Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 9 2022 6:33 utc | 61
Thanks also, psychohistorian! Hmm, might Alaska be next? (New Zealand…Antarctica…Tierra Del Fuego….)
Sorry, got carried away.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 9 2022 18:06 utc | 104

[105]
Do forgive Medford being so terribly stupid !
India was producing silk in 2450 BC which means Before Christ fox the sophisticates on this blog
I mean Columbus was not really looking for India for spices which is why the natives in the Americas were not called Indians but something else

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Dec 9 2022 19:19 utc | 106

From Sundance about Twitter’s links to Intelligence:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/12/08/latest-release-of-twitter-files-highlights-the-mechanics-of-controlling-platform-information-with-former-u-s-intel-officials/#more-240709
“To put it in brutally honest terms, The United States Dept of Homeland Security is the operating system running in the background of Twitter.
You can debate whether Elon Musk honestly didn’t know all this before purchasing Twitter from his good friend Jack Dorsey, and/or what the scenario of owner/operator motive actually is. Decide for yourself.
For me, I feel confident that all of the conflicting and odd datapoints only reconcile in one direction. DHS, via CISA, controls Twitter.
Wittingly or unwittingly (you decide) Elon Musk is now the face of that govt controlled enterprise.”
===================================
Personally, I suspect companies like Twitter are just fronts for Intelligence rather than that the latter have backdoor access.
In any case, Twitter change of ownership is exposing quite a bit of this, though how many outside of right-leaning political junkies are following such stories is probably marginal.

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 9 2022 20:09 utc | 108

The Mongols later tried to restore parts of the Silk Road trade network but, in the Middle East especially, they had done too much damage to cities and their infrastructures (irrigation and water supplies) for this region to recover.
Posted by: Jen | Dec 9 2022 20:50 utc | 109
Thxs for these interesting posts.
But: I thought the Mongol administration lasted for several hundred years after the first conquest by Genghis. Surely in all that time they built things back. Usually they only destroyed a few cities ‘pour encourager les autres’ I thought in any case, no?

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 9 2022 21:23 utc | 110

@ Sean & other friends
I was bullied in my childhood a lot, possibly because I was the littlest, and also the only « foreigner » in a context of all Frenchies, as an English-speaker. This was the 70’s and the 80’s in semi-rural Quebec (Canada).
I moved around a lot in my childhood, never got to put down any roots. That’s not natural.
I’ve always had a natural tendency to go into the corners, and meet similarly forsaken people, and be their buddy.
I have a real aversion to people being mean. It really really upsets me, makes me very sad :*(
I try to express myself as briefly as I can, cause I have attention deficit disorder, or else otherwise words get too slippery. I read by osmosis, meaning my mind’s eye often just skates over the words, and I’m hardly even aware that I was thinking about something else. *shrugs*
I’ve always been a fuckin weirdo. But as I get older, I tend to resemble who I was when I was a child, and I agree with it. The Purity.
I just need to practice my frugality in expressing myself.
Thank you for hearing me.

Posted by: Marc | Dec 9 2022 21:55 utc | 112

@ Outraged
I am Wingman-bot.
*robot noises*
A Catcher in the Rye.
*whirr bzzt*

Posted by: Marc (Featherless) | Dec 9 2022 22:14 utc | 114

Speaking as a citizen of the United States and assuming that VVP reads the MoA, I implore you, Mr. President to take your citizen back but for the love of all that is good, please keep that griner fella as a door “prize” for playing the game.

Posted by: T.D. | Dec 10 2022 0:51 utc | 116

IMSFPATLHUOA.
I am so fucking pissed about the lazy habit of using acronyms.
GALLB!
Get a life,lazy bones.
Who has the time to figure out what you haven’t any time to spell out in any of the alphabets?

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Dec 10 2022 1:31 utc | 118

What did India had to do with silk?
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Dec 9 2022 18:29 utc | 105
not being any expert on India but it occurs to me why would India as an ancient great civilisation NOT have silk. I looked up a few sources and sure enough it went to India from China a couple of thousand years ago .
Even more interesting, India had its own rustic version of silk production where the silkworms lived in the forest and not on cultivated mulberrry trees. This type of silk is still produced in India and is called Ahimsa or Peace silk as the silk worms are not killed in production. As a person who loves fabric and silk fabric in particular, I was already aware of very old silk industries in East and West used for tapestries in both religious and secular contexts, all due to the Ancient Silk Road of course.

Posted by: K | Dec 10 2022 2:07 utc | 120

I may well be wrong but I thought the silk road goes back as far as Persepolis. Trade has always been trade. The first group out of Africa were dark skinned, second group light skinned. Aboriginal people came here at minimum 48 thousand years ago. They had to cross open sea. Oldest dugout canoe found to date is 13 thousand years old. Polynesians covered the pacific in dugout canoes.
So much history not covered by writing. Oral history only goes back to the last great sea level rise.
So much human history and now we watch as the power moves east.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 10 2022 2:58 utc | 122

Outraged | Dec 10 2022 3:17 utc | 124
The Eurasian silk road is very much preparing to smack down the Johny come lately west. I just sit back and watch.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 10 2022 3:27 utc | 124

https://www.businessinsider.com/911-commission-memo-declassified-bush-cheney-attacks-bin-laden-qaeda-2022-11

n April 29, 2004, President George W. Bush hosted one of the most unusual meetings to ever take place inside the Oval Office. The 10 members of the 9/11 Commission got to ask him and Vice President Dick Cheney any question they wanted about the September 11, 2001, attacks. The words that were spoken in that room remained secret for nearly two decades. Now, we can finally read what Bush said. Earlier this month, after more than 18 years, the government declassified a 31-page “memorandum for the record,” which compiles notes that the commissioners took during the meeting. The document shows the commissioners giving Bush multiple chances to acknowledge the numerous documented warnings he’d received from his own government of an impending attack by Al Qaeda. For the most part, Bush failed to do so. Instead, he passed the buck.
Perhaps the largest of Bush’s evasions that day concerned his CIA director, George Tenet: “The threat was overseas — that was what George said.” Bush’s implication at the time is clear. He wanted the commission, and by extension the public, to think that no one could have anticipated Al Qaeda mounting a large-scale attack on US soil. But in fact, Tenet’s CIA had warned Bush more than once that Al Qaeda could strike anywhere, at any time, and that all US citizens were potential targets. The most notorious warning that Bush received, but not the only one, was a CIA briefing headlined “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.”
Very little of Bush’s excuse-making and clumsy attempts to rewrite history found their way into the 9/11 Commission’s report. Indeed, one of the commissioners, Richard Ben-Veniste, told Insider he still had questions today about what Bush knew, and when.
“I could never square in my mind CIA Director Tenet’s intense preoccupation with the Al Qaeda threat in the months leading up to 9/11, with his claim that he never briefed President Bush on the many clues the intelligence community had developed that bin Laden was planning to launch a ‘spectacular’ attack on the US homeland,” Ben-Veniste said.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 10 2022 6:39 utc | 126

Tenet was a grovelling asskisser, Bush offshored blame to him. but Bush, like most other presidents, never paid a price, now he’s got a library and people like Michelle Obama buy him cookies.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 10 2022 9:44 utc | 128

https://humanmeatproject.com/human-meat-as-food-source/
Actually, we should only eat the top %10. They have dined on the best food all their lives, and so must be the most nutritious. Plus we get our money back. It a win-win!

Posted by: blues | Dec 10 2022 10:22 utc | 130

Agent Provocateur – 01 – Red Tape 😉
Youtube. Runtime 5m21s

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 10 2022 12:09 utc | 132

@SeanAU
I registered that they were misunderstood regarding Lavrov, although they were clear.
I can sympathize with your reasoning regarding Karl’s statement. I was a Jehovah’s Witness for some time and know what it is like to be shunned. As someone who did not want to get a lethal injection, I experienced the old feelings again.
Still, a question remains. Why did they feel addressed by Karl’s words.? I read them too, paused briefly, and scrolled on. He has his feelings and I can live with that.
It is difficult for me to understand some of the sensitivities. For example, this troll paranoia that keeps shining through. 20 years ago I moderated the largest blog in Germany for alternative views on topics such as politics, medicine, history, etc. There I was always insulted, why I did not delete this or that alleged troll.
I think it is important to hear even contrary opinions, if they are presented factually. One’s own point of view can only be strengthened or, if necessary, corrected, if one is in exchange with the “opposite side”. Perhaps I am also a fossil. I grew up in a time when it was possible to be friends with people who were on the other side of the ideological divide.
When everyone reinforces to each other how much they understand the world, a reality of their own emerges. This can also be observed here to some extent, when obvious mistakes by the Russian leadership are interpreted as a brilliant plan.
At that time, I also saw the so-called trolls as an opportunity for forum members to grow from it. Unfortunately, I never experienced the moment I had always been waiting for. That the members would be strong enough to just keep scrolling instead of engaging in pointless verbal fights and giving the guys an importance they didn’t deserve.

Posted by: Uwe | Dec 10 2022 14:39 utc | 134

Long time followers of Association Football will recall that the maritime empire began in the fifteenth century when Portugal established its military dominance over Morocco. Everything else flowed from that.

Posted by: bevin | Dec 10 2022 17:08 utc | 136

What if shoplifting promoted by some liberal Dem Party governors attorneys targets internet sales shift enforcement? It quite suits their agenda and involvement into the big fintech business yet aligned with 4th generation where the revolution in logistics is part of.
Of course before the rules come the old must be destroyed. I totally agree with Putin that NWO’ers use the same templates as did their bolshevik counterparts during 1917 revolution in Russia.

Posted by: asehi | Dec 10 2022 18:19 utc | 138

An Arctic Blast heads for Europe, Forecast to Deliver Coldest Air of the Winter Season, Snow for the Alps, and a Stress Test for the Electric grids this weekend

The projected cold blast is thought to represent a significant stress test for Europe’s fragile energy market systems… Countries, especially across western and central Europe, have warned that strained tensions in the energy market could lead to potential power outages and rolling electricity outages in the upcoming weeks as temperatures become much lower.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 10 2022 21:27 utc | 140

Though maybe the one good deed the Mongols did was destroy the cult of the Assassins in their headquarters at Alamut in northwestern Persia by killing everyone there.
Posted by: Jen | Dec 10 2022 1:13 utc | 117
Thanks for reply.
Can’t recall where or when read this but the author maintained that G.Khan’s main contribution – as he himself intended – was his Law. And that Law was the basis of all the polities in the extended ‘Empire’ and essentially lasted about 300 years give or take which is no small achievement. Yes, there was quite a bit of in-fighting about who got to be the Great Khan, but the various areas from Persia to China continued to follow much of the basic law that he supposedly established in all such zones, far-flung and very different as they were. I have no idea if this is true.
But Genghis’ story, very simply put, was first to stop his own people from fighting interminably among themselves for scraps and then subjugate those who had been overlording and exploiting them for time out of mind and then basically to sweep the steppes from Mongolia through to Hungary and Ukraine, i.e. the Eurasian heartlands. His goal was not rape and pillage like some sort of crude brigand but to establish a federation of sorts, different people and cultures knit together under some sort of common law which would prevent endless exploitation and wars.
Or something like that. History is such a rabbit warren. So many different verions of the same thing. So many false pistes and forgeries. So much hidden treasure.

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 11 2022 1:04 utc | 142

@ Scorpion | Dec 11 2022 1:04 utc | 142
The Mongol empire is well documented to have arrived in each place in an extreme orgy of violence against the populations, both urban and rural. The mass death in China may have amounted to about 35 excess deaths and that in the Middle East, with much smaller populations, about 5 million. Since the sources are mainly Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Slavic, one might assume that they promote biased massacre stories that exaggerate the destruction, which is true, but the destruction was still extreme, especially considering that it was visited on the victims using only 13th-century technology.
The Mongols did sometimes try to observe the medieval rules of war that places which surrendered peacefully were not to be further harmed, but this often broke down in reality and led to total massacre. Also, the Mongols became tired of the cities in the city-studded landscape of North China surrendering and then later rebelling, so they decided preemptively to kill everyone outright. They saw the land as only useful to pasture their animals. Once they established settled rule, they relied on the natives to collect taxes for them, but when they needed more, they just attacked and plundered the people they were ruling. Thus, their Middle Eastern state, the Ilkhan Empire (1265-1335) and their Chinese state, the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), were both strongly disliked by their subjects and did not last all that long.

Posted by: Cabe | Dec 11 2022 5:15 utc | 144

Xi Jinping says China supports Palestine with 1967 borders

Chinese leader calls for granting Palestine “full membership” in United Nations and says Beijing “supports the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/xi-jinping-says-china-supports-palestine-with-1967-borders-63395
This news item has not been picked up by the Western press.

Posted by: too scents | Dec 11 2022 11:35 utc | 146

Egypt … current Suez Canal situ, re EU Oil Cap Lawfare with a twist ?
Um, Alfred Mahan “Sea Power” theory vs Halford McKinder “Heartland” theory, seeds of being put to the test ?

Chinese, Egyptian leaders discuss bilateral ties, Middle East
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
During the meeting, El-Sisi said Egypt is looking forward to increasing the flow of Chinese tourists to Egypt and is encouraging Chinese companies to maximize their investments in the country, the statement said.
El-Sisi also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and discussed the importance of implementing joint projects between Egypt and Iraq.
The Egyptian president expressed his country’s keenness to provide full support for the Iraqi people at all levels to overcome all difficulties, especially in the fight against terrorism and restoring security and stability.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 11 2022 12:24 utc | 148

@ Petri Krohn | Dec 9 2022 1:54 utc | 41
Reichsburger: Looks like total fake & false flag to me. Echo’s of Washington January 6th 2021. A virtual group constructed around a handful of real outwingers by these countries own security forces. Need of a boogieman.
https://www.dw.com/en/reichsb%C3%BCrger/t-42133475

Posted by: Antonym | Dec 11 2022 13:24 utc | 150

Ah, SCMP, always with a twist & sting in the tail …
Here’s an alternative perspective from the Egyptians & Chinese themselves on the ground, actually involved & doing the works. Having their say, mucho info included too, only 8 weeks ago … CGTN
Building Egypt’s New Administrative Capital Together Youtube. Runtime: 5m22s

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 11 2022 13:28 utc | 152