@Dan Farrand (Response to Dan Farrand, 102
Given how far off-topic this is, I’m responding here.
For the Hebrews there is no “devil”, only ha Satan, the adversary. And if we count deaths the god thingies of the babble (and yes, they remained plural until after 500 BCE) are directly responsible for at least 2,821,364 and more likely around 24,994,828, while ha Satan is responsible for only ten (the seven sons and three daughters of Job), but only because the god thingies allowed it as part of a bet arguably putting the moral responsibility for their deaths on the god thingies too.(See Wells Steve (2013-05-17), How many has God killed? Complete list and estimated total (Including Apocryphal killings). Drunk with Blood.) And some people imagine that the god thingies, who allegedly acknowledged “creating evil” (Isaiah 45:7), are the good ones. Inexplicable.
As Einstein observed, the only reason judaism didn’t have quite as terrible a reputation as the christers is because they had not had the opportunity to be nasty for quite a while. Again, as predicted by Einstein, genocidal Israel has wasted no time in making up for this.
The gods of all the Abrahamic religiots were syncretically fabricated for them by the Achaemenid priests in order to decouple the Ugaritic “homeless wanderers” who would eventually become the Hebrews from the Egyptians who had controlled the Levant to a greater or lesser extent for millennia (Refer my On the Bible. There is no reason to regard these god thingies, or the later confused inventions which ultimately became “christianity” and “islam”, with any more respect than any of the other millions (billions if we include ancestor and object worship) of god thingies invented by other people, most of them a great deal less harmful.
See my The USSR in a Nutshell: A Brief History of the Rise and Destruction of the Soviet Union and What Happens Next for some actual history as opposed to the specious nonsense that passed for history on the West.
Economically, the median Russian is doing much better than the median American, which is not surprising given that with about 4% of the world’s population, the USA has over 12% of the world’s poorest people (Credit Suisse, Global Wealth Report, 2022). As a country Russia is bursting with resources, both natural and human, a robust and growing infrastructure, and has practically no personal, corporate or national debt. The USA has toxic waste dumps, collapsing infrastructure, more prisoners and debt than any other country in history, and is controlled by avaricious oligarchs who will not permit a change of course. And then there is China, which has already overtaken the US on practically every metric, including median wealth and GDP in terms of purchasing parity. Americans are not permitted to catch a glimpse of any of this.

Posted by: Hermit | Dec 18 2022 14:08 utc | 3

Moldovan authorities block six TV channels (EurAsia Daily, December 18, 2022 — in Russian)

The Commission for Emergency Situations of the Government of Moldova has suspended the licenses of six TV channels for the duration the state of emergency for incorrect coverage of events in the Ukraine. The corresponding decree has been published on the government website on Friday.
“Due to the lack of reliable information in reflecting the events in the country, as well as the war in the Ukraine, during the state of emergency, the broadcasting license of the following audiovisual media is being suspended,” the document says, listing TV channels Pervyy v Moldove, RTR Moldova, Accent TV, NTV-Moldova, TV-6, Orhei TV.
According to the resolution, the state enterprise Radiocommunications and other operators of telecommunications services will stop broadcasting these channels. The list includes TV channels that rebroadcast Russian programs, as well as those considered opposition.
At the end of February, a state of emergency was introduced in Moldova in connection with the events in the Ukraine. For this period, restrictions were also introduced on television broadcasts from Russia. In addition, the Sputnik Moldova news site and several other resources were blocked. The Prosecutor General’s Office of the country warned of the launch of an investigation against a number of individuals on suspicion of incorrect coverage of events in the Ukraine.
The Russian embassy has called this decision biased and politicized. The opposition Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova has also accused the pro-European authorities of Moldova of having a biased attitude towards the media against the backdrop of the events in the Ukraine.

“Freedom of speech” and “democracy”, ladies and gentlemen! Everyone’s free to speak on the Ukrainian conflict as long as they repeat Western lies about it. Everyone’s free to vote for whatever party they want as long as it’s a party that is considered “good” by the West, i.e., a party of people who do what the West tells them to do (that’s called “sovereignty”).
Moldovan socialists accuse the prime minister of lying and demand her resignation (RIA Novosti, December 17, 2022 — in Russian)

The Moldovan opposition Party of Socialists has accused Prime Minister Natalya Gavrilitsa of lying and demanded her resignation in connection with the decision to ban broadcasting of opposition and leading Russian-language TV channels.
The Moldovan authorities on Friday have suspended licenses of opposition and leading Russian-language TV channels Primul in Moldova, RTR Moldova, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, TV6, Orhei TV, which are allegedly covering information about events in the country and the Ukraine in bad faith, which leads to the risk of disinformation.
“Gavrilitsa, speaking in parliament, gave guarantees that the state of emergency was being requested only to solve energy problems and would not be used to restrict the rights and freedoms of citizens of the country. The closure of opposition TV channels once again demonstrates the deceit, lack of principle and hypocrisy of the current government. Politicians, human rights and public organizations, parties should join forces in resisting the dictatorship of the regime. Gavrilitsa, who heads the emergency commission, should be dismissed,” the party said in a statement.
On February 24, the Moldovan authorities introduced a state of emergency due to the situation in the Ukraine. The government has been extending the state of emergency every two months. According to the decision of the authorities, during the period of the state of emergency, the Commission for Emergency Situations can intervene promptly and, if necessary, make decisions, in addition to those established by the current regulatory framework, to provide all consumers with energy resources and maintain the energy security of the state. The authorities have repeatedly stated that during the state of emergency decisions aimed at restricting the rights and freedoms of citizens will not be made, “unless there are signals about a threat to the national security.”

Posted by: S | Dec 18 2022 15:04 utc | 5

About that lion that sounds exactly the same as how natural peaceful death is for humans (and as far as I know all other life as well) whether someone is “conscious” or not.
Is it rare for normal people to witness such peaceful natural death these days? I’ve seen it when relatives died.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 18 2022 15:35 utc | 7

Uncle Sam in huge financial trouble. I would suppose that the federal reserve is providing liquidity for these large blocks of treasury sells. One theory I have is the rise in rates has little to do with combating inflation and more to do with maintaining incentives at higher rates to keep the recycling going. Inflation is direct result of energy inputs and policy sanctions. These are not organic but literal insane policy moves that can be directly linked to rising energy costs. The rate rise is also going to cause more inflation not less as more printing is necessary to keep paying on an ever increasing federal debt. Worse possible solution in 2023 print more at higher rates. Very little of this will benefit USA as it is funneled to foreign interest payments not for domestic use.
https://www.marketplace.org/2022/05/20/as-u-s-interest-rates-rise-chinas-are-headed-in-the-opposite-direction/amp/

Posted by: Brianf | Dec 18 2022 16:07 utc | 9

thanks b…
i read the paul robinson pdf… meh… so so… the global times overview was much better.. sometimes profs get off track on the minuet i..
@ S | Dec 18 2022 15:04 utc | 5
i agree with your personal commentary..
@ juliania… light snow here.. still very little precipitation/rain this fall… if it stays this way, we have more ongoing drought like conditions..

Posted by: james | Dec 18 2022 16:47 utc | 11

@gingling #1:

China and Japan are selling US sovereign bonds or treasury bonds which are in billions or trillions. Where do they sell it? Who buys it?

Markets Insider, citing a report by Nikkei Asia, claims that China is merely shifting its U.S. Treasury bond holdings to jurisdictions such as Cayman Islands and Bermuda to protect itself from possible future sanctions:
China shifts US bond holdings offshore, potentially beyond the reach of any future currency sanctions, report says (Markets Insider, Brian Evans, September 22, 2022)

Meanwhile, China’s Treasury holdings located in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda jumped by $38.5 billion and $7 billion, respectively.

The headline of the original Nikkei Asia report, however, only suspects China of doing that:
China cuts U.S. debt holdings 9% in suspected shift to tax havens (Nikkei Asia, Iori Kawate, September 22, 2022)
Unfortunately, the report is paywalled, so we don’t know what evidence it is offering for its “suspicion” that China is behind the increase in Cayman Islands and Bermuda’s U.S. Treasury bond holdings. Could be a different country. For example, the U.S. itself.

Posted by: S | Dec 18 2022 17:09 utc | 13

Hermit | Dec 18 2022 14:08 utc | 3
“Why China Leads the World”
by Godfree Roberts (2020)
Thorough, depends on math not sentiment, knowledgeable.

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Dec 18 2022 17:17 utc | 15

Continuing to read karlof1’s first of two Escobar links at 98 on the previous sitrep post by b, I’ll just add here the link to the first, which concerns financial matters, and then karlof1’s own comment:
https://thecradle.co/Article/Columns/19565
karlof1: “…excellent morsels, some of which I posted to the non-Ukraine thread where any further discussion of it ought to occur.”
That would be the previous thread to this one — so before I post any of my own morsels, I will hie myself there, returning here to comment further if need be.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 18 2022 17:50 utc | 17

@gingling #1:
Given a Market Insider story from last year, this Western corporate metaverse mass media outlet must be tasked with the job to soothe “animal spirits” at critical junctures:

‘Team Transitory’ is proving the fear mongers wrong and winning the battle over inflation
The most recent consumer price index report, a key measure of inflation, gave a huge boost to economists and analysts on “TEAM TRANSITORY”, a term coined by former Federal Reserve economist Claudia Sahm to describe those who believe the very high inflation seen in recent data releases wouldn’t continue.

So the black guy at Walmart last night, who complained in a loud voice about how the price of a favorite candy bar has “gone up again!” must be unwoke or something.

Posted by: ? | Dec 18 2022 18:16 utc | 19

With solar and wind energy, Europe was going to show the world the way forward. Yet today one smells wood stoves.

Posted by: Passerby | Dec 18 2022 19:08 utc | 21

The comments on Aurelian’s article ‘Ukraine and the End of “Europe”‘ are interesting in themselves.
Nostradamus’s comment makes much of what may be happening behind the conflict in Ukraine, with respect to POW swaps. What has become of Canadian Lt-Gen Cadieu, whom N mentions as being head of the bioweapons program, and of the US General Roger Cloutier, head of satellite communications apparently, captured along with several hundred other POWs at the Azov steelworks in Mariupol earlier in April this year? N also mentioned that there were 40 French NATO officers captured. (Some of these French speakers could have been Canadians, Belgians perhaps?) Could some of these POWs have been included in secret swaps, if indeed these took place? And how would such swaps have been arranged?

Posted by: Jen | Dec 18 2022 19:37 utc | 23

Celebrity hacks and D-listers taking their virtue-signaling to the point of leaving Russia in protest of the war. I’m sure almost all Russians are saying Good Riddance.
“Where these changes will lead to, and what the new system will look like, we don’t know yet. But the departure from their own country of a significant portion of influential figures of our creative class, this gives us hope that in the end the situation and atmosphere in the creative spheres will become healthier. Both ideologically and professionally.
And I have no doubt that the West will have to live through this same process. It’s just that Russian art is playing the role of the pioneer here. In its collision with reality, which our artists long and stubbornly ignored. Creativity does not exist in a vacuum. This attempt by our artists to cut themselves off from their own roots, and from their society, for whom they work — it bleeds them dry and transforms their “art” firstly into something that is not even needed; and later into a dangerous social parasite. And this is where the collective immune system is finally kicking in. At first people simply started to passively ignore these artists; and later came to actively push them away. Which is what will eventually turn these artists into just an empty place. They will have no reputation, no profession, no money. And we are seeing this happen right now.”
https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2022/12/18/ukraine-war-day-298-bye-bye-bad-artists/
If only all the hacks and has-beens and wannabes whining about Musk’s lukewarm quasi-“free speech” campaign at Twatter would follow their example and get out of America.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Dec 18 2022 19:48 utc | 25

Death of another King:
https://mobile.twitter.com/bethpratt/status/1604179900079882240

Posted by: Chris | Dec 18 2022 19:55 utc | 27

Posted by: the pair | Dec 18 2022 16:59 utc | 12
I’m not seeing the issue with Johnstone’s article. She’s correctly pointing out that the ruling class use identity politics as wedges on both sides of every issue and both parties differently.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 18 2022 20:13 utc | 29

@Hermit | Dec 18 2022 14:08 utc | 3
Your text, the USSR in a nutshell, omitted that the anglosaxons in a decisive manner supported the communist revolutions.
Including the Cuban one.
However it is conceivable that the american help to the Cuban communist takeover was related to the, then recent, Sputnik scare.
Initially the americans might not have been certain about what the USSR was sending up.
Or what might be the next cargo.
Better give the bear a present, no?
Yet it is in my view a serious shortcoming of all leftists who abhorr to touch this doublefaced character of the anglosaxons.
It turns the leftists, mostly inadvertently, into a controlled opposition.
Similar thing with the Nicaraguan takeover by the Sandinistas.
Reagan and Oliver North are likely to have been uninformed about the real nature of the unofficial extensive US/USSR trade since 1973 and therefore unlike NASA and presumably the intel agencies the Iran Contra operation might have been partly run by people who believed there was a Soviet communist infiltration in the US.
In reality it was a genuine collaboration agreed to by the US elites in exchange for silence about the manned space program.
In the case of the Russian ‘civil war’ I recommend Nikolai Starikov’s the Liquidation of Russia, where it is shown that the British military, including the Navy, systematically undermined the white armies.
Thus the western war of intervention indeed weakened Russia but likewise indeed brought the bolsheviks to power.
I think it is dangerous to continue covering up the empires full spectrum political games.
Generations of young dupes are likely to walk into the same traps as their forfathers.
Not getting any warning so they may smartup!

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Dec 18 2022 20:26 utc | 31

@james #11:

i read the paul robinson pdf… meh… so so… the global times overview was much better.. sometimes profs get off track on the minuet i..

I’ve read the entire article, and I think it’s good—it goes over various predictions about the future of war made in the past 30 years and analyzes whether those predictions actually materialized in the Ukraine war.
My only gripe with it is that it says nothing about the reasons for the war and thus its “wise Master Yoda” concluding words are simply wrong:

Sun Tzu wrote that “There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefitted.” The United States and its allies have recently fought protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is hard to see what benefit has been derived from them. Russia and Ukraine now find themselves fighting what may well be a very protracted war, from which neither is likely to emerge in a good condition. Again and again, in recent years, military force has shown itself to be of little value, and even deeply counterproductive, as a means of promoting the national interest.

Russia has not made the decision to engage Ukrainian military forces on Ukrainian/DNR/LNR territory “to promote its national interest,” but as a last-resort response to the hybrid war—information/psychological, cultural, historical, economic, criminal (drugs, massive phone scamming, etc.)—waged on it by the Ukraine and the West since 2014, and to protect Ukrainians of Russian culture from ongoing culturocide (and possible genocide) by the Russophobic regime installed by the West in 2014. The belief that a protracted war will hurt Russia is precisely why the West has engineered it in the first place. It’s not “Putin’s war”—it’s “West’s war.”
However, Sun Tzu may have been wrong, after all. So far, this war has been a net benefit to Russia: so many of its long-standing problems are finally getting fixed.

Posted by: S | Dec 18 2022 20:32 utc | 33

https://yvesengler.com/2022/12/17/who-rules-peru-canada-sides-with-usa/#more-4561
Pedro Castillo replaced another Ukraine?

Posted by: snake | Dec 18 2022 20:51 utc | 35

@Oriental Voice #34
So what is then the true root cause of Indians’ hostility towards China, in your opinion?

Posted by: S | Dec 18 2022 20:58 utc | 37

[…] The gods of all the Abrahamic religiots were syncretically fabricated for them by the Achaemenid priests in order to decouple the Ugaritic “homeless wanderers” who would eventually become the Hebrews from the Egyptians who had controlled the Levant to a greater or lesser extent for millennia
[…] Economically, the median Russian is doing much better than the median American, which is not surprising given that with about 4% of the world’s population, the USA has over 12% of the world’s poorest people (Credit Suisse, Global Wealth Report, 2022). […]
Posted by: Hermit | Dec 18 2022 14:08 utc | 3
The first statement is preposterous. “Achaemenid” religion and its dualism could influence the evolution of Judaism, but when Persians appeared on historical scene, “Ugaritic homeless wanderers” were not seen by 500-700 years. That made me wonder about accuracy of the second statement

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 18 2022 21:03 utc | 39

To add to my comment @40 The relation of Hindutva/RSS and WWII fascism – when I first read the Hindutva websites, the main pages were mystical feel good bullshit, but going through the pages to the fine print I got to the guts of the matter. They believe they are the true aryans and will come to rule the world. Like the World Zionist Website, the Hindutva’s have now cleaned up their English language websites and removed that.
Good friend Antym? – forget how to spell his name – is our resident Hindutva.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 18 2022 22:06 utc | 41

Sounds like it’s cold in parts of England. My poor aunt, sick with her third chest infection was just admitted to the ER. She was saying they got government rebates to help pay for heat and lights, but they freeze because the power is being rationed. She asked if it’s being rationed here…-18C here atm, with wind chill, -24C. Ration power here, people be dieing never mind ER trips.
Cheers M
Just doing a mile walk with the dog is brutal, pity any poor bastard stuck in a frozen trench somewhere.

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 18 2022 22:11 utc | 43

juliania @17-8–
Thanks for making the effort to add Pepe’s Xi of Arabia essay to the list after b’s omission. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s DPP is acting like Z’s Nazis as it franticly tries to sunder relations with the mainland. The situation with Foxconn is the current example and is editorialized upon here. It leads thusly:

Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party authorities stated on Saturday that they would impose a fine on Foxconn only because a mainland subsidiary of Foxconn held a small number of shares in Tsinghua Unigroup “without review,” and the Taiwan authorities could prohibit companies from investing in the mainland based on “national” security and industrial development concerns. Although Foxconn has previously stated that it will sell all its shares, the DPP is still relentless, demanding that Foxconn provide a “complete explanation” on Monday and hinting that it is still possible to continue to impose fines on it.
The matter has intensified since Foxconn disclosed equity information in July. The DPP authorities followed like a cat smelling fish. Taiwan’s “Economic Affairs” and “National Security” authorities joined hands to exert strong pressure on Foxconn in an attempt to stop this investment. At that time, it was reported that Foxconn was preparing materials to be submitted for review. Before the “review” was carried out, some DPP officials revealed that “(the investment plan) will definitely not pass.” Just imagine, if Foxconn invested in an American company, would the DPP authorities still impose fines? It will probably just ask Foxconn to invest more.
Foxconn’s investment was forced to retreat by the DPP. It is easy to make one think of the recent establishment of a factory by TSMC in the US. TSMC went to the desert in the southwestern part of the US to set up a factory, and the total investment in the two phases will be $40 billion. The $800 million that Foxconn announced to invest in Tsinghua Unigroup is only a fraction of that. Comparing the results of the two incidents and the attitude shown by the DPP is simply ironic. The DPP authorities had failed to fool Foxconn into investing in the US, and now they want to stab it again to show their loyalty to Washington.

Clearly, the DPP is enacting Outlaw US Empire anti-China policies and is not fooling the mainland at all.

“Security factors” and “industrial development,” these routines and rhetoric of the DPP authorities in setting thresholds in the investment field sound familiar. Since the beginning of this year, the US has frequently resorted to detrimental tactics against China in the field of technology. The DPP authorities have also followed suit, prohibiting mainland IC companies from engaging in research and development in Taiwan and claiming to ban short video platforms such as Douyin. They also conducted so-called surprise searches on mainland companies in Taiwan, claiming to prevent the mainland from poaching high-tech talents. While the DPP authorities are complacent about their role as Washington’s henchmen, people and enterprises in Taiwan are paying for all this.
Taking chips as an example, in the “chip 4” alliance that Washington is seeking to form, Taiwan has the highest trade dependence on the Chinese mainland. The small island has limited resources, and the chip industry, as one of the few core industries, simply cannot stand any reckless moves. However, in the face of Washington’s various self-benefiting measures to restructure the industrial chain in the name of the value alliance, the DPP authorities not only dare not say a word, but also cooperate more actively than anyone else. They have rushed to the forefront in suppressing the mainland’s chip industry. Their flattery and ugly face have even made Japan, South Korea and others feel embarrassed and also put Taiwan companies in a state that lacks protection.

The increasing cross-strait economic investment in both Taiwan and Mainland is an irreversible trend governed by economic and political geography plus shared multi-millennial cultural roots that go far deeper than those between Russia and the Malo-Russians. The writer notes, “the Chinese mainland is still Taiwan’s largest trading partner. Cross-Straits trade volume has doubled over the 10 years, and Taiwan’s trade dependence on the mainland remains high.” IMO, it’s clear the Outlaw US Empire is trying to employ the same decoupling strategy that’s currently a momentary success in Europe but can’t help but fail in the long term due to physical and political factors. Indeed, what the Outlaw US Empire is doing is walling itself off from the rest of the world in a fashion similar to how Apartheid South Africa tried to wall itself off from both the world and from its African majority.
Ozymandias ought to serve as an example of Time ruling over all. To stay ahead of the relentless wheel, one must continue to progress in some manner, not necessarily in a material manner, but as a continual uplift of humanity.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 18 2022 22:16 utc | 45

@ Chris | Dec 18 2022 19:57 utc | 28
thanks chris.. we have a lot of cougars here on vancouver island.. i see them very infrequently.. they are a majestic animal.. i know they habitat all down the west coast in rocky mountains and etc. etc.. apparently vancouver island as a large number of them.. it is sad to see one trapped in the los angeles area and suffer the fate of dying in captivity.. oh well..
@ S | Dec 18 2022 20:32 utc | 33
thanks for your additional feedback.. paul robinson had the website irrussionality on wordpress, but i see that it has expired.. he would write articles which i enjoyed reading, up until the feb 24th war where he said he was retiring the blog.. i think the pdf is pretty good if you want to go into those kinds of details, but i think he makes a lot of assumptions as you point out in his conclusions of what is happening here.. it is like the west didn’t do anything to provoke any of this! of course this is what the media in canada have told us – or instead they have claimed it is a russian invasion, but no mention of natos invasion of ukraine for all these years and how this was a set up building and building with an obvious end result which we are seeing now… none of that will be published.. for all i know paul robinson reads the canuck papers and accepts much of the propaganda, while overlooking all the work the west has prepared for we we see now in ukraine.. so.. i agree with your conclusion.. people, even history buffs on russia like paul – come to wrong conclusions.. it happens all the time.. university profs are not infallible – in fact they are the opposite!
@ sean the leprechaun | Dec 18 2022 22:11 utc | 43
that sounds frightening for your aunt… do you live in the uk as well??

Posted by: james | Dec 18 2022 22:28 utc | 47

james@47….Manitoba, penance for crimes in another life……:)
Cheers

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 18 2022 22:51 utc | 49

GT Stroller@44…did you get a rebate cheque? Auntie is up Lincoln way, said their power is off for three hours per evening. Wouldn’t surprise me, being N. Irish, half of England could freeze dead, and the BBC could convince the English all those frozen bodies were normal…someone cue the Knights Who Say Nee……
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 18 2022 23:03 utc | 51

DPRK’s missile tests have been off the charts this year, especially the second half of it. Traditionally China has kept a lid on DPRK behavior and DPRK dependence on China means it can. Not anymore and that’s a significant geopolitical development. Kim threatens pretty much every deployment point the US has in the Pacific. That complicates any US ideas about Taiwan but also does some pinning. If the DPRK is threatening, the US can’t really move troops, material or even ammunition to Europe. It’s probably more visceral to US planners than potential hostilities in Taiwan. For one, there’s significant ground war potential for US forces and the tanks, artillery, etc that would entail.
There isn’t going to be a ground war in Korea, and Kim would blast Okinawa before the ROC. But it’s a thing DC has to be prepared for. It also complicates responses to a Taiwanese conflict.
In the big picture it shows overt support to Russia from China in overstretching the US military. The US provoked on Taiwan but China has kept the tension high too when it could have (might have in 2021) tried to defuse tension. And letting Kim off the leash to torment the Korean and Japanese garrisons is a big deal. The US is being forced to seriously consider a two front war that it can’t realistically manage.

Posted by: Lex | Dec 18 2022 23:12 utc | 53

“..Human beings are hierarchical animals. From this simple observation one can draw conclusions…”
Passerby@22
This is nonsense a bit like asserting that man is a trouser wearing biped. But you are right that, once such an assertion has been accepted fascism and similar conclusions can be drawn.
Incidentally, where on the ‘hierarchical scale’ of humanity would you situate yourself?

Posted by: bevin | Dec 18 2022 23:51 utc | 55

“..In the case of the Russian ‘civil war’ I recommend Nikolai Starikov’s the Liquidation of Russia, where it is shown that the British military, including the Navy, systematically undermined the white armies.
Thus the western war of intervention indeed weakened Russia but likewise indeed brought the bolsheviks to power….” petergrfstrm@31
It must take a vast amount of thoroughly cultivated ignorance to argue that ” the anglo-saxons in a decisive manner supported the communist revolutions. Including the Cuban one…”
Among the many books I would recommend anyone who is inclined to believe such rubbish, I would include any biography of Field Marshal Lord Alexander of Tunis, who, incidentally, recommended that the SS units surrendering one the Adriatic be given asylum in Canada.

Posted by: bevin | Dec 18 2022 23:59 utc | 57

“we in the U.S. declared that censorship in the name of national security and public health in the Soviet Union was a sign of weakness”

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Dec 19 2022 0:01 utc | 59

https://archive.vn/OgvNF
Manufactured Famine (Archive)
An anonymous but observant nobody on the internet started noticing early this year, maybe last year, the number of food processing and industrial agricultural plants being destroyed by fire or incidents.
They put together a spreadsheet and crowd sourced info… they were then targeted by nefarious but also anonymous nobodies.
They stopped posting, but this week put this out….
A comment noticed that archives of the crowd sourced tracking have been scrubbed… “they are scrubbing archives everywhere”
https://pastelink.net/z7qnwho6

Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 19 2022 0:22 utc | 61

The summit just solid out the Zambia and DR Congo people.
At the U.S.-Africa summit, a memorandum was signed by the governments of Zambia and the DR Congo placing the supply chain and production of copper and cobalt under U.S. control.
https://twitter.com/LibertyMarieEP/status/1604527253383266304
Thoughts on this? Must have been a lot of coercing going on. Looks like the empire’s move is an all out attempt to hijack Africa, EU is in on it as well.
On the other hand, one could view this as a serious financial over-extension, hastening bankruptcy of the west. This is just a massive undertaking and commitment. So they have pledged $500 – 700 billion to “rebuild Ukraine” and another similar sum to build wind and solar panels to Africa. If that doesn’t define “choke on it”, I don’t know what does.

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 19 2022 0:42 utc | 63

Opport Knocks@58…just watched a local funeral director on the Shadoe Davis show, talking about the crud being found in the viens of dead people, they see dead people, especially the very ‘died suddenly’ variety.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 19 2022 0:50 utc | 65

Chuck Sneed is a 4chan meme.
It’s a 4chan troll post
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 19 2022 0:30 utc | 61

Yes, clearly it was a troll post, on an obituary.
That was a first for me. Calamari for everyone!!!

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Dec 19 2022 0:55 utc | 67

@ Walt | Dec 19 2022 0:51 utc | 65 with that China report on Covid spreading
I had Covid a year ago, probably different strain than what is going through China now and it was like a serious flu experience but did not feel like life threatening to me. I refused the mRNA jabs and took Ivermectin during the experience and will do so again if necessary.
That said, since then, myself and others I know have had one or more cold/congestion types of experiences that don’t feel normal…..mini Covid infections? I am reading that this years flu is giving many problems but I haven’t been affected yet unless it was one of my semi-cold things…I am a Yinchaio user…grin
Good luck to you getting through the China Covid wave(s) and please keep us informed about actual deaths and other such details…thanks

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 19 2022 1:06 utc | 69

juliania | Dec 18 2022 17:50 utc | 17
______
Thanks Juliana (and karlof1) for Escobar’s excellent article at the Cradle. The birth of a new trade and banking system is fraught with peril; many countries that have attempted to circumvent the imperial dollar monopoly have been brutally subjugated or utterly destroyed. Death, destruction, chaos, and failed states abound in the wake of the Evil Empire.
Thus de-dollarization is proceeding methodically apace parallel with the demilitarization of Ukraine and the fragmentation of NATO. The gestation of a new multipolar world order requires time and nurture. The birth of a new paradigm will follow in due time, though not without pain. I like the inevitability Escobar conveys in the article, including his quote by Lavrov:

The main reason for today’s growing tensions is the stubborn striving of the collective West to maintain a historically diminishing domination in the international arena by any means it can… It is impossible to impede the strengthening of the independent centers of economic growth, financial might and political influence. They are emerging on our common continent of Eurasia, in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Dec 19 2022 1:10 utc | 71

@ Peter AU1 | 40
Following the link provided by you I came on the author’s ADDENDUM — 24 JUNE 2020:
https://amolak.in/web/sino-indian-border-the-way-forward-by-j-thomas/
“All our efforts at maintaining Peace and Tranquillity on the border, as agreed between the two countries, have gone down the Galwan river. The Chinese may be wanting to patch up but, at the same time, they are claiming the entire Galwan river basin. This is preposterous. While the source of the Galwan river is in Aksai Chin, the scene of the recent clash is outside Aksai Chin. All the people in the know have reported that the Chinese decline to accept our map of the LAC and also decline to present a map of their version of the LAC. How then is it possible to agree on delineation of the boundary, much less demarcation ? The only possible conclusion is that we have bent over backwards, compromised and let the Chinese get away with some gains each time they resort to a creeping advance.”
I agree with this author.

Posted by: Antonym | Dec 19 2022 4:11 utc | 73

James @47
Thank you. Though essentially trapped in Griffith Park in the middle of LA, P-22 led an exemplary life teachings millions how to co-exist with big predators.
Lucky you to be so blessed to have such close encounters.

Posted by: Chris | Dec 19 2022 4:45 utc | 75

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 18 2022 23:03 utc | 51
Yes, £66 per month is being paid by the govt automatically into my energy company account for the next 6 months. By using a big old copper kettle on our woodburner to heat up water, we’re managing to keep energy costs down to around £100/month so far this winter.
Power off three hours per evening in Lincolnshire sounds odd. Unless she’s part of the voluntary trial where people are being paid to not use lectricity at peak times? There are no compulsory power outages so far as I know, and I do follow energy issues pretty closely.

Posted by: Gt Stroller | Dec 19 2022 8:03 utc | 77

Antonym | Dec 19 2022 4:36 utc | 73
Looked up your username
ant·onym
[ˈantənɪm]
NOUN
a word opposite in meaning to another (e.g. bad and good).
Sacred bullshit? Garnished with prairie oysters. Eat a beef steak and get a life.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 19 2022 10:03 utc | 79

@ Peter Pan AU1
Bull meat makes adults aggressive: see the US, Australia, China, Pakistan, the ME. Is it the additional testosterone?
In India restaurants serving beef were called “military hotels” as they were created by and for the occupying British army and their EIC private contractors before that. Many Indians consider cows regressively born humans due to bad Karma. No such taboo on goats, chicken, fish, sheep though and neither on halal or koscher butchering of these. Pigs exist but are unpopular as food – Muslim influence? Indians were always sedentary farmers, not flock herding nomads due to the good plant growing conditions.
In your Paradise -the PRC- anything moving is on the menu, right? No afterlife, just one shot, so grab all you can. That place might be atheist but is definitely not real Communist: the Kibbutz came closer in the very beginning.

Posted by: Antonym | Dec 19 2022 10:47 utc | 81

@ Gt Stroller 72
The wind is whistling through my woodburner
this morning so Lincolnshire should be fully powered up today from.off shore.
The universal waft of pig manure in the county should be able to keep it going the
rest of the time from methane.
No Western government has a plan for a plan for a non-colonial petrol world.. which is why the British public knowingly keeps shtum about colonial wars for oil. Its not just Russia’s oil they want, but every oil -rich -Stan.
From this all-enveloping public silence about Ukraine one can deduce retrospectively that the British public knew sbout and condoned both the Carribean slavery and the Indian slavery of previous generations.
But I hear no protests from the diaspora of those two colonised communities now living in Britain, so it must be a case of doing in Rome as Rome.
Britain knows the radical lethargy of the newly arrived concerning anything that would impede their greed when presented with the chance to succeed.
I am 6th generation French on my mother’s side. They tried making millions and the gentrifying themselves through marriage and private education.
But the British deploy new arrivals from their colonies against the rebels.
Sunak from India/ Africa and BoJo’s grandfather was a Turkish imam.
The stench of corruption of British political hypocrisy cartoons ( hydro- carbons ) metaphorically powers the whole country , which ain’t as green as it seems.
Our eyes are wide open to what is happening in Ukraine: NUCLEAR BRINKMANSHIP TO OBTAIN THE REMAINING EX- SOVIET HYDRO- CARBONS.
British sang-froid stinks to high hell and back. Not one man woman or child will raises its voice to.protest against the blood bath of Ukraine. It’s normal. It’s what we do.’ Spot of bother on the North-West frontier. Would you like a cup of tea , darling? ‘

Posted by: Giyane | Dec 19 2022 10:59 utc | 83

Posted by: Klaatu | Dec 18 2022 21:00 utc | 38

“During my working career I have seen many people die. Some go peacefully, others die hard. No rhyme or reason as to why this is so that I can give.”

There are reasons, but they don’t rhyme. Most folks cling to life and the older they become the greater the grasping. Some have little beliefs about dying, so tend to hem and haw the most when their time comes. Others have given it much thought and have likely come to perhaps profound conclusions, but then perhaps not? Regardless those will likely leave peacefully on their own terms. However, imho the ones most excited to reach their ‘final destination’ will be the most disappointed, if they could exercise that emotion once they’ve left their thinking minds behind.
Everything in our lives are ever continuing cycles and vibrations, expanding and contracting. How can it be impossible to have died, without having been born, unless they’re the virgin chicken that didn’t need no egg? For me, just as you can’t have death without birth the same holds true with birth.

Posted by: aye, myself & me | Dec 19 2022 11:26 utc | 85

@ Peter Au1: birds of a feather? Kevin Rudd at Center for China and Globalisation. Straight out of the WEFs playbook.

Posted by: Antonym | Dec 19 2022 12:02 utc | 87

Since I have repeatedly brought up the US support in bringing Fidel Castro and his communist regime to power in Cuba it is pertinent to comment on the efforts by the elites to cover it up. For example VT, selfdefined as connected to the clandestine services, today published an article about Truman who initiated the CIA. In that article it is mentioned that Allen Dulles left after him notes where he let it be known how he intended to lead JFK into a trap where he would have been forced to bring in military support to aid the invaders at the Bay of Pigs.
Dulles however, was the key individual who earlier had withheld documents about Castro’s known communist sympathies.
When such an individual leaves notes for the afterworld like the above mentioned it cannot be assumed to be an honest account.
And since the other communist revolutions were also supported by the same angloamerican Pilgrim Society we may suspect Dulles’ note to be aimed to blame JFK for what Dulles and the anglophile circles actually wanted to happen.
Another possible interpretation could be that they initially believed they were in danger and like I hinted before gave the bear a present in the form of a small communist step forward which simultaneously would help to pump up red scare at home and provide more business for the MIC.
And a little later changed their minds when they no longer feared any clear and present threat and wanted to reverse the result.
But then the Nicaraguan case would be yet another anomaly to explain.
At that time there was an ongoing collaboration between the US and the Soviets and in addition the anglosaxons were ousting the shah of Iran who had been seen as too friendly to the USSR.
One could therefore speculate about a little give and take in fending off a mounting risk for war since what happened then also entailed a new financial instrument competing with the dollar and mysteriously downplayed by all sides since then.
The anglosaxons scored bigtime concerning the continued vassal state of Europe but apparently sacrificed one small neighbour to the red side as a compromise.
They also managed to discourage the world against using nuclear power.
The Harrisburg drama happened shortly after the shah had been removed and Khomeini had stopped Irans nuclear power projects.
One might add to this overview that an article on aulis.com suggests that it wasnt even a mistake that let the Soviets grab Apollo 13 in 1970 but that this was a deliberate act by the anglosaxons.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Dec 19 2022 12:59 utc | 89

Opport Knocks | Dec 19 2022 0:00 utc | 58
I’m not Canadian, not even a native speaker of English, so my take on this has very limited value.
I picked up the message at the Gateway Pundit (shame on me).
The suicide aspect goes back to this tweet by one Patty Hajdu, herself a politician. She says: “Despite the ways Adam contributed, he struggled too, like many others may be right now. The pandemic was traumatizing for so many. So many things need to change so that people who are living with poor mental health or problematic substance use can get effective care.” Some people took that to mean he took his own life over something.
So what’s your reaction when you read this? How strongly does it suggest suicide, if at all?
Interestingly, there’s not even a whisper regarding Mr Exton’s passing on the homepage of Health Canada, or on their Twitter. I would have expected otherwise, since these people are soooo caring, caring, caring, and caring. What better opportunity to show just how good a person you are than the premature and unexpected passing of a colleague that young? In my opinion, these virtue-signaling creeps wouldn’t let an opportunity like that go to waste, under normal circumstances.

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Dec 19 2022 14:05 utc | 91

the US didn’t think Castro was communist. that was the only reason there was some (divided) support for him. you seem to be claiming the support was due to his being communist which is obvious bullshit.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 19 2022 14:06 utc | 92

Even some of the more recent mainstream documentaries are suggesting that the whole “military stand down” during the Cuban revolution was suspect and that Castro was never a true believer in Communism, unlike Che.
My take was that TPTB in the US wanted a failed Communist state close to home for domestic propaganda purposes.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Dec 19 2022 14:36 utc | 93

Gt Stroller@94
It is complex but one of the problems with sharp generalisations is that many of the most fervent and effective anti-slavery campaigners were also ruthless imperialists. I cited yesterday the position of the Mills and other utilitarians, as well as near allies like TB Macaulay and Trevelyan-radical liberals who wouldn’t think of consuming ‘slave produced’ sugar and promoted cheaper Indian sugar, produced by workers at least as badly treated as slaves, in its place.
In fact much of the debate over slavery was really a debate over capitalism or feudalism with the Tory voices defending slavery while expressing disgust at the treatment meted out to workers in the textile factories. The pioneer radical, William Cobbett, one of the most influential writers in English history, was for most of his career an opponent of those campaigning against slavery like Wilberforce, who backed every repressive measure that ever came before Parliament and promoted the virtual enslavement of working people.
Cobbett’s views were later publicised in the US by George Fitzhugh who defended slavery on the basis that slaves, unlike Manchester textile factory workers, were well fed and housed- their ‘owner/masters’ having an economic interest in maintaining their health, strength and longevity.
As the article by Ben Norton, referred to above, suggests the liberals running India applied the same principles of political economy to Indian as to British and Irish labour, which was to work it to death, as in the early 1940s the Nazis worked Concentration Camp and Soviet war prisoners until every ounce of work had been extorted at the lowest possible price in terms of food and other necessities.
There is no doubt that after 1807 the Empire began to move on from slavery to the more efficient and morally acceptable ‘free’ labour system founded on the freeing of labour from any control over the land or the loom- ironically in much of the Empire this led to the export of (cheaper) indentured Indian labour to take the place of the freed blacks who were less than enthusiastic about plantation work- hence the presence of large ‘East Indian” populations in Guyana, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. Many of the Indian emigrants had been thrown off their subsistence lands in order to facilitate commodity production of cotton, opium, tea and other plantation crops which undercut slave produced goods in the marketplace.
After all nobody ever paid a $1000 for a “prime Wessex shepherd” or a “fine strong Tamil rubber tapper” just the going rate in a labour market in which life was cheap.

Posted by: bevin | Dec 19 2022 17:13 utc | 95

“5 And the people of Nin′eveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.”
“no sign will be given that wicked and adulterous generation except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
good news this christmas. millions of chinese telling their diseased capitalist government rightly to go fuck itself, not so easily bribed by iphones and middle class bullshit peddled by frauds who only ever pledge their unwavering loyalty to the international banksters.
shoplifters of the world, unite! everybody quit. not go on strike for a better dental plan or whatever, but quit.
it’ll make “dedollarization” happen that much faster. my new favorite word: dedollarize. from which coinage we learn how much these gangsters are all in bed with each other.
though there is definitely “something about Maria.” Maria Z, that is. makes me feel witty and pretty and oh so not gay….

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Dec 19 2022 18:40 utc | 97

To psychohistorian:
I’m finally putting forward a continuation of our conversation about your connection between monotheism and what I would call the darker elements of human society in general. Here is your last response from the open thread of the 16th:

“I respect your sensitivity to this issue but I have to call it as I see it. You know I respect most of the humanistic values of monotheistic religions but not the institutions….and certainly not the ONE WAY claim.
Reflecting and rereading parts of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber/Wengrow I have come to the conclusion that monotheism was a way to dogmatize patriarchy that was already Might-Makes-Right and capture under the umbrella of Faith the masses that are so easily led…as we are watching again today.
Peace be with you.

Thanks for your response! I would agree with what you say in the first paragraph;that’s our common ground. As to your second paragraph, I’d like to suggest an approach to monotheism that I find in Martin Buber’s “I and Thou”. And I quote from the preface to my paperback copy:

“…Buber…speaks out of what he himself regards as a relation with God which is basic to true humanity…”
[R.G.Smith]

Buber’s own epigraphical quotation is the following:

So,waiting, I have won from you the end:
God’s presence in each element.
GOETHE

There we do have us, at our best I think, and all the world also.
Now, if monotheism (belief in a single God)is this, one has to wonder how we bridge the gap between my view (Buber’s) and your view (Graeber’s). What is it about ‘patriarchy’ that seems to throw up a barrier between the two?

Posted by: juliania | Dec 19 2022 22:03 utc | 99