Kunstler has a good piece today on the future of the US:
We’re Not Finished

It is the end of an era. Believe it or not, the economy will fix itself, it just won’t be what it was in 1957. It won’t be what the techno-supremacists think, either. (You need a dependable electric grid to run all those server farms and the apps they serve, and the AI supposedly looming.) It will fix itself because when things fail, as they are doing now, a lot of opportunities will open up to do things differently, even very differently.

Kunstler leads into scenarios of local, small production. He is usually worth a read and this one feels quite powerful to me. I think he essentially nails it, and of course mileage may vary from person to person. (I note that Martyanov highlighted this piece also.)
Interestingly, Jeffrey Tucker makes an appearance at Wall Street Silver and notes a similar thing: that the small-business climate in the USA is actually quite favorable – and, given Kunstler, and a climate of capital seeking safe investment today, that would all make good sense. Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZQnOnLIgVk
It’s a metal-head show, so you’ll hear about gold and silver, and don’t let the headline put you off, but for a view of the economy from someone who has often nailed it, in my opinion, it’s 15 minutes you may enjoy.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 13 2023 3:12 utc | 104

@ psychohistorian | Jun 13 2023 0:06 utc | 99
Thanks for that link – or actually, no link. Here’s the source if people want to study it:
The Shanghai International Gold Exchange and Its Role in De-Dollarization
Can’t read it tonight but it looks valuable, and thanks for your recommendation. It looks like a good primer on something that interests all of us.
What piqued me was the initial statement that China can convert gold and renminbi without affecting its balance of payments. I’m pretty simple in this field but that seemed like a very large thing to me – being the reserve currency always seemed before to impinge on a nation’s balance of payments.
I look forward to reading this, in a stronger moment 😉

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 13 2023 3:43 utc | 106

@ Grieved | Jun 13 2023 3:43 utc | 105 with the follow on about the Shanghai International Gold Exchange
If/when you understand the difference between yuan and renminbi and how the potential differences effect how gold is traded/managed in relation to both/either, please let me know.
The West will try and game the relationship and empire has zillions of dollars to buy all China gold if allowed to.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 13 2023 4:52 utc | 108

Erdogan ratfucks NATO:
Turkey not ready to approve Sweden’s bid to join NATO at June 14 meeting – Bloomberg
“Ankara claims that the Turkish side has adopted an anti-terrorist law in order to prevent anti-Turkish protests in the country. However, there is no provision in the law that would allow such a step,” the newspaper writes.
In response, Sweden stated that it has similar interests to Turkey in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.
Good ! He’s inside the tent pissing inwards.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Jun 13 2023 13:15 utc | 110

110 – https://news.antiwar.com/2023/06/12/sweden-approves-extradition-of-pkk-supporter-to-turkey-amid-nato-bid/

Posted by: Waldorf | Jun 13 2023 16:19 utc | 112

Recent Unz piece on origins of WWII:
https://www.unz.com/runz/why-everything-you-know-about-world-war-ii-is-wrong/

Perhaps the most obvious of these is the question of the true origins of the war, which laid waste to much of Europe, killed perhaps fifty or sixty million, and gave rise to the subsequent Cold War era in which Communist regimes controlled half of the entire Eurasian world-continent. Taylor, Irving, and numerous others have thoroughly debunked the ridiculous mythology that the cause lay in Hitler’s mad desire for world conquest, but if the German dictator clearly bore only minor responsibility, was there indeed any true culprit? Or did this massively-destructive world war come about in somewhat similar fashion to its predecessor, which our conventional histories treat as mostly due to a collection of blunders, misunderstandings, and thoughtless escalations?
During the 1930s, John T. Flynn was one of America’s most influential progressive journalists, and although he had begun as a strong supporter of Roosevelt and his New Deal, he gradually became a sharp critic, concluding that FDR’s various governmental schemes had failed to revive the American economy. Then in 1937 a new economic collapse spiked unemployment back to the same levels as when the president had first entered office, confirming Flynn in his harsh verdict. And as I wrote last year:
Indeed, Flynn alleges that by late 1937, FDR had turned towards an aggressive foreign policy aimed at involving the country in a major foreign war, primarily because he believed that this was the only route out of his desperate economic and political box, a stratagem not unknown among national leaders throughout history. In his January 5, 1938 New Republic column, he alerted his disbelieving readers to the looming prospect of a large naval military build-up and warfare on the horizon after a top Roosevelt adviser had privately boasted to him that a large bout of “military Keynesianism” and a major war would cure the country’s seemingly insurmountable economic problems. At that time, war with Japan, possibly over Latin American interests, seemed the intended goal, but developing events in Europe soon persuaded FDR that fomenting a general war against Germany was the best course of action. Memoirs and other historical documents obtained by later researchers seem to generally support Flynn’s accusations by indicating that Roosevelt ordered his diplomats to exert enormous pressure upon both the British and Polish governments to avoid any negotiated settlement with Germany, thereby leading to the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
The last point is an important one since the confidential opinions of those closest to important historical events should be accorded considerable evidentiary weight. In a recent article John Wear mustered the numerous contemporaneous assessments that implicated FDR as a pivotal figure in orchestrating the world war by his constant pressure upon the British political leadership, a policy that he privately even admitted could mean his impeachment if revealed. Among other testimony, we have the statements of the Polish and British ambassadors to Washington and the American ambassador to London, who also passed along the concurring opinion of Prime Minister Chamberlain himself. Indeed, the German capture and publication of secret Polish diplomatic documents in 1939 had already revealed much of this information, and William Henry Chamberlin confirmed their authenticity in his 1950 book. But since the mainstream media never reported any of this information, these facts remain little known even today.

There are many other sections following including about historians who were cancelled long ago, and what happened in D-land after the war and so on. Unz doesn’t always go as deep as some, but he is honest and thorough.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 13 2023 17:38 utc | 114

Cont’d from #93
Yesterday Razgruzka Vagnera has published another angry reaction to the MoD’s order, this time by Ratibor, commander of Wagner’s 1st Assault Squad, Hero of Russia (MoA commenters may remember him as the bearded guy raising Russian and Wagner flags over the westernmost apartment building in Artyomovsk, signifying the end of the battle for the city):

Has this happened before? Or is it déjà vu!???
A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but ENVY the rottenness of the bones!!! (Proverbs 14:30 [KJV — S])
Not so long ago, in 2016, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Federation approved the decision to provide military assistance to the SAR in the fight against world terrorism represented by ISIS, which, in its essence, was entirely a project of the West.
This assistance consisted of providing air superiority by the Russian Aerospace Forces. However, in essence and in fact, the Wagner PMC took upon itself the entire burden of ground operations. Since the Syrian army at that time was completely demoralized, did not believe in victory (of Assad) and was conducting covert negotiations with ISIS representatives about guarantees of its security. Many commanders and fighters of the Syrian Army went over to the side of ISIS.
In March 2016, the entire world was glued to TV screens and following closely the ongoing rampage of terrorists in the ancient city of Palmyra/Tadmor (murder of civilians, live executions).
At that time, a Wagner PMC group was located on the territory of the SAR. At the request of the top leadership of the country and the generals of the SAR, the Wagner PMC group arrived in the vicinity of the ancient city without a second thought. Having assessed the situation and made a decision, the groups proceeded to liberate the city from world terrorism (ISIS). Having captured the dominant heights through fighting, completely cutting off the supply of the terrorists, the groups proceeded to clean up the city. Through the competent decision of the commander and the coordinated actions of our employees, the ancient city was liberated by the end of March 2016. This operation was carried out exclusively by the fighters of the Wagner PMC.
It is also impossible to keep silent about our fallen comrades-in-arms during the liberation of the ancient city. But in the end, the role of the Wagner PMC in the fight against terrorism was hidden from the public. Our division did not pursue fame, awards and vanity, but simply fulfilled the tasks set by the leadership of our Country and the leadership of our company with honor and dignity.
However, the near future showed that even in such a serious ministry as Russia’s MoD, there exist such human vices as “ENVY,” personalized directly in the Minister of Defense, who did everything to ensure that the military merits of the Wagner PMC remained insignificant [in the eyes of the public and the leadership of the country — S]. Because of this vice, Russia’s Minister of Defense, disregarding the common interests of our country and the SAR, including the danger that continued to emanate from numerous ISIS groups, using his administrative resources, ensured that the Wagner PMC was withdrawn from the territory of the SAR. The liberated Palmyra was handed over to the units of Russia’s Ministry of Defense and the army of the SAR.
But the peaceful sky over the ancient city did not last long. In December 2016, a small group of ISIS, consisting of 10 pickup trucks with HMGs [heavy machine guns — S], took over the city. Palmyra was again in their hands, and the units of Russia’s MoD, having abandoned the city, warehouses with ammunition, food and equipment, shamefully retreated to the Tiyas Airbase.
This failure of the city’s defense was not long in coming, and the Country again turned to the Wagner PMC with a request to liberate the ancient city again, which was triumphantly done by the assault groups of our Company. Once again, the Wagner PMC has shown high military professionalism in the fight against global terrorism, while instilling real fear in the hearts of ISIS and their Western masters. Thus, the Wagner PMC declared itself as a force that is able to successfully fight against any manifestation of terrorism and as a “Russian Force” to be reckoned with.
And this time, too, was no exception on the part of the Ministry of Defense to nullify the role of the Wagner PMC in the re-liberation of Palmyra.
But despite all the envy and bile that emanated from Russia’s Minister of Defense, Wagner PMC continued to carry out combat missions to liberate the territories occupied by ISIS in the SAR with pride for our Country.
In the future, there were several cases when the Ministry of Defense treacherously exposed units of the Wagner PMC to U.S. strikes (everyone knows the egregious case in the province of Deir ez-Zor).
But in spite of everything, after completing all the assigned tasks, the Wagner PMC group proudly left the territory of the SAR.
However, the main enemy of our country is not sleeping, and already in March 2022, the Motherland again called its sons, the Wagner PMC, to fight, but this time with a more dangerous enemy than world terrorism—fascism, which continues to be fueled by the collective West in the Ukraine.
In March, with great haste, given the disastrous situation with the offensive operations of the Russian Armed Forces in the Ukraine, the Wagner PMC again arrived in Donbass.
From the first days, our employees entered into bloody battles. In the process of carrying out combat missions, a number of key territories of the LPR and the DPR were liberated exclusively by the forces of the Wagner PMC. Huge enemy forces, several times larger than the forces of the Wagner PMC, were destroyed. It should also be understood that in such a fierce struggle, our employees of the Wagner PMC died heroically, which has been repeatedly recorded by means of objective control on the battlefield. Separately, I would like to note that former prisoners, who were accepted into the Wagner PMC brotherhood on a common basis, without any exceptions and discrimination, also fought shoulder to shoulder with us.
The Wagner PMC once again showed its colossal and unique effectiveness on the battlefield.
But the shadow of Palmyra, in the form of unjustified ENVY on the part of Russia’s Ministry of Defense and S.K. Shoygu personally, continued to haunt the Wagner PMC in Donbass as well.
It consisted of the following:
— the famous and well-known “shell hunger”;
— sabotage of cooperation with Russia’s MoD;
— dismissal of senior officers and fighters loyal to the Wagner PMC from the ranks of the RuAF;
— lobbying for the shutdown of Project K [I haven’t found a definite source for this, but “Project K” seems to refer to Wagner’s recruitment of fighters from Russian prisons — S];
— an attempt to instigate conflicts between Wagner and security and law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.
As a result of such activities and the undisguised envy of the Minister of Defense S.K. Shoygu, at the moment the latter is doing everything to ensure that the Wagner PMC completely ceases to exist.
But this time, having gone through such a hard 10-years-long battle path, at the cost of the lives of our fallen comrades, we will not allow the memory and military merits of the Wagner PMC to our Great Motherland to be erased.
Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is ENVIED of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit! (Ecclesiastes 4:4 [KJV — S])

Posted by: S | Jun 13 2023 20:04 utc | 116

RE: karlof1 | Jun 11 2023 21:06 utc
Now China can send the U.$. a stern warning not to invade Cuba, maybe do some freedom of navigation exercises in the East Mexican Seas with the consent of Mexico — and let us, if only for the sake of argument assume that the Chinese are really building a spy base as claimed. It merely means that the gander is going to get what the goose has been getting for decades.

Posted by: William Haught | Jun 13 2023 20:56 utc | 118

germany political scene from indian punchline today
The rise and rise of far-right in Germany

Posted by: james | Jun 13 2023 22:05 utc | 120

Cont’d from #116
Yesterday, the Russian Telegram channel Kepka Prigozhina has published Prigozhin’s text about the Battle of Khasham, wherein he directly accuses Gerasimov and Shoygu of having intentionally set up Wagner fighters to be slaughtered by U.S. air forces:

Yevgeniy Prigozhin on the February 8, 2018 tragedy in Khasham
June 12, 2023
After crossing to the left bank of the Euphrates in September 2017, the Wagner PMC managed to create a foothold for further advance into the eastern part of Syria. The oil fields of Syria’s main field Al-Omar were the main source of income for the Syrian people, and the fields of Shaer and Hayan are the main source of electricity. At the same time, Syrian oil served as the main financial support for the entire world Islamic State. No oil fields for ISIS—no ISIS. That’s why the actions of the Wagner PMC in Syria were directed at them.
Therefore, in this case, the main task of the Wagner PMC units was to cut off the road from Conoco to Iraq, clear the southeast of Syria from ISIS and prevent the advance of the Kurdish formations under the control of the Americans to the south of Syria.
On February 2, 2018, I have discussed this plan with the Chief of the General Staff, and then with the officers on the ground who were involved in the operation. The Conoco plant served as a stronghold for ISIS—from time to time, they were starting skirmishes, biting and trying to go on the counteroffensive, but to no avail. We responded, and small arms battles between the sides continued daily; from time to time, we even shelled each other with artillery. The distance between positions in some places was 150–500 meters.
The operation to take control of the southeast of Syria was planned for the night of February 7–8, with an advance on the Conoco plant and further along the highway up to the Iraqi border. And, after establishing a security zone, it was possible to let Syrian army units in from the south.
I arrived at Khmeimim Base on the 7th at 16:00. I talked through everything in detail with the command of the facility, and we discussed the details of the cooperation.
From the military, we needed aviation support and flawlessly working air defense systems. We knew that the terrorists were covered by the Americans who were on their side. But on the ground we had the upper hand over the ISIS and American advisers and were confident that we could fight back. The main task of the military was to prevent the Americans from attacking us from the air.
It was promised to us that two pairs of Su-35 fighters would be constantly on duty, in “eights,” over the Euphrates. So that in the event of an appearance of enemy aircraft, it would be possible to attack them and prevent a strike on the moving infantry.
It was also promised that all air defense systems would work: S-300, Pantsirs and other available air defense and aviation equipment, which the Wagner PMC did not possess at the time. And during my earlier visit it was agreed that they would warn us in the event of a force majeure.
At 18:00, the assault detachments of the Wagner PMC began to move to the designated lines. Wagner PMC representative, who was at the headquarters, clarified with the command: “Is everything in order, is everything going according to the plan?” They told him: “Yes, don’t worry.” We synchronized our schedules, checked everything and began combat work.
The units reached their starting lines, set up a second echelon to pull up reserves after the start of the assault, the artillery was put in position, after which a small arms battle ensued. IS began to respond actively.
In order to suppress the militants, we began to fire artillery, IS responded with their guns and a normal battle ensued, in which it is advisable to go on the attack. At 23:45, a command was given to storm the positions of IS, and suddenly the Americans began to attack from the sky. They unleashed the entire power of their air force on Wagner’s assault troops: F-15E bombers, MQ-9 Reaper strike UAVs and an AC-130 flying artillery battery were involved. Several AH-64 Apache helicopters were spinning fire carousels non-stop [in Russian military lingo, “fire carousel” means several helicopters (or tanks, or other equipment) moving in a cycle so that at each point in time one of them is firing — S]. Even B-52 strategic bombers were launched in the air.
Enemy aviation was striking with great intensity, striving for complete annihilation, resulting in a large number of killed and wounded. At the same time, they were constantly striking the escape routes. It was decided to stop [the assault operation — S] at the lines that were reached. Which is what was done.
A subsequent analysis turned out to be as follows: at 18:00, an order was received from the Chief of the General Staff for “everyone to leave,” not to launch jets, to turn off all air defense systems. According to the information that I got from the representatives, it was ordered not to inform the Wagner PMC about these measures in any way and subsequently not to communicate with them.
As it turned out, on that day from 18:00 to 23:45, the Americans repeatedly asked whether Russian units were heading towards Conoco, even when the battle had already begun. But nobody from the military warned any of the Wagner PMC fighters that the Americans were seeing us from the air.
At 18:00, most of the members of the military command left their work posts, went off duty, or, to be more precise, fled. And when they began to look for them after the strikes began, it turned out that some of them closed themselves in trailers, while others completely changed their sleeping places so that they could not be reached.
Later it became known from the transcripts of the talks that the Americans saw from the very beginning that those were Russian units. And from 18:00 to 23:45 U.S. and Russian military commands were talking about how, if there are units of the Russian Federation there, they must be immediately stopped. Otherwise, the Americans warned directly, they would strike to kill, and the units would be destroyed.
However, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense ignored the need to warn us about this. Air defense systems, as I said, were all disabled and what happened, happened: at 23:45, strikes began on Russian units, which fearlessly faced all American power and continued to advance even in fiery hell, not knowing that RuAF support would never come—there were no jets, air defense systems were turned off.
At 3:00 at night, we finally managed to break through into RuAF headquarters in order to talk with the officer on duty. There was only one colonel at the desk who said that he would try to resolve the issue so that the strikes would stop and the Wagner PMC fighters could pull out the bodies of their dead comrades.
On February 9, I urgently flew to Moscow and tried to visit Shoygu in his office in order to find out what happened after all. I wanted to know why all the agreements collapsed and the February 8 tragedy happened.
The Minister of Defense didn’t let me in. I kept signing up for the 10th, 11th, and so on ad infinitum, but he didn’t have time to talk to me. Then I caught him at a state reception in the Kremlin, which I got to by using my connections.
I approached him and asked: “May I talk to you about the situation that occurred on February 8 near Deir ez-Zor?” He turned to me and replied in a calm and arrogant fashion: “You wanted to act like a hero? You have. All the heroes are now here, in this hall.” He motioned to those around him in expensive suits. “And you just rowed to the wrong bank of the river.” [Russian criminal slang for foolishly attempting to challenge someone who is way more powerful — S] This ended the conversation.

Posted by: S | Jun 14 2023 0:26 utc | 122

I had an iEarlGrey utube video from a few days ago about civilians being bombed in Donbass saved up for a free moment, and turning to it just now, saw this.
Video unavailable
This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.
He did well to last so long, but now he’s on the spot showing first hand material, he’s toast.
Who’s next?

Posted by: Walt | Jun 14 2023 3:33 utc | 124

“Tucker Carlson Pinpoints The Exact Moment That ‘Permanent Washington’ Decided To Send Trump To Prison” (Durden).
at 6/13/2023 10:22:00 PM
Anyone with 13 minutes to spare could do worse than using them to catch up with Episode 3 of the Tucker Carlson Show on Twitter.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 14 2023 4:02 utc | 126

What your sources all have in common is their anti-communism, everything that they write is coloured by their hatred of socialism and their obsession with preventing the outbreak of peace with the Soviet Union. It is an obsession that has lasted more than a century.
Posted by: bevin | Jun 14 2023 0:31 utc | 123
Thanks for pointing that out Bevin. It’s an all-too-common theme among western historians.
And it’s not surprising that it comes from that poster who is on record as a self-identified monarchist
and has made anti-communism/socialism comments numerous times here on this blog.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 14 2023 4:08 utc | 128

More quotes from the BIS replacement study linked to above

Central bank money is the safest form of money in any currency area and plays a
fundamental role in the financial system and overall economy.
38 It is therefore
natural for a CBDC platform to be designed and built by central banks, for central
banks. After experimenting with different technology architectures in earlier phases,
the project team developed a new native blockchain for mBridge, the mBridge
ledger (mBL), to meet the needs of the central bank and commercial participants.
Under the Steering Committee structure, platform requirements are first discussed
by subcommittees chaired by the four central banks before being implemented by
the development team. The code is open and available to all central bank project
members for input and review.
…..
Certain transaction types were intentionally omitted from the scope of the pilot due
to the potentially significant policy implications detailed below that need careful
consideration and further discussion before conducting such transactions with a
broader ecosystem.
(i) Domestic transactions using a domestic currency: could challenge
and compete with existing local payment systems, such as the RTGS.
(ii) Domestic transactions in a foreign CBDC: raises the risk of displacing
local currencies.
(iii) Cross-border transactions using a currency which is foreign to both
counterparties: despite the prevalence of this in international trade, it
raises similar concerns about displacing local currencies. This challenge is
particularly salient for EMDEs.
During the pilot, while participating banks were able to directly transact in
the CBDCs of other jurisdictions on the platform, foreign banks were limited in terms
of how they could move CBDCs on mBridge. Excluding domestic and cross-border
transactions in a currency which is foreign to both counterparties from the pilot
meant that a domestic bank was always involved in at least one leg of any
transaction with regard to the underlying currency. This ensures that significant
amounts of domestic currency cannot accumulate offshore beyond the central
bank’s control, limiting opportunities for the currency to be used for speculative
purposes.
Further in-depth analysis will be needed, and countermeasures
implemented, to mitigate the policy risks associated with the excluded transaction
types before they are included in future phases of mBridge. For example,
considering domestic transactions using domestic currency, mBridge can be further
developed to become an infrastructure for domestic CBDC, if desirable. Additionally,
subject to the decision of the participating central banks, mBridge can enable
domestic and cross-border transactions in a currency which is foreign to both
counterparties after careful consideration by each central bank; for example, they can
set parameters for what currencies their local banks are allowed to hold, the value
limit for each currency they are allowed to keep under custody and what currency
pairs they are allowed to conduct PvP transactions with, thereby mitigating some of
the undesirable outcomes discussed above.
….
While the centralised deployment of the pilot provided easy use of the
platform, it also resulted in data being located in a single cloud environment,
heightening privacy concerns. Looking ahead to future pilots, the project team will
explore distributed deployment. Under such a distributed approach, only a small
amount of data is recorded on the blockchain and shared to all participants.
Sensitive and confidential data are stored off-chain in each jurisdiction’s local
database, contained within the local jurisdiction. Even in cases in which such data
need to be stored on the ledger, it would be properly encrypted. Additionally, the
development teams are in the process of evaluating zero-knowledge proof
methodologies to enforce stronger privacy against arbitrary central bank validators.
All of this may serve to alleviate data confidentiality and governance concerns.
….
Role of the platform operator: multiple options are available for the platform
operator. Conceptually, to comply with data governance requirements, each of
the central banks could become a participant on the platform, host the platform
on multiple nodes in a decentralised manner and play certain governance roles
that the platform will define and agree on. Nevertheless, tasks that can best be
performed centrally may be identified. In such a case, a decision will need to be
made as to which party or structure is best positioned to perform those central
tasks. In any event, governance of the platform requires a strong interplay between platform standards and local rules, as they are fundamentally intertwined.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 14 2023 5:05 utc | 130

@ james | Jun 14 2023 5:47 utc | 131 who is mystified by the past century of public/private finance proxy wars
Michael Hudson explains well the “Forgive them their debts” schism that exists even today between Eastern orthodoxy and Western “Catholic, et al” and that schism is reflected in the Russia culture and history……the Iron Curtain of old was because Russia would not go along with Bretton Woods agreement, etc.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 14 2023 6:00 utc | 132

This is an open thread. I will therefore lay a pet peeve on the table.
The protocol in these threads seems increasingly to be in the direction of copy/pasting large blocks of text from articles, in lieu of distilling the meaning from them, offering a link to the article, and explaining why people should check out the link.
~~
Although I actually like the MoA format, it may just be the very worst one on the Internet for reading large blocks of text, even in blockquote form.
Personally, I don’t read large blocks of copy/paste text. I read the thoughts of the commenters. And if the thought offered in the commenter’s own words is compelling enough, then I will click the link to read the whole thing at source – or search for the source if a link is not supplied. And after all, it’s easy enough to translate a page of foreign text.
Sheer copy/paste is laziness, in my view. And it promotes the risk that in the reader’s scrolling past the large block of text, the reader scrolls past your own slender paragraph or sentence of personal comment.
~~
I guess I’ll take some heat for this comment. But I still won’t read the large blocks of copy/pasta.
I wish people would go back to offering a hypertext link – the original “killer app” of the internet, after all – and explaining what might be found at that link, and leaving it to people to decide if they want to go there or not.
Copy/pasta fills the thread with scroll-bait. That’s all. Personally, I have no use for it. To me, it seems intellectually lazy, and ignores the Internet’s revolutionary value of a link to source.
I have for a long time not been brave enough to say this here, because I really don’t want to take heat, aggravation is not something I enjoy. But I feel that it may be useful to some for me to say this. And I do know there are some who will agree with my view.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 14 2023 6:54 utc | 134

And I do know there are some who will agree with my view.
Posted by: Grieved | Jun 14 2023 6:54 utc | 134
Absolutely and big thanks for that. I totally agree.
A short quote or two, a little summary and maybe a short opinion.
If you can’t do that you don’t know what you are talking about.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 14 2023 7:22 utc | 136

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 14 2023 6:54 utc | 134

Personally, I don’t read large blocks of copy/paste text. I read the thoughts of the commenters. And if the thought offered in the commenter’s own words is compelling enough, then I will click the link to read the whole thing at source – or search for the source if a link is not supplied.

Agreed. Similarly those posts which consist solely of a link and no comment.

Posted by: Walt | Jun 14 2023 7:29 utc | 138

(Carlson’s) rant # 3 recommended:
Ep. 3 America’s principles are at stake
Posted by: Grieved | Jun 14 2023 6:25 utc | 133
Thanks Grieved for providing the direct link to Tucker Carlson’s rant #3 referred to in my #126 above. I also concur with your thoughts on reams of cut & paste and dumping orphan links (with no explanation of the content) to which I’d add over-use of untranslated acronyms.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 14 2023 9:04 utc | 140

The Daily Mail article is misleading, if you believe the report by the Washington Post:
Bribery Allegations Remain Transparently Thin
This is not new information, it surfaced in 2020, and many had direct access to it then, when Trump was still President. The lack of action suggests nobody believed it. There is no evidence of a financial transfer to Joe Biden.

Posted by: Charles Peterson | Jun 14 2023 14:31 utc | 142

@james | Jun 14 2023 14:59 utc | 143
“i always love hearing from you!”
Thanks for your whole reply there. I much appreciate what you add to the bar.
Speaking of improvisational music, life is improvisation isn’t it? Even the wisest
prophets (or astrologers, heh) have little clue and depend a lot on ambiguity for
their relevance. Yeah, silence becomes a higher value as I age, too. From an early
age I said I wanted to end up as a wise old man and have found the old part
easier than the wise part. I’m pretty sure questions are more important than answers
and listening is more important than talking (or writing). Lots of talkers here, most
of whom should pipe down.
Hope your air is as refreshing as ours. Down south I guess they got some of your
smoke but up here it’s cool, crisp and clean.
And hey, first potato sprouts showed up just today. Mother Nature is beautiful, eh?

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 14 2023 15:59 utc | 144

On copy/paste: I tend to do that only when doing translations since in the past there were requests for that to be done. Same when SCF was censored. I try to provide the gist that goes with whatever commentary I provide. Some postings, like the FYI I’m going to provide after this, are short and are always a translation, usually from Russia’s MFA. The long Telegram tracts that get posted to the Ukie threads I tend to passby as many don’t provide any info useful for me. However, with translation software included with many browsers nowadays and the familiarity of most barflies with Yandex Translate, perhaps that doesn’t need to be done anymore, although I know some will be too lazy to make the effort to translate then read and prefer to read the already prepared translation. And then there’re the times when multiple sources are cited and excerpted along with commentary that make for a lengthy but contextually consistent posting, which I tend to prefer versus making a series of shorter comments where the context is broken, and IMO needs to be repeated because of the likelihood of other intervening comments.
That’s my take on the issue.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 14 2023 16:07 utc | 146

@Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 14 2023 16:07 utc | 146
Imho your postings here on MoA are exempt from the discussion that Grieved initiated.
What you do is invaluable and I am most happy to wade through the long translations
and/or pastings that you provide. One thing too in your favor is that you seldom engage
in lengthy opinion pieces, unlike many others with pitiful qualifications for their pulpits.
That’s my take on your take.
Further, I commend you for recently adopting the protocol of copy/pasting the time/date
stamp line when referring to the posts of others. I know you stuggled with it but if an old
guy like you can do it there are no excuses for anyone else. (I’m older so can talk to you like that:)
All in all karlof1, carry on. Get through your medical situation and come back stronger.
A double shot of aquavit gold awaits, (providing you have a note from the doc).

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 14 2023 16:51 utc | 148

Posted by: bevin | Jun 14 2023 0:31 utc | 123
Bevin:
My distrust of large, centralized governments in today’s secular age is why I personally don’t favour communism. Nor do I believe everything on Unz is anti-communist, certainly not most of the article linked which had mainly to do with various mainstream narratives of WW II being false. Rather, your dismissive objection is displaying your pro-communism-socialism petticoats!
My thrust tends to be more towards finding what is more or less truthful rather than supportive of Ideology A versus Ideology B. I find communism and capitalism to be two sides of the same reductionist-materialist coin and certainly wouldn’t want to favor one over the other. At the same time, there are underlying norms all societies share, some of which are well managed in both systems, others not. Not my beef either way.
The communist business is very tricky, IMO. First of all, it was so chaotic and violent that the true history may never be known, even by those who lived through it themselves, though they are all now long since dead. How many of us know for sure what happened with Covid? With the SMO? We don’t. Even Ukrainians and Russians now fighting in Donbass this very moment aren’t sure what’s going on except in their immediate location and even that might be highly confusing.
For a while communism overtly threatened to replace the dominant world order and national governments with something else. The leadership classes in countries where this was being proposed quite naturally felt threatened. Easy to understand and rather silly to expect them to feel any other way. Also, the visceral fear of communism may have less to do with its theoretical postulates as the violent, menacing way it came into being. There might be good reasons for that; I imagine you would say that if not for imperial resistance and deceit the whole business would have been peaceful and a new enlightened world would have transpired – though that will forever be only hypothetical speculation. Facts didn’t turn out that way and I believe that if the movement was so wise and good it should have been able to effect better results, knowing the nature of the opposition with which it had to contend.
So for whatever reasons, tens of millions died in both the Russian and Chinese communist experiments. And also, interestingly, neither of them are now communist though neither were conquered by other nations whilst being communist. I personally don’t look much further than that except again to remark that structurally it seems to me that such conceptual/ideological movements – such as communism – always result in top-down hierarchical structures that tend towards dictatorship and/or totalitarianism.
This, btw, is why I am somewhat of a monarchist. It’s certainly not in support of the British version – though from time to time the British people demonstrate just how much the institution resonates in their societal hearts even if the individuals in question are clearly lacking in merit. It’s more to do with supporting a vision and experience of life and society as being grounded in sacred perception. All organized societies need leaders, from the small family level to the overall nation. The supreme leader, so to speak, is just the one on top of all the other leaders. And in a sacred society, a monarch is just a sacred leader, albeit primus inter pares (being no more nor no less sacred than any subject in that sacred kingdom). In other words, the monarch is not the only sacred leader; indeed all leaders and followers are equally sacred in this sort of vision, which is why it has an egalitarian element. The monarch is a human being embodying the most sacred principles and is valued and admired for his or her ability to function that way, perceiving and feeling which elevates all members of the society who, again, are also sacred in essence. So the sacred monarch principle engenders the opposite of the sort of soul-deadening totalitarianism into which abstract idea-driven systems inevitably tend to devolve.
Because I believe sacred perception is the single best organizing principle for any society, from tribal to modern multi-national humongous. We are born with the capacity to feel reverence, luminosity and compassion, all part of the experience of sacredness, which most of us experience spontaneously during births, deaths, weddings and funerals. When we feel and experience things that way most evils encountered in society quite naturally self-correct. But I acknowledge it’s a bit of an oddball position and one that cannot reasonably be aired in a forum such as this. So back to the main point.
Socialism seems quite different from communism. The way it is practised it is not so much an -ism or ideology as a way of blending private and public sectors in modern societies. I suppose the socialist part of that – given the exercise is inevitable no matter the guiding philosophy – is to find ways to benefit as many of the people as possible and to prevent a small wealthy class from enjoying too high a share of the collective pie. So it’s still more or less materialist in philosophy, it just tries to strike a balanced approach.
Sounds great to me, and it’s got my vote generally as the best of a series of not so sophisticated options, but at different times in different nations some choices will prove more effective than others. So then the key trick is to have ways to view, analyze and above all course correct where necessary which involves dealing with corruption and stupidity. Some polities are flexible and responsive, others not. That is the key issue not the philosophy or -ism alone.
It is in this context that I share articles like the one from Unz yesterday here: when too many people share too many false conceptions and projections, it is virtually impossible for good outcomes to emerge no matter what the -ism. Right now the SMO, for example, in Ukraine is contextualized by many who view the historical context in Europe and Russia in highly distorted fashions, the roots of some of which preconceptions were covered in the article. Many here share many of the dominant false narrative views though critical of the current ‘Outlaw US Empire.’ Many including myself. And, I humbly suggest, including yourself.
Unz may have made some mistakes but I think in most cases he stayed in his lane, only pointing out falsehoods that have latterly come to light and clearly show the original narratives to be entirely or mainly false. My favorite – which he didn’t cover in this particular – is the myth of the Pearl Harbour attack being a ‘surprise’ because the Japanese fleet observed strict radio silence the whole way. Totally false as revealed by the archives when they were finally released after 50 years in 1995. Stinnet’s book shows many photocopies of the original documents including radio chatter all the way. It was not a surprise attack. There as no radio silence. They even sent Admiral Kimmel on a wild goose chase – into a sector he objected to being sent into – so that he would not detect the Japanese fleet and then avert the attack which they had deliberately provoked.
Just one of hundreds of examples of how so much of what we are told is categorically false. In this regard, I humbly suggest that most of our ideas of historical England, Germany, Russia, China and more are similarly twisted. And these distorted views inform how we observe the current geopolitical tectonics.
Of course, the tendency towards tyranny is also going on in the USA right now, but not, I think you would agree, because of ‘communism’ per se (though some on the right would beg to differ), rather because of what I think of as over-centralization.
Most likely, I don’t know a tenth of the history you and several others here know, Bevin. But the problem with history is that most of what we learn – and I suspect this is true for you as well – is wrong; moreover there is no sure way of knowing what is right. Further, political history – as it unfolds in its own present time – involves disagreements with multiple views in the mix all of which may seem right from their own point of view but together making it very hard to establish one over-arching ‘objective truth’ (which Putin often references for example) shared by all. Frankly, I believe that such a construct is fallacious to its core, but no doubt many will continue to believe that there is such a thing which can be somehow established and described. Even if so, almost certainly nobody will be able to discern it and publish it. Therefore, WW II events will forever remain in a forest of uncertainty and disinformation just as is the case with current events unfolding. Meaning we should guard against holding overly fixed views given much of the information we depend upon to fashion them is questionable at best.
In this context, Unz is a cautious and thorough revisionist who often admits his own ignorance even as he reveals various inconsistencies. Indeed, he is very much like b here at MoA who regularly debunks MSM and govt-pushed BS. A great service skillfully administered.
On the Unz site is an eclectic group of contributors with many of whom Unz does not agree. And yet he hosts them. Why? Clearly because he values free speech and because it is hard to find venues where it is truly welcomed except in a ‘one-view-only’ type milieus. So his site offers up many views, albeit most of them would agree that the dominant narratives we are mainly spoon fed are not to be trusted. And with that I concur.
In any case, dismissing all of that long article simply as ‘anti-communist’ or ‘anti-socialist’ displays your own bias in this, certainly not any in the article which mainly only debunked demonstrable falsehoods. Indeed such sloppy dismissal on your part possibly displays intellectual laziness, despite your vast knowledge, or even disingenuousness given how much you clearly have studied. Like them or not, articles like this perform a much-needed public service, like b’s articles here we all so much appreciate. If you feel he got a fact wrong, by all means share it. But don’t dismiss the whole thing as coming out of ‘anti-communist’ or ‘anti-socialist’ animus. That’s just a highbrow-sounding form of cheap ad hominem!! You can do better than that. (We don’t expect more from some of the cheap-seat ad hominem addicts here, but you can do better, old chap!!)
That’s okay: you express yourself here with great elegance and erudition which I for one value greatly even if I rarely agree with you – as yet again in this case.
All best.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 14 2023 18:35 utc | 150

waynorinorway | Jun 14 2023 16:51 utc | 148–
Thanks for your reply. Doing timestamp copy/pasting meant I needed to rearrange my posting protocol, which I managed to do without to much fuss as I’ve engaged the keyboard shortcut for facilitation. And thanks for your wishes to overcome my medical ordeal. Ans now for my next posting.
China seems determined to make the Southwestern Asia Peace initiatives first proffered by Russia and Iran a reality for the entire region including Occupied Palestine: “China, Palestine upgrade ties to ‘milestone’ strategic partnership”: “Xi puts forward 3-point proposal to settle Palestinian question.” Article’s Intro:

China and Palestine on Wednesday upgraded their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership under the witness of Chinese President Xi Jinping and visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Xi stressed that China and Palestine are good friends and good partners who trust and support each other. China was one of the first countries to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the State of Palestine, and has all along firmly supported the Palestinian people’s just cause of restoring their legitimate national rights, Xi said.
Facing unprecedented changes in the world and the new developments in the Middle East, China stands ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Palestine, and work for a comprehensive, just and durable solution to the Palestinian question at an early date, Xi noted.

How such a peace can be arrived at with two rogue entities being involved is unknown. Xi offered these three short points:
“First, the fundamental solution lies in the establishment of an independent state of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty on the basis of the 1967 borders and with east Jerusalem as its capital. Second, Palestine’s economic and livelihood needs should be met. Third, it is important to keep to the right direction of peace talks.
“A large-scale, more authoritative and more influential international peace conference should be convened to create conditions for the resumption of peace talks and contribute tangible efforts to help Palestine and Israel live in peace, Xi said.”
Given the current reality, I don’t see how any of that will be possible as the Zionists won’t cede any of the stolen lands or ever provide non-Jewish residents full political rights. And then there’s the issue of economic rights such as the access to the gas fields off Gaza. And as Crooke and others have reported, the Zionists are very close to engaging in a Civil War between the two main factions, while both sides agree on continuing the Palestinian Genocide.
What I see as possible is all Persian Gulf Region nations agreeing to the tenets of the Iranian/Russian security/peace pact with the additions of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, thus putting the pact into action. That will place great political pressure on the Zionists to conform to humanitarian norms. Indeed, it’s very possible another global anti-Apartheid movement will emerge to force the Zionists to conform, which of course will also mean the Zionists #1 sponsor–the Outlaw US Empire–must also conform. And with the Empire’s bigtime structural economic and financial problems, it might wither as that #1 sponsor economically and militarily.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 14 2023 18:40 utc | 152

@Scorpion
What the uniparty and more importantly the interests behind it (MIC, swamp creatures) seem to be doing is pointing in that direction. A direct provocation to create the conditions for another massive smackdown of civil rights, FBI investigations of bloggers, and the like.
I still don’t think Biden makes it to the 2024 election. The emergence of Cornel West and RFK jr. as alternatives shows weakness in the Dem part of the uniparty. It might pave the way though to split the vote on the left and elect a dyed-in-the-wool warmongering MIC tool like Mike Pompeo or Lindsey Graham as President, which would then usher in the final collapse of the USA.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Jun 14 2023 19:58 utc | 154

Today, the European Commission and the World Health Organization (WHO) have announced the launch of a landmark digital health partnership.
In June 2023, WHO will take up the European Union (EU) system of digital COVID-19 certification to establish a global system that will help facilitate global mobility and protect citizens across the world from on-going and future health threats. This is the first building block of the WHO Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN) that will develop a wide range of digital products to deliver better health for all.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3043
also:
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/84850/technocracy-in-action-who-and-european-commission-partner-for-digital-health-with-new-covid19.html
This could all be well and good.
But then again, it could turn into something quite bad.
Generally, it is not a good idea to give unelected committees extensive powers without very clear checks and balances. There are none in this case as far as I can tell. Our betters know best what to do, eh?

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 14 2023 21:00 utc | 156

Scorpion # 19:43 utc | 153

The cause is not as important as the result: and that result will be to give the Coupster Regime the justification for treating mainstream Americans as terrorists. Now, maybe most so demonized will elect to chicken out and knuckle under to protect themselves and their loved ones as most most reasonable people will no doubt do. Then the bad guys win. Indeed, either way, the Old Normal is finished. Making them not so stupid and not so crazy after all, eh?
Since 2020 I have doubted there will be a normal election in 2024, but certainly not by 2028. If there is, it will be because so many have knuckled under that the current Republic In Name Only Clown Show will have morphed into a new Series called ‘Lobotamerica – the New Normal!’

Thank you and you do remind me of Linh Dinh and his excellent observations of the decline of the USA embodied in the book Postcards from the End of America. He was a regular at Unz but walked away over Unz subservience to the covid mantra.
The neo liberal smash and grab process proceeds and it is now escalating to brutish silencing of any dissent. The WHO is now seizing the chance for domination as well in its spectrum of neo liberal world order.
And I do appreciate your contributions and analysis.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 14 2023 23:39 utc | 158

Grieved | Jun 14 2023 23:42 utc | 159 &157–
Back in the 1950s, John K. Galbraith coined the term Countervailing Force to describe what was required to forge a better democracy within the USA. That was also recognized by the emerging NAM at about the same time, but the overall correlation of forces didn’t favor the sort of situation we have today, nor was Palestine the issue then as it is now. IMO, the rise of China and rejuvenation of Russia and its Near Abroad are the primary factors, while there’re many important secondary factors too. One big contributing factor is the amazing idiocy of the Donor Class and what seems to be their unbreakable marriage to the Wolfowitz Doctrine–Full Spectrum Dominance. I say idiocy because in 2013 it was possible for the USA and EU combined to merge with China’s BRI and with Russia’s EAEU conceptions instead of treating them as competitors. Clearly, too much Monopoly/Zero-sum indoctrination when it could easily have become Win-Win for all. In today’s thread, Sushi commented on opportunity costs and the vast wastage that’s occurred since 1990/1 when Wolfowitz designed his doctrine that was expanded by Brezinsky. IMO, there’re European leaders who understand that great loss and don’t want to lose anymore. And there’re other NAM leaders who also understand, thus the popularity of China, Russia, BRI, EAEU, BRICS, and crazy-quilt of global development projects that are surging ahead despite the Empire’s attempts to derail them. And that fact is also huge for RoW as they correctly see the Empire as Anti-Human, which I intoned here several years ago, last decade in fact.
Neither of us know what’s actually being said in the closed-door discussions between Russia, China and RoW. But from the looks of the outcomes to-date, the arguments were very persuasive, far more so than monies, IMO, for using monies to coerce was the Empire’s way used to overcome logic and commonsense. What I see now that I understand the concept is Virtue Politics in action globally. It’s not just Xi who’s a Confucian; IMO, the entire CPC is based on those very longstanding governmental principles that puts the people’s wellbeing above all else. IMO, there’s no way Neoliberal doctrine can defeat Virtue Politics primarily because there’s zero virtue in Neoliberalism as its primary aim is to render the people subservient, not to improve their wellbeing.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 15 2023 0:42 utc | 160

Scorpion | Jun 14 2023 19:59 utc | 155–
Thanks for your concern and reply.
I’ve entertained all the possible solutions; but given the Zionist’s attitudes and genocidal behavior, IMO they don’t deserve their own nation bordering any other nation. The Hebrew God would agree with me I’m 100% certain. IMO the only solution requires a Sea Change in Zionist attitudes and behavior, and that will be very difficult because they are beyond zealous/fanatic–the sane are a very small minority with no current political power, worse than Palestinians. Military defeat would be another solution, the big question there being: Are they crazy enough to finish the job Hitler began and destroy themselves and those surrounding them when they lose?

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 15 2023 1:29 utc | 162

@ Melaleuca | Jun 15 2023 2:20 utc | 163
Definitely released, not escaped. But, given the pathetic lack of rigor and diligence at Ft. Dietrich, earlier escapes COULD have started some contagion in the US in 2019. If so, covering that up might have supplied one of the reasons to launch it worldwide, but the several other benefits to empire are more compelling than just that.
And it appeared around the world instantaneously, as if deliberately seeded, not possibly transmitted per organic viral spread, even with today’s speed of travel (contagion itself still takes time). The event fits the pattern of biowar vastly better than it fits any other pattern.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 15 2023 3:24 utc | 164

@ waynorinorway | Jun 14 2023 15:59 utc | 144
thanks.. i like the lao tzu saying – ‘the further you go, the less you know’… that is a tough one for a lot of folks!
our potato plants are already flowering! we’ve had a warm spring which has created this..

Posted by: james | Jun 15 2023 3:30 utc | 166

more Grieved | Jun 15 2023 3:26 utc | 165…
[This is a repost with links redacted – filter caught it.]

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 15 2023 3:45 utc | 168

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 14 2023 17:23 utc | 149
—————–
The scorpion chameleon
You’r changing color again, !
G7 aka the garden reached their consensus long ago,
Helmut Schmidt

to leave decisions about the world economy ‘to officials somewhere in Africa or some Asian capital is not a good idea’.

Harold Wilson

it would be better for serious decisions to be made by ‘the sort of people sitting around this table’

Michel Rocard

‘We need a vehicle where we can find solutions for these challenges [the growth of China and India] together—so when these monsters arrive in 10 years, we will be able to deal with them’.

IOW,
There’s a jungle out there, watch for those chinaman in particular.
Its also a grass root consensus amongst the ‘wn’, even tho in signature scorpion style, it took you 15 min to spit out the same stuff,.
https://tinyurl.com/499fcz7j
Whats the big deal about TW, Tibet..btw?
China has the most enlightened minority policies in the world, deserving a Nobel no less.
hAVE you ever asked the tIBETans , TW, Uighurs, whether they want to trade place with the Chagosians , Ryuku ren, Jeju ren, Hawaiian, Marshall
islanders, Puerto Ricans, Kashmiris, Naga, Manipulis and gawd forbid,,…native Americans ?
Have it ever crossed your ilks mind to root for those ‘unpeople’, who have no voice ?
‘wn’ keep fuming that criticising Israel doesnt make them anti-Semitic, then why am I ‘anti Americans’ for simply
calling out USAss tyranny ?

Posted by: denk | Jun 15 2023 3:52 utc | 170

Re: The Fake Trump trial.
A possible clarification.
The June 14 edition of PBS Newshour announced a forthcoming documentary feature directed by Judy Woodruff, focused on the Trump trial(s) controversy. It’ll be called America At The Crossroads.
The anouncement took the form of a snippet from a pro-Trump round table focus group.
The doco will cover the documents SNAFU and the Jan 6 SNAFU. It will also ask which past holders of high office have NOT been persecuted for sins similar to Trump’s?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 15 2023 4:01 utc | 172

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 14 2023 23:39 utc | 158
Thanks for kind remarks.
=================================
Posted by: denk | Jun 15 2023 3:52 utc | 170
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 14 2023 17:23 utc | 149
—————–
The scorpion chameleon
You’r changing color again, !
=================
I’m not responsible for your inflamed and inflammatory tendency to misunderstand and misrepresent. I am also not interested in your projections about me and as usual don’t understand your posts.
You keep going, though, with the ad hominems since presumably you think they add quality to the forum here. But I am now putting you on the block list so I won’t be reading them (and won’t be missing anything since you have never addressed a single point I raise, only offered insults in return). Life’s too short.
That said, all best and SAYONARA DENK!!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 15 2023 4:29 utc | 174

That said, all best and SAYONARA DENK!!
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 15 2023 4:29 utc | 174
———————-

AD hominen ?

Im only suggesting that may be chameleon is a more fitting moniker for you, who spit out different narrative to pander to different commentors

Im a long time sinophile

Puleeeze !
You have been warning us about that ‘China monster’ ever since your debut in 2022…
Exhibit B

The fate of America is being made in China, our role model for all things dystopian.
An economic and political powerhouse that owns more of America’s debt than any other country and is buying up American businesses across the spectrum, China is a vicious totalitarian regime that routinely employs censorship, surveillance, and brutal police state tactics to intimidate its populace, maintain its power, and expand the largesse of its corporate elite

Throwing in the towel eh ?
I’ll keep exposing your BS nonetheless

Posted by: denk | Jun 15 2023 4:50 utc | 176

psychohistorian # 5:34 utc | 177
I like the idea of the 1967 borders as it leaves only a small land to bridge in the land that zion claims for a major OBOR link from Syria/Jordan/Palestine/Egypt

https://www.palestineportal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Maps_1897-Present.jpg

Looks like a good objective and certainly turns the spotlight on the apartheid pretender.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 15 2023 7:30 utc | 178

This just in by email from Addameer. It’s not on their web site yet so I’ll post it in full.

Breaking Point Reached: Mass Hunger Strike by Palestinian Administrative Detainees In Israeli Prisons Next Week
A breaking point has been reached; Palestinian administrative detainees who have been held without charge or trial under the Israeli policy of administrative detention have decided to embark on a mass hunger strike. Determined to challenge this oppressive system, Palestinians are committed to using their bodies as a means to demand justice. The hunger strike that is to begin on Sunday, 18 June 2023, exemplifies their persistence to shed light on the dire violations of their human rights under the Occupation’s Regime.
The number of Palestinians subjected to administrative detention has witnessed a sharp and alarming increase, reaching levels unseen in the past two decades. Currently, there are 1,083 individuals languishing in Israeli prisons under this policy, denied the right to know the reason for their incarceration on the pretext of ‘secret’ information, marking a disturbing trend of indiscriminate detention without due process. Among the detainees are three women and 19 children, further underscoring the injustice and cruelty of this practice.
In 2022, Palestinian administrative detainees took a stand against the farcical nature of Israeli Military Courts and initiated a boycott. This courageous act of defiance aimed to expose the inherent biases and lack of fair proceedings within these courts: a military court of a civilian, a trial without defense, and a prison term without a charge. Despite facing great challenges, some detainees continue to reject the legitimacy of these military tribunals, refusing to participate in proceedings that perpetuate their unjust detention. However, the proceedings are held, and a military judge confirms or revokes the political prisoner’s detention order, regardless of whether they attend or not. Undertaking a mass hunger strike comes with dire consequences, including severe medical conditions that endanger the lives of the detainees. Tragically, history has shown the devastating toll such strikes can take. One notable case is that of Khader Adnan, whose health rapidly deteriorated during his hunger strike and ultimately led to his untimely death. The detainees fully understand the risks involved but are driven by their unwavering determination to challenge the oppressive policies of the Occupation’s State, in particular, the Administrative Detention policy, a psychological torture that tantamounts to a war crime under international law.
This practice of oppressive detention of Palestinians in Israeli prisons is not an isolated matter but rather a pillar of a systematic policy orchestrated by the Israeli occupation regime. Such a policy paves the way for the arbitrary imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial, just for the mere thought of an Israeli occupation officer that a certain Palestinian could be a threat to its security, even if it was a university student-union activity. The Palestinian administrative detainees, through shedding light on this oppressive tool of the Occupation, hope to draw global attention to the plight of their people and demand an end to this odious policy. Therefore, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association urges you to help raise the voices of the administrative detainees and spread awareness of their cause. Write to your representatives and to demand your respective governments to pressure the Israeli authorities to ban this systematic policy of oppression against Palestinians and to end this abusive policy. Make your statements and address them directly to the main Israeli policymakers who are responsible for the anguish of thousands of Palestinian families:
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association operate out of an office in Ramallah. You can sign up for emails and your support is welcomed.
Their web site:
https://addameer.org

Posted by: Walt | Jun 15 2023 8:08 utc | 180

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 15 2023 7:41 utc | 179
————————-
Are we the only ones to note that
The chameleon is very adaptable ?
Exhibit z
Less than one month ago, he sneered at Caitlin the ‘CIA BOT’
lAST week, seeing that many posters are rooting for Caitlin, he changed color to fit in..

Oh Im so wrong about Caitlin last time , but have seen the light now thanks to you all

Really, I’ve lost count of how many times the chameleon. , er, scorpion has been flipping and flopping his pov, depending on whom he wanna please. !
Not targeting him in particular, just that as a committed BS buster, I often find it irresistible to poke at his antics.

Posted by: denk | Jun 15 2023 16:49 utc | 182

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 15 2023 17:31 utc | 183
———–
hello Grieved,
Thanks. !
TW, Tibet, Xinjiang are virtually heaven compared to the ‘unpeople‘, who have no rights and no voice…!
Yet,
The entire west aka ‘international community’ AND their subjects are crying themselves hoarse over ‘abuses’ in TW, Tibet, while looking past the real plight of ‘unpeople’ like they’r transparent !
Hence I feel obliged to highlight the woes of ‘unpeople‘ whenever possible.
https://theunpeople.blogspot.com/

Posted by: denk | Jun 15 2023 18:07 utc | 184

But I do bring a coherent system of reality to that position, namely the Buddhist system…
Posted by: Grieved | Jun 15 2023 17:31 utc | 183
Yes, and I have no problem with that. I have read enough Alan Watts and D.T. Suzuki
to think I can spot a phony. My dad was an evangelical Christian fundamentalist minister
and even though I am an atheist, you should hear me pray. 🙂 Learning the words is easy,
understanding is the challenge. The one in question here knows the words but imo would
be wise to hold them in. It would be welcome relief.
Thanks for your reply, it surprised and heartened me.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 15 2023 18:45 utc | 186

@denk | Jun 15 2023 18:07 utc | 184
Please add Sámi to your list that Grieved pasted @ 17:31 utc | 183. Tx.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 15 2023 18:47 utc | 188

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 15 2023 17:31 utc | 183
Denk is hard for sure, but as it happens, in that specific comment I did understand what he was saying and I really appreciated this thought:
Whats the big deal about TW, Tibet..btw? China has the most enlightened minority policies in the world, deserving a Nobel no less. hAVE you ever asked the tIBETans , TW, Uighurs, whether they want to trade place with the Chagosians , Ryuku ren, Jeju ren, Hawaiian, Marshall islanders, Puerto Ricans, Kashmiris, Naga, Manipulis and gawd forbid,,…native Americans ?
I hadn’t considered things in that wide of a perspective – it’s an excellent point. So, many thanks @Denk for enlarging the view.
=========================
It’s a LOUSY point. If the Tibetans still had their own country as they have done most of their history (though not all, like many nations) then they wouldn’t be a ‘minority’ would they and would have to compare themselves to Denk’s sorry list.
My problem with Denk and others is that they accuse me of outright racism and bad faith and distort what I write. Not acceptable.
That my posts are sometimes too long is true. Scroll on past. No harm, no foul. Insults however are a far worse order of expression.
Shame on you Grieved!!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 15 2023 22:19 utc | 190

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 16 2023 1:22 utc | 191
@ Scorpion | Jun 15 2023 22:19 utc | 190
I see you as the purveyor of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) from a hubristic viewpoint.
You are paid to deceive and manufacture FUD (agnotology) and keep saying you are innocent and “well intentioned”.
Thanks denk and others for continuing to call out one of our resident trolls
===========================
Your projections are way out of control, psycho.
Think about it: you imagine I am ‘paid.’ You have no way of knowing. You are just projecting. And you believe your projection and expect me to believe it as well.
That is halfway to psychosis, in case you don’t know.
See a shrink! Fast! Before it’s too late!
And keep your projections to yourself. If you don’t have anything to say about a topic, don’t say anything.
Sayonara!!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 16 2023 1:53 utc | 192

Please add Sámi to your list that Grieved pasted @ 17:31 utc | 183. Tx.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 15 2023 18:47 utc | 188
—————–
Here we learn something new everyday.
Except for the scorpion style ‘wn’,
When’ll they ever learn ?
When’ll they e–ver learn ??

Posted by: denk | Jun 16 2023 3:19 utc | 194

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 15 2023 3:53 utc | 171
I haven’t made comments with regard to your versions of history, Scorpion, but since they seem hardly credible to me, I believe I should, even though I have no expertise to offer countering them. I am not even sure you are the same Scorpion that we previously held conversations with, as that one would not be putting credible posters on a ‘block’list.
Today I had a surprising conversation with my bus driver,a very good man who I am sure would not agree totally with me on many subjects. But,amazingly, he did agree on covid and on Biden’s disastrous presidency. And we both enjoy interacting with the local native communities his route serves. We both have a high respect for their different ways.
Seeing the folk I knew before they made the decision to close themselves off because of covid brings home the realization of how much everyone has been suffering as edicts came down from ‘on high’.
We are SO glad to see one another again, and some people have lapsed into addictions of one sort or another because of the stress we have had to bear – it was too much for many. I feel sure that is the case because I notice the difference in friends from the past, before covid. A healing of just coming together is now beginning and I’m hopeful we can accomplish this.
And he, our driver, who had to keep driving through all the restrictions, made his own private decision to take care of his health his own way, just as I had done — this was a joy to me. I think there are many who have independently made this resolve. They didn’t agree to be managed. We have lost many as well; it has been a war of survival.
It doesn’t matter enlightened or not, knowledgeable or not. Party or not. When you see people again, that is what counts. Seeing people again! So we clasp hands again after years of not seeing or knowing what was happening. We wish one another well with such intensity. That is the human thing, the connection without knowing beliefs or even shortcomings. It is so good to see them again! See them; do not condemn them. Everyone has suffered greatly, lost family, been lonely and on their own, isolated. That is what this inhuman regime has done worldwide. This is the history we need to understand and change; it will happen because we each need it. We don’t need division.
If you are the Scorpion of the past, heal yourself now, Scorpion! If you are that Scorpion I know you can do it. The people I travel with are doing it.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 16 2023 4:35 utc | 196

Posted by: juliania | Jun 16 2023 4:35 utc | 196
Thank you for your post, Juliana. But I’m not willing to engage with people who stoop to insult and little else – at least when responding to any of my posts. It is not acceptable behavior.
And I’m quite healthy, thank you. Indeed, putting up with such stuff would be unhealthy!
As to the history, I recommend you look into Menzies books. How often have we seen that revisionist or different history or analysis is often regarded as incredible or vilified and then it turns out to be more or less accurate. The books are very well written so easy to read. That said, I didn’t finish the second one yet because am in the middle of a deep dive on the Yi Ching and currently reading two authors at the same time, with both of whom am also corresponding so Menzies – and McGilchrist unfortunately – are on the back burner.
As to other history (you don’t say exactly what you are referring to), I recently linked to an article by Unz that went through many different false narratives about WW II. You can read it yourself and see whether you think Unz needs healing. I certainly don’t agree with all of his opinions, albeit with this article I think he got most right. With covid – which is the very recent past and almost present – I think he got it wrong.
I have been maintaining for a while that discrete concepts like ‘China’ and ‘America’ as in ‘China caused the virus to spread’ or ‘America seeded the virus in China’ are too simplistic. In fact, clearly there has been international coordination of various things in the financial, medical, military, intelligence and other fields, biolab research being one of many such examples. [I wrote more but it’s too much so snipped it out.]
Not saying am for sure I am right, but for sure that sort of international cooperation quotient is a possibility, one Unz refuses to consider because he has his pet theory and he is going to run with it. He had many similar pet theories about vaccines and anti-vaxxers several of which have not stood the test of time well. This is why I personally avoid getting too involved with current issues and prefer reading longer articles – or years ago whole books – on revisionist history involving events many decades or centuries ago. There you can sometimes get accurate documents from archival sources. That is not foolproof either, of course, but it is often better once the heat has died down and the disinformation quotient has lessened. Never eliminated, but lessened.
The heat has not yet died down on the JFK murder, for example, so the documents have not been released. The heat did die down sufficiently on Pearl Harbour so the documents were released although 90% of them were destroyed or actually not even submitted in the 1940’s when they should have been. Still, the 10% that did get archived was released and they clearly show, for example, lengthy conversations between the various ships in the Japanese fleet. If I recall correctly, they knew the day the fleet left, they knew its destination, they knew the names not only of the military vessel captains but the fuel tankers accompanying them. They spoke often the entire trip believing their communications secure and not knowing that thanks to Enigma (or was it ULTRA?), a top secret US-UK Intelligence codebreaking operation which is a fascinating story in itself, the Allies had all their communications all the time. Ergo, the surprise attack of Pearl Harbour was not a surprise AT ALL and all statements by the FDR Admin to that effect were whopping lies designed to fool the American people he was honor-bound to serve faithfully and to bring them into the war and cause the death of tens of thousands of young lives. He was a war criminal par excellence. And to this day, even though the archives clearly show the tale, the narrative has not changed and he is often cited, including by many barflies here, as one of the greatest and most honorable Presidents. Deceit on that sort of level seriously disgusts me.
There are many things – such as those in Unz’s article last week about WW II – that have been definitively debunked but the narrative does not change. That is very interesting in itself. But this comment is already too long!
All best Juliana. I am glad you enjoy those posters but I will not engage with people who refuse to treat me honorably and insist only on insult. It’s very simple. The blocking app is a godsend. They can froth about me all they like but thankfully I don’t have to read it any more. I gave Denk one last chance but he insisted on insult yet again without relating with what I actually said. He has since said more, I gather, but I don’t see it any more. I did the same with psycho and he also insisted on insult not issues. He’s very proud of a fancy word he uses to justify the fact that he doesn’t have the slightest understanding about the materialism issue because he is entirely invested in it. That’s fine, his choice. But he seems compelled to insult that which he either doesn’t understand or with which he disagrees without ever saying if he disagrees and why. No, he just insults. So shallow. I never treated him or Denk that way. They insist on treating me that way and the waynenorway troll person too. It is simply not acceptable and now thanks to the app I don’t have to engage any more and this, hopefully, is my last word on the subject.
Life’s too short. If you don’t like someone’s post just move on. If you disagree with an issue they raise and wish to engage, then engage with the issue. But childish, mean-spirited ad hominem is unhealthy both for those expressing themselves that way and those being addressed in such an unkind manner. Finis!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 16 2023 6:19 utc | 198