Armenia has historically been aligned with Russia and Azerbaijan with Turkey. But relations between Armenia and Russia have been deteriorating recently since Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has been courting the West.

Posted by: SpatialFix | Sep 20 2023 13:39 utc | 3

I am having difficulty understanding the situation in northern India.
Does anyone have any insight into how the current Canada/India friction over Khalistan should be viewed in the broader context of the Indian Government’s revocation of the special status of Kashmir and Jammu and imposition of martial law a few years back? Is the proposed Sikh homeland contained within the Muslim-dominated areas that were originally supposed to hold a plebiscite to decide whether they wanted to become a separate country or alternatively become a part of Pakistan or a part of India? Thanks.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 20 2023 14:01 utc | 5

Is the proposed Sikh homeland contained within the Muslim-dominated areas that were originally supposed to hold a plebiscite to decide whether they wanted to become a separate country or alternatively become a part of Pakistan or a part of India? Thanks.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 20 2023 14:01 utc | 4
###########
I don’t claim to be a historian when it comes to modern Indian political history. The Muslims “got” Pakistan. The Sikhs want their own homeland (independent country) Khalistan. The Hindus have manipulated both sides against each other for decades.
Modi would sooner eat his own arm than allow a plebiscite. And he may actually be more moderate than many in his party.
As ugly and petty as American politics are, Bharati politics are right there, just less degenerate.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 20 2023 14:09 utc | 7

Thanks for some feedback bf’s on prev open thread where I just tried to post the following but it must have clashed with the opening of the new threads.
Comments have led me down new paths of discovery – more dots that clarify the picture I have been attempting to discern these last few years, never having even thought there was anything wrong about the beliefs that I had been inculcated with for decades.
So it’s back to the scam of Hollywood and Narratives.
As usual there is a narrative arc to follow , because that’s how they write their action plans.
So…When Russell’s 6 millions met Tucker’s 10 millions … It was moidderrrrr!
That is the clear rationale for the great hammer dropped on him.
Now to the other dots.
Michael Hastings. As introduced, by @ LightYearsFromHome and further by @ Tom_Q_Collins.
And the disappearing post of @ Debsisdead, who introduced the covert shadowy Hollywood ‘star’ Sean Penn and of course the ongoing consolidation of the inter web by some ‘super humans’ only in America! Types such as Bezos. (and I include Musk as much as the Gates and other such new luminaries).
Though I did know about the Rolling Stone reporting on General McChrystal and his Afghan odyssey. I had not paid attention to the reporter, Hastings, and his early demise and his motivations.
Looking into which in detail I came across another personage, a director of Action films – Die Hard, Predator, The Hunt for Red October – who ran foul of the the merchants of dreams. John McTiernan.
What links Hastings, McTiernan and Penn – along with some names that we all know?
McTiernan was imprisoned by the State after the FBI was turned loose on him he ‘had the misfortune of being snared into a government investigation in Los Angeles concerning the investigation of “Private Eye to the Stars”, Anthony Pellicano.’
https://whatculture.com/film/free-john-mctiernan-die-hard-directors-imprisonment-injustice
‘it’s a labyrinthine set of events to explain, and was perhaps best done so by Buzzfeed’s Michael Hastings. Hastings was the first major journalist in America to investigate the affair, before his untimely and tragic death..’
So to the next dots
https://www.laweekly.com/michael-hastings-dangerous-mind-journalistic-star-was-loved-feared-and-haunted/
‘Hastings was intensely interested in government surveillance of journalists. In May, the story broke about the Department of Justice obtaining the phone records of Associated Press reporters. A couple weeks later, Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance program became public. Hastings was convinced he was a target.’
‘Hastings had built a reputation as a fearless disrupter of the cozy ways of Washington, gleefully calling bullshit on government hacks and colleagues alike. He was loved and admired, hated and feared.
The day before he died, he’d warned colleagues in an email that he was being investigated by the FBI. He also said he was onto a “big story,” and would be going off the radar. Almost inevitably, his death — in a fiery, single-car crash, at 4:20 a.m. on June 18 — resulted in a swarm of conspiracy theories.’
What was that “big story”?
I don’t know yet.
There was his girlfriend who worked for Air America embedded with US forces in Iraq who was killed.
There was ‘$500,000 deal for his memoir. The book proposal leaked just two months after his fiancée’s death’
A book that apparently led him to the embedding with McChrystal in Afghanistan.
Obama fired McChrystal because of Hastings.
Hastings got another book deal ‘optioned by Brad Pitt.) By any measure, he was a star.’
‘Hastings got into an obscenity-laced email battle with Hillary Clinton’s spokesman over Benghazi, then published the exchange. He also got in trouble when he reported on an off-the-record drinks session between Obama and campaign reporters.’
He moved to Hollywood. ‘He found a legion of admirers in L.A.’s progressive media world.’
This is getting long so will finish with the following dots.
‘The Boston Marathon bombing in April brought new attention to government surveillance. Soon thereafter, a retired FBI agent said on CNN that the government would be able to go back and listen to the suspects’ phone calls from before the bombing.’
‘In mid-May, the Justice Department disclosed that it had obtained records of 20 phone lines belonging to Associated Press reporters as part of a leak investigation. ‘
‘“Any leeway or sympathy I ever give to the Obama White House, I take back forever,” he said on Huffpost Live, on May 14.’
‘In May, Hastings traveled to Washington and New York and visited his editors. As usual, he was full of ideas — maybe something on the underbelly of Hollywood. He also was interested in doing something on surveillance,’
‘ In May, Hastings was invited to a salon at director Oliver Stone’s house, along with a guest list of progressive stars like Sean Penn, Glenn Greenwald, writer David Sirota and economist Dean Baker.’
‘on June 5, Edward Snowden’s leaks unmasked the NSA’s electronic dragnet. ‘
He was going to interview ‘victims injured in a drone strike in Pakistan in early June. Hastings was thinking about including the material in a story he was doing for Rolling Stone on CIA director John Brennan.’
June 18th he was dead in a fireball car crash.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Sep 20 2023 14:36 utc | 9

Nagorno-Karabakh is patz of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan went its own way after it left the Soviet Union whereas Armenia retained ties with Russia ; the air component of Russia’s little Georgia venture was based in Armenia. Armenia, allegedly aided by Russian peacekeepers seized Karabakh back in the day and made it an Armenian majority area via ethnic cleansing. Also clearing areas of Azerbaijan between Armenia and Karabakh and turning it into an Armenians only territory. The Azeris, naturally, never accepted this and when the time was right took remedial loyal to of anther country on its own soil?

Posted by: DilNir | Sep 20 2023 15:04 utc | 11

China, the next war
On China, the US is again lying itself into the next war. The US says “The [Defense] Department remains committed to abiding by the well-established one China policy of the United States” and “this Administration opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side of the Strait. We have not supported Taiwan independence, we do not support it now.”
But actually the US is supporting the Taiwan independence from China, while Taiwan is calling its independent government the “Republic of China” which is a violation of the “one China” claim. The US also admits that the principle reason for this attention to China’s internal matters is to sustain the anti-China barriers in the off-shore China region: “Taiwan is located at a critical node within the First Island Chain in the Indo-Pacific region.” More detailed information on the coming anti-China next war is recent testimony in the House Armed Services Committee here and here.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 20 2023 15:14 utc | 13

Trudeau is to play (idiot) bad cop to Bidens (demented) good cop in order to arm twist India through international media into supporting Ukraine sanctions. That or Trudeau is attempting to deflect from his domestic media cycle and serious unpopularity. Or both.
All very much shades of imprisoning the Huawei executive on dubious grounds. Trudeau is an intellectual lightweight to say the least and would sell his own mother to save himself. A reprehensible excuse for a human being- like most Western leaders. Canada is like Maericas little yapping dog. Compare to Mexico’s president who had the cahones to invite a Russian military delegation to march in their recent parade. Bravo.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Sep 20 2023 15:15 utc | 15

Woe unto Canada. This benighted nation hosted terrorists who killed over 300 people when the Air India Boeing ‘Kanishka’ was blown up and came down in the Irish Sea. The bomb that brought it down was put on board at a Canadian airport at departure. This despite intelligence that skullduggery might be afoot. The portion of Sikhs in Canada who yowl for a Khalistan are, I suspect, far from being a majority. That said, it does not take many people to carry out attacks on Indian targets of opportunity within Canada itself or to fund/organise attacks abroad, be these in Ondia proper or other countries (US, UK) with largish populations originating from the subcontinent.
What Justine Trudy is saying is that his so-called government is NOT obliged to keep an eye on, much less actually police, potentially violent groups in Canada and hiding behind windy talk of free speech and democracy. ‘Accusations’ have been made of India’s involvement in the killing of the Psycho Sardar. Doubtless originating with his fellow crazies. The killing was likely over money. These things tend to be.
Incidentally, Pakistan has long helped both Sikhs and Kashmiri Muslims in their violent endeavours, the former mostly in the past.

Posted by: d | Sep 20 2023 15:18 utc | 17

Before my recent trip to attend my best friend’s wedding, an anonymous poster accused me of the “Crime” of plagiarism 10 years ago. I note that since his “Ambush” he stopped posting here..
He directed readers here to….
https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-internet-as-information.html
In which Louis DeSouza complains he was plagiarized…. by Public Research Institute
Who according to the oil drum’s last issue…..
http://theoildrum.com/node/10249
Luís Alexandre Duque Moreira de Sousa (Luís de Sousa) is a researcher at the Public Research Institute and a Ph.D. student in Informatics Engineering at the Technical University of Lisbon. Luís created the first Portuguese language website dedicated to Peak Oil in 2005 (PicoDoPetroleo.net); in 2006 he would be one of the founders of ASPO-Portugal and later that year integrated the team that started the European branch of The Oil Drum. Since then he has continuously written about Energy and its interplay with Politics and Economics, both in English and Portuguese. Luís is a regular presence at the collective blog European Tribune and writes on the broader issues of life on his personal blog AtTheEdgeOfTime.
I am the Executive Director of Public Research Institute, the world wide parent organization of the chapter which employed Luis. Our board sets policy, including employment policy for the entirety of the Public Research Institute. Our employment policy for staff and employees is clear.. The entirety of their research findings and writings are assigned to Public Research Institute for use in furtherance of it’s charitable objectives
In other words Luis made a stink 10 years ago because I the big boss took his draft report from our server, re-wrote it into a format targeting a broad audience, and expanded it to include new findings, and posted it on Informed Comment for the purpose of presenting those ideas to a wider public.
This matter initially surprised me. So, we investigated Luis. We found that much of his “reputation” consisted of his taking Institute reports and research and publishing these as his own personal work. Shortly thereafter Luis needed a new job, the oil drum ceased publication, and the affiliation with Technical University of Lisbon ceased.
Today ASPO-Portugal is a betting parlor… http://www.picodopetroleo.net is a sports betting site
AND….
Luis last posted to his blog in 2018 mostly about his music.
SO…
Luis no longer posts WRT energy matters, most likely because his career as an itinerant musician precludes it..
So what was the furor all about… It was this short report…
​ The real problem with Renewables: Wind Turbine & Panel Prices in Free Fall, & the Fuel is Free:
(A compendium of ideas from within and without the Institute, unified with original research by Institute staff.)
​
​ Summary:
A paradigm shift in energy is underway.
The total spent on upstream oil and gas exploration and production between 1998 and 2005 was $1.5 trillion USD, which yielded an increase in oil production of 8.6 million barrels a day, worth $905 million per day, with five years production increase repaying this seven year investment.
However, between 2005 and 2013 an additional $4 trillion was spent on oil and gas exploration and production, which was only able to reduce the collapse of conventional oil production to – $1 million barrels a day. This huge investment, netted a negative (-) $100 million per day, -$ 38.25 billion per year a return of – 0.96% per year.
Given the world’s willingness to invest $ 500,000,000,000 ( $ 500 Billion USD ) per year in energy resources, where should these funds be invested? We of The Institute, believe that investing such sums in Renewable Energies will yield positive returns, on many fronts, providing ~ 500 Gwe of generation capacity additions annually. Four years of such additions, would provide 2 Twe of PV capacity. Four and a half years of such additions would provide 1.75 Twe of wind capacity, an additional 15 months is sufficient to provide 500 Gwe of GeoThermal capacity, and finally an additional 9 months of such additions would expand US HydroPower production to 200 Gwe, the feasible limit. That is, were such sums invested in a mix of renewable power sources, consisting of 2 Twe of PV, 1.75 Twe of wind, 500 Gwe of GeoThermal, and 200 Gwe of Hydro, renewable energies could power the US economy, and completely replace fossil fuels within 10 ½ years, simply by redirecting existing energy development funds!
As summarized above, the cost efficient generating potential of renewable sources of electricity; hydro, GeoThermal, wind, and solar photo-voltaic is grossly underestimated, and their generation costs are grossly over estimated. Virtually all observers treat these industries act as if they were static, when in fact, they are among the most dynamic in existence. Their presence in the grid, challenges utility companies and governments because their prices are in free fall and they require no fuel. The wind turbine and solar photo-voltaic markets are following the path pioneered by the computer hardware market, obeying Moore’s Law, with exponentially declining costs and pricing. These technologies feature continual improvements in efficiency and output, which have yet to run their course, because important new breakthroughs have yet to reach the market.
Wind, solar, hydro, and GeoThermal electricity-production requires no fuel to produce electricity, quite unlike hydrocarbon fired power plants which incur fuel costs every time they produce power. Operators of fuel consuming power stations must source and pay for fuel, via long term contracts(preferred), or via purchases in the volatile spot market(to be avoided if at all possible). Operation and Maintenance(O&M) of fuel consuming power stations, with their complex machinery, is an order of magnitude greater than O&M for a wind turbine, solar PV array, hydro dam, or GeoThermal plant. Predictable O&M costs, independent of output, permit generation of additional power from an operating hydro electric dam, GeoThermal field, solar PV array, or wind turbine, at virtually zero additional cost per kWh. Thus, the marginal cost of producing electricity via wind turbines, solar PV arrays, hydro-electric dams, and GeoThermal Fields, is virtually zero ($0.00/kWh).
Wind turbines, solar PV arrays, hydro-electric dams, and GeoThermal Fields generate electricity. When injected into the grid, that electricity is identical to any other. Moreover, the small areal extent of renewable power generation facilities, means that numerous plants will be affected by meteorological features, producing synchronously. Thus all PV systems in a region are likely to be producing power if the sun is shining, even more so under partly cloudy conditions, all wind turbines in a region are likely to be producing power if that day is windy, and all hydro-electric dams in a region are likely to be producing power if there was sufficient rainfall. Markets where many small producers produce identical products, with concurrent maximum production due to seasonal factors, are called Concurrent Perfect Competition Markets(CPCMs). Such markets are quite common in agriculture, have been widely studied, and their characteristics known. A signature characteristic of such markets, is prices which match marginal costs, long term. Consequently, producers struggle to make a profit, and subsidies must be provided to assure supply.
CPCMs with a marginal cost of zero are new. This characteristic of renewable electricity generation, leads to collapse of spot electricity prices during sunny summer days, or during storms, to zero or less. As the percentage of grid connected supply from renewable power producers, grows, price of this supply will decline, and eventually approach zero.
Renewable power generation’s marginal costs are financially devastating electricity suppliers dependent upon fossil fuel energies. They simply cannot survive in such an environment. Government inaction thus far is for the purpose of protecting traditional electric utilities, while giving lip service to those who revere the market.
In Europe, neither as sunny or as windy as the US, a fully liberalized market with significant renewable electricity production is creating all sorts of problems. Unable to pass on management costs, grid managers are unwilling to reconfigure a grid designed to market central station power, into one capable of managing distributed and fluctuating power sources. In consequence, voltage fluctuates with the wind velocity, or with variation in the amount of solar insolation available, threatening to bring the grid down. In some countries, this issue has become sufficiently serious that governments, of whatever stripe, are contemplating grid nationalization.
The US has sufficient commercial and residential roof space to host ~2 Twe of PV as shown in recent USDOE studies, since confirmed by the Institute. This would cost $744/kwe and would produce power with a Levelized Energy Cost (LEC) of $0.03/kwh, without subsidies and storage. Adding 24 hours storage raises project cost to $2346 / kwe, producing power at $0.08 / kwh. Costs of constructing these systems are so low, that their construction is inevitable. Fully implemented, rooftop PV would provide 80% of current electricity demand, in and of itself, or 3,200 Twh / yr.
The US has 2.1 million farms, averaging 420 acres, each of which has sufficient roof space for 50 kwe of PV and enough room for one 800 kwe direct drive wind turbine. US farms could host 110 Gwe of PV and 1,750 Gwe of wind turbines, producing 5,000 Twh/yr.
The US could produce 8,200 Twh/yr or 27 Quads/yr from rooftop PV and farm wind turbines alone. This is nearly twice the amount of electrical power currently supplied to customers, produced without burning a single gram of carbon based fuels, and is sufficient to run the entire economy.
Configuring hydro and GeoThermal plants to swing production, plus minor amounts of storage, would balance the US grid, eliminating any need for base load power from fossil fueled or nuclear plants.
Policy Changes Required:
To understand the policies that need be changed within the USA, for the nation to convert from fossil fuels to Renewables, it is first necessary to confront it’s myths, as follows:
a. The natural resource base is, for all practical purposes infinite.
b. The US Federal Government is revenue constrained, and running out of money.
c. The EROEI of renewables is much lower than alternatives.
d. Renewables are intermittent and unreliable, and there is no way to obviate this.
e. Renewables cost more than fossil fuels.
The Myth of an infinite resource base, is a direct consequence of the “release effect” described in “The Eternal Frontier” by Flannery, and came into existence because, to the original few thousand European settlers, the resource base of North America was enormous. Like the Folsom people who decimated the mega-fauna they found within 300 years, the European settlers churned through the resource base of North America, in a similar time frame. Just 80 years ago, US petroleum resources flowed copiously from vertical wells drilled only a few hundred meters deep, at an EROEI of > 100, while today it is necessary to drill thousands of meters down, then to make subsequent multiple horizontal branches additional thousands of meters long, then to fracture the surrounding rock to produce a hundredth as much per well per day as previously, wrung out of the rock at an EROEI of ~2.
The Myth of the US Federal Government being revenue constrained, is a hold over from the past, when the US Dollar was backed by Gold/Silver. Nixon ended that in 75, only a few years after US petroleum production peaked, leaving the US Dollar representing a claim on the “Full Faith And Credit” of the US. The advent of electronic currency means that it is not even necessary to mint coins or print banknotes, because a few keystrokes at the right terminal on the Federal Reserve’s master computer, will create trillions, from nothing.
The Myth of a low EROEI for renewables, is the direct consequence of comparing apples to oranges. Fossil fuels and the energy conversion systems they drive, are burdened only with the cost of getting petroleum to the surface, while the famous Spanish study, burdened PV with the inputs necessary to construct panels, plus the grid, plus the regulatory burden, not to mention the kitchen sink. The Energy Returned by a PV panel as compared to the energy required to manufacture that panel, is ~35:1, today.
The Myth of intermittent and unreliable renewables, focuses on conditions in one location, without storage. Given storage, and a network encompassing the entire nation, Renewables provide lower cost power, available on demand.
The Myth of high renewable generation costs, came about because as recent as 2 years ago, PV panels cost $3/watt in the US, and $2/watt in China. Today Sun Electronics of Miami sells PV at $0.38 / watt FOB Miami, and PV manufacturers in China sell 22% efficient PV for $0.25/watt by the 40 ft container load.
​ Effect on Long Term Supply Contracts:
Bloomberg New Energy Finance reports that El Paso Electric is paying First Solar $0.579/kWh for power from the 50Mwe utility scale PV plant purchased from Element Power. This a third of the price that thin-film solar PV project power typically costs, $0.163 / kWh, and less than half the $0.128 / kWh average price for new coal plants. BNEF also reported that Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison signed 9 power purchase agreements for utility scale PV generated power at prices less than $ 0.09 / Kwh. Thus, PV generated power is now cheaper than power sourced from new coal plants.
The exceptional nature of renewable energy:
With solar power prices now at rock bottom, why aren’t governments everywhere supporting connection of renewable power generating systems to the grid? Deregulation and privatization strategies taken about a decade ago did not consider a significant amount of power from renewable sources as possible. While governments were setting up feed-in tariffs and subsidies to renewable energies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they separated power generation from power transmission(the Grid), and from power distribution, generally privatizing the sector. This created an electricity market where power is traded in the short term(spot market) and long term (futures market), supposedly all in the best interest of consumers, until ENRON participated. After reaching a critical size, renewable power production, killed this market. To understand why this happened, one must comprehend the essentials of renewable energy economics.
In recent years solar panel pricing has collapsed, due to improvements in technology and scale, as shown in the graphic to the right, previous page. As PV shipments increased from ~ 3 Gwe/yr in 2004 to ~ 50 Gwe/yr today, production shifted from small factories in the OECD, to huge factories in Asia. With this, came lower installation and maintenance costs due to simplified mounts, standardized switchgear, solid state inverters, and improved batteries. By mid 2012, the price of cells declined to $0.50 /Wp, inverters to $0.18/Wp, and complete systems to $ 1.40/Wp. Today, in mid 2014, complete systems cost ~ $ 1 / Wp. The magic number has been crossed!
Globally, capacity is ~ 50Gwe, with demand currently ~ 30 Gwe. This over supply, to a great extent the product of the end of subsidies in both Europe and the US, will lead to further consolidations industry wide, with Solyndra as poster child, in a glorious $250 million bankruptcy. Given this over supply is the driver of recent price drops, a pricing rebound, is not to be expected, given production costs and prices are declining rapidly in a manner similar to that experienced by the computer hardware manufacturers. In both cases, costs are market share driven, with keen competition giving rise to a constant stream of improvements, like proton induced exfoilation which increased wafer yield an order of magnitude. The efficiency of PV technology keeps increasing, and the advent of auto-cooling will continue this trend.
Lower costs in China and South East Asia, will preclude production returning to the OECD. If it’s not economical to produce a disk drives, screens, or motherboards in Europe and North America, simpler technologies like solar cells and wind turbine production will likewise gravitate to asia.
​ Rooftop PV Is Important:
The US has sufficient roof space to host 1.1Twe of PV as shown in the USDOE study by Denholm & Margolis, equally divided between commercial and residential buildings. Total project cost is $818 bilion or $744/kwe producing power with an LEC of $0.0304/kwh, with no subsidies whatever(no storage). Adding 24 hours storage raises project cost to $2 trillion or $2346 / kwe, producing power at an LEC of $0.08 / kwh. Costs of emplacing these systems are so low, that their construction is inevitable. Their nature lends itself to consumption of production on-site, unaffected by grid regulations, or pricing. Fully implemented, rooftop PV as envisioned in the USDOE study, would provide 40% of current electricity demand, in and of itself, or 1,800 Twh / yr.
The cost of energy is prompting conversion of US housing stock to PassivHaus standard, thereby reducing household consumption of power for heating/cooling to < 15 kwh/m2-yr, and total energy demand to < 120 kwh/m2-yr. For the US, with 125 million dwellings, averaging 200 m2 in area, conversion to PassivHaus reduces heating/cooling power demand to 373 Twh/yr, and total power demand to < 3,000 Twh/ yr. Were refrigerators and air conditioners built with SawaFuji Free-Piston Compressors, high performance vacuum insulated panels, and with hold over plates so they run during the day, when the sun is shining, much of the need for storage would disappear and consequent demand would be reduced to 1,000Twh/yr. Conversion of all lighting to LED eliminates 80% of power demand for lighting, and conversion of electronics to energy efficient versions, further reduce demand to 590 Twh/yr. US houses, sporting 550 Gwe of rooftop PV, converted to PassivHaus, and featuring holdover plate aircon/refrigeration, efficient electronics, and LED lighting would have their own distributed 24/7 supply of electrical power, net of conversion and storage losses, of 25 kwh/m2-yr = 4,400 kwh/house-yr, while providing 1,000Twh/yr to power the rest of the economy. Furthermore, I take issue with the USDOE rooftop survey, because efficiency gains are sufficient to provide 6 kwe of rooftop PV per house using the same area, and is sufficient to provide 750 Gwe of capacity, in and of itself, generating 1,300 Twh/yr. So meeting the power requirements of each house requires only 8 m2 of rooftop PV per 200 m2 house, or 4% of it's area, and the available roof area can easily host ~ 6 kwe = 24 m2 of PV/house = 0.75 Twe of nationwide rooftop PV capacity. ​ Feed-in Tariffs: Governments should be working toward complete integration of renewable systems into the grid, not to their exclusion. They must accept that only schemes such as feed-in tariffs can guarantee the long term presence of renewable power producers in the grid. With marginal generation costs close to $0.00 / kWh, these systems will never be able to yield proper cash flows in a competitive electricity market. If the investment in grid connected renewable power technologies is to continue to come from private investors, stable revenues must be guaranteed in the long term. Looking at feed-in tariffs in particular, obvious changes are the following: 1. Extend the feed-in tariff to the whole lifetime of the project. 2. Reduce the feed-in tariff over the life of the project, from a high initial value. 3. In a jurisdiction with an expected cost of 0.09 $/kWp for industrial systems, a tariff with an initial rate of 0.12 $/kWp for the first five years, 0.10 $/kWp for the next five years, 0.08 $/kWp for the next five years, and 0.06 $/kWp for the last decade of production, preserves the important break-even anticipation, essential for an effective feed-in tariff. With proper feed-in tariffs in place, governments can then focus on retooling large utilities into distribution, and load-balancing. Subsidies for construction of storage infrastructure, such as NaS batteries will be necessary. Incentives linked to adoption of cost reduction measures, will pay dividends too.
Were I to update this report in light of my current research, I would expand the concept of minimal marginal cost to high speed rail, hydro-electric, Thorium Fueled Molten Salt Reactors, Pebble Bed Reactors, RosAtom’s nuclear waste burning reactors, Desert Reclamation, Giant Rice, Salt Tolerant Rice, Moscow2000 Maize, and all other investments lasting many years. Economist John Ross in his blog….
https://learningfromchina.net
covers this in great detail… as the reason the Chinese Economy grew and continues to grow fast.
INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 20 2023 15:20 utc | 19

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/63877

Watch Brazilian President Lula da Silva slam warmongers and the obscene cost of military spending across the world during a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York. The veteran socialist said that military spending was now $2 trillion worldwide while $83 billion was spent on nuclear weapons, a figure 20 times more than the entire UN budget.
Lula also argued that it would be impossible to achieve stability and security while “social exclusion and inequality” continue criticism of those governments who prioritize military spending rather than tackling social problems. He also emphasized the importance of dialogue a key UN principal and denounced sanctions including the US embargo on Cuba.
According to figures from Statista, last year the US spent $877 billion on its military followed by China which spent $292 billion, Russia spent $86.4 billion, and India spent $81.4 billion.

Posted by: anon2020 | Sep 20 2023 15:38 utc | 21

Azerbaijan-Armenia Update – In a Nutshell: https://robcampbell.substack.com/p/armenia-azerbaijan-update

Posted by: Rob Campbell | Sep 20 2023 16:01 utc | 23

A monument to Viktor Tsoy was unveiled in Pyongyang
Kim Jong-un took part in the unveiling of a monument to Russian-Korean singer Viktor Tsoy in the DPRK capital.
The monument was opened as a sign of friendship between the Russian Federation and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The monument bears a quote from the song by the band Kino in two languages: “Red-red blood, in an hour it’s just earth, in two hours it’s just flowers and grass, in three hours it’s alive again”.
Russian Ambassador to the DPRK Alexander Matsegora also took part in the opening of the monument. https://t.me/Slavyangrad/63819

Viktor Tsoy died in a traffic accident in 1990. I recently discovered his wonderful song Kukushka: Viktor Tsoi- Kukushka
I don’t read Russian, but my understanding is in Russia you can ask a cuckoo how many years you have left by counting the replies. In this song life is measured in songs, not years, he asks how many songs he has left. He died soon after, only 28 years old.
Clearly, he deserved a monument.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 20 2023 16:39 utc | 25

@ d | Sep 20 2023 15:18 utc | 9
it is a sad kettle of fish really… it is a complicated mess and i blame 5 eyes… our country has become beholden to csis and all the bullshit generated from this 5 eyes intel outfit.. the politicians are completely beholden to them!
first it was russia – bad russia, according to 5 eyes… more recently it is china – the lockup of the huawei executive is just a small part of the increasing hostility toward china and remember the big row we had with china over that?? next – india with this… it must be apparent to any canuck with half a brain that the BRIC countries are being singled out… this when in fact our biggest foreign influence hands down – no competition – is the usa!! and of course this is brought to us by the lead sleigh dog of 5 eyes – cia! jesus, but this pisses me off.. and none of the canuck opposition that we heard from offer any alternative views on this… they all march to the orders of the intel agencies at this point… it is very frightening in fact..

Posted by: james | Sep 20 2023 16:46 utc | 27

“Taiwan is calling its independent government the “Republic of China” which is a violation of the “one China” claim.” – David Bacon
The Republic of China was Chiang Kai-shek’s political regime. It is still extant on Taiwan and claims to still rightfully rule the mainland. The “One China” policy is a clever attempt to pretend agree with both rival Chinese regimes, PRC and ROC. But it’s too clever for Biden the Conqueror, apparently.
Ironically, the CPC on the mainland and Chiang Kai-shek’s ur-Fascist organized crime party, the KMT (Guomindang) on the island have been kissing amd making up in recent years in an amazing way. Perhaps like a long divorced couple who are attracted once more.
I doubt Mr. Xi et al. will invade Taiwan any time soon. They need only wait. I do suspect Biden et al. might FAKE an invasion of some kind, like the Gulf of Tonkin Incident or any number of other excuses for war. He wants to bomb Taiwan’s chip factories, it seems.

Posted by: lester | Sep 20 2023 16:49 utc | 29

not good..
Russian peacekeepers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh – Moscow

Posted by: james | Sep 20 2023 17:02 utc | 31

Republicans accusing Biden of corruption is surely the pot calling the kettle black. Impeach him for senility or starting wars or not being a Republican — something substantial. Then we could enjoy a Kamala Harris administration!

Posted by: lester | Sep 20 2023 17:33 utc | 33

What happened to the RSS feed? Please, advise.

Posted by: Augustine | Sep 20 2023 17:43 utc | 35

I don’t claim to be a historian when it comes to modern Indian political history. The Muslims “got” Pakistan. The Sikhs want their own homeland (independent country) Khalistan. The Hindus have manipulated both sides against each other for decades.
Modi would sooner eat his own arm than allow a plebiscite. And he may actually be more moderate than many in his party.
As ugly and petty as American politics are, Bharati politics are right there, just less degenerate.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 20 2023 14:09 utc |
I suggest reading Khushwant Singh’s A History of Sikhs Vol 2 1839-2004. He is a historian. Sikhs have often argued that they consist of a nation. That doesn’t mean they wanted a separate country. Just like Native Americans like Navajo, Cherokee, etc. are a nation within the United States. The Khalistani movement was encouraged by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the PM of Pakistan in the 70s. Khalistanis believed that both the Punjab state of India as well as Pakistan belonged to them but there was no terrorism in Pakistan by Khalistanis, only India.
Khalistanis are extremists who have no support amongst the Sikh populace. Their political party gets 2% of the vote. If there was a plebiscite, the Khalistanis would lose. Pew Research said 95% Sikhs are proud to be Indian. Sikhs dominate Indian military recruitment. Not to mention that Punjab doesn’t just have Sikhs. Many Punjabis are Hindus. Almost 40% of Punjab is Hindus. Generally tradition is that the eldest son of the Punjabi Hindu family is allowed to convert to Sikhism.
These Khalistani extremists have terrorized not just Hindus and Muslims but also Sikhs. They threaten Sikhs to give money to their cause or face repercussions. After the leader of their terrorist org was killed in 1984, the Sikh bodyguards of the Indian PM. Indira Gandhi killed her. This led to Hindu-Sikh riots and many Sikhs were victims of that as they were killed and maimed. Many who escaped from India came to UK and Canada and started their terrorist orgs in these countries. Indian govt and intelligence have repeatedly asked CSIS to confront these extremists but they don’t. CSIS didn’t even try to catch the Khalistani terrorist that blew up the India-Canada flight operated by Air India in 1985. With the resurgence of Khalistanis and having a sympathizer in NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, this issue was constantly brought up by Indian govt to Trudeau but he ignores them for political purposes. Now they made up some story about Indian spies killing Najjar, a leader of a terrorist org.

Posted by: BB | Sep 20 2023 17:49 utc | 37

I have a question I really want to ask: Regarding the F-35 warplane which lost its pilot and finally made its own way down….
Has anyone asked the pilot what happened? Is he, she, it ok? Why the bail out? Why is there silence on this obvious question?
anyone?

Posted by: medo | Sep 20 2023 17:59 utc | 39

BB @19
It’s puzzling to learn that Jagmeet believes in Khalistan. I didn’t think that he believed in anything.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 20 2023 18:00 utc | 41

@medo | Sep 20 2023 17:59 utc | 20
I don’t think the supposed pilots name is public. Perhaps there wasn’t a pilot. Perhaps the plane didn’t crash where it is claimed, there are no photos of plane parts.
We are also coming up to one month since Prigozhins plane was downed in Russia. There is no credible evidence of what caused it to lose a wing.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 20 2023 18:09 utc | 43

Answer to 1 Some point of view Russia and Armenia’s Pivot to the West

Posted by: Neocons | Sep 20 2023 18:20 utc | 45

@medo | Sep 20 2023 17:59 utc
But we have this priceless description of the f35: tmz.com/watch/2023-09-20-092023-randolph-white-1695479-867/

Posted by: rk | Sep 20 2023 18:23 utc | 47

#94 Posted by: Whisker | Sep 19 2023 22:23 utc
-more details
Additionally, msm multiple tv channels said it was “air force” plane.
Msm stated “autopilot.” A triggerword for techies. the plane is ghosted, without a brain when autopilot engages without pilot interaction.
Gps is the most fragile.
Wanted to clarify previous, need to jam ‘both’ satellite and land signals to the fat-penguin. This results in the” gps ‘autopilot'”. So stating autopilot, could also refer to faulting to gps-autopilot.
Is the fat-penguin design same as rq170? Probably. Did they upgrade or make changes after 2019?
2019, Msm said they shot it ($220M) down and it “crashed.” Afterwards, clearly it was under binary control and was landed, reversed engineered.
Who has the capability and Were they in the area? Yes
Previously, they confused the electronics into thinking the airport was friendly and it landed by reconfiguring the lat/long coordinates.
Essentially it’s a dos denial of service to the L2 encrypted gps signal where it falls back to civilian feeds, whereas exposed to spoofing? Did USA buildbackbetter a second signal? No

Posted by: Whisker | Sep 20 2023 18:56 utc | 49

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 19 2023 15:35 utc | 9
From “New York Times Acknowledges Ukrainian Origin Of Deadly Strike” thread.
The knives are always out for everyone in politics. One day, you’re a partisan fighting shoulder to shoulder, the next day you’re destroying your fellow partisan. That is not the biggest knowledge. The biggest is that “everything is politics”. Then what is the objective of politics? Imagine a swamp and all are fish with rudimentary feet. In this swamp there are some floating weed-beds. Politics is occupying the tallest weed-beds and feeling good about yourself and getting attached to the feeling. Unbeknownest to them, they are radiating self-satisfiedness, others see it and want that self-satisfiedness. This self-satisfiedness is illussory of course, what with others dethroning him/her/them, and also, all things are impermanent.
That’s why many people engage in renunciation of this politics of — I want this self-satisfiedness too radiated by them. But do engage in practicing the politics of self-protection for the now and the future i.e. engage in acts that prevents self-harm. e.g. if one acts as sane voice, or supports a sane voice that leads to less radicalisation of society, that will be helpful to him/her in the future. Not doing this or idly standing by or washing one’s hands off or be led by apparent truth or by msm (includes drivel by monsters, or some book promoted by them), is rolling out the red carpet for ill-fate in the future.
One other thing, humans are weak things. Some people who renounce the first politics, because they basically know beyond a shred of doubt that everything is impermanent, even his/her life, cannot deal with the aftermath of this realisation, and turn to hieroglyphs, sacred scriptures etc. Anything to blind oneself again to the knowledge of “everything is impermanent”.
The comment turned a philosphical corner. Is this rant relevant to the discussion? tangentially yes. The politician politics is a bigger stage. And the politicians had to had to strive for the tallest weed-beds. Just like Hashishiniyan, elensky, bidet. And at that level of politics knifing one’s foes/friends and allies is allowed. Knifing a landmass or ocean or lakes is also allowed. The georgian people idly standing by, washing their hands off or led by msm are reaping the results. Similarly on the Azeri side. Also during peaceful co-existence, I suppose Azeri individuals’ properties were interspersed with Georgi individuals’ properties. Maybe Azeri individuals eyed Georgi’s properties and vice versa. Race to the top of the weed-beds. And I suppose not, really suppose not: Azeris were not eyeing each other’s properties. And also with Georgis. One has to really convince me Azeris are different from all other people and one Azeri do not eye another Azeri’s property. Race to the top of the weed-beds. So it will continue. Wars, politics, striving for that radiated self-satisfiedness. Or seeking answers with monsters, or books promoted by the monsters.

Posted by: AOTP | Sep 20 2023 19:03 utc | 51

in fact our biggest foreign influence hands down – no competition – is the usa!! and of course this is brought to us by the lead sleigh dog of 5 eyes – cia! jesus, but this pisses me off.. and none of the canuck opposition that we heard from offer any alternative views on this… they all march to the orders of the intel agencies at this point… it is very frightening in fact..
Posted by: james | Sep 20 2023 16:46 utc | 14
One could argue that Israel places a not-too-distant second. Agree with the rest about the spooks and the (controlled?) opposition parties.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 20 2023 19:39 utc | 53

The Mother of all Debt Traps
by
Patrick Chi-Ping Ho, Gal Luft
https://hkmo33.com/2023/09/103075
Washington has identified Beijing as public enemy number one, as U.S. debt grows, Washington is also so confident in China’s insatiable appetite for its debt that it expected China to buy more and more of it.
In recent years, China has been undergoing an intense internal debate about what to do with America’s debt. Beijing is not likely to dump its Treasuries as Russia has recently done. This would be self-defeating. After all, its economy is still closely intertwined with America’s, and with roughly over $700 billion a year of bilateral trade on the line. And even if it were in China’s interest to do so, it would not be possible for Beijing to find a buyer for such a huge amount of U.S. Treasuries unless it offered them at a heavy discount. But the debate is not about dumping the treasuries China already owns. It is about the wisdom of rolling over those that mature. Contrary to what Yellen has hoped and wished, currently China has not a scintilla of appetite for increasing its current holdings to the levels needed to meet the steadily growing U.S. fiscal needs. In fact, since the beginning of the trade war in 2018, its holding of U.S. bonds has been steadily declining to a mere 835 billion today.
How long does anyone think China will agree to fund the very same U.S. military that is preparing to fight China, the education system that is striving to outsmart it and that is closing its gates to Chinese students, the research and development infrastructure that aims to undercut China’s technology development programs, and the U.S. Department of Justice lawyers who are prosecuting Chinese companies and nationals? To paraphrase Lenin, China is no longer willing to pay the capitalists for the rope on which they plan to hang it.
From China’s standpoint, pouring more money into the American debt hole makes no sense. It prefers to redirect more and more of its money to other foreign investments, while diversifying away from dollar reserves into other assets like gold. Indeed, it has just been reported that China has dumped 481 billion of US Treasuries, and bought 6927 tons of gold from overseas. The Belt and Road Initiative is therefore China’s mechanism for reallocating its large foreign exchange assets away from what it views as the American debt trap into more rewarding and growth yielding infrastructures and technology investments. China has already made its decision loud and clear: its money is going to build China and its Asian neighbors—not finance reckless spending in America, the mother of all debt traps!
Most likely BRI projects like the Laos-China High Speed Railway…
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/laos-high-speed-train-%E0%BA%A5%E0%BA%BB%E0%BA%94%E0%BB%84%E0%BA%9F%E0%BA%84%E0%BA%A7%E0%BA%B2%E0%BA%A1%E0%BB%84%E0%BA%A7%E0%BA%AA%E0%BA%B9%E0%BA%87.1494039/page-30#post-183428432
INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 20 2023 20:20 utc | 55

China Creates world’s most powerful RADAR Chip
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3234346/amid-us-tech-sanctions-chinese-scientists-say-they-made-worlds-most-powerful-radar-chip
Amid US tech sanctions, Chinese scientists say they made the world’s most powerful radar chip
New semiconductor performs at orders of magnitude higher than similar power-amplifying chips in most existing radar systems, says Chinese team
It uses gallium nitride despite export bans by the US government blocking high powered gallium-based semiconductors to China
A research team with a major Chinese defence company says it has built a radar chip with a record power output using semiconductor technology that is the subject of strict US sanctions.
The finger-sized chip can generate radar signals with peak power reaching 2.4 kilowatts. It is one or two orders of magnitude higher than the performance of similar power-amplifying chips in most existing radar systems.
This after China banns the export of Gallium to NATO countries.
INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 20 2023 20:28 utc | 57

More about the Northern Sea Route
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230522/what-is-northern-sea-route-and-how-can-it-turn-russia-into-arctic-superpower-1110524259.html
The Northern Sea Route (also known as Arctic Bridge Sea Route) is an ambitious Russian Arctic maritime transport artery running through the waters of Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the far North, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea in the east to the Barents and White Seas in the west.
How Long is the Northern Sea Route?
The approximately 5,600-kilometer (km) route is the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia, with the ability to shave upwards of 9,000 km off transit from the East China Sea to the North Sea, compared to shipments via the Suez Canal.
Once fully operational, the NSR is expected to allow the shipment of goods between Asia and Europe in as little as 19 days, 40% – 60% faster than shipments via the Suez Canal or the Cape of Good Hope, respectively.
Why is the Northern Sea Route Significant?
The Northern Sea Route would allow Russia to become a major player in the transit of trillions of dollars of trade annually, and ease the development and exploitation of Russian territories in the Far North – including vast, untapped reserves of oil and gas.
According to a 2021 estimate by the Pentagon, the Arctic may contain nearly a third of the world’s undiscovered reserves of natural gas, as well as more than a trillion dollars of rare-earth minerals.
It’s apparently unacceptable that such wealth belong to any nation besides the US, and Washington’s fervent opposition to the NSR is a sure sign of its strategic importance. The US Navy has characterized the artery as an attempt to institute the “unlawful regulation of maritime traffic,” and has threatened to carry out the same kind of freedom of navigation missions in the Russian Arctic as it has in China-claimed waters in the South China Sea.
In 2021, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of “exploiting [climate] change to try to exert control over new spaces” in the Arctic, including via the modernization of military bases.
US soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, part of the 6th Marine Regiment participate in the international military exercise Cold Response 22, at Sandstrand, North of in Norway, on March 21, 2022. – Sputnik International, 1920, 03.05.2023
World
What Can Russia Do to Thwart Unwanted Intrusions Into the Northern Sea Route?
Fortunately for Moscow, the task of protecting Russia’s northern waters from foreign encroachment has been made easier by the country’s outsized spending on military vessels and icebreakers capable of operating in frigid Arctic temperatures, and by decades of US under-investment by comparison.
Earlier this year, for example, it was reported the US Coast Guard was forced to delay the commissioning of a new polar-class icebreaker until 2027, while Russia’s Rosatomflot signed a contract on the construction of its sixth and seventh Arktika-class nuclear icebreakers, which will join the 50+ icebreakers of various classes already in operation. For the moment, the United States operates just two icebreakers, a state of affairs which should complicate its freedom of navigation ambitions for years to come.
One of the two USCG ice breakers was commissioned 50 years ago, and is in a state of chronic dis-repair to the point it had to be rescued during antarctic service.
The other is a “medium class” ice breaker, in capable of breaking more than a foot or two of ice..
INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 20 2023 20:34 utc | 59

Beijing says it uncovered US National Security Agency operatives behind cyberattack on Chinese university
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3234492/beijing-says-it-uncovered-us-national-security-agency-operatives-behind-cyberattack-chinese?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=3234492&utm_medium=share_widget
Second Date’ software used in Northwestern Polytechnical University attack is potent cyber espionage tool developed by US agency, says state media
After global tracing, Chinese team reportedly found ‘thousands of network devices’ across the country still infected by the spyware and its derivatives
China says it has identified US National Security Agency operatives while investigating a recent cyberattack on Northwestern Polytechnical University, as its top spying and anti-espionage agency vowed on Thursday to root out all “digital spies”.
The revelation came just three days after Beijing revealed more details about John Shing-wan Leung, a Hong Kong permanent resident and US citizen the Chinese Ministry of State Security said posed as a philanthropist while snooping for information. He was jailed for life for espionage in May, two years after his arrest in China.
State-run CCTV said on Thursday that China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre, with help from Chinese antivirus company 360 Total Security, had discovered the identity of the National Security Agency (NSA) operative or operatives – the broadcaster did not specify how many or name them – after it extracted “multiple samples” of a spyware called “Second Date”.
It said the spyware was used in the cyberattack on Northwestern Polytechnical University in Shaanxi province.
‘Stop stealing’: China condemns US over Trojan horse cyberattacks on state-funded university
The report said technical analysis showed that Second Date was a cyber-espionage weapon developed by the NSA to sniff out and hijack network traffic and insert malicious codes.
Quoting senior engineer at the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre Du Zhenhua, it said software was a potent cyberespionage tool that enabled attackers to take control of target network devices and the data traffic flowing through them, and use them as a “forward base” for the next stage of attacks. It could run on various operating systems and was compatible with multiple architectures.
Du was quoted as saying the spyware was usually used in conjunction with various network device vulnerability attack tools from the NSA’s Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO). The TAO, now renamed Computer Network Operations, is a cyberwarfare intelligence-gathering unit.
China’s foreign ministry says the international community should be highly vigilant about CIA activities as a new report alleges a years-long global cyberattack campaign. Photo: AFP
The report said that after global tracing, the Chinese team found “thousands of network devices” across the country were still infected by the spyware and its derivatives. It said they also found springboard servers remotely controlled by the NSA in Germany, Japan, South Korea, India and Taiwan.
Those pesky Chinese…!
INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 20 2023 20:39 utc | 61

@Norwegian | Sep 20 2023 18:09 utc | 22

I don’t think the supposed pilots name is public. Perhaps there wasn’t a pilot. Perhaps the plane didn’t crash where it is claimed, there are no photos of plane parts.

Apropos what crashed fighter jets look like, here are closeups of the SU-34 that just crashed in Voronezh.
🇷🇺 Photo of a Su-34 that crashed today in the Voronezh region from a close angle
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/63944
The story about the F-35 is suspicious because it doesn’t make sense and doesn’t include any verifiable evidence.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 20 2023 20:43 utc | 63

reply to 20, 32
There is a crazy rumor that it was downed by .50 caliber arms fire. Weird.

Posted by: Eighthman | Sep 20 2023 20:52 utc | 65

Dr George w. Oprisk0 10
Thank you for this post.
My father was an ele trial engineer who spent most of his career designing weapons systems but happily concluded his career designing the EMI body scanner. So a big thanks to him for when I had a spent put in.
I ignored his knowledge of electronics and became a bookbinder and conservator, and all the ladies in my family have Art degrees. Now, much too late I realise that my second career as an electrician is redundant in the PV future because there are so many ways to control electric shocks other than overloads tripping. Electronics is the key.
Eventually I suppose the 3 phase , mechanically produced type of electricity will cease to exist in domestic and commercial premises.
That would be the end of the second Steam Age. The third steam age might use solar power to directly create steam in very hot countries.
Lastly, I have come to the conclusion that refrigeration technology would be a disaster for the planet in the form of domestic heating because the gases used are far worse for atmosphere than CO2. Laissez faire Liberal politics sends a disastrous message to installers that laissez-faire installation of freons is OK. So that little problem puts the kibosh on everything that the green washers are currently planning.
War and warmongering are by far the greatest potential pollutants. Could we castrate all politicians as a condition of public service, before they murder us all?

Posted by: Giyane | Sep 20 2023 20:53 utc | 67

The attack on Russell Brand escalated rapidly. It is notable that none of these “me-too” style hysterias have ever held up in court, at least those that eventually made it to a courtroom. The attack on Salmond was clearly political, and there is little reason to believe this current brouhaha is not the same. Whatever the stated motivations, these elite media-driven spectacles appear to operate with a specific agenda concerned with diminishing due-process, presumption of innocence, and other long-standing legal protocols. This on top of the immediate “lynching” effect – curtailment of livelihood and throttling of audience potential on the larger social media platforms.

Posted by: jayc | Sep 20 2023 20:54 utc | 69

Dr. George W Oprisko @ 29
The USA ban on chip technology to China stops China from selling things abroad, and maybe at home if the Chinese want to be nice, doesn’t stop them at all from using USA patents for their military’s use, though I guess when the Chinese fire a DF26 at a USA aircraft carrier the USA can try and take them to court over it 🙃

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 20 2023 21:00 utc | 71

Does anyone have any insight into how the current Canada/India friction over Khalistan
Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 20 2023 14:01 utc | 3
Posted by: BB | Sep 20 2023 17:49 utc | 19 offers a great deal of insight.
I would add see the Air India bombing history to find some applicable considerations as well.
You can find Surrey BC on the crime index here;
https://canadacrimeindex.com/crime-severity-index?sort=population&min_population=0&province=
Read earlier that Trudeau made a statement saying he had ‘consulted with with the US and UK’ before making his incendiary statement. Like Chester was to Spike in the old time cartoons when children’s cartoons made them laugh, not reach for an X Box controller.

Posted by: bubbles | Sep 20 2023 21:26 utc | 73

jayc @ 35
The way I see it these allegations against Assange and Brand are too easy to fake. CIA or whoever just has to surveil using cell phone, credit cards, social media, present and past family and acquaintances of their target till they find a weak point. Everyone has a fuck up relative or friend.
Brother, father, child, cousin, friend that is in some trouble even minor, drugs, debt etc and use it to blackmail the person to become an accuser towards you. “Say you were raped and your wayward brother-in-law won’t spend 20ys in jail for minor pot possession which we will see turned into a dealing charge. If you do your job well at the end there will be a Macy’s shopping bag with $100,000 in cash for your services, in fact here’s $30K up front. Don’t let us down.”
Reason it took so long for them to get Brand, why they let him get so big, is it probably took them till now to find a weak spot in his relationships and put a scheme together. If I’m right it would suggest he’s actually pretty clean.
Which is why Brand should high tail it to Russia before they take his passport. If the accusations are crooked, like Assange, then the trial and conviction will be crooked. He may not stand a chance. People say he’s a Mason, has 33 tattooed on his arm, maybe that’s enough for them to go light on him, make him retire to become a self help guru in Arizona or something and promise to stay away from controversial issues.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 20 2023 21:33 utc | 75

farm ecologist @ 3
Emil Cosman’s take (rant) on Canada v. India, sounds good to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMia2vZcu90
Remember Meng Wanzhou? If Lithuania is the USA’s Chihuahua, and Poland is its crack house Pit Bull, Canada is its Jack Russell Terrier.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 20 2023 21:49 utc | 77

@1
Issue of Azerbaijan Armenia conflict is quite complex and involves variety of international actors(Russia, USA, GB, Iran, Turkey, France, India, Pakistan, China, Italy, EU, Georgia) because of it central to the East – West logistic route alternative (Silk road), US intentions to reduce Russia invludence in the Black Sea, project Turan – the union of turkic nations from Turkey to Kyrgyzstan + Pakistan, logistic route South North (Iran, Armenia, Georgia) backed by India, Iran, France and probably USA, pushing Russia out of South Caucasus.
Historical pretext of conflict can be read from Thomas de Waal book Black garden which looks like least biased book written by Western authors. Though the pretext of conflict goes back to 1918, and even earlier than that.
Worth to mention also, this conflict was one of the first in the USSR aimed at dismantling Communist Party regime, and was re-initiated by Soviet and probably some other Western intelligence units.

Posted by: asehi | Sep 20 2023 22:16 utc | 79

Fascinating documentary about the Chinese experience in Africa. Just remember that it’s about a small project abt. twelve years ago. The Chinese supervisor makes many great points. I doubt that much has changed since, except far more reliance on Chinese workers to do much more of the actual work.
https://youtu.be/kOkrYW3vF0o

Posted by: Somboto | Sep 20 2023 22:18 utc | 81

The coverage of the apparent surrender of the Nagorno-Karabakh government after over a year of blockade by the Azeri army in the WSJ is astounding.
https://www.wsj.com/world/in-blow-to-russia-armenian-separatists-capitulate-in-nagorno-karabakh-552db48d
In Blow to Russia, Armenian Separatists Capitulate in Nagorno-Karabakh
It reminds me of Hilary’s comment about women being the primary victims of war because “they lose their husbands, their sons”. 120,000 Armenians about to be ethnically cleansed, slow motion or otherwise from ancient land, Russia hardest hit. That’s all you need to know reader, clearly the Armenians were the bad guys. The Russians aren’t inclined to intervene because you people goaded them into invading Ukraine. They have a problem because though Armenia has no choice but to rely on Russia for alliance and security, Azerbaijan can pivot to Turkey anytime they want. The Russians thus can’t divert any military attention there because the Turks would just prop the Azeris up and form a second front.

Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed Wednesday to disarm and discuss reintegration with Azerbaijan following a swift but deadly assault by Azeri forces, a capitulation that signals the end of decades of ethnic-Armenian rule in the enclave and the rapid decline of Russian influence in the former Soviet Union territories.
The terms of the cease-fire lay groundwork that could bring to a close the autonomous rule by the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was won from Baku in a bloody yearslong war after the fall of the Soviet empire.

“Soviet empire”, this is a news article not an editorial. Who wrote this?
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/thomas-grove

Thomas Grove covers the confrontation of Russia with the West for The Wall Street journal. He is based in Warsaw.

Yeah, that sounds about right. A journalist, based in Warsaw, who covers the confronttion of Russia with the West as his full time job. No mention of any possible confrontation of the USA with Russia…
Who wants to bet that Azerbaijan will be banned from the Eurovision next year? They weren’t after the 2020 war. Hilariously the next edition of the Eurovision after the war had Azerbaijan but not Armenia because the Armenian national broadcaster had obvious resource issues.

Posted by: Altai | Sep 20 2023 22:20 utc | 83

Posted by: DilNir | Sep 20 2023 15:04 utc | 6
Just wanting to correct the record. Russian peacekeepers did not have to help Armenians to ethnically cleanse Artsakh Nagorno Karabakh of Azeris(Muslims). Why not? Well ,because it was always a majority Armenian land going back thousands of years, well before Islamified -Turkified people who became the Azeris came there. Who are those Azeris? They are an Iranian people ,kin of the Persians who have become Turkified by the Turks even after they became Islamified. That is why Iran looks at them with a jaundiced eye, they are traitors to the Iranian peoples who instantly thought themselves a different people once Russia conquered the area in the early 1800s.
The Armenians have always considered it conquered territory by all Muslim rulers who have ruled over it since the spread of Islam in the 600AD s. To the Armenians and many right -thinking people it is unliberated land that was never ruled by Armenians -apart from the break up of the USSR till now- even though they are the majority and have never really left their land. To those who believe in self-determination ,the Armenians have international law to back them .Similarly, if it is good enough for Kosovo ,it is good enough for Artsakh Nagorno Karabakh.

Posted by: Wondrous | Sep 20 2023 22:23 utc | 85

One other thing, humans are weak things. Some people who renounce the first politics, because they basically know beyond a shred of doubt that everything is impermanent, even his/her life, cannot deal with the aftermath of this realisation, and turn to hieroglyphs, sacred scriptures etc. Anything to blind oneself again to the knowledge of “everything is impermanent”.
Posted by: AOTP | Sep 20 2023 19:03 utc | 26
#############
Interesting rant. I have read it 3 times and cannot discern what value was in it for me.
Everything except the Creator is impermanent. That’s simple to understand, and even easier to accept if one desires to.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 20 2023 22:40 utc | 87

Posted by: Giyane | Sep 20 2023 20:53 utc | 34
Is most of your work as an electrician in righting overloads / fuses burned? Here in Aus, the electricians collectively supported political parties that led to more solar energy. Are you saying that it was short-term thinking for them to do so, as they now will have reduced opportunities ,due to electronic trip-prevention in solar electrically – powered homes?
Electricians and associated solar-panel installers have made a killing here , and there appears to be no cloud on the horizon – at least on what is publicly let out by electricians.

Posted by: Wondrous | Sep 20 2023 22:53 utc | 89

man maybe the story about the Pentagon losing its fancy pants plane may not be true, but i would like to believe it. i’m not sure at all how competent the Pentagon is, why would it have to be it has an endless money spigot in congress, it doesn’t win wars against significant opposition, it’s good at propaganda particularly about its weapons systems which are notorious boondoggles, etc. the pentagon seems more like a distribution hub for money to various defense contractors than a real military.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 20 2023 23:01 utc | 91

Farm Ecologist @ 3:
Answering your question may be difficult, not least because within the pro-Khalistani separatist movement there’s no agreement on what Khalistan’s borders should actually be, and whether Khalistan includes only those areas in the Indian state of Punjab (an administrative area distinct from the Punjab region itself which historically includes the province of Punjab in northeast Pakistan, the name “Punjab” being a reference to the five rivers flowing through the region that become part of the Indus river) with a Sikh majority, the entire state of Punjab in India itself, or Punjab (India) along with areas in other surrounding Indian states such as Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
The Indian state of Punjab has an overall Sikh majority (at least over 50% of the state’s population, according to censuses taken in 2001 and 2011) whereas Punjab province in Pakistan is dominated by Islam (over 97% of the population there).
I should think the current issue over Khalistan comes from the fact that Sikhs play quite prominent roles in Canada’s politics and economy (they dominate the trucking industry in that country, a fact that should not have been lost on Trudeau during the truckers’ strike) and Trudeau himself has depended on Sikh support for his government to continue. He has had Sikhs in his cabinet since becoming Prime Minister.
It looks as if Trudeau is in political trouble and is courting the Sikh community for more support so he can gain another term as Prime Minister when general elections are held in 2025. But as usual, he seems tone-deaf to the consequences of blatantly courting Sikhs to the extent of appealing to extremist elements in that community.
When Trudeau dropped references to ‘Sikh extremism’ from terror threat report

… In December 2018, the Canadian government released its annual ‘Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada’. This was the first time the Canadian government had made an outright mention of ‘Sikh extremism’ and Khalistan in its annual terror threat report.
The report said Canada continued to face threats from “individuals inspired to commit violence based on other forms of extremism, including from…Sikh (Khalistani) extremists”.
The report further mentioned that attacks by Khalistanis in Canada were extremely limited, but “some Canadians continue to support these extremist groups, including through financing”.
Following the release of the report, Trudeau’s government faced backlash from Sikh groups, who campaigned for deleting references to Sikh extremism and Khalistan.
Notorious Khalistan supporter and chief of banned outfit Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, accused Trudeau of labelling Sikhs as “terrorists” and seeing them only as a “cash cow” to help fund elections.
The report posed a dilemma for Trudeau’s Liberal Party before the election as the Sikh diaspora formed a notable part of its vote bank. Organisers of the annual Khalsa parade in Surrey had threatened to bar any member of the Liberal Party from speaking from the platform during the Baisakhi event.
Moreover, at that time, there were at least 16 Sikh MPs in the Trudeau government, including four in his cabinet. The then Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was a Sikh as well …
… In the eye of a storm, Trudeau’s government gave in to the pressure and published a revised report in April 2019. In the new report, the mention of Sikh extremism and Khalistan was gone.
The updated report mentioned that: “Government will carefully select terminology that focuses on the intent or ideology. As a first step, the government has updated terminology used in the 2018 report to eliminate terminology that unintentionally impugns an entire religion.”
The update came hours before Trudeau and his then defence minister Harjit Sajjan were to participate in the Baisakhi event organised by Khalsa Diwan Society’s Ross Street Gurdwara in Vancouver.
Following the update, Trudeau and Sajjan were welcomed by the Sikh community at the Vaisakhi parade …
… Former Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh, who was the chief minister of Punjab in 2019, had criticised Trudeau for the move and had called it “politically motivated”.
“The Trudeau government has taken this decision under political pressure and is targeted to woo Sikhs in the election year. Trudeau is playing with fire as the decision will hit Indo-Canadian ties. Removal of Sikh extremism will also pose a threat to India’s national security,” Captain Amarinder Singh said …
… Sikhs form about 2 per cent of Canada’s total population. The community is politically influential in Canada, which can be understood by the fact that there were 18 Sikh MPs in the Canadian parliament in 2019, while India had only 13 Sikh MPs the same year.
In March 2022, Trudeau’s Liberal Party joined hands with the New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Jagmeet Singh, his political rival. In October 2022, the NDP openly supported the Khalistan Referendum on Canadian soil, calling it the “basic human right of Canadian Sikhs enshrined in local and international laws”.
Jagmeet Singh’s support is essential for Trudeau to continue as Canada’s prime minister till 2025.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Sep 20 2023 23:19 utc | 93

BB @19
It’s puzzling to learn that Jagmeet believes in Khalistan. I didn’t think that he believed in anything.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 20 2023 18:00 utc | 21
Sure he does. He believes that advocating for free stuff for the masses is good politics and good for his political future.
The NDP has strayed so far from it’s roots as in Tommy Douglas’s CCF that it’s a completely different vessel and adrift without a capable Captain at the helm. However, it’s demise began before the Jolly Jag Man appeared on the scene, when the Toronto urbanites seized control from the old timers whose focus was on organizing the little people to get a fair shake for their honest toil and risks they took year after year as producers of Canada’s vast agricultural endeavors, from the Robber Barons of old.
The Jolly Jag Man is a product of the politically ambitious Jack Layton whose naked desire brought him to vote with the destructive Conservative Party of the day and it’s leader Stephen Harper to bring down Paul Martin’s minority gov’t.
Imagine an avowed socialist voting with a Corporate and foreign interests advocating Conservative
Martin was an establishment guy, but a capable one who not only nixed bank amalgamation thus saving Canada from the 2008 US caused economic meltdown, he also crafted the Kelowna Accords to address the Indigenous peoples long standing / systemic problems and little Jack threw all that into the dustbin for his own ambitions. So, now there’s his replacement, apparently with his own priorities which also appear contrary to the best interests of the majority.

Posted by: bubbles | Sep 20 2023 23:22 utc | 95

Which is why Brand should high tail it to Russia before they take his passport. If the accusations are crooked, like Assange, then the trial and conviction will be crooked. He may not stand a chance. People say he’s a Mason, has 33 tattooed on his arm, maybe that’s enough for them to go light on him, make him retire to become a self help guru in Arizona or something and promise to stay away from controversial issues.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 20 2023 21:33 utc | 38
Scarier than you think. Many states have removed the statute of limitations for sex crimes which means any hetero male in the US and likely Europe, can and will get the Brand treatment if they are popular enough and not on message with the empire.
And there’s no chance the charges are true. 4 unnamed Hollywood sluts trying to bag an influencial star to help their career, who never reported any of this to police over a decade or more ago when it supposedly occurred and it all comes out just as he starts critiquing western institutions and the war on Russia in Ukraine to his millions of followers.
We can’t all go to Russia, so the only alternative is to take back our country en masse.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Sep 20 2023 23:24 utc | 97

Posted by: BB | Sep 20 2023 17:49 utc | 19
Also @LoveDonbass, Refinejenna
The borders of ‘Khalistan’ (if you look at maps they put on the ‘net) are 3/4 in Pakistani Punjab (they seem to be inspired by the maximal boundaries of the kingdom of Maharana Ranjit Singh and more)… so yeah, they seem to want a big chunk of Pakistan and a relatively small one of India…
The problem with Trudeau’s

Posted by: Deeplurker | Sep 20 2023 23:45 utc | 99