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

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

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

“…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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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: 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

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

“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 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 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

Cont’d from #39
Case-insensitive search provides a more accurate result: chart.

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

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

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

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

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

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: 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

@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

@ 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

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

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

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

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

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

Paranaense@67….power 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

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

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

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: 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

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

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

@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

“…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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@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

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: 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