Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
April 18, 2024

Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-111

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

Posted by b on April 18, 2024 at 14:18 UTC | Permalink

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Argentina has applied to be an extended member of NATO, a NATO "partner". The role of Milei as a true servant of the US Empire and the Argentinian vassal elites becomes more and more obvious every day. He will do all he can to transform Argentina into a bastion of US power in the Southern Cone, helping to reassert US power in their "backyard" of Latin America and Canada (whose elites and politicians are already fully subjugated).

There will be no freeing of Latin America from US Empire allowed. Its up to EurAsia and Africa to break the hold of the Empire.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 14:54 utc | 1

@ Roger | Apr 18 2024 14:54 utc | 1

amazing how many traitors there are in latin america... is this a spanish heritage thing?

Posted by: james | Apr 18 2024 15:19 utc | 2

This is an excellent article by John Bellamy Foster on the linkage between irrational theorizing and capitalism The New Irrationalism. A few excerpts:

In 1953, Georg Lukács, whose 1923 History and Class Consciousness had inspired the Western Marxist philosophical tradition, published his magisterial work, The Destruction of Reason, on the close relation of philosophical irrationalism to capitalism, imperialism, and fascism.1 Lukács’s work set off a firestorm among Western left theorists seeking to accommodate themselves to the new American imperium. In 1963, George Lichtheim, a self-styled socialist operating within the general tradition of Western Marxism while virulently opposed to Soviet Marxism, wrote an article for Encounter Magazine, then covertly funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in which he vehemently attacked The Destruction of Reason and other works by Lukács. Lichtheim accused Lukács of generating an “intellectual disaster” with his analysis of the historical shift from reason to unreason within European philosophy and literature, and the relation of this to the rise of fascism and the new imperialism under U.S. global hegemony.2

This was not the first time, of course, that Lukács had been subjected to such strong condemnations by figures associated with Western Marxism. Theodor Adorno, one of the dominant theorists of the Frankfurt School, attacked Lukács in 1958 when the latter was still under house arrest for supporting the 1956 revolution in Hungary. Writing in Der Monat, a journal created by the occupying U.S. Army and funded by the CIA, Adorno charged Lukács with being “reductive” and “undialectical,” writing like a “Cultural Commissar,” and with being “paralysed from the outset by the consciousness of his own impotence.”


Lukács provocatively started his book by saying “the subject matter which presents itself to us is Germany’s path to Hitler in the sphere of philosophy.” But his critique was in fact much broader, seeing irrationalism as related to the imperialist stage of capitalism more generally. Hence, what most outraged Lukács’s critics in the West in the early 1960s was his suggestion that the problem of the destruction of reason had not vanished with the historic defeat of fascism, but that it was continuing to nurture reactionary tendencies, if more covertly, in the new Cold War era dominated by the U.S. imperium. “Franz Kafka’s nightmares,” Lichtheim charged, were treated by Lukács as evidence of “‘the diabolical character of the world of modern capitalism,'” now represented by the United States.5 Yet, Lukács’s argument in this respect was impossible to refute.


Irrationalism is now thoroughly in fashion again. A further “radicalization of the impossibility of…exit” is evident as the world in late imperialism faces two forms of exterminism: nuclear war and the planetary ecological emergency. In a conference and book addressing the antisemitism and Nazism in Heidegger’s Black Notebooks, representing a desperate effort to salvage Heidegger’s philosophy in some way despite the revelations that Nazism was integral to his entire outlook, it was Lacanian-Hegelian philosopher Žižek who was given the final word, no doubt due to his reputation as a left thinker. Žižek sought to defend the importance of Heidegger for philosophy, despite his Nazism, on the grounds of the significance of his fundamental ontology of “ontological difference,” or the relation of beings to Being, out of which Heidegger’s analysis of Dasein and his deconstruction of the conscious ego had arisen. This, then, is seen as separable from the specifics of Heidegger’s political path. Even if he did not move away from his far-right views, failing to repudiate his Nazi past, Heidegger, we are told, is still to be commended for the fundamental ontology of his Being and Time and his criticisms of scientific-technological civilization, viewed as distinguishable from his complicity with the Third Reich

"Woke", "Identity Politics", "Post-Modernism", "The Cultural Turn" are all symptoms of the stage of capitalism, which must mysticize to remove the possibility of accurate analyses of society as it is (the extraction of value by the capitalist elite), and denigrate humanist philosophy; extensively supported by state, foundation and individual capitalist funding and disciplining. Exactly the role that Gramsci saw for the mass of intellectuals, either "organic" intellectuals consciously doing the work of the ruling capitalist class or those co-opted through careerism.

John Bellamy Foster talking about his article with Midwestern Marx, lengthy but extremely interesting: Lukács and the New Irrationalism | Interview with John Bellamy Foster

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:22 utc | 3

The attorney and poet William Pepper passed away recently. An article of his published in 1967 in Ramparts Magazine - "The Children of Vietnam" - was instrumental in Martin Luther King's turn to publicly denouncing US foreign policy and militarism. I thought of this article while reading the recent interview with Michael Hudson, which so clearly articulates the "evil" mindset which coldly manifests a policy of open murder to achieve strategic goals. The deliberate infliction of widespread suffering on the people of Vietnam is being repeated sixty years on in Gaza, which underlines the systemic nature of these crimes.

https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ChildrenOfVietnam.html

Posted by: jayc | Apr 18 2024 15:31 utc | 4

@Posted by: james | Apr 18 2024 15:19 utc | 2

amazing how many traitors there are in latin america... is this a spanish heritage thing?

Absolutely, the independence struggles of Latin America in the early 1800s was really the struggle of the in country colonial elites to remove themselves from the oversight of the home country (Spain and Portugal). Those elites have ruled ever since and have greatly retarded their nations' development as they serve a foreign master (the US) and their own interests (agro-business, mining extraction, property development and finance); which includes retarding industrialization as that would create a new elite with different interests. To use the US as a metaphor, it is as if the agricultural South had beaten the industrial North in the US Civil War. Milei is a creation of an Argentinian oligarch Eduardo Eurnekian (Argentina's fourth richest person who made his money in media and airports) who promoted Milei by giving him a program in his own media empire. A good backgrounder article, The billionaire who backs Argentina’s Javier Milei

The only real revolution was in Haiti, and its people have been punished for that ever since.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:37 utc | 5

I wanted to make mention the phenomenon of "anchoring". That's when you develop or adopt a perspective and reject information to the contrary, seeking out data and opinions that confirm that bias.

Everyone is susceptible to this anchoring, and it takes a lot of vigilance to avoid it.

If you have a moment today, consider whether your opinions are unique, rather than pattern-matching with a group's opinion.

There is nothing wrong with changing one's mind with new information. We should laud people who update their perspective as time and experience present opportunities for growth.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 18 2024 15:38 utc | 6

@ Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:37 utc | 5

thanks roger.. it is a shame ordinary people are so easily duped into voting for people like this who don't have their interests in mind..

@ LoveDonbass | Apr 18 2024 15:38 utc | 6

i am sure that happens a lot... people love following others, no matter who or what or where.. it is no easy task to rise above that..

Posted by: james | Apr 18 2024 15:47 utc | 7

Great news, Halal Mortgages are coming to Canada, sign me up....well, if I ever have need for a mortgage again, I'll convert just to qualify.

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 18 2024 16:19 utc | 8

b was emphatically right about Seymour Hersh as a conduit for intelligence and military agency bullshit. I did not want to believe it at firts, given the man's great career, as recent as the Nordstream reports. But it has become clear, and I have had to de-anchor myself and change my mind about what he is now doing.

Posted by: Henry | Apr 18 2024 16:25 utc | 9

"...given the man's great career, as recent as the Nordstream reports. But it has become clear, and I have had to de-anchor myself and change my mind about what he is now doing.

Posted by: Henry | Apr 18 2024 16:25 utc | 9

Like the poster Norwegian (& many others) I have serious doubts about Hersh's reporting on Nordstream.
It seems to me that he could well have been a 'conduit for intelligence and military bullshit' for some time before that.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 18 2024 17:54 utc | 10

'The role of Milei as a true servant of the US Empire and the Argentinian vassal elites becomes more and more obvious every day.'
Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 14:54 utc | 1


One has to suspect that the Argentinian Milei is an abbreviation of Mileikowski and what his relation to Nuttyyahoo may be?

Posted by: oubok | Apr 18 2024 18:07 utc | 11

I realise that discussion of the global gold market is a niche interest on MoA however it is one of the mechanisms by which the Hegemon exerts control, so rumblings and dislocations in this market indicate a loss of grip.

A piece posted at Zero Hedge titled “Gold's Mystery Buyer” (posting a direct link trips a TypePad filter somewhere) includes the following:

Daily gold turnover on the SHFE [Shanghai Futures Exchange] last year averaged $13.89 b/day (=billion dollars per day) – well behind London's LBMA average turnover at $78.91 b/day and New York's CME at $44.3 b/day.

And then things changed in March 2024, just when the gold price went through an inflection point. Business on SHFE essentially doubled in a month and then doubled again to nearly $40 b/day. That's headed for roughly half the size of the London market in 2 months.

~~~

So, two questions – what does this mean about the centre of gravity for global trading … and what does the SHFE futures buying mean for the outlook for the gold price ?

Too early to say whether the price discovery process is shifting to the East. Two exceptional trading months are insufficient to make any claim. But liquidity begets more liquidity and the momentum is certainly with China. Exchanges generate their own gravitational pull – its all a bit binary – and London has held the role for centuries as the leading hub, in much the same way that the London Metal Exchange (LME) has done for base metals.

Arguably the Chinese gold price is not adequately representative as a fair global benchmark because it is landlocked – gold cannot be readily exported and hence it could be argued that it only represents the domestic position. But as the world's largest producer and consumer, one would imagine that China has ambitions to be THE price-setter.

If the Chinese market does become the global price-setter for gold that poses huge problems for the West, who have used a whole host of manipulative methods to keep the price of gold under control in order to prevent a true price level from exposing quite how badly devalued all Western currencies have become.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 18 2024 18:23 utc | 12

Steve Armitredge, a sports announcer for the Canadian Brodcasting Corporation retired recently. He was given glowing testimonials and love by other members of the CBC, as they normally do with each other. In the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, during the parade of athletes, he used the word "genocide", when the Chinese athletes walked into the stadium. He was referring to the situation with the Uighars. I suspect he may be a fan of Adrian Zenz and the BBC.
A rhetorical question would be, would there be ANY announcer, ANYWHERE in the world that will use the word "genocide", when Israeli athletes march into the stadium in Paris?

Posted by: Just a grunt | Apr 18 2024 18:37 utc | 13

amazing how many traitors there are in latin america... is this a spanish heritage thing?

Posted by: james | Apr 18 2024 15:19 utc | 2

It's a class thing.

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 18 2024 18:46 utc | 14

The only real revolution was in Haiti, and its people have been punished for that ever since.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:37 utc | 5

The others were as 'real' as the American revolution or the French Revolution. All were bourgeois revolutions, throwing off the traditional monarchic/aristocratic power. Haiti is indeed unique, in that it was truly a people's revolution, not a bourgeois one. This seems to be the case with the current anti-imperialist 'gang' activity in Haiti as well.

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 18 2024 18:51 utc | 15

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:22 utc | 3

Excellent post.

I'll point out that Lenin was deeply engaged in the struggle against 'idealist philosophy,' the current term for belief systems that assert the primacy of mind (God's, or someone else's) over the 'reality' of the material world, and in particular he refuted the trend of the times in Germany, which not long after Lenin's pieces on the subject became the centerpiece of irrationality and fascism.

I read the entire Collected Works of V.I. Lenin in my late teens, and while I can't recall with specificity all of the thousands of pages of it, reading it made it possible for me recognize much of what the western world has done in my lifetime well ahead of the curve. I recommend the exercise to anyone serious about understanding the society we live in. I'm confident that Lukacs read the bulk of it, as much of what he says is an eloboration/updating of Lenin.

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 18 2024 19:06 utc | 16

Just a [email protected], that might cause a genocide of announcers....

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 18 2024 19:17 utc | 17

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:22 utc | 3

Excellent post.
Posted by: Honzo | Apr 18 2024 19:06 utc | 16

Heartily agree.

I just finished the John Foster Bellamy piece Roger linked to.
Excellent as well (but for me another read or two and some study will help).

This from Roger is timely now in the bar:
"Woke", "Identity Politics", "Post-Modernism", "The Cultural Turn" are all symptoms of the stage of capitalism, which must mysticize to remove the possibility of accurate analyses of society as it is (the extraction of value by the capitalist elite)...[my bold]

Thanks to both of you for your posts, g'nite.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 18 2024 19:52 utc | 18

European mission in the Red Sea. The storyline so far:
...
the Belgian navy has had to suspend the deployment of the frigate Louise-Marie for an "indefinite period" because an antiaircraft missile got stuck
...

last month, Danish frigate Iver Huitfeldt ... used the deck cannon to shoot down incoming drones using proximity-fuzed shells - but half the shells blew up right after exiting the muzzle
...
German frigate Hessen misidentified and attempted to shoot down an American MQ-9 surveillance drone, but fortunately missed

link

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 18 2024 21:20 utc | 19

Is there a single frigging grown up ⬆️ n any position of power in the USA? Anywhere in the frigging Collective Waste?

‘🇺🇸 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson:
💬 "I believe Xi, Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an Axis of Evil"
🔴 @DDGeopolitics ‘

I want those idiots to be the primary targets in b and more shitty friggin extension of war no matter how far from the frigging from lines they hide. We need a realt time where’s Waldo for the dumb friggers.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 18 2024 21:26 utc | 20

The amusing result of Jewrael's perpetual Hate Campaign against Iran is that it won't matter where, or from whom, an attack on Iran materialises - Jewrael will cop the blowback.

And if Jewrael doesn't retract the War Cabinet's hasty "at a time and place of our choosing" threat, Iran's retaliation will be severe and prolonged.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 18 2024 22:26 utc | 21

On the topic of “woke”.
women’s basketball player, Britney GrinerGrifter is married to a female. Who has days ago used Instagram to announce her pregnancy.
Griner, for those new, or not keeping up, was jailed in Russia for bringing a THC oil vape(s) into the country.
The U$ traded Russian Victor Bout [wiki him] in a prisoner exchange to repatriate Griner. Pandering to the media-wokester pressure on Biden on behalf of Griner. [the Russians were laughing; Griner swapped ahead of some much more “high value” holds]
I always wanted the either the Russians, or better, some outraged Wokies, to let slip if Griner was held in a men’s or women’s prison.
So how did Griner’s wife get pregnant? (No, I’m not 5, I understand the mechanics).
Was it IVF?
Or. Were they able to take advantage of Griner actually being a “new” woman, … a woman with a penis; and the couple were thus able to save on IFV. Or not need to ask a “favour” from an (old style, male with a penis) friend.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 18 2024 22:26 utc | 22

Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 18 2024 18:23 utc | 12
…gold cannot be readily exported
Indeed. Ask the Germans. As we referenced in a previous thread😎

Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 18 2024 22:35 utc | 23

War. Twould seem, is indeed hell. Doubly so for the wokies.
Loverly “Sarah”, once all girly curls, hormone-induced breast bulge, makeup and painted fake nails, … Is lookin a bit ruff, these days.
Bit blokey. With a buzz cut and a feint fiveoclock on the chin…
No wonder there’s so much angst in Kiev about the tardy U$ tranche of $60b. Sarah, this proves, is a high maintenance “gal”.
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/107927

Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 18 2024 22:48 utc | 24


Heh I recognise that barflies rightfully refuse to read england's graun newspaper but this a.m. I came across an article on my way to the sports section, which is actually unintentionally very humourous.

Losing the whip: who are the 18 UK MPs sitting as independents? points out that the 3rd largest group of MP's in the current parties (3 more than the tiresome shirtlifters and fraudsters in the lib dems) are the so-called independents comprising all the MPs who have been kicked out or suspended from their parties. Most are members of the conservative party chucked out for the usual things sexual harassment or being dodgy with campaign funds etc. One Mark Menzies for example committed the crime of calling an aide and demanding that he be sent "several thousand pounds in the middle of the night". Apparently he has had huge 'health expenses' this year.

The next largest group of newly independent MPs is those from the Labour Party who have had the sheer gall the show sympathy for Palestinian people whether it be to have suggested as Abbot did that jews in england do not face daily racial harassment or as Osamor did, saying that the people of Gaza should be remembered on Holocaust day (whatever that is).

Of course Mr Corbyn is on the list and unrepentant he will be running as an independent this year but most of the labour anti-zionists positively make one cringe with the alacrity with which they retracted their statements and apologised for telling the truth. All to no avail as k starmer is determined to rule an entirely zionist careerist government by the end of this year.

One can only hope he becomes unstuck but I fear the woeful state of england as it comes to terms with the reality that it is only a minor euro power and that felty to amerika is a liability not an asset, will cause englanders to hope that changing parties will change their luck even if the new party in government enacts exactly the same cruel policies as the previous one.

I suspect most englanders will see the light and choose not to vote at all.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 18 2024 23:07 utc | 25

james | Apr 18 2024 15:19 utc | 2--

In addition to Roger's answer to your question, those he described are/were known as Penninsulares (for the Iberian peninsula) and/or Criollos (not creoles) who wanted independence but also were Royalist when it came to the types of governments they favored. In other words, there was a form of caste and class system South of the US border that still exists today, the Indio being at its bottom. And yes, the whiter you are, the closer to the top is the norm. Well before 1900, the Outlaw US Empire had the system configured to its interests, which is one of the reasons why it was so easy for Teddy Roosevelt to steal Panama from Colombia to build the canal. I suggest Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, by Galeano. Also The Shark and the Sardines, which can now be freely downloaded.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2024 23:43 utc | 26

This Book Review is 25 years old if you haven't read it you've missed an important part of your education.

"The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited" by James Petras.

Here is an excerpt:

"...After the Second World War, with the discrediting in Western Europe of the old right (compromised by its links to the fascists and a weak capitalist system), the CIA realized that, in order to undermine the anti-NATO trade unionists and intellectuals, it needed to find (or invent) a Democratic Left to engage in ideological warfare. A special sector of the CIA was set up to circumvent right-wing Congressional objections. The Democratic Left was essentially used to combat the radical left and to provide an ideological gloss on U.S. hegemony in Europe. At no point were the ideological pugilists of the democratic left in any position to shape the strategic policies and interests of the United States. Their job was not to question or demand, but to serve the empire in the name of “Western democratic values.” Only when massive opposition to the Vietnam War surfaced in the United States and Europe, and their CIA covers were blown, did many of the CIA-promoted and -financed intellectuals jump ship and begin to criticize U.S. foreign policy. For example, after spending most of his career on the CIA payroll, Stephen Spender became a critic of U.S. Vietnam policy, as did some of the editors of Partisan Review. They all claimed innocence, but few critics believed that a love affair with so many journals and convention junkets, so long and deeply involved, could transpire without some degree of knowledge..."
https://monthlyreview.org/1999/11/01/the-cia-and-the-cultural-cold-war-revisited/

Posted by: bevin | Apr 18 2024 23:47 utc | 27

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:22 utc | 3

"Woke", "Identity Politics", "Post-Modernism", "The Cultural Turn" are all symptoms of the stage of capitalism, which must mysticize to remove the possibility of accurate analyses of society as it is (the extraction of value by the capitalist elite), and denigrate humanist philosophy; extensively supported by state, foundation and individual capitalist funding and disciplining. Exactly the role that Gramsci saw for the mass of intellectuals, either "organic" intellectuals consciously doing the work of the ruling capitalist class or those co-opted through careerism.
----

Thanks for this. I just recently started reading Lukacs' "Destruction of Reason." He assumes a background in philosophy that I simply do not have, but what I understood was spot on. He was truly one of the smartest and most knowledgeable Marxists of the 20th century. His work is invaluable.

I had to give up half way through the book for reasons given above, but I will reread History and Class Consciousness which, if memory serves, is a bit easier to grok.

But as for Identity Politics and Post-Modernism: the former did a great job of splitting up the working class; the latter finished the job by scrambling the brains of those whose job was to think and teach.

I'm working on a T-shirt: "My pronoun is comrade."

Posted by: JAB | Apr 19 2024 0:01 utc | 28

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 18 2024 19:06 utc | 16

Lukacs wrote a biography of Lenin, so I'm sure he read all his works.

Posted by: JAB | Apr 19 2024 0:04 utc | 29

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 18 2024 22:26 utc | 21

Please don't conflate Judaism with Zionism/Israel; this is what Israel would love you to do. So don't.

Posted by: JAB | Apr 19 2024 0:06 utc | 30

False flag tell of the day from Reuters

FBI says Chinese hackers preparing to attack US infrastructure

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 19 2024 0:54 utc | 31

I'm transferring this response from the WeekinReview thread:

When Genesis says
"So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them"
the implication is that God has in His character attributes of both sexes and that it takes both a man and a woman together to express and reflect the totality of God's nature. That's one of the reasons we hold marriage in such high esteem. The reason we refer to God as "He" is because the human relationship that best mirrors our relationship to God is that of a Father and child. We often refer to or pray to Father God, which can be a real struggle for those who grew up with lousy fathers or an absent father.

Posted by: Paranaense | Apr 18 2024 17:50 utc | 198

Thanks for the beautiful music, Paranaense. For Orthodox Christians, we cannot suppose these understandings about God's 'character', since for us, God is in essence unknowable. That is, we can and do speculate on what it means to be created in the image of God, but we do not and cannot have such speculations about His nature. It seems to me that sexuality is a created aspect of our humanity, not one in which we can attribute qualities such as those, except as energies expressed towards us and as embodied in Jesus or in interactions described in the Gospels and in teachings of the early Fathers of the Church.

There is one week of Great Lent to come next week,the week commemorating Saint Mary of Egypt, and then Holy Week as is traditional, beginning with Lazarus Saturday followed by Palm Sunday. My calendar makes mention that the entire Four Gospels to John 13:32 are divided into nine parts (two for each, three for Luke) and read at the third, sixth, and ninth hours during the first three days commencing Great Monday. There are special hymns sung only on these days and through the weekend- plus many special readings from Old and New Testaments, and of course, lovely music. I'll try to link to some of it then.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 19 2024 0:58 utc | 32

Posted by: juliania | Apr 19 2024 0:58 utc | 32
"For Orthodox Christians, we cannot suppose these understandings about God's 'character', since for us, God is in essence unknowable."

Thanks Juilania, I agree that there are many things about God that are above our understanding, but He does reveal much to us in His word. I embrace the mystery and cherish that which we are given. I look forward to seeing what you have to share from your Holy Week. I have a niece who has joined the Orthodox church and she seems very blessed.

Posted by: Paranaense | Apr 19 2024 1:49 utc | 33

"The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited" by James Petras."

Posted by: bevin | Apr 18 2024 23:47 utc | 27

Good pick, but you realize, bevy, the CIA cultural war was run by the City of London, not Washington:

"This book provides a detailed account of the ways in which the CIA penetrated and influenced a vast array of cultural organizations, through its front groups and via friendly philanthropic organizations like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. The author, Frances Stonor Saunders, details how and why the CIA ran cultural congresses, mounted exhibits, and organized concerts. The CIA also published and translated well-known authors who toed the Washington line, sponsored abstract art to counteract art with any social content and, throughout the world, subsidized journals that criticized Marxism, communism, and revolutionary politics and apologized for, or ignored, violent and destructive imperialist U.S. policies. The CIA was able to harness some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom in the West in service of these policies, to the extent that some intellectuals were directly on the CIA payroll. Many were knowingly involved with CIA “projects,” and others drifted in and out of its orbit, claiming ignorance of the CIA connection after their CIA sponsors were publicly exposed during the late 1960s and the Vietnam war, after the turn of the political tide to the left.

U.S. and European anticommunist publications receiving direct or indirect funding included Partisan Review, Kenyon Review, New Leader, Encounter and many others. Among the intellectuals who were funded and promoted by the CIA were Irving Kristol, Melvin Lasky, Isaiah Berlin, Stephen Spender, Sidney Hook, Daniel Bell, Dwight MacDonald, Robert Lowell, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, and numerous others in the United States and Europe. In Europe, the CIA was particularly interested in and promoted the “Democratic Left” and ex-leftists, including Ignacio Silone, Stephen Spender, Arthur Koestler, Raymond Aron, Anthony Crosland, Michael Josselson, and George Orwell."

The CIA, under the prodding of Sidney Hook and Melvin Lasky, was instrumental in funding the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a kind of cultural NATO that grouped together all sorts of “anti-Stalinist” leftists and rightists. They were completely free to defend Western cultural and political values, attack “Stalinist totalitarianism” and to tiptoe gently around U.S. racism and imperialism. Occasionally, a piece marginally critical of U.S. mass society was printed in the CIA-subsidized journals." (1)

The CIA also financed Ms. Magazine.

1. https://monthlyreview.org/1999/11/01/the-cia-and-the-cultural-cold-war-revisited/

Posted by: canuck | Apr 19 2024 2:33 utc | 34

Israel tried to target the iranian facilities in Isfahan and Natanz ????????????????????????????

Larry Johnson: "SHIFT IN ISRAEL’S NARRATIVE ON IRAN’S 14 APRIL MISSILE ATTACK SIGNALED ISRAEL’S ATTEMPT TO STRIKE IRANIAN NUCLEAR FACILITY"

https://sonar21.com/shift-in-israels-narrative-on-irans-14-april-missile-attack-signaled-israels-attempt-to-strike-iranian-nuclear-facility/

Posted by: WMG | Apr 19 2024 3:45 utc | 35

Israel tried to target iranian nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz ?????

Larry Johnson: "SHIFT IN ISRAEL’S NARRATIVE ON IRAN’S 14 APRIL MISSILE ATTACK SIGNALED ISRAEL’S ATTEMPT TO STRIKE IRANIAN NUCLEAR FACILITY"

https://sonar21.com/shift-in-israels-narrative-on-irans-14-april-missile-attack-signaled-israels-attempt-to-strike-iranian-nuclear-facility

Posted by: WMG | Apr 19 2024 3:47 utc | 36

I'm working on a T-shirt: "My pronoun is comrade."

Posted by: JAB | Apr 19 2024 0:01 utc | 28


Love this!

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 19 2024 4:12 utc | 37

I had to give up half way through the book for reasons given above...
Posted by: JAB | Apr 19 2024 0:01 utc | 28

I’m in my late 70s and simply don’t have time to read original writings by such as
Marx, Gramsci and the like. 700+ pages books are non-starters for me. But last nite
I found that there is a Georg Lukacs archive.

A number of his works are there. It took me about 7 minutes to make a Word document
of his Lenin - A Study on the Unity of his Thought which I’ll get into more this morning.
I like to do that in order to make notes and highlight passages as I read.

The real value of this bar is to have the comments of people who have done the ‘heavy lifting’
of original works and pass them on. I’m thankful for such as Roger, bevin, Patroklos, karlof1,
Honzo, Gruff. (And now in muck for having named just some, so apologies for oversights.)
Oh yeah, perpetual thanks to b!!


Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 19 2024 4:30 utc | 38

@Roger #3:

"Woke", "Identity Politics", "Post-Modernism", "The Cultural Turn" are all symptoms of the stage of capitalism, which must mysticize to remove the possibility of accurate analyses of society as it is (the extraction of value by the capitalist elite), and denigrate humanist philosophy; extensively supported by state, foundation and individual capitalist funding and disciplining. Exactly the role that Gramsci saw for the mass of intellectuals, either "organic" intellectuals consciously doing the work of the ruling capitalist class or those co-opted through careerism.

@JAB #28:

But as for Identity Politics and Post-Modernism: the former did a great job of splitting up the working class; the latter finished the job by scrambling the brains of those whose job was to think and teach.

Frequencies of words “trade union”, “socialist”, “feminist”, “gay”, “woke” and “transgender” in English-language books from 1880 to 2019: chart.

Posted by: S | Apr 19 2024 4:50 utc | 39

Cont’d from #39

Case-insensitive search provides a more accurate result: chart.

Posted by: S | Apr 19 2024 5:10 utc | 40

Produced three items today. "Lavrov Promotes Bashkortostan," https://karlof1.substack.com/p/lavrov-promotes-bashkortostan

"Russian Floods, Gasification & Angara Discussed at 17 April Government Meeting," https://karlof1.substack.com/p/russian-floods-gasification-and-angara

And "Maria Zakharova Reports on Moldova," https://karlof1.substack.com/p/maria-zakharova-reports-on-moldova

Enjoy reading!

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 19 2024 5:15 utc | 41

Case-insensitive search provides a more accurate result: chart.

Posted by: S | Apr 19 2024 5:10 utc | 40

---

Same chart with "reagan". Cause or effect?

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=trade+union%2Csocialist%2Cfeminist%2Cgay%2Cwoke%2Ctransgender%2Creagan&year_start=1880&year_end=2019&case_insensitive=on&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=2

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 5:17 utc | 42

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 14:54 utc | 1

Posted by: james | Apr 18 2024 15:19 utc | 2

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:37 utc | 5

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2024 23:43 utc | 26

Milei is a passing fake outsider like Bolsonaro was or the Jewish comedian in Ukraine is, cartoon characters almost, and your views of LatAm are way off, nothing to do with Spanish culture or rural barons versus industrialists. One example. Chile has been well industrialized since the 50s, so that during the 70s, parties supporting Allende's marxist government confiscated the industries and put them in the hands of workers' councils. And to claim that Haiti, the poorest country in the world and the most corrupt country in LatAm, is a shining example of true revolution, is beyond delusional. I know you are leftists and revolutionaries but please, get better info. This from a friendly conservative and capitalist.


Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 5:24 utc | 43

Chile has been well industrialized since the 50s

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 5:24 utc | 43

---

Extractive industry is a confiscatory technological means of enclosure. Same as a gun is a means of production for an armed robber.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 5:37 utc | 44

Mike Shedlock: "Israeli Missiles Hit Iran, the Price of Oil Jumps 3 Percent"


https://mishtalk.com/economics/israeli-missiles-hit-iran-the-price-of-oil-jumps-3-percent/

Posted by: WMG | Apr 19 2024 5:42 utc | 45


Although I do not deny "Woke", "Identity Politics", "Post-Modernism", "The Cultural Turn" signal the end of western society, I don't believe that some of them are primarily a part of late stage capitalism as much as they are the inherent symptoms of a society on its last legs irrelevant of a particular economic system.

Capitalism is on its last legs but since many of the most degenerate features of the west also appeared in the last years of the Roman empire and its fall most certainly did not signal the end of capitalism, in particular the gulf between the wealthy and the rest of us, we must beware that societies do not morph totally into the most extreme form of capitalism which is fascism.

"We're already there" I hear someone say. Yep many elements of fascism are already apparent in many 'western' nations, however in most cases they are somewhat diluted by a disappearing emphasis on the last aspects of a once almost humanist society and it could be dangerous, even not possible to re-create some of the lost elements.

There is a debate to be had about whether allowing society's most extreme forms of fascism to take over in the hope that will precipitate revolution, much in the way that xtian zionists believe encouraging the hated jews 'their own land' will precipitate the re-incarnation of 'the messiah' (whoever he was/is) so expect many fraudsters for the next view years before that 'prophecy' becomes unfulfilable. What are the xtian zionists gonna do when the messiah never fronts? Will they give up tired of selling the next date "he definitely gonna appear" and the world will end or will they decide to come up with a new less apocryphal strategy? Whatever they do, their bulldust won't sell to most.
The same could happen to those who call for full on class warfare too soon.

I'm happy that the timing of revolution will be the responsibility of others, much younger others. For while most of us know the time is not yet, when it comes honestly I do not reckon it will be obvious to older people.
.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 19 2024 5:46 utc | 46

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 5:37 utc | 44

So saying 'extractive industries' means these LatAm countries (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Mexico) are not really industrialized? Canada, Australia and New Zealand are extractive industries countries but you guys don't bash them for being what they are. Is it a race thing? From leftist rtevolutionaries? Just get better info.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 5:51 utc | 47

not really industrialized?

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 5:51 utc | 47

---

When the industry comes from a boat the country where it is installed is not industrialized.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 5:54 utc | 48

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 5:54 utc | 48

When the industry comes from a boat the country where it is installed is not industrialized.

Lol! I guess your views have been taken to their final absurd conclusion: Singapore, China, South Korea, Japan, are not industrialized. I'm having fun with this while I work in this non-industrialized country. Also, your fellow leftist revolutinaries are going to accuse you of racism, if they have any logical consistency.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 6:05 utc | 49

if they have any logical consistency.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 6:05 utc | 49

---

Hey pal, I'm leaving the door open to de-industrialization.

Got your own bootstraps or do they come from the harbor?

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 6:07 utc | 50

Posted by: S | Apr 19 2024 4:50 utc | 39

Thanks for that.
In my younger days I avoided reading a lot of things simply because the
terms used put me off. Terms like 'proletariat' and 'bourgeoisie' were two
main examples. Once I started substituting 'workers' and 'rich folk'
(or rich-fucks) for those words things started falling into place.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 19 2024 6:07 utc | 51

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 6:07 utc | 50

Hey pal, ...

I'm not your pal.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 6:17 utc | 52

Tehran Thanks Brandon For All His Support https://shorturl.at/dgLW4

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Apr 19 2024 6:23 utc | 53

@Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 5:51 utc | 47

Digging/Drilling holes and extracting things, and growing crops, and selling them to foreigners does not make development. Development is when a country takes those things and does something with them - i.e. adds value through manufacturing processes. In the past few years Indonesia has refused to export such raw materials and has instead now become the site of manufactured industries and the related exports are worth 20 times what the unfinished materials were. That is called industrialization.

Both Canada and Australia have become heavily de-industrialized in the past few decades, with Canada falling back into the "staples trap" of being mainly a raw materials and commodity exporter. Most of Latin America exports raw materials and commodities and imports manufactured goods. That is not development. Uruguay specializes in export crops and financial services. You just have to look at the composition of exports and the composition of imports. The populations of Canada and Australia are lucky that they were white settler colonies that pretty much wiped out any local population and took over massive natural resource reserves compared to the white settler population.

Haiti had a real revolution because the slaves overthrew the slave owners and gained control. Ever since then Europeans and the US have made sure that they will never be anything more than a source of cheap labour to their corporations. Twice they removed the democratically elected head of the country by arming the opponents of democracy. Before that they fully supported a brutal dictator over many decades (as they have with many Latin American nations).

Japan industrialized itself after the Meiji Restoration in the mid 1800s in response to the threat of foreign invasion. China industrialized itself after throwing off foreign dominance through the 1949 revolution. Singapore successfully industrialized after the British colonial authority left and it separated from Malaysia. South Korea also industrialized itself through the Chaebol and state-managed development (as with Japan, China and Singapore).

Now please go away and actually study some real history so that you can cure your obvious ignorance.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 19 2024 6:58 utc | 54

Question for the science types.

I believe UK might be developing lasers for the navy, Dragonfire.

How much electricity does it take to generate sufficient energy to destroy incoming munitions?

I'm assuming as a layman that this cannot be "fired" as energy burst like Star Wars.

Posted by: Suresh | Apr 19 2024 7:25 utc | 55

@ Suresh | Apr 19 2024 7:25 utc | 55

---

There are two ends of a laser beam. The aperture where it is emitted and the surface where it is absorbed.

The trick is that the aperture doesn't self destruct from the beam energy necessary to have an effect on a target.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 7:41 utc | 56

Posted by: Roger | Apr 19 2024 6:58 utc | 54

Lol, you leftist revolutionaries are a funny bunch, presenting Haiti as a great example for your theories.

Upon half-a-second reflection, maybe you think that basic industries (what you call extractive industries) in LatAm are not heavily mechanized and technological. They are. Mining, fishing and aquaculture and processing the fish, agriculture, forestry and cellulose, require mechanized processes and scientific and technological research for continued improvement and optimization. These countries invest in research connected to their basic industries, and they have many large local industries supplying both the internal market and exports. Mexico exports lots of industrial products to America. Brazil exports airplanes. Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina build cars for their internal markets. In words that you may understand, many LatAm countries have a large sector of industrial proletariat.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 8:06 utc | 57

Stumbled across an interesting poll on agw/cc

What do Americans want to know about climate change?
https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/ask-an-expert/
Snapshot Graph of results
https://nitter.poast.org/pic/orig/media%2FGLSt9CzasAAfMIM.jpg

This I found most curious as a major separation / divergence in responses

71% of Liberal Democrats wanted to talk about Solutions to climate change global warming.

70% of Conservative Republicans wanted to talk about Causes & Evidence.

It certainly fits my own long term anecdotal experience -- and beyond just the US centric view

Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | Apr 19 2024 8:33 utc | 58

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:22 utc | 3

Thank you!

Posted by: Cherrycoke | Apr 19 2024 8:59 utc | 59

One has to suspect that the Argentinian Milei is an abbreviation of Mileikowski and what his relation to Nuttyyahoo may be?

Posted by: oubok | Apr 18 2024 18:07 utc | 11

Probably just money. A lot of Argentina debt is now held by Zionist owned hedge funds, now they won't have any more resistance from the Argentina government.

Posted by: Delhiliterally | Apr 19 2024 11:05 utc | 60


European mission in the Red Sea. The storyline so far:
...
the Belgian navy has had to suspend the deployment of the frigate Louise-Marie for an "indefinite period" because an antiaircraft missile got stuck
...

last month, Danish frigate Iver Huitfeldt ... used the deck cannon to shoot down incoming drones using proximity-fuzed shells - but half the shells blew up right after exiting the muzzle
...
German frigate Hessen misidentified and attempted to shoot down an American MQ-9 surveillance drone, but fortunately missed

link

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 18 2024 21:20 utc | 19

The Germans, Dutch, Danes, Belgians etc. should go back to what they do best. Cutting off hands, looting, raping, colonising the whole planet, genociding, massive satanistic medical torture... oh wait, that's exactly what they're trying to get back into here.

Posted by: Michael A | Apr 19 2024 11:23 utc | 61


Please don't conflate Judaism with Zionism/Israel; this is what Israel would love you to do. So don't.

Posted by: JAB | Apr 19 2024 0:06 utc | 30t

No one is conflating judaism with zionism. There seems to be no end to the number of flying monkeys ready to fly in to make pedantic notes to the jews' benefit.

If America goes and genocides a country, we say the shitty Americans genocided that country. No one implies that every American took part, and no one conflates the American government with its people. Nor does anyone think that Americans only live in America.

In exactly the same way, it's precisely jews committing genocide, and a hundred other crimes that few other nations have ever committed, just like they've done for centuries. And nothing about that has anything to do with conflating every single jew with israel or zionism.

As soon as there's a jewish countermovement (of more than ten or fifteen people) in the direction of something truly good for this world, everyone will see the distinction between jews, israel and zionism without any grammar lessons from you or me.

Posted by: Michael A | Apr 19 2024 11:46 utc | 62

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 6:17 utc | 52
Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 6:07 utc | 50
"Hey pal, I'm leaving the door open to de-industrialization.
Got your own bootstraps or do they come from the harbor?"

Perhaps you could show us how it is done. When you stop using the electricity delivered over wires made from Chilean copper and stop putting gas from extracted petroleum in your car you can then tell us what viable alternatives you have come up with. It'll be fun!

Posted by: Paranaense | Apr 19 2024 13:06 utc | 63

Why does Jewrael tell so many obvious and pathetically juvenile lies?

Could it be Cowardice?

We know that the IOF's boots on the ground confrontations with Hamas in Gaza are getting a lot of incompetent jewish 'soldiers' ambushed and killed. And that the IOF prefers to genocide Palestinians by dropping bombs on them from a safe distance.

In LIFE, Cowardice & Lying tend to go hand in hand because cowards do stupid stuff and lack the courage to admit, to themselves and witnesses, that they were wrong.

Cowardice & Lying go hand in hand to the extent that the terms are interchangible. Thus:

Cowards are liars
And
Liars are cowards.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 19 2024 13:11 utc | 64

electricity delivered over wires made from Chilean copper

Posted by: Paranaense | Apr 19 2024 13:06 utc | 63

---

Electricity is transmitted over aluminum cables.

As for the rest of you argument: https://www.google.com/search?q=asymetric+trade+relations

Of particular note is that both Janet Yellen's area of economic research is market asymmetries. Monopolists can recognize a fulcrum.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/10/09/seventeen-academic-papers-of-janet-yellens-that-you-need-to-read/

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 13:31 utc | 65

that both

continuing: too scents | Apr 19 2024 13:31 utc | 65

---

"both" got included from a missed edit.

It referred to Yellen's husband research on duping marks.

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

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 13:36 utc | 66

Posted by: too scents | Apr 19 2024 13:31 utc | 65
"Electricity is transmitted over aluminum cables."

Maybe, but if you pull off the outlet covers and peek at the wire in your house, it's copper. "Physician, heal thyself."

Posted by: Paranaense | Apr 19 2024 14:00 utc | 67

[email protected] lines, high voltage types can be made from either copper or aluminum.
Residential wiring is mostly copper, but back in the sixties early seventies some residential wiring was done in aluminum. The issue with aluminum is it oxidizes causing seperation at marretted box connections. This also can happen with copper, but once the wires stop making proper contact arching occurs at the connection, this can lead to power failure or at worst a fire. Aluminum is no longer used in NA housing or at least in Canada and they follow ASME codes.

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 19 2024 14:08 utc | 68

@68....arcing not arching.....

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 19 2024 14:12 utc | 69

Shades of things to come

The Hill published an editorial demanding that China pay up a Trillion dollars from very old bond claims from their past Nationalist government - or else.

Now, add a veto proof vote/poll in Congress to punish China for buying any Iranian oil.

Crazy is taking over.

Posted by: Eighthman | Apr 19 2024 14:12 utc | 70

In our nationwide party (Belgium is made up of two "communities" (no three as there is actually a German-speaking community in the east of the country) : one Germanic and one Latin) the PTB
(French speaking)/ PVDA (dutch speaking) we all use the pronoun "camarade". Or "cama" for short. Link to PTB

Posted by: thunderflower | Apr 19 2024 14:25 utc | 71

Don't know the technical details, but low budget municipal electrics in Mexico are often said to be delivered by aluminium instead of copper. Lots of cut-outs.

Meanwhile in ZH, review of new Bitcoin book: Hijacking Bitcoin.

I was honored to write the foreword, which follows:


The story you will read here is of tragedy, the chronicle of an emancipationist monetary technology subverted to other ends. It’s a painful read, to be sure, and the first time this story has been told with this much detail and sophistication. We had the chance to free the world. That chance was missed, likely hijacked and subverted. .....

This is the book that had to be written. It is a story of a missed opportunity to change the world, a tragic tale of subversion and betrayal. But it is also a hopeful story of efforts we can make to ensure that the hijacking of Bitcoin is not the final chapter. There is still the chance for this great innovation to liberate the world but the path from here to there turns out to be more circuitous than any of us ever imagined.

Roger Ver does not blow his own trumpet in this book, but he truly is a hero of this saga, not only deeply knowledgeable of the technologies but also a man who has clung to an emancipatory vision of Bitcoin from the earliest days through the present. I share his commitment to the idea of peer-to-peer currency for the masses, alongside a competitive marketplace for free-enterprise monies. This is a hugely important documentary history, and the polemic alone will challenge anyone who believes himself to be on the other side. Regardless, this book had to exist, however painful. It’s a gift to the world.

Does this story seem familiar? Indeed it does. We’ve seen this trajectory in sector after sector. Institutions born and built by ideals are later converted by various forces of power, access, and nefarious intent into something else entirely. We’ve seen this happen to digital tech in particular and the Internet generally, not to mention medicine, public health, science, liberalism, and so much else. The story of Bitcoin follows the same trajectory, a seemingly immaculate conception turned toward a different purpose, and serving again as a reminder that on this side of heaven, there will never be an institution or idea immune to compromise and corruption.

https://tinyurl.com/26bkgdt9

I believe the last emboldened phrase is correct. There is no perfect socio-political system. All systems, to be any good, must have ways to promote virtue and curtail vice, aka corruption.

One way is to simply execute dissidents, which they tried in Russia for a while, murdering millions in the mistaken belief that bloody means justify utopian ideological ends.

Another way is to let the corrupt rule, which America and Europe (to a slightly lesser extent perhaps) has done (and which the communists also did whilst pretending otherwise).

Of course the right way is the Middle Way, as it always is, and which they somewhat mastered in Asia for a long time until the industrial revolution's power differential came and upended everything.

Perhaps this will soon be corrected but it remains to be seen.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 19 2024 14:46 utc | 72

Posted by: thunderflower | Apr 19 2024 14:25 utc | 71
"one Germanic and one Latin"

What ethnic group speaks Latin? I assumed it was a dead language.

Posted by: Paranaense | Apr 19 2024 15:02 utc | 73

I've struggled to explain to myself (or anyone else) why things are getting ever more crazy. The answer finally hit me as an epiphany. Thinking and reasoning are unpleasant work for most people so lazy thinking will dominate the West. Examples:

Ukraine will win
Russia/China will collapse
Open borders are good
Racism is structural and whites have privilege
People steal because they're poor
Biden is OK
Trump is OK
Janet Yellen is smart
They can just raise taxes on the rich
There is no "uniparty"
Vaccinations don't create problems
The human race can be perfected
The dollar is secure as far as we can imagine
We can muddle through anything
We should listen to "experts" (as if they weren't infected by lazy thinking also)
We don't need free speech
Climate change is an immediate problem
Ukraine is democratic and free
Russia is corrupt
China is corrupt
The US isn't corrupt
Hamas is bad, Israel is good
Free markets work
Banning people is good when we 'know' that they're wrong
Epstein committed suicide
Past generations across thousands of years were wrong about raising children, We know better.
If there's some truth in something, it's all true (as a habit of thinking)

Lazy thinking is a habit. Once a person commits to any of it, they are likely to continue it - which leads to more and more extreme consequences (look at Ukraine !).

The alternative is a culture that emphasizes difficult thinking. So, China, Russia and Iran graduate huge numbers of engineers and scientists. It doesn't mean they're always right but it does mean that, at least, they are capable of hard thinking rather than just avoiding it ....which avoidance means that mentally lazy people prefer to take drugs, play video games, download porn, binge drink or behave like "Karens" impulsively.

Posted by: Eighthman | Apr 19 2024 15:43 utc | 74

Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2024 15:22 utc | 3

Excellent post.
Posted by: Honzo | Apr 18 2024 19:06 utc | 16

Heartily agree.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 18 2024 19:52 utc | 18

I also agree.

I suggest Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, by Galeano. Also The Shark and the Sardines, which can now be freely downloaded.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2024 23:43 utc | 26

By Galeano also a wonderful book - Mirrors. Please do read it.

An important book - Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire, by Caroline Elkins.

I think that a thorough, honest history of the British Empire should be part of every school curriculum on the planet.

Posted by: JB | Apr 19 2024 17:32 utc | 75

@Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Apr 19 2024 8:06 utc | 57

As you persist in making absolutely no effort to look at actual data (e.g. the composition of Latin American nation exports and imports), and actual history, to correct your ignorant ramblings and repeatedly utilize ad hominem attacks instead of actual reasoning based on data I will now ignore you.

With respect to Brazilian exports (which is better than many other Latin American nations): #1 Soybeans US$41.2 billion; #2 Crude Petroleum US$43.1 billion; #3 Iron Ore US$30.1 billion; #4 Refined Petroleum US$12.9 billion; #5 Corn US$12.4 billion

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/bra

Embraer is a small global player and very much a unicorn in Brazil that was developed with extensive state aid and protection. With respect to Mexico, the manufacturing industry is dominated by foreign ownership. Its manufacturing exports are vehicles and computers predominantly produced in foreign owned plants and exported to the US and Canada. Outside that its main export is crude oil.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 19 2024 17:34 utc | 76

@Posted by: Michael A | Apr 19 2024 11:46 utc | 62

Zionism is both a Jewish heretic and a Christian heretic belief system (the latter actually deeply anti-semitic as it calls for the murder of the majority of Jews and forced assimilation to Christianity by the Christian God), as well as fully supported by the US security state and ruling class generally as the US "aircraft carrier" in the Middle East. Just as the vast majority of Christians are not Zionists and a large segment of Jews are not Zionists and the majority of Americans are not Zionists it is important that we properly identify who the guilty are. Throwing around religious-hatred fuelling statements does not help anyone and opens you (and this blog) wide open to the classic "anti-semitism" shaming and censorship attempts. The vast majority of the Occupied Palestine Zionist leadership was, and is, made up of individuals who do not even observe the Jewish faith (i.e. none practising). Judaism is simply a smokescreen which they hide behind and use to manipulate others.

Its is the Zionists (both Jewish and Christian) and the US ruling class (and their servants in the US state) who are the problem.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 19 2024 17:48 utc | 77

Some 20 minutes ago, a man set himself on fire in a park across the street from the courthouse in which Trump is being tried.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 19 2024 18:07 utc | 78

Boris 'the clown' Johnson.
If the west loses in Ukraine it will lose its hegemony over the world.
Nothin like a bit of honesty I guess. The good man should be applauded.... well perhaps after he has been hung.

The Parlement of Europe "PACE" has voted to decolonize Russia. A great thing for the American colony to vote on I guess. I assume they are a bit worried they will be decolonized. Qaddafi's colon didn't fare to good.

Bojo and the hand waving Doltenberg and woke crew of EU... the greatness of Europe. Has to be the laughing stock of the world.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 19 2024 18:18 utc | 79

The (US) is consolidating its power via allies in the South China seas region prior to its coming war on China. Like Europe (Brussels) which has severely damaged its economy and its citizens are suffering to further (US) hegemony in its war against Russia using Europe as a proxy, New Zealand looks set to seriously damage its own economy (It has high trade with China) by joining Pillar II which is also part of the tip of the spear of the (US) in its economic war against China.

Unlike Brussels, some in New Zealand can see the cliff edge up ahead. The (US) doesn't care if it destroys New Zealand's economy, it has destroyed Europe's to put its own interests ahead of any other nation in Ukraine, with the (US) State Departments Victoria Nuland saying on record "F*ck Europe" with European nations economies in mind on the coup in Ukraine.

"Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, the most high-profile critic of the country’s continued drift away from an independent foreign policy, interpreted the statement as a precursor to New Zealand joining Pillar II. She said the decision was undemocratic, as the government had not campaigned on the issue and so had no popular mandate to join the pact."

"Political tensions are increasing in the Asian-Pacific region after a summit in Washington resulted in indications that New Zealand, Japan and the Philippines are moving towards greater integration with the U.S.-led military bloc in the region.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden attended a trilateral summit on Thursday, where they announced an agreement enhancing military operation, including joint naval exercises alongside Australia in the disputed East China Sea.

It followed a joint statement last Tuesday by Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. confirming Japan as a candidate to join “Pillar II” of the nations’ AUKUS nuclear submarine alliance, established as part of preparations for war with China as the U.S. seeks to contain its peer rival and maintain hegemony.

New Zealand, Canada and South Korea were also touted in the media as Pillar II candidates.

Pillar II is slated to involve technology sharing in areas like artificial intelligence, underwater drones, quantum computing and hypersonic missiles.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said signaling the bloc’s expansion would further escalate an arms race “to the detriment of peace and stability in the region.”"


https://consortiumnews.com/2024/04/17/opening-the-devils-door-in-asia-pacific/

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 19 2024 18:22 utc | 80

re eighthman on lazy thinking --

I'm not sure that I can agree to the conclusion that this is the problem. Yes, I do see how many people turn around from exploring life's riddles big and small at some time in their lives, to then go with the flow, more often than not in their childhoods. But I can also see that it is quite hard to questioning everything, and come back with some sort of satisfying answer ... I have myself as an example:

I have been a freak for all of my life. I "knew" even as a child that I would be a philosopher. I have experienced more than my fair share of trouble and pain; something that seems to fuel an interest to heal all the wrongs that you came to experience. This had to fall onto a ground that permits growing of the personality trait that is required in contemporary western societies to follow through on that kind of existencial sincerety. Aside from the material aspects, like access to education in the form of teachers, libraries, and basic amenities (I've been homeless more than once, though thank god never had to live on the streets), it takes a couple of fairly serious talents to go really down into the rabbit hole; among them confidence, courage, determination, intuition, a good working memory, a knack for thought, some ability to socialize, and more; and all that is topped off with a good grain of sheer luck.

Because I am a freak, and really can't be not freak (I tried for a while), I know very well that it is just not a fair assumption that everyone can and should go down all those rabbit holes themselves.

From this emanates my dearest political conviction: people should have a right to lead a simple life. A simple life is (or may be) actually beautiful, provided you are not being wronged, defrauded, abused, and even cannonfoddered systematically by your society. If Jon, son of the village baker, marries Jane, the daughter of a fisherman, they both should be able to live happily in their village and run the bakery or whatever; being able to rest with good conscience on the society they live in. But what happens in "the west" at least that they are being lied in their faces all the time, divorced from spirituality, their economic participation skimmed off from oligarchs stricken with pleonexia and megalomania, with some of the funds going into undeclared shadow wars like in Syria, and every once in a while give their lives and that of their children for military adventure of the elite. I oppose this with all of my heart.

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 19 2024 18:33 utc | 81

@Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 19 2024 18:22 utc | 79

A good piece on the US political capture of its former colony the Philippines, the US is lining up its proxies (the European (excluding Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Skrspa and quite possibly Spain and Portugal) and white settler vassals, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines while turning the screws in its backyard of Latin America (if Trump gets in we can expect much more aggressive actions against Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and even Mexico etc.).

Washington’s political capture of the Philippines: A former colony, a future proxy

Lined up against BRINCISSTAN (Belarus, Russia, Iran, North Korea, China, Iraq, Syria and the Stans) and increasing parts of Africa and Ukraine, with the ASEAN nations (excluding the Philippines), India, Bangladesh and Pakistan tending to remain neutral. The biggest variable may be which way Turkey goes if it is forced to get off the fence by Western aggressive actions. In Belarus such actions drove the country into the arms of Russia. Georgia seems to be rapidly moving to an independent position.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 19 2024 18:45 utc | 82

@ Some 20 minutes ago, a man set himself on fire in a park across the street from the courthouse in which Trump is being tried.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 19 2024 18:07 utc | 77

Thanks for that....not much detail yet but it is a sad commentary on our species that some are driven to these things to attempt to make some point...different approach than protesting Antifa, terrorism.

This is how civilization changes are made to the social contract and its like making sausage and you hope for the best.....sigh

If we could get beyond Might-Makes-Right and into compromise and sharing we might get somewhere but this is a big step for our species.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 19 2024 18:47 utc | 83

"...to claim that Haiti, the poorest country in the world and the most corrupt country in LatAm, is a shining example of true revolution, is beyond delusional..." Johan Kaspar 5:24 utc@43

The history of Haiti, since the original uprising and the assertion of independence is not a mystery. It is well known and a unique catalogue of imperialist aggression, two hundred years of attacks on the people and their attempts to possess their own resources and wealth..

Everyone on the left understands this and I would be surprised if most of those on the right didn't.

There is something almost comic about the way that the partisans of capitalism and imperialism divide their energies between weakening and sanctioning countries which have thrown out their system and then attacking such countries for their failure to grow rich.
For seventy years the Soviet Union was under constant attack and driven to devote large parts of its energy and income to fending off aggression, while faux scholars in the capitalist academy pretended to be mystified by the inability of the 'socialists' economy to produce luxury goods. And their incomprehensible obsession with arms production and defence.

Haiti has been subjected to the same treatment for much longer: in the 1820s the French fleet appeared at Port au Prince to demand full compensation plus interest for the crime of the slaves in stealing themselves and the land they tilled from their French masters.
Here is one account:
"...Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, and rich countries have their fingerprints all over the nation's stunted development. The United States worked to isolate a newly independent Haiti during the early 19th century and violently occupied the island nation for 19 years in the early 20th century. While the U.S. officially left Haiti in 1934, it continued to control Haiti's public finances until 1947, siphoning away around 40% of Haiti's national income to service debt repayments to the U.S. and France.

"Much of this debt to France was the legacy of what the University of Virginia scholar Marlene Daut calls "the greatest heist in history": surrounded by French gunboats, a newly independent Haiti was forced to pay its slaveholders reparations. You read that correctly. It was the former slaves of Haiti, not the French slaveholders, who were forced to pay reparations. Haitians compensated their oppressors and their oppressors' descendants for the privilege of being free. It took Haiti more than a century to pay the reparation debts off..."

Johan, no doubt as a disciple of neo-liberalism will think that Haiti ought to have thrived on these strengthening challenges- having been almost murdered so many times it ought to be incredibly strong by now. In a sense it is: despite poverty, persecution, injuries and insults the Haitian poor insust still on their right to govern themselves and enjoy the fruits of their own labour.

But the imperialists just cannot leave them alone- it is not that, in the great scheme of things, Haiti is anything more than half of an impoverished island but that, if ever the idea gets abroad that people don't need capitalists to pick their pockets or imperialists to teach them obedience, all hell could break loose. The same mentality, albeit spiced up with a different form of racism, lies behind the genocide in Gaza.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 19 2024 19:05 utc | 84

@ bevin | Apr 19 2024 19:05 utc | 83 with the nice rejoinder to the ignorant Johan Kaspar 5:24 utc@43

Thanks for that. The blindness of some people, if not bought, is sad to read their projection of.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 19 2024 19:16 utc | 85

On the subject of Argentina- about which I was going to say that it is useful to read Borges- there is this article in Sidecar today.
This is it:
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/in-the-basement?pc=1597

It in turn refers to a 2002 piece on Argentina which will appeal to those who believe that nothing ever changes:
https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii17/articles/david-rock-racking-argentina

psychohistorian | Apr 19 2024 19:16 utc | 84

Thank you for your kind words. They are highly valued.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 19 2024 19:25 utc | 86

@Posted by: bevin | Apr 19 2024 19:05 utc | 83

A major reason that Aristide was taken out (twice) was that he was making progress on the international stage in driving for France to repay those disgusting reparations with interest. The sum itself would have been significant (US$21 billion, the NYT estimated it as high as US$115 billion), but the impact on French national prestige (and its reputation for "liberty") would have been much greater as the world was reminded what a filthy slave colonist France was and opened the doors to other ex-colonies claiming reparations against France. The Haitian revolution is not taught in French schools.

Even the New York Times wrote a good story about it "Demanding Reparations, and Ending Up in Exile". Its behind a paywall but you can read it via the wayback machine.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 19 2024 19:35 utc | 87

Some background I did on Latin America and their comprador ruling classes who tend to be the ancestors of the colonial elites. They never give up trying to overthrow any challengers, every progressive advance has always been substantially squashed.

The West vs. The Rest, The Current State of Play; Latin America Pt 1.

The West vs. The Rest, The Current State of Play; Latin America Pt 2.1, Mexico.

The West vs. The Rest, The Current State of Play; Latin America Pt 2.2, Colombia and Venezuela.

The West vs. The Rest, The Current State of Play; Latin America Pt 2.3, Cuba, Nicaragua.

The Latin American Comprador Ruling Classes

Posted by: Roger | Apr 19 2024 19:48 utc | 88

Article with download link to manifesto of man who set himself on fire:

https://www.newsweek.com/read-max-azzarello-manifesto-about-lighting-himself-fire-trump-trial-1892368

My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan. This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup. These claims sound like fantastical conspiracy theory, but they are not. They are proof of conspiracy. If you investigate this mountain of research, you will prove them too. If you learn a great deal about Ponzi schemes, you will discover that our life is a lie. If you follow this story and the links below, you will discover the rotten truth of ‘post-truth America’. You will learn the scariest and stupidest story in world history. And you will realize that we are all in a desperate state of emergency that requires your action. To my friends and family, witnesses and first responders, I deeply apologize for inflicting this pain upon you. But I assure you it is a drop in the bucket compared to what our government intends to inflict. Because these words are true, this is an act of revolution.

nine more pages...

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 19 2024 19:50 utc | 89

bevin and Roger, thanks for the information and analysis you both provide.

Posted by: KMRIA | Apr 19 2024 19:52 utc | 90

Scorpion with the links as usual. Newsweek. Know them by their links, ouch.

Why not his substack. Why peddle "filtered" "Newsweek", the resurrected toilet paper?

https://substack.com/@theponzipapers

Posted by: goodsource | Apr 19 2024 20:04 utc | 91

Posted by: goodsource | Apr 19 2024 20:04 utc | 90

Because I didn't have the substack, only that article and only later notice the substack address at the bottom of the page in tiny type.

The article links to the man's manifesto which you can read for yourself Newsweek or no Newsweek.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 19 2024 20:10 utc | 92

For those interested, here via his substack is the pamphlet he scattered around before lighting himself up.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10PsyVFQu2fp_2Owemf5iN3zXO7luuA-b/view

"The True History of the World" (Haunted Carnival Edition)

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 19 2024 20:17 utc | 93

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 19 2024 18:33 utc | 80

In my irrelevant life experience, human beings who build, day by day, small things for others, end up fearing a meaningful life. That is, before they die, they are not bitter about a life they could have lived but did not.

People think they are special and better than others, but it is a fantasy. The special beings in this world are humble and work for the immediate benefit of the people who make up their circle of influence: The family (whatever) is the 1st archetype when and where you must learn how to do with others. No better school!

Normally, they do not have energy to waste on tirades and personality plays. They are so busy and absorbed in promoting effective and beneficial human relationships for those around them that they have no time to spend on themselves.

When they die, no little Jesus is going to take them to heaven, nor do they expect it. They do what they do because it is their duty, without expecting anything in return. They do not intend to leave a legacy. They don't want anything for themselves.

They only want their immediate family (which is all of us), not to suffer and to persist until they manage to recognize the spiritual faculties (of consciousness) that all of us treasure in ourselves.

The only sect that is so insensitive, because it does not investigate its interior to understand the exterior, is Narciso's.

Cheers

Posted by: Shita | Apr 19 2024 20:28 utc | 94

A nice potted introduction to synthetic aperture radar, a very digestible 16m, mostly in layman’s terms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2bUKEi9It4

Satellites Use 'This Weird Trick' To See More Than They Should - Synthetic Aperture Radar Explained.

Synthetic Aperture Radar is a technology which was invented in the 1950's to enable aircraft to map terrain in high detail. It uses the motion of the radar and some fancy mathematics to get much higher detail images than should be possible from an antenna small enough to fit on an aircraft.
This process has been extended to satellites and applies to not just the earth, but to other terrestrial bodies in the solar system, notably Venus and Titan which are eternally shrouded in clouds.

Posted by: anon2020 | Apr 19 2024 20:36 utc | 95

@Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 19 2024 18:22 utc | 79

I noticed that New Zealand was aligning itself more with the US, contrary to their usual neutral stance.
They were all over the China meddling with elections along with the UK and Canada as well, so I was surprised to read this story about foreign (aka US) equipment inside a NZ intelligence facility.

https://johnmenadue.com/apparition-ghosthunter-fallowhaunt-what-our-intelligence-agencies-do-in-the-shadows/

Posted by: Wee_Scot | Apr 19 2024 20:38 utc | 96

It is really saddening to hear of the tragic self immolation events of Max Azzarello in NYC who said that this "extreme act of protest" was intended to draw attention to an "apocalyptic fascist world coup."

And as well the recent passing (sacrifice?) of 25-year-old airman Aaron Bushnell, who shouted “free Palestine!” as he burned to death.

Today's incident occurred less than two months after the active-duty US Air Force member died by self immolation outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, protesting against the US' military support for Israel.

https://www.rt.com/news/596283-man-sets-himself-on-fire/

Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | Apr 19 2024 20:39 utc | 97

WELL SAID - But the imperialists just cannot leave them alone- it is not that, in the great scheme of things, Haiti is anything more than half of an impoverished island but that, if ever the idea gets abroad that people don't need capitalists to pick their pockets or imperialists to teach them obedience, all hell could break loose. The same mentality, albeit spiced up with a different form of racism, lies behind the genocide in Gaza.
Posted by: bevin | Apr 19 2024 19:05 utc | 83

If there was any decency and justice in this world - it would not look like it does now. Haiti and Gaza are only two examples of being ruled by murderous theiving thugs - all who were white europeans.

Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | Apr 19 2024 20:57 utc | 98

Posted by: Roger | Apr 19 2024 17:34 utc | 75
"Embraer is a small global player and very much a unicorn in Brazil that was developed with extensive state aid and protection."

I must say that Embraer are very nice planes. Much quieter and more comfortable than the Airbus planes I've been on. Ride the unicorn if you get a chance.

Posted by: Paranaense | Apr 19 2024 21:03 utc | 99

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 19 2024 18:47 utc | 82
"make some point...different approach than protesting Antifa, terrorism."

First approach, protests kills himself, second approach Antifa protestor kills whoever is standing nearby. If I were an innocent bystander I would prefer the first approach, sad though it may be.

Posted by: Paranaense | Apr 19 2024 21:31 utc | 100

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