I’ll just leave this here in case you need a laugh.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/politics/missing-russia-intelligence-trump-dg/

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 15 2023 15:39 utc | 4

this article https://dc.claremont.org/restoring-american-manufacturing-a-practical-guide/ is typical of American institutional delusion. It draws all the wrong conclusions.
It is a very entertaining article to read. It also serves as reminder of the irreversible decline of the United States of America.

Posted by: J Ramón | Dec 15 2023 16:02 utc | 6

I’m transferring your comment, Scorpion to this open thread, as I realize I did a poor job explaining Suzanne’s essay – in particular, the careful way he describes Plato’s use of the word ‘is’, but you have picked up so well the distinction he makes. It has been, I believe, a late recognition on Suzanne’s part of what Plato is really about – a struggle to redefine ‘worth’ in a culture very similar to that of today where oligarchs rule, having replaced our ‘shining democratic state’ with greedful ‘aspirations’ even in the young.
One can see why in his time the main thrust of accusations against Socrates for which he was condemned to death included ‘corruption of the youth’. To teach the young that life isn’t about becoming rich was a real threat to the oligarchical citystate Athens had become, and there was Socrates wandering around barefoot, gathering a following, preaching heretical teachings against the ruling class. As with Jesus later on, that message had become a difficult one to proclaim in a corrupted world.
Plato is brilliant in that he chose a way of doing precisely that, through dialogue. Truthtelling can be a dangerous path, only possible for the brave or the foolhardy sometimes. Plato himself must have been able to write as he did only as that citystate, like ours, began to lose its grip. That reminds me of Bulgakov hiding his manuscript in a drawer because it wasn’t safe to publish in his lifetime.

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 14 2023 22:19 utc | 108
Thanks for your reply.
Interesting how the good relates to goods and ousia/value to wealth. That might be taken to intimate that value is materialistic in that just as only that which is physical is real so also only that which has measurable worth is of any true value.
Perhaps that was not exactly being argued but it’s close enough to prompt an observation about the notion of ‘Middle Way’ which, like the Chinese Dao or Japanese Do, in practical contexts denotes Path, Discipline, or Way of doing/being wherein balance is emphasized, not falling into the trap of any extreme (such as nihilism vs eternalism, lazy vs workaholic, sexually repressed vs promiscuous etc.)
Basic food and shelter are good, as are the various conveniences we enjoy (‘goods’) but extreme attachment or emphasis becomes pathological. What we have in modern society is a kind of extreme underlying materialist mindset engendering cultural imbalances wherein so much that is fundamental to human beingness – leading a productive wisdom-enhancing life in a positive societal milieu – has been superseded by worldviews or systems that oscillate between extremes without finding rest in a more simple, saner and human Middle.
This isn’t calling for materialism vs non-materialism, rather avoiding extremism of any ilk; in our time materialism has run rampant but extreme non-materialism would prove no less problematic for when caught up in any extreme, we cannot appreciate the simple presence of living Creation, and so have lost the Way.
Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 14 2023 22:19 utc | 108

Posted by: juliania | Dec 15 2023 16:19 utc | 8

Jeffrey Sachs told Judge Napolitano yesterday that a leading Ethiopian diplomat said he listens to Napolitano’s show.

Posted by: Pundita | Dec 15 2023 16:32 utc | 10

“COVID was all about mail in ballots and a rigged election. How many people in the World died to get Biden elected?”
Citizen Smith re Covid @11 Palestine thread.:
You really think so? You must think that US Presidential elections are really important. Why would that be? Because the difference between one deaf, dumb and blind figurehead and the other deaf, dumb, and blind figurehead is so dramatic?
There is a reason why people call the system an oligarch’s duopoly- elections don’t matter much, they make no difference and they sure as hell aren’t so crucial that a massive and astronomically expensive pandemic would be invented and implemented to make sure that Joe f..g Biden won and Donald sod…g Trump lost.
Do you imagine that Trump would not have rushed Israel all it needed to keepits genocide going? Or that he would have dared to meet with Putin and agree to the neutrality of Ukraine and equality for the Russians?
The truth is that the pandemic was a pandemic in which millions of unnecessary deaths occurred not because an excuse was needed to issue absentee ballots in the United States but because capitalists will not allow society to divert capital and resources to public health and away from the scams they live off.

Posted by: bevin | Dec 15 2023 17:16 utc | 12

Biden Administration Runs Record November Budget Deficit
The Biden administration just ran the largest November budget deficit in history.
And it managed this feat even with a 9% increase in government receipts.
The November budget shortfall came in at $314.01 billion, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. That was 26% higher than the November 2022 deficit.
Just two months into fiscal 2024, the federal government has run up $380.58 billion in red ink. This follows on the heels of the third-largest annual budget deficit in history.
Posted by: Maney | Dec 15 2023 15:13 utc |
You are only using the liability side of the balance sheet. Now let’s use the asset side of the balance sheet.
The Biden administration just ran the largest November non government sector surplus in history.
And it managed this feat even with a 9% increase in government receipts.
The November private sector surplus came in at $314.01 billion, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. That was 26% higher than the November 2022 private sector surplus.
Just two months into fiscal 2024, the federal government has run up $380.58 billion in red ink. This follows on the heels of the third-largest annual private sector surplus black ink in history.
There fixed it for you. As explained in very simple English by Goldman’s top economist below. So that a 5 year old can understand it.
https://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-jan-hatzius-on-sectoral-balances-2012-12?op=1&r=US&IR=T

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 15 2023 17:54 utc | 14

“Of course, because money grows on Magic Money Trees.”
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 15 2023 15:42 utc | 5
The London School of economics went all out to try and disprove it. Stephanie Kelton went all out to try and disprove it after Warren Mosler told economists it is a magic money tree.
After trying for 12 months to disprove it They all came to the same conclusions.
London School of economics
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2022/05/why-british-state-is-magic-money-tree
Stephanie Kelton
https://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/can-taxes-and-bonds-finance-government-spending
You don’t even need any of that anyway. Just a front row seat, 1 yard from the stage with the green curtain from 2008 and believing your own eyes for the last 3 years was enough.
Unless of course you have been entrapped by an ideologue or an idiot telling you otherwise.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 15 2023 18:09 utc | 16

Bevin #12
Thank you…exactly.

Posted by: furies | Dec 15 2023 18:30 utc | 18

juliania@8…..what’s missing is moderation……a balance. There are human areas where more ‘extremism’ could be applied…..love, empathy, compassion, all unconditionally btw.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 15 2023 18:49 utc | 20

Someone on MoA once indicated that a key player—chief editor, or some such—at the Guardian/Grauniad is a demonstrable “former” officer of the US/UK intelligence services.
Am I remembering that wrong? Perhaps I’ve skewed the fact? I would much appreciate any correction/instruction on this point.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Dec 15 2023 19:07 utc | 22

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Dec 15 2023 19:07 utc | 22
Him?
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/twitter-executive-also-part-time-officer-uk-army-psychological-warfare-unit
Or this blast from the past?
“ According to the 1991 book Silent Coup, Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin’s exhaustive study of the aforementioned military espionage scandal, Woodward left his ship in 1969 and arrived in Washington, D.C. There he worked on the staff of Admiral Thomas Moorer, chief of Naval operations, again as a communications officer, this time one who provided briefings and documents on national security matters to top brass in the White House. Colodny and Gettlin wrote that Woodward frequently walked through the basement offices of the West Wing with documents from Admiral Moorer to General Alexander Haig, who served under Henry Kissinger—then Nixon’s National Security Advisor.
In a 2008 interview with me, Woodward categorically denied having any intelligence connections. He also denied having worked in the White House or having provided briefings there. “It’s a matter of record in the Navy what I did, what I didn’t do,” Woodward said. “And this Navy intelligence, Haig and so forth, you know, I’d be more than happy to acknowledge it if it’s true. It just isn’t. Can you accept that?”
Journalist Len Colodny, however, has produced audiotapes of interviews by his Silent Coupcoauthor Robert Gettlin with Admiral Moorer, former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, Pentagon spokesman Jerry Friedheim and even with Woodward’s own father, Al, discussing Bob’s White House service.
At a minimum, Woodward’s entry into journalism received a valuable outside assist, according to an account provided by Harry Rosenfeld, a retired Washington Post editor, to the Saratogian newspaper in 2004: “Bob had come to us on very high recommendations from someone in the White House. He had been an intelligence officer in the Navy and had served in the Pentagon. He had not been exposed to any [major] newspaper.”
….

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 15 2023 19:21 utc | 24

THE NEW STASI VERSION CALLED USA
https://ronpaulinstitute.org/traitors-congress-votes-to-extend-unconstitutional-spying-on-americans/
To EXTEND Unconstitutional Spying On Americans!
by Daniel McAdams | Dec 14, 2023
The US House this morning joined the Senate in approving the massive, trillion dollar National Defense Authorization Act where Congressional leadership snuck in authorization for the government to continue to illegally spy on US citizens not suspected or accused of any crime! In the House, Speaker Johnson only passed the bill with the assistance of Democrats – a move that cost his predecessor his job. Will Johnson suffer a backlash for betraying his promises?

Posted by: MD | Dec 15 2023 19:31 utc | 26

For a while this morning, this passage from Dr. Zhivago has been stirring in my mind:

“You realize who this Tania is?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Evgraf will look after her,” Gordon added after a pause: “It has often happened in history that a lofty ideal has degenerated into crude materialism. Thus Greece gaveway to Rome, and the Russian Enlightenment has become the Russian Revolution. There is a great difference between the two periods. Blok says somewhere: ‘We, the children of Russia’s terrible years.’ Blok meant this in a metaphorical, figurative sense. The children were not children, but the sons, the heirs, the intelligentsia, and the terrors were not terrible but sent from above, apocalyptic; that’s quite different. Now the metaphorical has become literal, children are children and the terrors are terrible, there you have the difference.”

[Max Hayward/Manya Harari translators]

Posted by: juliania | Dec 15 2023 19:54 utc | 28

HEALTH-CARE IN CHINA
Nik Stankovic
China Tier-2 city public hospital experience 🧵with photos
I’ve been struggling with some facial pain for a couple of years that 20 doctors in Serbia and two in the US could not figure out what it is (separate story). It’s not sinuses, teeth, allergies or infection, or any sort of tumor. Doctors have pretty much given up on me, and the next specialist was to be a psychiatrist (not kidding).
So last week I saw a private eye clinic here in Qingdao, told them my theory, and they too were a little suspicious, but the doctor said go do another CT, this one is 2 years old. She recommended a nearby public hospital.
So I went today. Looked it up and it was 6 subway stops from my house. It’s called Huangdao Central Hospital. Your typical large Chinese public hospital with all kinds of departments.
I left home about 1:30 pm and was at the hospital a little before 2pm.
I arrived around 2pm. I have never been at a hospital in Qingdao, but have been in plenty in Beijing and Shanghai. Typically you have to get an electronic card/ID for the hospital (although I think they now do one per city) that keeps your medical history.
Took me a few minutes to figure out how to do that, however, because I am a foreigner I could not do it at one of the kiosks because I don’t have a Chinese ID, had to do it manually at the counter. No biggy: name, birthdate, passport number.
At 2:19 pm I got my number to see an eye doctor first (who would then send me to do the CT).
The number (appointment) costs 7 CNY = $1.
I go wait for my turn at the Ophthalmology. I wait about 15 minutes.
Do a consultation, explain the situation, etc. The doctor says, ok go do a CT. He says let’s flush the tear duct before you do the CT because sometimes there can be some leftover fluid in the tear duct and that can appear as the shade on the CT.
He enters it all into the system and tells me to a) go pay; b) get the liquid for flushing the tear duct at the hospital pharmacy. It is all on the first floor.
The CT costs… are you ready. No, are you ready? You will want to sit down for this one. Sitting down? 360 CNY = $50.75 USD.
That’s because I have no health insurance in China, so it is a little on the expensive side.
The flushing medicine (really just sterile salt water) + service will cost another 21.12 CNY which is $2.98 USD.
I go downstairs and can now use one of these fancy machines to pay with WeChat. Wait in line at the pharmacy for about 5 minutes and I going back up to his office for tear duct flushing.
I go downstairs and can now use one of these fancy machines to pay with WeChat. Wait in line at the pharmacy for about 5 minutes and I going back up to his office for tear duct flushing.
It is now 3:16 pm
He flushes my tear duct, this takes about 20 minutes and I go downstairs to the CT waiting room. I report at the CT front desk and they issue me a new number and a QR code which I will use to see my results after the CT is done. I wait about 30 minutes for the CT. I am B138 (S*A is my name shortened). There are 7 people ahead of me.
CT scan takes about 5 minutes. I am out and can IMMEDIATELLY scan the QR code on my number (at the bottom) to see the results.
I use WeChat to open it and see my scan.
Sure enough the left side (which is really the right side) is still shadowed even with the flushing.
The good news is that the appearance has not changed in two years, meaning, for example, it is not some kind of tumor that grows (that is possible, and they can grow into the eye, or down into the nose).
I go back upstairs to the doctor, and we agree that most likely it is not some sort of tumor. he tries to explain to me what it might be, but, unfortunately…… it was beyond my vocabulary. So he said, ok, maybe it’s just some tissue and maybe there is some infection there.
We agree to try to flush the duct with Tobradex, which are OTC eye drops (antibiotic and a bit of steroids). But he is going to flush it down as opposed to me just doing the drops, and we will do this a few times over several days.
He sends me down to buy Tobradex and does the flushing again.
If this does not work (and I suspect it won’t), in theory the duct can be probed.
I get out out of the hospital, it is 4:45 pm. Get on a bus, and I was at home at 5:15 pm.
My total cost is:
– 2 CNY for bus tickets (1 each way)
– 7 CNY for the number
– 381 CNY for CT + flushing
– 26 RMB for Tobradex + flushing
———-
Total 416 RMB = $58.64 USD
I left home at 1:30 pm and was back home at 5:15 pm with the 30 minute bus wait and trip x 2 = about 3 hours at the hospital from walking in to walking out
I have no health insurance in China and I made no appointment ahead of time. I just walked into the hospital from the street.
I do speak fluent Chinese, am quite familiar with the Chinese medical system, and unfortunately I don’t think anyone who does not would be able to do this. Of course, you could have someone Chinese chaperone you around.
You could also do it at a private clinic/radiology labs. The initial appointment would take a week and cost about $40. The CT could be done the same day usually (or tomorrow) for $150 USD, with another appointment costing another $40 with another 1 week wait. So two weeks and about $250 USD for the private option.
There are many expat-friendly hospitals in China, of course in the big cities. One of the more famous ones is the so-called “American hospital” actually called United Family Hospitals.
qingdao.ufh.com.cn/locations…
They used to be in Beijing and Shanghai only, but I just checked, amazingly they have one in Qingdao now too.
You walk into that hospital and it SMELLS like an American hospital. It is like you have been teleported into Palo Alto in California. Everybody speaks English. In fact, many of the doctors don’t speak Chinese, so the nurses have to help translate with some Chinese patients.
You also pay US prices for healthcare.
I took my daughter once when she was little fell and hit her head. I panicked. I had international health insurance back then. Emergency department, basic tests (I think they did an ultrasound), one night observation, some other random test while we were there anyway.
$2000 USD !!!!!!
I had to pay it cash, insurance refunded $1800 two months later.
Never again will I go there.
https://nitter.net/nikstankovic_/status/1732350786800103693#m

Posted by: MD | Dec 15 2023 20:28 utc | 30

Pacifica Advocate | Dec 15 2023 19:07 utc | 22
James Ball?

Posted by: Some Random Passerby | Dec 15 2023 21:37 utc | 32

“Hunter Biden spent $1M on hookers, emptied his daughter’s college fund to buy crack, refused to support a stripper he impregnated, snorted cheese when he ran out of cocaine, fucked his sister-in-law after his brother died of cancer, and today claimed “Republicans have no shame.”
Posted by: MD | Dec 15 2023 19:23 utc | 25
He does sound rather like Neal Bush et al. The hookers might’ve been chaaper in E. Asia. Neal got his for free!
Lester

Posted by: lester | Dec 15 2023 21:59 utc | 34

Inspired by bevin, who recently recommended some books, having found torrents for them, I discovered that someone had uploaded many books on the theme of imperialism, so decided to download those that I could and upload them to my MEGA account. So far there are 317, mostly .pdf but quite a few .epub and a couple of .mobi files of titles such as ‘Five Days in London, May 1940 [John Lukacs](2001).epub’ ‘Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism Today, Monopoly Has Become a Fact [V. I. Lenin](1916).epub’ ‘The Crime of the Congo [Arthur Conan Doyle](1909).pdf’ ‘Empire of the Black Sea_ The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World [Duane W. Roller](2020).epub’ ‘Israel_A Colonial Settler State [Maxime Rodinson](1973).pdf’ ‘The Limits of Power_The End of American Exceptionalism [Andrew J. Bacevich](2008).epub’
I created a web page listing all available, with a download link for each ebook. There are also options to place requests as well as to upload any ebooks to MEGA to share with others.
who.thaiholiday.biz/imp.php
Having done all that, I then discovered Library Genesis, which has the 20 or so titles that I tried, such as the ones above, even those published in 2022. Search just the author’s name in the event of it not finding the title.

Posted by: NotEinstein | Dec 15 2023 23:31 utc | 36

Kana:
1. It is called self-awareness, it’s like self-consciousness only a little less embarrassing 🙂 (Most of the time anyway, hopefully).
2. God doesn’t need no stinking proof! 🙂 (There’s a “puny humans” joke somewhere in that at some meta-meta-meta level).

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 15 2023 23:46 utc | 38

@MD #30
I had a very similar experience in a public hospital some years ago. I don’t share your pessimism about foreigners not being able to navigate- my skills are kindergarten level, and I got the records, consultation, drugs etc. With phone translation it is even easier now.

Posted by: BillB | Dec 15 2023 23:55 utc | 40

At bevin 12. For what its worth. Truth needs to be demostrable to all. Or it isnt. Fellow Canadian Naomi Kline says let no disaster go to waste. With the pandemic the disaster was created to be taken advantage. Most likeley some oligarchs
wanting to see ROI on some investment made earlier. Disaster Capitolism V.2
Smiths hand perhaps?

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Dec 16 2023 0:16 utc | 42

Fiskalische Aspekte einer EU-Erweiterung – IW-Report Nr. 63.
Ukraine’s membership will cost the EU between 130 and 190 billion euros (140 to 204 billion dollars).
According to a study by the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW), Ukraine would receive up to 17 per cent of the bloc’s total budget.
At the same time, the institute estimates the population of Ukraine today at 31 million people (43.8 million before the war) and the area of agricultural land at 27.9 million hectares (32.9 million before the war).
IN GERMAN (b, this is for you.)
web: https://www.iwkoeln.de/studien/berthold-busch-samina-sultan-folgen-eines-eu-beitritts-der-ukraine-fuer-den-haushalt-und-die-kohaesionspolitik.html
pdf: https://www.iwkoeln.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Studien/Report/PDF/2023/IW-Report_2023-EU-Erweiterung.pdf

Posted by: Winston, journalist | Dec 16 2023 0:37 utc | 44

@43 BTW: I’m aware of the neocon bias of the IW, to me the quiet land grab at a shocking human and financial cost is all the more cynical.

Posted by: Winston, journalist | Dec 16 2023 1:02 utc | 46

B’ you should delete this and any similar stuff
You might be on the way for a millenium copyright act infringement trap
—-
Inspired by bevin, who recently recommended some books, having found torrents for them, I discovered that someone had uploaded many books on the theme of imperialism, so decided to download those that I could and upload them to my MEGA account. So far there are 317, mostly .pdf but quite a few .epub and a couple of .mobi files of titles such as ‘Five Days in London, May 1940 [John Lukacs](2001).epub’ ‘Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism Today, Monopoly Has Become a Fact [V. I. Lenin](1916).epub’ ‘The Crime of the Congo [Arthur Conan Doyle](1909).pdf’ ‘Empire of the Black Sea_ The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World [Duane W. Roller](2020).epub’ ‘Israel_A Colonial Settler State [Maxime Rodinson](1973).pdf’ ‘The Limits of Power_The End of American Exceptionalism [Andrew J. Bacevich](2008).epub’
I created a web page listing all available, with a download link for each ebook. There are also options to place requests as well as to upload any ebooks to MEGA to share with others.
who.thaiholiday.biz/imp.php
Having done all that, I then discovered Library Genesis, which has the 20 or so titles that I tried, such as the ones above, even those published in 2022. Search just the author’s name in the event of it not finding the title.
Posted by: NotEinstein | Dec 15 2023 23:31 utc | 35

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2023 2:44 utc | 48

Posted by: NotEinstein | Dec 16 2023 3:46 utc | 48
The fact that you find them doesn’t mean they are public domain, least of all everywhere.
MCA has been used to take down many sites , better not put a target on MOA
Many would want just an excuse

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2023 5:35 utc | 50

Thanks to robinthehood and Some Random Passerby for the responses.
@robinthehood:
What a lot of people don’t know is that The China Lobby—which included Hoover, the Dulles brothers, the Luces, and many other high-ranking conservative commie-haters, as well as the entire Jiang-ruled Taiwan plutocracy—literally made Nixon’s political career. And I do mean literally: Nixon got all of his money, press, and political support from that segment of the US elites.
So the fact that Nixon made nice with China is quite sufficient to explain why he was couped out. Chiang Kaishek was furious with Nixon and publicly declared that he had betrayed his patrons.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Dec 16 2023 6:14 utc | 52

@ Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 15 2023 23:46 utc | 37
2. God doesn’t need no stinking proof! 🙂
“God don’t make mistakes. That’s how he got to be God.”
– Archie Bunker to the ‘Meathead’ on All in the Family

Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 16 2023 10:15 utc | 54

Regarding Nixon these are well worth your time.
The New Nixon administration debt ceiling dilemma and the FED’s solution.
https://www.crisesnotes.com/more-foia-findings-the-new-nixon-administrations-debt-ceiling-dilemma-and-the-federal-reserves-solutions/
But I would start with these first.
FED’s monetary policy has come full circle a history tour.
https://www.crisesnotes.com/the-federal-reserves-monetary-policy-operating-procedures-have-come-full-circle-what-does-that-mean-for-the-post-svb-fomc-meeting/
Nixon’s pay board, and price controls. Which was carried out by Dick Cheney. Cheney’s boss was none other than Donald Rumsfeld.
https://www.crisesnotes.com/dont-let-dick-cheney-ruin-price-regulation-too/
The Arthur Burns that time forget and why they destroyed the trade unions.
https://www.crisesnotes.com/the-arthur-burns-that-time-forgot-inflationary-psychology-and-explosive-wage-rates-in-the-1970s/
It is very, very, very clear reading those 4 short articles that the ideologues and idiots didn’t have the first clue about what they were doing. More importantly how they lie about everything today. All to try and hide in the dark the art of money creation.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 16 2023 11:37 utc | 56

@Newbie:
You clearly don’t understand how IP law works. Posting a link and then saying “This book can be downloaded here” does not, in any way, infringe on anyone’s IP rights.
Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Dec 16 2023 6:05 utc | 51
Tell that to all torrent sites taken down

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2023 12:19 utc | 58

Someone will be along shortly to tell us deficits don’t matter.
Posted by: Fred777 | Dec 15 2023 15:24 utc | 2
Nobody and I mean nobody on the planet says deficits don’t matter.
It just an emotive, lazy thinking, ideological attack of very little thought.
As long as US dollar is accepted worldwide – read “much sought after” as it is – debt growth is nothing but a meter for vassal subservience.
When this change, they will just declare bankrupcy and laugh at ruined creditor making faces …
They will introduce digital world currency that everyone will seek after as buoyancy device for “some time”…
Many will be ruined, there will be war … so what ?
Posted by: Greg Galloway | Dec 16 2023 12:15 utc | 57
Complete nonsense and a complete failure to understand money.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 16 2023 12:55 utc | 60

Here’s a number of solution’s, but first you have to read it before deciding if you think it is a good idea or not.
Not respond with emotive ideological drivel.
Monetary policy without interest rate hikes: – Reimagining Demand Management and Price Stability in the 21st Century.
https://www.crisesnotes.com/new-report-monetary-policy-without-interest-rate-hikes/

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 16 2023 13:23 utc | 62

Newbie @63: “How about Giuliani’s judicial execution?”
The Establishment, along with its royal court of presstitutes, mass media figures, academics, and corporate elites are desperate to the point of panic to regain credibility. Anyone with a soapbox higher than our host’s must be completely destroyed if they call into question the credibility of the Establishment, and even our host has a wide enough reach that he causes the Establishment anxiety and heartburn (proof: the number of higher level trolls assigned to this site). Fortunately, the Establishment realizes, in its simple-minded way, that if they attack our host directly there is a strong possibility of expanding his reach, but Giuliani is beyond that. Giuliani must be destroyed at any cost, even if it is with obviously theatrical show trials.

Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 16 2023 15:36 utc | 64

An open note to Echo Chamber:
It is apparent that you wish to share something which you deem true and important with us in the forums, and I’m convinced that you can indeed give insight on matters of great importance here. So let me thank you for your effort. I realize you speak from a point of learned understanding. I also welcome to you educate us lot of fools ever more. But I’d like to kindly suggest two things that might help you come across a little better.
First, it’s true that your approach is a tad patronizing at times, as bevin recently formulated. No one wants to wonder whether he’s an idiot or an ideologue, when all he did was to speak in (hopefully) good faith on some aspect of money to which you can’t agree. It doesn’t help anyone, it just opens an emotive sideshow, and it clouds what could otherwise be a helpful conversation.
Second, as obscuring as it is to give a layer of “worth” to each and all aspect of an argument, including its various proponents, present or otherwise, it is obscuring to refer to these layers in erudite jargon. I’ve been reading your comments here with growing interest and appreciation, but I can fully relate to what Scorpion (who is very good at words) said here a while ago: economical jargon is simply impenetrable for me, so much so that I basically gave up on it altogether. Whatever the reasons are for this impression I cannot know, but if you do and would accordingly choose your wordings a bit more accessible to laymen and practitioners of general interest, I’m sure many here would appreciate.
That’d be all. Thank you for your contributions.

Posted by: persiflo | Dec 16 2023 16:13 utc | 66

NH meteorological fall (Sept Oct Nov) for 2023 just registered on NASA-GISS’s database of temperature anomalies, all the way back to 1880:
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata_v4/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt
The global anomaly has been above +1.5C each of the past three months. Add 22 (0.22C) to adjust for the preindustrial baseline, we get 166 (+1.66C) for Fall — the hottest full season on record, by far. Planet Earth has leapfrogged the chalk-mark at 1.5C.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 16 2023 16:40 utc | 68

apologies if the Simpicius has been posted elsewhere

Posted by: ld | Dec 16 2023 17:24 utc | 70

Time and again, we must rely on the foreign press to inform us of what’s going on in our own nation. I recall primary results on Russia Today, I couldn’t find elsewhere.
Posted by: Eighthman | Dec 16 2023 16:26 utc | 66
And the strangest thing is that the trashiest it is the bigger the chance of finding some nuggets of truth between the manure
As for serious MSM there are none left if they go against the creed to which all must adere

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2023 18:38 utc | 72

But maybe climate change is exactly what’s needed to rid the world of these parasites. A grand diluvian spectacle to wash away the technocratic megaliths and transhumanist corpus of their power structures, once and for all—to reset the world anew, afresh.”
https://darkfutura.substack.com/p/the-cop28-elite-dine-and-dash?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Posted by: ld | Dec 16 2023 17:23 utc | 68
Not really, unlike what simplicius sees, I just see them worried about having to spend too much on what they see as the 2050 10 billion bump.
Don’t waste on deplorables and keep control of the finite ressorces.
What they don’t seem to see is that we’re heading for a 1620 year cycle collapse, and the “Barbadians” are at the door.
Just crossing my fingers that it is just a smaller harmonic as the fall of Rome .

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2023 19:00 utc | 74

https://youtu.be/PovVo2ILF9g
Is this your president or is it deepfaked?
Maybe they gave the workers some dough insisting that they cheer and applaud JFB whatever he is going to say…
Or could it be Las Vegas being an example of state-of-the-art infrastructure ? Nah,improbable

Posted by: willie | Dec 16 2023 22:17 utc | 76

The trajectories of the financial system all point unerringly to terminal collapse in the near to medium term…
@ ld | Dec 16 2023 17:23 utc | 69
It don’t mean a thing, but short term Wall Street relishes the glide-path to WWIII we’re surfing. Mr Dow Jones’ mood is evidently elevated, to all-time highs, by trajectories of so many bombs. As usual, indicators unerringly demonstrate Wall Street’s love of warfare; it can never get enough.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 16 2023 22:26 utc | 78

Posted by: juliania | Dec 15 2023 19:54 utc | 28
Nice piece. Interesting how those of a materialist and ‘objective’ no-nonsense bent are those who bend reality no end of phantasmagorical nightmares conjured up by their lack of heart, spirit and imaginative appreciation of beauty.
Whoever or whatever God is, a profound sense of humour and irony is in the mix….

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 16 2023 22:46 utc | 80

The conversation between Putin and the heads of Russia’s political parties and head of the Duma is now available, “Putin Meets with Heads of State Duma Factions”. It’s an excellent follow-on to Putin’s Direct Line presser as he gets feedback on it plus much more. Yes, it’s a long read but one that provides some crucial information about the solidity of Russian governance in advance of the coming election.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 17 2023 2:31 utc | 82

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 17 2023 2:31 utc | 82
Will check it out. I very much liked his Q&A session.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 17 2023 3:13 utc | 84

Posted by: bevin | Dec 17 2023 4:44 utc | 85
I found the beginning a hard slog but later on it became very interesting. Thank you. Here’s one from Unz that came out yesterday: https://www.unz.com/ghood/tolkien-the-homer-of-the-anglosphere/
Like it or not, Tolkien tapped into something. What he produced is both extraordinary and flimsy, the latter because as colourful and rich as the tapestry woven was, it never could travel far from the pages of the fictional work of art that it was. There is no end of details, quirks, particulars for critics and fans to delve into but to me over time it is the sweep and arc of the entire narrative which I find provides something somehow more lasting and durable than all today’s news with its constant parade of degradation, disaster, decline and decadence.
The way Tolkien’s world possessed such a deep and rich past, going all the way back into the Sylmarillion – which he wanted published along with LOTR but no publisher could countenance – was mirrored in the both glorious and tragic present told in the LOTR epic such that when it was over, although the King was restored, the Old Age and its splendour had passed and the main hero, the hobbit Frodo, had scars and wounds which could never be healed, so that he could never again enjoy the Shire whose simple goodness he had helped to protect and preserve. Similarly, the scars and wounds from The Great War of 1914 – 1948 could never truly heal and Tolkien witnessed the fall of his own nation in ways well echoed in his own sweeping tale and moreover in the existential journey we all share, that of growing into adulthood with so much power and promise only to watch it all wither and finally perish. Ultimately, Tolkien’s subject matter was mortality. Many have done so before and will do so again, but not many will invent entire languages and mythology to provide such a rich and variegated backdrop for so doing. His work was truly extraordinary.

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 17 2023 5:20 utc | 86

What was once a thriving ecosystem of web locales, authored with distinction and personality—a biodiverse bloom of the interesting and outlandish, the outré and quirky and sui generis—has been displaced by a collection heap of homogenized ‘E-Commerce’ cyber-edifices, evoking the sterilization of Middle America into an endless sprawl of hyper-commercialized blandness.
https://darkfutura.substack.com/p/dead-internet
Reminded me of the long gone, good ol’ days.
And just saw a notice that Google Groups (Usenet) was shutting down, iow dying, no more new content …. it’s had been in a death spiral a long time of course, but it’s going to be buried now. I spent the best years of my life on Usenet …. almost 20 years on and off. Fair thee well.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Dec 17 2023 10:12 utc | 88

Also Iran Observer:

Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth largest container shipping company in the world, has halted its activities in the Red Sea.
MSC, the largest shipping company, and Maersk, the second largest, have also announced that they wish to avoid the Red Sea.
We can expect total disruption to logistics lines and a massive increase in the price of consumer goods.
This is because the shipping companies will be passing on the extra transport costs to the consumer.

Yemen seems to be keen on a military confrontation with the empire. Brazen, to say the least! Will there be any actual support for them?

Posted by: Hamburger | Dec 17 2023 12:55 utc | 90

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Dec 17 2023 9:28 utc | 87
Very interesting, thanks. Good source for me to read up on online?
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/The_China_Lobby (interestingly blank)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Lobby (but this has approved content )
A bibliography from some page that considers the term China Lobby a “pejorative” term:
Bachrack, Stanley D. The Committee of One Million: “China Lobby” Politics, 1953–1971. New York, 1976.
Borg, Dorothy. American Policy and the Chinese Revolution, 1925–1928. New York, 1947. Includes references to the activities of Americans sympathetic to the Chinese Nationalist cause during the 1920s.
Cohen, Warren I. “The Role of Private Groups in the United States.” In Dorothy Borg and Shumpei Okamoto, eds. Pearl Harbor as History: Japanese-American Relations, 1931–1941. New York, 1973. Discusses the lobbying activities of a number of groups and individuals between 1931 and 1941.
Friedman, Donald J. The Road from Isolation: The Campaign of the American Committee for Non-participation in Japanese Aggression, 1938–1941. Cambridge, Mass., 1968. A useful study of the organization and its work.
Keeley, Joseph. The China Lobby Man: The Story of Alfred Kohlberg. New Rochelle, N.Y., 1969. A biography that epitomizes Kohlberg’s exploitation by the American right.
Koen, Ross Y. The China Lobby in American Politics. New York, 1974. A comprehensive account of Chinese Nationalist and pro-Nationalist activities in the United States during Truman’s term as president. Koen is better at describing the impact of these activities than at explaining how the Chinese and their American friends functioned.
Liebman, Marvin. Coming Out Conservative: An Autobiography. San Francisco, 1992. A first-person account of the origin and activities of most of the right-wing fronts of the Cold War era, including the Committee of One Million.
Sutter, Robert G. U.S. Policy Toward China: An Introduction to the Role of Interest Groups. Lanham, Md., 1998. Focuses on lobbying activities on behalf of China and Taiwan in the post–Cold War era.
Thomas, John N. The Institute of Pacific Relations: Asian Scholars and American Politics. Seattle, Wash., 1974. An unsympathetic study of the organization with a useful chapter on Kohlberg.
////
@Lavrov
The had to kill usenet. Usenet was “out of control”.

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 13:42 utc | 92

I want a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I’ll therefore take the Friends of the Ancient One…

[edited]

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 14:04 utc | 94

Listing the symptoms without addressing the cause. Also you don’t “take over” something you yourself created. Effective preaching must address the cause.
The human being has a built in requirement to worship (so it seems), and, its entire reality is experienced psychologically. (This is a matter that one need to fully understand: what does it mean that ‘the experience of reality’ is a fundamentally a psychological phenomena? Ali (AS) had something to say about this matter, hinting at it by considering the meat organ through which we ‘see light’ .)
I think it an error to conflate spiritual guides with the wolves that always gather to make a business and a cult out of the guidance. I also find it entirely foolish to attribute the psychological experience of human to an organ or two in its body. That said, naturally the fact of the here and now of our condition indicates its ‘significance’ even for the god bothered or metaphysically inclined. Now, as to what constitutes “living like a King in this earth”, do not be offended if I note that not all find ‘satisfaction’ and ‘pleasure’ in the condition of earthly kings but it is true that most men desire that condition and think it as “heaven on earth”.
But the symptoms you list are correct. The the susceptibility of the masses to lies is also factual. So is the perennial role of a “preacher” that needs to smack people to knock sense into them. Julianna mentioned a bare foot one from Ancient Greece recently and how the “oligarchs” of the city had him killed as he was putting bad ideas — ‘life is elsewhere’ 😉 — in the heads of youth.
What a puzzle.

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 19:00 utc | 96

THE REAL CHINA !
https://nitter.net/sbmeunier/status/1735969951104553368#m
Sebastien Meunier
@sbmeunier
Dec 16
Good (long) tweet about China. The dissonance between what I had been taught/told for decades and what I saw with my own eyes visiting China was one big factor in realizing we’re being lied to about everything, all the time (not just about China)
Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
https://nitter.net/RnaudBertrand/status/1735922698130489350#m
Very important thread by Graham Allison – the legendary Harvard professor who coined the “Thucydides trap” – where he lambasts “the current demonization of China”.
He says he is “convinced that the current demonization of China confuses more than it clarifies” because the result is that “Americans [do not] understand our competitor as it is”.
He gives as an illustration of this demonization effort the recent utterly ridiculous – and anonymous! – Politico piece (politico.eu/article/chinas-p…) that claims that “China’s Xi goes full Stalin with purge”, which is filled with demonstrable falsehoods and fear-mongering fabulations (some of which Allison lists in his thread).
I’ve myself written on this very topic dozens of times: there is an absolutely IMMENSE gap between the China depicted in the media and the reality, so much so that most people outside China have almost zero understanding of the country. The China they have in their mind is a mirage that bears almost no ressemblance to reality..
Why? Why do we systematically see coverage like this Politico piece on China? Why here on Twitter are accounts like @songpinganq, @WallStreetSilv or @jenniferzeng97 that systematically peddle fake news on China so popular? Or Serpentza and Laowhy86 on Youtube?
READ ON FOLLOWING THE LINK !
(LET’S NOT FORGET T.CARLSON’S & CO. CRAP OF ALL SORTS CONCERNING CHINA !!!)

Posted by: MD | Dec 17 2023 19:21 utc | 98

@Pacifica Advocate
thanks!

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 19:36 utc | 100