WikiLeaks' Julian Assange faces U.S. extradition judgment day

https://www.reuters.com/world/wikileaks-julian-assange-faces-us-extradition-judgment-day-2024-05-19/

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - A British court could give a final decision on Monday on whether WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States over the mass leak of secret U.S. documents, the culmination of 13 years of legal battles and detentions.
Two judges at the High Court in London are set to rule on whether the court is satisfied by U.S. assurances that Assange, 52, would not face the death penalty and could rely on the First Amendment right to free speech if he faced a U.S. trial for spying.
Assange's legal team say he could be on a plane across the Atlantic within 24 hours of the decision, could be released from jail, or his case could yet again be bogged down in months of legal battles.

Posted by: librul | May 19 2024 12:30 utc | 1

@Posted by: librul | May 19 2024 12:30 utc | 1

Honoring Assange's service here is one of his leaked Pentagon cables:

https://search.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10SANAA4_a.html

The cable involves multiple crimes.

Days after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize (December 2009) Obama murdered dozens of women and children in Yemen. He also killed a large
number of men, but military aged men are designated terrorists by Obama lawyers if they are in the vicinity of our use of weaponry, unless
they are proven otherwise after the fact (really!).

Obama was targeting someone that wasn't a member of an officially designated terrorist organization. It wasn't legal even by the Empire's
definition. That designation would come the following month, that is, after the fact. Obama missed his target but shredded dozens of
others including women and children.

The cable describes the act of cover up of Obama's slaughter of women and children, a cover up by the Pentagon and Yemen high officials.
Funds are exchanged, quid pro quo.

The cable describes a scheme to bypass Congress and it's Constitutional role in approving military funding.

Posted by: librul | May 19 2024 12:57 utc | 2

Helicopter Carrying Iranian President Raisi Crashes in East Azerbaijan Province - Reports

from sputnik

Posted by: Justpassinby | May 19 2024 13:10 utc | 3

"according to an American expert".....

That about covers a number of those links for the week in review. The fantasy world of American exceptionalism.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 19 2024 13:22 utc | 4

The trade war with China is an electoral device designed to mask the fact fhat the US and Europe aren't creative and competitive enough and they have not enough to offer that can't be procured more cheaply elsewhere. This is an old problem the US is not capable of addressing other than with illegal bullying and warmongering tactics. I have witnessed the deindustrialization process and the simultaneous development of Asia while Washington became each year more openly bellicose. No wonder China and Russia become themselves assertive and stand up against the bully. In the short term the open China-Russia alliance might increase the resolve of the US to add addional fuel to the Ukraine conflict wifh the aim of stirring chaos in Asia.

Posted by: Richard L | May 19 2024 14:02 utc | 5

In my view it remains to be seen if Al Aqsa flood operation is effective. Israel and its allies have damaged their reputation and their cause certainly. But other powers are reluctant to fully engage to stop them, so Israel continues to get away with doing it. Moreover the cost for the Gazans is just too great.

Posted by: Diagonal | May 19 2024 14:11 utc | 6

Craig Murray's piece is very good.
As is Richard L's comment above.
What both suggest but stop short of explaining is that the failure of neo-liberalism, after having been given everything its proponents ever asked for over fifty years, is taking the form of a failure of the capitalist mode of production.
The anarchic mixture of corruption, oligarchical rule and profit-seeking is proving very inefficient and fruitless by comparison with the socially purposive planning which China has proved to be so effective that other states, like Russia are rushing to adopt similar systems.

Posted by: bevin | May 19 2024 14:13 utc | 7

"US preparing a Spacewar" ????

What is the US smoking ? How are they gong to pay for that "Spacewar" ?

Posted by: WMG | May 19 2024 14:13 utc | 8

From NYT on spacewar:

No longer will the United States simply rely on military satellites to communicate, navigate and track and target terrestrial threats, tools that for decades have given the Pentagon a major advantage in conflicts.

Instead, the Defense Department is looking to acquire a new generation of ground- and space-based tools that will allow it to defend its satellite network from attack and, if necessary, to disrupt or disable enemy spacecraft in orbit, Pentagon officials have said in a series of interviews, speeches and recent statements.

A starship called "enterprise" launched to boldly go where no man has gone before... into ever more absurd and self-destructive seizures of spacewar. That's the real story, beneath the rather shallow pretense of delicate security details NYT holds close to its vest. This is what spacewar agitprop looks like. I think it looks ominous. Things could fall apart very quickly, with all the satellites in Earth's stratosphere.

China and Russia have to worry about what to do after the satellite networks have been scrubbed from the sky (possibly a matter of "weeks not months" as they say). That was probably a priority discussion-point in closed-door meetings between Putin and Xi. Say goodbye to the era of global co-operation in space, which once made satellite communications possible, back in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 19 2024 15:18 utc | 9

Posted by: Justpassinby | May 19 2024 13:10 utc | 3

Here is alJazeera's article.

Raisi crash

Posted by: lex talionis | May 19 2024 15:54 utc | 10

bevin@7.......

"The anarchic mixture of corruption, oligarchical rule and profit-seeking is proving very inefficient and fruitless by comparison with the socially purposive planning which China has proved to be so effective"

All States regardless of the "ism' of the day, suffer from from the same issues, having rules for 'all' and enforcing them would go a long way towards public trust. China, optically, does have the edge there.

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | May 19 2024 15:58 utc | 11

"The U.S. Must Offer a Substantive 5G Alternative to China’s Huawei - National Interest"

Our education system turns out Young Earth Creationists and Flat Earthers. Chauvinism hinders importing foreign engineers, the modern equivalents of Einstein and Tesla. How can we come up with a worthwhile alternative to Huawei? Tin cans and a string won't do it!

Posted by: lester | May 19 2024 16:20 utc | 12

""US preparing a Spacewar" ????

What is the US smoking ? How are they gong to pay for that "Spacewar" ?

Posted by: WMG | May 19 2024 14:13 utc | 8"

Borrow, borrow, spend, spend! Unless PR China and the rest of the world stops buying US bonds.

Posted by: lester | May 19 2024 16:25 utc | 13

thanks b..

i have read a few of the articles this morning and appreciate the links!! now, i am going to read some more..

Posted by: james | May 19 2024 16:53 utc | 14

Fun, but known, fact:

Karaganda suffered the most severe electromagnetic pulse effects ever observed when its electrical power plant was set on fire by currents induced in a 1,000 km (620 mi) long shallow buried power cable by Soviet Test ‘184’ on 22 October 1962. The test was part of the Soviet Project K nuclear tests (ABM System A proof tests), and consisted of a 300-kiloton high-altitude nuclear explosion at an altitude of 290 km (180 mi) over Zhezkazgan.
Prompt gamma ray-produced EMP induced a current of 2,500 amps measured by spark gaps in a 570 km (350 mi) stretch of overhead telephone line to Zharyq, blowing all the protective fuses. The late-time MHD-EMP was of low enough frequency to enable it to penetrate 90 cm (35 in) into the ground, overloading a shallow buried lead and steel tape-protected 1,000 km (620 mi) long power cable between Aqmola (now called Astana) and Almaty. It fired circuit breakers and set the Karaganda power plant on fire.

Posted by: whirlX | May 19 2024 16:16 utc | 25

The above is from the Ukraine thread but when being connected with b‘s spacewars reference above, the US might be preparing the ground for nuclear weapons stationed in space to do just those things. And now imagine that the whole world is moving to a state where everything is based on electricity, even heating etc.

That would be the perfect weapon to transfer the territory of an enemy into an electronic wasteland…

Posted by: Zet | May 19 2024 16:58 utc | 15

I guess this post is simply about MOA.

This place seems to value actual information.

I believe I’m gonna have to peruse it much more carefully.

Good job.

Posted by: Liability | May 19 2024 17:24 utc | 16

sean the leprechaun@15:58 utc | 11

With respect this is not a matter of 'isms' but of a basic divide between those who believe in community and those-such as Maggie Thatcher- who believe that there is no such thing, merely the appetites of those with the power to satisfy them.

Until the coming of industrial capitalism, nourished within the imperial system, nobody, this side of satanists, dared to promote a theory in which the great majority of people were farmed for the benefit of the few and in which famine, inadequate shelter, wage slavery and premzature deaths were celebrated as incentives to work.

It was with the coming of the empire that, firstly in Bengal and then in Ireland the new attitude towards the distribution of wealth in its basic forms of sustenance and shelter became clear: as the crops of a bumper harvest, in everything except potatoes, were rushed to the ports of Ireland for export the labour which had produced these 'commodities' was left to fend for itself and die. The role of the state was regarded by liberal theorists as being nothing more than the protection of property and the maintenance, among the famine afflicted, of that good order in which colonials are taught to succumb to the fate providence has laid out for them.

When Rosa Luxemburg insisted that the choice before humanity was that between socialism and barbarism she was not referring to any particular 'ism' but to all those various ideas and theories which, being derived from ancient religious and philosphical ideas about the importance of community over the interests of elites, see the purpose of government as being the equal protection of all the people rather than the enhancement of the wealth, and power of a ruling class which, in every case owes its initial advantages to violent criminal acts.

The point that I am trying to make is that the divide in the world is between those who believe that society can regulate itself and its behaviour and those who believe that regulation simply gets in the way of individual initiatives- a theory that never had much merit (as its spokesmen such as Adam Smith were generally aware) and has become, in a society in which monopolies and inside dealings have become dominant economically and select oligarchies have an iron grip over public institutions (including the 'democratic' process) completely unsustainable.

What is heartening about current developments is the manner in which, inspired by the Chinese example, a wide range of political factions including those guided by religious principles, openly capitalist states and nationalists in places emerging from imperial domination, are united in their belief that the purpose of government, in the final analysis, is to protect the vulnerable and promote the interests of the labouring masses. In doing so they fireproof their states against Fifth Columnists in the employ of the Empire, as it descends into irrelevance. And its own people are waking up to the realisation that not only does Washington not give a toss for the Donbas or Gaza, but it cares very little about the welfare of those who live in Peoria or Monkton either.

Posted by: bevin | May 19 2024 18:19 utc | 17

Resistance troops are now more effectively pursuing the remnants of US-backed ISIS cells within the depths of the Syrian Desert. These terror cells, though engaged in continuous disruptive operations, are no longer seen as posing a strategic threat.
https://thecradle.co/articles/strategic-setbacks-for-us-israel-as-the-resistance-axis-gains-ground-in-syria

Posted by: MiniMo | May 19 2024 18:39 utc | 18

@ bevin | May 19 2024 18:19 utc | 17

great post bevin.. thanks for articulating that here in a post at moa!! it really is the challenge we are facing here in clear terms...

Posted by: james | May 19 2024 18:59 utc | 19

also - that is a riveting and harrowing story that b linked to which i highly recommend - The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel (archived) - New York Times Mag... hit the archived link to read it..

Posted by: james | May 19 2024 19:09 utc | 20

Posted by: lex talionis | May 19 2024 15:54 utc | 10

Thanks!!!

First question coming to mind: accident or else?

I think it is crazy to use an helicopter close to a foreign country (see the links between Azerbaidjan and Israel...) or if the weather is bad.

Posted by: Naive | May 19 2024 20:01 utc | 21

Posted by: bevin | May 19 2024 18:19 utc | 17

Imho there are basically two kinds of people: those who agree to share the wealth and those who want to have more than the others and are confiscating the wealth for themselves.

The difference between solidarity, working together and liberty of exploiting, killing and feeling superior to others. The western masses unfortunately belong today in their majority to the second category.

Posted by: Naive | May 19 2024 20:12 utc | 22

What is heartening about current developments is the manner in which, inspired by the Chinese example, a wide range of political factions including those guided by religious principles, openly capitalist states and nationalists in places emerging from imperial domination, are united in their belief that the purpose of government, in the final analysis, is to protect the vulnerable and promote the interests of the labouring masses. In doing so they fireproof their states against Fifth Columnists in the employ of the Empire, as it descends into irrelevance. And its own people are waking up to the realisation that not only does Washington not give a toss for the Donbas or Gaza, but it cares very little about the welfare of those who live in Peoria or Monkton either.

Posted by: bevin | May 19 2024 18:19 utc | 17

If what you're saying is true, then Marx was wrong about capitalism and his writings would be applicable only to "western" Capitalism.

Nonetheless, the CCP is a hybrid model and they never really let you know whether they are a Capitalist country pretending to be Socialist or vice versa.

What your saying may be possible if China's Capitalist phase was only to defeat western imperialism and lay the foundation for a world Socialist federation of nations. However, until then, Chinese workers are exploited just a surely as the wage slaves of the west, though with a bit more humanity. According to Marx, at least.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 20:23 utc | 23

Posted by: bevin | May 19 2024 18:19 utc | 17

The problem here is that many MoA posters (almost always seppos) disagree with you because of their ideological commitment to libertarianism. The failure of the left to give weight to your commendable call derives from the left's belief in the scientific rationality of socialism. Rationality doesn't get you very far though. As Walter Benjamin believed, the left needs a messianic element. This is why we need to look carefully at Christ's method—radical critique must be accompanied by symbolic power, by a mysticism (although the fine line with fascism is a careful one to tread...). There cannot be virtue without terror, as Robespierre rightly noted. In our current imaginary how else do we account for the popularity of LotR, Dune, Trump, etc? They appeal to a popular desire for the 'return of the king', which, as Marx pointed out (at the beginning of his Introduction to a Critique of Hegel's Theory of Right) has a messianic truth to it, the hope, the dream of the masses (in spite of the misinterpretation of 'opiate' in this passage by many). The promise of a utopian future must simultaneously manifest itself both in reality and metaphysically.

Posted by: Patroklos | May 19 2024 20:34 utc | 24

Posted by: Patroklos | May 19 2024 20:34 utc |

Like the rest of the Frankfurt School, Walter Benjamin was not a Marxist. He's intelligent, has some interesting things to say and his tragic fate makes him more sympathetic than the worst of the Frankfurt School, but still not a Marxist.

As for the messianic desire, it's a vestige of a prior historical epoch and therefore unreal. It merely exists and that only because of the structures of the cultural regime of the late stage or last bourgeois.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 20:43 utc | 25

For the record, I'm no Seppo. I'm a Marxo. I don't pander to Dem infected youth with idpol, anti gun attitudes or lock down vax worship. I think Russia and China are engaged in an anti imperialist struggle that deserves critical (they are also Capitalist) support from workers of the world at this stage. Finally, I don't hide from or fear the working class of the west. I love and understand them, even when confused by the immense imperialist propaganda.

All of that is directly opposed to the writing and practice of the Seppos. I do respect their theoretical knowledge and educational efforts, but they are not the revolutionary party. Nonetheless, if I could force every moa poster to join that party for a few years, I would. It's a good school. It puts you on solid theoretical ground, but that's as far as it will take you.

If you've understood the education, you'll recognize that and desire something along more Leninist lines.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 20:52 utc | 26

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 20:43 utc | 25

Well good luck trying to convince people without belief. A failing mode of production will just keep doubling down on its dominant form of surplus appropriation until catastrophe. It will not be forestalled by any lightbulb moment, it will run itself out violently and with increasing panic and irrationality. The utopian promise, by the very definition of utopia, must manifest itself as a vision of the future, thus it is inherently messianic. Getting into some academic argument about whether the Frankfurt School were Marxists or not sounds like a typical dead-end party dispute. Anyone who engages with Marx and takes him seriously is enough for me—and Benjamin did. His theses on History are excellent. The revolution, when it comes, must be part materialist critique, and part jihad.

Posted by: Patroklos | May 19 2024 20:54 utc | 27

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 20:43 utc | 25

PS. by 'seppo' I simply meant old ww2 Australian rhyming slang for 'American' (septic tank > yank).

Posted by: Patroklos | May 19 2024 20:56 utc | 28

Harrison Butker and Colin Kaepernick - Strong Men Versus Weak Men https://tinyurl.com/mv6e4b9b

Posted by: Dogon Priest | May 19 2024 20:56 utc | 29

Posted by: NJH | May 19 2024 20:38 utc | 82
Prayers for the best outcome.

Here at the monastery we just prayed a Rosary for the safety of Raisi and the well-being of the Iranian people.

Instead of the Creed, we began the Rosary with a prayer to St. Michael

St Michael, Archangel, Defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke them, we humbly pray.
And do thou, oh prince of the heavenly host, Thrust into hell Satan and the other evil spirits prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen
So be it

Posted by: ChasMark | May 19 2024 20:56 utc | 30

@22 Naive

No, the problem is and will forever be the problem of envy.

This can only be reconciled by Christianity, where Christ is the physical fruit hung back upon the Tree of Knowledge, ending the reign of Satan.

There is no scientific means to rid ourselves of envy, whether by Marxism or (supposedly) via work and entrepreneurship in capitalism.

I am already envious of all the commissars who will be yelling at me through their megaphone to increase production. Who made them fit for the ideological educational role and for myself only hard labor?

This is why Christ will always be the way, the truth, and the life. Everything else is a dead end that will take us down the primrose path.

With apology to all the central planners here who advocate for Marixm, MMT, or libertarianism.

So you would ask what system would I advocate? Look to the Tao Te Ching and wait for one worthy to rule the empire.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | May 19 2024 21:01 utc | 31

@Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 20:23 utc | 23

China does not have a capitalist ruling class, instead it has a dominant Party-state which utilizes markets and greed among many other levers to help produce the best outcomes for the nation. That's why they identify China as a "socialist market economy". It is up front in telling everyone what it is, no matter how much people attempt to confuse things. As certainly the Trotskyists and many of the fake left (e.g. "critical theory", devoid of historical materialism and dialectics, practitioners) attempt to.

They did not have a "capitalist" phase as the Party-state remained dominant and when the greed element started to become a major issue Xi was brought in to crush it, which he most certainly did - including the disciplining of the major private corporations and their billionaire owners. Even calling these corporations private is questionable as each one has an internal party organization.

A capitalist state is one that possesses a dominant capitalist ruling class. Utilizing the market does not make a state capitalist, as markets were around long before capitalism. Allowing for a limited playing field for capital accumulation under the oversight of the Party-state is also not capitalism.

Posted by: Roger | May 19 2024 21:10 utc | 32

@Posted by: bevin | May 19 2024 18:19 utc | 17

Excellent post. Liberalism has always been the ideology through which the elites rid themselves of the authority of the sovereign so that they could better exploit the rest of society, with the help of wider society as they promised a more general democracy. This promise was of course always a lie, and those elites have spent the last two centuries plus first of all forestalling formal mass democracy and then undermining it and limiting its real impact. The liberals have tended to structure "democracy" around a strong executive function lead by a strong man ("Bonapartism") to greatly limit the impact of mass suffrage, and when that fails to hold back majority rule they have no problem immediately utilizing Fascism to make society safe for their limited form fo democracy.

Losurdo who wrote the excellent "Liberalism: A Counter History" detailing this reality, also produced "Democracy Or Bonapartism: Two Centuries of war on Democracy" which I am currently working my way through. Another excellent work, the provided summary of it:

The history of the advent of universal suffrage is a fraught one. As late as the mid-twentieth century, it was still impeded by forms of censitary, racial and sexual discrimination, which proved especially stubborn in countries with the most rooted liberal tradition. Moreover, no sooner had it been achieved than universal suffrage was subject to internal depletion that reduced the exercise of political rights to the acclamation of a leader vested with very wide powers.

In and through a complex historical process, Bonapartism has assumed its current 'soft' form, involving orderly competition and succession and resorting to the iron fist only in emergency situations. The electoral system most conducive to this regime seems to be one involving single-member constituencies. Cutting out organized parties with programmes and, courtesy also of the gigantic concentration of the mass media, depriving the subaltern classes of any political expression, it reduces 'democracy' to a contest between competing leaders, who are the interpreters exclusively oflocal realities or interests, over and above which towers the figure of thenation's charismatic leader. The United States represents the primary country-laboratory of the 'soft Bonapartism' that has also emerged in Italy, and which seems set to become the political regime of our time.

Posted by: Roger | May 19 2024 21:23 utc | 33

@Posted by: Roger | May 19 2024 21:23 utc | 33

The ruling class strategies to remain in power laid bare by Losurdo are incredibly effective, aided by the destruction of trade unions in the West and the domestication and/or disintegration of so-called "socialist " parties in the past five decades, together with the ultra-concentration of corporate power (including in the media and culture industries), through both corporate consolidation and the concentration of capital management in the hands of such organizations as Black Rock. The winds of change blow feebly through the West, and any hope for a positive outcome from the collapse of the Cold War was dashed by the US ruling class drive for Global Empire. We may now at last have a second opportunity to gain a positive outcome with the strength of an independent EurAsia and Africa, as I detail in The Winds Of Change Blow Stronger.

Posted by: Roger | May 19 2024 21:32 utc | 34

Central planning can be a beguiling concept, with production guided by higher ideals of what is decreed to be “the greater good”, but detached from the nitty-gritty of reality.

An admittedly simplistic example:

- the central plan decrees × number of tractors will be produced over the next 5 years.

- 5 years later, the farmers are standing around, scratching both their heads and their soil, muttering to themselves “What we actually needed was 1 years worth of tractors, 1 years worth of seed drills, 1 years worth of harrows, 1 years worth of muck-spreaders and 1 years worth of combine harvesters”.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 19 2024 22:04 utc | 35

bevin | May 19 2024 18:19 utc | 17

Your comment made me think of Karl Polanyi and his 'double movement'. While I'm no expert on his work, I find it very useful in understanding states and movements that oppose neoliberalism and market fundamentalism but are non-Marxist and whose social base goes beyond the working class. He suggested that society has a kind of immune system that resists Liberal attempts to subordinate all social relations to the market.

While the working class is often at the forefront of resistance, in some cases other social forces end up leading the struggle against market fundamentalism on the basis of traditional understandings of community and the role of the state in providing social cohesion. You can certainly see the contemporary Russian and Iranian states in this way, with more conservative forces stepping in to rescue their societies from the depredations of Western Liberalism.

The 'multipolar' camp in the world today is an unprecedented alliance between Marxian states (China, Vietnam, Venezuela) and 'Polanyian' states such as Russia and Iran. Ideological uniformity is not required to provide solidarity in the face of an increasingly unhinged Western Liberalism and its pretensions to replace all human relations with market exchanges.

Posted by: S.P. Korolev | May 19 2024 22:40 utc | 36

China does not have a capitalist ruling class, instead it has a dominant Party-state which utilizes markets and greed among many other levers to help produce the best outcomes for the nation. That's why they identify China as a "socialist market economy". It is up front in telling everyone what it is, no matter how much people attempt to confuse things. As certainly the Trotskyists and many of the fake left (e.g. "critical theory", devoid of historical materialism and dialectics, practitioners) attempt to.

They did not have a "capitalist" phase as the Party-state remained dominant and when the greed element started to become a major issue Xi was brought in to crush it, which he most certainly did - including the disciplining of the major private corporations and their billionaire owners. Even calling these corporations private is questionable as each one has an internal party organization.

A capitalist state is one that possesses a dominant capitalist ruling class. Utilizing the market does not make a state capitalist, as markets were around long before capitalism. Allowing for a limited playing field for capital accumulation under the oversight of the Party-state is also not capitalism.

Posted by: Roger | May 19 2024 21:10 utc | 32

China is in every way a Capitalist country. The CCP contains the bourgeoisie of the nation. Yes, China is currently managed by committee in a way that takes into account all classes of the nation and generally seeks social stability. It resembles a reformist Capitalist state, at best.

Is the Chinese worker not exploited in the production process? China became the preferred production platform of the world precisely because the CCP essentially provided their workers for hyper exploitation to the west and still does. A bit like a pimp.

"...the best outcomes for the nation.". Marxists don't focus on the nation but on the social classes within. If the Chinese working class enjoyed all the "best outcomes" I may agree, but we know that's not true.

I understand why we turn a blind eye to the Chinese/Russian wage slave and his exploitation. First, he has no organs to make public his struggle and perspective. Next and most importantly, the CCP/Russia are a critical piece of an ongoing anti imperialist movement (could also be cast as an intercapitalist rivalry) against US and western imperialism more generally. The latter is so atrocious that every sane worker roots for China/Russia and turns a blind eye to their exploited and politically powerless working classes.

I'm rooting for China, but to call it Socialist is not a Marxist position. This is more "end of history" stuff, but more dangerous as it is somewhat credible based on the foggy idea the world has of China's inner workings, the condition of it's working class and US imperialism's putrification into a global murder machine.

If it's just your opinion that China is not a capitalist country, fine. To each his own. However, that is not a Marxist perspective. If you claim it is then please cite directly to Marx, Lenin or Trotsky to support the position.

Trotsky is the last word in Orthodox Marxism. The sep has no material connection to the working class hence it's ridiculous political line. I don't hold hopes for the SEP, but Trotsky is an essential part of the Marxist canon.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 22:48 utc | 37

Ideological uniformity is not required to provide solidarity in the face of an increasingly unhinged Western Liberalism and its pretensions to replace all human relations with market exchanges.

Posted by: S.P. Korolev | May 19 2024 22:40 utc | 36

I and the sane workers of the world agree. China is leading the opposition to an anti human, insane, western imperialism. It must be supported in that endeavor.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 22:51 utc | 38

The winds of change blow feebly through the West, and any hope for a positive outcome from the collapse of the Cold War was dashed by the US ruling class drive for Global Empire.
Posted by: Roger | May 19 2024 21:32 utc | 34

The winds of change "blew" feebly through the West, and any hope for a positive outcome from the collapse of the Cold War was dashed by the US ruling class drive for Global Empire.

That period ended in about 2016. You overestimate and exaggerate the power of the western ruling class. One thing I will say for China and Russia is that they see and respect the potential of their own wage slaves.

Sadly, in the west, what passes for the left can't really see anything of value in its own wage slaves. But the accelerated movement of history will put that to rest soon. Check back with me in a couple years.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 22:57 utc | 39

C,mon @bar Iran President chopper down is big fucking news.
It’s assassination season. We’ve reached that point in the end game where Empire throws away any pretence and just goes full Kill All Enemies.
Also missing
Foreign minister Hossein Amir Andollahian
Tabriz Mosque imran, Ayatollah al-Hashemi
Governor of East Azerbaijan province, Malik Rahmati

U$ RCH 348 in skies over Azerbaijan at time.
> Those that monitor flightradar and U$ military comms noise noted references to Operation Casbar recently.
> Regime change is Go.
>… Chuck Schumer: helicopter crash involving Iran’s President “looks like an accident”. Intelligence authorities have told him “there’s no evidence of foul play”
[ OK. Schumer just confirmed it was the CIA wot dun it, and they think they’ve covered their tracks well enough, so you can’t prove it]

>… Ali Reza Dawari, head of the communications department in Ahmadinejad's presidency, has confirmed there are no survivors.
>… Slovakia’s Fico visited Azerbaijan a few days before his assassination attempt
>Iran internet shut down
> The Iranian rial has plummeted by 15-20% against the dollar in the last few hours
>…happened WHILE protection escorts were flanking.
Q: someone IN the heli insured the deed was done? Initial reports sounded as if the other craft has no idea it was lost.?
>… more than the Casbah is rocking. = Earthquake

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 19 2024 23:00 utc | 40

Congo
In in the actual heart of darkness, there's been a coup.
And US involved, duh
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/19/three-reported-killed-as-dr-congo-military-averts-attempted-coup

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/democratic-republic-congo-army-says-it-stopped-attempted-coup-2024-05-19/

>…The northeast corner of the DRC has the largest gold mine in the world.
run by Barrick Gold.

Gold? Gold you say?

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 19 2024 23:04 utc | 41

Posted by: NemesisCalling | May 19 2024 21:01 utc | 31

Nice mythological wanking devoid of any objectivity.

Posted by: Arganthonios | May 19 2024 23:19 utc | 42

Why Hindufascism? What does an article regarding campaign finance have to do with fascism?
Do you just believe in smear jobs and mudslinging without any basis? Just because you have your tongue stuck in china's asshole?
India has a better democracy and is more tolerant and peaceful than most of you western choots.
You are an equally despicable bigot like the people who write in NYT and CNN.
I understand you had a big abscess in the anal area some days back. It was well deserved. I hope it recurs.

Posted by: Surya Mitra | May 19 2024 23:46 utc | 43

KINSHASA, May 19 (Reuters) - The leader of an attempted coup on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been killed and some 50 people including three American citizens arrested, a spokesman for the Central African country's army told Reuters.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/democratic-republic-congo-army-says-it-stopped-attempted-coup-2024-05-19/
> Benjamin Rueben. Allegedly. From random comment on the internet. “1.2 million house in DC. Not a merc. That's an actual CIA”
>comment: “Why would they send in mercenaries with their passports.
The number one rule of doing black ops shit is if you get caught, your on your own. No traces back to your government. Or maybe, just maybe there's more to this image than your being let on to.?”
Reply1: “That's most likely not a merc, but a (((NGO))) worker, aiding (((democratic developement))) in countries that are on the way to break free.”
Reply2: “they aren't mercs, those are the american handlers for Christian Malanga, who died during the attack.
They probably thought they could take over the prime minister residence with their 50 hired thugs and just have the country for themselves, since this is how it used to be done in the past.
But now, the Congolese troops are trained by the Russian African Corps. (formerly known as Wagner group), so just sending a few armed thugs just isn't going to cut it anymore, regime change in Africa is going to be much tougher than it used to be.”
Reply3: remember the CIA / seal hit team they caught in Haiti after the murdered their president? They got in the country and in the presidential palace by claiming they were DEA and showing real DEA ID. When they got in they shot him. They tried to escape and were caught. The sister of one of the CIA guys caught said her brother told her he was going on mission for the US government. It was all over the news, until the CIA link was mentioned and then totally disappeared……

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 19 2024 23:52 utc | 44

Posted by: Surya Mitra | May 19 2024 23:46 utc | 43

Yeah, OK. But at least here in the west we can pretend to be socially and economically mobile - unlike your "caste" system which is quite similar to the feudal order that China obliterated in Tibet. Blah blah blah...Hindutva.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 19 2024 23:59 utc | 45

@Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 22:48 utc | 37

Trotsky is the last word in Orthodox Marxism? Perhaps self-described and a classic fake division that does not really exist. I have been to a number of orthodox Marxist discussions and conferences which are the very opposite of the pragmatic revolutionary drive required to produce and maintain actual existing communist projects. Endless hours studying the words of Marx etc. akin to bible study, and ridiculous pissing contents between different interpretations full of intellectual masturbation and pedantry. Attempting to construct a scientific theory of social change that is never complete, and will be never complete. While the actual real world turns. You can remain happy in your theoretical perfection while others deal with real actual in place socialist projects, using "good enough" theory rather than theoretical perfection.

In the 1980s Deng understood that the material forces must be developed to create the strength in China necessary to overcome foreign dominance and raise living standards, and that would come at a price. That was after Mao had built the strong base necessary. The same pragmatism shown by Stalin in the 1930s, without which the communist project would have been crushed by the Nazis. And once that was achieved, under Xi we have a major turning back to more state and socialist control; including the smashing of the corrupt elements in the Party. The CPC has extensive avenues for citizen input to be incorporated, and elevation in the Party is driven by the contributions to actual policies and objectives, not wealth.

Your other comment greatly underestimates the power of in situ capitalist elites, especially ones as practised and skilled as the one currently in the US. I feel that you will forever be waiting for the socialist Godot.

Posted by: Roger | May 20 2024 0:14 utc | 46

Russian Ministry of emergency situations is sending a search team to help. Enroute some hours ago.
Turkiye sent a surveillance drone into Iran airspace. [Ive not seen if this was invited or uninvited]
Iran President had been at the Azerbaijan border for a joint opening of Qiz-Qalasi dam. Pics of ceremony with Azerbaijan prez Aliyev.
>…inauguration of a Iranian-Azerbaiyan joint dam on border river.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 0:20 utc | 47

Guys. History is being unfolded right this fucking minute.
Israel/ U$ possibly very likely possibly assassinated Iran’s president.
And even if it was plausibly an accident.
It’s going to have repercussions.
He was a dove.
What happens when Iranian hawks get the football?
It was announced last week Iran has nukes.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 0:23 utc | 48

It was announced last week Iran has nukes.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 0:23 utc | 48

Really? Where?

Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 0:29 utc | 49

Really? Where?
Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 0:29 utc | 49
Not going to look for it right now.
Tracking what’s happening in real time in search

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 0:52 utc | 50

Russian Ministry of emergency situations is sending a search team to help. Enroute some hours ago.
Turkiye sent a surveillance drone into Iran airspace. [Ive not seen if this was invited or uninvited]
Iran President had been at the Azerbaijan border for a joint opening of Qiz-Qalasi dam. Pics of ceremony with Azerbaijan prez Aliyev.
>…inauguration of a Iranian-Azerbaiyan joint dam on border river.

The Iran ambassador in Moscow has (reportedly) met with
The military-political leadership of Russia: Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Minister of Defense, Secretary of the Security Council, Chief of the General Staff + Ministry of Emergency Situations.
>… Iranian ambassador says: Russia will send vehicles that can drive in off-road conditions.

The Turkiye drone has detected a fire site
https://x.com/anadoluagency/status/1792348729858768951
Has shared coordinates with Iran.

Internet Comment: he signed a 10-year Chahbahar port deal with India before passing.
How is it that only his helicopter went missing?

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 0:53 utc | 51

@17The quote from Margaret Thatcher is "There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first." Families looking to themselves first is "community" in the practical, mundane, everyday sense. There are many who are convinced that it's their own families that are being oppressed and thus are conservatives standing against the hateful oppression of some abstraction deranged "PMC" or other power mad frauds, like socialists and Communists and Democrats.

"Until the coming of industrial capitalism, nourished within the imperial system, nobody, this side of satanists, dared to promote a theory in which the great majority of people were farmed for the benefit of the few and in which famine, inadequate shelter, wage slavery and premature deaths were celebrated as incentives to work." Every ruling class that celebrated collecting taxes for the Empire (and often enough an excess for personal profit) did precisely that. Every noble who legislated against rebellious or runaway slaves did that. The clergy who invented asceticism, confessions, penitence, offerings, monasteries, inquisitions, on and on, did precisely that. The only reason to lie and glorify such age old reaction is so far as I can tell a shameless commitment to reaction today. The only "socialist' thinking I can see here is as superficial as that which led fascists to call themselves national socialist. By the way, religion misguides. And no verbal ideal will "fireproof" real world people against anything. If moral suasion was the key, the world would have been different long, long before even the Enlightenment!

Spouting so much nonsense, so many distortions is symptomatic of bad faith and secret agendas and helpless folly, hopelessly blended together in an unsalvageable and indistinguishable mess.

The pushback @23 denies there is any socialism by theoretical standards, which I suppose is true, especially to hostile eyes. If Marxism/Communism is the real movement, though, the theoretical images projected can only ever have a dialectical, that is, historical, developmental, even statistical/probabilistic, relationship to the momentary reality. Even worse, substituting an act of anti-imperialist will for a real movement is just a secularized version of religious conversion. I think it was supposed to be Debs who denied being the Moses who would lead the workers to the promised land of socialism, because he could by that power mislead the workers away from socialism. And misleading workers into the anti-imperialist paradise is too vacuous to lead to victory. It's altogether too much like waiting for capitalism/imperialism to just fall over and the bourgeoisie to commit class suicide. Ain't happening folks.

The constructive agreement @24 (with @17) calls for a doubling down on irrationality, religious illusions, messianic fantasies. It asks rhetorically why "LOTR, Dune and Trump" are so popular? It's precisely because these fantasies function to derange real change with an illusory satisfaction of genuine needs. The worst of it is, solidarity is irrationality by bourgeois standards. (And the bourgeoisie's ideas tend to rule, at least until people take real world action rather than raving about conspiracies. It is impossible to argue effectively against the heartlessness of the cash nexus while trying to substitute medieval (or worse) cruelties! Wanting to suck up to billionaires (whether foreign or domestic is truly irrelevant) in an alliance against mere working people with peculiar ideas. There is nothing more "metaphysical" than the very notion that revolution, which costs so much in lives and treasure, is nevertheless the way forward. That's why reactionaries hate Revolution, especially the "metaphysical" so very much. "Robespierre" the personification of revolution, the Cultural Revolution are both hated and despised with a passionate intensity by the overwhelming majority of"socialist" and capitalists. The feeling there is that enemies like those justify crossing class lines.

It is not clear why @33 endorses @17, given the pushback to claims the PRC is capitalist. Personally, I think, for just one example, the absence of free capital markets hint that you haven't got real capitalism in the previous meanings of the word. And I certainly don't think you must quote Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, three men who died before the PRC was even created to refute any argument for Chinese forms of socialism, at least before any identifiable counterrevolution takes place. That said I don't think purely political forms are decisive. And by the way, " Liberalism has always been the ideology through which the elites rid themselves of the authority of the sovereign so that they could better exploit the rest of society, with the help of wider society as they promised a more general democracy..." is altogether too close to the gibberish in @17. It makes some sense if artificially limited to western Europe for maybe the last two centuries, sort of. But nobles have often found that having a king is so helpful for moderating the strife with other nobles to the point they aren't mostly killed off like the less well known actors on Game of Thrones. Losurdo is excellent but he more or less starts in 1848 with Louis Napoleon. If you look at the supposed origins of democracy, the distinction between "elites" (a favorite non-Marxist swear word,) and "citizens" can be much harder to drawn than you think.

The problem with bad ideas, which includes all those that rely on "facts" that aren't and on fuzzy labels that aren't thought out concepts, is that they prevent winning. Good ideas are needed to replace the old. Discarding old nonsense is indispensable to this.

Posted by: steven t johnson | May 20 2024 1:10 utc | 52

Does anyone have any credible news about the Iranian president?

Posted by: Immaculate deception | May 20 2024 1:30 utc | 53

Turkiye drone found the crash site.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 1:35 utc | 54

looks like the crash was deadly

Posted by: ATH | May 20 2024 1:36 utc | 55

raissi and abdollahian all known so far

Posted by: ATH | May 20 2024 1:38 utc | 56

If Mossad and CIA aren't involved somehow I'll be surprised. The destabilisation of Iranian politics alone is a desired outcome, accident or not. And even if truly accidental it doesn't matter: Iranians will assume an assassination took place.

Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 1:53 utc | 57

If Mossad and CIA aren't involved somehow I'll be surprised. The destabilisation of Iranian politics alone is a desired outcome, accident or not. And even if truly accidental it doesn't matter: Iranians will assume an assassination took place.

Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 1:53 utc | 57

Can I add the french? They were not too amused by Azerbaijan's role in New Caledonia

Posted by: Newbie | May 20 2024 1:59 utc | 58

Press.tv

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with Iran's Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali and expressed sadness over the helicopter accident carrying President Ebrahim Raeisi, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in northwestern Iran.

President Putin on Sunday evening invited Ambassador Jalali to his office in the Kremlin and examined the dimensions of the incident and told him that Russians are ready to do whatever is necessary to help Iran.

A helicopter carrying Raeisi, Amir-Abdollahian, East Azarbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati, Friday Prayers leader of Tabriz city Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem and several other passengers crash-landed in East Azarbaijan on Sunday.
Even though Sunday was a holiday in Russia, President Putin held a meeting with the ambassador in the presence of the senior defense and security officials at 10:00 PM on Sunday.
President Putin told the Iranian ambassador that they were extremely saddened by the accident with the Islamic Republic of Iran's helicopter and that they would do whatever was necessary to help.
Putin said Russians are very worried and upset in this regard and requested the ambassador to convey his message to the Supreme Leader that they are ready to do whatever is necessary.
The Russian president said has prepared 2 planes to fly with a 50-strong relief and rescue team to East Azerbaijan’s capital Tabriz to assist the Iranian rescuers.
The helicopter that was transporting President Raeisi and Amir-Abdollahian alongside others encountered some difficulties and was forced to make a "hard landing" in the northwestern Iranian province of East Azerbaijan’s city of Jolfa on Sunday.
So far, many countries have offered to join search operations for the missing chopper.
Monday, Turkey said it was sending 32 mountain rescue specialists to help with the operations

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 2:01 utc | 59

Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 1:53 utc | 57

Not that it's outside the realm of what's possible, but given that there were 3 helicopters and only the one with the president and the other high ranking politician both on board went down, there would have been a lot of logistical coordination and a means of either sabotaging that aircraft either before takeoff or in mid-flight -or- somehow tracking it and bringing it down in a rather remote and mountainous part of the country *and* in bad weather.

To wit, in order to know for sure (or ensure) that the correct copter out of the three was the one brought down, IMO, there was an insider / infiltrator / spy working with the logistical people in Iran who relayed (and was provided with) intel at some point in the process. Other helicopters in the "caravan" didn't report anything suspicious that I know of. IOW, I am leaning away from the idea that it was shot down but rather it was an inside job and some form of sabotage - IF - in fact it wasn't simply an accident. This would not be a historical aberration either*, knowing which parties would benefit most and their capabilities (bribery surely being a major one).

Of course much of this is 'educated' speculation, and IIRC the search & rescue people did get radio contact with at least one passenger/pilot of the downed chopper after it crashed. The coming week should provide for some interesting news and theorizing.

*Dag Hammarskjold, RFK Jr., MH17, etc. (understanding that the RFK crash is still in the realm of conspiratorial thinking).

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 20 2024 2:07 utc | 60

Someone else may have posted this link; not sure how I came to it.

https://iranpress.com/iranian-vice-president-confirms-contact-with-passengers-of-president-raisi-s-helicopt

It's been updated *relatively* recently (00:05 presumably GMT?) and two members of the crew or passenger component were able to make radio contact after the crash. IF this is true and not spin.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 20 2024 2:11 utc | 61

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 20 2024 2:07 utc | 60

I guess my point is not what happened but how what happened will be perceived. Israel wants a wider war. Who benefits from this?

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 2:01 utc | 59

Mate, chill.

Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 2:12 utc | 62

The political process, notwithstanding the incident will continue to take place; VP taking over for some times; then general election moving forward; "political gamesmanship" will come in last; system is robust and can handle the crisis.

Posted by: ATH | May 20 2024 2:14 utc | 63

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 2:01 utc | 59

Thanks and had already read it in some sites.

What I find bizarre is that when the tu-23 was shot down I mentioned that it was bizarre so far away from the front and mentioned that for things to make sense somebody should be playing with fire from Georgia … this one might be more of the same.

Let’s wait for information bus something smells funny in that corner …

Posted by: Newbie | May 20 2024 2:14 utc | 64

Iranians will assume an assassination took place.
Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 1:53 utc | 57
Especially with U$ air assets in vicinity at the time.
Coincidence?
> scheduled event on Azerbaijan border.
>flight back over mountainous, remote terrain.

What the actual fuck were the Iranians thinking?

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 2:30 utc | 65

@42 arganthonios

Jokes on you, bro. No religious person ever says they are being objective.

...

But with regards to why a religious person, or a person who admires Christianity (Kierkegaard's 'The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle") would stalk an old leftist and communist hangout, I think the answer is illustrated by our current Pope's willingness to dialogue with Marxists, to the chagrin of many Catholics who identify as Traditionalists or at odds with this Papacy.

You see, Francis is an S. American Jesuit who, because he and his brothers have seen how Capitalism can steer a country into excessive wealth disparagement, correctly understands HOW capitalism can usher in Marxism. IOW, the more people who are pushed to the margins of mere existence, the more communism and its acolytes are persuasive in their case.

In effect, Francis and Catholicism is once again asking the question directly to the west: what will you have, the end of western culture/philosophy for universal communism? Or will you recognize that capitalism has gone too far? And that, far from the Catholic Church needing more Latin and ritual to return in a post-Vatican II world, it is the liberal world order that we have so foolishly believed that had done us wrong and so have kept no good watch over these excesses of capitalism.

Francis gets blamed for being a crypto-communust when he is the only one seemingly in the west pointing to the upcoming moment of "revolutionary defeatism" that poses an immense opportunity for communism in the west. As any communist would agree, capitalism's failure is baked into the cake, so we must acknowledge that to dialogue with Marxists is to engage with the future.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | May 20 2024 2:36 utc | 66

Newbie | May 20 2024 2:14 utc | 64
I’m busy harvesting info.
In a murder, and in a severe injury, there’s the “golden hour”.
All the best, un-controlled info is out in the wild.
By tomorrow BBC and CNN will have their scripts and the timeline will be muddied.
MH:17/ It took them years to delete and override the info that was broadcast from the site at the time. Witnesses, debris. The original BBC on-site report.

All major events are the same. Gotta harvest the raw info before it becomes curated.

>… what shits me is lazyshits come here wanting info who are too fucking lazy to actually read the thread.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 2:38 utc | 67

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 20:23 utc | 23
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 19 2024 22:48 utc | 37
- "China is in every way a Capitalist country."

No way. China is not a Capitalist system ... as Russia rapidly heads in the same direction and others already are doing.

Trade, business, mercantilism, markets, growing food and selling it, owning land and your own home or business, buying and selling exporting and importing and "money" and even "financial loans" does not make one a Capitalist society/nation.

there are many ways it gets described but roger nails is succinctly with "socialist market economy"

EG
The socialist market economy (SME) is the economic system and model of economic development employed in the People's Republic of China. The system is a market economy with the predominance of public ownership and state-owned enterprises.[1] The term "socialist market economy" was introduced by Jiang Zemin during the 14th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1992 to describe the goal of China's economic reforms.[2]

Originating in the Chinese economic reforms initiated in 1978 that integrated China into the global market economy, the socialist market economy represents a preliminary or "primary stage" of developing socialism.[3] Some commentators describe the system as a form of "state capitalism",[4] while others describe it as an original evolution of Marxism, in line with Marxism–Leninism similar to the "New Economic Policy" of the Soviet Union, adapted to the cohabitation with a globalized capitalist system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_market_economy

The CHINESE DECIDE what it is, and not superfluous social media jockeys nor the US Government. :-)

-------------

READ - you will not find the words nor concepts of "capital" or "capitalism" anywhere

Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects
Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China
October 16, 2022
Xi Jinping

"revising China's Constitution, deepening reform of Party and state institutions, upholding and
improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernizing China's system and capacity for governance, formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives through the Year 2035, ...."
"... We have put forward and applied a new development philosophy, worked hard
to promote high-quality development, and pushed to foster a new pattern of
development."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tGegLW_OEtEJXxJbtnDndJECKA7OASYh/view?pli=1

It's easy to see what China is NOT ...

China’s comprehensive, systematic and elaborate response to Secretary Antony Blinken’s China policy speech
—— Reality Check: Falsehoods in US Perceptions of China
2022/06/19
The American-style democracy is a rich men’s game based on capital. Money politics penetrates the entire process of election, legislation and administration in the US. People in fact only have a restricted right to political participation. The inequality in economic status has turned into inequality in political status. According to statistics, winners of 91 percent of US congressional elections are the candidates with greater financial support. Big companies, a small group of rich people, and interest groups are more generous to offer financial support and have become the main source of electoral funding. The so-called representatives of people’s will, once elected, often serve the interests of their financial backers, and speak for vested interests rather than the ordinary people. A US Senator had a sharp observation, “Congress does not regulate Wall Street. Wall Street regulates Congress.” 
and
Noam Chomsky, a political commentator and social activist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, points out that the US is a “really existing capitalist democracy”, where there is a positive correlation between people’s wealth and their influence on policy-making. For the lower 70 percent on the wealth/income scale, they have no influence on policy whatsoever. They are effectively disenfranchised.
and
On the surface, these anti-China rhetoric come from certain media outlets and politicians, but what lies underneath is a massive capital-driven supply chain — some institutions and organizations from the US and other Western countries provide dirty funding for political purposes to anti-China groups and individuals; some think-tanks and academic institutions make up fact-twisting stories to fuel anti-China rhetoric around the world through Western hegemony on public opinion; and politicians and media act as mouthpieces propagating lies and falsehoods about China in massive smear campaigns.
and
US tariffs against China have cost American companies more than 1.7 trillion US dollars in market capitalization and increased average household expenditure by 1,300 US dollars per year.
and
 The so-called Chinese “debt trap” is a narrative trap that the US and some other Western countries use to defame and smear China and disrupt China’s cooperation with other developing countries. As a 2021 article in The Atlantic points out, the debt-trap narrative is just a lie fabricated by some Western politicians, and a powerful one.

Western capital constitutes the largest creditor of developing countries. According to the 2022 statistics of the World Bank on international debt, 28.8 percent of Africa’s outstanding external debt is owed to multilateral financial institutions and 41.8 percent to commercial creditors mainly composed of Western financial institutions. These two types of institutions together hold nearly three-quarters of the debt, making them the primary creditors of Africa’s debt.
http://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/zmgx/zxxx/202206/t20220619_10706097.htm

Dongsheng Explains is a publication that introduces core concepts, processes, and phenomena in China.
https://dongshengnews.org/en/ds-explains/

Whole-process democracy puts people first
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202309/23/WS650e3323a310d2dce4bb762e.html

On September 26, China's State Council Information Office released a white paper titled "A Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actions."
Human society is now facing a "life-or-death choice:" whether to enter into a vicious cycle of continuous confrontation and division or to seek a path of cooperation and win-win...

Against the backdrop of the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping's proposal of building a global community of shared future, China has introduced the theoretical base, practice and development of a global community of shared future, and points the way toward a better future for the world. Anyone, be they are developing countries seeking to learn from China or individuals from Western countries who are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of China, will find inspiration in it as long as they approach it without biased views.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202309/1299005.shtml
ENG TEXT
https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202309/26/content_WS6512703dc6d0868f4e8dfc37.html

Of course all these things matter not at all to the ongoing hegemony of the west .... maybe even few in the global south know about these ideas and the political/economic philosophy of China today.

Cheers all.

Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | May 20 2024 2:46 utc | 68

There is a posting up at The Register with the title

How two brothers allegedly swiped $25M in a 12-second Ethereum heist

link: https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/18/brother_etherium_heist/

The quote

"The defendants' scheme calls the very integrity of the blockchain into question," added United States attorney Damian Williams.

The quote is an overstatement but true of the permissionless blockchain technology as the posting describes.

Its not just that permissionless crypto does not scale but it has no intrinsic value similar to fiat money we live with now but change is coming and when it does permissionless crypto will go up in smoke.

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 20 2024 2:54 utc | 69

All major events are the same. Gotta harvest the raw info before it becomes curated.

>… what shits me is lazyshits come here wanting info who are too fucking lazy to actually read the thread.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 2:38 utc | 67

I just mentioned I was following it on Sputnik … and was waiting for any info on foul play, just find that particular corner has had to many strange incidents.

And thank you, you normally post some good stuff

Posted by: Newbie | May 20 2024 2:57 utc | 70

Tony
@Cyberspec1
⚡️On the Iranian Presidents Helicopter crash...

🇮🇷 The governor who was flying with the President of Iran got in touch, he is in great pain and hears the sound of sirens

▪️The imam of the city of Tabriz, who was in the helicopter with Raisi, got in touch twice after the hard landing and reported feeling unwell.
▪️The exact location of Raisi’s helicopter was established, and a signal was received from the phone of one of the crew members.

🇷🇺On Putin’s instructions, 2 planes, helicopters and 50 professional mountain rescuers will leave for Tabriz in an hour to help search for President Raisi’s helicopter - Tasnim Agency

🇹🇷Turkey provided Iran with an Akıncı UAV and a helicopter with a night vision system to participate in the search for the helicopter carrying President Raisi.

Looks like the US is on a bit of a killing spree.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 20 2024 3:01 utc | 71

That wasn't right - US is always on a killing spree. Make it a PM and presidential killing spree.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 20 2024 3:02 utc | 72

Psycho 69

No fan of ETH myself, but q for you:

If it is a permissioned monetary system (of which most are these days, even ETH!), does it not tend to central oracles then? If so, how and who gets to play oracle without resulting in the same situations we presently see? (US freezing assets, Russia counter freezing assets)

PS this is part of the reason why, imo, “the Unit” announcement was, frankly, laughable

Posted by: E | May 20 2024 3:06 utc | 73

Anadolu English
@anadoluagency
·
14m
#BREAKING No survivors from helicopter crash involving Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, says Iranian state television
https://x.com/anadoluagency

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 20 2024 3:16 utc | 74

Posted by: E | May 20 2024 3:06 utc | 73

First I demand to know what F has to say about that!

While Q might have useful things to add to the discussion. While not ignoring K as well.

Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | May 20 2024 3:27 utc | 75

@ E | May 20 2024 3:06 utc | 73 about the crypto thing

I agree that I got carried away with The Unit but I want an alternative to the private jackboot.

I see the only oracles, if I understand your characterization, as sovereign nations working with other sovereign nations to manage trade. I would hope we don't evolve to another one nation Reserve Currency that can be used in asset freezing stupidity like we have now.

I believe we can learn to live and work together w/o one nation or sub-cult of our species being dominant.

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 20 2024 3:31 utc | 76

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 2:38 utc | 67

Looks like the narrative curation is in place already: "mountainous terrain, bad weather..." = guaranteed helicopter crash. Nothing to see here.

Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 3:51 utc | 77

Patroklos | May 20 2024 3:51 utc | 77
One of the very first to report the death was a presstitute from The Atlantic.
in poker, this is a “tell”.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 3:59 utc | 78

Patroklos | May 20 2024 3:51 utc | 77

Footage here from the Turkish drone. Apparently 2km from where the vehicles pull up on the road up to the crash site. From some of the footage in various videos from the drone, there looks to be patchy cloud fog about but also plenty of clear spots.
https://x.com/anadoluagency/status/1792388645611037072

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 20 2024 4:01 utc | 79

Newbie | May 20 2024 2:57 utc | 70
You m8, were not the target of my ire.
I could call out the lazyshits who shit me, but that starts yet another derailing flame war….

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 4:02 utc | 80

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-parliament-election-ultra-conservative-winners
Does this article discussing the principlist Omana coalition, backed by President Ebrahim Raisi, versus the Endurance Front, allied with former Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC) commander and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, suggest conflict inside of Iran?

I know so very little about Iran.. somebody please comment..

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/no-sign-life-iranian-president-raisis-helicopter-wreck <=crash site reached no sign of life.

Posted by: snake | May 20 2024 4:08 utc | 81

For those with a spidey sense of a Georgian +/- French connection to the Iranian helicopter down.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili asks Macron to come and help rid the country of Russian influence!
From an interview with the French newspaper La Tribune:
This is very important for the future of the European Union, including its security. This is the Black Sea, a transit zone for energy and communications. The fact that France is not present here is bad.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 4:12 utc | 82

Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 2:12 utc | 62

Do yourself and the rest of us a favor and lay off the booze, mate. Such a self-righteous prick and an Aussie at that. You folks are supposed to be easygoing.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 20 2024 4:22 utc | 83

Melaleuca | May 20 2024 4:12 utc | 82

Like New Caledonia, Georgia becoming a French 'possession'?

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 20 2024 4:22 utc | 84

Posted by: snake | May 20 2024 4:08 utc | 81

Good question, and I dont know how serious internal conflicts in Iran are. I suspect nobody does except upper echelon Iranians.

AFAIK there have not been any interior ministry sackings, jailing of former presidents for corruption, or persecution of major former politicians by the judicial system, so at least from the outside, the internal conflict does not look civil war intense, (like usa, colombia, brazil or argentina).

Posted by: UWDude | May 20 2024 4:23 utc | 85

Posted by: Patroklos | May 20 2024 2:12 utc | 62

Eh...I guess you weren't *that* hard on Melealuca.

May have been a little too quick with the draw on that one. Sorry.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 20 2024 4:25 utc | 86

Iran helicopter crash - Initial analysis

The helicopter has been found. The cockpit has been destroyed by fire, only the tail boom remains. All those onboard, including President Ebrahim Raisi, have been pronounced dead.

The helicopter was flying over a mountainous border region, after a meeting between Raisi and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev at the state border.

The weather was bad with heavy fog. I initially thought that the helicopter might have flown into the mountainside in zero visibility. This may be the case.

Israeli intelligence says this about the helicopter:

EXCLUSIVE - The helicopter that flew President Raisi is a "Bell 412" (6-9221) and not a Russian helicopter. This is an Iranian Air Force helicopter that was converted three years ago to be used by the Iranian government.

https://x.com/IntelliTimes/status/1792207335576015214 (archive photo of helicopter)

Photos and video from the crash site have now emerged.

‼️🇮🇷🚁💥 Drone footage of the crash site of President #Raisi's helicopter. #Iran

https://x.com/MaimunkaNews/status/1792397706599780542

Iranian TV: There is no evidence of life in the helicopter wreckage

Iranian media confirms the death of the President, the Foreign Minister, and their accompanying delegation on board

https://x.com/almasdaronline/status/1792390867874922967 (burnt cockpit)

Iranian media say that President Ebrahim Raisi's plane crash was caused by a collision with a mountain

https://x.com/almasdaronline/status/1792402280475726059 (screenshot from drone footage)

Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in East Azerbaijan Province: Some of the bodies of the ill-fated president's helicopter were completely burned and cannot be identified.

Photo from the official Fars News Agency of part of the plane's remains

https://x.com/almasdaronline/status/1792406249231007827 (undamaged tail boom)

The tail boom is pointing uphill on the mountainside. The closeup photo of the boom however shows that it is upside down. This suggest the helicopter approached the mountainside at high speed and the boom flew over the cockpit.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | May 20 2024 4:29 utc | 87

Comment from the internet:
Israel + Azerbaijan
Israel has established an intelligence base, an airfield, and an agreement to develop two new surveillance satellites from Azerbaijan.
Israel accounts for almost 70% of Azerbaijan’s significant weapons imports.
At least 40% of Israel’s oil is supplied via a pipeline that runs through Turkiye.
As Israel’s #1 customer for arms, Israel is more deeply embedded within the military system of Azerbaijan than anywhere else.
——
Be the Iranian President and foreign minister
Fly in an old helicopter to border with your biggest enemy’s BFF.
Be surprised when your helicopter faceplants into a remote mountain.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 4:30 utc | 88

Saddened.
https://x.com/IsraelWarRoom/status/1792346512586059876
India perspective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQSM1O8kAbo

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 4:33 utc | 89

There were two other choppers of reasonably trustworthy men. If it was more than a crash, they would say.

Then the only other way this could be an assassination is secret weapon of some sort, perhaps a very small device wired to blow a critical component.

"Make it look like an accident", would just mean waiting for a time and place with poor air travel conditions to deploy said weapon.

That said, the civilian government of Iran is neither revered or loved, or even essential to Iran, and I mean the president is not that powerful, much more bully pulpit type, which means charisma required, and Raisi did not have it, at least not compared to Ahmedinijad, who was the most charismatic in my memory, but still not "earth shaking" amazing, like say Trump, and neither of them were as important to the country as say Putin.

So I dont much see the reason for a Raisi assassination, as foreign policy will in no way change by the next guy, unlike the Fico assassination, which concerns me more, actually.

Posted by: UWDude | May 20 2024 4:34 utc | 90

Petri Krohn | May 20 2024 4:29 utc | 87--

Big Bummer! Thanks for the report. Raisi was part of a team, and the team shall continue

Posted by: karlof1 | May 20 2024 4:34 utc | 91

So last report i see on Fico is 11 hours ago from AP, after a second surgery, his prognosis is serious but positive.

Posted by: UWDude | May 20 2024 4:38 utc | 92

Reuters would add the following to evolving news of the day

Saudi king to be treated for lung inflammation, state news agency says

Certainly not as significant as the Iranian leadership loss and maybe just an indication of declining health but it will eventually effect ME geopolitics, IMO.

It seems like the Mighty Wurlitzer might be losing some parts and/or breaking down entirely.....change provides opportunity for growth.

To snake's question about the future of Iran leadership, I read the article and it makes me think that when this civilization war ends, which I think will be soon, countries will evolve to leadership that is not focused on survival for their people.

To Melaleuca's question about Georgia's president getting Marcon to make a difference. I recall reading that the Georgia president's veto will be easily overturned by the legislative body proving the president is not working for the people of Georgia.

Our civilization war seems to be expressing itself all over the globe......this is how forms of social organization are challenged/changed and we get to watch the sausage getting deconstructed/constructed in real time.

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 20 2024 4:39 utc | 93

Here’s a time lapse of weather in the region.
To me, it seems the weather was Ok at the time and the official dam announcement event (and the pics show clear weather). It seems the bad weather rolled in over night, and that’s of course providing the “bad weather” account for the crash.
https://x.com/petrovicsrb/status/1792265032719290583

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 4:55 utc | 94

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 4:30 utc | 88

Then there was Sri Occam walking along the Razor's edge of the mountainous rim sightseeing ..... as opposed to Scrying. :-)

World War Two: When 600 US planes crashed in Himalayas

The Bryant tragedy? The guy flew it into the mountain. Rule #1, when the guy in back says, "Screw the weather (noise, gauge, etc), just get us there”, put it down and walk away.

Helicopters are harder to fly and control than planes, especially in hovering and low-speed situations. Helicopters require constant and precise input from the pilot to maintain stability and direction, as well as coordination of the cyclic, collective, pedals, and throttle. Helicopters are also more susceptible to aerodynamic phenomena, such as vortex ring state, retreating blade stall, and ground resonance, which can cause loss of lift or control.

Helicopters are used for more risky and demanding operations than planes, such as search and rescue, medical evacuation, law enforcement, firefighting, and military missions. These operations often involve flying in adverse weather, low visibility, high altitude, or hostile environments, which increase the chances of accidents.
https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-helicopter-crashes-are-pilot-error-equipment-issues-weather-e-g-Kobe-Bryants-tragic-helicopter-crash

Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | May 20 2024 5:05 utc | 95

UWDude | May 20 2024 4:34 utc | 90
dont much see the reason for a Raisi assassination
Bombing bus stops in Belgorod, killing babies and babuskas. Delivers nothing to assist Ukraine. So, The purpose? Terror, and for the perpetrators, a thrill-kill.
Taking out Iran’s President is biggest thrill kill. With the hope of civil disturbance. And destabilising the political situation. Seed suspicion as to who was complicit.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 20 2024 5:06 utc | 96

Sorry to be so pessimistic but IMO there are only a handful of genuine leftists among a plethora of pretenders on this site. The biggest divider is solidarity an essential in particularly short supply esp among inhabitants of amerika where indoctrination reinforced by custom has told amerikans to resist solidarity at all costs. All too frequently a self professed 'leftie' sides with an obvious fascist in an argument/discussion on the MoA board and worst of all I suspect it is done for egoist reasons, putting down another to boost themself (they imagine).

Posted by: Debsisdead | May 20 2024 5:09 utc | 97

Helicopters are harder to fly and control than planes...
Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | May 20 2024 5:05 utc | 95

Ever tried flying a rotary wing vs fixed wing in bad weather? In mountains and possibly bad weather, I would take a helicopter any day.
As for trim, it very much depends on the aircraft.
Also, a helicopter like that would generally have two pilots.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 20 2024 5:16 utc | 98

Posted by: Petri Krohn | May 20 2024 4:29 utc | 87

Interesting. So what of the earlier reports that at least one or two members of the crew/passengers on that particular helicopter making contact with rescuers? If in fact they are all dead (not a surprise at all given normal helicopter crash survivor stats) why would PressTV and others have either 1) uncritically reported what they were told or 2) lied as an organ of Iranian state media said that some actually survived? That's suspicious on its own.

Posted by: Debsisdead | May 20 2024 5:09 utc | 97

Not really sure to whom that's addressed, Debs. MoA has always attracted some fascists. To me it became especially apparent during the 2020 George Floyd/BLM "riots" - but I was pleasantly surprised at how few turned up to shit on the students in solidarity with Palestine. I know that's not necessarily a statement on what remains of the traditional left in the US or its walled garden against "Barbaria" - even though there is a definite relation (I recommend the Netflix (I know...) documentary 'Power' for noobs on what police power REALLY entails) but what in this particular thread or other recent threads has you so disillusioned? Couldn't be the open Christofascist stuff, could it?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 20 2024 5:16 utc | 99

Ever tried flying a rotary wing vs fixed wing in bad weather? In mountains and possibly bad weather, I would take a helicopter any day.
As for trim, it very much depends on the aircraft.
Also, a helicopter like that would generally have two pilots.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 20 2024 5:16 utc | 98

Seriously? Helos are notoriously terrible in windy or otherwise inclement weather. Last year I worked with (the first?) female Apache pilot in the USA and my ex-fiancée's ex-fiancée died in a crash of a USN/Marine Osprey (which is of course a totally different animal, being a hybrid VTOL). I'd personally NEVER ride voluntarily in a "rotary wing" aircraft.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 20 2024 5:20 utc | 100