Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
March 20, 2024
Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-084

News & views (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) …

Comments

@ Posted by: Paul from Norway | Mar 21 2024 19:53 utc | 192
> Stoolberg, Fascist ZionaziShits each and everyone for generations …
“Why do you call him Stoolberg?”
Stool= shit
Berg = iceberg
He is single-handedly making holes in the Collective Waste Titanic.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 21 2024 23:15 utc | 201

Craig Murray explains about new law coming into force at the start of next month in Scotland….
Scotland’s Hate Speech Act and Abuse of Process
Very stazi-statist. (later to be duplicated in England?)
It could even make reading this forum illegal in Scotland.
Next logical step would be allegation and punishment of future wrong-think…
Getting closer to a point where (report back to base) brain chip implants — such as are seemingly desired by the WEF — could eventually be promoted as being the only proof of innocence any normal member of the public can have … except of course total surveillance would not be a safeguard against false accusation at all, since data can be altered.

Posted by: Cynic | Mar 21 2024 23:41 utc | 202

Posted by: SG | Mar 20 2024 22:18 utc | 67
Thank you for such a well considered answer. On the road 12 hrs today vs expected 8. Endless construction delays. Rest places closed or under supplied. Very unpleasant journey and quite different from numerous pre covid trips all over Mexico. Ended up doing 8 hours straight without finding anywhere to sit indoors and have food and drink. Strange.
Anyway, thanks again!

Posted by: P | Mar 22 2024 2:44 utc | 203

Posted by: bevin | Mar 20 2024 16:37 utc | 18
Always appreciate your comments, Bevin.

Posted by: Saturna | Mar 22 2024 3:33 utc | 204

FUKUS
[Fuck UK, US]
no MORE ‘What a beautiful sight to behold’ for you’. !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Q5WlIvDto
Posted by: denk | Mar 21 2024 18:13 utc |
———————–

Cameron demands release of Jimmy Lai
Cameron demands HK to revoke security law

Cameron

Hong Kong’s reputation as an international city was founded on respect for the rule of law, the independence of its institutions, its high degree of autonomy and protection of the rights and freedoms afforded to all people living and working there. This new law, rushed through the legislative process, will have far-reaching implications for all of these areas

I bet all those oh so oppressed HKers would wanna trade place with the blessed Chagosians, Ryuku Ren, Chinese Indon, or Jeju islanders !!!

The broad definitions of national security and external interference will make it harder for those who live, work and do business in Hong Kong. It fails to provide certainty for international organisations, including diplomatic missions, who are operating there.

The broad definitions of national security and external interference will make it harder for those who live, work and do monkey business in Hong Kong.
It remove immunity for international terrorists outfits, including CIA/MI6 safe houses, NED sponsored NGO, who are operating there.
FIFY

It will entrench the culture of self-censorship which now dominates Hong Kong’s social and political landscape, and enable the continuing erosion of freedoms of speech, of assembly, and of the media

It will rid HK media of FUKUSA fifth column such as Jimmy lai etc, who famously told his anglo mentors…

Look,
Im at the front line, fighting for HK your war.
Why cant you return the favor….nuke the bastards !

Posted by: denk | Mar 22 2024 3:37 utc | 205

De-dollarization brings Peace.

Posted by: Exile | Mar 22 2024 4:15 utc | 206

A little thought experiment on the USSR and justifications, using Grover Furr’s work as a starting point:
If what Furr says* is accurate, does that not make the Soviet Union a grotesquely flawed structure, that achieved good due to the often gigantic sacrifices of its citizens, and more often than not, despite rather than because of its structure?
*Furr says amongst other things:
1. Many lies spread about Stalin and Beria.
2. Stalin wanted to abandon Gulags and introduce competitive elections, but was stymied by the rest of the leadership.
3. Much of the oppressiveness of the Stalin years due to traitors (Yezhov, e.g.) and foreign (e.g. Polish nationalist infiltration) campaigns hijacking state infrastructure to commit crimes.
4. Show trials largely legitimate (show evidence, despite guilty plea, hence name), yet falsely condemned by later Soviet leadership.
It strikes me that if one accepts Furr’s arguments and evidence regarding the history of the USSR, while one could understand defending it to prevent more crimes against its population (e.g. Yeltsin era), it was a monstrosity that had no need of being cloned, and if a good opportunity arose to replace it without further suffering, it would be criminal not to carefully use such an opportunity.

Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Mar 22 2024 4:20 utc | 207

Posted by: SG | Mar 20 2024 22:18 utc | 67
Somehow P posted it but twas a weary scorpion…
Thank you for such a well considered answer. On the road 12 hrs today vs expected 8. Endless construction delays. Rest places closed or under supplied. Very unpleasant journey and quite different from numerous pre covid trips all over Mexico. Ended up doing 8 hours straight without finding anywhere to sit indoors and have food and drink. Strange.
Anyway, thanks again!
Posted by: P | Mar 22 2024 2:44 utc | 204

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 22 2024 4:21 utc | 208

De-dollarization brings Peace.
Posted by: Exile | Mar 22 2024 4:15 utc | 207
It should, but as we know the US and UK love nothing more than a fight. How hard they are willing to thrash about and scream and scream and scream is a worry.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Mar 22 2024 9:06 utc | 209

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2024 21:06 utc | 196
Never said they did so you are projecting again.
You are the one in denial.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Mar 22 2024 9:20 utc | 210

The Canadian ChatNSDAP bot uses MLA format footnotes in its posts? Struggling non-STEM undergrads should find out which generative AI model it uses. That could save a lot of time for “students” in the university equivalent of Special Education programs that could be better spent getting shit-faced and stoned.
Aside: if a student’s university work can be replaced with the product of generative AI, their efforts in the workforce when they graduate can also be replace with generative AI. In other words, the ”journalism” presstitution occupation is over. Big business simply has rapidly declining need for the offspring of the middle class. Digital whores are much more satisfying (and profitable) than obese, pink-haired, entitled, lazy ham beasts.
Is arguing with such a digital whore as satisfying as employing one? Not for me, but obviously some people seem to like it.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 22 2024 10:44 utc | 211

Andrei
Gen. Coustou’s interview is here. It is worth watching (even with YT’s bad machine translation if you are not as fluent as Tolstoy Jr). He was one of the signatories to the open letter serving French officers sent to Macron in 2021 demanding that he sort out the domestic situation (riots) – or else..
– He identifies Macron as the enemy of France, not Putin
– He says the French army in Ukraine could hold out on a front of 80km for 3 days
– When asked if the Army can disobey an order to deploy, he says the matter is “delicate”..
– He says France didn’t join the Red Sea anti Houthi expedition for fear of rebellion in the banlieues
– He says it is not in France’s interest to go to war and for French soldiers to die for Ukraine
– He asks the rhetorical question “do you think Putin wants to come and bathe his feet in the Atlantic?” (!)
– He finishes by saying the traitors to France will one day be held accountable and if you are looking for action he is waiting for you!
The comments are awesome. Vive La France.
To the commenters here disparaging France and the French: We have the same enemy and IMO the French people are very likely to be in the vanguard in the fight back against the globalists. Watch this space and remember 1958 as well as 1789.
Guerre en Ukraine : Macron, ” l’ennemi de la France … — YouTube

Posted by: MD | Mar 22 2024 11:13 utc | 212

Hi Andrei,
As a Belgian, living in France I can confirm that there is no free press left here. I was listening Sunday to radio France Info and did not believed what I heard. They found another légion d’honneur guy who just wrote a new book about Russia and Putin. Nicolas Tenzer. Teacher of Science Po. Advocating to immediately attack Russia without fear,since France had nukes, the West has 20 times more better soldiers , Putin has fear, Russia is weak…
Not one counterargument from this official french jounalist!
The rest of the day were arguments against the legacy of the russian elections, in a convincing way for the average french listener who will shake his head about such an ‘evil’ country.
And your exemple from LCI tv spoke about scenarios of up to 20000 soldiers, who could rapidly move from the Dnieper river to the frontier of Bielorussia.
Comment Section:
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2024/03/french-connection.html?m=1

Posted by: MD | Mar 22 2024 11:18 utc | 213

https://english.cas.cn/newsroom/mutimedia_news/202312/t20231201_653461.shtml
What’s China’s Role in Creation of “artificial sun”?
China has delivered the last batch of the key components for the world’s biggest “artificial sun.” This megaproject aims to create clean and sustainable energy through a fusion process for global energy supply.

Posted by: MD | Mar 22 2024 11:24 utc | 214

https://titaniclifeboatacademy.org/
Death Squads And The Price Of ‘Justice’ In America
Leonard Peltier is the crown jewel of American injustice. He is 79 years old and has been locked in prison for almost 50 years for crimes which the government – admits it cannot prove – he committed. Today he is afflicted with diabetes and a worrisome aortic aneurysm.
As an advocate for the American Indian Movement (AIM) Peltier was well known to the FBI in the early 1970s.
Following a controversial trial Peltier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two FBI agents (Ron Williams and Jack Coler) in a June 26, 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Posted by: MD | Mar 22 2024 11:31 utc | 215

https://www.brasilwire.com/seeds-of-a-new-coup-in-brazil/
Seeds Of A New Coup In Brazil
As Bolsonaro arrest looms, allies set stage for coup after possible Trump victory, but will they succeed?
By BRIAN MIER
After a year in which Brazil’s GDP grew at a rate over 3 times higher than projected by the IMF, unemployment hit an 11-year low, and the number of Brazilians living with severe food insecurity dropped from 33 million to 20 million, President Lula has angered international business elites, the military, and evangelical Christians. This has led to a month of negative reporting in Brazil’s mainstream and social media reminiscent of the smear campaigns in the lead up to the 2016 coup against Dilma Rousseff…

Posted by: MD | Mar 22 2024 11:34 utc | 216

https://seektruthfromfacts.org/guess-submissions/doomed-by-decoupling-the-west-falls-further-behind-by-godfree-roberts-member-of-the-china-writers-group/
We are decoupling from China and, a fortiori, from its technology, and from the 130 countries in its currency, trade and defense alliances. Highlights from 2023 suggest that we are far behind – and the gap is widening.
Economy
In 2023, China’s economy grew by $1.6 trillion, more than the rest of the world’s combined – while the USA borrowed $3 trillion to fund $300 billionGDP growth. Real wages grew 4.7% and demographics will remain healthy through 2043. 21 million tourists flew during Golden Week and spent $3 billion in Xinjiang alone. Hangzhou hosted more athletes at the Asian Games than the Olympics and domestic brands Anta and Li-Ning outsold Nike and Adidas.
Research
Young Science became the world’s #3 journal and is rapidly overtaking incumbent leaders Nature and Science. With a $228 billion corporate R&D budget, 3 million Chinese scientists applied for almost as many patents as the rest of the world combined, and utterly dominated the top 1% of most influential papers. Huawei’s R&D budget alone is larger than the US CHIPS and Science Act.
Health
Researchers there cured thalassemia, reversed autism and aging, provided Covid immunization with a dry powder aerosol, curednasopharyngeal cancer, constipation, atherosclerosis and improved Alzheimer’s memory and functionality. They grew human kidneys in pig embryos and oversaw the first live birth of chimeric monkeys
Hard Tech
Scientists created the first graphene semiconductor, while Betavolt began shipping an atomic energy battery that powers consumer devices for 99 years…

Posted by: MD | Mar 22 2024 11:41 utc | 217

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-authorities-arrest-two-maria-corina-machado-associates-over-alleged-violent-plot/
The opposition’s purported efforts to reignite street violence aimed to generate international pressure for the lifting of Machado’s ban.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/opinion/venezuelas-presidential-elections-maduro-plays-hardball-but-there-are-drawbacks/
Venezuela’s Presidential Elections: Maduro Plays Hardball but There Are Drawbacks.
Historian and political analyst Steve Ellner lays down the political stakes and US meddling ahead of Venezuela’s electoral race.

Posted by: MD | Mar 22 2024 11:48 utc | 218

@William Gruff 212
This “getting stoned” (consuming marijuana, for those not familiar with the terminology) business is very unpleasant for others.
1. For those who do not consume it of their own volition, a small whiff (including without the stench for low odour varieties—yay legalization) can be enough to trigger severe hunger (I believe you call it “the munchies”). This is catastrophic for people with type 2 diabetes trying to control blood sugar via diet.
2. People who consume it, on account of olfactory fatigue, fantasize that they stink far less than they actually do. There is a related olfactory fatigue/marijuana related fantasy that somehow incense is supposed to obscure the smell of marijuana; in reality, the two are readily distinguished, and the last time I smelled incense without a mixture of marijuana (due to users acting upon their olfactory fatigue induced fantasies—by the time their incense sticks have burned, they have developed sufficient olfactory fatigue not to smell the marijuana), was when I had a Hindu housemate many years ago.
3. The other aspect that is really angering about marijuana use in others (doubly so for low odour varieties that do thus not give one the warning to leave the area) is that one can get intoxicated due to the aerosol or aerosuspension (not sure which), which is fucking angering: one has a fuck ton of work half-planned, go early to get a good start, get involuntarily intoxicated because of some dipshit, and now one cannot formulate a useable thought for six hours, and one hopes to goodness that one is de facto sober by the time one leaves work, so that there can be no DUI risk.

Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Mar 22 2024 12:21 utc | 219

@212 William Gruff continued:
This is what you are trying to do to type 2 diabetes sufferers by involuntarily giving them “the munchies”—very kind, I must say.

Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Mar 22 2024 12:34 utc | 220

Earlier there were some bog standard anti-pholsophical materialist posts, which were as always devoid of content. There is no small irony in that standard contemporary Marxist argumentation is largely philosophical idealist psychobabble masquerading as philosophical materialism. For substantive philosophical materialism, go to the Christian fundies who hold the deity as the prime mover, but elects to move in certain ways (that can be studied, thus allowing science, albeit on strange—to me—philosophical underpinnings), and would take umbrage if one were to point out that they, unlike the majority of Marxists, are philosophical materialists.

Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Mar 22 2024 12:43 utc | 221

Re Venezuela, it is very striking that many western governments block access to official Venezuelan crime statistics, so that one can only access the flaky NGO numbers.

Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Mar 22 2024 12:48 utc | 222

“3. The other aspect that is really angering about marijuana use in others (doubly so for low odour varieties that do thus not give one the warning to leave the area) is that one can get intoxicated due to the aerosol or aerosuspension (not sure which), which is fucking angering: one has a fuck ton of work half-planned, go early to get a good start, get involuntarily intoxicated because of some dipshit, and now one cannot formulate a useable thought for six hours, and one hopes to goodness that one is de facto sober by the time one leaves work, so that there can be no DUI risk.”
Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Mar 22 2024 12:21 utc | 220
I find that marijuana use amplifies my creative genes- too bad it has the opposite affect for you.
And, you are really a Karen as the odd smell of THC won’t get you stoned and won’t get you a DUI.
I also think you would be no fun at all at a party or a Neil Young concert!

Posted by: canuck | Mar 22 2024 14:13 utc | 223

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 22 2024 10:44 utc |
Gruff’s Complaint (1)
In MLA’s embrace, ChatNSDAP thrives,
With footnotes lending credence to its jive.
Non-STEM scholars, in dire need, may seek
The AI’s source, a knowledge wellspring, peek.
Yet some contend, with tongues sharp and keen,
That AI’s rise spells doom for journalism’s scene.
No longer do they toil with ink and pen,
But yield to digital scripts, a trend to bend.
Yet, amidst this debate, one truth holds fast,
Arguing with such bots, an act to last.
For some, the clash with digital kin,
Brings satisfaction akin to a win.
But whether in discourse or in employ,
The march of AI holds both thrill and coy.
As Gruff opines, the future’s tale we write,
In pages of code, both dark and bright.
1. The poem, in rhyming iambic pentameter, is derivative of Gruff above post and is done by Walmart chatGPT; I provided the title only.
The original post by William Gruff will receive no royalties from the poem’s distribution if and when it is published..

Posted by: canuck | Mar 22 2024 14:22 utc | 224

CJ Hopkins crimespeech trial, which he won first time around with a hostile judge, goes to appeal (by the prosecutor). CJ makes the important point that this sort of thing is happening all over the West though most people are only aware of local examples, such as SCOTUS hearings in the US, regarding them as symptomatic of partisan political struggles.

https://www.racket.news/p/its-not-about-trump-american-cj-hopkins
If I can just put one little bug in your head, Matt, to whatever degree you can tweak people and let them know: “Hey, it’s not just Trump and the Democrats and the liberals and the woke people and all that.” This is happening all over the West, in all these different countries. I think that’s one thing that my case does, it provides folks with an opportunity to remind them that this is happening all over. The old rules don’t apply.
MT: Good luck with your case.
CJ Hopkins: Take care.

The West is being taken down, just like the Jewish-Bolsheviks took down Russia.
Is resistance futile? Is totalitarian control already a done deal? Or are some of us protesting too much and a little bit of speech policing is not all that significant a phenomenon?

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 22 2024 14:45 utc | 225

@224 You might need more to get your high, as you would presumably have been using it for a long time, and thus become used to it. I have no desire to get used to it. And it is particularly the low odour varieties that are so dangerous, due to the lack of warning of how much psychoactive stuff one is being subject to. I.e. hiding how much versus a “whiff”—I notice that you do not wish to define how much (mass per unit time) THC and other chemicals to which others are being subjected—far more important than the olfactory discomfort that at least can provide warning to leave the area.

Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Mar 22 2024 14:54 utc | 226

“Gold. The US came out of WWII with 75% of the worlds wealth and the dollar was backed by gold. By the late fifties – early seventies, that wealth had gone and they needed more currency than they had gold to cover. A deal with the saudis and a few other machinations and the petrodollar emerged which relied on world oil trade being conducted in American dollars. The US military was used to enforce this.
So a dollar backed by military power rather than gold. The military power is now gone, the Saudi’s are now selling oil for yuan and I would assume another currency or two.
And central banks in Borrel’s jungle are buying gold.”
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 21 2024 9:59 utc | 146
What you say is true but the main two incentives to go off the gold standard in 1971 were:
1. The Vietnam war financing as well as the Great Society welfare benefits from LBJ led to large US budget deficits
2. Beginning under Charles De Gaulle the French were sending their Eurodollars to the US in exchange for gold at $35/oz.

Posted by: canuck | Mar 22 2024 14:58 utc | 227

@224 You might need more to get your high, as you would presumably have been using it for a long time, and thus become used to it. I have no desire to get used to it. And it is particularly the low odour varieties that are so dangerous, due to the lack of warning of how much psychoactive stuff one is being subject to. I.e. hiding how much versus a “whiff”—I notice that you do not wish to define how much (mass per unit time) THC and other chemicals to which others are being subjected—far more important than the olfactory discomfort that at least can provide warning to leave the area.”
Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Mar 22 2024 14:54 utc | 227
Sorry-you are a Karen in my books.

Posted by: canuck | Mar 22 2024 15:03 utc | 228

Lord God, what an asshole.

Posted by: Not Ewe | Mar 22 2024 15:32 utc | 229

“Nima interviews Orlov and touches on all the hot topics over 40 minutes and is highly recommended. Orlov’s forecast for Europe’s very bleak, but I can’t disagree. I also agree with his outlook on energy for the Outlaw US Empire. I also agree with him on what will happen if Trump wins–nothing as what was done to him during his first term will be repeated.”
[Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2024 22:59 utc | 201]
Low-key (for Orlov) and excellent interview – no frills but clearly stated, in the same terms as b’s latest post today. (I love that the site is “Dialogue Works”.)
I have a housekeeping suggestion for other posters on these open forums. Lately it has become difficult to tell who is quoting whom on many posted comments. Those for which that is the case I am simply scrolling past, so apologies to all as I realize I am also a guilty party. I will endeavor to offset quotations as above in future.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 22 2024 16:19 utc | 230

Watch out what happens in NIGER. Niger has decided not to submit to the US any longer.
https://en.reseauinternational.net/niger-lorsque-le-rejet-touche-washington-au-meme-titre-que-ses-vassaux/
There is a button to chose the language.
Let us keep an eye on Niger and its people and pray for them.

Posted by: swiss | Mar 22 2024 17:48 utc | 231

Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 20 2024 16:49 utc | 20
& #155 later mentioning I never replied.
First: I didn’t understand your #20. (I always enjoy your posts but often cannot understand them well, lots of insider jokes and puns not all of which I grok.) Earlier you had mentioned something about antiwar protests or some such ‘yesterday’ and I wondered to what you were referring, presumably a news item from two days ago. Perhaps I could have asked for further clarification after our reply but didn’t want to bug you.
Then yesterday I was on the road from dawn until very late and never went far back into the threads to catch up. Sorry for any lack of courtesy or underestanding.

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 22 2024 18:54 utc | 232

@Posted by: canuck | Mar 22 2024 14:58 utc | 227

What you say is true but the main two incentives to go off the gold standard in 1971 were:
1. The Vietnam war financing as well as the Great Society welfare benefits from LBJ led to large US budget deficits
2. Beginning under Charles De Gaulle the French were sending their Eurodollars to the US in exchange for gold at $35/oz.

As Hudson noted the whole of the US current account deficit could be accounted for by the cost of US foreign bases and foreign wars. The US elite were never going to give these up, so they floated the dollar instead and did a deal with the Saudis where oil prices could rise without US intervention as long as oil was sold for US dollars. The Fed also did a deal with the drug cartels and other criminals to quietly look away so that they would deposit their dollars in US banks.
Ever since then the US has been destroying the competition by whatever means necessary to maintain the dollar as the reserve currency. Their main problem is that they could not destroy Iran and Russia, but especially made the mistake of allowing China to grow into being a great power with 1/3rd of the world’s manufacturing industry.
Trump wants to rein in the foreign military spending, and redirect things toward China, but the international corporations need that spending to support their global profiteering and will fight to the death to keep it. A 2nd Trump presidency will be even more of shit show that the first one.

Posted by: Roger | Mar 22 2024 19:10 utc | 233

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 20 2024 23:56 utc | 93
Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 20 2024 23:50 utc | 90
And with that I am going to insist you read the Medium article and specifically what was written about what Jones WROTE; you can ignore anything it says about him personally (all true, BTW).

I did, although after 12 hours on Mexican side roads yesterday both body and mind are scrambled.
1. Some criticism of Gareth and his Holodomor coverage hit home. But Gareth didn’t study all the causes of the famine merely alerted the world to the fact that there was one despite official denials to the contrary. In this I believe he was a truth teller.
2. Your article doesn’t provide examples of corruption or ineptitude on the part of Russian officialdom viz the famines. This is too partisan a take, so unconvincing to this reader.
2. As I mentioned elsewhere, most of what Gareth wrote about was Russia, where he spent a couple of years. His take on the positives and negatives of the Five Year Plan seem well informed and insightful. His take on the famine was part of that same view which is that the Politburo was overly draconian in how they chose to execute their top-down ideology, a core part of whose emphasis was to replace human labour as much as possible with machines, both in factories and on farms. That criticism is valid IMO and dovetails with my personal interest in understanding how ideologies, initially well-meaning (though have doubts about the Bolsheviks) can end up perpetrating mass murder. Materialistically valuing abstract ideology over living soul, mechanical production over human, I believe partly explains this.
Exhibit I: The WEF Head Intellectual Hariri, the famous ‘transhumanist’. This is the same type of materialist philosophy in 21st century trappings.

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 22 2024 19:16 utc | 234

Latest Krainer piece about socialism vs capitalism etc.
https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/untangling-the-socialism-vs-capitalism
Intro:

Few ideological dichotomies polarize opinions as readily and as completely as that between “socialism” and “capitalism.” Those who embrace socialism tend to blame capitalism for everything that’s wrong with our world today. Those who embrace capitalism harbor a seething contempt for socialists, but both camps base their views on ideology with only vague notions about the true nature of either system.
The “socialists” think of capitalism as a rapacious system of exploitation that favors a few at the detriment of many. There is some truth in that. The “capitalists” think of socialism as a system that gives free stuff to the lazy and undeserving, choking society’s progress. There’s some truth in that too, but having lived in both systems and having experienced the ideological brainwash from both sides, I find neither side convincing.

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 22 2024 22:53 utc | 235

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 22 2024 22:53 utc | 235
Later I’ll read further than the intro you provided, but it seems to start off reasonably.
Without getting into socialism, it remains to be seen if a nation, let alone a “democratic” one, can manage capitalism of the type that has run rampant in the so-called West since approximately the mid-70s. Of course that was the wind-down to the Cold War and there still existed a large socialist state (with some trappings of capitalism, btw) in the USSR which served as “an example” to the capitalists of the so-called west. So it can be argued it kept them in check while at the same time the arms race and aforementioned Cold War allowed the west, in particular the US and UK, to pour a lot of money into MIC-related jobs (and not necessarily even directly related) that kept the middle class afloat with the help of a still-functioning social safety net.
I think the predominant habit is for people to look at capitalism vs. socialism in a black-or-white manner. IOW, either PURE capitalism (laissez faire) or PURE socialism (state communism), which isn’t realistic. I’d be perfectly fine living in a democratic nation that was capable of effectively regulating (and also encouraging) ethical and environmentally conscious capitalism, so long as there was a strong welfare state with incentives such as (some) taxpayer financed education, taxpayer financed healthcare, and a much, much smaller military industrial complex than what we’ve got here in the US.
I also acknowledge that my own views are borne of contemporaneous ‘realities’ such as the fact that capitalism is basically indoctrinated into everyone around me all the time, and since birth – so it would be unrealistic to scrap it completely at the present. However, it has resisted even the most incremental reforms and regulation with a vigor that to an outside observer, or space alien, would look outlandish.
Makes me think of Jerry Mander’s book “The Capitalism Papers.” Intro below. He’s never read a lick of Marx, but still sees the fundamental incompatibility with the type of capitalism (including the attitude about it among the “elites”) we have now and functioning democracy.

Introduction
question from the audience: Jerry, do you mean my grandfather’s furniture store is killing the world? Is he one of those capitalists? It’s a nice shop. He’s been there forty years, giving work to eight employees, and he pays a nice wage. With benefits. It doesn’t seem bad to me.
jerry: No, stores like that are really not the problem. We need to make distinctions when we talk about capitalism. The word covers too many different things. One distinction is this: Size matters! Small-scale local or family businesses, or community enterprises that make some money, pay salaries, send kids to college, and save a little, are not the problem, and never have been.
But let’s say your granddad had somehow made gigantic profits from his store forty years ago, so he decided to partner with another store owner and invest in big real estate, converting small farms and open lands into shopping malls. And let’s say they started franchising shopping centers around the world, and were borrowing from big banks to do it, and then started buying banks, and buying other companies doing unrelated stuff, like shipping or mining or biotech farming, and then started getting their financing from Goldman Sachs. Then they u went public” and were listed on the New York Stock Exchange as SHOP AMERICA! and they became friends with congressmen, spent 10 percent of their business income lobbying in Washington to overturn zoning, dumping, and other environmental laws that were getting in their way. And they had their eye on export trade subsidies, and maybe some military contracts, and were desperate to keep their stock prices high and to keep their taxes down.
Well, then, you’d have to say your grandfather would be operating in a different world, with different values and drives, than he does now. At the beginning, it was all about furniture for local families and businesses, not the primary needs of nonstop capital expansion, growth, stock values, and distributions. That’s the “capitalism” I worry about. That’s what’s consuming the world. Now it’s all about growth, not furniture, not sufficiency, not community welfare. It’s wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. That local store and those global businesses really shouldn’t share the same name. They are different creatures.

USA style gangster/rentier/finance capitalism is indeed an obsolete system nearing some sort of catastrophe if nothing is done to fix it.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 22 2024 23:14 utc | 236

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 22 2024 19:16 utc | 234
Thanks for reading it. To be clear, my only take on the “Holodomor” is as follows:
1. It wasn’t intentional genocide directed at Ukrainians or anyone else.
2. There were a variety of factors for the famine, including rapid forced collectivization, bad science, and saboteurs.
3. The term “Holodomor” is a disingenuously cooked-up, focus-grouped PR campaign that only started decades later and with a very ideological, jingoistic intent in mind; namely to pile on to the USSR as the “Evil Empire” and whitewash or memory hole the numerous atrocities (many of which were intentional) committed by the US and pre/post colonial “west” in general. The fact that it also ignores all the other non-Ukrainians who suffered under the famine is reason alone to discredit it, or at least seek to paint the whole picture, in my opinion.
Regarding Gareth, all I can say is that there are inaccuracies in some of his work, and that it was used (with or without his approval/knowledge) in the above mentioned PR campaign; one with deep ramifications today in Russia-Ukrainian relations, and even the NATO proxy war.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 22 2024 23:22 utc | 237

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 22 2024 23:22 utc | 237
————————————————————————–
You are correct Tom, if I might add something, there was the effects of the of the civil war between the Bolsheviks and the White Russians during the war and long after.

Posted by: Ed | Mar 23 2024 0:51 utc | 238

The 1921–1923 famine in Ukraine was a disaster that mostly occurred in the southern steppe region of Ukraine.[1] The number of fatalities is estimated between 200,000 and 1,000,000, but no systematic records were then made.
The Holodomor, a man-made famine, gripped the Soviet republic of Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, reaching its peak in late spring 1933. However, it’s essential to recognize that this was not the only instance of famine in Ukrainian history. An earlier and lesser-known tragedy occurred during the years 1921–1923.
They call both of these famines “the Holodomor.”

Posted by: Ed | Mar 23 2024 1:02 utc | 239

European Union, UN criticise new Hong Kong security law
3 days ago — China on Wednesday urged the United Kingdom to stop making “groundless accusations” about the Article 23 legislation, according to a statement …
—————————–
Where are all these saintly bleeding hearts during the 1998 mass rapes of Chinese Indon ?
The silence was deafening
Where are they during the 1965 genocide of Chinese Indon ?
They were wanking themselves over CIA’s greatest hit in 20C !
https://tinyurl.com/5xveydct
[comment 95]
Hell FUKUS orchestrated both ATrocities!
During the 2014 HK riots, ring leader Joshua Wong and his cohorts barged into the bar to pick fight.
I had a message ready for these HK and TW ‘freedom fighters’,,,
Go see a shrink if you think these sanctimonious pricks give a flying fuck about china man well fare !
NOt all Han are born equal.
Those helpless Chinese indon are their useless eaters.
You, otoh, are their useful idiots, or cannon fodders,
——-
The gory details are unfit to post here, those victims who could afford sent their daughters to Singapore hospitals for treatment, reportedly , some nurses suffered a nervous breakdown after witnessing the hideous mutilation on the victims bodies.
Here’s a milder account …
https://tinyurl.com/jwe93phu

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2024 5:07 utc | 240

Ed | Mar 23 2024 1:02 utc | 239
The US invented the holodomor in 1964. The 32-33 famine was in all crop/grain growing areas. According to the current Russian leadership, about seven million died. and although thaty was a somewhat poor season for yields, the famine, although man made was not deliberate or directed. Just bureaucratic ineptitude at that early point in the Soviet Union.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 23 2024 13:11 utc | 241

@240 denk
thank you for reminding us… re – membering ist healing.
putting together all the broken pieces back into a whole again, ( with a lot of grace needed).. Thanks

Posted by: swiss | Mar 23 2024 13:18 utc | 242

Is it possible to construct an enduring secular civilization?
Without a consistent narrative of origin, values, and objectives, what binds a nation together? Ease of access to printable tax return forms? Anyone’s daughter can become an entrepreneur on OnlyFans? Stock ownership in the military congressional complex?

[Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 22 2024 16:03 utc | 65] on the Russia.at.war thread —
It’s a nation’s self-asserted statehood in a code of law (like the German Grundgesetz which is fine work, even the Neo-Nazis and the fringe right Reichsbürger agree to it). This sets up the institutions of state, among them the courts of justice. Laws are crafted according to administrative process to reflect the nation’s values and needs, and the rule of law is executed at court, on a basis of equality.
I like to think of it as a fall-back option in the case of unresolvable conflict between two parties, and this fits well with my personal observations of police work in Hamburg, a city-state since the times of the Hanse and deeply influenced by protestant (Lutherian) ethics, well exemplified by lockdown measures during covid: while Paris saw armed soldiers in the streets, in Hamburg (saying this half-jokingly) notes were put up in public places reading “please don’t get infected!”
What binds it all together is the language in which the law is codified and the proceedings of court are taking place. It is, contrary to widely held belief following Noam Chomsky’s ideas towards a universal grammar underlying all languages, NOT simply possible to translate one tradition of justice onto another, as the EU has also found out during their policy of conformotional codifying of law.
Hamburg, with a majority of population now being of non-german (migrational) background, appears to be on a good way to work things out, so I believe, mostly because use of the german language in day-to-day proceedings between citizens and the institutions of state alike appears to have been succesfully implemented; not withstanding the fact that translation services are now widely available for those who need.
I have a great deal of respect for societies who manage to integrate a good many of cultures/religions/ethics, and even can deal proceedings of law in various languages (perhaps as part of local or regional autonomy), like Syria or the Russian Federation. A wonderful civilizational achievement.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 23 2024 14:04 utc | 243

Some reflections so far in my reading of Plato’s Laws, his final dialogue. I wish that I could say I had read recently all of the preceding ones, only having done so with Politeia, (The Republic). However, as I am nearly a third way through this dialogue, I am enjoying the contrast between it and that previous read. It is as if some questions raised earlier are now being answered, and I suspect that it will turn out to be true for any earlier ones I will revisit at some point.
In the Politeia, the narrative is given by Socrates: “I went down…” it begins. Here, in the Laws, it opens with a question from ‘the Athenian’, so described and nameless throughout. We know he is elderly, as are his two named companions, and they are taking a long walk to the shrine of Zeus, uphill in Crete, on, it now turns out, the longest day of the year, the solstice. (The latter is only mentioned by the Cretan well into the discussion. I peeked at the end, and they are still walking.)
One companion is a native to the island, a Cretan. He has observed that on Crete there is hardly any level space, it being mostly craggy hillsides – but there will be resting areas along the way that are shady. The other is a Spartan, and at the point I have now reached, he has provided an opposing argument to the discussion on the consumption of wine, but a basic agreement with wine-friendly Cretan and the Athenian has been reached, which the Athenian observes should also apply to all other pleasures.
As they begin conversation, both Cretan and Spartan have observed that the foremost legislative concern of their governments is war – preparation for, and readiness to protect against war. Which applies not only to a well established community but to its individual members in their relationships with each other, and to an individual in relation to his own ‘warring’ parts. The Athenian has reserved judgment.
I will next give a quote which I think is in main part how Michael Hudson has explained Plato’s understanding of debt.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 23 2024 14:44 utc | 244

Sorry, the above was only meant to be a review. Extended italics were unnecessary.
Here is the quotation I mentioned last. Before I add it, briefly the discussion has moved to the consideration of how each state of the participants was first founded, beginning with the Spartan early history, where the legend is that three brothers, each kings, founded three cities:

[The Athenian]…They were not exposed, in their attempts to establish a certain equality of possessions, to the grave charge so persistently leveled, in connection with the passing of laws for other cities at one who proposes change in the tenure of the land, or a cancellation of debts, from his perception that equality can never be properly attained without these measures. When a legislator attempts a change in these matters, everyone meets him with a cry of ‘no meddling with fundamentals’ and an imprecation on the author of redistribution of lands and repudiation of debts sufficient to reduce any man to despair.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 23 2024 15:03 utc | 245

Posted by: swiss | Mar 23 2024 13:18 utc | 242
—————–
We need an Irish gent to remind the limeys about their own proverb,….
CHARITY STARTS AT HOME !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLTopNkEESA

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2024 15:29 utc | 246

@ swiss 242
.. and if we look at NIGER before more damage is done.. we even might prevent it… hopefully
https://en.reseauinternational.net/niger-lorsque-le-rejet-touche-washington-au-meme-titre-que-ses-vassaux/

Posted by: swiss | Mar 23 2024 15:40 utc | 247

@ 246 denk
Sorry i am not a native english speaker… what is or who are the “limeys”…
and second i have no access to youtube anymore … thanks for your answer anyway.

Posted by: swiss | Mar 23 2024 15:45 utc | 248

Posted by: swiss | Mar 23 2024 15:45 utc | 248
—————-
Sorry about that.
Limey means English men.
In the vid, MIck Wallace the Irish teaching the limey about their own proverb..
Charity starts at home.
MIND YOUR OWN gawd damned BIZ, !
Stop poking your nose into others latrine !

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2024 16:04 utc | 249

@249 denk
yes.. what a beautifull world it would / will be if everyone just cleans his own house…. that is the german saying / proverb … clean in front of your own door .. but nobody has learned it here neither…

Posted by: swiss | Mar 23 2024 16:29 utc | 250

@Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 23 2024 13:11 utc | 241
There was an actual weather-driven famine that was made worse by bureaucratic ineptitude and an actual ongoing class war where the Kulaks slaughtered half their livestock and destroyed farm implements rather than have them used by the collective farms, which created huge blowback from the rest of the peasants who already hated the Kulaks who were the most exploitative landlords. The Soviet archives actually show Stalin being concerned and trying to redirect resources to ameliorate the famine, also local Soviet officials attempting to holdback the anger of the peasants toward the Kulaks.
Same thing happened after 1949 in China, the Party strove hard to control grassroots “rough justice” being delivered on the landlords.

Posted by: Roger | Mar 23 2024 17:11 utc | 251

Posted by: swiss | Mar 23 2024 15:40 utc | 247
——————-
Re Niger….

Niger, it seemed, was not particularly keen on the U.S. partnership. Like in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, the presence of Western troops in Niger for nearly a decade only saw an increase in the spread of violence by Islamist insurgencies they were ostensibly deployed to fight, after spawning them across the Sahel by destroying Libya in 2011.

CIA fighting CIA created ‘terrarists’, the gift that keeps on giving, no wonder they keep telling us, wot is a very long term campaign……
hehehehe
https://mronline.org/2024/03/22/why-niger-declared-u-s-military-presence-in-its-territory-illegal/

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2024 17:12 utc | 252

No matter what “identities” you have if you are anti-Zionist you will be removed from any mainstream media and even mainstream alternative media! Candace Owens will blow up the way Tucker has, I don’t agree with everything she says but she has a right to be heard.
Cancel Culture Comes For Candace Owens!
Ben Shapiro is a pure Zionist and a traitor to the interests of the American population.

Posted by: Roger | Mar 23 2024 17:17 utc | 253

Hello swiss…
If only we’ve more men like Laurent Louis…
You dont have to watch the yt vid, there’s an entire transcript for it !
FUCK YOU, G7 !
https://tinyurl.com/mnfhtyzc

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2024 17:27 utc | 254

gOOD nite, swiss !

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2024 17:29 utc | 255

Er, is it true that UK just clinched a major natural gas deal with Russia ?
good nite.

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2024 18:16 utc | 256

@252 denk
“wot” is “war of / on terror” i guess .. anyway thanks for this link. I bookmarked it.i saw quite a few articles i would like to read there. But it is getting late now.
good night as well

Posted by: swiss | Mar 24 2024 0:33 utc | 257

Roger | Mar 23 2024 17:11 utc | 251
That is my take on it also.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 24 2024 1:50 utc | 258

Some time ago, b was deleting some of my posts for being off topic in the Ukraine threads. Was hard to comment there without a topic soon moving outside Ukraine when following it through.
With the SMO, b said there were that many comments he would no longer police them but to send an email if there was a major problem. The name usurper came on the scene and began hitting me hard. I would send an email to b, and he would clean it up for a bit but then the usurper would be back. after a time, b stopped trying. When I stopped commenting for a time, james was getting hit hard.
The name usurper seemed to disappear for a bit, but with the terrorist attack in Moscow is now back with a vengeance.
The first thread when the attack occurred was good, little or no sign of spammers and trolls, but then there was a lot of anger and everyone arguing with each other. the second comment thread where a lot of information began to appear was and is hit hard by trolls and to a lesser extent the spammers.
Somewhat frustrating that so many of my comments were deleted simply because they were deemed off topic, yet now the trolling and spamming has free rein.
But I guess b is not getting any younger and a lot of work putting together his posts.
Thats my grumble over and done with.
Overall, it seems we are now looking at a new phase of this war of the worlds, so I guess we will get to see its shape a bit better in the weeks and months ahead.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 24 2024 2:20 utc | 259

All these assertions about the “death toll” under communism are nothing more than indications that those posting them have swallowed capitalist and imperialist propaganda uncritically.
There is simply nothing in the history of communist states run by communist parties to compare with the systematic genocides carried out by imperialists.
Just to remind (and I use the word advisedly since I suspect that most of these anti-communist posters have never devoted a day in their lives to the serious study of history) them of what I am talking about, and taking 1492 as an arbitrary starting line, these genocides begin with the Iberian/Dutch invasions of South, Central America and the Caribbean and continue with the eradication of a multitude of indigenous civilisations, cultures and peoples in north America.
Then there are the genocidal assaults on India and the East Indian archipelago which have to include successive famines caused by the displacement of subsistence farming communities in order to facilitate the production of exportable commodities- largely raw materials for textiles but including opium, tea, coffee and other non food items.
And that is just a beginning- already the death tolls are in the dozens of millions.
There is simply no comparison (despite crude special pleading by racist apologists) with anything else in history. And we have barely scratched the surface of imperialism’s wars- exemplified today by events in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, the DR Congo, Syria and much of the Sahel, where the impact of the attack on Libya are still evident.
As to Communism what is claimed here? I take it we can discount the casualties in the Civil wars in which Communist governments were attacked largely by forces mustered, armed and financed by the imperialists.
That would include the Famine deaths of 1921-2 which wre entirely the product of imperialists, exacerbated by a refusal to sell food to the Soviet government.
As to the famines of the early 1930s to which Scorpion, who is probably unaware of the recent protests by Gareth’s grandchildren at the misuse of his reporting, refers these have been dealt with in considerable detail by several authors who have made clear, firstly that the original narrative was one of Goebbels inventions (and most of us know how sincere was the Nazi sympathy for Russian suffering) developed by Bandera-ite propagandists in cahoots with western intelligence agencies and secondly that they coincided with agricultural reforms modeled-curiously enough- on British enclosures and US mechanisation of the kind that Steinbeck chronicles in his Grapes of Wrath.
As to the charges that Mao was responsible for the famine deaths of millions- this US propaganda was rampant at a time when it was notorious that life expectancy in China had almost doubled between 1949 and the 1970s- by far the most dramatic increase in recorded history in any country. No doubt it would have increased even more had the Communists not been using famine as a means of killing off their enemies!
The truth is that idle minds know that there is no limit to the amount of exagerration that will pass in attacks on socialist government- living in a society dominated by the enemies of socialism (which is what capitalists are and necessarily so) there is no limit to the number of intellectual prostitutes who, over the years, have learned that there is quicker way of earning a buck than by engaging in communist bashing.
‘ Which is why there seems to be no end to the sources of the sort of drivel that assert, contrary to all known facts and every logical expectation that the Russian revolution was financed by (Jewish, of course) bankers and supported by the precise forces which fought against it from 1917 until 1990.
These conspiracy theories constitute a cottage industry underwritten by the capitalists, their intelligence agencies and the vast cultural apparatus with which they sustain their wealth and power.
It is sad that so many who regard themselves as contrarians or critical thinkers swallow the ideology of the oligarchy in its entirety. And in the end preen themselves on ‘thinking for themselves’ or ‘examining all the evidence’ as they fall in with the conclusions of the interests picking their pockets.
Barnum knew the type, but even he would have doubted that Lenin and Trotsky could have been categorised as gulls of The City, tools of Wall street.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 24 2024 3:24 utc | 260

Posted by: swiss | Mar 24 2024 0:33 utc | 257
———————–
WofT
Points to ponder….
The gringo had supposedly been bombing the crap outta the ‘islamist terrarists’ in Mali post 911.
Yet when the said terrarists cornered a band of tourist in a hotel, they showed zero interest in a big fat juicy bunch of gringo and their Indian associates, went straight to a group of Russian rail executives and their Chinese colleagues, executed them at point blank !
Or how about this….
Pakistan Taliban tracked a group of international tourists, singled out the Chinese , executed them at point blank.
Guess what….

To avenge our bro killed by the great satan drones !!!

Does this make sense to you ?
Tip of an iceberg.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/01/terror-in-mali-an-attack-on-china-and-russia/
https://www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com/10-tourist-killed-ttp-miscreance-exposed/

Posted by: denk | Mar 24 2024 3:56 utc | 261

Posted by: bevin | Mar 24 2024 3:24 utc | 260
So timely for the blog. Thanks for that bevin!

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 24 2024 5:12 utc | 262

Before b posts his Week in Review, I’m going to post a few links – Canadiana, the usual.
I wonder if other countries might use these type of ultra-elite forces in other places? (And I just wanted to add, if you’re the president of a country and you’re going to decide to bomb a billionaire’s building, you’d better have just been elected with the support of about 90% of the population, I guess? That’s speculative by me, I don’t know what happened.)
“Canadian military aiding embassy in Haiti includes elite unit: sources”
https://globalnews.ca/news/10379220/canadian-military-elite-unit-aiding-haiti/
La Presse in Russia. Marie Tsvetaeva again.
https://www.lapresse.ca/international/europe/2024-03-24/la-presse-en-russie/moscou-pleure-ses-morts.php
Defence analyst and former Canadian Armed Forces member, Mike Mihajlovic remembers Yugoslavia with a powerful post
https://x.com/MihajlovicMike/status/1771867347730485382
Friendly warning from the local Five Eyes branch, here in Canada, a re-Tweet:
“#Disinformation online is designed to trigger an emotional response, like shock or anger. This makes people more likely to share it, causing the algorithm to amplify the content even further.” It’s a thread.
https://x.com/cybercentre_ca/status/1771238023507611669
Canada qualifies for Copa America with 2-0 won over Trinidad and Tobago
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/canada-qualifies-for-copa-america-with-2-0-win-over-trinidad-and-tobago-1.6819883
“Canada slots into Group A with top-ranked Argentina, No. 33 Peru and No. 42 Chile at Copa America, with the Canada-Argentina match kicking off the tournament opener June 20 at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.”

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Mar 24 2024 12:16 utc | 263