I read that in the town of Oranienburg (pop.46,000), Germany, the electricity grid is maxed out. The electricity company no longer connects new houses, heat pumps, car charging ports, new businesses or new industry. This is something one would expect from a remote farming village, not from a small town 30km (18mi) north of Berlin. So I'm wondering: is this a local case of mismanagement, is the green dream of living without fossil fuels coming to an end, or is it something else entirely?

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 14 2024 13:14 utc | 1

Good Day Bernhard and thank you again for another week of excellent reporting about our world.

I continue to hold out hope that my speculations about the consummation of our civilization war components in Ukraine and Occupied Palestine by early August or before in the case of Ukraine become reality.

That said, the pace of escalation and direct involvement of events in Occupied Palestine may speed up the crisis/resolution of that conflict ahead of Ukraine.

Forward is the only direction and change is the only constant.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 14 2024 13:17 utc | 2

Given president Biden‘s health condition and cognitive decline, the question was raised by many observers in the early days of his administration:

Who is really in charge of decision making?

The question has neither been answered nor lost its urgency – but people got used to accepting Biden‘s public image as the status quo. A few barflies, including myself, believe that Obama has been in charge wherever it really mattered. After all, it is him who has been the chief strategist of the Dems during the 2020 primaries. He told Pete Buttigieg, despite the promising start that he had, to drop out of the race in favour of Biden, whose score was close to nothing at that point. Obama‘s other achievement was to prevent the clearly leading Bernie Sanders from being nominated, instead, a way was paved for the unattractive and colorless Biden.

On April 12th, RT discussed Obamas role in its 360° - show:
https://www.rt.com/shows/360-view/595587-obama-family-business-politics/
Their curiosity had been inspired by an „informal“ teatime visit of Obama to Rishi Sunak, on March 17th in 10 Downing Street. Nothing much was disclosed about the talk they had together - and about Obama‘s emerging (?) role in US foreign policy, now that Victoria Nuland is out of the game. Donald Trump commented:

Obama has plenty to do with it. I call him Biden’s Boss.

In the RT show, the journalist Chris Widener painted the following picture of Biden and Obama, at the time of the 2020 elections. Obama would say something like:

Look Joe, we know what you’re up to. So here is the deal I’m gonna make you. I let you sleep in the White House for four to eight years. You’ll be the president. I’ll run the show.

„And“ adds Widener, returning to the world of facts,

he even came out and said it. When we asked him „would you like to be president for a third term?" - "No, what I’d really like, is to have somebody who put a little thing into his ear and tell him what to do.“

Another guest in the RT show, the journalist Steve Malzberg, reported:

Shortly after the 2020 election, we asked Barak Obama about a possible third term. „Well of course it’s illegal. But I think if I could run, I would win.“ „I do envision myself sitting in a basement somewhere, with a walky talky, whatever kind of thing. Someone is sitting in the Oval Office with an earpiece, and I’m calling the shots.“ That’s exactly what he said, and he is such a narcissus, that you have to believe that that is exactly what is happening.

So it appears that the Biden voters of 2020 brought us a third Obama term, with Biden as his presidential puppet and mouthpiece. A fourth term of this kind may be just around the corner: Currently, Biden polls at 34%, Trump at 40%. But recently, since Obama joined the Biden campaign team, two major smart moves have been played: One is to open the door for a possible release of Julian Assange, in order to improve Biden’s public image. The other is the firing of Victoria Nuland. She has, for decades and with full autonomy, been in charge of the US efforts of destroying Russia with help from Ukraine. I reckon Obama wasn’t impressed by her recent progress toward that goal, so he ended her career. It remains to hope that this marks a change of paradigm in US foreign policy.

Now "we the people“, in the US and abroad, have been for four years at the receiving end of the shit that the Biden administration created, because Obama liked and exploited that arrangement. Now he wants another four years of it. And it has become clear why he prefers the senile Biden as „president“ over anybody with more profile and credibility: Biden‘s weakness and dependency makes him easier to control.

Posted by: grunzt | Apr 14 2024 13:22 utc | 3

An excellent video on the recent 15-year study involving 2,700 children (a good-sized sample) that shows that most gender-confused children grow out of it by the mid-20s when allowed to develop how Nature intended. The YouTuber represents the position of many, many lesbians. At the start of the study one in 10 children displayed some form of "gender non-contentedness" (not being fully happy with their male or female body for those that do not speak woke acadameze). By the age of 25 that was down to just 1 in 25 (4% vs. 10%), and lets remember the extremely low bar being set for a person to be deemed "gender non-content" (i.e. often or sometimes non-content). In the West, normal childhood and adolescent confusion and unhappiness is being medicalized in an irreversible fashion.

The study also pointed to other mental issues being present, supporting the view that perhaps "gender non-contentedness" is more a symptom of other underlying causes and social pressure in many cases. Trigger Warning - videos from some quite unbalanced and delusional individuals are included. Many individual detransitioners are featured, and the class action being brought against these "gender affirming" medical practitioners is covered.

Here’s What Happens To ‘Trans Kids’ : 15 Year Study Reveals ALL

Posted by: Roger | Apr 14 2024 14:42 utc | 4

thanks b and to the thoughtful posters at moa..

so did yves smith get it right, or did she have it backwards?

Posted by: james | Apr 14 2024 15:45 utc | 5

https://michael-hudson.com/2024/04/gaza-the-strategic-imperative/
Posted by: Rick | Apr 14 2024 12:37 utc | 42

That was posted on the Iranian Missle thread.
It's Michael Hudson in fine form.

I re-posted it on the Palestine Open thread but Hudson covers the big picture
enough that it can be put here as well. He evidently was given the questions
in advance so he's not just talking extemporaneously.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 14 2024 16:33 utc | 6

thanks waynorinorway.. i just saw your post on the other thread and opened it, but have yet to read it..

Posted by: james | Apr 14 2024 16:35 utc | 7

Posted by: grunzt | Apr 14 2024 13:22 utc | 3

Now "we the people“, in the US and abroad, have been for four years at the receiving end of the shit that the Biden administration created, because Obama liked and exploited that arrangement. Now he wants another four years of it. And it has become clear why he prefers the senile Biden as „president“ over anybody with more profile and credibility: Biden‘s weakness and dependency makes him easier to control.

Trumps support for Israel may cost Trump the election?
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4593091-trump-blames-biden-iran-strike-israel/

Posted by: snake | Apr 14 2024 16:39 utc | 8

Replying to:
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 14 2024 15:28 utc | 28
in the Palestine Open thread, to try and stop that thread from getting too Anechoic.

Currency != Money

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 14 2024 14:59 utc | 23

Not my wheelhouse, but:

1. A hot young peasant woman has "currency" (her feminine appeal), but no money.

I get where you’re coming from, except that the charms of the buxom lass are a commodity (harsh though that might sound), in that they’re not fully fungible, except in some weirdly perverted barter-based economy. She would be unlikely to be able to use her charms to top up her PAYG phone or electric meter, for example.

2. A fat, balding millionaire has "money", which for the hot young peasant woman is "currency".

Depends on exactly what our fat, greasy, slimy oligarch has got though. If he’s got a wallet full of FRNs or that crappy plastic stuff signed by the Chief Cashier of the BoE then he’s got currency. If he’s got a bag full of silver Dollars, Britannias, Philharmonics or Maples he’s got money (if he’s got the equivalent in gold then her charms had better be outstanding!).

3. They both have "currency", though one does not have "money"
4. Their "currency" is each of a different kind, but tradable.

Not really, as above she has, or is (this is getting seedy) a commodity which he seeks to purchase (or rent!).

5. When the fat, balding millionaire trades his money for the peasant woman's feminine appeal, this is an exchange of "currency".

Again, not really, it’s the purchase of a commodity.

6. The exchange from the millionaire's perspective is a trade of his "monetary currency" for "service currency".

Now we’re kind of getting to the crux of it, he either has currency, or he has money which he can use as a currency. Remember that the currency described earlier is a “promissory note” (allegedly) exchangeable at the issuing bank for the equivalent amount of silver or gold it is (or purports to be) representative of. This is the money that (again, allegedly) backs the currency.

This is also the fundamental error that Echo-gnomic Chamberpot and all too many other economists make. They believe that currency can be issued and circulated willy-nilly with no regard as to whether the underlying money actually exists. They believe currency and money are entirely interchangeable; they are not!.

7. The exchange from the peasant woman's perspective is a trade of "service currency" for "money".

(Seediness intrudes again) she sold her commodity.

Conclusion: Under certain conditions "currency = money".

Tl:dr - money can used as currency for exchange with a commodity, but currency itself is not money.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 14 2024 16:52 utc | 9

@ Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 14 2024 16:52 utc | 9 who wrote
"
Tl:dr - money can be used as currency for exchange with a commodity, but currency itself is not money.
"

Agreed! This thing called the Reserve Currency for the world use to be linked to a commodity, gold.

Hopefully in the future we can have a currency that will be linked to a breadbasket of commodities and such so as to retain the commodity value as a short term/low volume store of wealth.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 14 2024 17:19 utc | 10

Posted by: grunzt | Apr 14 2024 13:22 utc | 3

You highlighted an important question, thank you.

I'd like to add one that's related to it, "Who is really in charge of deciding on President Biden's drug cocktails?".

Because to me it seems obvious that they can't give him the "legal speed" mixture too often, and that they try to walk the fine line between him having enough to be coherent, but keeping that short of an amount that has him angrily yelling his lines. The more he's able to stay on point, the more he can't help but to sound like he's lashing out.

Posted by: Babel-17 | Apr 14 2024 17:23 utc | 11

Trumps support for Israel may cost Trump the election?

Posted by: snake | Apr 14 2024 16:39 utc | 8

"There’s only one anti-war candidate running in the presidential elections for this November. That’s Jill Stein. Every other candidate is completely backing Israel in the war, but the American people, the majority of Americans look at what’s happening in Israel as genocide and as a crime against humanity. They’re not going to vote for Biden. Biden is going to lose the election or certainly not win it. It may go into the House of Representatives if nobody wins it."
- Michael Hudson in the link @Apr 14 2024 16:33 utc | 6

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 14 2024 17:43 utc | 12

Thanks for thr link to Hudson.
The transcript is not 100%- Trita Parsi is not part of the Israeli government! I love the confusion, on several occasions, as here for example:
"...So, what you’re seeing today isn’t simply the work of one man, of Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s the work of the team that President Biden has put together. It’s the team of Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, Lincoln, and the whole deep state, the whole neocon group behind them, Victoria Nuland, and everyone. They’re all self-proclaimed Zionists. And they’ve gone over this plan for essentially America’s domination of the Near East for decade after decade...."
confusion, that is, between honest Abe and A. Blinken. I hope it catches on.

Hudson is unjustifiably pessimistic, however, in his prognosis: Palestine is winning and Israel is being exposed as an imposter- claiming that it has the power to defend its sovereignty whereas in fact it is utterly dependent on its lobbyists in Washington to persuade the US to defend it, without regard to what it does.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 14 2024 18:40 utc | 13

I agree with you there is no anti-war candidates in the USA for those of us longing for peace on earth, to look forward to. I never heard of Jill Stein but that's typical in the USA--anyone deviating from the MSM line on global issues gets no coverage and becomes anonymous. Thus, as far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter who's running and who's ahead in the polls. I know the outcomes of USA's presidential/national elections for the next few decades-, if not longer, -rotten candidates will win every election, rotten means being rotten in morality, in intelligence, in characters, and in courage, personal traits that one wishes their national leadership to possess. Now, Jill Stein maybe anti-war (or may perhaps be just faking such in hope of winning some popularity, someone playing the contrary tactic), but is she also intelligent? Morally mature? Fully aware of the mess that we are in? There is no way to tell because even if she is all that she would not manifest these characters: in today's polity in the USA, intelligent/moral/well-informed candidates are too different from the voting public to be considered weird. That's sad status quo of America's voting public. But if she is indeed such a candidate, I'll bet huge amount of money that she'll never win!

People like Putin and Xi, just to name two who are relatively well known, are not simply anti-war, which they are. But they are also superbly smart, well read, morally sound, and visionary! That's the kind of leader the West needs at this point of their slide down the abyss, but I don't think will find for decades to come.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Apr 14 2024 18:42 utc | 14

My post #14 was in reply to waynorinorway @#12

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Apr 14 2024 18:49 utc | 15

@ Oriental Voice | Apr 14 2024 18:42 utc | 14 with the ignorance about Jill Stein

I consume a lot of cannabis for pain management and some of it becomes hopium, I am certain.
That said, Jill Stein has run for US president before and I voted for her. She is a Jewish doctor of some sort which will get folks to say she is the trojan horse candidate but I posit that by the time the US (s) election comes, Americans may be quite ready for Jill Stein who is working with Michael Hudson if that gives you a clue about what her values might be.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 14 2024 18:52 utc | 16

This thing called the Reserve Currency for the world use to be linked to a commodity, gold.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 14 2024 17:19 utc | 10

Indeed. Got to admire the sleight of hand that replaced it by a currency backed by a huge military camped on the world’s oilfields though.

A conversation with someone who thought themselves a highly astute financier, convinced that the FRN masquerading as a dollar was backed by the “full faith and credit of the US government”. He was taken aback and went extremely quiet at the response “No it isn’t, it’s backed by a Carrier Battle Group in every ocean”.

I believe that the Global Majority have realised this and have decided to call the bluff.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 14 2024 19:09 utc | 17

I agree with you...
Oriental Voice | Apr 14 2024 18:49 utc | 15

That was a Michael Hudson quote, not my words.
Now go to the link :-)

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 14 2024 19:18 utc | 18

“No it isn’t, it’s backed by a Carrier Battle Group in every ocean”.
I believe that the Global Majority have realised this and have decided to call the bluff.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 14 2024 19:09 utc | 17

As we have seen - in the middle east first with Iran's strike on the US base a couple years ago and now Iran's strike on Israel. With Russia facing the US down in Ukraine, though prior to that, Russia destruction of the US proxies in Syria and there also facing down the US.

These things are the death of the dollar that is backed by US now long gone military might.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 14 2024 19:19 utc | 19

i too recommend @ waynorinorway | Apr 14 2024 16:33 utc | 6 link..

it is very pointed and highlights the usa's duplicitous role in its actions on the world stage and specifically with regard to israel..

Posted by: james | Apr 14 2024 19:29 utc | 20

"It’s amazing how nakedly hypocritical all this."

For Michael Hudson to say this, after all he's seen and heard...

I don't know guys, I'm bone-tired from it all, from waiting for a scintilla of justice. It's getting harder and harder to live in the shadow of this monstrous evil. End of innocence? End of any and all western symbolic capital. The horror, the banality of the horror, the every-day-ness of this quotidian horror—I gotta say, it's getting to me.

Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 14 2024 19:59 utc | 21

Chin up old fella, you are heard in this place - likely by more than you think. It is something.

Posted by: Rae | Apr 14 2024 20:18 utc | 22

i too recommend @ waynorinorway | Apr 14 2024 16:33 utc | 6 link..

it is very pointed and highlights the usa's duplicitous role in its actions on the world stage and specifically with regard to israel..

Posted by: james | Apr 14 2024 19:29 utc | 20

He does state the case baldly, yes he does. I 2nd that recc. for any people who have doubts about what it going on.

Hubris is spades, and Nemesis is coming soon now.

Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 14 2024 20:24 utc | 23

Small detail on Michael Hudson. He previously worked for the Hudson Institute, but there is no personal or familial relation to its founding back in the 50s or 60s at Croton-on-Hudson, NY by a dude named Kahn, no all that different from the Star Trek character, really. They researched nuclear war, primarily, IIRC. Very closely affiliated with the RAND Corp and Stanley Kubrick borrowed some quotes from one of Kahn's books when writing "Dr. Strangelove (or how I learned to....)". Nowadays it's a straight up neocon outfit with plenty of neolib members. Again, no relation to Michael Hudson.

P.S. thanks for that link re-post waynor. I missed it in the other thread.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 14 2024 20:54 utc | 24

I posit that by the time the US (s) election comes, Americans may be quite ready for Jill Stein who is working with Michael Hudson if that gives you a clue about what her values might be.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 14 2024 18:52 utc | 16

Let us imagine that there really is a God and he makes Jill Stein president of the US (and that's the only way it's going to happen). What happens next? Regardless of what one thinks of Trump, he was/is a billionaire capitalist and the leader of the GOP political apparatus. Despite that, he was blocked at every turn by the Democrats, Rinos and Permanent State. Explain to me how Jill Stein would govern. Who will be in her cabinet? Which Senators will confirm those appointments? How will she control the federal bureaucrats that are protected by the Government Service system? That system is designed to prevent presidents from firing functionaries for political reasons, and the process of firing them for anything is difficult, time consuming, and operated by other federal functionaries.

Is there a mass base that will hit the pavement every time Jill needs to get a law passed? A mass base that will sweep the GOP and the Dems from the House and Senate? That hang the Supreme Court justices from lamp posts so that Jill can replace them?

The US Constitution's carefully crafted system of 'checks and balances' is designed very specifically to prevent sudden outbreaks of people's democracy from accomplishing anything. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHO IS PRESIDENT OF THE US. Sorry for the caps, but this must be stressed. People have to get over their inane prejudice in favor of voting, and their unfounded belief that the electoral system is designed to keep the government obedient to the will of the people.

Study up a bit on how the power of ruling classes has been broken and supplanted in history. Then stop voting and do something that works.

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 14 2024 20:54 utc | 25

Jill Stein was the Green Party's candidate for US President in 2012 and 2016. I voted for her both times, and I intend to do so again this time. She is expected to get the Green Party's nomination, which will mean that she will be on most states' ballots.

She will have almost no chance of winning, but for me the main reason to vote for her is to have my vote recorded as antiwar.

But if by some chance she does win, the fact that Michael Hudson supports her shows that she is not an airhead.

Posted by: Lysias | Apr 14 2024 20:55 utc | 26

I just finished read the latest Michael Hudson pieced lined to and want to quote a bit toward the end

You’re seeing a plan for basically how to financialize and make money out of genocide and the destruction of society. And in order to do that, you have to prevent anything like the United Nations of having any authority at all.

Can the golden billon pull it off?

I don't think so but we are watching them try.

I am glad Michael Hudson is still alive and wish him health.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 14 2024 21:15 utc | 27

Study up a bit on how the power of ruling classes has been broken and supplanted in history. Then stop voting and do something that works.

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 14 2024 20:54 utc | 25

Yep. Nothing short of a massive stop-work protest and refusal to vote (unless if we're talking miracles like you mention) will do anything to break the two party ruling elite stranglehold on the body politic and everything that flows from that (allegedly - since the Constitution is mostly a fairy tale now). Well, I suppose there's also a civil war, but would that really "work" for most people? Outcome could be very dangerous even for non-USsians.

The problem is that the media-government-corporate-finance elite have totally succeeded in dividing the American people over issues much smaller than the overriding Western elite class warfare which extends far beyond the borders of the US and out into the rest of the world. To the extent that it's virtually hidden to 98% of the population.

So doing "something that works" and doesn't result in a whole lot of bloodshed is also predicated on there really being a God. Unfortunately.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 14 2024 21:18 utc | 28

Another Kit Klarenberg link on Germany. He published a few hours after b posted the Week in Review.

https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/how-cia-created-modern-germany

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 14 2024 21:56 utc | 29

Mick Ryan. Writes columns for the oz ABC.

Mick Ryan is a retired major general in the Australian Army. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and the U.S. Marine Corps University Command and Staff College and School of Advanced Warfighting, he is a passionate advocate of professional education and lifelong learning. He has commanded at platoon, squadron, regiment, task force, and brigade level. In January 2018, he assumed command of the Australian Defence College in Canberra, Australia. In 2021 he was an adjunct scholar at the Modern War Institute. Mick was made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his leadership of Australia’s first reconstruction task force in Afghanistan. He completed his 35-year career with the Australian Army and transitioned to the Army Reserve as a major general on February 27, 2022. His book, War Transformed, was published on February 15, 2022, by U.S. Naval Institute Books.

"The Russians are in trouble': Mick Ryan predicts outcome of Ukrainian offensive"
"A year after Russia invaded Ukraine, Putin is beginning new offensives – and he desperately needs a victory"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-27/russia-ukraine-post-war-planning/101473304

While there is little prospect of the Russia-Ukraine war being over this year, it may now be time to ask such questions about this conflict. And the most important question, because this outcome looks very likely, what happens when Ukraine wins?

Th vast majority of oz military are the same as that clown and they are the ones that are willing to take Australia to war with China if the US orders it.

Bit that last piece I quoted - What comes after - for the western world? I have the impression many think its just a matter of toppling the current elite and all will be good.

What has occurred in the west is too deep and systemic to change quickly for the better. The way the average person views the world outside the west - 500 years of European domination, ending with 150 or so years of British and the post WWII Anglo American domination of the world finalizing with the utter hubris of the uni power post Soviet collapse.

The destruction of production, of education in the west perhaps starting in the 80's. The utter farce of GDP based on speculation in the stock markets, real estate and so called services. The inability of the golden billion to even produce artillery shells puts that in stark perspective.

On top of that, past cultural underpinnings of the social structure have been replaced by the woke culture or better seen as a cult - a death cult. Started off as a good thing - concern for the environment re mining, man made erosion, pollution of the waterways ect. The other part of wokism was also good - the decriminalization of homosexuality.

But that has morphed into what it is now the environment morphing into that Idiot child paraded around to meetings and pumped at us in the media. Whats been done to her is no different to convincing children they want to be the opposite sex and then irreversibly changing them physically. But these extremes are now the underpinnings of western culture that is taught in the schools, in all the media.

Genetic tracing may not be 100% but I think it will be in the ball park. Three peoples. The original modern human group in Africa and the two groups that went north across the Red Sea area. One of those was the light shinned group which all light skinned people today have the DNA of. The other was a dark skinned group that is now known as Australian aboriginal DNA.

Both groups out of Africa mixed with the neanderthals that already inhabited Eurasia and now have neanderthal DNA. Black African peoples do not have neanderthal DNA. The dark skinned peoples of Africa all came from that original group and formed the different peoples there.

Although there is no difference in intelligence between the peoples, there was something else in the character of the light skinned group - imagination? innovation?. I'm not sure what is exactly but all or most innovations or technology advances have come from the light skinned peoples. The first of what is termed as modern humans is determined by bone structure and cranium cavity - brain size. Humans first started with exactly the same tool kit as the neanderthals, knapped stone edges and points, grinding stones for grinding seeds, cordage made from plant fibers and so forth.

Australian Aboriginal people had little more than that when white people first arrived. A very conservative culture that from archaeological records and other things that has remained quite stable throughout the Holocene, most nations of aboriginal peoples, their oral histories, territorial boundaries, rock art and so forth going back to that time. The one thing they did do was migrate a across the sea far earlier than any other humans.

The peoples of Africa have had interaction, influence come down from the north so its difficult to tell how much innovation occurred there.

But along with technologies, mor formalized religious beliefs developed amongst the light skinned group. All cultures have spiritual beliefs, most are strongly tied to the land, the territory they live on, the living earth. It is spirites that cause the changes in climate, and evil spirits that bring natural disasters or somebody has offended a spirit.

But among the light skinned peoples some odd spiritual beliefs have formed at different times, human sacrifice and so forth right down to the pure death cults.

I look at the gender alphabet that is now being pushed at young children, confusing them then performing irreversible sex change on them and I can't see that as being any different from the various cultures that have incorporated human sacrifice and so forth. This pushing of the rainbow flag as the underpinning of the culture - it is a death cult that occurring anywhere, due to declining reproduction will cause extinction of a species, extinction of a people.

We see the WEF types talking about population reduction, rabid greens saying people must go so the planet will be saved - its a death cult, a doomsday cult that has gripped the western world.

Homosexuality is something rarely if ever seen in the natural world. I have seen it twice with domestic animals, once with two bulls that had been kept separate from the cows for a number of years and when released with the cows, ignored the cows and shagged each other. Another place was dogs. Many properties with working dogs will only have males as they don't want the hassle of a female dog constantly being in pup. But on just one place homosexualism did occur. That all came from a single dog that would shag anything. He was the alpha dog and it was soon taken up by all the dogs. A new six old month pup there - the squeals of pain as it was getting raped - I would've shot the lot.

Sex education classes are not required in the natural world. It is like eating, drinking, learning to walk ect and when that time comes, babies are made.

In the previous open thread Roger linked an article on a 15 year study that also linked to the paper though there was some sort of sign in or subscribe blocker so I could read the entire article, but the basics of it was that childhood gender confusion dispersal as young adults.

In a more normal world, there is no gender confusion amongst prepuberty children. Boys see that they have a penis, girls see that they have a vagina.

In the past and still for most non western peoples, cultures have been underpinned by some form of spiritual belief, the spiritual belief and culture linking back to far far distant past. But like with early communism, everything from the past, not just excess baggage has been discarded.

And so, even if the western elites are toppled, the so called western world will just be a babbling mess for a good period. The cult of gender alphabet coupled to the currently fake science of man made climate change.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 14 2024 22:33 utc | 30

Food for thought.

To get to a multipolar world from a unipolar world, states like Israel cannot exist. Forget trade routes, UN votes, morality, etc.

As long as a malignant actor ignores international law with the sanction of the hegemon, it is impossible to create a safe space for smaller states to strike out on their own (or join new groups), expecting the generally agreed international laws to be followed under threat of enforcement by others.

See Russia in Syria. Yemen today. Russia in the Sahel. I think a strong argument could be made for Russia indirectly creating ASS (Alliance of Sahel States) by creating an environment for those states to align and find common interests.

I think China also understands this.

They are ready to create safe spaces as necessary under the umbrella of the SCO and now BRICS+. The latter is an economically safe space that may be free from the threat of Western sanctions with in a few years.

Taking on a hegemonic machine loaded with institutions that sanctify the hegemony whatever it does takes time. Processes must be defined, tested, and proven. We take for granted how much our civilizations run on systems that have taken millennia to create.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 14 2024 23:05 utc | 31

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 14 2024 17:43 utc | 12

Thanks for pointing this out, waynorinorway.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 14 2024 23:41 utc | 32

LoveDonbass | Apr 14 2024 23:05 utc | 31

Israel blew in with the breeze and will blow away with the breeze.

Iran's recent response gives some food for thought but also a better idea of the greater Russia, China, Iran strategy. I believe it is about slowly and carefully pushing the US back out of the world and into its own yard.

The best way I can put it is like working with cattle. The European breeds, you can generally just push them from yard to yard in the cattle yards. Brahman cattle though need to be worked a bit different, give them much more time. Push them too hard and they start to fizz. Move up close enough that they are uneasy then just stand and give them time to look around. After a bit they see the open gate and move back into the next yard.

Twice since 2022, according to both Macgregor and Johnson, there has been talk about using tactical nukes in Ukraine. T^he proponents of that believed that rather than escalate or use tactical nukes in return, that Russia would fold. Very dangerous times.

Pushing the US too hard will quite likely cause them to go nuclear so its a matter of constant pressure but just to the point they have time to think it through and back off.

One thing we have seen with Iran since the nuke deal is that everything is strictly in accordance with international law, even sticking to the nuke deal more than it had to after the US pulled out.

I think this strategy the three are using has been long in the planning and preparation and that would include the alternative institutions that have been set up.

And I think that is why we see no kneejerk or random response to western provocations. Any response is carefully thought out to further the overall strategy rather than be drawn in to just responding to whatever move the west makes in random, uncoordinated actions.

As Putin said with Gaza and as Iran said with Gaza - America is the enemy to be beaten. In this regard, the Zionist state is a tool or and extension of the US that will utterly collapse when the US is defeated.
Its slow, but likely the only other option is the very real risk of nuclear Armageddon.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 0:04 utc | 33

Peter AU 1 @ 30:

The Gunditjmara people in southwestern Victoria were running eel farms using systems of weirs, artificial channels and ponds, and woven eel traps to separate young eels from older eels judged ready for eating, for at least 6,000 years. There seems to be evidence in the network of weirs, channels and ponds that the Gunditjmara bred eels and kept eel eggs and raised young eels in hatcheries.

Trees around the Lake Condah area in SW Victoria were used to smoke and preserve eels to trade with other indigenous groups. Stone structures in that area suggest the Gunditjmara built stone houses to live in. This indicates that eel farming was producing enough food that the whole community could afford to be sedentary.

An Australian Stonehenge?

If the Gunditjmara had not worked out how to farm, manage and harvest eels on their own, you would have your work cut out explaining how outsiders from Asia, Africa or South American came to Australia and taught only the Gunditjmara how to create and manage an eel fishery, and not any other indigenous groups on the Australian continent.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 15 2024 0:16 utc | 34

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 14 2024 20:54 utc | 24

he mentions those early connections in the actual article waynorinorway shared.. check it out, if you haven't already..

Posted by: james | Apr 15 2024 0:27 utc | 35

Refinnejenna | Apr 15 2024 0:16 utc | 34

I had read about the eel farms but not the smoking and preserving. If that had surplus food a big part if the time, that is likely to have developed. Actual records of Aboriginal cultures a the time of first white settlement is rare, just a few here and there from diaries and the very rare early studies.

I think in Tas and the south east - in the colder climes - they also tanned skins for cloaks and so forth. Since seeing the antarctic ice cores that show dust levels, I often think of the, most likely - incredibly harsh climate they lift in. The dust levels in the peak before the sudden great temperature rise into the current holocene spoke of very strong winds and dust storms over a period stretch for several thousand years. And the only three landmasses that dust could come from are Australia, South America and South Africa

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 1:04 utc | 36

Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 14 2024 19:59 utc | 21
I don't know guys, I'm bone-tired from it all, from waiting for a scintilla of justice. It's getting harder and harder to live in the shadow of this monstrous evil. End of innocence? End of any and all western symbolic capital. The horror, the banality of the horror, the every-day-ness of this quotidian horror—I gotta say, it's getting to me.

**********

Yeah - I know how you feel; but don't despair so close to the finish-line...If I squint really hard I think I can see something materializing.

After a long night of darkness, the new dawn will rise in the east!

Posted by: General Factotum | Apr 15 2024 1:05 utc | 37

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 0:04 utc | 33

###########

I appreciated the cattle example. Thank you.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 15 2024 2:16 utc | 38

I don't know guys, I'm bone-tired from it all, from waiting for a scintilla of justice. It's getting harder and harder to live in the shadow of this monstrous evil. End of innocence? End of any and all western symbolic capital. The horror, the banality of the horror, the every-day-ness of this quotidian horror—I gotta say, it's getting to me.

Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 14 2024 19:59 utc | 21

##############

If you're tired, imagine how the Palestinians feel.

Justice can't come from men, so stop looking for it there. The intelligent approach is to prevent future injustices. What has happened cannot be reversed, and any sense of satisfied revenge may feel, will be, at best temporary.

Because my dear friend Julianna is around, I won't remind the bar how little I think of human morality and character.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 15 2024 2:18 utc | 39

So doing "something that works" and doesn't result in a whole lot of bloodshed is also predicated on there really being a God. Unfortunately.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 14 2024 21:18 utc | 28

Bloodshed is likely to be an element of real systemic change. Historically, the ruling power has visited that bloodshed on the people when attempt to force change without bloodshed. It can be argued that bloodshed is already a common currency in the apparatus of oppression in the west.

If we posit that the Palestinians, or Iranians, enjoy the right of self-defense, should we not allow ourselves the same right?

The trick is that because the state, as a function of the ruling class, reserves to itself the right of violence, and certainly allows only itself to have the most potent weapons, and only itself to organize and train for violence. It's extremely difficult to chart a path from where we are now to effective armed resistance against the state- but the condition of the populace is in flux, and the condition of the state is in flux as well- as, indeed, the condition of the ruling class is in flux. In this flux, changes of alignment can occur. I believe we see already that the PTB itself is realigning its relationships with its own servants in much the same way that corporations lay off workers with outmoded skills to replace them with workers with the latest skills. At the same time, the contraction of the global capitalist economy is devastating large swaths of the historically most loyal props of Empire. The lumpen petite bourgeoisie may not be revolutionaries, but they are ripe for rebellion, and that rebellion can create conditions for real revolutionary change.

I have not followed the New Tankies and Maga Communists in any detail, but the basic idea they put forth is sound- alliances can be made around shared goals, rather than creating divisions around every difference. This used to be called United Front politics, and it is very tricky to manage. Historically it has resulted in cooption as often as revolution- or more often. Nevertheless, opportunities exist, and these will grow due to the inexorable processes of the system.

This is the only reason I bother to talk to people anymore. I think it's necessary for a core group of people to get their shit together, get clarity about what exists, how it works and what should be done about it, and start taking action. I am in no condition to be one of those people, but when I am indulging in vain fantasies, I sometimes think that I might on occasion, provide an example of how to go about understanding reality well enough to make things happen. I don't claim to have all that in my grasp, and the study of history is important to, but not adequate to, gaining such understanding because conditions are always in flux, but I do understand the basics of the process. That's all that I hope to convey.

There is bloodshed, and lots of it in our future. There hasn't really been a time in my life when mass bloodshed, instigated on behalf of America's ruling class, was not taking place, but it has been generally kept outside the borders. That privilege is ending. America's violence is coming back to it. The ruling class is perfectly willing to do to its own what it does to others- as long as they can keep their system going. Once Elon and Boston Dynamics make their robot dreams come true, there won't be many limitations on that violence left.

Violence is going to happen to more and more of us. What constructive use of that violence will we make?

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 15 2024 2:20 utc | 40

Patroklos

Justice.... that will come for some, others will die in their beds.

What is needed more though is the final defeat of the western empire. The majority of the war criminals, the terrorists in the west will likely never face justice in whatever is left of their lives as that will have to come from within.

The majority of Israeli's cheer the killing in Gaza, just as they have been keep on the so called settlement built on the bulldozed ruins of Palestinian villages. The majority or a large proportion of people in the west are no different when it comes to the many millions killed in our wars of aggression since WWII as the American Empire.; The untold millions of destroyed lives, families thrown into poverty countries and peoples deliberately kept in poverty by preventing their development.

Trump and the realist faction of the deep state won't be good and that is what is coming. We see the moves now to regain complete control of South America.
Europe is finished and for all intents and purposes the US has dumped it. The US is already starting to draw down, to circle the wagons. Because of zionism the US may try harder to retain Israel but I think the Writing is on the wall there too. The US no longer has the manufacturing capability, the economy nor education to retain far flung Empire.

If the US realists can somehow keep the crumbling edifice of their economy p[roped up for another decade or so, I see and iron curtain curtain erected around five eyes and that will be very much the dark ages while it lasts. I prefer the whole bloody thing to collapse quickly.

The longer this synthetic fantasy world the west is now in, the longer it will take to recover from it so the sooner it collapses the better. The aftermath wont be nice but the sooner that period is worked through the better.

But as for the western empire, western superiority and exceptionalism that has ended apart from in the minds of the average peasant. As for the end of empire, the writing is now well and truly on the wall and has begun.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 2:26 utc | 41

Study up a bit on how the power of ruling classes has been broken and supplanted in history. Then stop voting and do something that works.

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 14 2024 20:54 utc | 25

Balderdash. We have to do BOTH. It's a two way street. WE do it. We have the numbers. I did not vote last time. I will vote this time, and I suggest there be a parallel system of checks on how votes are being cast. Even if it means getting my thumb dyed purple. And this is one case when I don't care who knows how I've voted. She's our one hope. She and a team like the one JFK had. Sure, the system's corrupt but our strength is in numbers. That's what Putin had and has - numbers!!!

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 3:22 utc | 42

As Simplicius states in his latest piece, the problem for Israel is that the US is much weaker than it was. No longer does Israel have the US that backed them in earlier wars. The nature of both the Houthi and Iranian missiles and drones shows the major error that the US MIC has made in focusing on smaller numbers of very expensive systems. They become quickly overwhelmed by a volume attack of cheap weapons, seems that Israel etc. spent over $1 billion failing to stop all of the weapons that cost Iran a few $10s of million at most. Russia has shown that it can out-produce the whole of NATO, and Western countries are having major issues ramping up due to the years and years of manufacturing neglect.

The US, and the West, are massively over-matched when it comes to industrial capability and cost-effectiveness. They are simply unable to sustain any conflict for more than a few weeks at best, and the US has stretched itself thin across the globe. I cover this, among other factors, in my latest Great Power Competition Update.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 15 2024 3:39 utc | 43

@ juliania | Apr 15 2024 3:22 utc | 42

sometimes empires end more radically then can be expected... the voting ends too.. i can't think of any examples, but i am not an historian... not sure what the ussr got what they voted for with gorbachev.. after that it was a dogs breakfast for a while..

Posted by: james | Apr 15 2024 3:43 utc | 44

Roger | Apr 15 2024 3:39 utc | 43

And Iran just gave them a small taste. The technology is Iranian, the manufacturing is Iranian and the electrical engineering is Iranian. Not bad considering where they came from and the conditions they have operated under for the last 40 years or so.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 3:45 utc | 45

[from the Iran thread:]

Posted by: ak74 | Apr 14 2024 22:55 utc | 144

[Hudson:]
"And I think Alastair Crooke has cited Trita Parsi, one of the Israeli political leaders, saying the objective really in all this, of Israel’s conflict and Biden’s acquiescence to it, is that Israel is engaged in a deliberate and systematic effort to destroy existing laws and norms about warfare. And that’s really it.

You have people, you have reporters, such as Pepe Escobar, saying that the United States is a chaos agent. But there’s a logic in this. The United States is looking forward to what it’s going to be doing in the Near East, in Ukraine, and especially in the China Sea and Taiwan. Looking forward, the United States says, how do we prevent other nations moving against us in the international court or suing or somehow putting sanctions against us? Israel is the test case, not simply for what’s happening there in Israel and Palestine itself, but against anything that the United States will be doing through the rest of the world.

That’s why the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., echoed by Lincoln and other U.S. officials, said there’s no court of justice ruling against genocide, that it was a non-binding ruling. Well, of course it was binding, but it has no means of enforcement. And both Lincoln and yesterday, the head of the army said, there is no genocide taking place in Gaza. Well, what that means is you have to go to a court, and that’s going to take years and years. And by the time the court case is over and there’s any judgment of reparations due, then you’re going to, by then the Gazans will all be dead. So the U.S. aim is to end the rule of international law that is why the United Nations was founded in 1945.

And in fact, this international law goes way back to 1648 with the peace of Westphalia in Germany to end the 30 years war. All the European nations agreed not to interfere with the internal affairs of other countries. Well, that also was part of the United Nations principle.

And yet you have the United States explicitly advocating regime change in other countries, and most specifically in Russia and throughout the Middle East. So if you can end the whole kind of rule of law, then there’s really no alternative to the United States rules-based order, which means we can do whatever we want, chaos."

Gaza: The Strategic Imperative
https://michael-hudson.com/2024/04/gaza-the-strategic-imperative/

This is an important point to be made. The significance of this Israel war goes far beyond the Middle East but has ramifications for the world: The Americans and their Israeli partners are using this war to return the world to the bad old days before such inconvenient legal roadblocks like the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Convention, Vienna Convention, international law and the rules of war, or even the Treaty of Westphalia.

That is, the Americans, Israelis, and their allied "democracies" want to turn back the clock to a Hobbesian world based upon the law of the jungle--even as they spout propaganda about the rule of law.

As such, the American Empire of Chaos is deliberately fomenting tension, conflict and ultimately war from Eastern Europe to the Middle East to East Asia as a Machiavellian means towards this end. And the Zionist "crazies" in Israel are the perfect partner in advancing this ambition.

That is what the USA's Rules Based Order is really about: a return to barbarism, but with a "democratic" mask.

Another way of putting this, perhaps, is that this deliberate breakdown of law and order in the Western sphere is eroding the old order based on some sort of belief in God, democracy, basic rights, individual liberty, equality under the law, a social contract - basically a mutually cooperative, well-meaning society. That world and its civilization is being torn down on many fronts - social, military, political, informational, psychological, cultural etc.

And what will replace it is some sort of technocratic totalitarianism, a modernistic form of tyranny in polities comprising hundreds of millions (versus older societies with a single human tyrant and only a few million population). This may well present with a benign appearance in most, though not necessarily all, jurisdictions, but the control quotient will be uncompromisingly totalitarian. ('Resistance will be futile!')

It's ironic: much of the criticism about the Hegemonic 'rules-based order' is merited; however, once the people-level rules which used to bind our societies together are indeed fractured, we may find things get a whole lot worse.

In any case, looks like the soft world we have known in the West will soon be no more.

"It's a hard rain, gonna fall..."

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 3:56 utc | 46

So doing "something that works" and doesn't result in a whole lot of bloodshed is also predicated on there really being a God. Unfortunately.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 14 2024 21:18 utc | 28

No, Tom, it isn't. What it is predicated on is the will of a lot of thoroughly beaten down people coming together. They don't have to be morally perfect, Lavrov'sdog, they do have to register to vote! And if that doesn't work, well, then they can do what the Russians did in Moscow back in the day, grab a candle or two and march on the White House, singing 'we shall overcome'. That's not God's business; that's people's business.

(Maybe God had a hand in creating such an obvious parallel for us to imitate, not quite exactly similar because we've already had the financialization shenanigans, but we can debate that later.)

That was the revolution that was, and nobody's talking about it because it wasn't violent, but that is what the Russians themselves did -- ask them; they remember. Sure, we might get a Yeltsin; we're not perfect, nobody is. But down the line, there's gonna be a Putin and THAT is worth more than a candle!!! Ask the Russians. They know how it's done. Or read the last chapter of "Red Square" - see how they did it.

You know, we here are tiny, just a few loudmouths. We don't count. And maybe, yes, maybe, it doesn't happen yet. Maybe we're not down as low yet as the Russians got - they got mighty low with a lot of help from us. But we'll get there eventually, maybe after I'm gone. We, the downtrodden masses, will get there!

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 3:58 utc | 47

Posted by: Honzo | Apr 15 2024 2:20 utc | 40

You raise good points. Violence actually is endemic. It's just that it's the state with a monopoly on its use and they use it with great frequency.

An aspect of any 'civil war' or other uprising is that the state relies on the people - the functionaries on the ground - to enforce its violent mandates. If they hang up their guns or turn them around on their bosses, maybe the rest of us have a chance to change this system without the bloodshed continuing (or increasing) to be our own.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 3:58 utc | 47

No "what" isn't? You weren't clear. Also why did you shift mid-comment to calling me 'Lavrov's dog'? Was that some sort of slip of the 'tongue'?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 4:03 utc | 48

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 3:58 utc | 47

Beautifully said. We are sort of making opposite arguments here. I'm predicting the Bad Guys will win and you are insisting that We the People can resist.

I won't argue with you. Either what you say happens, or what I'm saying almost certainly will. But then in one form or another that has been true throughout human history. If civilization doesn't collectively muster the wherewithal to create a society promoting virtue, then vice will rise triumphant.

It's as old as the sun and the moon.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 4:06 utc | 49

No "what" isn't? You weren't clear. Also why did you shift mid-comment to calling me 'Lavrov's dog'? Was that some sort of slip of the 'tongue'?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 4:03 utc | 48

Pardon me, Tom, and pardon me Lavrov'sdog -- I was in error! I meant to address the following comment but forgot to do my extra 'cut and paste' there:

Because my dear friend Julianna is around, I won't remind the bar how little I think of human morality and character.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 15 2024 2:18 utc | 39

I will address your first question (which I have bolded) in my next post.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 4:43 utc | 50

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 3:58 utc | 47

I'm going to have to insist on this point. Why did you call me "Lavrov's dog" in your reply to me?

I've gotten fed up with all the one-off trolls and stealing of handles over the last year or two. So I'm extra annoyed when another regular seems to be trying to accuse me and Lavrov's Dog of being each others' socks in such an underhanded and deceptively "innocent" manner.

What gives Julian? Were you trying to say something there?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 4:43 utc | 51

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 4:43 utc | 50

Ha ha! OK, I understand. My comment at 51 was being composed and sent at the exact time you were replying to the previous one.

No worries. Understood.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 4:44 utc | 52

@ Patroklos, (and others feeling worn and low),
“I’m on your show, Ania, because you see that this is evil, and it is evil.” – Michael Hudson

"It's getting harder and harder to live in the shadow of this monstrous evil....I gotta say, it's getting to me." - Patroklos

I don’t know if I can pass it on this way, but y’know P. what you need is a little Norwegian stoicism.

It’s the most difficult time of the year up here. We go through a couple of months of darkness every winter and then near the end of January the sun reappears over the horizon again. But then comes March and the heavy spring snows. I still have a meter of snow over my potato patch and it's the middle of April! I still have to put on cleats for my daily constitutional or just to take out the trash. It snowed last night while I slept. Again.

But we do have daylight and I’m thankful for that!

When or if the evil passes is in question. Do what you can to work against evil.
It will never be enough. You must accept that, hence the need for stoicism.

You are heading into winter now as I am coming out of it.
What you provide here is valuable to many, believe it.

Above all, always You Must Believe in Spring

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 15 2024 4:57 utc | 53

Calm down, Tom. No disrespect intended.

Here again is your first question:

No "what" isn't? You weren't clear.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 4:03 utc | 48

I had quoted you thusly, giving the following answer:

[So doing "something that works" and doesn't result in a whole lot of bloodshed] is also predicated on there really being a God. Unfortunately.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 14 2024 21:18 utc | 28

No, Tom, "it" isn't. What it is predicated on is the will of a lot of thoroughly beaten down people coming together.

Hope that clarifies my thought. The bracketed part is the common subject I was addressing with "it", using the bolded segment as the link between our acceptance of that subject as being understandably our common aim. In other words, it isn't necessary to believe in God's existence to accomplish said desirable result.

Although, it couldn't hurt.

Sorry for the confusion.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 5:05 utc | 54

Oh good, I can retire peacefully, if still a bit tangled up, as is my wont.

;)

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 5:09 utc | 55

I need to address a few comments from a previous thread that devolved into Christ debates (a topic I've disavowed from here forward, as stated). This is merely some housekeeping.

Posted by: Barrel Brown | Apr 14 2024 11:25 utc | 562

Your point was extremely well made, and I'd say I've taken it well. Unless a separate 'pinned' thread was to be created, I have no further bullshit to speak on the whole religion topic, nor anytime soon. I'm done with it. Thanks for your input.

Posted by: James M. | Apr 14 2024 23:18 utc | 570

You concluded with "no need to respond" but in your comment you made the following statement: "One more note: You claim to be a Marxist, and a true one at that."

Bullshit. I've even said openly that I haven't even studied Marx.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 5:12 utc | 56

Can't help but think that "Barrel Brown" and "SamHyde" are...

Nevermind. Not worth it.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 5:13 utc | 57

Posted by: juliania | Apr 15 2024 5:05 utc | 54

I understand. I've wasted enough of other peoples' time here over the last few days on debating "God" too, LOL.

Anyway it's really late here and I need to go to sleep. Will re-engage with you in the future on this page, I'm sure.

Good night.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 5:18 utc | 58

Journalists lie, usually by omission.

"God does not exist", says the bible. (Psalms 14.1)

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 15 2024 6:57 utc | 59

I hope I don't wear out too many scroll wheels but a lot of thoughts - things I have pondered since whenever starting to come together so I thought I would write them down somewhere while I still can and its in my mind.
.......

From the cultural revolution to communism with Chinese characteristics....

Characteristics - Chinese culture. The cultures of the ethnic various groups. The cultures of the smaller ethnic groups, all or most listed with UNESCO as intangible heritage.

We saw with the Houthi's how they withstood all that was thrown at them including the starvation siege and still kept on fighting. Gaza the same, only far more terrible but still fighting, no calling of the masses for surrender. They have also withstood 70 years of massacres, their homes being destroyed and constantly forced off there land. Also without self destructive social breakdown. A very strong culture - underpinned by their spiritual belief.

One thing that becomes apparent when looking at the different peoples, both present and past. There culture, their social structure is underpinned by some form of spiritual belief.

We saw Putin in putting Russia back together put an emphasis on and promote the four main religions of the Russian federation that the early communists had tried to discard, to try and replace it with an ideology that discarded everything from the past.
In the west, everything from the past is being eradicated to usher in the woke ideology. The cultural revolution....

Putin also believes the past is also important - important to remember, both the good and the bad. That which was good, that which was bad to be remembered so the same mistakes are not repeated. Remembering is to learn. That what makes history so important and how cultures develop.

Wars? Wars are not a product of religion. They are a product of the development of technology's. The ability to store and preserve food, have an abundance of food. Technologies for weapons and to be able to transport food and equipment. But without the ability to store food local biffups/hostilities are subject to the need to go off and find food.

I left the question of the spiritual side of things open for a long time but I found I could not believe in anything supernatural. For a short time after watching some of the geopolitical doings, but also from reading about the past I was angry for a bit at religions thinking they are responsible for many wars.

No. War is already there. Religion is often used as a tool, but it is not the cause of wars.
Even so, I had always felt it importent to respect the religious beliefs of others so long as they were not extremist. Insulting that is no different than insulting another persons family.

Western culture? It was a culture underpinned by by Christianity. But in particular, a culture that come via the Church of Rome, The holey Roman Empire of Westphalia. That is the west. It is what defines this mythical 'West'. Much baggage to be discarded.

Recently when talking with my sister who is fully woke to the point on believing children have the right, and the need for sex change. So although she fully embraces the ideology she still had the need for a spiritual belief and was god shopping. Looking for a god that suited her.
She could not understand how I had no urge for a spiritual belief.
Sevel years ago, I attended a funeral. One mate, rough as guts, nothing out of bounds, Only attends a church for births, marriages and funerals. He is of Italian descent, his parents coming out from Italy after WWII and he was born here. So catholic. We had been good friends for 40 years and On the way home I said something, I'm not sure if it was about religion in general or the catholic church. That was simply a no go area. Knowing him for so long, there had been nothing to indicate he was in anyway religious or felt so strikingly about it even though I doubt as an adult he ever attended a church for a normal service nor did he ever associate with church going religious people.

So that spiritual aspect is there for many people and is still the underpinnings of whatever is left of western cultures. We see in many Muslim nations, the mosque is still a very central part of peoples lives. In tracing that family history of my surname, I had to go back through the old parish recods are kept. Up until not long back it was the church in each town and village that kept all local records. Births, marriages and deaths. I traced it back till people had no surnames and could not trace the family name or the forebears of that further than one, perhaps two generations. It wasn't long before the beginning of surnames that names for marriages and deaths were not even matched with who they had been born to.
But the church was the center of every town and village. It was the local government office, the cultural center, and the spiritual center.

I my earlier post I put up some thoughts around the thinking that just ousting the current crop of elites will fix the western world, but there will be much more to it than that. I doubt anything like Putin will appear in the west to rebuild us from the ashes of this collapsed debauchery and insanity. To underpin the culture will require a reinstatement of Christianity, though minus the baggage that had accumulated by the time of the Holy Roman Empire of Westphalia and the baggage that has accumulated since.
The past must be remembered accurately, all classified documents of that, including to the current day made public.

With Christian zionism so preventable in the US, which is an extremist belief, US is in a bad way. For the rest of the western world finding their way back may be a little easier but I suspect we shall have to go though the destruction and poverty of this woke death cult before we find our way back to normalcy and can fit in with the emerging multi-polar world

Spiritual underpinning of culture, of family, is the underpinning of any stable society.

Perhaps odd that I have arrived at this conclusion as I have no spiritual feelings or need for them myself. Perhaps why I can think about it in this way. Maybe just not enough booze at the moment.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 7:06 utc | 60

waynorinorway | Apr 15 2024 4:57 utc | 53

Watch the blow by battle of this world championship bout is certainly not pretty. One side fighting by the rules, the trash talking loudmouth going no holds barred.
But watching the trajectories of both sides, the ending is now no longer in doubt. Its now just a matter of how long the bad guy can stay on his feet for. Now its just a matter off betting on how many rounds he can stay on his feet for rather than betting on who will be the winner.

Who knows perhaps Israel will strike back but Iran can more than hold its own with Israel. Russia has given the US a direct warning so it will not step in directly.

The only thing to be concerned about is one of these clowns going nuclear as they are being put back in their cages.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 7:18 utc | 61

@Peter AU1 | Apr 14 2024 22:33 utc | 30

Since no one else seems to call you out, I will. Your homophobic screed is abhorrent. I think you are a valuable member of the bar. Your posts are, for the most part, cogent and insightful but this incessant ranting against gays and transgenders shows an intellectual failing. Even your reasoning is full of contradictions. On the one hand you say homosexuality is rarely seen in nature and in the next breath, you decry the world's depopulation. If it is, indeed, true that heterosexual children can be conditioned to be gay, then there would be no gays outside the West since the Global South is largely sexually conservative.

You see, you are playing right into the imperialist's hand. The strategy of the imperium to divide and rule works by championing/exploiting minority rights and foisting them onto the majority. Your enemy are not gays and transgenders. They are a small minority and will never threaten your heterosexual world order. I know you had some past trauma relating to a gay sexual assault and this has colored your viewpoint. Get some therapy because homophobia is ugly. It's like seeing an otherwise attractive woman kicking a dog.

Posted by: lurker | Apr 15 2024 7:18 utc | 62

Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 14 2024 19:59 utc | 21

<"It’s amazing how nakedly hypocritical all this."

For Michael Hudson to say this, after all he's seen and heard...>

It is necessary to state what seems obvious to us but is not obvious (or is it?) to the majority again and again and again.

You are not the only one.

Posted by: Cherrycoke | Apr 15 2024 7:25 utc | 63

But watching the trajectories of both sides, the ending is now no longer in doubt.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 7:18 utc | 60

Peter, we're a couple of old farts without a lot of paper certificates on the wall but
we each see that. I'm hoping to see some world-wide justice for the imperial age
of the last 500 years and live long enough to experience a new age of cooperation among
humans. You just maintain as best you can and we'll both see 'spring'.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 15 2024 8:33 utc | 64

Ahhh yes excellent points by hanzo in this thread.

How lovely to see all of the rest of you dance around the reality of violence that has been kept from you by your jew overlords.

What's worse to the normie boomer, being called a racist or having to be violent to protect yourself ? Both things programmed into the masses to never ever ever do.

And to the barflies who think voting matters, I pray for you to be lifted out of the fog.

The ones who want to vote for a jew I have nothing for.

There are more White men in north america with genius level IQ than there are jews in total, male or female - and for whatever reason we need one to be president, LOL.

When will people live in the real world ?

Male deer fight for territory in the wild, to the death.

Domesticated cows as our tired Aussie friend explained, probably do not fight to the death.

Lots of domesticated cows grazing in the USA are going to be forced to live in reality, you should do your best to come to terms with what that is going to mean before its no longer a choice.

Posted by: ryanggg | Apr 15 2024 8:34 utc | 65

America’s Fiscal Armageddon and How To Avoid It

Oligarch financier David Stockman - rips apart the latest Congressional Budget Office financial projects.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/04/david-stockman/americas-fiscal-armageddon-and-how-to-avoid-it/

Posted by: Exile | Apr 15 2024 8:54 utc | 66

waynorinorway | Apr 15 2024 8:33 utc | 63 "You just maintain as best you can and we'll both see 'spring'."

Well my digestive system is now barely functioning, but so long as I can maintain a supply of booze and smokes life's not too bad now I have finally isolated everything my immune system reacts to. Just sitting here is not so good, but the center part of my life has been about providing for the family and raising the children to the point they would confidently step out and make their own way in the world.

I thought that was pretty much done until the insanity of the anglo empire reared its ugly head. Although my family are now all woke and no longer talk to me, I want to see this cult that is destroying their - and my grandchildrens future brought down.

Can't work, too young for an age pension - mere 63, cant get an invalid pension. Son inlaw is woke and confused. Smart kid though when the dumbfuck run his car into an electricity pole hadn't factored in the airbags. Not a bloody thing wrong with him other than a mid messed by wokism. Diagnosed with depression and on an invalid pension. Useless prick. Daughter works to support them, he plays online computer games.

I probably shouldn't even be bothered with this anymore, let em all sort it out for themselves after I'm gone but whatever. Now that I can't do anything else, it is the only interest I have.The hypocrisy. The dishonesty. Two things I have always hated with a vengeance. I want to see this evil empire go down and I guess that is what keeps me going now.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 9:20 utc | 67

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 9:20 utc | 66

Have you ever thought of attempting the carnivore diet?

I have tried it and it worked for and for a few of my friends.

Ruminant meat (beef, lamb or goat) salt and water.

Posted by: canuck | Apr 15 2024 10:07 utc | 68

canuck | Apr 15 2024 10:07 utc | 67

I have mammal meat allergy caused by tick bite. Most mammals apart from primates have a complex sugar called alpha galoctose. It is broken down into simple sugars that are absorbed and coveted to to glucose the large by enzymes created by bacteria in the small intestine.

All auto immune conditions are about the genes you are born with. I have never had any gut bug due to pathogens, never had the flu, nor any of that family of ailments, no heat conditions but a big part of my life has been made difficult by auto immune conditions. Primarily my immune system reacting the chemical compounds in normal food. Citric acid intolerance I was born with. Juvenile spondylitis, mild early onset ankylosing spondylitis, Ross River from mosquito, very commonly results in virus induced auto immune issues similar or the same as covid, the hit with this triggered by tick bite - basically a tick injecting that sugar into my bloodstream that only strikes those over mid forties.
I've pushed through the lot and for a short time between each had reasonable health, but this last one has fucked me. Getting older I guess. The mind was there and still willing but the body wasn't.

I did a dry run for the last couple of days but that is not good. I think too much. Headed down to the supermarket this evening and grabbed a carton of beer. I have always led an active life and having to just sit here pisses me off. The mind still works but the body doesn't.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 10:55 utc | 69

Patroklos

Hatred is a bad thing. I as a child went through exceptionaly difficult time due to my father. For my sister the same. With my sister many things snapshots have always remained in my mid in influenced the way I brought up my children along with what I had been through with my father. When I was in my early to mid thirties, I saw my father treat my son the way he had treated me. He literally expected to to be a completely subservient slave, working for him for no pay for all y life until he died then I would inherit whatever he had. With my son I should have stepped in faster, he set him back a long way. But in the end I booted him out and never spoke to him again. There was anger for a short time, but that left. I sat beside him for the last two days when he died. My experience with doctors was they would be saying John, you must die like this, John you must die like that. Whatever, I couldn't let it happen to him when he was debilitated. An odd thing. He hadn't spoken for a day or two before I got there. A nurse told him I was there and he said my name but I could not speak to him. He had never changed. I took the nurse to the door and not to tell him I was there. As a child sometimes there had been hatred. Not as and adult.

For my sister it was different. Mother wanted her daughter to be what she had not been allowed to be and tried to force it on her. Sent off to an upmarket ladies finishing school at around age 11 away from friends family and all she had known.

It was only when we were going through some old family photos that her visceral hatred for mother surfaced.It was overwhelming her. That ws not good. Neither of our parents were evil. They were not violent but they sure fucked with our minds. Ignorance, products of their upbringings combined with their characters?

Anger sure, but holding hatred or consuming hatred is not good. There are many in the west that are truly evil - Albright, 500,000 Iraqi children were worth it. It would be soothing to the soul to see them hanging from lamp posts. I could watch them kicking ad struggling as the life went out of them and feel satisfaction at a job well done. They are the ones responsible for for the current genocide in gaza, for the millions of deaths since WWII in our wars of aggression.

But being consumed hatred and horror at what is occurring is not good. Best to keep an eye on the big picture rather than the slaughter. Because great change is occurring and now unstoppable.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 11:51 utc | 70

Mexico and Ecuador
Some links and a bit of an intro...
Mexico- I retired to my family small farm (50 acres) so I don't interact much with my friends from Latin America. But a neighbor friend here hires a silage crew once a year and 5 of the truck drivers are Mexican so I get updates. All of them are big on AMLO. They are hard core salt of the earth, skilled, no nonsense workers who come from Zacatecas--like rural New Mexico only poorer and way more dangerous. One driver abandon his ranch and moved to Durango because cattle and horses get stolen and you end up getting shot if you fight. Nevertheless, he blames "neoliberalismo", not AMLO, let that sink in. Mexican peons have a clear and detailed class based understanding of their condition. Other Mexican friends echo the same. The wife is a goat farmer from Durango along with her husband who works in a small factory outside Beloit, Wisconsin. They have lived in the US for 30 years, undocumented. They support AMLO. I've known them for 20 and this is the first time they have supported any politician.
AMLO's 6 year term is up this summer. Claudi Sheinbaum is running to continue his legacy and is way ahead. a few points about her:
she's a Phd physicist by trade
jewish
parents were activists in the 1960s during the 1968 massacre
her main plan is called "the 4th transformation" which she explains in the interview
pro Cuba, pro sovereignty, anti neoliberalism
She will get Mexico into BRICS
This interview is over a year old but gives a good intro into the direction Mexico is headed if Sheinbaum prevails.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C4O2WlWPHw
Wikipedia bio of Sheinbaum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Sheinbaum

Ecuador
Ecuador is descending into an old fashioned feudal slave colony with Naboa who is a Miami based spoiled rich--- i mean really rich-- kid and is working with Centcom's Laura Richardson to lock down the country and wire it more directly to Washington. The grayzone has a 3 part series on what's going on, how it's being set up and where it's going. Journalist Oscar Leon narrates. The second link is his playlist in case you want more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZbGWF6iwcM
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMa2LsTNX1giN2aoArOCTfsDsa2hWBE9J

Posted by: migueljose | Apr 15 2024 12:04 utc | 71

The study also pointed to other mental issues being present, supporting the view that perhaps "gender non-contentedness" is more a symptom of other underlying causes and social pressure in many cases. Trigger Warning - videos from some quite unbalanced and delusional individuals are included. Many individual detransitioners are featured, and the class action being brought against these "gender affirming" medical practitioners is covered.

Here’s What Happens To ‘Trans Kids’ : 15 Year Study Reveals ALL

Posted by: Roger | Apr 14 2024 14:42 utc | 4
"
Hell, that's always been a non issue, there were always tomboys (and most didn't even end up lesbians, less alone trans).

Same for sissy-boys...

(I'm using standard english terms circa 1980, you got triggered, i couldn't care less)

And you're not old enough to decide on your financial maters or have a drink or a smoke and its fine for an irreversible mutilation?

If it's a tattoo they can't, without parental authorization, if its chopping off their balls they should?!?!?!.

And that's how much this discussion should last. Stupid is stupid.

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 12:14 utc | 72

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 11:51 utc | 69

Peter, deep appreciation and respect for your story and your hard times. I look for your posts.

This might be a long shot but here it is. You might want to try mushrooms, not necessarily the magic ones, specifically, turkey tail. I get them from my timber but you can order them in capsule and other forms online. Mushrooms strengthen the immune system.
Hope you get better. You are a huge plus for all of us.

Posted by: migueljose | Apr 15 2024 12:16 utc | 73

migueljose | Apr 15 2024 12:04 utc | 70

Thanks for that perspective from your part of the world. I guess that sort of thing is why I I keep coming back here
Ecuador, the recent embassy thing in the media. The Ecuadorian raid on the Mexican embassy. I thought about Assange. That part of your post more or less confirms my thoughts there.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 12:24 utc | 74

If the Gunditjmara had not worked out how to farm, manage and harvest eels on their own, you would have your work cut out explaining how outsiders from Asia, Africa or South American came to Australia and taught only the Gunditjmara how to create and manage an eel fishery, and not any other indigenous groups on the Australian continent.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 15 2024 0:16 utc | 34

And here in the OT thread is a nice place to discuss it

6.000 BPE

There is so much misunderstood in the west, we lost almost everything and tried convincing others that we knew the most.

I can only quote Plato's Timaeus

"The citizens have a friendly feeling towards the Athenians, believing themselves to be related to them. Hither came Solon, and was received with honour; and here he first learnt, by conversing with the Egyptian priests, how ignorant he and his countrymen were of antiquity. Perceiving this, and with the view of eliciting information from them, he told them the tales of Phoroneus and Niobe, and also of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and he endeavoured to count the generations which had since passed. Thereupon an aged priest said to him: ‘O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are ever young, and there is no old man who is a Hellene.’ ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘In mind,’ replied the priest, ‘I mean to say that you are children; there is no opinion or tradition of knowledge among you which is white with age; and I will tell you why. Like the rest of mankind you have suffered from convulsions of nature, which are chiefly brought about by the two great agencies of fire and water. The former is symbolized in the Hellenic tale of young Phaethon who drove his father’s horses the wrong way, and having burnt up the earth was himself burnt up by a thunderbolt. For there occurs at long intervals a derangement of the heavenly bodies, and then the earth is destroyed by fire. At such times, and when fire is the agent, those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore are safer than those who dwell upon high and dry places, who in their turn are safer when the danger is from water. Now the Nile is our saviour from fire, and as there is little rain in Egypt, we are not harmed by water; whereas in other countries, when a deluge comes, the inhabitants are swept by the rivers into the sea. The memorials which your own and other nations have once had of the famous actions of mankind perish in the waters at certain periods; and the rude survivors in the mountains begin again, knowing nothing of the world before the flood. But in Egypt the traditions of our own and other lands are by us registered for ever in our temples. The genealogies which you have recited to us out of your own annals, Solon, are a mere children’s story. For in the first place, you remember one deluge only, and there were many of them, and you know nothing of that fairest and noblest race of which you are a seed or remnant. The memory of them was lost, because there was no written voice among you. For in the times before the great flood Athens was the greatest and best of cities and did the noblest deeds and had the best constitution of any under the face of heaven.’ Solon marvelled, and desired to be informed of the particulars. ‘You are welcome to hear them,’ said the priest, ‘both for your own sake and for that of the city, and above all for the sake of the goddess who is the common foundress of both our cities. Nine thousand years have elapsed since she founded yours, and eight thousand since she founded ours, as our annals record. "

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 12:25 utc | 75

Congress on Palestine in Berlin. A number of people, among them Yanis Varoufakis, have received orders restricting them from all political activity, issued by the German interior ministry. There exists a seldom used law for this, applicable if the person in question acts against Germany's foreign policy interests. The law also covers denying this person entry to Germany, and even deny his online participation to political events.

The conference was scheduled for Friday through Sunday. However, the police shut it down shortly after takeoff on Friday, citing another "restricted" (see above) person who was allegedly allowed to speak online. The rationale is, not to give a forum to anti-semitic propaganda. That seems to justify, nowadays in Germany, drastic measures.

Makes me wonder what kind of forum we are, and how careful we should be with every word we say, or face being shut down, given that b is under German jurisdiction.

Posted by: grunzt | Apr 15 2024 12:38 utc | 76

Makes me wonder what kind of forum we are, and how careful we should be with every word we say, or face being shut down, given that b is under German jurisdiction.

Posted by: grunzt | Apr 15 2024 12:38 utc | 75

B is certainly aware.

This is an open forum, we hold to our screen names but don't even login (though I personally don't consider that whatever I ever posted would be considered a problem in my jurisdiction)

As for german jurisdiction if applicable they can try to close whatever they want, but they might attract more attention than they want.

Things are done in more subtle ways, let me give you and example, there's smoothiex12 blogspot, you ask bing and there it is at the top of the search (as it should be), you ask google and there is no such thing on the internet.

Now we get to something else that was discussed earlier, sometimes topic threads get so clogged that it's a pain to keep reading them. Once is random, twice its coincidence, hundreds or thousands of times?

I'm currently writing here (OT thread) but sometimes I wish B would split "other current affairs" with a "playground full OT your favorite thing" regular thread.

B takes the effort to sieve news that weren't in major topics, it should be those or others of the same relevance that he missed.

So while the bar is open just enjoy it and don't fret too much. Next round is on me...

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 12:54 utc | 77

Posted by: migueljose | Apr 15 2024 12:04 utc | 70

Thanks as always for that update on Mexico (and Ecuador, now in a BIG spat with the former having invaded their embassy in Quito: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/why-did-ecuador-raid-mexicos-quito-embassy-2024-04-06/).

My wife is an UNAM and Goddard VT educated artist type (whose aptitude tests first had her studying politics and philosophy) and is the first to admit she doesn't follow politics though she used to proactively support AMLO. Maybe she has been reading too many Facebook hit pieces lately but the story that sounds most convincing to me is that most of AMLO's family members have gotten rich. Anyway, she doesn’t trust him any more.

Sheinbaum being a Jewish PhD gives pause. Will your good old boys back her in a few years time? Doubtful. Going for BRICS is excellent, though doubt it would mean much given Mexico's geographical proximity to the Northern Beast. In any case, that successor is another count my wife has against AMLO since not only does she generally not trust Jews (or Chinese), but also she deplores the way nearly all media figures and politicians look white. (She's a dark tribal-looking woman who dislikes how white people instinctively discriminate against her for how she looks!) For her, I'd say political issues rarely make it much above 9 out of 10 (1 being most important), but that's her take on AMLO and Sheinbaum. Her brothers still back AMLO, but most of her artist friends don’t since he cut their funds to build his pet infrastructure projects.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 13:48 utc | 78

@PeterAU

You didn't migrate your long post on religion etc. over to this thread but:

Religion's root meaning has to do with binding, that which binds families and societies together. And yes, that involves spiritual principles. But maybe instead of thinking about God per se just consider all the many things which are important to us which are not physically evident, aka material. Love, honour, respect, kinship, loyalty, pleasure, virtue, vice etc. The connection a family feels as such is a type of 'spiritual' bond in that it's not just about bodies and blood, though they are clearly in the mix.

Simply put, we have physical bodies and non-material minds. But they are both clearly experienced whether or not we can explain it all very well. The world is bigger than us, our bodies grow in ways we individually cannot begin to comprehend - lungs, livers, hearts, brains etc. That might be 'God' or might not. But in any case, lots which binds us together is not just the physically apparent even though modernist thought has over-emphasized that part of our experience.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 13:57 utc | 79

@ scorpion | Apr 15 2024 13:57 utc | 79 who continues to write BS like this
"
Simply put, we have physical bodies and non-material minds.
"

Got any proof of that non-material mind crap your pushing today?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2024 14:18 utc | 80

melealuca posted a long and crazy (in a good, entertaining way) comment in one of the threads about the (first) stabbing in AU and the Aussie media/socials reactions.

Just saw this today: https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/15/sydney-sees-second-mass-stabbing-bishop-worshippers-injured-20649441/

Couldn't find his first comment.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2024 14:35 utc | 81

@ Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2024 7:06 utc | 60

That’s how I pretty much arrived at postulating the God Shaped Hole that all humans have evolved with - because to survive nature and still procreate required such a facility.
Without which the futility of carrying on living after an un-understandable cataclysm would be overwhelming.
Even after sacrificing your own first borns and many others to the volcano God and other deities.

Knowledge and science shrinks that God Shaped Hole through the generations and those who insist on retaining it for any other purpose except social cohesion and emotional support during the worst of times are themselves having their genes naturally selected out of the future humans.

They who insist on being absolutist about a literal God, A literal Heaven, A literal eschatology and A literal ReBirth - well, what can we do about the truly suicidal?
You can’t put them on watch for ever and let them raise further generations of delusional depressed fantasists.

Take it easy Peter, stress is the hardest cudgel on health, there is much still to witness of Human Civilisation in our age.
We are ‘blessed’ to be alive in such Interesting Times.
Evolution is Natural Selection - nothing else.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 15 2024 14:36 utc | 82

Many threads running today - not complaining, but still nice it’s mostly about the UN I’ll post it here.

I have long made up my mind that the UN was a cobbled together cover for the failure to destroy and take Russia by the then proxy Nazi germany and various fascist Russophobic allies to go with their boots on the ground into that land where the Western Europeans failed again and again through centuries.

The AngloEuropean/USA did their part with industrial support and the Bankers , the original Zionazis financing it all as usual.

The French, British and Yankee scions knew better than to attempt it again, having had their fingers burnt every time. They thought they were clever by being ‘allies’ with Stalin, whilst hardly lifting a burnt finger to destroy the Nazis and its Axis. In fact in the Balkans not so secretly working against communists in support of the fascists.

When that failed and the Nazis were stopped - it was obvious there was going to be a counter by the Red Army all the way back to every fascist regime in Europe. The Russians always come to collect their debts.

That got stopped by the Yalta conference demarcations. The establishment of the ‘legalistic’ UN an upgrade of the useless League of Nations , a creation of the Zionazis, with Mrs FDR as the face.

A NWO to rubber stamp their consolation prize of the extension of the Balfour Treaty Mandate, the foothold in the Levant - which they would have as a backstop if they couldn’t somehow get their grand jewel, the Crimea and the two seas it straddles.
The crossroads of EurAsia and Europe and the Global South.

The new World council to stop wars only had a few members and they got their rubber stamp for the legal settlement in a small part of the Palestine with limited rights and guarantees for the local Semitic native peoples and their lands … well that didn’t last long did it? With the naqba?

It has been never ending extension and illegal expansion ever since - the UN is not a legal body in that sense. it was always a pretend legal entity which achieved some limited success and is owned by the Zionazis - which is easy to see by their total disdain in their presence and words in that body and their control of many delegates through blackmail and corruption. Let’s not forget that the Mossad honey trap and paeodphile rings are based in NY! Handy for the capture of UN representatives.

I have believed for a few years now that the UN is Not Fit For Purpose. However the New Order Multipolar Leadership hasn’t yet walked out of the cesspit because they use it to access the many of the Global South representatives there and through them their citizens back home who are not captives of the Blackmailers . Lavrov has called out all of that again recently.

The fact that the RF and China attempt to adhere to whatever legal basis of the dysfunctional UN means that the talk of a Two State solution in the invaded Levant is still perpetuated.

Me , not being a diplomat , can say that both of them know it’s a mirage. The only way it could work is if the Zionist entity were some enclave the size of Monaco or San Marino. With most of its stolen lands returned to the original owners and wholly defanged and without Apartheid! Which is never going to happen.

Perhaps the future ‘new UN’ can be based in that Free Palestine and Gaza as a means of Never Forgetting.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 15 2024 15:24 utc | 83

Newbie | Apr 15 2024 12:14 utc | 72

What you write is unexceptionable. The imposition of stereotypes restricting girls to whorish things and boys to youthful thuggery has long been part of socialisation and it has produced appalling results.

The new dispensation however is ten times worse: just as castrating a boy is much worse than feminising him. The problem lies in the mania to stereotype, to quash individuality as a preliminary to teaching kids that they must do as they are told until as adults, they learn to follow orders without question.

Underneath it all lie the hierarchies of class society which cannot tolerate contradiction, because that could lead to freedom in which the first thing banished is the exploitation of man by man on which class rule is founded.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 15 2024 15:42 utc | 84

Posted by: bevin | Apr 15 2024 15:42 utc | 84

‘Willing Self-Deception’: Canadian Doctors Amputate Healthy Fingers Of Young Man With ‘Body Dysphoria’

.....For this young man, “The importance [of living] in accordance with his perceived body image was a stronger inner motivation” than concerns about how the amputation would affect his relationships “at work or in sports and leisure.” In other words, he chose to conform to his inner feelings instead of the outer world. These are exactly the same terms in which people with gender dysphoria express their desire to change their bodies to be more like those of the opposite sex.

Both arguments rely on the spirit of our age, expressive individualism. This worldview argues that “everybody is ultimately defined by an inner core of feelings that they have, and authenticity is found by being able to express those feelings outwardly,” according to Grove City College Professor Carl Trueman. This worldview is so pervasive that many people adopt it without realizing it. .......

Have no idea how these things get going, are deliberately, or conspiratorially, organized etc. but it sure feels as if what is really behind all this institutionally supported mental illness is a concerted effort to break society down. But I guess that could be inverted into: endemic mental illness results in society increasingly promoting neurotic, and indeed increasingly evil, behaviours.

From the article linked above about 'expressive individualism':

An Australian woman, who identified as male 12 years ago, has sued the psychiatrist who placed her on testosterone after one visit and later signed off on surgery to mutilate her body to be more like a man’s. Another specialist had recommended she obtain a “throughout psychiatric work-up before embarking on hormone treatment.” The woman now regrets her “gender transition” and argues the psychiatrist acted irresponsibly by initiating irreversible procedures so hastily. Sadly, it’s too late.

“We need to be telling stories” like this, said Grove City College theologian Carl Trueman on “Washington Watch” — “the most compelling and emotionally powerful stories.” He argued that, for the purpose of influencing society, it doesn’t matter whether Christians can win the philosophical argument against the transgender ideology unless we can win a platform for our views.

And Christians can win the philosophical argument. The transgender ideology “is unsustainable to build or maintain a society,” argued Trueman. “This highly subjective notion of the self means that we’re likely to be living in a time of constant chaos and flux, of constant gotchas … and one simply cannot build a coherent view of society or a vision of the future based on that kind of fragmentation.”

Undergirding the conflicting notions of the self is a more fundamental debate between “those who believe that the material world has intentionality and purpose, and those who don’t,” as “Washington Watch” host Joseph Backholm put it. In other words, “Does the world as a whole have a moral shape to it?” Trueman offered. “Does it represent a sort of external authority to which we need to conform ourselves in order to flourish? Or is it just stuff? Is the world simply a giant piece of … cosmic Play-Doh over which we can exert our wills?”

That distinction, when applied to human beings in particular, becomes, “Does my body have any authority for my identity? Or is it simply a piece of stuff?” Our answer reveals what we believe about the origin and purpose of humanity. “Are human beings made in the image of God, or … are we simply exalted animals?” Trueman continued. “And therefore, is it legitimate to … transcend ourselves using our technological skills? Or are there limits … intrinsic to us, or perhaps, we might say, imposed upon us from without?”

The Bible clearly answers these questions. The first man didn’t make himself. He only came to life after God “formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). God shows his people, if anything, they’re the Play-Doh in his hands. When Jeremiah witnessed a potter who took a spoiled lump of clay and “reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do,” the Lord instructed him to tell his people, “like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand” (Jeremiah 18:4, 6). Even the heart of the most powerful person “is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov. 21:1). God gives us our purpose, our meaning, our limits, our roles, and our very existence.

Opposing Christianity on each of these points is a philosophy Trueman calls “expressive individualism,” which argues that “everybody is ultimately defined by an inner core of feelings that they have, and authenticity is found by being able to express those feelings outwardly.” He explained that it applies the 19th Century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s argument that “If God is dead, then we’ve effectively made ourselves gods. It’s for us to create meaning.” Backholm pointed out a connection to the abortion debate, with the slogan “my body, my choice,” making the claim that “I’m in control of myself.”

“We like to think we’re masters of our own destiny,” added Trueman, “but there’s a lot of evidence that points in the other direction.” He explained two disadvantages in particular. First, “imagine the burden placed upon a three- or four-year-old who asks their parents, ‘Who am I? Am I a boy or a girl?’ And the parent says, ‘Well, you’ve got to decide that for yourself.’ That’s a terrifying burden to place on the child.” Second, “sooner or later, nature bites back. We’re seeing already with the accounts of detransitioners.”

“Rather than having a conversation about whether boys can become girls,” reasoned Backholm, it’s “more helpful … to have this conversation about whether there’s a purpose to our existence and purpose to our lives. And if we can settle that, if we can convince somebody that their life actually has meaning, then the conversation about their sex … becomes easier.”

Note how my personal bugaboo is in the mix: excessive materialism.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 16:11 utc | 85

@Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2024 14:18 utc | 80

@ scorpion | Apr 15 2024 13:57 utc | 79 who continues to write BS like this
"
Simply put, we have physical bodies and non-material minds.
"

Got any proof of that non-material mind crap your pushing today?

Strange how when the physical thing called our brain gets physically damaged our minds change! We can also alter how our minds work by taking drugs that pass the blood/brain barrier. Yep, just more of the same random BS.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 15 2024 16:29 utc | 86

Underneath it all lie the hierarchies of class society which cannot tolerate contradiction, because that could lead to freedom in which the first thing banished is the exploitation of man by man on which class rule is founded.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 15 2024 15:42 utc | 84

Note how my personal bugaboo is in the mix: excessive materialism.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 16:11 utc | 85

I'll take both as on a certain level agreeing that it's just demented, a replacement for the true important questions (spiritual or materialistic)

And teenagers, if lucky, are still developing and seldom happy with themselves. Nurture? yes. Raise them? yes , but also help and protect them (with all defects we'll have on that)

I don't care what you choose to do with your life when it is time, (not true, I genuinely like other humans and would prefer if every one was a fulfilled human and shared a modicum of brotherhood with the rest, but it's their choice), screw whoever you like, turn yourself into a dragon if you must, a follow the goals whatever they are , be it traditional, success , consumerism or spend the rest of your life on drugs, food, whatever, whatever rocks your boat. Find or fight religion and spirituality, or even both , one after the other. ANd then change again whatever you decided.

The current trend is a waste of time and a criminal misdirection of what should be discussed.

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 16:42 utc | 87

@Posted by: migueljose | Apr 15 2024 12:04 utc | 71

Thanks for those excellent videos. It is very bad for Latin America in general that the US seeks to reinforce its position in the American Hemisphere as its global position and influence shrinks. They have already been successful in Argentina (Milei), Peru (the coup against Castillo) and Ecuador. The CIA and Latin American elites and governments are in bed with the drug cartels, with a long history of the CIA funding its off-the-books activities through drug profits.

In Brazil we have the neoliberalism with crumbs Lula, who was re-educated to forget about the crumbs bit. The hard nuts for the US to crack are Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. Chile has a woke "left" government which has failed and will be replaced with the right-wing. Paraguay has continued to be a right-wing dominated country. The leaders of Colombia and Mexico need to watch their back, especially if Trump becomes the US President again. Or perhaps their bank accounts, as bribery is always a possibility; just like the traitor Ecuadorian President Moreno - now outside the country to escape prosecution.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 15 2024 16:47 utc | 88

Strange how when the physical thing called our brain gets physically damaged our minds change! We can also alter how our minds work by taking drugs that pass the blood/brain barrier. Yep, just more of the same random BS.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 15 2024 16:29 utc | 86

That is as relevant as considering that what people call immaterial mind is anything close to what we are used to call mind, a limited viewpoint heavily restricted by it's, let's call i interface.

I tried bringing here the known/unknowns from the other threads because it is something that I think a lot of us might enjoy discussing, not fighting but exchanging.

In my particular experience, most if not all super materialistic people begin with with two "revelations" (quite a contradiction in itself), at one stage you KNOW that there is no traditional christian soul and a heavenly hereafter where your "mind" endures, at the other stage you KNOW that 99% of the morals you're being fed are crap.

Add to that childhood or adolescence and the corollary seems clear, what I was told is false, there is nothing. But have you questioned how you know what you haven't particularly pondered about?

Are there not things that make you wonder if you didn't just switch a lie for another one? Things that resonate when they shouldn't?

I'm not selling anything, engage as such pelase.

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 16:57 utc | 89

The mind/matter debate is on; I have to chime in.

Briefly.

Take a moment to become aware of your own awareness. Watch the clouds or something, peak out of the window, rinse water over your hand. Remember the past. Do you agree now that mind IS, and needs no further proving?

Good.

Where does it sit? Read the various texts of Buddhism on the matter [pun not intended], or follow me through this argument:

Le's assume the hypothesis that all mind is matter, though in a complex and dynamic configuration. Then, either the hypothesis can be asserted as true, or untrue, or undecided. To follow through with a positive proof you'll need to demonstrate the hypothesis, i.e. to relate matter and mind. Description of matter and its complex dynamics is done using the science of physics. Now look up the uncertainty principle, the Poincaré theorem (aka the butterfly effect), and Goedel's theorem to understand that physics is principally unable to relate mind and matter in the required way. This is called an error of category in philosophy of science.

As I have pointed out many times, this does imply that the reversal is true, i.e. that mind is indifferent (unrelated) to matter. This false conclusion rests on Cartesian dualism, which again sits solidly on a false premise, namely that of a pre-existing, eternal and unchanging substance (aka the metaphysics of substance).

That we can observe mind (nous) somehow clinging to matter (living organisms) does not mean that it arises purely out of material states. Marx' teaching that quantity gives to rise to quality is highly problematic on this level, to say the least.

The results of Ilya Prigogine on dynamical systems off their thermodynamical equilibrium ('dissipative structures') do not change this conclusion. They merely serve to show that for a living organism, the foundational laws of physics still hold. It is akin to watching the municipal waste disposal to find out what people in a city are experiencing; to take apart a radio in search of Sonic Youth or JS Bach; or to try to find the essence of awareness by directing one's awareness onto matter, forgetting about its role in the first place. An error of category.

Further discussion is encouraged in the philosophers' corner.

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 15 2024 17:33 utc | 90

In response to
"
Perhaps the future ‘new UN’ can be based in that Free Palestine and Gaza as a means of Never Forgetting.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 15 2024 15:24 utc | 83
"

I agree and have been saying the same because it is how evolution of social systems happen. People live a certain way because of history and things like Might-Makes-Right but may want to live differently and not under jackboots. It is clear to me that humanity has reached the stage where they are viscerally rejecting the God Of Mammon cult form of social organization and this is how that sausage gets made to evolve or go extinct from poor losers.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2024 18:08 utc | 91

Further discussion is encouraged in the philosophers' corner.

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 15 2024 17:33 utc | 90

Touché!

This is, currently, it. I have already suggested that news of the week should be only that and a new thread "follies à deux (or three)" should exist for pet subject conversation (literally or otherwise).

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 18:23 utc | 92

@ persiflo | Apr 15 2024 17:33 utc | 90 with the argument that we are more than flesh and blood.

I call myself more of a cosmologist and do believe I am connected to everything but I no longer delude myself into thinking my thoughts are proof of some separate mind/soul thing.

As I have written about here before and sorry to repeat for those but I had to come to grips with all this after taking the side mirror off a Chevy Avalanche with the back of my bicycle helmeted head....and lived in 2006.
Long story short, I learned about these glia called astrocytes that there are 7 of per neuron in our bodies. I call them the borg of our bodies and science (no link) is starting to read and understand how these astrocytes talk to each other and the vagus nerve that was and still is our emotional brain in bio-electric manner.
The last I read 4-5 years ago (again no link) science was mapping those faint and slow signals to produce what I remember described as transient bio-electric sand castles that looked like could be conscious thoughts.

Humans know a bit about 5% of the Cosmos called matter and are hubristically ignorant about the other 95%....so create myths and here we are

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2024 18:25 utc | 93

@Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 16:57 utc | 89

The scientific revolution had us escape medieval metaphysics and base our understanding of the world on empiricism and the scientific method to validate theories. It took a while, even Descartes had to bow to the Church in his work to escape any charges of heresy (and he also assumed that animals were mere automatons!).

The human brain isn't even a single organ but in reality a number of organs, with the thing we know as "consciousness" tending to hide that reality to facilitate the sense of a singular self with agency. There is no such thing as "super materialistic people" as pretty much all scientists accept the joint role of nature, nurture and culture in producing each unique human being's mind. The human brain/mind is embodied within the physical human body, it cannot exist outside of it as some 1950s B-movies failed to understand.

From the 1990s onwards it has become increasingly accepted by biologists that the mind affects the human body's functioning and visa versa. We do not understand how the human brain functions, although we have made great progress on the edges of such an understanding. Scientists have now identified how traumatic experiences of a person can be past onto their children, grand-children etc. through epigenetic transgenerational inheritance. There is much of what we call "morals" that is passed from generation to generation through genetics, as experiment after experiment has shown. A small percentage of people are born without such ethics (e.g. psychopaths) or are twisted through child abuse, but that tends to be a small percentage.

Your straw manning reminds me of those that have called me "classist", "essentialist" etc. Once born our brains interact with the environment and that environment interacts with our brains through the plasticity of the brain and also through epi-genetics. We have a mind that resides within our brains/bodies and it dies when you cut off the energy supply for long enough. Thoughts of "heaven" and immaterial minds etc. are us attempting to make sense of our world, in some cases having been indoctrinated since birth to believe in a specific viewpoint. Such discussions can be fascinating, but lack any real proof - that is the nature of beliefs vs. facts.

If you wish to believe in after life and a non-physical "mind" then good for you, but it would be nice for you to debate the question rather than use rhetorical redirection such as "That is as relevant as considering that what people call immaterial mind is anything close to what we are used to call mind" to dodge a basic question. Your statement uses a false equivalence in an attempt to appear to be answering the question. Do you have an answer?

Posted by: Roger | Apr 15 2024 18:27 utc | 94

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 16:57 utc | 89
Posted by: persiflo | Apr 15 2024 17:33 utc | 90

@persiflo: nearly everything involving words comes down to error category at some point, perhaps! Hence this famous list:

Ten unanswered questions [sometimes 14 or 16]:

A list of ten unanswered questions is presented in both the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta and Cūḷamālukya Sutta.

These ten questions are:

Is it true that:
The world (loco) is eternal?[note 1]
The world is not eternal?
The world is finite?
The world is infinite?
The soul and the body are the same thing?
The soul and the body are different things?
A Realized One exists after death?
A Realized One doesn’t exist after death?
A Realized One both exists and doesn’t exist after death?
A Realized One neither exists nor doesn’t exist after death?

The Buddha refused to answer these questions directly. In the Cūḷamālukya Sutta, the Buddha presented the parable of ** the poisoned arrow to illustrate the futility of these types of questions. In the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta, the Buddha used the simile of a fire going out to describe the goal of the spiritual path.

https://www.encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/The_unanswered_questions

** In the Cūḷamālukya Sutta, one of the Buddha's disciples requests the Buddha to answer ten such questions, and the Buddha declines to answer the disciple's questions. Instead, the Buddha tells a parable of a man who is shot by a poisoned arrow, but before the injured man will allow a doctor to remove the arrow, he insists on knowing the name of the archer, where the archer was from, what was the caste of the archer's family, where the arrow was made, what type of wood was used to form the arrow, etc. Such a man, the Buddha said, would die before learning the answers to his questions. In the same way, the Buddha said, the knowing the answers to certain metaphysical questions will not help one on the spiritual path.

Buddhism is a tradition concerned more with method and practice (liberation etc.) than philosophy per se, although it comes mighty close, and arguably many of the pioneer ancient Western philosophers were dedicated practitioners in the same vein.

I think where this stuff is of practical interest for ordinary folks is to help notice when we - in particular or collectively - have strayed into an 'extreme view' which then colours our judgment in unfortunate ways. Materialism is not a crime, nor is it necessarily stupid, but it does exclude too many non-material aspects of ordinary, vital human experience and so when over-used socio-politically can engender unbalanced world views with unfortunate outcomes. In keeping with its emphasis on method, most Buddhist 'philosophy' is designed to help train the mind in recognizing various forms of extremism which tend to oscillate between being too tight or too loose, too bound up in form or formlessness, taking things as too solid or too empty and so forth. Either materialism or spiritualism can be extreme views this way, in both too tight/solid or too loose/empty mode. (Not to mention over-explaining versus under-explaining!)

Tricky business!

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 18:42 utc | 95

The US 10 Year Treasury interest rate has broken decisively above 4.5% after the strong retail sales data this morning, and the inflation data last week; its now at 4.635% with little between it and late last years high of 5%. If the rate drives higher through 5% we may very well see a financial crisis before the election. Now over to Bernanke and Yellen to try to keep the plates spinning long enough ... they have 7 months to go.

The stock market has turned around from being positive this morning to being strongly negative this afternoon, and the dollar is strong off the higher interest rates. Tesla now very close to its previous US$160 low, looks like it may roll over straight through that price given all the bad news on slowing sales, the Cybertruck problems, and the announced "greater than 10%" layoffs. The semiconductor sector (SOX) has done a very large turnaround from positive to negative.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 15 2024 18:49 utc | 96

Do you have an answer?

Posted by: Roger | Apr 15 2024 18:27 utc | 94

None that you might understand (no insult meant). Maybe a useful question that I used earlier.

How are you so sure? How did it come by? What was what you were sure and what were "corollaries"?

The physical part, even with current doubts and discussions is not an issue. Nor is the destruction of church's authority (thank god, irony implied :D )

The role of science is paramount but the story of empiricism is highly overrated (as a source beyond a testing method) and is a myth in itself.

My 2 cents

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 18:50 utc | 97

the knowing the answers to certain metaphysical questions will not help one on the spiritual path.

Tricky business!

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 18:42 utc | 95

Not the knowing, but the searching might, although not particularly endorsed, jnana marga/yoga seems particularly suitable for the western inclination.

You will probably disagree, or consider that it is part of what has been "deprecated" by Siddhartha's teachings but ...

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 18:57 utc | 98

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 15 2024 18:57 utc | 98

the knowing the answers to certain metaphysical questions will not help one on the spiritual path.

Tricky business!

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 18:42 utc | 95

Not the knowing, but the searching might, although not particularly endorsed, jnana marga/yoga seems particularly suitable for the western inclination.

You will probably disagree, or consider that it is part of what has been "deprecated" by Siddhartha's teachings but ...

Well, there are types of 'knowing'. Any dependent upon word formulations, especially with noetic subjects like these, are probably not all that helpful IMO.

Not being a fanatic adherent of any particular approach (meant in a neutral way), to me all such things boil down to what is helpful and/or interesting. To a meditator, too much abstraction is for sure a distraction, but to a Thinker, abstraction is a field to be thoroughly ploughed through, sometimes for years. So it all depends, as it always does, on the person and context.

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 19:09 utc | 99

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

Christian Orthodox conservative thinker around the 7-8 minute mark has an interesting theory of our times. We are in between the 'no longer' (the old paradigm) and the 'not yet' the new paradigm. He says the latter will involve 'civilizational populism' which he tracks internationally, not just (though mainly) in the States. If he is right, then the totalitarian Great Reset business is the last gasp of the old paradigm which is already on its way out. I am not convinced of his thesis, but it's interesting...

Posted by: scorpion | Apr 15 2024 19:14 utc | 100