Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-164
News & views (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) ...
Posted by b on July 11, 2024 at 18:19 UTC | Permalink
next page »This teaching was revealed through the Ancient Greek Mystery Schools, by Plato, by the Neoplatonists, and by those traditions connected to them , e.g., the ancient Gnostics (Christian and otherwise) Kabbalists, and Sufis. Later on the teachings were seen in different versions from the newer western esoteric traditions e.g., Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Martinism, Hermetic Orders, etc., during and after the Renaissance. Most if not all were claiming to be presenting the earlier esoteric traditions, often claiming to be descended from them by some supposed ancient documents, a hidden lineage, or even by direct communication from “Hidden” or “Ascended Masters. From The Secret Teaching of All Ages
Posted by: kana | Jul 11 2024 18:30 utc | 2
Roger@1 Chasing the link, finding much to agree with.
Personally would emphasize the independent lure of money in sports; omitting that government contracts for government research that is privately appropriated via patent or worse, antihuman aims of the government are especially a problem in STEM; omitting the role of economics and MBA programs in stifling critical thinking; the built-in lack of critical thinking traditional in public universities because of political interference; forgetting that private funding for policy institutes/think tanks that almost all promote official thinking does enormous damage to the overall culture, probably more I suspect that the occasional department tagged as woke; reinforcing the useless fakery of most DEI programs in academy, matching the same in business; more wary of claims of grades as guides to achievement despite intrinsic limits to serve as definitive qualifications, especially since they can be mechanisms to limit "production" of credentialed people who might compete and lower salaries (especially a problem in medical schools?); the doubtfulness of any widespread wokeness in law schools and divinity schools/religion departments, ever, and the role the anti-labor stance of academia has on student thinking about their future society. I also get the impression that the business schools have outside influence on the academics though I am too old to know.
Lengthy as this list is, these are more about emphasis than rejection. The point that I have serious doubts about is the relative independence thus far of education in foreign countries, given the historical monopolization of highst levels of education post-WWII. Way too many professors in foreign countries, even the PRC, were baked in the US. The general presumption that STEM is inherently critical outside the particular field in particular I doubt. The politics of the AMA for one strike me as pretty good evidence against that.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 11 2024 18:48 utc | 3
Posted by: Roger | Jul 11 2024 18:22 utc | 1
Universities were never centres of critical thinking. That they were briefly dominated by intellectuals and students animated by Thesis 11 in the 1960s should not obscure the fact that universities have traditionally been gatekeepers of knowledge for the dominant order. They began as such. I've been an academic for 30 years and you'll find no institution more resistant to radical thought and true critical analysis—unless it makes a buck. And therein is proof of Marx's point: the university does not teach knowledge to the end of citizenship (political rationality) or for the edification of God and soul (religious rationality) or even for the production of art, thought and literature (cultural rationality), but to produce job-ready graduates at public cost for private benefit, and research that can be monetized. Nothing is sadder than watching a young scholar slowly learn the truth that real scholarship can only take place in spite of the university.
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 11 2024 18:50 utc | 4
@Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 11 2024 18:48 utc | 3
Thanks for the extra input! With respect to the MBA schools, they are a massive profit centre for the revenue driven administrators so they get an oversized influence. Also, many of the MBA grads end up being very wealthy donors, as with the Law Schools, so another outsized influence. Neither MBA or Law is more than a technical training, neither should be part of a university academic program especially a Masters program, their outsized influence skews the direction and policies of the universities.
Yes, not just the government STEM contracts but there is so much private corporate money involved now which skews the universities toward product development and serving corporate interests rather than being the centres of basic research that they should be. Many professors then become entrepreneurs by taking patents for research which should really reside in the public domain, skewing priorities and damaging possibilities for cooperation between teams. In the worst case companies like BP "buy up" all the relevant scientists to shut down open research and discussion on their activities, such as the Deepwater Horizon Gulf platform explosion.
@Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 11 2024 18:50 utc | 4
Agreed, the GI Bill etc, really did bring in a period of democratization of the academy that has now been completely reversed. In the immediate post-WW2 period the universities did serve to drive US technologically advancements, but even this has now been endangered by the oligarch war on the university.
Rockhill very well documents the enclosure of the space for critical thought, especially through the imposition of a "critical" theory locked into culture without political economy and more reminiscent of non-criticizable "given truths" than real critical thought. Mainstream economics was the first discipline to adopt such an evidence-free and materiality free base, exchanging classical economics and political economy for Medieval-Style Metaphysics. From the 1960s on this spread right across the humanities and social sciences.
I very much agree that real critical academic work will severely limit the progress of any aspiring academic and quite possibly get them expelled from the academy (or just unable to complete a PhD), as great thinkers such as Parenti discovered. Truth telling to the powerful is not the function of the academy.
Re: MBAs
At the graduation ceremony of my MBA class (top 5 ranked school) - when the valafictorian was announced, a loud collective gasp was heard from us students - for the class Valedictorian was a notorious cheat !
Of note - the cheat had a long and successful career in Big Pharma .
Posted by: Exile | Jul 11 2024 19:12 utc | 7
@Roger #1
There is definitely at least some of what you say; however, my view is that elite overproduction is a far bigger factor.
When you have too many elites - the excess ones have to either/and cheat or avoid demerits i.e. slavishly follow whatever direction they believe they are told to.
Posted by: c1ue | Jul 11 2024 19:15 utc | 8
@Posted by: c1ue | Jul 11 2024 19:15 utc | 8
Elite overproduction theory leaves out the fact that the elites being talked about are just the courtiers of the oligarchic capitalist ownership class, with much of the "overproduction" created by that class to culturally dominate and discipline the 80%. Identity politics was a very obvious strategy to draw attention away from the oligarchy and class struggle after Occupy Wall Street had been put down. The way it suddenly leapt to life across the whole media landscape, and was fully supported by the corporate leaders, is indicative of a coordinated campaign.
A focus on culture and institutions without political economy (e.g. who owns and controls the means of production, including the means of cultural and intellectual production?) is always flawed, the strength of Rockhill's work is his starting point of political economy when viewing the academy.
The courtiers will always use whatever tools are available to climb the slippery pole upwards, and attempt to elevate themselves culturally. In many ways they are more blinded than the 80%, as their jobs and status (even personal internal self-worth) depend on believing the oligarch driven ruling ideology. They will be the most "woke" of the "woke", until the oligarchy decides that wokeness isn't such a good thing; then they will suddenly become unwoke. Unfortunately for many of them the oligarchy has trained its neoliberal sights on their remuneration and decided to drive many of them into precarity, so they fight even harder among themselves to gain what good positions are left - a veritable courtier Hunger Games.
Thank you for the interesting discussion, Roger! Also for some very good emails recently.
TM
Posted by: TM | Jul 11 2024 19:43 utc | 10
re: "job-ready graduates"
Some of my next-generation majors: German literature, economics, political science . . . of course not gaining jobs thereby.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Jul 11 2024 19:49 utc | 11
Roger | Jul 11 2024 19:30 utc | 9
*** Identity politics was a very obvious strategy to draw attention away from the oligarchy and class struggle after Occupy Wall Street had been put down. The way it suddenly leapt to life across the whole media landscape, and was fully supported by the corporate leaders, is indicative of a coordinated campaign.***
(above being an extract from a very good post overall)
Starmer the fanatical zionist / Trilateral Commission member, also NATO warmonger and now PM from a fake "Labour" party in the UK, appeared in the mass-media "taking the knee" in his then (alleged) 'opposition' leader's office.
Obviously, a posed press-release.
Strangely, that hypocritical descent into the nauseating cesspit of wokery/ID-politics was not cited by mass-media (or supposed opponents with ready access to that media) during the recent UK election charade.
As dishonestly contrived "Labour" leader, Starmer had of course made sure to promise allegiance to the City of London.
Posted by: Cynic | Jul 11 2024 19:53 utc | 12
@ Roger | Jul 11 2024 19:30 utc | 9
Nice discussion of academia today. I agree with the overproduction thesis, but it has other details as well. Keeping intelligent people in school to Ph.D., which because of poor funding and expense takes them into their 40s usually, or at least their 30s, is a form of disguised unemployment. The universities have always been meant as sites to tranquilize the potentially rebellious, as rebellion has always been a factor too, even since the Middle Ages. They are a place to institutionalize people, in effect putting them on ice, just like a prison or an insane asylum.
The big change you haven't emphasized so much, however, is the collapse of the bloated system. There are already massive closings and bankruptcies of colleges going on, somewhat concealed in most cases by mergers, which still lead to the firing of the faculty and staff. No doubt higher education, like the health care system, is bloated and parasitic. Education does not need to be drawn out for so many years, even if there will always be a small minority who pursue it lifelong. The US cannot afford its bloated higher education system anymore, or rather the US elite does not want to afford it, mainly because they only care about new wealth extraction opportunities, so it is going to keep shrinking drastically. And the corporations don't want people with a liberal education or their own ideas; they just want training. The high elite believe only they need and deserve higher education, so the Ivy League may continue to flourish, but everything else is going on life support. In our college, no professors are being hired unless it can be shown that they will bring in big grant money, which kind of eliminates the humanities, so the faculty just get older and older. One of my colleagues anticipates that not only will departments be combined, but eventually all the liberal arts, both humanities and social sciences, will be combined into a single department of the liberal arts, and this in a very large, state-supported university. This is why colleges are so assiduously after paying foreign students, so that some have one fourth Chinese students. But how long can that go on?
The bottom line on American capitalism is: We want your money, so you have to pay for everything, so that we will even privatize the city streets if we can, but we will give you nothing whatsoever in return, no services, no products, zip. So in a university, we want paying students, oh yes, but we refuse to pay anyone anything, so faculty should all be fireable temps who will work for almost nothing. And with AI now we can get rid of the faculty and the staff altogether and just have machines to fleece the public. Maybe they can even program their robot soldiers to rob pedestrians. Your money or your life! And then just leave the dead bodies to rot in the streets because it would cost money to remove them.
Posted by: Cabe | Jul 11 2024 20:06 utc | 13
Roger @1: re: death of university
I understand that university has always been ideologically subordinate to whoever the ruling class is, but the glossy brochures have always touted them as citadels of free thought. That’s what tenure is supposed to guarantee. Universities were supposed to be places where you could challenge accepted dogma with ideological thermonukes.
With this in mind, the trend of making universities into ideological “safe spaces” is the final nail in the coffin. Inquiry is dead. Education has ceased and been replaced, at best, with training, and more typically with indoctrination. Western universities are not even trying anymore.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 11 2024 20:13 utc | 14
@ 13
re: Keeping intelligent people in school to Ph.D
One example I'm familiar with -- staying in college supposedly toward PhD to age forty, included teaching freshman classes so the professor didn't have to, for many years, finally giving her a PhD without any treatise or orals just to get rid of her.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Jul 11 2024 20:20 utc | 15
Posted by: Roger | Jul 11 2024 19:08 utc | 6
I read your substack piece and found it very interesting, nicely done. What the reference to Rockhill?
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 11 2024 20:41 utc | 16
Ah, the MBA...
Described at various times as
“a degree in psychopathy”;
“how to make greed an academic qualification”;
“a degree for those not analytical enough for proper STEM subjects, not creative enough for proper Arts studies and not curious enough for the Classics; in short, a degree for the bespectacled nerd who never went to prom night, but who quietly plotted his revenge.”
None of these are my opinion necessarily, just some comments from sundry different outlets, however I have worked for businesses that functioned quite well as they were, then the MBA’s arrived and the businesses invariably collapsed within 6 to 9 months. These were all technically-oriented businesses whose traditional management generally worked their way up from apprenticeship level, learning the wrinkles, the snags, the legal obligations, the reasons why some things were done and equally the reasons why some things were not done (because there’ll be a loud and expensive bang!), yet the MBA wallahs overturned all this.
So, what exactly is the point of this qualification?
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jul 11 2024 20:54 utc | 18
Posted by: jpc | Jul 11 2024 20:51 utc | 17
##############
There is no limit to the number of bad personnel decisions that Trump will be making.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 11 2024 21:09 utc | 19
Posted by: Cabe | Jul 11 2024 20:06 utc | 13
Well put. The same situation here in Australia. As Roger said, the publicly funded university that sought to place the university at the service of the public was a historical phenomenon not the universal definition of a university. For me the best critique of the university was conducted by Nietzsche while he was still at Basel as a professional philologist. The lectures he gave (published as 'Anti-Education') as well as his unpublished attack on 99% of the academics in his own discipline ('Wir Philologen') are worth a look. He eventually concluded (as Roger and I said above) that philology (specific critique) must be allowed to become philosophy (general critique), and that universities are the enemy of true general critique. Universities are the bastion of orthodoxies; one succeeds by supporting them. Structures of knowledge are symbiotic with structures of power, thus the challenge is always posed outside the university. The fact that universities appropriate outsider critique posthumously (Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, etc, etc) is deeply cynical and infantilizing of the original insights. I point only to the way Greek Philosophy is degraded in a current Princeton University Press series along the lines of "How Plato can help you love again" or "Seneca and Pliny on business success". Yes, that's my gag reflex you can hear... That said, Paul Reitter's new translation of Capital Volume 1 is being published there so not all bad. Speaking of Paul Reitter, I also found his Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age (UChicago Press) a great contextual study for those in the Humanities.
Links:
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190075/capital
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo81816415.html
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 11 2024 21:15 utc | 20
There is no limit to the number of bad personnel decisions that Trump will be making.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 11 2024 21:09 utc |
########################################################
I would suggest he may well surpass the number of bad personnel positions from his last administration. Maybe he will change it up by going for lack of quality over quantity? Mr. Trump is not widely known for his ability to learn.
Posted by: Matt | Jul 11 2024 21:19 utc | 21
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 11 2024 21:09 utc | 19
Mr. Trump is not widely known for his ability to learn.
Posted by: Matt | Jul 11 2024 21:19 utc | 21
Why do you think DeSantis will be a bad one?
The piece of the deal to keep trumps bid on tracking the donors?
Be hard to beat Pompeo all the same!
Posted by: jpc | Jul 11 2024 21:35 utc | 22
A crazy idea.
Dems decide to admit;
"Yes, the 2020 was full of fraud and Trump actually won"
"therefore he was actually elected to a second term and is now ineligible to stand for what would be a third"
Yes, crazy. But does anyone think it is beyond the Dems to try it? Lok at what else they have pulled.
Posted by: saner | Jul 11 2024 21:55 utc | 23
I wonder what would happen if we, y’know, put the MBAs in charge of geopolitical relationships, or strategic operational military planning...
They’re obviously qualified to everything about everything, what could possibly go wrong?
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jul 11 2024 22:00 utc | 24
I very much agree that real critical academic work will severely limit the progress of any aspiring academic and quite possibly get them expelled ... Truth telling to the powerful is not the function of the academy.
@ Roger | Jul 11 2024 19:08 utc | 6
Paulette Steeves wrote an eye-opener about suppression of indigenous history (aka "cultural genocide"), where pre-Clovis sites have been scoffed at for decades. Steeves' writing style (truth be told) is somewhat stiff and academic, but the realities she relates are extremely edifying, both on human origins, and on modern academic rot:
The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic. Paulette F. C. Steeves mines evidence from archaeology sites and Paleolithic environments, landscapes, and mammalian and human migrations to make the case that people have been in the Western Hemisphere not only just prior to Clovis sites (10,200 years ago) but for more than 60,000 years, and likely more than 100,000 years.
https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496202178/
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 11 2024 22:06 utc | 25
Posted by: Matt | Jul 11 2024 21:19 utc | 21
#############
When I was more nihilistic and materially oriented, I thought someone like Trump who has no philosophical or ideological center might be good because he could act independently of conventional ideas.
Unfortunately, his lack of substance was a void that the enemies of mankind were happy to fill.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 11 2024 22:08 utc | 26
Up until two decades ago, the German university had been modeled differently from most of its European neighbours, more or less incorporating the ideas of Wilhelm von Humboldt. It was changed recently in a bid by the EU to similarize degrees with the bachelor/master system instead of the Diplom, dealt out according to a credit score system. This changed everything.
The older university was a place that valued depth over breadth; it is from there hailing the cliché of the eccentric professor, as for these types there was appreciation and a place to work. Current professors are overloaded with administrative duties, while teaching has become a modular system comprised of listicle-like skill sets.
At the same time, teaching at the Gymnasium (13 years total, 9+4 elementary, before admission to uni) became likewise modularized and focused on bloodless skillsets, not on 'classical' ideals of 'humanity'. I know people who dropped out of both becoming a teacher and a teacher's teacher because they could not bear with this.
That is still not all. In a bid to bring more people into higher education, admission into the Gymnasium, as well as to the unis, rose. All this against the backdrop of Germany having a prized system of apprenticeship for many occupations, upon which builds a later possible Meister. The long standing rule that only Meister could go on and set up their own business is now also gone.
The effect of this has been sterilizing. People who were involved in the decisions now publicly regret them. FWIW, the only party that wants to go back to the old system is the AfD.
Out of personal experience, I must say that even niche subjects such as maths (less so) and philosophy (big time, at least in Hamburg) are surprisingly full of human vanity and therefor somewhat dysfunctional. I dropped out from my childhood dreams at age thirty to become a bohemian, and it is there where I developed my most important insights over the last 15 years; albeit against a background of thorough study that would hardly have been possible without the institution and some good/great teachers along the way.
Posted by: persiflo | Jul 11 2024 22:27 utc | 27
@Posted by: Cabe | Jul 11 2024 20:06 utc | 13
What I have noticed at my and my colleague's universities is that all of the pressure seems to be on the faculty (and some on the janitorial staff etc.), but they still seem to have money to pay for yet another administrator position - perhaps "VP Diversity" or "VP Student/Customer Care", the latter designed to harass the faculty. Also, Law, MBAs etc, bring in a lot of money so they tend to do better (and have a better capitalist class of donors).
Of course, the elite universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford etc. will remain. They are now luxury goods, like a Hermes handbag or a Rolls Royce.
@Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 11 2024 20:41 utc | 16
Gabriel Rockhill, he studies the political economy of what he calls the "Global Theory Industry". e.g.
Gabriel Rockhill, “The Global Theory Industry & Left Anti-Communism"
Also, his paper Critical and Revolutionary Theory: For the Reinvention of Critique in the Age of Ideological Realignment
Mes apologies, but I am currently uninterested in reading about the academy. I had quite enough of it as an undergraduate at the Big State University Downtown, thank you.
But the best insight I've come across lately about higher education in the US, and I strongly suspect in the rest of the western industrialized world, comes from Chris Hedges' wonderful (horribly depressing most of the time, actually) book, Death of the Liberal Class. Hedges drops the statistic (one fully in accord with what my buddy in the bookselling business tells me) that 25% of all American high school graduates never read another book the rest of their lives once they graduate from high school. On the other hand, with University graduates, 31% report the same post-diploma complete lifetime avoidance of bookreading.
The US academy seems to deliberately ignore this statistic, and the inevitable questions that have to follow from it. First question is why an additional 4 years of classroom education reduces your likelihood of reading ever again by 25%. Second, seems to me, to be why this 31% of university students are occupying seats in any college anywhere.
I'd be interested if any non-US MoA readers can fill me in on what these statistics are in their countries. I've heard that Poland's stats are worse; dunno.
Posted by: Daniel White | Jul 11 2024 23:35 utc | 30
Posted by: Roger | Jul 11 2024 23:01 utc | 29
Brilliant, thanks.
On the subject of managerial expansion this may sound familiar. Our faculty (perhaps the premier liberal arts institution in the country) recently underwent a 'Curriculum Sustainability Project' twice across 2 years. You know when something has become mantra because it is hypostatized via acronymization (CSP1, CSP2, etc). The rationale is simple: any unit with 24 enrollments or less was to be 'retired' (cf. Bladerunner). Philosophy, with three branches in its major, suffered worst: they were compelled to transition from 34 units (that's over a 3 year degree, with a choice within the major) to 20. Several senior staff were aghast and left. Junior academics scrambled for a solution, appealing, for example, for the creation of two majors (practical and general philosophy), but to no avail. Across all our fields the higher level units which provided advanced disciplinary training at 4th year level were decimated. Our gallows humour at the time envisaged students doing 3 units across their BA: Arts 1, Arts 2, etc. We spoke too soon: the next year a mandatory first year unit was introduced: 'Studying Arts', which included classes on 'how to participate in a tutorial', and so on. Universally hated by staff and students. Other compulsory units included 'industry partnership project units' and 'team-based learning' units on 'innovation in the 21st century'. You get the idea...
The next year the Dean added a second Deputy-Dean (curriculum development (wtf?)) with support staff: salaries and on-costs, $4.5M.
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 11 2024 23:42 utc | 31
This teaching was revealed through the Ancient Greek Mystery Schools, by Plato, by the Neoplatonists, and by those traditions connected to them ...
Posted by: kana | Jul 11 2024 18:30 utc | 2
That was a very strange posting, kana, and I only skimmed through it. I did not find any truths being offered, and I rather wondered why you had posted it. Just for one instance, there is nothing secret in Plato's philosophy, nor in Christianity as the Evangelists and Saint Paul have proclaimed it. Plato presents Socrates walking the streets of Athens barefoot, conversing with anyone who came along (though certainly in the dialogues the characters represented therein have a significance with respect to the subjects being discussed.) Socrates doesn't even take money for his opinions in such dialogues, so even a slave boy can become an active participant.
There's nothing secret about that.
And Christ's ministry, only three years in length, takes place often in the open air, as for example the Sermon on the Mount episode. Nothing secret there either, though he does avoid immediate confrontations with those who would do him harm, until, that is, the appropriate time has come. Even then, he is brought before the people at large in Jerusalem by Pilate and it is they that make the final decision.
Nothing secret about that either.
So, may I ask, kana, what is your opinion of the essay you are quoting from? Is it, in your opinion, helpful because truthful? Do you agree with it? If so, why?
Posted by: juliania | Jul 11 2024 23:58 utc | 32
After calling Zelensky "President Putin", Kamala Harris "Vice President Trump" and stating that "he takes the advice of the Commander-In-Chief" (which is himself) all within a few hours, perhaps Biden is at last toast. His current press conference (most probably heavily scripted) is painful to watch.
Re: Roger @33,
what's really interesting is how the censors on Google & Youtube have changed the top results, 2 months ago if you search for Biden's mental decline. The top stories were crap like Russian troll push disinformation and Biden's thoughtful vision of America's future. Now all the top results are stories along the lines of Democrats panic/concern/calls to step down. Clearly the word has been put out to take Biden down. not that Biden doesnt richly deserve all the crap he's getting (he deserves far worse) but this blatant manipulation of elections will have consequences
Posted by: Kadath | Jul 12 2024 1:53 utc | 34
Posted by: Roger | Jul 12 2024 0:19 utc | 33
Wow, Rockhill is amazing. Just when you think you know who's working on what in the world, you discover someone new and ask, why haven't I heard of this guy before? Many thanks indeed for the tip.
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 12 2024 1:55 utc | 35
@Posted by: Kadath | Jul 12 2024 1:53 utc | 34
Yep, I remember googling "Hilary Clinton collapse near car" during the 2016 campaign and never getting anything relevant. The time her body went completely stiff and she was being held up by the Secret Service guys. Apart from being utterly politicized, Google has also now become completely crapified. Its like it regressed to be the Yahoo garbage that it replaced due to its clean search results a couple of decades ago.
If google is now highlighting the health problems, as is the MSM, the knives are certainly out for him.
ZH has a posting up with the title
Biden Praises 'Vice President Trump' During Rambling Post-NATO Presser
the quote
Update (2032ET): That was rough. After introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Vladimir Putin - then arriving to his own press conference more than 50 minutes late, a coughing, slurring Joe Biden then called Donald Trump his Vice President as he attempted to show the world what a 'goodest boy' can do.
So, this is when the freak out begins.
Joe Biden is pres and gawd knows they don't want Harris to step in for rest of term.
Ukraine is going down and the US has a president with dementia, advanced and public.
Occupied Palestine is not going well and the Nutty visit to Congress coming soon will not go well, IMO.
Gold is back over $2400/oz today showing tension again.
The shit show continues until it doesn't and that doesn't part seems closer to me these days.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 12 2024 3:05 utc | 37
@Posted by: persiflo | Jul 11 2024 22:27 utc | 27
Russia's recent decision to return to six-year specialist degrees, rejecting the European standardization in what is called the "Bologna Process" which is "designed at making it [education] more inclusive and accessible to students across Europe" seems to be a good call. I used to be an IT executive and was always very happy with graduates from the Soviet-style academies, significantly better than other candidates with the same level of degree. From the 1990s under Yeltsin Russia was into everything Western, including moving to a Western education standard. Now they are going back to the roots of excellence.
The Times Higher Education article, here, bullshits on about how it will make it more difficult for the West to strip mine Russia's talent ("opportunities for Russians to work abroad") while not at all acknowledging the real quality of the Soviet and Eastern European education systems.
Does anyone know, what happened to bevin? He stopped commenting for a long while. Is he gone to other sites?
Posted by: fanto | Jul 12 2024 4:14 utc | 39
@ fanto | Jul 12 2024 4:14 utc | 39
A few threads ago when Lavrov's Dog was raging and b was still recovering bevin posted that he
still reads b's blog but the comment section was 'repellant'. I would hope that more threads such
as this one would entice his return. Thanks Roger for setting the tone and others for good posts here.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Jul 12 2024 4:25 utc | 40
Kurt Campbell
Obama's China pivot czar
How to check China's rise.
NO need to ban Chinese students Let them come and study humanities.Leave our stem courses open for the Indians, whom we share many common values.
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 4:40 utc | 41
Posted by: waynorinorway | Jul 12 2024 4:25 utc | 40
Yes, let's hope the historical materialist tenor of this discussion draws him back.
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 12 2024 5:07 utc | 42
Actually, the Internet was on its way to displacing the need for graduate education. Until Disney, Newspapers, Microsoft, Google, AOL, the big name Universities, the Pharmaceutical's and others got involved in blocking access to academic papers the distribution of knowledge was on the rise. These monopolist used patents and copyrights and massive venture capital investments to protect their monopolies and their profits. They used the courts and rule of law to impose their monopoly powers in ways which prevented the world from accessing knowledge and entertainment domains.
The Internet outdated the Universities the Text book guys went to court and the big corporations were being challenged by the investigations and developments made by 15 year girls working in their fathers garages. If the knowledge on all websites today were open source, allowing any and all persons to access whatever might suit their fancy, across all boundaries (corporate, state, national, international) .there would be no need to obtain a degree of any kind. Open source knowledge means open economic competition. Big guys would fall in minutes and new king of the mountains would rise until they too would fall. It was an always moving forward world.
In the 1980's and early 1990's, one mind in front of a computer could do the work of any college professor in a few hours or a short time. It was easy in the early 80s and 90s to acquire whatever knowledge one wanted and to learn and to become proficient at any academic level just by searching the Internet and studying the subject matter of interest.. You could email any author of any paper and ask for more, and almost always get very useful responses.
Knowledge is easy to obtain in an open source society. Demonstration of ability to learn knowledge and to apply it comes when the learner is called upon to apply the knowledge they know exist or have already acquired. Real life problems require solutions not degrees. These papers available by open source over the Internet contained the substance of experiments of the type often demonstrated in academic environments. In this way, real knowledge got applied to real life by those with the talent to apply it.
Expertise came from open access, not from degrees. Some 14 year old kids were more knowledgeable than 40 year Phds. what was interesting is how many subject matter experts rose from nowhere to contribute to what was then a global open society working mostly by email and bulletin boards. Much of the protocols used in todays connected internet came from Internet connected unpaid talent, people just contributed and the contributions became organized and the organizations produced software and hardware. But then along came the venture capitalist and Microsoft, Google, big brother and all of sudden every thing required a patent, a copyright, credentials, authorization and authentication. Laws were passed to keep people for living their lives on the Internet, they could no longer access this or talk about that, or get involved with this or that.. corporate capitalism took charge.
We need an open source world, where everyone has access to all of the information all of the time, and where groups can self assemble to work on things or just use the Internet to entertain themselves (talent does not need to be employed and in today's world, one can make more money being unemployed than employed).
Open source no-holds barred Internet, worked much like AI works today. Everyone could draw on everyone else's experience and use it for whatever purpose they wanted to use it for. Everyone's website was someone else's database.
I believe the only way to stop the wars is to remove the monopoly powers from private monopolistic hands. Until that is done, nothing but war will be the result.
Posted by: snake | Jul 12 2024 5:07 utc | 43
On education systems - anyone know what system China uses. Its own, western, soviet/Russian?
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 12 2024 5:11 utc | 44
/cheep
Sounds like the challenge in academia is the same as in politics: constant running in place, endless interviewing, keeping up with peers in the hierarchy as you all age, publish or perish, forever campaigning.
That structural dynamic will prioritize different values of acceptability, competition, and deference to the holders of tools for election. So ideals like academic curiosity and rigor, or political service to the broader body politic, will take a back seat to the desperation of keeping what you got. :) Maybe the question of persisting in holding one's position creates a desperation easy to manipulate, which invites subjugation to malicious powerful actors.
Oh well, gotta go feed my chicks! ^.^ Maybe someone else will solve it. Good luck!
/cheep cheep
Posted by: titmouse | Jul 12 2024 5:59 utc | 45
@snake | Jul 12 2024 5:07 utc | 43
A few years ago a guy named Robert David Steele wrote a book called Open Source Everything that covers most of what Snake just wrote about. I downloaded it for free then and still have it as a PDF. I don't know how to link it and I see that it's probably only available for purchase on the bookseller websites. (What Snake was saying, eh?) There's a web page for him but it seems to be a big hit job, which is not surprising. It's very good, imo. Opening para:
Open-Source Everything is a cultural and philosophical concept that is essential to creating a prosperous world at peace, a world that works for one hundred percent of humanity.Posted by: waynorinorway | Jul 12 2024 6:10 utc | 46
https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1811528887282589818
VIDEO: All Empires Go Down
~ 🇩🇰 Jan Oberg Ph.D
Posted by: DrWho | Jul 12 2024 6:12 utc | 47
OTOH,
NATO consultant
We dont even have to fight the chicom, just nuke their economy,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtDukDZE17E
signing off
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 6:51 utc | 48
Any chance Biden will cark it before the elections? Hillary and Co have plenty experience in getting inconveniences out of the way.
Posted by: Suresh | Jul 12 2024 7:34 utc | 49
Waynorinoway @ 30
That comment of yours is another falsehood.
Lavrovs dog was a very readable regular contributer, who was responding to provocation by a group of trump supporters carrying out a thread by thread disruption compaign on this blog, dispit knowing b was unwell
Sadly Lavrovs dog did'nt have the background
Knowledge regarding the usal offenders comment history. And went under.
His hart was in the right place.
The irony is ....thats what the US tried with v Putin yes ? (Before the SMO)
No further comment on this from me (i know the game)
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 12 2024 7:50 utc | 50
The History of Policing in the United States
By: Dr. Gary Potter
The development of policing in the United States closely followed the development of policing in England. In the early colonies policing took two forms. It was both informal and communal, which is referred to as the “Watch,” or private-for-profit policing, which is called “The Big Stick” (Spitzer, 1979).
https://ekuonline.eku.edu/blog/police-studies/the-history-of-policing-in-the-united-states-part-1/
Posted by: Menz | Jul 12 2024 8:10 utc | 52
Sorry that was in reply to:
Posted by: DrWho | Jul 12 2024 6:12 utc | 47
Posted by: Menz | Jul 12 2024 8:25 utc | 54
So DeSantis is Trumps VP?
Posted by: jpc | Jul 11 2024 20:51 utc | 17
Not if he wants insurance against assassination.
Posted by: Mary | Jul 12 2024 9:42 utc | 55
Anything can go down as long as you follow the blind senile guy... the sharks smell the blood and they cant hold it
Posted by: Minaa | Jul 12 2024 9:45 utc | 56
About EU dismantling research and education it us all about the go fair manifesto and its stakeholders pro bio tech, big data and citizen data. I see universities and even cultural centres getting high tech VR and ER equipments because if EU trends who find themselves pennyless the next day.
Check Civis3i for a mess involving Ouganda and Mozambick....the new frontier.
Posted by: Tom | Jul 12 2024 9:55 utc | 57
Thinking of you Bernard. You've been very helpful to me. Thank you.
Posted by: John Zwiebel | Jul 12 2024 9:56 utc | 58
I think biden is done, stick a fork in it.
Hat tip to arch bungle.
In all the furrour, trump has had a free pass ,In the media and here.
What are trumps, actaul policys ? Minus the emotional baggage ?
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 12 2024 10:56 utc | 59
Sorry for spreading rumors if thats all they are, but I'm seeing it several places that fjb will resign on Monday. Its bizarro world right now so anything is possible
Posted by: stale face | Jul 12 2024 10:59 utc | 60
B , Here is an entertaining video from 1965
Mimi and Richard Farina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRuuZY8otz0
Posted by: Bartholomew Cubbins | Jul 12 2024 11:03 utc | 61
To add to my above....
Whats trumps view on ...
Hamas /palistinians.
Israel/genicide.
----------
Whats trumps view on ending the ukraine conflict.
-------------
I'm sure we all agree those two are formost geo pol priority's.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 12 2024 11:06 utc | 62
An excellent question's asked by a member of Russia's intelligentsia: "What Kind of Ideology Does Russia Need?" First published in the SVR's Monthly Journal: Scout, https://karlof1.substack.com/p/what-kind-of-ideology-does-russia
Posted by: fanto | Jul 12 2024 4:14 utc | 39
Posted by: waynorinorway | Jul 12 2024 4:25 utc | 40
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 12 2024 5:07 utc | 42
I’ve been thinking the exact same thing. bevin’s absence is a big loss for MoA. Hopefully some of the recent silliness will stop (it does seem to come in waves) and he’ll be back.
Posted by: KMRIA | Jul 12 2024 11:22 utc | 64
kana | Jul 11 2024 18:30 utc | 2
juliania | Jul 11 2024 23:58 utc | 32
"So, may I ask, kana, what is your opinion of the essay you are quoting from? Is it, in your opinion, helpful because truthful? Do you agree with it? If so, why? "
It's a good article, self-explanatory (more or less). Loads of directions to pursue.
https://pamho.medium.com/the-secret-teaching-of-all-ages-8d79e9ea4baf
So when John writes about the word what is he speaking about? Inquire at the CIA juliania
https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/E4/E4AAFF6DAF6863F459A8B4E52DFB9FF4_Manly.P.Hall_The.Secret.Teachings.of.All.Ages.pdf
November 2017 Release of Abbottabad Compound Material
https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/index.html
"In the beginning was the Sound, and the Sound was with God, and the Sound was God -
The Essene Gospel of Peace
(now, back to the wars)
Posted by: Pluto in Aquarius | Jul 12 2024 11:25 utc | 65
A fairly good well written historical review here:
The Secret Uniparty War
The world was changing, and in large part this was behind the merger of the Cowboys and Yankees who united to fight the seemingly inevitable at the time, rising tide of revolt against their rule — leading to the clarion call of the legendary Powell Memo from future Supreme court Justice Lewis Powell.After Jimmy Carter’s landslide loss to Reagan some leading Democrats were apparently then invited and joined the then newly merged cowboy and yankee elites in the GOP. This can be seen most clearly with the creation of The Democratic Leadership Council by “Third Way” centrist New Democrats, whose mission it was, they said, to convince the Democratic party to leave the New Left and Labor coalition with the party. Because, after all hadn’t the massive success of the Reagan Revolution, which was in reality simply the merger of Cowboy and Yankee elites, hadn’t that shown that the Democratic party was on a losing path for the future, they pleaded. If the Democrats wanted to win and gain power, wouldn’t it be smarter to join up with the Wall St. corporate elites? That was the New Democrats message.
And they convinced the Democrat party elites that they were right. They were rewarded by their gaining exactly what they were trying to achieve, the support of the corporate (merged) elites for 1st the Clinton/Gore and then the Obama/Biden administrations. They wanted someone other than Biden for 2020 but felt they were left no choice because of Bernie Sanders popularity, which they were totally against, plus the lack of support by the public for the Uniparty candidates. The Clinton people were running the Kamala Harris campaign, but she clearly had no chance, so they then hoped that Buttigeig or Klobuchar would gain popularity.
When it was clear it was going to go to Bernie Sanders if all of them stayed in, they got the other candidates to pull out and push all their supporters to get behind Biden. Michael Bloomberg’s candidacy had been their failed attempt at a Hail Mary because they really didn’t want Biden because they knew the political baggage he was carrying — his son and brother’s business ties being widely known. They were able to keep that under wraps through the liberal media’s desire for a Democrat win, but they knew it would eventually come out.
The Uniparty was born 1st with 2 seasons of Clinton/Gore and then 2 seasons of Bush/Cheney, like it had been agreed upon. It looked like they had plans for another 2 seasons of Hillary Clinton and then 2 seasons of Jeb Bush. Obama’s popularity must have surprised them, and then Trump really surprised them. But in one sense America had always had a uniparty since the Civil War.
https://pamho.medium.com/the-uniparty-and-cowboy-war-1689568759ae
Posted by: Pluto in Aquarius | Jul 12 2024 12:08 utc | 66
US Security State witch hunt against a US Chinese academic ends in failure, but not before it bankrupts the professor and gets him fired from his job.
A great way to show Chinese academics that the US is a hostile environment to them.
US professor Feng ‘Franklin’ Tao wins reversal of conviction in Trump-era China probe
@Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 4:40 utc | 41
Common values with Indians? You mean like religious supremacy (Hindutva), fascism (the RSS and BJP), deep misogyny, honour killings, a hereditary caste system?
@Posted by: Pluto in Aquarius | Jul 12 2024 12:08 utc | 66
But in one sense America had always had a uniparty since the Civil War.
Once the Northern Haute-Bourgeoisie defeated the Southern Landed Class, the US became the purest bourgeois nation in the world. And most certainly a uni-party. The late 1800s were a time when the Democrats pulled every trick in the book to keep at bay more democratic groupings, such as the Greenbacks that were rebelling against the power of the big banks over small farmers. 1870-1890 was a period of mass struggle, both by unions and small farmers ("the little people") against the massive corporate combines that came into existence then (railroads, steel, oil etc.), defeated by a combination of the uni-party (the oligarchs) and the state.
US Security State witch hunt against a US Chinese academic ends in failure, but not before it bankrupts the professor and gets him fired from his job.
A great way to show Chinese academics that the US is a hostile environment to them.
US professor Feng ‘Franklin’ Tao wins reversal of conviction in Trump-era China probe
Posted by: Roger | Jul 12 2024 12:08 utc | 67
On the other hand it seem that china had a mole so deep and so big that will probably force reviewing tons of stuff to see what was compromised.
Turning an adversary's defense minister is the holly grail of humint.
The first link is paywalled, but plenty of stuff in the second.
https://www.china-arms.com/2024/07/former-defense-minister-wei-fenghe-spy/
Posted by: Newbie | Jul 12 2024 12:27 utc | 70
Isnt it bizarre that the media (politico, cnn, in addition to all the millionaire owned French media) are all for the extreme right in France when in The Netherlands they had to bury democracy in a 6 months negociation to force Wilders renounce 1) being PM, 2) organize a referendum to get out of the EU, etc.
Posted by: Minaa | Jul 12 2024 12:29 utc | 71
@Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 12 2024 5:11 utc | 44
China has an utterly brutal high school admissions process, the Zhongkao where students are tested on Chinese, Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Political Science and PE. Only if you get an acceptable grade will you be allowed into one of the best senior selective high schools. My understanding is that 1/8th of such high school admissions are reserved for students that may slightly miss (and I mean slightly miss) the acceptable grade, but their parents can pay multiples of what other 7/8ths of the students will pay. i.e. entrance is based predominantly on academic merit.
There is a central examination system for university entrance in China, the exam takes two days to complete! The Gaokao, dubbed as the world's toughest university entrance exam.
Chinese students spend years cramming for the punishingly difficult exam, as a high score is the only way to get into the country’s top universities. The exam includes subjects like Chinese literature, math, English, physics, chemistry, politics and history.The overwhelming majority of students get just one shot at the grueling test, unlike US students who can retake SAT exams.
Its all about excellence, the Chinese way. Bachelors is 4 years, Masters 2 years.
@Posted by: Newbie | Jul 12 2024 12:27 utc | 70
Wow, just imagine if Xi had not been put in place to purge the Party of corruption and compradors, and discipline the capitalists to work for the good of the nation! No wonder the West hates Xi so much. I heard about the Wei Fenghe case, but not these details - thanks. The US is the biggest hypocrite with respect to "foreign interference" it is the master at it.
Posted by: Roger | Jul 12 2024 12:12 utc | 68
------------------------
Dunno,
Thats what we keep hearing from the G7, especially gringo and limey...
'sharing common values' with so and so
A partnership made in heaven,
I see trees of green, red roses tooI see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world….
---Louis Armstrong
https://www.countercurrents.org/miller120207.htm
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 12:51 utc | 74
The Whole World War depended on two key nations and it SEEMS they have decided.
‘"Turkey does not intend to take sides in the conflict in Ukraine. "We will not be a party to this war," Erdogan said about the ongoing discussion within NATO about whether instructors and military personnel of the alliance can go to Ukraine. The Turkish leader was critical of the strategy of the allies, which involves further military assistance to Kiev. "Of course, we do not agree with Mr. Putin on everything. However, we can discuss various issues among ourselves and delve into the details of their solution," Erdogan said’
What about our dear friends and their great Bollywood diaspora? The Collective West, has been working hard on, like a gold digging whore for decades now? Come be our PM and stand for President (not in Europe though..)
‘It is noted that the timing of the meeting between Putin and Modi has caused wide concern in the Biden administration.’
- whoops it seems both Humpty Dumpties have decided to climb down off the wall before they get shattered!
So who is going to fight the Chinese??
It’s the trusty old allies …err… Japan And Australia, in the extended North Atlantic to the Pacific … who cares about geography anyway. The Ozzies appear to have turned into the Polish as a standing joke for Dumb and Dumber.
In fact the whole 5 eyes are idiots sending their unaware subjects to a war for the Zionazis butt hurt. They’ll have to rely on the US forces boots and the trusty Old Europe stalwarts and the Nordic Vikings!
U.K. - the Great Knight Flop doing what he was (s)elected to do with the dodgy’majority’ - escalate to a wider war in Europe and The World.
‘ Starmer said Russia poses a threat to an entire generation and called on NATO countries to increase defense spending’
France - Macaroon- ‘“Russia must not win”, since not only the future of Ukraine is at stake, but also “security on all continents ’
What some Nato members think of that plan?
‘ The document was not signed by such NATO member countries as Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Croatia and Montenegro.’
Whoa! TURKEY, GREECE! That’s the majority of the footsoldiers available to Natzio for their boots on the ground canon fodder.
What does Russia say? It seems as if with a yawn - bring it on, if you think you’re hard enough.
‘“Germany, the USA, France, Britain are directly involved in the conflict around Ukraine,” Peskov said, adding that Russia should take into account the current decisions of the West, this is not a reason for pessimism, on the contrary , a reason to get together and use your full potential.’
Ho hum, the new Cold War! That’s the answer? So the MIC can pocket zillions in new useless weapons developments? The citizens remaining Russophobic, Sinophobic …Xenophobic - just dumb Racists as always ??
As I said yesterday - it is all done. Now our fate is in the hands of the ‘leaders’.
Bar the new ‘Yalta’ without the Collective Wastes defeated Nazio leaders as they rush to build a purdah to hide their blushes behind and find scapegoats to take the heat.
But they intend to return to their grand design in a few generations , as they always do, leaving a bit of poisonous hatred in place; so a bit of ‘to the last Ukranian’ all these new massive cemeteries to worship at. And a lot fewer Semites in the Levant.
Erdo and Modi appear to have chosen to say , No! That means there are insufficient alliances and the necessary millions of boots, to take on and stop the Multipolarists.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jul 12 2024 12:58 utc | 75
@Mark2 | Fri, 12 Jul 2024 07:50:00 GMT | 50
Lavrovs dog was a very readable regular contributer, who was responding to provocation by a group of trump supporters carrying out a thread by thread disruption compaign on this blog
Mark, did your medicine enhance your mood all over the place here? I smell a whiff of paranoia. Chill, bro. Listen to some reggae.
Posted by: persiflo | Jul 12 2024 12:59 utc | 76
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 12 2024 7:50 utc | 50
What game is that Mark2? The one where you post assanine garbage, like claiming trump is pro immigration and any one who doesnt follow your 'logic' is a tool? Maybe supporting the dems brown shirts aka antifa? Or is it the one where you run away to the next thread and claim trump gets a pass. Speaking of emotional baggage thats your sop. Please Stop just stop transfering your poster child case of TDS into this forum. Its innane and frankly it clogs the threads with useless nonsense. Do the right thing and cease being a nuisance.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Jul 12 2024 13:03 utc | 77
@ snake | Jul 12 2024 5:07 utc | 43
I agree with your argument in general but your dates seem to be a bit off. Here were some of my experiences from the early 1990s: (1) There’s only so much you can do with as 1200-baud modem; you could make coffee while waiting for the cursor, stopped in mid-word, to move. I remember having to sign up for appointments to do OCLC searches, not because the bun-hairs wanted to restrict my access to information, but because the process was so time consuming: one poorly constructed search would waste five minutes. (2) Computers were hideously expensive, especially if you wanted GUI: the inflation-adjusted equivalent of >$30K for a Lisa, and only >$7K (also adjusted for inflation) for a mid-1980s Mac. Access available only to the rich and university students who had to wait or sign up for access! Not very democratic. (3) And needless to say, availability of research was spotty. I did Medscape searches as part of my job, but most of the older stuff in the sciences — let alone in the less lucrative disciplines — was still waiting to be scanned.
Things started to take off big time in the mid-1990s, but even then universities were spending fabulous sums of money on computer labs because they couldn’t reasonably expect their students to purchase their own machines.
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 12 2024 13:11 utc | 78
@Posted by: Newbie | Jul 12 2024 12:27 utc | 70
Wow, just imagine if Xi had not been put in place to purge the Party of corruption and compradors, and discipline the capitalists to work for the good of the nation! No wonder the West hates Xi so much. I heard about the Wei Fenghe case, but not these details - thanks. The US is the biggest hypocrite with respect to "foreign interference" it is the master at it.
Posted by: Roger | Jul 12 2024 12:46 utc | 73
Wei Fenghe was a mistake by Xi, good that he has corrected it, but it was his mistake.
Posted by: Newbie | Jul 12 2024 13:25 utc | 79
I did Medscape searches as part of my job, but most of the older stuff in the sciences — let alone in the less lucrative disciplines — was still waiting to be scanned.
Things started to take off big time in the mid-1990s, but even then universities were spending fabulous sums of money on computer labs because they couldn’t reasonably expect their students to purchase their own machines.
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 12 2024 13:11 utc | 78
And current research engines are way better and things like endnote make things much easier.
Agreed.
Posted by: Newbie | Jul 12 2024 13:26 utc | 80
I remember some critics saying that the current situation might lead to RF being China's bitch.
If there was any idea about that, let it be rested to peace.
China might have tried to cut-off NK and test the waters, but is currently more scared of the west cutting its losses in ukraine and trying to hire RF back.
Interesting article
https://www.china-arms.com/2024/07/russia-china-united-states/
n.b. Tumen River estuary for china would cut-off RF access to NK
Posted by: Newbie | Jul 12 2024 13:32 utc | 81
Trump on trade war blitzkrieg to collapse China
iNSPITE of our sanctions, embargoes...
The Chinese seem to always achieve their goal whenever they really put their mind to it , except perhaps.....their soccer team !
LOL
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 13:33 utc | 82
I’m quite happy that the forum is cleared of the fake ‘left’ social justice warriors spouting endless Marxism religious dogma - which was invented to reinforce the Financialists control of the World through Capitalism - good riddance I say.
Their propaganda, narratives and scripts here - sophisticated as they may be are not hard to destroy.
It equally goes for their partners in that crime - the supremacists and Rules based unipolar superpower supporting ‘right’.
Many a Trotskyite and Revolutionary Communists were enrolled as the ‘fake leftists’ as youngsters and students - to later stab the workers and the poorest in the backs through a Red/Brown fascist mindset. Many worked directly for the Intelligence deep state as they infiltrated all real social justice campaigns. Some openly came out as ‘rightists’ - shameless. Very clearly on show in the U.K. over the past decades.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jul 12 2024 13:34 utc | 83
I smell a whiff of paranoia. Chill, bro. Listen to some reggae.
Posted by: persiflo | Jul 12 2024 12:59 utc | 76
-----------------
You are always sniffing at something it'd seem....especially at the poop's rear end.
heheheh
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 13:35 utc | 84
Justice, gringo style..
GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT
The Lee Wen HO fiasco
https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/wen-ho-lee-you-call-this-justice-presumed-2883532.php
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 13:50 utc | 85
Roger@38, @72 This is an interesting contrast in that the PRC is heavily focused on limiting access to higher education and centers its curriculum on Anglophone culture (where the Moon is bigger.) Exams are imperfect instruments for measuring potential, precisely because cramming etc. is a way to game the system. Recruiting from higher social strata, almost openly defined as more monied (hence the partial exception for nearly-passes students whose parents can pay) has long term consequences. But I suppose I should confess that I thought Deng's recommitment to elite education aimed at copying the capitalists led rather quickly to Tian An Men. Though it may be controversial I am of the opinion that was in essence counterrevolutionary and came far closer to succeeding than I cared for. I've realized that my view of capitalist roaders, as the forbidden phrase has it, has pretty much been my view of the Girondins in the Great French Revolution or Bukharinites in the NEP, people by and large personally sincere but committed to policies that would likely lead to disaster rather sooner than much later. And that Tian An Men was the proof of that. Fortunately not even Deng was merely the dictator and people like Li Xiannian and Chen Yn helped bring Deng back to his senses.
Xi has moderated much of the excesses of Dengism (enough so that imperialists rant about Xi as a totalitarian dictator) but there are long term effects. The many reports of students opting out of vainly competing in a rigged system designed to cull higher status children and train them in bourgeois economics and sociology and political science, etc. are not pleasant reading. The apprent reaction, to berate students for this awareness of the incresing (?) reality seems futile in the long run.
At this point, Biden seems to me to be afflicted mostly with Parkinson's. He has long had speech problems (a stutter) and illness is aggravating this. Fairly or not, people tend to think people with speech (or hearing) difficulties are "stupid." That's why TV shows and movies almost never show people making common speech mistakes. Playing a stutterer is almost like playing mentally impaired, an acting stunt. (That made Derek Jacobi's entire career!)
The bourgeoisie in general, the so-called Uniparty, could not smoothly replace Biden, having him step down because in a presidential politics system a more or less functional president can't be replaced so easily. That's why they didn't rig the Democratic primary process to favor whomever, like they did to keep Sanders out. The doubtful claim Biden is a zombie---that he has been for years is simply BS, aka Trumpery---doesn't matter though. The whole system is irrational, the underlying problems of US imperialist decline have no rational solution and Biden, with his Band-Aid approach to everything is as helplessly and hopelessly irrational as the class he serves. His blind assurance that the US has never been defeated, etc. are necessary delusions of the bourgeoisie as a whole, not his personal mental illness.
If Biden had simply had a stroke like Wilson a few months ago, the irrational political system would have just as much of a political problem in replacing Biden as it did in Wilson, whose wife took over de facto. The problem for the ruling class is that finding a suitably indoctrinated long tested anodyne figure like Biden is not so easy. Hence the decision from the ruling class to commit to Trump. Trump is now their favored candidate. This from what I see will not make the slightest difference to the Trumpers who pretend to be anti-ruling class. (Those seem to be an increasingly small number?) It is now Biden who is the chaos agent of accelerationism!
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 12 2024 14:03 utc | 86
@ denk | Jul 12 2024 13:50 utc | 85
It really does amaze me that after the arbitrary persecution of Chinese academics — and of Chinese in general during the “Kung Flu” panic years — anyone from China bothers with American institutions.
Perhaps because it’s still often the case that Chinese who aren’t sufficiently qualified to study inChina, but have lots of family money, regard US institutions as a fallback?
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 12 2024 14:08 utc | 87
Perhaps because it’s still often the case that Chinese who aren’t sufficiently qualified to study inChina, but have lots of family money, regard US institutions as a fallback?
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 12 2024 14:08 utc | 87
-------------
Could be so
OTOH, I think THE US still leads in certain
cutting edge fields which still draw talents
from the ROW.
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 14:16 utc | 88
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 12 2024 14:03 utc | 86
Can't agree with you on Derek Jacobi's portrayal of "Claudius", he played the role straight up
realistically. While stutterers are looked down on, the typical left-handed male stutterer is above average intelligence often with remarkable talents. This was the portrayal in the Book and Jacobi's performance. If it made his career it was well deserved.
Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Jul 12 2024 14:24 utc | 89
OTOH, I think THE US still leads in certain
cutting edge fields which still draw talents
from the ROW.
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 14:16 utc | 88
_____
Probably so, in which case the PRC still has some work to do in those fields. Opening a few more universities couldn’t hurt either.
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 12 2024 14:26 utc | 90
Probably so, in which case the PRC still has some work to do in those fields. Opening a few more universities couldn’t hurt either.
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 12 2024 14:26 utc | 90
---------------
I bet tHEY'R working on it.
Last month, the Germans slap an embargo of
high power steam turbine engine to China, most likely following diktat from Washington.
Within less than 24 hr, China announced its own steam turbine engines are ready for mass production.
Coincidence eh ?
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 14:35 utc | 91
Coincidence eh ?
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 14:35 utc | 91
_____
Once again the West “encourages” the East toward further self-sufficiency! 🤣
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 12 2024 14:43 utc | 92
Last month, the Germans slap an embargo of
high power steam turbine engine to China, most likely following diktat from Washington.
Within less than 24 hr, China announced its own steam turbine engines are ready for mass production.
Coincidence eh ?
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 14:35 utc | 91
probably happened the same as with MTU engines, licensed to avoid export issues
Posted by: Newbie | Jul 12 2024 14:47 utc | 93
reply to 85
The US did this sort of stupidity during the McCarthy witchhunts. The result was expelling a Chinese scientist who greatly helped the Maoist state with rockets and nuclear weapons. The power of arrogance can be amazing.
Posted by: Eighthman | Jul 12 2024 14:55 utc | 94
Once again the West “encourages” the East toward further self-sufficiency! 🤣
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 12 2024 14:43 utc | 92
--------------
There's a recurring refrain I heard from
Chinese netizens....
Thanks for your sanctions/embargoes uncle sham, bring it on !
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 14:56 utc | 95
Caitlin speaking (as usual) straight outta my own sense of epistemic anguish, today. I'm constantly chagrined about all the stupid things I used to believe...
It’s actually difficult to wrap your mind around the scale and pervasiveness of the mountain of lies upon which this dystopian civilization is built. You think you’re starting to get a read on things, then you gain more knowledge and insight and realize it goes so much further than you thought. You start pulling on one thread, maybe some obvious lie about Iraq or Palestine or whatever, and the whole thing just keeps unraveling and unraveling and unraveling. Before you know it you’re staring at a society that is not just riddled with untruth, but actually woven entirely from the fabric of untruth.
Everything. How your nation really works. How the world really works. How capitalism really works. What politics really are. What the media are really used for. What laws are really used for. What wars and militarism are really used for. What ideology is really used for. What religion is really used for. What culture is really used for. What rules and etiquette are really used for. It’s all made-up narrative all the way down, and all of those narratives are made up by the powerful, in the service of the powerful.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 12 2024 15:01 utc | 96
probably happened the same as with MTU engines, licensed to avoid export issues
Posted by: Newbie | Jul 12 2024 14:47 utc | 93
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You mean like the Harmony OS was 'licensed' from google ?
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 15:03 utc | 97
German humour...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ZZ-Yni8Fg
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 15:10 utc | 98
You mean like the Harmony OS was 'licensed' from google ?
Posted by: denk | Jul 12 2024 15:03 utc | 97
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc.
Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., 593 U.S. ___ (2021),[1] was a U.S. Supreme Court decision related to the nature of computer code and copyright law. The dispute centered on the use of parts of the Java programming language's application programming interfaces (APIs) and about 11,000 lines of source code, which are owned by Oracle (through subsidiary, Oracle America, Inc., originating from Sun Microsystems), within early versions of the Android operating system by Google. Google has since transitioned Android to a copyright-unburdened engine without the source code, and has admitted to using the APIs but claimed this was within fair use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc.#Decision
The Court issued its decision on April 5, 2021. In a 6–2 majority, the Court ruled that Google's use of the Java APIs was within the bounds of fair use
Posted by: too scents | Jul 12 2024 15:14 utc | 99
some people have a better read on people, then others...
Posted by: james | Jul 12 2024 15:20 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Reposted from now dead thread:
My latest on the destruction of the US universities by the US oligarchic elite in their attempts to remove those universities as a centre of critical thinking that fosters resistance to their societal dominance and extractive relationship with the overwhelming majority of US citizens (and of course the Rest of the World). They have achieved their aim, but at the expense of destroying the critical thinking and focus on excellence required to drive technological development, something the Chinese are now overtaking the US on.
As US universities also become much less relatively attractive to foreign students (mostly of foreign elites and the upper middle class) the US loses a significant basis of its soft power. Those foreign students will increasingly go to other nations, increasingly China, and learn Mandarin, Chinese culture and the Chinese worldview.
The US Elite Undermining Of The US Universities
Posted by: Roger | Jul 11 2024 18:22 utc | 1