Why did US diplomat say Scarborough Shoal belonged to the Philippines?
Here is a long tweet by Arnaud Bertrand on what Nicholas Burns said and why it is not true.

The US is playing a very dangerous game in the South China Sea, where instead of trying to appease tensions like a responsible power should do, it backs maximalist claims that violate International Law, and lies egregiously for that purpose.
Here is Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, saying in an interview 2 weeks ago (https://youtube.com/watch?v=a38IsiPMnoI ):
“You’ve seen over the last couple of months some 10 standoffs between Filipino naval forces and both Chinese coastguards and Chinese military vessels at a place called Second Thomas Shoal and also in Scarborough Shoal. Now it’s important for everybody on this zoomcast to understand that the International Court of Justice, which is the relevant legal body, ruled in July 2016 decisively in favour of the Philippines. And so that that territory is the sovereign territory of the Philippines and that China’s legal claim to it has no basis in international law. All the rest of the world understands that and recognises that this is sovereign Filipino territory.”
This is absolutely packed with lies.
First of all, it was NOT the International Court of Justice (ICJ) but the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) that made the July 2016 ruling (https://pca-cpa.org/en/cases/7/). This is a very important distinction because rulings by the PCA – unlike rulings by the ICJ – do NOT carry the weight of international law. Furthermore, in this case, China declined to participate in the arbitration.
Secondly the PCA ruling in question absolutely does NOT confirm the Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal as “sovereign Filipino territory”. For the simple reason that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which is the international law framework the PCA was asked to arbitrate under, “does not address the sovereignty of states over land territory”. In fact the PCA, in its ruling, specifically said that it had “not been asked to, and does not purport to, make any ruling as to which state enjoys sovereignty over any land territory in the South China Sea, in particular with respect to the disputes concerning sovereignty over the Spratly Islands [where the Second Thomas Shoal is] or Scarborough Shoal”!
This is all the more ironic because the US is one of the rare countries out there that refused to sign or ratify UNCLOS, contrary to China…
What the ruling DID say with regards to the Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal is as follows:
– For the Scarborough Shoal, it ruled that they are rocks that cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own, do not generate an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or continental shelf entitlements beyond their 12-nautical-mile territorial sea. It also ruled that both Chinese and Filipino fishermen, among others, had traditional fishing rights in the area and that no party should prevent the other from exercising these rights.
– For the Second Thomas Shoal, the ruling declared that it is a “low-tide elevation”, that “does not generate entitlements to a territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, or continental shelf” but that it is “within the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Philippines”, with the consequence that the Philippines have rights over the resources in these areas.
That’s it, it’s a ruling about maritime entitlements under UNCLOS, not about the sovereignty over these territories.
Thirdly, Burns’ statement that “all the rest of the world understands that and recognises that this is sovereign Philippine territory” is even more egregious. This is patently untrue, even for US allies. For instance Britain, France and Germany in their 2020 “note verbale” to the UN on the matter (https://un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/mys_12_12_2019/2020_09_16_DEU_NV_UN_001.pdf), specifically wrote that they “take no position” over the “disputed territorial sovereignty to naturally formed land features and to areas of the continental shelf in the South China Sea”.
In fact, until this declaration by Burns, this would have been untrue for the US themselves! Their position so far had been that – just like Britain, France and Germany – they did not take a position on the sovereignty claims themselves. The main reason is because these claims do not only involve the PRC and the Philippines but also the ROC (Taiwan), who also claim both the Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal, as well as Vietnam and Malaysia who have also made claims over other parts of the Spratly Islands archipelago (of which the Second Thomas Shoal is part of). As such, unilaterally siding with one of the claimants over the others is a rather bizarre position for Washington.
Lastly, if the US wanted to be constructive here, instead of backing one state or the other in its maximalist claims in order to fuel conflict, it should encourage the negotiation of the Code of Conduct (CoC) for the South China Sea that’s currently being discussed between ASEAN countries and China.
This is a diplomatic effort to end disputes. Why not support that instead of siding with one party against others, which can only fuel the disputes? The answer is simple: this is part of a broader and immensely worrying trend which we see in U.S. conduct generally (be it in Ukraine, Gaza, Taiwan, etc.) where the U.S. 1) jumps on all opportunities to sabotage diplomacy and fan the flames of conflict and war and 2) support the arbitrary and ever-changing self-interested rules of its “rules-based order” in opposition of International Law.
Why do they do that? I genuinely think we need to seriously ask ourselves if the U.S. doesn’t want to recreate a WW2-type scenario where the whole world is in flames and the U.S., protected by its immensely favorable geography, ends up reaping the benefits. If there’s a “great reset” initiative going on, that might be the one. WW2 placed the U.S. at the top of the global pecking order: at a time when this “leadership” is crumbling down, it’s not inconceivable that they wouldn’t mind a remake…
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1773938209380307072

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Mar 31 2024 14:10 utc | 3

G20 members annual real GDP growth (in %), 2022–2023

     Country/group   2022   2023 ↓

India            7.2    7.3
China            3.0    5.2
Indonesia        5.3    5.1
Turkey           5.5    4.5
Russia          -1.2    3.6
Mexico           3.9    3.2
Brazil           3.0    2.9
U.S.             1.9    2.5
South Korea      2.6    2.4 *
Australia        2.7    2.1 *
Japan            1.0    1.9
Canada           3.8    1.1
France           2.5    0.9
Italy            4.0    0.9
South Africa     1.9    0.6
UK               4.3    0.1
Germany          1.8   -0.3
Saudi Arabia     7.5   -0.8
Argentina        5.0   -1.6

AU               3.9    3.2
EU               3.4    0.4

* Projected.
Sources
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/full-year-gdp-growth?continent=g20
African Union 2022, 2023: https://stats.oecd.org (click Development > Africa’s Development Dynamics > Africa’s Development Dynamics – Statistical Annex > Table 2: Annual real GDP growth rate)
Australia 2023 (projected): https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/full-year-gdp-growth
European Union 2022, 2023: https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/full-year-gdp-growth
India 2022, 2023 (calendar year): https://ria.ru/20240331/ekonomika-1936905854.html (Trading Economics shows data as reported by India, i.e., for the Indian fiscal year, which ends in March)
Korea 2023 (projected): “>https://tradingeconomics.com/south-korea/full-year-gdp-growth

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2024 14:44 utc | 5

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Mar 31 2024 14:10 utc | 3
Betrand, like so many, makes the huge mistake thinking that “international law” means anything to US policy-makers. Why intelligent people seem to think that is yet another testament to nostalgia for an international order that does not and cannot exist anytime in the near, medium, and (likely) long-term because the power dynamics are radically different.
Washington is the ruling administrative center of the Empire. It is also not limited to the geographic are of Washington and its suburbs, for example, Silicon Valley, is integrated into the Empire’s administrative establishment as is all the mainstream media. This Empire is big and its administrative structure is big and, still, fairly robust with multiple loci of power. It is not as many here seem to think a rigid system that could fall at any time it exists as a tight yet flexible network. The Empire simply makes decrees and attempts to enforce them throughout the areas it holds and then attempts to increase those areas until someone stops it. For me, as someone who knows Washington, it has become what (if we knew the truth) I consider a criminal network that values money, power, and expansion to benefit only those who are in its ruling class.
For that ruling class war is a guarantee of not only increased economic gains but also to keep all possibility of reform at bay through the ultimate goal of controlling all aspects of human life and control of all geographic entities on Earth (an beyond) under its thumb. It seemed to me that in the 90s and 00s that this transition was easily made and most people still believe we are living in the former Constitutional USA and, in the USA, at least more and more people are beginning to sense this. The “factotum class” which is the “educated” professional class serves power and, although some have been trained in logic, once your job is to follow orders (or else) you warp that logic and fool youtself into thinking you are doing something good for a genuinely democratic system. It’s deeply tragic because there are decent people in the Washington milieu who still believe in the bullshit.
Anyway, talk about the motivations of the Washington ruling class as making mistakes are so off-base that it is humorous. Washington wants perpetual conflict and perpetual war ALL the time. Those are the current rules of the road in the world. They will do anything from spreading diseases (I’m not saying that COVID was this though I’m on the fence there) to conducting massacres in Russia or anywhere. We have to understand that they have no brake, no moral compass other than conquest and control. That’s the obvious reality.

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Mar 31 2024 15:09 utc | 7

@PetriKrohn #3
It has been my feeling for some time that the best client for Washington to manipulate for the purpose of triggering a proxy war against China is the Philippines. Washington wants the conflict to start as early as possible to pivot the focus of the media away from Gaza and Ukraine. Taiwan is not going to play that role because mainland China does not want a war against Taiwan. They don’t want a war against the Philippines either.
I am not convinced that the US will have much success in that project of covertly making trouble at the antipodes given that the project is not so covert finally. Both Taiwan and Beijing are on the same side on the topic of those shoals.

Posted by: Richard L | Mar 31 2024 15:57 utc | 9

It looks to me as if Hayes has been got at. MI 6 please confirm.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2024 14:57 utc | 6
………….,……………
That was my thought too. And especially surprising from one of their leading authors.

Posted by: scorpion | Mar 31 2024 16:05 utc | 11

thanks b! much to ponder and consider..

Posted by: james | Mar 31 2024 16:21 utc | 13

January 6th is the gift that keeps on giving.
http://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/secret-cia-presence-on-january-6th

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 31 2024 16:38 utc | 15

It looks to me as if Hayes has been got at. MI 6 please confirm.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2024 14:57 utc | 6
I stopped reading Hayes some time ago when I noticed his attacks on independant vloggers who attempted to expose the blob. He used his position and poison pen against those without cred like Russell Brand, with such meticulous venom it appeared to be an agenda.
His sinophobia nailed the coffin.
Yes I think he was ‘got at’
I notice he is no longer prolific at SCF
I also think he’s a drunk

Posted by: ld | Mar 31 2024 17:01 utc | 17

thanks psychohistorian… i agree with you in that.. maybe prioritizing is the most important thing to do here… still – what are people who are concerned about climate change doing to address this?

Posted by: james | Mar 31 2024 17:06 utc | 19

@ William Gruff | Mar 31 2024 17:08 utc | 20
that article struck a nerve, lol… good to read your rant william! i linked the full article @ 16 for anyone who wants to read it all without signing up for atlantic..

Posted by: james | Mar 31 2024 17:12 utc | 21

@Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 31 2024 17:08 utc | 20
Butler is representative of much of Western Social Science. The division of Political Economy into Economics, Politics and Sociology and the unmooring of those disciplines from materialism has been a fundamental ruling capitalist class project, as political economy is dangerous as it tends to identify the reality of how Western societies work. Economics was first with its reversion into the marginal revolution medieval metaphysics and its rejection of all things material and political. Politics was ground down to a purely technical and non-critical analysis of political institutions and processes. Sociology was taken over by the functionalists and modernists (Western civilization being seen as the peak of perfection that the rest of the world should stretch to obtain).
As Gabriel Rockhill has shown, there was a vast state project to create a critical theory that was stripped of historical materialism as part of an intellectual Cold War after WW2. This was ramped up again post-Occupy Wall Street to take the gaze away from the ruling class and their class war on the rest.
The problem for the Western ruling classes is that this materially unmoored social science is now threatening the core need to educate the populace to basic levels of capitalist functionality, and even threatening the functioning of natural sciences. They let the “critical” theory out of the bag and now it has started to eat its own parents.
Here is an excellent workshop by Rockhill and others on the utter misuse of the term “fascism” in the social sciences and the reality that it is just another mode of capitalist rule.
Helmut-Harry Loewen, Gabriel Rockhill & Julian Sempill, “Critical Theory & Fascism”
Butler is just another tool, whether she understands that or not. She is certainly unlinked from physical reality, which for adults is captured by the term schizophrenic.

Posted by: Roger | Mar 31 2024 17:25 utc | 23

james @21
Thanks for the link!

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 31 2024 17:38 utc | 25

@Posted by: Roger | Mar 31 2024 17:25 utc | 23

Butler is just another tool, whether she understands that or not

Just read Wiki page on “them”.
Would love to see CalDre’s comment on the subject.

Posted by: 2+2=5 | Mar 31 2024 17:48 utc | 27

Roger @23
Thanks for the Rockhill workshop. That looks to be worth paying attention to, but two hours? There goes the rest of the day…

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 31 2024 17:51 utc | 29

William Gruff! It is about time … I shall meet you at this forums tomorrow at noon UTC. Bring your adjutants, and a textbook on quantum mechanics.
This the thesis I’m going to defend: neither idealism nor realism are sensible positions that allow for a coherent definition of “reality”. Both are flawed metaphysics. Their fault derives from the original presumption in the “metaphysics of substance”, and by removing the false premise of an eternal, unchanging, outside substance, the problem may be rectified. This implies introduction of another type of epistemology, which is possible to craft in a coherent manner. From this view, the idealism/realism conundrum is not to be resolved as to its original formulation, but rather exposed as being improperly stated.
However, your critique of Butler’s work will remain standing even in the other framework, as your final observation above, denial of reality as […] reality, still holds true.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 31 2024 17:59 utc | 31

@ William Gruff | Mar 31 2024 17:08 utc | 20 –
Thanks for laying out everyday language the critical difference between Idealism and Materialism. It’s most important that ‘street-educated people’ (like myself) grasp the not good consequences of Idealist thinking, After all we are not only greater in number than the ‘over-educated’, we stand to benefit the most by that understanding instead of wandering through life in fantasy.
(And you did it without mentioning Scorpion (the blogs most outspoken critic of Materialism), something I probably couldn’t do. 🙂

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 31 2024 18:08 utc | 33

Average Filipinos are in such a poor state due their allegiance to the USA. Clinging to life (Call center and crap factory work on the decline) and heavily dependent on remittances from relatives in the west. They have a natural inclination to dislike China which is buttressed by propaganda. The CIA is so adept at provoking and inflaming. They’re religious, proud and patriotic
which will lead them to nothing good.
They will soon be willing pawns which will lead to their own hell on earth once again.
They’d have been better off with Spain as they were already quite integrated by 1898 and Manifest Destiny did them no favors. Used and abused as the US formula goes.

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Mar 31 2024 18:10 utc | 35

Today I will post translations of posts by Russian journalists on Russia’s migrant issue. I apologize for the length, but this important issue is not covered in Western alt-media, so someone has to do it.

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2024 18:16 utc | 37

Russian journalist, Deputy Head of Moscow City Duma Andrey Medvedev reacts to Chesnokov’s post (March 27, 2024):

Indeed, as my colleague correctly notes, there is nothing in the educational guides of Tajik (kinda even partly Russian–Tajik) schools that was not written in Soviet history textbooks starting in the 30s.
All the narratives remained the same, as if copied from Lenin’s works, such as “On the National Pride of the Great Russians.” In Soviet textbooks, the Russian people were the bearers of imperial chauvinism, the Russian Empire was a subject that robbed and humiliated all peoples (except the Russians, because the Russians themselves were colonialists), siphoned off resources, and destroyed ancient local culture. Field commanders and thugs, such as Masanchi or Alibi Dzhangildin, were declared fighters against the damned Tsarism. Meanwhile, however, it was omitted that the whole struggle traditionally boiled down to massacres of Russians in Turkestan.
The 1875 uprising in Kokand, which was essentially a form of religious war against the Russian and local authorities (as they wrote in Russian documents, “jehad”) and boiled down to massacres of Russian postal stations and settlements, was also called the national liberation struggle in the Soviet years. And against whom was the struggle? Against the occupying empire.
Today, in textbooks in the lands of the former USSR another occupier, the Soviet Union, has been added to the Russian Empire. Through history textbooks and national historical policies in almost all neighboring countries they are systematically broadcasting that the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union were the colonial periods of national history. Ethnocide, “pumping out resources,” purposeful and exceptional repression (in some countries they are compared to genocide).
In reality, it is enough to go to Afghanistan, which has never been conquered by anyone, and compare the current life there and in neighboring, say, Tajikistan, which was allegedly colonized and oppressed. And it will immediately become clear what all these arguments are worth. What’s more, Pamir and its autochthonous population, the Pamir Tajiks (Rushans, Wakhans, Shughnans), were saved by the Russian Army from extermination by those very Afghans at the end of the 19th century.
However, we have what we have. Russophobic textbooks, including those funded with Russian money. The guide that my colleagues have found is from the Lomonosov School in Bokhar [Bokhtar — S]. It’s one of the schools built with Russian money; in 2021, the Russian Government allocated $150 million for this project; in 2022—₽5.74 billion. Wonderful.
Thing is, a number of officials in Russia still feel that certain common values exist in some form on the territory of the former Union: the Great Patriotic War, Soviet friendship of peoples. This is all a deep illusion. The Great Patriotic War, according to young people in the national republics, was someone else’s war, in which the Russians FORCED their grandfathers and great-grandfathers to fight.
Those who are under 30 years old do not think of themselves as “post-Soviet,” and they aren’t, and in addition, they live in a situation of significant social stratification, where the most vulnerable social strata find answers to their most important questions in radical Islam.
And the most important thing. All the republics of the post-Soviet space, including Central Asian ones, have been building national states since 1991. Even if it was camouflaged with some beautiful formulas. De facto, they have been building national states where, for the time being, someone else was allowed to live.
This is exactly what officials responsible for shaping migration policy and those who are promoting our soft power need to understand. Even though the quality of their work varies. The sooner we understand, the better it will be for everyone.
Because what’s going on is the following. We believe that people who are coming to us are at least minimally grateful to Russia/USSR for the creation of industrial and other infrastructure and have at least something in common with us in terms of culture and purpose.
But in reality people who are coming to us believe since childhood that their country would have lived better, had not those Russian imperials and Sovoks stolen everything.

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2024 18:17 utc | 39

Bemildred @28
I recall Congressional testimony by a geophysicist some years ago, perhaps Michael Mann, in which he argued that it was already a lost cause to try and limit consumption of the remaining petroleum reserves on the planet. What can one do, tell billions of people in developing countries they cannot upgrade their lifestyles?
No, at this point all of the economically extractable petroleum will be extracted, and much of that will get burned, which itself is a tragedy since petroleum is such an awesome chemical feedstock for industry. Simply burning it for transportation? Crazy…
According to the geophysicist (pretty sure it was Mann) the primary focus needs to be keeping the remaining coal in the ground. At the same time, global baseload power generation must be increase by an order of magnitude unless only the ”Golden Billion” are to be allowed to have heat and air conditioning.
That is a tough contradiction to untangle, but I think we will be seeing moves by the Chinese in the coming years towards solutions that involve thinking outside the box biosphere.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 31 2024 18:21 utc | 41

Here is an excellent workshop by Rockhill and others on the utter misuse of the term “fascism” in the social sciences and the reality that it is just another mode of capitalist rule.
Helmut-Harry Loewen, Gabriel Rockhill & Julian Sempill, “Critical Theory & Fascism”
Butler is just another tool, whether she understands that or not. She is certainly unlinked from physical reality, which for adults is captured by the term schizophrenic.
Posted by: Roger | Mar 31 2024 17:25 utc | 23
Thanks for the Rockhill workshop. That looks to be worth paying attention to, but two hours? There goes the rest of the day…
Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 31 2024 17:51 utc | 29
———————————–
Rockhill has a useful expression in calling the liberal-fascist approach as the Janus-faced “good cop, bad cop” of capitalist rule. Rather than the apoplectic drama queen politics of warning about creeping fascism, he has argued that it’s a set of different tools used for the same purpose. Some parts of the population already see the fascist side of things, e.g. African-Americans that get politically organized, or ditto for First Nations in Canada, but the liberal rule also plays its role for other parts of the population.
In a certain sense then, Rockhill argued that fascism is already here. The “good cop, bad cop” expression helps one to see how the whole thing works, IMHO.
Of course there is a lot more to Rockhill than that. However, it’s often the parts that you remember that become useful.

Posted by: N Hanrahan | Mar 31 2024 18:25 utc | 43

good article from kit Klarenburg
“Contrary to their mainstream portrayal, as inspired purely by religious fundamentalism, Daesh are primarily guns for hire.”
Most readers know Klarenburg, works out of uk/serbia, colaborates with Grayzone. This is a good piece detailing some of the history (2011) of isis starting from a Rand Corp. analysis and recommendation. Rand tankies lay out strategic vision, then hand off to CIA psychos who hook up with MI 6 and start hiring and providing training, guns, ammo and intel. Once you “get” how it worked in Libya, Syria, Iraq then you can copy paste and figure out the current terror op– in this case, Crocus.
bottom line, Russia understands the Empire’s terror blueprints. The Global South agrees with their view. Russia, China, Iran will prevail.
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/how-cia-and-mi6-created-isis

Posted by: migueljose | Mar 31 2024 18:31 utc | 45

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 31 2024 17:51 utc | 28
Thanks for sharing some of your story Bemildred. I’ve always valued your posts and, like you, have stepped back from some of the more carbon heavy stuff like flying, fast food and now eat more wild (deer, mushrooms, greens) along with mail order peanuts and flour. and beer of course.

Posted by: migueljose | Mar 31 2024 18:39 utc | 47

Russian journalist Sergey Kolyasnikov is enraged that the terrorists who had known criminal background and terrorist associations were let inside Russia (March 28, 2024):

[3 photos of terrorists]
One of the terrorists, Shamsiddin Fariduni (photo #1), was sentenced in Tajikistan in 2015 to 5 years and 8 months for attempted rape of a 13-year-old boy (Article 241, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan).
The brother of the terrorist and gang leader Dalerjon Mirzoev (photo #2) fought for ISIS in Syria for 4 years. Because of that, his family in Tajikistan was under special surveillance. Ravshanjon Mirzoev went to Russia to work, then in 2016 he went to Syria, from there he contacted his family and disappeared again. He was later added to the list of “terrorism-related” persons maintained by the National Bank of Tajikistan. The news of his death came 4 years later.
What wonderful “valuable specialists” are coming to Russia without restrictions. Without such people, the Russian economy is dying. It’s strange that they didn’t receive Russian passports; apparently they didn’t have time for that. They could pass the Russian language exam for 15,000 rubles, the rest was also inexpensive. If you include fictitious marriage and citizenship, then it’s a little more expensive, 70,000 rubles.
How many thousands or tens of thousands of such “guys,” as Timati is calling them, are running around Russia at the moment, one can only guess. We need more stories about interethnic love; there are not enough existing ones.

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2024 18:44 utc | 49

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 31 2024 17:51 utc | 28
Thanks for sharing some of your story Bemildred. I’ve always valued your posts and, like you, have stepped back from some of the more carbon heavy stuff like flying, fast food and now eat more wild (deer, mushrooms, greens) along with mail order peanuts and flour. and beer of course.
Posted by: migueljose | Mar 31 2024 18:39 utc | 47
Thank you. I’ve always appreciated your contributions too. Different life experience offers different perspectives, we all learn from each other. I stopped drinking too, but not because I don’t like beer. I cook all my own food, and get testy with people who try to interfere. Nothing is like, as good as, that hands-on experience.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 31 2024 18:49 utc | 51

@LuRenJia #30
Thanks so much for the update. The hegemon is currently busy “shaping” the future battlefield.

Posted by: Richard L | Mar 31 2024 19:10 utc | 53

Peter AU1 | Mar 31 2024 18:10 utc | 34
*** This woke psyops, the woke cult, it preys on empathy. ***
Years ago was told by a politically correct, middle-aged ‘liberal’ type woman that she just couldn’t live if she saw the world as sharply as I then did. Same person when proof was offered that an Establishment historical assertion was a total lie, accepted the proof — but then said “oh, but it must have happened somewhere anyway”.
They hide from reality, forever scuttling back into a fantasy world concocted for them by the Political Establishment psychological warfare department, wherein their delusions are “safe”.
Still have not figured out what, if anything, could ever cure such people of their toxic internalised brew of cozy delusions, tunnel vision and self-justifying hypocrisy.

Posted by: Cynic | Mar 31 2024 19:12 utc | 55

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2024 19:11 utc | 54
What are your thoughts on RF in-migration? I was under the impression that it was already very ‘diverse’ with all the different states in the Federation.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 31 2024 19:23 utc | 57

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 31 2024 19:26 utc | 58
Indeed.
2021:
https://cancelf35.substack.com/p/each-f-35-burns-22-gallons-a-minute

As described in the Watson Institute report, “Job Opportunity Cost of War,”
By spending money on the military and homeland security, we lose the opportunity to spend those funds on other things like education, healthcare, infrastructure, or clean energy. By forfeiting those opportunities, we lose the chance to fund programs that create even more jobs than military spending.
Since 2001, because the federal government has spent trillions of dollars on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan, we have lost opportunities to create millions of jobs in the domestic economy, and we have lost opportunities to improve educational, health, and environmental outcomes for the American public. . . While defense spending is indeed a source of job creation, these other areas create many more jobs for any given level of spending. Education and healthcare create more than twice as many jobs as defense for the same level of spending, while clean energy and infrastructure create over 40 percent more jobs. In fact, over the past 16 years, by spending money on war rather than in these other areas of the domestic economy, the US lost the opportunity to create between one million and three million additional jobs.
This means that, when considered against spending the money on efficiency, renewables, health care, education, and infrastructure, instead spending it on the F-35 is causing a loss in jobs. While massively accelerating climate change.

Israel has accelerated global warming by about 30 years since October alone.
So the little guy needs to go buy a Tesla on a 10 year note, underwritten by the same Wall Street-Silicon Valley-MIC nexus pushing everyone else to make up for their own emissions.
Is it any wonder it’s hard to care?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 31 2024 19:36 utc | 59

it might sound like a trivial question, but how are people here doing something ( what would it be?) to prevent climate change – that is, if you believe in it? thanks in advance..
Posted by: james | Mar 31 2024 16:22 utc | 14
james, I am not particularly concerned with climate change, since I don’t belong to the masters of universe club— those whom create the war machines that destroy everything and the earth along with it.
For myself, it’s little acts of preservation, such as, asking myself before I turn on a light, whether I actually need it. When showering, turning off the water while lathering up. Using small stream of water when brushing, and turning off the faucet while brushing. Not driving 20 KM to go to the latest rage restaurant. You get the idea. It all adds up over time.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Mar 31 2024 18:50 utc | 52
_____
I always come back to this observation: One does the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because it might make a damn bit of difference.

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 31 2024 19:54 utc | 61

I always come back to this observation: One does the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because it might make a damn bit of difference.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 31 2024 19:54 utc | 61
Yes, the true test of morality and ethics: what do you do when you think nobody is watching?

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 31 2024 20:01 utc | 63

Yes, the true test of morality and ethics: what do you do when you think nobody is watching?
Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 31 2024 20:01 utc | 63
____
Or, put another way, it’s good not to feel shame when walking past a mirror.

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 31 2024 20:21 utc | 65

@Tom_Q_Collins #57
I think that as long as foreigners are working as guest workers, all we should care about is whether they have a clean criminal record and no terrorist associations. They work, they get paid, they return to their countries. I don’t think they should necessarily know Russian language.
However, if they want to obtain citizenship, they must speak Russian well, they must know Russian history relatively well, and, most importantly, they must truly like Russia and Russians. Of course, they should be able to preserve their original culture, but they must also show basic respect for how things are in our country and make a reasonable effort to integrate into our society.
We shouldn’t be handing out citizenship to people who hate us and just want to suck money from Russian welfare programs while they recreate carbon copies of their native countries in ghettos.

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2024 20:50 utc | 67

It has been increasingly clear in recent weeks that Declan has been bitten by a rabid animal of some kind. And this latest entrant, recommended by our old friend Scorpion, suggests that the animal in question might be in the CIA.
The truth, which is crystal clear in this instance, is that the United States is relentless in its efforts to advance its military positions as close to China as it can get. The election of Marcos mark II was part of this strategy, as is the re-armament of Japan, the return of Taiwan to the pre 1970 position of being a US base for aggression against the PRC, the crack down on opposition to the US puppet party in south Korea, the long campaign to build up Vietnam as a US ally against China (only an American imperialist would dare think of that) and the barely disguised racism in the ANZUS White Man’s club.
China’s policy has been almost painfully quietist and conservative as the Empire’s crude and naked campaign of aggression- encirclement- has been building up. To the accompaniment it has to be said of a discordant chorus of sinophobic, anti-communist and racist propaganda straight out of the Readers Digest circa 1953.
The US wants another Cold War because it is afraid that unless it gets one, and lots of hot wars with it, it will disappear back into the isolation and obscurity from which it emerged in the post War (WWI) era- a provincial creole culture at the heart of whose good humour and opulent hospitality lies a calendar of vicious crimes motivated by greed and insensitivity. A record of genocide and enslavement caught, in every detail, in the flood lit glare of the Enlightenment era.
It looks to me as if Hayes has been got at. MI 6 please confirm.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2024 14:57 utc | 6
Absolutely.
I haven’t read and article on SCF that I disagreed with more sharply. I honestly considered abandoning the site as a news source when I read this war mongering garbage. Declan has lost the thread…

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Mar 31 2024 21:44 utc | 69

Friendly reminder to all that when we see terms like America, US, CIA and UK that there are heavy Khazarian inputs in the mix, if not indeed the main drivers.
Posted by: scorpion | Mar 31 2024 18:48 utc | 50
Al
To put a finer point on it, there is a heavy billionaire, war monger input in the mix when we here those terms. However you want to dice it, those terms do not reflect the perspective of the vast majority of “America” or the “US”.
Alternative, more accurate descriptions: “Washington DC”, the “US ruling class”, “US intelligence”, “US regime”, “US oligarchs”.
Let’s “put the bell on the cat”, as they say down under.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Mar 31 2024 21:52 utc | 71

Posted by: Cynic | Mar 31 2024 19:12 utc | 55

“Still have not figured out what, if anything, could ever cure such people of their toxic internalised brew of cozy delusions, tunnel vision and self-justifying hypocrisy.”

They’re addicted to the manufactured soap operas, boob tubes and other media offer for entertainment and like any addiction, be it gambling, or alcohol/drugs, no amount of outside friendly advice, nor interference will help their dilemma. Their cure can only come from within.

Posted by: aye, myself & me | Mar 31 2024 22:44 utc | 73

Addendum to #74
I will add that this article was a game changer for me 30 odd years ago and one of the points marking my own turn to Marx. While there is the occasional blip (Peasant Citizen and Slave is muddled and wrong), in general Meiksins Wood is a brilliant Marxist historian.

Posted by: Patroklos | Mar 31 2024 22:51 utc | 75

Just in case anyone was wondering: CISA is a typo.
Ouch!! Lose the S.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2024 23:29 utc | 77

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2024 20:16 utc | 64
Yep, saw that and thought of the Cyrillic example and the NSA’s little misattribution ‘tool’.
Western software developers, many of whom are extremely naïve when it comes to geopolitics, will be tricked by the “Chinese name” and start acting paranoid whenever a Chinese person appears and wants to commit to their open-source project.
Which isn’t quite the same as inserting metadata into actual code comments (as if any bad actor on a state/national level would be so stupid to do it accidentally).
Also this little twist.

The Tan account was also helpful and responsive to other coders, making it all the more integral to managing the project over a long period of time. This is a very different threat than simply stealing a programmer’s logins, quickly changing and releasing new malicious code before anyone shuts off the credentials.
Jia Tan also pushed this update in the Ubuntu bug tracker system as late as March 28.
Another interesting twist from last July involves Jia Tan messing with oss-fuzz, an important Google security checking program which uses “fuzzing” or feeding wild inputs to programs to see if they have flaws.
In a detailed note, Evan Boehs flagged the immediately suspicious code that Jia Tan submitted in 2021 shortly after their GitHub account was created, into a different project called libarchive. One can see the Jia Tan changes to libarchive and today’s attempts to fix the possible vulnerability here.
Boehs also noticed Jia Tan took over the contact email at oss-fuzz away from Lasse Collin, the original developer in March 2023.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 31 2024 23:57 utc | 79

S | Mar 31 2024 19:11 utc | 54–
Must give a very low bow to S for the articles related to Russia’s immigration issue as it’s far more complicated than what I’ve read. The corruption involved and the degree of historical distortion is fantastical. I wish I had more time to write on the topic; maybe when I get home in 10 days.
///////////////////////
IMO, this is the best week-in-review thread in many months given the nature and quality of the discourse. Thanks much to all contributors!

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 1 2024 0:36 utc | 81

Letters of Pontius Pilate have numerous references of Jesus in several letters. (No idea if or how such things are verified.)
Posted by: scorpion | Apr 1 2024 0:50 utc | 82

Came across that some time back, took a brief look and got the impression that the letters were spurious – a fabrication from a couple of centuries ago, maybe.

Posted by: pessoa | Apr 1 2024 1:09 utc | 83

The more things change, the more they stay the same. This is the last part of a letter from Pontius Pilate to Caesar – it seems they were good friends – in which he is kvetching about how hard it is to bargain with the Sanhedrim who are refusing to help pay out of Temple Funds for Pontius’s pet project, an aqueduct which will bring clean water to the city. He has suggested structuring a bond to be repaid in monthly instalments but, ironically, they won’t budge. So now he’s amused by these reports of a new preacher called Jesus who is annoying the hell out these same in intransigent Sanhedrim for being endlessly argumentative anti-class communist types even back then!!
Well, America is going full-bore into egalitarian classless, updated for the 21st century, and I guess Pontius Pilate will be chuckling from the Great Beyond about it just as he was clearly doing in this letter to Caesar!

There is one side of it which amuses and delights me. Jesus is quarrelling with the lawyers and the priests. Anything that touches the Law or threatens their authority rouses their instant jealousy. Just as I have told the Sanhedrim that I expect them to report to me any agitation that they hear of, so I make it a point to let them know pretty briskly of any negligence I can impute to them. I informed Caiaphas of the reports concerning Jesus that were reaching me and told him that since the Sanhedrim claimed authority even in Galilee, he had better see to it. He replied at once with emphasis, saying that from what they had heard of Jesus, though it was little as yet, they disapproved of him heartily and that they were sending a deputation of learned men to Galilee to summon him for examination. In himself the man is a person of no consequence: the son of a common workman. But then, Simon, one of the rascals who gave trouble some years ago, was a slave, and Athronges, another mischief-maker, was a shepherd. It is the worst of these Jews that rank means nothing to them. They will follow any son of the soil if he can fight well, rob well, or talk well – especially if he work a few wonders into the bargain – and, before you know where you are, they will set him up for king. However, with Antipas and the Sanhedrim watching him, and with me waiting for him in Judaea, it is a poor prospect for Jesus.
In any case I cannot feel excited about anything at present except my aqueduct. It is a noble work, worthy to rank with that of Herod himself at Caesarea. Can you suggest to me how I am to get the money? My ears are wide open. But wait in patience. I have a secret; I rub my hands over it but I dare not tell it even to you. I hope, when I write next, to inform you that I have the money in my hands, for get it I will though the Jews smart for it.

https://members.tripod.com/~owen_eir/letter22.html

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 1 2024 1:28 utc | 85

Posted by: S | Apr 1 2024 1:30 utc | 86
Russian journalist Vladimir Kornilov (March 31, 2024):
On this day exactly 70 years ago, March 31, 1954, the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an official note proposed to consider the issue of admitting the USSR to NATO in order to prevent confrontation in Europe and not create mutually hostile military blocs. This idea was rejected by the West. And now they are yelling something about the “aggressive” nature of the USSR and Russia….
——
So Russia/USSR has been rejected as untermenschen not worthy of membership in the garden of the ‘golden billion’ (I guess back then the golden 400 million?) longer than I realized! Has Russia finally stopped trying, in your opinion?

Posted by: dumbo | Apr 1 2024 1:36 utc | 87

thanks everyone for replying to my question about what are you doing about climate change…
@ KMRIA | Mar 31 2024 17:15 utc | 22
thanks… those are basic choices one can make… essentially leading a more spartan life style is what you are saying…
@ Bemildred | Mar 31 2024 17:51 utc | 28
thanks bemildred… those seem like changes based of the wisdom which comes with age… i agree with what you say.. i wonder how many view a change to a vegetarian diet as beneficial to the planet? i took up vegetarianism when i was about 16, but let go of it some in my mid 30s – partly because of the partner i married… i don’t eat red meat… i don’t know how much difference it makes… i continue to fly on airplanes that are mostly inaccessible via other forms of transportation.. traveling less would definitely cut down on gas consumption.. is gas consumption a real drag on the climate? i am told it is… maybe i will have to reference KMRIA’s book recommendation.. i don’t know what to believe anymore..
@ waynorinorway | Mar 31 2024 18:11 utc | 36
thanks! i still have that link you shared to KMRIA on yugoslavia from michael parenti i want to watch… cheers…
@ William Gruff | Mar 31 2024 18:21 utc | 41
thanks for that.. good indirect response to my question!
@ Tom Pfotzer | Mar 31 2024 18:24 utc | 42
thanks tom! those are some amazing responses to the issue of climate change.. i like the idea of shopping local – 100 mile diet and of course growing your own food.. many of your ideas i have incorporated, but not all of them.. obviously you take it all seriously.. thanks..
@ migueljose | Mar 31 2024 18:39 utc | 47
it’s interesting how important transportation costs are tied into the cost of food when you don’t grow your own, or when you are relying on food sources from much further away and they require transportation.. at one time vancouver island used to be self sufficient.. they didn’t have ferries to the island.. i guess that is going back 75 years or so.. now there is a desire on the part of some on this island to be self sufficient again… i am contributing a very small part to it.. planted a lot of onion seeds 2 days ago. stuff like that..
@ Sakineh Bagoom | Mar 31 2024 18:50 utc | 52
thanks sakineh! it is the little things that matter… if we can’t deal with the little things, it will be impossible to deal with the bigger issues we have choices around making… cheers..
@ malenkov | Mar 31 2024 19:54 utc | 61
that’s a good approach..i like it and try to follow it..
@

Posted by: james | Apr 1 2024 2:34 utc | 89

This.
But it leads to the doctrine of ‘ajatavada’ (anutpada in Madhyamika Buddhism), which ‘I’ don’t want to embrace yet… too many things ‘I’ am still attached to. ‘Someday’ though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aj%C4%81tiv%C4%81da
Posted by: dumbo | Apr 1 2024 1:14 utc | 84
Yes, there is no “substance”, only motion.
But having considered the matter at length, and understanding the consequences, the price that must be paid, I prefer to stay here and work on it. That may be a mistake, but I don’t think so, and “I” will soon be gone anyway, …
I think we get tangled up in our words, take them to far too seriously.
To quote Jackson Browne: “there may be a reason you were alive, but you’ll never know”.
The dance is what matters.

Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 1 2024 3:01 utc | 91

Slavland: he’s difficult to read because nearly everything he says is Irish-style sarcasm. His concern is that Putin is part of the globalist movement – and he is not the only person with this concern – so sometimes he brings up aspects of Putin policies reflecting this concern which few other reporters cover (which is why I follow his stuff). He lives in a small Russian village so also gives reports on village life there, quirky and amusing.
I personally don’t trust him, but I very much appreciate his critical view which is rare coming from and English-speaking someone both in and favourable to Russia, Russian people and Putin but also concerned by what is going on there and which he doesn’t like. He like me changed his mind about Putin based on the covid response. My spidey sense tingled and have now gone from a multipolar fan to a skeptic. (I smell some rats!)
As to climate change, this popped up on an aggregator site five minutes ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYrTvjCYqQ8
A new – and very critical – documentary about climate change. Only 10 minutes in but pretty well produced with MANY different well established scientists contributing, including Nobel Prize Winners, MIT Dept Heads etc.
I’ve said this before, but I think pollution is a very real issue but climate change is essentially a scam whose main purpose is to establish communist-socialist style one-world government autocracy/tyranny. It’s a persuasive but dangerous psyop which, ironically, also detracts from tackling pollution which urgently needs to be addressed.
I avoid the topic; just writing this much out has made me angry! I hate that We The People are so easy to manipulate!!!

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 1 2024 3:11 utc | 93

In response to
”
I think we get tangled up in our words, take them to far too seriously.
To quote Jackson Browne: “there may be a reason you were alive, but you’ll never know”.
The dance is what matters.
Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 1 2024 3:01 utc | 91
”
Thanks
I like the phrase…..Life is art, or it is nothing.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 1 2024 3:15 utc | 95

The Register has a posting up with the title
Hillary Clinton: 2024 will be ‘ground zero’ for AI election manipulation
2016 meddling was ‘primitive’ compared to what’s ahead
What if the Jan 6 DC protestors used this argument? Are the Dems setting up to be ther poor losers this time around?
I keep wanting to see both Clintons in orange jail suits but not Trump because it would clash with his hair/skin…./s

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 1 2024 3:28 utc | 97

Posted by: scorpion | Mar 31 2024 13:07 utc | 1
———————
pop

Although I see war as being inevitable, the only way of mitigating its effects is for China to listen to Russia’s diplomats, to cop itself on and to give countries like the Philippines and Vietnam not only room to breathe but space to wriggle out from under Under Sam’s clutches and from those of China as well. Because I cannot see China doing any of that, the gods of war will be increasingly very busy in the South China Sea until both China and the United States are firmly muzzled.

Classic bandit crying robbery.
faq
Q] Has ‘China’s aggressiveness driven away all its neighbors towards the great satan’ ?
A] That’s another monumental lie from the united snakes.
Fact is…in the past 7 decades,
Every single leader who’s friendly to China has been taken out and replaced by Washington’s puppet, by soft coup [ex jp], palace coup [ex Whitnam] , down to murder [ex Nepal’s king Birendra’s entire family wiped out in 2001] and outright genocide [the mother of all regime change in indon, 1965, to remove pro Beijing prez Sukarno with CIA asset Suharto, collateral damages estimated at 3M, including almost the entire Chinese community]
Here’s a partial list,
Panda huggers ousted, murdered, by CIA/MI6/RAW…
PM YIng LUck , Thailand,
PM Najib, Malaysia,
prez Arroyo, Ph,
prez Sukarno, INdon,
PM Hatoyama, jp,
prez Park Chung hue, SK,
PM Whitnam, Oz,
PM Lange , NZ,
PM Norman Kirk, NZ,
KIng BIrendra, Nepal,
KIng Gyanendra Nepal,
PM Oli, Nepal
prez Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka
prez Yameen Maldives,
PM Rajiv Ghandi, India,
PM Alkatiri, E Timor,
PM Thinley, BHutan,
Tip of an iceberg.
The craptrap that China’s ‘aggressiveness’ drive off all its neighbors towards the great satan, has been debunked hundreds of times here by yours truly

Let’s hope Japan’s cherry blossoms, as well as China’s, can withstand further nuclear attacks when both sides really get into their stride.

The only way to have peace on the planet is to nuke
the world’s no 1 shit stirrer.
https://tinyurl.com/3fxu7mxc
Bevin

has Decan been co-opted ?

pop

That was my thought too.

tsk tsk tsk,
Such unseemly haste !
The scorpion in full chameleon mode again, speaking outta both sides of its mouth !

Posted by: denk | Apr 1 2024 3:42 utc | 99