The rate of women killed by an intimate partner in Australia increased by nearly 30% in 2022-23, compared to the previous year, according to data released by the Australian Institute of Criminology on Monday.

Here we go again. As I scan the article (in the Guardian of course) I find no explanation offered until this enigmatic statement:

Patty Kinnersly, chair of violence prevention organisation Our Watch, says: “Those figures are confronting, but it’s even more confronting in the context of what’s happened in the start of this year with 26 of the 27 women allegedly killed by a man.”
“As we know, violent murders are only the tip of the iceberg. There are tens of thousands of women living in controlling unhealthy relationships.”
[…]
Men are also far more likely to commit homicide, according to the figures, which show that in cases where the sex of the perpetrator was known, 86.4% were committed by men and 13.6% were committed by women.

Ah, gotcha. Problem solved then. Even though the data, when examined, put the motives for violence on massive erosion of social life under the impact of neoliberalization, financialization and exploitation. But by all means protest against men, ban men, pathologise gender, etc. The same card played over and over again.

Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 29 2024 19:02 utc | 303

Doesn’t b run a @MoA X/Twitter account?
I don’t use that system myself but if anyone here does follow @MoA please could they try tweeting a message, even if it is just to say “Hi, folks are getting concerned”.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 29 2024 19:09 utc | 305

I’m enjoying the OT debate on apostrophes and grammar, over at Palestine thread. As an ESL speaker, I find English to be quite an amusing language in that, one can see words that have multiple meanings, and multiple meanings in multiple contexts. Then there are words that sound the same but have different meaning.
I see some, here, for example use the word “then”, when they actually mean “than,” and visa versa. “Do” when they mean “due” — due to the fact — with all do[sic] respect.
There are easy words to misspell. I once used the word parish, when I meant perish (publish or parish[sic]). karlof1 kindly corrected me. I wanted to say thanks with acknowledging:
Parishes are congregations.
Parishes are in NOLA.
Parishes are former Boston Celtics. Grin.
Then there are words, like ain’t — I ain’t learned that one yet.
And, king of all English words, is the ephwurd. It can used in dozens of different situations — my favorite usage — on second thought, let’s just not go there.The word is used prolifically, and fits all forms and grammar. It is present, past, and future, all rolled into one.
(“Is”, in the context of Clinton whatchubetalkingabout, comes in a close second place)
Over the years, as I learn more English, false equivalencies fade away. I no longer say “big” Coke, when I mean “large” Coke. Many of the direct(word for word) translation from one language to English, which make the end result a jumble of mess, are also avoided. It is a learning process; not a perfect one; challenges abound.
I’ve learned “I” before “e” but not after “c.” I’ve learned that “it” does not have a possessive form so it is “its,” not “it’s.” I’ve learned what it means when “it’s raining cats and dogs.” I’ve learned the meaning of “pleonexia” (thanks Karl). I’ve even learned the new method of quoting with periods and commas: “this can go,” but not “that.”
Having learned all that, I know, I know nothing. Grin.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 29 2024 19:25 utc | 307

“.. The developed West, it seems, may soon be entering 1920s Russia territory, moreover run by many of the same types…”
scorpion @16:24 utc | 296
Thus spake Goebbels.
My own impression is that Russia in the 1920s was enjoying an unprecedented freedom of expression, something reflected in the art and literature of the time. Surely nobody would argue that there was less freedom of expression than there had been under the Czars?
Your contributions suffer from the inevitable appearance of that cloven hoof of neo-nazi anti-Bolshevism that devalues your occasional forays into original thinking.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 29 2024 19:44 utc | 309

Doesn’t b run a @MoA X/Twitter account?
I don’t use that system myself but if anyone here does follow @MoA please could they try tweeting a message, even if it is just to say “Hi, folks are getting concerned”.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 29 2024 19:09 utc | 305
It is now clear that something has happened because b would have by now either informed all about his absence or would have reacted to the concern that some of us have expressed.
MoA does have a twitter account so anyone who is on twitter, please check the account and send a message as suggested by Jeremy, post 305.
Also, if anyone has any contact for or with b, or someone who knows b, could you please try to find out what is going on.
That is now more important than any discussion on the blog.

Posted by: JB | Apr 29 2024 20:00 utc | 311

Sorry, I wanted to also express my concern for b and hope whatever is causing his absence is a temporary problem.

Posted by: KMRIA | Apr 29 2024 20:15 utc | 313

The same card played over and over again.
Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 29 2024 19:02 utc | 303

Yup. Get enough people to chant “something must be done” then use it as an excuse to do something against their best interests. Electronic monitoring, moar censorship, etc.

Posted by: Rae | Apr 29 2024 20:20 utc | 315

b locked the comments when he knew he’d be out of action.
That the comments were left unlocked means he went “out of action” unexpectedly.
I am Extremely Concerned.
——-

Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 29 2024 20:52 utc | 317

scorpion@314 invents Tsarist reforms, which were not “slow.” Nonexistent is a better word, though glacial might be tolerable. Then scorpion invents mass murdering by Bolsheviks. People killed in combat between armed parties are not “murdered,” in any honest usage of the word. It is more common to use murder for retaliatory killings but ignoring the previous killings by Tsarists is tendentious, to put it politely. The violence of the Russian civil war was a continuation of the Tsar’s violent war and driven largely by fear of defeat and the desire to survive Tsarist madness. The democratic Provisional Government deliberately committed itself to continuing the imperialist war and equally deliberately abandoned their own professed programs and ideals for imperialist war. The Bolshevik party was not dominated by Jews and pretending they were is not moving past sterile meaningless verbal disputes between fascists and capitalists (who are not even separate categories of people) and Communists but perpetuating fascist ideology. No moral compass has lies as its cardinal directions. No one prating about materialist fallacies has any common sense, because it is the repudiation of magic, the supernatural and other such bigotries that is common sense, which means to say, based on reality.
But I forget, you are preaching to the gallery, which at MoA is pretty far right.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 29 2024 20:55 utc | 319

Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 29 2024 20:55 utc | 319
Well, I could easily froth and posture and call YOU a liar as you did me.
But that’s not how I roll. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 29 2024 21:11 utc | 321

Palm & Needle | Apr 29 2024 21:09 utc | 320
Again I find myself in complete agreement. As to Losurda’s book thanks to an error I ended up with three copies of the book- anyone passing close to Georgian Bay is welcome…but only to one of them.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 29 2024 21:20 utc | 323

It’s an excellent read and available for free in PDF format here: https://www.iskrabooks.org/stalin-history-and-critique
Posted by: Palm & Needle | Apr 29 2024 21:09 utc | 32

Thanks a lot for providing the link to Domenico Losurdo’s Book

Posted by: Framarz | Apr 29 2024 21:28 utc | 325

But I forget, you are preaching to the gallery, which at MoA is pretty far right.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 29 2024 20:55 utc | 319
Respectfully, I don’t agree with that statement. If I did, I wouldn’t be so attached to this site. Some of our most prolific posters are firmly left, real left. I don’t need to name names. Part of what I enjoy is that we have different perspectives here, a wacky melange. I might not agree with what certain posters say but as long as they’re not being blatantly racist, etc.(which happens sometimes), I don’t care. There are often lively discussions with people who disagree with each other…I can live with that. The racists tend to get drummed out or just give up in the end. I think it’s a disservice to b to characterize this site are far right. This is a special place, not perfect, but it’s important to me.

Posted by: KMRIA | Apr 29 2024 21:41 utc | 327

Roger | Apr 27 2024 23:00 utc | 143
The German issue is that they had in place already built nuclear reactors running at low cost (yes with an implicit government insurance subsidy) that they shut down.
That’s only part of the picture. The last German reactors hadn’t been thoroughly checked since 2009. Inspection should be every 10 years; it was thus 3,5 years overdue when they were switched off in 2023. They allowed for an exceptional extension – but any longer would’ve been irresponsible.
The decision to exit nuclear power had been taken in 2000, leaving enough time for those involved to plan the process (this is Germany, after all;-). Companies and public regulators had been winding down their operations, not hired & trained new specialists etc. So, a sudden change of plans wouldn’t have been practically feasible.
Next point, lack of public support – the short-lived “exit from the exit” in 2010 led to massive protests, and was abandoned shortly after Fukushima.
Lastly, lack of disposal site for nuclear waste. This made the entire operation illegal under German law. However, they had used a loophole by “exploring” a “potential site”, even though they knew very well that it was unsuitable. It has since been abandoned, and the search has been re-started from zero.
I really wish that people who comment on energy, EV etc. topics would first of all get up to speed on what is happening in China, which is accelerating its nuclear build out.
I’m well aware of that.
My understanding is that China’s electricity needs are growing so fast, Beijing thinks it’s necessary to use all possible sources. In particular ‘domestic’ sources, since Beijing wants to reduce dependence on oil and gas imports. Also, public protests are, let’s say, difficult there, and issues of such magnitude are decided top-down in Beijing.
So, China does what it does, but I think the circumstances are quite different from western countries.
Until we get very large scale batteries, perhaps 10-15 years from now, the intermittency will still be an issue no matter what BS is thrown out.
We have large scale “batteries” – they’re called pumped storage power plants. Different studies give different figures for the amount of (additional) capacity required, but between the various types of short/ medium/ long term storage and “flexible consumers” (e.g. energy intensive industries producing only when electricity’s cheap), it’s absolutely feasible. With today’s technology.
Wind and solar aren’t even growing fast enough to offset the growth in energy usage and therefore stop the growth in fossil fuel usage – let alone reduce it.
Electricity usage isn’t growing, in fact it’s even declining in some western countries.
The real big issue is that electricity makes up only 15-20% of total energy use. The vast majority is oil, gas and coal (also a surprisingly large share of biomass, c. 10%). Steel, chemicals etc. can switch to (green) hydrogen – but it requires huge investments, and massive amounts of electricity. (nb, mass-producing hydrogen from wind & solar also reduces the required el. storage capacity)
Again, it’s feasible – but I do expect energy-intensive industries to shrink substantially.
Solid state batteries will not hit a price point competitive with lithium-ion, sodium-ion, semi sold state until around 2030. By then it will be pretty much game over in the EV market.
That’d be in 6 years – sounds almost like ‘tomorrow’ to me.
I read somewhere that Toyota announced solid state batteries for 2027. Do you think that’s realistic, and do you know whether others are on a similar track? Haven’t been following the debate too closely, I admit.
(I should’ve known better than open the nuclear debate here…;-)

Posted by: smuks | Apr 29 2024 22:08 utc | 329

canuck | Apr 28 2024 16:00 utc | 202
MMT offers an adequate analysis of the “fiat” monetary system we’ve had since 1971.
It’s been more than 50 years now, and it’s doing fairly fine.
Lavrov’s Dog | Apr 29 2024 10:34 utc | 271
You’re right, China is expanding nuclear power generation. Should’ve written “few are being built outside China”. I don’t see it making sense economically, can only guesstimate the reasons (s.a. @Roger). Wonder if they will actually build this many, or if Beijing’s policy will change at some point (as happened with coal).

Posted by: smuks | Apr 29 2024 22:21 utc | 331

@Cynic | Apr 29 2024 22:26 utc | 665 (Ukraine thread)

Plato has been mentioned in several recent discussions…
Item in the Guardian (29 April 2024)
titled :
** Plato’s final hours recounted in scroll found in Vesuvius ash **
extract :
** Newly deciphered passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on the final hours of Plato, a key figure in the history of western philosophy.
In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl. **
link to item: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/29/herculaneum-scroll-plato-final-hours-burial-site

Cynic@665
There is a burned library at Herculaneum with hundreds of carbonized scrolls. People have figured out a way to digitally unroll them using AI and to distinguish the carbon based ink from the carbonized papyrus making it theoretically possible to read them. Pretty amazing. I will dig up the links and post them on the open thread.
Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 29 2024 23:05 utc | 671
Links: https://www2.cs.uky.edu/dri/herculaneum-papyrus-scrolls/
https://www.neh.gov/news/students-decipher-2000-year-old-herculaneum-scrolls

Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 29 2024 23:15 utc | 333

@the pessimist | Apr 29 2024 23:15 utc | 333
Another link: https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/deciphered-herculaneum-papyrus-reveals-precise-burial-place-of-plato/

Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 29 2024 23:23 utc | 335

Sworn enemy of the oxymoron working for military intelligence, the pleonasm squats in place just to take up space.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 29 2024 22:17 utc | 330
Aleph_Null, I guess redundancy is a good thing in this case, otherwise the “gremlins” would be blamed for lack of stuff.
I had to chuckle at this one. I knew an air force pilot that said, unknowns, like chewed up wires and such, were always blamed on the gremlins. Insatiable appetite, those gremlins.
—
Wishing you well b. As they say: get over it already.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 29 2024 23:44 utc | 337

It can be, although i have no personal experience with this, that after some “medical procedures” one must take various drugs to heal which can then make one groggy or foggy. And there is always a need for much sleep to give the body time to heal.
So, i am thinking, b is probably in recovery, healing, and needs much sleep and rest.
B leaving the whiskey bar open for us after he returned from i assume an anesthesia procedure (closing it for that duration only) means that it is now on us to carry on. I recall that when attending third year gymnasium in Denmark, the teachers went on strike. We students decided to carried on with classes the best we could in the interim. Something like that.
Perhaps somebody has a brilliant OP to offer up for discussion?
I wish b a full and gentle recovery, free from worries.
~~
Freedom of Speech Ends Where True Power Begins
by Jorge Majfud
April 27, 2024
Excerpt:

…Until a few years before, the harsh anti-imperialist criticisms of writers and activists like Mark Twain were demonized, but there was no need to tarnish the reputation of a free society by putting a renowned intellectual in jail, as they had done in 1846 with David Thoreau for his criticism to the aggression and dispossession of Mexico to expand slavery, under the perfect excuse of not paying taxes. Neither Twain nor the majority of public critics managed to change any policy or reverse any imperialist aggression in the West, as they were read by a minority outside of economic and financial power. In that aspect, modern propaganda had no competition, therefore direct censorship of these critics would have hindered their efforts to sell aggression in the name of freedom and democracy. On the contrary, critics served to support that idea, whereby the largest and most brutal empires of the Modern Era were proud democracies, not discredited dictatorships…

Posted by: suzan | Apr 30 2024 0:27 utc | 339

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 29 2024 13:41 utc | 279
Thank you, persiflo. We are, of course, all deeply worried for b, and it becomes less a selfish wish that his site here continue to be a balanced source of so many different aspects of life that he managed so well. More now, we just wish him safety and health, and ask that if friends or family chance upon us here, they can let us know what is happening.
Persiflo, I don’t have a concept of icons that suggests magical powers, but rather in times of personal stress when prayers did not seem sufficient (particularly when I feared for a loved one’s safety) to work on the black and white pattern of a bishop’s robe without losing my way somehow always would get me through the not-knowing waitful anxiety. Such patterns are found in particular for the icon of Saint Nicholas, so I think that is why they developed that way. He’s an important saint, helpwise.
I didn’t begin icon painting of course, until I’d decided I was Orthodox, and I’d say my efforts are primitive at best- I’m not a great artist. I love the technique and the rules that go with it; they free me somehow. And I did it commercially for a while, was quite successful. But now I don’t sell my paintings,just do them as a legacy for my kids.
Well, it is the beginning of Holy Week. I will go look for one of the hymns I wanted to post here.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 30 2024 1:18 utc | 341

@the pessimist | Apr 29 2024 23:15 utc | 333 & 335
Awesome; thanks so much for posting those links.

Posted by: robjira | Apr 30 2024 1:44 utc | 343

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 29 2024 16:24 utc | 296
Thanks for picking up on my comment. It seems a very small contingent here are concerned about b’s situation.
It’s Tuesday 10 am here, UTC+ 8 hours and the site is still dormant 5 days on.
As for my discourse on the H I am reluctant to give any more than I said before, that it looks at the pure and the industrial chemistry, much of which has been published before, and which reversed my previous understanding. I don’t want to get into setting up a web site but if someone in a safe publishing location wants to cast an eye over it I’d be happy to oblige. Currently I am loafing on the island of Palawan, a couple of hundred kilometres east of the shoal where the US is winding the Philippines up to be the proxy successor to Ukraine. It was written to be not too long to put into an MoA discussion but when back in China I’d do a bit more work on it to flesh it out.

Posted by: Walt | Apr 30 2024 2:08 utc | 345

robjira@343
It is an awesome effort. I suspect that within 5 years they may succeed in reading most of the 800 they have. It will be amazing to see the contents of an intact library from that era. More interesting than the dead sea scrolls I think, much wider variety of subjects.

Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 30 2024 2:22 utc | 347

Below is the title to a ZH posting that continues to set the stage for blaming China consumers for the rise in gold prices
“The Only Safe Asset” – Chinese Consumers Overtake India In Gold-Buying Frenzy
the quote

Now, a few months later, we get confirmation as The South China Morning Post reports that consumers in China bought 308.9 tonnes (10.9 million ounces) of gold in the first quarter, representing a 5.9% increase compared to the same period in 2023.

I just checked and gold price is up almost 13 percent YTD so China consumers being the driver is hogwash….in spite of the tonnes to price increase comparison which some may think is stretching facts a bit….grin

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 30 2024 2:37 utc | 349

Sakineh Bagoom@334……Mammonexia, if it ain’t a word, it is now.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 30 2024 2:56 utc | 351

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 30 2024 2:45 utc | 350
Thank you, scorpion! I did not know anything of his life – his name is Paul. We sang much of his music – the Cherubim hymn is another beautiful composition. Our church was small and very humble but it was the loveliest church I have ever been in. I bet you would have loved it.
Our priest was from a family that had to leave Russia, and as I’ve mentioned before, from Paris as a student at the Sorbonne he was sent to a prison camp outside Dresden. He was there when it was firebombed, in the Orthodox cathedral basement. Dresden was liberated by the Russian army. He was asked what he had been studying – when he answered “theology” expecting he might be shot, (his uncle in the gulag had been) the soldier heard “geology”. That’s enough miracle for me.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 30 2024 3:31 utc | 353

@327 Definitely not far right.
Closer to humanities, spritual right in the sense of decency or moral and inclusive across the board in that sense.
I think it is hard for some to understand an open forum, and when they find comments that displease them for whatever reason they automatically assume the site encourages and is geared towards those.
Personally I attribute only the qualities that are penned by any individual, b included.
Not only is b placed at center of EU, Ukraine, “Israel” and US controversy in terms of the topics he writes about, but also Germany is itself at center of various laws governing speech. Even in the US there is a long legal discussion on who is responsible for what commentators post.
Though there is format and duty to meet whatever legal requirements, that is besides the point – in UK if I remember it was moving towards proving someone other than site owner made a comment, which would not only mean registry and tracking of participants but also would assume the site owner was guilty until proven innocent.
So it is not surprising that some readers or commentators already hold that kind of view.
@344
Certainly. I would relate my own experiences but you know that only invites ridicule or unwanted attention. Given the circumstance though, I will relate one.
This was in the middle-east, I returned days early to where friends offered me accomodation, and they had left on holiday. I knew no-one else so decided I would just “camp” at the top of the appartment block stairs till their return. It was ok, had waited in much more difficult settings before.
But.
I had a sense of being bothered, like a presence. Never experienced something quite like that before, and it was very unpleasant, like anger towards me but always just out of sight. So eventually I decide there was something odd up (with me or the place etc.) and I go for a long long walk to shake off whatever.
A car pulls up… “Can we help you at all ?” (and I was not acting odd or dressed odd or anything like that :-/) . “Well” I say , “I have been feeling like I have some kind of unwanted attention !? ” . The conversation started straight and open just like that. “We will take you to the church” they say.
Though my background is Christian (just plain if you like) , I am not the devout religious kind going to church and so on, and generally tend to skirt most kinds of organisation if possible. So they present me to the head of the church (vicar, bishop … I don’t know) and I explain briefly and he says “We will pray for you” and then I am driven back to near where I was staying, and head back up to the top of the stairs to sleep. So I’m just sitting there thinking ‘hmm’ and feeling about the same and “not expecting anything in particular but that was well meaning of them” , and then my whole vision lights up , displacing whatever was troubling, accompanied by a vision.
So since then I still don’t go to church services or anything 🙂 , but I like just visiting churches when they are open to public. Of other religions also.
Just an anecdote that seemed fitting to what you posted, and am definitely not trying to encourage any religious direction – I am wary as anyone else about placing trust in any religious organisation or obligation. I think being good and honest to those around is just as meaningful.

Posted by: Ornot | Apr 30 2024 3:39 utc | 355

@ KMRIA | Apr 29 2024 21:41 utc | 327
that was a mis-characterization by stephen johnson… he does that a lot.. if you are at this site long enough, you’ll get to learn that the comments reflect the person much more then they do who they are talking about.. cheers..

Posted by: james | Apr 30 2024 4:13 utc | 357

@ juliania | Apr 30 2024 2:17 utc | 346
nice bit of music.. thanks…
————
icons… they are symbols.. astrology is all about symbols too… people respond to symbols in countless different ways and that goes back to them and the possibilities they see or don’t… will have to check out that carlson interview..

Posted by: james | Apr 30 2024 4:20 utc | 359

@Posted by: smuks | Apr 29 2024 23:04 utc | 332
So you accept that the Central Bank can actually cancel the government debt, its just that you consider that such a cancellation would be inflationary / undermine the currency. So it was never an absolute no, it was a no based on your opinion of the negative effects. A very traditional mainstream economic opinion. One that is pretty irrelevant in the age of mass QE and government debt that will never be paid back.
If there is spare capacity in the economy, or the extra money is used to fund new productive assets (by the state itself, or through state development banks) then it would not be inflationary. The state also has the ability to implement capital controls, as many of the successful development states did/have. The state can also use taxes to manage inflationary effects. You use the classic capitalist aspersion of the “reckless” state that must be controlled by the creditors; which is directly at odds with the success of state managed development in such examples as Japan, South Korea, the Soviet Union and China. Many of the purveyors of MMT have actually thought quite fully of such issues.
The “mainstream” economics can and will always be broken by governments dominated by a capitalist ruling class when it benefits that class, as with the Roosevelt’s massive devaluation of gold in the 1930s, or the massive QE of the post-GFC period. That the FT is floating the possibility of central bank debt cancellation tells us that that is also on the table to bail out the capitalist ruling class. Mainstream economics is a pale intentionally disabled version of political economy, where political decisions are treated as “technical details”.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 30 2024 4:54 utc | 361

scorpion | Apr 30 2024 0:10 utc | 338
Most of this is nonsense: The Black Book is a bad joke, the lowest kind of anti-communist propaganda.
You seem to spend much of your time reading neo-nazi propaganda on the internet.
As to land ownership in Russia- why do you imagine that the slogan “Bread, Peace and Land” was so popular? The peasants did not “own” the land they paid large rents by way of compensation to the aristocrats who used to own them as well as the land until Alexander II’s emancipation in 1861.
They also lost their share of the communal land taken out of the mir and given in freehold to the aristocrats. They saw this land, which they continued to cultivate, as having been taken from them.
Only a White Russian propagandist could contrast the position in which the peasants found themselves in 1924 unfavourably with that under the Tsar.
Do you imagine that the Reds would have won the civil war if they were in fact expropriating the great mass of the population?
As to the nonsense, to which Roger refers above, of insisting- it is almost a mania in your case- that the Bolsheviks were Jewish it is just another piece of evidence that you have been seduced by neo-nazi propaganda. The claim is false. Although it is true that, for reasons which should be obvious, there were many who, like Bronstein, came from jewish backgrounds to play roles in the revolutionary parties.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 30 2024 5:11 utc | 363

Oh f*ck this. That scorpion creature who I usually block on the ground of psuedo-intellectualism as well as a tendency to make sweeping statements combined with little or no sources is persisting in dubbing USSR’s bolsheviks as ‘jewish bolsheviks’ (I was stuck somewhere this afternoon and only had my phone which I haven’t yet installed a MoA script on) so I would like to see him provide credible and therefore checkable sources for that incorrect generalisation. Not quotes from politically motivated contemporary opponents such as he has attempted to use to claim that the October revolution was unnecessarily bloody but contemporary sources who can be taken to be objective because they had no axe to grind when they spoke/wrote.
I suggest scorpion begin by providing lists of the leaders of the revolution which show a preponderance of Jews. In another thread here I listed all members of the Party’s Politiburo during and immediately after the revolution, then went through the names to show that the preponderance of Jews was little higher than it was in the population at around 10% but perhaps scorpion has the names & religion of people who somehow controlled the aims & objectives of the Bolsheviks secretly. I shall wait with bated breath as it would certainly shock historians who study the revolution.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 30 2024 5:37 utc | 365

https://twitter.com/MoonofA
Posted by: Father Dougal | Apr 29 2024 21:29 utc | 326
Thanks for the link to b’s Twitter page. I’m not a subscriber but I did browse the first dozen or so entries as a visitor to guage the tone. Suffice to say that b and Germany.gov are definitely NOT on the same page. Bless his heart…
On b’s Health issues, I can state from personal experience that my 4 heart-control drugs interfere with one’s ability to think clearly. The ill-effects come and go. But one is aware that it’s happening. Two of the medications warn that they can cause Brain Fog which may render the patient unfit to drive a motor vehicle, which is ironic because I’m blackmailed into taking them to make me a safer driver!. The medications also warn against consuming certain food groups and foods containing certain chemicals > Potassium.
This is not an exhaustive list of negative side-effects. If b is taking these meds it will take him at least a week to get a handle on dealing with them.
^ Hopefully it’s irrelevant to b.^

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 30 2024 6:32 utc | 367

This popped up today, The 30 April.
“Palestinian students at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany received an email from the school that they’ve been recategorized as “stateless” due to governmental “changes in the statistical requirements.”
Germany no longer recognizes Palestinian as a nationality.“
The reason I put it in this thread is that MoA generally supports a solution in Gaza and Palestine (All of it) that give some rights to the people. By declaring them “stateless” they become just another number in the millions of “refugees”, with no right of return.
ie this is a declaration by beaureaucratic dictat, of an effective “genocide”, the destruction of an entire people in Germany.
****
So this comment by Aleph_Null | Apr 30 2024 6:47 utc | 368 “part of their careful preparations might be to squash sites like MoA, for a better stranglehold on information-streams, when things start happening fast. This awful hunch of mine is something I want proven wrong ASAP.” Would suggest that “b” has fallen foul of the German thought police, rather than a medical crisis. On Twitter his last post was on the 25th April.
If this Official German policy is generalized, and experience suggests that EU and UKUS are coordinated, it explains the brutality against protestors as trying to eliminate any form of support, or legal basis for return or even their own Government.
If Palestinians become “stateless” then there is no “Genocide” of a people?

Posted by: Stonebird | Apr 30 2024 8:06 utc | 369

Iran Observer
@IranObserver0
·
1h
⚡️BREAKING
There has been a major breakthrough between Saudi Arabia and Iran
Saudi has accepted all economic proposals made by Iran and stressed developing a roadmap for economic cooperation and expediting its implementation ‐ Iran’s economy minister
https://twitter.com/IranObserver0/status/1785195168640967044

Posted by: Menz | Apr 30 2024 8:21 utc | 371

Iran Observer
@IranObserver0
⚡️BREAKING
Zimbabwe, which is under sanctions from the West, is going to purchase Iranian weaponry
https://twitter.com/IranObserver0/status/1784963394044309594

Posted by: Menz | Apr 30 2024 8:48 utc | 373

@ Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Apr 30 2024 8:36 utc | 372
“ But it’s only my opinion. You may see it differently. If so, don’t bother telling me about it. Not interested. Anyone who engages with him positively usually ends up in block lists as well. Birds of a feather iow …. “
With you about your opinion and engaging with what may be trolls in your assessment or others – but totally against the self blinkering. Have been right from the start. It is at best head in the sand – at worst it is witch burning .
Who put you in charge of censoring? Did b approve it ever? I doubt it.
It whiffs of sheep-dogging, gatekeeping …call it what you want, it is self moderation and actually protects trolls! They also can use the same scripts.
It gives them the same excuse of reading genuine criticism of themselves by use of such self blinkering scripts… which also stops genuine readers who buy into the subtle self censoring mechanism that will inevitably also add genuine human opinions to the censored list that they may not be palatable, or you or anyone else here telling them are worth censoring!
It’s a double edged thing innit? Who censors the censors? Etc
The only winning strategy is to NOT play the censor game. I urge everyone to throw out your blinkers and demand that anyone using them find other traditional ways of ignoring opinions they don’t like – the Nelsonian Eye of the Script is Not the Bot you should be looking for or need. And always always be nagged with those who choose to pick a conversation with you – even if it is a polite finger.
The Animals looked through the window and looked at the censors and then the censored … both on their hind legs, baying … censorious ..
But, it’s only MY OPINION….

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 30 2024 9:58 utc | 375

“FireChat was a tool for revolution. Then it disappeared.”
https://www.fromjason.xyz/p/notebook/firechat-was-a-tool-for-revolution-then-it-disappeared/
Read the article and then use that gray matter: A “[useful] tool for revolution” until COVID-19 came along.

Posted by: trinity | Apr 30 2024 11:36 utc | 377

Voting in democracy is like pushing on a string.

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 30 2024 11:49 utc | 379

A couple of remarks from me.
I live in the same city as b. So I wrote him an email to offer him assistance, in representing mine and the forum’s sentiments. He didn’t reply. Unless he or some trustee provides information on the forum, there’s not a lot we can do; filing him as missing person with the police is one option, scanning obituaries is another, and a third may be to try and find his doorbell – I’d rather avoid this, but then I tend to (sometimes badly) misjudge these kinds of situations, so what does MoA think? Should we get him a basket full of our well-wishings, perhaps? Some people here should have his postal address, I’d be happy to do the groundwork, though I do fear the impression of troll-stalking him literally into his sleep.
Some float a scenario that has german state authority de-orbit the whiskey bar. In my view, this is unlikely. Formally stopping the platform didn’t happen, so there are no hints of the legal measures with which the hardcore denialists are usually targeted. Swallowing a place like this wholesale into a black hole, including the publican, is unheard of to this commenter from Germany.
On contingency planning, Which is always a sensible thought, I’d like to put forth two things.
One is that the MoA archives are an extraordinarily valuable document for future historical research; they must be archived by all means. How best to do so, I don’t know. Perhaps the IT folks do; IIRC David Horsman said something to this regard earlier? I also pointed this out to b here many years ago, comparing him with Friedrich Kellner.
The other one is that MoA is a most interesting place for the community, not just the heading blog entries and general provision by b. When b some day will retire for good, it would be sad to have us all simply dissapearing into space again. Two options stand out to me to prevent this fate:
One is, as suggested by psychohistorian, to transfer ownership of the whiskey bar to a trusted barfly, such as Karlof1 – I would support this. Or maybe some does a clone of this moon somewhere else in cyberspace, much like b had himself done when the first and original Whiskey Bar (run by Billmon way before my time) closed its comments section. To the comnment section itself: I have long been convinced that the straightforward design is the magic ingredient that fuses all the other contents into the wonderously sparkling delight that has captivated many here, me included. What it does is, it keeps superficial readers away, who I suspect may also happen to be idiots to some degree; and of those who really dig into the threads, only a fraction goes yet one more step and engages in discussion for real. What’s more, this tendency is self-reinforcing, as the high intensity of discussion attracts ever more density. This process has been visible for quite a while now, and so far the bar has absorbed all its losses of outstanding contributors quite well (that’s my impression of course).
Since we’re also doing philosophy and even theology now, MoA is one beast of a forum; though I’ll be on the record that future philosophizzeling by this commenter at least will try to reduce topical volume down a bit again, as I feel the community is served best with this in a supporting role. However, it doesn’t hurt much to go in bigly at first, to lay out a wide and stable foundation on which later arguments can run smoothly. That takes a lot of time and effort initially, but let me say thank you to everyone here, it’s very rewarding and a pleasure working with you all. —
If, however, the Moon of Alabama has to be abandoned sometime in the future, we might get the chance to emigrate for other destinations, perhaps not too far away. Seeing how well Karlof1’s substack works in conjunction with this forum, partly as means to take up his prolific output, I floated my philosophers’ corner partly to relieve threads from the notorius specialist talk, but also to introduce another satellite into an orbit around the Whiskey Bar. The concept is, I think, very natural: build offshoots to dig deeper into specialist interests, but keep in touch with main the main branch and report all relevant proceedings there. Such a layout is inherently more redundant than a single venue ever could be. Perhaps we’ll see other satellites going up in the future.
Other replies I intend to make on upthread topics will have to wait a bit more. Later tonight I’ll be at a jam session in Trautonia Capra’s Villa St.Allien, stock full of dusty synthesizers and other gear. Yesterday’s soundcheck and decorating of the place was very good, it sounded like calling the alien operator in a long immersive trancy ritual, until we got a reply … I joked it was the weather forecast; we’ll see to it again later.
Here’s a track by Robert Henke, who co-deleoped the da facto standard audio production software (DAW) of contemporary electronic music, Ableton live, before he felt ready to start composing. To me, this track sounds like an alien might feel coming to after crash landing his UFO on friggin’ Terra following a collision on the Interstellar-95 lane.

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 30 2024 12:13 utc | 381

“..Marxists can’t make their points using historical facts. Instead they use personal invective and Karen like ‘wiling (sic) and moaning’ to assail posters…”
Suspending for a moment the rule that trolls, especially malicious self directed trolls of the ‘cancuck’ kind, ought not to be fed I will point out that the historical fact is that the peasants did not own land under the Tsars and lose it in the revolution.
The contrary is the case: under the Tsars the peasants not only did not own the land, they did not own themselves. After the “Emancipation” decree of 1861 they were given the right to buy a portion of the lands that they had previously cultivated, collectively, for their ‘owners’.
The terms of their purchase were extremely onerous and by 1917 few peasants actually owned the plots they worked in the ‘mirs.’
The peasants were mobilised for revolution in large part because they were urged, by the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary parties, to sieze the land of the former serf owners, add it to their holdings, thereby restoring the pre-1861 mirs, and cultivate their property.
In other words Scorpion, who is simply warming up the grievances of the aristocracy whose land the peasants siezed, is completely wrong. And misses the point that the revolution became popular and earned the support of the peasants in large part because, like the French Revolution before it, it restored ownership of the land to the cultivator.
Unless this is understood the course of the Civil war and the successive victories of the Red Army are hard to understand.
I explained most of this in 363 above- it is simply a measure of ‘canuck”s utter dishonesty that he not only ignores the reply that I made to scorpion but denies that there was a reply.
The truth is that neither of the two knows anything about either the Russian Revolution or the history of that country. Were they to spend less time regurgitating White Russian and Nazi propaganda they would find plenty of opportunities to learn something about the questions involved.
But why bother? Unless one is committed to the truth and respectful of the community upon which one is imposing opinions it is much easier to grab a line or two from Goebbels than to think for oneself.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 30 2024 12:51 utc | 383

I would not endorse banishing Scorpion from MoA. He thinks outside the box. If he thinks too far outside the box from time to time it shouldn’t be a crime. If a comment doesn’t please you there’s always the “skip to next comment” option.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 30 2024 13:07 utc | 385

@bevin
I will defer to your greater knowledge about the peasantry in pre-revolutionary Russia. That said, some of the Red Terror involved the urban-based Central Party waging war against the peasantry, early on demanding they provide unreasonable amounts of their harvest in return for vouchers, essentially starving them. Later, the Five Year Plan’s longer-term vision included replacing most farm workers with machines. This was a modernist, urban, ideology-driven movement. They hated the peasants because they were part of a traditional, god-fearing feudal order they wished to destroy. City proles were their main support.
In Ukraine, peasants who previously had been allowed to own 2-4 animals were no longer allowed any. They relied on them for sustenance. According to some historians, Russian peasants had a higher standard of living than any others in Europe at the time. Life was hard then, which is why the communist revolution was initially appealing. Pity it turned out that the mainly Jewish intellectuals leading it were mendacious psychopaths worse than most Tzars.
I sincerely think you should go deeper in your defence than labelling all contrary views as ‘nazi’. Why don’t you begin from the premise that all sides in the Russian civil war were sincere rather than assuming that all the ‘Whites’ are irredeemably insincere and evil and all the Reds sincere and noble? Then you might get beyond cartoon characterizations unworthy of your admirable intellectual depth.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 30 2024 13:10 utc | 387

“I will point out that the historical fact is that the peasants did not own land under the Tsars and lose it in the revolution.”
bevy
You are wrong once again:
“The abolition of serfdom happened in two stages. The first stage was emancipation, and it gave freedoms to all serfs. The peasants still had to pay their landlords fixed rent payments, but the landlords could no longer raise these obligations arbitrarily. So, the peasants could work harder and keep their surplus without fearing that the landlord would ask for more next year.
The second stage was a land reform, which took place during the twenty years after emancipation. The reform transferred land rights to peasant communes. Repartition communes redistributed the land among the peasants, whereas hereditary communes allowed peasants to have usage rights of specific land plots in perpetuity, which resulted in more certainty about land rights among peasants.” (1)
1. https://www.aeaweb.org/research/serfdom-abolition-russia-19th-century

Posted by: canuck | Apr 30 2024 13:13 utc | 389

The tales of ”Bolshevik murder” are precisely the same as stories about the Russian murder in Bucha. That is to say they are fabrications by groups with an extreme interest in discrediting their enemies.
Who is so stupid as to believe the capitalist mass media only recently started spewing jingoistic nonsense? Who is so stupid as to think universities conforming to the preferred narratives of the capitalist elites is something that only started with the gender perversions intended to reduce population growth through spay/neuter of young people?
Fools who claim to have no ideology, and thus just function with the default capitalist one installed in their heads from birth, and profess to be “free thinkers” yet perfectly recite capitalist establishment lies about the capitalist elite’s enemies, are in fact the most brainwashed of all. Pity them, as they have no free will and are only running a program installed in their heads by mass media and commodity education.

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 30 2024 13:40 utc | 391

@ persiflo | Apr 30 2024 12:13 utc
Persiflo:
It’s highly likely B has health issues. So swing by his place, knock on the door, see if the lights are on, etc.
If he answers the door, your explanation of who you are and why you’re there will gratify him. It’s highly likely that family members are there in attendance if he’s indeed there.
If he’s not there, local hospitals are the place to look. He had an operation, seemed to be recovering, and then something didn’t go as planned, and he needs close-in attention.
The fact that he’s been offline for several days means he’s physically ill right now. There’s no other explanation I can come up with that fits the facts.
Go look. Maybe he wants company, or care, or expressions of appreciation. If he doesn’t, B is quite articulate, and he’ll let you know. The other thing is that it’s quite likely he doesn’t want others to know of his condition/illness. B is a private person, doesn’t like his business in the public realm. So ask if it’s OK to ask about him, if you get the chance to speak to him or his family, and then honor his wishes.
That’ll address the ethics of invading his privacy.
===
Next: what to do about MoA. If B is long-term incapacitated, then a successor has to be found, for all the reasons stated so well by others. What’s needed is:
a. the platform. The server running some software, probably not what B is running now, but maybe.
b. the curator – the person that kicks ass when necessary, and
c. the author – the person that writes the articles. B is going to be mighty hard to replace in that regard; his background, contacts, trust-network, etc. are unique. So that means the slant of MoA is likely to change some
To get to an MoA-like offering, it’s likely a team will be necessary. Those traits I set out above don’t generally occur in one individual.
And that might be the reason that MoA can’t happen again, like it is now, in the future. Humans suck at team-work. That’s why Karlof1 is so good: got all that power stuffed into just one person. And he’s a one-man show, right?
So maybe it’s time for all the rest of the brilliant people here at MoA to consider persiflo’s suggestion that there would be one central hub, MoA_version2, with a few threads and a curator, and a bunch of satellites, and when the satellites have something relevant to say, they submit a link to MoA_version2’s curator, and that’s how others find out about it.
That said, I’ll repeat: B is a strong dude. He’ll get it together. Let’s use this event as a spur to consider how well we’re currently playing as a team, and wonder if there isn’t something we can do to up our game.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Apr 30 2024 13:52 utc | 393

“The tales of ”Bolshevik murder” are precisely the same as stories about the Russian murder in Bucha. That is to say they are fabrications by groups with an extreme interest in discrediting their enemies…”
Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 30 2024 13:40 utc | 391T
Really? That’s preposterous, yes Bolsheviks did murder and it is well documented:
Who murdered the Romanov family? Aliens?:
“Finally, late at night on July 17, 1918, the Romanov family was awoken and told to get ready for another move. Still hoping to escape, the women packed up their things and put on clothing into which they had sewn precious jewelry, religious icons and a large amount of money. Then, unexpectedly, their captors turned on them, attacking them first with bullets, then with the butts of guns, bayonets and even their own heels and fists. All seven of the Romanovs—and the last gasp of the Russian monarchy—were dead.” (1)
Red terror killed over 50,000 people between 1918-1922 where in comparison under the Russian Empire the total number of executions was 43666 over the period 1825-1910.
“Conservative estimations for death tolls caused by Communist rule is unknown. Number of civilians killed in civil war due to Red terror is ~1.76 millions. Reds themselves focus on numbers reported by their Secret police executioners – 50.000 during 1918–1922. In comparison, under Russian Empire total numbers of executed after court decision was 4366 people during 1825–1910 [2].”
I guess living in an Ivory Tower with ubiquitous ‘intellectual incest'(TM) among Marxist disciples leads, obviously, inevitably, to immense self delusion.
1. https://www.history.com/news/romanov-family-murder-execution-reasons
2. Vladimir Abashkin

Posted by: canuck | Apr 30 2024 14:01 utc | 395

persiflo | Apr 30 2024 12:13 utc | 381
If I remember it correctly, Bernhard first set up Moon of Alabama on his own, at a time Billmon’s Whiskey Bar was on hold, either site unavailable for some days, or Billmon thinking about stopping it, and he proposed MoA as a temporary discussion forum, mostly Open Thread I think. So, when Billmon cut off the comments, we already had for months an alternative with B posting links to Billmon’s pieces so that we could comment. Iirc, at times, he would add a few posts of his, or link to a few other, and not just to Billmon’s. And when eventually the Whiskey Bar entirely stopped, it had been probably a couple of years since MoA did exist – and even the global design, the different shades of blue, how threads work and the like were basically copy-paste from the Whiskey Bar. There weren’t really discussions or votes, it’s just B who thought it would be good for the community to have another place for his fellow commenters to go on to comment.
Of course, any future alternative to MoA would follow a different process.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Apr 30 2024 14:32 utc | 397

Holocaust survivor demonstrating against the Israeli government:
https://twitter.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1783270524388294756
Includes photos of some very large demonstrations, none of which have seen on western media.
I find to get any stories about this have to go left-leaning. The right-leaning publications in the Anglosphere are 100% pro-Israel it seems, though I suspect most of their libertarian-leaning readership, a considerable percentage, are not. All of our public and media spaces are over-politicized these days – and shallow.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 30 2024 15:36 utc | 399