News & views (not related to the war in Ukraine) …
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March 30, 2023
Open (Not Ukraine) Thread 2023-74
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migueljosse@41: While the threat to treat Mexican “cartels” as “terrorists” is serious, I doubt the US will follow thru in any formal sense… although I wouldn’t rule out targeted assassinations and the like.
What I suspect is the militarist threats really have more to do with the economic ones…. especially Mexico’s spat with the US over corn, with US “negotiators” demanding Mexican continue to buy its GM corn. That and the insinstance that US corporations have some “right” to invest in the Mexican energy sector.
The US would prefer a PAN/PRI/PRD president (good look finding any viable candidate,though!) and has been pushing those ridiculous rightist “causes” … including the attacks on the reforms to the INE (for those outside Mexico: our electoral institute was set up in the 1990s to preserve the status quo of the time, and the reforms — mostly a matter of lowering the overhead of the electoral instutute — are being spun as an attack on “democracy”. Rather unsuccessfully, I’d add).
It’s a given that MORENA will take the presidency, but which candidate (the US will do the best it can to make sure it’s that euro-centric Ebrard, rather than Claudia or Adan).
You may have a different take, though, given the blowback from the US coup of 1913 which even the CIA and State Department acknowledge as the worst outcome in subversion, would not want massive unrest in Mexico (and it’s flood of refugees) that a US attack would engender.
Posted by: Alta4710 | Apr 1 2023 1:04 utc | 201
@ jinn | Apr 1 2023 0:28 utc | 191 who wrote
”
One of the things Werner has frequently promoted is small local banks. The large financial interests want to get rid of the small local banks. One of the ways in recent past to demonize local banks was to blame them for the 2008 meltdown. There are many economists who do that and many fools who believe them. That is just one example of getting the facts wrong that identifies a good economist from one that is working for Wall Street.
”
I agree that small banks can better respond to local economies as do state banks at a more regional level like North Dakota. All meltdowns are creations of the private banks at the top that the small ones have to go through to get credit.
With what I am seeing of flight of capital from small banks, they are going to get wiped out and the TBTF ones will have their losses put on the back of the American/Western public……its a religion and you just have to have faith that it is good for you….when in doubt, just have more faith like Nemissiscalling.
But look over there at the shinny Trump thingy!!!!
Parts of what we are living through are farce, eh? We just get to pick which ones.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 1 2023 1:08 utc | 202
Andrew Celestina @197–
Thanks very much for your reply, which is perhaps the best I’ve ever received in all my years posting commentary here and elsewhere. I should make it into a hard copy and post it for reference. Thanks so very much!
the crabapples cross pollinate with all the other fruit trees.. we have an old crabapple tree as well.. we also have mason bees.. are you familiar with them??
Posted by: james | Mar 31 2023 22:11 utc | 178
Yes, a crabapple would be a good idea. I planted one first thing coming here out front, ‘prairie fire’ which does well here- unfortunately one of my sons dropped a mattress on it. 🙁 Then a peach self seeded in the same spot after I’d buried spoiled fruit from the nearby orchard. Anyway, that has done well. I’ll have to see if I can squeeze in a crabapple somewhere else.
If my tree doesn’t correct its lean I will prune off the offending branch. I have several selfseeded nectarines and one big apple tree with selfseeds I’ve espaliered round about. Plus lots of lilacs as they do well here.
Yes, love the masonbees! And today I saw my first potato plant — I’d planted very early with a ton of compost waste piled in a sheltered corner that the rains have shrunk down from nearly as high as my wall. So the sprouted potatoes (organic) are in deep wells there so I can keep the area mulched with a soaker hose on top. Summers dry things out here so I’ve never had success with potatoes. We’ll see! I have more sprouts to go in, did my onions today. Even my ‘failures’ keep nourishing the soil, so it’s okay. Good luck with your leeks. I have wee cippolini onions poking up in a milk carton – hope I have space for them!
My sunroom is chockfull of plants – they need to go out, they tell me, but as long as the birdbath still freezes over at night I probably won’t let them out till after Easter.
Posted by: juliania | Apr 1 2023 1:38 utc | 204
@Refinnejenna | Mar 31 2023 20:37 utc | 172
Your argument looks good but it is premised on assumptions about Russia and the West that may have been plausible in the past but may not be so now.
No, my argument in @110 considered what would happen to Russia in some of the worst cases. Russia’s planners can’t ignore these possibilities; hoping for the best is very poor strategy.
Having a large army and large reserves is significant, yes, but using soldiers and reserve forces effectively is even more important.
Why don’t you ask General Robert E. Lee how much his brilliant leadership helped him win the US Civil War against the North’s much larger population? Given time, the larger group, if its resources are sufficient, usually wins.
Will the West have time? I think so: how can Russia force the West to yield? The West may give up due to other factors (a crumbling economy, for example), but hoping for that is not good strategy. Thus Russia needs the Middle Kingdom’s giant population.
[Fumbling US military procurement]
Russia’s planners can’t assume the US will continue its incompetence. Thus China’s help will be essential. The good news is that Russia combined with China will be overwhelming.
Posted by: Cyril | Apr 1 2023 2:38 utc | 205
Excellent Pakistani analysis if Pakistan today: https://www.dawn.com/news/1745271/pti-pml-n-same-or-different
Posted by: Antonym | Apr 1 2023 2:40 utc | 206
The bright side of the Trump indictment: opens the door to indictments of other former US presidents.
Posted by: Antonym | Apr 1 2023 2:42 utc | 207
@198 james | Apr 1 2023 1:04 utc
I should mention that I never was at odds with jinn. I confess that at first I thought I was, but I read his comment more carefully and realized he was discussing the same differences we are discussing, just in different words. He said that we have BDC, but issued by many banks – the implication being that no one could track the actual unit of transaction.
jinn and I agreed, I believe, in our understanding of what Werner is saying.
~~
To restate the basic point again: the “digital currency” that I use every day lies in my online banking with my local bank, where payments are deposited directly into my account and where payments are made directly from my account via ACH to various vendors. And this extends to debit cards and I suppose to credit cards – although at this point we’re dealing with credit not cash.
But I think all of this nets out as the equivalent as cash in the marketplace, but simply in digital form. All of this, I believe, is what Werner meant by his point that, hey, we’ve been using bank digital currency (BDC) for decades and it has simply added convenience with no downside.
And while agencies might audit and monitor my transactions as reported by my bank and credit card, no one is able to track the actual unit of exchange as it is used in commerce.
So I can pay cash, for example, to buy a gun. Or ivermectin. Or child pornography. Or to donate to a Clinton campaign.
~~
But with the CBDC – the central bank digital currency – this will be tied to a digital ID, and every unit of currency spent or received will be known to be mine as it happens.
That’s a vastly different world.
And all Werner was saying, in almost a throwaway line, was that we have digital currency already. It’s not the digital nature of the currency that is the issue. It’s the identification of each unit of currency with the individual that is the issue.
Even psychohistorian’s ambition for money as a public utility would not eliminate that issue, if each of our “dollars” is tied to our names, in real time, for everything.
Or so I understand.
Posted by: Grieved | Apr 1 2023 2:55 utc | 208
@183 karlof1 | Mar 31 2023 22:32 utc
There are other people translating and publishing many of the pieces you’re spending so much work on, and I would love it if you could coordinate with them, because I really hate to see duplicated effort, especially with translation, which is the lifeblood of our world and the most precious communication tool we have.
Amarynth over at Global South, with which you’re familiar, is on top of Escobar and Lavrov and Putin and the others – she typically posts that a thing has been said or published, and then waits for an official translation, when she boosts the post back up to the top of the feed. Sometimes she has among her contacts someone who can translate directly.
I would love to see a coordination between you and Amarynth on the publication and translation of these important pronouncements. I encourage this – perhaps you would consider reaching out, or perhaps I might make an effort to reach her (not that I’m an insider or anything).
~~
It’s not that people are not interested in what you publish, it’s that people have half a dozen other matters on their plate when you present your matter that has taken perhaps many hours of your time. And people stage their inputs into a workflow, with flags and bookmarks and returning to issues as the time allows.
Some of us take the pulse of the world and say, okay great there’s a new thing from Putin or Lavrov. Maybe I’ll wait for analysis from the major commentators, or maybe I’ll be able to look at the source – or maybe a week later I can get caught up with both the meaning and the source, we’ll see.
You have to be patient with us, as we get to your material. The world does not die because we take a week to understand it. Usually.
And sometimes it’s right-now critical, and we’re already on it anyway, and so busy absorbing elsewhere that there’s no time to acknowledge here. It’s nothing personal. There are other platforms than MoA.
~~
I offer these suggestions – in solidarity, my brother – so that we may all get on together with the principal task, which is to digest this evolving world, ideally in time enough to take part in it meaningfully.
And a few days are usually “time enough”.
Posted by: Grieved | Apr 1 2023 3:18 utc | 209
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 1 2023 1:35 utc | 201
Thank you for linking to Putin’s Security Council presentation, karlof1. I read through it to the end before I went out into the garden – noted that it was a replacement for one in 1916. I could well imagine that earlier one to have been along similar lines, but given all that has happened as far as what can only be called a betrayal of trust and an increase in what he calls ‘the force factor’ it is heartening that still the opening is there for the US and indeed all the West to come to their senses and rejoin the civilized world. So many points were covered that it is an enormous shame, as the dying continues, that no western diplomat is able to respond in kind, even in opposition — civilly, and in an honest desire for peace.
His final ‘encouragement of voluntary resettlement, especially those who are discriminated against’ is a reminder of Statue of Liberty eloquence, which he surely knows he is following, a reminder of what the promise of these United States once was.
I join you in thanking Andrew Celestina (lovely name) for his eloquence. May this time of b’s absence encourage the many who silently stand in wait to voice their approval,not only of you but of b and others contributing what they can – it does mean a lot to be acknowledged for hard efforts made; this wartime is very hard on everyone. There are young people now who haven’t known peace and the stability only peaceful times can bring. We can’t wave a wand and restore those times; we should do our best to recreate them somehow. Putin does that, even in the midst of war.
Russia must continue to exist; that is his red line.
Posted by: juliania | Apr 1 2023 3:19 utc | 210
Below is a quote from the latest posting at Wall Street On Parade titled
Congress Sweats the Small Stuff as Four Wall Street Mega Banks Have a Combined $3.3 Trillion in Uninsured Deposits
According to the FDIC, the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) held $128.2 billion as of December 31, 2022 while the total of domestic deposits tallied up to $17.7 trillion.
///////////////////
@ Grieved | Apr 1 2023 2:55 utc | 206 about digital currencies
I posit that all the electronic money today is as tracked as the proposed digital currencies. What would be different, I would hope, is that with public digital currencies, my transaction information would not be available for marketing/sales purposes like the current private electronic money versions.
Big Brother is not going away so you need to decide if you want Pope Frank, King Chuck and the God of Mammon cult looking over your shoulder or your sovereign government that you have wrestled ownership back from the global money mafia.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 1 2023 3:20 utc | 211
@Outraged | Mar 31 2023 22:14 utc | 179
Indeed [have read all of my longish comment @110]. Yet you assume much & assert one did not … your assumptions & assertions re RF & the West are also invalid & superficial, IMV. Demonstrably so. Yawn.
Yawn all you like. Though you claim to have read all my comment, you show no evidence of understanding it: that I was considering some of the worst cases for the Russians. They must plan for all contigencies. Of course, making assumptions is necessary in contigency planning.
Posted by: Cyril | Apr 1 2023 3:22 utc | 212
Let me add that I also desire a form of money that is like cash and not trackable
We get the form of government we demand!
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 1 2023 3:24 utc | 213
Although there seems to be very little interest, I’ve finished translating the text of the new Foreign Policy Concept Decree
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 31 2023 20:33 utc | 171
Karl, I think if everyone who appreciates your work wrote in it would crash the blog. I’m appreciative as heck but the time
difference works against communication with your hemisphere so I only express thanks periodically. But know you have a
reach far beyond the Arctic Circle so please keep up the great work.
Mao and his guys had their Long March and so did we just now. We actually had some bare ground here on Mar. 1 but record
snowfall thru the month to where we’re only out on showshoes. Yesterday a small blizzard to cap off the month cancelled an
outdoor memorial of the 80th anniversary of a tragic WW2 event here. But the good news is that I was able to ‘super-chill’ MY
Friday suds by just sticking them in the snowbank outside my door. Plus, it’s the perfect setting to sit and read a 43 page Decree!
And oh yeah, time to thank you again. Thanks.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 4:21 utc | 214
Every 4/6 the garden want us to ‘commemorate’ the ‘TAM massacre’.
Well its the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq genocide [see,no quotation needed], yet the perps are still running amok with impunity, as if nuthin had ever happened.
the US federal government is just too powerful, too unaccountable. It has a monopoly on world power. The solution to monopoly is to break it up, and the hope for democracy anywhere in the world is to break up the United States – to return to a decentralized confederation. The Founding Fathers were concerned about excessive central power, but chose a strong government to build a powerful nation. It is time for a correction to allow a multipolar new world to come into being.
https://mediamonitors.net/lies-father-lies-son/#_Toc32691092
Bush and son of Bush…
LOL
Posted by: denk | Apr 1 2023 4:21 utc | 215
@ waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 4:21 utc | 212
Quite so.
@ Cyril | Apr 1 2023 3:22 utc | 210
Utterly superficial & wholly inapplicable Sun Tzu quote. Demonstrated lack of study, knowledge or insight re The Art of War. Without depth of understanding/knowledge or insight using invalid premises based on assimilated assumptive long inapposite, now foregone, yet still held as true, falsities. Myths. Your subsequent analogy re the Civil War & Nth vs Sth & Robert E Lee is amateurish dross. As is your again meta trivial assertions re campaigns or wars based on again demonstrably uninformed superficialities.
Assert RF are not aware of actual reality re Geostrategic, Strategic or Operational planning ? Going back at least 15 years re current explicit specific Situ re Ukraine & US/NATO ? RF would be wiser & well informed by your, ‘long post’ ? Assert they are hoping for the best ?! Assert RF planners can’t assume … ?!
lol. Juvenile. Grow up, Junior. Oh, of course, please do, go on … & on … & …
@by: Outraged | Apr 1 2023 4:41 utc | 214
Utterly superficial & wholly inapplicable Sun Tzu quote.
Despite your insults, you continue demonstrating zero understanding of my comments @110 and @210. Perhaps you need to learn what a contingency plan is. In many of the possible contingencies for Russia (after 404), China’s help is absolutely necessary.
Posted by: Cyril | Apr 1 2023 5:11 utc | 217
re james | Mar 31 2023 15:29 utc | 136
yeah I know a bit about CBDC’s, the ironic thing about it is back in the noughties here I bailed up the then co-leader of the Greens here, this was when Greens were ‘proper’ lefties & a part of the coalition government, with an plan for a digital currency system where people could obtain a virtual ‘purse’ access to which required some form of bio-identity that would enable people to trade with each as anonymously as cash with the advantage of being able to trade on the net, making credit cards un-necessary, which as you know have long been a bugbear of mine -lack of anonymity plus the need to use a private moneylending corporation being most of the reason for my antithesis to credit cards. I tried to sell him on the notion that if we were the first to introduce such a system so that anyone anywhere could trade seamlessly at a stable rate unlike bitcoin, Aotearoa would eventually have the equivalent of a reserve currency, a bit like what Swiss francs were for similar reasons.
The bloke was sorta interested but not hugely as he was worried about infrastructure costs not to mention the bad press that bitcoins were getting for their energy usage. Obviously since mining wouldn’t be required for it wouldn’t be an issue but pols are pols.
It never happened, looking back on it now neither of us considered the traceability issue, primarily I suppose because anonymity was meant to be at the heart of the system, that was before 2012 when Mr Assange highlighted the dangers inherent to gmail & hotmail & before Snowden’s revelations as well.
Such a system would still be possible but now I reckon if any nation tried it, just about every other nation would ban it on the specious grounds that pedos & drug runners not to mention terrorists blah blah would use it. Nevermind that all of those mobs already manage to move money now & we normal humans just goin about our business would outnumber them by orders of magnitude.
Lawn order is a horrible scam, in the lead-up to this year’s elections the local tory party are playing that card to the hilt all the media is going along with it beating up a simple robbery or burglary as if it were a mass murder.
re psychohistorian | Mar 31 2023 16:59 utc | 155
I appreciate that you may not have lived somewhere that has publically owned banks as the base for their economy. We did here in Aotearoa for many years and whilst they were far better than private banks in terms of placing social needs ahead of economic imperative, they were far from perfect, the chief issue was with the large institutions such as the BNZ, Post Office Savings Bank and State insurance, that were all centralised just like a corporation and often made decisions that suited the administration more than it suited customers.
A publically owned finance system is essential but humans will be humans and those working in public institutions will make incorrect calls if permitted to. The best way I reckon to prevent that is to make those large Public Finance houses devolve decion making down as close as possible to where the institution’s users are.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 1 2023 6:31 utc | 218
Cyril @ 215
Don’t be put off by a bit of flack from the long timers on this blog, they are the most vital backbone to it, their knowledge is beyound question.
They are a bit like the oldest elephants in a heard of elephants, these guys know where the water holes are. So respect to them I say.
Having said that, we need new blood on this site so they should be more flexible and tolerant in my view. They weren’t born knowing what they know, we all build up our knowledge as we go.
This is the one site I use so I can relisticly contribute little other than my view of events. But you and I have as much right as any.
I often wonder what age groups we have here, it would be good if more younger people could read and contribute.
Sadly this blog is the minority view in the west, that needs to be atended to.
I hope you long timers dont mind my input.
———-
Karlof1 your the man. Keep doing what your doing,.
————
Cris Rea wow that’s powerfull. Thanks.
Outraged, stones yeah !
Music is a powerfull weapon.
Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 1 2023 6:48 utc | 219
Maybe will be able to enjoy another year of Stoltenberg and we can avoid him making even more mess at home.
Stoltenberg’s Term as NATO Chief Likely to Be Extended
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is likely to see his term of office extended again as the alliance’s key members are satisfied with his handling of the Ukrainian crisis, a source close to the negotiations told Sputnik.
Stoltenberg’s term as secretary general was due to expire in October 2022, but it was extended for another year, until September 30, 2023, against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, as well as former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi are reported among likely candidates to succeed Stoltenberg as head of the bloc.
Source stresses that that “a lot of key members of the Alliance have a positive view on how effective and with determination the current Secretary General is handling” Ukrainian crisis from a NATO standpoint.
The expert believes that key NATO players would not want to see a change in the leadership during the conflict in Ukraine and that Stoltenberg still has unfinished projects on his hands with regards to finalizing the accession process of Sweden.
“”For all those reasons, key members of the Alliance see an extension of the duties of Jens Stoltenberg as a good solution at this stage. Although I want to point out that nothing is finalized or agreed yet, so the situation can change,” the source concluded noting that the announcement could potentially be made at the Vilnius Summit in July.”
When asked about Stoltenberg’s potential replacements, the source described Draghi as a “strong” candidate while being less sure about Kallas’s chances as “this scenario is losing ground at this stage for several different reasons.”
https://sputniknews.com/20230401/stoltenbergs-term-as-nato-chief-likely-to-be-extended-1109022046.html
This is clearly a sign of crisis in NATO. Nobody wants to preside over NATO’s demise, so the puppet isn’t allowed to leave.
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 1 2023 6:48 utc | 220
@ Norwegian | Apr 1 2023 6:48 utc | 218
Takk. NATO has to be headed up by somebody. Whoever it is doesn’t really matter
as policy is not dictated from that position. So I think it’s not out of line to be very
thankful of that news as it at least keeps the snivling quisling away from direct
influence in our land. But Brussels ain’t far enough away for him, imo.
God helg.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 7:13 utc | 221
Fake friends:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-02-28/ty-article/fake-friends-leak-reveals-israeli-firms-turning-social-media-into-spy-tech/00000186-7f75-d079-ade7-ff7507970000
Be careful barflies.
Posted by: Paul GV | Apr 1 2023 7:15 utc | 222
@ Mark2 | Apr 1 2023 6:48 utc | 217
Insomnia. Forgot to check Cyril’s brief posting history. Likes to play … ‘Tarpit’.
Stones, Yeah! Queen too! Cheers.
@waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 7:13 utc | 219
Exactly my thoughts. Keep the quisling away from our land!
Takk og God Påske!
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 1 2023 7:27 utc | 224
This would be disappointing if New Delhi militarily aided Kiev, even indirectly but some tensions are already beginning to appear between New Delhi and Moscow. Apparently, Indian official confirmed the price cap on Russian oil getting respected and recently, another one openly complained that Moscow could not fulfill its arms deliveries but let’s be real, most of Moscow’s partners aren’t allies but countries that exploited Russia when Moscow is weakened and desperate. I hope most of Russian officials wouldn’t be as delusional and naive as y’all and would take precautions to protect the country and its people from this.
Posted by: Aurélie | Apr 1 2023 7:58 utc | 225
Motivation and team work wins the day.
For any one feeling jaded and battle weary here’s the cure… high power,
Pump up the volume.
My view of MOA….
Slade. Coz I luv you (1971)
Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 1 2023 8:20 utc | 226
Norwegian @ 218, Waynorinorway @ 219:
Jens S would probably have become head of Norway’s central bank or its sovereign wealth fund. Either one of those institutions where no doubt he could start siphoning off money to send to Keeev or else he drives taxis and causes havoc in Oslo.
I suspect he has to stay put as NATO head because the prospect of Chrystia Freeland (granddaughter of Nazi collaborator/ propagandist Myhailo Chomiak) replacing him is too terrifying.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 1 2023 9:01 utc | 227
Cyril @ 203:
I should think Moscow has a good grasp of what the US is capable of, and whether it has the capacity to revive its manufacture of materiel to the levels reached during World War II. The Kremlin is sure to know that the US has serious problems in finding or training people skilled enough to operate the machines needed to turn out ammunition, weapons, military vehicles and other equipment on the scale required to sustain a major war; and even in finding the capital needed to finance such industry without causing another major financial crisis.
That the Russians have been able to pursue their campaign in Ukraine to the extent that they have, even under Western sanctions since 2014 at least, demonstrates that they must have been preparing for the possibility of the US and NATO bringing war and possible invasion to their territory for several years. The admission of most of Eastern Europe to NATO and the EU over the past 30 years would have been warning enough.
Using soldiers and reserve effectively is the work of senior generals as a group, not just of one general, and involves the Defense Ministry and the Defense Minister (Sergei Shoigu) as well, at least. Your analogy of Robert E Lee was a poor if sarcastic choice.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 1 2023 9:35 utc | 228
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 1 2023 9:01 utc | 225
Thanks.
Yeah, Norwegian and myself both made comments about that very thing a couple years ago.
I’m not sure who called Jens a quisling first – it prolly was Norwegian – but we do not equivocate on that.
And yeah, Freeland is scary but like I said in my 219, whoever is the figurehead of NATO is of little
concern imo, the whole bunch is terrifying, along with their ‘ideology’. Might be the end of us all
if they can’t, in another scary woman’s words, be ‘brought to heel’.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 9:36 utc | 229
Posted by: Andrew Celestina | Apr 1 2023 1:01 utc | 197, who posted
“Kindest regards to you.” Re; Karlof1 and his contributions here.
Ditto. One of the many valuable gems in the treasure chest that is MoA.
Posted by: Lantern Dude | Apr 1 2023 9:38 utc | 230
Posted by: denk | Apr 1 2023 4:21 utc | 213
Denk, I just love your posts, (when I can follow them, heh).
I’m in the middle of reading that link, thanks.
The first list of links are inactive. Would like to read or listen to some of them.???
In reading that link I came across a paragraph that made me sad that W. Blum isn’t
around anymore. It’s nothing that most of us don’t know but here’s a flashback to him:
“The de facto censorship which leaves so many Americans functionally illiterate about the history of US foreign affairs may be all the more effective because it is not official, heavy-handed or conspiratorial, but woven artlessly into the fabric of education and media. No conspiracy is needed. The editors of Reader’s Digest and U.S. News and World Report do not need to meet covertly with the man from NBC in an FBI safe-house to plan next month’s stories and programs; for the simple truth is that these men would not have reached the positions they occupy if they themselves had not all been guided through the same tunnel of camouflaged history and emerged with the same selective memory and conventional wisdom.” – from Killing Hope, é.S. Military and CIA Interventions since WWII, by William Blum, p. 19, Common Courage Press, 1995.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 9:43 utc | 231
@waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 9:36 utc | 227
I’m not sure who called Jens a quisling first – it prolly was Norwegian – but we do not equivocate on that.
That would be me I think. But it doesn’t matter who said it first, because it is true.
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 1 2023 10:20 utc | 232
Who loves US?
Take a quick look at this list of countries by population and you can see the numbers show why the US doesn’t have many “friends”.
Lots of surprises for me: Mexico is number 10. Pretty big. UK is 21, I think that includes Scotland, etc. Nigeria is 6. Australia is 55!
Bottom line… our empire is crumbling and we’re losing “friends”. Plus, our “un-friends” are breeding. (I wonder if Mamala realizes that she’s not helping.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_(United_Nations)
Posted by: migueljose | Apr 1 2023 11:01 utc | 233
Waynorinorway just want to thank you for your posts. I look for them. Always good insight and it fascinates me how you live so far north.
Also thanks to Norwegian for your contributions, technical knowledge applied to our world by someone I trust. Both of you make me like Norway in spite of the Quisling. We have a few too…
Meanwhile, back to the woods. I’ve been 3 days pulling 2 ton logs out of the timber with pulleys and cables for the sawmill. I’d say it keeps me young but I seem to be slower getting out of my chair…
Posted by: migueljose | Apr 1 2023 11:18 utc | 234
@migueljose | Apr 1 2023 11:18 utc | 232
Thank you, that was a heartwarming message! I read your posts too, as you can see 😀
Well done with the logs/sawmill, that sounds like had work…
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 1 2023 11:51 utc | 235
In response to
”
A publically owned finance system is essential but humans will be humans and those working in public institutions will make incorrect calls if permitted to. The best way I reckon to prevent that is to make those large Public Finance houses devolve decion making down as close as possible to where the institution’s users are.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 1 2023 6:31 utc | 216
”
Agreed!
I have worked in local and state government as well as small and large corporations and agree that humans are humans with bad incentives occasionally but most just want to get along. I want to take away the global private finance jackboot and think our species will grow from the opportunity to have a form of social organization with humanistic incentives.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 1 2023 11:59 utc | 236
Posted by: migueljose | Apr 1 2023 11:18 utc | 232
Whoa, Miguel Jose. 11:18 utc is 6:18 a.m. your time the way I figure.
Up and at ’em, I guess. You lumberjacks are a tough breed obviously.
That’s the kind of thing that never attracked me. I always thought
Manual Labor was a South American general. (I know, tired joke.)
Yeah, quislings are like cockroaches – world around
and so, so difficult to get them out in the open to stomp.
Thanks for your kind words. Be careful out there!
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 12:16 utc | 237
Strange times in New York City.
A Serial tax fraudster. Is still whining about the political witchhunt over his extremely very sloppy tax returns. Using extensive “bottom of the harbor” inflated assets. Along with questionable documentation. Which is outside the legal limits of both state and federal tax laws. Since Methusuelah was babe in his mother’s arms.
One should not forget. One Alphonse Capone ended up in “Alcatraz” for tax evasion. The latest public opinion polls show a minimum of eight out of ten voters no longer believe the fool. Along with five out of ten voters. Would like to see him in jail for his assorted sinning ways. A list so long. That it would fill a rather large book.
Election 2024. Is getting weirder by the day. A truly interesting conundrum. How does one conduct an election campaign from a jail cell?
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Apr 1 2023 12:38 utc | 238
The fact US establishment have been constantly on the attack against Trump is enough to win him my support, as I feel they are a much bigger menace to the US and the world.
IMO there are no « good US presidents », only bad and atrocious ones.
Posted by: Featherless | Apr 1 2023 12:47 utc | 239
“How does one conduct an election campaign from a jail cell?”
Ask Eugene V. Debs.
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 1 2023 13:17 utc | 240
Posted by: grunzt | Mar 31 2023 22:26 utc | 182
Agreed, nice summary.
Posted by: Andrew Celestina | Apr 1 2023 1:01 utc | 197
Seconded, and far better put that I could have managed.
Posted by: anon2020 | Apr 1 2023 13:17 utc | 241
Bad Deal Motors On | Apr 1 2023 12:38 utc | 236
It doesn’t matter who you elect, they will be a total arsehole and do very little to make the world a better place. Sensible people have already factored that in and just hope for the best, but expect the worse
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 1 2023 13:23 utc | 242
Featherless | Apr 1 2023 12:47 utc | 237
No none of them are worthy of your vote but they have worked hard to limit your choice. Trump is the accepted alternative to the thieves that run your show but is just another thief. I don’t live there and have no idea as to how I would vote if I did. They all have little interest in your well being. Armed resistance is looking like a thing but I don’t think that is good either.
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 1 2023 13:35 utc | 243
#105 Vladimir Putin-is CIA’s greatest agent-posted by-Chemical Thought..Sir ..are you drug addict?? you should change your name to Drugged Thought….
Posted by: sejmon | Apr 1 2023 13:45 utc | 244
Islamic Republic Day: Iran marks 44th anniversary of end to US-backed monarchy Presstv.ir
Iran commemorates the 44th anniversary of the historic referendum in which Iranians overwhelmingly voted for the establishment of the Islamic Republic following the collapse of the US-backed Pahlavi regime in 1979…
@197 Andrew Celestina – I can’t agree more. Thank you Karl, and everyone here.
Posted by: lex talionis | Apr 1 2023 14:31 utc | 246
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 9:43 utc | 229
—————
Hello Wayne
For broken links, copy the url and paste into webarchive.org, you’d usually get an archived copy of the article.
NO guarantee tho cuz these days they’re scrubbing the internet big time, archive included !
William BLum is an acute observer and writer.
Exhibit B
BLum on US ‘elites’, or deep state front managers.
.
American leaders are different from you and me.
No, the lesson here is not that power corrupts and dehumanizes.
Neither is it that US foreign policy is cruel because American leaders are cruel.
It’s that these leaders are cruel because only those willing and able to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment; it might as well be written into the job description. People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers – let alone American soldiers – do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or secretary of defense, or national security advisor, or attorney general, or secretary of the treasury. Nor do they particularly want to.
There’s a sort of Peter Principle at work here. Laurence Peter wrote that in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. Perhaps we can postulate that in a foreign policy establishment committed to imperialist domination by any means necessary, employees tend to rise to the level of cruelty they can’t live with.
PS
Somebody should do an autopsy on BLum !
Posted by: denk | Apr 1 2023 14:32 utc | 247
High Stakes as Uncle Sam’s Days of Impunity Are Finally Over
By Finian Cunningham
March 30, 2023: Information Clearing House — “SCF” –
Russia and China are determined to hold the American perpetrators of the Nord Stream sabotage to account. Uncle Sam’s days – indeed decades – of wanton criminality are over. There’s going to be hell to pay as the imperialist tyranny in Washington hits a wall of reality.
Justice Cant come soon enough.
Criminals holding court
Exhibit A
See how these CONgress rats grill Tiktok CEO…
What do you think of China’s prosecution of the UIghurs
?
Does Tiktok censor TAM massacre ?
What ‘persecution’ , what ‘massacre’???
More to the point,
WTF has TAM, Uighur gotta do with the issue at hand ?
Would these rats question FB CEO’s on the Iraq genocide, 252 wars of aggression since WW2 ?
Woud the rats ask CEO of Tata Consultancy service his view on the Kashmir genocide ,or Gujarat, or Nagaland ?
Fucking racists pigs. !
Not to mention their hands are drenched in blood of 30M muslims massacred since WW2.
As if they give a rat ass about the Uighurs [sic]
Posted by: denk | Apr 1 2023 14:45 utc | 248
@ denk | Apr 1 2023 14:32 utc | 244
Thanks but I just tried the first two links again in that article and they are just dead titles with no url.
Looks that way for the other 8 links there. Searches got no results. Oh well.
But your article got me to remember Ann Richards’ speech, and since it is Sat. Nite (and we’re still a) Live:
Ann Richards
Blum did have severe kidney disease and was on dialysis. Still…
And his great line: “Don’t tell my mother I work for the White House. She thinks I play piano in a whore house.”
Miss him.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 15:07 utc | 249
Grieved @206 wrote:
But I think all of this nets out as the equivalent as cash in the marketplace, but simply in digital form. All of this, I believe, is what Werner meant by his point that, hey, we’ve been using bank digital currency (BDC) for decades and it has simply added convenience with no downside.
_____________________________________________________________________
Yes he is saying that but its important to understand the Werner’s underlying theory of money. It really doesn’t matter if the money is digital as most of it is today or if its recorded on paper ledgers as it was in the past.
The special businesses that take deposits and make loans are also storing the money and managing the payments and the movement of money that the ordinary person and business use. And most important these special businesses are also creating that money out of thin air.
Its important to understand how that money creation process operates and how Werner says it ideally should operate to work to the benefit of the users of that money.
When a deposit institution makes a loan it creates deposits out of nothing and the borrower then owns those deposits and uses those new deposits for some purpose. What that often means is the newly created deposits move to some other bank. This means the owners of the bank must take money out of their own pocket and reimburse the other bank for the funds that transferred to the other bank. This reckoning is handled digitally through the Central Bank.
The important point is that loans create deposits and if those deposits do not eventually flow back to the bank that made the loan then the cost of the loan comes out of the owner of the bank’s personal stash of money. Also if the borrower defaults the loss comes out of the owner’s pocket.
What this means is small local banks have an incentive to seek out borrowers that will use the borrowed money for sound productive purposes in the local economy that will make it likely that deposits will flow back into the bank that made the loan. Werner considers this to be the ideal model for banking.
It also means that if only one bank has a monopoly in a local economy then the owner of that bank has little incentive to worry about the cost of lending or the quality of loans. Werner thinks big banks are bad because of this monopoly effect that they don’t have to worry as much about attracting deposits or making loans that are productive because they are taking in deposits everywhere.
And now with the SVB debacle it looks to Werner that the Fed and Treasury have incentivized large depositors to move their deposits to the large banks. This massive flow of deposits from small banks to large banks is a huge windfall profit to the owners large banks and a huge cost to the owners of small banks that lost deposits.
The point Werner is making about CBDC is that if individual and businesses start doing their banking directly with the Central Bank then the Central Bank will be competing directly with small banks for deposits and depositors and there is no way small banks can survive that.
Posted by: jinn | Apr 1 2023 15:10 utc | 250
A pair of good questions, inspired by French demonstrations:
Direct action. Loud and unruly direct action. A popular mandate. Bringing down a government: What is it about the French that they are ready to take to the streets in behalf of the society they stand for when the society they stand for is challenged by an imperious figure such as Emmanuel Macron? If you think this a good question, here is another: What is it about Americans that, as the sad record indicates, nothing rouses them from their quite amazing stupor such that they get off their sofas and.. and act, act in behalf of… of anything?
https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/30/patrick-lawrence-french-streets-and-american-sofas/
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 1 2023 15:14 utc | 251
There’s another on my “must read” list – Blum’s famous book on “Killing Hope”.
By the way, Gore Vidal had another great line about so-called conspiracy theory views. Vidal, who was from the richest part of society, noted that,
“it isn’t a conspiracy. They all just think alike.”
Posted by: N Hanrahan | Apr 1 2023 15:20 utc | 252
@ juliania | Apr 1 2023 1:38 utc | 202
you could always brace the offending branch with a 2×4 or something like that, to stabilize it and prevent it from getting the tree in a position to fall over.. peach trees and some of those types fruits seem to have these types of issues.. i have never had to tend to a peach tree, but i wish i did! sounds like you have your hands full given you have a sunroom with a lot of plants waiting to be transplanted… yes – wait until there is no threat of a freeze.. that is what i am doing with the leeks and onions.. i got them going too soon – late january.. i have already cut the tops once and may do it again.. apparently it throws the energy into the roots..
@ Grieved | Apr 1 2023 2:55 utc | 206
here is your quote from @77 that i was in agreement with and which it appeared to me jinn @ 76 didn’t fully understand or appreciate… maybe i got that wrong, but that was my impression.. i apologize to jinn if i got that wrong.. to be frank, i have had a hard time understanding jinn at moa..
“It ( CBDC) requires an individual digital ID for each person, in order to work, says Werner, and ultimately by bureaucratic creep alone (let alone more nefarious motives) it will be used for surveillance and regulation of what an individual can buy.”
that is it in a nutshell! thanks.. as for banking digital currency – the intel agencies can track all that, but it is not quite the same… the CBDC will be able to turn off the tap completely or as they see fit..
@ jinn | Apr 1 2023 15:10 utc | 247
yes, indeed.. that is also how i understand it jinn… the question remains ‘why was svb allowed to fall here?’ it doesn’t make sense on a number of levels..
Posted by: james | Apr 1 2023 15:40 utc | 253
There’s another on my “must read” list – Blum’s famous book on “Killing Hope”.
Posted by: N Hanrahan | Apr 1 2023 15:20 utc | 249
Yes you should do that.
It’s similar to Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee in that Brown’s book
just goes on and on with broken promises while Blum’s does the same with imperial forays.
They are not great reading, imo, but if one wants to chronicle American imperialism they are great references.
When Blum passed away I quickly copied all of his Anti-Empire Reports and printed and collected them into a binder
in case they disappeared. I sometimes open it and just start reading wherever and find something interesting.
They’re still up @Blum
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 15:47 utc | 254
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 15:07 utc | 246
——————————
These days, a link can go kaput in mere weeks , especially if the content is very politically incorrect!
So its wise to copy the content of the article as well and save it in text form or whatever, just in case.
When it comes to truth tellers demise, Im very cynical.
For example,
Exhibit A
Chavez died of cancer, or was it ?
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2016/03/14/murder-chavez-cia-and-dea-cover-their-tracks/
Posted by: denk | Apr 1 2023 15:53 utc | 255
@ karlo1
it seems to me you offer a huge amount to moa… i am not surprised if you burn out too… all the regulars here really appreciate you… i have said it many times, but will say it again – thank you! even if i don’t read everything – i don’t have unlimited time – i do appreciate what you share with us..
Posted by: james | Apr 1 2023 15:57 utc | 256
Norwegian @218:
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, as well as former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi are reported among likely candidates to succeed Stoltenberg as head of the bloc.
Holy effin sheise, what a list; sounds like the lineup for the 2023 Upper Class Twit of the Year competition.
And I echo the salutations in your (and migueljose’s) direction; outstanding comments over the years.
Posted by: robjira | Apr 1 2023 16:54 utc | 257
I’m not sure that b is suffering a burnout. He might as well be entertaining some “visitors” from the BND (the German branch of the CIA) or similar. There are some recent hints in that direction.
(1)
some of you might remember a short episode when all MoA threads were closed for comments. That was on the day when Sy Hersh’s second article on NordStream had appeared. That article gets specific on Scholz’s short visit to Biden’s office on 3.3.23 and what the two were discussing there. I won’t discuss it now, except that it was about the NordStream pipelines.
A lot of barflies had earlier posted their conjectures, which now turned out to be true.
So the threads contained quite a few posts relating to this new revelation by Sy Hersh.
An hour later, I found that the threads had reopened, but these posts were gone. I quickly posted one myself, linking to the Hersh article and recommending it. My post was deleted within 10 minutes. My posts on other issues were left alone.
(2)
The biggest of the German alternative media, in terms of visitors, is IMO nachdenkseiten.de. I always admired them for their integrity and uncompromising anti-NATO position. Today, they announced that Katja Kipping will be on their staff. Ms. Kipping belongs to the NATO-friendly section of “Die Linke”. She once headed the party – which was then polarized between her and Sahra Wagenknecht. I cannot imagine that the editorial board decided to have her on staff. It looks more like she was recruited and imposed from “above”, in order to start taming that unruly online magazine.
(3)
Starting this January, nachdenkseiten.de have been deprived on the non-profit status they once enjoyed.
(4)
The German Telepolis online magazine was once my favorite source of information, even before nachdenkseiten.de. It is now boring at best, after they have taken on many new authors. Significantly, they have removed Florian Rötzer from staff, a Moscow-friendly author who had been their editor in chief for decades. He is by no means tired, he is still writing articles at a new platform that has much less visitors than Telepolis used to have.
What do I gather from these examples? They are currently targeting the alternative German online platforms to make them system-compliant. And MoA is just such a platform.
Posted by: grunzt | Apr 1 2023 17:53 utc | 258
@ grunzt | Apr 1 2023 17:53 utc | 258
i think there is over a 50% chance that you are correct.. thanks for articulating that.. it is always on some of our minds as to the possibility that someone like b can’t be speaking truth to power…
Posted by: james | Apr 1 2023 18:55 utc | 259
@Outraged | Apr 1 2023 7:17 utc | 223
Cyril’s brief posting history
You think my posting history is brief because this site’s search function has limited memory. I have probably been posting here for years before you showed up. Here’s a comment from me in 2021. And my memories of contributing to this site go back years before that. I remember being here long before karlof1.
Likes to play … ‘Tarpit’.
When you hurl insults at me repeatedly, expect some pushback.
Posted by: Cyril | Apr 1 2023 20:56 utc | 260
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 1 2023 15:07 utc | 249
Color me extremely shocked that someone ostensibly in Norway knows who Ann Richards was. A national treasure along with Molly Ivins. RIP both of them – we need more politicians and journalists/opinion writers like them. We have a picture of my wife with Ann from when she was a child. And another connection – my former girlfriend’s father was in the Texas state senate (and ran for railroad commissioner) and Richards used to go to their house for Sunday dinners on occasion.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 1 2023 20:59 utc | 261
Russia’s planners can’t assume the US will continue its incompetence. Thus China’s help will be essential. The good news is that Russia combined with China will be overwhelming.
Posted by: Cyril | Apr 1 2023 2:38 utc | 205
LOL @ your naive belief that the US won’t continue its “incompetence” (which I prefer to call “idiotic greedy evilness”). LOL seriously, have you not been paying attention for the last 200 years?
But yes, to your later comment I definitely remember you from years ago.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 1 2023 21:06 utc | 262
@Refinnejenna | Apr 1 2023 9:35 utc | 228
I should think Moscow has a good grasp of what the US is capable of, and whether it has the capacity to revive its manufacture of materiel to the levels reached during World War II.
Russians certainly know that countries can revive. In the 1990s after the USSR fell, Russia was in far worse state than the US is now. But the Federation has revived.
Yes, the US’s recovery can take a decade or more. But the current conflict may last as least that long. Russia’s contingency planners can’t assume that the US military will never regain its World War II strength. If the US does recover, Russia will need China.
[on Russia’s campaign in Ukraine]
This war is about far more than just Ukraine: Europe’s willingness to sanction Russia is proof of that. The Russians can’t assume that spanking Country 404 would be enough to end the conflict of the civilizations. Therefore Russia’s planners must prepare for even remote contingencies.
Posted by: Cyril | Apr 1 2023 21:30 utc | 263
Tom_Q_Collins @261 wrote: “my former girlfriend’s father was in the Texas state senate (and ran for railroad commissioner) ”
Wow. Texas has a railroad commission? and the commissioner is elected by the people?
I looked it up its all true.
But it seems the Texas Railroad Commission regulates not only railroads but the oil and gas industry, also.
Ouch! and double ouch!
Posted by: jinn | Apr 1 2023 23:08 utc | 264
Fareed Zakaria of CNN warned….
“So, the world’s second largest economy (sic!) and its largest energy exporter are together actively trying to dent the dollar’s dominance as the anchor of the world’s financial system. Will they succeed? …”
Zakaria forgot about KSA, I am not sure if it is a smaller or larger exporter than RF, also decreases transactions in USD, the direction seems to be that export-surplus countries will have accounts in the currencies of importers, perhaps adjusting them with swaps while shunning USD.
USD as an anchor of dominance will be dented, perhaps, more immediate effect can be the decreased ability to maintain negative real interest rates in USA and Eurozone, and depressed real estate sector. Perhaps the long term effect on the economy will be positive, more funds for production of goods rather than speculation, cutting the deficits in the budget and trade? Reforms by cutting fat in medical care and defense, to largest drain in the budget? Short term effect will be some recession and culling the political status quo in favor of reformers or pseudo-reformers like Trump.
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 1 2023 20:28 utc | 26
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 2 2023 0:38 utc | 265
Richards used to go to their house for Sunday dinners on occasion.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 1 2023 20:59 utc | 261
On her motorcycle? She was a bad-a$$.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 2 2023 0:43 utc | 266
…someone ostensibly in Norway knows who Ann Richards was. A national treasure along with Molly Ivins. RIP both of them – we need more politicians and journalists/opinion writers like them.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 1 2023 20:59 utc | 261
Well, there was a time…but it was long ago. So long that I remembered the ‘silver foot’ but when I searched for the quote
I used Molly’s name. When it came up with Ann Richards a few neural paths opened and I got a big kick out of seeing her
beautiful delivery again.
Someone just wrote how the French demonstrate v. the Americans and that made me think of Molly’s exhortation to get out
in the streets and start banging on pots and pans. Yeah, more Ann Richards and Molly Ivins would be a good thing!
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 2 2023 3:41 utc | 267
Posted by: james | Mar 31 2023 22:11 utc | 180
Yes, any legitimate protest movement is quickly infiltrated by government (which by definition means right-wing – tell me about a single leftist foreign government that Canada or the US have ever supported) agents and right wingers looking to pervert it into violence. Thing is, you’re missing the part about how the trucker thing in Canada was astroturf from the get-go. Just like the “Tea Party” – it’s funded by wealthy right wing authoritarian losers who pretend to be anti-authoritarians. At the same time BLM (disregarding the grifters in some cases) was originally a legitimate movement. But it too was subjugated like Occupy was. Then ignored.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 2 2023 5:39 utc | 268
On her motorcycle? She was a bad-a$$.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 2 2023 0:43 utc | 266
Honestly no, but yeah she was a total bad ass! Loved that woman. As it happens she also was a reader of Billmon. Not sure if b knows that.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 2 2023 5:40 utc | 269
Posted by: jinn | Apr 1 2023 23:08 utc | 264
Yep. It’s a powerful position masquerading as a meaningless one. But guess what. I was actually wrong. It was Bush’s grandson or nephew or whatever who ran for railroad commission. My ex’s dad ran for Land Commission.
https://www.texastribune.org/2010/01/04/uribe-files-for-land-commissioner/
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 2 2023 5:43 utc | 270
Well fuq-me! He DID run for railroad commissioner too! So I wasn’t wrong, just wrong year.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 2 2023 5:43 utc | 271
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 2 2023 5:43 utc | 271
Why did you let her become EX? Disappointing election results?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 2 2023 13:43 utc | 272
There’s another on my “must read” list – Blum’s famous book on “Killing Hope”.
By the way, Gore Vidal had another great line about so-called conspiracy theory views. Vidal, who was from the richest part of society, noted that,
“it isn’t a conspiracy. They all just think alike.”
Posted by: N Hanrahan | Apr 1 2023 15:20 utc | 252
Also don’t miss Blum’s autobiographical _West-Bloc Dissident_.
Posted by: Gene Poole | Apr 6 2023 6:11 utc | 273
The new geopolitical reality.
China is ghosting the United States
Beijing has effectively frozen high level bilateral diplomatic contact in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon incident in February.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants to reschedule his date with China. Beijing is giving him the cold shoulder.
… https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/05/china-contact-united-states-00090495
And von der Leyen’s China trip has been eased to the sidelines. Crickets.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 6 2023 7:57 utc | 274