signing off

Posted by: denk | Apr 27 2023 18:24 utc | 104

@Debsisdead, #74: @denk, #101 and #103:
I’m happy to see there are barflies here who partook the same history as I did regarding the Camelot of Kennedys and 60’s American Whiteknights. Yes, from what I gathered, certainly not through the western MSM garrisons and warehouses, the America of late 40’s (after WWII), 50’s (the reigns of Truman and Eike), the 60’s and 70’s (the warmongers of Kennedys and Johnson) were the vanguards of the animals running both inside and outsides of the Beltway. These vanguards set the stage and tone. The animals in their trails are elves following the same script, just less and less competent. Carter may have been an exception; Bush 1st was clearly the brainy animal but couldn’t reverse the wheels of history that was set on course after WWII(I refer to the inevitable collapse of colonialism and Whiteman Exceptionism).
No, JFK ain’t no white knight. But, of the so-called potential candidates clamouring for the 2024 race, RJKjr. is clearly the less objectionable one, and would have my vote unless he advocate something on taxation that hits me personally between the eyebrows.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Apr 27 2023 18:58 utc | 106

@denk, #100:
When John F nudged Nehru to go whole-hog against China, India was considered firmly in the USSR camp!!! India’smilitary hardwares of the timewere exclusively Soviet! John F’s rationale of supporting India in the 1962 War (money AND weaponry) can have one and only one interpretation: Racial hatred against the Yellow Peril.
That war broke the ice between America and India. India straddled in both the USSR camp and the Western Imperial Camp ever since.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Apr 27 2023 19:06 utc | 108

It is often said that a picture paints a thousand words, so here’s 2,000 words worth:
China Official Gold Reserves
Russia Gold Reserves
I‘ve not yet been able to find a chart showing the cumulative gold reserves of the BRICS nations, or indeed that of the SCO member nations. Still, good luck with that there dollar thingy…

Posted by: West of England Andy | Apr 27 2023 20:24 utc | 110

SO I DEFINITELY EXPECT PLENTY OF FUCKERY TOWARDS RFK JR. BY DEEP STATE VIA MSM/SM (INCLUDING COMMENT SECTIONS)

Posted by: Dulles_Did_Dallas | Apr 27 2023 21:28 utc | 112

If (like me) you are struggling to understand what’s going on in the horn of Africa, Afshin Rattansi’s Going Underground has an informative interview that is worth watching. No prizes for guessing who’s in the background orchestrating chaos.

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Thomas Mountain, who has been one of the most widely distributed independent journalists in Africa about the ongoing violent clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces led by General Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as ‘Hemedti’. He discusses why General Burhan, who ousted the former civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, is the CIA’s man in Sudan, Egypt’s alleged role in the battle between the two factions, the strategic importance of the Horn of Africa and Bab al-Mandab Strait and why Washington tries to control it, the differences between Burhan and Hemedti on their stances regarding civilian rule in Sudan, Eritrea’s new alliance with Ethiopia following the conflict between the TPLF against Ethiopia and Eritrea, why the fight between Burhan and Hemedti is a ‘fight to the finish’ and much more.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Apr 27 2023 22:39 utc | 114

noteworthy text by Taibbi on the Censorship-Industrial Complex (as usual with him a longer entry 😉
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/26/matt-taibbi-report-on-the-censorship-industrial-complex/
“(…)
As noted in Lowenthal’s thread, the story of the #TwitterFiles and the Censorship-Industrial Complex is “really the story of the collapse of public trust in experts and institutions, and how those experts struck back, by trying to pool their remaining influence into a political monopoly.” The losers in any advancement of this story would include anyone outside the monopoly, and they can be on either the right or the left. The intense negative reaction by traditional press to the #TwitterFiles stories published to date is rooted in a feeling of betrayal. The new media leaders see themselves as doing the same service police officers in the stop-and-frisk era called “order maintenance,” pouncing on visible signs of discord or disruption. They’re gatekeepers, and the #TwitterFiles — classic old-timey journalism that assumes the public has a right to know things — represents an unacceptable breach of the perimeter.
(…)”

Posted by: AG | Apr 27 2023 23:08 utc | 116

Iran claims it can identify the “electronic fingerprints” of individual emitters, such as those on different jets of the same type, “Iran Can Now Track Unique Radar Signature of Individual F-35 Jets”. As you read the article, it becomes clear that Iran’s capabilities are even more advanced and pose an the following hypothesis: It’s unlikely that electronic emissions are contained within the body of a submarine, but how rapidly do they disperse within water? Do they last long or travel far enough to be detected in manners similar to acoustic detection? If Iran has figured out how to detect such emissions, that would explain its recently claimed ability to force a sub to the surface. Perhaps that’s how China found the sub that was claimed to have hit a seamount. I can easily imagine EW specialists from Russia, China, and Iran all working together to develop new means of detection and interdiction. IMO, not including Iran in the China/Russia defense matrix is a mistake.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 28 2023 0:10 utc | 118

He certainly has courage. I would like to see him succeed. I wonder how much the Kennedy name weighs on him.
Posted by: dh | Apr 27 2023 1:10 utc | 51
First, a lot of astute posts pro and con. Pleasure to go through on both sides.
Second about the name weight: look at how he dresses. His ties. Pure 1960. He grew up within the womb of living national myth and will die within it. No doubt every piece of furniture in his house, every blade of grass on each of his many lawns also whispers such mythos to his soul every moment of every day.
Which is neither a cynical nor a flattering remark. Clearly, he lives and breathes that stuff and if anyone were to be expected to do so on the planet it would be JFK’s nephew and RFK’s son, so it’s not entirely significant.
The real question is: does he believe in his own fundamental goodness, that his policies are aligned with it, and that he can make a real, positive difference for Americans and the world.
Now of course he could believe all that sincerely and still be evil, or incompetent, or blackmailable etc. There are no guarantees every in the political arena, especially one as dark as America’s.
That said, unless you believe they were faked, his uncle and father’s deaths were real. Yes, they are part of myth, but for a son and nephew they were very, very real. Can such a person now up and manifest as a total phony or shill? I cannot see it. And therefore there is a real possibility that he will prove one of the most fearless and genuine political figures in many a long decade.
He may have deluded views about Ukraine and many other things. But if he is genuine then he will learn more and also be able to change course. IF he is genuine. Also if he does dismantle US foreign bases and break the back of corporate fascism, that would already be more than has been seen in a century on that front, so not too shabby.
But this is what I suspect is going to happen: I suspect that the US is being deliberately taken down by the very elites who intend to rebuild her after. Why? Because they need to get rid of the rule of law, of basic rights under common law which are the foundation of Western polities, especially Anglo ones. So these are going to be entirely discredited, I suspect in the next 12 months. China and Russia and all that is going on geopolitically will help.
RFK will be the Knight in Shining Armor who rescues the US from collapse, restores a sense of moral decency and uplifted destiny to the polity at the same time that he leads us all into the New World Globalist Order that finally and forever kills the Capitalist Dragon so we can all own nothing and be happy together.
Now I hope this is wrong. But I think he believes in myth enough to buy into something like this.

Posted by: Scorpion | Apr 28 2023 1:08 utc | 120

Scorpion @ 120
I think you are expecting too much from RJFK. He may be a decent enough fellow but he’s up against a harsh reality. And his message still needs fine-tuning.

Posted by: dh | Apr 28 2023 1:31 utc | 122

Montenegro? The recent election led to the ejection of one of NATO’s friends-sand pensioers- in the Balkans.
“Đukanović’s Defeat” by Lily Lynch
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/dukanovics-defeat

Posted by: bevin | Apr 28 2023 1:48 utc | 124

Also at Sidebar-the New Left Review’s blog- is Capital’s Militant a study of Peter Thiel.
by Marco D’Eramo. Its good.
“He’s not as rich as Jeff Bezos, not a social media star like Elon Musk, nor an icon like Bill Gates. Yet he is the most interesting of the Silicon Valley tycoons, for more than any other he embodies the new breed of capitalist ideologue. Rather than using politics to make money, he uses his billions for politics, in hopes of emancipating the rich from ‘the exploitation of the capitalists by the workers’. Peter Thiel (b. 1967): German by birth, American and South African by upbringing; according to Forbes, he is worth $4.2 billion. Equipped, in contrast to his peers, with a degree in philosophy and a doctorate in law, he likes to affect the posture of a philosopher king. In his most ambitious piece of writing, The Straussian Moment (2004), he sketches a kind of Geistes Weltgeschichte in light of 9/11, citing with carefully cultivated intellectual effrontery Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, Pierre Manent, Roberto Calasso, and name-checking Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Locke, Hegel, Nietzsche and Kojève.
“Ever since his university days, Thiel has been devoted to a kind of impudence of position, always embracing the most conservative one possible (he has been an admirer of Reagan since high school). According to his biographer Max Chafkin, Thiel felt that ‘mainstream liberals had accepted communists, but conservatives were unable to bring themselves to associate with members of the far-right…He really wished the right would become more like the left’. Enrolling at Stanford, the most reactionary of the top-tier universities, Thiel spent his time railing against what he saw as the institution’s endemic leftism, co-founding the Stanford Review with the blessing of conservative guru Irving Kristol and financial backing via the Olin Foundation (a key entity in funding and organizing the neoliberal counteroffensive, as documented in my forthcoming book, Masters: The Invisible War of the Powerful Against their Subjects). It campaigned against multiculturalism, political correctness and homosexuality. Its editorial board was composed exclusively of men (to this day only one woman has served as an editor; she went on to work for the ultraconservative billionaire Betsy DeVos who served as Secretary of Education under Trump)….”
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/capitals-militant

Posted by: bevin | Apr 28 2023 2:12 utc | 126

As some of you noticed, the most important event of this week is 75th anniversary of Independence of Israel, at least, judging on Tweets not from my “follows” that omniscient AI of Twitter placed in my feed. I am proud to contribute to the celebrations, if modestly, in a “reply”.
Tweet from Arsen Ostrovski [proud Zionist]: picture of Erdogan giving a “thank you” plaque to a representative of Israeli organization that helped in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake this year.
Reply from Piotr Berman [retired]: Next day, Erdogan was hospitalized for a stomach problem. [REALLY!!!]

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 28 2023 2:23 utc | 128

Scorpion @127
“Obama and Trump. In both cases a wave of popular support laden with the fond hope that idealism would be realized on Earth via the agency of this Savior anointed by the Sacred Vote of We the People. There was a real, huge, swell of idealism. This is the same sort of stuff that the Power of Myth is made on.”
I know what you are saying. People do get excited from time to time. Hope springs eternal and maybe RFK is the next Great Hope. I guess I’m just cynical. Let’s hope you don’t get let down.

Posted by: dh | Apr 28 2023 3:25 utc | 130

John F’s rationale of supporting India in the 1962 War (money AND weaponry) can have one and only one interpretation: Racial hatred against the Yellow Peril.
That war broke the ice between America and India. India straddled in both the USSR camp and the Western Imperial Camp ever since.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Apr 27 2023 19:06 utc | 108
——————
Exactly
1961, CIA god wind of China’s nuke progress, first test expected by 1963
jfk was aghast,

India as the largest democracy in the world, should get its bomb before the chicom

the gringo offered to help their Indian soul mates detonate its first bomb before China,.
The deal fell thru somehow,
I mentioned here many times before,
Perhaps its gawd’s will that China got its nuke first.
gawd knows what’d happen if India got there first.
HInt
This was how India assess its nuke progress..
Agni one
Lets bomb the three gorges
Agni two
Can reach Shenzhen
Agni three
Can reach Shanghai
Agni four
Can reach Harbin
Agni five
THE CHINA KILLER
A common refrain these days..
China make my day, this isnt 1962,
we’ got the bomb !

Posted by: denk | Apr 28 2023 4:01 utc | 132

“There are many barflies who will agree with some of what Carlson had to say. Yes, there’s a lot of “folksy” filler between his main points, but IMO one our big problems is not listening to civil discussion coming from what’s deemed “the political enemy,…”
There seems to be enough rational heads on both sides plus current non politicians like Carlson and RFK who consider them themselves either right or left to form a new party. US appears a little past a death spiral now, more like a death dive at terminal velocity. I think a new party composed of rational people from both sides of the fence is all that can save the US.
I have no idea what the rational left think about the gender bender issue but I assume that would be the main sticking point and both sides would have to compromised a bit there, but the main thing is to oust the neocon duopoly and put rational honest people in charge of the department of war and the intel agencies.
Once that is accomplished they could separate to form two new parties of progressives and conservatives.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 28 2023 4:45 utc | 134

In case this hasn’t been posted…
Excellent interview of JFK Jr.. A huge WOW.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/robert-f-kennedy-jr-interview-david-samuels

Posted by: Seer | Apr 28 2023 4:50 utc | 136

@ Seer | Apr 28 2023 4:50 utc | 136 with the link to the RFK Jr interview
I agree….Wow!
Needs to be required reading for those comparing him with Trump or Biden
He may not be perfect but he is saying lesser of evil things to my ears.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 28 2023 5:25 utc | 138

@ Scorpion 127
There’s only one story that interests the human imagination, good v evil. Us suckers lap it up every time and it always leads us to our destruction. There is another story that is much harder to digest, that God is in charge of everything and makes everything, so trust in Him, not in foot in the door snake oil salesmen / women.
Unfortunately the foot in the door political -isms, zionism Islamism arexexactlyvthecopposition of submission to God’s Will. They want to direct operations for their own benefit , thereby giving religion story a poisonous reputation.
Mere political manipulators like Biden and Trump are angels by comparison.

Posted by: Giyane | Apr 28 2023 5:54 utc | 140

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Apr 28 2023 6:01 utc | 141
——————-
You got it all wrong bud.
tHIS has NUthing to do with China.
You missed this one big time
‘Vote rfk at your own peril’
cuz if rfk the prez peddles that ‘Chinese virus’ meme again you might very likely see another wave of hate crimes coming your way !!
Anyway its your choice.
I rest my case.

Posted by: denk | Apr 28 2023 6:29 utc | 142

Let’s hope you don’t get let down.
Posted by: dh | Apr 28 2023 3:25 utc | 130
I don’t have a horse in the race, am just speculating as to what might happen. As I said a couple of times, for RFK’s star to rise in the firmament as a bright, shining icon in the minds of the people will depend more upon the spirit of the people and the times than on RFK himself because RFK is most likely gonna get something equivalent to the Trump Treatment.
Trump is a very in-your-face salesman, a pushy New York developer from Queens who had to take on all sorts of corrupt sharks to get anything done and is reasonably described as a corrupt shark himself in many ways. Came with the territory. So he’s pushy and brash and as one of the first Reality TV stars who was the star of his own show for 12 years, knows more about self-promotion than any other American living. Thems the facts.
RFK is cut from very different cloth. Although born and raised in the public eye, he has gone under the radar for decades. He has a speech impediment making him a type of cripple. His name provokes over the top love or hatred in many. The tragedy that happened to his father and uncle is hard to contemplate, let alone grow up living through.
All of which means: he is going to be MUCH harder to slander and insult. And he seems a mature person experienced in battle with powerful opponents. The more they vilify him, the more noble he will look. So they will probably not vilify rather ignore. This is one of the reasons Tucker C was taken off. I disagree with Caitlin on this – her message is one of intelligent cynicism that ends up having faith in nothing other than opting out of engaging with faith in anything – indeed, I often suspect there is no such person and she is a CIA-trained voice whose mission is to spread cynical despair among those who have seen through the principal MSM facade.
Tucker may be deluded in many ways with blind spots – like RFK and like each of us – but also hits the target more often than most. He tries to tell truth and is somewhat religious about it. RFK similarly has walked a talk and taken it to large corporations and cleaned up rivers for real. That also is going to be very hard to attack or demean. If someone smart like Tucker had ended up having RFK on once a week this would have made him an extremely hard candidate to ignore and therefore that much more likely to prevail. Biden, for example, cannot handle even two or three questions in a row with a challenging interviewer. Not gonna happen. Ever. RFK can do it in his sleep.
So they are going to try to bury him somehow without making him a martyr. That is why I say it is the People who will raise his candidacy if it happens; probably because things are going to get so very, Very Dark that a Savior will be needed, and of all the candidates out there, he and Trump fit the bill (why I think they should run on a joint ticket as a Coalition Government busting up the entire Two-Party trap.)
I am not hopeful, however. I have not seen anything to persuade me that the ruling classes in the US are slipping like many here daily point out. From my perspective, the decline of the States is being deliberately engendered – not a bug but a feature. Yes, the writing has been on the wall for decades now because of long-term greed and corruption etc, but clearly of late they are pushing the decline not trying to avoid or remedy it. They are behind it. All of the Biden Presidency is directed towards effecting it. It explains each and every cognitively dissonant thing they keep doing day after day.
The fact that someone like a Trump or an RFK will be elected to save the nation from collapse doesn’t mean that they will be able to do so. And from what I’ve seen of both men, though thus far I prefer RFK because of the work he has done, I don’t think that either can really stand up to the Deep State. If RFK isn’t playing games, he has bought into the ‘we are there to protect Ukrainians from Russian Empirical Aggression’ story. He might still believe that the US is at heart a benign Republic that wishes peace and good will to all. He might perhaps not understand that if he strips down the MIC and closes 95% of the 1000 bases (100 of which I learned today are in Italy alone!) that the Union won’t need to keep trotting out this story about how America is a beacon of light and hope for All and we are here in your countries to save you from yourselves etc. In other words, that narrative serves the MIC regime, it is not a true mission.
Of course such a thing as America being a shining example for others is possible as an ideal, but it hasn’t been true most of this past century although, to be fair, during the seminal time he was growing up and some of his family were prominent, many in the world were devastated when they heard JFK had been shot. I remember as a schoolboy in England being stunned by the news, as was the entire school even though most boys had barely heard of him. The shot truly was heard around the world. So American WAS an example in that way, that iconic status was real in many minds world wide. These things happen. However, believing in them naively is also dangerous. (These are difficult things to think through and discuss of course.)
Trump also has many childish beliefs in American goodness and vitality, much of which seem to come from watching too much TV like many of his generation. In different ways, both men evidence a tendency to be fooled by nice-sounding ideas.
Yes, there are elements of ego-mania, deceit etc., perhaps more so with Trump, but not nearly as much as their detractors hyperbolize. But their idealism – perhaps which makes them think that they can make a difference ‘if I were President’ – is a danger sign.
And yet: people need leaders. This is a fact, a rule of how things work in reality. America needs a strong, uplifted President and Presidency. With good will, either man could do a good job. But the elites do not extend good will to Presidents who want to do right by their People. So: is either man capable of leading a political-cultural-financial-international movement that arises out of mass desperation demanding that a way be found to overthrow the corrupt Financial Hegemon once and for all?
I for one greatly doubt it, but am rooting for it nonetheless because I also believe that, just like in LOTR, Sauron’s seemingly invincible Tower can crumble in moments given the right combination of circumstance and positive intention on the part of many. Because the Tower is mainly held together by a spell, a spell we all cast in believing in their strength, their power, their seeming invincibility. It’s a mental spell much more than actual material power. Find a way to unknit that spell, and the whole thing can come tunbling down in an instant.
Too oft we listen to the shallow thinking mind of cynical negative construction. Too seldom we listen to the better angels of our nature which do not formulate intention with concept or personalized emotion, nor are they bound by habitual mind. A good Presidency can be created by sufficient numbers of the population espousing the views of their inner Angels. It just might happen. Because if it does, they will have created a good population and therefore a good Nation for such a Presidency to serve.

Posted by: Scorpion | Apr 28 2023 8:51 utc | 144

denk | Apr 28 2023 6:29 utc | 142
It is interesting to watch the teams separating when it comes to China. Sorts the men from the propaganda inflamed and inflated boys.
Keep up the the good work.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 28 2023 9:41 utc | 146

Canada’s PM Trudeau, Council of Foreign Relations, blood-sucking insects… FYI
From Trudeau’s itinerary in NYC for today:
Private meetings
8:15 a.m. The Prime Minister will deliver the keynote address at the Council of Foreign Relations and participate in a question and answer session.
Media wishing to cover the event must be accredited by the Council of Foreign Relations
Satire news site, The Beaverton, tips for getting your body ready for tick season
https://twitter.com/TheBeaverton/status/1651714681239908353
Shoigu (not Lavrov) — US-led West seeks to goad other countries into confrontation with Russia, China
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230428/shoigu-us-allies-implementing-plan-to-provoke-other-countries-to-confrontation-with-russia-china-1109908961.html

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Apr 28 2023 12:37 utc | 148

“…RFK is cut from very different cloth. Although born and raised in the public eye, he has gone under the radar for decades. He has a speech impediment making him a type of XXXXXXX…”
Scorpion @144
Good grief, Scorpion, you are basing a very long post on a lot of twaddle. I will cut you some slack because you live outside the country. But where were you when the Hudson River got cleaned up? I was here and I remember it. Maybe you just knew that Pete Seeger was involved; well, RFKjr has been involved in environmental issues as well as vaccine cautions, children’s health issues, and most recently wrote a devastating but accurate book about Fauci that has, for sure been hushed up, but my youngest son got in early to have a copy mailed free of charge to him, and that was fundamental to our decision, he and I to do what we did to escape the ravages of both virus and ‘vaccine’. We are indebted to him already, so please have care!
I won’t even repeat your last slur. Please, if you don’t have anything accurate or nice to say, in the words of that worthy sage, Mama Thumper, don’t say anything at all!
I will tell you why Trump is a no go for me; he capitulated, and one of those capitulations was the bridge to far. That was the murder of Iran’s military hero who was on his way, along with his equal in status Iraq military leader to have peaceful discussions sponsored by Saudi Arabia. The way forward is for Trump to admit this was a terrible mistake, explain how he was led into that terrible act, and support RFKjr. That would go a long way to opening a lot of tight shut eyes in this country; and that is what needs to happen.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 28 2023 13:32 utc | 150

Posted by: Giyane | Apr 28 2023 8:33 utc | 143
——————
Posted by: Giyane | Apr 28 2023 8:33 utc | 143
——————
‘

Wolfowitz set up Chinese banking’

Really ?
Wow, China’s best buddy the zionist Wolfowitz , author of PNAC !!!

We must tArget China for regime change

Wuflu..
diversion agent alert !
USAss capitalists outsourced op to China.
ITS Win-win..
Win for Chinese economy and industry
Win for gringo capitalists
everybody happy, why complain ?

China can pretend to be a peacemaker all it likes but in its current leadership it is bound at the hip with USUKIS hypocrisy, Apartheid Zionism in Palestine and the Neocon war machine.
Strange company.

Forgot your med eh ?
You dont speak for the Palestinians,

Palestinians welcome China’s peace initiative

nor Africans,

African leaders praise relation with Beijing

Nor Afghan

Taliban to actively support belt and road plan of trustworthy friend China

Nor iranians

world hails Chinese role in Saudi./Iran peace plaN,

You must be a gardenist, always at odds with the world, er, the jungle

dem dem dem..

earth to mug
dem/repug serve the same masters
are you a gawd damned trumpist ?

Posted by: denk | Apr 28 2023 14:07 utc | 152

Some interesting sleuthing about the shipping traffic near the NordStream sabotage:
https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/1651369923019517953

Posted by: GT Stroller | Apr 28 2023 14:19 utc | 154

Breaking news. US is going to force euro vassals to use US dollar in energy related transactions. That most likely means the bells tolling for the euro area, rising inflation and austerity in the euro zone countries. Basically total vassalage and servitude, and now even financial and economic control of the EU by US.
https://twitter.com/onlydjole/status/1651732667346419713

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 28 2023 15:02 utc | 156

Posted by: Scorpion | Apr 28 2023 14:52 utc | 155
—————–
Rubbish

The only suspect that can wield the powers necessary to effect these frightening outcomes.
the widely recognized “global military-medical-petrochemical-pharmaceutical -Agri cartel”
All based in USAss

Those vid are definitey the handwork of CIA/MI6/ASIO, TO spook a flight of investments outta China, after Trump’s trade war failed to crush Chinese supply chain network.

It seems obvious now that the virus likely escaped from one of those Chinese labs. And that there was funding for exactly this kind of research from the U.S. government at that specific Chinese lab that the virus escaped from.

‘seems obvious’ !
Not good enuff
Even if there were collaboration of gof
research in WIV , where’s the evidence that covid was made there and then conveniently ‘leaked out’ at a time when
Trump and co was trying to crush the Chinese economy ?
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_sars.htm

Posted by: denk | Apr 28 2023 15:55 utc | 158

Today is the Day of Russian Parliamentarism and Putin addressed the meeting with members of the Council of Legislators at the Federal Assembly. As you begin reading, Putin mentions some of the history of the Russian Legislature and the rationale it set for itself. Do take note of its socialistic nature which is present in today’s Russia as Putin makes clear.

Vladimir Putin: Dear colleagues, good afternoon!
The meeting of the Council of Legislators is traditionally timed to coincide with the Day of Russian Parliamentarism, which was celebrated yesterday, April 27.
I congratulate you on this holiday and would like to thank the senators and deputies, as well as all your colleagues in the regions of the Russian Federation, for their great, significant and productive work in creating a solid legislative foundation for the effective socio-economic development of our country, improving the quality of life of people, and strengthening the sovereignty and security of our state.
Many of our parliamentary traditions were laid at the beginning of the last century, during the pre-revolutionary convocations of the State Duma, which worked in the Tavrichesky Palace, as you know, since 1906.
The first Chairman of the Duma, Sergei Andreevich Muromtsev, highly appreciated the potential of institutions of broad popular representation, believed that their main task was to strengthen people’s faith “in statehood as a bulwark of their rights and a source of sincere concerns about the people’s welfare”, and the state as a whole, according to him, should be “the subject of the people’s cause”.
Indeed, many of your predecessors, the first Russian parliamentarians, fervently and sincerely defended the interests of the people, cared about the people’s welfare, sought to benefit their native country, and considered it their highest duty and vocation to live and work for the Motherland.
Such patriotic ideals are important at all times, especially for us, for Russia – a country-civilization, one of the original, sovereign centers of a huge multipolar world.
The values of devotional service to people and their homeland determine the strength and stability of state power, confirm the unity and cohesion of our people, are a key, unshakable guarantee that together we will overcome any challenges, we will consistently and firmly move only forward to the planned high, big goals.
Dear colleagues!
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the modern Russian Parliament – both chambers of the Federal Assembly. They were elected on the same day as the adoption of the current Constitution – December 12, 1993.
During these three decades, a vast and invaluable experience in state-building has been accumulated, and the foundations of Russian legislation as a democratic, legal, federal, and social state have been formed.
In an open, competitive and sometimes very tough struggle, our multi-party system has also grown and strengthened. The leading political forces have proved their thoroughness and maturity.
At the same time, the parliamentary status, the very right to be representatives of millions of Russian citizens, must, of course, be confirmed constantly, every day by hard, honest work. The main thing here is people’s trust, their opinion, their suggestions and instructions in the broadest sense of the word.
It is important that both during the elections and in your daily work, the most pressing and acute issues, problems of concern to our citizens, priority needs and tasks for the development of the national economy, strengthening the country’s security should be given absolute priority. This is the case today, and it should always be so.
In the parliamentary agenda of the past and current year, the most important, central place was occupied by the issues of ensuring a special military operation, supporting the defense industry, social and legal protection of our heroes-military personnel, volunteers, and those who were called up for mobilization.
Legislative decisions were made promptly, and with the active participation and support of all Duma factions, the Federation Council, and regional parliaments. I would like to say a few words of gratitude to you for this. Thank you for such a consolidated, collaborative effort.
However, not everything has been done yet, of course. A number of new measures to support the participants of the special operation and their families have been proposed by the parliamentary working group, and, of course, it needs to be worked out.
Another priority is to provide legal support for the full integration of the four regions that became part of Russia on September 30, 2022-the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
It is important to conduct this work carefully and systematically so that people feel that they belong to the common economic, educational, and cultural space of our country. So that the entire system of labor and social guarantees, including high-quality medical care, is fully operational for them, jobs are created and, in general, conditions are created for dynamic economic growth, and infrastructure and life-support facilities are restored as soon as possible.
These are our historical lands and our native people. Many of you have been there. How do they differ from the other part and other parts of our people? Nothing. This is a part of our people. And we must do everything possible to defend and protect their unequivocal choice – to return to Russia.
Dear colleagues!
Today, in the face of Western economic aggression, the Parliament, the Government, and all regional and local authorities need to act clearly and quickly, and work as one cohesive, well-coordinated team.
I have already said in my Address that our task is not to adapt, not to wait out the period of difficulties, challenges and external pressure, but to create a base, a basis for the long-term, independent and successful development of our country. To strengthen its sovereignty in all its components: in politics and economy, science and technology, education and culture – relying primarily on internal resources, natural advantages, and the powerful creative potential of our multinational people.
In this regard, the law-making search should be aimed at full support of domestic enterprises, research centers and labor collectives, new breakthrough projects in all sectors and spheres, the general expansion of freedom of entrepreneurship, the elimination of barriers to business activity. As you can see, thank God, we are still doing well. It is enough to look at the results of work over the past year, and look at all the macroeconomic indicators. Thank God, the real incomes of citizens have also started to grow-so far modestly, but still. Look at the forecasts of the same international organizations for the growth of the Russian economy. Everything is more or less stable there. Even those who would not like to show these prospects are forced to show it. And look at those who are causing us problems. They seem to create them for themselves.
We need painstaking and subtle adjustments to the entire range of investment attraction mechanisms and tools that we have created, ensuring balanced territorial development and financial stability in all regions of the country: from Sakhalin to Kaliningrad, from the Russian Arctic to Crimea and Novorossiya.
And of course, the Parliament’s primary concern should always be to improve the quality of life and incomes of people, to provide tangible, targeted support to our citizens, families with children, and people who find themselves in a difficult and difficult life situation. In general, the growth of the welfare of the people is our common primary task.
New initiatives for the development of the social sphere and economy, the sovereign education system … I specifically used the phrase “sovereign education system”, the most important element of our joint work, and this is the future of our country. I cannot but agree with many of the faction leaders I met not so long ago, and almost all of my colleagues are talking about this. I totally agree with them. I have already mentioned this in my Message on February 21. I see that active work is underway to implement the Address, and I ask you not to lose the pace and quality of working out the necessary bills.
And I would like to mention one more thing separately. I believe that parliamentary diplomacy is now becoming increasingly important. Our partners, or even former partners, in some countries are maniacally destroying the legal framework and channels of dialogue, trying to impose their views and so-called rules on everyone. What are the rules? I’ve already said it many times. No one saw them. Who wrote them, these rules? They write somewhere under the blanket and do something about it under the blanket themselves. But we won’t go under the covers with them. But we are not going to follow their rules either.
However, despite all these efforts, the intensity of international contacts, including through our parliament, is not only not decreasing, but even increasing. This is a good, correct, indicative trend.
I repeat: Russia is not going to go into self-isolation. On the contrary, we will expand pragmatic, equal, mutually beneficial, exclusively partnership relations with friendly countries in Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America. In the same States, by the way, we have a lot of people who think the same way with us, in Europe. Elites behave differently. But we all know that the elites of these countries do not always pursue policies aimed at the interests of their own peoples. They will still be rewarded with this.
We are ready to work with those foreign partners, with global companies and corporations that value their business reputation and want to cooperate with Russia.
I hope that your numerous meetings with foreign colleagues will continue to strengthen interstate relations and mutual trust.
In general, dear colleagues, I would like to wish you success in your complex, multifaceted, diverse and very important work.
I once again congratulate you on the Day of Russian Parliamentarism, as well as on the upcoming May holidays, and first of all, of course, on the day that is sacred to us – the Day of the Great Victory, the Victory over Nazism.
All the best!
Thank you very much.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 28 2023 16:14 utc | 160

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 28 2023 16:14 utc | 160
Just watched the video of that speech and even though the meeting is of an internal nature a couple of things caught my attention, when Putin talks about a multipolar world he does it in present time, something that exists already, same thing for the new regions, part of Russia without any doubt or bargain. Times have changed already, there’s no going back.

Posted by: Paco | Apr 28 2023 16:49 utc | 162

Here the troll quoting Breitbart [one of his goto source] on the HU JIng Tao ‘purge’
….

The Chinese people are being told they are at war with America already. This only a few years after millions enjoyed Trump puppets in the streets. Clearly they are propagandized just like all other peoples.

Hey is that you, Dean Rusk ?
https://tinyurl.com/v8r2shx8

Posted by: denk | Apr 28 2023 16:55 utc | 164

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 28 2023 16:50 utc | 163
There is a link to a VK page for the broadcast of the conference but unfortunately for subscribers only, no info or how to though, I imagine it is just for the list of participants. If something really important happens I guess we’ll find out.
Well, spring was really nice, it’s like full summer right now with temperatures above 30ºC, fine, but it’s going to be a scary summer after a very dry winter and spring.
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 28 2023 16:59 utc | 165
Your time frames look right to me, the problem is we won’t be around, and to think that it could be real by now, to sit on a train here and go for a long weekend in Samarkand, then Xinjiang to check out the cuisine, on to Mongolia and a stop in Harbin to check out the Orthodox cathedral, then on to Vladivostok and maybe take a ship to coast the Aleutians and end up in Vancouver BC, if only the faux winners of the first cold war would have come to their senses and the whole world would have benefited with the peace dividend, but no, they wanted it all and now, the path to ruin. Cheers, I know springtime in the NW is welcome after a long winter.

Posted by: Paco | Apr 28 2023 17:26 utc | 166

It’s not just China: Russia is hosting 4 way talks between Turkey, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations between the four countries.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/04/24/702147/Turkey-Iran-Russia-Syria-defense-ministers-intelligence-Hulusi-Akar-normalization-relations-
This is building off China’s peace efforts, hoping to bring peace to the region and end the war in Syria and reduce tensions across the middle east. The US is of course, not present.

Posted by: Matthew | Apr 28 2023 18:57 utc | 168

@karlof1 | Apr 26 2023 18:51 utc | 22
Speaking only for myself, less than zero.
The Democrats need a leftish stalking horse for each election, to get their flock optimistically committed to a Democrat stalking horse before each election, and so far, it looks as if Kennedy is it for 2024.
Apples don’t fall far from trees, and JFK almost started WW III, RFK would have started WW III, and RFK Jr’s grandson Connor Kennedy has volunteered to fight on Ukraine’s side before WW III has even opened.
Don’t waste your time or emotion on this bloviating clan of belligerent billionaires.

Posted by: Hermit | Apr 28 2023 20:54 utc | 170

@karlof1 | Apr 28 2023 16:59 utc | 165
I missed Spring in Iowa this year. I was in the bathroom at the time.

Posted by: Hermit | Apr 28 2023 21:11 utc | 172

Posted by: Hermit | Apr 28 2023 20:54 utc | 170
yeah there’s always a “war hero” lurking about, old Joe had JFK after the older brother died (as far as i know without winning a medal), this time it’s Connor. the same all things to all people schtick.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 28 2023 21:16 utc | 174

The crackpot who drew the map breaking Russia up into 40+ statelets has plans for Iran too:
https://twitter.com/GunterFehlinger/status/1652005315800383489

Posted by: GT Stroller | Apr 28 2023 21:31 utc | 176

the overconfident, slick people
who want to make it obvious
that they have the wild world by the tail.
the ones who think their station in
life is above yours. the ones who put
biden in office. the main reason being
biden’s degenerative cognitive capacity.
the inability to have higher understanding,
you might as well be trained dog.
this type pressure, is put on the people also.
the best way to control people is to limit
their thought
a very dark defeatist master-slave relationship

Posted by: Dingo | Apr 28 2023 22:00 utc | 178

Competition: an event in which there are more losers than winners. Otherwise, it is not a competition. A society based on competition is therefore primarily a society of losers.
— The Doubter’s Companion

Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 28 2023 22:26 utc | 180

@karlof1 | Apr 26 2023 16:15 utc | 6
The US Dollar was declared the World Currency at Bretton Woods in 1944, and to achieve this, the US made a number of undertakings that they would not 9nterfere in trade or make the dollar a “scarce currency”. See 22 USC 286b.

Posted by: Hermit | Apr 28 2023 23:13 utc | 182

Hermit | Apr 28 2023 23:13 utc | 182–
The dollar became the global currency after WW1. The following is from this Hudson/Desai Geopolitical economic show:

Well, there was a great reluctance of countries to break free of the power of the banking sector. Of course, the banking sector wanted to treat money as a commodity, because they controlled the money supply. And they said, “If you think of the money we create as a commodity, then we deserve everything we get for it, because we have it and you don’t. And we can put a fence around it and you have to get through.”
So essentially, the United States, if it didn’t have all the money, at least it had all the credit. And without really giving any money to Europe, it said, “Well, we’ve given you arms and now you have to pay. You have to somehow pay in the money that we’ve created, US dollars. How are you going to earn the dollars in order to pay the inter-ally debts?” Well, Europe said, We’ll collect it from Germany. But how was Germany going to pay the dollars?
Well, this is the point, that there was a great argument between John Maynard Keynes and Harold G. Moulton, and the right-wing Austrians. Keynes said, “America, if you’re going to say that Germany has to keep the whole financial system afloat by paying the allies to pay America, then you’re obliged to import from Germany enough material, so that you spend dollars buying German manufacturers. They spend the dollars in paying the allies. The allies paid you. And there’s a circular flow. There has to be a balance of some kind of money, no matter how you look at money.”
Instead, America said, “Well, we don’t want any competition with Germany.” They raised the tariffs against Germany and against countries with depreciating currencies and said, “We’re not going to let Germany earn the money to pay the allies. We’re going to force you all into bankruptcy.”
That’s essentially what started the depression that led to World War II. America forced other countries to try to get dollars, but didn’t give them any way of earning these dollars. And so it broke the whole essence of international money, which is that there has to be an economy that’s able to support this flow of payments and debts and purchases and sales. All of that was broken.
And the ability of America to act as a wrecker is what made it the central power as a wrecker financially, not without having to indebt Europe or Germany until World War II.

That part of the discussion begins about halfway through. Hudson also remarks about the dollar becoming hegemonic after WW1 in most of his books and in many essays.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 28 2023 23:56 utc | 184

The censorship of RFKjr by Outlaw US Empire’s BigLie Media has begun RT reports: “ABC News censors presidential candidate’s vaccine comments.”
“The unusual exchange – essentially blocking a candidate’s views from being heard by voters – might be an early indication of how Kennedy’s campaign will be covered by legacy media outlets. Kennedy noted on Friday that federal law prohibits broadcasters from censoring presidential candidates.” [My Emphasis]
Okay, how does ABC get arrested for its lawbreaking?

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 29 2023 0:11 utc | 186

Bemildred: Not only are the criminal conspiracies commonly referred to as “political parties” not taxed, but their intraparty elections, the results of which they are under no legal obligation to honor, are conducted at public expense.
It floors me that this is even legal.

Posted by: malenkov | Apr 29 2023 0:15 utc | 188

Bemildred | Apr 29 2023 0:31 utc | 189–
“Who are these people? Why are they there running everything when this is supposed to be a democracy, open to all?”
That was Nader’s #1 point in 1996 & 2000 along with Civic Literacy.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 29 2023 0:49 utc | 190

Thierry Meysann’s Voltaire net is now producing a weekly newsletter in six European languages. The first issue is free, ten PDF pages.
“The world is changing, things are moving fast. The old world is already dead while a new world is only emerging.
“87% of the world’s population does not share the Western view on the war in Ukraine. Their governments see that the United States is nothing more than a paper tiger. They now refuse to obey the dictates of the G7.
“You may not know anything about it and it’s natural: Western news agencies don’t relay this kind of news. They hide the debacle from you. So, we have gathered correspondents from five continents and we publish a weekly newsletter to give you access to the work of a news agency. In Voltaire, International Newsletter you will find contextualized news, unbiased facts placed in their historical background.”
Here is a sample, chosen at rendom from week one. It concerns the EU version of Kurtz from Poltava Oblast’s Joseph Conrad:
Josep Borrell against China
“High Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy (Spaniard) Josep
Borrell published an op-ed in French newspaper
Le Journal du Dimanche. This is a response to
statements by French President Emmanuel
Macron during his trip to Beijing. Josep Borrell
poses “A cold look at China”. He presents it as a
partner, a competitor and a rival. He writes:
“There is only one China in our eyes. But not
under any conditions. And certainly not through
the use of force. Europe must in fact be very
present on this issue, which concerns us
economically, commercially and technologically.
That is why I call on European navies to patrol
the Taiwan Strait to demonstrate Europe’s
commitment to freedom of navigation in this
absolutely crucial area.” In addition, before the
European Parliament, Josep Borrell said:
“Taiwan is clearly part of our geostrategic
perimeter to guarantee peace (…) It is not only
for moral reasons that an action [from China]
against Taiwan must necessarily be rejected. It is
also because it would be, in economic terms,
extremely serious for us, because Taiwan has a
strategic role in the production of the most
advanced semiconductors.” The EU is trying to
impose its policy on Member States. France
pleads for neutrality in the face of Sino-US
rivalry, while Brussels can’t think itself other
than aligned with Washington…”
The charge is 15 euros monthly or 150 pa.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 29 2023 1:33 utc | 192

It’s amazing what you can find using public domain data. The OECD has excess mortality data for all the OECD countries. You can download parts into Excel spreadsheets and play with it.
Here’s some of what I found:
* In the three years 2020-2022, the excess mortality rate for Canada was triple that of Sweden. (The US rate was 6 times as high!)
* There were 49,000 COVID deaths in Canada during those three years, but an additional 53,000 excess deaths occurred on top of that. Did the Governments pandemic responses kill more than the pandemic?
* Sweden had no excess deaths in the under 65 age cohort in any of those three pandemic years. ZERO. The US had almost a half million excess deaths in the under 65 age cohort during that time.
For more, see: https://bruceohara.substack.com/p/calculating-the-cost-of-panic

Posted by: Bruce O'Hara | Apr 29 2023 2:47 utc | 194

@ Bemildred | Apr 29 2023 2:48 utc | 195 who wrote
”
I like Hermit’s idea of direct democracy, and agree we can do it if we want, the tech is feasible, and if it is kept not just transparent but public, IMHO. Open source, for one thing, public. Humans are clever beasts and will outsmart themselves if there is a way.
”
As clever beasts in the US, we created the Fairness Doctrine that was in place from 1949 until 1986……points being: we have been there before, we can be there again, we need to have the public good being the goal instead of private profit/control and maintain vigilance.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 29 2023 3:46 utc | 196

Competition: an event in which there are more losers than winners. Otherwise, it is not a competition. A society based on competition is therefore primarily a society of losers.
— The Doubter’s Companion
Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 28 2023 22:26 utc | 180
In competition, that term more losers than winners… in competition there is only one winner.
This time the yanks with their clutch of chickens think they can defeat something the world has not seen before and in their ignorance, have no knowledge of.
The clowns in their ignorance will most likely pull a nuclear false flag in Ukraine. They have wired up Ukraine to detect a nuclear explosion. Idiot ukroids should be bailing out of that place now. They are nothing more than grist for the yankey/UK mill.
That drone video I watched of a Ukroid trench…Many bodies, the trench system devoid of life but Russian forces hadn’t bothered to occupy it. Gunners waiting for the next batch of Ukroid targets to be sent in.
It is an exceptionally lethal point in history to be brainwashed by US pysops.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 29 2023 4:41 utc | 198

Just to let you know that corruption in the US is fairly evenly spread there is this posting title
Whistleblower raises alarm over John Roberts’ wife making $10.3 million in legal commissions: ‘I knew immediately that it was wrong’
John Roberts is the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court….and he is a Catholic so I am sure Pope Frank would throw cover for this.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 29 2023 5:08 utc | 200