The passing of René Girard was a great loss to the social sciences, and like all great losses it went largely unnoticed. The English-language media managed only a few scattered obituaries, most of them incorrigibly erroneous.
One thing that makes Girard so important is that he showed, more than anybody else, what is wrong with economics and why all the policies aimed at solving our major economic problems fail so miserably.
Girard’s starting point was an understanding of human desire. To understand it, he turned to the best possible sources – the great stories around which human civilizations have been organized. He wrote studies of Proust, Dostoevsky, the Greek myths, the Brahmanas of Vedic India, Shakespeare, and the Book of Job.
Girard understood that, other than the desire for basic necessities, human desire is almost entirely mimetic. One person wants X because somebody else – a mimetic model – wants X. It is entirely irrelevant that there is as much and as good outside the scope of the model’s desire. What the desiring subject wants is what the model wants, not something else equivalent in terms of utility.
It is not hard to see that this leads inevitably to violence. Desires of different subjects are determined to fix upon the same rivalrous goods. Worse, there is a mechanism that exacerbates desires past the point where reasonable agreement remains an option. Your desire for X causes me to want X. My desire for X then leads you to want X even more. My desire is in turn strengthened, until the positive feedback mechanism brings both of our desires into the category of obsession: the greatest engine of unrestrained violence in human culture.
The inevitable convergence of human desires on rivalrous goods explains the prevalence of what economists call ‘shortages’. Economists explain shortages by the failure of prices to adjust to the point where supply equals demand. But their explanations assume that human desires are fixed. Girard shows that, on the contrary, desires increase exponentially in intensity, until shortage is converted into violent, obsessive rivalry. Features of real life that are puzzles for economists – scarcity in the midst of abundance, failure to take the best course in positive-sum collective action problems – are precisely what Girard’s theory leads us to expect. Economists look for equilibrium – what we would expect from a linear system. But the upshot of Girard’s theory is that the dynamics of human desire are viciously nonlinear. As the Girardian mathematician Jean-Pierre Dupuy points out, the relevant state points in a social system will always be attractors, not equilibriums.
It was well known to some of the earliest Western social scientists that desire is mimetic. Mimetic desire plays a crucial role in Hobbes’s explanation of the ruthless violence of the ‘state of nature’. Spinoza came close to developing a systematic calculus of mimetic desire. In the more optimistic eighteenth century, the concept almost disappeared entirely: Rousseau, who differed from his contemporaries in finding rivalry worthy of discussion at all, made it into something tame and almost benign. He and his contemporaries had good reason to be sceptical about the theories of Hobbes and Spinoza. If desire is, through the mechanism of mimesis, so inexorably geared towards violence, how has society survived at all? Certainly Hobbes’s theory of the transition from the state of nature into civil society does not provide an adequate reply; Spinoza gave powerful arguments against the idea that civil society brings an end to the violent condition of rivalry that defines the state of nature.
Girard discovered the answer. Society has survived because it has developed a mechanism for concentrating violence on a limited number of victims. This he called the “scapegoating mechanism”. In fact the scapegoating mechanism exploits the very mimetic mechanisms that render it necessary for society’s survival. People who fall into violent, obsessive desire quickly lose their grip on reality. It is easy to convince them that the source of their frustration – their inability to satisfy their mimetic desires without running into violent conflict – is the fault of some group of scapegoats.
It is important for the scapegoats to be a disenfranchised minority, so that the violence of society can be turned upon them without fear that they will be avenged. Here, again, Girard’s theory renders unsurprising that which economists and political scientists are at a loss to explain: for instance how the favoured ‘cure’ for economic depression is to visit structural violence upon low-paid immigrants, racial minorities, the homeless, the unemployed and the disabled.
Girard was, it should go without saying, not an advocate of the scapegoating mechanism. He became a Christian because he saw it as fundamentally a rejection of Caiaphas’s maxim: it is better that one innocent person should be destroyed than that the whole nation perish (John 11:50). As a matter of history, he recognised that the scapegoating mechanism is the only thing that has saved human society from perishing in the flames of its own mimetic violence. But as a matter of moral philosophy he recognised no less that it is an utterly unacceptable solution.
He was too wise to propose what is called a ‘coherent alternative’. He listed no suite of social reforms to solve the problem of mimetic violence without the scapegoating mechanism. His only advice was that each of us should do our best to resist scapegoating. When asked what he thought we should do about terrorism and religious violence in the modern world, he broke the greatest taboo of academics and political commentators. He simply replied: “I don’t know.”
Anybody who reads Girard with an open mind will be free henceforth of two egregious misconceptions with which thinkers like Friedrich Hayek have infected the social sciences.
The first is that there is anything to be admired in the phenomenon of spontaneous social order. It is certainly impressive, in some non-moral sense, that human societies display self-organizing behaviour: they form complex patterns of order without any conscious central planning. But the most historically common form of spontaneous order is that of a human community tacitly agreeing to vent all of its violent frustration upon a defenceless subgroup. Girard’s work consisted of exposing the secret violent origins of almost all human institutions. Our enthusiasm for our institutions must be brought face-to-face with their origins.
The second is the notion that capitalism succeeds because it accepts human vices for what they are. Capitalism, it is commonly said, designs systems by which the self-interested egoism of individuals can be employed for the benefit of society. But humans are not self-interested in the required sense. They are willing to make great sacrifices in material wellbeing for the sake of visiting greater suffering upon their scapegoats. Americans could enjoy a higher standard of living if they sought to maximize employment rather than incarceration for racial minorities. But then many of them would not get to enjoy the relief of frustration that comes from knowing that others are suffering violence and degradation, that those others are not themselves and not ‘people like themselves’.
It is not capitalism that we have to thank for the stability and prosperity of our society. It is the scapegoating mechanism. This is a horrific scandal, of course. The loss of Girard is the loss of a finger to point to that scandal. We will go back to ignoring the horror by which we live until another Girard comes along.
Capitalism is the most prominent institution right now. And those who sing its praises often stress how well it suits human nature, which is exactly what is wrong with it.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 10 2023 14:42 utc | 4

Posted by: Tiger Lily | Aug 10 2023 14:07 utc
Regarding the non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia, I believe you are correct about that. That should be easy to verify and document from history books written before the “woke” era.
I more wanted to draw attention to the debate tactics of the radio host. Lies, digression, and disinformation. Rather than concede that, yes, the US ran a couple warships thru the Taiwan Straight, recently, to demonstrate that their rules are the only rules that matter, the host dragged the discussion to pogroms and treaties from WW2. One shouldn’t debate practiced liars and propagandists. Sorry for your bad experience.
Keep in mind, the Germans murdered millions in Europe and the US murdered hundreds of thousands in Japan. Governments of any type tend to be inhumane, they aren’t to be trusted and should all be feared.
Thank you, Lemming, for your list. I may take a bit of time to check to see how far Wiki has fallen.

Posted by: Phlogiston Warrior | Aug 10 2023 15:12 utc | 6

Today’s conversation between Putin and President and Chairman of the Board of the Bank VTB Andrei Kostin centered on two important developments–transfer of government shares in the United Shipbuilding Corporation to the bank so it can become more directly connected to the financing and financial management of that strategic state-owned corporation that I see as a creative, unique method of problem solving. And the second is Kostin’s update on the dedollarization situation centered around the use of national currencies in transactions and the related building of infrastructure to support those transactions, which as most barflies know I see as key to the entire process. Here is that part of their conversation:

Putin: Well, the second issue – we have discussed this many times-is related to the organization of a settlement system for foreign trade operations, the transition to national currencies, and so on. I know that you have also done a good job here, including with the Bank of Russia.
A. Kostin: As you know, in recent months there has been a very active development of bilateral settlements, and if at the initial stage Russia was the main initiator of these processes, now these processes have already gone beyond communication with Russia.
We also know that the largest Asian countries, such as China, India, Indonesia, Arab countries, especially the Persian Gulf, and Saudi Arabia… And at the Russia-Africa summit, we had a lot of contacts with African representatives, and they also told us that these processes have started in Africa, and African countries are starting to pay each other in national currencies and, importantly, create new infrastructure. In particular, SWIFT is being replaced by systems that replace it and are created by these countries themselves.
I think that one of our tasks today is to combine these systems. Because everyone has developed their own – the Chinese have it, the Hindus have it, and we have it – but it’s important that they can interact with each other. I think this is a very important point.
In addition, direct correspondent accounts are being established between banks, and payments are already being made in national currencies.
We are also promoting the idea of creating a settlement and depository hub to replace Euroclear. As you know, Euroclear compromised itself by freezing huge funds, including Russian citizens, today. But many States, and we have spoken with several Gulf States, are ready to host such hubs in order to create an alternative. And this is not directed against anyone, it is just an alternative option that will be devoid of any political or other restrictions.
And in this regard, we are working. I think that, of course, the largest partner is China, and we need to work with it at all levels, and at a high political level. But there is also movement there, including through our central banks.
Of course, new digital technologies offer great opportunities. The digital ruble is being launched under the leadership of the Central Bank, and 13 banks are participating in it – this is no longer an experiment, it is already, in general, the introduction of the digital ruble into practice. We know that there is a digital yuan. I think that this will be a big step forward in advancing our bilateral settlements.
And the same digital systems are gradually being created and developed by other countries. Therefore, I think that this year and next we will see a rapid transition to payments in national currencies in the countries of what we call the global south, that is, in developing countries, countries that are friendly to us today. And we are working very hard on this, of course.
Vladimir Putin: So the bank is also moving in this direction?
A. Kostin: Yes, we also have a network, as you know, there is a bank in Shanghai and Delhi, and we, of course, work very actively with the Gulf states – in general, there is traffic everywhere.
Vladimir Putin: Good. Thank you. [My Emphasis]

Promising and exciting news. Having financial sovereignty means having the ability to avoid illegal sanctions which spells their demise and the hegemony of the states that wield them. As Kostin said, building this network will take time, but once built digital national currencies will be able to flow without fear of choke points and overall turnover in global commerce will increase.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 10 2023 15:25 utc | 8

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 10 2023 15:25 utc | 8
Rishi Maynard Sunak
https://alexanderdouglas.medium.com/rishi-maynard-sunak-c2bfd0c53a4

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 10 2023 15:53 utc | 10

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin was interviewed by TASS today on a wide range of topics. One was about the EU’s 11th round of illegal sanctions and another was the attempt by Microsoft to invade Central Asia, which are the two that follow:

Question: The European Union has included in the 11th package of sanctions a mechanism to “combat their circumvention”, which will allow imposing restrictions against third countries. Are there any fears in Moscow that this will have a negative impact on our country’s cooperation with partners in the CIS, in particular, in Central Asia?
A: The EU is trying to breathe “new life” into its unilateral restrictions through their extraterritorial application. This is done under the pretext of combating the circumvention of sanctions. However, this is by no means the only goal of the European Union. Brussels is obsessed with sowing discord in Russia’s relations with its allies and neighbors. The 11th package, adopted by the EU in June of this year, is directed not so much against Russia as against third countries. The EU is blackmailing our key partners, including those from Central Asian states, with “secondary” measures. You can’t call it anything other than “sanctions terrorism”. At the same time, Brussels hypocritically declares its rejection of extraterritorial sanctions as contrary to international law. The EU is not going to really compensate for the damage to third countries from the gradual reduction of cooperation with Russia, and they will not be able to, because it would definitely exceed the costs of possible “secondary sanctions”.
All the attempts of the European Union will in no way affect the cooperation of our country with partners in the CIS, in particular, in Central Asia. We are confident in our friends who understand everything perfectly well and share our assessment that the West’s anti-Russian sanctions are illegitimate. The European Union, on the other hand, once again demonstrates that it is only concerned about its own well-being and the realization of unjustified political ambitions. For this, Brussels is ready to take almost any steps, including gross interference in the affairs of sovereign states, their trade and economic policies, and their relations with their closest partners.
It is already obvious that Western sanctions against our country did not bring the desired result – we did not fall into either the economic or social abyss, the country confidently demonstrates the potential for progressive development. This, by the way, is confirmed by both the World Bank and the IMF. But, apparently, the desire to “strangle” Russia, even at the expense of the well-being of their own peoples (restrictions of this kind are a double-edged weapon), is stronger than common sense among the ruling circles of the United States and the EU.
We see the maniacal persistence with which Western countries are producing illegitimate “sanctions packages” and trying to force the international community, including our closest allies, to comply with them. It should be understood that the restrictions are aimed not only at undermining the Russian economy, but also at maximizing damage to integration processes with its participation, including in the format of the CIS and the EAEU. The assurances of the Westerners that they have no plans to interfere with the trade and economic ties of our partners with Russia are untenable. They do not even hide their interest in subordinating the raw materials and food resources of the Central Asian region to their foreign economic goals.
The West has long exerted considerable political and informational pressure on our Central Asian friends, insisting on compliance with anti-Russian restrictions, shamelessly demanding to keep a report on the dynamics and structure of its trade turnover. Under these conditions, our partners are forced to exercise caution in order to avoid arbitrariness against them under the guise of so-called secondary sanctions.
Nevertheless, the trade and economic obligations between us continue to be fulfilled as meeting the interests of the parties. Trade turnover with the countries of Central Asia increased in 2022. The volume of accumulated Russian investments is at an impressive level. Central Asian countries’ investment in Russia has quadrupled since 2015. More than 10,900 Russian and joint ventures operate in the region, and they have created over <>,<> jobs.
Question: In April, it was reported that the American company Microsoft would open a multi-regional hub in Kazakhstan. It was noted that the activities of the hub will cover the countries of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Mongolia and Pakistan. The Russian Foreign Ministry previously stated that Microsoft is fulfilling the order of the US and Pentagon special services to take full control of the entire information infrastructure of Ukraine and deprive it of digital sovereignty. Do we see a threat to the digital sovereignty of the above-mentioned countries in the opening of such a hub, and will Moscow warn its partners against implementing this project?
A: As we have noted more than once, Microsoft is one of those companies that have tarnished themselves not only with anti-Russia rhetoric, but also with concrete steps to the detriment of our state. From the very beginning of the NWO, this corporation has been providing various support to the Kyiv regime under the pretext of strengthening its cyber defense. Moreover, she regularly accuses Russia of organizing computer attacks on Ukrainian resources. Of course, no evidence is given, and the facts of systemic cyber sabotage against the critical infrastructure of our country are hushed up in Microsoft.
All this once again testifies to the fact that the brainchild of B. Gates obediently builds its activities in line with the political attitudes of the United States. Therefore, we have no doubt that the initiative to create an interregional hub with a projection on the states of the post-Soviet space is being implemented, first of all, in the interests of Washington. The goal is to get these countries hooked on the IT industry, stuffed with “bookmarks” that simplify the intelligence activities of American intelligence agencies. By the way, many giants of Silicon Valley have been caught on this more than once. As practice shows, the promises of Westerners often turn into political and other bondage, including in the digital sphere. There are many examples when American and European IT giants used their technological developments to the detriment of the national interests of individual states.
Of course, it is up to each state to determine the degree of threat this project poses to its digital sovereignty. For our part, we warn and will continue to warn our friends in the CIS about the negative consequences of cooperation with such companies.
As part of joint integration tasks, in particular, in the Eurasian Economic Union, we are working on our own to overcome technological and digital dependence on unscrupulous and unreliable “partners” who abuse their once achieved monopoly position.
Our bilateral cooperation with the countries of the post-Soviet space is built on an equal basis. In 2022, for example, we signed intergovernmental agreements with Azerbaijan and Armenia on cooperation in the field of ensuring international information security. Plans for the implementation of these documents are currently being coordinated. In the spring of this year, relevant interdepartmental consultations were held. Russian companies specializing in digital and information and communication technologies are interested in establishing project cooperation with Baku and Yerevan. These are “smart” urban management systems, the use of energy storage devices, and electric transport. For our part, we are ready to provide the necessary diplomatic assistance to this important work.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 10 2023 16:07 utc | 12

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 10 2023 15:25 utc | 8
The problem with Putinomics in less than 5 minutes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M-8RXC_vY2g&pp=ygUgYmlsbCBtaXRjaGVsbCBtbXQgcGhpbGxpcHMgY3VydmU%3D

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 10 2023 16:18 utc | 14

Putinomics uses the Russian central bank to keep a group of humans unemployed to manipulate the inflation rate. It is both immoral and unethical.
Dyed in the wool Conservatism.
When he should use a transition job ( the job guarentee) to flatten the Phillips curve.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 10 2023 16:30 utc | 16

Posted by: Tiger Lily | Aug 10 2023 14:07 utc | 1
‘The host tried to muddy the waters by mentioning that Russia had spent part of the war fighting on Germany’s side’…
The claim in the quote is untrue.
While a blog is not an appropriate place to discuss history, particularly among non-historians, I provide a link to Putin’s address to the leaders of the CIS in December 2019 in which he cites documents that refute EU allegations that the so called Stalin-Ribbentrop pact paved the way for WWII.
The documents he reads show that “the Treaty between the Soviet Union and Germany was the last in a line of treaties signed by European countries that seemed to be interested in maintaining peace in Europe. Also, I want to note that the Soviet Union agreed to sign this document only after all other avenues had been exhausted and all proposals by the Soviet Union to create a unified security system, in fact, an anti-Nazi coalition in Europe were rejected”.
I recommend this as important reading. You can also watch it, if you manage to find it on youtube.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62376

Posted by: JB | Aug 10 2023 16:30 utc | 18

@1 Posted by: Tiger Lily | Aug 10 2023 14:07 utc
You can read Putins article regarding the beginning of WW2 here. It represents one perspective, of course, but as it is a perspective never heard in the West, I think it helps to understand the issue. Audiatur et altera pars.
For context it is important to remember that Poland had started a war with every neighbour within a few years of its revival by the Versailles Treaty and annexed land from each of them, including the Soviet Union. The demarcation line of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact was the Brest-Litovsk line, which had been dictated to the SU by the German Reich when Lenin sued for peace, and, without consulting the SU, been used as Polands new eastern border in the Versailles Treaty, treating the ally in the Great War as a vanquished foe after the war.
So no, Poland wasn’t divided between Germany and the SU. The SU took back the land that Poland had annexed after a war of aggression 25 years earlier. After the war, the SU kept this land (Putin called this a mistake btw) and Stalin extended Poland to the West.

Posted by: Arnauld Amalric | Aug 10 2023 16:33 utc | 20

More news about Niger, “Niger Blasts NATO’s Global Narrative Wide Open”. It’s a very good thing that NATO has exhausted itself so heavily in Ukraine as that gives Niger and its allies a chance to continue their efforts to free themselves. Hayes provides a very curious tidbit about Uganda that wasn’t mentioned in yesterday’s thread that I saw, “Uganda has discovered huge gold reserves.” Weeding out all the neocolonial crap from Africa is a huge project as that includes numerous compradors that currently control too many nations that act as echo chambers for their masters.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 10 2023 16:47 utc | 22

Posted by: Tiger Lily | Aug 10 2023 14:07 utc | 1
Germany and the Soviet Union began cooperating very shorty after the end of WWI. They signed a treaty nonaggression treaty in 1923:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Rapallo_(1922)
And engaged in secret cooperation to develop weapons:
https://warontherocks.com/2016/06/sowing-the-wind-the-first-soviet-german-military-pact-and-the-origins-of-world-war-ii/
https://news.nd.edu/news/historian-offers-first-deep-dive-into-secret-german-soviet-alliance-that-laid-groundwork-for-wwii/
They started official cooperation later:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact
Where the USSR provided grain, oil, and materials to Germany and in return Germany provided machine tools and equipment to the USSR. Both countries anticipated an end to the agreement and a start of hostilities, but previously Germany had made extreme demands before it invaded a country. So the German invasion caught the reds off gaurd.
As for Jewish persecution, it was common throught Christian Europe for centuries. The jews were frequently given lucrative trade licenses BECAUSE they could never be part of the aristocracy, and thus were never a political threat to anyone. This frequently angered the peasants and other merchants. In essence, they were the designated whipping boy, pretty much everywhere, including Russia.
As for the rest, the other replies covered it all pretty well.

Posted by: team10tim | Aug 10 2023 17:45 utc | 24

Simplicius steps away from the Russia’s SMO to deal with something just as important, “Russia’s CBDC: Exploring the Truth”. It is simply outstanding and goes far beyond the CBDC to examine Russia’s banking system, which for the most part is a public utility.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 10 2023 18:03 utc | 26

“…In essence, they were the designated whipping boy, pretty much everywhere, including Russia…”
team10tim@24
This is misleading. The point is that, after 1917 there were no pogroms against Jews in Soviet controlled territory. Elsewhere, in europe particularly there were many in this period. In the Soviet Union there were none- anto-semitism was abhorent to the communists.
To be precise where there were attacks on Jews, countenanced by authority, in Russia those attacks took place where the Allied sponsored White Armies ruled. In other words the British and French were responsible for any pogroms in Russia, after 1917.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 10 2023 18:16 utc | 28

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 10 2023 18:03 utc | 26
#########
Did you see that the Duma is authorizing a 2-year trial of Islamic banking in Russia? I found that interesting given that so many here critique capitalism loudly, and yet no one ever mentions the Islamic economic system as a much better replacement. I assume that is because people are ignorant of the differences between corporate Capitalism and the Islamic system, the latter of which entails skin in the game, and a prohibition on usury (which all of the Abrahamic faiths are supposed to observe).
Skin in the game is, in my opinion, one of the greatest issues with corporate liability protection and the modern Capitalistic system. Too many actors without accountability leading to reckless and anti-social outcomes.
Russia seems to innovate every single day as the West continues its decline.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 10 2023 19:04 utc | 30

Posted by: bevin | Aug 10 2023 18:16 utc | 28
You are right. I should have clarified how the situation changed with communism. Thank you for pointing it out.

Posted by: team10tim | Aug 10 2023 19:17 utc | 32

Suppose Martians exist. As we don’t trade with Martians, the exchange rate with the Martian currency could be anything.
In the same way, if the EU doesn’t trade with Russia, the exchange rate between euro and ruble could be anything. Any exchange rate value will balance the books, if there is zero trade.
I think in practice, as trade between EU and Russia grows less and less, the exchange rate between euro and ruble will become more and more volatile.

Posted by: Passerby | Aug 10 2023 19:29 utc | 34

” Regarding the 1939 partition of Poland, it really won’t do to claim either that the Soviet role in this was not an attack on Poland; it certainly was. But while that made the Soviet Union a “partner in crime” to Germany, it did not make it an actual ally. ”
—————————
German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_military_parade_in_Brest-Litovsk#:~:text=The%20German%E2%80%93Soviet%20military%20parade,in%20the%20city%20of%20Brest%2D

Posted by: Shocked | Aug 10 2023 19:54 utc | 36

Precarious manhood refers to the male tendency to measure their masculinity according to others’ estimation, rather than by personal or objective means. In other words, the respect of being a “real man” is something that is difficult to gain, easily lost, and must be constantly proved. Men who perceive their manhood as being threatened tend to respond aggressively, often posturing and blustering to appear tough and “manly.”
Clearly there is a crisis of masculinity within our society, but solving it would require admitting that these problems exist, not just blame-shifting or melting down every time someone else points them out.

Posted by: Wilikins | Aug 10 2023 20:03 utc | 38

“…Men who perceive their manhood as being threatened tend to respond aggressively, often posturing and blustering to appear tough and “manly.”….” Wilikins@38
Among other strategies employed to deal with this stereotyping is that of ‘changing’ sex and becoming a ‘woman’.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 10 2023 20:54 utc | 40

Whilst I do not fully endorse this view, Tom Luongo’s interpretation of the schisms within the US establishment, especially w.r.t Powell’s Fed and Yellan’s Treasury, and the current fiscal dynamics of the historical imperial heartland, Europe, are worth a read if you’ve the time and inclination. Excerpt from recent op below.
Also, Is France is violating Niger’s airspace. True? False?
~~

France, Niger and Why Five Basis Points Continue to Change the World
“…If Niger’s coup holds and rest of the CFA Franc zone revolts over the next year while the US kinda stands by and picks its nose militarily, then we have our catalyst along with Japan ‘tweaking Yield Curve Control’ two weeks ago for the beginning of the end of the European Union.
Hungary just told NATO no on Finland and Sweden.
The US State dept. retaliated immediately.  But the EU didn’t.  The Neocons are big mad because they still want war in Ukraine but Europe can’t afford it. 
The splits in the oligarchy are now being laid bare.  The collateral is returning to the control of those that produce it rather than those that finance it.
And it was all started by five little basis points in June 2021, five basis points that changed the world.

https://tomluongo.me/2023/08/07/france-niger-five-basis-points-continue-change-world/

Posted by: suzan | Aug 10 2023 21:26 utc | 42

@S.P. Korolev | Aug 10 2023 21:37 utc | 43
Thank you, I have waited decades for this.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 10 2023 21:56 utc | 44

Re tiger lily at #01. Purely as cover because if you enter into a debate with any media person who believes they have a role in buttressing the empire and use solely Russian sources, the media creep’s gonna dismiss everything you say with allegations of being a “Putin puppet” then move on. Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941 by William L. Shirer is an excellent work for use with revisionist idiots who write the history of the so called Molotov Ribbentrop Pact as a sellout of Poles by the Soviet Union.
Shirer who with his cbs colleague Ed Murrow set up the first live from europe radio broadcasts for amerikans was a painstakingly accurate journalist based in Berlin throughout much of the 1930’s. Although he was in continual conflict with Goebbels’ flunkies over the content of his broadcasts he managed to get a lot of the truth of nazi germany out to listeners. Shirer covered ever aspect of the Soviet Union’s efforts to keep europe at peace and details how england and france worked behind the scenes to ensure that no deal was reached between Poland and the Soviets to enter into a mutual self defense agreement.
The Soviets gave up finally after they were told england & france were all that was needed to protect Poland and the Soviets would have to wait until the nazis reached USSR territory before they could fight nazis, there was to be no going onto Poland to fight them.
Of course that sounded ridiculous to the Soviets who knew damn well that anglo-french promises were worth nothing as there was no way for either ‘great power’ to reach Poland if it was attacked by germany. Ultimately the Soviets decided that they needed to protect their own citizens above all else and having an agreement with the nazis, the non-aggression pact would at least give them a buffer state Poland, to fight in when the nazis came at them.
So they entered into an agreement with Germany knowing that it wouldn’t last for long but also knowing that england & france had ensured there was no alternative. Details of these negotiations along with england’s sellout of Czechoslovakia, and how Austria was setup make up a considerable portion of Berlin diary, it is well worth the read.
Since the end of WW2 so many lies are told about what really happened by ‘the west’ that little stuff from western historians can be regarded as accurate. For example we always hear about 6 million jews being butchered, 3 million of whom were citizens of the USSR but we never hear about the other 19 million non-Jewish civilians who were slaughtered by the nazis in exactly the same manner. 22 million Soviet civilians were butchered by nazis as well as more than 5 million soldiers but we are no longer informed of that in the west and certainly never that the USSR won the war knocking over more than 120 divisions of nazi troops danes, swedes, norwegian, Romanian, Italian and others but primarily german nazi forces while the west faced about 9 divisions and as we saw at the battle of the bulge as western newsmen dubbed it, they barely managed to beat that many.
The worst part is even before ww2 had been won by the Soviets the entire west especially amerika turned their guns on the USSR. The only reason that ‘the allies’ didn’t attack then was not only were the chances of a western victory extremely dubious, back then public opinion in england & amerika definately would not have been behind them, so a massive inter-generational indoctrination campaign was begun, full of blatant lies such as “the Soviets killed as many jews as the nazis” that, despite the fact that people of jewish heritage have always been part of Soviet government and Red Army. It is no coincidence that the hot war against Russia did not begin until just about everyone who was around in WW2 was dead.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Aug 10 2023 22:38 utc | 46

LoveDonbass | Aug 10 2023 19:04 utc | 30–
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I’ve known about that for a few weeks. The issue with capitalism and any economic system for that matter is who is it to benefit–the masses or the few? Capitalism can be managed to benefit the masses as China, Russia, and others have shown. Again, it’s who has control of the government, not any specific economic system that’s at the bottom line.
bevin | Aug 10 2023 21:01 utc | 41–
Thanks for your reply and its link.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 10 2023 23:19 utc | 48

Capitalism is the worse possible way to organize a society….except for all the others.
Posted by: Muthaucker | Aug 10 2023 19:59 utc | 37

Capitalism is the worse possible way to organize a society…. NO EXCEPTION, PERIOD.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Aug 10 2023 23:46 utc | 50

re Lemming @ 47 is that поехали! from Masha and Zhenya or from Yuri Gagarin?

Posted by: Debsisdead | Aug 11 2023 0:18 utc | 52

I came across this in Telegram. It is in Russian but I used a machine translation:

Simultaneously with the beginning of the negotiation track and the continued threat of armed intervention by ECOWAS, the United States decided to activate jihadist groups
The former leader of the Tuareg rebels, Rissa Ag Bula, announced the creation of the “Council of Resistance for the Republic” (CRR), and intends to fight for the return of Mohamed Bazum to power . In recent years, the Tuareg leader has been close to power, and under Bazum even received a ministerial post called “Minister of State for Presidential Security.”
The video just shows one of the meetings of the ex-president with his right hand, the Tuareg. It was the unexpectedly increased influence of Rissa Ag Bula that became one of the reasons for the armed coup in the country.
By itself, Rissa Ag Bula is an extremely interesting and controversial figure. Originally from the 90s, the founder of the jihadist and separatist movement of the Tuareg, he repeatedly received a ministerial post from Niamey, and after a short time again went to the borders with Libya, and raised the banner of the “holy struggle”.
In addition to the general growth of the jihadist threat in the Lake Chad region and in the north and east of Mali (including with the aim of restricting the capabilities of the Wagner PMC), the uprising of the Tuareg north of Niger can lead to the internationalization of the conflict and the involvement of the widest range of ethnic groups in it – from the Arab tribes southern Libya, to the cross-border Fulani, and well-known jihadist groups.

As you can see the post refers to about what would happen in Niger now that imperialism is a no-no and is very similar to a prediction I made a few days ago about amerika & france winding up terrorists to create chaos in the nation.
I know very little about Rissa Ag Bula myself and as a supporter of the rights of indigenous people I would normally get behind a Tuareg movement however this seems more like the mess kurds throughout the ME got into when they hopped into bed with amerika.
Nothing good comes of it as amerika is a proven fairweather friend who only supports particular group for as long as it takes amerika to obtain what it wants after which the former ‘allies’ are tossed aside , left in a situation where their gross cruelty against others has made enemies of all the humans around them. Such a future is the best that Tuaregs could hope for if any of them were foolish enough to follow amerika’s strategy. That is not supporting indigenous people but rather undermining them, people who are frequently completely unprepared for the deceits of the west, people such as desert dwellers for whom telling the truth is a life or death matter have a great deal of difficulty getting their heads around the notion that any fellow human could be that dishonourable.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Aug 11 2023 1:44 utc | 54

Hi Barflies
Not sure if this already been shared, but a peer reviewed scientific journal by Russians for Russians for the science and history buffs @ the bar.
https://www.noo-journal.ru/company/
Cheers

Posted by: Suresh | Aug 11 2023 3:26 utc | 56

Link
A course on the Petrodollar and why it matters, by Gonzalo Lira aka. CRP / Coach Red Pill. May explain why TPTB are afraid of anyone that acknowledges simple reality. Now it’s not PC to be “red pilled”. These people are sicko. Was it Ben Franklin that said to failing to prepare is preparing to fail?

Posted by: longtimber | Aug 11 2023 4:01 utc | 58

Echo Chamber, thank you so much for your brilliant summary of the thought of Rene Girard.
I will not dive too deeply into my own anecdotal ruminations on the power of Girard’s thought, only to say that it is, as you say, an absolutely responsible way of looking at civilization and calling the human mimesis out for what it is: present everyday in our lives, whether in a capitalist or communist society.
I am reminded of what Derrida related about “Deconstruction”: a “deconstructionist” is called to be responsible and to delay judgement. It’s willingness to suffer all, then, is paramount, because humanity in its tribes demand their tributes. Christianity is indeed the universal answer to the problem of everpresent scapegoating: the Mass given to remind us that no other innocent need be sacrificed as the self-giving Sacrifice of Jesus is the real food that sustaind.
For those who can not consider Christianity due to an anti-mystical or scientific bias or due to being traumatized as a young person brought up in the faith, Rene Girard’s defense of Christianity is the best and most erudite explanation as to why Christ as Redeemer is valid universally on an Anthropological level.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 11 2023 5:09 utc | 60

ZH has a posting up with the title
It Was Pelosi: Former Capitol Police Chief Reveals ‘Set Up’ Behind January 6
The posting reports on a new Tucker Carlson video out that is evidently a repeat of an interview that Tucker did before but that Fox refused to air of the Capitol Police Chief.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 11 2023 6:47 utc | 62

BEIRUT, August 10. /TASS/. Explosions were heard late on Thursday at a US-controlled base in the al-Shaddadi district in the south of Syria’s Al Hasakah governorate, Syria’s General Authority for Radio and Television reported.

What interests me is comparing how the press treats news items. When a drone breaks windows in a Moscow office building it’s headline news; when there are explosions in a US military base in Syria it’s hardly mentioned.

Posted by: Passerby | Aug 11 2023 8:33 utc | 64

Posted by: ExileJr | Aug 11 2023 8:09 utc | 63
i hope Imran Khan can eventually prevail in Pakistan, too.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 11 2023 10:39 utc | 66

There’s nobody to vote for in just about all countries that will allow the correct path to take.
Could be wrong but my guess is eventually the correct path will be forced upon them. They’ll have no choice in the end but to accept it.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 11 2023 11:45 utc | 68

Re: “Russian elites turned an industrialized country with high-educated population into a ‘raw material appendage’.”
Posted by: Tragedy of Russia | Aug 10 2023 19:16 utc | 31
The USSR & Russian Federation have always had a populous of highly educated people & exports of raw materials. There’s no “cultural” change here.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Aug 11 2023 12:39 utc | 70

Apparently there is a planned pipeline project to Europe from Nigeria and through Niger which would allow France to provide fuel as a substitute for sanctioned russian resources. And substitute for US imports.
Thus the US seems to have a motive to want war there.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Aug 11 2023 13:09 utc | 72

Lantern Dude @73
…also I watched the Geopolitical Hour with Ms Desai, Mr Hudson and Mr Escobar, which discussed the BRIC direction of travel toward multi-polar political economics. It’s a few days old so not sure whether it has been mentioned before.
https://michael-hudson.com/2023/08/towards-a-demilitarized-global-currency/

Posted by: Lantern Dude | Aug 11 2023 14:23 utc | 74

There’s nobody to vote for in just about all countries that will allow the correct path to take.
Could be wrong but my guess is eventually the correct path will be forced upon them. They’ll have no choice in the end but to accept it.
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 11 2023 11:45 utc | 68
Just curious, what is the “correct path”, who decides it is the “correct path” and who is it that gets to the forcing?

Posted by: Phil R | Aug 11 2023 16:21 utc | 76

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/58633

US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $200 million to counter Wagner’s activities in Africa.

Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 11 2023 17:40 utc | 78

A ruble is about $0.0101€, 0.0092€ and ¥0.0729. Yikes.

Posted by: Kalesh | Aug 11 2023 19:26 utc | 80

very mistaken religious position.
…
There are more pedio’s in the Catholic church than there ever were in government. I know that you are not Catholic, or even Christian, I suspect that you are Muslim, but you don’t say that (I wonder why?).
Posted by: Ed | Aug 11 2023 19:06 utc | 80
###
Ed, interesting comment. Regrettably, I did do a lot of off-topic posting in that thread. I didn’t think to post here (or somewhere like here) but will do so in the future.
You’re correct that I am not a Catholic or a Christian. I am not a Muslim, but I have studied Islam because I like to try to understand things others avoid.
There are bad actors in all governments, races, professions, and faiths. Humans, by and large, are not great people. Great people, in my experience, tend to be the exception.
Pedo behavior is a major sin in Islam. There are several cultures practicing Islam while maintaining cultural norms that violate Islam.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 11 2023 19:46 utc | 82

Everything has in it good points and bad points. Someone accumulated some amount of money, that was sufficient for 4-5 generations. And would have been sufficient if the currency did not decrease in value. These progeny of that someone are/were useless.
Currency did not depreciate. These useless progenies got to enjoy good life while being useless. The currency depreciated. The useless progenies had to be useful or they perished.
Is currency depreciating capitalism a good scenario? I would think it is not. Because anticipating currency depreciation, that someone invested in rent giving properties and investments. People here who are more money-knowledged will be able to tell us the ideal money and/or interest policy.
Posted by: AOTP | Aug 11 2023 16:04 utc | 76
#######
15 years ago, I watched a series of YouTube videos on money, and the conclusion I reached is that every monetary regime ever has eventually debauched the currency. That seems inevitable. The temptation is too great, just as the availability to go into debt is too attractive to governments. They all eventually do it, and with the power of compound interest, they eventually, get so deep that national bankruptcy seems the only end game.
I am not a fan of corporate capitalism. I believe the idea of corporate liability protection has been one of the greatest mistakes of mankind to date. It has empowered bad government, bad policy, and bad behavior all around.
Liability is a check on bad behavior. If there is no check, then why not dump the toxic waste into the water supply? Penalties? Ok. We’ll pay them. Bad PR? No problem, we own the network. Jail time? For a white-collar executive? Rare.
If we all had to be accountable for our behavior, the world at large would be better, in my opinion. We used to have shame if someone went bankrupt or got divorced. If someone cheated on their spouse. That stuff is all normalized and glamorized on TV now. There is very little consequence in any domain for doing negative things socially. And I think we’re all poorer for that.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 11 2023 20:03 utc | 84

BOTS HAVE TAKEN OVER NEARLY HALF THE INTERNET
Published: August 10, 2023 |
https://greatgameindia.com/bots-have-taken-over-nearly-half-the-internet/

Encountering an online robot, or bot, is as frequent as discovering a pair of shoes in your closet.
This occurrence is intrinsic to the internet, yet users have reached a crucial juncture: A growing multitude of individuals are losing their capacity to differentiate between bots and humans.
This is a circumstance that developers have cautioned about for an extended period, and its rationale is easily comprehensible.
A recent study has determined that bot-generated content now constitutes 47 percent of all internet traffic, marking an uptick of over 5 percent from 2021 to 2022. Concurrently, human activity on the internet has recently hit its lowest point in an eight-year span.
Combined with advancements in AI-driven human-like interactions, nearly one-third of internet users are no longer able to ascertain if they’re engaging with a human being.

Hmm…. any bots here? Am I a bot?

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 11 2023 20:32 utc | 86

That was well put. I agree that fully stigmatizing the Russians had to wait until all of the WWII generation was dead. We could disparage the soviet ideology, but it wasn’t really possible to hold them in contempt while there was still living memory of what they accomplished against the Germans.
Posted by: team10tim | Aug 11 2023 0:09 utc | 51
———————————————
As a citizen veteran of the Cold War I’m pretty sure I’m remembering correctly that the Cold Warriors did not go easy on stigmatizing the SU, at all. Also, the SU was pretty much conflated with Russia. Remember “the Rooskies”? I think the difference is that we don’t fear Russia as we (rightly) did the SU. I hope that doesn’t turn out to be the most dreadful of all possible errors.

Posted by: jonboinAR | Aug 11 2023 22:16 utc | 88

@Ed | Aug 11 2023 19:06 utc | 80

There are more pedio’s in the Catholic church than there ever were in government.

Source? As a matter of facts, it is quite probable that the rate of paedophiles in the Catholic Church is actually lower than in other institutions: at the time of the peak level of Church abuses in the USA, in the 1970s, it is estimated that 4% of the priests sexually violated a child; in the same timespan, 5% to 7% of US public school teachers violated a child according to the US Department of Education. According to a Dutch study on the situation in the Nederlands: “although sexual abuse of minors by representatives of the RCC (Roman Catholic Church) was a structural problem during a period that the Church was highly influential in the Netherlands, the estimated prevalence of the phenomenon is only a fraction of the prevalence rate of non-familial CSA (Child Sex Abuses)”. These scandals were used to weaken to Church and let loose the neo-liberal doctrine.

Posted by: SG | Aug 11 2023 22:37 utc | 90

Posted by: Lantern Dude | Aug 11 2023 14:23 utc | 74
Thanks for the link, Lantern Dude! I have been waiting for that second part of the discussion, and it did not disappoint.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 11 2023 23:28 utc | 92

Capitalism is the worse possible way to organize a society….except for all the others.
Posted by: Muthaucker | Aug 10 2023 19:59 utc | 37
Capitalism is the worse possible way to organize a society…. NO EXCEPTION, PERIOD.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Aug 10 2023 23:46 utc | 50
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…”
Winston Randolph Churchill
First Lord of the Admiralty at 30 something, whose brilliant plan to wrest the Dardanelles from the Turks sent my Grandpa to the horror of Gallipoli. But he was one hell of an orator.

Posted by: bubbles | Aug 12 2023 1:03 utc | 94

USA torched Maui and it wasn’t climate change. Although it was deliberate it was meant to look like climate change. This is about to happen a lot more in the West as we’re getting into fire season. Maui was done it looks like a land grab. The US has laser weapon (HARP)and they will start using it throughout the West as they have before.
Good reason to take your eyes off the war. Good reason to take your eyes off losing all of North Africa. The EU is hobbled and broken. Any country that wants to side with USA we’ll meet with economic austerity for a very long time. The USA is meeting with economic austerity currently the regime is sucking all the money out and the local markets are shriveling. I expect the Eastern European countries to choose the path of prosperity for their peoples.
Ron Johnson comes out today and says that covid-19 was a planned event. It was a planned event. It was sprayed on populations by US military planes throughout the world as aerosol disseminated cloud seeding or mosquito abatement, etc. Sorry, a man-made virus does not come out of a lab in wuhan and go all over the world. More smoke.
All done to scare everyone into lockdowns to scam the election and then to promote a deadly vaccine, big pharma makes billions population decreases. All w e f agenda. All psyops. Is climate change legit or a psyop ? CO2 sitting at .03% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Let me know

Posted by: Diego | Aug 12 2023 5:03 utc | 96

Below is a succinct Xinhuanet piece of pointed claims

BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) issued a report on the World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance of the United States for the first time on Friday.
The report reviewed U.S. performance on following WTO rules, and expressed concerns over U.S. policy measures that undermine the multilateral trading rules, impose unilateral sanctions, manipulate double standards in industrial policies, and disturb global industrial and supply chains.
The concerns cover 11 areas, including tariff and non-tariff barriers, industrial subsidies, agricultural subsidies, trade remedies, standards and technical regulations, trade in services and intellectual property rights.
The United States has not only selectively implemented WTO rulings, but has also blocked appointments of new Appellate Body members, which led to the “paralysis” of the Appellate Body.
The United States has a long history of taking unilateral measures against other members under the guise of so-called “national security,” “human rights” and “forced technology transfer,” and has also coerced others into abiding by its diplomatic policies and illegitimate demands, the report said.
In addition, the United States has implemented exclusive and discriminatory subsidy policies, and has disrupted other countries’ industrial development through means like export control, the report added.
It has instigated decoupling and fragmenting industrial and supply chains, tried to utilize unilateral tariff measures to force re-shoring of industrial chains, established U.S.-centered industrial and supply chains through massive subsidies, and promoted near-shoring and friend-shoring based on so-called “values,” the report said.
As the world’s largest economy and an important founder and principal beneficiary of the multilateral trading system, the United States should have set a good example by abiding by the rules, honoring its commitments, and upholding the authority and efficacy of the multilateral trading system, according to the report.
China will, as always, maintain close communication and cooperation with all parties, fully and deeply participate in the reform of the WTO, and work together to promote the multilateral trading system to play a bigger role in global economic governance, said the MOC.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 12 2023 6:19 utc | 98

Bubbles @ 95, Bevin @ 96, Chas @ 100:
To complicate things, Winston Churchill’s brother was known as John Spencer-Churchill and his daughter (Winston’s, that is) was Mary Spencer-Churchill. So “Spencer” was actually part of Winston Churchill’s surname.
The Spencers who intermarried with the Churchills are related to Diana Spencer, the first wife of the current King Charles III.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Aug 12 2023 10:43 utc | 100