Posted by: Adonis Cirillo | May 31 2023 13:58 utc | 2
horseshit. is this going to be the justification for pivoting to a war with China after Ukraine loses?

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 31 2023 14:02 utc | 4

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7QLwSAcRQAk
Interview with G Edward Griffin.
Only way to prevent coming Reset etc is by revolution.
He is correct.
Meanwhile, most keep focusing on the next election which is just another stirring of the same evil stew.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 31 2023 14:05 utc | 6

Posted by: Adonis Cirillo | May 31 2023 13:58 utc | 2
Somebody else who doesn’t understand trade.
Imports are a HUGE benefit and improve your standing of living and exports are a cost when you look at trade in skills and real resources terms.An export deprives you of the use of your own real resource.
If Russia is receiving more real resources than it sends to China then it has a great deal. What’s called the ” real terms of trade”.

Posted by: Derek Henry | May 31 2023 14:12 utc | 8

Would you rather have Russians standing in factories working 14 hours a day producing running shoes and plastic toys.
Or the Chinese standing in factories working 14 hours a day producing running shoes and plastic toys. So that then Russia could use their skills and real resources on something more productive like Technology or finding a cure for cancer.
It’s all about what you want to do with your skills and real resources. That’s what Russia can run out of not Rubles. Skills and real resources are your constraints not money.
The EU decided to prioritise the EU for a small amount of exporters and not everybody in the whole economy. They force everybody to export their way to growth and impose austerity via deficit and debt rules. The act like Rome did over who they conquered. Which allows the larger exporting nations within the EU to export their unemployment to the periphery of the zone.

Posted by: Derek Henry | May 31 2023 14:25 utc | 10

Running trade deficits is normally a sign you won the wars. See Rome and US for details.
Running large trade surpluses normally means you lost the wars. See Germany and Japan for details.
You see it when you forget about the numbers and think in real resource terms. Was always known as the real terms of trade.

Posted by: Derek Henry | May 31 2023 14:30 utc | 12

i meant to include Assange.

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 31 2023 14:35 utc | 14

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 31 2023 14:27 utc | 11
Dear friend: “so long as I knew for a fact I’d never done anything illegal, why consent to DNA and what charges would he have been arrested for?”
I think you have forgotten that it is not what you do- it is what you write, what thougth you have, your worldview. Be carefull
SlavaKIT
SlavaLira
SlavaAssange

Posted by: Paul from Norway | May 31 2023 14:49 utc | 16

“In a downbeat forecast for growth across advanced G20 economies, it said a ramping up of interest rates by central banks on both sides of the Atlantic was expected to weigh on economic growth this year.”
“We expect very weak growth in key advanced economies in particular, including mild recessions in the US, UK and Germany, and stagnant economic activity in France and Italy,” Moody’s said in a report.
Funny, few days ago seemed everything was hunky dorey.

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | May 31 2023 14:57 utc | 18

@Paul from Norway | May 31 2023 14:43 utc | 15

We have all been had!!!

Remember how the left in Europe used to be socialist an pacifist? Well for sure something happened between the eighties and nineties, when they all suddenly and simultaneously became green and lost all interest in universal peace and social progress.
I occasionally speak old leftists who kept hanging on to the transitioned movement. Any mention of “where pacificsm” elicits embarrassment. With the young “green lefties” its only blank stares

Posted by: Lurk | May 31 2023 15:06 utc | 20

@#2…. nonsense. The Russia/China trade is mutually beneficial. China buys energy resources and military technology. Russia buys finished manufactured goods. Nothing wrong with this. It is how they have kept their economy going. Russia/India trade is a bit of a problem. Russia sells India energy resources and gets back??? India is working on that but doesn’t really have enough output to compete with China. India is a long time friend of Russia and Russia wants India as an active participant in BRICS. So Russia just bites the bullet here. The USA is by far the worst trading partner. You sell the US stuff and get pigeon holed into a mafia style financial trap were you run the risk of having everything stolen.

Posted by: goldhoarder | May 31 2023 15:10 utc | 22

CounterPunch recently ran this article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/26/the-death-penalty-for-homelessness/ which is mostly an okay piece, though it decides to be lazy and misreport the Jordan Neely incident (the man was in the middle of a psychotic outburst and potentially dangerous. I’m not endorsing the use of a chokehold, but there was important context. Or just be lazy and accuse the other guy of being a Nazi, sure, fine. That’s good journalism, right).
But, and maybe this qualifies as petty or an ad hominem, but I think it every time CounterPunch runs an article on homelessness, I literally work in homeless outreach in the town Jeffery St. Clair lives in. *One of my key coworkers lives in his fucking neighborhood*. He has never done or even said fuckall on our behalf. I’ve also seen no indication he does anything on that front for neighboring Portland. Evidently his son will go there to take poverty tourism photos for these articles though. But they’re all conspicuously absent on the ground when it comes to actually doing anything.

Posted by: OC Anonymous | May 31 2023 15:30 utc | 24

It really is shocking that Kit Klarenberg was treated in this way.
Will the matter be mention in Parliament?
Will the government be called to account for its actions? Not likely with the Trilateral Commission running the Labour Party opposition.
In recent months there has been an accelerated trend towards fascist legislation as the clowns running the country, mediocrities in the most optimistic assessments, try to enjot all the advantages of war without running the risk of incurring casualties.
I can’t wait for the hatchet jobs in The Guardian and the London Review of Books.

Posted by: bevin | May 31 2023 15:59 utc | 26

Posted by: Paul from Norway | May 31 2023 14:49 utc | 16
You’re relatively new around these parts, so let me explain what I actually wrote and what I meant. I might be a bit of a loose cannon in my personal life, although I’ve mellowed and am more of a firebrand now, but if that had happened to me in England, if I was his age, and knowing all that I happen to know about Klarenberg’s history (he lays it out in the article), I probably would have said: “Go ahead and arrest me then so that we can get the ball rolling and I can call my attorney.” This isn’t a case of the USA or another world power wanting KK extradited on bullshit Trumped (pun intended) up charges by way of the Espionage Act.
Like pretzelattack said, I also don’t know the intricacies of British law, exactly which law could have been used to arrest and charge him, and it seems like they have lobbed several nebulous accusations at him in the past, then dropped them. Point being, this isn’t the same thing as what happened to Assange or Lira. Assange was caught in a trap, Lira was either too brave or too stupid to leave Ukraine while he could.
A note on my own personal approach. I understand that saying “Fuck you. Arrest me then.” sounds cool and tough online, but that most people simply don’t have that luxury. They have people to visit, family to meet, work schedules to keep, and money to be earned. But I honestly would have pushed them to the edge of arresting me if not actually being arrested under the circumstances had I been in my 20s or early 30s. That would bring a lot more attention to the matter than a story in Gray Zone.
Let’s think about this: He was already detained for 5 hours. Was made to give up his genetic material, fingerprinted, photographed extensively. All the things that happen when…well, wait for it….YOU’RE ARRESTED. So I have to think there is something more to the story. What was he worried might actually stick if he surrendered himself to longer-term custody? He knows he’s angering Empire and its lackeys, has received written notification of investigations, and he knows what has happened over the years to journalists and their families (Greenwald’s former husband, for ex.) at airports. Didn’t he have a contingency plan?
Blah, blah. I’m glad he’s OK and I totally get that we have given our customs and border police fascist authoritarian powers with virtually zero accountability. Perhaps I’m stuck in the 90s and not aware of just HOW bad things have gotten in the liberal democratic west. Goes to show, however, scratch a liberal/Democrat reveal a fascist, scratch a conservative/Republican/Tory scratch a fascist.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 31 2023 16:08 utc | 28

RE: Klarenberg and UK fascist law, to anyone who knows the law in Britain:
What is Paragraph 23 of Schedule 3? From the looks of it, they have granted themselves extraordinary powers to prosecute someone who refuses to provide certain information on demand at a port/point of entry into the country. What are the potential punishments? Are we talking jail time? If so, how much? Has anyone ever been charged and then found not guilty? Have charges been filed and dropped quickly in the past? On the face of it, it looks like perhaps a milquetoast tool for intimidation that might result in some serious inconvenience, but not a genuine criminal record and possibly even a badge of honor for a real investigative journalist such as Kit Klarenberg. Or is it much worse than that? Does it lead to years of jail and landing on a lifetime no-fly list? That would seem very draconian, and therefore unlikely, but I guess I’m probably naïve and still stuck in my own youthful years.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 31 2023 16:19 utc | 30

Klarenberg’s work is published on the Grayzone. Aaren Mate.
Constantly rails against Bellingcat.
Unsurprising he is being intimidated. Such is Western ideals, they prefer the idea of a ‘rules=based order’.
Still trying to figure out what that means. Never documented. Clearly nothing to do with international laws or human rights.

Posted by: Ant. | May 31 2023 16:32 utc | 32

I am curious, wonder if anyone has familiarity:
What are the impediments (beyond the usual) to vacationing or relocating to Russia?
Is no one interested in that prospect?
I expect that moving money would be a problem, but are there legal and logistical hurdles?
Anyway, there was an interesting poll on Slavyangrad other day querying where their readers were located and preliminary results were that only 8% of readers were from North America and about 50% were from Europe – which seems overly broad – as I recall.
I get the impression that there are no Russian (nor Chinese) citizen/residents on Moon’ and I have that same impression from reading Z/H and most other blogs. Are Russian residents unable to access these western blogs or are they just being discrete, I wonder.

Posted by: jared | May 31 2023 17:06 utc | 34

Anti-Chinese propaganda on YouTube

Adonis Cirillo | May 31 2023 13:58 utc | 2
WARNING! Chinese Economic Multipolarity is a ‘SCAM’…

YouTube has a number of Anti-Chinese propaganda channels, that are heavily promoted by YouTube’s algorithms. I came across one this morning.

@serpentza

The latest outburst was about pollution in China. Yes, industry brings pollution. China has industrialized, while the West has deindustrialized.
I lived in the US in the early 1970s. Pollution was constantly discussed. New York City was covered by a cloud of smog. Manhattan was full of filth, even its better parts.
The Bowery, a major street in Lower Manhattan, was the home of thousand of homeless bums, making their minimal living by “washing windows”. Every time the traffic lights turned red, a horde of men in rags would flood the roadway and attack the wave of passing cars with buckets of dirty water. Drivers might pay the men to make the nuisance go away.
Years later I saw Pirates of the Carribean. Davy_Jones and his crew vividly reminded me of the men of Bowery.
NYC was a much better place in the early 2000s. With current trends it may soon go the way of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | May 31 2023 17:25 utc | 36

A really good discussion of what neoliberalism is in less than 15 minutes, perfect for those friends and family that need such things explained to them. The guy is very good at explaining such things in a very clear and concise way.
What Exactly Is Neo-liberalism? (how you lost your future)

Posted by: Roger | May 31 2023 17:43 utc | 38

Re: being detained by state security at the airport
Barflies – please don‘t be so naive, we have long long ago left rule-of-law behind and now have arbitary rule-by-men. Please re-read the first volume of The Gulag ti learn how a slide into a ruthless tyranny gradually happens.

Posted by: Exile | May 31 2023 18:22 utc | 40

Posted by: Hermit | May 31 2023 18:42 utc | 42
Seriously?
You firstly state that, quote ‘All political terms are being deliberately confused and redefined’.
And you then go on to state your own declarations of political definitions.
I think you need to look in a mirror.

Posted by: Ant. | May 31 2023 18:57 utc | 42

Whew! Glad that’s settled!
China can breathe a sigh of relief.
BBC has been busy fine-tuning the definition of anti-semitism for the last half-hour – in conjunction with the latest a-IAEA (anti-Iran Atomic Energy Agency) “report” that Iran is stockpiling excessive Enriched Uranium. Again.
Since “Israel” is the only Iranophobic country on Earth, it’s a pretty safe bet that AmeriKKKa’s bosses in Tel Aviv will refuse permission for the Yankees to attack China before they’ve bombed Iran back to the Stone Age.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 31 2023 18:58 utc | 44

b., Thanks for this report; and pretzelattack @ 17, too, for the link to Caitlin Johnstone’s piece.
Relevant, too, is Matt Taibbi’s experience now in US with his tax returns, an intimidating letter from US Rep. Plaskett, etc., following his recent “Twitter files” reports and related work on extensive government involvement in MSM. He’s on Substack but here’s a link to an interview on YouTube:
https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=BesT3h-JN-A

Posted by: onceandfuture | May 31 2023 19:02 utc | 46

Joe Biden’s former assistant Tara Reade, who accused him of harassment, intends to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to grant her Russian citizenship.
She noted that she is now in Russia, where she was received “with open arms” and hopes that she will continue to live in Moscow in complete safety.
“I would like to apply for Russian citizenship and ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to grant me this citizenship,” she said.
https://t.me/iEarlGreyTV/5649

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | May 31 2023 19:31 utc | 48

So Pepe has some things to say about Erdogan’s re-election:
(Cradle)The Sultan 2.0 will heavily tilt east
“The collective west was dying to bury him – yet another strategic mistake that did not take into account the mood of Turkish voters in deep Anatolia.
In the end, Recep Tayyip Erdogan did it – again. Against all his shortcomings, like an aging neo-Ottoman Sinatra, he did it “my way,” comfortably retaining Turkiye’s presidency after naysayers had all but buried him.
The first order of geopolitical priority is who will be named Minister of Foreign Affairs. The prime candidate is Ibrahim Kalin – the current all-powerful Erdogan press secretary cum top adviser.
Compared to incumbent Cavusoglu, Kalin, in theory, may be qualified as more pro-west. Yet it’s the Sultan who calls the shots. It will be fascinating to watch how Turkiye under Erdogan 2.0 will navigate the strengthening of ties with West Asia and the accelerating process of Eurasia integration.”

Posted by: Bemildred | May 31 2023 20:36 utc | 50

Bemildred | May 31 2023 20:36 utc | 50–
I was going to provide a similar FYI. IMO, the importance resides in all the ongoing interlinkages of which there’re many. Back when Russia intervened in Syria, I wrote that Erdogan would continue to act on Turkey’s genuine national interests and NOT fight Russia. That prediction was proven correct as well as what I wrote about him spurning the West.
Over the last three months lots has taken place in Central and West Asia which Pepe shows is now coalescing. The big factor here will be the boost given to the socio-economic sphere of the entire region–from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan–that will provide greater stability to the regional governments while taking away the levers used to foment Color Revolutions–employed men making money for their families don’t engage in efforts to upend their own interests/stability whereas the idle are easily tempted. And with the dollar rapidly becoming a non-grata currency, few are willing to take the usual bribes. The interlocking of the myriad regional organizations with the more well-known SCO, BRICS, CSTO, and EAEU will further facilitate peaceful relations between all nations, even those that are currently the most disgruntled. The Grand Coup is the fact that the West has nothing to offer except leaving the region, which it will delay as long as possible: Getting the Empire to leave Qatar, Iraq and Bahrain will be very difficult, although the debt issue will certainly help.
////////
As for Kit Klarenberg’s dilemma, that “law” is why people must avoid transiting UK points-of-entry which is where it can be applied. Better to drive through the Chunnel than arrive at Heathrow if you value your freedom.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 31 2023 21:12 utc | 52

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 31 2023 21:16 utc | 53
Forgot my 2nd footnote:
**Laughably, the USA PATRIOT part of the act is an acronym. Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. LOL
Unfortunately that’s where the funny part ends.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 31 2023 21:18 utc | 54

Posted by: karlof1 | May 31 2023 21:12 utc | 52
Thank you for you comment. Personally, I would not compare you to Ozymandias.
I stopped travelling about 20 years ago, mainly because of DHS and the whole surveillance state. They have turned travel into an ordeal, and they still want you to pay.
I remember Joe McCarthy, though I was young.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Kit. He seems to have the fire in his belly, I think he can hold his own. King Chuck has to shore up his image, what better way than by releasing Kit, or Assange?
Erdogan is an interesting politician, he’s come a long way. I have never liked him, but I came to have a grudging repect for his political skills. And he has somehow kept Turkey independent.
I think the future of Central Asia looks very volatile, but everybody wants development, and the major states seem to be on good terms, so maybe they can work things out. Trouble in the Caucasus seems more likely. Aliyev makes me nervous.

Posted by: Bemildred | May 31 2023 21:32 utc | 56

@ 57
. . .the domestic Russian birth rate is ‘Negative’
There is a declining birth rate in Developed Countries; having had children I totally understand it.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 31 2023 21:59 utc | 58

Posted by: Adonis Cirillo | May 31 2023 21:48 utc | 57
Aw, how cute. A neoliberal “humanitarian.” Tell me something: Do you honestly think the average struggling Brit or American gives two drops of piss what the economic situation is in the RF when we have food lines two miles long?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 31 2023 22:03 utc | 60

Arms which we sent to Ukraine have been spotted at the US’s southern border.
Mexican TV news
Joe, you’re doing a heck of a job.

Posted by: Passerby | May 31 2023 22:15 utc | 62

Adonis Cirillo @ 2, 57:
Zanon, is that you up to your old tricks again of being alarmist under a new name?
China “controlling” (or rather, capturing) 20% of Russia’s consumer goods market, Chinese-brand cars now accounting for 19.2% share of the total Russian market for cars? Ford and General Motors must be weeping to see such stats as you quote: they left the Russian car market and had to abandon their joint venture efforts with local Russian car manufacturers because of, you know, the sanctions … now Chinese carmakers will soon be participating in joint ventures with the same local Russian carmakers.
Likewise, Renault had to leave Russia because of … sanctions, and sold its plant to the Russian government. Ditto for Mercedes-Benz. So the other 80.8% of the Russian car market that would once have been supplied by other, mostly Western and Japanese carmakers instead will be supplied by Russian state companies and/or carmakers from countries ignoring US / NATO pressures not to trade or have any other exchanges and transactions with Russia.
As for those 4.1 million emigrating from Russia over 10 years, that works out to an average of 410,000 leaving every year during that period. Not so large, is it? And you omit, deliberately I suspect, to say how many people (and what percentage of them were professionally qualified people aged in their 20s – 40s) entered Russia during that same period.
By the way, The Moscow Times is now based in the Netherlands with its main owner (51% ownership) being a Chinese-Russian head of an airline catering company.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | May 31 2023 22:59 utc | 64

Moldova is jumping the shark.
Going to allow the fox into the hen house.
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=35580

Posted by: Derek Henry | May 31 2023 23:41 utc | 66

The Grand Jury page which previews the case and lists all the witnesses to be called:
https://stopworldcontrol.com/jury/

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 1 2023 0:00 utc | 68

For those who expressed interest in my descriptions of life in China (Jared @34, where were you yesterday!) and would appreciate something visual, here is a link to the first of a series of roughly half hour films I have made over the past ten years.
The series is called A Stranger in a Strange Land, a quotation which Juliana and others I am sure will recognise. China: another planet opens with scenes from the Zhangjiajie National Park that inspired the world in director James Cameron’s Avatar before giving some general introduction. Then I will take you on a whirlwind tour of three provinces.
In Guangdong, to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, rural and beachside locations.
To Sichuan (pictured shortly after the earthquake in 2008 and before I had moved on to video) to the Chengdu region focusing on the town of Dujiangyan, where a vast irrigation project was set up over two thousand years ago.
Finally some of the sights in Xi’an in Shaanxi province, climaxing with the Terracotta Army.
https://vimeo.com/286354627
Have a look!

Posted by: Walt | Jun 1 2023 0:15 utc | 70

@Petri Krohn
Yeah. Pollution USED to be really bad in China. I mean TERRIBLE. But it isn’t today.
China made major changes to the pollution profile on China starting on 2013. It’s now ten years later, and it is like day and night.
Oh sure, there were work-arounds, and all sorts of things factories did to get around the laws, but in the end, the corruption police made sure that compliance was universal. Add that to the fact that all public transportation (read busses and taxis) are EV. And that a super high percentage of vehicles an motorbikes are EV, China today is not only clean, but QUIET.
Here’s a video that I made of the subject. Just views around China with my narrative about the why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vpQCefbArY

Posted by: Rufus Arrr | Jun 1 2023 0:19 utc | 72

Lula screams for a currency union in South America.
HUGE mistake and he is going to relearn all the faults of the neoliberal globalist Eurozone architecture.
Somebody needs to sit down with him and explain to him what full sovereignty really means. Get him to stop taking as if what he has is still the gold standard or fixed exchange rates. He fails to understand the economic freedom he has because of his wrong ideas about money.
Why the common currency he is proposing is exactly that, a gold standard with fixed exchange rates. Which will completely constrain his economic policies. The last thing he should do is give up his sovereignty.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XGp6CUAAnO4
Instead, learn how money really works and use it to his full potential.

Posted by: Derek Henry | Jun 1 2023 0:29 utc | 74

Returning to ‘The Bridge’ and ….
If British agents had indeed orchestrated the attack on the Kerch Bridge, they likely drew on past operations that bore eery similarities. In 2006, an NGO known as British Irish Rights Watch published testimony by anonymous former British intelligence informants revealing that MI6 had spearheaded a false flag terror strategy known as the “human bomb” in Northern Ireland.
Civilians were strapped into explosive-packed vehicles, then coerced to drive into military checkpoints, inflicting incendiary attacks on targets that killed soldiers and civilians alike. The wave of bombing strikes inflamed local tensions, and provided justification for draconian British state repression of the province’s Catholic population.
“It is known that at least two security force agents were involved in these bombings and allegations have been made that the human bomb strategy was the brainchild of British intelligence [emphasis added],” British Irish Rights Watch stated in an accompanying report.
Given the contents of the leaked material reviewed by The Grayzone, it is striking that the explosives used to target the Kerch Bridge originated in Odessa. Located just across the Black Sea from Crimea, this city hosted the SSU unit that served as the basis for Donnelly and Prevail’s secret terror army.
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/11/03/british-spies-terror-army-ukraine/

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 1 2023 0:59 utc | 76

Whoops. Shouldn’t have included the link. Previous post was disappeared. I’m sure it’s on many blacklists.
Anyway I pirate a lot of content like movies online as subscription fees are ridiculous and who wants to or can afford to pay $20-$30/month for 4 or more streaming platforms? One of the best bittorrent sites in the business suddenly and without warning last night. If these guys are dealing with surging energy prices, imagine what it’s like for manufacturing and farming…

Hello guys,
We would like to inform you that we have decided to shut down our site.
The past 2 years have been very difficult for us – some of the people in our team died due to covid complications,
others still suffer the side effects of it – not being able to work at all.
Some are also fighting the war in Europe – ON BOTH SIDES.
Also, the power price increase in data centers in Europe hit us pretty hard.
Inflation makes our daily expenses impossible to bare.
Therefore we can no longer run this site without massive expenses that we can no longer cover out of pocket.
After an unanimous vote we’ve decided that we can no longer do it.
We are sorry 🙁
Bye

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 1 2023 1:02 utc | 78

Holding their feet to the fire
Speaking of the Grayzone, they recently published a piece on their interactions with National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Vice President of Communications and Public Engagement Leslie Aun. She had approached the journal to question why writer Alex Rubinstein had described NED as a “CIA cutout”, and in a telephone coversation with him and Max Blumenthal promised to provide evidence to back up her claims of NED benevolence. When she failed to follow through, the Grayzone decided to publish an edited version of their conversation. It’s quite something to listen to Aun squirm and insist that NED and the CIA have nothing to do with one another as the journalists cite copious evidence that in fact they are closely related.
Also worth checking out is this recent interview by Afshin Rattansi of former US National Security Director for European Affairs Charles Kupchan. Over and over again Rattansi calls BS on Kupchan’s propaganda, yet he goes on declaring that the world in a better place as a result of the past however-many decades of US malfeasance. Surreal.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Jun 1 2023 1:56 utc | 80

The Institute for Statecraft and Integrity Initiative will NEVER forgive Kit Klarenberg for gatecrashing their party. And MI6 and its branches will forever pursue him as they supply the funding to those two quaint organisations.
Kit Klarenberg is doing something right – as usual.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 1 2023 2:03 utc | 82

Margaret Kimberley always has something interesting to say:
https://www.blackagendareport.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-sheepdogging-and-liberal-fantasy

Posted by: bevin | Jun 1 2023 2:26 utc | 84

Perhaps of relevance to past and future US elections. I posted some of this report relevant to the Ukraine thread but this is of broad relevance and barflies who keep away from Ukraine Liberation thread might appreciate it.
Whitney Webb reports The Prince And The Spy

A New Pattern for [Eric] Prince
Comframe is a very suspect company – it is highly, highly secretive, targets sensitive American military agencies with foreign technology, and its known employees are apparent spooks and intelligence-linked mercenaries. Not only that, but the history of Israeli espionage in the United States – from Jonathan Pollard and PROMIS to Comverse and beyond – shows a concerted effort to target the American military and security agencies, often with bugged or “backdoored” technology.
In addition to the above, Prince has also recently engaged in efforts to market a very suspect smartphone to MAGA Republicans as being “unhackable” and “unsurveillable.” That phone was “designed in Israel” and the company that produces it is called Unplugged. According to reports, Unplugged’s “day-to-day technology operations are run by Eran Karpen, a former employee of CommuniTake, the Israeli start-up that gave rise to the now infamous hacker-for-hire firm NSO Group.” Karpen, like Leshem, is also a veteran of Unit 8200.
Notably, DarkMatter, the UAE private intelligence company that was mentioned earlier due to its association with Prince, once marketed an “ultrasecure” phone called Katim, only to be later outed for hacking dissidents and journalists. In addition, Prince debuted Unplugged’s phone on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program. Both Prince and Bannon have controversial relationships with exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Guo.
That Prince would help market this phone specifically to MAGA Republicans is disturbing given that his associate Leshem and other Israeli intelligence veterans and operatives have played a major role in developing the infrastructure for the US’ “War on Domestic Terror,” which is mainly targeted at the political right and has already utilized mass surveillance through smartphones and other technologies to justify arrests, including “pre-crime” arrests. Given the content of this investigation, Prince’s ties to foreign governments and intelligence agencies should be heavily scrutinized, especially Comframe – whose secretive activities may be drastically undermining American national security.

Perhaps this explains the flawed Patriot missile system in more ways than we could have imagined.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 1 2023 3:18 utc | 86

G7

Jp host G7 to blast China
We must stand up to China’s coercion
We do not allow China changing the status quo in TW straits/SCS..
China the greatest threat to the rule based international order..
blah blah blah

G7 is nuthin but [7 liars], an extension of [five liars] tracing right back to the 8NA.
iTS Looking for new blood to make up for the shortfall after Russia was booted out.
SK’S Yoon Suk Yeol, who managed to piss off Russia.,./China/NK big time, was drooling for a seat in the prestigious club.
Only to be unceremoniously told off by the Jp
‘

NO such consideration , ever’

OUch !
It figures.
Jp has been in cloud nine as the only ‘honorable whitemen‘, not in a hurry to share that glory with the lowly kooks, Yoon’s eager brownnosing
notwithstanding.
Here comes bharat the egomaniac

Why Does the G7 Need India?

Sure the gardenist want Indians for their perenial sepoys, thats all, as for G7,

Its a big club and you aint in it

G7

We need to deal with the China/India monsters.
How about getting them to go for each other’s throat ?

heheheh
——————–
‘I fail to see that it is not in the West’s interest to see the Chinese and the Indians at each other’s throats.”
http://gregoryclark.net/redif.html

Posted by: denk | Jun 1 2023 3:53 utc | 88

Australia has the yellow submarine blues as the USA reneges on the deal.
https://dissidentvoice.org/2023/05/aukus-congress-and-cold-feet/#more-140707

The undertakings made by Australia regarding the AUKUS security pact promise to be monumental. Much of this is negative: increased militarisation on the home front; the co-opting of the university sector for war making industries and defence contractors; and the capitulation and total subordination of the Australian Defence Force to the Pentagon.
There are also other, neglected dimensions at work here: the failure, as yet, for the Commonwealth to establish a viable, acceptable site for the long term storage of high-grade nuclear waste; the uncertainty about where the submarines will be located; the absence of skills in the construction and operational level in Australia regarding nuclear-powered submarines; and, fundamentally, whether a nuclear-powered Australian-UK-US submarine (AUKUS SSN) will ever see the light of day.
One obstacle, habitually ignored in the Australian dialogue on AUKUS, are the rumbling concerns in the US itself about transferring submarines from the US Navy in the first place. These concerns are summarised in the Congressional Research Service report released on May 22, outlining the background and issues for US politicians regarding the procurement of the Virginia (SSN-774) submarine. “One issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify DOD’s AUKUS-related legislative package for the FY2024 NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] sent to Congress on May 2, 2023”. This includes requested authorisation for the transfer of “up to two Virginia-class SSNs to the government of Australia in the form of sale, with the costs of the transfer to be covered by the government of Australia.”
A laundry list of concerns and potentially grave issues are suggested, and the report is clear that these are not exhaustive. They are also bound to send shivers down the spine of the adulatory Canberra planning establishment, so keen to keep Washington interested. There is, for instance, the question as to whether the transfer of the Virginia-class boats should be authorised as part of the 2024 financial year, or deferred “until a future NDAA.”
There is also the matter about how many submarines should be part of the request, whether it remains up to two as per the current request, or larger numbers. With those numbers also comes the dilemma as to what vintage they will be: those with less than 33 years of expected service life, or newly minted ones with the full 33-year period of operational service. (We can already hazard a guess on that one.)
The issue of cost also looms large. What will Australia, for instance, pay for the Virginia-class vessels, and furthermore, the amount that would be needed as “a proportionate financial investment” in Washington’s own “submarine construction industrial base.” Such a potentially delicious state of affairs for US shipbuilders, who will be receiving funds from the Australian purse to accelerate ship-building efforts.

Virginia class… the ones that bump into sub sea mountains… trash cans of history.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 1 2023 5:36 utc | 90

I consider ELP to be a peace/antiwar/maybe pro-pirates rock and roll band. Given the prior achievement of The Nice’s America (instrumental protest song) and the lyrical content of Crimson’s Schizoid, much respect for the simple and effective efforts like Lucky Man, and of course the ethics of the time, which are hard to reproduce these days, but if you are old enough, hard to forget.

Posted by: Not Ewe | Jun 1 2023 7:07 utc | 92

If someone has an up-to-date blacklist or whitelist for MoA helper, could you consider posting?

Posted by: Passerby | Jun 1 2023 7:47 utc | 94

See – sometimes it is worth having a gander at mainstream media. I’ve just taken a quick look at Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald in the hope of garnering information about the death of James Walters, a chap who was found dead who had been loudly protesting about Australia’s support for Ukraine war criminals, who had been threatened by ukies resident in Oz for some time.
I didn’t find anything about Mr Walters, however I did learn that alleged Australian hero, former SAS corporal who had been awarded a Victoria Cross for his activities on behalf of Australia in Afghanistan and who had tried to sue a couple of mainstream fishwraps, plus a TV channel for libel on the grounds they had defamed him when they detailed his murders and other atrocities, has talked himself into more shit than a Werribee duck, cause the court decided that the defense; that the allegations were substantially true, was in fact correct.
You can read some of the details right here. You won’t be able to read all of the reasons for the decision until Monday cos the crooked government argued that they needed until then to check that no secrets would be leaked by the reasons for judgement but that is really shutting the stable door too late since from today everybody will know that the Oz SAS murdered, tortured and otherwise demeaned innocent Afghan civilians. That cat can never be put back in the bag.
The way it looks right now, the government will have no choice but to charge Roberts-Smith with war crimes and there are many witnesses both Afghans & fellow soldiers who will testify he committed them.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 1 2023 9:01 utc | 96

Why wouldn’t Klarenberg tell them to just arrest him then? I mean unless I was in a position like Julian Assange where I knew that there was likely a secret American indictment on me, so long as I knew for a fact I’d never done anything illegal, why consent to DNA and what charges would he have been arrested for?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 31 2023 14:27 utc | 11
You don’t know what he did or didn’t say.
These days crimes are what “they” say they are.
It’s always easy to say what you would do if it were you. Not so easy to so it trapped on a small room with 6 men. Probably big ones.

Posted by: Mary | Jun 1 2023 9:36 utc | 98

” US exports in US dollars and exports inflation ”
Is as per usual a gold standard, fixed income exchange rate observation. Today pass through is very limited and the real data shows it as explained beautifully here.
Is exchange rate depreciation inflationary?
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=32922
Another reason is that if imports become expensive households simply stop buying them. Households only have a certain amount of disposable income every month if imports become expensive households start buying local alternatives instead.
What that means is exporters to your nation have some tough choices to make it they want to keep their market share. Lower wages, pay off staff, reduce working hours or go bankrupt etc etc.
If the exporters decide to reduce their prices to keep their market share then the floating exchange rate adjusts and your currency becomes stronger.
See Brexit for details Paul. When the £ fell dramatically because stupid buggers were shorting sterling who got affected the most ?
Ask the Irish exporters and mushroom and dairy farmers who actually went bankrupt because of it. Irish exporters suffered big time as speculators shorted sterling. British households were hardly affected at all. Unless you were off on a foreign holiday.
So the question still remains, do you want to use your skills and real resources to prop up your exporters and those that go on foreign holidays. Or set up an economy that provides for everybody ?

Posted by: Derek Henry | Jun 1 2023 10:05 utc | 100