Posted by: Outraged | Feb 26 2023 14:15 utc | 1
Well, so much for the ‘1st post is a troll’ thing.
Agreed and good to see your name again Outraged.
Tippin’ one to your health.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Feb 26 2023 14:47 utc | 3

The TLS article is available only to subscribers and cleverer readers than this one.
I’m unsure what it says, after the first few teaser paragraphs, but it raises an interesting idea.
It is generally agreed that Wilson, a native of Atlanta I believe, was the most racist President in the C20th and perhaps, ever. He certainly believed in the Jim Crow laws and segregation.
In Europe his reputation is rather different: he is often regarded fondly as the grandfather of the United Nations. It is noted that the young FDR served in his Administration. It was even suggested, when I was at school, that had Wilson not lost the fight in Congress for the League of Nations the Second World War might never have occurred- baloney, no doubt, but part of the lost hero of Peace legend.
On the other hand Wilson seems to have been the most dogmatic of those who, at Versailles, insisted on re-building the continent on the basis of national ghettoes, separating ‘races’ and breaking up multinational states as the old Empires went down. This is often seen as a “good thing” but it wasn’t always so and in the process hundreds of thousands lost their lives (is it a stretch to see Partition in 1948 India as Wilsonian?) while millions were expelled from their native places.
When I read of neo-con plans to break up Russia into bite sized neo-colonial chunks, I see the ghost of Woodrow Wilson behind the agitators.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 26 2023 15:13 utc | 5

Posted by: waynorinorway | Feb 26 2023 14:47 utc | 3
Posted by: Outraged | Feb 26 2023 15:09 utc | 4
Hey, wait a minute! By accident rather than design I appear to have acquired post #1 on the Ukraine Open thread; hope that doesn’t make me a member of the species Troglodytarum!
@Outraged
Although I’m still a newbie barfly, I am glad to see you are back. I particularly missed your number-crunching of the daily Defence Ministry ‘clobber list/scoreboard’. On my tab, your choice of a restorative medicinal tipple from the bar!

Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 26 2023 15:49 utc | 7

B. Thank you for another great week!
This article was posted yesterday on Naked Capitalism, and may have been reposted deep within some comment thread, but it deserves attention as it explains in historical terms why the Global South is not ready to jump on the anti-Russia narrative train. It appears the West’s past has finally caught up with it. So much for the “End of History”.
There is a great historical lesson here. I just hope the people with the money and the nukes can learn it.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/02/5-reasons-why-much-of-the-global-south-isnt-automatically-supporting-the-west-in-ukraine.html

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 26 2023 15:57 utc | 9

The tweet in top post from Kalbasi — It really was an awkward moment. Nebenzia completely took control of the situation and restored decorum. And showed who the adults in the room were. And showed who was leading.
Watch Blinken, he doesn’t even know what just hit him.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 26 2023 16:21 utc | 11

When I read of neo-con plans to break up Russia into bite sized neo-colonial chunks, I see the ghost of Woodrow Wilson behind the agitators.
Posted by: bevin | Feb 26 2023 15:13 utc | 5
Indeed you do. Like Ike he is treated as benign, but in fact his 8 years did all kinds of damage, and enabled another 30 years of Jim Crow. He killed the progressive reforms of the preceding period, got us into the war, the Fed, the FBI, the national security state, it all gets a big leg up under Wilson. And WASP as can be, just like me. (Well to be fair, I am not a protestant any more.)
Sorta like Jimmy Carter.
We shoulda finished the job back in 1965, root and branch.

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 26 2023 16:34 utc | 13

1865.

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 26 2023 16:35 utc | 15

Suzan, Outraged thank you for your invaluable (see subscription rates at TLS) assistance. Now I will read the article.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 26 2023 16:46 utc | 17

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 16:36 utc | 16
Thanks, Tom, for your speedy reply! Have you read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov? This is from the first chapter:
…The conversation, as was learned afterwards, was about Jesus Christ. The thing was that the editor had commissioned from the poet a long anti-religious poem for the next issue of his journal. Ivan Nikolaevich had written this poem, and in a very short time, but unfortunately the editor was not at all satisfied with it. Homeless [Ivan] had portrayed the main character of his poem — that is, Jesus — in very dark colours, but nevertheless the whole poem, in the editor’s opinion, had to be written over again. And so the editor was now giving the poet something of a lecture on Jesus, with the aim of underscoring the poet’s essential error…
Sorry; I love that book. I just couldn’t resist, because I think maybe the Russians are ahead of you, in that chapter at least.
😉

Posted by: juliania | Feb 26 2023 17:11 utc | 19

The vote for the future regulation ( https://apps.who.int/gb/inb/pdf_files/inb4/A_INB4_3-en.pdf )which will give the right to the WHO to decide where and when a pandemy is occuring and thus getting prevailing powers over the local country or the world is tomorrow. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/pandemic-prevention–preparedness-and-response-accord

Posted by: WilliamT | Feb 26 2023 17:50 utc | 21

There is more than hysterical anti-Chinese propaganda in the Western media. Chinese guy I know in States said his nephew in Canada is waiting for an extended background check to come through to see if he will get a job offer. The nephew was born in Canada, does not speak any Chinese, never been to China, and graduated at the top of his class. Carl Zha of Twitter fame believes that ethnic Chinese people will be rounded like the Japanese during WWII if any sort of war breaks out.

Posted by: Erelis | Feb 26 2023 17:54 utc | 23

Chinese guy.. born in Canada.. does not speak any Chinese.. never been to China
Posted by: Erelis | Feb 26 2023 17:54 utc | 23
So he is not Chinese.

Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 26 2023 18:00 utc | 25

thanks b!
@ outraged… nice to see you back! thanks everyone…

Posted by: james | Feb 26 2023 18:20 utc | 27

Thanks, b, for your intense brilliance this week, and for including the Alistair Crook article – the point he makes about Hersh’s interview and the focus on Biden’s team is worth emphasis, as a fissure there could help us see some daylight, but indeed we have seen abject diversions of both R & D in the past with impeachments arranged about nothing at all (oops, I’m sounding like Seinfeld now).
Oh dear, when will all become sayable once again? – it used to be so!

Posted by: juliania | Feb 26 2023 18:26 utc | 29

Sorry about this, fellow barflies, but folks seem to care what WSJ says about what the Energy Department says…
Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says
U.S. agency’s revised assessment is based on new intelligence
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 26 2023 19:07 utc | 31

Most of it is behind a paywall – the public part of it states just as much as that the virus appears to have escaped from the Wuhan laboratory complex, with no reference to either Dr. Fauci (who presumeably financed the research) or Jeffrey Sachs, who shed some light on the projects that were underway, in his investigation for the Lancet Journal. The best source to me is Max Blumenthal’s interview with Jeffrey Sachs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=morj-3rdWwM
where he also explains the role of the “proteolytic cleavage site” which apparently has been added to the former virus genome, resulting in the Sars-Cov 2 that we all know.
Another excellent interview, which has a lot of extra information, is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtfIIG8iYIk

Posted by: grunzt | Feb 26 2023 19:31 utc | 33

@ grunzt | Feb 26 2023 19:31 utc | 33
From what I’ve seen, it’s darned difficult to build on what Nicholas Wade wrote (published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) — “cleavage site” and all. This is why I find it boring. We’re expected to regard the same story as more or less true, depending on the respectability of the source. We can surely trust WSJ and the Energy Department (not to mention Secretary Buttplug) because they’ve never disseminated disinformation, you know. Not in living memory!

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 26 2023 19:49 utc | 35

i cannot express how inspiring the twitter video from Bahman Kalbasi was. warmed the cockles, heartily. “greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down his life for his familiars.” it’s a miracle that there’s any darkness in the world at all, since all the leaders stand for peace, brotherhood, mom, blood, soil, heroic self-sacrifice (performed by others, natch), and their own moral superiority.
i don’t know why Anthony Blinken looks confused, since he’s so used to, uh, “voting with his feet”, as it were. but he sees a stampede and he just goes with it.
kudos to the diplos from the RAF. that was awesome.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 26 2023 20:02 utc | 37

Aleph_Null | Feb 26 2023 19:49 utc | 35
If it bored you because the matter is so difficult (cleavage site and all) you should give Jeffrey Sachs a chance. He is not a virologist, but an economist who worked his way up to some basic understanding of virology. And he is an excellent communicator and narrator – fully satisfying to that other non-virologist that I am.

Posted by: grunzt | Feb 26 2023 20:21 utc | 39

while i’m, uh, plugging Jacob Bacharach:
America Runs on a Sick Workforce.
From the perspective of the ruling class that people like Norwegian speak for and represent, the coronavirus and any other global pandemic could only possibly be one of two things:
1) nothing to worry about, it’s “the flu” or whatever.
2) a bioweapon, i.e., something to go to war over.
it’s not even possible that it could be simply what it is. something that has occurred innumerable times in history.
not.
even.
possible.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 26 2023 20:37 utc | 41

what else is inimical to health?
rest.
sick people don’t need to rest do they?
no more than a sick planet.
all that stuff we were told about sleep being good for us,
all bullshit. keep up the home improvement, America!
anyway, here’s some Abraham Joshua Heschel’s “The Sabbath”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9EExM9kaw
As discussed by these guys:
Prof. #oriZSoltes, Georgetown University, USA
Dr. Muhammad Maroof Shah, Srinagar, Kashmir
Professor John Robert Clammer, O.P. Jindal Global University, India
Moderator: Ananta Kumar Giri, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai and Vishwaneedam Center for Asian Blossoming
Convener: Randhir Kumar Gautam, Vishwaneedam Center for Asian Blossoming

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 26 2023 20:51 utc | 43

Streeck’s piece is the standout for me. His discussion of German politics is concise but nails it, especially the absolute criminal hypocrisy of the so-called Greens (‘Greenbacks’ more like) and the ongoing failure of the Left in Germany but also everywhere since 911. What this failure shows (to me at least) is that Western Marxism, after the debacle of ’68 particularly, but accelerating fast after 1989, had definitely broken with the interests and cause of the working class. Lennon’s ‘Revolution’ is the anthem of that break. These days the political left is a rump, mostly Gen X offspring of middle class fake revolutionaries. Meanwhile the Right, as always, intuitively understands the social conservatism of the working class and dog whistles to it.
As a result, the Left are hopelessly mired in contradictions, spouting one thing but living their lives by another. One cannot do this indefinitely and so when the Left hit their 50s and 60s they fade into the discrete comfort of bourgeois retirement.
One will look back and see some crucial milestones for the cascading failure of the Western Left: Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, FDR’s New Deal (which married Big Labor to Industry), loss of faith in the USSR at various points (1939 pact, revelation of Stalin’s crimes, ’56, etc), their ’emperor has no clothes’ moment (May ’68—the student year ended in May and by June they’d all gone on holiday. Students have staged revolutions in the playground ever since), end of the Cold War, 911 (all moral high ground captured by neocon agenda), COVID, now the Ukr-RF war. Gramsci explains the reasons for all this.
As such the Left now is simply whiney, offering critique without change, inverting Thesis 11. The ‘moment of the left’ 1871-1939 (if you like) has gone and won’t return. All that remains are the inexorable forces of history itself.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 26 2023 21:16 utc | 45

In Sydney the collective derangement about this war, and everything really, made me re-read Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. I thought of following up with The Trial but Kafka is too awful and desolate. I’m waiting for the day when I am called to account for my ‘wrong’ views and will face my Crucible moment. Will I have the courage to keep faith with a rational, Enlightenment, open, truly liberal position? Or will I recant and apologise for my insanity and plead for my life back? It’s sad times we live in my friends.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 26 2023 21:28 utc | 47

Posted by: juliania | Feb 26 2023 17:11 utc | 19
A couple of things and perhaps a correction of a misunderstanding. I actually did start The Master and Margarita a number of years ago and I bet if I tried I could find it somewhere around here. Thanks for the suggestion.
Since earlier today I was communicating from my “smart” phone, on the go, I wasn’t really reading your post carefully. In my question in the other thread, I never referenced “orthodox” religion or even “orthodoxy.” I asked about “organized” religion, which of course includes the orthodox beliefs or at least shares an overlapping portion of a Ven diagram with them. My problem is with “evangelicals” and anyone looking to push Christ – or “The Christ” and what he/it is supposed to represent onto anyone else. This is because I was raised hard-core Pentecostal with a strange evangelical twist (which isn’t normal to most among that sect, I think – Usually they keep to themselves). Without getting too far back into my own experiences or dwelling too much on how “The Christ” is a fictitious character insofar as how he/it is portrayed in the Christian Bible, based on an amalgamation of multiple pagan and even more ancient “Gods” and the like. Same thing goes for the timing and nature of various Christian religious “events” and “holidays.” Blah blah blah…suffice it to say that I did the research (over several years) and came to my senses, left (and was excommunicated from) the church and have never looked back.
So to my main questions from the other thread re: organized religion (I didn’t specify down to Christianity either, unless I’m not recalling correctly, so Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, etc. are fair game) – I had asked what adherents among those who comment here might get from it. Do they actually get meaningful spiritual awakening/guidance/other benefits or if they are honest with themselves is “the church” (or “the mosque” or “the synagogue” etc.) more like a community networking place where one can go to feel part of a community and develop bonds with neighbors that may help with a different type of spirituality. I can fully see the latter parts being true – I know many Christians who are honest about it. They don’t believe in the fairy tales in the scriptures, but they couldn’t get by without the sense of belonging to a group, even if they have to tithe (some of them quite a bit) and even if some churches (ahem…cough….The Catholic Church) are scandal ridden carryovers from the Roman patriarchy….
SO that was the gist of my question. Just a short informal poll among regular readers here. Personally I get my spirituality needs met through music, the outdoors and hard, vigorous exercise (perhaps it’s just the endorphins there, LOL).

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 21:33 utc | 49

@ juliania | Feb 26 2023 16:25 utc | 12 quote
“Tomorrow, Lent begins for the Orthodox. Happy Forgiveness Sunday, everyone!”
thanks! to you as well… christian lent started last wednesday.. they are not completely synced up! different calendar i guess…
@ Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 21:33 utc | 49
i do not practice a formal religion… but my guess is that you are correct to think they get some sense of community from it all.. i know people who are part of organized religious groups and churches… that is my sense of one of the things they get from it… they probably get more too in regards the time they might spend reflecting on life in a different way, or being encouraged to do so via the sermons and etc… of course love, friendship, forgiveness and understanding are dear to most everyone’s heart! i suppose we are all looking for that – in all the right or wrong places, lol…

Posted by: james | Feb 26 2023 21:40 utc | 51

in all the right or wrong places, lol…
Posted by: james | Feb 26 2023 21:40 utc | 51
Ha ha, true! But who’s to say what’s right and wrong on matters like psychedelics and other mind altering substances? I mention this because I neglected to in my longer comment, but I have been known to set aside a nice spring Saturday afternoon or a night when my wife/family are out of town to imbibe in psilocybin. I find it to be VERY spiritually awakening. It also destroys (in a good way) one’s ego if the “trip” is managed properly. But according to some of the more puritanical and orthodox religions this makes me a grave sinner with a fate including being cast into a pit of eternal fire. Same thing for weed, or any other drug really, but then the Catholics have been known to look the other way with alcohol. Since I’m kinda rambling now, that brings to mind a couple of jokes I’ve heard over the years from Catholic and Mormon friends.
– Wherever you find four Catholic priests, you’ll always find a fifth.
– Why do you have two bring two Mormons on your fishing trip? Because if you only bring one, he’ll drink all your beer.
Yuk yuk…

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 21:53 utc | 53

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 21:53 utc | 53
life is complicated.. there is good and bad in all areas of life and ideology… embrace the good and ignore the shadows, lol… regarding belief systems – it is hard to change others views on things.. probably impossible! by setting a positive example – i think that is a step in the right direction… i don’t know the answer to the divisions among people.. religion is supposed to bring people together, but it is a fine line my friend and as we know from the time of the crusades – it can be the exact opposite!

Posted by: james | Feb 26 2023 21:57 utc | 55

Posted by: james | Feb 26 2023 21:53 utc | 54
bevin actually linked to Streeck’s piece the other day in a Ukraine related thread and I read it then. b posted it today in the Week in Review here (above, last entry under the Germany category):
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/wolfgang-streeck-virtuous-germany/

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 22:03 utc | 57

Patroklos | Feb 26 2023 21:16 utc | 45
“their ’emperor has no clothes’ moment (May ’68—the student year ended in May and by June they’d all gone on holiday.”
Paris; I was there in May AND June from the second day of the riots. Beaten up the same afternoon I arrived, by the CRS….. and I wasn’t even aware there were going to be riots when I left the UK to study for one month (ended up as two months as I couldn’t leave, no exits. lived on tomato salad as there was very little else), De Gaulle out faced the rioters and there were tanks outside Paris. I saw them from the train when leaving for Switzerland.
However, I think that what really happened is that the joint student/workers were sold down the drain by people such as Cohn-Bendt. (Who then went on to a “valuable” career in the EU).
The “takover of the leadership role” is a recognised tactic by some as we have seen in many countries since.

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 26 2023 22:16 utc | 59

Posted by: grunzt | Feb 26 2023 19:31 utc | 33
By what mechanism or practice is it alleged that the cleavage site was “added”? I can’t watch any videos at the moment, but I’m interested to know whether they get into specifics (like gain of function by passing an infection from animal to animal – or – if they’re alleging more advanced and direct methods were used) and if so, what level of detail they drill down to.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 22:36 utc | 61

Hadn’t ever thought much about this. Covert Action Magazine asks: Was Hunter S. Thompson “suicided”?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 23:10 utc | 63

Fruit Shortages in the UK according to the BBC.
Exposed – the root cause.
Methinks Aunty is toying with the banana again 😉

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 26 2023 23:26 utc | 65

ZH has a posting up with the title
COVID “Likely Arose” From Lab Leak, US Energy Department Admits In Classified Report
The quote

The complex narrative that governments, non-governmental organizations, Big Tech, and mainstream media built around Covid with shaky assumptions and misdirections is falling apart — hence the latest pivot by the Energy Department.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 26 2023 23:40 utc | 67

Posted by: grunzt | Feb 26 2023 23:27 utc | 66
OK, I was under the impression that gain of function was merely a type of research whereby viruses (and bacteria?) are passed from host to host so that the pathogen “gains functions” it didn’t have before. This is the basis of my query about what exactly they are asserting happened (if they are drilling down that far). The reason is that if they’re saying traditional gain of function likely led to the cleavage site, I can believe that. But if they’re saying or implying that there was direct genetic engineering going on – direct manipulation of viruses or their components, I don’t think I’m willing to accept that as the technology doesn’t exist to make such precise intended changes.
I’ll listen to the vid later.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 27 2023 0:11 utc | 69

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 21:33 utc | 49
I greatly do apologize, Tom, for my misread of your question– I came to it backwards after what I’d felt was an interesting discussion of Orthodoxy that I wanted to enlarge upon. So, researching backwards a bit late on the other thread, I did make that mistake.
I’ve had the feeling that when Prince Vladimir had his nation baptized “in a princely fashion” as our priest said when we celebrated that millenium, the trappings of empire that came at the great Hagia Sophia ceremonies were truly awesome to his ministers. They have a rightful place in Russia historically speaking. Here in the US, empire doesn’t really fit, to my mind, but the music and the icons are truly beautiful. I don’t feel the loss of that great cathedral, myself more comfortable in what we had.
Our small family church could not and did not have empirical trappings — but it was beautiful nonetheless in the ways I’ve expressed here, and we were, I am, still, traditionally Orthodox in belief, as Gabriel has described. So no, not a ‘fairy tale’ to the Orthodox. All of Orthodoxy is the same in that they follow Christ with sincerity. It’s heartfelt, as it is in Russia, and in Ukraine too.
Thanks so much for responding.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 27 2023 0:38 utc | 71

A creative, intelligent and somewhat unhinged take on what civil war in the former USA will look like, including the two adversarial sides.
An interesting aside therein is his speculation that before the one-world government business can be established (of course it will be called ‘new multipolarity’ or some such), first America has to be brought to point of collapse. That sounds about right to me given everything ongoing is turning the West into a dysfunctional debacle steadily worsening day by day…
https://www.unz.com/article/imagining-us-civil-war-2-0/

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 27 2023 0:38 utc | 73

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 26 2023 21:00 utc | 44
additionally, the environmental wreckage of capitalism is also not real.
you know what is real?
WAR.
like i said, spokesperson for the ruling class and its values. not even possible that something could interrupt your little games.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 27 2023 0:47 utc | 75

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 27 2023 0:38 utc | 73
I don’t think this can be predicted and I refute those trying to do it…too much uncertainty in the air, and why contemplate harmful civil strife I wonder.

Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 27 2023 0:52 utc | 77

An American Civil War? To use the site owner’s language: Dass ich nicht lache! It would be the Dimbots versus the Trumpoid Qbots, and granted, the latter could win. They do, after all, have all the police forces and the overwhelming majority of privately held firearms.
But what would be the end result? Lots of dead “niggers” and “spics” and “faggots” and maybe even some “kikes”snd “eggheads”—but the Deep State folks, who pull the Trumpoid/Qbot strings just as they control the libbies—would still be sitting pretty.

Posted by: malenkov | Feb 27 2023 0:56 utc | 79

Buffalo_Ken: I was surprised by your ESHA/OSHA comments; they demonstrated that your presence here isn’t entirely worthless.

Posted by: malenkov | Feb 27 2023 1:05 utc | 81

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 26 2023 21:33 utc | 49
I don’t get anything out of organized religion.
except some of the books i read. a good bit of the music, which in the west ultimately comes from the church, to an extraordinary degree. etc.
the question in a broader and perhaps universal perspective is: why does the City require the Temple? because there’s lots wrong w/the City? official, public life requires something to scrub it, cleanse it, beautify it, etc.? and of course, the Teaching, because people don’t learn to act at all like decent human beings from their life “in the marketplace.”
so what’s the problem? well, for one, the priests themselves both keep and do not “keep the law.” i.e., they write down the scrolls, keep the libraries, scrub the idols, etc., but that does not make them heedful. It just means that they are scribes, at best. there’s magic in those mysteries, and a big moneychanging operation going on.
Acts 23:8: The Sadducees says that there is no ‘resurrection’, no ‘angel,’ no ‘spirit,’ but the Pharisees affirm ‘both’. (sic).
as you probably know, the Sadducees are the ruling class, whereas the other lot are more like a fundamentalist rebellion (or “reformation”) of the utterly sold-out-to-Rome clergy.
there is no uprising, no messenger, no breath.
no rebellion, no jedi, no schwarz, i mean chi, i mean force.
depending on who (and when) we are talking about, the problem is not so much that a priest is “wrong” but where’s the rebellion?
one example, from the filthy millenia long constipated bowels of christendom: the “filioque” clause. by the traditional (“orthodox”) understanding of the church, there can be no conflict within the Trinity.
so why is the filioque clause added? precisely because it creates conflict. and such bullshit ensnares the conscience of the simple. a specialty of the RCC.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 27 2023 1:11 utc | 83

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 27 2023 1:11 utc | 83
i sometimes get inspired to check out the words, from the music and language i don’t understand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pange_lingua_gloriosi_proelium_certaminis
the evolution of the text of this song from Venantius Fortunatus (6th c) to the authorized papal bull from Thomas Aquinas is quite something.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 27 2023 1:18 utc | 85

Posted by: malenkov | Feb 27 2023 1:05 utc | 81
Here, let me share with you some ESHA thoughts:
In regards to the railcar derailment and its consequences, I have a few other final thoughts as well.
* This was an “exceptional event” no-doubt, but in all my many years of ESHA experience, I’m not aware of any time a choice was made to “blow up” leaking containers on purpose – it truly makes no sense to me and contradicts good principle after a spill/accident occurs with respect to minimizing overall impact.
** If anything, the combustion that occurred (without knowing the details as to which specific railcars – some of them had other chemicals) more than likely resulted in a “cocktail” of chemicals many of which probably remain in the atmosphere and by now are probably world-wide but diffused and sunlight will break these down over time. In addition to the various chemical gases produced (both organics and maybe various nitrogen oxides and other chemicals like HCl), I suspect there was considerable amount of particulate matter released as well.
*** The particulate formed could also have very complicated chemistry, but as long as the particle size is not too small, this particulate will deposit within a given area mostly not that far away from the event itself that could be determined with some precision particularly if real-time meteorological conditions are considered and verified by subsequent monitoring/testing.
**** I think it is going to be imperative to monitor for this deposition as river water (nearby and downstream) for any lingering effects, as well as the groundwater around the area where the derailment actually occurred. Ambient air monitoring also needs to be performed and the sooner the better. This monitoring data needs to be thorough and rigorous (it ain’t gonna be cheap) and probably permanently ongoing for certain aspects – “media-specific” (air, water, soil) “chemical” markers associated with the event will need to be determined to assess with better precision and the testing methodology needs to comport with all regulatory criteria.
***** Modeling could be done on some of this, but it is uncertain territory – some preliminary dispersion modeling (both ambient air and groundwater) might help define some of the parameters for the ongoing monitoring, but the monitoring is critical and will enable better understanding of the long-term impacts
***** This whole event is a tragedy and very concerning. I would really like to know the details as to how the decisions were made early on to respond to the event because those details should be public information without a doubt – any obfuscation on this is to be treated as potentially nefarious.

Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 27 2023 1:20 utc | 87

Both the unz piece I linked and the Alistair Cooke piece @karlov linked above operate from the same premise: that there are fissures in the US elites that are driving things. This seems more or less correct to me except that so-called ‘US Elites’ are also esconced in most of Europe including Threadneedle Street environs and plush mountain villas near Zurich and so forth.
The SMO is clearly in no hurry to take physical terrain. It is grinding down its opposition, but that opposition is far more than the motley brigades mustered to face them in Donbass bunkers, rather the entire Western political order along with how the West views itself and the world and indeed how the RoW views itself and the world. The old order must both crumble and be seen to crumble before the new order can take its place. There will be various combination of actual and phony conflict between elite factions and geopolitical blocs. And the whole thing will only be over when our entire sense of reality has shifted. Things can happen very fast, faster than our imagination, but it would not be surprising if this takes a generation or so.
[re Civil War] why project out harmful thoughts and ideas….
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 27 2023 0:59 utc | 80
In the piece he mentioned his favoured dynamic which is general Secessions versus any outright conflict. Of course speculating is questionable however the issue is worthy: USA as a polity is in a crisis it has rarely seen before. Collapse is an imminent possibility. It is being riven with deep internal cultural-issue divides. There is racial, gender and class hatred across the board. The situation is already rife with ‘harmful thoughts and ideas.’ The question is: where is a positive way forward?
Is voting in federal elections a viable way forward? I don’t think so but many still do and so nothing else is ever tried. Personally I think all who vote still are part of the problem not the solution but obviously there would be a wide range of opinion on that and rightly so. What about secession? Isn’t it the correct next step if the Federal Govt has far exceeded its bounds and is now a kleptocracy? Or put another way: if you people the U.S.A. is now more of a kleptocracy than a representative republic with shared values rooted in human goodness and common sense etc., what is the solution? Surely one viable solution is to admit that the original Constitution was deeply flawed, has more than run its course (if indeed it ever proceeded as intended) and it’s time for a Great Reset, a good Reset.
In which case the current Constitution and Federal Construct aka ‘Union’ needs to be dismantled. It’s a topic that should be far more widely discussed in the States IMO.
In any case, I think the SMO will keep grinding away until the fault-lines in the West start to create tremors, quakes and then crashes in their respective homelands. The SMO mission will not have succeeded until NATO is no more. For NATO to be no more the polities supporting need to be no more or at least if still extant than greatly, profoundly changed with entirely new leadership and social contracts.
That is what is in play. Just drawing up some sort of meaningless START III deal and new borders around Donbass etc. won’t cut it. That ship has sailed.

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 27 2023 1:31 utc | 89

@ Grieved | Feb 27 2023 0:45 utc | 74 with the Turtles all the way down link and comment…thanks
Its the financialization of health care just like we have seen and discussed about other aspects of our economy (Boeing Max 737). Profit over public good has been the Western mantra since fiat money in 1971.
When you live in a God of Mammon world the incentives you live by are to make profit for others, not to live an honorable life in community with others.
Level Three is not just ordinary people and concerned parents but nations standing up to the international institutions that have been financialized as to purpose.
Thankfully, its not if any more but when the shit show “all the way down” will stop that we are watching.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 27 2023 1:38 utc | 91

then the states are sovereign already – are they not?
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 27 2023 1:34 utc | 91
Am not well versed in those niceties but believe that essentially the States ceded much of their Sovereignty when signing onto a collective power-sharing agreement. Since then Federal Powers and Executive scope have expanded greatly whilst State powers have receded considerably. The processes for Secession are tortuous. The Article V Convention notion is extremely easy to undermine.
I suspect they will have to go back to Common Law maxims and conventions similar to the original Dec of Ind, namely to point out various ways the current arrangement is violating the letter and spirit of the original agreement and to claim the right to withdraw given the agreement is already in breach so none of the other rules and regulations regarding Secession etc. need apply. If at some point it goes to SCOTUS who rule against them, they can again claim sovereignty at which point either there is formal civil war or there is not. But no doubt others understand these things far better.
The issue IS worth considering but not so much in terms of how to do it necessarily but whether or not there truly are still viable remedies within the status quo setup. This is where we are at now and this is rarely considered as a topic. Is the US still a functioning Representative Republic acc. to its own Constitution? I don’t think so (for decades now) but how could one determine that? In how many ways is the current USG in breach of the fundamental agreements if at all? Many other similar questions (the issuance of currency, level of Income Tax, election counting systems, overreach of Intelligence etc.) These things should be seriously examined in the light of whether or not they reflect a fixable or terminal breach of the constitutionally-engendered social contract in the polity known as the United States of America. That is the first step.
Then remedies can be considered after the initial diagnosis has been well made.
(And what it the case in the US is the case in most other developed West polities as well, but the US is the one most under attack right now with possible exception of Germany.)

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 27 2023 1:45 utc | 93

Posted by: juliania | Feb 27 2023 0:38 utc | 71
No worries at all. The same; thanks for your response. I think my original question was probably a little strange/confusing anyway since I kind of threw a wrench into the otherwise mostly on topic thread. 🙂

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 27 2023 1:58 utc | 95

Back during the protests and police crackdowns and riots in 2020 there was a heated, but mostly civil discussion here at MoA. I recall bringing up the history of the Feds infiltrating peaceful protest movements and attempting, often succeeding in stoking violence and property damage. I had also pointed out a couple of cases where likely right-wing or “anarchist” infiltrators like “The Umbrella Man” from the Minneapolis AutoZone were doing the same. Anyway, I don’t read The Intercept anymore, but someone emailed me this article a few minutes ago, and it’s pretty interesting.
https://theintercept.com/2023/02/07/fbi-denver-racial-justice-protests-informant/
Krystal Ball (sorry always chuckle when I see that name – is it real?) and Kyle Kulinski also did a recent podcast episode on the case and the phenomenon.
https://krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/p/episode-113-audio-trevor-aaronson?#details

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 27 2023 2:12 utc | 97

Tom Q Collins @ 100:
The phenomenon is not new unfortunately. Back in the early 1970s 1990s the FBI infiltrated a group planning to bomb the World Trade Center. The FBI even sent bomb-making instructions and materials to the engineer in the group before thinking better of it.
At about the same time the Feds were trying to arrest a fellow called Randy Weaver on various grounds (owning illegal firearms among others) by trying to entice him through informants and infiltrators to join Aryan Nations or be in possession of a sawn-off rifle. Weaver managed to evade such ruses before US Marshals officers besieged him and his family in Idaho. The siege ended after the FBI got involved and killed Weaver’s wife. By then Weaver’s son was already dead after a shoot-out with the marshals.

Posted by: Jen | Feb 27 2023 2:29 utc | 99