Smearing The 'Enemy' - A Typical U.S. Info-Op
Here is an example of a fairly typical U.S. information operation - this one against China.
On April 20 the New York Times, in collaboration with some German media, came up with this sensational headline:
Top Chinese Swimmers Tested Positive for Banned Drug, Then Won Olympic Gold - New York Times
China's own doping agency had detected tiny amounts of a banned drugs in some athletes of its swimming team. It informed, as it should do, the World Anti Doping Agency WADA and started to investigate the case:
China acknowledged the positive tests in a report by its antidoping regulator, saying that the swimmers had ingested the banned substance unwittingly and in tiny amounts, and that no action against them was warranted.But an examination by The New York Times found that the previously unreported episode sharply divided the antidoping world, where China’s record has long been a flashpoint. American officials and other experts said the swimmers should have been suspended or publicly identified pending further investigation, and they suggested that the failure to do so rested with Chinese sports officials; swimming’s international governing body, World Aquatics; and the World Anti-Doping Agency, the global authority that oversees national drug-testing programs.
...
Even after other national and international antidoping officials repeatedly provided the global regulator, known as WADA, with intelligence suggesting a cover-up and doping by Chinese swimmers, the agency chose not to try to hold the athletes accountable, asserting “a lack of any credible evidence” to challenge China’s version of events. WADA defended its decision not to take action, calling the criticism unsubstantiated.
The Chinese anti-doping agency as well as WADA handled the case by the book. There was a plausible explanation of a food contamination with tiny amounts of the drug during a swimming event in China. No other test before and after that event had been positive. The amount of drugs involved was too tiny to make a difference. WADA did not put out a public notice about the incident as no further action was required. No athletes were publicly named and shamed as none had been proven to be guilty.
But that did not fit the U.S. messaging agenda that was designed to defame China. Thus other headlines in the usual western propaganda media were following up:
- US anti-doping agency attacks Wada’s ‘half-truths’ over Chinese swimmers - Guardian
- Adam Peaty slams cover-up of 'systemic' doping by Chinese swimmers - Daily Mail
- Lawyer for banned Aussie swimmer Shayna Jack outraged by Chinese Olympic drug scandal - Mail Online
- China to send 13 swimmers under doping cloud to Paris Olympics - The Times
In a long press conference (video) WADA went public to defend itself. It had done all what it was supposed to do in that case.
WADA says it astonished by 'completely false, defamatory' remarks by USADA chief in case of Chinese swimmers - Global Times
A fairly neutral report on the issue came out in support of WADA:
Chinese swimming scandal: a strong defence by world anti-doping body, but narrative of ‘cover-up’ remains - The Conservation
Transparency is key to any organisation’s reputation. It is never a good look when a body like WADA is forced to respond to a story exposed by the media, in this case a German documentary and a New York Times report.WADA has surely suffered reputational damage by not being open about the case when it unfolded three years ago. But it maintains it couldn’t have handled the situation differently because of the complexity of the global anti-doping framework between WADA and national anti-doping agencies.
It wasn’t up to WADA to make the details of the failed tests public – this responsibility rested with the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) because it had carried out the tests and investigated the positive results. To protect innocent athletes if no violation is found, no public announcement is required.
Given an investigation by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security found traces of the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) in a kitchen at the swimmers’ hotel, CHINADA ruled the positive tests were the result of accidental contamination. The Chinese swimmers were cleared without any public announcement.
...
Far from accepting CHINADA’s findings on the face of it, WADA requested the entire case file so it could conduct its own scientific and legal investigations – including speaking with the drug manufacturer to get the latest unpublished science on TMZ, and comparing the Chinese positive tests with TMZ cases in other countries, including the US. WADA ultimately determined there was no concrete evidence to “disprove” the possibility of environmental contamination.
The damage though, due to the sensational U.S. information operation, has been done:
So, has WADA succeeded in changing the narrative? Probably not.Why? Because putting the words “China” and “doping” together is a lightning rod in the current political climate given the intense rivalry between China and the US.
Currently there are 23 people serving anti-doping suspensions in Australia. Do we feel personal or national shame for their wrongdoing?
Every time the US team marches into an Olympic Games, or steps up onto a World Championships medal podium, do we point at them while recalling memories of the US Postal Service cycling team and the banned-for-life cyclist Lance Armstrong?
But when it comes to China, many observers are quick to name and shame athletes, viewing every news story as some kind of proof the country must have a systemic, state-sanctioned doping program.
And that dear friends was the sole purpose of this nonsense.
As the next summer Olympics will soon begin we can expect to see more of such stuff.
Posted by b on May 4, 2024 at 13:07 UTC | Permalink
"found traces of the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) in a kitchen at the swimmers’ hotel,"
Looks to me like someone deliberately contaminated food at the hotel to smear the Chinese swimmers.
Elite sports are rife with sabotage.
Posted by: Mary | May 4 2024 13:30 utc | 2
Posted by: Emma | May 4 2024 13:22 utc | 2
Seconded. Of what use is it to compete in empire's cheating contest with the primary purpose being for the oligarchs to advertise their commodities and services and to distract the masses with some spectacle.
Posted by: kspr | May 4 2024 13:37 utc | 3
I saw Hajo Seppelt speaking about this in an interview and I had to laugh
Posted by: wurrt | May 4 2024 13:41 utc | 4
The Olympics are notoriously corrupt and deliver big money. I don't blame Chinese athletes for wanting a slice, but the world is not going to treat China as a serious leader if they subject their people to these absurd Zio narratives.
Thirding Emma's content. Don't support the IGF and Russophobia. Boycott.
Posted by: They Call Me Mister | May 4 2024 13:54 utc | 5
Micron is the meekly subject of Xi. Olympics is in France. So USA has very few levers to work with.
Posted by: Jason | May 4 2024 13:54 utc | 6
Great to have you back to the bar, b.
You are absolutely correct. US and its chihuahuas are self-righteously good, their targets are inevitably bad.
After Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Russia, Gaza/West Bank, you would think this pack of street dogs, incapable of hunting anything, should have stopped urinating around street posts. Nope, they are still wetting around and trying to get themselves incestuously pregnant.
Funny thing is this bully pack never has the mental capacity to self-reflect. Just look at NYT, WP, FT, WSJ, CNN, White House, State Department, only diversions, distractions, deafening silences about themselves, while ridiculously sure about their currently hot targets.
Posted by: KitaySupporter | May 4 2024 13:56 utc | 7
you would think this pack of street dogs, incapable of hunting anything, should have stopped urinating around street posts.
Posted by: KitaySupporter | May 4 2024 13:56 utc | 8
Their plans for the destruction of Europe, sterilising and mutating most of the white population, and bringing the kalergi plan to completion, is doing perfectly fine. As is digital tyranny, social credit dependent money, WHO health tyranny, etc. Even their child factories for organs/slaves in Ukraine and likely pretty much everywhere in the world are uninvestigated and will likely remain so.
Posted by: Michael A | May 4 2024 14:05 utc | 8
That Russia is disallowed to attend Paris as a nation while for Israel "there's no question" tells all that needs saying ... agree with previous posts on boycotting until Israel gets the South Arica treatment.
Re PE Drugs, the rules are meant to be convoluted and prone to politicization ... there is no performance advantage in miniscule amounts of medications in people's bodies. Does anyone think that the 15 year old Russian skater a few years ago would have skated any differently if she did not have nano amounts of some heart meds in her blood??
There should be large thresholds of significance for different drugs and most of these drugs shouldn't be on the list in the first place.
Posted by: Caliman | May 4 2024 14:38 utc | 9
Winston! Winston! Are you there Winston?
What do you make of all this informatics Winston?
Posted by: Don Firineach | May 4 2024 14:38 utc | 10
American athletes are tested in USA's own USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency). I just wonder how well they report their findings to WADA or other international organisations, and if they let agencies from other countries test American athletes.
Posted by: Format | May 4 2024 15:15 utc | 11
these ''international'' events - Olympics - are constantly being perverted by western powers.. this can't end soon enough.. i agree with @ Emma | May 4 2024 13:22 utc | 2.... boycott them for not addressing the genocide at the ioc.. these so called international institutions have become beholden to western power in all its ugliness...
Posted by: james | May 4 2024 15:16 utc | 12
The whole hoo-ha over PE drugs is ridiculous. Some of the drugs are not actually performance enhancing, like pot which is on the list. There is no minimum amount that needs to be detected but there certainly is a minimum amount required to enhance your performance. There should be a correlation there. Why do you keep the samples forever and three days? That merely invites sabotage. The sport should only be concerned with the athlete's state at the time of the performance. Outside of that, it's none of the sport's business. So once the athlete has been declared clean for this meet, pitch the sample.
Posted by: Jeff Harrison | May 4 2024 15:25 utc | 13
@all - deleted a number of off-topic comments on this thread-
Stop being so lazy. Post your stuff where it belongs and not all over the blog.
Wada has shown itself to be a harassment agency of the US imperialism in it's attacks on Russian athletes.
Sadly, the Olympics must be scrapped along with the US dollar if the world is to have a cooperative international sporting event that applies rules fairly and equally to all participating nationalities.
As it stands it's just another iteration of the "rules based order", this time in sports: unwritten rules i make up for thee, absolute impunity for me.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 4 2024 15:43 utc | 15
World's countries should start to treat such smear propaganda as hybrid warfare, and react to them as if they were actually attacked - by sanctioning all the private and state organizations, persons and entities who are involved in the smear campaign. A smear propaganda outsourced to the private sector by the state is still smear propaganda done by the state.
China should start sanctioning everybody involved with these 'news' outlets, from their investors to their boards.
Posted by: Dodrey Dougherton | May 4 2024 15:44 utc | 16
When did the USA become so vulgar and vile?
Everything they do is done by low and backward people.
Or is it that these days humanity no longer needs the help of Western capitalism to 'modernise' and every developing country has found its own path to endogenous development, so there is less to worship the West and there is nothing left to do but smearing campaigns?
Posted by: Nokaz | May 4 2024 15:50 utc | 17
The Olympc Games should be abolished.
Rife with corruption. Totally politicized.
Boycot is very good start, Emma.
Almost every sport has World Championships, every year.
Already great promotion for recreational sports?
Isn't that enough?
I think so.
Posted by: Zoals Ik Het Zie | May 4 2024 15:52 utc | 18
They should just do like that steroid monster, Serena Williams, and get a doctor’s note. ”Steroids and hormones? That’s just because I have an injury! See? I have a doctor’s note!”
The US is the absolute worst doping offender on the planet. Even in high school sports, many kids are doping. It’s not just sports either, as most cops do steroids like candy. That’s why they all look overinflated and have that Neanderthal look to their faces.
But if you shop around for the right doctor and get a doctor’s note excusing you, then the doping is OK.
Posted by: William Gruff | May 4 2024 15:59 utc | 19
Of course, will need a distraction from all the Apartheid State genocide participants being protested against...
In the USA, women swimmers are allowed to have balls, so we can easily counter any doping attempts by the Chinese.
Posted by: BroncoBilly | May 4 2024 16:05 utc | 21
Posted by: Emma | May 4 2024 13:22 utc | 1
Well said. I would add that the defamators linked above seem to be British rags in the long tradition of colonialist defamation of those deemed inferior, racially, culturally, what have you. Of course, the propaganda bullhorns of the Anglo-American empire operate in coordinated fashion, regardless of their precise origins.
BTW, welcome back and take care, b.
Posted by: Constantine | May 4 2024 16:21 utc | 22
The world should have dropped the Olympics the moment they turned political, into a money making scheme, and when they allowed professional athletes to participate ( on the insistence of the US ). By continuing to participate in the farce, and not demanding immediate changes, they deserve everything that they get.
Posted by: Moonie | May 4 2024 16:48 utc | 24
Yes!
"China and all of the Global South needs to boycott the Olympics in protest of the IOC's continued support of genocide. Let the 'garden' compete amongst themselves and squabble over gender definitions!"
Posted by: Emma | May 4 2024 13:22 utc | 1
Posted by: andrew | May 4 2024 16:50 utc | 25
Timely note as it is now 83 days before the French Olympic games starts. It is possible that the last "flame" carrier of the torch will be a blonde trans in 12 cm high heels. I would like to say that this is a joke - but I really don't know any more. It may even be true.
One "race to the top" I would love to see checked for doping are the Politicians. They dive in at the deep end, flail about for a bit until someone gives them enough gold and silver and they then say they have "Won". PADAP, Political Anti-Doping Authority Please?
This "doping" thing is to get the athletes of certain countries off to a head start.
The girl I really felt sorry for was the very young Russian skater who put up a magnificent show, and then had success taken away from her by a load of flabby old judges.
CHINADA sounds like a chinese conspiracy to take over canada. please do!
i'd bet money i don't have that the same idiots behind this are the ones insisting male "trans' swimmers be allowed to compete against women.
Posted by: bornhard | May 4 2024 16:55 utc | 27
Emma@1.... weaponized Olympics, just another tool in the Imperial Tickle Trunk. That so many countries, defying logic, play along....
I get the bit about the 'athletes' investing so much time money and effort into their sport ($exceptionally elitist but that's another topic$) but what ever happened to self pride honouring ones country.... competing neutrally listening to canned music during medal ceremonies....the athletes themselves should lead any boycott should one be called for....like now.
Cheers M
....wondering if the binary girls competing in Paris will be sporting the "Not a Dude" bathing suits which seem to be gaining popularity....at a recent swim event, a second place girl even got her medals for first place back..first place winner was ruled a dude.....that this even happens, madness!
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | May 4 2024 17:01 utc | 28
@10....out to the bar again last night....Jameson's or Guiness :):)
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | May 4 2024 17:06 utc | 29
As a society, we've largely lost sports as a nourishing and fun thing to do or watch. Our big three in USA can never shake off the plantation aroma: how players and "owners" interact. LeBron James is a magnificent living icon of personal dignity, more or less up on the auction block again.
The life-destroying brain injuries now happening to more than 95% of American football players have been widely discussed. These glorious giants are gladiators, sacrificing everything, trading 1 or 2 seasons of fame for unimaginable suffering ever afterward. I can't stand to watch it.
After years of trying, they've finally drowned the Holy Ghost of sports culture -- the Olympic Spirit -- in the bathtub of mercenary geopolitical schizophrenia. There are good reasons to get your kids into some kind of athletic activity, but what to do? Thumb-scrolling your iPhone doesn't count, even if it raises your respirations a bit.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 4 2024 17:42 utc | 30
@Emma | May 4 2024 13:22 utc | 1
I support that view. In fact everybody with a conscience and respect for fairness should just stay away. I have not paid any attention to the Olympics the last 20 years or so. I used to watch it before, but all the cheating and commercialization was too much.
This time, it is not just the general corruption of the Olympics that requires boycotting, but the difference in how Russia and Occupied Palestine is treated. Then you want to hold it in Paris with the extremely violent police regime? Just say no.
Posted by: Norwegian | May 4 2024 17:44 utc | 31
Both China and Russia are fighting back by holding their own international sporting events that are attracting most of the world causing the IOC to kick, scream and lie, while threatening to ban athletes from Olympics if they participate. Russia as a founding member of the Modern Olympic Movement is keen to criticize the IOCs behavior as utterly Non-Olympic. I expect the current Olympics brand to fail and be replaced by 2040 if not earlier.
American gymnast: Simone Biles was allowed to compete in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics while openly taking a well-known PED: Adderal (methyphenidate) - which was obviously an 'instrumental' factor (drug) in her much celebrated multi-gold medal winning results. Biles had applied for, and was given, a TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) by the IOC for those 2016 Rio Summer Games.
However, when she competed in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, the host country: Japan, did not allow Biles to take this potent PED due to Adderal/Ritalin being a strictly "banned" substance there and so Biles was not able to repeat her multi-gold Rio performance, but instead was just relegated to only 2 Bronze medals - one individual, one (US) team.
Posted by: thewokendead | May 4 2024 18:07 utc | 33
One would think the Greeks would be up in arms about the formerly covert, now overt politicization of the Olympic Games. Where is the voice of Greece? Of all the countries in the world, it is the Hellenic Republic that should be boycotting Paris and instead attending the World Friendship Games in Moscow and Yekaterinburg.
Funnily enough, the IOC repeatedly betrays its Nazi ideology and trademark Talmudic strategy by projecting onto its "enemies" that of which it is guilty - namely, the elevation of supremacism, the politicization of what should be, purely, a sporting event, and an imposing silence about doping in constituent supporting countries.
Posted by: Matthew | May 4 2024 18:24 utc | 34
Paris 2024 and Berlin 1936 in the service of an impossible imperial dream
by Thierry Meyssan
The comparison is shocking: the organization of the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 uses propaganda tricks from those of Berlin 1936. Yet it is nevertheless possible to explain: President Emmanuel Macron, like Chancellor Adolf Hitler, is pursuing the same "New European Order" project.. Unlike his predecessor, he is going about it peacefully, but like him, he will fail because, like him, he despises the people.
Yes, the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris will be an opportunity for him to stage his vision of the world: every time a member state wins, the European anthem will be played. Without a doubt, the EU will be the victorious power. In so doing, he will be fulfilling the dream of Chancellor Aldolf Hitler in Berlin in 1936.
https://www.voltairenet.org/article220797.html
Posted by: Paul from Norway | May 4 2024 18:48 utc | 35
There is of course the other US-imperial method of diversion and deflection, as deployed in this example by "Lord" rancid-fatberg Pickles of the Tory Party and Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), along with so-called "Jewish" historians.....
So all of a sudden -- a mere 8 decades later -- it becomes a matter of keen interest.
Despite the Tory regime (with full backing from Starmer's fanatically zionist alleged Labour "opposition") supplying missiles, arms, propaganda, armed forces personnel and money to both an overtly nazi regime in Kiev, plus an equally blatant and genocidalist nazi regime in TelAviv.
How hypocritical can they get?
Posted by: Cynic | May 4 2024 18:48 utc | 36
Jeff Harrison | May 4 2024 15:25 utc | 13
*** The whole hoo-ha over PE drugs is ridiculous. Some of the drugs are not actually performance enhancing, like pot which is on the list. There is no minimum amount that needs to be detected but there certainly is a minimum amount required to enhance your performance. There should be a correlation there. Why do you keep the samples forever and three days? That merely invites sabotage. The sport should only be concerned with the athlete's state at the time of the performance. Outside of that, it's none of the sport's business. So once the athlete has been declared clean for this meet, pitch the sample.***
At the 1978 football world cup in Argentina, the Scotland setup was somewhat de-railed by their star winger being expelled at the beginning of the competition for having taken an over the counter medicine (bought there) for hay-fever. Yet the potential side effect of that medicine, even in an excessive quantity, would certainly not have been performance enhancing -- it could cause drowsiness.
Posted by: Cynic | May 4 2024 19:05 utc | 38
USAmerika's machinations against Kamila Valieva and the RFSF predictably backfired. She is a massive celebrity feted in her home country, and followed, along with a plethora of other stellar Russian figure-skaters, with devotion in China, (shhh) Japan, across Europe and (shhhhhh) North America, all acutely aware of the own-goal scored by the WFSF and WADA in excluding the RF from their sport.
Posted by: petra | May 4 2024 19:14 utc | 39
Format | May 4 2024 15:15 utc | 11
*** American athletes are tested in USA's own USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency). I just wonder how well they report their findings to WADA or other international organisations, and if they let agencies from other countries test American athletes.***
With -- so far -- the exception of their football (soccer) team, for as long as I can remember if a US competitor wins anything, I've assumed that they are probably drug 'enhanced'.
Posted by: Cynic | May 4 2024 19:16 utc | 40
The US/UK/Israeli/NATO/Neocon/AIPAC/Nazi's empire's decision makers apparently think it's all a game. It seem they believe the ones with the most money are superior to all the others. Who does AIPAC report to? Do they take orders from few old families who've held western power over banks, energy & politicians for centuries - who have more trillions than they can keep track of? Is their #1 objective to hold on to the power over the people? Is it true that they have lost it (are freaking out) -- as they are confronted with the fact that they can no longer hide the truth from the people?
Note to Genocide & Endless War supporters:
1) Please be advised that while Karma can be very harsh, it is always fair. We all eventually reap what we sow. Please see a lare public school's classroom full of severe & profoundly handicapped people. Why are they there? What did they do or fail to do? Will I get similar circumstances in my next incarnation?
2) US gov't Employees & Contractors Can Be Charged w/COMPLICITY in War Crimes: 18USC §2441 & GENOCIDE: 18USC §1091 + "I was following orders" is NO excuse! There is No Statute of Limitations. Some should probably think less about their careers & more about prison, or maybe see & find ways to show court officials at some time in the future, exactly what they did to resist aiding & abetting in the crimes against humanity.
"Mass Leaking is the most effective political intervention." -Julian Assange"What kind of life a person is reborn into depends on Karma. Karma refers to all the deeds, words, and thoughts of one’s life... Karma is the deciding factor in one's fate in his or her next life." ~ Walter Hazen
Posted by: Will Seymore | May 4 2024 19:37 utc | 41
Perhaps I should have mentioned that the information warfare used in the West to push the unquestioning masses to hate & fear China (+ Russia, Iran, Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela) & others where the leaders have refused to kiss the western oligarch's asses - serves the ruling elite, who well know the value of keeping the people divided, distracted, upset, & conquered... and oblivious to the root of the problem = the ruling elite. A good physician seeks the cause of disease & treats that PLUS the symptoms, while mediocre physicians may stay focused on the symptoms & never seek the root cause.
Posted by: Will Seymore | May 4 2024 19:45 utc | 42
It is enough to mention Lance Armstrong to know who the cheaters are.
Look at this picture too:
https://celebmafia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/serena-williams-australian-open-01-15-2019-8.jpg
Posted by: Naive | May 4 2024 20:19 utc | 44
Posted by: Paul from Norway | May 4 2024 18:48 utc | 35
First it was the dream of Nietzsche.
Posted by: Naive | May 4 2024 20:20 utc | 45
There is a very odd claim to explain who the Deep State may be. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy and the world were facing the possible end of civilization, the whole Armageddon thing. What did he do?
He went out to cocktail parties in Georgetown. Out of all the alternatives, he went there. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Posted by: Eighthman | May 4 2024 20:26 utc | 46
Am personally involved in sport of cycling. Doping is the rule, competing clean the exception. Know many who have been tested hundreds of times and pass with flying colors in spite of being unable to remember last time they might have been clean. Tests become positive when someone becomes unpopular with the authorities. The few who race clean have a lot of nonsense thrown at them from every imaginable direction.
Posted by: oldhippie | May 4 2024 20:27 utc | 47
Posted by: Naive | May 4 2024 20:20 utc | 45
Die Kraft zu wollen, und zwar einen Willen lang zu wollen, ist etwas stärker schon in Deutschland, und im deutschen Norden wiederum stärker als in der deutschen Mitte; erheblich stärker in England, Spanien und Corsika, dort an das Phlegma, hier an harte Schädel gebunden, — um nicht von Italien zu reden, welches zu jung ist, als dass es schon wüsste, was es wollte, und das erst beweisen muss, ob es wollen kann —, aber am allerstärksten und erstaunlichsten in jenem ungeheuren Zwischenreiche, wo Europa gleichsam nach Asien zurückfliesst, in Russland. Da ist die Kraft zu wollen seit langem zurückgelegt und aufgespeichert, da wartet der Wille — ungewiss, ob als Wille der Verneinung oder der Bejahung — in bedrohlicher Weise darauf, ausgelöst zu werden, um den Physikern von heute ihr Leibwort abzuborgen. Es dürften nicht nur indische Kriege und Verwicklungen in Asien dazu nöthig sein, damit Europa von seiner grössten Gefahr entlastet werde, sondern innere Umstürze, die Zersprengung des Reichs in kleine Körper und vor Allem die Einführung des parlamentarischen Blödsinns, hinzugerechnet die Verpflichtung für Jedermann, zum Frühstück seine Zeitung zu lesen. Ich sage dies nicht als Wünschender: mir würde das Entgegengesetzte eher nach dem Herzen sein, — ich meine eine solche Zunahme der Bedrohlichkeit Russlands, dass Europa sich entschliessen müsste, gleichermaassen bedrohlich zu werden, nämlich Einen Willen zu bekommen, durch das Mittel einer neuen über Europa herrschenden Kaste, einen langen furchtbaren eigenen Willen, der sich über Jahrtausende hin Ziele setzen könnte: — damit endlich die langgesponnene Komödie seiner Kleinstaaterei und ebenso seine dynastische wie demokratische Vielwollerei zu einem Abschluss käme. Die Zeit für kleine Politik ist vorbei: schon das nächste Jahrhundert bringt den Kampf um die Erd-Herrschaft, — den Zwang zur grossen Politik.
Posted by: Naive | May 4 2024 20:28 utc | 48
Posted by: Paul from Norway | May 4 2024 18:48 utc | 35
He proposed to Russia a ceasefire during the Paris OG... Meanwhile I did not hear of such ceasefire proposal for Gaza.
Someone should remember him what happened during the OG in Beijing in 2008 and during the Winter OG in Sotchi in 2014.
What a psychopath!
Posted by: Naive | May 4 2024 20:39 utc | 49
Posted by: Caliman | May 4 2024 14:38 utc | 9
This is a long, well researched article on the unfortunate Russian figure skater.
Some believe she was actually drugged without her knowledge. TMZ is 100% banned both in and out of competition for competitive archery, and shooting competitions because it apparently limits quick changes in blood pressure which would help with such precision-oriented sports. But even if she did have enough of it (clinical level) in her system it's highly dubious it would be of much help in a figure skating competition.
In summary, there are four possible causes of Valieva’s positive test for TMZ: 1) from contact with the grandfather 2) from a contaminated legitimate medication 3) intentional use by the Athlete 4) intentional sabotage by enemies of Russia.The third possibility is the least likely because she had nothing to gain and everything to lose. She had seventeen clean tests, both before and after the sole positive test. Considering the geopolitical circumstances and timing, the fourth possibility is the most likely. There is motive, means and opportunity.
I would have no reason to doubt the fourth motive given the context.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 4 2024 20:57 utc | 50
BRICS should create its own Olympic Games and bar unfriendly countries that seek to malign its members with their lies distortions and manufactured controversies.
Posted by: nwwoods | May 4 2024 20:57 utc | 51
The suggestion by Mary @ 2 that the meals eaten by the 23 Chinese swimmers staying at the same hotel were deliberately tainted with TMZ looks plausible. Especially if other Chinese swimmers staying at another hotel in the same city for the same event were free of TMZ when tested. You would think WADA should have the power and resources to investigate and rule out the possibility of intentional sabotage in this and similar cases of mass doping.
I suspect though that WADA's scope only goes as far as investigating cases of doping in order to determine whether or not deliberate doping on the athlete's part (and on the part of who supports the athlete) has occurred, and does not extend to investigating underhand doping of athletes by agents (including governments) acting for rival competitors - because such investigations might uncover a few nations jealous of China's rise as an economic power as the perpetrators. And those jealous nations would be major financial sponsors of WADA so it would be in their interests tHat WADA does not have the power to investigate sabotage even if in the majority of mass doping cases sabotage should be suspected as an underlying cause.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | May 4 2024 21:08 utc | 52
I know this is in bad taste, and it may offend some, but when this story first broke, I made a sarcastic comment to a friend who was complaining about the Chinese women swimmers testing positive for banned PEDs.
"At least none of them tested positive for a penis."
I'll see myself off the stage now.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 4 2024 21:19 utc | 53
ON THE HISTORY OF DOPING ABUSE IN EAST AND WEST GERMANY, and a bit on the US:
I haven´t followed elite sports and doping for a while now. But the system and logic behind it haven´t changed in essence I assume, in recent years.
Time and again from within the sports committees it has been stated that there is no sports (even with such dandy categories as beach volleyball and race sailing) without the use of performance-enhancing substances.
In how far the US history is concerned I am not that well read. But regarding Germany East/West:
Medical expertise developed in Eastern Germany in the late 1960s on a big scale, and in the 1970s that expertise was imported to the West, mainly via the best specialists fleeing the East for the West. The FRG did it too but not as professionally and not imbedded into some state run system. In the West it was uncontrolled, more private and thus more dangerous.
Simply because in the GDR prize money won via sports was important income for the state. They needed the currency.
So it should be little surprise that the state controlled R&D in the East was regarded as national security issue just in second place behind WMDs. They knew if information would slip into the outside world it would threaten their needed income. (along other incentives.)
It is today best known under the name of "Staatsplan 14.25". Since of such high priority, it was a major role of German STASI to make sure of secrecy. Which of course caused all kinds of awesome drama which I won´t get into. (and on the other hand was a reason to make sure those athletes don´t die. On the other hand the lethal cases were covered up CIA-style. Up to this day there are still no confirmed cases of dead Eastern German athletes over doping.)
When the former GDR experts fled to Western Germany the heads of West German sports institutions demanded to use those refugee scientists´ expertise. For instance Wolfgang Schäuble, second to Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel for many years, demanded the abuse to make German sports great again in the 1970s. (One famous case is Germany´s leading head of West German fencing which was top notch back then.)
The result were record wins for Germany in the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics when for the first time a team of unified Germany was participating in the contest.
Manfred Ewald, who was the brain behind the GDR´s doping system, and on trial during the so-called Moabiter-Berlin doping trial in 2000, stated that in the GDR there was no sport discipline not affected. This was e.g. also true for table-tennis, boxing, fencing, even for trampoline-jumping (Does Anna-Lena Baerbock know?!)
Even though Nike has some serious influence even they could not mute all the rumours about their own doping system. Which must be huge. As incidentally the entire (covert) US-system.
Those who have watched the biopic "The Program" (2015) about seminal fraudster Lance Armstrong (highly recommended, directed by Stephen Frears of "Dangerous Liaisons" fame, screenplay co-written by investigative reporter David Walsh) got a glimpse of how hermetic the system in the US probably is and how closely interwined R&D, the sports utilities multis, the DEA, the Olympic Committee and the media.
One source for the US doping system, (among several others I assume) are US chemists/free time body-builders who in th 1970s got hold of East German studies about certain substances which could be used for enhancing performance. These individuals started to produce the stuff, yet totally under the state´s radar, and distribute it among the body-builder scene in the US of that era.
This was also how anabolics found their way into the porn film industry. And why human beings on those films dont look like normal human beings. From there it spread more and more in various lighter forms. So that today no genre motion picture can do without actors using that stuff.
So to put it out plain and simple:
Every state on this planet with a serious commercial sports system is using it. It´s inherent in the system. Those who point at others should quit or shut up. I assume to make it legal is the only solution in a capitalist system.
Posted by: AG | May 4 2024 21:50 utc | 54
I have a clear memory of stories in the western press and tv of post USSR Russian athletes being accused of doping and cheating, it was far back enough that it confused me at the time, maybe around 1997. I noticed it because communism was well gone by then and I thought we were all friends, and it reeked of the usual anti-Soviet manufactured media/CIA campaign, starts small and diffuse, builds, congeals, and expands till consent is established, all without an iota of proof.
It's not because they don't have proof, they don't want proof, proof can be contested and disproven, proof is temporal lack of proof infinte, proof sets things into stone which binds the manipulator, in propaganda lack of proof is more powerful. The slander of Russian athletes went on for a couple of years till 2014 when post Maidan sanctions pretty much banned them completely or allowed those passing tests to compete but not under their county's flag, think about that too, an apparent compassionate concession by the west but actually to pit Russian athletes and their millions of fans against their own country, or their leader Putin, another "geo-strategic" manipulation faking as democratic values.
However, what is missed in viewing this as part of a geo-strategic game is that it is petty and cruel to the athletes financially and emotionally harmed, people that had trained from childhood, and that too has CIA all over it. b is wrong when he says, “and that dear friends was the sole purpose of this nonsense." Nothing human beings do is ever so reductive, the people that work in psyops share the cop mentality and personality flaws, flaws that make them useful to their owners, they are among other negatives, petty, vindictive, and cruel, and these are people that, despite their rationalizations over law and order or patriotism and security, aren't fully alive unless they are doing harm. It's fun to fuck people up and shit on them, Chinese, Russians, or people on the streets of your home town.
During Soviet times it was clear to me even as a kid that the doping accusations was to disclaim the successes of Soviet athletes and so the Soviet system, not that it wasn't in part true but the west doped even more, always has, in pro cycling since the 1940s, too much money involved in capitalist sports not to dope, doping in the USSR might have been an order but in the west it's a sacrament.
I'll note that concurrent with the progressive ostracization of Russian athletes was the ostracization of Russian delegation from WW2 commemorative events. That really got my attention, I considered that untouchable, that's when I knew something was up. In retrospect it's obvious but at the time who figured on the USA totally losing it's shit and starting WW3 because it shit its pants over China sell too much stuff.
Anyway, this present slander is to make the Chinese athletes, their families, and their vast audience and fans all hate the Xi and the Chinese government. As last time it heralded an actual war on Russia I guess now it heralds the war on China?
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | May 4 2024 22:56 utc | 55
Instead of wondering on the performance enhancement drugs of entertainers, shouldn't we all (useless eaters) be concerned by the performance reduction drugs (cocaine) of the psychopath leaders who watch them from their confortable stadium seat?
In particular when they speak of War and population reduction?
Posted by: Asian frog | May 4 2024 23:35 utc | 56
America is using the same predictable game plan against China that it did against Russia.
That is, use "sports doping" as an infowar weapon against Chinese athletes.
More importantly, it demonstrates yet again that America and the Western-controlled "free press" will even resort to weaponizing apolitical activities like sports--all the while self-righteously appointing themselves as the arbiter of fair play and moral rectitude.
Ultimately, we are already inside of a de facto World War--a war that includes includes media infowar campaigns; regime change/phony "pro-democracy" operations; economic sanctions; and outright "kinetic military action" (like the Ukraine Proxy War).
This story is an example of the first category of war.
Hopefully, the Anglo-American weaponization of this particular issue will wake China up and realize that it will face the same level of hostility as Russia confronts and that it will never be fully accepted by America or its vassals, even in terms of sports.
I believe the Russians are organizing alternative sports competitions to counter the Olympics like the World Friendship Games. It would be good for China to place greater emphasis on promoting and supporting these types of athletic competition and not the Western-controlled Olympics.
World Friendship Games 2024
https://en.wfg2024.com/
Posted by: ak74 | May 5 2024 1:31 utc | 57
Historically there has been an alternative to the Olympic Games https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Olympiads#:~:text=International%20Workers'%20Olympiads%20were%20an,International%20Federation%20of%20Trade%20Unions.
Posted by: Barry | May 5 2024 2:08 utc | 58
Historically there has been an alternative to the Olympic Games https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Olympiads#:~:text=International%20Workers'%20Olympiads%20were%20an,International%20Federation%20of%20Trade%20Unions.
Posted by: Barry | May 5 2024 2:08 utc | 59
Marcus Tullius Cicero:
The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.
Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | May 5 2024 3:00 utc | 60
Instead of wondering on the performance enhancement drugs of entertainers, shouldn't we all (useless eaters) be concerned by the performance reduction drugs (cocaine) of the psychopath leaders who watch them from their confortable stadium seat?
In particular when they speak of War and population reduction?
Posted by: Asian frog | May 4 2024 23:35 utc | 56
They are definitely on that stuff, AF.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 5 2024 6:00 utc | 61
Speaking of China, the reality of de-dollarization is sinking in and the story is beginning to emerge in the mainstream media, as here in the NYT:
China Is Buying Gold Like There’s No Tomorrow
When you get to paragraph 17, after digging through a lot of trivia about individuals who buy gold trinkets, you find this nugget:
"Beijing is buying up gold to diversify its reserve funds and reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar, long considered the most important currency to hold in reserve. China has been reducing its U.S. Treasury holdings for more than a decade. As of March, China had about $775 billion worth of U.S. debt, down from about $1.1 trillion in 2021.
When China increased its gold holdings in the past, it bought domestically using renminbi, said Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International in Beijing. But this time, he said, the bank is using foreign currencies to buy gold — effectively reducing its exposure to the U.S. dollar and other currencies.
Many central banks, including China, starting [sic] acquiring gold after the U.S. Treasury Department took the rare step of freezing Russia’s dollar holdings under sanctions imposed on Moscow. Other American allies imposed similar restrictions for their currencies."
Posted by: Clever Dog | May 5 2024 6:56 utc | 62
Desperate and petty. Just pitiful how american institutions have turned out. Too much influence over every facet of america by a crude, greedy, and stingy culture who have somehow been allowed to ascend to power and wealth.
Posted by: Hahajizzjizz | May 5 2024 7:13 utc | 63
My interest in world football, athletics, tennis, formula 1 car racing etc has decreased from high to zero since 2022, since all these shows are simply shop fronts for the Na3i fourth Reich that the whole west - marching ludicrously in step like a North Korean military parade - has become. All such exhibitions of racially superior bodies are in the category of the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany. Le plus ca change, le plus c’est la meme chose.
Posted by: Andrew Sarchus | May 5 2024 7:46 utc | 64
The operation may be typical but Chinahand/Peter Lee who's my reference on the subject points out on twitter and patreon that current propaganda activity has increased a lot lately and given the provocative behaviour of the Philippines in the South China Sea and the changed position of the US over Philippines/China conflicts in the SCS it could mean the VS will intervene, try to get some military presence, in the SCS, to 'protect' the Philippines.
SCS and Taiwan are two complementary areas where the US is putting pressure on China.
Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | May 5 2024 9:44 utc | 65
I'll see myself off the stage now.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 4 2024 21:19 utc | 53
Outstanding Tom 🤣
Posted by: jpc | May 5 2024 10:44 utc | 66
The first Olympiad was , I believe in 776 BC in Greece.
The novel idea of the Olympiad was that all Greek city states would drop their wars and political disagreements with each other to have 2 weeks of peace with athletic contests.
In around 400 AD (reign of Roman Emperor Theodosius II) the last Olympiad of antiquity was performed. In 1896 in Athens the Olympics were reborn. Now the West has polluted the Olympics by injecting boatloads of politics, sanctions and other assorted bull shit which is killing the original franchise idea.
I didn't watch the last Olympics because of this lame, inane meddling and I won't be watching this one in Paris.
"I know this is in bad taste, and it may offend some, but when this story first broke, I made a sarcastic comment to a friend who was complaining about the Chinese women swimmers testing positive for banned PEDs.
"At least none of them tested positive for a penis."
I'll see myself off the stage now."
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 4 2024 21:19 utc | 53
Don't quit your day job as your 'joke' isn't the least bit humourous.
"[...] and squabble over gender definitions."
Posted by: Emma | May 4 2024 13:22 utc | 1
Yet again, the readership here can't resist blaming the symptoms of the deterioration of global capitalism on queer people. In Crankland we are simultaneously all-powerful and frivolous and weak. We have the authority to corrupt at the very highest levels but for some reason never get to be capable and competent in these fairy tales.
Posted by: luther7718 | May 5 2024 12:09 utc | 69
"Marcus Tullius Cicero:
The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend."
Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | May 5 2024 3:00 utc | 60
Cicero is held up to be a a pillar for the 'freedom of the Roman Republic '(ironic as the Republic had more slaves in it then 'freemen' during Cicero's time.) by history.
The thing is, Cicero was a greedy, awful landlord and a hypocrite:
" Ironically, the icon Cicero was a horrible landlord. We know much about Cicero and the late Roman Republic as many of his personal letters to his rich friend and Greek publisher Titus Pomponius Atticus (110-31 BC) have survived. Below is an excerpt from a letter Cicero sent to Atticus in 44 BC:
'As to your question about having sent for Chrysippos two of my shops have fallen down and the rest are cracking. .So not only the tenants but the very mice have migrated. Other people are calling it a misfortune, I don’t even call even it a nuisance…..Heavens above, how utterly trivial such things appear to me! However, there is a building scheme under way…which would turn this loss into a profit'
A great man, perhaps. However: the man who saved Rome in 63 would not lift a finger to provide proper maintenance in his own commercial property caring not for his tenants safety, health or convenience. One certainly would not want to have been, ‘Cicero’s Tenant’. (1)
"After years of trying, they've finally drowned the Holy Ghost of sports culture -- the Olympic Spirit -- in the bathtub of mercenary geopolitical schizophrenia. There are good reasons to get your kids into some kind of athletic activity, but what to do? Thumb-scrolling your iPhone doesn't count, even if it raises your respirations a bit."
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 4 2024 17:42 utc | 30
A well written paragraph!!
since canuck 76 mentions the original Greek Olympics
We should keep in mind that performance-enhancement aka fraud was utilized already by the antique athletes and their sponsors.
Historians have long pointed out that various forms of manipulation were utilized during the sainted Greek Olympic games.
Posted by: AG | May 5 2024 12:27 utc | 72
p.s. as "democracy" in ancient Athens is concerned:
only a fraction of the population was involved:
These numbers are from Wiki:
"With an estimated population of between 200,000 and 300,000 inhabitants, there were only around 30,000 to 50,000 full citizens"
For decisions to become law a quorum of 20% was necessary, i.e. 6000 people.
And remember the majority of the people were women and slaves without any rights.
Posted by: AG | May 5 2024 12:39 utc | 73
"With an estimated population of between 200,000 and 300,000 inhabitants, there were only around 30,000 to 50,000 full citizens"
For decisions to become law a quorum of 20% was necessary, i.e. 6000 people.
And remember the majority of the people were women and slaves without any rights."
Posted by: AG | May 5 2024 12:39 utc | 73
I really don't like referring to Wiki for anything other than simple stats.
Sorry , Virginia, Wiki is wrong: in the 5th century BC in Athens all free men of voting age had the right to vote in Athens:
"Athenian Democracy refers to the system of democratic government used in Athens, Greece from the 5th to 4th century BCE. Under this system, all male citizens - the dēmos - had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena.
In Athenian democracy, not only did citizens participate in a direct democracy whereby they themselves made the decisions by which they lived, but they also actively served in the institutions that governed them, and so they directly controlled all parts of the political process.
Ancient Sources
Other city-states had, at one time or another, systems of democracy, notably Argos, Syracuse, Rhodes, and Erythrai. In addition, sometimes even oligarchic systems could involve a high degree of political equality, but the Athenian version, starting from c. 460 BCE and ending c. 320 BCE and involving all male citizens, was certainly the most developed." (1)
"Don't quit your day job as your 'joke' isn't the least bit humourous."
AI bots have no sense of humor. Who is surprised?
Posted by: William Gruff | May 5 2024 13:45 utc | 75
There is a Chinese saying "造謠一張嘴，闢謠跑斷腿", which in English is:
Spreading a rumor with just one's mouth; refuting it breaks one's legs.
For anything and everything political or societal about other countries or peoples that comes from anglo sphere (amerikkka, little britain, can, aus, and nzl) and its vassals (like dw in German, rfi in France, scmp in HK), presuming the opposite to what is said will be closer to the truth.
Now, China has shown the world another paradigm to develop without colonizing or preying others and share prosperity. This hits the anglo dominance in the past 200 years hard and center. It seems that the anglo and its vassals in the west Europe have started Cold War 2 to circle themselves outside the world and the humanity. That is not necessarily a bad thing for the whole humanity though. Would anglo's ideology lead them from Cold War 2 to Dark Age 2 at the end?!
Posted by: LuRenJia | May 5 2024 14:03 utc | 76
"Don't quit your day job as your 'joke' isn't the least bit humourous."
AI bots have no sense of humor. Who is surprised?
Posted by: William Gruff | May 5 2024 13:45 utc | 75
I guess you don't possess the intellectual ammo or ambition to actually debate myself and my ideas so you take the plebian road : "canuk is a bot"
Pathetic: yet in complete conformity with your personality.
canuck 74
thx for the link
however it doesn´t contradict my comment.
" In the 4th and 5th centuries BCE the male citizen population of Athens ranged from 30,000 to 60,000 depending on the period. The assembly met at least once a month, more likely two or three times, on the Pnyx hill in a dedicated space which could accommodate around 6000 citizens."
I posted the same.
I share your skepticism re: WiKi. But ancient standard history is no arcane knowledge. Some standards there that historians agree on I guess.
Posted by: AG | May 5 2024 14:50 utc | 78
canuck 74
thx for the link
however it doesn´t contradict my comment.
" In the 4th and 5th centuries BCE the male citizen population of Athens ranged from 30,000 to 60,000 depending on the period. The assembly met at least once a month, more likely two or three times, on the Pnyx hill in a dedicated space which could accommodate around 6000 citizens."
I posted the same.
I share your skepticism re: WiKi. But ancient standard history is no arcane knowledge. Some standards there that historians agree on I guess.
Posted by: AG | May 5 2024 14:50 utc | 78
With all due respect about 40,000 male Athenians, not 6,000, were eligible to vote in Athens in the 4-5th century:
"However, the “equality” Herodotus described was limited to a small segment of the Athenian population in Ancient Greece. For example, in Athens in the middle of the 4th century there were about 100,000 citizens (Athenian citizenship was limited to men and women whose parents had also been Athenian citizens), about 10,000 metoikoi, or “resident foreigners,” and 150,000 slaves. Out of all those people, only male citizens who were older than 18 were a part of the demos, meaning only about 40,000 people could participate in the democratic process." (1)
1.https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy
This is the last olympics that will have any societal significance. US simply politicized it to death. Parallel global sports events will assume prominence now.
Posted by: casey | May 5 2024 17:42 utc | 80
canuck 79
great!
I couldn´t find the numbers concerning slaves and women. Now we have em.
(Of course not 6000. The quorum demanded 20% of the entirety elligible to vote, which accounted for roughly 6000)
Posted by: AG | May 5 2024 20:11 utc | 81
AI bots have no sense of humor. Who is surprised?
Posted by: William Gruff | May 5 2024 13:45 utc | 75
Did you see? The AI bot wants to "debate" you. It didn't name a topic, though. Shall we ask canuck ChatGPT for a suggestion?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 5 2024 23:53 utc | 82
Don't quit your day job as your 'joke' isn't the least bit humourous.
Posted by: canuck | May 5 2024 12:05 utc | 68
At some point, the above "AI" chatbot will find itself either banned or looking for a new schtick for its continual, most often off-topic, attacks on other commentators.
In the mean time, it's fun to see just how un "intelligent" Artificial "Intelligence" really is. LOL
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 5 2024 23:55 utc | 83
Hello b
Good call.
Turns out China was even bestowed that unique honour, of hosting the world's first GENOCIDE OLYMPICS !!
Actress-activist Mia Farrow is leading a 'shaming campaign' to tie Beijing's support for Sudan to the 2008 Summer Olympics.
https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0626/p13s01-woaf.html
OMFG
Those damned chinaman, not content with genociding
their own minorities , they even abetted fellow genocidaire all over the world !
Posted by: denk | May 6 2024 3:00 utc | 84
The comments to this entry are closed.
China and all of the Global South needs to boycott the Olympics in protest of the IOC's continued support of genocide. Let the 'garden' compete amongst themselves and squabble over gender definitions.
Posted by: Emma | May 4 2024 13:22 utc | 1