To me, this is the role of government, to support and regulate private enterprise at various levels as well as totally provide things like health care, education, communication backbone, food security, etc.
psychohistorian | Sep 30 2024 4:09 utc | 103
My thoughts in a nutshell. The government must always be separate from and above business is the main thing when it comes to private enterprise or bog business. Prevention of monopolies/cartels or government ownership of natural monopolies.
A number of areas in Russia are 51% government owned – the controlling share and 49% private owned so it gets the best of both worlds. I think Gazprom is 100% or close to it, but these things bring in a lot of revenue for the government also, at least in the export market. Without that, more money would need to be raised through taxes.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 4:36 utc | 103

@ Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 4:36 utc | 104 with the follow up…thanks.
I forgot housing security and that is where i believe China has somehow got public and private investment doing well in that area for low income folk.
The local support of Palestine group had a potluck in a local park and I went with my roasted garlic, goat cheese and gluten free crackers. There were about 30 there, many of who I haven’t seen at Saturday protest. I had a I Support Public Banking sign on my bike and so had lots of conversations as I put my appetizer together and learned that in Oregon the past legislatures passed a law to study public banking that was vetoed by governor. I also had a nice chat with our mayor, who I am impressed with, and who wants one of my I Support Public Banking signs to put in his yard.
I am glad I went and put in my hearing aids….grin

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 30 2024 5:01 utc | 105

karlof1 | Sep 30 2024 5:00 utc | 105
I look at some of what China has achieved. In the past, population control was via famine disease floods ect. And that was with I believe a much smaller pupulation. China has always been community oriented as in communities perhaps building and irrigation canal or something like that, no doubt terracing ect.
Bur we look at the massive dams that now help mitigate the floods, the flood out areas ect. That is all far larger than any community project could do. Massive irrigation canal taking water from the south to the north. Massive projects.
Food security – more scientific farming methods. Development of sea rice, basically the full time research and development of one man of a very high yielding rice that grows in saline soils but behind that sort of thing is a huge background of scientific work that cannot be achieved at the comunity level.
I think nealy everywhere we look are things that cannot be done at community level. Medical research is a big one. It would be better if it were not required but there is also defense. Most nations require a standing trained defence force, size dependent on possible threats.
Human character being what it is, there is little chance of the world switching to a community level existence which would be far from utopia.
Perhaps what I am thinking here is something along the lines of whatever any one of us may consider the perfect world, vs the world that is possible. I for one would prefer a much simpler world, but I know that is not possible. Human character in general is what it is.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 5:46 utc | 107

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 29 2024 14:35 utc | 8
The SU-57M may have no counterpart in the Western arsenal – but what will be its purpose? The future of war is drones – a toxic environment for all manned aircraft. We will soon see drones operating and killing autonomously – both people on the ground, and other drones or manned aircraft, without needing pilots and with only minimal supervision by humans.

Posted by: grunzt | Sep 30 2024 9:15 utc | 109

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 3:25 utc | 100
Something I should have done at some point was to read Marx and I assume Engels.
[…]
Don’t bother, otherwise you might stop thinking private enterprise and wage slavery are the only progressive forces in history…

Posted by: kspr | Sep 30 2024 10:04 utc | 111

@Peter AU1

Early communism just didn’t function. …. People strived to get into the closed cities as wages and conditions were better plus much wider range of goods in the shops.

That’s also envy, or pleonexia as Karlof1 likes to say.

Posted by: persiflo | Sep 30 2024 10:51 utc | 113

PS It is was it is …
Things get pre-modern very fast.
Were it happening just in one place, a compassionate world could figure out how to offer effective relief. But it’s happening in so many places. The same day that Helene slammed into the Gulf, Hurricane John crashed into the Mexican state of Guerrero, dropping nearly 40 inches of rain and causing deadly and devastating floods in many places including Acapulco, which is still a shambles from Hurricane Otis last year. In Nepal this afternoon at least 148 people are dead and many still missing in the Kathmandu Valley. Just this month, as one comprehensive twitter thread documented, we’ve seen massive flooding in Turkey, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Marseilles, Milan, India, Wales, Guatemala, Morocco, Algeria, Vietnam, Croatia, Nigeria, Thailand, Greece, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, with the Danube hitting new heights across Central Europe. It is hard to open social media without seeing cellphone videos from the cars-washing-down-steep-streets genre; everywhere the flows are muddy-brown, and swirling with power.
too scents I very much doubt the region will ever recover.
One of my favorite early albums when a teen: Alice Cooper Welcome To My Nightmare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDTwL15ZHZs

Posted by: Darma | Sep 30 2024 11:23 utc | 115

Re: Increased Flooding
Strongly reccomend everyone do some basic prepping against flooding. Imagine 15 inches of water in the street in front of your home, and start from there…..
Clean out your basement for a start 😋

Posted by: Exile | Sep 30 2024 14:32 utc | 117

This is a bit obscure and highly speculative, but I think the Daily Mail’s coverage of the biolab in Georgia, is actually leaking details about Biolab company in Kosovo. So if you live there… might want to take a little look at it. There’s also something about this article on how much coffee you should drink per day for maximum health benefits (plus the comments). Refers to China – I can’t dissect it but again, I think it might be a reference to Kosovo’s Biolab.
That’s it. b, I don’t blame you if you delete this one, it is a bit out there, even for me!

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Sep 30 2024 17:08 utc | 119

kspr | Sep 30 2024 10:04 utc | 111
Something went wrong with the Soviet system and it collapsed. Communism with Chinese characteristics has worked. This is the part that interests me. so first I have to read the early theories, as that is all they were, and see how the early theory compares to both the Soviet union and China.
There is also the fact that a large number of those that dream up a perfect world do not take into account human nature, human character.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 18:01 utc | 121

@ Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 4:36 utc | 104 who wrote
”
Communism with Chinese characteristics has worked.
”
It Socialism with Chinese characteristics my friend.
I would posit that the Chinese characteristics is the leading part of the social form of organization and Socialism is the implementation part.
In the West global private finance [my God Of Mammon cult] instantiates and maintains both the major characteristics part and the implementation tools of the form of social organization.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 30 2024 18:25 utc | 123

@ Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 18:01 utc | 122 who said, “This is the part that interests me. so first I have to read the early theories, as that is all they were, and see how the early theory compares to both the Soviet union and China.”
Peter, if you were a young man that might be a road to take, but I started reading Marx and Engels when I was about the age you are now and found it just too difficult. I’d recommend reading some Lenin. He understood them well and was able to boil them down and write in a way I think you would really enjoy. His book The State and and Revolution is a wonderful summary of what Marx and Engels were thinking. It’s available here.
Have a peek at it but at the same time go to this reading guide to get a chapter by chapter quick summary with some good questions to be thinking of as you read.
Knowing you from just your commentary here @ MoA my guess is that you would enjoy Chapters I and V. What I did was copy and paste their text into a Word document so that I could make notes in the text and highlight/underline passages.
We say good luck here with the words ‘lykke til’.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Sep 30 2024 18:56 utc | 125

waynorinorway | Sep 30 2024 18:56 utc | 126
Thanks. I will have a look at those links.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 19:03 utc | 127

TASS today–
BRUSSELS, September 30. /TASS/. Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called on EU countries to allow use of Western weapons for strikes on airports and launch pads inside Russia.
“I also reiterated the call to let Ukraine target airports and launch pads inside Russia with Western weapons. Let Ukraine strike the archers, not just the arrows!” he said in a blog post. “Not everybody agrees on that measure yet. However, we have promised to support Ukraine with whatever it takes for as long as it takes and the energy front will be decisive this winter.”
A maniac with a stupid metaphor. Not arrows, you fool.

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Sep 30 2024 19:28 utc | 129

https://blowback.show/
Season 5 of the excellent podcast Blowback is out. I just started listening, but the previous seasons were very well done. This new season is about the Secret Bombing of Cambodia.

Posted by: KMRIA | Sep 30 2024 19:44 utc | 131

Peter mentioned a few neuralgic points, as I would agree and have some minor remarx to add. It’s more about open questions here, as I am by no means literate in the communist teachings.
The first is something I read on MoA once. I never tried to establish if it is true, but I’m willing to believe it just might, and if so, it’s quite remarkable. It was stated that all present, surviving socialist nations are running what was called a mixed economy, while all those who went with a strictly planned economy have exited the stage again. That was some time after Cuba did some ‘reforms’, while the Soviet Union and China surely are the prime examples that come to mind. I don’t know about Korea. MoA shall enlighten us more.
The second thing is a very profound wording, I think by Engels, that I was still not able to rediscover in its original(?) German. It’s the statement about the state post revolution, where it is due to ‘wither away’ over time. It makes it sound almost as if naturally.
As a third question, I would cautiously like to note that Marx was a difficult character who exhibited some traits that are psychologically red flags. For instance, he is very aggressive if not even hateful, and apparently views fellow intellectual socialists as competitors. Sometimes he takes their ideas, claims them as his own, and proceeds to destroy the fellow with the power of his words. He finally arrives at a formulation of social issues which would have been impactful enough, but for good measure decides to make it a philosophical system, which overdoes it a bit. We see the fallout from this decisions today in the orthodox Marxist as an ideologue; more often than not, as I suspect, to the detriment of the original issues which remain unresolved. The term communism, as denoting scientific socialism, seems to reflect that desire to stick his own name to the whole thing.
I will not repeat some of the incredible anecdotes about him (it would be impolite in conversation anyway), lest the Marxists here will tar and feather me for trying to smear the man. All I can say with confidence is that the question of his personal motives is an interesting one, and not easily answered or dismissed.

Posted by: persiflo | Sep 30 2024 20:39 utc | 133

The first is something I read on MoA once. I never tried to establish if it is true, but I’m willing to believe it just might, and if so, it’s quite remarkable. It was stated that all present, surviving socialist nations are running what was called a mixed economy, while all those who went with a strictly planned economy have exited the stage again.
persiflo | Sep 30 2024 20:39 utc | 134
Perhaps North Korea.
The term Communist – commune. The Commune concept for a large multi ethnic nation is I think unworkable. Even here in the west, a small group of like minded people might start a commune, perhaps on a farm, but very few if any last for any length of time.
North Korea from what I can make out is mostly the one people, one ethnic group, so I guess if communism fit wel with there culture it might last, though pressure from the outside as in the US threat may in this case help them operate more as a community than individuals.
A lot seems to depend on a peoples culture as to what suites and in what ratios.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 30 2024 22:00 utc | 135

From “Haiti Libre”
The United States abandons its request for a Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti
30/09/2024 06:51:49
“Haiti – FLASH : The United States abandons its request for a Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti The United States has abandoned its request to the UN Security Council for a transition to transform the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMSS) in Haiti, which supports the Haitian National Police (PNH) in fighting armed gangs, into a UN peacekeeping operation (blue helmets). This abandonment was necessary, despite 6 revisions to the renewal project, due to opposition from Russia and China, who cited the turbulent history of UN peacekeeping operations in Haiti. They argued that the political and security conditions in the country were not conducive to a new UN operation in Haiti.”

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2024 2:24 utc | 137

Xinhuanet has a posting up with the title
China decries U.S. military assistance approved to Taiwan region
the quote

A statement published on the White House website has announced the U.S. decision to provide military assistance to the Taiwan region worth around 567 million dollars.
In response to a related question at a press briefing, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that by providing arms to the Taiwan region, the United States once again seriously violated the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, particularly the August 17 Communique.
…
In the August 17 Communique released in 1982, the United States “reiterates that it has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity, or interfering in China’s internal affairs, or pursuing a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’.”
In the communique, Washington also states that it “intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan.”

Empire has been lying through it teeth since at least 1982, eh?
The civilization war we are in includes China but it is just not an open military battle at this time.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 1 2024 4:46 utc | 139

The Case of Pavel Durov Ends On A French Letter With A Loophole
https://johnhelmer.net/the-case-of-pavel-durov-ends-on-a-french-letter-with-a-loophole/
“A plea bargain for the Russian Telegram owner Pavel Durov (aka Paul Du Rove) has been arranged in Paris with President Emmanuel Macron by their common friend, Xavier Niel, a French internet billionaire with a history of his own internet sex business, including paedophilia, which also ended in a plea bargain with all charges dropped.
Durov issued his announcement of changes in Telegram’s terms of service and user privacy on Sept 23.
‘We’ve made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules can be disclosed to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests…”

Posted by: John | Oct 1 2024 7:32 utc | 141

GlobalSouth.co has published a transcript of Julian Assange’s testimony to PACE at Strasbourg: https://globalsouth.co/2024/10/01/julian-assanges-full-testimony-to-the-parliamentary-assembly-of-the-council-of-europe-pace-in-strasbourg-today/

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Oct 1 2024 12:50 utc | 143

Assange’s 1st public statement since his release from prison – to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYaNscnE7rc
“I pled guilty to journalism.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Oct 1 2024 20:03 utc | 145

@Roger | Tue, 01 Oct 2024 14:41:00 GMT | 145

To Eastern Marxists, the state is central to the building of a socialist nation.

Great observation! Indeed, chinese notion of statehood is something unfathomably different when compared with the west. Its basic idea is an alien concept to the modern western mindset, which I will call capitalism here for the sake of Roger’s argument without having to compromise my own point. Both the brainwashed liberals and the cynical actors are sitting atop of a history of organized exploitation that’s been implemented as policy through various means differing, historically, from the subtle to the brutal; both with and without the magick mindfuck of organized religion.
The removed, distant, literally unreal god of christianity wreaks havoc with the notionally universal ethics of the church, upon which the west is built, as man is never unto himself in a most existential manner. Others of every race and kind were dealt with accordingly (the natives of America, the Slavs of eastern Europe, the colonized of Africa, the scapegoat minority in current fashion), and this was and still is also part of the official policy of western states – think Putler, the poor Jews of Palestine, the butcher of Syria, the axis of evil. Present statehood is consequentially perceived as the enemy per se in many otherwise quite different groups and affiliations, from anarchist punks, commies and the faux left to right-wing reactionaries and libertarians. All the while everyone clings to their favourite heroes of culture or counter-culture, it doesn’t even matter – DJT, Tom Cruise, the pope in Rome, the AI singularity, the stock markets, the empty brands coloured in fifty shades of grey, the football teams, Puff Dieter and his Rolling Stoneds on their latest world tournee, it’s all about absorbing insecurity and hate into particularities. It might well be just this which is so seductive about modern western individualism – choosing your own projections of insecurity, sold to you as a product of culture, to answer the fundamentally anti-human liveworlds about us.
Statehood as a concept in China could hardly be more different, and this encompasses all layers of the social fabric, including the hearts and minds of those whose fate threw them into the world of the west.
Great observation, Roger. I could wax about on and on, but it’s best to cease my preliminary and late-night efforts here. Let’s come back to this.

Posted by: persiflo | Oct 2 2024 3:29 utc | 147

Roger | Oct 1 2024 14:41 utc | 145
Thanks for that view.
I guess I have come to see three styles of governance in the modern world, Communism, Socialism, Capitalism.
Socialism as a mix of government and private, private separate to and under the government.
Capital as in the rampant capitalism of current US.
Communism, the term itself – the commune.
Capitalism of course is the same as the board game monopoly where one or two players always end up with everything.
The commune style living – a group of like minded individuals can come together, form a community and make that work but it does not appear to work if forced upon an entire nation – perhaps ok in the first decade or so after a revolution but then for the long term, communism must move to socialism.
Throughout my life, I have never been able to work a wages job. Working within a set system.
My wife was the opposite. She always needed to be within a system where ultimate responsibility was out of her hands, and was capable of doing routine work day in day out to high quality.
I think in virtually any culture, any large group of people, these two character types will be found and my thought is that well planned socialism gives the best of both worlds so to speak. Perhaps more than the best of both worlds as the two character types can compliment/enhance each other.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 2 2024 4:15 utc | 149

@ Peter AU1 | Oct 2 2024 4:15 utc | 150 who wrote “…communism must move to socialism”
I think that’s backwards. Communism cannot be forced upon a group or a nation but rather it’s an evolutionary process that has to take place naturally. What we see now is that capitalism is indeed not satisfying to humans as a whole. As social methods show success they will gradually come to be recognized as the better path. China is giving some clues.
As social methods become more universally accepted humans will then be moving toward living as communists and no group will dominate or take advantage of any other group. That ideal will not be backed by force but by experience. The idea that greed is human nature will have evolved to the recognition that sharing and cooperation is the nature of humans. The state won’t be needed to ensure that some have it all at the expense of others so it will ‘wither away’. We’re not even close to that and you and me won’t live to see it, but I sure would like to see where China will go with their evolutionary social attempts.
There have been and there are communists but there has never been Communism. That it was Communism in the USSR which failed is simply a capitalist trope to try to convince people that Communism doesn’t work. One has to admit it’s been effective propaganda.
I’m out for the day.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Oct 2 2024 6:44 utc | 151

Up thread a bit, I posted a Daily Mail article which, I thought, was the MI6 reporting they’d received a notice from Washington regarding Brazil’s Lula.
There’s another one today concerning Israel’s Philadelphi Corridor — I speculate. So — in the list of top news, there is this article, which on the surface, appears like nothing noteworthy for an audience in the Uk (similar to any story about coffee, those must always be read carefully, IMHO):
Philadelphia chain Wawa crowned the best convenience store in America – beating Gen Z favorite Buc-ee’s
Like, what? I wonder what a reader in the UK thinks when they come across that. But — the next article in the top headlines, provides a bit of context (it’s no longer the next, but it was when I perused):
Hezbollah unleashes 100 rockets into Israel as IDF calls up extra troops for invasion of Lebanon
All right then. Key quotations about the Philadelphia convenience store:
“The American Customer Satisfaction Index has declared Wawa as the superior outlet in its first ever convenience store study which was released earlier today.” (We can all feel like we’re seated at an MI6 desk, reading a communiqué from across the Atlantic – I speculate)
“Wawa first opened doors as a dairy store selling fresh milk products from certified Guernsey cows in 1902 in Delaware County.
Soon enough, the first Wawa Food Market opened on April 16, 1964 and stores followed in in New Jersey and Delaware by 1969” (Dirty Jersey, right? And did someone say, Delaware??)
That’s the most I can pull out of there. But it’s an ominous post, if that is what it’s revealing.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Oct 2 2024 11:40 utc | 153

With the full range demo of China’s ICBM nuclear deterrence, Beijing had served notice to FUKUSA aka AUKUS and its Asian vassals, the days of gloating from afar while instigating wars in foreign lands is over.
Forget about using the Pinnoys, japs, indians etc as cannon fodders to bleed China , when tshtf, bombs would be falling on gringo, limey, cannuk, Ozzie heads as well.
That’d be a sight to behold.

Posted by: denk | Oct 2 2024 14:57 utc | 155

@140
. . . if only
China decriesdestroys U.S. military assistance approved to Taiwan region

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 3 2024 2:00 utc | 157

Switzerland waited until 2002 to join the United Nations, because Switzerland wanted to be 100% neutral.
Today, the Swiss army wants to join NATO exercises.
I guess the United States blackmailed Switzerland?

Posted by: Passerby | Oct 3 2024 8:52 utc | 159

Posted by: too scents | Oct 3 2024 9:35 utc | 161
Switzerland is an easy victim for economic blackmail from the USA. The United States only has to threaten the major Swiss banks with sanctions, and the Swiss government folds.

The actions of the Federal Council, the associated administration and the Armed Forces leadership described above have led to a distinct weakening of Swiss sovereignty and neutrality over the past decades. Our country has thus become an easy victim for political and economic blackmail – also from the USA. The entanglement of the Swiss Armed Forces with NATO – bypassing parliament and citizens – is a 180° turn in the previous neutrality and peace policy, which has contributed a great deal to the security and stability of our country even in stormy times.
By weakening and disintegrating the original concept of neutrality, Switzerland is jeopardising its reputation as a reliable partner in supporting conflicting parties in their search for a negotiated solution. Its “good offices”, which have played a key role in Swiss peace policy up to now, are already less in demand. The neutrality which is indispensable for the ICRC’s work is thus also endangered. The assurances of the Department of Foreign Affairs that Switzerland is still neutral despite everything seem less credible.
It is crucial to return to a credible and reliable policy of neutrality and to use our own resources for the independence of our country and instead of “foreign dealings”. (schweizer-standpunkt.ch)

Posted by: Passerby | Oct 3 2024 10:26 utc | 161

Mmm, choice new X post by defence analyst, former Canadian Armed Forces member (and Serbian patriot), Mike Mihajlovic:
“There is a video circulating in the media about the first combat use of the ODAB-9000 but the the service bomb is a FAB-9000. There is a fundamental technical difference between ODAB and FAB bombs.
The quality of the clip is low, so it can’t be confirmed beyond reasonable doubt, however, the size of the “falling object” and the volume of the explosion with the shock wave may indicate that it is an actual FAB-9000. A smaller FAB-5000 would make a smaller blast radius.
So far, according to the official Russian reports, ODAB-1500 was used as the heaviest in the ODAB category. From the details it is not possible to determine was the UMPK module attached or if that was just a gravity drop. For illustration, FAB-9000 drop (monochrome photo) also attached for comparison).
In any case, whatever was there, on the receiving end, was obliterated.”
https://x.com/MihajlovicMike/status/1841242464213987614
Conjecture, but perhaps the Balkans won’t be a such a cakewalk as in previous times? Trudeau is in Paris for the Sommet de la Francophonie. During the last year, I thought Francophone Canada made a direct threat about Cyprus, should Israel (and allies) invade Lebanon. I thought they did anyway, I saw something in Montreal’s La Presse.
Interesting story in the Daily Mail about the takedown of a Neo Nazi group:
Neo-Nazi gang busted and 68 suspected members indicted across Los Angeles in ‘one of largest takedowns in history’

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Oct 3 2024 12:26 utc | 163

The Joy of Chemistry
My latest Substack, opening lines:

How many different substances do you think there are in the universe? Millions? Billions?
The truth is, largely because of the versatility of the carbon atom, the number is potentially infinite.
But how many different particles do you think it takes to describe the composition of that infinity of substances?
The answer, which was unravelled by chemists a century or more ago, and is the triumph of chemistry, is just two.
I’ll say it again. Just two. That fact which I learned at the age of 14 just blew my mind, and changed the course of my life. Follow on down, and I’ll make a chemist of you too!

https://waltking.substack.com/p/the-joy-of-chemistry
Auschwitz: six facts, and seven questions.
I have something very, very special for you next Thursday. Take the Red Pill!
Opening lines:
As we approach the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, to which celebration, bizarrely, the creators of the concentration camp, but not the liberators, have been invited – are we celebrating then the creation, or the liberation? – it seems an appropriate time to dig deeper into its history and find out what it truly was all about.
What follows are six indisputable facts, followed by my opinion.
Argue with the latter, if you like.
FACT ONE:  AUSCHWITZ WAS A MAJOR MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Announced here next Thursday, emailed to subscribers next Wednesday.
In the Twilight of Great Britain
Now over 1,500 views.
https://waltking.substack.com/p/in-the-twilight-of-great-britain.

Posted by: Walt | Oct 3 2024 14:30 utc | 165