News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …
Back to Main
August 29, 2024
Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-205
Comments
Most of you have no idea what it’s like to live on the other side. Try living for 6 years without power. I had water and money. So I could go to the store and buy things. Used wood heat and ice inside a cooler. Tired of hearing about all your tribulations.
Posted by: Immaculate deception | Aug 31 2024 3:26 utc | 201
From The Register
China is beating the world at scientific research, think tank finds
The quote
Think Tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has released an update to its Critical Technology Tracker, revealing that China leads the way in 89 percent of the technologies it tracks.
According to ASPI, the tracker “provides a leading indicator of a country’s research performance, strategic intent and potential future science and technology capability.”
It determines a country’s performance based on the amount of high-impact research it generates – as measured by the number of publications its institutions produced in the top ten percent of cited papers in their respective fields.
Launched in 2023, the project tracks 64 critical technologies across fields like defence, space, AI, quantum technology, cyber, advanced materials and robotics. Initially the think tank looked at data between 2018 and 2022, but the release on Wednesday widened its scope to cover over two decades.
By extending the duration over which results are studied, the project can reflect both short- and long-term trends among nations and their tech prowess.
The tracker considers many nations and strategic blocs, but largely tells the story of the United States and China and how tech dominance has flipped from the former to the latter. According to the ASPI, the major shift occurred sometime around 2016.
For the first five years the project covers (2003 until 2007), the US held the top spot in 60 of 64 technologies, and China led in only three (Japan led in the area of distributed ledgers, which was an emerging field at the time). Today, China leads in 57 out of 64 technologies while the United States picks up the remaining seven.
IMO, the God Of Mammon cult thought that they would be able to corrupt China finance and steal any technology but the reality is different and reaching overwhelming amounts….The posting notes that China is increasing R&D spending.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 31 2024 3:58 utc | 202
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 3:04 utc | 200
————–
The empire cant compete, all it knows is to drag China thru the mud, pathetic.
They are not content with controlling ‘world opinion’, they want full spectrum domination, including MOA, the bast bastion of dissent.
USA, Tonya Harding writ large.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ4uW_nDkjo
Posted by: denk | Aug 31 2024 4:05 utc | 203
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 31 2024 3:58 utc | 202
————
Reverse brain drain.
Bring it on, uncle sham !
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202408/1318637.shtml
Posted by: denk | Aug 31 2024 4:12 utc | 204
Black myth server under massive attack,.
Meanwhile the bar is again hijacked by
scorpion & associates/
Posted by: denk | Aug 31 2024 4:14 utc | 205
Posted by: tonyopmoc | Aug 30 2024 22:33 utc | 181
man, Snow Patrol. Now that brings back some memories. I’m just a starfighter pilot and all that.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Aug 31 2024 4:19 utc | 206
Immaculate deception | Aug 31 2024 3:26 utc | 201
The simple side of life. I’m not one for the urbanite alternative lifestyle stuff.
My best times I remember most were far from the maddening crowds. Far from so called civilization.
Where I live now, in an urban environment. Something different. Police called twice. The neighbors are now respectful and the street quiet.
An odd thing – down the street a bit is a bloke that looks ex miner. Obviously retired but still well built with the he man mus tash. We would see each other when in the front yard but that was it.
My first trip to the booze shop after pulling up a hoon on a dirt bike, he gives me a wave. I probably should get to know him a bit better but couldn’t be bothered.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 31 2024 5:01 utc | 207
@ psychohistorian | Aug 31 2024 3:58 utc | 202
Thanks for that link. Very informative of ‘trends’ … I’ll add a little more.
[…] Leading is one thing – having a research monopoly is another. The project monitors technologies it thinks are “high risk” of becoming monopolized by a single nation and identified 24.
Last year, that number stood at 14. Every single one of the newly identified high-risk technologies were not only dominated by China, but also could be considered defense applications – including radar, advanced aircraft engines, drones, swarming and collaborative robots, and satellite positioning and navigation.
While the US and China dominate the tracker, India has made some notable inroads. It ranks among the top five countries in 45 out of 64 critical technologies – an increase from 37 in the previous year – demonstrating its growing influence and capability. The nation has displaced the US as the second-ranked nation in biological manufacturing and distributed ledgers.
Most other countries remained around the same level in their research prowess, with one exception: the UK. The UK saw a drop in top five country rankings in eight different technologies – it now ranks in the top five for only 36 categories.
# Of course, certain stuff is too sensitive to publish. That said, the trends identified here make sense from what I know of educational/labour – aka human capital systems – which correlate with a country’s level of industrial development. Worth noting that Chinese researchers are leaving the US because the US has p1ssed off the Chinese; and European researchers are leaving the UK because they no longer feel welcome in ‘Brexit’ Britain. The US presently cannot get enough of Indian researchers and high-skilled lads and lassies and have agreed visa regs with India Gov. for same.
Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 31 2024 5:44 utc | 208
Don Firineach | Aug 31 2024 5:44 utc | 208
Like Turkey, India is a place to watch. Playing both sides, but recently, Indian moves at the highest level are encouraging. India has the problem of class based society. Many very talented individuals still doing sweat shop work.
US moved from China stem to India stem and has now pissed off the Indians.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 31 2024 5:54 utc | 209
How America Perpetrates Its Coups Now: The Bangladesh Coup
By Eric Zuesse
(excerpt)….America’s coup-machine has been the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), not the CIA. The U.S. coup that seized control over Bangladesh in August this year is a typical example:
The U.S. regime wanted to place an air-force base on a particular Bangladeshi island, because that location for such a base would endanger China’s national security and weaken China’s ability to protect itself from a U.S. invasion.
On 28 May 2024, the Indian Express headlined “China praises Bangladesh PM Hasina for refusing to permit foreign air base”, and reported…..
Posted by: Exile | Aug 31 2024 6:47 utc | 210
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 2:28 utc | 196
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 1:22 utc | 192
Apparently most of the upcoming disaster model assume that anthro CO2 stays in the atmosphere for decades and even thousands of years whereas naturally produced CO2 lasts for only about 3.7 years – a HUGE difference.
Then please explain how it is that when I was in school, I was taught that the level in the atmosphere was about 300 ppm, the latest figure I can find is 419.3 ppm.
https://earth.org/data_visualization/a-brief-history-of-co2/
From your earth.org linked site:
[Re Co2] Its levels have varied widely over the course of the Earth’s 4.54 billion year history, partly driving swings in our planet’s average temperature.
First, we must explain why CO2 levels (and/or temperature) changes have varied widely before the Industrial Age.
Then we must explain how to distinguish Industrial Age inputs versus natural inputs. (Neither is ‘settled’)
Now another article from my previously linked site:
https://notrickszone.com/2023/04/24/solar-variability-linked-to-climate-change-co2-not-the-primary-driver-for-nearly-all-of-earths-history/
Solar Variability Linked To Climate Change…CO2 Not ‘The Primary Driver For Nearly All Of Earth’s History’
By Kenneth Richard on 24. April 2023
A new study exposes the uncertainty in solar activity reconstructions, but suggests solar models explain climate changes far better than atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Proxy model estimates of the impact of solar variability on climate are highly uncertain. For example, estimations of the increase in solar irradiance over the last 400 years range anywhere from 0.75 W/m² to 6.3 W/m² (Scafetta and Bianchini, 2023).
Even satellite measurements of recent solar irradiance changes are controversial and conflicting. One composite (ACRIM) shows an increase in solar activity from 1980 to 2000, whereas another (PMOD) depicts a decrease. If even modern-day measurements of solar activity contradict each other, then we cannot assume the estimations of past variations from proxies are any more accurate.
On the other hand, the Northern Hemisphere proxy temperature record (shown in black in the image below, extended to 1999) has been linked to the periodicity of an interplanetary solar activity model devised by Dr. Nicola Scafetta and others. Notice the proxy temperature reconstruction depicts nearly all of the warming in the last 400 years occurring prior to 1950.
The key word there early on is ‘uncertainty’. Bona fide scientists in the climate field are arguing with each other all over the place except in the politicized UN-sponsored reports or related NGO’s, also politicized, or agenda driven.For example on your Earth.org mission statement it is stated as a primary assumption that CO2 is a dangerous greenhouse gas that must be reduced; this is not argued, just assumed. That is not a scientific approach, frankly, but if you agree that the science is settled on that question, then I refer you back to my earlier questions:
First, you have to explain why CO2 levels (and/or temperature) changes have varied widely before the Industrial Age.
Then you have to explain how you can isolate Industrial Age inputs versus natural inputs.
Am not a scientist and don’t follow this issue closely, though I did spend a hundred hours or so (2-4 weeks) on it over a decade ago having earlier formed an opinion in the 80’s after reading Iben Browning’s book on Climate and History. My interest is just as an ordinary human being bombarded with a whole load of stuff, often claiming to be facts, predicting dire consequences if we don’t do X or Y. In my experience, most authorities are either fools or liars or both, therefore I never give any of them the benefit of the doubt, especially those promoted as ‘experts’ or ‘scientists’. (Engineers, yes; climate scientists, no.)
My admittedly limited scientific understanding is that in terms of climate changes, #1 is Sun and #2 is Water, both as liquid in oceans, as rain, as vapour and especially as clouds. Co2 is probably not #3 but lets put it there. Unless and until #1 and #2 are better understood, focusing exclusively on the effects if any of #3 is premature and indeed quite possible a con.
Finally, my admittedly limited understanding is that the difference between 300 and 400 ppm viz Co2 is trivial based on the proxy historical record (which I personally don’t trust).
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 6:50 utc | 211
Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 6:50 utc | 211
The need for Greta Baerbock types speaks volumes.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 31 2024 6:59 utc | 212
Persiflo Walt
Language has always been a barrier to me. It seems cultural Europe still exists in the non urban environment.
A couple of my mates are Italian descent and their parents most likely were Mussolini supporters. One telling me his uncle was a brownshirt. Both were born in oz.
The other did a trip back to his parents home towns, to meet relatives he had never seen. Joining villages his mother and father had come from had different dialects. His mother although never returning to Italy in the sixty or so years instantly recognized in the videos what village each person was from by their dialects.
His takeaways was the excellent salami his cousins made and their absolute naivety to the ways of the big bad world. People that had literally lived in the family home for many centuries.
It seems European culture still exists in the many small European communities far from the nato city streets.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 31 2024 8:13 utc | 213
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 6:50 utc | 211
You don’t seem to understand the meaning of the term greenhouse gas, that carbon dioxide is the only significant such constituent in the atmosphere, oxygen and nitrogen can’t do it, that global warming tracks its recent increase very closely and that its concentration in the atmosphere has increased by almost 50% just in my lifetime, how can that not be significant?
Also I am waiting for an explanation as to how its concentration can rise so fast if it persists just a few years?
And I would like to know how it is disposed of as it is a very stable, inert molecule?
Water vapour is admittedly a substantial constituent in the atmosphere but it is highly variable and if it were a significant contributor to global warming then the Sahara desert would be very cold with its low humidity, and Britain steaming hot for most of the year, would they not?
Over!
…………
The problem I had a while ago of not being able to correspond on my phone has returned, the Post and Edit buttons don’t light up again, has anybody els experienced this or know how to deal with it?
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 8:38 utc | 214
@ Walt | Aug 31 2024 8:38 utc | 214
Try – After you have put in your message and have highlighted
your name and email, type a space bar at the end of
your message. That lights the preview and edit buttons for me.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Aug 31 2024 8:43 utc | 215
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 31 2024 8:13 utc | 213
Your reflection on dialects brought to mind some thoughts on the variation of accents in Britain, at least the parts I was familiar with. For such a small country how can that be? Australia is so many times bigger, are there shades of different accent there, if so I can’t distinguish them.
I suppose in the UK it’s because up to a century or so ago people didn’t move around so much, which suggests that differences should be fading now, and of course the influence of TV. Are they? I remember around 1970 or so visiting Reading, I mean it’s just about 30 miles out of London and I was hearing a West Country accent!
Cities developed strange accents totally at odds with surrounding territories: are you familiar with Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, and Cardiff, to get closer to home. Around there I was once able to distinguish between Monmouthshire, East Glamorgan and Swansea, really no distances between them. And I was wondering the other day about Cockney, does that still exist or have they all gone Estuary? Last time I was on a Tube train I heard no English spoken at all, but apparently London is over 50% immigrant now.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 8:55 utc | 216
waynorinorway 8.43
Uh thanks
Just gone back to the phone and it’s just come back again, no problem!
Mysterious.
I’ll try to remember next time.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 9:01 utc | 217
Walt @ 215
Yes your right Walt,
It’s called progress…
We dont ride abiut in horse and carts becouse …moter cars.
We dont light our home with candles. Electric.
With the bycicle came a wider choice of girl freands.
You cant put the gene back in the bottle.
Why would you want too.
I love the imigrants in this country, they’v got culture.
Its the knuckle head british i have a problem with,
Mind controled sheep, brain washed by the elite for the last 14 years of tory rule and to thick to be told about it.
Imigrants are a symptem not the problem.
Cure the problem not the symptem.
Posted by: Mark2 | Aug 31 2024 9:47 utc | 218
Immaculate deception 201
Most of you have no idea what it’s like to live on the other side.
I lived for 6 months without power in a city flat; the guy whose place it was (I sublet) fucked it up. No heating, no warm water with that also, it was only doable during the summer. Another room at the lavish and hence unaffordable appartement I shared with a flock of other students was higher than long – 3,60m ceilings with 8m² ground, just enough for a mattress and a simple rack. For the past two years I had, until recently, no stove, but accessed the art gallery downstairs to use theirs, tending the room while at it. I still have no fridge, as the one up here sits unplugged because it is too loud for my feel. I also spent a couple of nights on the street on repeated occassions, but always quickly decided against the lifestyle and went back to lodging even of dubious quality.
I need the city, at least for the while being. I know exactly why, and I always knew it since my travels as a child. NYC in ’93 was most impressive, but I also greatly enjoyed San Francisco and Vancouver at the time. I wish to connect with humans, much of my interests live in an exchange, but to find like-minded others is not exactly a matter of course. For all the tribulations I had, that part of my plan to live in big city did work out for me; the desired freaks surely showed up. The other reason to go city is access to intellectual ressources – uni, art scene, subculture, political groupings, and as a major factor, the library system. I consciously accepted living next to a strategic target just for that.
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 31 2024 10:31 utc | 220
Posted by: Immaculate deception | Aug 31 2024 3:26 utc | 201
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 31 2024 10:31 utc | 220
Ah, you guys…You had it made
Posted by: waynorinorway | Aug 31 2024 11:32 utc | 221
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 8:38 utc | 214
Low propaganda content persistent scientific website on Climate:
https://judithcurry.com/
Lots of POVs and facts expressed over time.
Posted by: Greg Galloway | Aug 31 2024 12:32 utc | 222
“You don’t seem to understand the meaning of the term greenhouse gas, that carbon dioxide is the only significant such constituent in the atmosphere, oxygen and nitrogen can’t do it, that global warming tracks its recent increase very closely and that its concentration in the atmosphere has increased by almost 50% just in my lifetime, how can that not be significant?”
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 8:38 utc | 214
You are seriously misinformed kindly please read the below:
“Overview
Green plants grow faster with more CO2 . Many also become more drought resistant because higher CO2
levels allow plants to use water more efficiently. More abundant vegetation from increased CO2
is already apparent. Satellite images reveal significant greening of the planet in recent decades,
especially at desert margins, where drought resistance is critical. This remarkable planetary greening
is the result of a mere 30% increase of CO2 from its preindustrial levels. Still higher CO2 levels will
bring still more benefits to agriculture.
Plants use energy from sunlight to fuse a molecule of CO2 to a molecule of water,
H2 O, to form carbohydrates. One molecule of oxygen O2 is released to the air for each
CO2 molecule removed. Biological machinery of plants reworks the carbohydrate
polymers into proteins, oils and other molecules of life. Every living creature, from
the blooming rose, to the newborn baby, is made of carbon from former atmospheric
CO2 molecules. Long-dead plants used CO2 from ancient atmospheres to produce
most of the fossil fuels, coal, oil, and natural gas that have transformed the life of
most humans – moving from drudgery and near starvation before the industrial
revolution to the rising potential for abundance today.
The fraction of the beneficial molecule CO2 in the current atmosphere is tiny,
about 0.04% by volume. This level is about 30% larger than pre-industrial levels in
1800. But today’s levels are still much smaller than the levels, 0.20% or more, that
prevailed over much of geological history. CO2 levels during the past tens of millions
of years have been much closer to starvation levels, 0.015%, when many plants die,
than to the much higher levels that most plants prefer. Basic physics implies that
more atmospheric CO2 will increase greenhouse warming.
However, atmospheric processes are so complicated that the amount of
warming cannot be reliably predicted from first principles. Recent observations of
the atmosphere and oceans, together with geological history, point to very modest
warming, about 1 C (1.8 F) if atmospheric CO2 levels are doubled.
Observations also show no significant change in extreme weather, tornadoes,
hurricanes, floods, or droughts. Sea levels are rising at about the same rate as in
centuries past. A few degrees of warming will have many benefits, longer growing
seasons and less winter heating expenses. And this will be in addition to major
benefits to agriculture.
More CO2 in the atmosphere is not an unprecedented experiment with an
unpredictable outcome. The Earth has done the experiment many times in the
geological past. Life flourished abundantly on land and in the oceans at much larger
CO2 levels than those today. Responsible use of fossil fuels, with cost-effective
control of genuine pollutants like fly ash or oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, will be a
major benefit for the world.”
this is a must translate and read: i am sorry but my past and copy function just does not work any more.
https://linkezeitung.de/2024/08/30/die-verbindungen-von-kamala-harris-and-tim-walz-in-paedophile-netzwerke/
maybe someone could post the right link. this is so important to know.thanks a lot
Posted by: swiss | Aug 31 2024 13:18 utc | 224
Posted by: canuck | Aug 31 2024 12:30 utc | 186 (Ukraine Thread)
Scottsboro is in Alabama, not in Arkansas. The Scottsboro boys case is important because the NAACP hesitated to come to their defense but the International Labour Defense fund (ILD) of the Communist Party did. This was an important moment in the shift of leftist politics in the US from traditional promotion of the rights of the working class and greater equality in the distribution of wealth to the promotion instead of the rights of minorities and women. McCarthyism in the the 1950s cemented this shift from traditional labour concerns, which ended up with activists receiving prison sentences, to minority concerns, which actually resulted in an increasing number of political victories and increasing political influence for activists.
While the ILD was part of the Communist International, its lawyers, who defended the Scottsboro boys, argued their cases to the US Supreme Court and helped establish a number of constitutional precedents, including the integration of juries. Fifteen years later, lawyers defending Communist officials and labour activists during the McCarthy era, found themselves disbarred and even themselves prosecuted for various charges, including contempt of court. Many figures, such as musicians Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger, found refuge in more acceptable campaigns for minority rights. In part this is why the American left now eschews traditional labour activism, while embracing the fight for minority rights (i.e Wokism).
Posted by: kvp | Aug 31 2024 13:21 utc | 225
In part this is why the American left now eschews traditional labour activism, while embracing the fight for minority rights (i.e Wokism).
Posted by: kvp | Aug 31 2024 13:21 utc | 225
—
Well put. Force was applied and the people were bent.
Posted by: too scents | Aug 31 2024 13:41 utc | 226
I guess nobody can answer my questions then. None of them.
Scientific consensus rests with the carbon dioxide theory for global warming, it’s outside my frame of reference. so I stick with that.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 13:55 utc | 227
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 8:38 utc | 214
Dear Walt, as I said above am not a specialist in this stuff though have formed a general opinion.
But all your questions: can you not answer them yourself since they confirm your opinion? With that said, and for fun, you wrote:
Also I am waiting for an explanation as to how its concentration can rise so fast if it persists just a few years?
[1] And I would like to know how it is disposed of as it is a very stable, inert molecule?
[2] Water vapour is admittedly a substantial constituent in the atmosphere but it is highly variable and if it were a significant contributor to global warming then the Sahara desert would be very cold with its low humidity, and Britain steaming hot for most of the year, would they not?
Over!
1. Don’t ask me. The first paper I linked claimed to have established that it disperses in about 3.7 years, all types of C02. Apparently there is a difference between C02 from an exhaust and C02 from termites and volcanoes. I personally haven’t a clue about any of that stuff.
2. Recommend you check out Professor Lindzen of MIT who specialized in climate and has dived deeply into water (pun intended). I recommend you not read commentaries about Richard before hearing or reading the man himself. As you know, this topic gets emotional for many on both sides. One side believes we are about to ruin the entire planet and wipe out humanity, with many of such belief insisting if we don’t do something within X years (usually around 10), it will be too late and so regarding any who don’t agree with them as morons or demons, whilst the other side has a less settled opinion but generally doesn’t buy either the premise or the alarmism – and also regards the other side as morons or demons!
I think my baseline POV formed in the 80’s as a vague impression and now backed by a little more reading is that even if anthropogenic inputs significantly effect climate we do not have the collective ability to accurately measure their particular contributions or, therefore, impact in relation to entirely natural and always present climate change, both short medium and long term. Indeed,nearly everything published is no more than elaborate guesswork promoted as fact-based science. It’s a product of the materialist ‘objectivist’ mindset now dominating most cultures world wide which is a belief system similar to earlier religious ones which modern people pride themselves in having transcended. We believe in a solid material world in an objective reality even though we cannot verify such a reality, it is no more than a convincing conceptual construct.
If you examine your own mind about ‘climate change’ you will find that it is nearly all based on messaging you have received using thoughts formed by words. We have no ability ourselves to verify what is being proposed, much of which is emotionally charged with warnings, urgings, fear, anger, doubt and so forth. The whole business is not very scientific, which should be dispassionate enquiry following facts wherever they lead. First, we should check our attitude and the nature of the instrument we are using to evaluate such topics, namely our mind.
From an old Buddhist text discussing the nature of mind as the only valid object of enquiry and source of phenomena in experience (a large topic, btw, in the literature):
As Saraha says:
When wind hits water and whips it up,
even soft water can turn to stone.
When whipped up by thoughts,
formless confusion can become solid and hard.
Nāgārjuna observes:
What serves as the cause for saṃsāra
is itself, once purified,
the very purity that is nirvāṇa.
That being the case, mind creates the roots of all failings and all virtues. They arise from causes that are mental.
They arise from mind.
The Descent into Laṅkā Sūtra remarks:
Forms appearing in a mirror
are visible although they do not exist.
Likewise, when the appearances of mind are not recognized,
they arise as dualistic conceptuality.
Linked to the latent tendencies of concepts,
myriad things arise from mind.
The external appearances [manifesting] to people
are merely the mind of worldly ones.
Those nonexistent external appearances
—the body, possessions, places,
and all—are mind arising as various things.
I declare all to be simply mind.
The Avataṃsaka [Sutra] states:
Mind is like a painter.
Mind creates the skandhas.
All worldly realms,
each and every one, are drawn by the mind.
The Jewel Cloud Sūtra says:
Mind leads the world
yet mind doesn’t even see itself.
Actions, virtuous or unvirtuous,
are amassed by mind. ….
If you do not realize the nature of mind, you will come under the control of your thoughts. Thus you will cycle
through the three realms and wander in the six modes.
Moonbeams of Mahamudra by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal translated by Elizabeth Callahan
You will no doubt find this a tad irrelevant to a scientific discussion, but the deep flaw in modern science, which the quantum crowd has been valiantly wrestling with, is that one has to understand the nature of the instruments with which one measures phenomena to derive quanta, or facts, to form scientific hypotheses, or opinions. The underlying base instrument, even when mechanical measuring devices are used and whose output is being evaluated, is the human mind; which when examined thoroughly one can deduce is part of a larger field within which it arises (each individual mind does invent the whole business from scratch each time), some might call it a consciousness field, others God etc., and there are levels and layers of that depending upon the viewpoint from which it is examined.
The vast majority of modern studies about climate begin with conceptually held assumptions, many of which are barely verified nor easily verifiable. Like the role of CO2 in the atmosphere on your earth.org mission statement. Not only do they not really know, but as I mentioned earlier I doubt they have the ability to measure such things as climate accurately, not to mention there is fraud, politics and Big Money in the mix, so regarding this whole topic as purely scientific is naive. (Like regarding covid as only a medical-scientific issue).
All this is an overly long way of explaining, in part, why I contend that we collectively don’t have the ability to measure a multi-variable complex system like the Earth’s climate. We, experts included, are bombarded with concepts, which contribute to bias and unverified assumptions, including financial and other incentives (like social status etc.) making the whole field a muddled mess mainly driven by money and ego.
People like Bill Gates who are seriously eager to start tinkering with global climate should be straight-jacketed ASAP!!
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 13:56 utc | 228
Scorpion don’t you live in Mexico, why aren’t you in bed? It’s 10 pm in China,, we are getting pissed in a music bar, what time is it with you?
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 14:01 utc | 229
“(each individual mind does invent the whole business from scratch each time)”
should be:
(each individual mind does NOT invent the whole business from scratch each time)
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 14:05 utc | 230
“Scottsboro is in Alabama, not in Arkansas..”
Posted by: kvp | Aug 31 2024 13:21 utc | 225
Incorrect.
There is indeed a Scottsboro, Arkansas:
“Arkansas “Scottsboro” Case
aka: Bubbles Clayton and James X. Caruthers (Trial and Execution of)
aka: James X. Caruthers and Bubbles Clayton (Trial and Execution of)
The trial and conviction of African American farm laborers Bubbles Clayton and James X. Caruthers for the rape of a white woman, Virgie Terry, in Mississippi County drew national attention to the Arkansas criminal justice system and became widely known as the Arkansas “Scottsboro” Case.”
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 13:56 utc | 228
As misinformed as some of our usually bright minds here on climate change none are as misinformed as John Kerry whom as US climate envoy at one of those nutty WEF/Nutjob/Fruitcake conferences a few years ago he wanted to go father than ZERO carbon emissions he wants to”
“in the future I think we should go beyond zero emissions and eliminate carbon completely”
Yeah that’s what the moron uttered.
You misinformed posters you do realize that without carbon there is no organic life whatsoever:
“Life on earth would not be possible without carbon. This is in part due to carbon’s ability to readily form bonds with other atoms, giving flexibility to the form and function that biomolecules can take, such as DNA and RNA, which are essential for the defining characteristics of life: growth and replication.”
Anyways, I can lead posters to intellectual water but I can’t make them think.
END OF SUBJECT FOR ME
(each individual mind does NOT invent the whole business from scratch each time)
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 14:05 utc | 230
Maybe it does, the big issue might be making others agree on a shared one.
AFAIK the jury ‘s still out on that one 🙂
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 31 2024 14:39 utc | 233
Scorpion
I put your poem into rhyming iambic pentameter using my Walmart chatGPT:
Nāgārjuna states with wisdom clear and bright:
That which gives rise to saṃsāra’s plight
Is what, when purified, reveals the light—
Nirvāṇa’s peace, transcending day and night.
The mind itself the seeds of all will sow,
Of failings and of virtues that we know.
From mental causes, roots of all things grow,
From mind they spring, as rivers from their flow.
The Descent into Laṅkā then unfolds,
Like forms in mirrors that the eye beholds,
Appearances without a substance, molds—
So mind creates, when recognition holds.
Through concepts’ latent tendencies arise,
The myriad things appearing to our eyes.
External forms that seem to hypnotize
Are but the worldly mind in thin disguise.
Those forms—possessions, body, place, and all—
Are simply mind, within its varied hall.
The grand Avataṃsaka’s mighty call:
By mind alone the skandhas rise and fall.
The Jewel Cloud reveals this truth unsealed:
Mind leads the world, yet mind remains concealed.
In virtue or in vice, its power wield,
By actions, mental seeds are sown and tilled.
To miss the mind’s true nature is to bind,
To thoughts enslaved, one wanders lost and blind.
Through three realms, six modes, trapped within the grind,
Until the truth of mind itself we find.
Posted by: Walt | Aug 31 2024 14:01 utc | 229
Early AM here….soon off to walk the dog in nearby area with fields and river then go to gourmet hippyish restaurant with cannabis mojitos to wash the longaniza down. I don’t like drugs much and never smoke the stuff, but those mojitos are a very mild pleasure lasting all day. Great for napping!
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 14:51 utc | 235
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 14:51 utc | 235
Sounds like California … or Baja…
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 31 2024 14:58 utc | 236
steven t johnson,
Thanks for the Solid data on income. Income is valuable screen for analyzing wage slaves, but it’s not really useful for analyzing society as a whole. One needs to add some more fine grained such as wealth and debt burden.
For example:
1) Household #1; gross income ~$400k
Mortgage $1,000,000
Property Taxes $30,000/year
Car payments : $3,000/month
ETC
2) Household #2: gross income $40k
Mortgage – none
Property Taxes $3,000/year
Car payments: none
Etc
Which household is “richer” ?
Posted by: Exile | Aug 31 2024 2:33 utc | 197
Well, I am different-House #1 is richer in my opinion and will be much richer in the future because when there is steady inflation-which we have had for years in NA but, of course it is unreported- you are better leveraging against the obvious future inflation where real Estate, gold, real shit keeps its value while money becomes more and more worthless so having no debt is actually a liability-ie you could take #2 house sell it and leverage up to #1 potential so #2 has more options…leverage with fixed long term , of course.
Further, depends on the tax situation-here in Canada there is no tax on selling your home (but there are fucking other countless taxes) so your returns on RE ,everything being equal, ie equity profits- you start 25% up off the hop.
People have tax free registered accounts here in Canada-I got rid of mine years ago. Even my bright young son doesn’t get “Registered Account” (gains aren’t taxed) -that means the GOvt. owns it (you are the beneficiary) and when you take money out you pay a tax-and govt’s are going broke even faster than I anticipated – they can easily come and grab your assets in return for worthless paper…
Is anyone still reading? I know I can moan on for awhile…
“2024 no longer available but last prices north of 500.000.000, median income for family of four near 110.000. So roughly 4.500 families would have to pitch in to but«y a 747 equivalent.
So in real terms (everything worthwhile, houses, planes, industrial plants and equipment) the median family is 3 THREE TIMES POORER than 50 some years ago.
Simple?”
Newbie
Excellent way to parse real costs/inflation over time-I’m impressed.
When I was 8 in 1970 I was working for my old man at the feed mill making $1.50 per hour-like minimum wage
One of my biggest expenses was a Coke (glass bottle) bought at the local store which cost 10 cents, hence I was making 15 Cokes per hour .
In 2019 Elaine, the same Scottish lady I bought a Coke from her (plastic, 10% less Coke) 50 years ago for $2.30 adjusting for quantity that would be $2.53 for the Coke so multiply by 15= $35.75 an hour.
Minimum wage here in Ontario is $17.00
Thanks newbie for the idea-great method
In 2019 Elaine, the same Scottish lady I bought a Coke from her (plastic, 10% less Coke) 50 years ago for $2.30 adjusting for quantity that would be $2.53 for the Coke so multiply by 15= $35.75 an hour.
Minimum wage here in Ontario is $17.00
I’m retarded 15 X $2.53= $37.95 not $35.75-getting too old to do it in my head anymore.
Canuck,
Tsk Tsk – my depression era parents would be appalled at your analysis, but my MBA classmates would agree.
Never forget: Financial Leverage works in both directions.
Posted by: Exile | Aug 31 2024 15:55 utc | 241
Minimum wage here in Ontario is $17.00
Thanks newbie for the idea-great method
Posted by: canuck | Aug 31 2024 15:26 utc | 239
And a bottle of coke, cheap imports and minimum wage fast food are all discounted/devalued to hide the truth
TRy to restrict to heavy engeneering and property and it’s double every 10-11 years
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 31 2024 16:36 utc | 242
@canuck
@Newbie
@Exile
Good discussion, thanks all. Very few dare speak the true name of the beast: currency debasement
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Aug 31 2024 17:22 utc | 243
Them leftists say that we Whites are inherently racists. European and Spanish politicians denying the win of a mulatto in Venezuelan elections prove they are right if they speak about European politicians.
Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Aug 29 2024 10:05 utc | 2
“Them leftists” say nothing of the sort, unless you use the term to descibe liberals with socialist pretensions. The issue for the based leftist, backed by serious theoretical foundations, is primarily class.
In the case of Venezuela, the lower classes would fit the ethnic/racial type you described, whereas the old ruling elites were of European origin, hence their categorization as whites. But this is secondary (and a coincidence of history) since what matters is one’s stance on the economy, meaningful national sovereignty, imperialism etc.
Thus, the Venezuelan socialists venerate the memory of Simon Bolivar, a revolutionary (a classical liberal as opposed to a modern neo-liberal) who led the independence struggle and who is depicted and would be classified as “white”. You can apply that to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, so-called “white” individuals who were deemed by the comprador elites and the early gusano vermin as “race traitors”.
Posted by: Constantine | Aug 31 2024 17:26 utc | 244
Good discussion, thanks all. Very few dare speak the true name of the beast: currency debasement
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Aug 31 2024 17:22 utc | 243
That’s just a tool for wealth/power transfer
The beast has another name, civilization is an agreement for a better life.
When there is a realization that it no longer is the case for a majority…
Collapse is not far.
What do you think happened in 1150 BC and 470 AD?
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 31 2024 17:27 utc | 245
To miss the mind’s true nature is to bind,
To thoughts enslaved, one wanders lost and blind.
Through three realms, six modes, trapped within the grind,
Until the truth of mind itself we find.
Posted by: canuck | Aug 31 2024 14:49 utc | 234
…………………………..
(About to be served the mojito cannabinoido ..)
That’s another example if where AI could prove helpful. I think your version is a little better than the original.
I want to see things like substantive debates between Plato Marx Heidegger and Confucius etc which I believe can already be done well. Also ask Viktor Schauberger to explain his ideas about water-based implosion engines in English and answer questions in real time etc.
This mind business is where ancient contemplative and modern neoplatonic post-quantum meet. Gonna be an interesting century which most of us here, sadly, will miss.
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 17:35 utc | 246
@Exile 58
What’s the paradox?
A plain fact isn’t a paradox because you don’t get it.
Posted by: J99 | Aug 31 2024 17:55 utc | 247
“Canuck,
Tsk Tsk – my depression era parents would be appalled at your analysis, but my MBA classmates would agree.
Never forget: Financial Leverage works in both directions.”
Posted by: Exile | Aug 31 2024 15:55 utc | 241
Financial leverage does work both ways-its the timing that is key and your debt better be fixed.
My argument for timing now is quite simple: The Western governments/PTB have major, major debt problems there are only two ways forward:
1. Cut spending, raise taxes and get back to balanced budgets
or
2. Print paper to inflate your debt away so as to kep politicians in power; Oligarchs with increasing wealth; and keep the Oligarchs, and welfare recipients happy with ‘bread and circuses’..
My idea only works with #2 -I don’t think #1 is going to happen-I could be wrong.
“That’s another example if where AI could prove helpful. I think your version is a little better than the original.”
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 31 2024 17:35 utc | 246
I didn’t do anything just copied the poem and just added: “rhyming iambic pentameter”.
I am not a ‘bad poet, yet not a great one-and I don’t think chatGPT’s poems are great either – chatGPT can rhyme much better than I and doing those 1o beats a line takes much more effort than I care to give.
Want to watch something short and insightful on China? Try these tidbits, if Richard Wolff and Michael Hudson had a reporter in the field it would be this guy:
Russia-China grains corridor will completely displace the US, Canada, Australia, and France
This is tied in and also important:
BRICS trading system is already wiping out US farmers, as global price discovery is destroyed
I’ll add my tidbit, if the USA gets its WW3, in a regime of wartime rationing China could probably survive just on Russian food and fuel, and Russia could stay afloat just on China’s military and civilian industry, and that’s all across a land border which renders the USA fleet useless.
That’s why the MacKinder priesthood all the way to up Kissinger focused so hard on that. Then the neocon super-duper super men, in an involuntary act of contrition for the 1991-1997 gangster takeover of Russia came along and did the two headed eagle the biggest favor it could ever hope for, a historical, epochal kick in the ass freeing it from its obsession with at all things western including the austerity driven neoliberal clusterfuck to nowhere, into the realm of a growing prospering Asia, the part of the planet with surplus capital to spend instead of the part drowning in debt imagining the water is an asset.
Watch the vids, the self inflicted damage is staggering.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Aug 31 2024 18:57 utc | 250
civilization is an agreement for a better life.
Posted by: Newbie | Aug 31 2024 17:27 utc | 245
True enough, it can come under pressure from natural forces though, such as a series of poor harvests or disastrous flooding ruining the plantings.
Debasing the currency is a purely human influence, a reneging of “an agreement for a better life”.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Aug 31 2024 19:03 utc | 251
“The founder of the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, during interrogation in Paris, said that he had maintained ties with representatives of the General Directorate of Internal Security of France (DGSI, counterintelligence), in particular, he met with them in Dubai, the Libération newspaper writes, citing a source.
According to the French newspaper, the Russian-French tech magnate made it clear that “it would be inappropriate for him to disclose information constituting a military secret”. What was discussed, the newspaper did not specify.
The source also said that Durov, in his own words, “as part of the fight against terrorism, has opened an official channel of communication with the DGSI with a hotline and a special email address.“
The exchange of information through these channels made it possible to prevent several terrorist attacks, the source told Liberation.”
https://eurasiabusinessnews.com/2024/08/31/pavel-durovs-would-have-met-with-french-spies-in-dubai/
Posted by: Ornot | Aug 31 2024 19:11 utc | 252
“>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehdH2g4OnCs>
Russia is on the ropes.
Posted by: frkorz | Aug 31 2024 19:13 utc | 253
Re: Aristodemos, the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and the west
I have come to believe that I have become a Christian too late. That just a century before, I would have been happy living a quiet life of being the custodian of my family. That when I died after a lifetime of pious devotion, I would have been given every honor and that my family, friends, and fellow Churchmen would all gather around my grave, weep, and recollect what an exemplary Christian man I was. Yes, I have come to Christianity too late.
Today, I will be lucky to have my own family at my gravesite at death. That a lifelong struggle with depression, grappling with the question of God, embedding myself in the day-to-day of an ethical man in work and family life: all of these amount today to so little. My beautiful spouse takes the bread I earn and turns to my daughter telling her that by magic this bread has appeared. I attempt at conversation with my daughter, yet I can tell the pain in her voice and countenance as she feigns interest in what I have to say to her.
Why have you done this to me, God? Are you even there? Are you listening? Have you a body for me to inflict crushing blows, the swings of a madman aware of the feeble strength of his own withered husk?
…
Today, the youth are awakening. They no longer see the need to work long hours for little pay. The legacy of their parents they play fast-and-loose with. They see nothing but a contorted face of anguish on the old, a Francis Bacon tryptich image of meat hanging. Suffering is an evil to be wary of. Great is the laughing spirit of Dionysus.
…
Forget the suffering life. Forget Christ.
…
“Something marvelous has happened to me. I was transported to the seventh heaven. There sat all the gods assembled. As a special dispensation, I was granted the favor of making a wish. “What do you want,” asked Mercury. “Do you want youth, or beauty, or power, or a long life, or the most beautiful girl, or anyone of the other glorious things we have in the treasure chest? Choose-but only one thing.” For a moment I was bewildered; then I addressed the gods, saying: My esteemed contemporaries, I choose one thing-that I may always have the laughter on my side. Not one of the gods said a word; instead, all of them began to laugh. From that I concluded that my wish was granted and decided that the gods knew how to express themselves with good taste, for it would indeed have been inappropriate to reply solemnly: It is granted to you.” – Soren Kierkegaard
…
What is Russia doing right now? Do the Pagans that stalk the board here understand what Russia is fighting? Or, what the outcome of a success from Russia would look like?
Do we applaud Russia not because we fathom their motivation, but because they are NOT the west and its sellswords, its proxy forces that have been harnessed only through their nationalist aspirations and vendettas?
Was Hegel correct, according to Fukuyama, that western liberalism did indeed mark the end of history when communism collapsed in the Soviet Union?
…
Is liberalism a dead letter?
Is communism being resurrected?
Why is Christianity so strong in resurgent Russia and why is Russia seemingly able to thwart everything the empire sends at it?
…
If Russia keeps winning, does that mean that the west will keep losing? Is there a point where the west will have to acknowledge that it is no longer the biggest fish in the pond? What then?
Will Americans have to revert to a money system that is sustainable, losing the privilege of money printing that has enabled it to foster all kinds of domestic policies to reinforce the iron grip of its own liberalism?
What then? To eat, will the golden billion actually have to work again?
Will families, being the greatest expression of efficiency and spendthriftiness, the ultimate safeguard and guide post, become the backbone of state life again?
Will this pull break the spell the youth are under who abhor family responsibility, self-sacrifice, and delayed gratification?
Will the resulting hardship the west will face at such a collapse engender a reexamination of priorities of outward expression? Will it galvanize the people towards a unity that truly promotes fairness and protection of the vulnerable?
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 31 2024 19:18 utc | 255
LightYearsFromHome | Aug 31 2024 18:57 utc | 250–
Quite so. I’ve mentioned the upcoming BRICS commodity exchange in my recent writings which will include much more than grain and seed oils. IMO, it will be announced at Kazan in October along with the financial structure that will enable it. Unmentioned in the video is the fact that Russian ag products are non-GMO. Another fact I’ve been keeping under my hat is Russian Ag industry’s very real possibility of being able to solve the global food problem as a great many hectares of arable land remain uncultivated within Russia, plus what’s now available in the new lands, as well as Russian aid to African nations to feed themselves, both educationally and direct help in fields. The dedollarization of food commodities will be a boon to the Global Majority. And with internal logistical lines, interdiction during wartime is greatly reduced. The North-South Transit Corridor is thus of strategic importance not just to Russia but to Africa too.
karlof1 | Aug 31 2024 19:59 utc | 256
I ran onto something not long back and I guess you are aware of it also.
Two Russian scientific ships setting out on a research around all the African coastline to map fisheries and give that information to the relevant African countries.
Both China and Russia helping pull Africa out of poverty. Much better to watch than the endless wars of a dying empire.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 31 2024 20:09 utc | 257
This topic’s been discussed constantly here at MoA, but the latest developments need to be read about and the many related podcasts viewed if at all possible. None are linked in this article, “U.S. advancing police state measures”. Larry Johnson’s “Biden’s Police State” is probably a good place to start, although there’re many others.
Peter AU1 | Aug 31 2024 20:09 utc | 257–
Thanks for your reply. Lavrov’s talks with his Senegalese opposite that I reported yesterday specifically mentioned fisheries as one of the main areas of Russian-Senegal cooperation. I still aim to write about Russia’s Ag industry and its potential.
An XKCD that may or may not be relevant…
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Aug 31 2024 20:16 utc | 260
@ 257
Russia reportedly helping Africa on fisheries, China not so much in many places.
news report:
A multibillion dollar global fishing industry backed by the Chinese government is driving a surge in Chinese vessels engaged in illegal activities and exploiting fishing grounds off East Africa, spoiling them for local people, according to a London-based environmental group.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 31 2024 21:09 utc | 261
@ NemesisCalling | Aug 31 2024 19:18 utc | 255
No need for depression — life is too short to be taken seriously. I have a daughter who for no reason hates her parents. So what, life is too short. . .etc. I find happiness and friendship elsewhere, is all. And religion is not a factor for us.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 31 2024 21:29 utc | 262
Really good bit of music for a saterday night on moa. Spine chilling in a good way
https://musify.club/release/al-stewart-the-admiralty-lights-disk-35-2022-1799008
Posted by: Mark2 | Aug 31 2024 21:35 utc | 263
@ karlof1 | Aug 31 2024 20:10 utc | 258
re: [Ritter] has been a target of the government since the Iraq War
Yes, and these “government” actions against him come straight from the top. It’s personal, not a police state. Biden when in office as senate foreign affairs chief was totally in favor of the Iraq mistake despite Ritter’s truths. Biden promoted it fully and deviously. It was not just Bush’s war as is often reported, it was also Biden’s and so he has a hate for Ritter.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 31 2024 21:45 utc | 265
Johan Kaspar @ 2
Them leftists say that we Whites are inherently racists. European and Spanish politicians denying the win of a mulatto in Venezuelan elections prove they are right if they speak about European politicians.
They are terrified of the jungle, whitey is terrified of everything that isn’t buttoned up and straightened out and doesn’t dance in waltz time.
The proof that Maduro has solid support is that for an orange revolution to work the people have to believe that both parties, the left and the right are corrupt and incompetent, beyond redemption, and have betrayed them. That’s where a character like Milei, a fresh outsider, steps in. The CIA is able to do this pretty easily everywhere but Venezuela, and not for lack of trying, going back to 1999. The reason is that this rejection of both parties doesn’t exist in Venezuela, and that’s because the Chavista left is communist and authentic, not woke rainbow liberal hypocrite and phony. Of course the bourgeois class and the right in Venezuela might be unhappy but the working class is solid and doesn’t feel betrayed.
That’s why the CIA soft power Guaido and Machado orange revolutions failed, the brilliant minds of the CIA either don’t get it or they are stymied unable to infiltrate the Venezuelan military for a hard power coup and so keep banging their heads against the orange revolution wall over and over, it’s all they got. That’s why Trump was flirting with outright invasion, and will again if he wins, not that Harris won’t also try.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Aug 31 2024 21:55 utc | 266
Don Bacon @ 265
And why Ritter should have read the writing on the wall and gotten out to Russia when he could have, and why they took his passport. You’re really in trouble when it’s personal. Maybe Trump will let up but he did nothing to help Snowden and Assange.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Aug 31 2024 22:01 utc | 267
Posted by: frkorz | Aug 31 2024 19:18 utc | 254
oops. i posted a link that someone had already posted. so i added a feature to my user interface to search and return all posts that contain a link matching a URL. i wont make that mistake again.
Posted by: frkorz | Aug 31 2024 22:40 utc | 268
@262 Don
Thx for the encouragement.
My comment there was somewhat of a fictional narrative meant to say that despite the time we live in, Christianity has a timeless purpose. If our children drift from honoring their parents, we can’t give up on our Holy Mission. We must foster an inner joy and trust the Holy Spirit will guide our youth back to “themselves.”
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 31 2024 22:45 utc | 269
Lavrov updates us on the state of the Levant in “The Documentary “Bridges to the East” Interviews Lavrov,” https://karlof1.substack.com/p/the-documentary-bridges-to-the-east
There’s plenty there to keep the reader occupied for an hour or so when one also watches the linked video.
Don Bacon | Aug 31 2024 21:45 utc | 265–
Thanks for your reply, Don. While it may be personal regarding Ritter, there’re too many other instances that indicate its policy, like the intimidation that was meted out to Strategic Culture writers and attempts to censor that site, which is only one instance of many. And it’s not as if this is recent policy as it’s been ongoing for over 100 years. Same with the manipulation of University curriculum to eliminate the study of political-economy and its history. Same with the elimination of the need to have studied philosophy to be have a PhD awarded. One of Upton Sinclair’s more devastating later works he was forced to self-publish in 1923, The Goose-Step: A Study of American Education, which documented how that change was made possible. The Wiki write-up is actually rather good and notes the other volumes in the series and why it was named as it was.
In general, our current Age isn’t new; rather, it’s a repeat of times past–some might say it’s a continuation, and they’d have a good argument. What’s most important about the article I linked is its illumination of nations that’re freer than the supposed land of the free. I understand why Ritter stays and fights and have always seen him as an ally.
@ karlof1 | Aug 31 2024 23:59 utc | 270
re: our current Age isn’t new; rather, it’s a repeat of times past
That’s been largely true, but there is now a major effort to change with STEM* programs, at the university and community college levels. They would still be helping the corporations thereby, but the employment would be better for the students who otherwise would be studying political science and other losers.
* science, technology, engineering and mathematics
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 1:35 utc | 271
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 1:35 utc | 271
“…students who otherwise would be studying political science and other losers.”
Doing some research for my next Substack piece I found that the favourite university course in the UK now is Psychology.
I thought that was completely amazing, but then again, considering the state of the UK today, I guess it makes perfect sense.
Posted by: Walt | Sep 1 2024 2:19 utc | 272
maybe its been a good year in South London Surrey where we live, but I have never seen so much fresh fruit in our garden and the hedgerows – the back passages and the parks….so much fruit, we are going to give much of it away…
I have got one of these girls, who picks all the bushes clean, and comes back dribbling with blackcurrent all over her face and pretty dress – just glowing with a smile on her face…
And we have all these American Financial Analysts, who admittedly Bribe and Corrupt our Governments, telling us, the UK and Ireland is going Bust…Cos we are on the hook, for what was Always Their Idea to Kill loads of people in the Ukraine and Palestine.
It was their idea absolutely nothing to do with us British and Irish…We actually get on really well
So what are you going to do about it USA???
Look at the State of Yourselves
Check out California – and BOTH your Latest potential Presidents…
You can have ours too – they do not work for us – they work for you evil bastards
Trying to Kill Us all
We live in a Beautiful World – in ENGLAND – whilst you are already in some kind of Satanic Hell
So Go home back to the USA and take all your stupid bastards with you
Goodbye
Get Off My Land
Tony (England)
Posted by: tonyopmoc | Sep 1 2024 2:23 utc | 273
I am 71 now, and the full tribe will be back home later today. I had to explain to our little girl (not quite 2) that our house is still a bit of a mess – lots of work been going on whilst you have been on the summer holiday with your dad and brothers
Nana and me just the same, and our pussy cat
Posted by: tonyopmoc | Sep 1 2024 2:34 utc | 274
China has been a large grand nation in Asia for over four thousand years, on land and on its adjacent waters and islands especially in the South China Sea. Now we have the juvenile Philippines government encroaching on China’s area authority. Philippines is a poorly governed country that has existed less than a hundred years, after decades of being a colony of Spain and Japan. The US itself released Philippines from bondage a few years ago (1946), and the US has only existed in a faraway continent for less than a few hundred years. The US has recently exerted its authority to enforce an “ironclad” defense treaty with its re-acquired Asian puppet country which has mistakenly chosen to be anti-China in an area long used and administered by China. The South China Sea has recently become the West Philippines Sea – fancy that! Also another US puppet occupied by the US, Japan has been roped in to join the “ironclad” anti-China bloc. “Headlines – Philippines, Japan finalizing defense-access pact” despite the World War Two settlement which allowed Japan self-defense only. Japan is long remembered by the Chinese people for its US-style wartime atrocities.
Aug 31, 2024
This afternoon the Chinese Coast Guard vessel deliberately rammed and collided with the BRP Teresa Magbanua three times, despite no provocation with the Philippine Coast Guard. [This is the latest in a series]
Aug 29, 2024
US forces ready with a ‘range of options’ to deal with South China Sea aggression, US admiral says
BAGUIO, Philippines (AP) — American forces are ready with a “range of options” to deal with increasing acts of aggression in the disputed South China Sea if ordered to carry them out jointly and after consultations with treaty ally the Philippines, a U.S. admiral said Thursday.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Paparo, who heads the biggest number of combat forces outside the U.S. mainland, refused to provide details of the contingency options.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 2:39 utc | 275
@ tonyopmoc | Sep 1 2024 2:23 utc | 273
The UK is no different from other nations, sinking economically.
A recent study by the ONS (Office for National Statistics) showed total goods exports in 2023 fell by £15.2bn, or 4.6%, compared with 2022, “with substantial decreases in exports to both EU and non-EU countries”. Also homeless people increasing, etc.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 2:51 utc | 276
@ Posted by: Walt | Sep 1 2024 2:19 utc | 272
re: . .favourite university course in the UK now is Psychology.
Probably the word has got out that any university degree is required for employment. So the teenager asks his guidance person– “knowing me, what would be the easiest college program.” . . .That leaves plenty of time for partying when the time comes.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 3:02 utc | 277
We used to buy British, and even American, basically what we thought was the best to do whatever we were particularly interested in…buying anything from the usa is a total nightmare…it may eventually be delivered, or more likely you are going to go to the main post office, to have what you have ordered examined – ane evaluated re its value, and maybe have to pay 20 pence import tax, by which time you have already bought Chinese and it is delivered almost the next day -well far less tha 7 days…
and the Chinese are just so polite…
Americans mot on the same class. Americans have always been full of shit, but instead of getting better like the Chinese have, the Americans got worse…They think the own the entire world, and can be extremely annoying to meet on holiday, whilst both Canadians, can be really cool..
Get used to it USA. The Rest of The World does not like You. You Americand have lost all your Charm
You Guys have lost it.
Posted by: tonyopmoc | Sep 1 2024 3:07 utc | 278
@ Posted by: tonyopmoc | Sep 1 2024 3:07 utc | 278
re: The Rest of The World does not like You.
Gee, I guess the two million illegal immigrants didn’t get the memo.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 3:18 utc | 279
Consortium News
Photos of 2005 Haditha Massacre in Iraq Finally Published
FUKUS crimes against humanities would fill a 100 volumes encyclopaedia.
This is just the tip of an iceberg.
Horrifying but hardly shocking by FUKUS standard.
When it comes to atrocities in Iraq, Fallujah is iconic.
Touted as the holy grail of urban warfare, compulsory study at the West Point.
For the umpteenth time…
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m18007
Posted by: denk | Sep 1 2024 3:28 utc | 280
I am rereading parts of The Systems View Of Life by Capra/Luisi and ran across this hubris check that I think needs to be shared with fellow barflies
As the great scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal put is succinctly in the seventeenth century, “Knowledge is like a sphere; the greater its volume, the larger its contact with the unknown.”
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 1 2024 3:31 utc | 281
I know the UK has failed re having Decent Honourable Men, you can Trust to Represent Your Country..that can communicate with other Decent Honorable Men Representing Their Country with some kind of mutual respect..Its good for trade mutual respect..and have the very best Diplomats, who do much the same thing, to organise stuff to encourage mutual understanding involving different cultures…
We ended up with The War Criminal ANTHONY CHARLES LYNTON BLAIR totally controlled by Dick Cheney and the Neocons…
but even then we had decent Diplomats like Craig Murray, who simply said NO to Torture..He got recalled to explain himself…thinkinkinh he would be thanked but the most horrendous Jack Straw – instead of thanking him FIRED him..but didn’t them imprison him…but eventually the evil bastard did. He is out now, but still gets arrested going through Airports – accused of being a Terrorist, and now its just young pretty kids – Arrested for objecting to Mass Genocide…
This is not the way to make America Great Again
You guys are going down the shit hole of hell..
You are not nice. We don’t like you.
Posted by: tonyopmoc | Sep 1 2024 3:42 utc | 282
@ 280
Fallujah: In Operation Iraqi Freedom four US contractors were killed bringing the Marines in for US Operation Vigilant Resolve, in the Spring of 2004, then in the Fall Operation Phantom Fury. Orders: Destroy all buildings and kill anyone that moves, anywhere, even swimming away in the river.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 3:54 utc | 283
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 3:54 utc | 283
———————
The sickening odor of rotting flesh” permeated the air circulating through the smoke filled and blood drenched streets of Fallujah. Alexander Cockburn noted, “If there is anything that should fuel the outrage of the antiwar movement [in the US] it is surely the destruction of Fallujah and the war crimes�inflicted by US commanders on its civilian population.”
OUch !
NO antiwar movement !
No outrage !
Posted by: denk | Sep 1 2024 4:06 utc | 284
@ tonyopmoc | Sep 1 2024 3:42 utc | 282
re: You are not nice. We don’t like you.
That cheers us when we celebrate Independence Day, free of the UK, its royal Kings and Queens, its stuffy House of Lords all a part of its caste system exported to India. We fortunately avoided being in such a place, and attracts a lot of people as I said above.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 4:13 utc | 285
@284
Operation Iraqi Freedom, now with a majority of Shi’ites, gave the Iraqis the freedom to associate with Iran. . . ooops! Iraqi freedom!! . . .The US then formed what became the Sunni-oriented ISIS, giving the US reason to return to Iraq and Syria. But it’s okay, most of the US troops sent there are national guard and so the easy lives and morale of the regulars aren’t harmed, enjoying the military base amenities all over the world, but especially in Korea and Japan.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 4:24 utc | 286
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 4:24 utc | 286
—————–
Yes.
Voice of the unpeople.
Or,
People with no voice.
https://149357548.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/shutterstock_440739289-980×734.jpg
Posted by: denk | Sep 1 2024 4:38 utc | 287
@karlof1 #273
‘Same with the manipulation of University curriculum to eliminate the study of political-economy and its history. Same with the elimination of the need to have studied philosophy to be have a PhD awarded.’
Fully agree.
I’ll get to Lavrov interview – busy week.
& Don bacon for the reminder
Posted by: Don Firineach | Sep 1 2024 6:50 utc | 288
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/08/31/context-for-fbi-discussion/#more-263649
Sundance tears the FBI a new one and in so doing argues that top to bottom is corrupt so they all need to go.
What the Federal Security Service (FSB) is to the internal security of the Russian state, so too is the FBI in performing the same function for the U.S. federal government.
The FBI is a U.S. version of the Russian “State Police”; and the FBI is deployed -almost exclusively- to attack domestic enemies of those who control government, while they protect the interests of the U.S. Fourth Branch of Government. That is the clear and accurate domestic prism to contextualize their perceived mission: “domestic violent extremists pose the greatest threat” to their objective.
Put another way, “We The People”, who fight against government abuse and usurpation, are the FBI’s actual and literal enemy.
Let me be very clear with another brutally obvious example. Antifa could not exist as an organization, capable to organize and carry out violent attacks against their targets, without the full support of the FBI. If the FBI wanted to arrest members of Antifa, who are actually conducting violence, they could do it easily – with little effort.
It is the absence of any action, by the FBI toward Antifa, that tells us the FBI is enabling that violent extremist behavior to continue. Once you accept that transparent point of truth, then you realize the FBI definition of domestic violent extremism is something else entirely.
The FBI is not a law enforcement or investigative division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The FBI is a political weapon of a larger institution that is now focused almost entirely toward supporting a radical communist agenda to destroy civil society in the United States.
The FBI set up the operation in Michigan to give the illusion that domestic threats were attempting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, everything about the events were an FBI construct. The same thing with the January 6th events in Washington DC and the pipe bombs. These are domestic FBI operations. Think about the precarious nature of what this type of activity indicates.
The current mission of the FBI appears to be preserving and protecting institutional power by protecting the administration of Joe Biden.
Anyone who continues to push this insufferable and fraudulent “honorable FBI rank and file talking point”, is, at this point in history, willfully and purposefully operating to deceive the American people on behalf of government interests who are intent on destroying us.
It is not a difference of opinion any longer. Personally, I have lost the ability to sit comfortably or intellectually with anyone who pushes or accepts the ‘mistakes are made’ nonsense. The FBI is not making mistakes, they are doing well what is important to them.
To me, it comes down to a simple matter of accepting what is continually staring us in the face.
And much more, often with related specifics.
Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 1 2024 6:53 utc | 289
Scorpion @ 289
So….
If your against antifascism, you must support fascism , is that correct ?
What you did ther is project on to your oposition your own fascist criminal actions.
And accuse them of the very connetion to the elite that trump and his followers have.
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 1 2024 7:55 utc | 290
@Mark2
“Antifa” is a SIMULACRUM of Anti-Fascism. ASTROTURF.
Posted by: Featherless | Sep 1 2024 10:30 utc | 291
Scorpion @ 289
So….
If your against antifascism, you must support fascism , is that correct ?
What you did there is project on to your opposition your own fascist criminal actions.
And accuse them of the very connection to the elite that trump and his followers have.
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 1 2024 7:55 utc | 290
Antifa are Fascists, dummy, so to oppose them is to be ANTI-FASCIST:
“Last year the Resistance to the Trump Administration, already unhinged, was joined by a pugnacious organization that calls itself Antifa, short for anti-fascist. But as even superficial accounts of its activities make clear, it is not opposed to fascism at all but mirrors Adolph Hitler’s Brown Shirts in the 1920s.
Oh, but there is one superficial difference: Antifa’s minions wear black rather than brown. But unlike their despicable forebears, they mask themselves to avoid being identified as they terrorize opponents with vitriol and violence. Their comforting delusion is that anonymity generates comradeship, which is a polite way of characterizing the herd instinct.
Because the left and the “mainstream” media are so determined to sanitize their most violent partners in the campaign to “transform” America, one must tread carefully, lest one be labeled “fascist.” So I deliberately consulted the (so far) respectable Wikipedia website.” (1)
1.https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/local/desert-dispatch/2018/12/05/antifa-is-fascist-exactly-opposite/985002007/
Featherless @ 291
Pleased to correct you…
antifa is an abreveation of anti fascism.
No more no less.
Which side are you on ?
Perhaps the far rights bigest crime is the way you guy’s currupt the english language.
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 1 2024 10:43 utc | 293
“That cheers us when we celebrate Independence Day, free of the UK, its royal Kings and Queens, its stuffy House of Lords all a part of its caste system exported to India…”
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 1 2024 4:13 utc | 285
Bullocks!
The Indian caste system was 2,500 years old before any Brit colonized any part of India:
“Maybe you learned what the caste system is in world history class in school. Maybe you thought it was a historical system that was left in the past a long time ago. But, unlike other societal divisions we’ve seen throughout history – this one still dictates much of life in India today. Including where you can live, what job you can hold, and even what water you can drink. But let me rewind. The caste system is deeply rooted in the Hinduism belief in karma and reincarnation.
Dating back more than 3,000 years, the caste system divides Hindus into four main categories – Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras based on who they were in their past life, their karma, and what family line they come from. Many believe that the system originated from Brahma, the Hindu God of creation, believing that the Brahmins represent the eyes and mind of Brahma and are therefore often teachers and priests, the Kshatriyas represent his arms and are often warriors, the Vaishyas represent his legs and are often farmers or merchants, and the Shudras represent his feet and are often laborers.” (1)
1.https://setfreealliance.org/indian-caste-system-explained/
Canuck @ 292
Gives us all an example of curupting the english language.
PS.. he’s a self inerested venture capalist with his own selfish expoltative agenda.
Imoral capatilism equals fascism.
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 1 2024 10:51 utc | 295
Mmm so now cannock employs the ‘straw man’ ploy. @ 294
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 1 2024 10:58 utc | 296
My argument for timing now is quite simple: The Western governments/PTB have major, major debt problems there are only two ways forward:
1. Cut spending, raise taxes and get back to balanced budgets
or
2. Print paper to inflate your debt away so as to kep politicians in power; Oligarchs with increasing wealth; and keep the Oligarchs, and welfare recipients happy with ‘bread and circuses’..
Posted by: canuck | Aug 31 2024 18:31 utc | 248
______
You forgot a third option: Destroy the creditor — which seems to be the US policy toward China.
Posted by: malenkov | Sep 1 2024 11:08 utc | 297
My argument for timing now is quite simple: The Western governments/PTB have major, major debt problems there are only two ways forward:
1. Cut spending, raise taxes and get back to balanced budgets
or
2. Print paper to inflate your debt away so as to kep politicians in power; Oligarchs with increasing wealth; and keep the Oligarchs, and welfare recipients happy with ‘bread and circuses’..
Posted by: canuck | Aug 31 2024 18:31 utc | 248
______
“You forgot a third option: Destroy the creditor — which seems to be the US policy toward China.”
Posted by: malenkov | Sep 1 2024 11:08 utc | 297
Its an option but a very poor one.
China owns $800 billion in Treasury bonds down from a high of $1.4 trillion a few years ago. The US is adding to their $35 trillion debt one TRILLION per 100 days-such that an $800 billion default would not help matters much.
If the US defaults to China, China would just seize US corporate assets (ie Apple) in China which are over $1.5 billion.
Not mentioning that if US defaults the dollar is history as other Sovereigns would boycott the Treasury auctions.