“International Clearing System to circumvent the dollar”
—
Yes, this is the crux of the imperial issue: a wholesale payment system outside the dollar.
let’s imagine that we are in the year 2045: the American Debt is 200% of the GDP and on top of that there are one, two or several wholesale payment systems outside the dollar.
Game over, insert coin

Posted by: Simon | May 12 2024 14:41 utc | 4

Victoria Nuland is obviously suffering greatly from the American exceptionalism disease. It drives her whole being. Pathetic. Her views are totally divorced from reality. And she’s obsessed with Russia and China. I relish the disappointments that are coming her way as Russia and especially China rise while the United States falls.

Posted by: Steven Hines | May 12 2024 14:52 utc | 6

The U.S. forces a cut in investment in successful competitors:
In fact, there is also nothing new in the U.S. slowing competitor economies by reducing their level of investment in GDP. On the contrary it is historically the most tried and tested of all U.S. methods of slowing down competitors. In particular it was used on the three previous occasions since World War II when the U.S. found other significant economies growing more rapidly than it was. These were:
Germany in the 1950s and 1960s.
Japan in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
The East Asian Tiger economies from the 1970s to the late 1990s.

Posted by: Maracatu | May 12 2024 14:54 utc | 8

That Trump is talking publicly about countries trying to flee the dollar means that reality is starting to set in. The wheels in motion are not easily stopped now, as major players in the Axis of Resistance have a lot of momentum to do so and pave the way for smaller nations to follow them.
I expect the Indians to remain the fence-sitting opportunists they are (not judging, morality has no role in power politics) however China, Iran, and Russia all know the Indians for what they are. Short-term oriented, while the 3 powers in the Axis are civilizational thinkers.
There are so many fronts for the Axis right now. Gaza and Ukraine are hot. Georgia and Taiwan are not. They seem able to juggle them, and the change in power dynamics happening in Africa, are the earliest signs of hegemonic decay.
Empires always collapse. The Chinese, Persians, and Russians have learned this the hard way. It’s better to be the main support in a machine than to be the entire machine in perpetuity.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 12 2024 15:10 utc | 10

The Mearsheimer link is not a substantive article, but a kind of generalized fundraising or subscription appeal. Yet within these limits, it is highly misleading. Even as Mearsheimer laments about how the insiders all think alike within the article he pretends in the headline that it’s “Biden” who is ruining things. Biden’s foreign policies are highly continuous with not just the last decades but even with the Trump administration. Even on Ukraine, which intersects with petty domestic partisan politics, Trump’s support of Johnson’s Ukrainian support proves that. If anything, the single biggest step Biden took to correct any of the longstanding wrongheadedness in US diplomacy/warfare, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, was the single event that really did unite all the MSM in prolonged siege warfare against a sitting president. (The popular line is the MSM was united against Trump but Fox and that whole right-wing media crew is MSM by any sane understanding of the term. Metaphorically speaking, this dogma is not a Clark bar.) Everyone serious—which means acceptable in class status or proven commitment—will pretend Trump swore to end forever wars. I suppose to be scrupulously fair, this is sensible because no one intelligent really believes Trump’s word is trustworthy. Nonetheless the universal rejection of Biden by the MSM highlights the practical continuity of policy over all the previous decades of the Afghanistan war, including the Trump administration.

Posted by: steven t johnson | May 12 2024 15:25 utc | 12

“since Jews escaped from a still unidentified pharoah”
—
“Moses” is a figure that contrasts with ThutMoses III, Pharaoh of Egypt.
Tut-Moses = son of the god Tut
(That is why it is archaeo-logical that from the first and most archaic interpretation of the figure of “the Nazarene” as a new “Moses” (Act) would end up as Moses = “son of god”.)
It is a literary fantasy written centuries after the collapse of the power of the Egyptian empire in the collapse of the Bronze Age.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Bronze_Age_collapse
‘to leave Egypt’ means free from its power
This literature of fantasies of Aramaic scribes of Chaldean and Persian times is remotely based on a real history: some Arab tribes: the “Hebrews”, that is, ‘fugitives, outlaws’ (from the point of view of palace scribes) and Arab deity: “YHWH”

Posted by: Simon | May 12 2024 15:32 utc | 14

Posted by: Exile | May 12 2024 14:01 utc | 1
(On the Demise of US Power, De-Dollarisation & the BRICS bullshit)
Just my instinct: the entire article is riddled with hints to the author’s true world view, dedicated to neoliberalism and US exceptionalism of which the article carries an overwhelming stench throughout.
Just a naive US-centred psy-op to try to channel BRICS innovations into some laughable “neutral” “international” “apolitical” entity that the US can easily strong-arm control over.
BRICS ain’t going to take it seriously for even one nanosecond.
One word sums it up to perfection. CRAP.

Posted by: BM | May 12 2024 15:35 utc | 16

John Mearsheimer:
. . What we need in the United States is an open discourse about the ongoing wars as well as potential wars. Why? Because unfettered debate maximizes the chance of coming up with smart strategies for either ending wars or preventing them. The key to success in this regard is to have well-informed individuals with different perspectives engaging with each other in the marketplace of ideas. We need free-wheeling debates that include unpopular views.
But any viewpoint which differs from US policy of a “rules-based order” is disinformation. Blinken has foreign nations signing on to a memo on it — most recently Spain.
. . .from Biden:
Disinformation: Our Shared Responsibility
“There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation — to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.” Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States
More on disinformation here — it’s mainly against Russia.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 12 2024 15:47 utc | 18

Ann Pettifor’s article is not nonsense, it’s legitimately about something connected to reality. I do wonder about her explanation for the end of the European Payments Union. The reasons it went away in the first place may prevent things like that from coming back. In particular, the ability of devastated economies in Europe to rapidly recover was partly a function of the destruction of so much capital, leaving higher profits for surviving capitals. The ability of an ICU to work such magic is I feel less certain. Additionally, the implicit notion that there are no private malefactors of finance in countries outside the US, UK, Japan strikes me as highly doubtful. Other countries may as a whole benefit from the reform of imperialism. But the truth I think is that the people of the US itself would as a whole benefit greatly from the end of imperialism. (In the long run, transitions are brutal.) Not happening and I fear similar reasons for not happening here can obtain in other countries, especially those with burgeoning billionaires.
On the general question of how monetary reform and anti-trust for global finance will work? I expect about as well as anti-trust etc. works to restore the magic of the market within single countries. It doesn’t. Many, maybe most people, know this. The question now is, which people selling this populist, class collaborationist approach are not consciously distracting from an effective policy?
And more specifically, the problems can’t be solved by Gold! Gold! Gold! An advanced economy needs credit, and fractional reserve banking is no more theft than taxation.
Also more specifically, the relative decline in the use of the dollar is a consequence of the relative decline of US productive forces in the global economy. But the dollar and the Fed also serve as the lender of last resort. The dollar is still the safes currency because the US is the safest haven for capital. (Billionaires do not buy second homes in Beijing, for a reason.) In many respects the world economy is the only truly free economy, where the market reigns unconstrained by government. The faithful should wonder why world economy is so unstable, I think. But when the big crises break out, the Fed breaks bad.
And by the way, any financial system, even a world financial system, needs liquidity, something that can fairly reliably be used for ready cash. That means, in the world context, the US treasury more than anything else. The true fall of the dollar empire means the replacement of the T-bills. Not a catastrophic fall in their sale—that’s “merely” a financial crisis!—but something else serving the role, whether it’s Bancor made real or whatever.

Posted by: steven t johnson | May 12 2024 15:51 utc | 20

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 12 2024 15:10 utc | 11
##############
I don’t remember your perspective on theology, regardless, in my (still very shallow) education about Islam, it handles financialization directly.
Christianity and Judaism once did as well, except the Jews gave themselves a “Chosen people” exception to exploit goys with usury (but not other Jews), and Christianity today doesn’t stand for anything in particular.
Riba (usury) has always been a sin. Good luck building a global financialization bubble (or a hegemonic empire) without interest.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 12 2024 16:08 utc | 22

News from Nato-Finland.
Finland has recently bought millions worth of anthrax vaccine from some US company. The government gave a generous two days or something for the (facade) procurement process. False flag coming? Or perhaps just more of that everyday medical torture and money siphoning.
On the topic of medical torture, according to government data, the number of cases of musculoskeletal disorders in 2018 was 785; in 2022 it was 1 220 064. A 1554-fold increase. Naturally no one talks about it.
Since joining nato, planes have been flying every day spraying chemical trails. Plenty of reports of high heavy metal concentrations in rain water, trees covered in aluminium powder and dying, eyes and faces burning, children and animals getting sick, snow glowing blue in the night, etc. Perpetual clouds and cold weather too.
After closing the eastern border with Russia and ending flights from Asia, Finland has lost 170 000 jobs (which is about 7% of all jobs in the country) from tourism, leading to economy drying up completely in the eastern part of the country.

Posted by: Michael A | May 12 2024 16:30 utc | 24

Small business story:
I started a tiny retail operation in France in 1992, the year of the Euro, distributing childrens clothes from a friend’s line in Hamburg. I lost my shirt because 1993 was a disastrous year for retail. At the major trade show in Paris, at the periphery with the cheapest booths were myself and a Chinese manufacturer; he simply taped his samples to the wall – no class whatsoever. He told all customers: you give me a photo of whatever you want, and I’ll make it for you in two weeks for less than half the usual price. Over the course of four days, lines gradually grew at his booth until by the end it seemed like nearly all buyers were ordering from him and none were going to the impressive, multi-booth displays in the center of the Hall.
The next year, many of those century-long established brands went under, most of them in part because of this modest Chinese man – whom I took to Flaubert’s on the Champs Elysees afterwards for his first ever expensive French meal which blew his mind.
This is ‘fair competition’. But the result was the loss of thousands of jobs in France including every single one of my vendors who closed shop. Maybe what the Chinese are doing with cars is perfectly kosher etc., but the effects can be brutal.
So it’s an issue; and of course not just with China.
Posted by: scorpion | May 12 2024 16:16 utc | 23
The problem isn’t the Chinese, it’s Capitalism. Unfortunately, that’s overlooked too often these days. There are big illusions in a new China led multipolar order. While that would be a great improvement over the blood soaked Imperialism of the West, it will be a Capitalism and will reproduce, in its own unique way, the movement of western capitalism to imperialism. Workers will suffer, poverty and billionaires will grow like mushrooms, the environment will be further degraded and eventually world war will be back on the menu. Only an opposition to Capitalism can move humanity past this infernal, rotting stage of development and allow the realization of man’s full potential, which is immense, despite what the western misanthropes may claim.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 12 2024 17:21 utc | 26

@ Michael A | May 12 2024 16:30 utc | 24
thanks for the update on finland…
unrelated – 1974 footage and music from norway – keith jarrett 4tet… fascinating for me!
Keith Jarrett Quartet , at NRK Studio, Oslo, Norway 1974

Posted by: james | May 12 2024 18:25 utc | 28

De-dollarisation
https://annpettifor.substack.com/p/the-demise-of-us-power-de-dollarisation
In a nutshell
Some 40-45 years ago the Palestinians surrendered; but the Zionists have time and again made it clear that they do not want 2 States nor do they want 1 Civilized State that gives Citizenship to the population, as both go against the whims of the bloody, fanatical and drunken Rag Doll in hands of Aramean ventriloquists who clearly says that the right order is a dominant people and a subjugated population.
Washington could stop this delirious cruelty with a phone call: -no more spare parts, no more bombs, no more money for your delirium.
But the grandchildren of a medieval ethnicity (the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Yiddish people, ethnicity forged by the rabbis from what in the past had been a religion made up of people from “all nations of the world” Persian, Greek and Roman) hold (1963/67-) the reins of the imperial Beast.
The whole world is tired.
So I expect some means of wholesale payment outside of the tyranny of the Treasury Department.

Posted by: Simon | May 12 2024 18:30 utc | 30

It is that
It is that slaughtering is their tribal custom and should be respected.
Well, but it turns out that it is not only a local custom.
Let us remember for example when the representative of the Likud in front of the television cameras in the Congress in Washington said: – if you send the sons of the American plebs to kill and die in Iraq and unleash Chaos and Terror there … “I assure you” that it will be great for the whole region.
And let’s remember when William Perry was replaced (1997-) by William Cohen as Secretary of Defense: “then the downward slope began”.
Sending a million Iraqis to hell or sacrificing half a million Ukrainian peons out of hatred for Russia are not local customs to be respected in the name of cultural diversity.

Posted by: Simon | May 12 2024 18:50 utc | 32

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 12 2024 17:21 utc | 26
The problem isn’t the Chinese, it’s Capitalism.

Totally agree, though am not convinced the theory of ‘capitalism’ tracks reality as well as most marxists types think. China is the latest major power to join the industrial revolution, albeit doing so in 21st century style. Plus their population is greater than the US, Europe and Russia combined so they come in as a game-changer which the others are having to adapt to, not without resistance and resentment. Although they do operate differently from the US Hegemon, they are definitely into mercantilism, big business, industrial production and all the rest of it, so they are simply the latest in a long line of industrial power houses. Once that initial surge is complete, probably in the next few years at least within China per se (i.e. not counting a century’s worth of probable boom growth in Central Eurasia), they might start developing a different type of post-industrial civilization to the benefit of the entire world, but that is a long ways away seemingly….

Posted by: scorpion | May 12 2024 19:05 utc | 34

If the cars are allowed on the market, tens of thousands of native jobs will disappear. A real issue.
Something’s gotta give.
Posted by: scorpion | May 12 2024 15:54 utc | 21
My take is that pre-WTO, there were tools to handle that, duties and quotas, but they were unduly cramping “global South” economies. In that context, disallowing those tools was a good step. But in retrospect, thing went too far, for a while (even today) multinational were gaining huge profit at the expense of Western workforce, while smaller global South economies suffered too.
That said, reasonably designed mercantilism may be a good description, but joining it with vilification and militarization introduces lens of “security” instead of “jobs”, and probably delivers neither.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 12 2024 19:27 utc | 36

If voting made any difference, you’d see riot police assaulting the polls, or, as Caitlin put it…

When nobody in power will lift a finger to earn your vote but they’re falling all over themselves trying to stomp out a robust protest movement, that tells you what the powerful are actually afraid of and where you should really be focusing your political energy.
Your votes don’t matter, but your activism does. These freaks are terrified that one day the people will stop playing with the toy steering wheel of voting that they were given to divert their political energy and use the power of their numbers to grab the real steering wheel.

…only it seems the “real steering wheel” has vanished — wending our way to WWIII via automatically autonomous artificial intelligence — indistinguishable from artificial stupidity.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 12 2024 19:52 utc | 38

Posted by: Maracatu | May 12 2024 14:54 utc | 8
The U.S. forces a cut in investment in successful competitors:
In fact, there is also nothing new in the U.S. slowing competitor economies by reducing their level of investment in GDP.
On the contrary it is historically the most tried and tested of all U.S. methods of slowing down competitors. In particular it was used on the three previous occasions since World War II when the U.S. found other significant economies growing more rapidly than it was. These were:
Germany in the 1950s and 1960s.
Japan in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
The East Asian Tiger economies from the 1970s to the late 1990s.
<=no argument with your facts, but maybe its time to look to the underlying behavioral psychology that explains the behaviors of those few who operate and control these nation states? We talk about each day about nation states in our inquires seeking to explain why things are as they are? One non religious, non racial philosophy, instills and internalizes a "we own it all" mind-set in its victims. That kind of mind set invites its victims to claim that only a few should dominate the many, on that only the few should have the authority to control all the means of production in the world, or that only the few should be able to control all of the wealth in the world and that the world owes those few everything. Experience has shown that the few are of the mind set that they have been appointed to use as their proxies, the awesome powers of the armed and dangerous nation states to assist them in controlling and regulating the affairs of the governments that control other nation states; in short they have set themselves up to be policemen and to use nation states as proxies to help the few enforce against the rest of the world, total dominance. Leadership seems to foster mental illness? The name used identified an inanimate object, in the case of your post, the USA, but the USA can do nothing, humans are animating action into the nation state.. The name is an identifier; the object is inanimate. If you look around the globe you see that those in charge of the governments and the large corporations and banks seem to belong to a class of persons who prey on the masses in order to control resources or govern the masses. They middle men their prey, benefiting by pitting the people of one nation, or class of persons, against the people of another nation or class of people. I wonder if there is gene to help identify these people? maybe the entire set of governments could be fixed if there were psychological testing and minimum psychological mental standards required as a condition of being a candidate either for a political position serving in an executive position for big to fail corporate entities?

Posted by: snake | May 12 2024 20:18 utc | 40

I got to see the Aurora borealis a couple nights ago.
I stayed up until dawn, and walked for about 10 miles down dirt roads.
It was amazing, though pictures, as night photography, make the colors look more vibrant than they really are.
At the peak, I was saying, “whoa”. I was in a wetlands, on a dyke road, but trees on the side. The “curtains” of light looked liked they were only 50 ft above the farmland. Very green. It looked like the trees were casting shadow, as if the aurora was a mist with a bright light from the horizon…
..and the curtains just would appear and disappear like ghosts.
I spent the last hour laying on top of a slag heap in a quarry, watching the show.
It was a bucket list item I was pretty sure I’d never get to witness. I am again just grateful to exist on this planet.

Posted by: UWDude | May 12 2024 20:37 utc | 42

Nudelman can only belch sulfur, so best to keep distant and wait for it to die and return to Satan’s lair.

Posted by: Matthew | May 12 2024 21:37 utc | 44

Posted by: scorpion | May 12 2024 19:06 utc | 35
I do not know why you are prone for all of this. But, in my opinion, this a mess.
If the posters can’t read all, any thing, even that things that make us, emotional, then we are not different of those of we criticise, emotionally.
The attack upon “Scorpion”, has any reason? He thinks whatever. Is he free to write whatever? Because if he is not free to write what I do not like, and he has not the right to write whatever he wants, I have a problem trying to ban his comments: I’m losing his right to be a conscious human being.
For me, he can write what he wants for. He is free. Period. And, in this case, always will be with Scorpion, because you try to shut off the free human.
Fuck off!
Let the people be!
Keep going, Scorpion!
If B has a problem with you, he’ll tell you.
Meanwhile, keep posting

Posted by: Caio | May 12 2024 22:26 utc | 46

Haaretz reports that

Israel was committed to keeping the Rafah invasion limited to the eastern part of the city and to handing over control of the border crossing to a private U.S. firm… As part of Israel’s efforts to win agreement for a Rafah operation, negotiations have been underway with a private company in the US that specializes in assisting armies and governments around the world engaged in military conflicts.

Gaza win eventually be managed like a private US prison while other ‘private firms’ loot the natural resources off the coast.

Posted by: Patroklos | May 12 2024 22:32 utc | 48

Exile | May 12 2024 14:01 utc | 1–
Read the short essay and commented there as follows:
“Problem with your thesis: How is the deployment of an international clearing system going to provide for justice and an end to the Zionist Genocide along with the Outlaw US Empire’s complicity?”
There’s never any connection made. Plus, the author doesn’t seem to understand how the tiny Zionist held territory is able to “control” the massive by comparison Outlaw US Empire.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 12 2024 22:42 utc | 50

@scorpion: increased use of manual labour, yes. The cities should be less hurried and loud. In Shanghai early 1990s most motor traffic was forbidden, everyone was using bicycles. I often imagine carpenters singing on a construction site when it is again noisy like hell here in my civilization.

Posted by: persiflo | May 12 2024 23:05 utc | 52

Posted by: snake | May 12 2024 20:18 utc | 40
If you look around the globe you see that those in charge of the governments and the large corporations and banks seem to belong to a class of persons who prey on the masses in order to control resources or govern the masses. They middle men their prey, benefiting by pitting the people of one nation, or class of persons, against the people of another nation or class of people. I wonder if there is gene to help identify these people?

You don’t have to be Hindu or Buddhist to both enjoy and gain insight from considering a very old cosmological description, part of which is called ‘The Six Realms’. They are a lot of fun and you can see them playing out in individual and collective life every day in no end of fascinating ways. I think much of the corruption and leadership problem happens because we have allowed Jealous Gods / Asuras / Titans to claim too much power and influence. This is entirely predictable when Kings are replaced by Bankers and Professionals.

Asura Realm
The asura realm is one of the higher, more fortunate realms where beings, the asuras, are kind of jealous demigods. Sura means a God and a means not. So they’re not gods. They’re fairly fortunate, but according to the cosmology in the assurer realm, they can see the base of the amazing wish-fulfilling tree that fruits only in the heaven realm. They can see this tree go up into the heaven realm where all the goodies are harvested by the gods and are inaccessible to the asuras. Therefore, asuras are driven by resentment, jealousy and competition.
Asuras are similar to the hungry ghosts in that they’re never satisfied, but they actually have all they need and even want. Still they’re obsessed by what others have compared to them or are afraid that what they have will be taken away. There’s lots of envy and quarreling and ambition. Asuras are too busy for spiritual practice. They’re tormented by paranoia and insecurity. They think there’s limited resources. There are winners and losers, and we’re going to make sure we’re not the losers. It’s a dog eat dog world, and you can’t trust anyone.
Who might be in the asura realm in our world? Many of the folks behind Wall Street? Those behind the political and economic machinery that places profit over life, based only on competition? ….
https://zenstudiespodcast.com/understanding-peoples-actions/

Corruption, deceit, betrayal, exploitation: it’s what they do. They cannot help themselves. The duty of any true civilization is to contain these highly intelligent, driven members of society into doing good. It doesn’t just happen but requires leadership, which requires a leadership class, which requires an advanced, continuous culture that is both sane and compassionate. Otherwise these demons rise and take over. So it has always been; so will it ever be.

Posted by: scorpion | May 12 2024 23:17 utc | 54

Posted by: UWDude | May 12 2024 20:37 utc | 42
I got to see the Aurora borealis a couple nights ago.
==================================================
Thanks for a beautiful post. We are having a heat wave. Whilst in Japan this week, haiku writers contemplate singing frogs. I spontaneously composed a few (then edited):
midnight frog-song
a spell dreaming our
deep pool of collective Mind
~ ~ ~
frog-song drone
summoning summer pond
of timeless memory
~ ~ ~
frog song in the dark
casting a warm spells
of summer silence
~ ~ ~
before birth
after death
frogs forever singing

Posted by: scorpion | May 12 2024 23:29 utc | 56

Do you know what is the problem?
For me, you are free. I ‘m not believe in nothing, but I have very clear that you has the intrinsic right to be you and be free. And all this people who want to shut off your mouth, whatever, They can, but I oppose something that has no reason. Free for all, in any case. If not, we are not free.
Keep going.
I do not concur with you, but it’s obvious: I’ll defend your right to be free.
Be safe
Be free
BTW: another brick in the …

Posted by: Caio | May 12 2024 23:37 utc | 58

Posted by: tim rourke | May 12 2024 23:42 utc | 59
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/nazism-socialism-and-the-falsification-of-history/10214302
The Nazis use of the word “socialist” was not that simple. If a “simple” explanation is required, I suggest the concept of “branding” in the PR sense. They didn’t start out as a socialist endeavor by any means, however. I do think the Strasser brothers were part of a group within the early Nazi party (or at least early in their rise to power) who believed in “socialist” redistributive ideals, but they were pretty quickly murdered for those beliefs (and allegedly one of them was gay, IIRC).

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 12 2024 23:55 utc | 60

The Swamp fights back.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/new-lines-magazine-washington-weaponizes-media/287375/
Every time one of these fake-ass media “watchdog” (read: smear and censor) operations gets exposed and shut down, another one – with the same players – pops up in a more powerful/connected fashion like a game of Whack-a-Mole.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 13 2024 0:05 utc | 62

Thanks for another great week b.
I read Ann Pettifor’s report the-demise-of-us-power-de-dollarisation.
I wonder why it is that she can’t bring herself to say a word about AIPAC.

Over the last 130 years there was, and is no situation anywhere in the world where the mighty US of A has not used its leverage “to shape the behaviour of others.”

$916B as opposed to $26B military expenditure, blah.
$25T as opposed to $.5T GDP blah.
300M as opposed to 10M population blah.
blah, blah, blah.
“Yet the Israeli state has succeeded in subordinating the mighty United States of America to its murderous will.”
How is that possible Ann?
Years past I used to read comment sections that railed against ZOG. ZOG this, and ZOG that. It took me a while to realize how true Zionist Occupation of the US Government is. From the president — I sleep at night dreaming of Zion — on down, to secretary of state; to the media, and other governmental bodies. 3% of the population has control of the entire country Ann.
I didn’t bother with the de-dollarization part.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | May 13 2024 0:21 utc | 64

Sakineh Bagoom | May 13 2024 0:21 utc | 64–
Yeah, I share your frustration and disappointment with that essay. I hope you left a comment similar to what you opined here.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 13 2024 2:05 utc | 66

I hope you left a comment similar to what you opined here.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 13 2024 2:05 utc | 66
Thank you for the reply, Karl. Nah, over the years I’ve learned to see who has an agenda, an whom they serve. My saying so will not change her one iota, I think. To exclude AIPAC shows both, agenda, and subservience.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | May 13 2024 2:43 utc | 68

@karlof1,
PS. I wanted to thank you for your substack. I’m sorry I’m unable to post there, but I do read everything — everything— you write. Not necessarily the long posts, but you comments on them, and I’m the better for it. Thanks.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | May 13 2024 3:29 utc | 70

Posted by: Featherless | May 13 2024 3:12 utc | 69
Forgot to reference Caitlin Johnstone’s piece from this morning (US time) in which she accurately refers to US “democracy”, the ballot box and presidential / congressional / senate elections as the “little toy steering wheel” they give us as kids.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 13 2024 3:33 utc | 72

typos – demanding unconditional surrender.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | May 13 2024 3:43 utc | 74

@ Aleph_Null | May 12 2024 20:19 utc | 41
thanks.. i have never thought of putting those 2 piano players next to one another like that! i like how you’ve framed it – via a trance like state which both seemed quite good at adopting when playing music.. jarretts vocal sounds never bothered me and i too liked what he said about audiences and all that… he was really emphasizing the importance of listening… there is no music without listening and it is sort of very much true in our interactions with others too, isn’t it?? if we are incapable of listening, we will miss so much…
@ UWDude | May 12 2024 20:37 utc | 42
nice!!!

Posted by: james | May 13 2024 4:51 utc | 76

@52
Try living in Mid-town Manhattan and you know the definition of noise pollution hell. I found Shanghai one of the quietest metropolises with its push for electrification. Over 50% of new vehicle registration are NEVs.

Posted by: Jun | May 13 2024 5:46 utc | 78

Quoting Jake Blanchard today:
“If it was a real bar, some patrons would be thrown out
through the doors into the gutter by the licensee.”
I suspect some others might have the shit punched out of them in the car park after closing time.
But it is not a real Bar after all. It’s not even a pretend Bar.
It’s a private online discussion Forum. 🙂

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | May 13 2024 6:15 utc | 80

Death Star
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Star
Death Star Core: CHIPS
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_House_Interbank_Payments_System

Posted by: Simon | May 13 2024 7:19 utc | 82

Block me, LD. And waste your time in better things.

Posted by: Caio | May 13 2024 7:43 utc | 84

Yay tough guy. Suddenly it all got too hard.
Thinking, that is.
*twinkle*

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | May 13 2024 9:31 utc | 86

@ Posted by: scorpion | May 12 2024 16:16 utc | 23
“I started a tiny retail operation in France in 1992, the year of the Euro”
What?what? Does that mean €?
Or Euro football finals?
Because every foolenoes the year of the €!

Posted by: DunGroanin | May 13 2024 10:18 utc | 88

Medvedev should be a fun read in a definitive translation.
It’ll probably be a copy and paste of much of MoA sensibilities.
Dominic Cummings should be approached like a poisonous snake – not at all or with a long stick, with which it should be mashed up, before its venom is spread through the air even.
He is the author of amongst many evils, Covid crap and bad vaxx, the inordinate amount of money purloined during that; BrexShit and the postal vote scam that made it happen;
Also the postal vote scam that he initially introduced into the U.K. in the North East regional referendum before using it in the first Scottish Indy vote, making sure that Lord call me Dave could make HerMaj ‘purr’ with not losing her ‘grice moores and castles’
He fancied himself as the Greatest Brain on the planet modelling himself on the nazi nasa scientist – but actually a veritable Dr Strangelove. More like the darlek creator Davros or Ming the Merciless! Comic book villains brought to life. You’d have to be really really strange to love that critter.

Posted by: DinGroanin | May 13 2024 10:31 utc | 90

The dog makes me want to puke.

Posted by: persiflo | May 13 2024 11:23 utc | 92

One more before an afternoon of charitable work – inspired by
@ Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 12 2024 17:21 utc | 26
“The problem isn’t the Chinese, it’s Capitalism.”
I believe that it’s neither.
Some People (the Eurocentric) have always failed to understand China (and any other Civilisation not based on piracy and theft and plagiarism).
There is a wholesale ignorance, deliberate for sure, because the old Universities have very learned academics and collections, they have been used to further the plagiarism whilst cancelling the ancient civilisations they plagiarised.
This cancelation still extends through this century, by the destruction of ancient monuments and history which still resides where it arose.
Capitalism and Trade are the bedrock of every successful civilisation.
The original capitalists have always been the Tool Makers and Farmers.
Try growing anything without a digging implement or seeds and weeding.
The flint arrowhead/axe head makers of the Stone Age were the apocryphal original capitalists and their product served as currency as well as a practice necessity.
Harvests are capital too!
Allowing for Leisure and Craft activities which gave rise to colours and pottery and scents and a paper and art – they too are made capital.
Human labour therefore is capital as is the knowledge passed along in expertise.
Money on the other hand is NOT capital.
It is also NOT wealth.
As a physical currency it is also NOT useful like the flint arrowheads even!
The best you could do with it was to use it as kindling to start a fire – and even then you’d still need a fire starter to make it even that useful. Though I haven’t tried burning the modern plasticised notes, so don’t know if they are even as useful as used to be as kindling.
The great western potteries, around Stoke on Trent in England , the ‘great’ names and fortunes that it created – also were ‘borrowed’ technologies from the Chinese, the bone-China, fine pottery methods amongst many technologies stolen from there – as a side effect they did give rise to certain family fortunes which gave some great minds – Darwin for example. When he’d got over his god delusion Sky fairy nonsense due to his rigorous research which proved geology and natural selection .. the scientific method being the greatest civilisational result of the Anglo European centuries – a system that allows the equality of humans based on ‘understanding truth’ not of some claimed inherent superiority of a deity and its human representatives who have god given rights to do what the fuck they like with the majority of not just their peoples but ALL humanity.
Anyway as a final observation on comments so far. – who has shoved a firecracker up some ones arse on this thread already to create a bit of agit propped anarchic chaos? Nurse ! Nurse ….

Posted by: DunGroanin | May 13 2024 12:00 utc | 94

karlof1@51….good read from Pepe, it was nice to get to the end and find my life path of Zen validated….arrived there at 16 after reading Siddhartha. Have never looked back….
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | May 13 2024 12:47 utc | 96

DunGroanin@….where’d you get the Shitesabre……:)
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | May 13 2024 13:25 utc | 98

One massive advantage the ancients have over us moderns–no media distractions while discourse and debate were commonplace whereas today they are almost 100% absent.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 12 2024 22:50 utc | 51
I totally agree, karlof1; thank you for Pepe’s piece! The ancients also were in touch with the moon and stars, sunsets and sunrises. Very important aspects of the human condition. Which means open skies. A turtle might fall now and then, but mostly, that’s freedom.

Posted by: juliania | May 13 2024 13:48 utc | 100