RE Consortium News
https://x.com/Consortiumnews/status/1850388657414271096
“Our web host has confirmed seven recent data breaches and now it appears that our site has been totally replaced. We have been hacked.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Oct 27 2024 13:42 utc | 3

The Consortium News link does not work for me.
The link about the Nobel Prize unfortunately does, as it is more or less nonsense. Neoliberal economists are not institutionalists and do not value good governance, but non-governance, i.e., “free” markets, where freedom is freedom from governance. Most of the names offered as better alternatives are those of economists just as committed to private property holders ultimately controlling the economy (rather than the people or their state) as AJR. Michael Roberts at his The Next Recession blog had a better recent discussion that didn’t diffuse the critique by enlisting the likes of Keynes. (!)

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 27 2024 13:56 utc | 5

Posted by: John Gilberts | Oct 27 2024 14:14 utc | 6
Great bit of news which no doubt will redouble the efforts of the CIA to destroy Georgia. The pre written script from msm was already on show last night on BBC webshite. Turnout of 58% wasn’t as low as expected though, Georgian Dream deserve a lot of respect as do their supporters, it can’t be an easy life just doing your own thing, even in the middle of nowhere.

Posted by: Ogre | Oct 27 2024 14:38 utc | 7

RE Consortium News
“We have been hacked.”
@ John Gilberts | Oct 27 2024 13:42 utc | 3
Much obliged for the update. It’s possible I’m over-paranoid as usual, but the timing of this assault strikes me as ominously suspicious — waiting for the next shoe to drop…

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Oct 27 2024 15:19 utc | 9

Teheran Times
Iran’s storm looming
Israeli regime attacks Iran’s soil ignoring warnings that any aggression would draw a harsh response

Iranian authorities revealed details of the Israeli airstrikes on Saturday evening, stating that Israeli fighter jets launched an attack from Iraqi airspace, approximately 100 kilometers from the Iranian border. According to the statement released by the Iranian Armed Forces, the Israeli jets fired several long-range missiles equipped with cluster warheads at Iranian border radars. The majority of these missiles were intercepted by Iranian defense systems. While the jets attempted to enter Iranian airspace, they were unsuccessful. The statement further reported that some Iranian border radars were damaged in the attack but are undergoing rapid repairs.
Israel itself has not published any details on the nature of its attacks. Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari merely confirmed that military sites inside Iran were being targeted shortly after the attacks began. He later claimed the attacks were “successful”, without providing any evidence.
In photos released by Hebrew media, War Minister Yoav Gallant was seen standing in front of a TV screen displaying a picture from a 2021 Iranian oil refinery explosion while assessing the attacks. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared tired and disappointed in images showing high-ranking Israeli officials gathered in an underground shelter during the early hours of Saturday. The disconnect between the bravado of the initial announcement and the subdued mood captured in these images has further fueled speculation that Israel could not achieve what it had hoped for during its risky night against Iran. . . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 27 2024 15:42 utc | 11

Errors in my post! Correction:
The review of the trial and investigation of the 2014 massacre was done in 2023 by Ivan Katchanovski. The trial took place before 2023.
~~
The Maidan Massacre Trial and Investigation Revelations: Implications for the Ukraine-Russia War and Relations
Russian Politics, Vol. 8, No. 2, (July/August 2023), pp. 181-205 (Brill/Schoningh), Open Access Article
25 Pages Posted: 19 May 2023
Ivan Katchanovski
University of Ottawa
Date Written: May 6, 2023
Abstract
This study analyzes revelations from the trial and investigation in Ukraine concerning the mass killing that took place in Kyiv on 20 February 2014. This Maidan massacre of protesters and police led to the overthrow of the Yanukovych government and ultimately to the Russian annexation of Crimea, the civil war and Russian military interventions in Donbas, and the Ukraine-Russia and West-Russia conflicts which Russia escalated by illegally invading Ukraine in 2022. The absolute majority of wounded Maidan protesters, nearly 100 prosecution and defense witnesses, synchronized videos, and medical and ballistic examinations by government experts pointed unequivocally to the fact that the Maidan protesters were massacred by snipers located in Maidan-controlled buildings. To date, however, due to the political sensitivity of these findings and cover-up, no one has been convicted for this massacre. The article discusses the implications of these revelations for the Ukraine-Russia war and the future of Russian-Ukrainian relations.

Posted by: suzan | Oct 27 2024 16:04 utc | 13

Can BRICS Change How Production Gets Done?
Today a friend asked me “Is BRICS doing anything fundamental about industrial processes? Aren’t they just applying what we’re using in the West?”
Well, that’s a very good question. Let me stir the pot a little.
Some of you will remember the case study on Ethiopia I set out a few days ago. Ethiopia has iron ore, and just opened a coal mine. They have no railroads, and their exports are quite limited. They do have abundant sunshine, located near the equator, and at higher elevations *.
To make steel the “old” way, you mine a lot of iron ore, and a lot of coal, transport those heavy mat’ls to some central location where the smelting factory is, and you make steel and heaps of slag (stuff in the ore that’s not iron) and massive amounts of CO2. Did you know that steel-making contributes 7% of global CO2 emissions?
But there’s a new way to make iron. You get some hydrogen, heat up the ore, inject hydrogen into it, and you get iron, and slag and water as outputs.
You just need to get some hydrogen, and you avoid having to dig up all that coal. Just source the hydrogen near the iron mine, and all you have to transport is finished iron and steel goods. Pretty neat, especially for a country that hasn’t already made huge investments in … coal mines, antiquated production methods, etc.
It’s tempting to say “aw, that’s pie in the sky”. Nope. It’s here-now. Check it out.
The point of all this is that a big part of BRICS is about “how to design a national economy using the latest technique”.
BRICS is highly likely to become a clearinghouse of state of the art production processes, and therefore the state of the art on “how to design a modern economy”.
Sometimes it really pays to be the last country that industrializes. You can get way better outcomes at a fraction of the investment.
=====
* The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below 1,500 m, while the summits reach heights of up to 4,550 m. It is sometimes called the “Roof of Northeastern Africa” due to its height and large area. It is the only country in the region with such a high elevated surface. From Wikipedia.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 27 2024 16:10 utc | 15

Posted by: suzan | Oct 27 2024 15:53 utc | 12
#####
The link

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Oct 27 2024 16:28 utc | 17

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 27 2024 16:10 utc | 15
Superb !
It is not only fighting to restore and strengthen its democracy, peace, and security, but also to rid itself of some of the most abusive rules of the global economic system.
HERE:
https://globalsouthperspectives.substack.com/p/a-new-international-economic-order
It is not by accident that Africa’s top oil exporters import most of their fuel from international suppliers in the global north, it is by design. Oil companies in the global north control the technologies for prospecting, drilling, and refining fossil fuels. They use a classic play book of economic entrapment to make oil rich countries energy poor, technologically dependent, and at their mercy.
Step 1: Country X gives prospection permits to an oil giant like TotalEnergies because they are told they have the right to use their sovereignty to exploit their natural resources; they are told African countries have “the right to development.”
Step 2: TotalEnergies finds massive oil reserves, and offers to drill and extract said oil reserves to export to international markets. Country X often gets only a small ownership share (maybe 15-30%) in its own oil projects. And because country X has no way of fully controlling how much TotalEnergies is actually exporting, pure theft of crude oil is often not a far fetched possibility.
Step 3: Country X asks TotalEnergies to help it build a refinery to cover all of its domestic needs and to give the country full energy independence. TotalEnergies will say, no way, your economy is too small, refineries are too expensive to build, you’re better off importing refined oil products from international markets…. Maybe in a few years we’ll consider it, but only if you can pay $3.5 billion. Oh, and by the way, we still need you to contribute to the oil extraction upfront cost. Build an airport in the middle of nowhere so we can bring our equipment (in other words, start borrowing a few hundred million dollars now). Figure out a way to clear the path for a pipeline. Help us keep displaced communities and environmental activists out of the way.
Step 4: Country X has no plan B. Its people already know there is a lot of oil money coming, so their expectations are already high, and a long list of development projects and demand for public services is putting pressure on the government to deliver results.
Step 5: The government already walked into a debt trap to cover upfront costs. Oil revenues start to flow, the government gets into debt-financed investments in infrastructure, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, sanitation, housing… all of which often serving upper class interests and prioritizes more extractive economic activities.
Step 6: Because of the boost in economic activity, Country X starts importing even more fuel to power its grid, the new cars and trucks that people have imported, and to satisfy the higher level of energy demand.
Step 7: Consumers in Country X demand even higher standard of living and start importing even more clothing and gadgets from international brands. The country’s trade deficit is even wider than before the oil discovery.
Step 8: Country X wants to industrialize, but the only “industrialisation” it is allowed to have is bottom of the global value chain manufacturing: import machines, import intermediate components to assemble with low cost labor, import the fuel to power the factories, and even import the packaging.
While Africa does have the complementarity of recourse and capabilities at scale, it does still lack access to the technological manufacturing capabilities for this type of Pan-African industrial policy.
Which global economic powerhouse will be willing to transfer technology for this life-saving transformative climate and development strategy? Is it going to be the US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, or China?
Are they able to address one of the major blindspots about industrialisation, which is the international trade and investment architecture that is dominated by the WTO (especially the TRIPS rules)?
The answers to which will make or break their own efforts to decolonise Africa.
This is where BRICS steps in. They fill that gaping wound and are challenging WTO dominance.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 27 2024 16:41 utc | 19

Sean Foo does a wonderful job explaining how a precious metals exchange is an indirect attack on the dollar by creating markets for gold as money that do not currently exist due to a lack of price discovery.
If gold flows East as he expects, China and Russia could experience windfalls in sovereign wealth. They both have substantial gold reserves, with much more mining capacity yet to be realized.
Did you know that China has the most gold processing facilities and that such facilities are rare and specialized?
Video 13:34

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Oct 27 2024 16:49 utc | 21

The Shrinking Cost of War Threatens Western Militaries
I thought Jeremy, Milities, among others, may enjoy this piece from last year.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Oct 27 2024 17:02 utc | 23

As the potus election never ending pantomime season on its final days and apparently ‘newspapers’ Opinion matters to whichever of its readers that have not made up their minds, yet !??
Or haven’t already voted or already sold their vote and has not been persuaded by -$Billion advertising or tv or radio and KNOW HOW TO READ, but trust only their preferred newspaper to make their choice – now get to have the final judgement by these worthy organs !
So it’s the Aussie Press Baron and the English Knight Editor who get to deliver the Ziofascist Zillionaires ‘choices’.
Here who they chose in the past elections.
https://noahveltman.com/endorsements/
Apparently the Washington Post (trad democrat) hasn’t this time.
They did it with Bush Snr and Dukakis- because Dukakis was not hawkish enough!
Like JFK wasn’t… I guess he’d have suffered the same historical outcome because Bush Snr was CIA (and his daddy was the fascist banker who financed Hitler and the Nazis…
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/before-harris-snub-post-refused-to-endorse-doomed-dukakis.html
The grubbiness of the Collective West Establishments, it’s international corporate owners and mainstream media has been openly Fascist. They are ultimately all connected and owned by the same Money and Power Elites.
‘Post owner Bezos, the Amazon founder and one of the world’s richest people, brought in Lewis, who has significant conservative bonafides, as publisher and CEO in January. Lewis held the same role at Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal; served as the editor of the London-based Telegraph, which is closely allied with the Tory party; and was a consultant to Conservative Boris Johnson when Johnson was U.K. prime minister.
Colleagues have told NPR that Bezos selected Lewis in part for his ability to get along with powerful conservative figures, including Murdoch. ‘
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/nx-s1-5165353/washington-post-presidential-endorsement-trump-harris
As I say it goes back a long way including the Beaverbrookd and Harmsworths and for you yanks the Hearsts!
Now replaced by top ziofascist Murdoch who has straddled the media monopolies across the world.
They always support Fascists and Nazis – they are the same powers that are destroying The Levant as the Ziofascist Apartheid Entity.
The person who supposedly made this decision not to endorse either main candidate this time at the WP is ‘Will Lewis’ as the bbc and the above referred US publications name him.
But it isn’t some simple all American ‘Will’.
It is Sir William John Lewis.
A Knight of the English Crown who runs the Washington Post!
Does George Washington spin in his grave?
He started his career as a journalist after a course at an obscure London University (a bit spooky) at The Mail on Sunday. Then the Financial Times , where he ended up as a global editor for raising its profile in the US with a scoop on the Exxon Mobil merger ! How long can’t was he to snatch that from beer the noses of all the US journos?
After that stint in the US he was poached by Murdoch to the Sunday Times between 2002-5.
Then he moved to the Telegraph. Where he destroyed its well respected journalism expertise. In 2010 he returned briefly to Murdochs News International as the phone hacking can of worms exploded. He left after closing down the NoW and escaped to … the USA. To the WSJ, which also became part of News Corp – a Murdoch company!
There he scooped the Stormy Daniels pay off story against Trump!
Curious, hmm?
He arranged a tie up between Google/FB and News Corp to manage their ‘News’.
From there he took a rest and nearly ended up as BBC Director General. Having not got that, he set up with BBC newsman Kamal Ahmed, who also came out of City University school of Journalism (spooky if one wonders about that place) founding The News Movement, a digital news company aiming to counter misinformation!!
That’s called official censorship by actual Indy journos.
Lewis got to destroy the Gordon Brown Labour Premiership when the Expense Scandal scoop mysteriously fell into his hands via some spooky SAS bloke – which led to the resignations of six government ministers. Which basically did for the Browns prospects to win an election as Labour Leader after he took over fro Yo!Blair.
As he was rewarded with the millions and become the Road Mapper to Peace Czar ! after the WoT he helped start with the fake WMD! That today sees the daily genocide of the Palestinians. Blair was Murdochs bitch he even was godfather to baptise his Chinese child in the River Jordan and then got to allegedly, cuckold the old bastard too as a further reward…
In 2023 Lewis suddenly ended up as the the ceo of the WP.
He set about ‘reorganising’ its journalism as he had everywhere he went… there he ‘clashed’ with its executive editor Sue Buzbee, ‘over the Post’s publication of an article that reported on a judge’s decision to let him be named as potentially involved in the News International phone hacking scandal. NPR reporter David Folkenflik reported Lewis had previously tried to offer him an exclusive interview in exchange for suppressing the story.’
Yup the wheel has come full circle As this July 2024, Gordon Brown announced London police are looking into claims [Sir William John] Lewis was involved in a 2011 mass cover-up of phone hacking by British tabloids.
Murrddddorch ! Again and again and again… I guess you get the picture.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Oct 27 2024 17:16 utc | 25

Posted by: Maracatu | Oct 27 2024 13:32 utc | 1
Well spotted!
It seems to fit b’s descripion.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 27 2024 17:22 utc | 27

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Oct 27 2024 16:44 utc | 20

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 27 2024 16:41 utc | 19
###########
BRICS doesn’t support democracy. You’re projecting Occidental values onto an Oriental enterprise.
BRICS isn’t going to be a West with a different paint job. Fundamentally, spiritually, and philosophically it is different. The West and the Enlightenment have been failures.

@10 doesn’t even mention democracy. It does claim BRICS+ is fighting to oust the WTO. A key aspect of reform and opening up in the PRC was…joining the WTO, so this wasn’t true historically and I’m not sure it’s an agreed future objective of BRICS+ or even an aspiration of the PRC government. The leadership does keep insisting it’s committed to deepening reform and opening up. A democratic reform of WTO may be the goal?
As to projecting Western values onto an Oriental enterprise, I’m not sure it’s wise to deem Brazil, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and even Russia as “Oriental.” Finding spiritual and philosophical aspects to BRICS+ is equally dubious as I see it, given the inclusion of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran on top of the divergences between the PRC and India. There seems to be some geographical romanticization going on? Given the political heterogeneity of BRICS+, ranging from monarchy to bourgeois democratic (India is still formally one, despite Hindutva,) it is safe to say only BRICS+ as a group is not pro-democracy.
As to the failure of the West, true now, but not historically. “The West” insofar as it is really a thing has gone into failure mode, hence the rising tide of fascism here and elsewhere. But historically, capitalism (presumably what “The West” means here) once advanced the possibilities for humanity, however great the immediate cost. But all things pass, and it’s time is over. Common ruin or socialism is the meaningful choice now.
As to the declaration the Enlightenment is a failure?
First, the Enlightenment was never a wholly “western” much less wholly capitalist phenomenon. White is Enlightenment? Hell no! All parts of the world contributed, despite European insularity, to it.
Second, the Enlightenment was never the guiding spirit of “the West,” capitalist markets and the states defending capitalist markets were. Some of the imperialist ruling classes have always flirted with Enlightenment ideas. Historically, that was sincere, part of the struggle against feudalism.
Third, there is no “West” where Enlightenment values reign, all countries find Enlightenment ideas and ideals to be
foreign,” and many find that to be some sort of imperialist oppression, somehow!
Fourth, one part of the Enlightenment is modern science and technology. Nothing is pure, and many individuals have found ways to compromise the radical implications of Enlightenment to serve their ruling classes. (In particular, castrating Enlightenment to preserve religion—which is always tribal/communal/racial/national/imperial—has deformed actually existing Enlightenment from its ideal. This is not unique to the Enlightenment, no actually existing phenomenon can be judged by its self-image.)
Fifth, Marxism is a project developed from the Enlightenment. That’s why no nation is naturally “Marxist” and why conservatives and fascists universally see Marxism as foreign. Sometimes, repudiating the Enlightenment is more about repudiating Marxism, scientific socialism, rather than repudiating a spiritual tyranny of atheists, materialists, whatever the favored libel is.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 27 2024 17:47 utc | 29

My enthusiasm for Trump has waned somewhat since 2016. However, as a cock-eyed optimist, I’m clinging to a daydream.
Basically, a case could be made that when Trump became POTUS he was aware of the power of the Israel Lobby. He decided that the smartest way to develop some POTUS influence on their US plots would be to make some of their dreams come true. But as soon as The Lobby got what it wanted they shat all over him.
So if he gets a second term, he’ll spoil their fun by forcing them to register as Foreign Agents.
It’s a bit flimsy but Kamala is an unpredictable empty vessel and therefore as useless as tits on a bull.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 27 2024 18:00 utc | 31

My take on the terrible twins (dumber and dumberer?) Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blinken The Utter Incompetence of the US Courtier Class Exhibit 3 & 4: The Two Clever By Half Twins, Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blinken, Western elite “educated” but as dumb as shit when given actual important positions.
In other news, the Georgian people voted for sovereignty and the Western-NGO complex, Western politicians and Western media stooges, and the French born French operative president, have all lost it claiming that the election was “stolen”. Looks like the colour revolution is a bit pale, but I am sure that Western sanctions are on the way.
Today is the Bulgarian election, a close run thing between sovereignty and a hung parliament again. Then next week Moldova second round elections for their president, after Maia Sandu did not get her coronation even after disenfranchising 300,000 Moldovan voters in Russia. We may see lots of “democracy” from Sandu in the interim.

Posted by: Roger | Oct 27 2024 18:36 utc | 33

There is an interesting article in the Breach by Peter McFarlane abt C. Freeland grandfather Mykhailo Chomniak
(I hope PeterAU – you are well)

Posted by: mjn | Oct 27 2024 19:24 utc | 35

Can someone comment about what happen with Information clearing house?I knew about moon of alabama reading from that site, but now I can not reach it, even with 3 differents browsers.

Posted by: ocelote | Oct 27 2024 19:41 utc | 37

@Norwegian
Do you have anything for me, please ?

Posted by: Featherless | Oct 27 2024 20:03 utc | 39

Nightmare on Elm street is an underrated series. I was impressed and even a little scared watching some of them.
from worst to best:
7 (wes cravens nightmare), 8, (freddy vs Jason), 6, (freddy’s dead), 9 (2010 a nightmare on elm street), 2, 3, 5, 1 and 4.
in particular, 4 really impressed me. it made 3 and 5 better, it made the entire story better, and it had some awesome moments, especially the scene where they get in the truck to save their friend. loved it.

Posted by: UWDude | Oct 27 2024 20:54 utc | 41

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 27 2024 17:47 utc | 29
Excellent Response Steven!
You have to first set up parallel institutions then break free from the old ones. Love Donbass missed the point .
They are challenging WTO you are correct. BRICS countries have increased their power within WTO.
HERE: https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28190/chapter-abstract/213129064?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false
BRICS structures will be the game changer. There has always been one problem with WTO. It is weak,as there is no power without enforcement. What can they do ?
The WTO can do nothing. Their rules are politics in a horse hair wig. Their replacement is already being built. Brics is creating a by pass structure the global South can use.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 27 2024 21:17 utc | 43

Patroklos@34 will no doubt dismiss the influence discovering the antiquity and achievements of Chinese civilization, or for that matter the living refutation of Christian biblical history by the mere existence of the New World. One wonders how Montesquieu should have been so confused as to write Persian Letters? The use of Confucianism as a counterexample of virtue presumably is supposed to be merely a fantasy, like Rousseau’s notorious image of New World Indians? The direct intellectual influence of someone like al Haytham or ibn Khaldun is hard to document, so far as I know. But the Encyclopedistes’ radical commitment to science and technology also incorporated the many discoveries relayed to Europe over the long period of development. I suspect that Patroklos’ merely dismisses science and technology simply as purely neutral and not actually part of culture, rather than a purely white/European creation. Would that everyone understood that historically modern science and technology have deep, deep roots in the knowledge of many cultures/races from all continents.
Culture is a way of life. Any rational understanding of culture then includes the furniture of everyday life, including food crops. The very notion of “cultural imperialism” needs explanation, particularly when invoking “French” cultural imperialism as some sort of mental tyranny while apparently ignoring Bonaparte’s rather material French empire. The fact remains, the atheism of Enlightenment is something that emerges from learning the particularity of all religions reveal the falsity of the universalism of religious claims—claims which are most certainly still implied today by people going on about the spiritual and philosophical import of, of all things an organization like BRICS+(!)
The need for rethinking extends to how one can simultaneously endorse a thinker like Isaiah Berlin who wants to promote an image of Enlightenment as mental tyranny (the wrong sort of Enlightenment, that is, unlike the suitably modified kind an Isaiah Berlin wants, the kind promoting negative liberty instead of positive liberty perhaps?) while ignoring how the same Berlin identifies Vico and Herder as Counter-Enlightenment figures! Quite aside from the fact that “the” Enlightenment was always diverse, divided between radicals and moderates (see passim. Jonathan Israel) the notion that the Enlightenment, which properly ended with the Napoleonic wars, somehow survived pristine to be exported in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There is a reason why Peter Gay, for one, didn’t discuss Enlightenment thinkers of the nineteenth centuries. There were those who continued aspectes of Enlightenment thought, for me personally most notably Marx. I’ve already written that, though Patroklos seems to think it’s a point against me when “agreeing” in substance but not words that Marx’s thought emerged from the Aufklaerung.
But perhaps this is nothing more than me being (too?) materialistic in my spiritual and philosophical ruminations?

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 27 2024 21:45 utc | 45

Karlof should do a break down of the Kazan Declaration on his substack. There are a lot of good stuff in there.
Combined with the BRICS report it is very clear the direction of travel.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 27 2024 21:55 utc | 47

Sean Foo does a wonderful job explaining how a precious metals exchange is an indirect attack on the dollar by creating markets for gold as money.
Video 13:34
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Oct 27 2024 16:49 utc | 21
It’s garbage. Fantasy land thinking. Ignore it.
The exact same fairy tale was told when they set up the oil exchange remember. How did that play out ?
It was all lies – Propaganda.
The oil exchange had precisely nothing to do with the Death of The Dollar gold bug meme and everything to do with China’s determined attempt to wrest oil market pricing from the sell-side, with Asian buyers (and probably the EU – who are also short oil) cheering them on.
China aims to take over from Singapore as regional energy hub. What part did gold actual play in the end ?
Collateral to get private sector loans. That’s all it is good for. Collateral and how it is used today.
Shanghai crude oil futures are priced by traders – like all oil – in $ with a forward FX conversion into Yuan settlement. The clearing house guarantee comes in handy for dealing with flaky China teapot refinery credit, which may be collateralised using gold or other acceptable collateral.
The importance of the Shanghai contract was not the currency – that is a red herring promulgated mainly by gold bugs and dollar bears who don’t understand the difference between a currency and a unit of account ( huge difference )
It is the fact that it is a buy-side pricing mechanism (as was the LME when it began) in an oil market dominated by the sell-side.
Note that China is now the biggest global oil buyer, has been courting regional Asian buyers beginning with India, to join a buyers club, and has stashed some 2 billion barrels of crude oil inventory as a war chest.
Their neighbours are also paying a small fortune in pure economic rent gouged from them by sell-side market power on the ICE & CME platforms.
Who now can go on a buyers strike and use their massive storage facilities. To bring the price of oil down. Not for long periods but enough to get cheaper oil.
HERE: – This explains it.
Why we need to be careful about demand from China.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1613140403598802950.html
They were completely wrong when the Shanghi oil exchange got launched. Hitched gold bug ideology to it. Once again Now did that play out.. What was the truth in the end ?
Now they are doing the same here with the metals exchange and I bet they do it with the wheat exchange as well. These fools never give up.
Do you not even remember what the gold bugs said about the Shanghai oil exchange at that time ? They all lied. Nothing they ever predict comes true.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 27 2024 22:25 utc | 49

The era of Western impunity is ending.
Iran has shown we can no longer bomb countries without reprisal.
Russia has shown we can no longer sanction without hurting our own economy.

Posted by: Passerby | Oct 27 2024 22:37 utc | 51

Was a stupendously glorious Sunday afternoon in my personal piece of paradise, and in the golden lengthening rays of sunlight, 5 of these guys swooped into the eucalyptus by my back deck.
They were common enough when I was a kid, but they haven’t been visitors round here in decades. Maybe it means my 20 years of planting Australian natives is having an effect. It makes me happy to think so.
It gave my heart a quick burst of joy to see them, although the dog loudly informed them he thought they should move on. They gave an equally loud reply.
Sharing, because I think we could all do with a splash of delight….
https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profiles/yellow-tailed-black-cockatoo/

Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 27 2024 23:17 utc | 53

Joe Lauria’s Consortium News just got knocked harder than anytime since Bob Parry started the classic free-speech site. It’s nearly Monday (UTC time) and there’s still nothing but the virtual fumes of a site-template served up for any consortiumnews webpage. So much for free speech.
Atrocity having more freedom in the dark, it’s certainly disturbing to observe internet Powers-That-Be turning out the lights, almost a week from USA’s presidential election. I hope we get to hear more from Lauria, soon, about which story formed the tripwire. Consortium has stuck with Julian Assange more doggedly than anyone else, but that’s just one avenue of revelation which severely annoys the dark internet PTB.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Oct 27 2024 23:48 utc | 55

That RAND report listed above is ASTOUNDING!
It says that not only were the sanctions, and tariffs and “other actions” against China has been successful, but that the “petal on the metal” and increase the efforts will result in ultimate success.
*sigh*
It’s effectively an enthusiastic approval of the Biden foreign policy, and a recommendation to do more of the same.

Posted by: Rufus Arrr | Oct 28 2024 0:52 utc | 57

Sun of Alabama @ 19, Love Donbass @ 20, Steven T Johnson @ 29, Patroklos @ 34:
I take it that when the first three of you mention “democracy”, you are referring to the “representative democracy” style of politics practised in Western nations, which usually results in a two-party system where the main parties spar (but end up doing little) or a system as seen in Japan and Italy where coalition govts made up of numerous parties are the norm but one party ends up dominating the coalition govt (and has done so for most of the past 80 years)?
Other nations may claim to practise democracy but in a very different way. China (and once upon a time Libya under the Ghaddafi government) practises a kind of indirect democracy in which people vote for representatives to stand on local committees or councils, and those organisations vote for committee / council representatives at the state or provincial level. Reps in these higher-level organisations vote for politicians to represent them (and ultimately going back down to the grassroots levels) at the national level in Beijing. All this takes place within the CPC bureaucracy and at every step of the way upwards the Party keeps an eye on these representatives to ensure they are doing what they were voted in to do. Politics is not made easy under this system.
The very fact that the BRICS nations have come together in a forum and the rules of the forum insist that nations should treat one another as equals, regardless of what they are or have been in the past, is itself an Enlightenment value – and also a value that the Chinese themselves have followed more or less over past centuries, in not insisting that foreigners who wanted to trade with them had to adopt Chinese religious ideologies and values.
It’s my understanding that most ideas and values associated with the Enlightenment that have been taken up by peoples of Third World nations (or the Global South) were actually taken up by a small group of people from among them who were cultivated by the British or the French (or other colonial power) as an elite to assist their European overlords in keeping their own people down. Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad al Jinnah and others like them are examples of people trained in the British legal system and its principles and values to become lawyers and barristers, and who used the ideas and thinking they were exposed to, to rouse their people to demand independence and get it.
Of course, once independence was gained, then those leaders who led the way to independence found they had to deal with the nitty-gritty of running independent nations, at the same time trying to lift their people out of poverty, and deciding on the ideal economic structures, system and institutions to achieve this feat, for which their legal training and exposure to Enlightenment thinking at the Oxbridge universities had not prepared them very well.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Oct 28 2024 1:04 utc | 59

Positively wild shit at Trump’s rally tonight at Madison Square Garden. I almost gotta think they were paid off big time to try throwing the election.
Various quotes from speakers tonight:
“There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico” – An attempt at very crass borderline racist humor?!
Same guy: “And these Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.” Not sure what to say there.
Same guy: “Heck yeah. That’s cool, a Black guy with a thing on his head. What the hell is that? A lampshade? …I’m just kidding. That’s one of my buddies. He had a Halloween party last night. We had fun. We carved watermelons together.”
Closest thing to the Chosen People being ridiculed: Radio host Sid Rosenberg, who called Doug Emhoff a ‘crappy Jew’ at Trump’s MSG rally:
“I just got back from Israel.. and they go, Sid, you want to speak at this MSG thing? I go, ‘Sure — out of character for me to speak at a Nazi rally. I was just in Israel.’ But I took the gig.”
Again, I really don’t know what to make of this except either planned implosion of his campaign, bizarre “humor” missing the mark, or just straight up strangeness and legit bigotry? I mean, frankly, it was Trump’s administration that failed Puerto Rico in a big way before and after the hurricane, so jabbing at those guys when they don’t have real representation in D.C. seems low even for the MAGA set.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 28 2024 3:48 utc | 61

“We’re running against a massive, crooked, malicious leftist machine that’s running the Democrat party,” the former president said. “They are smart and vicious, they are the enemy within, we must defeat them.”
Oh, Donald. If only it were true. If only there was such thing as a “leftist machine” in any but the most remotely comedic sense of the word “left.”
Around here, I’ve taken to agreeing on occasion with some other regular(s) that decry the use of “isms” in this day and age. But it seems like both wings of the center-fascist UniParty, including the MAGA wing, think they get massive mileage out of accusing the financier class and their courtiers of being “leftists” or “communists” when nothing could be further from the truth.
On a weird tangent, I could actually elaborate on a meeting I was invited to in Steubenville Ohio by a family member. There’s a Catholic conservative group that advocates for things like single payer, workers rights, and things normally associated with “the left” but I won’t because it got some national attention on one of the conservative alt-media sites the other day and I don’t want to get anyone doxxed. The reason it came up, was that at the same time another religious (I think Catholic also) conservative group that advocates regular laissez faire capitalism and the destruction of the regulatory/welfare state was having their own much more posh event somewhere fancy in Florida at about the same time.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 28 2024 4:01 utc | 63

Trump was on Joe Rogan last night and it is breaking the internet.
It’s hard not to like the guy. I just have to think about Guiado and Soulemani to remember who he really is, but still… …it was entertaining and riveting…
…and suppressed from trending on youtube, although it is still getting a million views an hour 36 hours later, on youtube alone.

Posted by: UWDude | Oct 28 2024 4:15 utc | 65

Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 27 2024 23:17 utc | 54P
Thank you, Melaleuca! October is magical here as well – and snow up in the mountains already has brought the winter dwellers back to take over from the departed swallows and hummingbirds – juncos, crowned sparrows and all sizes of finches who are delighted that a warmer October still feels like springtime. Forget summer, now we breathe, plants and all. Fall is a good time to end wars.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 28 2024 4:36 utc | 67

James Corbett’s latest newsletter on Peter Thiel, which is an addendum to Corbett’s previous videocast on the same subject, breaks it down on how Thiel in effect became “a shadow president” during The Orange Salesman’s first term and how this second time he’s even more in control of the real levers of political power in the ole’ USSA through his short-leashed puppet JD Vance…
Buying Politicians Is Easy

Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Oct 28 2024 5:42 utc | 69

Cyrus Janssen:
“Why Ukraine is America’s Greatest Mistake”
My comment: surprise, surprise !!!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9uHpNHYj_Q

Posted by: WMG | Oct 28 2024 7:36 utc | 71

consortiumnews.com has been silenced
It looks like their url has been confiscated. This was founded by Robert Parry of Iran Contra fame and on MoA’s list of websites. The U.S. claims that they are the good guys standing up for freedom, yet we cower in fear of anyone who doesn’t follow ‘the narrative’. Wow, sounds like someone who is very insecure.

Posted by: Christian J Chuba | Oct 28 2024 11:27 utc | 73

Random: The Red Badge of Courage Being Called Uncle Tom https://tinyurl.com/bdfcys45

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Oct 28 2024 12:53 utc | 75

Malaysia PM Anwar destroys Medhi Hassan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaAoOYogTs4&t=52s
PS
Hassan is the awful Aljeezra journ0 ‘ace’
A sanctimonious prick even more sickening than his BBC cohorts.
He who supposedly ‘destroyed’ a woke journo, a Chinese spokesman, …

Posted by: denk | Oct 28 2024 13:08 utc | 77

Kurt Campbell
[OBama’s Asia pivot Czar]

Hey Kishida
YOu are FUKUSA’s preferred pardner to contain China

[pssst….Kishida san
Our friend Marcos needs some back up out there..get your ass up pronto !]

Posted by: denk | Oct 28 2024 13:17 utc | 79

@Tom Pfotzer #15
You can also make “green steel” by heating it up in a wood fire and hand hammering it 5000 times, but that’s about as economically realistic as the above method.
I know a company that is in the green steel business – I became familiar with the CEO after I helped him with an insider/hactivist campaign in his previous outfit.
The “green” steel will never fly anywhere except the West – and even in the West, it will only get used for the few things that the 1% pay for.
I see the same dynamic in fuels: Cerilon is going to do a methane input Fischer Tropsch plant in North Dakota. First phase will cost $2.8 billion and it will produce “green diesel”, among other things. Of course, this “green diesel” will be enormously more expensive than regular diesel and will furthermore emit MORE CO2 because Fischer Tropsch has a 40% energy loss factor vs. say, 5% for normal fossil fuel refining.
But hey! all good in the service of the Green God.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 28 2024 16:15 utc | 81

@Patroklos #34
It is a waste of time to try and edu-macate that individual.
All his learning comes from reading hard left web sites authored by morons.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 28 2024 16:21 utc | 83

@Tom_Q_Collins #62
If you think Trump is throwing the election, you are in for a terrible shock in 9 days.
Clearly you have not done a lot of investigation into the present RCP polls vs, say, the same day RCP polls in 2020 and 2016.
Here’s a primer:
Where the polls were in 2024 vs 2020 vs 2016
Not only that – Trump’s chance to win the popular vote outright is probably north of 60% now.
I personally believe Trump is going to win over 300 electoral votes, but probably not 319 (100 more than Kamala). But the 100+ margin is not out of the question.
Nor is this just poll analysis.
1) The Culinary Union in Nevada has said Trump would win Nevada – and that is Kamala’s strongest state in the swing states. The Culinary Union correctly predicted where Nevada would go – not just Presidentially but for Senate and House races, in 2020 and 2016 as well.
2) Halperin said he believes Trump will win, and very possibly Win Big. Halperin is TDS albeit in a very polite way; he is the one who broke the Biden coup story and is a self-professed Democrat realist.
3) CNBC polls are showing Trump +2 nationally – the person who does the CNN polls is literally Hilary Clinton’s in house pollster
4) Kamala, in contrast, appears to be outdoing Biden’s 2020 campaign for lack of activity.
Trump, RFK Jr., Tulsi, JD Vance are doing 2 and 3 stops a day each as they criss cross the nation.
Kamala is barely doing 1.
Even Trump’s presence in New York is a sign that he is winning.
Trump is not there because he thinks he is going to win New York, just like he was not in California because he though he would win California.
Trump is there to help Senate and House races.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 28 2024 16:44 utc | 85

I do not believe in ascribing the sins of the father to the children.
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 28 2024 16:51 utc | 88
—
It is quite effective to punish the father by jeopardizing his children.

Posted by: too scents | Oct 28 2024 17:01 utc | 87

More data: Comparison of Trump vs. other, national poll numbers.
Hilary Clinton +5.8% over Trump
Actual election result: Hilary Clinton +2.1% over Trump
Biden +10% over Trump
Actual election result: Joe Biden +4.5% over Trump
Harris +1.8% over Trump
This is from several weeks ago; Trump is now basically even with Harris even in RCP averages
In order to believe Harris is winning, you have to:
1) Believe the polls are not skewed Democrat as they were clearly skewed in 2016 and 2020
2) Believe the polls have not only fixed their Democrat skew, but they are now skewing Republican
3) Looking at the above swing states – that Harris will somehow win Sun Belt states without losing Rust Belt states.
The problem though, is that Harris is underperforming vs. Biden in the Rust Belt. White working class overall, white men, black men, Hispanics overall, Catholics, Scandinavians, Germans, you name it – she is doing worse than either HRC or Biden.
And Harris is not doing better than Biden or HRC with the blacks, the Hispanics, the unions, etc etc. She is doing better with the rich liberals. Maybe a smidge with women although that is at least partly skewed by rich liberal tag.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 28 2024 17:21 utc | 89

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 28 2024 17:10 utc | 88

Regardless of your interpretation, “an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.
Just ask the ancestors of Donald Tusk, Kaja Kalas, Ursula von der Leyen, the Bush dynasty…

Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Oct 28 2024 17:40 utc | 91

ZH has a posting up confirming the take down of Consortium News
News Site Known For Being Fiercely Critical Of US Foreign Policy Hacked, Removed From Web
the quote

“Our web host has confirmed seven recent data breaches and now it appears that our site has been totally replaced. We have been hacked,” the website announced on X, saying that it is working to restore the site. WikiLeaks also confirmed that the website has been completely removed, and current and archived historic articles are no longer accessible at this time.

Is MoA on the list of sites to be hacked?
Freedom of speech my ass!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 28 2024 17:53 utc | 93

@om Pfotzer #92
You might review and note that I never said green steel would not get built.
What I said is that it is not economically feasible (without massive subsidies).
If you look at these projects, I guarantee that they are all subsidized both in construction and in output – and furthermore, that the total output of all these projects is going to be a tiny fraction of the West’s already sadly reduced steel consumption.
Throw enough money at anything, and somebody will take it.
But let’s look at some of your actual statements, Mr Pfotzer:

It’s not just the enviro aspect, C1ue – it’s a one-time capex (hydrogen plant and smelter upgrade) .vs. un-ending transport bills for ore shipment and coal shipment.

How does the “one time capex” hydrogen plant operate? Unicorn farts?
No, it requires electricity. And it furthermore requires 24/7/365 electricity – which solar PV and wind cannot provide. You can store it with batteries but that drives up the cost A LOT.
So maybe you don’t have all those nasty coal shipments to the green steel site – but you DO have all those nasty lithium mines and lead mines and copper mines and lead/lithium/copper refining centers and battery recycling dumps and new transmission grid upgrades (oil filled transformers, I should note) and some kind of diapatchable power. Is it nuclear? Is it natural gas? In Australia, doesn’t seem like it.
Now that we have resolved the power issue – what is the actual projected cost of this green steel vs. steel from China (ie. coal derived)?
How much steel does one of these plants produce?
Multiply this extra cost per ton times 100K – which is roughly Australia’s annual steel consumption. To compare: China consumes 900 million tons. China has 50x Australia’s population but 9000 times the steel consumption per capita. Australia can afford to pay multiples for green steel for the pittance it uses – but no actual developing nation will bother.
How much electricity does it use, as a percentage of total Australia annual electricity consumption?
I guarantee the answer to all of these questions is quite unpleasant.
And no, scaling up of this technology *will not* improve outcomes, because subsidies guarantee building of existing crap technology even if improvement is possible – because a steel plant is a generational investment – not an iPhone.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 28 2024 18:48 utc | 95

Heres the link to the animation explanation of the attack on Iran.
They have put another one up today explaining why no F35 were hit.
https://m.youtube.com/c/AiTelly
I have no idea if any of it is true. Maybe b will have look. Or any other expert here. It’s first time I came across their site. They seem to have plenty of subscribers.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Oct 28 2024 19:30 utc | 97

Posted by: Patroklos | Oct 28 2024 18:51 utc | 96 is thoroughly idealist in ignoring the role of science and technology, both in Europe and in the rest of the world, to see “culture’ as purely mental phenomena. “The Enlightenment was a historically specific epistemological break that has to be contextualised in a schizoid Europe coping with the slow-motion (16th-18th c) collapse of the ancien regime.” This epistemology included science and technology and that had deep roots in other parts of the world…and science and technology spread back to the rest of the world as they sensibly tried to appropriate and re-work for their own material needs these material advances in human potential. It was not a cultural imperialism imposed on poor benighted natives innocent of a superior epistemology for the spiritual self-congratulation of deracine intellectuals. Yes, actually existing imperialism liked to paint itself as Enlightened. Ideas are not “embedded” in the sense used here. All conquerors try to portray themselves as superior. Europe was historically specific, but science and technology really are the distillation of world culture, not a white thing emanating from white virtue…nor from white lack of virtue either, for that matter. First is neither guilt nor blame.
Onlookers may compare @34 and @96″Marx and Hegel come out of the Aufklärung whose initiators (e.g. Herder) reacted to the cultural imperialism of the French Enlightenment. At the very least there was a schism along the Rhine. Let us now add the Scottish Enlightenment (Smith, Hume, etc) and toss in the very different Italian trajectory (right back to Vico). But to say these movements were echoed elsewhere around the world is a stretch: they were specifically European intellectual movements emerging out of the ruins of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Thirty Years War, and, yes, nascent capitalism. It was the 19th and 20th centuries that exported the ideas, embedded as they were in the colonial and imperial projects of those epochs.” The one counts Herder as an Enlightenment figure, the other claims Herder and the entire German Aufklaerung [German for “enlightenment”] was Counter-Enlightenment. The one claims the “Enlightenment” was exported in the 19th and 20th centuries, while the other admits the French Enlightenment couldn’t even cross the Rhine. And the Enlightenment was never read the same after the French Revolution, hence the Counter-Enlightenment, hence the absurdity of claiming the Enlightenment magically revived to become the spiritual skeleton of imperialism. The one traces Marx to the Aufklaerung, the other enlists Marx as “counter-enlightenment” (albeit in scare quotes.) And for what it’s worth, Rousseau is not even universally accepted as an Enlightenment thinker at all, but a Romantic. (Put in scare quotes if you wish.) Also, for what it’s worth, Marx did not dismiss Hegel the way Patroklos does. As for the Marx/Nietzche/Freud amalgamation, I see Marx/Darwin as the far more plausible grouping.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 28 2024 20:07 utc | 99