The last NYT link is broken. Its URL is repeated end on end.

Posted by: Brendan | Aug 6 2023 13:20 utc | 3

@b 2
give us the address of THAT dentist and we will take care of the problem.
So next time you won´t have to leave the house and he will come to YOU.

Posted by: AG | Aug 6 2023 13:24 utc | 5

The Glen Diesen Chomsky interview has a slight error in the link
https://twitter.com/Glenn_Diesen/status/1687482221219721216
works
Glen & Alex Mercouris with Chomsky. I look forward to finding out if Chomsky still blames Russia.

Posted by: Michael Droy | Aug 6 2023 13:41 utc | 7

Africa may get really interesting! Especially since Nigeria – foolishly – decided to get involved with Niger. Most likely the Americans holding a carrot on a stick in front of their eyes. Which (most likely) will result in a number of civil wars breaking out – in Nigeria. And should the rest of the African US-vassalls decide to get into Niger things will REALLY blow up in West and Central Africa! Including a few dozen or even hundred million of refugees! No idea if the US (or their “New Order”-Establishment) really wants this. The election-fraud year of 2024 isn’t that far away anymore.

Posted by: BobBob | Aug 6 2023 14:02 utc | 9

The piece on the 2024 election really got me thinking. Imagine the debate between Trump and Biden: one candidate just making things up as he goes along, the other one intensely trying to remember the name of the country he seems to be running for some kind of position in.
Those two are the best the country has to offer for its highest office? I wonder if the next election will not in future text books on the history of the United states be named as the the point where it became unavoidable to see that the age of the American empire was over.

Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Aug 6 2023 14:40 utc | 11

https://mishtalk.com/economics/americas-fiscal-time-bomb-and-the-fitch-downgrade-of-us-debt-in-pictures/
https://wolfstreet.com/2023/08/01/fitch-downgrades-us-credit-rating-on-fiscal-deterioration-government-debt-burden-and-debt-ceiling-standoffs/
https://wolfstreet.com/2023/08/02/here-comes-the-tsunami-of-longer-term-treasury-notes-bonds-monthly-auction-sizes-60-by-august-next-year/
https://wolfstreet.com/2023/08/04/powells-nightmare-wage-growth-after-signs-of-losing-altitude-re-accelerates/

Posted by: maney | Aug 6 2023 14:53 utc | 13

A C|Net article discusses some of the historical roots of PRISM and other surveillance programs:

In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton signed into law the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, which required telephone companies to configure their systems to perform court-authorized lawful intercepts in a standard way…
A survey of earlier litigation shows, however, that the Justice Department was able to convince courts to force companies to take steps to permit surveillance through their networks long before CALEA became law.
In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that surveillance law is a “direct command to federal courts to compel, upon request, any assistance necessary to accomplish an electronic interception.”
Other courts followed suit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit concluded in 1979 that the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania must comply with a surveillance order because it would cause only “a minimal disruption of normal operations.”

“How the U.S. forces Net firms to cooperate on surveillance”
by Declan McCullagh, C|Net, July 12, 2013
https://rb.gy/igs65 [archive.is]
Dated but still relevant. The article gives a useful overview of the history behind today’s surveillance. In addition, it explains how the federal government and the courts use pressure tactics to force compliance. Along with many other civil liberties, the Fourth Amendment is eroding as the years go by.

Posted by: HeyHeyHey | Aug 6 2023 15:04 utc | 15

If the RT article is the drivel I expect it to be then I am glad that I live in a country where RT is not accesible to me. All I can say then is that without the Bolsheviks there would have been no industrialized Ukraine like it was under the SSR but a country divided between 4-5 different powers. So cope, RT!

Posted by: v | Aug 6 2023 15:37 utc | 17

https://t.me/ZandVchannel/74552

🏴‍☠️⚡️🌍 Over the past half century, France has carried out 67 military coups in 26 countries of the Black Continent. 16 of them are countries where French influence is still preserved.
There is a “colonial tax” in 14 African countries that were once French colonies. Every year, France receives huge sums of money from them – about 500 billion dollars.
This includes African states that were under the yoke of France until 1958 and then gained independence.
🌍 Countries that still return colonial taxes are Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
❗️🇷🇺🌍 This was before the presence of Russian forces, in particular the Wagner PMC. Now everything will be different.

Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 6 2023 16:05 utc | 19

Yet another NYT article to register for, and yet again after which this reader comes away no more informed than before. Well-crafted sentences flow by leaving in their wake meaningless, unrememberable paragraphs.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 6 2023 16:55 utc | 21

@ spare_truth | Aug 6 2023 17:26 utc | 22
i can only conclude if you are unable to read or listen clearly, you are incapable of coming to any worthwhile conclusions either..
pay attention! – see the title thread… – not ukraine..
The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2023-186

Posted by: james | Aug 6 2023 17:34 utc | 23

@22 – myself
I’m hoefully being excused for some “lexi-ghacical” mis-spellings – mis-understandings” here above some mins. of some posts above.
So at 1st., I regret my publically mentioned opinion here on this MoA forum as a GERMAN Civilian.
Don’t care, I’m not whether from far-left nor from far-right.
So may target the middle aim.
The “midle aim by US deep state, Hunter, etc.” guys are working ahead in Germany and USA/EU/SWIFT as before . ..that’s ok not new for them ..
The US-like ‘war’ is to think to take that own war out-of its own “countries”.
That’s exactly will be a false calculated strategy by US/AUKUS military commanders, that do not have understood the RF PLUS China Army , to have operating against US/Canada & Alliances ..
That’s it – Biden if can speaking – or not THINK , Nuland & Blinken! –> Sink with yor boat !

Posted by: spare_truth | Aug 6 2023 17:56 utc | 25

Dear Mr. Blinken ..
“What You’ve done planned as a counter-strike against the latest 4
aggresive Missile-Attacks on LA., once 4 times last week against LA ?
Would You now destroy Russian cities as well?
Blinken:
Sorry, we’ve to consider abaout the situation …

Posted by: spare_truth | Aug 6 2023 18:13 utc | 27

I am moving these two responses to LoveDonbass, because this is where they belong. LoveDonbass, if you wish to respond, please respond here and not where the original discussion started. Thanks Ed.
————————————————————–
I suppose that it’s easy being a secular atheist. They don’t have to own up to any sins or atrocities because none of them were done in the name of anything that person believes in, because they claim not to believe in anything at all.
That’s convenient. I have found that ignorance and small-mindedness are often a solid foundation for self-righteousness.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 6 2023 5:03 utc | 105
————————————————————-
Gee Love, I didn’t know that you were a Muslims. Yes, during the dark ages of Christianity, the Muslim world was having a bit of a renaissance; that is why we still a version of Plato and other ancient wisdom. The Christians burned and destroyed everything that did not promote a specific form of Christianity: Roman Catholic. And in fact, the Christians killed and tortured anyone that refused to convert or accept the Roman Catholicism.
I am far from perfect, but a Christian sin is not the same as human evil and cruelty. That is why I spent the latter half of my 70 years as an opponent of imperialism, most of all US imperialism. That is why I fought to end apartheid in South Africa ( I was there when Nelson Mandela was elected President), and that is why I opposed the war in Iraq, Nicaragua, Serbia, Syria, and Libya. That is also why I oppose the US proxy war in Ukraine.
I believe in human decency and our ability to rise above the evil some people do or allow others to do. I do not belive in talking snakes and donkeys, invisible non- material beings that somehow can impregnate virgin girls. From the age 6 to 12 I lived in a Christian orphanage. I got my belly full of unbelievable nonsense. And talking about judgmental, you said this about me and other atheists: “I have found that ignorance and small-mindedness are often a solid foundation for self-righteousness,” well same to you.
Posted by: Ed | Aug 6 2023 18:24 utc | 205
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 6 2023 5:03 utc | 105
————————————————————-
Sorry Love, I had bad date on when the Saudis “officially” abolished slavery, it was not 1970, it was 1962. I verified that in three sources. Unofficially, it continues to this day. Old habits die slowly.
In 1962, the Saudi Arabian government issued a royal decree that officially abolished slavery in the country ️ 🇸🇦. This was part of a broader strategy of modernization and reform in the country and marked a major shift in the culture and social norms of the region. For example, the government banned the buying and selling of slaves and freed slaves from their masters.
Despite the 1962 official abolition, there are still traces of slavery in Saudi Arabia. This is due in large part to the existence of traditional cultural practices that have not been abolished. Some rural areas still depend on “bonded labor”, which is basically a form of slavery. There have been many reports of the exploitation of foreign workers. They are often treated as indentured servants and are often subjected to physical abuse and other human rights violations.
In recent years the Saudi Arabian government has taken steps to address the lingering problem of slavery in the country. In 2009, the government passed an anti-slavery law that criminalized the ownership and trading of slaves, as well as the exploitation of foreign workers. In addition, the government has launched awareness campaigns, and launched initiatives to provide education and awareness about the issue of slavery.
https://saudi.works/when-did-slavery-end-in-saudi-arabia/
Posted by: Ed | Aug 6 2023 18:37 utc | 206

Posted by: Ed | Aug 6 2023 18:56 utc | 29

Lazy echo-chamber posting makes Moon of Alabama into USA-libertarian talk-radio of blogging and an implicit GOP propaganda organ in it’s own right
Let’s recap the recap:
August 3 – Election 2024 – Two Legal Cases And One Winner
Related
— Pumping Trump and Hammering “Biden Crime Family”
The Ukrainian Prosecutor Joe Biden Had Fired Is Speaking Out Townhall
— Zero information on Prosecutor Slotin, Tucker Carlson GOP echo chamber, Hammering “Biden Crime Family”
Why the Hunter Biden plea fiasco will be a drag on Democrats Washington Post
— GOP echo chamber, Hammering “Biden Crime Family”
Patrick Lawrence: Reading the Mess the Democrats Have Made Scheerpost
— Hammering “Biden Crime Family”
This was Lawrence’s second polemic on Biden in same week, Sheer has got Lawrence on a treadmill.
Pls enjoy his repetitions:
https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/27/patrick-lawrence-no-the-truth-about-biden-is-not-democratic/
Sprinkle on some Russia Today and Book-end it all with Moon’s perennial boosting of Russia’s nightmare in Ukraine.
AND FOR GRINS WHY NOT JUST DUMP OLD NOAM INTO THE MIX FOR THE REASON THAT ANYTHING HE DISCUSSES WILL AGITATE REACTIONS RE THE GENERAL MALAISE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. GOOD FOR THE GOP.
Chomsky’s polemics stand the conservatives principle of taking responsibility for one’s actions and promoting justice for all. But he is not selected here for his principles. He’s selected because his critiques of US foreign policy help the GOP (the party of Trump) tear down the Democrats.
If you’re a good Republican, you ought to cheer Chomsky’s assessment that Biden’s foreign policy is wrecking Europe to the global advantage of the U.S. for a “pittance” in U.S. costs. As to the “pittance,” I don’t follow Chomsky’s reasoning given the U.S. Ship of State blows $1 trillion / yr on its military endeavors. But he’s usually got a coherent finer point. And some people get what they pay for.

Posted by: Arrnon | Aug 6 2023 19:19 utc | 31

Any Dmitry Orlov fans, here’s a ton? Not so much of his wry humor, angrier and resigned at this point, lots of nuggets scattered throughout, his take down of Finland is worth it alone (first vid):
Ukraine is not the Enemy Dmitry Orlov
Putin isn’t a Fool The Mother of all Miscalculations Dmitry Orlov
No Sane Person Goes to War against Russia Military Textbook Ch 1 Par 1 Dmitry Orlov

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Aug 6 2023 19:47 utc | 33

France has given Ukraine Storm Shadow missiles which Ukraine uses to attack Russian assets in Crimea. Is this similar to Russia giving Mali Iskander missiles so Mali can successfully attack French assets in Mali?

Posted by: Passerby | Aug 6 2023 20:57 utc | 35

Global Times announces the onset of ASEAN-China Week and notes
“During the main themed forum on a ‘Forward-looking ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the New Era,’ representatives of both China and ASEAN countries stressed the importance of regional peace and stability.”
The ASEAN-China relationship was recently upgraded to the level of Strategic Partnership and is reflected in ASEAN being China’s #1 trading partner for three straight years, “In the first half of 2023, trade with ASEAN countries accounted for 15.3 percent of China’s total trade, reaching 3.08 trillion yuan ($428.96 billion), up 5.4 percent from 2022.”
Lots of encouraging info within the article. Even the attempt by the Outlaw US Empire to use the Philippines as a Trojan Horse appears to be failing:

Benito Gosiaco Techico, special envoy of Philippines president to China for trade, investment and tourism, told the Global Times on Sunday that Manila is looking forward to more investment collaboration with China, particularly in the field of agriculture, information, technology, tourism, manufacturing and renewable energy.
“The prospect is definitely positive,” he added.

IMO, there’s a sense of great anticipation related to the impending merger of ASEAN/SCO/EAEU, which is dreaded by Neoliberalcons, although they continue their efforts to enlist Japan and South Korea to go against their national interests and divorce themselves from commercial prosperity.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 6 2023 21:14 utc | 37

Now it’s Niger. Of course, it’s always the Usual Suspects. Haven’t heard much about Sudan lately, but honestly haven’t looked. Been a little busy on my place. The work never ends when you have property, and neither do the taxes, fees, regulations, fines, and general interference. Cheers everyone!

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Aug 6 2023 21:40 utc | 39

@ v 17
You waste our time with your ignorance, and you’re proud to post when you admit you haven’t even read the item you criticize. Please don’t do that again. You “pushed on an open door” blaming the Ukraine mess on the Bolsheviks, because that’s exactly what the RT article did, just like you, but with -Gasp!- actual facts.

Posted by: JessDTruth | Aug 6 2023 22:30 utc | 41

Some of us have been considering the subject of education with the help of Sylvia Ashton-Warner’s text “Teacher”, after other links being discussed on the previous open thread. The text is available online in a very easy to read format, so I will give the link to it at the end of a small sample of her writing. She was teaching an infant group of maori in her native New Zealand, after WW1, but her book wasn’t published until l963. This goes with an earlier comment of mine on the open forum that mentioned a considerable movement in children’s education at that time. Here’s that small sample – I’m still re-reading the book, enjoying it very much:

… In grown-up novels we enjoy the true conversational medium, yet fiveyear-olds for some inscrutable reason are met with the twisted idea behind “Let us play.”
As a matter of fact, Maoris seldom if ever use “let” in that particular setting. They say”We play, eh?”
These allowances of the natural dialogue preserve cadence and are no harder to learn than any other words. A little easier possibly since cadence is the natural outcome of the running conversational style, the style that is integral. Which brings me back to the consideration of reading books as an integral factor in a child’s life…

What strikes me in reading this text is the freedom of style and immediacy it imparts. One is in the schoolroom with her, and to be there is, I think, a delight.
I will have more to say once I finish the reading. What she is describing is the particular problem of bridging the gap between conversation in a maori child’s home life, and what they are being taught in the ‘pakeha’ school system. It translates for me into the difficulties education in the west at present is creating with the ‘teach to the test’ system, top down rather than bottom up — the same perversion of what education should try to be.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 7 2023 1:41 utc | 43

@ Debsisdead | Aug 7 2023 1:32 utc | 42 with the Niger follow up…thanks
You got it all including the Wagner answer to CIA terror camps in the countries/regions which could get quite interesting, eh?
I keep thinking empire is going to stop digging down but have given up knowing when the shit show will end.
That said, the “straw” that the coming BRICS+ meeting will add to the empire credibility burden around finance just may make a difference in the speed of empire decent. The first step is a clearing house for Central Banks that is not the BIS and SWIFT to deal with intra-bank transaction sets for trade imbalances that fit within a system of nations managing their currencies value against each other in coordinated development balance….real public planning at the global level like laid out by Michael Hudson recently……not private greed motivated and controlled.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 7 2023 2:45 utc | 45

About news from Niger and Nigeria, cite from Daily News:
Northern Senators Forum on Friday cautioned ECOWAS against the use of military force in restoring democracy in Niger Republic.
The senators, under the leadership of Senator Abdul Ahmad Ningi (Bauchi), called for political and diplomatic means to restore democratic government in that country
The forum, in a statement by its spokesperson, Suleiman A. Kawu Sumaila, cautioned that military force would cause the death of many innocent citizens in Niger Republic and seven Nigerian States that share a border with Niger.
“We take exception to the use of military force until other avenues as mentioned are exhausted as the consequences will be casualties among the innocent citizens who go about their daily business”, the statement added.
Also, the National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, Alhaji Yerima Shettima told DAILY POST on Saturday that any attempt to embark on military intervention in Niger would have a direct effect on Northerners.
He urged President Tinubu and the Senate to ensure that all diplomatic means have been exhausted before embarking on military action against the Niger junta.
He said, “In the first place, we have not even exhausted all the necessary tools before arriving at the conclusion that we need to go for war.
“The decision is coming in a haste. I don’t think Nigeria is prepared to go to war now. Don’t forget that we have serious internal issues that are already threatening our existence.
“Don’t forget that if war should break out from Niger, the North will be directly affected. I don’t understand why we are taking Panadol for somebody’s headaches. Citizens of Niger are jubilating over the coup and we are here carrying another man’s cross on our head.
——-
As I wrote before, there is no ethnic division between Niger and Nigeria, and we are talking about the largest ethnicity of Nigeria, Hausa+Fulani and a major ethnicity, Kanuri (dominant in NE of Nigeria), so they know instantly if people of Niger are against the coup or jubilant, e.g. listening to the radio in local language. Given huge weight of northern parliamentarians, and realism about democracy and military rule (both can be corrupt, party systems can fail, Western pressure makes no account of the local sentiments), I foresee some compromise within weeks. The reluctance of Nigeria and the specter of Wagner group becoming a force in Niger, while the pain of economic sanctions imposed on Niger should induce a promise of elections with a brief delay (less than a year?) and withdrawal of sanctions. But it can go quite wrong too….

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 7 2023 3:07 utc | 47

Another essay in the vein of Aurelien and Gaius’ two explorations, from a metaphysical point of view.
~~

The Modern Metaphysical Roots of the New Technocratic World
…my point in this essay has been to focus on the mechanistic metaphysical pole of the bifurcated modern self. That other pole, as I have said, is the one of reason no longer simply studying nature’s determinations but conjuring ideas which provide legitimation for political and social authority. This pole is even more destructive of liberties than the technocratic, for those who insist that their authority is based upon the moral or ethical values that give them authority in deciding what we may or may not do invariably, originally in communist and fascist and now in liberal democratic regimes, attack any who question their decisions and policy priorities.
The ruling political class and the class that devotes itself to the accumulation of scientific knowledge form a bond in which the authority of the one class facilitates the authority of the other. The politics corrupts the science, and the science corrupts the politics. Together they make a world far more frightening than any produced by an evil genius. Together, they dissolve the soul into a bifurcation of machine and empty abstraction, in which the spirit of tradition and place are also rendered of no importance unless they serve the larger narrational purpose of an identity to be inserted into the design. In that design machine and norms are magically revived and unified. What has been lost in the transmutation is the soul.
Frankenstein’s Monsters is what we are in danger of becoming as we are but machines with ideals that dictate our identity—for anyone who is black, a woman, a gay, etc., who deviates from the script of what that identity should be is no longer defined by their identity marks, but by their betrayal of the essence and the narrative that has been dictated to those who have that essence by their political saviors. This is the rational moral faith that dictates how we should be in our world of pleasure and material satiation delivered by the world as a great calculative resource. It is the faith that has enabled the globalist progressivist view of life in which all the resources of the planet are to be managed and all traditions to be rendered redundant.
The world is an occasion for the profit and pleasure of those who are able to preside over the technocratic forces that do their bidding. Nietzsche had used the phrase “God is dead,” and Heidegger “the gods have fled.” But the living God never dies, and humans always find gods to serve. The god of one’s own identity is though one of the most pitiful that has ever been conjured. Descartes would, I think, have been horrified to see how thoughtless the new thinking subject is, and how infantile the world it is making has become.

https://www.thepostil.com/what-conspiracy-on-the-nefarious-purpose-means-and-ideas-of-globalist-imperialism-part-3/

Posted by: suzan | Aug 7 2023 3:38 utc | 49

That NYT link here on archive: https://archive.li/OWqdS
Makes WEF sense: winter capital in Davos, summer capital in Tianjin.

Posted by: Antonym | Aug 7 2023 4:31 utc | 51

Regarding the huge floodings south of Beijing last week: it was not the local rain from the typhoon that raised water levels 12m (!!) in some places. Opening of water reservoirs on order of CCP top to “save” Beijing, its big airport and its new low lying capital city Xiong’An project did it. Still the “Forbidden city” flooded a bit for the first time in 400 years – a bad omen in Chinese eyes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-NHCTyR6PI

Posted by: Antonym | Aug 7 2023 4:39 utc | 53

From the link Posted by: suzan | Aug 7 2023 3:38 utc | 49:
“The ruling political class and the class that devotes itself to the accumulation of scientific knowledge form a bond in which the authority of the one class facilitates the authority of the other. The politics corrupts the science, and the science corrupts the politics.”
Stop right there! I’ll grant the existence of the two groups but they are not classes.
Science is a process, a method. It cannot be reified.
Only some of the group who gather scientific knowledge form a bond with the ruling political group!
It’s those who facilitate the authority of the political ruling group, and I agree they are frightening.
There are honest scientists developing ever increasing knowledge about our existence. If and when a better method than science comes along it should be adopted. Until then guessing about things we don’t understand is not a reliable path. Gods and soul are guesses.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Aug 7 2023 4:42 utc | 55

@ suzan | Aug 7 2023 3:38 utc | 49
thanks suzan…i will try to find time to read it.. cheers..

Posted by: james | Aug 7 2023 5:16 utc | 57

Posted by: JessDTruth | Aug 6 2023 22:30 utc | 41
Read it again, idiot!

Posted by: v | Aug 7 2023 7:41 utc | 59

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Aug 7 2023 4:31 utc | 52
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aBnKYzBH2aI
At the epicenter of decades of imperial wars, RFK’s profound level of ignorance of Israel’s criminal history is stunning. Rank dishonesty is more plausible –earning his 30 shekels of silver, further proof of Zionist-occupied USG. What a disgrace, an absolute deal-breaker for me.
=================================
Apparently it was only a few years ago that he began to question the official explanations of his uncle’s and father’s assassinations. He openly accuses the CIA-FBI complex of arranging those events but perhaps is not willing to tie in the Mossad’s involvement which in turn would expose the ‘Kennedy Democrat’ vision as being somewhat childishly naive viz who is really calling the shots in all Western nation states these days. This means that Kennedy is hell-bent on restoring the republic to a pristine state that not only did it never have, but can never have given its foundations were at least in part laid by the same banking cartel influences that are at the root of all problems today.
But I don’t find this a deal-breaker per se. We live in a polity held together mainly by deception. There is no clear, pure view when wading through the slime and muck of the Deep State swamp. Does he have his core intentions pointed in the right direction? Seems like it, more or less. So on the Dem side, he’s as good as it gets. Similarly, on the R side, maybe Trump is as good as it can get at this point given that he is clearly aligned against the RINO’s so giving the bulk of republican voters a way to ‘take their party back’ from the corporate-lackey grandees who now control it. Both Parties are identical that way so anyone running from within those Parties is going to be both flawed and tainted by association. If they make it through the nomination and later election, they are already seriously damaged goods.
I personally think it is now too late and it would be better to acknowledge that the first republic is no more, to call a spade a spade. This would necessitate a re-think and either we go into a fascist technocracy openly and willingly or pull back from the brink. But the west has largely lost the institutional integrity needed to facilitate such a broad, multi-faceted and subtle conversation. We eliminated an open, accessible upper class and replaced it with an opaque, unaccountable oligarchy making such collective conversations now impossible – indeed they are now getting nipped in the bud by censorship all the time on social media. Most likely we will have to wait until they self-destruct though if so no doubt hundreds of millions will die prematurely in the process.
I think this holding onto old, no longer extant or realizable paradigms (like ‘making america great again’ or ‘Kennedy Democracy’ with men going back wearing thin ties) is too nostalgic to provide the sort of heavy lift reformation that Western society needs, though again most likely we will get some sort of collapse first, which although painful and indeed tragic, is the only way a fresh start can gradually get under way. But I sure hope am wrong.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 7 2023 13:19 utc | 61

@Lavrov’s Dog #48:

Could anyone provide an eng transcript translation of the recent Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin interview? online search is no help to me so far.

You can watch the interview with English subtitles here.

Posted by: S | Aug 7 2023 14:24 utc | 63

Posted by: Chas | Aug 7 2023 14:36 utc | 64
Thxs for kind words. I started looking askance at the NYT – and all mainstream quality journalism – shortly after 9/11. From the first week the whole business with Building 7 just didn’t work for me. Then came the entirely bogus war murdering and/or displacing millions of Iraqis. Another bridge too far. But finally when I read Unz’s seminal essay on American meritocracy years later in 2012, that was it because it demonstrated, in Unz’s typical painstaking detail, just how systemic and pervasive corruption in the US is, because of course what was going on in Harvard is echoed elsewhere and what they are doing is embedded within everything going on in the US’s upper classes, opaque and occluded as they are. Nowadays I rarely open a NYT link unless it feels like it’s about something new and important which might reveal the next major mainstream deception in play.
Also, I find it especially irritating that their writing still tends to better that of most other similar publications such that the sentences are indeed usually a pleasure to read. But the meaning is always fuzzy – because the NYT is always dissembling and deceiving albeit always in a smooth, elegant way. It’s like looking at the world through somebody’s else’s expensive prescription lenses – never clear, never right!

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 7 2023 15:07 utc | 65

For now it seems that France together with its colonial proxies like Senegal, Ivory Coast led by ex-IMF agent and supreme sell out Ouattara that got his post after the French abducted his predecessor Gbago and jailed him at the European kangaroo court called the ICC; Togo and Gabon are the only ones that will attempt to save the French colonial interests. The American might be going for another Indochina scenario where the French get kicked out and the American retain or increase their influence. For now it looks like they won’t put any significant effort into ousting the new Nigerien rulers if they can keep their drone base unobstructed.
I wonder what France has to offer now and in the long run to its participating proxies given that it never seized to siphon off their natural riches. France is broke. If it weren’t for its colonies and all its neo colonial levers and straps it has around these (ex-)colonies it would be like Greece. Even if it manages to evict the new Nigerien rulers, the post intervention phase will still be very costly for France and the few will crumbs it’s now paying for its natural riches like uranium will need to increase or it would backfire manifold very soon.
Hence it entices the Nigerian neighbor to go to war on its behest. Tinibu is a southerner. There is a lot of resentment in the south against northerners, the Fulani herdsmen. I don’t see any reason why the (Hausa and Fulani) northerners would want to die for this sell out, with many of these people also living in Niger. The more hardship is brought onto Niger, the more troubles will come to Nigeria. Bola Tinibu should stick to Nigeria’s problems (Boko Haram in the north east, Igbo secessionists in the south east, call’s for sessions in the south west, …) instead of incurring new problems at the behest of other (hostile (remember the French role in Biafra) nations.

Posted by: xor | Aug 7 2023 18:24 utc | 67

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 7 2023 15:07 utc | 65
«But finally when I read Unz’s seminal essay on American meritocracy years later in 2012, that was it because it demonstrated, in Unz’s typical painstaking detail, just how systemic and pervasive corruption in the US is»
Ah all those american innocents that eventually start to realize what is the system like. For some, especially in the vassal states of the USA, USA corruption has not been news for a long time…
https://www.senate.gov/art-artifacts/historical-images/political-cartoons-caricatures/38_00392.htm
Or consider Li’l Abner cartoon’s “Senator Phogbound”

Posted by: Blissex | Aug 7 2023 19:03 utc | 69

Blissex @ 68
Orwell turned out to be a limited hangout.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Aug 7 2023 19:47 utc | 71

xor | Aug 7 2023 18:24 utc | 67–
Thanks for your informational comment. Algeria has also come out for the Niger change. The Outlaw US Empire just transported 3,000 troops to the Red Sea area to get the Saudis to reconsider buying US debt, so it doesn’t have much in the way of assets for West Africa. Plus, the need to find buyers for its debt is becoming a crisis.
**************************
There was a meeting today between Putin and the CEO of Rostec, one of Russia’s most important public utilities. I wrote an info-article that includes the translated conversation, “ROSTEC: Russia’s Giant Publicly Owned Conglomerate”. For those knowing little about Russia’s economic engines, this will open your eyes and ought to elicit a Wow!

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 7 2023 20:05 utc | 73

The other very important read today, IMO, is Crooke’s essay “The Great Unravelling: ‘For All That Is Ours, We Must Fight’”. Crooke observes that the attack against Trump is more than it appears:
“For the sake of clarity, what is being expressed here is that this indictment is part and parcel of the ongoing western ‘culture war’ – just as scientists were cancelled, dismissed from their professions and ostracised for expressing a view about mRNA science; just as views on human biology are subject now to official negation; just as ‘misgendering’ has become a potential criminal offence (hate speech), so ideological and institutional capture is being extended to the political sphere.
“This is the issue, amongst others, that is set to unravel America – and, in unravelling the U.S., will unravel Europe too.”
Where I disagree with Crooke and those he cites is the idea that the current phase of “Culture Wars” are “leftist” inspired as from the outset these fake issues were weaponized via the Establishment Narrative to keep the masses divided and more easily ruled–and they’ve been ongoing for over a century. However, I do agree that the energy being put into this current phase of dividing runs the risk of a complete severance pitting those brainwashed by the Narrative against those who aren’t. And it must be noted that the Neoliberals are the ones promoting the Narrative, which gives away the game for those able to see through the bullshit.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 7 2023 20:48 utc | 75

karlof1 | Aug 7 2023 20:48 utc | 75
I just spotted Crooke’s article at SCF, so I ambled over here before reading to see if you had already distilled it. Lo and behold! Thanks.
Indeed the “leftist” label, reflexively applied to the regressives of the formerly left-ish DP, is a nearly perfect inversion of the meaning of “leftist” or “progressive”. How can Nazi-supporting fascists possibly be called liberals or leftists? It’s like calling Obama a Marxist, notably without a peep of protest from Democrats. The deliberate purpose is to render clear political issues incomprehensibly Orwellian. That writers like Crooke fall so easily into the uncamouflaged pit, as most political analysts now do seem to do without thinking, demonstrates how successful the divisive propaganda campaign has been. Diabolically brilliant.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Aug 7 2023 21:56 utc | 77

Warning of a forthcoming collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation

We estimate a collapse of the AMOC to occur around mid-century under the current scenario of future emissions… A forthcoming collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is a major concern as it is one of the most important tipping elements in Earth’s climate system

Some observers cite this recent Nature Communications paper on AMOC’s prognosis. By and large, it seems nobody much cares. Earth? Just a big ol’ sphere we spin around upon.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Aug 7 2023 22:18 utc | 79

james@74
Thanks for the link to Alex Krainer- highly recommended.
This is how the piece ends:
“…The system of governance that has shaped western predatory imperialism is very resilient and will prove hard to kill. Regardless, killed it must be because its predatory methods aren’t only aimed at foreign colonies: this beast invariably sows mayhem abroad and misery at home. The present struggle is the struggle for all of humanity.”

Posted by: bevin | Aug 7 2023 22:27 utc | 81

Posted by: waynorinorway | Aug 7 2023 4:42 utc | 55
There are honest scientists developing ever increasing knowledge about our existence.
_____________________________________________________
I’m willing to suppose you are right, but in the last few years I have come to suspect honest scientists are a rapidly dwindling breed.
Honest scientists are like honest auto mechanics or honest plumbers or honest real estate agents or honest car salesmen…
The system is organized so that one will make a much better living if one abandons their honesty.
The question is -> who is going to pay honest scientists to do their work?

Posted by: jinn | Aug 7 2023 23:03 utc | 83

Dear Suzan:
You are an Angel.
A Goddess.
Be safe.

Posted by: L4d8r1t | Aug 7 2023 23:57 utc | 85

Thank you, karlof1 @| Aug 7 2023 23:08 utc | 84.
That might be your most important essay so far – gripping graphic and one can follow your link to Crooke’s link to Alex Krainer’s own essay about Orban’s speech. Without reading either book mentioned by Crooke, I can see and agree with your clarifications; they do both seem to miss the mark while making the points Crooke identifies. As you say, Orban is expressing traditional values. I didn’t know about the Lithuanian child protection law, but the cancellation of that is incredibly serious, and insane.
I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathtub. Tolerance is one thing, and I agree with the traditional perspective on that, which has never condoned persecution. Privacy rights are important and I value your promotion of the Four Freedoms. But the word IS ‘freedom’. I go back to your graphic: it is chilling.
Rough waters ahead. Between the rock and the hard place.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 8 2023 0:20 utc | 87

Posted by: suzan | Aug 7 2023 22:38 utc | 82
Thanks for your response, suzan. Here is your reformulation of the paragraph:

While it would be hard to argue against the idea that the smashing of sexual restrictions was not an important part of the call to “emancipate” children’s sexuality, one should not also neglect the fact that what was also being overthrow was the idea of the role of adults [taking] on responsibilities [, which requires] sacrifices.

You help me formulate my own. I wish the author had used simpler language,because I feel the point buried therein is a valid and important one.
Here’s how I’d rephrase:

The smashing of sexual restrictions may have been an important part of the call to “emancipate” children’s sexuality. But one should also not neglect the following: what was also being overthrown was the passage into adulthood, wherein the child takes on responsibilities that require adult-oriented sacrifices.

I hope that was the meaning of the paragraph.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 8 2023 0:49 utc | 89

Dear Angel
Do you thing that God is listening to or recoding to so must NOISE?
God Does Not have time for hubris.
HIS son said: Be Humble.
ARE YOU humble?
See your heart from inside
To listen to Augoeides you must relax your body, emotions and mind.
Be aware when a thought surges, notice, and do not follow it.
Don’t you listen to the Words of your Master when He was talking to you in a MOUNTAIN?

Posted by: L4d8r1t | Aug 8 2023 1:10 utc | 91

re Imran Khan this blog of Craig Murray’s is good background.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/08/imran-khan/

Posted by: bevin | Aug 8 2023 1:39 utc | 93

@ : juliania | Aug 8 2023 0:49 utc | 89
Whilst I do not disagree with your take on the author’s meaning, cited below, I believe the author’s meaning is otherwise. I read it as: it is the responsibility of adults, not children, whom they are responsible for shepherding into adulthood, to not exploit or neglect the beautiful children, and to bring them into adulthood with grace. This requires the sacrifice of the adults of putting others before oneself.
~~
Julianna:
“what was also being overthrown was the passage into adulthood, wherein the child takes on responsibilities that require adult-oriented sacrifices.”

Posted by: suzan | Aug 8 2023 2:26 utc | 95

Posted by: james | Aug 7 2023 20:12 utc | 74
Thanks, james! I had just read through the links karlof1 provided further down(working backward as I do catching up on posts). I was impressed by Alex Krainer’s essay on Ordoban’s latest speech, and here you are with another good one.
I like how he orients us with maps, much as b has done in describing the Ukraine situation. It really helps, especially in Africa where the various names and places have changed as countries became independent. The final segment on nuclear power was interesting also, as a parallel to what happened with oil. I live near the area in which the Navajo have been victimized, and nearby also the oil fracking becoming rampant. These power plays are most definitely causing harm to the environment. We in New Mexico see it happening.
That would be one plus RFKjr has going for him. His work on the Hudson River cleanup was what first brought him to my attention.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 8 2023 3:00 utc | 97

I am really dying between laughters from reading the mass of debilitating shit that this so called teachers would project over a poor mass of innocent children
Do not be surprised by the homeschooling.
Whith teachers like you, who wants to be a father
Disturbing to say the less.

Posted by: L4d8r1t | Aug 8 2023 4:19 utc | 99