Walt, Outraged, John Kennard and Petri Krohn (17th Mar 2023 4h33 GMT ~79, 5h31 GMT ~83, 8h37 GMT ~90 and 10h48 GMT ~102, resp.
Thank you for your suggestions. Not been using a VPN much lately but I’ll fiddle around with a couple of them and see if that helps. I can never find one I am happy with, either a sense of drawing attention or speed limitations. I’ve found one called seed4me which has a different approach but I haven’t tried it out yet.
For downloading I tried a while back allavsoft, which seemed very good at handling anything in a simple point and click way but then became very hit-and-miss for youtube videos. I’ll dig around at git-hub, looks a bit daunting for the uninitiated.
JK and PK, those are interesting tips. I tend to forget how rife sharing is across different media, perhaps because I am not much of a phone person. I’ll try these suggestions and could find a lucky lead.
[third attempt at writing this]

Posted by: petra | Mar 17 2023 11:58 utc | 104

America is sick. Broke. Now with huddled masses.
https://twitter.com/ABC7Chicago/status/1636437736793026560

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Mar 17 2023 12:07 utc | 106

@ John Kennard | Mar 17 2023 12:02 utc | 108
Whoops. Spozed to be the drone-expert thread. But enjoy anyway.

Posted by: John Kennard | Mar 17 2023 12:10 utc | 108

Russian oil is currently at $45.11, while the ruble fell at $0.013.

Posted by: Kramayère | Mar 17 2023 12:12 utc | 110

and hundreds and thousands of Dunning-Krugerites pile in.
Posted by: John Kennard | Mar 17 2023 12:02 utc | 108
Love it!

Posted by: jpc | Mar 17 2023 12:46 utc | 112

suzan @64 wrote:
“…insurance fees are being charged on only 99.99999999% 00.00000001% of it.”
Thank you for proof-reading my scribbles. Your version is what I intended to write.
What so many are missing is that there is nothing new in the Federal Deposit Insurance covering large deposits. For instance, in the case of Washington Mutual the largest US bank to ever fail, all depositors had immediate access to all their deposits the day the bank was closed. In the case of SVB, I guess they thought that somebody would noticed that so many uninsured deposits were being treated as insured. In most bank closings the uninsured deposits are not such a large proportion of all deposits and nobody ever noticed the large deposits were being treated as insured.
_____________________________________
Simon @85 wrote: “SVB decide to buy a load of 10+ year bonds and not hedge them for interest rates. This was such bad mismanagement that all involved should be banned from ever holding a management position in the financial industry.”
So I guess Simon disagrees with all the MOA commenters who are constantly complaining about the derivatives contracts that banks engage in to protect against interest rate risk. Simon says derivatives are evidence of good management.
I guess Simon wants the banks to operate like hedge funds and Simon wants bank deposits to be risky investments and does not like deposits that are safe reliable place to store money.
There is a place called Wall Street where you can put your money if you don’t like it sitting in a boring old deposit institution.

Posted by: jinn | Mar 17 2023 13:29 utc | 114

I’m not reccing this article, it’s just that at first, reading the title, I expected it to be from The Onion
https://www.defenseone.com/business/2023/03/pentagon-mobilized-support-tech-startups-after-bank-failure/384033/
next i expect the Pentagon to mobilize to protect our domestic balloon industry from foreign encroachment.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 17 2023 13:45 utc | 116

RB @ 120
Site opens normally for me. From US.

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 17 2023 14:13 utc | 118

@ Paul Greenwood | Mar 17 2023 8:53 utc | 91
Money is a medium, a device, an agreement, a method to establish exact value over an effort or an object… You can be part of the tribe in Amazon and helping the other member of the tribe to build a house in return for equivalent help, without a medium involved. However the chief of the tribe will evaluate two houses, when finished and mint ten tokens for each, in order to balance tribe’s agreement, whether you want it or not…
Bonds are debt, hence is a interest…

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 17 2023 15:10 utc | 120

suzan @80 wrote: “Dennis Kucinich and Michael Hudson on the Anatomy of Bank Failures”
I get so tired of hearing Michael Hudson telling the same old lies over and over. And its disheartening that Kucinich is buying most of Hudson’s lies.
Hudson claims the banks “made so many bad loans” and thus they became insolvent and then Obama bailed them out.
Its a lie. None of it is true. Its a lie that Wall Street and the Oligarchs want you to believe.
The truth is that almost all banks were making good loans to people who had good jobs to buy houses they could afford. The handful of banks that made bad loans (like Washington Mutual) were not bailed out. They were put down immediately by the FDIC. The owners of those banks lost everything. The depositors lost nothing.
It is true that many trillion of dollars in bad mortgages were made in the run up to 2008. The source of the funding can be seen on this graph:
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-DW279_RMBS_G_20140728130506.jpg
That’s a lot of money pumped into a mortgage market that grew in size from $3Tn to $11Tn from 1999-2008. And house prices became inflated by 200%-500% more than they would have without the $6Tn in mortgages that no honest banker in their right mind would ever touch.
From 1999-2008 Private investors funded $5Tn dollars in loans via private label mortgage backed securities. Another $1Tn was funded by 100’s private mortgage companies. The private mortgage companies originated the mortgages and sold most of them to the private label mortgage securities market. The banks share of mortgage lending dropped dramatically. And none of this was bailed out after the crash. It all just crashed and burned and was wiped out, which in part is why Hudson can get away with blaming the banks because there is very little left of the actual culprits to point a finger at.
The typical privately-funded home mortgage was given to borrowers who were not required to document any income or assets or put any money down and because the borrowers could not make payments, more money was loaned each month to keep the payment schedule current. Often the borrower paid nothing on the principal and only a small fraction of the interest.
Most of these loans were designed to flip houses that were fraudulently appraised at inflated prices. The borrower typically had 1-2 years to sell the house (or refinance to a larger loan). As long as house prices were sky rocketing upward the sale (or refinance) of the house paid off the previous loan with a new bigger loan. Lots of money was made until house prices could no longer be goosed upward and then the whole house of cards collapsed.
Honest well run depository institutions were of course enormously damaged by the housing crash. The collateral for their sound loans had dropped in value by 30%-50% and 8 million of their customers lost their jobs in the crash and could not find new jobs which of course dramatically reduced deposits and loan payments to legitimate banks who had done nothing to cause the calamity. The same thing (only worse) could have happened in 2020 when 25 million lost their jobs. In 2020 households were bailed out by giving 1000s of dollars in free money and paid unemployment at rates so that often the unemployed were making more money than when they were working. If the same sort of effort had been made in 2008 8 million workers would have been quickly back to work and the banks and many other small businesses would not have been impaired.

Posted by: jinn | Mar 17 2023 15:23 utc | 122

Must see video of Janet Yellen’s Senate testimony from yesterday.
This clip starts at the point where she explains how some banks are more equal than others.
https://youtu.be/WVTmS4mM5zk?t=5360

Posted by: too scents | Mar 17 2023 15:30 utc | 124

While Russian culture is mercilessly cancelled in the west
Simply untrue. Only persons devoid of “culture” could claim such a thing. Even Claudia Roth of the Greens in Germany stated she would never boycott Russian cultural heritage……..and she is a Minister !
Those who want to “cancel Russian culture” want to cancel “White culture” and books and learning………it is the same people who burned books……..

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 17 2023 16:09 utc | 126

Indeed Finkelstein’s page works for me now. Thank you for your responses.
I think most people would agree that Zacharova is not only smart but beautiful. RT started over editing her pictures. Totally unnecessary. Trivial issue, but I’ve dealt a lot with photography.

Posted by: RB | Mar 17 2023 16:19 utc | 128

Posted by: RB | Mar 17 2023 13:50 utc | 121 & 16:19 utc | 132
No problems here in Norway either but see now it works 4U.
Those who click on the link should read Chris Wright’s comments. I got a kick out of this quote
Wright gave from Finklestein’s book: On the widespread fascination with transgender people: “the first day of a graduate seminar, students used to describe their intellectual interests. Nowadays, it’s de rigueur to declare your sexual orientation. It’s only a matter of time before a student announces, ‘I’m she/her and I’m packing a thick, juicy nine-incher.’”
(Gruff oughta chuckle at that.)
Here’s a challenge for anyone who likes Finklestein. I read his book demolishing Joan Peters’ fraudulent
book From Time Immemorial. I got it from the U of Tromsø library some 15 years ago but can’t
find any reference to it online. Anyone know the title or was it just his thesis ? It was masterful, comprehensive.
Also, take a minute to listen to this from the bottom of the page – I’m On My Way – Mahalia Jackson.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 17 2023 16:31 utc | 130

Blinken is in Africa, hoping for the US to replace an exiting France in that area, one colonist for another in the Sahel, the vast semi-arid region of Africa separating the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannas to the south.
…from a Blinken interview:

QUESTION: Thanks. I wanted to ask you – I understand you’re going to announce some assistance today for the Sahel, but I wanted to ask you more broadly about the Sahel strategy. This has been a few months since the French ended their military operation. The United States, of course, has security interests here as well. How do you see it? Do you see this as – very much as still a “security first” approach to the Sahel? Is it more comprehensive? How do you see that?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: It is and has to be comprehensive. The security piece is absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. And the fact that we’re here in Niger to me is – just underscores that. It’s one of the reasons that I wanted to come, because what you see Niger doing, including dealing with the problems of violent extremism and terrorism – but also security more generally, is taking this holistic approach, focused on development, focused on good governance, focused on building institutions, focused on giving people opportunity.
And if the – the fact that Niger, which is obviously one of the poorest countries on Earth, is doing this so effectively I think only underscores the importance of taking this comprehensive approach. There’s a lot more to be said about it. We were together looking, for example, at the rather remarkable program they have to demobilize and disarm and reintegrate people who have taken part in violent extremism or terrorism. And this also can be a model for countries in the region. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 17 2023 16:43 utc | 132

Biden goes anti-bank executives:

I also said that I’m firmly committed to accountability for those responsible for this mess. No one is above the law – and strengthening accountability is an important deterrent to prevent mismanagement in the future. The law limits the administration’s authority to hold executives responsible. When banks fail due to mismanagement and excessive risk taking, it should be easier for regulators to claw back compensation from executives, to impose civil penalties, and to ban executives from working in the banking industry again. Congress must act to impose tougher penalties for senior bank executives whose mismanagement contributed to their institutions failing. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 17 2023 16:52 utc | 134

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and another Russian official involving allegations of war crimes around the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 17 2023 17:01 utc | 136

@ jinn | Mar 17 2023 16:25 utc | 133
You realize that you have established almost the same conclusion to mine, yet with alternative argument and wording. FED raised interest rates, improving it’s offer on T-bonds due to inflation. Parking money in fresh T-bonds became more attractive than keeping in banks. The difference in FED’s offer between old and fresh T-bonds created unrealized losses for older bonds in case of early sell prior maturity.

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 17 2023 17:10 utc | 138

Spent a little time this morning reviewing some of Jim Douglass work on JFK. Actually, his is the only full-length book I’ve read about it and generally avoided articles over the years. It seems just too many different theories. Making it clear that most are wrong. Making it fairly obvious that Intelligence was involved. Making it virtually certain that the true facts will be obfuscated. Etc. But Douglass, as a Catholic theologian, writes from an unusual, and deeply personal perspective which end up in refreshing places. Like:

The why of the event that brings us together tonight encircles the earth . . . Because John Kennedy chose peace on earth at the height of the Cold War, he was executed. But because he turned toward peace, in spite of the consequences to himself, humanity is still alive and struggling. That is hopeful. Especially if we understand what he went through and what he has given to us as his vision.
At a certain point in his presidency, John Kennedy turned a corner and he didn’t look back. I believe that decisive turn toward his final purpose in life, resulting in his death, happened in the darkness of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although Kennedy was already in conflict with his national security managers, the missile crisis was the breaking point.
At that most critical moment for us all, he turned from any remaining control that his security managers had over him toward a deeper ethic, a deeper vision in which the fate of the earth became his priority. Without losing sight of our own best hopes in this country, he began to home in, with his new partner, Nikita Khrushchev, on the hope of peace for everyone on this earth – Russians, Americans, Cubans, Vietnamese, Indonesians, everyone on this earth – no exceptions. He made that commitment to life at the cost of his own. What a transforming story that is.

https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/Unspeakable/index.html
After which he mentions:

One of the most remarkable dimensions of this transforming story is the secret correspondence between Nikita Khrushchev and John Kennedy. Khrushchev initiated this private channel of direct communication between himself and the U.S. President when he wrote JFK a 26-page letter dated September 29, 1961 during the Berlin Crisis. In it, the leader of Communist state, an avowed atheist, invoked the biblical analogy of Noah’s Ark to express their common concern for peace in the nuclear age.
I often think how necessary it is for men who are vested with trust and great power to be inspired with the understanding of what seems to be an obvious truism, which is that we live on one planet and it is not in man’s power—at least in the foreseeable future—to change that. In a certain sense there is an analogy here—I like this comparison—with Noah’s Ark where both the “clean” and the “unclean” found sanctuary. But regardless of who lists himself with the “clean” and who is considered to be “unclean,” they are all equally interested in one thing and that is that the Ark should successfully continue its cruise. And we have no other alternative: either we should live in peace and cooperation so that the Ark maintains its buoyancy, or else it sinks. Therefore we must display concern for all of mankind, not to mention our own advantages, and find every possibility leading to peaceful solutions of problems.
While annotating this transcript, I discovered that the entire Foreign Relations of the United States, [FRUS] of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon-Ford Administrations – 172 volumes total – are online at http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments. The Kennedy-Khrushchev Exchanges: Document List (FRUS, 1961-1963, Volume VI, Kennedy-Khrushchev Exchanges) contains 120 communications, of which 21 make up the secret letters between JFK and Khrushchev. The President’s first letter responding to the Chairman acknowledged the fitting analogy of Noah’s Ark to their mutual dilemma.
I like very much your analogy of Noah’s Ark, with both the “clean” and the “unclean” determined that it stay afloat. Whatever our differences, our collaboration to keep the peace is as urgent—if not more urgent—than our collaboration to win the last world war. The possibilities of another war destroying everything your system and our system have built up over the years—if not the very systems themselves—are too great to permit our ideological differences to blind us to the deepening dangers of such a struggle.”

I very much doubt such corresondence is ongoing today, albeit perhaps between Russia, China, Iran and India?
For the full correspondence between JFK and NK:
https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/Unspeakable/COPA2009.html#fn27
I share this on the off-chance that some here might find it interesting to go back to a time not all that long ago in which many karmic wheels were set in motion that are now playing out as the SMO. The assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK and others paved the way for the neocon era which is now reaching out its hand to grasp the entire world, or so think some. (I suspect they are jumping the Western ship and trying to negotiate passage on the gleaming gargantuan tankers of the rising new Eurasian Civilization by helping to bring down the host countries they have of late dominated but…)
In any case, this bilateral Head of State correspondence is from a by now different age showing levels of mutual respect and candour that feel sadly – most sadly – out of date.
We live in a cold, hard world these days, one birthed by those unspeakably outrageous assassinations and those who perpetrated them secretly in full view of the public in so doing also snuffing out the life spirit of the polity making it truly RINO (Republic In Name Only), the ugly, harmful effects of which clearly still reverberating, even dominating, so much of what is unfolding today.

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 17 2023 17:20 utc | 140

the banks want to make money, so their bought politicians would not allow them to be turned into public services. the problem is the banks bought politicans who passed laws written by bank lobbyists to deregulate them, which brought us these latest failures as well as the 2008 financial crisis.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 17 2023 17:38 utc | 142

@ malenkov 105
Jeffrey Sachs is an Atlantacist, a dying species, soon to be a fossil reminding us of Tyrannasaurus Rex USUKIS.

Posted by: Giyane | Mar 17 2023 17:45 utc | 144

@ jinn | Mar 17 2023 17:45 utc | 146
Non bank entity has nothing to do with deposits. You got carried away, mate. Banks, could not match FED’s offer, even on long term deposits… There were many who took an opportunity and moved tons of cash into T-bonds.
I am not trying to convince you here, mate

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 17 2023 18:00 utc | 146

@ jinn | Mar 17 2023 17:45 utc | 146
It is up to FED to provide post-mortem facility to “failed” banks from the gains out of freshly issued T-bonds. It scares the hell out of public anyway, regardless of good intentions on behalf of FED. Road to hell paved with good intentions is an old saying…

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 17 2023 18:30 utc | 148

Live: Protest at French National Assembly after Macron forces pension reforms through without vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5cERmzyysQ

Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 17 2023 18:53 utc | 150

@ Outraged | Mar 16 2023 23:45 utc | 43

@ Don Bacon | Mar 17 2023 1:31 utc | 62

Iran has been Queeny the lead dog in showing other countries how to get stronger as the US tries to weaken them. You go Persians!

Thanks Don Bacon and Outraged, will do.
Khomeini drank from the poison chalice (Kool-Aid in the current parlance). He did it in order to bring his backward country under the shah, and propel it to where it is now mentioned in the same breath as Russia and China.
Sometimes the Kool-Aid make you stronger.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Mar 17 2023 18:58 utc | 152

Alex wrote: “Are you proposing that banks shall stop being a business model for making money ?”
No, in fact banks are the only business model for creating money from nothing.
The govt grants bank the authority to create dollars out of thin air. In exchange for granting bankers that unique privilege it is perfectly reasonable to expect them to provide services to the public that other businesses that don’t get to create money out of thin air aren’t expected to provide.
__________________________________________________
Alex also wrote: “Non bank entity has nothing to do with deposits. You got carried away, mate. Banks, could not match FED’s offer, even on long term deposits… There were many who took an opportunity and moved tons of cash into T-bonds.”
If a bank buys Treasury secs from a non-bank entity (from a person or business that owns them) that does create bank deposits.
The cash that banks converted to Treasury securities would be cash credits at the Fed. Moving cash credits from the Fed into Treasury secs does not have any effect on bank deposits.
The banks ended up with tons of cash credits at the Fed because the Fed bought govt backed securities that had been owned by non-bank entities and thus equal amount of deposits were created in banks as cash credits at the Fed.
The huge number of deposits in banks (over and above the amount of bank loans) shown on this graph is the result of Fed open market purchases of govt backed securities. Also during the pandemic relief, banks gave out a huge amount of loans that were later assumed by the US Treasury. The banks exchanged these loans for cash credits at the Fed.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=11n6f

Posted by: jinn | Mar 17 2023 19:05 utc | 154

@ Likklemore | Mar 17 2023 17:00 utc | 135
Well we know how this is going to play out and it won’t be in Empires favor. Stupid is as stupid does.
@ Sakineh Bagoom | Mar 17 2023 18:58 utc | 152
No SAVAK, senseless imposed horrific war such as Iran-Iraq, Chemical Warfare, again.
Peace Salaam Shalom

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 17 2023 19:07 utc | 156

Posted by: jinn | Mar 17 2023 19:37 utc | 157
No matter how much cents you make it all adds up to no more than a whole bunch of ultimately worthless zeros…

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 17 2023 19:58 utc | 158

Fuck the U.S.
And all who sail in her.

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Mar 17 2023 20:40 utc | 160

@ jinn | Mar 17 2023 19:05 utc | 154
Financing taxation shortfall in treasury for government spending / budget, eats it all up. Propping up pyramid to repay premiums to bond holders all over the world, consumes even more. QE and QT as seasons that are inevitable. Banks are not making money out thin air – wrong assumption – banks create demand for mint, by placing orders, however, false demand could come out of thin air indeed

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 17 2023 21:38 utc | 162

Giyane | Mar 17 2023 18:53 utc | 149
You mentioned “sucking dick” a lot, so I’m wondering if you’d like to suck my dick? Cause if my dick were in your mouth I wouldn’t have to hear you talk and your hands would be too busy holding the base to do any typing. Win win.

Posted by: Dick | Mar 17 2023 21:51 utc | 164

Apologies for quoting my own post, but thinking on it further –

All you need to know is how to change the ink cartridges on a printer…

– probably sums up Modern Monetary Theory in a nutshell.

Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 17 2023 22:02 utc | 166

Posted by: too scents | Mar 17 2023 19:07 utc | 155
I distinctly remember a sign posted on the door of the bar “There will be no math!”

Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 17 2023 22:05 utc | 168

Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 17 2023 22:05 utc | 167, 168 & 169

I distinctly remember a sign posted on the door of the bar “There will be no math!”

“Once three is three,
Twice three is six
Three threes are nine”
🙂

Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 17 2023 22:15 utc | 170

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 17 2023 16:49 utc | 133
«The problems with SVB began with predatory group of shareholders, who figured out that bank is insolvent due to UNREALIZED LOSS in long term treasury bonds holdings. […] So instead of holding bonds to maturity, bank was forced to sell earlier for less.»
That’s just a financialized view of things, mostly useful to obfuscate, The real problem is that SVB was or would become shortly deeply insolvent in their main business.
After 2008 the business model of banks was to borrow at 0% from the Fed or depositors, and lend at 2-3% to the Fed (reserves), the USA treasury (bonds) or property speculators (mortgages), and therefore make a very easy, effort-free 3% margin. The SVB in particular put 2/3 of their investments in long-term USA bonds to “lock in” that margin.
Now that inflation is high their depositors want 4-6% on their deposits, and all that the SVB is getting from their lending is 2-3%, so they have two options:
A) Continue paying their depositors 0%, and then the depositors move their money to banks paying 4-6%, and SVB have to sell their bonds at a huge loss, and become bankrupt.
B) Start paying their depositors 4-6%, and then they don’t have to sell their bonds that yield 2-3%, but have to pay an extra 2-3% of their liabilities (deposits) out of their capital, and become bankrupt.
The only solution is to find someone willing to fund SVB at no more than 2-3%, ideally at 0%, so they can repay the depositors and not make a loss with the small interest they get on their bonds. That someone initially will be the FDI managed by the FDIC, and later it will be the Fed’s BTFP (Bank Term Funding Program), as the Fed can lend itself at 0% the funds it puts into the BTFP. Simple! 🙂

Posted by: Blissex | Mar 17 2023 22:27 utc | 172

@ jinn | Mar 17 2023 22:36 utc | 173
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbaf.12249

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 17 2023 22:40 utc | 174

Posted by: Blissex | Mar 17 2023 22:27 utc | 172

After 2008 the business model of banks was to borrow at 0% from the Fed or depositors, and lend at 2-3% to the Fed (reserves), the USA treasury (bonds) or property speculators (mortgages), and therefore make a very easy, effort-free 3% margin. The SVB in particular put 2/3 of their investments in long-term USA bonds to “lock in” that margin.
Now that inflation is high their depositors want 4-6% on their deposits, and all that the SVB is getting from their lending is 2-3%

Well your numbers are a bit off and unfortunately accuracy is critically important when it comes to accounting. But you do get points for being closer to the nub of the matter than Alex.
Interest on lending (for banks) is still higher than interest on deposits, but its not as good as the good old days of QE. But then that was the whole point of QE to revitalize the banks because we all depend on them to pay the bills and keep the lights on. Without the banks we all will very quickly be in worse shape than the Ukrainians.
I mean I live out in the woods and heat with firewood and grow most of my own food and I own the land I live on with no encumbrances and I can see that if the banks fail I’m up shits creek, so why do you morons who live in the big cities and are 100% dependent on banks not able to see this?

Posted by: jinn | Mar 17 2023 22:54 utc | 176

@ jinn | Mar 17 2023 22:36 utc | 173
Notice that I am not splitting your sentences in meaningless chunks and not pulling bits out of context, arguing purely over words. I do create summary of each of your whole reply in my head for better understanding of your entire point of argument. Then I reply to my understanding of your statement, and not to extracted bits of sentences. This is the best I could with my understanding of you, based on your whole replies. If I do understand your whole replies in the wrong way, that means I am failing with impaired knowledgebase of mine in relation to yours. This is the best I could do, in order to avoid mountains of words… My English is a third latest language and I only had chance to use it third of my total lifetime – my grammar could be different to yours indeed, yet I am giving it me best not using auto spelling. I am still learning, and not attempting to present myself as an expert. In fact, my occupation rather belongs to industrial environment… Cheers

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 17 2023 23:21 utc | 178

In other news.
Effective from March 18th, 2023. By order of the board of mismanagement at META. The board has ordered that lies , fantasy, pure fiction, daily poopaganda, and other demands for extortion and questionable donations. Plus one self confessed female sex groper prez hopeful for 2024. Who has lost his entire defense in a series of fake denial of reality motions lodged in the state and federal courts in New York. Has been promoted to the front page trends in “Wastebook”.
Question who made this despicable low life immune to the “Woke Movement”? lol
Then again only a complete one eyed fool with a sole functional one thought at time mononeuron would send their money to a fake paper billionaire.
The ailing unpopular META “Wastebook”. Will now post only toxic sewer poopaganda trash to the front page. From this day forward. To boost ratings of promoting losers as legends.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Mar 18 2023 0:28 utc | 180

@ jinn | Mar 18 2023 0:22 utc | 179
Read it few times entire exchange and you will understand all of it. Sleep on it. Read more knowledgebase on the subject. Improve your comprehensions. You might have the all answers, who knows. I don’t – can you understand it ? Good luck with it.

Posted by: Alex Vadim | Mar 18 2023 0:48 utc | 182

Bad Deal Motors On #180
Well thanks, I guess, but it sure trumps my intended post;)

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 18 2023 1:22 utc | 184

The first direct freight train departed from Beijing to Moscow as part of China-Europe rail freight transportation
On March 16, the first direct freight train departed from the logistics hub in Beijing’s Pinggu District to Moscow as part of the China-Europe international railway freight transportation.
Loaded with a total of 55 containers, the train will cross the state border at the Manzhouli / Manchuria / Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia / North China /, and is expected to arrive in the Russian capital in about 18 days, covering about 9 thousand km.

Posted by: hankster | Mar 18 2023 2:04 utc | 186

LGB!@68, No link. It was broadcast on fox news radio one time, at night. Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, but been under the weather. I don’t really believe anything they say, I still listen.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Mar 18 2023 2:15 utc | 188

yes i wonder too. the old siberian railway from beijing to Kathmandu was an epic week on old trains winding through the steppes. hop off and stay in old stone huts to breakk up the trip. now its an overnight fast train with long tunnels not mountains. im gather freight isnt fast train. but even the london to beijing was 18-21 days,its 12,000km, a bit faster than sea and way cheaper. kudos if you have been on that siberianjourney, i know i will cherish that myself when a younger man

Posted by: hankster | Mar 18 2023 2:49 utc | 190

I never believed Chinese officials wanted that in the first place. They want unipolarity or, at least, bipolarity with Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Iran and so on as Beijing’s vassals.
I feel Russian officials want multipolarity but Moscow is weak and would need Beijing’s help to achieve this but might get screwed up in the end.

Posted by: Trapèze | Mar 18 2023 3:19 utc | 192

@ Posted by: RC213V | Mar 17 2023 22:55 utc | 177
Where even the entire Western media ridiculed Liar-in-chief Donald Trump mission a complete and total failure. lol

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Mar 18 2023 4:17 utc | 194

@ Walt | Mar 18 2023 1:41 utc | 185
Congratulations & best wishes!
@ Kârlya | Mar 18 2023 2:12 utc | 187
Thank you kindly.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 18 2023 4:58 utc | 196

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 17 2023 16:31 utc | 130
“….Here’s a challenge for anyone who likes Finklestein. I read his book demolishing Joan Peters’ fraudulent
book From Time Immemorial. I got it from the U of Tromsø library some 15 years ago but can’t
find any reference to it online. Anyone know the title or was it just his thesis ? It was masterful, comprehensive”.
Hi waynor, There is a reference to the Joan Peters book in the third edition of the excellent reference book “The Gun and the Olive Branch” By British journalist David Hurst. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED.
“From Time Immemorial” was correctly described as “a literary fraud”. It is used by hasbara freaks to justify barbarism.

Posted by: Paul GV | Mar 18 2023 7:02 utc | 198

Posted by: hankster | Mar 18 2023 2:04 utc | 186
“The first direct freight train departed from Beijing to Moscow as part of China-Europe rail freight transportation.”
That’s old news. They’ve been doing it for years, maybe ten or so. But that was to Germany mainly, the last part being lopped off now. There was even once a departure destined for Britain, but it was not repeated. Brexit, I suppose.

Posted by: laguerre | Mar 18 2023 8:22 utc | 200