Ha ha ha! Tucker Carlson goes there, debunking the fossil fuel theory with Chinese expert who ‘works with hundreds of scientists’ talks about how much hydrocarbons have been found in space on planets and asteroids without fossils…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7IdLzxzINw&t=17s
If fossil fuels come from fossils, why have scientists found them on one of Saturn’s moons? A lot of what you’ve heard about energy is false. Dr. Willie Soon and Tucker Carlson discuss.
Now it might be true that oil is a limited resource, but given how deep down it is made under pressure and heat nearer the core etc (not on the surface via decomposing dinosaurs etc.) chances are that we have used only a teeny tiny percent of it. In any case, almost certainly nobody has any idea how much there is deep down so all the forecasts used to scare people are no more than wild guesses masquerading as ‘scientific fact’.
Bonus: then he goes into how CO2 is the ‘gas of life’ which is somehow being demonized. Of course he is correct.
We really do live in a pathocratic idiocracy these days…..

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 10 2024 0:52 utc | 104

Well I hate to say I told you so, it’s pretty crass but I make the point because even from 14,000 kilometers, a creep such as Lloyd Austin is such an easy read, he’s all about being the manliest man in the room, so when I stopped and had a quick think about “What could Austin have contracted that would make him want to conceal that he was having treatment for it?”, the answer was easy.
This is a type of bloke who attaches great importance to always seeming a man’s man and although the vast majority of humans have learned that having prostate cancer has no bearing on who you are, for an idiot like Austin, many decades behind in his thinking the answer was easy. In fact, complication or not, Austin may struggle so hard to come to terms with his operation that it affects his health with disastrous complications for his recovery. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bloke, one whose efforts have prolly resulted in many millions of deaths.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jan 10 2024 2:38 utc | 106

Scorpion, Roger.
I haven’t read the Unz thing but if he puts forward the Hitler was launching a pre-emptive strike this is what I wrote a couple of days ago and meant to post on the matter.
Stalin was desperate to postpone the war that he knew- everyone knew- would come as soon as Germany felt able to start it. Hence his refusal to act on the warnings of German preparations on the western borders. And his insistence on the delivery to the German military of strategically vital raw materials right up until actual hostilities began.
The Soviet Union was in disarray as a result of the long factional struggles and purges of the pre-war period. In particular incompetent cronies held many important positions of command and supply. On the whole, however, the armament programme had been successful and the Politburo believed that by the Spring of 1942, given peace until then, the USSR would be in a position which would make it unassailable. Until then it lacked tanks-the T-34 was just going into production, the older tanks were obsolete- and planes. Only in artillery was the Red Army properly supplied.
The rapidity with which France ‘fell’ confirmed the very worst fears of the Russians. The total number of casualties inflicted onthe Wehrmacht wass actually smaller than those suffered by the Red Army in the Winter War with Finland. The French had not been beaten- they had changed sides. Hitler did not doubt that the British would do the same- it was simply a matter of talking to the right people and making the right offer. It might involve waiting through another diplomatic period of phoney war.
In the meantime there was little outstanding business- with the exceptions of Greece and Yugoslavia there appeared to be no resistance anywhere. All the states, one by one, were coming into line, where necessary coups did the trick. The table was cleared for the main event: an attack on the Soviet Union and the rapid take over of the enormous resources of Ukraine and the Caucasus. Which, as a bonus would lead to the end of Turkish neutrality. Already Iran’s Shah was ready to join the axis. Even in Iraq there was a pro-German rising which briefly succeeded in taking power. Hitler fancied that the British Empire was at a tipping point and that he had only to turn against it for it to collapse.
When the war came the Germans had the advantage in everything except brains. They made the mistake of believing their own propaganda-that the Russians were inferior and that the Communists were hated.
Hence the enormous energy that they misdirected into massacring Jews, Communists and anyone else that got in the way. Apart from all else it galvanised the Commiunists just as the murderous behaviour of the German army left Russians in no doubt that there was no alternative to fighting. They would not be allowed to surrender. If taken prisoner they would be starved, beaten or left to die of exposure. That scotched any temptation of ordinary Russians to accept the invaders and, in getting on with their lives, give them the assistance they needed. Finally, by involving their troops in war crimes they demoralised them so that, as the war turned against them (thanks of course to Studebaker trucks!) their resistance began to crumble..
If you see the similarity between the Germans in 1942-3 and the Ukrainians eighty years later (bearing in mind the descent from tragedy to farce) you are not alone. The extent of the farcical reprise of the war is almost complete- every country in Europe is signed up to the campaign directed against Russia.

Posted by: bevin | Jan 10 2024 3:08 utc | 108

Boeing C-suite needs to go, they are nothing but incompetent morons. There is no accountability in the leadership and middle management level, all they care about is cutting costs by cutting corners in every possible way. They don’t care about making innovative products for aerospace industry. Also the issue of merit, there is no point in being that top IC since you will not be recognized.

Posted by: jc | Jan 10 2024 3:27 utc | 110

ws scorpion and his ilks like ‘robinthehood’ [sic] wax lyrical on their fav ‘asiatic people, ‘

jap are the only asians who get it, the first to adopt the west superior way of life

As explain, gardenists like their canine friends, especially the poodle variety
Abe kowtowing to Rubio, a mere gringo senator FFS
http://tinyurl.com/bdd8ds24
Another endearing jp trait for their white buddies is
that irrational pathological hatre of the Hans,…
we are coming after you again
As the saying goes, you know a man by his companions.
So you know G6 by their buddies jp and vice versa.

Posted by: denk | Jan 10 2024 3:41 utc | 112

………. a Polish parliamentarian took a chainsaw to a Jewish menora in the chamber.
@ Scorpion | Jan 9 2024 14:38 utc | 90
Seriously, how does Scorpion get so many things wrong all the time? Nothing he says is accurate or reliable, at least I have haven’t yet seen anything that was or hadn’t been twisted out of all semblance to reality.

Polish MP thrown out of parliament after dousing Jewish menorah
12 Dec 2023 … A radical-right Polish MP has put out a menorah in parliament with a fire extinguisher in an act described as “disgraceful” by the country’s …

This only happened less than a month ago and already he cannot remember what really happened. Imagine how distorted “his story” will be in 3 months time … or 3 years from now.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jan 10 2024 4:12 utc | 114

I was reading karlof1’s substack on the covid interview and came across a line by the interviewee who mentioned “pharma … depends on ill health”. This is similar to how the MIC depends on war for revenue, and got me thinking: who else? It struck me that every single business fits the basic logic model of profiting by ruining the general environment. For example, a toilet paper seller will make a killing if everyone gets diarrhea, so he is incentivized to go around poisoning wells if he can get away with it and morals be damned.
The logical conclusion is that given the opportunity, businesses will in one way or another make your life shit because they profit by doing so. This necessitates either/or:
1. Big government to frame the acceptable behavior of businesses and clamp down when limits are crossed.
2. Complete redefinition of how commerce works. The underlying reason why businesses are inclined to general sabotage is saturation of the market: they see no prospect of growth except by artificial means. This is especially true for the MIC during peacetime, during which their markets dry up, hence are forced to bray for war at every opportunity. I’m dreaming now, but if the government tasks businesses to provide quality service to its clients and pays the businesses according to how well this is achieved, the profit motive for businesses will be completely reversed and align with the wellbeing of the people.
Did I just reinvent planned economy?

Posted by: caal | Jan 10 2024 6:01 utc | 116

@Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jan 10 2024 3:48 utc | 113

For three full years, the U.S. Congress ignored the plight of the Last Million. Only in June of 1948 did Congress pass a bill authorizing the admission of 200,000 DPs, but barring the immigration of the 90% of Jewish survivors who, having spent the war years in the Soviet Union and/or the first months of the postwar period in Poland, were accused of being Communist sympathizers or operatives. No such “security” measures were written into the law to guard against the entry of the thousands of Nazi collaborators and war criminals who had lied their way into the displaced persons camps. The outcry against the discriminatory nature of the first Displaced Persons Act was such that it was amended, two years later, to remove the restrictions on Jewish immigration, but, by this time, after three to five years in camps in Germany, the vast majority of survivors, unwilling to spend a day more in Germany, had immigrated to Israel, illegally before May, 1948 and then legally after Israel declared, and President Truman recognized, its independence.

https://time.com/5889460/american-history-war-on-immigrants/ a review of The Last Million
EUROPE’S DISPLACED PERSONS FROM WORLD WAR TO COLD WAR by David Nasaw (2021)

Posted by: Roger | Jan 10 2024 8:53 utc | 118

@Posted by: joey_n | Jan 10 2024 9:22 utc | 119
Lots of supposed AMLO quotes with no attribution, smells to high heaven. WSWS is a bunch of Trotskyist perfectionists who hate any real world attempts at socialism because they are never pure enough for them, instead they love purist failing attempts.
Mexico going to war with China? Don’t make me laugh.

Posted by: Roger | Jan 10 2024 10:14 utc | 120

Boeing:
I remember reading an article (interview?) with a former Boeing employee, maybe 10 years ago.
He posited that in the old days, the company was run by engineering people who knew their product.
Ever since the 80s, management was taken over by business/finance people who didn’t understand shit about airplanes, and simply defined “efficiency targets” for engineers to meet: Ever faster development with ever fewer people = rising profits, rising share price, rising bonuses.
Not much different from other corporations, but the consequences are more dramatic.

Posted by: smuks | Jan 10 2024 13:26 utc | 122

apparently about to get banned on Youtube again. “we have noticed that comments you have left may have violated community guidelines against hate speech”. they never tell you exactly what comment or comments they are talking about, but I strongly suspect it involves comments critical of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. the generic “guidelines” talk about speech directed at “protected groups”. don’t identify those protected groups of course.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 10 2024 13:48 utc | 124

Future of humanity for 21st century – this folks is called “progress”:
https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FGDb2ZdsXUAACxOa.jpg
Thankfully this will be a “multi-polar” affair. Our “leaders” have discussed this matter and the conclusion is that there actually exists “commonly shared human right values for the planned civilization blocks”:
https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FGDHYADNbcAAAOxF.jpg
The other day I saw a clip of “Seyed” chairman of Hezbollah give a detailed run down of his ethical and moral evaluation of applying capital punishment for sexual crimes. No doubt filmed in a room with pictures of the Ayatollah Idols.
Naturally the chairman of Hezbollah must be aware that this “sick habit” that leaves the poor afflicted praying and fasting and crying as “Seyed” Hassan was telling us, with the punchline of “this is why we must kill them”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66349073
(those the enforcers of Iran’s Pharisees ‘enforcing God’s law’ for everyone but their own scuzzy clique. This is just like 2000 years ago in Jerusalem. Un.Canny.
Seyed, you are on a life line of devil’s milk from Sodomy HQ, QOM, and you see your Ayatollahs do not apply Sharia to themselves. It is only for the “little people”. Not a good look.
Hypocrisy is a terrible position. Disbelief is better than hypocrisy.

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 10 2024 14:52 utc | 126

go a bit further OT and ask a Socratic question: With whom in the dialogue is the Thou to whom Socrates is speaking as he narrates the entire thing? And secondly, does it matter?
[Sorry – back to the open forum.]
Posted by: juliania | Jan 10 2024 14:44 utc | 204.

Well, have yet to read your Buber but how about this title of a Dzogchen text:
‘You are the Eyes of the World”.
Literally true fact.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 10 2024 15:24 utc | 128

Posted by: smuks | Jan 10 2024 13:41 utc | 123
Scorpion | Jan 9 2024 14:38 utc | 90
Wouldn’t trust any youtube/ western media sources on China. They have a clear anti-China agenda, and have been wrong, er, basically 100% of the time.

Of course. I don’t trust anything on Youtube, pro or anti China/Russia/Trump/etc, but you can learn a little from either side sometimes – if nothing else, the nature of how they think. That said, most of the pro-China stuff we get is from GlobalTimes and other official organs, so its extremely curated and vanilla. All nations and peoples have no end of internal disagreements and worse going on, hardly any of which comes out in the official reportage. It seems to be the case that a lot of head honchos in China have been dying or disappearing of late, including Hu Jintao’s son, a potential future Premier. It’s not all love and light there like most sinophiles like to portray.

The Polish Menora incident was indeed weird. Keep in mind Poland had a large Jewish community before WW2, which was slaughtered by the Nazis – with active help from a lot of Poles. So, no need to resort to conspiracy theories to explain the presence of a Menora in the parliament building.

I don’t recall pushing a theory. But it is odd that a population of significantly under 1% has their fake religious symbol (designed as an imitation of a Christian one like most modern Judaic religious symbolism) in Parliament. And my point was that much of the conflict in and around Ukraine involves Jews – religious, Chabad, City, neocons, Ukrainian oligarch, Russian oligarch and no doubt a small agitator cadre in Poland helping to rile up resentment in Lvov. It’s not an unreasonable thought and dismissing it as ‘conspiracy theory’ doesn’t offer any sort of substantive rebuttal.
Or: please explain how that menora got into that Parliament and what its presence signifies – without of course, coming up with any sort of theory or explanation! (Personally, I thought the gesture of putting out its flames with a fire extinguisher was pretty cool!)

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 10 2024 16:25 utc | 130

“Meanwhile, rumors of a Princeling revolt against XiJinPing. There are disagreements within that polity, though of course this wont be reported in GlobalTimes…. Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 9 2024 14:38 utc ”
So, where did you hear this rumor? How reliable is it? As we used to say in the USN, “if you don’t like the rumors you hear, make up your own!”

Posted by: lester | Jan 10 2024 19:03 utc | 132

People of Paradise and People of Hell
I have always thought it a privilige to have been born an Iranian. At times I am even moved to thank God for bringing me into the material plane and the field of determination amongst the Iranian People. This is typically occasioned by having the privilige of being afforded a share in the thoughts of great Iranians who lived long before me and whose light shines bright in luminous verses and sayings. That body of thought and letters is enough for me to feel like a lucky duck indeed and feeling sad for those who were not raised in Iran and acquire the tongue of the Iranians by effort rather than national nurture. I don’t care for the empires too greatly, and the continual tragedies and near anihiliations by invaders from all quarters also do not diminish this feeling of needing to thank the Living Reality for this great good fortune.
Do not think this a chauvinistic streak in me, for assuredly I am quite fond of many of the treasures of other pepoles’ generational journey on this Earth and recognize superior achievements elsewhere. It is because it is only amongst those Saints who spoke and wrote in the “sweet tongue of the Persians” that I have found the Loving Beauty and Overwhelming Majesty of the God of Mankind coexisting in perfect and happy harmony. And I know these glimpses are afforded me in part due to my having been raised and nurtured by Iranian culture, high and low.
The city of Tabriz and Khorasaan made a Heart connection and from that encounter and conversation came a stream of words that continue to make ‘drunkards of Love’ of its readers, even in the West. From that great city of ours, in Iran, hailed a luminous son and master of masters of the Path of Love, and it is fitting for we Iranians are a people of the Heart and the Light.
He said, the people of Paradise remind of Paradise, and the people of Hell remind of Hell.
This is a beautiful teaching. He was recorded saying this as he was speaking to murids of Mowlana Jalaladin Rumi, and it was for their benefit, and our benefit too. For the murids, the saying urged self monitoring: ‘am I acting like a person of Paradise or Hell?’
For the contemporary, it is a wonderful bit of advice, which we can apply for out benefit. To gain ‘moral clarity’ in an age of deception:
https://iranian.com/main/files/blogimages/morality-police-Tehran.jpg
Who reminds you of paradise here and who reminds you of hell?
Iran is a precious thing. The heart of humanity has always beaten pronouncely in my people. It is not a thing to sacrifice for the ill devised and devious projects of the hypocrits and lunatics. This is unacceptable and will not be permitted.
wa Salaam.

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 10 2024 21:03 utc | 134

“(let’s remember Ford and his special Nazi medal, the Bush family’s dealing with the Nazis etc.),”
Don’t forget that Ford of Germany continued to hand over to Ford in Detroit shares of their profits from making war materials for the Wehrmacht, via accountants meeting in Switzerland.

Posted by: lester | Jan 10 2024 22:22 utc | 136

@Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jan 10 2024 11:46 utc | 121
That’s 687,624 immigrants for the four years, 1948 to 1951; more than doubling the number of Jews in Palestine to over 1.3 million. Notice how the number drops precipitously as the Western nations started to relax their anti-semitic immigration rules in the 1950s. There was a big surge in emigration from the Warsaw Pact countries in the 1990s, 874,597 in that decade. These two immigration flows equal about half of all post-WW2 immigration flows to Israel.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/total-immigration-to-israel-from-former-soviet-union
Nearly 200,000 Jews had emigrated to Palestine illegally from 1944 to 1948.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/aliyah-bet-1939-1948
From 1948 to 1958 nearly 400,000 Jews also left the Arab nations for Occupied Palestine, significantly driven by Israeli propaganda and even probable false flags, such as the bombings in Iraq.
Jewish immigration to Palestine has also jumped in the past few years as the rate of settlement creation was greatly expanded, with 336,000 immigrants since 2014. Much of it funded by US Zionist charities and oligarchs.

Posted by: Roger | Jan 10 2024 23:11 utc | 138

@Posted by: bevin | Jan 10 2024 3:08 utc | 108

If you see the similarity between the Germans in 1942-3 and the Ukrainians eighty years later (bearing in mind the descent from tragedy to farce) you are not alone. The extent of the farcical reprise of the war is almost complete- every country in Europe is signed up to the campaign directed against Russia.

The Germans were at least fighting for Germany, not acting as pathetic vassals throwing their lives away for foreigners and their local stooges. I see your point, but if I was German I would take it as a great insult to be compared to the ever-delusional Banderistas.

Posted by: Roger | Jan 10 2024 23:36 utc | 140

Oh, what a surprise – Thatcher’s “great idea” of privatizing national monopolies has been an utter failure, unless of course you were an early investor or money-grabbing executive! Now all the talk is about failure and possible re-nationalization. The Bolivians had a revolution over the privatization of water!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/10/how-could-englands-water-system-be-fixed
Of course “New Labour” won’t get the message that the State can be very good at many things, and will press on with its rentier capitalist “public/private partnerships” to suck yet more money out of the State and into the offshore tax havens.

Posted by: Roger | Jan 11 2024 0:27 utc | 142

Posted by: lester | Jan 10 2024 19:03 utc | 132
“Meanwhile, rumors of a Princeling revolt against XiJinPing. There are disagreements within that polity, though of course this wont be reported in GlobalTimes…. Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 9 2024 14:38 utc ”
So, where did you hear this rumor? How reliable is it?

From a questionable Youtube channel (like all channels on Youtube) I linked; so it’s not in the slightest reliable (like all such rumours). However, the speaker showed lots of different articles with photos about that topic, so the rumour is widespread. That still doesn’t make it true of course but it does make it a story in itself (that there is such a story making the rounds).
And as I added in the earlier post, there have been quite a few stories of various high-level replacements, deaths and missing officials. Again not from ‘reliable’ sources. But neither is Global Times a ‘reliable source’. Indeed, are there any reliable sources? I don’t know of a single one anywhere in the world. (Do you?)
My point for mentioning this sort of thing was that ALL large groups, from families to nations, have many disagreements but too often we get highly sanitized either All-Good or All-Demon caricatures and of course whatever the truth is is far more complex and nuanced.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 11 2024 1:59 utc | 144

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 11 2024 1:59 utc | 144
—————-
On and on like a broken record
This troll wont even survive AT unz i suspect.
I would’ve dump him in the bozo file like anton.
Except he enjoys kinda celebrity status here ,
go figure.
The only reason I keep wasting time with the pop is to save newbie from falling to the prof
sugar coated poison.

Posted by: denk | Jan 11 2024 4:34 utc | 146

On Dzogchen (which I had to look up) that was the new insight I referenced at Jan 11 2024 4:51 utc | 147. So, on we go, all of us.
Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the feast of Stephen… (yesterday, old calendar).

Posted by: juliania | Jan 11 2024 5:05 utc | 148

Below is a Reuters posting title that makes me laugh
US urges China to not interfere in Taiwan elections

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 11 2024 7:04 utc | 150

Chinese Perspectives on Twenty-First Century Socialism
December 20, 2023
How to Break the Vicious Cycle of Underdevelopment in the Global South
Author Marco Fernandes is a researcher at the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, co-founder of the Dongsheng collective, and member of the No Cold War campaign. He researches and writes on geopolitics and China from a Global South perspective. He holds a BA and MA in history and a PhD in social psychology from the University of São Paulo (Brazil).
A contemporary Chinese saying goes, ‘In 1949, socialism saved China. In the twenty-first century, China will save socialism’.

Achievements and Challenges for Chinese Socialism
A Socialist or Developmental Wave in the Global South?
China has managed to break free from the vicious ‘development of underdevelopment’ cycle that has ensnared the Third World. Decades after gaining their independence from Western colonialism, this cycle continues to define the experience of peripheral countries within the capitalist system. Owing to its tremendous economic success, an increasing number of countries in the Global South view China as both a successful example to follow (taking into account their local specificities) and a potential partner in their pursuit of development-oriented strategies. In turn, China is increasingly developing such partnerships.
In October 2022, the report of the twentieth National Congress of the CPC included a resounding Marxist critique of the Western model of modernisation, as being based on colonisation, plunder, slavery, and predatory exploitation of the natural resources and peoples in the Global South. This model not only served as the foundation for the industrialisation processes in Europe and the United States, but also their economic, political, and military domination over the rest of the world, producing a system of imperialism. In response, China formulated its own distinct path of modernisation, characterised by principles of shared prosperity among a massive population, material and ethical-cultural progress, harmony between humans and nature, and peaceful development.
see more: including a 2023 China news review
https://dongshengnews.org/en/whzh-vol1-no4/

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jan 11 2024 7:40 utc | 152

https://www.defenddemocracy.press/do-we-need-marxism-marxism-and-stalinism/
Posted by: bevin | Jan 11 2024 5:11 utc | 149
……………..
Usually such stuff gives me a headache but for some reason I could follow all of it. Very interesting. Thank you for the link.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 11 2024 15:04 utc | 154

“But neither is Global Times a ‘reliable source’. Indeed, are there any reliable sources? I don’t know of a single one anywhere in the world. (Do you?)
Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 11 2024 1:59 utc | 144”
If rumor be true, Mao Zedong relied on Yi Jing.

Posted by: lester | Jan 11 2024 18:44 utc | 156

Scorpion | Jan 10 2024 16:25 utc | 130
Sorry, but your vague assumptions and allusions are the very definition of a ‘conspiracy theory’.
Can’t give a ‘substantive rebuttal’ to completely unsubstantiated, random thoughts.
As for China: Absolutely – there are deep divisions in the CCP. The range of political views within that one party is probably far wider than in any western parliament. Or most. Chinese observers are good at reading between the lines, interpreting subtle hints – without being able to read Chinese, almost impossible to understand from the outside.
The recently ‘disappeared’ and replaced ministers (FM, MoD) were supposedly Xi’s personal picks. No idea what caused their downfall (were they compromised? Or just differing views/ strategies?), but it seems to show that Xi’s power is far from absolute, and his opponents scored major points. At least from what I heard – it may also be the precise opposite.
(PS – watched the first 5 minutes of the yt video. Absolute garbage imho, even worse than I expected. “Liberty Times”? Come on, that sounds like the notorious propaganda channel RFE/RL. Another one building a career on ostensible ‘insider view’ of China’s iMmInEnT cOlLaPsE. Not to mention she doesn’t offer any real info, just repeats the same claim over and over, without any proof.)

Posted by: smuks | Jan 11 2024 20:21 utc | 158

Are facts a matter of opinion?
This claim seems to have generated a bit of controversy here upthread. I shall try to put some light on the question, though it is a difficult case for reasons that go well beyond issues of theoretical complexity — for people who’ve been raised and educated according to the “metaphysics of substance” paradigm, the notion of an objective reality is so deeply woven into their worldview that in many cases it is virtually impossible to challenge.
Edmund Husserl, the teacher of Martin Heidegger who later betrayed him not only personally and politically, but also philosophically, makes a similar point that is somehow lost on his disciple, with grave consequences on not just the history of philosophy, but also on the very practical conduct of the sciences since Sein und Zeit came out in 1927. His book “The Crisis of the European Sciences” from 1938 may serve as a high point of reference for my following argument.
In addition to Husserl, who avoids the topic, I’d like to point out the quantum findings – mainly the phenomena around the notorious double slit experiment – that, in my view, give a really straightforward objection to any notion of an objective reality “out there”. Instead, what we appear to meet is the fact that all awareness is an awareness-of, in the immortal words of Aristotle noesis noeseos noesis, or “awareness is awareness of awareness”.
It follows from here that essentially un-awared realms (like notional parallel universes, kitchen tables in the absence of their owners, and trees crashing in forests with no one around to observe) are not an objective reality in a true sense, but merely contingent substructions of an experience that is yet to be made. No amount of inherent stability that we lend to kitchen tables from our past experience with them can overcome this.
A most interesting case concerns the truth found in formal logic and mathematics. Pythagoras’ theorem about rectangular triangles, for example, does appear to be absolutely and eternally true for everyone concerned with geometry enough to understand it, me included. But this comes at a price where the notional – “ideal” – rectangle in euclidean space is used as an image to stand in for, say, a problem of mechanics. The point is that no present object (Husserl: originär selbstgegeben) can be said to be a perfect image for the mathematical, ideal object, and vice versa; while the real, present object has an inward infinity (so to speak) that is forever unfathomable, the mathematical object is a logical construct, completely and positively specified (“given”) by its axiomatic traits, like lengths and the corresponding rules of arithmetics that apply.
Hence, while the wording is a bit unprecise, it is true (in a strict sense) that facts cannot stand in for opinion. Empirically, this might not matter much in many cases, but epistemiologically the point is extremely important.

Posted by: persiflo | Jan 11 2024 20:26 utc | 160

Posted by: smuks | Jan 11 2024 20:21 utc | 158
(Asiatimes has an interesting article on the topic up now)
Speaking of China, this promises to be an interesting read. (The blogger, David Ownby, just recently returned from a 3 week visit to mainland. Earlier he had discussed his meeting with an think tank in China that I found interesting.)
The Five Intriguing Paradoxes of Contemporary Chinese Young People – Fu Yu and Gui Yong
https://www.readingthechinadream.com/fu-yu-and-gui-yong-on-chinas-1990s-generation.html

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 11 2024 20:33 utc | 162

as a post script, consider that the only “advances” that the past 200+ years since the F.R. have been gained by the Masonic states is ‘utilizing science and technology to monitor, condition, and control citizens’.
China, for example, is definitely the “world of future” as some City of London rags (and US security state grandees) gush, but is this the progress we were hoping for?
Technology, specially information technology, affords a world of new possibilities for governance. But sadly we are all busy watching the spectacles for our entertainment. (Btw, did Houthis score a goal yet?)

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 11 2024 23:47 utc | 164

In Ukraine thread in dialogue with shadowbanned I noted that possibly multipolarism is not all its cracked up to be. Here is another author – who lives in a dirt poor Russian village – who thinks the same:
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/moscow-2030-creating-a-biometric

Moscow’s 101-page blueprint for becoming Smart includes the widespread use of video surveillance cameras to make transportation more safe and convenient. It also calls for “wearable and implanted medical digital devices” that can be used to calculate health insurance payments. As an added bonus, the document advocates for “genetic passports” that will help “optimize protocols for traditional therapy and in the future gene therapy”.
Very fancy but to what end? What is the purpose of the Moscow 2030 plan? The listed goals of the project are as follows:
“Ensuring sustainable growth in the quality of life of Muscovites and favorable conditions for conducting business and other activities through the use of digital technologies.”
“Centralized, end-to-end and transparent city management based on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.”
“Increasing the efficiency of government spending, including through the introduction of public-private partnerships in the field of information and digital technologies and communications.”
This word salad looks strangely familiar. Picture of WEF promo about Smart City Development:
Just to be 100% clear, though: Moscow is not a member of the WEF’s Smart Cities Alliance. Ergo, the Moscow 2030 plan is designed to expose Bill Gates and the Federal Reserve System. Multipolar Technocracy is good because it stops the spread of Unipolar Technocracy, which is bad.

Slavsquat uses irony liberally. Have emboldened his most ironic paragraph including the killshot sentence at the end. He may be wrong about this – I personally am on the fence because am an inveterate romantic who wants to embrace Putin as World Savior – but that’s a great line nonetheless!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 12 2024 4:21 utc | 166

SUDAN:
Anybody has an idea what’s behind the civil war between the army and the RSF?
Posted by: smuks | Jan 11 2024 20:26 utc | 159
US. Nuland. https://sudantribune.com/article273777/

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 12 2024 6:08 utc | 168

Came across an interesting point of view about the situation in the Middle East.
– The deployment of US troops in the Middle East makes it more likely that the US will start another war in the Middle East. It will be more likely because the presence of US troops in the Middle East will encourage the neocons to push, push and push until they get their way. These troops then can be used to start another / new war with Iran and/or Syria.
The recent attacks in Beirut, Syria and Iran are a sign that there are people who are (very) determined.
The same podcast came with another interesting take: the ukrainian missile attack on Belgorod was meant to provoke Putin into more military action against the Ukraine. But it seems that Putin didn’t take that bait and acted with (surprisingly) restraint.
But I want to keep emphasizing that the REAL problem in the Middle East is to be found somewhere else. I.e the Middle East is (heavily) overpopulated while at the same time the amount available water resources in the Middle East are declining. E.g. farmers in the Middle East are relying on pumping up ground water. And that resource is declining bit by bit.

Posted by: WMG | Jan 12 2024 15:14 utc | 170

“Israel Warns Hospitals To PREPARE For Regional War” (???????)
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhTtuohEI5s
Length: 19 minutes.

Posted by: WMG | Jan 12 2024 15:50 utc | 172

There’s lot of talk about Israel’s
CULTURE OF DECEIT
Well, u aint seen nuthin yet…
https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffcrouere/2023/02/13/china-our-teflon-enemy-n2619475

Posted by: denk | Jan 12 2024 16:50 utc | 174

Here is Peter’s link I mentioned in my above post (can be highlighted to copy and paste):
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/australia/gallery/index.php
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 12 2024 3:45 utc | 391

Posted by: juliania | Jan 12 2024 17:38 utc | 176

Correction: My statement ‘that far’ above refers to the conversation Peter was having on the sitrep Palestine third page concerning possible aboriginal longevity before ocean changes in the geological past. There will be a new open thread on Sunday, so perhaps that interesting conversation can continue there.

Posted by: juliania | Jan 12 2024 17:52 utc | 178

Fun Fact: In Plato’s dialogue “Sophistes” the assembled philosophers are asking much the same as we did here: What is the first? [gr. ousia]
They arrive upon a similar conclusion to the one outlined above. You can find a great interpretation of this in Erwin Sonderegger’s seminal book that I keep linking to.
Another, more modern wording could state that “absolute” (unconditional) knowledge is not possible without factoring in the awareness necessary to make any statements in the first place; upon which it becomes conditional. Sometimes these conditions can be satisfactorily controlled (pure reason/maths), but in general they don’t, which means that knowledge is “relative” (conditional) instead of absolute. Typically this leads back to the first-person view in their “being-here-ness” (Dasein), most crucially expressed in the quantum findings, but already Aristotle himself gave a definition of the tertium non datur that includes time and perspective:
“It cannot both rain and not-rain, at the same time, and according to the same perspective”
Roughly and ad hoc translated by me, but I think you may just get the point. Tip: bring an umbrella on your second approach.
How comes this earth-shaking insight has been lost on us today? I suspect it has to do with the roman church after 300AD and into the middle ages, when it became more of a mind control project, crafted and implemented to stabilize a totalitarian political order, rather than anything concerned with salvation of humanity.

Posted by: persiflo | Jan 12 2024 21:32 utc | 180

A Telegram channel I follow mentioned a Brookings report from 2009 on options with Iran, so I decided to read it. The report is an excellent representation of US thinking and the following years represent both the utter failing of US policy and the vacuousness of the US foreign policy elite. Here is my summary of it, US Policy Failure Against Iran & The Establishment Narrative

Posted by: Roger | Jan 13 2024 0:12 utc | 182

Below is a ZH posting title show Yellen playing the fiddle while America dies
Yellen Boasts About Clean Energy Tax Break Success Despite $1.7T Deficit And $34T In Debt
In 2008 the US debt was close to 800 billion
We are in a civilization war and it is all about the money part of our unwritten social contract. Currently, some God Of Mammon cult that owns/controls Western/global finance and has for centuries is losing its hold on the jackboot of social control.
The elite have had since 2008 to buy things with their money that they hope won’t be taken away when this shit show goes to ground….soon it would seem.
I expect that the China/Russia axis knows this and there will be lots of nationalization of property in nations all over the world as part of the settlement from our civilization war.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 13 2024 7:15 utc | 184

As a follow up to my comment above there is another ZH posting of note with the title
State AGs Blast Biden, Wall Street Plan To Sell Rights To America’s Public Lands
The quote…empty your mouth and move dangerous things out of the way

In its SEC filing, the NYSE explained the concept of monetizing the value of America’s natural assets.
“Healthy ecosystems produce clean air and water, foster biodiversity, regulate the climate, and provide the food on which our existence depends,” the NYSE stated. “These and other benefits derived from ecosystems are called ecosystem services, and in the aggregate, economists estimate their value at more than US$100 trillion dollars per year.”
According to a statement from IEG CEO Douglas Eger, cited in a Rockefeller Foundation press release, “this new asset class on the NYSE will create a virtuous cycle of investment in nature that will help finance sustainable development for communities, companies, and countries.
“Together, IEG and the NYSE will enable investors to access nature’s store of wealth and transform our industrial economy into one that is more equitable,” Mr. Eger said.

America will be one of those countries needing to nationalize a lot of property after our civilization war

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 13 2024 7:21 utc | 186

Have no memory of anything called ‘Liberty Times’. Which video was that?
Scorpion | Jan 12 2024 3:51 utc | 165
Then you haven’t watched “your” own video. She bases her assumptions (at least in the first 5 minutes) on an article in said newspaper – and given the name, I’d be willing to bet it’s a US propaganda organ.
‘Falun Gong’ sounds about right. It’s ridiculous – in the opening, she states that China is experiencing “social turmoil” or “collapse”, don’t remember the exact wording. lol, sure…
Nothing wrong with watching/ reading different points of view, but this is low-quality propaganda and doesn’t offer any information or insights at all.

Posted by: smuks | Jan 13 2024 8:58 utc | 188

Peter AU1 | Jan 12 2024 6:10 utc | 169
re: Sudan –
I’m sure it’s something to do with US interests and Russia’s planned naval base, but how exactly?
The Nuland-referencing article from May 2023 is about a short-lived ceasefire which, iirc, was used to evacuate westerners via Port Sudan.
UAE and Wagner are/ were supporting the RSF, while Egypt and (allegedly) the Saudis were siding with Burhan and the army. Also, RSF has pretty bad press in the West, but lately it’s become eerily quiet.
Can’t make heads nor tails of it.
One article hints that Burhan had agreed to a Russian naval base, but has been dragging his feet since. This may explain why Moscow & allies would put pressure on him, but I haven’t seen any confirmation anywhere else.
Another theory I had was that this is actually more about Ethiopia:
If the Sudanese army withdraws/ loses control over the border provinces, the West can supply the Tigray militia via Sudan & restart the Ethiopian civil war (thus blocking BRI progress).

Posted by: smuks | Jan 13 2024 9:27 utc | 190

smuks | Jan 13 2024 9:27 utc | 190
Nuland visited shortly after Sudan signed the agreement and a week or so before the conflict kicked off. I should have spent a little more time digging up articles on that. I haven’t followed it since the first week or so but it was clear then the insurgent forces are US cannon fodder/proxies.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 13 2024 9:56 utc | 192

The ‘United’ states…
“In other news, the State of Texas has seized part of the border where all of the disgusting migrants are entering and the US govt is suing Texas to stop this. Texan national guard are armed and ordered to not permit the US border patrol access to the areas in question — mostly because the pension loving bootlickers are traitors to their country and have done immeasurable harm to the country.” https://twitter.com/The_Real_Fly/status/1745919401021374625
I have seen news of this elsewhere but as it doesn’t seem to have been mentioned here at MOA, I posted this one. It only a matter of how long the US can hold back the inevitable. Elections a thing of the past and US dept skyrocketing on the steep side of the J curve.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 13 2024 11:06 utc | 194

No party gets majority in Legislature; KMT wins most seats
Taipei, Jan. 13 (CNA) No party won a majority in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan for the first time since 2004, after Saturday’s elections saw the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) win 51 seats, the Kuomintang (KMT) 52, and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) eight.
The DPP, which had held a majority in the 113-seat body since 2016, suffered a net loss of 11 seats on Saturday, dropping from 62 to 51 and losing its position of dominance.
With no party able to command a majority, which would need at least 57 seats, it is widely expected that the KMT and the TPP will negotiate a deal to prevent the DPP from retaining the speakership.
continues ==> https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202401130014

Posted by: too scents | Jan 13 2024 14:13 utc | 196

Media bins fides
Should be:
Media bona fides…

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 13 2024 14:32 utc | 198

Posted by: denk | Jan 12 2024 16:50 utc | 174
————————-
Thats standard fare in western narrative on China, including many alt media.
This comment from Report on China sums it up hilariously

The brainwash is so intense, they dont need fentanyl to self hallucinate

Pilger,

There’s a garden out there, where mushrooms are kept in the dark and fed BS all day long.

[Somebody should do an autopsy on John]
These days, barflies dont have to go out to the garden to smell the ‘flower’, we can sample it right here, thanks to the dedicated pop and his mates.
Exhibit A
pop

The fate of America is being made in China, our role model for all things dystopian.
An economic and political powerhouse that owns more of America’s debt than any other country and is buying up American businesses across the spectrum, China is a vicious totalitarian regime that routinely employs censorship, surveillance, and brutal police state tactics to intimidate its populace, maintain its power, and expand the largesse of its corporate elite.
Where China goes, the United States eventually follows. This way lies outright tyranny.

The prof Keep saying

I dont trust anything from the internet

while continues citing anti Chinese spiel from the net, complete with the prof’s signature pussyfooting caveat…

Am not endorsing any view in particular but all pieces point in the same direction

[sic]

Posted by: denk | Jan 13 2024 15:46 utc | 200