than inflation has eroded the base salary since the Vietnam era. Corporate profits have soared as workers’ wages have stagnated.

The federal minimum wage was $1.60 in 1968. Adjusting for the official inflation rate, that’s $30.00 today. Let’s party like it’s 1968.

There are four more Demands and he promises even more in a later edition.

May you get some joy from the big day tomorrow.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 7 2022 7:38 utc | 88

Citing wikipedia as your reference!

Seriously?

Surely you jest or have been imbibing in the cellar.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 7 2022 0:14 utc | 54

Well, it IS Sunday! (re imbibing)

Actually, that was an embarrassing example of confirmation bias. I 'knew' Europe didn't include Russia (because it didn't when I was growing up but that was only de facto true not de jure) so when I saw Wikipee's map I 'saw' Russia not on it even though it clearly is if you look at it for more than a second.

I also read the first part of the verbal description which covers North, West and Southern borders of Europe but stopped reading just before it explains how it goes all the way to the Urals. Which - as it happens - have just found out have wrongly imagined for decades as existing somewhere vague between Poland and Moscow because everything on the other side of the old Iron Curtain is still a blur.

A little spot of light illuminates an imagined sense of Moscow and St. Petersburg because I loved reading Tolstoy when a teenager, but the rest is a fog - Poland, Ukraine, the Baltics, all the Yugoslavian and Romanian and Bulgarian and Hungarian and Caspian - it's all a vague blur which reading about current conflict in Ukraine hasn't cleared (all those endless place names, none of which I can place anywhere). For decades I've meant to go see some of those countries but have never done it and now probably never will.

But without being called out by Norwegian I would never have noticed this. I looked at the map on the Wiki page and did not actually see what was looking at. More stuff like this has happened since came down with a bad case of Lyme which lasted for about 15 years until I finally got tested for it and then worked out what to do (not thanks to any doctors in Canada every single one of which sent me down false paths and made things worse). The brain infections common with Lyme cause cognitive short circuits sometimes which effect sleep and memory more than anything else, though some people have far worse issues. And part of it is aging.

But I think most of it is confirmation bias. It's nice to think of oneself as open-minded but you can't wade through the confusing mush of complex society, especially these days if you like reading stuff on computers which all of us here do, without charting your own course, selecting the styles you prefer, coming down on the side of certain narratives and rejecting certain others. A boat cannot steer without a rudder and a rudder doesn't work without forward momentum which in this case is a certain amount of preconception, opinion, slant, prejudice. It might be very well reasoned and well researched prejudice, but it's there nonetheless.

And sometimes not even prejudice, maybe just a wrong idea which took somehow along the way, it happens.
Like mine about Russia and Europe. There is no attachment to the idea, no hidden agenda. Just a mistaken impression derived from growing up during the Iron Curtain period.

I suspect most of the opinions held by most people on all sides of every issue contain high confusion quotient, like the chop in Buzzard's Bay during a 'fresh breeze.' And yet we can find a way to steer through...

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 7 2022 8:41 utc | 89

@James @super extra
One of you from the U.S. and the other from Canada and neither of you understand the constitutional monarchy system in the U.K. The monarch does not get involved, is not allowed to get involved, in political decisions. If anything they would be informed after the event, if at all.

Posted by: Palinurus | Nov 7 2022 8:48 utc | 90

The monarch does not get involved, is not allowed to get involved, in political decisions. If anything they would be informed after the event, if at all.

Posted by: Palinurus | Nov 7 2022 8:48 utc | 90

It's very hard to explain to those who don't know the system. And even those that do, like myself, probably don't understand it all that well either.

Have always been intrigued by the statements of retired Prime Ministers. I believe all of them have at one point or another said pretty much the same thing: that their confidential weekly meetings with Her Majesty were extremely valuable.

I imagine that the monarch is very well informed about many confidential matters through the red box system etc. Also that, especially with one who has been on the throne for several decades, they have a breadth of experience and view that provides valuable perspective. Prime Ministers are hounded in crowded, low-ceilinged Cabinet rooms and partisan echo chambers, not to mention regularly pilloried in the Press and becoming expert rhetorical elbow jostlers in Parliament. Whitehall is parochial and claustrophobic (like England herself!). The Monarch provides a broader vista.

Also, since they are not allowed to get in the back and forth fray, they see things differently. Apparently one of her best relations was with the authentic Labour PM Harold Wilson. I imagine many found - and still find - it improbable, especially those who suckle on class warfare as political mother's milk.

The monarchy, in the person of a living monarch, also provides instant access to a sense of the history and lineage of the nation which you are ostensibly managing as Prime Minister on behalf of the Crown which in turn serves the interests of all people in the realm. And again because they are not in any partisan fray, one can consider those interests in a more dispassionate fashion, so I imagine these weekly meetings with someone who is not in the fish bowl, not in the administration or public relations arenas, not with an axe to grind etc. are extremely refreshing, literally a breath of fresh air, a welcome and valuable shift.

But of course I don't, and never shall, know what goes on between the monarch and the Prime Ministers.

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 7 2022 9:07 utc | 91

“I am curious in general how China is evolving their management of e-bikes and other private initiatives that start to reflect on public policy....like human safety?
In America we developed regulations of industry and then did not continue to evolve those relationships. Over time, money buried/removed the regulations and PR took care of the public perception. Do you feel comfortable that China government will retain primacy over all national/international organizations?"

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 7 2022 3:18 utc | 75

I don’t feel qualified to give a comprehensive answer but can give some examples based on my experiences.

Dealing with e-bikes and such matters relating to public safety is the responsibility of the lowest of three or four levels of government (there is a form of democracy which works its way up to the office of the presidency itself, but that is a matter for another time). This is the community office level which approximates to the town council in the UK or barangay in the Philippines. Their style of government in this respect seems largely reactive, and their ideas of priority vary from place to place so enforcement of regulations is seen to be uneven. For example, the e-bikes are supposed to bear a registration plate. In the eastern districts of Shenzhen this sees pretty much 100% compliance, but here in our western part it looks to be about 10%.

Here’s an actual example of the community office in action in which I was involved. In our apartment block of 30 floors there are three fire doors on each level protecting the fire escape. I routinely walk between the 6th and 9th floor and some time ago every fire door of the 12 had become defective, because some inhabitants had been jamming them open with wads of paper, eventually destroying the closure mechanism. I complained to the property office several times which had no effect. I went to the police station but they showed no interest. Finally I went to the community office to register a complaint. An officer visited and told the property managers to put it right. Their response was to incompletely repair one door. There seems to have been no follow up visit and that’s how the situation remains to today. God help us all if we have a repeat of Grenfell here.

As for our business here, originally a Representative Office but now a fully fledged Foreign Enterprise, we just get on with it, we deal wholly with other private businesses, we pay our taxes and receive no official interference at all. The same can not be said of some of my acquaintance, this is not through government policy but, shall we say, a little private enterprise on the part of the overseers.

Overall I would say that my first impressions of China 15 years ago were that it had law but no rule of law. To some extent I feel that to be the situation still but the situation improves steadily.

Posted by: Walt | Nov 7 2022 9:21 utc | 92

Melaleuca #80

"It’s probably nothing…."

Yes nothing at all. I have been toying with the idea of selling poop sticks at the local market as a means of getting a conversation going about the price of gas, the closure of the biggest German paper manufacturer and the return of zero toilet paper. On the same enterprising note I have sketched a prototype of a single sheet toilet paper dispenser that I could bolt to the front fence that spits out one sheet for every coin inserted.

Maybe I could sell coffee shots on the side.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 7 2022 10:27 utc | 93

Referring to: Berlin Goes to Beijing: The Real Deal - Pepe Escobar / UNZ

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 7 2022 1:56 utc | 67
Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 7 2022 7:15 utc | 87

Honestly, I have no clue what Mr Escobar was smoking when he penned that prose. You right on the money in nothing that in the real world there is no trace of that super-magic Germany-Russia-China ‘Entente’ across the Asia. And not much talks of those peace talks on the Ukraine-Russia subject. The Ukr/Rus issue probably did come up, but as a side-note only. (everywhere where he travels (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Qatar) Herr Scholz tries to enrol his hosts to talk to Russia.

Uwe Parpart/AsiaTimes has a report (here: Olaf Scholz’s peace mission to China) that is closer to the mark and he does mention that talks about “Peace” where on the agenda – Chips war at the front though. Some of the German businesses stand to lose quite a bit if things go really bad in that field.

I am quite sure that the delegation of Japanese parliamentarians that visited China recently had just the same messages. For the best part of the last 20 years or so Germany esp. but Japan as well have tried to moderate the warmongering hysteria coming out of the Mediocre Empire both openly and through all sort of backchannels.

Posted by: phiw13 | Nov 7 2022 12:21 utc | 94

Bloomberg reports:

Russia’s Crude Shipments Hit Five-Month High Before Sanctions

Russia’s seaborne crude shipments jumped to a five-month high last week, as time runs short for vessels leaving Baltic and Arctic ports to reach key destinations before European Union sanctions kick in.

Cargoes shipped from Russia rose to 3.6 million barrels a day, the highest since early June, while the less volatile four-week average was also up, reaching the most since August.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-07/russia-s-crude-shipments-hit-five-month-high-before-sanctions

Posted by: too scents | Nov 7 2022 14:04 utc | 95

@jinn #50
Thanks for contributing another example of your idiocy.
The first 50 years of the internal combustion engine were the greatest expansion of European and American prosperity ever seen.
Was it perfect? No but then again, there are no perfect solutions.
And since then, better technology has been created and put into place.

Only dumbshits like you cannot understand that the real world is what it is - not what you want it to be.

Of course, this is already clear from your refusal to acknowledge the enormous subsidies paid for corn ethanol production - a practice which is destructive in literally every sense: food, pollution, land use, energy efficiency, etc etc.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 7 2022 14:20 utc | 96

@Debsisdead #73
Please show me some data where 4 ICE engines catch fire in New York City every week.

And what percentage of ICE cars are catching fire every week in New York City vs. the percentage of e-bikes catching on fire.

But of course, you are another of those dumbshits who refuses to acknowledge that new technologies have to be tested and proven before being rolled out. I have never said there can NEVER be a role for EVs - what I have repeatedly pointed out is that the technology is not ready; that there are serious operational and structural issues with mass conversion to EVs and that they are both expensive and environmentally destructive due to the need for enormous amounts of mined materials.

Until people like you can learn to distinguish between equal or better solutions to what you dislike, as oppose to be sold a crock of shit by those pandering to your prejudices, you are never going to see real improvements because even promising technologies are going to get poisoned by shit rollouts.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 7 2022 14:25 utc | 97

@c1ue | Nov 7 2022 14:25 utc | 97

Batteries are adjunct to the Carnot cycle. This simple fact is lost on new energy advocates.

Posted by: too scents | Nov 7 2022 14:30 utc | 98

@Tom_Q_Collins #39
Paypal today is absolutely a part of the bankster industry.

What I was referring to was Paypal during its creation. Thiel, Levchin and Nosek originally formed Confinity as a security outfit, but quickly switched to a digital wallet. This in turn brought them right up against the problem of micro-payments; credit cards worked fine for "normal" payments to medium/large companies, but credit cards for small businesses (and all non-porn businesses in 1999 were small businesses) as well as credit card payments for "smaller than normal" payments were extremely problematic and expensive. Confinity became Paypal and actively sought to get around various state, federal and banking industry rules in order to resolve the above issues. Musk was a sales/marketing guy but not one of the original founders.

Of course, the founders all left Paypal after it got bought by Ebay in 2002. Ebay via Meg Whitman (CEO from 1998 to 2008) is Deep State central (ex Goldman Sachs bankster, ex-Disney, present Ambassador to Kenya).

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 7 2022 14:35 utc | 99

@Tom_Q_Collins #40
No, Paypal was not heavily involved in the sales tax wars.

Don't forget that sales tax is a state issue, not a federal one.

The Paypal/Deep State connection is unquestionably via the AML/"terror financing" front.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 7 2022 14:37 utc | 100