The non-zero story about the Houthis and Iran is good ( as usual the US State Department comes out looking like complete idiots) but wrong, I think, about the Saudis having been misled.

The Saudis were pushing their puppet in Sana'a to solicit US assistance and money.

So, of course, were the other interested parties who came to profit from the war: the UK for example, and arms manufacturers and mercenaries (salivating over the chance to do business with the Saudis and the UAE).

When the US Empire is finally buried the epitaph should put stupidity at the top of the list of causes. Stupidity which begins with the appointment of amateurs and third rate ideologues as diplomats.There is a reason why America doesn't have a Lavrov- it doesn't train them or allow them to pursue careers. Instead it favours arse lickers and courtiers.

Posted by: bevin | Jan 21 2024 14:49 utc | 1

"Israeli writer Avi Lipkin: Israel’s borders will extend ‘from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia’"

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WERJ_xXhaeQ

These are thoughts similar to what the thoughts were of the Irgun, the jewish resistance movement in Palestine. See the symbol the Irgun used in thos days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun

Posted by: WMG | Jan 21 2024 14:51 utc | 2

"There is a reason why America doesn't have a Lavrov- it doesn't train them or allow them to pursue careers. Instead it favours arse lickers and courtiers."

Posted by: bevin | Jan 21 2024 14:49 utc |

I agree with you , but the US diplomatic corps was much better pre 2001. From what I can figure out the infamous Dick Cheney (the de facto Prez) fired all the foreign speaking diplomats and replaced them with neo cons.

I would like your comments on this issue.

Posted by: canuck | Jan 21 2024 15:14 utc | 3

"An anniversary West would rather forget - Indian Punchline" (about the siege of Leningrad. 1941 - 1944).

2 comments:

- This is indeed very similar to what is happening in Gaza right now.
- NATO now has american troops in Estonia. These troops pose a similat thread to St. Petersburg as the german troops in 1941-1944.

Posted by: WMG | Jan 21 2024 15:17 utc | 4

[email protected] lickers and courtiers.....System Pigs.

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Jan 21 2024 15:40 utc | 5

Bevin - I think while Lavrov's (and staff's) job is to relatively broadly represent the state of Russia, the American foreign policy apparat's job is to act as the "talking" part of the Pentagon and explore business ops for MICIMATT and the banking/finance bosses. It lends a to a certain different skill set.

Posted by: Caliman | Jan 21 2024 16:22 utc | 6

thanks b! all the links are much appreciated..

@ bevin | Jan 21 2024 14:49 utc | 1

lol... well said bevin.. i liked pepe escobars use of the term 'little blinkie' for the usa representative.. that sums it up too, lol...

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 16:50 utc | 7

here is a quote from the indian punchline article... and what does it make one think of today? could have been written by netanyahu, or the west more generally with regard their present attitude towards russia even today... shameful and worse...

"The Nazi leadership aimed to exterminate Leningrad’s entire population by enforced starvation. Death by starvation was a deliberate act on the part of the German Reich. In the words of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler “intended to have cities like Moscow and St Petersburg wiped out.” This was “necessary”, he wrote in July 1941, “because if we want to divide Russia into its individual parts,” it should “no longer have a spiritual, political or economic centre.”

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 16:55 utc | 8

"talking" part of the Pentagon...lends a to a certain different skill set.
Posted by: Caliman | Jan 21 2024 16:22 utc | 6

yes, after the bipartisan purge of "communist sympathizers" (RU and CN fluent "civilians") in the US Department of State during Red Scare III, Truman's post-WWII admin.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jan 21 2024 16:56 utc | 9

music from a friend.. some here might enjoy it..

https://nickpeck.bandcamp.com/album/wolcum-yole

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 17:00 utc | 10

The false Uighur genocide claims used as a tool by the West against China took off in 2020 with the British Chief Rabbi giving voice to the narrative and giving it momentum by leading other Jewish organizations worldwide to get involved.

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2020-12-18/ty-article/british-chief-rabbi-speaks-out-on-the-plight-of-uighur-muslims-in-china/0000017f-f539-d5bd-a17f-f73be8ff0000

In recent days, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wants everyone to know Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/21/israel-actions-gaza-not-genocide-uk-chief-rabbi-sir-ephraim-mirvis

The Jewish world was at the height of its power before October 7 and the hubris that came with such power led them to attack many different groups around the world at the same time. I wonder if the Jewish world will back down or double down? Take on the entire Muslim world, Russia, China, and Trump supporters at the same time? By Jewish world I mean the general line taken by Jewish orgs. Of course there is a variety of opinions among Jews including a consistent level of support among Orthodox Jews in America for Trump.

Posted by: mouseovereffect | Jan 21 2024 17:21 utc | 11

emmanuel todd article.. is unherd a brit publication? based on the comments to todds article, it appears it must be.. and they can't figure out why todd sees the uk as a warmongering nation... aside from a few hundred years of the british empire, it is still busy sucking up to the usa in the usa's imperial empire state, going to war with such major powers as the houthis, and etc. etc... the brits or uk folks are clearly out of touch with reality and don't remember boris the clowns visit to kiev in april of 2022 either... these folks have very short memories, or they listen to the bbc too much.. take yer pick, lol..

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 17:21 utc | 12

UnHerd is a British news and opinion website

thank you wikipedia... for once you offer something relevant, lol.. the brits are much more out of touch then i realized..

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 17:25 utc | 13

https://www.rt.com/business/591025-wheat-exports-russia-france-ukraine/

Russia could control 30% of world wheat. France starting to freak out.

Posted by: Eighthman | Jan 21 2024 17:32 utc | 14

"Lying for War AGAIN! Neocon Propaganda In MSM For War With Iran"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vbOFI_YRHc

Posted by: WMG | Jan 21 2024 17:33 utc | 15

chatham house.. another stupid brit publication... if you want to know the stupidity the brits are regularly exposed to - read what chatham house as to say... it would never occur to them the usa is a terrorist state.. that would be the last thing to cross their minds...

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 17:49 utc | 16

The American Crack-Up - Unherd - not a bad article.. i take back some of what i said about the publication, lol..

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 18:05 utc | 17

james | Jan 21 2024 17:49 utc | 16

I had been watching a few videos on the various tanks at different museums. Most are completly unbiased about the older tanks, pointing out both their good and bad points as compared to one another but then also pointing out how they were designed to be used or reason for various designs.
The British museum put out one on the Amarta T-14 which of course none exist in the west. It was going along well for a bit then the clown stats quoting the UK ministry of defence as if its propaganda is a serious analysis. Had to turn it off then.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 21 2024 18:14 utc | 18

@ Peter AU1 | Jan 21 2024 18:14 utc | 18

i was kind of shocked at the comment section to todd emmanuels article in unherd..it seems the brits don't have a clue how they could be viewed as a warmongering nation... i flippantly mentioned how the usa/uk responded to the houthis recently.. it appears the usa/uk are okay letting isreal bomb the shit out of gaza, but don't like that yemen wants to say fuck you at that... of course it was usa/uk - under bush/blair that were all hell bent to invade iraq in 2003 too.. and yet, the brits just can't see how they would be viewed as warmongers..

i think one has to be careful with what they read.. i know the crowd at moa typically are, but sometimes i lose faith in the general public.. the brits get a special prize for propaganda work.. they excel at it.. remember the white helmets? who knows what bullshit they are cooking up at present.. i wouldn't trust anything i read by them at this point! that really isn't fair on my part, but so be it..

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 18:27 utc | 19

James @ 19
Your view about the english is exactly right.
Its like that film 'invasion of the body snatchers.
Epochaliptic brain washing in a mass scale.
If you put rubbish in you get rubbish out... the english.

Posted by: Mark2 | Jan 21 2024 18:42 utc | 20

The Telegraph interview with “former Nato chief” Lord Robertson is either a master class in self-delusion or a master class in war-mongering bullshit. It could be argued either way. Persons like this, and the policies they pursued, are the exact reason contemporary geo-politics are what they are.

China enacted a counter-insurgency program in Xinjiang. Compared to counter-insurgency programs run by Nato countries, it has foregrounded development programs and education (albeit non-voluntary). Nato programs largely relied on night raids, drone strikes, and torture camps. The “genocide” label applied to China was, in fact, a deliberate politicization of the moniker, endorsed by many of the same countries who now support Israel’s own counter-insurgency programs against Hamas.

One day, the human-rights script will be flipped against the US, and its own policing and prison system will itself come under scrutiny. This will include the huge disparity in policing directed at minority groups, the fact that over 1200 people are shot dead in the street by US police every single year, the vast programs of prison labour, and the officially-sanctioned sadism of the super-max prison system.

Posted by: jayc | Jan 21 2024 18:48 utc | 21

but sometimes i lose faith in the general public..
Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 18:27 utc | 19

Prior to 2014, all the people around me, anyone I talked to, when I said US was the biggest threat to world peace, they all agreed with me. the propaganda since that time - all have done a 180 degree now believe we need the US to protect us from those evil others.

The us special forces/CIA training manual for creating insurgencies showed a graph in which 80% of any given population is subject to propaganda manipulation.

We see the non nazi Ukrainians, brainwashed to the extent they march like lambs into the slaughter house to defend the right of the nazis to kill the ethnic Russians.

It is a bit heart breaking to see everyone around me drawn into this cult type brainwashing, but once they are in it I have zero empathy for them. Perhaps one day they will shake off the brainwashing and become humans again, but it will take death and disaster before that occurs.

We can look at Nazi Germany as aq good example. For the most part it is deliberate willful ignorance as the truth of what we are in the world is too difficult to contemplate - Like me, they have been brought up and living our lives believing we are always the good guys and to be able to look at the world in an honest way means that all we understand is turned upside down.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 21 2024 18:48 utc | 22

"The Nazi leadership aimed to exterminate Leningrad’s entire population by enforced starvation. Death by starvation was a deliberate act on the part of the German Reich. In the words of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler “intended to have cities like Moscow and St Petersburg wiped out.” This was “necessary”, he wrote in July 1941, “because if we want to divide Russia into its individual parts,” it should “no longer have a spiritual, political or economic centre.”

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 16:55 utc | 8

Hitler's attitude, above, mirrors the attitude Netanyahu has towards the Palestinians.

Posted by: canuck | Jan 21 2024 18:51 utc | 23

Can someone elucidate for me if and how Emmanuel Todd addresses the actual societal mechanisms for the decline of the West in his new book?

I hear him describing various anthropological and historical developments (see excerpts below from Todd himself and from Pepe Escobar’s review of his book) but I see nothing about societal mechanisms, about specific cause and effects operating in class society.

There is no mention of the development of ruling-class ideas nor their power to shape society, nor are cause-and-effect mechanisms forthrightly identified, only generalizations which have arrows turning inward.

Did working people get screwed six ways to Sunday and then forgo Protestantism, or the reverse? What role did neoliberalism have on social bonds where said policies came from political class compradors? was this first or last?

Did educational aptitudes and achievements decline in society overall because religion faded into the void, zapping causal origins? or did education become bad and expensive, mostly servant of the financial sector and the ruling class, generating a compliant political class and indebted ex-students, and then the disintegration of social bonds?

Escobar writes,

The collapse of Protestantism could not but destroy the work ethic to the benefit of mass greed: that is, neoliberalism

Here there is a pointing, but who exactly is being pointed at?

I also wonder about Todd’s critique of “the spirit of 1968” (as presented by Escobar). Does it holds water?

???one of the great illusions of the 1960s – between Anglo-American sexual revolution and May 68 in France”; “to believe that the individual would be greater if freed from the collective”. That led to an inevitable debacle: “Now that we are free, en masse, from metaphysical beliefs, foundational and derived, communist, socialist or nationalist, we live the experience of the void. [emphasis mine]

Is this not a conflation of ruling-class ideas with the ideas of the 1960s revolution? I did not live in France like Todd, but on the West coast of the US and in Denmark at that time. I strongly disagree with the characterization that that revolution was all about “the individual would be greater if freed from the collective.” Maybe i missed something? We were all about justice, equal rights, fairness, against imperialist wars and so on, not about seeking freedom from belonging within communities, collectives and families and such — all about freedom from tyrants and tyranny, freedom for all from identifiable systemic oppressions. And many were Protestants.

~~

Contextual excerpts assembled (skip over mostly)

Emmanuel Todd’s general argument as summarized in week in review articles, emphases mine.

From Todd
“the vaporisation of Protestantism in the United States, in England and throughout the Protestant world has caused the disappearance of what constituted the strength and specificity of the West.” 

“Great America, from [Theodore] Roosevelt to Eisenhower”. This was “an America that retained all the positive values of Protestantism, its educational effectiveness, its relationship to work, its capacity for integrating the individual into the community”. Ultimately, the historian suggested, “the Protestant matrix has disappeared at the height of American power”

and from P Escobar:

...he focuses on the key reasons that have led to the West’s downfall. Among them: the end of the nation-state; de-industrialization (which explains NATO’s deficit in producing weapons for Ukraine); the “degree zero” of the West’s religious matrix, Protestantism; the sharp increase of mortality rates in the US (much higher than in Russia), along with suicides and homicides; and the supremacy of an imperial nihilism expressed by the obsession with Forever Wars...

7. Here we reach the crux of Todd’s argument: his post-Max Weber reinterpretation of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, published a little over a century ago, in 1904/1905: “If Protestantism was the matrix for the ascension of the West, its death, today, is the cause of the disintegration and defeat.”

Todd clearly defines how the 1688 English “Glorious Revolution”, the 1776 American Declaration of Independence and the 1789 French Revolution were the true pillars of the liberal West. Consequently, an expanded “West” is not historically “liberal”, because it also engineered “Italian fascism, German Nazism and Japanese militarism”.

In a nutshell, Todd shows how Protestantism imposed universal literacy on the populations it controlled, ”because all faithful must directly access the Holy Scriptures. A literate population is capable of economic and technological development. The Protestant religion modeled, by accident, a superior, efficient workforce.” And it is in this sense that Germany was “at the heart of Western development”, even if the Industrial Revolution took place in England.

Todd’s key formulation is undisputable: ”The crucial factor of the ascension of the West was Protestantism’s attachment to alphabetization.”

Moreover Protestantism, Todd stresses, is twice at the heart of the history of the West: via the educational and economic drive - with fear of damnation and the need to feel chosen by God engendering a work ethic and a strong, collective morality - and via the idea that Men are unequal (remember the White Man’s Burden).
The collapse of Protestantism could not but destroy the work ethic to the benefit of mass greed: that is, neoliberalism.

8. Todd’s sharp critique of the spirit of 1968 would merit a whole new book. He refers to “one of the great illusions of the 1960s – between Anglo-American sexual revolution and May 68 in France”; ”to believe that the individual would be greater if freed from the collective”. That led to an inevitable debacle: “Now that we are free, en masse, from metaphysical beliefs, foundational and derived, communist, socialist or nationalist, we live the experience of the void.” And that’s how we became “a multitude of mimetic midgets who do not dare to think by themselves – but reveal themselves as capable of intolerance as the believers of ancient times.”

9. Todd’s brief analysis of the deeper meaning of transgenderism completely shatters the Church of Woke – from New York to the EU sphere, and will provoke serial fits of rage. He shows how transgenderism is “one of the flags of this nihilism that now defines the West, this drive to destroy, not just things and humans but reality.”

And there’s an added analytical bonus: “The transgender ideology says that a man may become a woman, and a woman may become a man. This is a false affirmation, and in this sense, close to the theoretical heart of Western nihilism.”

It gets worse, when it comes to the geopolitical ramifications. Todd establishes a playful mental and social connection between this cult of the fake and the Hegemon’s wobbly behavior in international relations. Example: the Iranian nuclear dear clinched under Obama becoming a hardcore sanctions regime under Trump. Todd: “American foreign policy is, in its own way, gender fluid.” ...

Pepe Escobar

Posted by: suzan | Jan 21 2024 18:53 utc | 24

@ Mark2 | Jan 21 2024 18:42 utc | 20

thanks mark! i make an exception for you and a number of other brits!

@ Peter AU1 | Jan 21 2024 18:48 utc | 22

that is interesting about the details prior to 2014 peter. i think this anti-russia, or hate russia attitude has been developed for so long, along with the general amnesia regarding who the nazis actually are, that i think you are right... look at germany for example.. they have idiots for leaders and all of them cheering on more weapons and etc to ukraine, while their country goes down the gutter.. what explains it? surely they can't be that stupid, although i think the country i live in canada - we are mostly that stupid! brainwashing appears to work most of the time..

we are clearly not the good guys - the west, canada, usa, uk, australia and etc - you are right about that.. how we were brought up and the reality at present is exactly the opposite..

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 18:54 utc | 25

@ canuck | Jan 21 2024 18:51 utc | 23

yes, thanks.. i essentially said that in the post too!

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 18:55 utc | 26

@ suzan | Jan 21 2024 18:53 utc | 24

hi suzan.. i don't know that i can help you out, but i have watched with the translated subtitles - a few youtube interviews with emmanual todd that kind of go into that and more.. he is an historian, but maybe is slanting it some for his own purposes.. regardless, his conclusion appears valid at this point..

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 18:58 utc | 27

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died 100 years ago today at the age of 53.

Over on the Palestine Open thread the poster Exile asked barflies for their version of how
the Levant looks in 15 months. Another hypothetical would be to venture opinions
on how the world would look today had Lenin lived to a ripe old age. My opinion is a better world.
(I’m confident some who know very little about him will inform how wrong that is.)

Brian Becker of the ANSWER coalition recently did a 3 part series on the life and legacy of Lenin.
He’s an engaging speaker and very informative with not a lot of (boring) theory.
The talks are about 1 hour each with a Q&A after.
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3

Near the end of Class 3 (@ 1:39) Becker gets into Putin’s criticism of Lenin.
Very interesting stuff right there, worth 10 minutes of your time.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jan 21 2024 19:29 utc | 28

zorgeTheTroll: "See the snarling rabid dog blindly lashing out in its brain-rotted death agony! See how mighty and powerful it is? It even killed a little kid!"

Rabid shibas and their pet Nazis are having a difficult time.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 21 2024 19:36 utc | 29

Posted by: canuck | Jan 21 2024 15:14 utc | 3

Old-school foreign policy personnel (excluding the first neocons) included many specialists. These individuals educated in the atmosphere of the Cold War, has also learned to recognize boundaries and limits due to the potential dangers of a Soviet retaliation. One can study the political atmosphere in the early 89s to understand that.

From the 90s onwards, however, such folks were considered an impediment to unfettered imperialist expasion. After all, serious analysts and specialists might oppose reckless expansionism, reckognizing the dangers ahead. That would not be an issue with the neoconservative hacks.

In short, the ruling oligarchy demanded intensification of imperialist policies in the most blatant fashion and that required a foreign policy apparatus composed of zealots and that'e exactly what the neocons are. Former leftists turned right-wingers with the fanaticism of the fairly recent convert. The lack of actual skills wasn't an issue (since, without exception all prominent neocons have been absolute mediocrities or downright incompetent apparatchiks), since the elites of the Anglo-American empire could typically rely on the latter's political predominance and overkill capacities.

All in all, cases like William Burns, the current head of the CIA (last time I checked) and the author of the "Nyet means nyet" are rarities. Trash like Nuland, Blinken, Sullivan, Pompeo etc. are the norm.

Posted by: Constantine | Jan 21 2024 19:56 utc | 30

regarding the article - EU’s top diplomat accuses Israel of funding Hamas - Politico.eu

they are setting up netanyahu to be the scapegoat.. they will claim it was him and the rest of israel is clean, lol.. they will try for the 2 state solution for another 50 years.. clearly they don't want a 2 state solution.. they want anything but that..

Posted by: james | Jan 21 2024 20:36 utc | 31

Yes James and Peter Au1 we owe our own sanity to MOA and b.
Hat tip to the master.
James @ 31
Your on top form with that obsevation, thats how they roll, even there own are expendable.
Dog eat dog. As on 7 oct, disgusting

Posted by: Mark2 | Jan 21 2024 20:43 utc | 32

Posted by: suzan | Jan 21 2024 18:53 utc | 24

I've actually read a hard copy of The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. I recommend that you should, too, before soliciting comments about Todd's and Escobar's "interpretations". The first publication of this triumphant screed was published in German in 1904, peak Euro colonial occupation and Durkheim popular mental hygiene. It was not translated into English until 1930, after WWI distribution of territorial booty among allied Habsburg enemies, of which fin de siècle USA titans of industry—WASP or not—were not.

Given your selection, I surmise those lit crit informants gloss centuries of sectarian war in Europe preceding Cromwell's civil war at the ass-end of continental Reformation and the Great Remonstrance—from 15th century a/k/a the Hundred Years War against the Holy See a/k/a Holy Roman empire a/k/a papist luxury lifestyles. And that's pretty strange, stranger that parachuting into adolescent boomers' summer of '68 "woke" protests against their parents' (protestant and catholic) politically conservative imperatives and proselytizing "global" enterprises. That interlude, AFAICT, is no different from other Great Awakenings, not even in class distribution, except for wardrobe and accoutrements: a half-hearted, bloodless struggle for "generational wealth transfer," as some (not all, and that's important) "democratizing" western Z-ppl say...to boomers.

So read it, and some day report on the evolution of western epistemology according to your observations of how eNtiTiEs of little faith defeated "great power" projection of the second estate.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jan 21 2024 20:56 utc | 33

james | Jan 21 2024 17:00 utc | 10

Some new music. Thanks for sharing.

I've been following the music of The Great Harry Hillman for 5 or 6 years now. Four young guys in Switzerland doing their best, immersed in the post-jazz conundrum. Sounds like they've been listening to all the right people...

...looking for renewal in this otherwise doomsday scenario?

https://youtu.be/Y0x_CoKspp8?feature=shared

Posted by: john | Jan 21 2024 20:58 utc | 34

Three quick items:

1. "How, When, and Why the US Government Has Made Genocide Determinations"
https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/Todd_Buchwald_Report_031819.pdf

2. "Support for the U.S. government and tech companies restricting false information online has risen steadily in recent years"
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/20/most-americans-favor-restrictions-on-false-information-violent-content-online/

3. "Taiwan Independence"

One real thing that will lead to “declaring independence” is for Taiwan, or the Republic of China, to fundamentally revise its constitution, the Constitution of the Republic of China, which as of now still declares jurisdiction over a vast territory including Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang.

Certainly, to declare independence, Taiwan will need to go through a constitutional amendment to change its actual name from the Republic of China to Taiwan and give up all the territories originally claimed by the Republic of China. But to do that, Taiwan will need not only 3/4 of the Legislative Yuan (the parliament) but needs 1/2 of all eligible voters - all eligible ones, not just all voting voters - to say yes.

Posted by: Multipolar Panda | Jan 21 2024 21:00 utc | 35

Oh, and in regard to Xinjiang, the Uyghurs & the genocide claim – below is a three part analysis of the claims, unfortunately only in German but some might find it quite useful when arguing with those who still believe in our media:

- Spannungen zwischen Nato-Staaten und China: Analyse einer zunehmenden Rivalität
https://www.telepolis.de/features/Spannungen-zwischen-Nato-Staaten-und-China-Analyse-einer-zunehmenden-Rivalitaet-9600059.html?seite=all

- Völkerrechtliche Perspektiven auf die Situation der Uiguren in China
https://www.telepolis.de/features/Voelkerrechtliche-Perspektiven-auf-die-Situation-der-Uiguren-in-China-9600338.html?seite=all

- China und Xinjiang: Anschuldigungen wegen Völkermordes im Realitätscheck
https://www.telepolis.de/features/China-und-Xinjiang-Anschuldigungen-wegen-Voelkermordes-im-Realitaetscheck-9601192.html?seite=all

Posted by: Multipolar Panda | Jan 21 2024 21:11 utc | 36

Given the severity of Hungary's punitive territorial forfeiture at Versailles-Trianon (loss of 64 per cent land area and similar proprtion of population) and of Germany's (10 per cent land area) earlier at Versailles, it is a puzzle why the victorious powers forwent the chance to wrest entirely any Europe holdings from the nascent Turkey and leave them securely confined beyond the straits.

Instead they constructed a large European chunk of territory the size of Montenegro or Armenia, which when you explore the relevant clauses in the Versailles-Sèvres treaty (Part 2 Frontiers, Art.20 (2) with Greece), seems to have been a pretty arbitrary scribble of the pen across the map of Thrace, like a blindfold game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. Confected rather than constructed.

You would think the plenipotentiaries at Sèvres would have been only too eager to assign all of Thrace to Greece or the Serbia-Macedonian entities formulating at that time. Not to Bulgaria, of course, as a German/Ottoman/A-H fellow loser. That would also have (seemed to) secure the straits for international/League control in a more dependable way than the very intricate sequence of clauses (Art.28-35) were intended to serve.

It is unlikely to have been a sop to Turkey in exchange a continued presence of Greece in Anatolia at Smyrna and elsewhere in Asian Turkey; that presence wasn't to last long, the possibility of which would have been clear to those plenipotentiaries and their masters.

Posted by: petra | Jan 21 2024 21:26 utc | 37

Mind your indefinite nouns and articles as well as origins of so-called natural "rights", civil "rights," and legal "rights".

source: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Be the first to identify a provision that does not employ an indefinite noun.

commentary: Let the universal human rights be what they should be on the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Right

Ask yourself, "SELF, why didn't my government incorporated this declaration in our constitution without modification or reservation?"

Posted by: sln2002 | Jan 21 2024 21:45 utc | 38

I have thought long and hard about the actual nature of nazi/fascist societies, so please let me give my assessment. Fascism is definitely NOT an ideology. It is actually a mental disorder in the psychopathic 'constellation', which may be termed 'psychofascism'. However it has some distinguishing traits. These include a propensity to work together, lust for power, profound gratuitous sadism (usually manifested in creating wars), and utter lack of any sense of remorse.

A fascist society is a society that has been usurped by a psychofascist ruling elito-junto. Given time, such a society may spawn an overwhelming majority of mentally damaged 'secondhand psychofascists' among its population.

Unfortunately, the insane psychofascist political ladder-climbers who went to the 'finest schools' will not ever abandon their quest to bring death and chaos down upon the vulnerable, and will continuously build bombs to slaughter defenseless civilians, etc.

If the psychofascist ruling elito-junto really possessed some sort of ideology, there could be some logic within it. But since psychofascism is a mental disorder, it does not function according to any logic whatsoever, and is therefore vastly more dangerous.

Posted by: blues | Jan 21 2024 21:54 utc | 39

waynorinorway | Jan 21 2024 19:29 utc | 28

A few days ago I prophesied that the centennial of Lenin's death would pass without much comment.
I was inclined to say "Even though he was the most important single political figure of the Twentieth Century"* -something that it would be difficult to argue against.

Then it occurred to me that what looked like a contradiction was in fact the reason: Lenin is still far too potent an influence in the world, as much a living threat to imperialism now as he was a century ago, to get the obituary treatment.

*I'd be interested in hearing any contradiction.

suzan | Jan 21 2024 18:53 utc | 24

Todd's emphasis on Protestantism makes me wonder when he was last in a Protestant country.

sln2002 | Jan 21 2024 20:56 utc | 33

Tawney's Religion and the Rise of Capitalism , published almost 25 years later, is a much better book.

petra | Jan 21 2024 21:26 utc | 37
Is it not likely that Hungary was being punished for Bela Kun and the scare it put into the Allies?

Posted by: bevin | Jan 21 2024 21:56 utc | 40

Posted by: petra | Jan 21 2024 21:26 utc | 37

Continuity is not well understood.

CHAPTER II OF ARMENIA MINOR OF THE PORT OF LAIASSUS AND OF THE BOUNDARIES OF THE PROVINCE.

IN commencing the description of the countries which Marco Polo visited in Asia, and of things worthy of notice which he observed therein, it is proper to mention that we are to dis tinguish two Armenias, the Lesser and the Greater. The king of the Lesser Armenia dwells in a city called Sebastoz, and rules his dominions with strict regard to justice. The towns, fortified places, and castles are numerous. [...] Those persons who design to travel into the interior of the Levant, 1 usually proceed in the first instance to this port of Laiassus. The boundaries of the Lesser Armenia are, on the south, the Land of Promise, now occupied by the Saracens; 2 on the north, Karamania, in habited by Turkomans; towards the north-east lie the cities of Kaisariah, Sevasta, 3 and many others subject to the Tar tars; and on the western side it is bounded by the sea, which extends to the shores of Christendom.
[...]-----------------
CHAPTER III
OF THE PROVINCE CALLED TURKOMANIA, WHERE ARE THE CITIES OF KOGNI, KAISARIAH, AND SEVASTA, AND OF ITS COMMERCE.

THE inhabitants of Turkomania 4 may be distinguished into three classes. The Turkomans, who reverence Mahomet and follow his law, are a rude people, and dull of intellect.
---
[1] Levant is a translation of the word Anatolia or Anadoli, from the Greek " ortus, oriens," signifying the country that lies eastward from Greece. As the name of a region therefore it should be equivalent to Natolia, in its more extensive acceptation; and it is evident that our author employs it to denote Asia Minor. Smyrna is at present esteened the principal port in the Levant, and the term seems to be now confined to the sea-coast, and to mercantile usage.
[2] For the Land of Promise, or Palestine, which extends no further to the north than Tyre, is here to be understood Syria, or that part of itcalled Coelo-Syria, which borders on Cilicia or the southern part of Armenia Minor. As the more general denomination of Syria includes Palestine, and the latter name was, in the time of the Crusades, more familiar to Europeans than the former, it is not surprising that they should some times be confounded. The Saracens here spoken of were the subjects of the Mameluk sultans or soldans of Egypt, who recoverd from the Christian powers in Syria, what the princes of the family of Saladin, or of the Ayubite dynasty, had lost. In other parts of the work the term is employed indiscriminately with that of Mahometan.
[3] The Turkomans of Karamania were a race of Tartars settled in Asia Minor, under the government of the Seljuk princes, of whom an account will be found in the following note. Kaisariah or Cassarea, and Sevasta or Sebaste, the Sebastopolis Cappadocias of Ptolemy and Siwas or Sivas of the present day, were cities belonging to the same dynasty, that had been conquered by the. Moghuls in the year 1242.
[4] By Turkomania we are to understand, generally, the possessions of the great Seljuk dynasty in Asia Minor, extending from Cilicia and Painphylia, in the south, to the shores of the Euxine sea, and from Pisidia and Mysia, in the west, to the borders of Armenia Minor;...
[...]-----------------
CHAPTER IV
OF ARMENIA MAJOR, IN WHICH ARE THE CITIES OF ARZTNGAN, ARGIRON, AND DARZIZ OF THE CASTLE OF PAIPURTH OF THE MOUNTAIN WHERE THE ARK OF NOAH RESTED OF THE BOUNDARIES OF THE PROVINCE AND OF A REMARKABLE FOUNTAIN OF OIL.

ARMENIA Major is an extensive province, at the entrance of which is a city named Arzingan,[1] where there is a manufacture of very fine cotton cloth called bombazines,[2] as well as of many other curious fabrics, which it would be tedious to enumerate. It possesses the handsomest and most excellent baths of warm water, issuing from the earth, that are any where to be found.[3] Its inhabitants are for the most part native Armenians, but under the dominion of the Tartars.
[...]-----------------
CHAPTER VI
OF THE PROVINCE OF MOSUL AND ITS DIFFERENT INHABITANTS OF THE PEOPLE NAMED KURDS AND OF THE TRADE OF THIS COUNTRY.

MOSUL is a large province 1 inhabited by various descriptions of people, one class of whom pay reverence to Mahomet, and are called Arabians. 2 The others profess the Christian faith, but not according to the canons of the church, which they depart from in many instances, and are denominated Nestorians, Jacobites, and Armenians. They have a patriarch whom they call Jacolit, 3 and by him archbishops, bishops, and abbots are consecrated and sent to all parts of India, to Cairo, to Baldach (Baghdad), and to all places inhabited by Christains ; in the same manner as by the pope of the Romish church. All those cloths of gold and of silk which we call muslins 4 are of the manufacture of Mosul, and all the great merchants termed Mossulini, who convey spices and drugs, in large quantities, from one country to another, are from this province. In the mountainous parts there is a race of people named Kurds, some of whom are Christians of the Nestorian [!] and Jacobite sects, and others Mahometans. They are all an unprincipled people, whose occupation it is to rob the merchants. [The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian: 30-42]

Posted by: sln2002 | Jan 21 2024 21:56 utc | 41

The two Royal Navy vessels, the HMS Chiddingfold and HMS Bangor collided while docking at port off the coast of Bahrain on January 18,

Posted by: Passerby | Jan 21 2024 22:01 utc | 42

Posted by: mouseovereffect | Jan 21 2024 17:21 utc | 11

What a luxury it must be that every powerful jew gets to hide behind nameless nobodies of their cohort should any gentile be so compelled to speak out about their slavery or genocide.

What an awful world we live in.

Posted by: ryanggg | Jan 21 2024 22:03 utc | 43

James @ 25
I am with you on that bud. I live just east of Toronto on the 401 and see the idiocy of brainwashing everywhere I go. My own brothers rarely call me to talk these days as I am a Putin stooge. They do not understand and will not listen to the other side, the reasons why and the real events, not CBC's version of events. I am blacklisted. They call me a Trumper but don't even listen when I say that I don't like Trump cuz he symbolizes a spanner in the works, a disruption in the "system". I am on my own out here...

Posted by: bisfugged | Jan 21 2024 22:10 utc | 44

I am on my own out here...
@ bisfugged | Jan 21 2024 22:10 utc | 44

I am too. I think we all are alone and on our own.

Not as much as those in Gaza might feel it.

Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | Jan 21 2024 22:19 utc | 45

Some may find this interesting......

17 minute talk by Neil Oliver:
The Davos 3-pronged attack on our freedom

https://youtu.be/9Q9hBO-cQKA?si=GD8dHxplUgRvBZHZ

Only criticism is that he seems, very briefly, to be unfairly hard on "communism".
But perhaps that's to appease audience expectations in the USA?

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 21 2024 22:29 utc | 46

bevin, about 10 pm (GMT), Indeed, that is plausible, but I sincerely doubt that that regrettably short-lived Kun regnum would have been the cause of such drastic formalised punitive measures (the whole of Transcarpathia, of Burgenland, of Bratislava and eastern Slovakia, etc.). After all, Kun was quickly crushed by Romania adveturists (supported by the `powers`) and the main thrust was to stop Kun and the soviet Reds physically reaching each other to the east of Hungary and then snuff out the magyar bolshekiv threat.

The Versailles treaties were an astounding exercise in ethic cleasing, carried out from the gentlemen's clubs of Paris, London, Boston, Rome (and Tokyo).

sln2002, about 22h GMT, Those are interesting, as are the whole of the broader Asia Minor/Turkoman/Levant histories. My pondering is (necessarily) much more narrowly focused on the question of why the `West`(with Japan tagging along) did not seize the opportunity to beat the `muslim` power back across the straits and out of Europe entirely, at a time when they had the perfect opportuninty under guise of all the other territorial shifts going on at the time (cf. Hungary).

Posted by: petra | Jan 21 2024 22:34 utc | 47

MoveOn will launch its 2024 election kickoff on 1/28 with an ambitious plan to "win big this November".
A "few of the issues", they say, "at the heart of this year's election", that "will motivate progressive voters when they hear what's at stake" include:
Abortion rights vs. abortion bans.
Democracy vs. authoritarianism.
An economy that works for all,
protecting workers from corporate greed,
and making billionaires pay their fair share.
Divesting from Big Oil and investing in climate justice.
Defending our freedom to learn against book bans and our freedom of expression
for people to be who they are against attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.

Seems MoveOn is sidestepping the one issue with the potential to divide the progressive vote this November: the on-going genocide in Gaza.

Posted by: thecelticwithinme | Jan 21 2024 23:04 utc | 48

An unusually stirring, rather than lugubriously analytical, Dugin article (linked by b above). He also does a good job delineating globalists (hegemon/unipolar) versus multipolarists versus pseudo left and real left and good-hearted right ('we the people') and so forth. The conclusion pasted in below for those who didn't care to read that article which is not long and well worth it:

So we approached the new year, 2024. And here all the trends continued at an accelerated pace. Tension for the USA in the Middle East is growing by the day. The war in Ukraine will undoubtedly continue, and now the initiative is on Russia’s side.

Also, one should expect an exacerbation of the conflict around Taiwan, where the US has pushed through the anti-Chinese candidate Lai Qingde in the elections, further escalation in the Middle East, continuation of anti-colonial revolutions in Africa, and escalation into a hot phase of contradictions in Latin America.

In the West itself, the crisis is intensifying at an accelerated pace. In the USA, there are elections this year, in which the globalists will face a powerful wave of Republicans.

The European Union is in decline, and there again rises an anti-elite, anti-liberal wave of populists — from the left and the right. There are leftists, like Sahra Wagenknecht and her new party. ‘Red Sahra’ is becoming a symbol of anti-liberal left-wing Europe.

Such leftists are primarily enemies of global capital — unlike pseudo-leftists, bought outright by Soros, who primarily advocate LGBT, Ukrainian Nazism, the genocide in Gaza, and uncontrolled migration, and also desperately fight against Russian influence, Putin, and Russia as a whole.

There is also a right-wing component — significantly battered, but in many European countries it represents the second most important political force. For example, Marine Le Pen in France. In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is gaining strength. In Italy, despite the liberal weakness of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the right half of society has not disappeared. The entire right-wing populism remains as it was.

But there is the globalist West, which tries to present itself as the entire ‘West’, and there are right and left anti-globalists, as well as a huge layer of Western commoners, who make up the ‘silent majority’. This is most important: the European commoner generally does not understand anything about politics. Ordinary Europeans and Americans simply cannot keep up with the demands to change gender, forcibly castrate their little sons, marry goats, bring in and feed even more migrants, eat cockroaches, read prayers to Greta Thunberg at night, and curse the Russians. The Western commoner, the petit bourgeois, is the main support of the multipolar world. He is the core of the real West, not the sinister parody into which it has been transformed by the globalist liberal elites.

It is very possible that in 2024, all these lines of fracture — wars and revolutions, conflicts and uprisings, waves of terrorist attacks, and new territories of genocide — will escalate into something massive. The declining wave of the unipolar world is already giving way to the rising multipolar one. And this is inevitable.

The dragon of globalism is mortally wounded. But it is known how dangerous the agony of a wounded dragon is. The global elite of the West is insane. There are many reasons to believe that in 2024 there will be something terrible. We are at arm’s length from a world war. On all fronts. If it cannot be avoided, then there is nothing left but to win it.

We must slay the dragon to free humanity from its villainous enchantments, and even the West itself, which is its first victim.

https://www.arktosjournal.com/p/slaying-the-dragon-the-world-stands

Starting February 10th it is a Wood Dragon Year. Wood feeds fire; dragons breath fire. The Hexagram for midnight January 1st 2024 is Double Fire. Gonna be a doozy!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 21 2024 23:09 utc | 49

Petra @ 37, 47:

Your question of why the European powers did not push the Turks out of European Thrace entirely was addressed (in a rather different way) at the Quora website under the heading:
Why did the UK cede Istanbul to Turks after the Turkish-Greek War in 1922? Why didn't [the UK] found a city-state like Singapore or Hong Kong and with multi-ethnic population in Istanbul?

The answers given may answer your question more or less, especially as one of the answers notes that at the time, in the early 1920s, the population of Istanbul was probably 50% Muslim / Turkish (in an age when, if you were Muslim, you were Turkish, and if you were Christian, you were Greek, regardless of what language you actually spoke) or less, and the rest of the population was a mixture of different Christian ethnicities (Armenian, Assyrian, Greek and others).

Most of the answers given agree that Britain was in no position to fight to take Istanbul away from the Turks (and the British public at the time would not support another faraway war that would result in more British dead) and the Turks themselves were determined to hang onto Istanbul.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Jan 21 2024 23:28 utc | 50

Take on the entire Muslim world, Russia, China, and Trump supporters at the same time?
...
Posted by: mouseovereffect | Jan 21 2024 17:21 utc | 11

Multiple errors detected. “entire”, “Russia”, “Trump” + “supporters” (you mean those who have been given no other option than Trump?).

Everything, everything, depends on whether China’s deal with Cabal to join the Globalist project permitted it full degree of freedom (unlikely but possible). That is question.

—

Starting February 10th it is a Wood Dragon Year. Wood feeds fire; dragons breath fire. The Hexagram for midnight January 1st 2024 is Double Fire. Gonna be a doozy!

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 21 2024 23:09 utc | 49

The Judgement

The Clinging.
Perseverance furthers.
It brings success.
Care of the cow brings good fortune.

The Image

That which is bright rises twice:
The image of Fire.
Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness,
Illumines the four quarters of the world.

—

I think you are misreading it.

This hexagram refers to the Illumination of the consciousness. Or as we have it in Islam “Light upon Light”.

The reading advises “perseverence” and “taking care of the Cow”. Perseverence in what? Of course the middle path of equanimty, centrality, and correction orientation.

“Care of the cow” indicates benefits of spiritual exercises such as Yoga, and more generally, taking care of one’s livelihood and means of livelihood. In otherwords, do not run off the deep end because of the agitations of the contending parties ...

Dragon is one of the four ‘heavenly creatures’ in the Chinese astrology. It is not the ‘dragon’ of cabal.

Most optimistically

That which is bright rises twice:
The image of Fire.
Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness,
Illumines the four quarters of the world.

This, positively, indicates a broad raising of consciousness. Sounds promising, inshAllah.

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 21 2024 23:35 utc | 51

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 21 2024 23:09 utc | 49

The Year of the Dragon it is and traditionally it may be most propitious for the Chinese, hopefully for the opponents of the globalist regime too. AFAIK there isn't any association of the current year with the dragon/serpent of the Christian tradition.

The fight is on from the get-go. If the world survives the confrontation between the imperial west and the rest, any positive outcome - that is, a decisive defeat for the imperialists - will probably have benign consequences for the western populace, provided a segment of it mobilizes against the establishment. Wouldn't hold my breath though.

Posted by: Constantine | Jan 21 2024 23:51 utc | 52

Speaking of Fire

قُلۡنَا یَـٰنَارُ كُونِی بَرۡدࣰا وَسَلَـٰمًا عَلَىٰۤ إِبۡرَ ٰهِیمَ
WE Said: O Fire, be thou cool and (a means of) Salaam for Abraham”
The Prophets : 21.69

So. This ‘fire’ may “burn” many but it will not touch the “Friends of ALLAH”. Abraham (SAWS) was called “friend” by Allah in Qur’an.

As to Friends reading this, a reminder that

أَلَاۤ إِنَّ أَوۡلِیَاۤءَ ٱللَّهِ لَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَیۡهِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ یَحۡزَنُونَ

wa Salaam!

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 21 2024 23:56 utc | 53

ZH has a posting up with the title

WSJ Editor-in-Chief Admits To Davos Elites 'We No Longer Own The News'

the quote

Case in point, during a WEF discussion at Davos entitled "Defending Truth," Wall St. Journal EIC Emma Tucker lamented this loss of control over 'the facts,' as Modernity.news reports.

"I think there’s a very specific challenge for the legacy brands, like the New York Times and like the Wall Street Journal," Tucker said, adding "If you go back really not that long ago, as I say, we owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well."

"If it said it in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, then that was a fact," she continued, adding "Nowadays, people can go to all sorts of different sources for the news and they’re much more questioning about what we’re saying."

Control of the global narrative still exists to the extent that people like me are lonesome out here on the "fringe" of public/private finance drum banging.....I am thankful that some of the RoW thinks it is important and are banging my public finance drum.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 22 2024 0:06 utc | 54

أَلَاۤ إِنَّ أَوۡلِیَاۤءَ ٱللَّهِ لَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَیۡهِمۡ وَلَا هُمۡ یَحۡزَنُونَ

Indeed! Truly no fear shall be upon the Friends of Allah, nor shall they grieve

Concordance:

The Self
Cannot be pierced by weapons or burned by fire.
Water cannot wet it, nor wind dry it.
The Self
cannot be pierced or burned, made wet or dry.
It
Is Ever-Lasting and Infinite,
Standing on motionless foundations of eternity.
The Self
is unmanifested, beyond all thought, beyond all change.

Knowing this, you should not grieve.

wa Salaam

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 22 2024 0:15 utc | 55

Oh, that was from the The Song of the Lord, The Bhagavad Gita, the lord in question here is Lord Krishna, “friend and chariot driver” of Arjuna.

[i have many translations of the Gita. Recommend Eknath Easwaran’s translation.]

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 22 2024 0:21 utc | 56

Thanks for the extra material this week b! Hudson, Todd and Dugin nail it as usual.

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 22 2024 0:22 utc | 57

psychohistorian | Jan 22 2024 0:06 utc | 54--

Thanks for providing that very important outtake and confession.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 22 2024 0:34 utc | 58

WW2 depleted our oil reserves. It would have been fine, except for Vietnam. At that point, the US had inflated the dollar to the point of going off the gold standard. Hence, the Petro dollar and the chaos that has ensued since then. There will come a time when this house of cards falls.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Jan 22 2024 0:36 utc | 59

@Psychohistorian

I’ve missed when you must have detailed the critical distinction between public and private finance, beyond that which is self-evident. Is the issue simply that banks are privately owned in your opinion? Anything else needs to change or is it just a matter of ownership? (TIA.)

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 22 2024 0:39 utc | 60

Posted by: suzan | Jan 21 2024 18:53 utc | 24

One of the leitmotifs of the late 60s was the split between genuine left revolutionaries and a kind of hippie libertarianism. The latter was championed by pop culture (Lennon's 'Revolution' declared: "if you're talking about destruction you can count me out") and promoted as the liberation of the individual from the strictures of society, hence the drug-taking, 'freeing your head' (as the doormouse said...), etc. This hippie capitalism would prevail, nicely mocked by the Simpsons episode which parodies 'Ben & Jerry's' Google-workplace soft capital. But it was deeply hostile to collectives of any kind, from 'society' to organised religion. 1968 was paved with good intentions but it has definitely led to neoliberal hell.

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 22 2024 0:40 utc | 61

Ok. Now answer me this. The US deindustrialized pretty much on purpose. Now, what would have happened if we hadn't done that and paid for oil at full price like the rest of the world. Instead of coercing every one, we should have payed the price and things would have been better than they are now. After all, a lot of countries have done well without this hubris. Any comments? I welcome a response. Cheers fellow travelers.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Jan 22 2024 0:46 utc | 62

Alastair Crooke appears every week (2 weeks ??) on the Andrew Napolitano podcast called "Judging Freedom". In spite of having worked for FOX News (FAUX News) he maintained his independent thoughts. He was absolutely NOT Rupert Murdoch's sockpuppet.

Alistair Crooke:
- Israel has lost the PR war.
- The israeli cabinet is close to / in panic. Netanyahu needs a diversion distract attention from the Gaza disaster / failure.
- No one (neither Hezbollah, Iran, the US (White House & State Department)) wants to be seen to have triggered the next war in the Middle East. They all want to inoculate themselves from any blame for starting or facilitating the next war.
- The israeli minister of defence has said: "the hourglass is going to be turned, there is no more time left, we are going to take action".
- The israelis who have been evecuated from the north of Israel are not willing to go back to their homes because Hezbollah is firing rockets into north Israel. These people live in the rest of Israel in hotels (I assume the israeli government pays for those people staying in those hotels ?). That puts extra pressure on the israeli cabinet to take action/do something.
- Some members of the israeli cabinet wanted to investigate now what went wrong on october 7, 2023. This is seen as a attempt to put (even more) pressure on Netanyahu. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are increasing the pressure on Netanyahu.

Are there more details what caused the explosion in the refinery in Haifa (in the past week) ?

Posted by: WMG | Jan 22 2024 0:53 utc | 63

The two Royal Navy vessels, the HMS Chiddingfold and HMS Bangor collided while docking at port off the coast of Bahrain on January 18,

As good a way as any to avoid being sent to Ukraine.
Posted by: Passerby | Jan 21 2024 22:01 utc | 42

Except that the Brits have more ships than sailors.

Posted by: Honzo | Jan 22 2024 0:56 utc | 64

Thanks for another great week b!
---

aside from a few hundred years of the british empire, it is still busy sucking up to the usa in the usa's imperial empire state

james, I cam across article by Mathew Ehret over at SCF, a while back that had it the other way. I wish I had time to dig it up.
He asserted that the British empire never ended. It just change location of the offices, as it were. Every major agency in US is infiltrated/occupied by an installed Brit.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Jan 22 2024 1:44 utc | 65

WMG | Jan 22 2024 0:53 utc | 63--

Crooke's been a weekly feature on Judging Freedom, Mondays most of the time, for several months now. His appearances were more sporadic prior to 7 October and focused mostly on Ukraine. I expect he'll be on tomorrow and his weekly SCF essay will be published, which I read first as it provides context for the chat later.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 22 2024 1:45 utc | 66

My newest substack is sure to raise the fleas's hackles, "Who Owns History? Timofey Bordachev: Russia and the West Are Creating Their Own Versions of History", where I provide and comment upon Bordachev's 7 January Vzglyd essay, while connecting it to some very recent news regarding facts and their not being made freely available. Also, I editorialize on just how historians ought to perform and my approach.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 22 2024 1:52 utc | 67

@Multipolar Panda, #35:

Regarding your narrative on Taiwan Independence, I’m not familiar with the constitutional requirements needed for such declaration but I think what you have described seems reasonably logical and true. But, even if the government in power achieves the consensus of the Legislature and over half of the eligible voting population, and proceeds to change the Constitution ad such, it doesn’t mean it would have achieved independence. It would have to withstand the hammer pounding and other forms of wrath from across the Taiwan Strait to bring Independence a reality.

If Taiwan can withstand the pounding for one day I’ll be impressed and surprised. If they can withstand a week, I’ll call it a miracle. If they can withstand a month I’ll feel more sorry for them than I am now for Gaza. If they can withstand a year, I’ll call that a greater miracle than the rise China over the past 40 years, and by then I’ll join the sentiment and consider Taiwan Independence legitimate.

Forget about ‘Murica/Japs/NATO coming to any kind of aid besides blah blahs and other types of BS. When pounding starts, Taiwan is on its own.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jan 22 2024 1:53 utc | 68

"....He asserted that the British empire never ended. It just change location of the offices, as it were. Every major agency in US is infiltrated/occupied by an installed Brit."
Sakineh Bagoom | Jan 22 2024 1:44 utc | 65

That's typical of Ehret's writing. It is certainly true that the British Empire never ended, it just switched HQ's to the western side of the Atlantic. But the lily needn't be gilded with the utter nonsense that there are British agents in the US government. That isn't the way that Empires work, and nothing shows it more graphically than the personnel running the Empire, all of who are neither British (Anita Hill and, Irish, Samantha Power are exceptions, proving the rule) nor any cleverer than the British people who used to run the Empire from London.

The problem is that LaRouche fingered the British (and the Royal Family in particular) and then there is the whole Round Table and Cecil Rhodes thing so there just have to be sinister English agents running the US- the British ruling class just wish that it were so but they really don't have anything much more to offer than the Blinkens and Pompeos of the world.
And the oligarchs prefer to deal with guys who talk the way they do, went to the same schools that they went to and don't read books or look at paintings- just as they don't.

Posted by: bevin | Jan 22 2024 2:13 utc | 69

@ Mark2 | Jan 21 2024 20:43 utc | 32

thanks.. yes -dog eat dog - that is what is going to happen now... netanyahu knows it too..

@ john | Jan 21 2024 20:58 utc | 34

thanks john... just listening now... i like the bass clarinet! i also like the bassoon - instruments that are generally not played much..

@ bisfugged | Jan 21 2024 22:10 utc | 44

fortunately we have moa as a type of alternate universe! i think it's a sanctuary for a number of people all over the world, including canada..

@ Sakineh Bagoom | Jan 22 2024 1:44 utc | 65

that conclusion by Mathew Ehret certainly makes sense... essentially it has been a transfer of power from one empire to the next - british to american.. the problem here is that empire is fast approaching its own demise.. this would explain the level of propaganda that is now off the charts too..

Posted by: james | Jan 22 2024 2:17 utc | 70

Everyone seems to be living in the past. Where things were as they were. It's now the future, and nothing is going to be the same.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Jan 22 2024 2:26 utc | 71

The US as a nation is gone. And, the empire is withering before our eyes. Look at any major city in the US. Go look at the photos. Tell me that we can recover from this blight. I'm in my mid sixties, so I know how it used to be. None of this had to happen. Try voting your way out of this mess. Trump? Loves Israel. How is this going to play out??? Dread, Mon, truly dread.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Jan 22 2024 2:36 utc | 72

When pounding starts, Taiwan is on its own.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jan 22 2024 1:53 utc | 68

It sure is. It's already on it's own but pretends it isn't.

Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | Jan 22 2024 2:38 utc | 73

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 21 2024 23:35 utc | 51

You are correct, robinthehood, the dragon is an enormously positive sign. I know because I was born in the year of the dragon, and when I told my Chinese soninlaw that, he was enormously impressed. It is a sign of good fortune. This is to be a positive year, a year of opportunity when all our ills may be overcome. Light on light, as you have said.

I see much clarity in people's understanding of the situation. Learning who not to believe is an enormous step forward; you don't ever go back.

Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2024 3:10 utc | 74

In respoinse to
"
@Psychohistorian

I’ve missed when you must have detailed the critical distinction between public and private finance, beyond that which is self-evident. Is the issue simply that banks are privately owned in your opinion? Anything else needs to change or is it just a matter of ownership? (TIA.)

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 22 2024 0:39 utc | 60
"

I encourage you to read lots of Michael Hudson and I am just a tad bit more adamant than him a bout the need to eliminate private finance entirely.....which I have been writing about here for over a decade....along with eliminating private property and ongoing inheritance.
We need new ways to honor social contributions, IMO.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 22 2024 3:12 utc | 75

@ james | Jan 21 2024 18:58 utc | 27

Thanks James.

I remember listening to several interviews of Emmanuel Todd last year too. I was taken in then but now not so much.

My French is probably not good enough to comprehend the book well, so I will have to read an English version when it comes out to figure out what I think.

Of course, one should not believe everything one thinks!

Posted by: suzan | Jan 22 2024 3:12 utc | 76

“So read it, and some day report on the evolution of western epistemology according to your observations of how eNtiTiEs of little faith defeated "great power" projection of the second estate.”
by: sln2002 | Jan 21 2024 20:56 utc | 33

Thanks sln2002. You always bring much to the table. Much appreciated.
~~

“Ask yourself, ‘SELF, why didn't my government incorporated this declaration in our constitution without modification or reservation?’”
Posted by: sln2002 | Jan 21 2024 21:45 utc | 38

‘cause it’s an empire, not a government for the people, a “rules based order” functioning for a select few…

Posted by: suzan | Jan 22 2024 3:14 utc | 77

@ bevin

“Todd's emphasis on Protestantism makes me wonder when he was last in a Protestant country.”
bevin | Jan 21 2024 21:56 utc | 40

Succinct and to the point. Thanks.

Posted by: suzan | Jan 22 2024 3:15 utc | 78

@ Patroklos

“One of the leitmotifs of the late 60s was the split between genuine left revolutionaries and a kind of hippie libertarianism…promoted as the liberation of the individual from the strictures of society, hence the drug-taking, 'freeing your head' (as the doormouse said...), etc. This hippie capitalism would prevail….deeply hostile to collectives of any kind, from 'society' to organised religion. “
Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 22 2024 0:40 utc | 61

Clearly said. Thanks.

Why, how, under what conditions did the libertine and libertarian aspects of the 1960s social revolution survive, even thrive, whilst the traditional left part of it was marginalized?

Such an outcome surely has more to do with money than the lack of religion, more about war than peace — since the dominant political-economic system had long since entered its monopoly and imperialist phases. Maybe mass media shaping public opinion “chose” winners and losers?

I am having a hard time getting behind Todd’s idea that a lack of Calvinist work ethic is the reason for the decline since usury was embraced by Calvinists much much earlier, separating the moral sphere from the business sphere. Which comes first, exploitation or strike?

Or maybe that’s the thing. Calvinist Protestantism gave a green light to private capital development over the power of the state and because of the time lag involved, general morality, that is commitments to home, family, community etc., crucial social bonds held together until they could no more, eventually breaking under the social burden, and so dissolving into thin air, leaving general anomie.
And libertines were a catalyst for the dissolution. Real lefties would have solidified the bonds in a reconfigured positive way. That’s my bias.

Posted by: suzan | Jan 22 2024 3:22 utc | 79

Control of the global narrative still exists to the extent that people like me are lonesome out here on the "fringe" of public/private finance drum banging.....I am thankful that some of the RoW thinks it is important and are banging my public finance drum.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 22 2024 0:06 utc | 54

You are very much not alone, psychohistorian, especially as this thread began with people questioning the narrative, asking what has gone wrong, why folk are casting thoughts back to when it was better. And my thought is that ideology is going to be a loser -- people are where it is at. I have a quote which might annoy you - we can get into a monotheism debate but look what beautiful posts are coming from robinthehood about the friends of Abraham, light upon light etc. It is all coming down to reality -- they can't 'create' it any longer; we are not listening to them or reading them or watching them!

And that's the real 'we' - not their 'we'.

Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2024 3:32 utc | 80

@Posted by: Multipolar Panda | Jan 21 2024 21:11 utc | 36

A while ago I did an in depth article on the Western propaganda with respect to Xinjiang, including a couple of books by a host of so-called mainstream academics who are used to wash the Adrian Zenz and other propaganda through "reputable" university publications.

Western Propaganda and Xinjiang

Posted by: Roger | Jan 22 2024 3:35 utc | 81

@ juliania | Jan 22 2024 3:32 utc | 80 with the follow up to my public finance drum beat...thanks

Yes, we agree on values. I am not sure where you are at with the patriarchy part of monotheism that I have grown to despise more and more. Women not having agency in the way in which our form of social organization is structured and sexes valued is a condemnation of our species, IMO. We are failing as a species not just because of the barbarism but because of the unbalanced patriarchy that goes with it and which feeds the monotheistic way......

This current religious justified genocide is a clear view into the anti-humanistic core of that Abraham face stolen from what you continue to say are the true believers.....time to cast the usury and other devils out of the spawn of Abraham.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 22 2024 3:49 utc | 82

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 21 2024 23:35 utc | 51

You are correct, robinthehood, the dragon is an enormously positive sign. I know because I was born in the year of the dragon, and when I told my Chinese soninlaw that, he was enormously impressed. It is a sign of good fortune. This is to be a positive year, a year of opportunity when all our ills may be overcome. Light on light, as you have said.

I see much clarity in people's understanding of the situation. Learning who not to believe is an enormous step forward; you don't ever go back.

Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2024 3:10 utc | 74

Dear Juliana. I am a “little dragon” myself. Also wood, as you know, is not ‘dead wood’ but rather represents the entirety of ‘Green Life’. It is “dead wood’ when it has been ‘cut off from the life-force’, that is God. Naturally, dead wood is consumed by fire.

It does promise to be a wonderful year, however the hexagram indicates what is necessary. One note for completion sake, which occured after I posted: “Care of the cow” in the general reading is this: https://friederishi.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/oxherding.png

The inner condition of the hexagram: The inner trigrams of ‘The Clinging (30)’ are the ‘Joyous/Lake’ and ‘Gentle/Wind’. And of course the outer ones are both ‘Clinging/Fire’. All 3 are *Feminine*. The entire affair is feminine which points to psyche/soul.

So here in this hexagram we have the entire program for ‘raising one’s consciousness’. The inner qualities of joy and gentleness not only guide us to what is required of us in the path of spiritual growth, but also reveal something much more important:

Religion/spiritual-schools can be likened to a ‘Fire’. It can warm us and it can burn us and it can also ‘shed light’. Souls that penetrate the ‘outer fire’ of Scripture will arrive at the true nature of the Divine Word: Joyous and Gentle Love. Further, the all feminine aspect directs us to the pure feminine archetype in Hexagram 2: The Receptive (which is the ultimate condition of the soul): https://www.wisdomportal.com/IChing/IChing-Wilhelm.html#2

Confronting lies and half-truths will bring victory. First however we must confront this inside. The world is of our making, and our thoughts and speech shape it [Matt 15:11]

All the blessings to you Juliana. A Dragon should ‘soar in heavens’ ..

& Salaam

Posted by: robinthehood | Jan 22 2024 3:53 utc | 83

Here's my quote - and I want it to be taken not just in a strictly Orthodox Christian sense but in a multipolar sense - as an answer to what it was folk were seeing in the Putin meeting with people from military families we recently saw thanks to karlof1. It's about family, and it is about education - all the good things the west doesn't do any longer:

The Farewell Apologia of St. Gregory the Theologian

There is one concise, public expression of our teaching, a kind of inscription available for all to read: this people! They are authentic worshippers of the Trinity, so much so that any one of them would sooner be separated from this present life than separate one of the three from the Godhead. They think as one, praise as one, are ruled by one doctrine in their relationship to each other, to us, and To the Trinity

I will just say that reading about Gregory as I have done today -- he trained with pagan teachers in Alexandria and Athens, and he is speaking not from the great church in Constantinople but from a house turned into a church, where his company is of those professing an orthodoxy which has been under seige from different more popular but not orthodox rivals. The house is named 'Anastasis' or 'Resurrection' not in the sense of Scripture but as a resurrection of orthodox teaching. He is ultimately successful in this -- it's a fascinating story, an ongoing one.

Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2024 4:02 utc | 84

@Posted by: petra | Jan 21 2024 22:34 utc | 47

The Versailles treaties were an astounding exercise in ethic cleasing, carried out from the gentlemen's clubs of Paris, London, Boston, Rome (and Tokyo).

And done again after WW2 with the handing of chunks of Eastern Germany to Poland and Czechoslovakia, with about 14 million Germans forced out and at least half a million dying in the process. Poland asking for reparation against Germany is ridiculous given the scale of the German lands that they were already given.

@Posted by: suzan | Jan 22 2024 3:22 utc | 79

Why, how, under what conditions did the libertine and libertarian aspects of the 1960s social revolution survive, even thrive, whilst the traditional left part of it was marginalized?

The ruling elite will always co-opt the parts of attempted revolutions that are beneficial to it and shed those that don't, integrating them into the hegemonic culture. Much of this is done through varied carrots (cushy jobs, quiet life, upward mobility, ease of getting work published, superficial concessions) and sticks (lose job, get arrested, get jailed, get killed) that filter out the pieces the ruling class find problematic. The rapid move of MLK from "good" Black man to "bad" Black man when he started pointing to economic inequities and their causes, rather than just voting ones, is instructive. We even see this with the work of Gramsci where the Western academy has stripped it of all the historical materialist guts of his work to utilize the "cultural" pieces. Gabriel Rockhill has done some excellent work on what he calls the Global Theory Industry that has created a non-threatening "critical theory" devoid of historical materialism and any concept of economic class.

Posted by: Roger | Jan 22 2024 4:05 utc | 85

Posted by: bevin | Jan 22 2024 2:13 utc | 69

I also agree that Ehret almost leaves out the US Americans as active and willing participants in the imperialist project and overemphasizes the role of the Brits on all aspects. But as far as the ideological underpinings of the Anglo-American empire go, they are to be tracked down among the top British oligarchs, especially Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Milne.

The fundamental idea was the perpetuation of the British empire and this goal demanded the "restoration" of the US to the imperial fold. Since Rhodes was explicit about this goal and the means to achieve it, which included the establishment of think tanks that would prepare cadres on the foreign policy personnel and the media, Ehret adopted the view that every aspect of Anglo-American imperialism was to be found among the Brits.

The key, of course, is the class factor, which Ehret, incapable or unwilling to follow Marxist concepts, tends to disregard. Thus, the whole process of amalgamation of the ruling elites of the British empire and the emerging superpower of the US were profitable for all concerned. It's not as if the Yankee oligarchs were inconvenienced by the imperialist modus operandi of the British counterparts.

Still, it is correct to point out that the root of this extreme ideological cancer, the visceral supremacism and the attachment to global domination, definitely originated in the topmost elements of the British upper class. In this sense, Ehret has been on point concerning the utterly sinister nature of the regime in London and its closest appendages in the old British empire. Though, for certain reasons the Kiwis appear to be somewhat less attuned to the general imperial mindset of the other Anglos.

Posted by: Constantine | Jan 22 2024 4:12 utc | 86

Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2024 4:02 utc | 84

That may have been a farewell speech by Gregory, after he opted to resign as Patriarch of Constantinople to return to his native Cappadocia, utterly disgusted with the venality of various corrup clergymen who engaged in various plots and underhanded meansto undermine his position.

The experiences of all Three Hierarchs are in tune of numerous teachings in the Christian faith against venality, hypocrisy and abuse of religious tenets in the service of state authorities and policies.

Posted by: Constantine | Jan 22 2024 4:20 utc | 87

The chicken or the egg? CIA or ISI first created terror groups to play politics? DOJ or ISI first to use courts to manage the coming national elections?

https://www.dawn.com/news/1807713/the-wind-vs-the-people

Posted by: Antonym | Jan 22 2024 4:28 utc | 88

Drama queen Nikki Haley is running a bizarre campaign. In a PBS Judy Woodruff segment over the weekend she she took a swipe at Trump by nattering about the chaos that "follows him around."

Unfortunately, "Don't vote for Trump" is neither a seductive nor a visionary long-term policy.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 22 2024 4:29 utc | 89

Hoarsewhisperer@89
Nikki Haley is John McCain wearing Lindsay Graham's 5-inch heels.

Posted by: AJ | Jan 22 2024 4:47 utc | 90

"Even though he [Lenin] was the most important single political figure of the Twentieth Century"*
*I'd be interested in hearing any contradiction.
Posted by: bevin | Jan 21 2024 21:56 utc | 40

You won’t get dissent from me. He’s captain of my all-time debate team. I just woke to the thought that Lenin himself was a symbol of the Soviet flag. He could hammer and cut like no other. Agree, he still does.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jan 22 2024 4:52 utc | 91

@Posted by: Constantine | Jan 22 2024 4:12 utc | 86

Ehret loses the plot when he misunderstands the forced handover of power from Europe to the US. Very early in WW2, the US elites coordinated through the CFR to take global hegemony. With the UK bankrupting itself during WW2 this was relatively easy to do, as it could be credit blackmailed into giving up the Empire then slapped hard (as was France) during Suez to understand its place. Of course, Germany, Italy and Japan were destroyed by the war and treated as defeated nations to become US vassals.

After the defeat of the South in the Civil War, the US became ruled by the purest bourgeois elite - very different to the UK and European cases. WW1 and WW2 constituted the fratricide of European and UK power (plus Japan), leaving the way wide open for the US - as the US elite realized with the fall of France. All of the post-WW2 financial infrastructure was designed for US dominance.

The power centre sits in the US, with US corporations predominantly owned by US citizens while UK and European corporations are also heavily owned by US citizens. There is also increasing US rich citizen ownership of Japanese and South Korean corporations post-1990s. The US oligarchy both occupy Europe, Japan And South Korea with their troops and own much of the corporations in those areas. The UK elite is now just an extremely nasty servant of the US. Silly tales of "London ruling the world" are just ridiculous musings. The UK elite does what it is told by its boss, the US elite.

Posted by: Roger | Jan 22 2024 5:14 utc | 92

@Posted by: Antonym | Jan 22 2024 4:28 utc | 88

The ISI are simply a group that serves the interests of the ruling elite, just like the CIA. They are one of many avenues through which the elites manipulate their nations, including the courts, constitution and the fabricating of external threats.

The US elite carried out the Framers Coup in the eighteenth century when they replaced the much more democratic and distributed power of the US Articles of Confederation with the centralized property serving US Constitution and have used the courts ever since to control the country. They have also nearly constantly fabricated internal and external enemies to sway the public. A good example is Wilson's fascist state from 1917-1920, used to crush any resistance to the US entering the war and also to crush socialist unions and other related organizations.

Pakistan is relatively new to the game having only been created post-WW2.

Posted by: Roger | Jan 22 2024 5:23 utc | 93

Posted by: Constantine | Jan 22 2024 4:20 utc | 87

Yes, I think it was, Constantine. That is what interested me in reading his bio. He actually wrote five important theology treatises while he was at that house, only described as a church in some versions, but it was his residence at first. I think Father Florovsky has the most accurate rendition of his journeys back and forth. I'd only known that he was always reluctant to take on even the priesthood his father insisted upon. I didn't realize that he wasn't keen on the ecumenical councils either.

Going further into the piece I quoted from he has a lovely brief analysis of the Trinity - I'll add a bit here:

"1. The One without beginning and the Beginning and the One who is with the Beginning are one God.
Being without beginning is not the nature of the One without beginning, nor is being unbegotten; for nature is never a designation for what something is not, but for what something is. The affirmation of what is is not the denial of what is not.

2. Nor is the Beginning kept separate from that which is without beginning by the fact that it is a Beginning: for being the Beginning is not his nature, any more than being the One without beginning is the nature of the other.
These characteristics "surround" nature, but are not nature.

He goes on. This formulation reminds me a bit of Buber's "I and Thou".

Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2024 6:38 utc | 94

@ Roger | Jan 22 2024 5:23 utc | 93

Thanks, that is helpful.

Bad guys will copy bad guys, it is their weakness. Could be their downfall.

Posted by: Antonym | Jan 22 2024 8:27 utc | 95

Bevin @ 40:

One could argue that Stalin was more important as a political figure than Lenin, in terms of the long-lasting consequences of the decisions he made.

After Lenin's death in 1924, there was still the possibility that whatever advances the Bolsheviks had made under this leadership could be stopped and reversed by factions in the Party, or by more economic crises and instability. It is arguable that Stalin's leadership helped consolidate Communist rule and set the USSR on a path of economic development and autarky that Lenin might not have been able to achieve had he lived longer but with deteriorating health.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Jan 22 2024 8:41 utc | 96

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Posted by: Zaina | Jan 22 2024 10:08 utc | 97

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/the-emperors-new-clothes/

The Emperor’s New Clothes

Just as a fictional emperor paid his tailors a fortune for clothes that no one could see, and then marched naked in a grand public procession while his subjects roared with laughter, so, too, is President Joe Biden attempting to march clothed with the Constitution he dishonors.

He will have the same fate as the emperor.

Posted by: MD | Jan 22 2024 10:23 utc | 98

@petra | Jan 21 2024 22:34 utc | 47

My pondering is (necessarily) much more narrowly focused on the question of why the `West`(with Japan tagging along) did not seize the opportunity to beat the `muslim` power back across the straits and out of Europe entirely [...]

@Refinnejenna | Jan 21 2024 23:28 utc | 50

LOL, pseudohistory. Istanbul and the straits were left to the Turks, because the Angloes feared the Russian expansion, now even Bolshevik: the Turks were (and are) rabidly anti-Russian, and rabidly anti-Communist, so a good assurance against a Russian influence over the straits. Greeks, Bulgarians, and Serbs are all too sympathetic with the Russians, that is why the Angloes favoured the Turks in the area.

Posted by: SG | Jan 22 2024 10:53 utc | 99

To all Chinese readers...
Dont believe the goat diversion about
'Jew's war on China', its FUKUS led all the way.

In case you forget...
https://tinyurl.com/ybkdxe83
Seriously out of date already.

Posted by: denk | Jan 22 2024 13:46 utc | 100