News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …
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August 22, 2024
Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-199
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Economic data, Euro Area and German Industrial PMIs for August released today.
Horrendous pace of de-industrialization in Europe continues, with German clocking 42.1 and EZ 45.6 below expectations.
Posted by: unimperator | Aug 22 2024 10:13 utc | 1
Much as (Western) Europe is expected to foot the bill to rebuild Palestine every time Israel destroys it, Europe is also constantly expected to pay for US encirclement of Russia through giving access to it’s labour markets for tens of millions of former Soviet/Warsaw Pact citizens.
https://www.rferl.org/a/wider-europe-ukraine-russian-money-armenia-visa-liberalization-eu-jozwiak/33084692.html
This week it’s Armenia’s turn, the EU has opened talks about Visa liberalisation that would end in Armenians not having to apply or get visas for EU states. This is pure madness. Armenia would have been considered extreme high risk for visa overstay and illegal immigration as well as organised crime seeding before the recent devastation and displaced people from it’s wars with Azerbaijan which the US, Israel and Turkey armed and whose genocidal intent towards the Armenians they all ignored or encouraged, the former two because they wanted an expansionist militarist Azerbaijan on Iran’s borders (Much of the North of Iran is full of ethnic Azeris which Azerbaijan claims as it’s own) and the latter because they wanted the genocide for it’s own sake and because it got it browny points with the US/Israel.
There is literally no reason for Europe to want to import another very clannish people in the millions here except to service insane neocon foreign policy objectives. So there is no reason to do this except to serve a foreign power with whom the EU and it’s member states are supposed equal partners.
This goes along with similar things like attempts to get Georgia (Population 3.4 million) to join the EU. And also recent news that the German chancellor arrived in Chisinau to support Moldova’s (Population 2.42 million) bid to join the EU. Why? Does the EU not have enough immigration, inequality and conflicts with Russia?
https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/105305
All 3 of these countries are far poorer, have more extensive traditions and histories of emigration in the modern era than any of the previous former Warsaw Pact countries. They’re also more corrupt and compromised by the CIA in terms of their leaderships.
Of course adding all these countries is slowly imploding the EU. b and others in places like Germany have no idea how much of the post 2004 expansion immigration Britain took. In most European countries immigration means non-Europeans, in Britain since 2004 it meant a lot of Europeans. It was this which tipped the vote on Brexit and which was ultimately the core issue. And while Britain was never really at home in the EU, having it leave in such a fashion set a precedent. Mass EU migration and “sharing the burden” of asylum seekers is the big issue that will start to break up the EU. Additionally adding all the fanatical right wing former Warsaw Pact countries intent on using Western powers to enact revenge on Russia as totally transformed the EU from a bloc fighting to resist Washington to one which is ever more becoming an extension of it and NATO. By diluting the power of the Western European countries have on EU policy it has totally been captured on neocon foreign policy positions and generally become ungovernable.
A true solution would be to have the old EU 15 with their own union and leave the former Warsaw Pact countries to form their own a Visegrád Union (They already have their own version of TASS, Visegrad 24) where they can team up to resist any real or percieved Russian influence and commit to however deranged a policy of hostility towards Russia they deem fit. Of course they’d whine that they are owed access to emigration to the EU 15 while also steadfastly reject any immigrants or asylum seekers themselves. Poland for the Poles, Western Europe for everyone, including Poles. Actually this seemed to be an unofficial state policy is industry for the last Polish government. What amazed me was how the Western press barely covered it at all. A sovereign state which benefits enormously by exporting it’s population to the West was selling Schengen visas to Poland at scale for cash knowing they’d be used not to stay and violate glorious Poland but to overstay and illegally immigrate to other countries, principally to those the Poles themselves emigrate to. Polish nationalism summed up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_cash-for-visa_scandal
Posted by: Altai | Aug 22 2024 10:26 utc | 2
for any of you anti-imperialist and history buffs out there….
I remember this happening, and being outraged at Clinton’s crime against humanity.
follow/read this thread.
the evil of the Clinton-Gore regime
https://x.com/SpiritofLenin/status/1825874435712110989
Friendly Neighborhood Comrade @SpiritofLenin
On this day in 1998, 26 years ago, Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on Sudan’s Al-Shifa factory, which produced 90% of the country’s pharmaceuticals. The destruction of the factory resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands from treatable diseases.
The US claimed the plant produced WMDs & had connections to Osama bin Laden, but neither was true. When it became clear the plant only produced medicine, the US blocked a UN inquiry into the incident
Al-Shifa factory specialized in anti-malaria, tuberculosis treatments & veterinary medicines. A report by a former German ambassador to Sudan stated that “several tens of thousands” were likely ki!!ed due to preventable diseases due to the loss of the plant.
https://x.com/SpiritofLenin/status/1825874453172981856
In 1998, Sudan was heavily sanctioned. Thus, it was unable to import expensive replacement drugs to compensate for the destroyed Al Shifa plant, which provided vital medicines at an inexpensive price. In Sudan, the incident is widely described as an act of terror.
The factory’s owners sued the US in an attempt to receive compensation, but the court dismissed their suit, ruling “the enemy target of military force” has no right to compensation for “the destruction of property designated by the President as enemy war-making property.”…..
Posted by: michaelj72 | Aug 22 2024 10:50 utc | 3
@ Posted by: michaelj72 | Aug 22 2024 10:50 utc | 4
There was compensation paid to owners of German factories in WW2!
The hundred years American century with its stinky trousers and and trail of brutality is coming to a dead end – a full on runaway train hitting the buffers.
The list of crimes against humanity will be long as will the compensation sought.
It’s just the demented Hollywood fairy tale fiction of Founding Fathers and Revolution against Monarchy that is keeping it in a bubble – one that will pop as all.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 22 2024 11:11 utc | 4
B glad to see you back and cleaning the other thread
Have you seen the FT article on nuclear usage in case of peer level war?
Russian navy trained to target sites inside Europe with nuclear-capable missiles
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 22 2024 11:32 utc | 5
Forwarded from “Professor looks at the world.”
We do not always realize the interconnection of events that change the picture of the world. Here, for example, are two events of the last few days: on the one hand, the process of strengthening BRICS, marked by Azerbaijan’s application for membership in this group ahead of the summit in Kazan in October 2024. On the other hand, almost at the same time, the strategy for the development of the Russian nuclear industry was published, which provides for the construction of new-generation reactors.
But these two events are closely related. BRICS, moving from the state of a “forum” to a community of countries interested in sovereign development, is beginning to build around a project implemented in the real sector of the economy and providing for the reindustrialization of several regions. And industrialization always means an increase in energy consumption, without which any country or region will be constantly unstable. This has been proven by the events of recent years in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Given the sharp growth of the manufacturing industry in Russia itself, the question arises of revising many forecasts made 15-20 years ago. The summer energy crisis in the south of Russia reminded us of this. The general scheme for the placement of new power capacities, published for discussion, reflects this new understanding. It includes proposals from Rosatom – the need to build 37 new nuclear power units, including not only “replacement” capacities, but also 11 new nuclear power plants.
New construction will be carried out taking into account the identified imbalances and deficits in energy consumption. The development program includes reactors not only of standard – large – capacity, but also medium and small ones. In particular, 4 medium-capacity power units in land-based and floating versions are planned to be built in the Far East, which seems to be a more than optimal solution. However, with the development of “peaceful atoms”, the problem of increasing the efficiency of using raw materials for nuclear energy, primarily “energy” uranium, arises.
This means that it is necessary to move on to new technologies. And it is very gratifying that this aspect is clearly defined in the development strategy of the state corporation Rosatom: not just an extensive expansion of the use of nuclear energy based on already well-developed models of NPPs, but a desire for technological leadership and the formation of a new technological standard due to new national, if you like – sovereign technologies. Yes, this is more difficult, but more promising, especially since there are technological reserves for a new generation of nuclear reactors.
The draft of the new general scheme for the development of nuclear energy includes the construction of nuclear energy systems of the “fourth” generation. These are fast neutron reactors, which allow expanding the fuel base of nuclear energy by involving spent nuclear fuel in the fuel cycle and reducing stored radioactive waste. Testing of the fast neutron nuclear energy technology has been underway in Russia for a long time, so it can be fully considered a reference. The
commissioning of power units with fast neutron reactors is expected at the Beloyarsk, Reftinskaya, Krasnoyarsk and Yuzhnouralsk NPPs. The construction of an experimental complex of closed-cycle nuclear energy technologies – an extremely important step in ensuring an even higher level of environmental friendliness of nuclear energy – is already underway in the Tomsk Region, in Seversk on the basis of the BREST-OD-300 reactor. This is a serious reserve for scaling up technologies that are significantly ahead of the world level.
In conclusion, let’s return to the beginning: the reindustrialization of Russia and Greater Eurasia, the development of the “North-South” corridor creates a solid economic base for the development of nuclear energy on a new technological basis, if you like – a full-fledged demand. And for the long term.
Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 22 2024 11:32 utc | 6
in case not seen or noticed…on August 9 Chinese Foreign Ministry published their analysis- exposee of the USA NED.
Posted by: Jo | Aug 22 2024 11:56 utc | 7
While I imagine no small vessel is going to survive a direct encounter with a tornado.
It looks like the Bayesian was just impacted by so strong winds associated with.
Either it tipped a bit and took on water or it struck ground or the wave action over came it.
My impression is that those luxury yachts are built more for show and not so much to be sea worthy.
It does not look like it was designed to roll and recover or even take a wave over the bow.
But the media is claiming it was extremely safe vessel – wonder why and where they are getting that.
I do fell sympathy for the loss (particularly the young girl), but seems a classic case of pride before a wave.
Posted by: jared | Aug 22 2024 12:01 utc | 8
@ 3 –
hey but at least Armenian women generally have beautiful big brown eyes and tend to be quite well developed in the mammary department… see, e.g. the Kardashians…
Posted by: Adriatic Hillbilly | Aug 22 2024 12:49 utc | 9
It sounds like the Armenian headache for Russia solves itself. They run away to the EU and empty the nation. What’s left is subject to Azerbaijan intentions.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 22 2024 13:01 utc | 10
Not seen this reported anywhere else yet…https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/22/woez-a22.html
Posted by: Pete | Aug 22 2024 13:08 utc | 11
Posted by: jared | Aug 22 2024 12:01 utc | 9
Am no marine architect but most super-wealthy yacht owner types want their vessels to be safe and well built, and most are. I gather the vessel sank extremely quickly trapping several in their cabins below.
One possibility is that unusually large wave action caused her keel to strike the bottom sharply possibly breaking it from the hull which could make her sink literally in minutes as is reported to have happened. This scenario assumes significant wave action causing the depth at the mooring to go from something like 30 feet to almost nothing as the tornado swept by. Have no idea if this happened, but sounds plausible.
Not seen this reported anywhere else yet…https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/22/woez-a22.html
Posted by: Pete | Aug 22 2024 13:08 utc | 12
First time here at MOA I think.
Nice catch, basically KSA’s secret service finger deeply stuck in 911
But it can be a way to say “ok we pay, but it stops here”
Almost a decade ago there were bigger fish to fry
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/saudi-arabia-faces-the-missing-28-pages
And in last May you had this, bsicaly the wsJ but with added link to embasy
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/september-11-attacks-saudi-arabia-lawsuit/678430/
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 22 2024 13:27 utc | 13
One possibility is that unusually large wave action caused her keel to strike the bottom sharply possibly breaking it from the hull which could make her sink literally in minutes as is reported to have happened. This scenario assumes significant wave action causing the depth at the mooring to go from something like 30 feet to almost nothing as the tornado swept by. Have no idea if this happened, but sounds plausible.
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 22 2024 13:26 utc | 13
Yes, yes, and his partner was run over in an accident last week, equally plausible…
More likely HP lost the trial a couple of weeks ago and found that it costs a fraction of the 10Bln they lost to settle scores.
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 22 2024 13:29 utc | 14
“Five bodies have now been found in the wreckage of British tycoon Mike Lynch’s yacht, including those of Lynch himself and his teenage daughter Hannah, multiple media outlets reported on Wednesday.
The 56-meter-long British-flagged superyacht named ‘Bayesian’, which had 22 people onboard, had anchored just off shore near the port of Porticello.
The incident occurred as the 59-year-old Lynch, known as ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’, was enjoying a “victory trip” to celebrate winning his US fraud trial over the £8.3 billion ($10.8 billion) sale of his software development firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
Coincidence?
In a separate tragedy, it was reported that Lynch’s co-defendant in the trial and former vice president of finance at Autonomy, Stephen Chamberlain, was killed after being fatally struck by a car while jogging in the county of Cambridgeshire, UK, on Saturday.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 22 2024 13:33 utc | 15
…
Posted by: jared | Aug 22 2024 12:01 utc | 9
(Sinking of yacht Bayesian)
15 of the 22 people on board survived the mishap. It won’t take long to separate what could have happened from what did happen with so many first-hand witnesses.
According to Wikipedia it had an extremely tall mast 236′ and a retractable keel/centreboard which, if it was retracted, would have compromsed its ability to recover from a knock-down like a normal ocean racing yacht.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 22 2024 13:39 utc | 16
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 22 2024 13:39 utc | 17
I could fall for that if it was made by Boeing
https://news.sky.com/story/sailing-yachts-like-mike-lynchs-are-unsinkable-bodies-ceo-of-boat-manufacturing-firm-says-13200883
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 22 2024 13:44 utc | 17
It sounds like the Armenian headache for Russia solves itself. They run away to the EU and empty the nation. What’s left is subject to Azerbaijan intentions.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 22 2024 13:01 utc | 11
This might have been one item on the list between Aliyev and Putin recently.
Posted by: unimperator | Aug 22 2024 13:53 utc | 18
“It’s unsinkable.”
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 22 2024 13:44 utc | 18
It’s on the bottom of the Med. So its unsinkability was conditional (lots of “ifs”).
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 22 2024 13:59 utc | 19
Posted by: michaelj72 | Aug 22 2024 10:50 utc | 4
yea, I have read about the deliberate US destruction of improved malaria medicine in Sudan, which led to the mass deaths of Sudanese people.
It was a book by Chomsky, I remenber.
Posted by: Nokaz | Aug 22 2024 14:01 utc | 20
re. Sinking Super-Yacht
Well from what I can make of the video, it did not heel over so much – just suddenly disappeared.
But looking at the large glass area does not look like it was designed to handle taking a wave – although very likely those are some tough plexi panels. Well I just find it interesting. Curious what that keel looked like – was it a full keel.
Here is a brief write-up. There is much interest.
https://www.boatinternational.com/yachts/news/latest-updates-perini-navi-sailing-yacht-sinks-incident-sicily-palermo-mike-lynch
Posted by: jared | Aug 22 2024 14:22 utc | 21
Slightly ironic that “Bayesian” refers to statistical analysis.
Posted by: jared | Aug 22 2024 14:25 utc | 22
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 22 2024 13:33 utc | 16
It’s not a coincidence.
I’m well aware of Mike Lynch (full disclosure, worked in one of his remaining companies in Cambridge, until mid July when my probation period was ready to expire and left on my volition after realizing that UK is going nowhere). He was prohibited from the courts in the UK as part of his previous (temp?) agreement with the US DoJ to occupy any management or leadership – CEO/president – position, thus creating extremely complicated management structure whereby he was the de facto executive of a trust which was an “investor” in the companies he founded including Luminance and DarkTrace. His trusted people became the CEOs of those companies extending his control over them. Wondering how my former colleagues are dealing with the sudden change of investment strategies and what would have been if I’d stayed longer.
Given that this happened off the coast of Sicily, no viable investigation would be done given the extreme inefficiency of the Sicilian police. Also, one of the top honchos of Morgan Stanley was also killed. Quite a fat contract that must have been for whoever did it.
Posted by: Boo | Aug 22 2024 14:31 utc | 23
re. Sinking Super-Yacht
From an article at the website which shall not be named – rhymes with edge.
He suggested human error was likely responsible for the sinking: “The ship sank because it took on water. From where? Investigators will have to say.”
It is as if they are circling wagons to protect the reputation of the boat builder – a bit cynical.
Posted by: jared | Aug 22 2024 14:33 utc | 24
Boo (23).
So why were they killed – its been reported that the Keel of Mike Lynch’s superyacht was retracted – I assume that could destablise the yacht in choppy waters – could someone have intentionally retracted the keel – to cause this to happen – as for the death of Chamberlin on Saturday past – I’m not one to believe is such coincidences it appears planned to me.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 22 2024 14:51 utc | 25
i am not sure why the sinking of the yacht is so important.. i realize people have died, but is there something i am missing here??
Posted by: james | Aug 22 2024 14:59 utc | 26
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 22 2024 14:51 utc | 25
We’re talking about a 1B$+ of stock swap (seems this is what he got from selling autonomy, how much HP shares were converted meanwhile is not clear, but I suspect a large amount). It could be that some part were transferred (to whom, I’ve got no clue) and the elimination of Mike Lynch is now opening the possibility of them to be swapped as well as the DoJ can’t legally prosecute the current holders. Just a very wild guess…
Both Luminance/DarkTrace are major players in their markets and mostly self-sufficient.
Posted by: Boo | Aug 22 2024 15:08 utc | 27
james @26
Palace intrigued in the oligarchy. It is not a cause, but rather a symptom of geopolitical instability. The tycoon’s death has nothing to do directly with any of us, but it is a sign we are in interesting times.
Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 22 2024 15:09 utc | 28
@ William Gruff | Aug 22 2024 15:09 utc | 28
thanks.. yes, that makes sense..
Posted by: james | Aug 22 2024 15:14 utc | 29
@Pete | Aug 22 2024 13:08 utc | 11
Passenger jets can not turn steel high rise building into dust. And yes, I am a structural engineer. When you accept that 2+2=4, all else follows.
Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 22 2024 15:32 utc | 30
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 22 2024 13:29 utc | 14
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 22 2024 13:33 utc | 15
=================================================================================
Nothing in life in coincidental.
Noticed too much focus on the death persons but not so much on those who survived.
Someone somewhere ‘a survived person or two’ must know something revealing.
Posted by: AI | Aug 22 2024 15:32 utc | 31
Coincidences are inevitable if your data set is big enough. The world is an astronomically large data set. That’s why it’s so hard to know when they’re not coincidences. Caution is advised, lest small minds leap to collusions.
It’s like the ancients and the medieval people thinking poison when someone died young, despite the many, many untreatable diseases misunderstood by early efforts at medicine.
For some reason, it all makes me think of the Princeton disaster, which nearly killed his accidency John Tyler. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Princeton_(1843)
Posted by: steven t johnson | Aug 22 2024 15:34 utc | 32
Altai@1026
The EU needs to be dissolved, broken-up. Pure and simple. Ditto NATO. Both entities are control-mechanisms imposed by the “Old Black Nobility” such as the Orsinis and the Colonnas…as well, of course…as the Sanhedrin dominated Talmudists.
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 15:36 utc | 33
michaelj72@1050
The U$$A Federal court system is virtually totally corrupted…top-down…as the 9 Black Robes “Citizens United” alleged “ruling” substantiates. In essence that system exists under the tenets of the 1938 creation of the United States of America CORPORATION under the corporate laws of the state of DuPont (aka Delaware). This kept very quiet coup was set up to replace the Constitution with the All-$eeing eye of the Financial Elite hovering constantly.
All U$$A courtrooms feature the yellow fringed Admiralty flag….which is NOT the flag of the Republic. Thus all those appearing in such venues are considered as “vessels” entering the dock.
Rule by the Elite has long been unlawfully embedded within this ruptured Republic.
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 15:44 utc | 34
Jared@1201
“High winds” micro-located into a very tiny part of the vessel crowded area? Uh-uh. That was most probably accomplished by Directed Energy Weaponry (DEW). So some research sleuthing…and not limited to googs …and find out for yourself about the existence of these platforms.
That yacht was targeted specifically to eliminate four “loose cannons” amongst the financial infrastructure.
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 15:48 utc | 35
James@1459
Out from under total control individuals of high status are frequently removed from the equation, such as the assassination by airplane of Minnesota’s independent-minded Senator Paul Wellstone, just a couple weeks before he would have been re-elected. He was the #1 Opponent of Bu$h the Lesser’s (with maximum advice and consent/cooption by Cheney the Dick) in their schemes to attack both Afghanistan and Iraq for their alleged role in the 911 Inside Job.
Two other leading Democrat Senators also received some very nasty poison in their mail…later discovered to be traced back to Fort Detrick, Maryland…the U$$A’s bio-warfare center…also implicated by diversion in the Covid Plandemic as well as having developed the AIDS virus several years prior.
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 15:59 utc | 36
Economic data, Euro Area and German Industrial PMIs for August released today.
Horrendous pace of de-industrialization in Europe continues, with German clocking 42.1 and EZ 45.6 below expectations.
Posted by: unimperator | Aug 22 2024 10:13 utc | 1
Thanks for that update.
These are horrendous PMIs.
Uncle Sam to Herr Heinz – shoot yourself in foot.
Herr Heinz to Uncle Sam – both feet well shot – hobbling along now.
Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 22 2024 16:27 utc | 37
Why isn’t Reuters charged for giving millions of dollars worth of free election advertising to the Democrats?
Day after day you can observe it. If the subject of the Main Headline and story is Trump then there is a negative slant
to the headline and a positive slant for the Democrats. Isn’t this free election promotion for the Democrats. Of Course !
Today’s headline is a real pip.
Kamala Harris’ roots reflect changing US demographics
The accompanying photo is of Kamala striking a Statue of Liberty pose. Have a look !
{Some might say it is Lady Liberty sucking on a dildo. Sorry, but you cannot unsee it it.)
Hurry, Reuters changes it up every once in a while.
Posted by: librul | Aug 22 2024 16:35 utc | 38
@Posted by: librul | Aug 22 2024 16:35 utc | 38
That was quick!! They changed the photo already!
Someone might have noticed and complained.
Posted by: librul | Aug 22 2024 16:36 utc | 39
@Posted by: librul | Aug 22 2024 16:36 utc | 39
Well, well…
MSN reprints Reuters and the photo is preserved.
https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/world/kamala-harris-multiracial-roots-reflect-changing-us-demographics/ar-AA1pf7Tt
Kamala poses like The Statue of Liberty
but has taken the Torch of Liberty into her other hand.
Posted by: librul | Aug 22 2024 16:41 utc | 40
Kamala Harris will unite the Black and Asian community in the US of A.
Posted by: AI | Aug 22 2024 16:52 utc | 41
jared | Aug 22 2024 12:01 utc | 8
*** But the media is claiming it was extremely safe vessel – wonder why and where they are getting that.***
Was suggested in UK media that the yacht may have been struck / tipped by a waterspout.
Said to occur during severe storms in that area, though not often.
Posted by: Cynic | Aug 22 2024 17:44 utc | 42
Kamala Harris will unite the Black and Asian community in the US of A.
Posted by: AI | Aug 22 2024 16:52 utc | 41
_______
Some South Asians, probably. East Asians, not so much (to put it mildly).
Posted by: malenkov | Aug 22 2024 17:52 utc | 43
This is no way to treat Harris.
gringo and Indians shared lots of common values.
Besides, she might EVEN get bharat into
the QUAD.
tptb used Obama to ‘do’ Africa
Harris might be their man to do India.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adcFAJpXvdU
Posted by: denk | Aug 22 2024 18:34 utc | 44
“Coincidence?”
In a separate tragedy, it was reported that Lynch’s co-defendant in the trial and former vice president of finance at Autonomy, Stephen Chamberlain, was killed after being fatally struck by a car while jogging in the county of Cambridgeshire, UK, on Saturday.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 22 2024 13:33 utc | 15
I don’t know if they are linked, however, If someone held a gun to my head and asked me if these two deaths were connected or just accidents and if my answer was wrong he is going to pull the trigger..
I would reply: they are connected.
Decided to report some science and trade news that impact geopolitics, “A Short Timeout for Antimatter & Chips”.
“Two other leading Democrat Senators also received some very nasty poison in their mail…later discovered to be traced back to Fort Detrick, Maryland…the U$$A’s bio-warfare center…also implicated by diversion in the Covid Plandemic as well as having developed the AIDS virus several years prior.”
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 15:59 utc | 36
Ft. Detrick was closed in August 2019 because of a contamination leak. Do you remember all those kids that died from vaping that late summer and fall-that was covid not fucking vaping -then soldiers from Ft. Detrick went to the soldiers game in Wuhan in November -that’s what I believe began the disease
Accidental but why do these bio labs dabble in these horrible concoctions…
Passenger jets can not turn steel high rise building into dust. And yes, I am a structural engineer. When you accept that 2+2=4, all else follows.
Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 22 2024 15:32 utc | 30
Not without the help of some pre-planted explosives and special “fire treatment” paint applied to the beams and girders.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Aug 22 2024 19:12 utc | 48
….. had an extremely tall mast 236′ and a retractable keel/centreboard which, if it was retracted…..
Had a draft of 4 meters.
Too scary to contemplate ; calculating the righting moment required to resist the windage on a 236’ alu. mast.
Professional sailors and boatbuilders discuss the sinking in a 900+ post thread:
https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/threads/56m-luxury-sailing-yacht-sinks-off-sicily-7-missing.247750/
Posted by: Exile | Aug 22 2024 19:31 utc | 49
I think the Bloods and the Crips are the perfect metaphor for the “two” parties: they use red and blue as their colors, they are criminal in nature, and they hate each other despite having no real ideological differences whatsoever.
The only place this comparison falters is that if the politicians were replaced by a bunch of randomly-selected gangsters, we would all be better off.
Posted by: Donbass Lives Matter | Aug 22 2024 21:03 utc | 51
fyi – merging temporalities – re-fitted ‘old’ cheap ship carrying a cheap modern army of cheap, but accurate, and relatively powerful, drones. Prob best to fire them all at-once and then rapidly abandon ship. Yet could be effective as a ‘drifting’ weapon. Would have to be a first-mover advantage. Oh for the good ol’ days of pike and sword … raiding cattle, kidnapping young colleens, and generally raising mayhem …
A Look at Iran’s First Ever Aircraft Carrier: Shahid Bagheri Promises to Expand Reach of Stealth Drone Fleet
Iranian media has published the first clear footage of the country’s first aircraft carrier, the Shahid Bagheri, which is set to facilitate forward drone operations by the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Referred to as a “forward base ship,” the warship features an angled flight deck and ski jump launch system similar to those on Russian Kuznetsov Class and British Queen Elizabeth Class carriers. Iran has been able to built the carrier on a very low budget by converting a commercial container ship, the Perarin, into a carrier. A second container ship is also expected to be converted into a drone operating platform, which will be designated the Shahid Mahdavi. The use of converted container ships imposes serious limitations on performance compared to purpose built aircraft carriers, in particular in terms of their ability to take damage in combat, although for drone operations without any manned aviation components this approach appears to be considered sufficient.
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/iran-carrier-shahid-bagheri-drone
h/t nakedcapitalism.com
Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 22 2024 21:21 utc | 52
Mods and Rockers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mods_and_rockers
The political spectacle industry for entertainment and confusion of the plebs is one of the most successful facets of the Truman Show that is America and the club of European Eu-nuch castrati
Posted by: Simon | Aug 22 2024 21:23 utc | 53
Looks like the US polls moving against Harris now, no real bump from the DNC. Not surprising given the utter ignoring of the ongoing Gaza genocide, which certainly turns off a chunk of Democrat voters. Biden’s drugged up angry man speech will not have helped, and the daughter hug looked like Stockholm Syndrome. Obama’s hopey changey BS is way past is sell by date. Kamala speaks in a way that is utterly condescending to her audience, and is very wooden. Also, the utter wreck of a step-daughter that we saw certainly shit-canned her “step-mother of the year” story.
Now as long as JD can stay in the box, and Trump doesn’t blow it in the debate I can only see a slow ebbing away of the Kamala tide. Amazing that this is the best the Dems have, and the “chosen valour” attack on the VP candidate seems to scoring hits. Trump is a relative shadow of his 2016 self, but that really doesn’t seem to matter.
Now forecasting Harris 236 electoral college votes to Trumps 302. A lot of Dem states are closer than they should be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIF8m_nwR38
Ft. Detrick was closed in August 2019 because of a contamination leak. Do you remember all those kids that died from vaping that late summer and fall-that was covid not fucking vaping -then soldiers from Ft. Detrick went to the soldiers game in Wuhan in November -that’s what I believe began the disease
Accidental but why do these bio labs dabble in these horrible concoctions…
Posted by: canuck | Aug 22 2024 18:50 utc | 47
Now that is interesting – if data to back it all up ….
Any link to someone who went into detail on this one – dateline etc e? We know that USBioTech funded research [The Lancet Commission & J. Sachs] in Wuhan Lab. Possible, if not probable, that [messing up the function] tests also took place in US. Be a lovely set of dates and a lesson to China about these ‘foreign games’ and ‘sleeping with the enemy’!
Just glad it wasn’t The Dallas Cowboys!
Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 22 2024 21:31 utc | 55
The story of China depending on “cheap labour” and “bad working conditions” is now utterly outdated but very prevalent among many commentators, and the general public. Over the next 5-10 years they are going to get a very nasty surprise as China dominates every single green energy industry – Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Smart Networks, Batteries, EVs … while also reducing their greenhouse emissions in parallel with continued 5% GDP growth and catching up in microchips. The image of China will be that of the future, as with the US in the 1950s, and the image of the West will be that of a bullying past. I have written a piece on that:
China Rapidly Becoming Both a Green Energy Leader and Climate Champion
Even at PPP, the incomes of China’s 1.4 billion will only reach about US$35,000 in 2030 and US$44,000 in 2035. But given the sheer scale of the country, there will be whole regions with populations bigger than Germany that will have incomes at least equal to that nation. In addition, Chinese incomes will still be growing at perhaps 4% per year, while Europe and North America will be in full decline – with Europe in the lead. With respect to the US, so much of its GDP is BS (under-counting inflation, double-counting financial services costs as outputs etc.), and wasted (the military, healthcare etc.) it is hard to tell what the true income level is, especially for the bottom 80%.
In addition, the West (especially North America) has such a huge deficit in infrastructure spending to make up while its very aged pieces of that infrastructure will need more and more money to stop catastrophic reductions in service.
Yes
The encounter between the bloody Biblical-Roman Empire in its last iteration (1967-) and the Chinese Commercial Civilization
Posted by: Simon | Aug 22 2024 21:56 utc | 57
Donbass Lives Matter@2103
Crips and Bloods…Dems and Gop…excellent analogy.
IF Muak were for real and if he decided to create a genuine alternative media…that Metaphorical twist would quickly go viral. Imagine media commentators on the screen using those terms to describe the duopoly.
The younger generations are already highly distrustful of the Bi-Party cuddle. That demographic sitting it out or going elsewhere comes the (s)election would skew the entire comedy.
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 22:07 utc | 58
The Romans
The Romans believed themselves to be chosen by the gods to rule the world, and from there to Rhodes’s society of the chosen is a straight road to the exceptionalism of the delirious minds of Washington inside the Beltway.
When the Romans learned about the bloody Aramaic fantasies (read for example the book of Deuteronomy) they said: -OMFG, this is the true religion
It is the same whether our narcissistic and sociopathic masters come from the Roman world (called Christian) or from the rabbinical world, it is exactly the same because the same Mental Software runs in their skulls, the same Roman-Biblical Fusion
Posted by: Simon | Aug 22 2024 22:10 utc | 59
Don Firineach@2121
One would hope that those ersatz carriers would have plenty of submarine protection by their own underseas units. Ditto, instantaneous readouts from satellite observation “posts”.
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 22:10 utc | 60
Venezuela’s Supreme Court confirms Maduro is the winner of the July 28 presidential election.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-supreme-court-delivers-electoral-review-verdict-confirms-maduro-victory/
Posted by: Chas | Aug 22 2024 22:16 utc | 61
Firineach and Canuck
Though the Fort Detrick installation, per se, was shut down…mainly to considerable aggravation on the numbers of people living in that part of Maryland finally getting some attention in Annapolis and the D. of C….the infrastructure was farmed out to several satellite facilities, employing the same personnel, to the University of North Carolina and various other iterations.
If you guys happen to recall…one of the first operations by Russian helicoptered investigative troops and specialists at the very beginning of their Special Military Operation,was dispatched to several bio lab facilities in northern Ukraine. This is something which has been shoved down the memory hole. We are not sposta know about such matters.
Japanese torture and “observation” medical specialists did innumerable “experiments” on captured and seized Chinese in WWII. That whole lot, similar to Gehlen and his gang in Operation Paperclip, were “relocated” to the U$$A. It is not improbable that some of the biological weaponry dropped on North Korea in that 50-53 conflict were produced with the able assistance of those co-opted Japanese “specialists”.
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 22:23 utc | 62
Simon@2210
That Roman/Talmudist-Chosen force of cultural destruction invoked me to describe it as “The JudieChristie MagickMindfuck”.
If one considers there is a 180 difference between their Black Magick and the White Magic of cosmically aware tribal peoples; then we come to the Real-Eye-Zation that the rationalistic materialists succeeded only in providing an antithesis to the impositonal Dark Ages of organized religion as the successor to the Roman Empire.
A vision which came to me more than forty years ago was formulated in a brief essay titled “The Million Tribes of Turtle Island”. …or as the ancient African proverb has it: “It takes a village to raise a child”.
These observations will become more clear as our major massive urban conglomerations continue to implode.
Hyper-centralization and specialization are the ruin of American culture.
Posted by: aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 22:36 utc | 63
Gonna post here where it belongs.
What is this worship for bevin at this bar.
He was brilliant, arrogant and totally insensitive.
Yea, i remember bevin cutting to pieces with his superior grasp of history the freedom convoy movement.
I remember his dehumanization of those that questioned the covid bullshit.
Let him return and account for himself and his pre-historic world view.
I miss him too.
Posted by: simon crow | Aug 22 2024 23:28 utc | 64
The earth has cracked wide open up there in Iceland.
It’s trying to distract us away from all the war and unending violence.
Quite dramatic.
Ninth Eruption in Just Over Three Years
Posted by: thecelticwithinme | Aug 23 2024 0:28 utc | 65
Aristodemos @ 36 and 62, Canuck @ 47, Don Firineach @ 55:
It’s my understanding that the biological / medical research facility at Fort Detrick military base in Maryland was shut down (in April 2019 possibly?) due to lax staff procedures and the improper disposal of waste material. I recall reading somewhere online (but forget the source) that an incinerator at the base was out of action at the time.
I believe the normal protocol is to ship the waste to another military base with a functioning incinerator but that would have involved considerable paperwork and staff time. You can imagine that the waste would have to be transported securely, and under guard, to avoid theft or accidental loss. Then the destruction of the waste would have be observed either by Fort Detrick staff or the staff at the receiving base, and a destruction certificate produced and certified.
This was not the first time that failure to observe the proper protocol resulted in untreated waste entering a creek, river or other body of water.
Did a military lab spill anthrax into public waterways? New book reveals details of a US leak
Not long after the laboratory was shut down, sometime in July I think it was, a nursing home at Greenspring in Virginia (not far from Fort Detrick in Maryland, possibly downstream from the base) was hit by a mystery pneumonia, the likes of which doctors had never seen before. You may recall hearing or seeing reports of doctors doing autopsies on elderly patients who had died and finding their lungs full of fluid, or of X-rays of infected patients showing images of “glassy lungs”.
Around September 2019, there was news of teenagers and others with strange respiratory illnesses that were blamed on vaping.
I have also seen news and rumour that some US soldiers competing at the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019 had an unusual respiratory illness. The US team stayed at a hotel not far from the Wuhan food markets where COVID-19 was originally reported. The hotel employees came down with pneumonia not long after the US team.
I also remember seeing reports that one of the goals of Russia’s SMO was to locate and destroy all US-owned military biological laboratories in Ukraine. This goal was achieved early during the SMO and documents seized from those laboratores were sent to Moscow for translation from English into Russian. I understand the Chinese government has been interested in the contents of these documents and has asked for access to them.
Aristodemus, you may be interested in reading this Wikipedia article on the connection between Japan’s Unit 731 and the US biological warfare campaign in Korea during the Korean War:
Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Aug 23 2024 0:29 utc | 66
@ aristodemos | Aug 22 2024 15:59 utc | 36 //and @ 62
yes, well there is always that.. the conspiratorial angle and i don’t say that to negate any of it either… there is always that! as to the rest of your post that canuck and don replied to, these ideas were discussed here at moa in real time and i do remember them.. and yes to the beginning of the smo and russias response to those bio labs in the border regions of russia too… it wasn’t just the japanese.. the americans in their war on korea in the 50s was one big chemical and biological weapons experiment… how do we get off this insane merry go round?? the accident with the yacht pales by comparison… how about those 17 people who died in the pharma plant blast in india on wednesday?? it seems more stories and deaths are considered noteworthy then others.. i wonder why that is?? philosophical question i guess!
Posted by: james | Aug 23 2024 0:32 utc | 67
Posted by: Roger | Aug 22 2024 21:27 utc | 54
Yeah. 85% of democrates want a ceasefire while the DNC delegates cover their ears and say “la la la la.” Not exaggerating.
Not the way to win an election.
Joy? WTF? Democrats proposing a perpetual orgasm? What’s their effing policies?
Posted by: JAB | Aug 23 2024 0:35 utc | 68
Regarding my comment @ 66, I have checked some dates and found that the biomedical research facility at Fort Detrick military base was shut down in August 2019, so this would have been about a month after the mystery pneumonia outbreak at Greenspring retirement community (not a nursing home).
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Aug 23 2024 0:39 utc | 69
Posted by: Roger | Aug 22 2024 21:52 utc | 56
China is indeed no longer a low wage economy and it is not hard to find the data.
I have one graph which showed the past 20 years but cannot find the source, here is one for average yearly wage over the past 12 years.
https://tradingeconomics.com/china/wages
The latest figure is RMB 120K, that’s nigh on $17,000. It looks to have increased by a factor of about 8 during that period. And in PPP terms that is $21,500.
When I first came to China in 2007 there was still plenty of industry in the original 8 Industry Roads in Shenzhen which date back to the original opening up, but it has all fled to the outer suburbs of Longhua and Longgang, on to Dongguan, and out to lower cost parts of China.
That’s a very good breakdown by Roger, highly recommended. In Shenzhen now virtually all traffic is electric. On the high speed train last week to find that the cruising speed has been lifted to 350 kph/218 mph. It’s like low level flight and if you shut your eyes there is hardly any sensation of motion.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 23 2024 0:43 utc | 70
RE the US election, one thing to notice for everyone here is this: all approved candidates in both major parties, and all of the MSM media, accepts without question the “official stories” about 9/11, JFK assassination, RFK assassination, and they never, talk about the USS Liberty. And both parties give unlimited standing ovations to Netanyahu.
Posted by: Wisco | Aug 23 2024 0:43 utc | 71
Here is a brief clip of flying on a high speed train to Hunan at 350 kph.
I don’t know if it works, this is a trial.
https://disk.yandex.com/i/QpHru_CzxiST2Q
I got booted off Vimeo after my Palestine film got hundreds of views here. I have transferred everything to Yandex Disc now. Let me know if it works here.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 23 2024 0:56 utc | 72
High speed rail necessitates proper tracks to run really fast. Germany, as a densely populated country with major industrial resources, has intercity travel rarely going above 250km/h. Current motorcoaches, used with 800 seating capacity in the Rhein-Ruhr sprawl, are very comfortable vehicles anyhow.
MagLev technology (Transrapid) sounded a bit like the Apollo project in the media here for a while. After it didn’t come to pass, the whole thing was gifted to China, who didn’t hesitate to build a line serving the Shanghai airport and make it a point to not charge a fee. If it’s true that they are also building a connection in the project to move the capital of Egypt away from Kairo, I say that empire will be hard-pressed to make further inroads in Africa.
After the above introductory excuse, yours truly is over to the jukebox now, to play a seriously moving train video recorded in Tokyo that goes along to one of my favourite pieces of pop music – vordhosbn by Aphex Twin, aka Richard D. James. That’s welsh for a rowing boat.
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 23 2024 1:49 utc | 73
@Posted by: Walt | Aug 23 2024 0:56 utc | 72
Worked for me. The general Western perception of China is about 15 years out of date, even among most of the policy elites and academics. I wrote a piece for a Canadian paper saying why they should not be looking to replicate the US 100% EV tariffs and instead work with the great companies like BYD and CATL, and the comments section was full of “cheap Chinese labour”, “low labour standards” etc. Got a question about the very same thing on an interview I did.
The Western leaders and policy makers just cant get their heads around how fast things move in China, and how far China has come in just the past decade. They will be shocked in the next 5-10 years as industry after industry gets dominated by Chinese companies, including in computer technology. With Chinese companies controlling the intellectual property and the supply chains, the basis of much of the neo-colonial extraction from the West will end, which will be very painful for those nations.
I would reply: they are connected.
Posted by: canuck | Aug 22 2024 18:42 utc | 45
Congratulations! You live.
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 23 2024 2:06 utc | 75
persiflo | Aug 23 2024 1:49 utc | 73
Thanks for that; AT is one of my all time faves.
Posted by: robjira | Aug 23 2024 2:09 utc | 76
@ Roger
Here in the states, it’s difficult or impossible to pick up a just-bought device or article and not see “made in China.” So it’s wait on table time for many.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 23 2024 2:12 utc | 77
Maybe you have all spoken about this already, or maybe not. I took a break from MoA and may continue it after this.
From MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) to NUTS (Nuclear Use Target Saturation) (yes I know the article uses different words; I think perhaps they got it wrong or were deliberately given bad data since their version misses the point).
The US is pushing everyone towards a First Strike world.
You can now burn any and all existing nuclear policy documents from anyone anywhere across the world. They no longer matter.
Yes the following is not the first report (there was some muttering about this some days ago) but I see this as confirmation.
I think the following sort of misses the main point of “First Strike promiscuity” but nevertheless I’ll link it,
“‘Act of Madness’: US Soft Launches New Nuclear Plans Refocusing on Russia and China – Report”
Source:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240822/act-of-madness-us-soft-launches-new-nuclear-plans-refocusing-on-russia-and-china—report-1119877155.html
“[This report] strikes me as an act of madness. I mean, just think about this language. Simultaneous nuclear war with North Korea, Russia and China at the same time. I mean, just to put those, to type those words into a sentence and to think that that is a rational thing to publish is mind boggling,” said Noh.
All in all a very big news story. The vast majority of humans on the planet will likely never hear of this and in case they do they will not understand the importance of it.
The US needs to be disarmed. Otherwise you/we/they/everybody will die.
I don’t see any argument for not launching against the US right now. Not kidding. So I guess everyone can be happy I’m not in charge so that they can let the US kill them (or likely much worse) on account of them “being reasonable”.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 23 2024 2:19 utc | 78
Oneohtrix Point Never – Again (Full Album) (56:52)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCWAqoiSXI
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 23 2024 2:32 utc | 79
Posted by: Roger | Aug 23 2024 2:00 utc | 74
Along those lines, this development might be particularly interesting:
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3271978/china-sets-launch-date-worlds-first-thorium-molten-salt-nuclear-power-station
The tech could work for India too if they got their act together…
Posted by: Turdworld | Aug 23 2024 2:42 utc | 80
“I took a break from MoA and may continue it after this.”
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 23 2024 2:32 utc | 79
Taking a break from MoA makes a person dumber, I think. Despite the MoA flaws.
Posted by: Wisco | Aug 23 2024 2:46 utc | 81
China’s rapid progress toward Modernity is easily explained by the fact that China has followed an ongoing series of 5-Year Plans since 1949(?).
Not only that. They also hold plenary meetings to review progress in the current 5-Y Plan and adopt measures to correct any shortfalls.
It’s a great way to run a Nation, imo. Why leave progress to chance when it can be PLANNED?
It’s easy to imagine that the average Chinese citizen is infinitely more optimistic than the average bullshitted to 24/7, and ignored, Western citizen.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 23 2024 2:50 utc | 82
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 23 2024 2:50 utc | 82
They also started much later and with a significantly larger population than nations which modernized earlier. Once you get to a certain level, say London or Paris in the 20’s, the easy industrial growth phase is over and the next growth periods come from war, new technology or rebuilding after (often deliberate) destruction. China has enjoyed a high population urban civilization for so long that once set up they were well able to engender logistical and cultural development dwarfing all nations before her. Looks like they still have a ways to go even though they are already the most modern polity in the world in many ways. (What they are doing with electric car manufacturing, for example, much with AI and robotics, is truly stunning.)
My concern with all developed modern nations, including China which is now the largest and industrial leader, is: ‘what happens after the initial growth spurt ends?’ This is more of a philosophical/cultural than a political or nationalist concern. What happens to secular, materialist polities when material development is no longer needed? Can a modern state handle a low or no growth paradigm or is perpetual growth the only way forward?
Perhaps Japan and certain European states have already answered that question, or are trying to, but if so am not well aware of it; yet I think it is a looming challenge for the entire world and don’t find discussions about capitalism versus socialism or Green New Deals etc. well address it. Time will tell.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 23 2024 2:50 utc | 82
“Why leave progress to chance when it can be PLANNED?”
Which was for centuries (and remains) the mindset of European colonialism, in general, and British colonialism in particular.
IMO, progress stems from free men. Not from men planning.
Are there free men in China?
Posted by: Johnny Dollar | Aug 23 2024 3:33 utc | 84
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 23 2024 1:49 utc | 73
“vordhosbn” is Welsh?
There is no V in Welsh. I don’t know what it means but it certainly isn’t Welsh!
Posted by: Walt | Aug 23 2024 3:50 utc | 85
Posted by: Johnny Dollar | Aug 23 2024 3:33 utc | 84
Are there free men in China?
That might be an unfair or loaded question, like asking an atheist what they believe in. Freedom is a complex notion developed in Western society over many centuries and bound up with notions of rights and such; it does not exist in a vacuum.
What if the question is: how relatively easy is it to lead a fulfilling life in China (or wherever)? In a highly developed, and populous, polity socialization is a sine qua non of both individual and collective workability, which involves putting others, the needs and logistics of the group, if not first then at least on a par with one’s own desires. Indeed, for many Confucian society people the notion of individual freedom is not readily understandable. That said, like all human beings, of course they dislike excessive red tape or authoritarian control restricting their ability to thrive, aka ‘lead a fulfilling life’.
So freedom may not be necessary or as important has having a well ordered society, though doubtless there are infinite number of ways to engender one.
Let me know if it works here.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 23 2024 0:56 utc | 72
Smooth! Works good here in N. Norway. tx
Posted by: waynorinorway | Aug 23 2024 4:34 utc | 87
Thanks to Roger and waynorinorway.
I’ll post some other videos when appropriate.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 23 2024 4:38 utc | 88
@Refinnejenna | Aug 23 2024 0:29 utc | 66
Thanks for the added detail. This possible, if yet to be shown as probable, link to Fort Detrick is new to me. Some evidence that ‘messing with the function’ experiments took place there would help.
Initially, I bought into the animal-to-human transfer, which does happen with many viruses – but soon once the DNA data became available [first from the Chinese] the odd-ball cleavages noted by bio-experts changed my mind – then the Lancet Commission – and the more public notes from participants afterwards, inc. J. Sachs who chaired it, clinched it for me. Fauci should receive an Oscar – and a jail sentence (isolating of course!) instead of a mega book-deal!
As for those ‘nasty scientists and torturers’ noted by Aristodemus – well, Uncle Sam is an equal opportunities employer once you pass the wet towel and jug of water test. What a world we live in.
This bio-research of the ‘nasty variety’ is frightening.
Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 23 2024 4:39 utc | 89
What, exactly, is modernity? The closest thing to an answer I came upon is – a cube. Let me explain.
First off, this idea is not mine originally. Instead a friend, Lennart Münchenhagen, in his usual hesitating way brought it up while we were masoning a cube of 3x3m for his art school diploma. We put another one on top, made out of wood, installed a bar and a sound system there, and celebrated that Lennart had just ended the epoch of modernity, without him ever speaking about it to anyone else as far as I know.
In a way, it’s simple. When the church of Rome lost its grip on the Abendland at the time of Renaissance, old certitudes became unconvincing and obsolete, losing their sense-making role in the live worlds of people. New ideas had to take over their place, a somewhat exalted proposition if there ever was one. Consider: The meaning of life and death, the why and whereto of creation, the how of daily conduct and its deeper meaning were all closely, inseperable in fact, related to the only idea of god, which was cast into a totalitarian society where church and state – monarchy – existed as two sides of one coin. Further reasoning was discouraged.
Not for long, however, as the fundamental contradictions of the ideology ceased to be political anathema. The ensuing climate of questioning everything bred a corresponding idea of truth, the one of rationality, empiricism and agnosticism. It is there where the figurative cube comes in, itself being the 3-dimensional object representing distance in space, as conceived by Newton and Kant, and held as absolute. With physical time as as space-like variable and the actio = reactio law of motion, ‘materialism’ was born.
It is with history, rather than true understanding, that this notion of certitude came as far as it did, finally denying not just God, but also soul, consciousness and primordial beauty [see the mind-body “problem”/Daniel Dennett/I.Kant respectively]
Architecture makes for a nice example here. Seriality became the dominant principle of aesthetic creation, clearly visible after 1914/18 in the Bauhaus style, as well as other disciplines such as music (Schönberg) and philosophy of nature (cybernetics and the Turing machine). Other forms of Gestalt, like viewing wholeness as different from the sum of its parts, lost currency and recognition.
Of course it didn’t work out, and this is where post-modernism comes in: if you presume that all sense and meaning is a function of coordinates in space, and you don’t get true beauty from that, what else seems closer than just denying that coordinates – distance – play any role in that at all? Suddenly you’re free to combine whatever style you see fit, without having to explain the connection on a deeper level of meaning, since meaning is curious or even random anyway.
Mathematically speaking, the cube represents a special case – call it generic – of an N-dimensional configuration, which in the theory of mechanics includes all necessary information to completely determine the system and its temporal evolution. The right angles symbolize the independent qualities of the Erzeugendensystem (generative system), and its lengths are normalized for 1, in full abstraction from any real and concrete measurement device (yardstick).
Post-Modernism is merely an appendix (though a natural one) to this notion, as it replaces the metric of distance given by difference of measurement with a yardstick etc. with a metric that only discriminates equality (distance = 0) from non-equality (distance = 1). Again, we’re left with the cube.
Seeing this, Lennart built a wooden cube on the foundation made of gas concrete blocks, and celebrated the end of a reductionist epoch which turned out to be seriously lacking in metaphyiscal answer. I am amazed to this day, and was glad to be his DJ on this and other occasions; I would have likely never seen.
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 23 2024 4:43 utc | 90
All nation’s economies are planned to one degree or another but what is important is who is doing the planning.
In China the state is doing the planning on and ongoing basis and I would love to see Walt tell us what he knows about the 5 year planning and evaluation processes from his perspective.
In the West the planning is done by stink tanks and other behind the scene private actors using the same cross impact matrix types of tools that I expect are used in China.
50 years ago I participated in a Washington state public policy planning process that was shut down by the money folk and moved behind the curtain. I want to see the West do 5 year public planning, policy development and ongoing evaluation processes…..to do that takes control of the reins of finance from the private cult.
I am a dreamer but not the only one
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 23 2024 4:55 utc | 91
Re: China low wage economy ?
17 years ago the manufacturing company (capital goods) I worked at had a workshop in China and in Ohio; fully burdened direct labor cost was about 15% higher in China versus Ohio.
Posted by: Exile | Aug 23 2024 4:55 utc | 92
In talking with a friend tonight about RFKjr she questioned the rumors about him leaving the race and told me to go watch this video that he put out today…link below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAtn39EJ9tU&t=2s
I did and agree that this well done vaccine video makes me wonder what is what.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 23 2024 5:29 utc | 93
Exile 4.55
Your manufacturing company were being screwed.
Seventeen years ago the wage levels were a tiny fraction of what they are now and they are still below US levels. Take a look at the data I posted earlier, in 2012 they were 10% or so of the current.
Mind you, the Chinese are pretty good at driving a hard bargain with the unwary.
By the way, have you stopped beating your wife?
Posted by: Walt | Aug 23 2024 5:35 utc | 94
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 23 2024 4:43 utc | 90
What, exactly, is modernity? The closest thing to an answer I came upon is – a cube. Let me explain.
Pretty cool post, some a little over my head, but I think I grokked the cube. Whilst you were talking distance and 1 I was thinking ‘objective reality’. In one piece I have called the belief in objective reality a ‘philosophical devil’, the idea being that this belief – for example that a cube has a fixed dimension of 1 in your description – implies that reality is a fixed, measurable (some)thing which is the same for all various experiencing entities encountering ‘it’. But there is an it out there which is separate from all such experiencing entities and that ‘it’ doesn’t change, or is the same for all who encounter it. Moreover, there is an abstract notion of an unchanging reality ‘out there’ which is far more deadly and deadening than most of us realize.
As you were describing some of the limitations of monarchy and religion etc. I was thinking of Shakespeare, of the extremely vivid, class-rich, playful and creative worlds he displayed for London on the lively stage of the Globe in a nation which was on the verge of lifting off and becoming a world power, warts and all, despite being so physically miniscule. This richness came in part not only from his native genius, but also because I very much doubt he was seduced by this ‘philosophical devil’ of belief in a solid, unchanging objective reality ‘out there’. I doubt any of the great Western composers of that era leading into the later Classic were so entrammelled either.
Anyway, thanks for your cube thought!
PS On the one hand we have men dying every day because of the struggle ostensibly between Hegemony versus multipolarity etc., and on the other hand we are already in a World Order of sorts, and have been for a couple of centuries or more, albeit with various different civilizational characteristics. Will this One World order blossom and flourish or become a deadening, restrictive cuboid tyrant? But I guess that’s the question with every polity, isn’t it?
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 23 2024 4:55 utc | 91
I don’t follow what goes on in Beijing. I live life at the local level and I assume that what goes on in the community has essentially filtered down through the various levels of representative government. (Yes, representative: someone here recently asked something like, “what would China be like with democracy?”. Well China has democracy, it’s just different from the western version and what is more it works. Every representative through community level through city province all the way to the top has been elected, upper levels by lower levels. Contrast that with the UK where the upper chamber, the head of state, some ministers and until recently the prime minister himself were all unelected. And the Labour party now governs with I think it was 14% of the vote. But I digress!)
It’s the little things that are being done to make life a little better for everyone. For example in the past few years there has been an explosion in numbers of electric scooters. For their own safety they are not supposed to go on the roads so they are now making life hell for the pedestrians. When we returned home recently after a couple of months away we found a massive redesign of the roads and pavements going on to provide separate pathways for them. At busy junctions, pedestrians are being catered for by a programme of bridges which have lifts to take you up and down and believe it or not, they are air conditioned! And the courtesy of car drivers has improved a lot at pedestrian crossings, drivers would run you down a few years ago, perhaps that has something to do with the cameras that have been installed!
I talked earlier about the high speed rail network which is rendering short haul flight uncompetitive. Massive installation of city MTR train networks is going on too, it is now unnecessary to take a taxi to get anywhere in Shenzhen, there will be a fast connection every two or three minutes underground. In 2007 there was just one line, ten miles long.
I don’t know if that answers your question but perhaps it shines a little light on ordinary life which simply goes on improving year on year, and why world polling carried out by US organisations put Chinese satisfaction with their government at the top with over 90%.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 23 2024 5:53 utc | 96
The closest thing to an answer I came upon is – a cube. Let me explain.
@ persiflo | Aug 23 2024 4:43 utc | 90
Geometrically, scientifically, philosophically, “the cube” spawns too many thoughts to enumerate. Investigations into the modern (since @ 1900) state of mathematics illuminate a space in which the distinction between algebra and geometry vanishes like a ghost. Solidifying the foundations of differential calculus — a process which took centuries — ultimately merged logic, as well, into a mathematics and metamathematics of blurred boundaries, of which the cube is exemplary, standing for both the third dimension and the third power.
The chemical power of the cube is that of six-sided carbon, which molecularly plugs into more carbon and other elementary friends to drape life itself in fabulously long chains of organic chemistry. Even seeding the destruction of life within intelligent life, via the untold, all but eternal impulse of the planetary carbon cycle — that’s cubic power.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Aug 23 2024 6:22 utc | 97
I don’t see maths as having absorbed logic, to merge into one. It seems rather like a special case of the latter to me. More specifically, though this is a conjecture, all mathematical notions seem to be models of spatial logic, with its relations of identity, direction and the (general) measure of distance. Distance is intruiging and versatile – it comes as (algebraic) difference, topological proximity, measurable extension, and superposition (as in stochastics or multivalue logic), … but there is strong reason to place ‘logical’ process as a constituting aspect of Dasein; hence the ability to experience nowness in varying and contingent states of awareness. This being apparent – ‘real’ – is the foundation, from which maths derives, rather than the other way round.
Some immediate implications of this take are quite convenient: don’t expect maths to resolve all of your problems; and if you find maths lacking in explanatory power, just feel free to create new maths fitting to your issue at hand.
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 23 2024 6:52 utc | 98
@psychohistorian | Aug 23 2024 4:55 utc | 91
Wall Street made Stalins two first 5-year plans
Communism was in significant respects caused by Great Britain’s oligarchy with a mindframe of much older origin. Who spent lots of efforts and ingenuity to blame it on the jews.
The jews played the opportunistic role they have often done. Thus exposing themselves to that risk, in exchange for being delegated the financial responsibilities.
(I am not suggesting any contract was ever signed with that condition being stated explicitly)
By fighting the Japanese, who were attempting to take the transsibirian railways, the US army helped to save the power of the bolsheviks who greatefully acknowledged that.
And NYT reported it to the US public.
Posted by: petergrfstrm | Aug 23 2024 7:07 utc | 99
I wrote gratefully not greatfully but some kind of autofill caused that.
Posted by: petergrfstrm | Aug 23 2024 7:08 utc | 100