Posted by: waynorinorway | Aug 17 2023 6:23 utc | 95
I could be wrong, but the article in vg denies things said in a previous interview. I would assume that anything denied is truth, and anything asserted lies.

Posted by: Passerby | Aug 17 2023 7:14 utc | 103

laguerre 102
Never confuse the institution with the current personalities in charge.
Wise words from within the corporate world. The corporate world is a chicken factory whose sole purpose is to serve the interests of the corporation.
Or as Craog Murray pointed out , when he was at work all diplomatic staff shared the same corporate deas, while strongly disagreeing with them personally.
Unfortunately for him this suspension of disbelief was not sustainable out there in the real world, when you walk out the cinema into the real world.

Posted by: Giyane | Aug 17 2023 8:00 utc | 105

Repirt from Southfront on Syria:
ISIS attack on a bus killed 33 SAA soldiers in Deir Ezzor, Syria. Two American F35s targeted two russian jets, and almost collided a drone with another Russian VKS aircraft. There was also a rocket attack on the American base and Conoco gas plant.
The Syrian Foreign ministry accused the USA of being behind the ISIS bus attack.

Posted by: UWDude | Aug 17 2023 8:22 utc | 107

@laguerre | Aug 17 2023 6:56 utc | 102

[…] That of course is a consequence of Western imperialism, and the policy to destabilise as many countries as possible […]

Those countries are more than capable to destabilise themselves without Western help. Just look at Niger: it will be another disaster, and they’ll say that it is all white men’s fault. Not to mention that a great number of immigrants are from stable, even if criminally overcrowded, nations.

[…] Together with the lack of interest among European women in making babies any more […]

That is part of the consummerist, nihilistic lifestyle, alongside transgenderism.

[…] So the immigrants are needed to do the work […]

The immigrants on average are just slightly more prolific than natives: the nihilistic lifestyle is contagious, especially among materialistic people.

Posted by: SG | Aug 17 2023 8:30 utc | 109

CONFRONTING MONETARY IMPERIALISM IN FRANCOPHONE AFRICA WITH NDONGO SAMBA SYLLA
https://moneyontheleft.org/2019/03/15/confronting-monetary-imperialism-in-francophone-africa-with-ndongo-samba-sylla/

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 8:47 utc | 111

The IMF and the Germans wreaking havoc in Northern Africa
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=37962

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 8:58 utc | 113

Posted by: SG | Aug 17 2023 8:30 utc | 109
Ah! A reactionary of the same stripe as Crooke.

Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 9:01 utc | 115

The French would never accept loss of sovereignty.
Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 8:59 utc | 114
It uses the Euro it gave up its sovereignty a long time ago. Not only was it accepted they waved flags and sang ode to joy when they did it.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 9:08 utc | 117

in order to advance and make the single market possible.
Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 8:59 utc | 114wealthy
Do you understand the single market and what it is ?
The single market is where all the nasty bits of the treaties fester. Where all the gold standard, fixed exchange rate spending and debt rules live.
This war should have taught you there is no such thing as a single market.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 9:28 utc | 119

… As I’ve always said, never confuse the institution with the current personalities in charge, but he does.
Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 6:56 utc | 102
The current leadership, as with Atlanticism generally, are a manifestation of interests and powers to which every part and particle the “institution” is utterly subordinate.
You don’t acknowledge this fact, let alone posit even a theoretical way to get out from under Empire’s thumb, in your oft repeated nostrum. The next iterations of leadership will be captured by Empire in exactly the same way, how could it be otherwise?

Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 17 2023 9:34 utc | 121

More reactionary stuff. Nobody pretended Brexit was the only single-explanation disaster, but isolationism doesn’t work. The Brits have held back from putting the controls they negotiated into action, because they know the economy wouldn’t survive. And I’m afraid the Tories are lying to you, they’re fooling you into thinking Brexit is unimportant amongst many crises.
It is genuinely amazing to compare Britain’s position in the world in, say, 2015, with today. Today, Britain is a minor irrelevant country, one that needs to suck up to the US by running part of the Ukraine war for them, although there’s no British interest involved. Previously Britain had a moderately decisive role, and everyone wanted to go and live in Britain; now everyone wants to leave.
And the French economy is doing much better than the British, euro or no euro. The problem in Europe is the fools at the top at the moment, the previous lot were pretty good.
Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 9:29 utc | 120
Absolute nonsense and very clear you have never understood money and prove it time and time again.
The fact that you can’t even list one thing that wasn’t caused by the pandemic or sanctions but caused by Brexit proves.
Foreign trade is not a determinant of our productivity and prosperity levels, as is often asserted. It’s just EU claptrap that puts a small group of exporters in each nation at the front of the Q instead of the domestic population. So France can export it’s unemployment to the smaller nations in the periphery of the union.
I go shopping laguerre and there is nothing I can’t buy now that I could buy before Brexit. It was all a myth.
Still waiting on these thousands of companies that would pull out of the UK if Brexit happend. Was always a fairytale.
You are the one being reactionary because you can’t find any facts to prop up your GROUPTHINK.
It is all platitudes and promises and threats wrapped up in mythical narratives and framing. Paul Krugman won a noble prize showing the single market was a complete and utter myth. You should read it sometime.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 9:46 utc | 123

I go shopping laguerre and there is nothing I can’t buy now that I could buy before Brexit.
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 9:46 utc | 123
On what an absolute classic! You go shopping; you don’t work. You’re isolated from the problems.

Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 9:49 utc | 125

The EU is nightmare. Britain’s workers made the smart choice and retained British sovereignty. A sovereign nation should have its’ own currency. It should be able to control the flow of capital and labor across its’ borders. The idea of sovereignty and joining the EU is like freedom and being shackled in chains.
Posted by: zeke2u | Aug 17 2023 9:27 utc | 118
Ah! an American to judge by the spelling, someone completely out of touch with what the EU does for Europeans, the ones who have to work, not those who live on retirement pensions like echo chamber.

Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 9:56 utc | 127

Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 9:29 utc | 120
Your country is on fire with riots everywhere.
You live in a parallel universe and only see what you want to see.
Still waiting on that one example. Just one that was caused by Brexit and got the pandemic or sanctions. Just one to back up your GROUPTHINK.
UK unemployment rate 4.2%
UK youth unemployment rate 12.3%
France unemployment rate 7.2%
France youth unemployment rate 16.9%
Is there anything you say is true or do you just live in a fictional bubble ? You are a classic example of making up your own reality in your head to feed your ideology.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 9:59 utc | 129

Posted by: Passerby | Aug 17 2023 7:14 utc | 103
Yeah, VG is a just tabloid stuff, our USA Today clone.
Good crossword puzzle on Saturday is the best one can say.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Aug 17 2023 10:06 utc | 131

The current leadership, as with Atlanticism generally, are a manifestation of interests and powers to which every part and particle the “institution” is utterly subordinate.
The next iterations of leadership will be captured by Empire in exactly the same way, how could it be otherwise?
Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 17 2023 9:34 utc | 121
I see you don’t go in for shades of grey, only black-and-white simplicisms. A common problem among MoA commenters. The capturing of the EU leadership by the US was a slow process, which has only now culminated under Scholz and von der Leyen. Crooke understands well that there’s the beginnings of a revolt in Germany (but I leave it to our German friends to comment in more detail).
There’s a lot to learn from the instructive parallel between the workings of NATO and the Delian confederacy. Athens concentrated more and more power in Athens over 60 or more years, faced with the Persian threat. And then ended up blowing it by going too far. As certainly will happen to the US too. Indeed we see the beginnings already. Persia ended up in the 4th century by dominating the former Athenian empire for many years before Alexander came on the scene.

Posted by: laguerre | Aug 17 2023 10:10 utc | 133

The Tucker Carlson – RFKjr interview is a MUST watch.

Posted by: PJB | Aug 17 2023 10:46 utc | 135

NONE of the myths or fear mongering came to pass that was spread far and wide by the neoliberal globalist gangsters set up in Brussels. None of them and why you scratch your head to try and even come up with one.
There’s a very long list if you look at the pandemic and sanctions though.
Get on your hands and knees laguerre and crawl to Brussels to beg that they keep in place the relaxation of the spending and debt rules for a long long time. Scream at the top of Your lungs that the ECB Your master doesn’t do anything stupid with interest rates. Now that you have no control over either fiscal or monetary policy.
Your deficit is currently at 4.7% and debt to GDP 111%
“Not allowed” laguerre you are breaking the rules, the gangsters in Brussels says so. Now what do you think is going to happen when the stability and growth pact is reintroduced and it will be Germany, Holland and the Northern alliance that will demand it ?
The deficits has to be slashed to below 3% and the debt below 60%. More fires in the streets laguerre that is what will happen as severe austerity is reintroduced.
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?s=Eurozone
You have been allowed by the gangsters in Brussels to break every EU treaty ever invented because of the pandemic and sanctions. You still can’t beat the UK who are no longer tied to this bullshit. Who now are free from these neo colonial tyrannical rules.
Get on your hands and knees and beg that the Northern alliance of exporting countries don’t demand that the growth and stability pact isn’t reintroduced any time soon.
Some truths about Brexit in the link below to really knock you for a loop laguerre.
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?s=Brexit
Just you wait laguerre if a Corbyn type figure wins a UK general election who unlike Corbyn understands trade and money. Now completely free from these neoliberal globalist religious texts. You can completely forget about TINA it will be TIARA time.
Comparing the two is instructive.
The incumbent philosophy should be familiar to everybody.
A central bank ensures there is sufficient borrowing in the economy to maintain ‘aggregate demand’ at ‘full employment’ where ‘full employment’ is defined as a few million people out of work give or take a few million more.
The central bank is supposedly independent, but is really politically homogenous.
Activity is based entirely upon the private sector, under roughly free market rules, operating exclusively and having access to all the resources of society.
In this model the government is just another actor in proceedings that has to carve out its space ‘competitively’ with everybody else by taxing, spending and borrowing.
The push is for ever smaller government with the state constantly deferring to private interests and binding its own hands ever tighter.
If anybody is left behind it is their fault, not the fault of a system incapable of maintaining real full employment – where everybody has a job and an income.
The result of this philosophy is all around us – vast inequality, massive private debt burdens, wage shares on the floor, insufficient investment, productivity trashed, and millions of people without a living income to sustain them. And of course eight years after a collapse we’re still not back on our feet. It simply doesn’t work for the majority.
The new philosophy is very different. Why so many left wingers voted for Brexit to be free.
The state, as representative of us all, takes the resources necessary to create the critical public infrastructure and basic functions – all those that are a natural monopoly or are best treated as a natural monopoly, plus whatever is required to fulfil the critical public purpose of the people who elect them (a health service, education, etc). The
The private sector is then allowed to play with the rest of the resources as it sees fit. As the elected government gets first dibs on both skills and real resources.
The after the private sector has used all it can use in Second dibs. The state then takes what the private sector decides it doesn’t want to use and deploys them sensibly for the ‘nice to have’ public purpose.
Within this philosophy the free market private sector is bookended by the public sector and sensibly contained – like any good nuclear reactor should be. Here the public sector gets first dibs at the resources of society and maintains the structures necessary for the private sector to operate at optimal efficiency and maximum output (for example, removing the need for ‘jobs’ in the private sector allows it to press on with automation).
Correctly configured this philosophy actually creates a private sector that is larger than the original structure because, of course, it can maintain more of the population at a higher level of economic activity. However what it does do is remove political power from bankers and corporate leaders and we’ve known for decades they don’t like that idea.
So once you see the difference in world view,is why the central bank must be moved further back under political control – to make it crystal clear it is operating under a particular philosophy. The central bank should operate like the Department of Work and Pensions – taking decisions independently, but under direction from a minister of the government. Otherwise you end up with an unelected individual in charge who doesn’t, or can’t, understand a change in political philosophy. In other words the central bank director should change when the government does.
The consequence of that is the central bank governor either has to be a minister in the government, or the governor reports directly to and receives directions from a minister. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the minister sets interest rates, delegation on technical matters is fine, but it does mean that the minister sets the philosophy under which the bank operates.
The whole political idea behind moving the central bank away from politicians is to embed a particular philosophy into the economy and to then defeat any alternatives that might come up. We have seen that with the deplorable actions of the ECB in Greece, declaring banks solvent on the one hand and refusing liquidity on the other solely to bring down an elected government. And now we are seeing the same rumblings in the UK with a deliberately political and provocative statement from the Governor of the Bank of England against regime change. Something that if said by any other Civil Servant would probably lead to them being fired.
Central banks are run by people, and those people are just as corrupt, just as embedded in class viewpoints, and just as political as all the other politicians. Those feting central bankers as latter day Solomons really need to rethink their position. All individuals suffer from the same human failings. Democracy is how we mediate those failings.
Now we have TIARA – There Is A Real Alternative – the vested interests are coming out into the open, declaring their intentions and shoring up their defences.
And that highlights where the incumbent philosophy has embedded itself and which institutions need to change so they can cope when there are changes in philosophy via the political process.
Ultimately those institutions must accept change, or be made to change, because now that we are free, at long last,there is a chance it’s going to be TIARA time.
While France even with a Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the helm. Will continue to be enslaved and stuck like a scratched record with TINA.
What’s even more sad is you can’t even see it. That EU flag you have stuck up your jacksie. Has made you blind. It is called delusional arseitis.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 10:55 utc | 137

@laguerre | Aug 17 2023 9:01 utc | 115

Ah! A reactionary of the same stripe as Crooke.

Totally the opposite. It is obvious to everyone that the neo-liberal and neo-con establishment uses the immigrant crisis to maintain the status quo: this new lumpenproletariat is just a tool from the reactionary toolbox to weaken the working class and to make more profits for the ruling class.
@pretzelattack | Aug 17 2023 8:36 utc | 110
If Niger will be a disaster (a very probable outcome at the moment), it is all because they made a coup without a plan for the day after. Quintessential cargo cult: to have a ruling class and a functioning government, it does not suffice to ape one.

Posted by: SG | Aug 17 2023 11:14 utc | 139

Left wingers were really on top of their game when it came to Brexit. The clever ones anyway.
Rather than worry about winning an election they concentrated on being FREE. Then worry about winning an election.
What’s the point in putting all your efforts into winning an election when you are not FREE.
Many of them understood that and why so many of them stood with Farage. They could look passed their noses and look at the future possibilities instead. Now they can fully concentrate at winning an election. If they do, they won’t be hamstrung by neo colonial tyrannical rules that were designed to prevent change.
The left need a Farage type figure to capture the votes of legitimate grievances of the masses disenfranchised, marginalised, impoverished, and dispossessed by the 40-year-long neoliberal class war waged from above. That at the moment are being sucked up by the far right as these people have nobody else to vote for.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Aug 17 2023 11:39 utc | 141

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 17 2023 5:09 utc | 88
Anything posted over 10 lines I usually pass by. Yours though was an eyecatcher. What you said.. spot on. Thanks
Yea I gave up cable 10+ years ago. A game changer on how I see the world.

Posted by: Heavymetal101 | Aug 17 2023 12:11 utc | 143

@ oracle | Aug 17 2023 1:41 utc | 60
Indeed. About 20 years ago, Kevin Baker published an article in Harper’s (back before it was taken over by some Chesterton wannabe and was usually worth reading) that ended with the line “In the end, we’ll beg for the coup.” Since the military is the only part of the US government that has an approval rating above 15% or so, Baker’ prophecy is especially ominous.

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 17 2023 12:44 utc | 145

@ jpc | Aug 16 2023 15:42 utc | 1
IIRC from (I think) an RT article, the Soros Blob explicitly mentioned “promoting democracy (i.e., regime change) in China as a goal of its refocus.
@ DunGroanin @ 0:02 (re music transcending boundaries):
Guess this is why every time I look up a Russian composer on YouTube, most of the results are pieces by Ukrainians.

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 17 2023 12:58 utc | 147

@ John Marks | Aug 17 2023 10:51 utc | 136
So you’re the only one proposing “Chornarus.” 😉
Anyway I like the Ukraine.” It’s a nice reminder that its identity is contingent on a neighbor state, something the Ukrainians seem to need a periodic reminder of. 🙂 Maybe in 1000 years there might be less urgency; Austria for instance no longer has to regard itself as the eastern pendant to Bavaria. But such matters of (quasi-? pseudo-?)national consciousness take lots of time.

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 17 2023 13:11 utc | 149

A good article for Canadians on Ottawa’s role in Niger.
https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/canada-supports-ecowas-threats-against-niger-while-supporting-frances-fostering-of-terrorists-in-the-region

Posted by: bevin | Aug 17 2023 13:32 utc | 151

Posted by: Debsisdead Aug 17 2023 3:55 utc /73
The preponderance of Eucalypts in the Australian bush is a direct result of Aboriginal land management practices over thousands of years. Their practice of setting fires methodically as they pursued their hunter-gatherer existence led to the gradual elimination of tree species which, unlike Eucalypts, cannot regenerate after fire. True, Eucalypts burn like hell due to the oil they contain, but it is not long before the apparently dead, charred trunks put out their fresh green epicormic shoots and they mostly come back to life. It is also a fact that Eucalypt seeds need to be cracked open by fire before they can germinate in the ground. Eucalypt forests need periodic fires for their continued existence, but you don’t want to be around when they happen.

Posted by: Bernard Davis | Aug 17 2023 14:49 utc | 153

@laguerre | Aug 17 2023 6:56 utc | 103
The EU is indeed at present “a federation of sovereign states”, and there’s no official project to do anything else, though certainly there exist enthusiasts for a United states of Europe.
The EU is far, far more than a federation of sovereign states. A major reason is that the states aren’t sovereign at all: they don’t have their own currencies; they have the Euro instead, which the individual states do NOT control. As Mayer Amschel Rothschild said, “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes the laws.”

Posted by: Cyril | Aug 17 2023 15:46 utc | 155

China vs USAss
For the people
vs
For the elites
Clear as day vs night
Yet the ‘wn’ are sold China is that monster which poisons ‘our charming way of life‘
prof of philosophistry

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.
Where China goes, the United States eventually follows. This way lies outright tyranny.

[SIC] !
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202308/1296353.shtml

Posted by: denk | Aug 17 2023 16:44 utc | 157

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Aug 16 2023 22:56 utc | 47
Great link thanks. Is it just me or is no one else weirded out by powdered concrete buildings surrounded by wooden fences and slightly singed palms and evergreens? Even some lawns are still green?
As someone with experience w forest/wildfires everything is consistent with the scenario described, except the powdered concrete.

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Aug 17 2023 16:52 utc | 159

indian punchline from today..
France’s colonial legacy, US’ security concerns intersect in Niger; Russians at the gates look for new hunting grounds
laguerre… what is your take on all of this? thanks..

Posted by: james | Aug 17 2023 17:23 utc | 161

Posted by: fanto | Aug 17 2023 13:10 utc | 149
Tom_Q_Collins | Aug 17 2023 4:27 utc | 79
Thanks for your reply Tom, but you miss the point of my question, it seems to me. My question is about the huge implications of the genetic change causing the accelerated growing up of children, if this observation proves correct.
===========================================
This was a hot topic in the 90’s – many young girls beginning to menstruate at 7-8 years old, especially in third world nations if I recall, but in developed countries still many at 10-11 instead of traditional 12-14. Issues with boys too I don’t recall. The theory then was hormones – which makes sense to me since we know they govern those types of gender-related processes including size of brain, body hair, muscle formation and sexual organ behavior. Some say it’s the plastic lining in canned food and plastic containers in general – with the former being much more prevalent post-war and less popular now; also since that issue came up regulations changed types of plastic used in most countries.
In any case, the issue arose long before any official genetic modification medicines like the recent biowarfare lab developed mRNA shots.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 17 2023 17:53 utc | 163

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/national-disgrace-photos-leaked-horrific-january-6-prisoner/
This is disturbing. Of course quite possible that this Jan 6th prisoner story is a psy-op – very hard to tell these days – but still: if this was a genuine republic it should trigger immediate investigations. But since the US no longer is one, nothing will happen.
The prisons won’t care, the DOJ won’t care, the Judges won’t care, the mainstream press won’t care, the Republican Party clearly doesn’t care.
A man put into a narrow space on the ground without clothing or blankets a bucket for a toilet light bulb always on for months at a time for wandering into a building in the midst of a crowd, the door having been opened by the security personnel(thereby oh-so-conveniently shutting down the electoral count review debate about to start)…
Whether this is a true or false story it is out there in the real world, so to speak proving once again that:
A. Truth really is stranger than fiction;
B. ‘Merica is a post-constitutional Republic In Name Only.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 17 2023 18:03 utc | 165

Posted by: TGL | Aug 16 2023 18:22 utc | 16
“USA unveils some highly effective hypersonic type weapon im the coming months or year.”
Hmmm. Kind of like the ‘highly effective’ Littoral Combat Ships, now being scrapped after 5 years service, or the ‘highly effective’ F-35 which still has over 100 known flaws/problems and has a low flight-time v maintenance-time (a quality it shares with the ‘highly effective’ F-22 which was cancelled ¼ of the way through its planned production), the ‘Zumwalt class’ destroyer which has destroyed the illustrious name of Admiral Zumwalt by having it’s ‘highly effective’ guns scrapped before construction and has had further construction cancelled, or the new aircraft-carriers which are similarly blessed with problems, like their cousins the UK QE class carriers and ‘Daring class’ destroyers which spend most of their time either in dock or being towed home.
I don’t know how the Russian armed forces can sleep calmly in their beds at night.
Or maybe you have in mind a new definition of ‘highly effective’ 🙂

Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Aug 17 2023 19:12 utc | 167

https://notthebee.com/article/dont-get-distracted
Excellent short video clip of Asian American Fulton County resident reacting to the indictment there a couple of nights ago. Puts it in wider national and geopolitical context as well as local.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 17 2023 19:18 utc | 169

For those who missed 2015 Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton’s, Adam Smith Tercentenary Lecture at the University of Glasgow in June the Boston Review has published it. It’s long. It’s about Libertarian economists and the deaths they are responsible for and this is a small excerpt.
” …By the time of the pandemic, U.S. health care was absorbing almost a fifth of GDP, more than four times as much as military expenditure, and about three times as much as education. And just in case one might think that health care has anything to do with life expectancy, the OECD currently lists U.S. life expectancy as thirty-fourth out of the forty-nine countries that it tabulates. (That is lower than the figures for China and Costa Rica.)…
“…There is no area of the economy that has been more seriously damaged by libertarian beliefs than health care. While the government provides health care to the elderly and the poor, and while Obamacare provides subsidies to help pay for insurance, those policies were enacted by buying off the industry and by giving up any chance of price control. In Britain, when Nye Bevan negotiated the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, he dealt with providers by “[stuffing] their mouths with gold”—but just once. Americans, on the other hand, pay the ransom year upon year. Arrow had lost the battle against market provision, and the intolerable became the reality. For many Americans, reality became intolerable.
“Prices of medical goods and services are often twice or more the prices in other countries, and the system makes heavy use of procedures that are better at improving profits than improving health. It is supported by an army of lobbyists—about five for every member of Congress, three of them representing pharma alone. Its main regulator is the FDA, and while I do not believe that the FDA has been captured, the industry and the FDA have a cozy relationship which does nothing to rein in profits. Pharma companies not only charge more in the United States, but, like other tech companies, they transfer their patents and profits to low-tax jurisdictions. I doubt that Smith would argue that the high cost of drugs in the United States, like the cost of apothecaries in his own time, could be attributed to the delicate nature of their work, the trust in which they are held, or that they are the sole physicians to the poor.
“When a fifth of GDP is spent on health care, much else is foregone. Even before the pandemic ballooned expenditures, the threat was clear. In his 2013 book on the 2008 financial crisis, After the Music Stopped, Alan Blinder wrote, “If we can somehow solve the health care cost problem, we will also solve the long-run deficit problem. But if we can’t control health care costs, the long run budget problem is insoluble.” All of this has dire effects on politics, not just on the economy. Case and I have argued that while out-of-control health care costs are hurting us all, they are wrecking the low-skill labor market and exacerbating the disruptions that are coming from globalization, automation, and deindustrialization. Most working-age Americans get health insurance through their employers. The premiums are much the same for low-paid as for high-paid workers, and so are a much larger share of the wage costs for less-educated workers. Firms have large incentives to get rid of unskilled employees, replacing them with outsourced labor, domestic or global, or with robots. Few large corporations now offer good jobs for less-skilled workers. We see this labor market disaster as one of the most powerful of the forces amplifying deaths of despair among working class Americans—certainly not the only one, but one of the most important…..”
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/how-misreading-adam-smith-helped-spawn-deaths-of-despair/?utm_source=Boston+Review

Posted by: bevin | Aug 17 2023 22:59 utc | 171

@ Posted by: Heavymetal101 | Aug 17 2023 12:11 utc | 144
Thanks for persevering. I always start with the intention of a single thought but it just expands. I try to keep the thoughts linked but it is hard to keep the emotion under check as I am not a trained writer or essayist…
Perhaps it’s to do with the giving up of the goldfish attention span fostering mass media which allows for the ability to think longer and wider when consuming such new wonderous oasis of actual news as our marvellous analytical b and the MoA barflies who provide a multiplier effect on each topic.
Bugger I’m off again! Bye for now.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 17 2023 23:13 utc | 173

In the spirit of the above comment on brevity and the war engaged upon and ably fought by laguerre 😉 -I believe he is winning as easily as the SMO and because I have to get up early, I will just state the following on the subject being ‘discussed’ at least by one side , because we have to take sides :-
BREXIT MEANS BREXSHIT.
Good night.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 17 2023 23:24 utc | 175

The name “Stoltenberg” has been discussed here before:
· It is not a Norwegian name but was at some point imported from Germany.
· There are at least some people named Stoltenberg in Germany.
· It is very uncommon in Norway and might only be a single relatively small family tree from immigrants, likely one or two centuries back.
· It might be uncommon in Germany too.
· It doesn’t really mean anything at all in Norwegian.
Does it means something in German?
But yeah obvious “humorous” mistranslation.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 18 2023 4:00 utc | 177

And since “languages” does Pfuscherwaffen (say it out loud) meaning “blunderweapon” make any sense as a German word? (I don’t know).
If it does then we can replace that old trope with a new one 😉

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 18 2023 4:04 utc | 179

@Passerby | Aug 17 2023 5:40 utc | 92

Maybe someone who knows Norwegian could look at
this article?

https://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/i/RGw9b8/nato-topp-nyanserer-uttalelse-ukraina-bestemmer-fredsvilkaar
The article talks about Stolteberg’s chief of staff Stian Jenssen “nuancing” his former statements. He now says it is Ukraine that decides the terms of peace.

– My statements about this was part of a larger discussion about future scenarios in Ukraine, and I should not have said it that way. It came out wrong, says Jenssen to VG Wednesday

If you believe that was a mistake “I have a bridge to sell you” as Mercouris would say.
The article also says that “Ukrainian authorities reacted strongly. A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ukraine stated that the suggestion (‘utspill’=informal suggestion) was “totally unacceptable”.
Under the headline “Security Guarantees”, the newspaper VG quotes Jenssen as saying:

– If, and I emphasize if, one comes to the point where one can negotiate, the military situation on the ground, territory, who controls what, will be completely central, and will have a decisive influence on what a possible outcome will look like. Precisely for that reason it is decisively important that we support the ukrainians with what they need, says Jenssen.
– The second thing that is important, is that Ukraine needs security guarantees for the future. We have seen a pattern of russian aggression over a long time, over several years, and in particular against Ukraine. Remember that the Ukraine war did not start in 2020, it started in 2014. We have an interest to make sure that this does not repeat itself the day the war ends, independent on how the war ends. And then it is required that Ukraine receives credible security guarantees that safeguards their future, he says.
– But that is not now, he adds.
– There is no sign that the russians have completed their attack war.

The article is poorly written with several inaccuracies, misprints and oral style language that is hard to translate with precision. The statement that “the Ukraine war did not start in 2020” is an obvious example of poor quality writing.

– is there a wish in Nato to start a discussion about the beginning of the end of this war?
– No, I shall be careful in speculating too much about that. I think the most important thing now is for us to support the ukrainians. They are in the middle of a counter offensive. Many have commented that it progresses a bit slower than one had hoped. I will nevertheless add that there is a grain of optimism in this, as I said in the Arendal-debate. One must remember that at the start of the war there was a worry that Ukraine would collapse within weeks or days. That has not happened at all. They have shown a heroic stance against a superior power. The theme now is how much territory Ukraine is managing to take back, he says.
Jenssen adds that right now there is nothing that indicates that Russia will change course:
– We do not see any such will. Precisely for that reason it is so important with military progress for Ukraine to change the calculus in Moscow, to make it clear for Moscow that time is not on their side, that they will not win this over time. Now the road to peace is weapons, as my boss Jens Stoltenberg has said.

That is the essence of the article. Total denial of realities I must add.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 18 2023 5:40 utc | 181

@Tannenhouser | Aug 17 2023 16:52 utc | 160

Great link thanks. Is it just me or is no one else weirded out by powdered concrete buildings surrounded by wooden fences and slightly singed palms and evergreens? Even some lawns are still green?

The physics of what is observable from here speaks clearly.
Here is what the Pentagon thinks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GMQP7qL09g
Projection if you ask me.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 18 2023 6:17 utc | 183

@fk | Aug 18 2023 7:33 utc | 185

The South Front webpage is gone. Anyone experiencing the same?

https://southfront.org/
is available from here, no problem.
If you cannot access it, ask your ISP or government about it.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 18 2023 7:50 utc | 185

Glenn Greenwald digs into the intricacies, the hypocrisies, and broader implications of the New Trump Indictment in Georgia – and it’s so dangerous – Presents Now-Familiar Dangers – the use of Lawfare globally targeting politicians not only Trump. He covers a lot of territory it’s worth viewing imo. It’s chilling.
https://rumble.com/v37z0jb-system-update-131.html

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Aug 18 2023 10:55 utc | 187

Glenn Greenwald digs into the intricacies, the hypocrisies, and broader implications of the New Trump Indictment in Georgia – and it’s so dangerous – Presents Now-Familiar Dangers – the use of Lawfare globally targeting politicians not only Trump. He covers a lot of territory it’s worth viewing imo. It’s chilling.
On Rumble at System Update — or YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqk9lStKEHE

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Aug 18 2023 10:58 utc | 189

Tom_Q_Collins @177: “…when in every previous article on alleged Black criminals or “members of Antifa”, they are sure to include everything on the suspect’s rap sheet.”
Oh, you mean like they did with George Floyd?
You are a lying, piece of shit troll. You’re worse than DonkeyAss.
In fact, when the mass media doesn’t mention the race and criminal history of a suspect in reports on violent crimes, everyone in America knows that means the suspect is Black and has a long criminal history. All the major media spigots in the US have it right in their editorial guidelines to downplay/obfuscate the race of criminals who are Black. They even Photoshop images released by police departments of Black perps to make them look less Black. The Ivy League journalism programs all have “Ethics in Journalism” courses that push making precisely these kinds of “adjustments” to the narrative about crime, and newsrooms have frequent meetings to work out how to dodge the issue of Black crime without outright lying.
Here are some recent examples:
Mob robbery at Topanga Nordstrom sparks outrage, beefed-up LAPD patrols

A ‘mob of criminals’ stole more than $300,000 worth of goods from an LA Nordstrom
No mention that the criminals were all Black except for one who was an obvious Fed agent (didn’t actually steal anything, just ran around adding to the apparent confusion), and the one image they show even includes that one white Fed guy. Obviously this particular frame from the “X” video was chosen to suggest the criminal gang was “multicultural”, which of course it was not. If the video had not already been widely viewed on Twitter X they wouldn’t have even included that one frame in their article. Indeed, that one frame was very carefully selected to help obfuscate the racial nature of the crime that is very conspicuous when one views the whole video.
Protip: Acknowledging reality is not “racist”. Failure to acknowledge reality is delusional.

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 18 2023 13:50 utc | 191

Dmitry Orlov pooping on the west is always fun, latest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0kMlHnRdEE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdMqSBWEzk4&t=737s
BTW This channel has some very good guests with in depth discussions, here’s a current one:
Richard Wolff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-XabQbK5fQ

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Aug 18 2023 15:56 utc | 193

Posted by: Membrum Virile | Aug 17 2023 6:45 utc | 99
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 16 2023 22:41 utc | 44
“Similarly, in the US, they should break back down to sovereign States for a while”
Just for the sake of discussion, would you recommend the same for Russia?
And why/why not?
==========================================
Good question. Simply put (and though I cannot be sure from afar) it seems to me that Russia is in a very different civilizational phase. After a very chaotic 20th century in which much of the old order was torn down, and then several iterations of new orders tried and failed, finally after the 00’s got under way coinciding with Putin’s leadership, a new State and Federation (the Union States) have emerged which seem to exhibit order, dynamism, relatively flexibility, diplomatic chops, internal cohesion, optimism, economic resilience and so forth.
In other words, they have a strong State and Federation. No doubt there are more internal divisions than am aware of but they presumably are not major.
Whereas in the West we have lost the plot. Yes, there are wicked elites deliberately dumbing down and splintering the society but they wouldn’t be able to do so if a strong social order existed. So probably it’s the West’s turn to crater for a while before rebuilding. During such a phase, I think decentralization would be better because any centralization thrust would probably be totalitarian-dystopian not good for the citizenry. It would also almost certainly intensify the materialist-secular view of modern society which is largely responsible for all the problems in the first place.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 18 2023 16:44 utc | 195

Posted by: bevin | Aug 16 2023 18:57 utc | 18
Strange/ironic how these ex-political fucks try to reinvent relevance, especially following ghastly reigns.
The site you reference could be of interest. Keep up your good work.

Posted by: horseguards | Aug 18 2023 17:18 utc | 197

ZH has a posting up with the title
Russian General Suggests U.S. Helped Create COVID-19, May Be Plotting New Pandemic For ‘Global Control’
I think karlof1 reported a bit on this yesterday but it is good to see at least ZH putting something out as coverage of the subject

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 18 2023 19:29 utc | 199