Open (Not Ukraine) Thread 2022-236
News & views not related to the war in Ukraine ...
Posted by b on December 29, 2022 at 16:48 UTC | Permalink
next page »If you read through the Great Reset website, the related essays and book, you will come across an idea which has come to be synonymous with The Great Reset: Stakeholder Capitalism--which is all about equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. Being good stewards of the environment, stopping climate change, and other words meant to make them look good is what it’s all about. It’s most definitely not about “creating a worldwide enforcement system funded by the richest and most powerful capitalists in the world to make themselves richer and more powerful.” From The Great Reset (or else)
Posted by: kana | Dec 29 2022 17:34 utc | 2
„Medvedev's low key meeting with Xi Jinping some days ago signals introduction of Medvedev as the successor to Putin“
Poinit is rather:
Is Medved good or bad for Russia?
I remember reading threads here labeling Medved as an 5D Column liberal western camelion.
Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 17:53 utc | 3
„Drones re launched by sabotage groups operating in russia“
„They re designed to undermine the faith in russias security“
„The claim of 600km is generated by ukrops chanels to increase the propoganda element.“
So the huge heavy monster drone attacked Engels has been launched by sabotage groups inside Russia?
Yeah right dream on ))))))
Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 17:59 utc | 4
So from what I understand, here is what happened in Kosovo in the last hours:
- the government in Pristina sacked the local administrations of Serbian areas of Kosovo and put ethnic albanians in charge;
- one of the first measures enacted was to remove all serbian symbols from public buildings;
- in protest, serbians put barricades to block access to serbian villages to albanian officials;
- EU officials quickly condemned the move and endorsed Pristina's (illegal) move to send troops to the ethnic serbian areas;
- Serbia's Vucic declared that this would not stand and formally requested an increase of Serbia's forces in the area to 1000;
- NATO (obviously) denied the request;
- Vucic put Serbian armed forces in a state of combat readiness and declared that they were going there nonetheless as they are entitled to do according to the peace treaty;
- EU ministers reportedly sent a 24h ultimatum to Vucic to have the ethnic serbian stand down, or else;
- Vucic went to the ethnic serbian communities to talk to them;
- They are now removing barricades and the Serbian army is standing down.
Am I missing anything? From my point of view it looks like the Kosovo Serbs just got dumped by Serbia.
Posted by: Lemming | Dec 29 2022 18:55 utc | 5
Kidnapped Venezuelan envoy Alex Saab lost the first round of his legal battle in a Florida courtroom when the judge ruled that he had no diplomatic immunity, in part because Venezuela’s government is not “legitimate”. Analysis of this and other questionable assertions regarding international protocols which inform this ruling:
Saab’s legal team will appeal. The case represents a window to the actual functioning of the “rules-based order”.
Posted by: jayc | Dec 29 2022 18:56 utc | 6
Posted by: Lemming | Dec 29 2022 18:55 utc | 5
Vucic is a traitor!
Whats happening now is only Kabuki theater for the serbian sheeps. Vucic the serbian clown is now acting holywood style wannabe hero „i ve tried everything!“
In reality behind the scenes he has signed the capitulation for Kosovo same like Milosevic did with Krajina.
Krajina 2.0 or Dayton 2.0
Soon u ll see columns of serbian leaving Kosovo.
The anti serbian matrix is coming to an end
Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:34 utc | 7
Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:34 utc | 7
> Vucic is a traitor!
Aw c'mon man, reuse kvachkes from your yummy moniker to render the name of Our President properly!
Posted by: hopehely | Dec 29 2022 19:44 utc | 8
US intelligence head Avril Haines and the UK's GCHQ head Jeremy Fleming saying how they managed to fool the West on the war narrative, but the rest of the world isn't so stupid to believe it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64111622
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 29 2022 19:49 utc | 9
US RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in close call with Chinese J-11 jet.
https://twitter.com/ConflictsW/status/1608534623184908288
That's a trade I would gladly takes as the Chinese and proceed to blame the heck out of the US air force.
Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 20:09 utc | 10
Literally bumped into some Russians (or maybe Ukrainians, both embassies are not all that far away) today on public transport, or rather one of them bumped into me because the driver was a bit sharp on the brakes :)
They were in high holiday spirits and very likeable carrying slalom skis heading towards somewhere not too far away (I suppose; I don't ski myself) and it was a pleasure simply to hear/witness happy Russian-speaking people.
I didn't eavesdrop, nor would it help if I did, but I picked up on an occasional "davoi" (lol) and to me that is automatically Russian XD
Anyway no matter who or what; they were in a very good mood and it was a bright ray of sunshine.
That's how the world should be!
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 29 2022 20:20 utc | 11
@ 9
from the BBC, some jokes from CIA's Haines:
"One of their main narratives is that the United States is provoking this conflict, and that Nato and Ukraine are setting the conditions and threatening Russia and that sort of forced them into this position," she told Sir Jeremy.
"Authoritarian states have this kind of asymmetric advantage where they're effectively controlling the information to their populations." . . .here
. . .as if the western media has all sorts of opinions, anti-Russia, pro-Russia, neutral. . .NOT. It's fully controlled here Avril, just ask Assange. Meanwhile Haines is echoing her neighbors over at State regarding naughty foreigners and their "disinformation."
Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 29 2022 20:50 utc | 12
Republicofscotland | Dec 29 2022 19:49 utc | 9
"Washington and London took the unusual step of publicising their knowledge of Russia's plans ahead of its invasion." (from your bbc link)
"i'll not believe a madman till i see his brains."
lol. the taliban might have taken a top US military/intelligence/politico official and blown his brains out in front of the world for all to see, after asking him, "why didn't you see this coming?" americans love executing retards, imprisoning minors and children, no doubt because of their family values, so it might have been a welcome sight. to encourage others. "let's have an object lesson in the value of intelligence." BLAM, the CIA director's brains splatter against the wall and the world cries "hallelujah". (i know, dream on).
does "russia must be broken" Lindsay "brokeback" Graham deserve a fair trial, since when he breathes, he calls for the state murder of people who cannot speak for themselves? love is a battlefield, lindsay. try not to forget it. people who love russia might not ask permission from such an overcompensating power bottom as senator graham cracker. since they cannot speak, they may say, "speak, hands, for me." not that i am advocating such but fuck lindsay graham. and the whole US death state. if russian superweapons weren't themselves a bunch of childish wish fulfillment, who could possibly cry anything but "hallelujah" if putin hypersoniced to death every member of the western ruling class? who in the world wouldn't rejoice?
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Dec 29 2022 21:31 utc | 13
Re:
"indian punchline from yesterday -
Russia, Iran open a trade route heralding a bloc
Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 17:06 utc | 1"
***
Read my former professor Kent Calder's 2019 book, "Super Continent: The Logic of Eurasian Integration" (Stanford University Press). For TL;DR folks, Columbia prof and Sinologist Andrew Nathan's brief review/summary of the book, in FA, follows:
"This book is the definitive statement of Calder’s long-standing thesis that technological and economic changes are integrating the Eurasian “super continent,” as foreseen over a century ago by the British strategist Halford Mackinder. Beneath the churn of political events, this integration is driven not only by the familiar dynamics of globalization but also by such less noted factors as the growing efficiency of transport logistics and the digitization of customs procedures. U.S. pressure on China and Russia is pushing the two countries together, and complementary economic strengths are drawing Germany closer to China. China is promoting integration through its Belt and Road Initiative, seeking to aid its giant state-owned enterprises, which are desperate to reach beyond their saturated home market. Integration could be slowed by an economic crisis or an ethnoreligious conflict in China or by ambivalence in other countries about Chinese influence, but it would take a cataclysm to stop it. Calder thinks that China will seek not U.S.-style hegemony but a new kind of influence in which the benefits of integration are more widely distributed among countries, which he labels “distributive globalism.” If so, he recommends that the United States cooperate with countries such as India and Japan, and even to some extent with China, to promote pluralism within the zone of Chinese influence."
Posted by: Yashuo | Dec 29 2022 21:37 utc | 14
Posted by: Yashuo | Dec 29 2022 21:37 utc | 14
«this integration is driven not only by the familiar dynamics of globalization but also by such less noted factors as the growing efficiency of transport logistics and the digitization of customs procedures.»
The problem remains that *currently* transport of goods by rail is ten times more expensive, end-to-end, than by ship. Thus USA Navy control of all principal sea routes is really important, and it was planned by the Council for Foreign Relation in 1941 under the project "War And Peace Studies".
It is possible to do coastal shipping among several parts of the eurasian continents, but not long distance. The USA has as to thin enormous advantages, as the Americas have very long uninterrupted east and west coastlines, and the Mississippi river basi, and the Great Lakes system, are enormous. Europe has the Rhine and the Danube, Russia has the Volga (and some much bigger ones that unfortunately go to the artic), south-east Asia has the Mekong, China has 3 big rivers; but they are mostly internal rivers of one country or group, often not very suitable for inter-country transport.
Posted by: Blissex | Dec 29 2022 22:19 utc | 15
Andrew Nathan's brief review/summary of the book, in FA:
“China is promoting integration through its Belt and Road Initiative”
The "Road" part of BRI is pretty much dead: it was based largely on a link between PRC and EU via the RF, and that link is gone, as a consequence of the boycotts of the RF. The PRC are trying to replace it with a link via a more southern route, e.g. Kazakhstan-Caspian-Azerbajan-Turkey, or the ancient "Silk Road", Iran-Iraq-Syria, but it is a lot more difficult. They are also trying the "shortcuts" via the ports of Sittwe (Myanmar) and Gwadar (Pakistan) and may try the neighbouring port of Chahbahar (Iran), but while the avoid the route via Malacca, they have other issues (and the USA Navy still control the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Cape route and Gibraltar).
“Calder thinks that China will seek not U.S.-style hegemony but a new kind of influence in which the benefits of integration are more widely distributed among countries, which he labels “distributive globalism.” If so, he recommends that the United States cooperate”
Why would the USA elites cooperate in distributing the benefits of globalism from themselves to other countries? They will oppose that by any means for as long as they can. "Winners do whatever it takes".
“with countries such as India and Japan, and even to some extent with China, to promote pluralism within the zone of Chinese influence.”
My impression is that currently the USA elites have chosen to contain (surround, isolate, breakup) the PRC, recreating the split between the first-world (the "golden billion"), the second-world (RF, PRC and allies, this time with PRC as the leading state), and the third-world, mostly as before USA-aligned, by hook or by crook.
Posted by: Blissex | Dec 29 2022 22:34 utc | 16
It is possible to do coastal shipping among several parts of the eurasian continents, but not long distance.
Posted by: Blissex | Dec 29 2022 22:19 utc | 15
How does coal from Kazakhstan and western Siberia find its way to China (or to central Europe)? Railroads.
USA is a continental country, if smallish on Eurasian scale, 40% of internal cargo traffic (ton x mile) goes by track, 27% by rail, water under 8%. On longer distances, sea transportation is cheaper per mile, but from Russia to northern Iran, with Tehran and Tabriz, Caspian + rail combination is a winner, and perhaps it makes a sufficient shortcut that it could be a winner for Russian-Indian trade, provided an upgrade of Iranian railroads: a shortcut from train to Novorossiysk, ship through Black Sea, Turkish straights, Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Arabian Sea replaced by train/barge to Astrakhan, ship to Iran, train to Persian Gulf or Arabian Sea.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 29 2022 22:41 utc | 17
The German Greens have descended to this:
The Russian news agency TASS has published an analysis of the German government's energy policy, which contains interesting facts and addresses interesting topics. For example, the fact that the planned German LNG terminas can only replace just under half of the gas that recently came to Germany via Nord Stream 1 is hardly discussed in the German media. This does not even include the fact that Germany has also purchased gas via the Yamal pipeline, which runs through Belarus and Poland to Germany, and has not been supplying gas for almost a year because Poland has blocked it. And it is not included that Nord Stream 2 was built to meet the expected increase in demand for gas, which is needed, for example, for the electricity for the electric cars that are massively advertised.This raises the question of how the missing electricity should be produced in the future. And at reasonable prices.
The fact that the LNG terminals are also extremely dirty is not discussed in the German media. For example, the floating terminal, which just opened off Wilhelmshaven, will discharge 178 million cubic meters of toxic substances, including chlorine and other chemicals, into the North Sea.
But the Greens are very enthusiastic about it. And they prefer to conceal this from their voters.
https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2022/wie-die-deutsche-regierung-ohne-russisches-gas-auskommen-will/
How they hate the Russians...:(
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 29 2022 22:59 utc | 18
In a few years Ukraine rail networks will be linked to the Belt and Road arteries flowing through Russia. Then there will be multiple channels for freight to enter europe regardless of the Polish/German intransigence and vassal pandering to the USA.
In the meantime freight deliveries will utilise exiting rail, maritime and air transport where available. The value of Ukraine as a link or an obstruction to belt and road is obvious.
Will the rest of europe see and seize the benefits of eurasian cooperation?
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 29 2022 23:14 utc | 19
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 29 2022 22:41 utc | 17
«How does coal from Kazakhstan and western Siberia find its way to China (or to central Europe)? Railroads.»
“The problem remains that *currently* transport of goods by rail is ten times more expensive, end-to-end, than by ship.”
Indeed some railroad transport can be done economically. There have been trains from Wuhan to Brest to Duisburg, for example, but these have become impossible:
https://railway-news.com/db-cr-deepen-relationship/
«from Russia to northern Iran, with Tehran and Tabriz, Caspian + rail combination is a winner, and perhaps it makes a sufficient shortcut that it could be a winner for Russian-Indian trade»
The big deal the USA elites want to stop is PRC-EU trade, not RF-IU trade. For the latter the obvious route would be to Chabahar,
«ship through Black Sea, Turkish straights, Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Arabian Sea replaced by train/barge to Astrakhan, ship to Iran, train to Persian Gulf or Arabian Sea.»
All these are controlled by the USA Navy etc.
Posted by: Blissex | Dec 29 2022 23:16 utc | 20
FAKE UKRAINE
Russian soldiers shoot up family with four children in Makeyevka
REALITY
Russian military did not commit this crime. Three locals have been detained, caught by the security forces They have pleaded guilty. The purpose of the family’s murder was robbery.
Posted by: HERMIUS | Dec 29 2022 23:25 utc | 21
China explores the china shop and treads warily:
Three islands in the Persian GulfDuring the widely-publicized visit, a joint statement by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and China sparked controversy in Iran as it touched on the country’s proverbial red lines.
Among other sensitive issues, the statement appeared to support the UAE’s long-standing demand for the “resolution of the dispute” over the three Persian Gulf islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa, much to the chagrin of Tehran.
The statement also emphasized the need to strengthen cooperation to “ensure the peaceful nature of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program,” called on Iran to “maintain the non-proliferation regime,” and stressed “respect for the principles of good-neighborliness and non-interference in the internal affairs of states.”
The statement was loaded – diplomatically speaking – with language normally attributable to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) attitudes toward Iran, and experts wondered whether Beijing had even read it before signing off.
The GCC, led by Saudi Arabia, has a long-running feud with the Islamic Republic, mostly rooted in geopolitical rivalry, but China’s apparent endorsement of the six-member bloc’s hostile stance towards Iran was not taken lightly in Tehran.
Iran responds
Without missing a beat, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian countered that the disputed islands are “inseparable parts of the pure land of Iran and belong to this motherland forever,” in a 10 December retort.
He also emphasized that the Islamic Republic will not allow any country to disrespect its territorial integrity, in a tweet posted in Chinese and clearly directed at Beijing.
Mohammad Jamshidi, the deputy chief of staff for political affairs at the Iranian president’s office, was more blunt in his reaction the same day, minus the usual diplomatic niceties.
“A reminder to colleagues in Beijing. While Saudi along with the US backed ISIS/Al-Qaeda in Syria and brutalized Yemen, Iran fought terrorist groups to restore regional stability and security and to prevent the spread of insecurity toward both the east and the west,” he wrote on Twitter.
From the Cradle.
https://thecradle.co/Article/Analysis/19857
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 29 2022 23:37 utc | 22
Blissex #20
«ship through Black Sea, Turkish straights, Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Arabian Sea replaced by train/barge to Astrakhan, ship to Iran, train to Persian Gulf or Arabian Sea.»All these are controlled by the USA Navy etc.
'Controlled'? Or so the USA pretends. That is yet to be tested and the rest of europe and eurasia has an interest in any naval shenanigans in those seas.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 29 2022 23:44 utc | 23
apologies for the formatting, just children and trash was supposed to be black
Posted by: glupi | Dec 30 2022 0:09 utc | 24
I think it is ridiculous to suggest, as b has done in several posts, that the Americans and NATO are running out of ammunition to send into the Ukraine. They will never run out of ammunition, and if production slacks, they will find a way to produce more.
I always root for the underdog, and Russia is very obviously the underdog in the Ukrainian conflict. When things started in February, I looked at a map and compared the total population and land area controlled by the Russian and Ukrainian states to get a sense of who would have the advantage in an all out war between the two. Russia obviously outmatches the Ukraine, but I was comparing Russia to the wrong country.
The Russian Federation is in the exact position that the United States wants: fighting a war on it's own land against it's own people. The fact that Ukraine exists as a separate state from Russia and is mobilized against it is one of the greatest tragedies for the Russian people.
Posted by: DeathToAmerica | Dec 30 2022 0:19 utc | 25
@25 "They will never run out of ammunition, ..."
But they may run out of enthusiasm. For Russia this conflict is existential. For the US/NATO it's about 'freedom and democracy' or whatever slogan the MSM can come up with to keep the population interested.
Posted by: dh | Dec 30 2022 0:31 utc | 26
PressTV.ir:
Russia to provide Iran with dozens of Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets ‘in near future’
Apparently it is 24 out of the 48 SU-35s that were intended to be sold to Egypt, a purchase blocked by Washington. Their production was launched in May 2020:
* https://tass.com/defense/1157115
One article said the other 24 might follow and that Moscow has been careful not to step on western and Israeli toes regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA), which Washington withdrew from in May 2018:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Action
It is strange how Moscow up until today has refused strategic partners as Iran, and still does so with North Korea. Just think of the owner of Wagner who just recently was accused for conducting business with Pyongyang and who (almost) vehemently denied it instead of seeing and embracing the common position.
Posted by: rockwool99 | Dec 30 2022 0:33 utc | 27
Several references to US "control" of the high seas and key shipping routes.
Several avenues of response. One concerns theory versus practice.
For instance, for the US Navy to intercept a Russian ship (or 3rd country flagged ship whose last port of lading was in Russia) transporting grain/goods/fertilizer/arms whatever to, say, India, would constitute quite a dramatic escalation of hostilities, and would allow Russia to say, "well, two can play at that game". So I don't see it happening anytime soon, but with the "crazies in the basement" now in the White House, you never know. Anything's possible with that lot.
No one's claiming that maritime transport isn't still dominant. At over 80% global market share of goods trade by volume (higher for developing countries), it clearly is. But the gradual increase in non-oceans based multi-modal transport for goods and fuels (oil/pipeline gas) within/across Eurasia, together with new routes such as the Northern Sea Route, will continue to grow.
Nation-states are concerned with security of all kinds, including food security, energy security, and bio-security. They are also concerned with their sovereignty (simply put, acting in accordance with their perceived national interests without being bullied and threatened with sanctions, or their goods being intercepted/sunk in the high seas, or central bank funds/gold being confiscated). So they will move to on-shore to the extent they can, become more efficient re: food/agriculture, move towards more regional trade and "friend-shoring" and "near-shoring", develop more robust and independent payments and clearing systems, invest more in biodefense/biosecurity, among many other things.
Using/creating new land and non-ocean maritime transportation routes is but one of a number of specific, concrete actions (real, measurable outcomes: reduction of # of days to transport from 45 to 25 (St. Pete to Mumbai) in this regard. One should not look at this in isolation, but think of it as one incremental action. Over the next 75-80 years, there could be hundreds/thousands of such actions across sectors/domains that aid a country in enhancing its security and sovereignty. The leadership of each individual country will determine what combination of actions serves its interests the best.
Posted by: Yashuo | Dec 30 2022 0:39 utc | 28
Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:41 utc | 85 (previous thread)
Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 17:53 utc | 3
Medvedev:
Was indeed so enamoured of the West, he was almost a 5th columnist. Deeply infatuated.
But like spurned lovers from time immemorial, he is now bitter, resentful and predisposed to “revenge”.
Among so many “it coulda been different”, the West can look at Medvedev and think: if only we hadn’t cuckolded him with Georgia. …(2008: Saakashvili,M with tie. Oil on canvas)
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 0:39 utc | 29
Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 17:25 utc | 55 (previous thread)
Amusing anecdote ~ (pertaining to abandoned liquorice allsorts IFV littering Ukraine) and the ubiquitous challenges of maintenance of all large machinery…
Tagline:
“Mate saves 20k, I get a packet of peanuts and all is good.
Thanks Peter. You old “monkey(wrench)”….Needed a chuckle.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 0:44 utc | 30
Why would the road portion be dead? Road is far less efficient than rail and that was a big part of the BRI. Rail is the main artery with road doing the “last mile”. And overland trade to Europe is dead. It can still terminate at the Azov or Black Sea for further transport on. Whether Europe is still a worthwhile market when all this is done is the real question. If it is, transit from Russia to Europe will be made possible.
Posted by: Lex | Dec 30 2022 0:50 utc | 31
@22 uncle tungsten | Dec 29 2022 23:37 utc
Thank you for that story. Lots of treading softly in that china shop, and nothing broken it appears. China "corrected" its "mistake" says Tehran.
I must say when I read the statement initially it seemed like a lot of fawning on Saudi Arabia by China. Hard to understand, except as a supreme effort to bring KSA over to the Chinese side - but you would think bin Salman would already be straining at the leash to do that anyway.
In attempting, perhaps, not to ruffle proud feathers in KSA, Xi stirred up hornets in Iran. One hopes it will be all better.
~~
On China, the Global South has published a machine translation that reads very well from a Russian analyst detailing in many ways the resolve and readiness of China to go to war as the situation warrants:
Pentagon theorists predict scenarios
The title is misleading, since the article merely opens with a synopsis of the latest RAND view, before moving on to the real meat: the readiness of China, different from but equal to that of Russia, if push comes to shove. As I commented over there, these are aspects of China's position and policy that desperately need to be understood better by westerners.
Posted by: Grieved | Dec 30 2022 0:55 utc | 32
@ DeathToAmerica | Dec 30 2022 0:19 utc | 25
I think it is ridiculous to suggest, as b has done in several posts, that the Americans and NATO are running out of ammunition
Apparently you were mistaken by sarcasm when taking this statement seriously.
After having run out of missiles, the Russian military today fired another round of them at Ukrainian energy facilities.
Previously b published many of the false claims, many from months ago, that Russia is running out of missiles.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 30 2022 0:56 utc | 33
Republicofscotland | Dec 29 2022 19:49 utc | 9
The BBC UK's GCHQ head Jeremy Fleming “guest” [can you be a guest in a property you own???] and US intelligence head Avril Haines…
Was cited also in the previous thread..
“…they say they managed to fool the west on the war narrative, but not The Rest”.
Yeah, but they didn’t “fool” the West.
They played us as fools, but they “won” the war narrative by a totalitarian blockout of any and all, even slightly competing information so severe it’d make Stalin blush.
“The Rest” remained “unfooled” because they had access to more information options… Turkey, for instance. Africa. China. Central Asia.
Ironically and laughably….. it’s probably the Russian Joe Public who have the most complete and varied information buffet.
Western media is not blockaded from them….. they can access CNN, see firsthand Lindsay Graham calling for the assassination of Putin and annihilation of the Russian state…
Entrenched Soviet cynicism means Putin knows his best strategy is to speak the truth…. transparency and a good facsimile of honesty in a politician is so shocking … it’s almost unprecedented.. even revolutionary..
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 1:07 utc | 34
@34 Which is no doubt what Maria Zakharova meant when answering the question about whether it was possible to break the information blockade of the West, "I can tell you that the West 'blew up' on its propaganda."
Only Western idiots believe their own lies. (thank you Karlof1 for the transcript)
Posted by: dh | Dec 30 2022 1:32 utc | 35
Boy! Am I thrilled?! I've just seen my first UFO a few minutes before midday today AEDST. It's bright and sunny with no clouds. The UFO took the form of two very bright, very white lights about the same distance apart, and configuration as if aircraft had a white headlight and tail light. However, neither light changed intensity from aproach to departure. There was an old biplane in the sky when the UFO appeared, flying a similar course but much higher and faster. And silent.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 30 2022 1:35 utc | 36
Hoarsewhisperer #36
Thank you for sharing the peyote experience at the bar.
I'll shout you an absinthe.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 30 2022 1:42 utc | 37
And the annual photo of Rod Stewart's family finally showed up! I was starting to get worried.
Posted by: dh | Dec 30 2022 1:47 utc | 38
Explosive report @ ZH citing Bloomberg at link
SBF Was Meeting With Senior White House Officials Shortly Before FTX Collapse
FTX founder and accused crypto-crook Sam Bankman-Fried met with senior White House officials on at least four occasions in the months leading up to his firm's massive implosion, Bloomberg reports.
Why the surprise?
Bankman had to share a heads-up. We are going to; and there is no other option but to unplug the laundromat.
How does one keep track of 100 companies?
A Sam Bankman-Fried Company that Was Not in Bankruptcy Has Gone Poof; Regulators Are Drawing a Dark Curtain
Posted by: Likklemore | Dec 30 2022 2:05 utc | 39
Sam Bankman-Fried - 10 billion dollars, digital, missing - Democrat donor - out on bail
Eva Kaili - 1.5 million, cash, found - claims Borell was in on it- still in custody
-----------
The new Netanyahu settlements-everywhere, preemptive-strikes-on-Iran government is sworn in.
Give them enough rope to hang themselves?
---------
West Point removes, modifies Confederate memorials on campus.
In the 90s my British teacher of English, witnessing the dismantling of communist statues, told us how Great Britain was proud never to have done such a thing - all of the past mattered. Wonder what happened
--------
JPMorgan sued by Virgin Islands over Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex-trafficking operation.
Finally someone goes after the PontiusPilate enablers?
-----
- bail reform group closes Las Vegas chapter after client shoots restaurant worker.
- british police have failed to solve 1,145,254 thefts & burglaries in the year ending in June 2022
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. If something can be abused, it shall be abused (1st law of social engineering? Alas, not)
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Geoengineering startup begins releasing sulfur particles into atmosphere from Mexico in attempt to 'stop climate change'.
why hell stinks of sulfur, or some kids never outgrow tearing wings off of butterflies. Just to see what happens, you know
------
- US political migration soars as citizens move to regions more aligned with their political beliefs.
- republican states Texas, Florida crush democrat New York, California, & Illinois when it comes to 2022 population growth
Break-up without a civil war is possible?
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South Korean sex-doll trade set to inflate after ban lifted.
a) we are all starved of the human loving, gentle touch. Especially our children, who increasingly resort to illness in order to attract our attention away from the internet
b) i fear further huge backlash against women. They are the face of these crises - Ursula von der Leyen, Janet Yellen, Kamala Harris, Maia Sandu, Sanna Marin, Jacinda Ardern, Suella Braverman, Chrystia Freeland etc. They will take the blame, and to the howls of incels, be made to return to Kinder, Küche, Kirche. No. The church won't be there to give boredom relief
Posted by: glupi | Dec 30 2022 2:06 utc | 40
Lemming 18:55
Kosovo president Vjosa Osmani a.k.a. Zelenski 2.0 won't give up so easily. The example is so tempting - pick up west's fights and you will be showered with billions. Not for nothing war criminal Hashim Thaçi is no longer Camp Bondsteel's public face
Posted by: glupi | Dec 30 2022 2:19 utc | 41
Blissex,
China's leaders cannot but be aware of the mortal risk of dependency on the west as major customer. Maybe that's why they do not loot their own population or the bri partners, but are trying to develop non-west domestic consumption
Posted by: glupi | Dec 30 2022 2:34 utc | 42
Interesting times.
Serbia vs NATO round two coming up.
In round one in 1999. Serbia Win! USSA lost
Round two will be more interesting.
Place your bets. Serbia even money to win. USSA legless runner perennially stuck at the loading gate. A rank outsider dead cert to lose.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Dec 30 2022 2:48 utc | 43
Unconfirmed [and does it even matter]:
>……Biden admin is discussing sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 2:51 utc | 44
uncle tungsten 22:59
You are so misinformed! Economic affairs and climate action minister Habeck explained this week that by the end of 2023 enough lng terminals will be built to replace all russian deliveries and, as to price, the market will then hopefully self-regulate. Downwards, but not as down as 2021. All those long-term US shalegas 2022 contracts you know.
Ain't Habeck and Baerbock* the bestests?!?
another case of give them enough rope to hang themselves. The populace has to see these greenwashing corporate puppets in action
* Baerbock has been busy courting Nigeria. Wonder by how much would 20 Benin bronzes (returned by Germany) lower Nigeria's gas price. And would anything remain in the British Museum and british manor houses if / when UK has to start disgorging its stolen colonial treasures
Posted by: glupi | Dec 30 2022 2:57 utc | 45
@bar.
Re the recent BBC “we speak with spooks” program.
Here’s a Snowden saying….
https://twitter.com/derryayr/status/1608542212601663489
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 3:18 utc | 46
Bradley source: [as if Bradley is a Big Deal]
Jennifer Jacobs. Bloomberg
>……”Scoop: Biden admin is discussing sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine, sources tell me and @AlbertoNardelli
. “Bradleys would provide a major increase in ground combat capability because it is, in effect, a light tank,” one analyst says.
https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1608562430409601027
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 4:28 utc | 47
I read the Jacobs/BradleyFV twitter thread so you don’t have to….and it was full of vigorous debate about “what is a woman”, whooops, no, debate about “what is a tank”.
Here is the explanation
https://twitter.com/Martlu12/status/1608604335981883393
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 4:40 utc | 48
Putin has just welcomed and congratulated and praised Netenyahu after his return to power. I am truly disgusted. Please don't tell me that Putin is playing 5D chess.
Posted by: Anton Gorbatow | Dec 30 2022 4:44 utc | 49
Ok. So now I see why twitter blew up at the mention of the Bradley.
Pentagon Wars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 5:12 utc | 50
Anton Gorbatow | Dec 30 2022 4:44 utc | 49
No.
He’s playing politics
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 5:13 utc | 51
Russia and Iran Are Building a Trade Route That Defies Sanctions
The nations are investing upwards of $20 billion to ease passage of goods along waterways and railways
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-russia-iran-trade-corridor/
Posted by: Paul | Dec 30 2022 5:30 utc | 52
Below is a Xinhuanet posting
JERUSALEM, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving Israeli leader, returned to power on Thursday as the country's prime minister at the helm of an extreme-right coalition.In an official inauguration ceremony at the Israeli parliament, lawmakers voted by 63-54 in favor of approving the new government.
The new government is made up of an alliance of Netanyahu's conservative Likud party, the pro-settler Religious Zionism which calls for annexation of the occupied West Bank, the Jewish Power party whose leader was convicted of supporting "Jewish terrorism and inciting racism," and the Noam party, an extreme-right party that opposes LGBTQ rights, as well as Shas and United Torah Judaism, two ultra-Orthodox parties.
It is the most rightist government in Israel's history.
"I hear the constant cries of the opposition about the end of the country and democracy," but "we will act to make Israel a strong and thriving global power," Netanyahu told the parliament ahead of the official swearing-in.
Outside the parliament building, hundreds were rallying and protesting against the government, which vowed ahead of its inauguration to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank, implement far-reaching reforms of the judicial system, allocate massive subsidies to its hardline religious allies and pass anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Before the recent elections, Netanyahu's allies pledged to pass legislation that will cancel his ongoing trial over charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Netanyahu, who is leading his sixth government, served as Israel's prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021 before being ousted in June 2021 by a centrist coalition formed by Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett.
He was re-elected on Nov. 1 in the fifth parliamentary elections held in the country in fewer than four years as no candidate had won enough votes to form a majority coalition in previous elections, causing a lingering political crisis.
Netanyahu's bloc won a majority of 64 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
I am all for Occupied Palestine showing itself as one of the anti-humanistic cult of our species. They don't want a multipolar world where they might have to treat others as equals.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 30 2022 5:44 utc | 53
@ Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 5:12 utc | 50
Never knew this flick even existed. :)
Will have to source a copy now. Cheers.
Outraged | Dec 30 2022 5:57 utc | 54
>…Never knew this flick even existed.
Yep. Twitter really is the world’s water-cooler./lunch room
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 7:25 utc | 55
@ Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 4:40 utc | 48
How amusing too slow to outrun the Russian MBTs. Just more target practice for the "Krasnopol" and "9K121 Vikhr". The "Shipunov 2A42 3 cm autocannon" will turn it into swiss cheese.
The Russian Federation helicopter pilots in the Donbas. Say thank you Amerika! For the endless supplies of fresh ground kill target practice.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Dec 30 2022 7:33 utc | 57
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Dec 30 2022 2:48 utc | 43
Serbia VS Nato.
Sadly, I read Vucic told the Kosovo Serbs to stand down and take away the road -obstacles. Doesn’t sound like a triumphant Serbia to me. Looks like the beastly Usa-ians get away with it again, this time without a shot fired in anger as well.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Dec 30 2022 7:38 utc | 58
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 30 2022 5:44 utc | 53
How nice "Nutajob" has won. The only thing preventing the nuclear destruction of Damascus. Are the Russian Federation troops in Tartarus? The time has come to shift the doomsday clock to 10 seconds before midnite.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Dec 30 2022 7:58 utc | 59
Posted by: DeathToAmerica | Dec 30 2022 0:19 utc | 25
Russia fighting “ Ukrainian” brothers? Indeed it is a tragedy; similar to all civil wars, just as it was a tragedy for Syria,Libya,Iraq,Vietnam,Korea,Greece,Spain ,Russia ,China and USA going back to about 1850. What can you do?
Of all the above, I think the Russian case is the saddest and hardest to paperover due to the severe brainwashing of a significant percentage of people in the Former Borderlands Administrative Region . The most bloodthirsty civil wars have a civilizational / religious facet to them and sometimes cannot be solved. See Northern Ireland and Rest of Ireland ; Norman-Celtic people amongst themselves, Albanian/Kosovan/Bosnian “Turks “ once Christian and exactly like their Greek /Slav Christian neighbours but now enabled to act out.
If Russia or its proxy ever rules over the reconquered Borderlands all the way to Poland ,it must be harsh and eradicate all ukronazis and Galicians. Never allow the rot to take hold and spread again… ever. Never be too humanist and too forgiving - like Tito’s Yugoslavia -again ; and allowing the Islamisizing / Austriacising residents to stay post WWII. Look what they did , and now look what “Galicians” do now.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Dec 30 2022 8:20 utc | 60
might have been posted already
so the west no admits their drones are negated
Posted by: hankster | Dec 30 2022 9:13 utc | 61
Kevork Almassian at Syrianaanalysis considers the closeness and other matters between Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey.
https://youtu.be/MCLDdaDP-4Q?t=191
(I started 3+ minutes in as he does a lot of tech fiddling at the commencement.)
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 30 2022 9:27 utc | 62
Re: China's covid outbreak - two things:
1) it could be another ginned-up attempt by China to either stoke worldwide fear/continued covid tyranny or to keep their population in prepping-mode for eventual hot-confrontation with west
Or
2) if real, this should completely drive the point home that you can not contain a respitory virus and any attempts to do so will result in exponential harm down the road.
...
Isolate old and compromised and let virus run its course in the healthy/young population.
There was that immediate interview at the outset of all this hoopla where the non state-affiliated epidemiologist said that closing schools and isolating people would be the worst possible course of action and he was able to recommend this simply because he did not take money from the government.
It's almost as if this covid thing has just been used for ulterior motives...perhaps to forestall the reckoning of a decoupled China/America economic arrangement and, for that matter, the entire western financial situation, which is entirely fake, as a whole?
Gee, whodathunk?
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 30 2022 9:52 utc | 63
Netanyahu.
Did someone post this a thread or so back?
Not sure where I got this link.
To the interviewers horror and almost physical distress. Netty says Trump was the best US President friend Israel has had.
>Jerusalem recognised
>Land theft recognised
>Dump JCPOA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShdJbF53P2o
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 10:09 utc | 64
@ Posted by: Brother Ma | Dec 30 2022 7:38 utc | 58
So just across a fake make-believe international border. Hidden in the woods under camo. Is a mini well-equipped mobile Serbian field army unit(s) and first responder police sawt unit? Re-equipped with the latest tried and tested Russian-made battle tech A mere three minutes down the road? Just call Serbia 112.
Any Krapapo drug lord property thieves rabble sent in. With fake eviction documents. Will be leaving in body bags.
In reality, Vucic is really saying brothers we have your backs. Fresh armed to the teeth backup is a mere three minutes down the road. Let Krapaapo mafia trash make the fatal first move.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Dec 30 2022 10:09 utc | 65
Posted by: glupi | Dec 30 2022 2:34 utc | 42
«China's leaders cannot but be aware of the mortal risk of dependency on the west as major customer.»
That they know well, but I guess they are even more worried about dependency on imports of raw materials from USA-controlled sources through USA-controlled sea routes.
Xi Jinping wrote a truly historical article
http://en.qstheory.cn/2021-07/08/c_641137.htm
where (among a lot of boilerplate) he instructs the PRC to stop relying on globalization and to invest a lot more in security, as "the west" has turned against the PRC, for example:
“In recent years, we have witnessed a backlash against economic globalization and profound adjustments to the circulation patterns in the international economy.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the trend of deglobalization, and many countries have now become more inward-looking. When the epidemic was prevalent, I visited several provinces around the country to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation on epidemic containment and investigate the problems that had emerged in reopening the economy. During my visit to Zhejiang Province, I found that global industrial and supply chains had been partially disrupted due to the pandemic. This had directly impacted flows in the domestic economy. Many companies were forced to suspend operations because they could not bring in the raw materials and personnel they needed or send their goods overseas.
I realized just how much things had changed; the environments and conditions that had facilitated large-scale imports and exports were no longer in place.”
The PRC government perhaps never realized that while the USA elites welcome imports of products from low wage countries, because they want to keep down wages in the USA by exporting jobs, this favour is available only to vassal countries, and the PRC elites tried to be a non-vassal exporter of products.
«Maybe that's why they do not loot their own population or the bri partners»
In part that's because of the "mandate of heaven" tradition, in part because of the past: Deng wrote something like "We did not see many of our comrades and families get killed by the KMT, the japanese, etc. for the chinese people to remain poor".
«but are trying to develop non-west domestic consumption»
That the PRC economy has been too oriented to investment has been known to the PRC government for a long while, but they have a problem of partial dependency on raw material imports, which is easier to manage for investments (cutting them is less obvious than cutting levels of consumption).
Posted by: Blissex | Dec 30 2022 10:50 utc | 66
Posted by: Yashuo | Dec 30 2022 0:39 utc | 28
«For instance, for the US Navy to intercept a Russian ship (or 3rd country flagged ship whose last port of lading was in Russia) transporting grain/goods/fertilizer/arms whatever to, say, India, would constitute quite a dramatic escalation of hostilities, and would allow Russia to say, "well, two can play at that game".»
I'd like to remind everybody here that as part of an "anti-terrorist operation" currently several Russian Federation towns are being bombed daily while no USA or EU cities are being bombed, so it is not always true the "well, two can play at that game", at least if the game is proxy-war.
«So I don't see it happening anytime soon, but with the "crazies in the basement" now in the White House, you never know. Anything's possible with that lot.»
Then if ships are boarded for "inspection" and "confiscation" that's "global policing" if done by the USA Navy or a proxy navy, and "piracy" if done by their opponents.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/7/uk-warship-seized-advanced-iranian-missiles-bound-for-yemen
«A British Royal Navy vessel seized a sophisticated shipment of Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, officials have claimed, presenting it as proof of Tehran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the war-torn country. [...] The HMS Montrose’s helicopter had been scanning for illicit goods in the Gulf of Oman on January 28 and February 25 when it spotted small vessels speeding away from the Iranian coast with “suspicious cargo on deck.” A team of Royal Marines then halted and searched the boats, confiscating the weapons in international waters south of Iran. A US Navy guided-missile destroyer supported the British warship’s February operation. Fifth Fleet Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said the seizure reflected the Navy’s “strong commitment to regional security and stability”»
Apart from "global policing" on the high seas, nearly all important sea routes pass through choke points that belong to some USA vassal, so some legal-sounding excuse can be found easily. And besides that nearly all the ports that matter to shipping belong to "golden billion" countries, because the whole world wants to make money by selling them materials and products. Sure, China-mainland was threatening to become that most-desired market, but the USA elites are trying to fix that.
Posted by: Blissex | Dec 30 2022 11:18 utc | 67
2005 Taiwan KMT claims on other nation's lands: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan#/media/File:ROC_Administrative_and_Claims.svg
Worse than the CPC?
Posted by: Antonym | Dec 30 2022 11:26 utc | 68
Fresh Berletic.
@ New Atlas.
A vid, including white board tutorial on Russian defences.
He now has 200k subscribers and thousands of views with hours of an upload.
So many of us thirsty for info and analysis beyond the corporate media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDKORwR2yW4
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 11:58 utc | 69
Posted by: Antonym | Dec 30 2022 11:26 utc | 68
«2005 Taiwan KMT claims on other nation's lands: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan#/media/File:ROC_Administrative_and_Claims.svg
Worse than the CPC?»
Also it is Vietnam's Communist Party that have the biggest claims and the largest number of military bases in the South China Sea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:South_China_Sea_claims_map.jpg
https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/how-vietnam-quietly-built-10-islands-asias-most-disputed-sea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_South_China_Sea#/media/File:Spratly_with_flags.jpg
But the USA government are very good friends of Vietnam's Communist Party:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/statephotos/47173470062/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/statephotos/40253098873/in/photostream/
Posted by: Blissex | Dec 30 2022 12:35 utc | 70
Posted by: Paul | Dec 30 2022 5:30 utc | 52
greatest thing I've ever seen.
lunatic americans seeking to control the world's trade, restrict it.
america! bastion of freedom. for free trade. private enterprise.
it is clear America is dead and gone. how did it get so perverted? from free settlers spreading out across a new land and building and believing to a miserly sets of madmen plotting in rooms to strangle and stifle everything...
natural growth of societies. those who get rich get to control. having control they seek to retain it and strengthen and expand it. they get further and further away from reality and humanity. their arrogance expands without limit...
the very success of the 'enterprise' brings them to the top to go insane and do this and that same success in the mass beneath them makes that mass go to sleep and indulge in that greatest drug of all: middle class steady work and 'growth'.
hence the hope for the usa (and the world, then) is the discontent fomenting within the nation for it's only from there that mass attention to the monsters in charge will come and mass action against them.
Posted by: hankster | Dec 30 2022 9:13 utc | 61
what interests me is that kiev had 'thousands' of drones before the thing even started.
so it was seen as a drone war from the beginning. and that's what it has been all along. and that explains very much.
and none of our esteemed 'analysts' and observers and commentators have been informing us of this, I think.
the way forward seems to be without doubt much, much more drone warfare. what better, cheaper way of attack than swarms of all kinds of drones?
what better, cheaper way to counter drones than drones?
so what's that, then? drone warfare.
all that's needed is a 'drone' 'boots on the ground'. i.e. a surrogate man on the ground to 'occupy' the taken land.
that would be driverless tanks and such, I suppose. any signs of these as yet?
The PRC hospitals overwhelmed by Roger Seheult, by a Californian allopathic emergency MD who also promotes boosting your immune system by taking more sunbaths: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GOoKausjgA
Posted by: Antonym | Dec 30 2022 13:21 utc | 73
Has the actual contents of Hunter Biden's laptop been released ever? Musk managed to expose government censorship of the intertubes in general, which is great, but where is the contents of the laptop?
Posted by: casey | Dec 30 2022 14:31 utc | 74
The USSR Centenary (Colonel Cassad, Boris Rozhin, December 30, 2022 — in Russian)
The USSR was established 100 years ago.The first workers’ and peasants’ socialist state in history. Our country was the first to follow this path, changing itself and changing the rest of the world. Russia itself, in its socialist incarnation, has risen to hitherto unattainable heights both in terms of social benefits for the people and in terms of power and influence on the processes that determined the development of all mankind.
When today we see the dead end of capitalism and the problems it generates, the USSR continues to remind us of the alternatives to the capitalist dead end. And no matter how much they tried to bury socialism after 1991, it did not disappear—the idea even survived the destruction of the USSR and continues to have a huge impact on the thoughts of hundreds of millions and billions of people. In 2022, it is especially noticeable that the proposed alternative to the USSR in the form of a “march to the West” towards the “golden billion” along the “road of civilization” has led us to a historical dead end, from which the country now has to exit through a war. We have wasted 30 years on a bad experiment, and we have before us the example of the People’s Republic of China, which was able to stand, re-modernize and now emerge as a new superpower, led by the world’s largest communist party, which is carefully studying our mistakes that led the CPSU and the USSR to collapse, that blew the hardest efforts and sacrifices of previous generations who built a socialist superpower that crushed European fascism and Western colonialism and brought freedom to many peoples all over the Earth.
The Chinese learn from our mistakes, but we have to learn from ours. And of course, many of the achievements of the USSR and the experience accumulated during the years of the USSR are used and will be used on a larger scale in the future. Escaping from Soviet history by presenting the USSR as a “black hole of national history” did not work. Russian society transitions from denigrating the USSR to comprehending it, and in the conditions of war we clearly see that what they tried to present to us for 30 years as stupidity was reasonable. What they tried to present as cruelty was a realized inevitability. What seemed unnecessary turned out to be vital. And as most of those who were actively mocking the “dumb sovoks” are cowardly running abroad, the price of all that trashing of our history and our country becomes much clearer. Now, many suddenly realized that the term “enemy of the people” is far from being a propaganda cliché.
On this day, we remember the USSR, its achievements and victories, its mistakes and shortcomings, and of course its tragic death, which cost our country and people so dearly. But it has already happened. The task of our generations is to take everything that we can and should take from the Soviet experience and apply it to efforts to overcome the thorny road along which Russia will go into the future through the storm of a collapsing world order. The USSR is one of the historical fulcrums on this path.
Happy holiday, Comrades! Happy birthday, USSR!
Posted by: S | Dec 30 2022 14:42 utc | 75
Bradley is only like a light tank in that it goes boom and lights up like a burning tank and smells a lot like rubber. This war has been an endless lesson in failed war machines.
Bring in the Patriots for a finale of farce :)
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 30 2022 14:47 utc | 76
S #75
Thank you comrade. What a fine note to go into the new year. All the best for your days.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 30 2022 14:51 utc | 77
Good news from the German Rentenkasse, that is the federal pension scheme. They are running a considerable surplus this year. Has that ever happened before? Now guess what the reason is for this...
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Dec 30 2022 15:02 utc | 78
The USSR Centenary (Colonel Cassad, Boris Rozhin, December 30, 2022 — in Russian)The USSR was established 100 years ago.
The first workers’ and peasants’ socialist state in history. Our country was the first to follow this path, changing itself and changing the rest of the world. Russia itself, in its socialist incarnation, has risen to hitherto unattainable heights both in terms of social benefits for the people and in terms of power and influence on the processes that determined the development of all mankind.
Yet it is the hybrid capitalist/socialist states that have the highest standards of living for the majority of the population.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Dec 30 2022 15:07 utc | 79
On this day, we remember the USSR, its achievements and victories, its mistakes and shortcomings, and of course its tragic death, which cost our country and people so dearly. But it has already happened. The task of our generations is to take everything that we can and should take from the Soviet experience and apply it to efforts to overcome the thorny road along which Russia will go into the future through the storm of a collapsing world order. The USSR is one of the historical fulcrums on this path.
Happy holiday, Comrades! Happy birthday, USSR!
Posted by: S | Dec 30 2022 14:42 utc | 75
Thank you for posting this. Happy new year, and happy birthday, USSR!
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 30 2022 15:13 utc | 80
@ Scotch Bingeington | 78
The German Rentenkasse (and others in Europe) has a surplus now simply because interest rates have gone positive instead of zero or negative. Banks have to pay these on deposits whereas stocks and even bonds can return quite negative. ECB following the FED belated.
Posted by: Antonym | Dec 30 2022 15:20 utc | 81
Remember the good old days of the Cold War when you looked to see who was in the Politboro stands as the missiles and troops paraded below? This is a new era and signals are sent a little differently. I am in the camp believing that things are looking real good for Medvedev to succeed Putin as president once again.
Posted by: morongobill | Dec 30 2022 15:20 utc | 82
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Dec 30 2022 15:02 utc | 78
Is there any graphics to see how this looked historically vs. people on pension ?
Posted by: Tom_12 | Dec 30 2022 15:27 utc | 83
In 2018 the Patriot PAC-3 systems were a lemon, today they are the super-duper bestest air defense system in the galaxy. How times change. Must be a very democratic decision making machine behind determining the quality of western weapons.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/28/patriot-missiles-are-made-in-america-and-fail-everywhere/
Posted by: unimperator | Dec 30 2022 15:34 utc | 85
Is there a donation link for this website?
I don't see a link on the main page or About page.
Posted by: Sam F | Dec 30 2022 16:33 utc | 86
For those still interested in the life or death subject related to the Covid situation, this thread may be of particular interest.
Context: Situation is Australia's equivalent of CDC, TGA. There were Freedom of Information Request for data for particular batches of Pfizer Covid therapeutic. They were rejected. Why ? This person has some ideas.
https://twitter.com/Jikkyleaks/status/1607609210531086336
Twitter more than once scrubbed Jikky's account only to finally shut it down, resulting in lost historical timeline of information he/she collected.
Posted by: Tom_12 | Dec 30 2022 16:55 utc | 87
Antonym | Dec 30 2022 15:20 utc | 81:
"The German Rentenkasse (and others in Europe) has a surplus now simply because interest rates have gone positive instead of zero or negative."
Sorry, you are wrong. The statutory German Rentenkassen are unfunded, pay-as-you-go, i.e. benefits are paid directly from current workers' contributions.
Instead the surplus suggests that total pension payouts decreased. Tagesschau news (paid by compulsory fees from every household) said that the mortality rate increased and claimed this was due to Covid. On the other hand some statisticans stated that the age-adjusted mortality increase did not start with Covid but with year 2021 only.
Posted by: theosch | Dec 30 2022 16:57 utc | 88
@ Sam F | Dec 30 2022 16:33 utc | 86
Contact B via email at MoonofA @ aol.com for address and/or bank data. Cheers.
See: 'About this site' link, top right, of MoA landing page.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Dec 30 2022 15:07 utc | 79
«Yet it is the hybrid capitalist/socialist states that have the highest standards of living for the majority of the population.»
I tend to favour them, as in the chinese example, but that list of states tends to overlap with those that have started developing first while in 1922 the USSR started from a very low base.
So states like the USSR tend to be compared with states that were to in much later stages of development, and also (but this is less important) did not suffer as much devastation in WW1 and WW2. It is more informative to compare over the past 100 years the USSR/RF with Brazil, never mind Mexico or Indonesia. One can play with this interesting interactive graph (note the starting point for "Russia" in 1989):
Posted by: Blissex | Dec 30 2022 17:17 utc | 90
Posted by: theosch | Dec 30 2022 16:57 utc | 88
Yes, German society is experiencing some colossal stresses.
"Unprecedented drop in births in Q1. In previous years, the births were quite constant, even the lockdown in 2020 left no noticeable traces.
A possible explanation is here --> 1/3"
https://twitter.com/SHomburg/status/1540375470470221824
Maybe not "lockdowns" but perhaps something that was done later on !!!!
Posted by: Tom_12 | Dec 30 2022 17:25 utc | 91
casey | Dec 30 2022 14:31 utc | 74
Has the actual contents of Hunter Biden's laptop been released ever?
Yes.
There was a deliberate and thorough release of the laptops (clown lost two).
The release had emails re the Burisma Ukraine deals,
The Ukraine war and Biden’s double double double down needs to be understood through the lens of his ad Pelosi, John Kerry and other’s corruption in Ukraine.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 30 2022 20:47 utc | 92
Zoltan Pozar waxes euphoric WRT the PetroYuan....
https://thedeepdive.ca/zoltan-pozsar-g7-investors-should-worry-about-gold-backed-renminbi-eclipsing-dollars-commodity-encumbrance/
"Credit Suisse contributor Zoltan Pozsar has continued his ongoing series about Bretton Woods III where commodities will dictate the new world order. For his last dispatch of the year, he described how the world is now shifting to a multipolar order “being built not by G7 heads of state but by the ‘G7 of the East’ (the BRICS heads of state).”
The author focused on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech at the recent summit in the Arab states, which for Pozsar is very telling on how Beijing plans to outmaneuver the West in global economy.
Fixed income investors should care – not just because the invoicing of oil in renminbi will hurt the dollar’s might, but also because commodity encumbrance means more inflation for the West,” Pozsar said.
“Put differently, ‘oil for development’ (plants and jobs) crowded out ‘oil for arms’ – the Belt and Road Initiative met Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 in a big win-win,” Pozsar concluded.
“China, already the largest buyer of oil and gas from GCC countries, will buy even more in the future, and wants to pay for all of it in renminbi over the next three to five years.” Pozsar also noted that the Chinese leader communicated this “not during the first day of his visit – when he met only the Saudi leadership – but during the second day of his visit – when he met the leadership of all the GCC countries.”
“GCC oil flowing East + renminbi invoicing = the dawn of the petroyuan,” he summed up.
Pozsar also noted that the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) reported an increase in its gold reserves for the first time in more than three years.
“Why do China’s gold purchases matter in the context of renminbi settlement? Because at the 2018 BRICS Summit, China launched a renminbi-denominated oil futures contract on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, and since 2016 and 2017, the renminbi has been convertible to gold on the Shanghai and Hong Kong Gold Exchanges, respectively,” Pozsar explained.
He added: “Money is as money does, and convertibility to gold beats convertibility to dollars.”
Xi also referred specifically to the m-CBDC Bridge project in his speech. The central bank digital currency project, “enables real-time, peer-to-peer, cross-border, and foreign exchange transactions,” and is being undertaken by the central banks of China, Thailand, Hong Kong, and United Arab Emirates. This would conduct exchanges “without involving the US dollar or the network of Western correspondent banks that the U.S. dollar system runs on.”
“In a very Uncle Sam-like fashion, China wants more of the GCC’s oil, wants to pay for it with renminbi, and wants the GCC to accept e-renminbi on the m-CBDC Bridge platform, so don’t hesitate – join the mBridge fast train,” said Pozsar.
To make things sweeter for the GCC, Xi also highlighted starting “currency swap cooperation,” facilitating an easier way for the countries to buy the stuff it needs with China extending loans in renminbi. This can be repaid via the swap lines when China buys oil for renminbi.
The ascension of petroyuan is not something that is just about to start, it has already been set in motion. Among the OPEC+ countries, Russia and Venezuela are already accepting payments for oil in renminbi at steep discounts.
China also inked the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Iran – “a 25-year ‘deal’ under which China committed to invest $400 billion into Iran’s economy in exchange for a steady supply of Iranian oil at a steep discount.” It stipulates $280 billion toward developing downstream petrochemical sectors (refining and plastics) and $120 billion toward Iran’s transportation and manufacturing infrastructure in exchange for energy exports at a minimum guaranteed discount of 12% to the six-month rolling mean price.
The China-Iran agreement has the same spirit to what Xi’s speech is saying at the summit with GCC: “investments in downstream petrochemical projects, manufacturing, and infrastructure… [in exchange for] renminbi settlement.”
“Russia, Iran, and Venezuela account for about 40 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves… the GCC countries account for 40 percent of proven oil reserves as well (with Saudi Arabia accounting for half)… and are being courted by China to accept renminbi for their oil in exchange for transformative investments,” Pozsar summed up.
“To underscore, the U.S. has sanctioned half of OPEC with 40 percent of the world’s oil reserves and lost them to China, while China is courting the other half of OPEC with an offer that’s hard to refuse,” he added.
“China will not only pay for more oil in renminbi (crowding out the U.S. dollar), but new investments in downstream petrochemical industries in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the GCC more broadly mean that in the future, much more value-added will be captured locally at the expense of industries in the West,” Pozsar said.
This has played well for China in other non-oil exporting countries. Called “debt trap diplomacy,” many nations are forced into allegiance or giving preference to mainland China in the geopolitical landscape after being unable to repay borrowed investments from Beijing to finance their respective countries’ development projects.
Pozsar cites the first “casualty” of the commodity encumbrance tactic is the decision of the world’s largest chemicals group, BASF, to downsize “permanently” in Europe after it opened the first part of its new €10bn plastics engineering facility in China.
Pozsar describes how rehypothecation will add value to the budding system: “heavily discounted oil and locally produced chemicals invoiced in renminbi mean encumbrance by the East, and the marginal re-export of oil and chemicals also for renminbi to the West means commodity rehypothecation for a profit.”
This has already started to manifest. For instance, China has suddenly become a big exporter of Russian LNG to Europe and India has become a big exporter of Russian oil and refined products such as diesel to Europe.
But China is not the only party playing the commodity encumbrance game. On June 22, 2022, at the BRICS Business Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that “the creation of an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of our countries is being worked on.”
The project is poised to challenge the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR)–an international reserve asset created in 1969 to supplement its member countries’ official reserves. In 2016, renminbi joined the US dollar, euro, yen, and British pound in the SDR basket.
Pozsar cited the Minister-in-charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission, Sergei Glazyev, who’s also in charge of developing BRICS’s “international reserve currency,” in determining how the new asset would be measured.
“Should [a nation] reserve a portion of [its] natural resources for the backing of the new economic system, [its] respective weight in the currency basket of the new monetary unit would increase accordingly, providing that nation with larger currency reserves and credit capacity,” Pozsar quoted Glazyev. “In addition, bilateral swap lines with trading partner countries would provide them with adequate financing for co-investments and trade financing.”
The project is similar in spirit to Xi’s proposal to the GCC countries (and its debt trap diplomacy): currency swap and downstream development for renminbi settlement.
“The BRICS and other interested nations need to talk about setting up their own independent global financial system – whether it would be based on the Chinese currency or they will agree on something different. They need to debate this,” said Sergey Storchak, chief banker of Russian bank VEB.RF, in an interview at the BRICS summit."
Looks like the USFED will have it's work cut out for it WRT taming inflation in the USA...
INDY
Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Dec 30 2022 21:40 utc | 93
Posted by Grieved,
I regard you as our resident vax expert. I need to travel to a country that insists on a vax. In your opinion is there one less harmful than the others? I am already vax phobic.
Posted by: Paul GV | Dec 30 2022 22:09 utc | 94
theosch | Dec 30 2022 16:57 utc | 88
Thanks a lot for making clear how the system works! Couldn't have explained it as well as you did.
"On the other hand some statisticans stated that the age-adjusted mortality increase did not start with Covid but with year 2021 only."
That's also exactly the impression I get from what the "Deutsche Rentenversicherung" writes in this PDF publication ("Rentenversicherung in Zeitreihen"). There's a jitter in virtually all the key numbers in 2021, not in 2020, and certainly never before that. There are gentle trends of course, but 2021 is something else entirely, since you were asking for "age-adjusted".
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Tom_12 | Dec 30 2022 15:27 utc | 83
"Is there any graphics to see how this looked historically vs. people on pension?"
There is, kind of. Didn't find any nice graphics, but tables and I was stunned how all-encompassing they are. I'm referring to my link above. Do you know any German, because unfortunately it's strictly in German. People on pension should be "Rentenbestand".
So from the document... "Rentenzugang/Rentenzugänge" is (apparently) a person who newly gets to receive some kind of pension paid out (there are several schemes). There's been a considerable uptick in people receiving a "Witwenrente" or "Witwerrente" - widows and widowers, they are entitled to a pension in Germany. That of course is related to this: there's also been a big increase in people leaving the system for good, due to their death. It's called "Rentenwegfall". Page 141 gives you the general overview - "Rentenwegfälle nach Zweigen / Versichertenrenten Männer und Frauen". 2019 saw 903K such cases, in 2020 there were 926K and in 2021 989K. The percentages involved are +2.56 and +6.81 (year on year). So the new overall big trend is all about 2021, leading all the way to 2022's headlines.
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Dec 30 2022 23:28 utc | 96
@94 Paul GV | Dec 30 2022 22:09 utc
I'm not an expert on anything, and I really don't want to be someone's vax expert, of all things.
But my first thought is, if you have to be jabbed to enter a country, the question is what brands of jab does that country regard as being vaccinated? Somewhere on their foreign ministry or visa-info website you'd expect a list.
Last year - for example - I noted that the US State Dept's website listed the Chinese vax (Sinopharm ??) as an acceptable vax for entry to the USA. Maybe they were listing UN-approved vaxes, but either way, that would have allowed someone to enter.
So it matters completely what the target country regards as a jab. That's the list you have to choose from. Or so I would think, from the US example.
If I wanted a vaccination simply to have one, or if I were compelled to have one, the only two I personally can think of to trust my life to are those from Cuba and China.
And to second the Featherless comment following yours, I would want a vaccine made from an attenuated ("dead") strain of the virus. And I would run far away from the mRNA delivery platform - which, I'm afraid, it looks like may be adopted in the west for everything now - devil indeed.
Posted by: Grieved | Dec 30 2022 23:37 utc | 97
Posted by Grieved @ 97 &
Posted by Featherless @ 95
Here is the list of " acceptable" jabs:
AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Gamaleya Institute, Johnson & Johnson, Bharat Biotech, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Moderna.
I will probably need some useless paperwork to accompany their useless and destructive jabs.
Posted by: Paul GV | Dec 31 2022 0:31 utc | 98
@Paul GV
My short list from that would be :
1. Sinovac
2. Gamaleya
3. PASS (I don’t know bharat. Is that Indian ?)
Posted by: Featherless | Dec 31 2022 0:39 utc | 99
Posted by: Tom_12 | Dec 30 2022 16:55 utc | 87
How many doses in a `death batch' of Pfizer? https://www.devex.com/news/new-tech-hub-aims-to-boost-access-to-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-in-africa-100193
How many deaths? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_deaths#Cumulative_monthly_death_totals_by_country
COVID helped make 2021 the deadliest year in U.S. history https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/covid-helped-make-2021-the-deadliest-year-in-u-s-history
The main reason for the increase in deaths? COVID-19, said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work on death statistics.The agency this month quietly updated its provisional death tally. It showed there were 3.465 million deaths last year, or about 80,000 more than 2020’s record-setting total.
Posted by: Laurence | Dec 31 2022 1:54 utc | 100
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indian punchline from yesterday -
Russia, Iran open a trade route heralding a bloc
Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 17:06 utc | 1