News & views (notr related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) …
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June 23, 2024
Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-149
Comments
What’s happening in Kenya and how serious is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y2mAp7B7V8
Posted by: Suresh | Jun 26 2024 5:42 utc | 301
A related matter for those of us on the outside looking in is to consider that it is very plausible that there is important information in the original material of the Snowden files and the various Wikileaks which remains unpublished and unrecognized.
Neither Snowden nor Assange nor anyone else at random can be certain to know what is or is not important.
It may easily be the case that the issues for the “elites” are not what was published but what could have been. They can’t be sure either 🙂
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jun 26 2024 5:50 utc | 302
But what I’m most curious about is – why now??
Posted by: smuks | Jun 26 2024 1:19 utc | 284
Seems it was the US that took the initiative. The Biden folks thought it might help their reelection chances – probably inspired by PR savvy Barak Obama, who appears to be – covertly – the main decision maker in this administration. Remember that Obama has – on legal grounds – always been against pursuing Assange. He is also the one who pardoned Chelsea Manning.
Posted by: grunzt | Jun 26 2024 9:56 utc | 303
Very moving arrival back in Australia for Julian, safe and sound.
https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/ASSANGE:9a?src=embed
PM Albanese spoke with Julian on the phone once they landed, and then the PM gave a press conference explaining long term diplomacy efforts end the process against Assange.
Assange legal team will be making application soon to Biden to seek a full pardon …. which might be forthcoming before the election (long shot? but they say indications are it’s possible)
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 26 2024 10:58 utc | 304
https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/ASSANGE:9a?src=embed
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 26 2024 10:59 utc | 305
Jeez fuck so the odysee video site is blocked here? My god this site is a frustrating dysfunctional pain!
screw it I am not reposting what i was sharing about assange ….
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 26 2024 11:02 utc | 306
It’s like living in the bloody dark ages here.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 26 2024 11:03 utc | 307
What’s happening in Kenya and how serious is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y2mAp7B7V8
Posted by: Suresh | Jun 26 2024 5:42 utc | 302
—————–
Oh, that’s easy Kenyan politics is happening in Kenya, and there’d need to be few thousand dead. For this to be “serious”.
Posted by: Urban Fox | Jun 26 2024 11:11 utc | 308
“Jeez fuck so the odysee video site is blocked here? My god this site is a frustrating dysfunctional pain!
screw it I am not reposting what i was sharing about assange ….”
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 26 2024 11:02 utc | 305
Is that a promise?-that you will stop posting? That would be wonderful.
And you are quite insensitive going after b’s blog while he is recovering his health- you have no class whatsoever.
Further, you really don’t know how to curse properly-you sound like a hysterical, retarded Karen!
“But what I’m most curious about is – why now??”
Posted by: smuks | Jun 26 2024 1:19 utc | 284
“Seems it was the US that took the initiative. The Biden folks thought it might help their reelection chances – probably inspired by PR savvy Barak Obama, who appears to be – covertly – the main decision maker in this administration. Remember that Obama has – on legal grounds – always been against pursuing Assange. He is also the one who pardoned Chelsea Manning.”
Posted by: grunzt | Jun 26 2024 9:56 utc | 304
Obama doesn’t, hasn’t and won’t run anything in the future..
He is a Messenger Boy used as a cut out from the City to the Biden regime.
He’s landed in Australia a free man, back with his wife and family after 14 years. Only ever saw his kids from a prison.
Time to hand the baton on.
Time for the world to forget him leave him alone. Out of commen human desencey.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 26 2024 12:14 utc | 311
@ Mark2 | Jun 26 2024 12:14 utc | 310
I wish him as much time to recover as he needs, and then a return to form with renewed and redoubled ferocity — preferably from a safe location.
Posted by: malenkov | Jun 26 2024 12:22 utc | 312
Malenkov @ 311
He’s only human. So i disagree, amecably.
But if you are still hungry for this topic, focus on the true wrong doers who tryed to cover up their crimes… the US and Uk govenment.
Perhaps listen to this related shabby tale.
A programe on bbc radio 4 mid morning today. About a reaper drone pilot. He gets no sympathy from me, karma sure f’ed with him.
I recomend to you and everyone.
This is what happens to the bad guys in reality. Not such heros.
A rare insight.
Find it on th bbc podcast.
Respect
Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 26 2024 12:44 utc | 313
@ Mark2 | Jun 26 2024 12:44 utc | 312
All that said, I respect without reservation whatever decisions Assange makes regarding his future. 🙂
Posted by: malenkov | Jun 26 2024 12:50 utc | 314
@ Bevin | 15
My warning, but also ultimately a recommendation for the article at
Link to Monthly Review article on de-dollarisation
The article was written by Luo Siyi, Former Director of the London Department of Economic and Business Policy, Senior Researcher, Chongyang Institute of Finance, National People’s Congress. So he’s a major guy.
The problem is that the first quarter of the article is irrelevant clap-trap about the achievements of the PLA, an invocation of the leftie gods.
Not knowing who the writer is, I almost stopped reading, but for my thirst to understand de-dollarization. I glad I kept on, because he has important stuff to say.
Save time and skip down to
3. Money must be a universal equivalent
That’s where it gets good.
Posted by: JessDTruth | Jun 26 2024 13:56 utc | 315
steven t johnson | Jun 24 2024 0:35 utc | 101
Not replacing the world role of the Fed/Treasury/US military power/the role of the US as the ultimate safe haven for capital would mean dividing up world economy. This is not likely to be fair and worse, end up in a net reduction in world production, more poverty ultimately. That’s part of the losses John Ross spoke of. We had a multipolar financial world in the interwar period, with sterling bloc and franc bloc and so on. Those were not good times for workers. Depression is good for growing fascism.
Excellent post, thanks.
“Dividing the world economy” is exactly what’s happening right now. I used to dismiss the idea, for precisely the reason you mention (huge economic losses). But US/UK were faced with the choice of either losing their dominant position in the financial system entirely, or retaining it within a ‘bloc’ that still accepts their debt papers as payment. The Covid pandemic was instrumental in splitting a highly interconnected global economy in two spheres. (nb, this doesn’t change the fact that Covid-19 was a major global health crisis and caused millions of deaths.)
US still has a functioning (if not globally competitive) economy, UK…less so.
EU and Japan have far stronger, more modern economies. So from a standpoint of purely economic theory, USD and GBP should devalue (massively). But that’s not what’s going to happen, at least not in the short to medium term, since EU & Japan don’t have the military, intel and strategy to play ‘hard ball’. Instead, capital held in western currencies will be goaded into USD & GBP, whose debt papers continue paying high (ponzi) interest. JPY already lost c. 40% of its value, and France’s upcoming elections may become the starting point of a Eurozone financial crisis (reinforced by a widening interest rate spread).
Is this global split definitive (and a future crisis in the West baked in the cake)?
No. There’s always an alternative, or several.
BRICS+ are working on building something new, and it could very well become a truly global system. For all the talk, I don’t think it’s Beijing’s and Moscow’s goal to create an “alternative” exclusively for their bloc (i.e. 90% of the world). They’d prefer something universal. For now, it doesn’t seem like Washington and London (+ some others) will agree, but time will tell.
Posted by: smuks | Jun 26 2024 15:49 utc | 316
Walt | Jun 24 2024 2:47 utc | 119
Scorpion | Jun 24 2024 13:19 utc | 151
Re. Malaysia applying to join BRICS.
When BRICS+ was announced, I posited the next round of expansion would see multiple(!) ASEAN states entering – probably Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam. As in the Middle East, BRICS don’t want to ‘create regional divides’ by admitting some (major) countries and not others.
Elsewhere, I don’t see much potential for now – maybe Algeria, Angola or even Turkey?
However, this out just yesterday:
BRICS nations have decided to “take a pause’ in terms of admitting new members, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
“By the overwhelming majority, the ten nations decided to ‘take a pause’ with new members to ‘take in’ the new members who have doubled the association,” he said at a meeting with speaker of Belarus’ Council of the Republic, or upper house of parliament, Natalia Kochanova.
“At the same time, we are working of categories of partner countries as stages ahead of a full-fledged membership. We will support our Belarusian friends as a number of other like-minded nations,” Lavrov, who is on an official visit to Minsk, said.
https://tass.com/politics/1808415
Posted by: smuks | Jun 26 2024 16:06 utc | 317
This is a list of arms France shipped to Ukraine. Just a fraction of that aid, delivered to the right hotspots in France, would make the current unrest in Noumea, New Caledonia, look positively peaceful.
Posted by: Passerby | Jun 26 2024 17:15 utc | 318
A great piece detailing the utter vacuousness, gaslighting and courtier to the powerful nature of Starmer, the Conservative leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer’s empty promise of British renewal
The Labour leader has carefully positioned himself as a moderating force in United Kingdom politics; a stable, centrist alternative to 14 years of incumbent “Tory chaos”. For this, he has been rewarded with a 20-point poll lead and the prospect of a crushing summer rout of Conservative seats. One survey, published at the start of June, even indicated that he could win the largest Westminster majority of any British politician since Stanley Baldwin in 1924. But dispatching Sunak’s desperate and beleaguered right-wing government will be the easy part. Actually running Britain – a country recently characterised by The Financial Times as “poor” with “pockets of rich people” – will be much harder. Starmer doesn’t look even slightly up to the task.
On the economy:
Labour’s economic policy – the centrepiece of that opaque cluster of ideas collectively known as “Starmerism” – is a case in point. In a speech to the City of London in March, the party’s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, set out what she saw as the primary drivers of British decay: the lowest productivity in the G7, a dearth of strategic investment, and long-term regional neglect. Reeves then hinted at a solution: a new “strategic partnership” between the state and the private sector, reform of the UK’s restrictive planning laws, and a national wealth fund to help channel cash into industrially deprived areas.
Yet, in the same speech, Reeves failed to acknowledge the central role played by the City of London itself in amplifying the UK’s abnormally high rates of regional inequality. Instead, she lauded the British capital’s “world-leading professional and financial services”, pausing only to acknowledge the damage banking sectors can cause to national economies when left “under-regulated.” The omission was revealing. For decades, the City has acted as a vortex for domestic British investment, draining wealth away from the country’s peripheries – Northern England, Central Scotland, South Wales – and redirecting it towards the asset-rich English South East. Or, just as often, out of the UK altogether and into offshore tax havens.
…As the party has made clear, Labour might mitigate these cuts, but it won’t reverse them – in the next parliament, budgetary discipline will take priority over social democratic largesse. As if to underline the point, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK’s spending watchdog, estimates that, in the absence of substantial tax hikes, savings of up to £16 billion ($20bn) will be needed to eliminate Britain’s deficit over the coming years, regardless of who takes power on July 4. Bringing the UK’s day-to-day spending into balance is one of Labour’s economic goals. “We will not waver from strong fiscal rules,” Reeves – for six years, an economist at the Bank of England – warned in March.
Mildly progressive policies:
Starmer’s assault on the Labour left has produced a bonfire of progressive policies. His initial vows to scrap university tuition fees, raise taxes on top earners, nationalise Britain’s price-gouging energy companies, and end the incremental privatisation of the NHS have all been jettisoned or watered down. So, too, has his promise to abolish the House of Lords, the single largest unelected legislative chamber anywhere in the Western world.
A return to Blairism, but in a much worse fiscal shape and a decade of austerity that has destroyed so much of British culture (and add in continued mass immigration to that), with a leader lacking the charisma and ability to feign empathy of a Blair.
But it wasn’t wonderful. By the time Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, resigned in 2010, inaugurating the most recent stretch of Tory rule, New Labour had become synonymous with three things: Iraq, corruption, and financial collapse. The UK didn’t flourish during the Blair-Brown era, it fractured, shifting the national doom loop back into gear. Starmer – a former director of public prosecutions – is a far less ambitious figure than Blair, and shares none of Blair’s disruptive vision. He has pledged a great British rebirth but has no intention of delivering one. Reality lies in wait for the next Labour government. Decline is Britain’s reality.
The last sentence says it all “Decline is Britain’s reality”.
ZH has a posting up with the title
“Overkill”: Dems Bristle After AIPAC Spends ‘Unprecedented’ Amount To Defeat Bowman
the quote
While Rep. Jamal Bowman, a moron, may have sealed his fate after pulling a fire alarm to delay a House vote on a congressional stopgap bill, the ‘squad’ member’s Democratic primary loss to ‘moderate’ challenger George Latimer has raised eyebrows for other reasons.
Chief among them is what Axios described as an ‘unprecedented financial investment’ by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which spent over $14.5 million to defeat Bowman, mostly via TV ads attacking the incumbent.
The US has the best government money can buy
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 26 2024 19:08 utc | 320
From Adam Tooze’s Top Links. He is a world famous economic historian. https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/top-links-456-dollar-doomsters-unemployment?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=192845&post_id=144980776&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2rylou&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
For completeness, the whole FT extract relevant here is given. The unquestioned premise of the goodness of imperialism, but this is a requirement for Financial Times articles.
As every connoisseur of the more excitable bits of the financial blogosphere can tell you, the dollar is on an unstoppable trajectory to disaster. One recent post argued that the US has, like the Roman empire before it, weakened itself relative to other world powers. The dollar’s central role in the global financial system is in decline as “the people in charge never seem to miss an opportunity to dismantle capitalism brick by brick”. That’s the argument. We’ve all heard it for more than two decades and we’ll hear it again, now with the added spice of dark geopolitical trends; the move in 2022 to punish Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine by freezing its dollar reserves held abroad means lots of countries might now look to stash their rainy day funds in other currencies. A global effort — co-ordinated or otherwise — to demote the dollar could happen. If executed at serious scale it would remove the exorbitant privilege from the US of issuing debt on its own terms safe in the knowledge that other national authorities will lap it up. This would change the game in markets and trade. But evidence to suggest it is already happening is limited at best. The share of global central bank reserves held in dollars has declined in recent decades. Back in 2016, the currency made up more than 65 per cent of official reserves, according to data from the IMF. By the end of 2023, that had shrunk to 58.4 per cent. The amount held in Chinese renminbi at the start of 2016 was zero. Between the end of that year and 2023 it jumped 188 per cent. But while that sounds huge, it is still just a 2.3 per cent slice of the total. However, a recent blog from the New York Fed argues that the apparent pullback away from the dollar is not down to a global cooling on the buck. Instead, the shift is attributable to a small number of countries, including Switzerland, where a long-running effort to hold down the franc just over a decade ago led to a huge accumulation of euros. “Indeed, increasing US dollar shares from 2015 to 2021 were a feature of 31 of the 55 countries for which there are estimates,” economists at the New York Fed wrote in late May. “The decline in the dollar preferences of a small group of countries — notably China, India, Russia, and Turkey — and the large increase in the quantity of reserves held by Switzerland explain most of the decline in the aggregate dollar share of reserves.” Meanwhile, central banks globally have ramped up purchases of gold, in an apparent effort to avoid the risk of sanctions, since gold is not controlled by any national authority. … However, demand for the dollar remains extremely robust. This survey does not capture every country, but it does cover 73 central banks, with a combined stash of $5.4tn. Of them, OMFIF said a net 18 per cent expect to increase not decrease their allocation to the dollar, lured in by higher interest rates and a robust US economy. … Appetite for the renminbi, meanwhile, “has soured”, OMFIF’s researchers said, and 12 per cent of managers are looking to cut back on holdings in the Chinese currency. … it felt premature to call time on the dollar’s primacy in the global financial system two decades ago and it still feels premature now.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jun 26 2024 20:24 utc | 321
But there is another FT extract I found unacceptable, as well as a citation of Nate Silver’s forecast of the upcoming US presidential election I was also highly skeptical about. My objections below.
“The conclusion to the FT extract from Soumaya Keynes reads ‘The prescription seems to be that policymakers should not interpret anger regarding the recent inflationary bout as evidence of a desperation to get inflation from 3 per cent down to 2. So policymakers’ patience is justified. For now.'”
“Since the policymakers in the Fed are holding interest rates steady to do pretty much that, this seems to me a non sequitur. The proper conclusion instead, as I read it, is that policymakers have leeway to lower interest rates….unless the Fed is aiming to increase unemployment to help profit rates, inducing a deficit crisis (in the eyes of those who count) to impel social spending cuts in so-called entitlement programs or simply to help Trump.”
“Regarding Nate Silver’s prediction on the Electoral College. The precedents of 2000 and 2020 suggest to me that shenanigans over individual state results leave such EC prognostications unreliable beyond the usual caveats about polling, even three months in advance. Given Republican precedent in vote counting, EC representation, interference by state legislatures and prejudicial judicial decisions, even the possibility of scattered violence, assuming a normal election process is unrealistic I think.”
“But I’m not sure that the disparity between pre-election polls calling for an even bigger win in the vote (not the EC) back in 2020 might not have been minimized by widespread Republican thumbs on the scales even then. Typically when the US government declares elections fraudulent in enemy countries, it turns out the prime proof offered is a disparity between pre-election polls and the reported results. All such disparities are attributed to fraud. Perhaps I’ve forgotten how American exceptionalism requires this principle not be applied here in the US? I can even imagine a scenario where unexpected majorities reported in the Red States give Trump the popular vote for the first time while the EC goes to Biden. But I cannot even imagine a scenario where the Republicans are satisfied to concede winning the EC really does mean winning the vote, not when it’s against them.”
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jun 26 2024 20:29 utc | 322
Two permanent threads are entirely devoted to the reassuring figment of impending Ukrainian collapse and radical geopolitical shifts after Israel’s war.
This third one, despite a few commendable efforts, is still dominated by the usual bigoted, irrationalist tripe, spouted by the usual (resident) suspects.
I cannot find a single recent comment mentioning the completely successful Chang’e-6 mission.
This was far from a merely symbolic self-assertion, by China, in some renewed Space Race.
This specific mission, with its precisely defined target within the South Pole Basin, which offers a peculiar combination of old (typical of the far side) and relatively thin crust (typical of the near side), has been requested by the international scientific community for years, if not decades.
Only now, after ages of inconsequential blabbing by the Western space agencies, it has finally been realised, thanks to Chinese efforts.
This surely appears more concrete and relevant than vague aspirations to multi-lateralism.
Posted by: MoaMetal | Jun 26 2024 20:38 utc | 323
@ psychohistorian | Jun 26 2024 19:08 utc | 321
$14.5 million in TV ads from AIPAC does the trick so handsomely; New Yorkers are practically forced to vote the way the TV commercials tell them to vote. It’s the BAD music behind those ads, just one component of high-tech Hasbara-cultured electronic hypnotism accomplished by those ads. I’ll vote however you say, just please make it go away!
AOC has been soundly neutralized. She obediently propagates transparently absurd, hackneyed NYT allegations that pro-Palestinian demonstrators are antisemitic. So much for ye olde squad.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 26 2024 20:47 utc | 324
Anyone getting reports from Bolivia? Such news as I can find makes it a failed coup. Maybe. Preceded by Rosatom cutting a large deal for Bolivian lithium.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jun 26 2024 21:24 utc | 325
Posted by: oldhippie | Jun 26 2024 21:24 utc | 326
I found this on Telesur.
Bolivia
ZH has some dramatic footage of an armored vehicle crashing the doors of a government building. Evo Morales
“announced a national mobilization of his supporters to support democracy in a separate post on X,”
according to Reuters.
Posted by: lex talionis | Jun 26 2024 21:36 utc | 326
Attempted coup in Bolivia against President Acre. Possibly the same infamous horrors as the last time who were a mix of Ukrainian Nazis and pals of Christia Freedland from Canada. Of course the evil empire had its paws in there with funding allegedly coming via argentina with the help of…Ms. Trump. These lunatics never give up. so how many more innocents will die. Comments migueljose? Anyone? Remembering that Bolivia has natural gas, lithium and of course silver.
Posted by: Formerly Miss Lacy | Jun 26 2024 21:38 utc | 327
Bolivia just signed a half trillion dollar trade agreement with the Russians. Just a coincidence
Posted by: stale face | Jun 26 2024 21:46 utc | 328
Posted by: stale face | Jun 26 2024 21:46 utc | 329
Bolivia links.
Tesla Lithium
break ties with Zionist Entity
trade in Yuan
Posted by: lex talionis | Jun 26 2024 22:08 utc | 329
I’d like to be opposed to capital punishment, but it’s hard not to conclude that Bolivia needs a mass execution of fascists if Bolivia is to survive.
Posted by: malenkov | Jun 26 2024 22:21 utc | 330
Bolivia live, two different takes
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y7pFHqA0bZo
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=La3gHiJgoeI
In Spanish, at time of writing president is making a speech, so both feeds similar.
Short take, armed forces chief of staff occupied parliament after being dismissed for opposing Morales electoral presence (due to previous corruption). Seems forces have since withdrawn, the president is rousing own support in public, but situation uncertain as calls to prosecute chief of staff and military exist now, and military is said on standby but with alegiance unknown. Morales is also calling up own supporters. Feel free to correct any of that.
Posted by: Ornot | Jun 26 2024 22:31 utc | 331
A surprising public account of the negotiations between Australian Parliamentarians and USA officials on the release of Julian:
Inside the closed-door meeting in Washington DC to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Inside a meeting room deep inside the Robert F Kennedy Building in Washington DC last September, representatives of the US Department of Justice (DoJ) must’ve wondered what hit them.
A cross-party delegation of jet-lagged and obstinate Australian parliamentarians had just arrived to advocate for Julian Assange’s release. The officials were about to hear the kind of arguments that were not normally ventilated in the building known locally as “Main Justice”.
The meeting lasted over an hour. Six of those present inside the room have described those conversations in various ways to ABC Investigations — including as being “robust”, “respectful” and even at times “aggressive”.
(More with the link…)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-27/inside-the-us-australian-delegation-us-to-free-wikileaks-assange/104024172
Posted by: Menz | Jun 27 2024 0:25 utc | 332
Catching up on Bolivia in spare moments.
Zúñiga arrested and being prosecuted. He claims Arce asked him to arrange an event to raise Arce’s popularity. Opposition are saying this will bring down Arce and lessen the reputation of Bolivia. Military appear to be loyal to new commander.
In Spanish:
Political backdrop of event seen as coup attempt
https://boliviaprensa.com/policial/9361-detienen-al-general-juan-jose-zuniga-tras-intento-de-golpe-de-estado-en-bolivia
POV of a self coup orchestrated by Arce and political reaction to that
https://eldia.com.bo/2024-06-26/politica/zuniga-aprehendido-acuso-a-luis-arce-de-ordenarle-mover-militares-para-levantar-su-popularidad.html
Posted by: Ornot | Jun 27 2024 0:31 utc | 333
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/26/fears-of-coup-attempt-in-bolivia-as-soldiers-storm-presidential-palace
Don’t know how good al J is but better than the usual suspect mainstream reports that came up.
Tinyurl link to ZH article: https://tinyurl.com/2o3goobz
Gonna be a long summer…
@ … preferably from a safe location.
Posted by: malenkov | Jun 26 2024 12:22 utc | 313
The last shuttle for Breakfast on Pluto has left the station!
No-where on this planet is “safe” …
@ various
Thanks for updates on Bolivia – just tuning in – but suspect the usual suspects based on past little regime changes in Monroe-stan – spose Peru is next? Cozying up to RF and China pisses off the usual suspects …..
Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 27 2024 0:48 utc | 335
Sounds like USA, UK, France, EU, Israel typical shenanigans in Bolivia. So many failed coups and assassinations of late. Empire of Chaos is desperate for more chaos. Perhaps being strangled slowly everywhere, in all spheres and theatres, is the stability needed to smother this Lernean Hydra to death.
This Steadfastness might be the best current approach against the Chaos Makers, because in chaos you can steal. Steadfastness exposes them for the sad petty thief they are. They are only as powerful as you let them manipulate you. Next time the outrageous tries to shake up your world, yawn at it and persist. =)
/cheep
Posted by: titmouse | Jun 27 2024 0:49 utc | 336
@ … preferably from a safe location.
Posted by: malenkov | Jun 26 2024 12:22 utc | 313
The last shuttle for Breakfast on Pluto has left the station!
No-where on this planet is “safe” …
____
Mr. Firineach, I thought it was clear from context that by “safe” I meant “safe from assassination attempts by the likes of the CIA” — such as Mr. Snowden is now in Moscow — and not “safe from nuclear holocaust”.
Posted by: malenkov | Jun 27 2024 0:53 utc | 337
@malenkov
poetic license with a smidgin of irony dear boy … have you seen Breakfast on Pluto?
Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 27 2024 2:02 utc | 338
I was reading some comments under a youtube video yesterday, that mindset hasn’t changed, they want to build a navel base on the Nicobar and Andaman islands, disregarding the limited land availability, the people and unique fauna.
Posted by: awaiting approval | Jun 25 2024 23:09 utc | 277
—————————–
They keep telling us…
The west and India share many values.
China builds
USAss destroys
they have picked on the nicest spot on the west coast, the sheltered harbour of Port Barton, to ruin. Well I’ll be back there in a few months, we’ll soon find out.
Posted by: Walt | Feb 2 2023 5:20 utc | 60
——————————-
Bombs over Bikini: The World’s First Nuclear Disaster
Bob Hope, 1947
“As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on Earth that hadn’t been touched by war and blew it to hell”
———————————————————–
Trouble in paradise_
Three people arrested in Gangjeong, South Korea, protesting naval base construction
Counterpunch ..
When the Pentagon Kill Machines Came to an Okinawan Paradise »
NVSE — Paradise Invaded The U.S. Navy Bombs Puerto Rico
John Pilger
Diego Garcia,
Paradise Cleansed
Bikini island, THE POISONED PARADISE
over 5,000 animals for radioactive experimentation
Palawan,
Ph, paradise turned into ugly gringo base
Another one bites the dust…
Vicenza, paradise in northern Italy appropriated by USAss
Tip of an iceberg
I might’ve missed some.
Posted by: denk | Feb 2 2023 13:26 utc | 69
https://tinyurl.com/mr2mwzvt
Comment
69
111
112
[link urls not working]
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Posted by: denk | Jun 27 2024 3:23 utc | 339
Posted by: denk | Jun 27 2024 3:23 utc | 340
Yes I was wrong about Port Barton, fortunately, as I wrote recently the US are at the southern tip of Palawan just off Sabah, East Malaysia (Borneo), and also unannounced it seems midway up the west coast, looking towards those spots of friction.
Posted by: Walt | Jun 27 2024 5:26 utc | 340
Rania
@umyaznemo
That’s just insane! The US is going after ICC officials and their immediate families! Absolutely insane!
https://x.com/umyaznemo/status/1805823254960955541
Posted by: Menz | Jun 27 2024 5:32 utc | 341
The USA is quite open about overthrowing foreign governments. This is an archived copy of a USAID article, in which they just list the countries. Of interest is the section about Ukraine 2004. USAID specifically mentions:
– Andriy Shevchenko, news director of Channel 5
– Anatoliy Rachok, director of the Razumkov Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies
– NGO Development Associates training 100,000 commissioners for the 2004 elections.
Remember them – they are responsible for the mess Ukraine is in now.
USAID Publishes Democracy Magazine
Posted by: Passerby | Jun 27 2024 6:15 utc | 342
Heads up! Bolivian coup attempt.
https://www.google.com/search?q=bolivia+coup
Posted by: too scents | Jun 27 2024 6:53 utc | 343
‘You saved my life’: Assange to PM
Stella Assange asks public to give Julian Assange space as he ‘recuperates’
Let’s just also take a moment to thank Julian Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, whom I strongly believe was the heart and soul of this blog.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-26/julian-assange-saipan-court-appearance/104022050
a review of what went down yesterday
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 7:51 utc | 344
Posted by: canuck | Jun 26 2024 11:44 utc | 310
Who’s got no class you fat arse dog-whistler — here’s a wooden nickle, go invest it in a functioning brain you dead beat loser.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 8:01 utc | 345
This third one, despite a few commendable efforts, is still dominated by the usual bigoted, irrationalist tripe, spouted by the usual (resident) suspects.
Posted by: MoaMetal | Jun 26 2024 20:38 utc | 324
Too right MoaMetal … call them out by name please!
#1 canuck obviously ….
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 8:04 utc | 346
A great piece detailing the utter vacuousness, gaslighting and courtier to the powerful nature of Starmer, the Conservative leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer’s empty promise of British renewal
Posted by: Roger | Jun 26 2024 17:53 utc | 320
Starmer is a scumbag who in all likelihood will destroy the UK from the inside with ease. Good riddance. If the people cannot wake up they deserve what they get in spades from Labour and the rest of the corrupt criminals running that country and beyond.
You’re one a small group that make this forum almost bearable Roger with your contributions.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 8:11 utc | 347
He is a Messenger Boy used as a cut out from the City to the Biden regime.
Posted by: canuck | Jun 26 2024 11:59 utc | 311
What a dumb stupid idiotic load of conspiratorial bullshit that is ….. not a fact in sight …. zero evidence …. no reason or logic within a hundred miles of this addled mind …. get the inside running people from a disordered fact free mind, ask canuck to say something. Anything. It’s crushed nuts everyday.
All you need is the bananas and cream to sprinkle them on
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 8:17 utc | 348
from
Black in the Empire @blackintheempir
Anti Establishment Vet w/ commentary from experience inside the war machine and life in the civilian world as a Black man. #Reparations
https://x.com/blackintheempir/status/1806096688840343570
How America works
Children killed in Israel -33
Children killed in Ukraine – 600
Children killed in Gaza -15,000
The US Govt wants Hamas wiped out, Putin in prison, and Netanyahu to come speak in front of Congress.
Posted by: michaelj72 | Jun 27 2024 8:51 utc | 349
sarah
@sahouraxo
This is the second CIA-backed coup plot against the Bolivian state in under 5 years.
Bolivia has 21 million tons of lithium reserves—the largest on the planet.
Bolivia also cut off all relations with Israel in condemnation of the genocide in Gaza.
Coincidence? I think not.
https://x.com/sahouraxo/status/1806088558165528657
Posted by: Menz | Jun 27 2024 11:13 utc | 350
“Bolivia has 21 million tons of lithium reserves—the largest on the planet.”
Posted by: Menz | Jun 27 2024 11:13 utc | 351
No, you are incorrect:
World reserves of lithium by country, 2022
Ranking Country Lithium content (tonnes): Percentage of the total:
1 Chile 9,300,000 35.7%
2 Australia 6,200,000 23.8%
3 Argentina 2,700,000 10.4%
4 China 2,000,000 7.7%
5 United States 1,000,000 3.8%
6 Canada 930,000 3.6%
7 Zimbabwe 310,000 1.2%
8 Brazil 250,000 1.0%
9 Portugal 60,000 0.2%
Other 3,300,000 12.7%
World total 26,000,000 100.0% (1)
1. https://natural-resources.canada.ca/our-natural-resources/minerals-mining/mining-data-statistics-and-analysis/minerals-metals-facts/lithium-facts/24009
“And you (Lavrov’s Dog) are quite insensitive going after b’s blog while he is recovering his health- you have no class whatsoever.
“Posted by: canuck | Jun 26 2024 11:44 utc | 310
Who’s got no class you fat arse dog-whistler — here’s a wooden nickle, go invest it in a functioning brain you dead beat loser.”
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 8:01 utc | 346″
Thank you for confirming my accusation of you having, ‘absolutely no class”, with your latest rude, crude riposte, above.
Posted by: canuck | Jun 27 2024 11:39 utc | 353
Imagine my erect middle finger, and then fuck off you dysfunctional and abusive narcissistic creep!
The all time #1 Loser on MoA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfDvyq-GGcc
GRIN
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 11:46 utc | 354
Hey Mr Lumberjack, Canadians don’t know shit, can’t tell their resources from their reserves or can’t count with their shoes on? https://lithiumfuture.org/map.html 🙂
… Top six countries with the largest lithium reserves in the world
1. Bolivia – 21 million tonnes
One third of the “lithium triangle” in South America – which also comprises second and third-placed Argentina and Chile – Bolivia is home to the world’s biggest lithium reserves.
https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/analysis/six-largest-lithium-reserves-world/
https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/lithium-reserves-by-country-top-5-countries-1157105/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lithium-reserves-country-top-15-184450553.html
https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2022/mcs2022-lithium.pdf
Oh well, you can still sing dance and be merry!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FshU58nI0Ts
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 12:05 utc | 355
Thought for Today
This is truly a time in history when the West is uniquely detached from reality.
Maybe comparable to the dark ages somewhat.
We now fully live in an Orwellian upside-down, where Obama and Ann Applebaum receive peace prizes… and actual peace fighters exposing war crimes or denouncing genocide are jailed or thoroughly demonized.
Could we just fast forward to the moment when this madness ends?
https://nitter.poast.org/GermanAmbUSA/status/1805547638428778643#m
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 12:09 utc | 356
I have the dog on auto-ignore, but he’s still making me sick. What a load of ugly.
Posted by: persiflo | Jun 27 2024 12:19 utc | 357
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 12:05 utc | 356
You are displaying your geological ignorance.
Lithium comes in many forms but the form that is the most economical is spodumene (1) which may have less percentage of lithium than other lithium ores yet the refining the metal is much more economic when one uses spodumene.
So you can understand, Venezuela and Canada have the largest ‘oil reserves’ in the world yet it is bitumen and it not the same.
Production of the metal is what counts not countries advertising ‘lithium reserves’ that are not economic to garner interest.
BTW: Canadian geologists are much superior to the American ones you champion.
Have a good day, Lavrov..
1.https://www.mindat.org/min-3733.html
And you (Lavrov’s Dog) are quite insensitive going after b’s blog while he is recovering his health- you have no class whatsoever.
Posted by: canuck | Jun 26 2024 11:44 utc | 310
“Who’s got no class you fat arse dog-whistler — here’s a wooden nickle, go invest it in a functioning brain you dead beat loser.”
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 8:01 utc | 346″
Thank you for confirming my accusation of you having, ‘absolutely no class”, with your latest rude, crude riposte, above.
Posted by: canuck | Jun 27 2024 11:39 utc | 353Posted by: canuck | Jun 27 2024 11:39 utc | 353
“Imagine my erect middle finger, and then fuck off you dysfunctional and abusive narcissistic creep!”
The all time #1 Loser on MoA”
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 11:46 utc | 355
Yes, you once more manifest your ‘lack of class’ in your latest , tasteless post.
“I have the dog on auto-ignore, but he’s still making me sick. What a load of ugly.”
Posted by: persiflo | Jun 27 2024 12:19 utc | 358
I feel sorry for the dude that can get himself so worked up-however, with his shady character him cursing myself I take as a compliment not a criticism.
https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2024/06/26/v-tsb-zayavili-ob-ugroze-smerti-rossiiskoi-ekonomiki-iz-za-sanktsii-a135115
I think this merits a response. It’s being heralded as the defeat of Russia. As far as I know, they’re using tether, yuan, rubles.
Posted by: Eighthman | Jun 27 2024 12:48 utc | 361
About f*cking time @WHO in April
“Virologists now acknowledge that SARS-CoV-2 spreads mostly by airborne transmission of small particles that are inhaled and that can remain in the air for hours — a method that was previously called ‘aerosol’ transmission.”
When will the @IPCC_CH start to communicate clearly and honestly about the role of reducing aerosols in accelerating regional and global climate change?
Or will they wait until millions die and get paralyzed by avoidable risks too?
14th straight month of record warming rates ever continues on but gee don’t be daft enough to believe voting in the USW or UK or anywhere is going to make an ounce of difference.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 27 2024 13:08 utc | 362
Canuck the Self-Appointed Resident Lithium Geologist ?
ROFL
Posted by: canuck | Jun 27 2024 12:34 utc | 361
So what’s it like canuck being the most ignored/blocked and despised poster on MoA these days?
Of course you take this kind of thing as a compliment — it is what you live for — attention, narcissistic supply anyway you can get. Being an asshole is your A-Grade Talent mate.
And that’s no secret.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 28 2024 5:31 utc | 363
RE “I have the dog on auto-ignore, but he’s still making me sick. What a load of ugly.”
Posted by: persiflo | Jun 27 2024 12:19 utc | 358
Always nice to hear when a nobody of no consequence announces they have an opinion on something.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 28 2024 5:37 utc | 364