Geopolitical Rumblings Leave U.S. Behind

March 20, 2023

Over the last month we have seen astonishing geopolitical developments.

In February China publicly lambasted U.S. hegemony, launched a global security initiative and offered a peace plan for Ukraine.

On March 10 China mediated an agreement which restored relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

On March 15 Moscow rolled out the red carpet for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Yesterday al-Assad and his wife Asma arrived in the UAE for talks with Sheikh Mohammed

Also yesterday Iran and Iraq signed a security cooperation agreement that will stop the CIA sponsored Kurdish activities against Iran.

Also yesterday King Salman of Saudi Arabia invited the President of Iran to a visit in Riyadh.

For the last 30 years the U.S. considered the Middle East as its backyard. Twenty years ago it illegally invaded Iraq and caused 100,000nds of death and decades of chaos. Now China, by peaceful means, changed the balance in the Middle East within just one month.

Today China's President Xi arrived in Moscow for three days of talks with Russia's President Putin. An article by President Putin was published in the People's Daily while Russian media published a signed article by President Xi.

The U.S. is afraid that China's peace initiative for Ukraine will gain ground. It has openly come out against a cease-fire and peace talks. I had thought that was for Ukraine to decide?

It is likely that Putin will publicly endorse the Chinese peace plan while the U.S. is paranoid that peace might indeed happen. It may even want to sabotage the Saudi Iranian deal.

China's people are by the way the most happy in the world.

Xi and Putin are now running the multilateral global show. Biden and the hapless 'unilateral' people around him are left aside.

Posted by b on March 20, 2023 at 10:21 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: imo | Mar 20 2023 23:52 utc | 177
“The Russians were prepared to discuss and negotiate via Turkey’s Erdogan desk. And it nearly worked.”
No, it didn’t. That’s a myth. Neither the Russians nor Ukraine actually accepted any deal which was allegedly worked out. Only an offer was made and both sides said it was inadequate, and Russia said the sides were far apart.
Turkey still hopes to host Russia, Ukraine talks after attacks
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220408-turkey-still-hopes-to-host-russia-ukraine-talks-after-attacks

“Both Russia and Ukraine are willing to hold the talks in Turkey but they are far away from agreeing on a common text,” a high-ranking Turkish official told a small group of journalists on Friday.
There are “some issues pending” including the status of the Donbas and Crimea regions as well as security guarantees, according to the official, who added there was no date fixed for the next round of negotiations…
A senior Western source referred to the existence of a “peace treaty” being negotiated between Moscow and Kyiv where the status of the Donbas and Crimea regions remain to be defined.
The Turkish official close to the talks said: “We have some ideas about the content but is it a peace treaty? We cannot qualify the document.”
According to the Turkish official, the two countries have “agreed on some issues” including the so-called de-Nazification, Ukraine’s neutrality and security guarantees.
But they have to define the security guarantees because some countries “are concerned this could lead to direct confrontation with Russia,” the official said.
“There are some legal issues to be solved as part of guarantors…”
Ukrainian negotiators have compared the security guarantees they want to the NATO treaty’s Article 5 where members agree to come to the defence of one another in case of military aggression.
For its part, Moscow has demanded “the unanimity of all guarantors” for any decision, according to the Western source, deeming it “unacceptable” for Kyiv because with Russia holding the veto-power the same as in the UN Security Council.

Russia’s Lavrov says Ukraine presented ‘unacceptable’ draft peace deal
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/04/07/Russia-s-Lavrov-says-Ukraine-presented-unacceptable-draft-peace-deal

Lavrov said on Thursday that Ukraine had presented a draft peace agreement to Russia on Wednesday but that it deviated from proposals both sides had previously agreed on.
“Such inability to agree once again highlights Kyiv’s true intentions, its position of drawing out and even undermining the talks by moving away from the understandings reached,” Lavrov said, adding that Kyiv’s proposals were “unacceptable…”
“Despite all the provocations, the Russian delegation will continue with the negotiation process, pressing for our own draft agreement that clearly and fully outlines our initial and key positions and requirements,” he said.”

Note use of the term “initial and key positions” – which implies Russia intended to add-on additional “requirements” beyond that specified in any initial “agreements”.
Vladimir Putin says peace talks with Ukraine at ‘dead end’
https://www.ft.com/content/6f6f74ae-56bd-45e7-ad40-51a87775f1a6

Vladimir Putin said peace talks with Ukraine were at a “dead end” as the Russian president claimed that Kyiv had deviated from agreements struck in Istanbul.
“We reached a certain level of agreements in Istanbul, which stated that security guarantees for Ukraine . . . would not spread to Crimea, Sevastopol and Donbas,” Putin said on Tuesday, speaking publicly about Russia’s military activity after a prolonged silence on the subject.
“We acted to create conditions to continue talks,” he added. “Instead, we faced the provocation in Bucha and, what’s most important, the Ukrainian side deviated from the Istanbul agreements.”
Now, “the security demands are one thing, and issues of regulating relations on Crimea, Sevastopol and Donbas are taken outside of those agreements”, Putin said. “So we are back to the dead-end situation.”

The only people who were claiming the Russians and Ukrainians were “close to an agreement” were the Turkish negotiators. No one in Russia said that AFAIK. The best that was claimed was “a certain level of agreements” – none of which would have satisfied Russia’s security concerns.
This war was never solely about Donbass, or Ukraine membership in NATO, or even “de-Nazification” – those were merely pre-conditions for solving Russia’s security concerns via-s-vis NATO. The only solution was the December, 2021, treaty proposals, and the rejection of those by the West necessitated the SMO and Russia’s maximal goals for that SMO, which are as I am on record for the past year: removal of the Ukrainian army, removal of the Kiev neo-Nazi regime, control of the entire territory of Ukraine, reconstruction of Ukraine, and the establishment of a Russian Military District in western Ukraine to counter the NATO strategic weapons in Poland and Romania, which are the basis for the Russian 2021 treaty proposals.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 1:13 utc | 201

Posted by: Surferket | Mar 20 2023 22:57 utc | 165
Thanks for all the media references I won’t be reading. Like I said, I have lived for years with several Tibetans and know dozens more, most of whom were born in Tibet before the Chinese invasion and occupation and (almost) none of whom read Western media or know anything about the USG. They are first-hand witnesses, in other words. My opinion is formed from my time with them.
And if you read my comment carefully, you might have noticed that I didn’t express much of an opinion other than to state that any sort of simplistic story like ‘Tibet has always been China’ or ‘China went in to rescue Tibetans from a backward regime’ are extremely self-serving.
More specifically, I did not mention ‘genocide’ or any of those related narratives (if for no other reason than the term nowadays has such broad definitions as to be meaningless).
Put another way: if I were to use your approach in consoling people who lost relatives, some of whom witnessed them being shot by Chinese soldiers just for being Tibetan not because they were resistance fighters or any such, I wouldn’t be doing them any favours. And I don’t need anyone else, like yourself posting anonymously, or someone called Goldstein, or the Global Times – an official Chinese propaganda outlet (a very good one, IMO, with lots of excellent articles I often enjoy, but propaganda nevertheless) – to help form my opinions. I’ll stick with my time with people who were born there and escaped, often at great peril.
One person I knew well escaped with over 300 people but as they were crossing the Yalu river (it has several names apparently but he called it the Yalu) he was separated from most of them and only thirteen of the three hundred (after a harrowing 6+ month journey being tracked all the time from Kham in Eastern Tibet) made it across and after 3 months traversing the remaining Himalayas almost starving to death – indeed boiling down their saddles, harnesses and at the end boots to make a life-preserving broth – finally made it into India, a few more dying along the way though no longer from Chinese bullets. Over the years they learned that most of their companions had been shot. Note that none of them were resistance fighters or ever used weapons. They Buddhist refugees, many of them monastics and yogis, fleeing the religious persecution being visited upon them by the country now seemingly holding the moral high ground.
That said, I don’t have an axe to grind about either Tibet or China. Stuff happens, often bad stuff. Countries change and they are not living beings rather institutions that operate in complex ways dealing with complex issues, nearly always imperfectly.
However, I do feel that those expressing opinions different from Goldstein or the Global Times or the dominant view in this commentariat need not be called trolls. In this regard Gt Stroller’s point was valid in that he simply disagreed with the esteemed karlof1 (whose posts I always enjoy and value but don’t always agree with). Disagreeing with someone should not be regarded as trolling and I found his remark to GtStroller offensively arrogant – but also as usual elegantly phrased and so entirely forgiveable! That said, I regard those who accuse others of being trolls that way are themselves trolling and it’s better for all involved to exercise more restraint.
There is nothing at all wrong with directly expressed disagreement. Unless you want this place to be more of an echo chamber than it already is.
Furthermore, and more importantly, we are indeed witnessing Heavy Matters in World History. And although there are many reasons to be hopeful that Russian and Chinese rhetoric proves as benevolent and sane as it now seems, a little bit of cynicism, or at least reserve, rather than always and only cheerleading and shouting down any criticism as CIA BS, is not a bad idea. At least imho.

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 1:15 utc | 202

“The native americans, africans, native Aussies, the Indians, the CHINESE!! hell the British forced half the population of China to get addicted to Heroin so they’d be easier to control, AND make money for Britain because they controlled the Opium trade!!”
Agreed, but I call Bullshit on the Opium story. Opium was the only painkiller you could use for surgery and terminal pain back in the day. Chinese Imperial Bureaucrats just wanted a cut of the revenues.
“and for the most part, those colonies are still effectively colonies, with a few exceptions…”
Fair enough.
“Just look at the recent hub bub about the Falkland Islands… the British (7000 miles away) still claim those Islands as theirs, based on the simple fact that they conquered them 2 centuries ago, and have refused to give them back.”
I back Russia keeping Crimea and Azov for stability in the region viz their trade routes. Let the Argies try to take the Falkland’s though. fuck em.
Posted by: Oldcutlas |
Opium really was a key medicine and the Chinese whine about the British cutting out their tax collectors from the trade.

Posted by: Wokechoke | Mar 21 2023 1:29 utc | 203

On Tibet and the CIA hand. Note that the “escape” of the DL was very much escorted by CIA agents as in this article.
https://archive.is/YU4bw
https://openthemagazine.com/lounge/books/the-secret-memories-of-the-dalai-lamas-brother/
https://www.straight.com/article/dalai-lamas-links-to-cia-still-stir-debate

Posted by: Surferket | Mar 21 2023 1:36 utc | 204

@ Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 1:15 utc | 200
Spam apologia for a Troll. Strawman projection. Unsupported hearsay seeking faux legitimacy & credibility. Goldstein ! Pompous arrogant discretionary dispensation post slander & backhanded ad-hominem.
That you choose to not comprehend nor acknowledge the clear use of terms & dismissive contemptuous responses, deliberately provocative, is wholly unsurprising.
And in so doing you perpetuate the Trolling. Normative for the Scorpion. As you say, IMHO.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 1:39 utc | 205

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 1:15 utc | 200
You pretended for a very long time here. Eventually you out yourself.

Posted by: Another Brother Ma | Mar 21 2023 1:40 utc | 206

so the nature of the Saudi regime, and I guess soon the Egyptian regime, bulwarks of Western rule for decades, somehow these regimes change because they now sign papers written by the Chinese gov’t?
what Orwellian bullshit.
bunch of childish Schadenfreude being vomited up about the current apparent demise (setbacks?) of the West.
China, by its covid policies, has guaranteed that it will lead the world to war. read Thucydides. Camus. it is 100% guaranteed. like the west and most commentators here, sacrificing the populace for the sake of some garbage pile called “the economy” is “worth it” to the Chinese gov’t. like every other capitalist nation on the planet.
and what will people drool and fawn all over if not Russia’s hypersonic horseshit? people will be begging and praying for Russia to start a war just to relieve their boredom.
such a great brave new world being built. be a shame if a wave of reality washed away these plans for sand castles.
take it away, joe walsh. it doesn’t matter whose name is signed on plastic garbage pile w/its unbreathable air. people are just as stupid as the birds in this video, but mostly not innocent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzEzIBHuUmU

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 21 2023 1:42 utc | 207

Spam apologia for a Troll. Strawman projection. Unsupported hearsay seeking faux legitimacy & credibility. Goldstein ! Pompous arrogant discretionary dispensation post slander & backhanded ad-hominem.
That you choose to not comprehend nor acknowledge the clear use of terms & dismissive contemptuous responses, deliberately provocative, is wholly unsurprising.
And in so doing you perpetuate the Trolling. Normative for the Scorpion. As you say, IMHO.
Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 1:39 utc | 204
As usual, Outraged, every single sentence rude, hostile BS. Par for the course. IMHO!
Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 1:15 utc | 200
You pretended for a very long time here. Eventually you out yourself.
Posted by: Another Brother Ma | Mar 21 2023 1:40 utc | 205
Arrogant. Without a point. Speaking about yourself, it seems. Whatever turns you on!
The anti-trolling Trolls are coming out in force!!

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 2:04 utc | 208

Meanwhile, an important announcement involving drones being shot down from a Spanish coastal informant:
https://twitter.com/Levi_godman/status/1636494624754737152

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 2:09 utc | 209

NAZI salutes to be banned in Victoria
https://twitter.com/9NewsMelb/status/1637619000971780097
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/20/victoria-to-ban-nazi-salute-after-anti-trans-protest-melbourne-australia
Slava ukrainia!

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 21 2023 2:16 utc | 210

@uM 11
In Canadian, USUKA would be “You suck, eh?”.

Posted by: FrankDrakman | Mar 21 2023 2:16 utc | 211

Fuck this Tibet crap. Irrelevant. Who gives a shit? Apparently only people who want to bitch about China.
I’m an anarchist. I don’t support the Chinese government any more than I support the Russian government – in general. But I’m not Tibetan. MY government – the one that is screwing ME over – is the US government. So when China and Russia screw the US government, I’m happy. So is the rest of the world being screwed over by the US government. It’s that simple.
That’s what the discussion here is about – not Tibet.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 2:17 utc | 212

“China, by its covid policies, has guaranteed that it will lead the world to war. read Thucydides. Camus. it is 100% guaranteed. like the west and most commentators here, sacrificing the populace for the sake of some garbage pile called “the economy” is “worth it” to the Chinese gov’t. like every other capitalist nation on the planet.”
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 21 2023 1:42 utc | 206
LOL stop the bullshit. I’m a foreigner living in China past 10 years.
By there actions the Chinese government saved millions of lives by their lockdowns right after the US virus hit.

Posted by: Surferket | Mar 21 2023 2:21 utc | 213

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 2:17 utc | 211
Well you should thank b for knowingly allowing the obvious 3 lettered alphabet soup trolls to derail the comments.

Posted by: Surferket | Mar 21 2023 2:26 utc | 214

@ Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 2:17 utc | 211
‘Tis not about Tibet, nor China. 3rd page comments. Come now, serene RSH.
@ Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 2:04 utc | 207
Truly a tragedy that such a worm-tongue⟨™⟩ wordsmith fails basic literacy & comprehension. Anti-trolling ? Oh dear me, your Freudian slip is showing. Am aghast. Oh, now self identifying as a Troll ? More puerile ad-hominem & base vulgarity ? How sad. 🙁
Another Brother Ma, nailed you to rights.
@ Wokechoke | Mar 21 2023 1:29 utc | 201

Opium really was a key medicine and the Chinese whine about the British cutting out their tax collectors from the trade.

Respectfully, a magisterial demonstration of zero actual knowledge re the true circumstances & consequences of the imposed Opium trade over more than two centuries, nor the control of Customs & Tariffs by extra-territorial & extra-legal Imperial Powers, including the USA, as a result of the imposed, by wars & the barrel of a cannon, Unequal Treaties.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 2:29 utc | 215

“..but I call Bullshit on the Opium story. Opium was the only painkiller you could use for surgery and terminal pain back in the day. Chinese Imperial Bureaucrats just wanted a cut of the revenues….”
Wokechoke@201
This is nonsense. There is no doubt at all that the East India Company set out deliberately to produce opium to be sold to addicts in China. Previous attempts by the Company to interest the Chinese market in British woolen cloth, Manchester textiles and other British manufactures had failed. China, which exported enormous quantities of silk, tea, ceramics and other luxuries, was draining silver from the British. Opium was the last resort of a desperate empire built upon gunboats.
The consequences in China are well understood (except it would appear by you). Those in India include the seizure of subsistence farm land from peasants whose dispossession contributed to the series of famines which occurred under British rule.
The Chinese interest in collecting customs revenues and controlling trade was very reasonable. It grew as the smuggling of the drug gave rise to serious social problems.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 21 2023 2:34 utc | 216

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 2:29 utc | 214
“Come now, serene RSH.”
I’m always serene – except when I’m not.
I’m Not Always Grumpy Sometimes I’m Asleep funny T-Shirt
https://www.amazon.com/Always-Grumpy-Sometimes-Asleep-T-Shirt/dp/B07QDVPB2N
What’s that commercial line? See here: https://i.imgflip.com/1u7yly.jpg

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 2:37 utc | 217

@ Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 2:37 utc | 217

I’m always serene – except when I’m not.

I’ll pay that. My shout. 😉

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 2:43 utc | 218

I have an idea – let’s simply reserve the third page of each post for the following:
1) Irrelevancies
2) Rude attacks on other posters
3) Answers to rude or irrelevant posts
4) Impersonations of legitimate commentariat.
Then b can simply eradicate page 3 during his housekeeping, giving him time to create his own thoughtful and important presentations.
Oh, pardon me — I see that is happening already. Bravo!
Night all.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 21 2023 2:54 utc | 219

The US is on record as wishing to carve up the Russian Federation and to cripple China.
Makes perfect pragmatic sense for a strategic alignment between Russia and China in order to be better able to stand up to, and if necessary fight, the US/NATO.
Thus far the US has only succeeded in crippling Europe, bombing key infrastructure of the German economy, losing the RoW, destroying what used to be known as Ukraine, losing its dominant role in the Middle East, accelerating dedollarization, and making both Russia and China stronger.
The neocons and the Federal Reserve are both in panic mode – this is highly dangerous for us all as bullies tend to lash out when losing before they run away when meeting an opponent who is not afraid of them. I’m worried about a nukie false flag … or a very significant assassination false flag …. further, the massive MIC production build up is not for Ukraine it is for China. Madness.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 21 2023 2:55 utc | 220

Andrei Martyanov’s latest video… for the bloviating hater…
Keeping In Mind Important Things (on Xi’s Visit).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW3Rfh8cgpw

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 3:04 utc | 221

Posted by: juliania | Mar 21 2023 2:54 utc | 219
Would be nice – except barflies can’t organize themselves to stay on topic on pages 1-2, why assume they could organize a page 3? 🙂
Barflies, as they say:
1) “couldn’t organize a rock to fall off a cliff.”
2) “couldn’t organize a bunch of tom-cats around a bowl of milk”
3) “couldn’t organize a one-car funeral half a block from the cemetary”
4) “couldn’t organize a procession to the bathroom”
5) “couldn’t organize a Tom Cruise Cheer at a Scientology Convention”
6) “couldn’t organize a salad in the produce section”
7) “couldn’t organize a stampede toward the exits at a Dick Cheney striptease act”
8) “couldn’t organize a doughnut run in a precinct house”
9) and finally, the original Australian classic: “couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery”

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 3:15 utc | 222

Meanwhile, an important announcement involving drones being shot down from a Spanish coastal informant:
https://twitter.com/Levi_godman/status/1636494624754737152
Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 2:09 utc | 208
.
.
.
I don’t understand Spanish, does the English translation correspond to what’s being said? The comedian in the clip, El Risitas, died 28/4/2021.

Posted by: Ново З | Mar 21 2023 3:17 utc | 223

Latest Scott Ritter…
Scott Ritter talks about the Russian Fighter Jet that forced down a US Drone over the Black Sea
Issues that Matter with Cynthia Pooler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daYxJKitpjM

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 3:24 utc | 224

@ Ново З | Mar 21 2023 3:17 utc | 223
It’s ancient footage of a live tv running joke. Has become a meme. The superimposed english text has zero relationship to what’s being said.
Clearly Scorpion found it profound and was keen to share …

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 3:26 utc | 225

Years back read the account of a Tibetan monk that fled after the Chinese army came in, resistance was sparse, and by his account not a very pleasant experience. One might argue the China of today is different, let’s recall they also had a border skirmish with Vietnam and continue to have border tensions with India. Countries work in their own strategic or economic interests, should others also benefit it is coincidental.
Seem to recall that the Buddhist lifestyle of accepting donations of food rather than working for it was not well viewed by the Chinese that regarded it as a parasitic system extorting the poor. The Dalai Lama as we know fled, however the Panchen Lama was taken by the Chinese and a false replacement proffered later. Of interest and little known is that the Panchen Lama is actually the more important of the two.
In the 1300’s Tsong-ka-pa was born in Tibet, many believe he was the reincarnation of Buddha, he set about trying to sort out Tibetan Buddhism dominated by the Red Hats which he regarded as corrupt and essentially practicing black magic through tantras. He established the Yellow Hats as a form of pure Buddhism. After his death though the red hats again rose in ascendance. In all fairness this was the dominant form of Buddhism the Chinese encountered in Tibet, the Yellows were more low profile by then.

Posted by: Organic | Mar 21 2023 3:28 utc | 226

bevin @216–
We shouldn’t omit the nascent Outlaw US Empire wading in on the Brit coattails for its own piece of the action using Turkish opium. This fact is omitted in every history text that features the Opium Wars.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2023 3:36 utc | 227

Yet as we see, the trolls succeeded as the thread’s been diverted to Tibet and the Opium Wars.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2023 3:38 utc | 228

Posted by: Organic | Mar 21 2023 3:28 utc | 226
This is historical. Go dig into that. And read up Goldstein’s authoritative book on the History of Modern Tibet.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1211614.shtml
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202210/1276546.shtml

Posted by: Surferket | Mar 21 2023 3:38 utc | 229

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2023 3:38 utc | 229
Working as intended. Because of b fondness for official trolls. He don’t want to end up like thesaker who enforced registration and thdn was forced to shut down.

Posted by: Surferket | Mar 21 2023 3:40 utc | 230

@ james | Mar 21 2023 3:34 utc | 227
hijacking my name, lol… more bullshit fun from an asshole… who whudda thunk it??

Posted by: james | Mar 21 2023 3:43 utc | 231

and i doubt that was norweigan in the past hour either… how many names are you hijacking, mr. hijacker?? don’t like it when some of us point it out either.. that is obvious…

Posted by: james | Mar 21 2023 3:44 utc | 232

@ james | Mar 21 2023 3:34 utc | 227

Meanwhile, an important announcement involving drones being shot down from a Spanish coastal informant:

View it, given the above. Relevance, intent ? If it is in fact you, given the considerable efforts to derail the thread … pass.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 3:45 utc | 233

@ james | Mar 21 2023 3:34 utc | 227
it wasn’t me outraged.. i have nothing but high regard for you…
cheers and goodnight… my last post until tomorrow something.. any other post with my name on it is bullshit from mr. hijacker..

Posted by: james | Mar 21 2023 3:48 utc | 234

@ Outraged | Mar 21 2023 3:45 utc | 234
meant to tag you on the 235 above.. good night!

Posted by: james | Mar 21 2023 3:49 utc | 235

Frank D @ 210: You win the thread XD
Don F @ 220: I totally concur, the situation is indeed mad; one can almost hear the faint echos of, “when foul is fair, and fair is foul” across the heath.
Thanks, b.

Posted by: robjira | Mar 21 2023 3:53 utc | 236

@ james | Mar 21 2023 3:44 utc | 233
Must be most confusing & disconcerting for non-regulars & lurkers unfamiliar with posters identifiable persona/profile history. 🙁
Peace. Out.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 3:53 utc | 237

I’m very tempted to fake the ids of the Alphabet soup trolls and turn them into Putinbots.

Posted by: Surferket | Mar 21 2023 3:59 utc | 238

b’s article is cast as the world moving forward and leaving “U.S.” behind (although I doubt that many of us in the west actually identify with that “U.S.”).
And I agree with this dynamic, except that all of the statements I read from the forces moving forward seem to extend a great deal of generosity to “U.S.”.
I’ve now heard a new phrase describing the world as “less America” and I have to say I love that phrase. A world with “less America” – what a world that could be, eh? But, no one is saying, “Death to Yanquis” or “no America.”
~~
I find myself touched and enormously grateful that the forces in today’s world who clearly see that they are clearly winning and that they will clearly inherit and inhabit the new world – that all of them have left a place for the US. A humbled and diminished US, a place that is constrained within borders and international laws, but with a heart still beating and a pulse still racing, and maybe even a foot still tapping to the music.
We in the USA did not create this dream outcome for ourselves. It has been the other nations, who dream of their own sovereignty and freedom, who have included the USA in this dream, as being present within the dream, but not encroaching.
“Present but not encroaching”. I suspect that if a political party promised this a foreign policy, the Russians and Chinese who control our domestic elections (/sarc) would sweep that party into power wholeheartedly 😉
~~
But the point is that we didn’t create this. This is a gift from the world – as our release from the enslavement of our ruling class in the USA may also come as a gift from the world.
The future is not here yet…

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 21 2023 4:01 utc | 239

Great, lets see how the ” new ” leader will solve the suffering of the Palestinians.
Posted by: Deplorable Commisar | Mar 20 2023 21:23 utc | 137
You really are an ass. You add nothing to the conversation here, but just constantly show how irrelevant you are. I bet your parents are so proud of you.

Posted by: Sam | Mar 21 2023 4:19 utc | 240

@ Grieved | Mar 21 2023 4:01 utc | 240 who wrote
”
I find myself touched and enormously grateful that the forces in today’s world who clearly see that they are clearly winning and that they will clearly inherit and inhabit the new world – that all of them have left a place for the US. A humbled and diminished US, a place that is constrained within borders and international laws, but with a heart still beating and a pulse still racing, and maybe even a foot still tapping to the music.
We in the USA did not create this dream outcome for ourselves. It has been the other nations, who dream of their own sovereignty and freedom, who have included the USA in this dream, as being present within the dream, but not encroaching.
“Present but not encroaching”. I suspect that if a political party promised this a foreign policy, the Russians and Chinese who control our domestic elections (/sarc) would sweep that party into power wholeheartedly 😉
~~
But the point is that we didn’t create this. This is a gift from the world – as our release from the enslavement of our ruling class in the USA may also come as a gift from the world.
The future is not here yet…
”
Good words but the last. The future dream you depict in your words exists all around us but is just not evenly distributed yet…
But it is here in reality and we are we are witnessing/enriched by its example that is motivating the RoW….and us.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 21 2023 4:23 utc | 241

Crimea DRONED.. shot down
https://sputniknews.com/20230321/shrapnel-stuffed-drones-downed-over-dzhankoy-targeted-civilian-facilities—authorities-1108622914.html

Posted by: T S | Mar 21 2023 4:35 utc | 242

Posted by: GT sTROLLer | Mar 20 2023 21:32 utc | 141
Dunning-Kruger effect in its finest.

Posted by: in_Oz | Mar 21 2023 4:45 utc | 243

Grieved @240–
Agree 100%! Long ago before 2000, elsewhere, I wrote it would be up to the RoW to defeat the Outlaw US Empire for it didn’t seem possible then that the required action would come from US citizens and that hasn’t changed very much since. When Russia stood up to the Empire over the chemical weapons FF in Syria and prevented Obama from committing another crime, I was extremely pleased as were many millions. Then came the intervention in 2015 to halt the War OF Terror. That was followed by China’s resistance and triumph over Trump’s Trade War amidst the Russiagate hysteria. Then when open talk finally emerged in October 2020 of Genocide in Donbas and that it must be halted, I knew then an R2P would be launched that would alter much. Then the Security Proposals and all the baggage that revealed followed by the certain refusal was followed by the 4 Feb 2022 Joint Declaration and its very alluring manifesto. It was then clear that the “military technical operation” promised by the Proposals if a nyet was given to them would surely follow, and I felt secure that the Empire wouldn’t risk nukes faced by both Russia and China, particularly with Russia’s missile defense capabilities.
I learned about the Great Paradigm Changes when I took my Intro Philosophy class from a very sage Prof, and he posited we were on the cusp of going beyond Modernism into the unnamed, unknown but what he thought would be a liberating new paradigm. That was 27 years ago. His name for the enemy of humanity was the Megamolarschizoidmachine, which we generally term the MIC and what I specifically call Neoliberal Parasites and allies. Hudson’s Parasite/Host analogy is quite apt, and it appears fate is leading the parasite to kill its host which will cause the parasite’s demise. The host I see as the culture of conflict and competition as opposed to the culture of togetherness/community/cooperation. Thus, the Parasite actually aids humanity by killing the Hegemonic Host thus allowing the liberation to happen since the Parasite is also vanquished.
It would be excellent to live long enough to see this occur–it will take some years before the Host/Parasite die off and get replaced. Only time will tell how long that will take. One big issue needs to be addressed soon and that’s the problem with the massively propagandized people within the Collective West, particularly those within the Empire for I don’t see them very well prepared for any sort of sudden change to the new culture–or back to the old, to the Hopi Way.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2023 5:00 utc | 244

Wokechoke | Mar 21 2023 1:29 utc | 201
>……” I call Bullshit on the Opium story.
See. History doesn’t care about *opinion*.
Learn something while bloviating at the bar:
https://twitter.com/phastanapichai/status/1637950803972599810

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 21 2023 5:00 utc | 245

The trillion dollar silencer

Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across the U.S. in the last few years to decry police brutality, to oppose the Supreme Court’s decision to restrict abortion rights, and to contest what they believed was a rigged election (the January 2021 Capitol riots).
Only small hardy bands by comparison have taken to the streets to protest record military budgets—approaching $1 trillion under Joe Biden—or the illegal bombing of Syria, expansion of U.S. troops in Africa, provision of $20 billion in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, and military provocations directed against China.
Joan Roelofs’1 new book The Trillion Dollar Silencer: Why There Is So Little Anti-War Protest in the United States (Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2022), starts with an important question: “Why is there so much acceptance and so little protest against our government’s illegal and immoral wars and other military operations?”
Her answer is simple and convincing: Money.
While successful propaganda, fear and distraction are important, the military-industrial complex that Dwight Eisenhower warned about in his Farewell Address in 1961 has penetrated so deeply into American life that much of the American public has essentially bought into acquiescence.
Roelofs writes that “the economic impact of the military-industrial complex is a highly effective silencer.”

OR , THE TRILLION DOLLAR DIVERSION

A 1969 exposé in Ramparts magazine, written by David Horowitz, uncovered that the CIA used at least 46 foundations to funnel money to organizations whose main purpose was to defuse anti-war protest and co opt or divide the political left in the U.S.
. A key effect was to channel activist energies, especially of youth, into pro-interventionist groups like Free Tibet and Save Darfur, which had a strong presence on college campuses at the time that the War on Terror and its associated atrocities were being expanded.

question…
Are the scorpion, oppo knock, gt strollers merely useful idiots or ….gawd forbid, working as misdirection agents for the MIC ?
https://mronline.org/2023/01/09/the-trillion-dollar-silencer/

Posted by: denk | Mar 21 2023 5:00 utc | 246

sigh, what trigger that damned filter ?

Posted by: denk | Mar 21 2023 5:03 utc | 247

But it is here in reality and we are we are witnessing/enriched by its example that is motivating the RoW….and us.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 21 2023 4:23 utc | 242
Indeed Psycho, it’s humbling and affirms that humans are not predestined to the lowest common denominator, unless we refuse to grow up as in the consumer driven, toddler tantrum throwing west.

Posted by: K | Mar 21 2023 5:06 utc | 248

I feel kind of sad no one wants to hijack my name. It’s sort of a cool name, at least I thought so. cummon, PTB. Show me some hate.
I try to keep on topic. I try not to insult people. I guess there was that time with Patroklos, which I feel bad about. And then…
Oh well. Rejection. It is painful. Please, hijackers, lex talionis is open and available to hijack. I’m half-way a member of the John Birch Society, so have at it! Go after Bevin first. He’s kinda the smartest. Well. Then there’s karlof1 and psychohistorian. jen seems to be chillin’ KS of late.
I dunno.

Posted by: lex talionis | Mar 21 2023 5:06 utc | 249

Andrei Martyanov’s latest video… for the bloviating hater…
Keeping In Mind Important Things (on Xi’s Visit).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW3Rfh8cgpw
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 3:04 utc | 221
.
Thanks for posting that. Uncle Andrei (as a youtube commenter once described him) “hello dats me again” is in fine form, delivering strong views on a number of issues.
changes not seen in centuries
Outraged | Mar 21 2023 3:26 utc | 225 thanks for the clarification. When I thought harder I remembered seeing it in the past. I guess its funny if you don’t understand Spanish or the sound is turned off, maybe.

Posted by: Ново З | Mar 21 2023 5:23 utc | 250

@Norwegian | Mar 21 2023 2:33 utc | 215
Some three letter agency troll is stealing my identity again. I did NOT post that.

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 21 2023 6:43 utc | 251

The Sassoon’s made billions off illegal drug pushing in China. Maybe their heirs should pay back those ill gotten gains.

Posted by: Exile | Mar 21 2023 6:46 utc | 252

What America needs now is more….
Apple pie and the Waltons.

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 6:51 utc | 253

Listening to Martyanov’s video…
Also noted this article, Martyanov discussed a similar ones in Russian.
Russia’s Presidential aide Ushakov: Putin and Xi Jinping will discuss the conflict in Ukraine
https://apa.az/en/cis-countries/russias-presidential-aide-ushakov-putin-and-xi-jinping-will-discuss-the-conflict-in-ukraine-399041

Judging by the fact that only Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugaev, Head of Roscosmos Yuri Borisov and a number of other officials will attend the first talks with the President, it is planned to discuss exactly the issues associated with the army….[MY NOTE: This is the first of the Tuesday meetings.]
The second meeting will be held in full force with all the deputy prime ministers and key ministers.
– It is about the strategic interaction of two partners who trust each other, – explained Ushakov.
The heads of state will sign two documents. One is about “deepening the comprehensive partnership in a new era.” The second is called: “Joint statement on the development plan for key areas of Russian-Chinese economic cooperation until 2030.”
The presidential adviser did not rule out that politicians also discuss the conflict in Ukraine:
– We highly appreciate the restrained position of the Chinese leadership. I am sure that our leader and the Chinese leader will exchange their assessments in the context of the conflict in Ukraine, he said.

Martyanov points out that the first meeting is clearly about military matters as it has Shoigu, and the head of the Russian military-industrial-complex and foreign military sales worldwide attending, which implies discussion of military technology transfers from Russia to China, which Martyanov explains exactly what China needs from Russia and why.
Note the phrase, “restrained position of the Chinese leadership”. This clearly shows how Russia views the alleged Chinese “peace plan” – it is not intended to be applied to the Russian-Ukraine conflict to any significant degree.
Ushakov is also quoted in another article I saw as saying:

“In this relationship, there is no leader, no disciple, there are no restrictions, there are no forbidden measures. We are talking about the strategic interaction of two partners who trust each other and in many ways share the same goals, the same tasks,” he said.

Does this sound like China is going to take Russia to task over the Ukraine SMO? I think not.
Putin himself is reported to have said, diplomatically:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-news-vladimir-putin-china-russia-meeting-icc-war-crimes/

Putin also said that he had “carefully studied” China’s proposal to end the war in Ukraine. That plan, which urges respect for the “sovereignty of all countries,” does not call for a withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
“You are also aware that we are always open to the negotiation process. We will, of course, discuss all these issues, including your initiatives, which we treat with respect,”>Putin said.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement…

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 6:52 utc | 254

@ Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 6:52 utc | 254 who, IMO, is missing the geo-political nuance in the China/Russia leadership interaction.
You live in CA, correct? Ever hear of Hollywood? Do you not think that the China/Russia leadership interaction we are seeing has not been meticulously planned and orchestrated? The initiatives coming from China were developed with Russia cooperation and involvement, understand? They are working together to take down empire and this is part of the show.
Maybe you want to add more cow bell but this is how those countries roll.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 21 2023 7:02 utc | 255

For me the most important thing they should be talking about is….
How to reclaim the U N.
Not in 2 or 3 years time but now, as in… Right now.
Devide it in two, keep the brand name, logo, mission statement all of it.
Move the head quarters, ditch the proven western centric curupt deligates.
The geopolitical problems would vanish like the morning dew, for North America included.

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 7:10 utc | 256

“Exclusive: The hidden security clauses of the Iran-Saudi deal
The Cradle reveals confidential clauses of the agreement struck between Tehran and Riyadh, which was reached courtesy of Beijing.”
by Hasan Illaik, 12/3/23
https://thecradle.co/article-view/22445/exclusive-the-hidden-security-clauses-of-the-iran-saudi-deal

Posted by: AG | Mar 21 2023 7:12 utc | 257

You can wait a hundred years For a slim chance to come your way, that momment / chance may last an hour a day or a week.
Miss it and you have to wait another hundred years.
That’s where we are right now.

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 7:19 utc | 258

AG @ 257
Thanks for that link, very positive developments there. I recomend the comments that follow.

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 7:35 utc | 259

Trolls…..
They come over as very institutionalised !
As bad as the system is their comfortable with it for what ever agenda.
MOA particularly a good thread like this one ‘was’ threatens that comfort zone.
You can take the prisoner out of the prison, but can you take the prison out of the prisoner.
Or….
All ways hang on to nanneys skirt for fear of something much much worse !

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 7:52 utc | 260

Actually, b missed a few more examples of Chinese wins this week:
1) Building a joint fighter aircraft with Argentina
2) Switching Honduras from Taipei to Beijing (with Paraguay soon to follow)
3) Working with Saudi Arabia to keep Pakistan off the IMF teat
And lest we forget:
Indonesia to stop using Mastercard and Visa, to be replaced by both a local version and China’s UnionPay and Russia’s MIR

Posted by: Sam (in Tiraspol) | Mar 21 2023 7:58 utc | 261

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 21 2023 7:02 utc | 255
That is precisely what I said. What I’m criticizing are those people who think this is going to be all about a “peace plan” to stop Russia from taking over Ukraine.
Do try to read what I write, not what you think I’m writing.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 8:19 utc | 262

@rjb1.5
I guess you have been posting here many times over the years. And I most likely started reading the first words of each of them dutifully. And every time I stopped reading after the first sentence of each post.
See, not using proper case and punctuation makes the reading really unpleasant. The effort is not worth it in this case.
And it’s too bad. For it could be interesting to read what you have to say.
It would also keep the value of this community exchange up.
That is valid for everyone who fails to make the effort of properly writing here.
If it was my blog, I’d code a script that would force the poster using proper case and punctuation. As a software developer it would not be too difficult to do. I’m sure B has the skills himself.
Anyway, there are so many comments that only the well written ones get read by most of us.

Posted by: Stephane | Mar 21 2023 9:02 utc | 263

The energy lost in friction reading this blog comments is getting really high.
Between the poorly written ones, the way too long ones, the trolling ones, the answering ones, hide the short, correctly spelled, informative ones.
The StackExchange way of posting, rating and commenting is missing here.

Posted by: Stephane | Mar 21 2023 9:15 utc | 264

https://www.yahoo.com/news/4-decade-secret-one-man-180605540.html
oh now the shitbag talks. the article gets it wrong in some respects; “previous congressional investigations did not discredit previous “conspiracy theories”–they covered up, helped by our dementia victim in chief, jolting Joe Biden, who gave bilateral cover for the democrat wing of the uniparty. hey, leave the hostages with the mullahs, we got to get Carter out of there and Reagan in.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 21 2023 9:22 utc | 265

@ Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 1:13 utc | 199
Look at what mediator Bennet had to say recently.
( he later retracted that. probably being pressured.)

Posted by: MAKK | Mar 21 2023 9:23 utc | 266

Posted by: MAKK | Mar 21 2023 9:32 utc | 267

re malenkov | Mar 20 2023 21:07 utc | 132
Wow, I’m honored to have my own impostor!
Anyway unlikely that I’ll be posting much in the future. Either the site or the site owner has banned my home IP range, and I’m returning from vacation now.

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 21 2023 9:32 utc | 268

@Mark2 256
re: UN
I am no specialist, but for many years a change of the UN-SC permanent seats has been demanded as a starter.
e.g. include Brazil and India, and since reduction of existing tiny powers like France and GB won´t materialize at least as a first step one permanent seat for Africa and the Pacific each. (which would make certain additional minutes necessary of course as for organizing representation.)
The interior colonial structure of the UN has to be abandoned step by step. Would the SC work properly Russia could have brought forward the issue of Ukraine knowing that a respectful and realistic solution could have been worked out.
But in the very end no such step was taken since it is most likely that Russian diplomats in the UN realized that any decision over the question of Ukraine would be torpedoed anway (as calls had been ignored before) just as Israeli illegal occupation has been protected by the US veto power.
As to change “things now”. That´s a very difficult goal with such a body I assume.
But without breaking the power of the IMF or World Bank and others it eventually is not worth much.
So any such changes will have to be coordinated with restructuring other institutions.
Some of this is realistic some not.
But I guess China or India have enough good suggestions worked out.
Until 2022 I have been naive enough to believe that climate change has been recognized as such an elementary threat to everyone, regardless on which side you are that it would put some sense into the government elites.
Well I was stupid. Yet there is no alternative but to walk forward this path.

Posted by: AG | Mar 21 2023 9:32 utc | 269

oh now the shitbag talks. the article gets it wrong in some respects; “previous congressional investigations did not discredit previous “conspiracy theories”–they covered up, helped by our dementia victim in chief, jolting Joe Biden, who gave bilateral cover for the democrat wing of the uniparty. hey, leave the hostages with the mullahs, we got to get Carter out of there and Reagan in.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 21 2023 9:22 utc | 265
At this point I just assume everything the Borg has told me these last 70 years or so is at best a misrepresentation, at worst a fabrication from whole cloth, depending on the scandal/debacle/whatever they were covering uyp.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 21 2023 9:36 utc | 270

@ Stephane | Mar 21 2023 9:15 utc | 264

Posted by: MAKK | Mar 21 2023 9:36 utc | 271

The StackExchange way of posting, rating and commenting is missing here.
Posted by: Stephane | Mar 21 2023 9:15 utc | 264
Any rating system just becomes one more thing for the money boys to pay to manipulate. Better not to pretend it means something.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 21 2023 9:38 utc | 272

So what does CNN say? “For the sixth year in a row, Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to World Happiness Report”. Obviously CNN has never met a Finn in their life.
Posted by: Passerby | Mar 20 2023 20:00 utc | 108
I like to call Finns grey-faced drug addicts and lightweight satanists. I’m an ex-Finn but I grew up in a different country in early childhood, which saved me.
It’s a country of 90% pathologically gullible, autistic cowards, and 10% black-hearted sociopaths that rape the 90% without remorse. (The 90% then angrily defend the 10%). This might sound like an impossible demographic combination, but the connecting trait of these two groups is an almost complete lack of empathy, that is, zero capacity to read the emotions and intentions of another human being.
They’ll get what they deserve.

Posted by: Mike | Mar 21 2023 9:52 utc | 273

AG @ 269
Warm thanks for replying to my suggestion but you missed the very point I’m making.
The UN is curupt and ‘deliberatly weighted down with western red tape and vetoes ect , so as to deliberatly make it unfunctional. America made it so.
I’m not suggesting wading through the beurcratic process, I’m suggesting now as in NOW reclaiming it back for the world public. With out consultation to the western criminals running it.
Remember… this is the new multi-polar world…. they dont make the rules from here on…. we don’t have to follow their rules from here on. as in now.
WE will make the world’s multi-polar worlds rules and They will have to follow them.
It’s called freedom. Taking the prison out of our own head.
Scary I know. Hence the trolls.

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 9:55 utc | 274

China has 4 times as many people as the US.
China has a better educated population than the US.
China likes to build infrastructure in other countries.
China has a policy of non-interference with other countries’ internal affairs.
China has minerals and tons of consumer goods.
What’s not to like?

Posted by: HelenB | Mar 21 2023 10:02 utc | 275

karlof1@125-it would seem that Macron’s pension change law is now adopted, effectively bypassing the parliament. The vote of no confidence in Macron and his co-arseholes failed narrowly.
The best read on thi is on WSWS site.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/03/21/rkll-m21.html

Posted by: Vragtes | Mar 21 2023 10:08 utc | 276

@ Deplorable Commissar | Mar 21 2023 0:49 utc | 192
For what it’s worth, the Austrian Empire was never into slavery, had little interest in colonies (with the possible exception of a brief disastrous Mexican adventure), and was singularly bad at conquering territory (“tu felix Austria nube”).

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 21 2023 10:10 utc | 277

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 9:55 utc | 274
It seems to me Diego Garcia would be an excellent place to move the UN. Or Sri Lanka. Just get it out of New York, worst place in the world for it (except maybe Wash. DC or London).
We could let the indigeous from there run it, and hire everybody else, and make sure they get a solid cut.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 21 2023 10:11 utc | 278

I’m an anarchist. I don’t support the Chinese government any more than I support the Russian government – in general. But I’m not Tibetan. MY government – the one that is screwing ME over – is the US government. So when China and Russia screw the US government, I’m happy. So is the rest of the world being screwed over by the US government. It’s that simple.
That’s what the discussion here is about – not Tibet.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 2:17 utc | 211
Like you, I don’t support (or trust) any big governments. My original comment was in response to @Karlov1’s repost of the Communist Party of China’s happy-clappy propaganda BS claiming that “Freedom, democracy and human rights are the common pursuit of mankind and the values that the Communist Party of China has always pursued…China is willing to … carry forward the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind.”
Tibet was simply the exemplar putting the lie in sharp relief.
The CPC intends to rearrange the world order for the benefit of China’s growth, and the further entrenchment of its authoritarian power. Hopefully, my time will be up before I’m forced to use their ‘social credit score’ software and behave like a good little economic work unit on pain of having my bank account limited in ways I wouldn’t like if I don’t conform.
91% of Chinese say they’re very happy. That’s not because they’re very happy. It’s because their smartphone’s microphone and keystroke logger is always on, just as ours is.
Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 21 2023 1:15 utc | 200
Thanks for that. Good informative comment.

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 21 2023 10:12 utc | 279

It seems to me Diego Garcia would be an excellent place to move the UN.
Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 9:55 utc | 274
_________________________________________________________________________
???
Diego Garcia is an illegaly occupied Island, stolen and lent by the British to the U.S., and home of one of the hundreds of illegal US Army bases around the world.
It would be hard to pick a worse choice.

Posted by: Pierrot | Mar 21 2023 10:21 utc | 280

@ Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 20 2023 20:07 utc | 113”
“They should make a start on these fine aspirations by ceasing the oppression, imprisonment and cultural genocide of Tibetans that they started 60+ years ago. In another 60 years we could start to take them seriously.
Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 20 2023 20:07 utc | 113”
@ Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 20 2023 21:58 utc | 147
“Indeed, perhaps we could say that having a fixed view which feels compelled to scorn all those who differ is most likely a sign that one’s own view leaves much to be desired.”
& in passing @ Posted by: malenkov | Mar 20 2023 21:07 utc | 132 (???)
My personal experiences and travels have led me to alter my received opinions of the Great Tibetan Scam.
After centuries of fascist slave society under the guise of a form of Buddhism – there are many! And many of these are full of racist , supremacists who claim some supernatural entitlement to rule over the peasants – Tibetans were finally freed from the occupiers of the Potala, the local peoples were able to stop donating their young boys into indentured lifetime of servicing a few elites , who traded in slaves, tiger skins, ivory from their crossroads of commerce. The Last Laughing Fool boy raised to be a tool of that despotic system is ensconced in his western lifestyle, helicoptered around the many many Tibetan Buddhist mansions and estates dotted all over the western world! I have encountered him several times. With his spooky minders. Across Europe. I know there are many such places in the Collective Waste.
As far as I can see the Communist Chinese have raised these endless generations as fast as they have raised the Chinese poor. They are educated, have security and even a high speed rail network that goes from the Tibetan heights to sea level in hours! Meanwhile the deluded CIA hordes of the Dalia Lama are selling wooden croaking frogs and their bodies in Nepal and the Indian borders of China as willing trouble makers instead of taking the opportunity to finally change their ‘habits’ of subservient behaviour.
The freedom from the fascist sects is now being extended from Laos, Thailand , to ShriLanka not wholly unconnected by the OBOR , BRI investments.
I’ll stop at that as I see that many other knowledgeable barflies are also bringing such perspectives to bear upon the latest attempt at squirrel pointing or throwing the dead cat on the dining table as the spring equinox is promising a whole new born world. The SCO has reached its 25th year and is taking up the promised mantle.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 21 2023 10:27 utc | 281

Uh oh that last comment from Mark2 did not come from me.
Expect more. They won’t be genuine.
Thanks bemildered yes or how about Mexico.

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 10:33 utc | 282

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 21 2023 10:12 utc | 279
“social credit score’ software”
I’ve been informed by people who live there that this thing does not exist.
So I suggest you bugger off with your trolling because you’re coming across as just another anti-Chinese troll.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 10:34 utc | 283

Thanks bemildered yes or how about Mexico.
Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 10:33 utc | 282
Yes! Excellent.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 21 2023 10:37 utc | 284

Posted by: MAKK | Mar 21 2023 9:23 utc | 266
I ignore anything coming out of an Israeli’s mouth, with the possible exception of those former Intelligence officials who admitted that Iran does not have nuclear weapons program.
However, a quick Google search indicates that no where in his comments did he say Putin or Lavrov were ready to sign on the dotted line, regardless of what the Americans did. Everyone knows Boris Johnson’s role in this, but nothing about that suggests that a deal was imminent.
So Bennett is irrelevant, even if one believes him.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 10:41 utc | 285

the spring equinox is promising a whole new born world
Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 21 2023 10:27 utc | 281
I dislike big religion as much as big government, so I hope you’re right. I still don’t like the look of that social credit software though. Coupled with CBDC’s, and the tendency of bureaucracies towards authoritarian rule-making and micro-management, freedom of individual opinion, insight and creative flair is endangered, and that will be to the detriment of all.

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 21 2023 10:44 utc | 286

Bemildered
Mexico
Less likely to get nuked by the US.
Plus time is right for Mexico to stand tall and strong.
This comment is genuine Mark2

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 10:46 utc | 287

@277
The mexican adventure of Maximilian wasnt in the interest of the habsburgs neither. Kaiser Franz-Joseph was not happy at all about Maximilians wish to rule in Mexiko but he finally agreed since it seemed that the french would bear the costs of it.
When Maximilian was about to lose the civil war Franz Joseph considered a military intervention but it wasnt so much to clinch on to a colony but to rescue his brother. It finally didnt happen out of worry regarding the position of the USA and the financial costs of it.
After 1867 the austrians were moderately interested in colonies but the hungarian half of the empire had zero interest in it and the habsburgs shied away from an internal conflict for adventures in africa.

Posted by: Orgel | Mar 21 2023 10:46 utc | 288

Orgel: Yes indeed.

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 21 2023 10:51 utc | 289

“social credit score’ software”
I’ve been informed by people who live there that this thing does not exist.
So I suggest you bugger off with your trolling because you’re coming across as just another anti-Chinese troll.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 10:34 utc | 283
I’m not anti-Chinese. I’m anti any authoritarian government. People in the UK are already being monitored and admonished with “non-crime-hate-incident” black marks and fines for their online comments, even though the college of policing was told to desist by the Supreme court.

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 21 2023 10:57 utc | 290

Bemildered
Mexico
Less likely to get nuked by the US.
Plus time is right for Mexico to stand tall and strong.
This comment is genuine Mark2
Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 10:46 utc | 287
Yes, it will be very difficult for Uncle Sugar to attack Mexico these days. Latino vote is very important, for one thing. And like Asia, we import a lot of stuff from Mexico, WalMart will not like it.
Plus Uncle Sugar is very, very busy putting out fires elsewhere. May never be a better time.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 21 2023 11:06 utc | 291

Bemildered
Yes yes yes to all of that.
Plus….
Look at the domino effect throughout south America most would be well up for the transition to the new multi-polar UN (mark2copyright)
Putin and xi ping could pick up the phone today and do that deal by tea time.
I’m not even joking.
This is the genuine Mark2

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 11:26 utc | 292

226:
“Seem to recall that the Buddhist lifestyle of accepting donations of food rather than working for it was not well viewed…”
That was a concern already over 100 years ago long before any socialist ideas and it was a concern shared over the whole East and Central Asia.

Posted by: Catilina | Mar 21 2023 11:29 utc | 293

“The Chinese interest in collecting customs revenues and controlling trade was very reasonable. It grew as the smuggling of the drug gave rise to serious social problems.”
How can surgery have been performed without Opium? There was no alternative? Have you ever done subsistence farming? Working fields requires Opium.
The Brits just cut the Mandarins out of the profits. Some Jewish smugglers too. And btw it’s not like the Chinks fought very hard to stop the British American and Jewish traders\smugglers. All those addicts forced to smoke a pain killer that made serfdom and manual labor bearable. Oh my.

Posted by: Wokechoke | Mar 21 2023 11:31 utc | 294

@ Wokechoke | Mar 21 2023 1:29 utc | 201
“Agreed, but I call Bullshit on the Opium story. Opium was the only painkiller you could use for surgery and terminal pain back in the day. Chinese Imperial Bureaucrats just wanted a cut of the revenues.”
Chinese are no Americans that have zero tolerance for their own pain 🙂
opium adiction though was a problem.
The war spoils privilege to peddle Opium in China was extremely detrimental to China’s society. ( compare Fentanyl crisis in the US? )
Posted by: MAKK | Mar 21 2023 9:32 utc | 267
Oh yeah all that Opium imported that they didn’t provide the demand for. Uh huh. The Chinese fought so hard to stop the trade of the Black Gold. Riiiigghhht. By smoking it all.

Posted by: Wokechoke | Mar 21 2023 11:37 utc | 295

@Mark2 274
sry, I misread.
Of course that can be attempted too. Being a different level of action.
But I won´t waste your time with amateurish remarks.
I only know much has been developed in this area too, interaction in the world community, alternative inter-polis infrastructures, down-top organizing, a plethora of scholarship and research re: governance models etc.

Posted by: AG | Mar 21 2023 11:43 utc | 296

The sanctimony over a poppy on here.
https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/uploads/files/Working-Papers-Archives/CES_WP136.pdf
Sympathy for the Chinese over the trade of Opium is absurd…ordinary Chinese opposed it so much by smoking huge quantities of it. Just like everyone else all over the world at the time.
The carve up of China later on by Europeans was a problem a few decades later but the Opium War narrative peddled by such simps is hilarious.

Posted by: Wokechoke | Mar 21 2023 11:47 utc | 297

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 21 2023 10:57 utc | 290
After several barflies’ messages directed at you, which part of the word “f-off” don’t you understand? Pukimak!

Posted by: in_Oz | Mar 21 2023 11:54 utc | 298

The revamped UN should be moved to Afghanistan. Not only does their economy deserve a much needed boost but historically, Afghanistan was the transit hub of the Silk Road. Thus, blessed geographically as the epicenter of Eurasia where the vast majority of world population lives, it makes logical sense to locate the UN here in the new multipolar world order. Plus, it would make Gaddafi happy who ranted about jet lag in his classic UN speech.

Posted by: Jun | Mar 21 2023 11:56 utc | 299

@ Richard Steven Hack 5
The nihilists in USUKIS are a nothing burger. Boris Johnson is struggling to prevent peace and democracy in Northern Ireland which Britain has tried for so long to divide.
Xi’s is a Something burger, and USUKIS nihilists detest any shoots of new life.

Posted by: Giyane | Mar 21 2023 12:01 utc | 300

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