In the context of election rigging, I don’t see enough references to cognitive rigging (brainwashing). TPTB effectively monopolize mass media and dangle enough controlled opposition within each party to ensure sheep (a) don’t start organizing viable independent campaigns before primaries and (b) convince people that voting for anything other than R or D “wastes your vote”. This technique suffices every election season, to ensure establishment actors fill positions.

TPTB sail the nation upwind to their desired policy destinations by tacking between R and D.

Posted by: I forgot | Nov 10 2024 15:04 utc | 1

I repost some musing here as it went to the Palestine thread late last night, and apologize for my mistake. ---

[jukebox] Donnacha Costello - Green A

This Dublin artist's track is from his Colourseries - the transsiberian railroad among the tech house records, as I like to say. I shall mention it here for the visions I get when listening to this gem.

The chopped-up descant voice reminds me of the front faces I saw on the giant old mosques in Bukhara and Samarkand, made of brick in colourful glazing, showing stylized arabic script or just abstract patterns, which symbolize something I may describe losely as a Morse-coded message from Allah; the logos; the laws of nature; the order to creation given by the demiurg; the principle behind evolution.

Then, for two times hence resembling a refrain, another synthesizer goes up in a brilliantly blubbery babble, which evokes in me the notion of bubbles of muddy swamp rising up to meet the divine order, but lacking enough stiffness and strength to assume full Gestalt, so they keep falling back down again to unite with the slag from whence they arose.

I was reminded of this piece as I was listening to some older recordings I made with a band project (named το ε? which is a rather nerdy play of words which Patroklos might get) where we did a recording of a track (also planned as the soundtrack for a video installation) called Extinkt, which was meant to picture a lone figure, 'thrown' (Heidegger) into the world just as We are, sitting next to a pond, resting its head in the thinker's pose for aeons in growing horror and despair, as it's watching entire species at the pond come and go, while the nightly sky is slowly tumbling and distorting out of shape above . . .

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 10 2024 15:16 utc | 2

Better:

TPTB sail their nations upwind against public opinion to their desired policy destinations by tacking between major political parties.

Posted by: I forgot | Nov 10 2024 15:48 utc | 3

Yesterday I was viewing an analysis of the Obama´s produced film "Leave the world behind" where a lot of signals were given on what is to be expected once people into "15 minutes cities"....

This is why they do not want you owning a car...except if it is an electric one, because that way you have autonomy...

This is why they want you into smart cities..or out in the cold without services or protection, as showed in Valencia...to control and enslave you...and be able to hack you at every minute....

https://youtu.be/4TCXvkaUyzM?feature=shared

The tanker called "White Lion", like the first ship who brought slaves into America, meaning the starting point of a new era of slavery...

https://youtu.be/RLOXIIi5-24?feature=shared

The huge deers as the symbol of the Rothschilds coming to smash you....

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ul21rxIdWSk?feature=share

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 16:01 utc | 4

What would be your economic policy for the U.S.?

Last open thread I asked Roger Boyd: “if you had a magic wand, what would be your proposed economic policy for the U.S.?”

His reply was:

Any of the required policies would require massive losses for the US oligarchy as their extractive and rentier profits are removed, and financial asset prices collapse to reflect much lower future profit streams. The US would need an actual revolution before any such thing would be allowed to happen. Unfortunately for most of the Western populations their utterly dysfunctional oligarchies have locked them into decline.

Imagine the loss in oligarch wealth just from single-payer healthcare and drug cost controls, then the breakup of the big banks (just moving the retail accounts to credit unions as should have been done during the GFC), then the massive anti-trust busting (e.g. national collusion on rents, so many industries being price gouging monopolies)? These and other policies would be needed to reduce the US basic living costs back down to competitive levels.

Then add in a complete restructuring of education to place the premium on STEM fields, which would require a blasting away of the entrenched educational and oligarch university board interests. The list goes on and on ... incremental policy changes will have little effect given the current political economic structure of the US.

==============

I invite all bar-flies to set out _your_ answer to that same question: "if you had a magic wand, what would be your economic policy for the U.S.?"

==============

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Nov 10 2024 16:05 utc | 5

https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-fema-official-ordered-relief-workers-to-skip-houses-with-trump-signs

EXCLUSIVE: FEMA Official Ordered Relief Workers To Skip Houses With Trump Signs
Whistleblower: ‘It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay’

By Leif Le Mahieu

Posted by: Mary | Nov 10 2024 16:06 utc | 6

Apparently Trump has said that his cabinet will not include Haley or Pompeo. The former was expected but lack of Pompous is a good sign ...

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 16:07 utc | 7

Five Maritime Reform Proposals for the Trump Administration ==> https://youtu.be/3CoOXdpxvIo

From Sal Mercogliano's "What's Going on With Shipping?" YouTube channel.

Posted by: too scents | Nov 10 2024 16:09 utc | 8

"if you had a magic wand, what would be your economic policy for the U.S.?"

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Nov 10 2024 16:05 utc | 5

---

Something out of the ACME catalog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acme_Corporation

Posted by: too scents | Nov 10 2024 16:13 utc | 9

I just wanted to chime in on the article from Asia Times, in which the (IMHO) Pollyanna-ish author writes, “ Despite various campaign trail proclamations, Trump’s economics are altogether unclear. When Trump talks about punitive tariffs on China or Mexico, or high tariff barriers against the rest of the world, it isn’t clear whether he is articulating a negotiating position or a fixed policy proposal.”

Well. In Canada — Prime Minister re-establishes the Cabinet Committee on Canada-US relations. (That was announced on Nov. 7, after Trudeau’s congratulatory convo with Trump.)

Details: https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2024/11/07/prime-minister-re-establishes-cabinet-committee-canada-us-relations

And I think this Daily Mail article from Nov 7 “How France is turning into a 'Mexicanized narco-state' with drug wars fought across the country, teenagers being stabbed and burned alive, and gangsters breaking kingpins out of custody in daring ambushes” is a threat to the Donald. (I’m seeing Quebec, Canada somewhere in here.)

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Nov 10 2024 16:42 utc | 10

I have always argued that if someone in the geopolitical context appears "crazy" to you, it is only because you are working from a false narrative or incomplete information. Think for example of Muammar Qaddafi, Syria's President Assad, and Russia's President Putin, and when the confrontation between the US and China heats up you will be able to add in China's President Xi. If notable actors in the geopolitical sphere appear irrational to you, then perhaps you've been caught up in some jingoistic yellow journalism hard-sell... those nationalist false narratives that corporate presstitutes can never seem to resist spewing. When the chorus from the Mockingbird mass media conspicuously force the meme that some foreign leader (or even a domestic one such as Trump!), and even whole foreign populations, are lunatic enemies of peace, goodwill, and apple pie, then established prior behavior from the presstitution industry give us solid confidence that we can assume the precise opposite.

In essence, I would argue there are no "crazy" actors on the global stage. Stupid ones? Sure. Delusional ones? Certainly, and one can simply study the US and EU for a comprehensive example. But irrational at a fundamental level? I would normally argue such a thing does not exist.

Both the zionist entity and Ukrainian Nazis challenge this basic principle of mine to the breaking point. The behavior both the populations and leaders exhibit is far beyond explanation by stupidity and delusion. This can only be genuine mass insanity.

What saves my principle for understanding the world is that the presstitution industry, rather than trying to force the narrative that they are crazy, as they did with Muammar Qaddafi, are instead trying to gaslight mass media consumers into thinking these lunatics are normal. The principle that corporate presstitutes' assertions can be inverted to get closer to the truth remains effective.

Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 10 2024 16:45 utc | 11

I have always argued that if someone in the geopolitical context appears "crazy" to you, it is only because you are working from a false narrative or incomplete information. Think for example of Muammar Qaddafi ...

Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 10 2024 16:45 utc | 11

Muammar Gaddafi's tent finds home on Donald Trump's estateMuammar Gaddafi pitched his tent on an estate belonging to Donald Trump in suburban New York yesterday, according to reports.

The Libyan leader is scheduled to attend the UN general assembly this week. He had been struggling to find a plot to accommodate the large Bedouin tent he takes with him when travelling abroad.

Workers were seen yesterday erecting a tent and satellites in the glamorous neighbourhood of Bedford on an estate owned by Trump. Local officials tried to stop them, saying it was illegal to build a temporary residence without a permit. An ABC News helicopter filmed a large tent on the 113-acre Seven Springs estate, with rugs and patterned wall hangings. Green and yellow fabric lined the walls in a pattern dotted with images of small brown camels, according to a local newspaper website image. Last night a state department official told AP the tent might be used for entertaining by Gadaffi, but he would not be sleeping there.

continues ==> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/23/muammar-gaddafi-tent-trump-estate

Posted by: too scents | Nov 10 2024 16:55 utc | 12

"if you had a magic wand, what would be your economic policy for the U.S.?"

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Nov 10 2024 16:05 utc | 5

Easy peasy, Tom! I'd wave my magic wand and just like our federal reserve create a thousand trillion dollars out of thin air. I'd then take a paltry thirty five trillion and pay off the federal debt, just before arresting the banksters for their ill gotten gains and seizing their assets. Now I'm even further ahead, so yeah gotta get rid of the competition, so amerika's oligarchy have got to go too along with their assets also. Now I'm on a roll and I can prolly throw my magic wand away. However, I agree with Roger the monopolists have got to go too and while we're at it their assets should be seized too! King aye, myself & me would then turn on the Canadians and their UK cousins and the rest of the 'west' and remove all the royal crap and with my skillions of american dollars left over, try and begin to pay off the rest of the world for the 'west's' travesties over the past few centuries and what's left over begin to rebuild America's infrastructure.

Since this is a fictional as it gets, I'm pretty dang sure Harry Potter and the entire Hogwarts School of Wizardry would be awe struck.

Posted by: aye, myself & me | Nov 10 2024 16:58 utc | 13

TPTB sail their nations upwind against public opinion to their desired policy destinations by tacking between major political parties.

I forgot's statement contains a very important thought, which is that aspect-wise "broad" political ideas and movements, such as parties, can be used as vehicles to 'sail upwind'.

This idea is a stronger statement than the related observation that these kind of entities contain within them a manifold of differing views, positions and agendas, such that it's not straightforward (or even possible) to find some kind of metric which allows to project this manifold onto a small number of directions in a coherent way. The major example is, of course, the discourse about political left and right. A case in point is the common use of election promises, which 'no one seriously believes are meant to be held' as Angela Merkel famously put it after becoming Chancellor of Germany.

From this derive two remarks I shall address to recent MoA discussions in the OT.

The first one concerns Tom Pfotzer's question above on economic policy. I'd say that the economy angle alone is too narrow to really pull the US stuck cart out by now. Do you remember how William Gruff described his experience as a teacher in both the US and China? That was impressive, though the Boeing workers using hand drills to make structural parts for aircraft or the recent problems of the US forces to get sufficiently capable recruits tell the same story as well. The American people is not just dumbed down like in a passing intoxication, the problem extends into all major institutions of society, apparently including family. Education, governance, media and church will all have to be disentangled from hideous covert machinations of influence before human spirit and endeavour can really begin to unfold anew.

The second point goes to Don Firineach with his wondering on German political realism. I'll make a single point: today, all elected bodies of government from the Bundestag down to the Bezirksregierung of Hamburg-Harburg refuse to even consider each and all propositions brought forth by the AfD. In light of the argument above, this is necessarily toxic and dysfunctional behaviour, because it supersedes a rational discussion of the actual problems at hand. Sahra Wagenknecht has, incidentally, stated as much in a different context a while back; as has a German Airforce Oberst A.D. in front of an ultra-conservative audience. This goes some way to show how the Querfront comes about in which German politically heterodox people are finding themselves in. Basically you're there once you've left the pastures maintained by the MSM. We call it Lagerdenken and I've been struggling to express the idea in english for a while now ... perhaps MoA can help? It's also interesting to note that this kind of political warring is historically a recent phenomenon. The second Reich as well as the Weimar republic regularly saw fluid coalitions comprised of various political leanings when it came down to the actual Sachfragen. This development may be a huge tell, as the newer style of parlamentary "discussion" and decision-making is nothing less than childish behaviour, apparently expressed by immature people. It's the only reasonable explanation for this going on that I have.

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 10 2024 17:05 utc | 14

thanks b...

in acknowledgement of armistace day 1918, i want to share some music off bill carrothers recording 'armistace 1918'.. i play this cd every year at this time, and unfortunately it is not on youtube for me to share, but some live tracks are, so there they are... acknowledging this event and other events in the world of a similar nature is very important as i see it..

Bill Carrothers - Armistice 1918 - "Hello My Baby"

@ Tom Pfotzer | Nov 10 2024 16:05 utc | 5

if the usa was to ''mind its own business'' by staying away from trying to manipulate other countries and parts of the globe, i think that would do a long ways.. it would be a big change, but i think it is coming.. probably not the answer you are looking for..

@ William Gruff | Nov 10 2024 16:45 utc | 11

thanks william..

Posted by: james | Nov 10 2024 17:06 utc | 15

Mearsheimer's argument that the relative decline of US power is a "bad thing" from an American and European perspective is couched by him as simple realist power politics; but it makes no sense.

It makes no sense because it confuses the means with the ends. In other words, it confuses the development of power in the state (western economical and especially military power and dominance in the world) with the ends of a more secure, free and prosperous western (American and European) society and people (presuming of course that this is what is meant by a "good thing" for the western people).

This makes no sense whatsoever. Just speaking for USians, we were advancing most rapidly in economic and social welfare during the decades prior to WW1, when the US was more or less isolated on its own continent, had a minimal military (buttressed by an armed public and state militia) and minded its own affairs but traded freely with all w/o choosing favorites or allies.

The US has undergone the greatest relative decline in recent decades precisely as it has spent inordinate amounts on military power projection, national security boondoggles, and a permanent inefficient bureaucracy needed to run the empire business. It will continue to hemorrhage money, morality, legitimacy, and internal freedom as it continues to fortify empire.

Mr Mearsheimer says the US wants to be #1 because it's good for the security of itself and its friends. The fact is, the things you have to do to be #1 are the surefire way to destroy what was special and worthwhile about what you are supposedly protecting. You are destroying the village to save it, as was said in Vietnam.

Given all that and given that Mr Mearsheimer is a very smart man who knows all this, one has to wonder at his motivation at making these arguments ...?

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 17:12 utc | 16

There won't be any silly 10 year treasury yield posts for a while. Caused by a mis understanding of how things work.

Everything was predicted since August by those who understand the balance sheets.

HERE:

https://seekingalpha.com/instablog/910351-robert-p-balan/6056223-move-was-called-misguided-offloaded-tmfs-and-loaded-up-on-tmvs-short-term-why

:)

Now, We are approaching and very close to another inflection point even lower. You'll see. Unless, it kicks off between Iran and Israel again.

Plus, Trump wants interest rates close to zero and mortgages at 3%. So further cuts are expected. As unlike the Eurozone the FED decides not the market.

It still to this day amazes me how So many people can sucked into propaganda noise so easily. That's the raw power of the monetary silencing propaganda for you.

Like all propaganda The Myth sounds very reasonable at first glance. However even a cursory institutional analysis always reveals a glaring problem. MMT always helps to shows us that The Myth's being spread is not compatible with how the balance sheets really work.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Nov 10 2024 17:22 utc | 17

Caliman | Nov 10 2024 16:07 utc | 7
*** Apparently Trump has said that his cabinet will not include Haley or Pompeo. The former was expected but lack of Pompous is a good sign ...***

Which does leave Pompeo available for some top non-cabinet post?

Posted by: Cynic | Nov 10 2024 17:22 utc | 18

Germany's leading supplicant is eager to lick the boot.

Germany’s Merz Open For Deals With Trump, Calls Scholz Lame Duck

. Opposition leader, leading in polls, speaks in interview
. Berlin still struggling with when to call an early election

German opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who’s dominating polls ahead of an expected snap election, said he would look to ink deals with incoming US President Donald Trump to boost his country’s international standing.

In an interview with Stern magazine, Merz also called Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “lame duck,” and urged him to accelerate the timetable for an early federal election following the collapse of the three-party coalition government last week.

...

“In Germany, we have never really articulated and enforced our interests well enough, and we have to change that,” Merz said in the Stern interview ...

Merz, 68, said he’s spoken to people who know Trump well, and that the US president-elect needs to be approached with “upright posture and clarity.” Like Trump, Merz had a lengthy feud with former Chancellor Angela Merkel, his party’s long-time leader. Frustrated by Merkel’s liberal policies, Merz left the political stage for some years and worked as chairman of the supervisory board of BlackRock Inc.’s German asset management unit.

continues ==> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-10/germany-s-merz-open-for-deals-with-trump-calls-scholz-lame-duck

Posted by: too scents | Nov 10 2024 17:25 utc | 19

too scents @12

Indeed! Qaddafi was so much more grounded and human than the presstitute scum who tried to mock him, and Trump is wise and perceptive enough to see what the presstitutes cannot.

See what I mean about how corporate presstitutes cannot help but spew jingoism and yellow journalism? It's what defines them... their identity.

Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 10 2024 17:26 utc | 20

Oct 7 LIHOP

Called it then.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 10 2024 17:27 utc | 21

Cynic "Which does leave Pompeo available for some top non-cabinet post?"

Ambassador to Israel or maybe Nato ...?

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 17:33 utc | 22

William - Presstitutes will presstitute ... but that don't mean they're always wrong when they call someone crazy. Re Ghaddafi, as just an example, look up his murder of Imam Musa Sadr who first taught the downtrodden Shia of Lebanon to stand up. Old Moamar did a lot of crazy stuff along with a lot of crazy good stuff ... a thoroughly mercurial figure.

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 17:39 utc | 23

persiflo | Nov 10 2024 15:16 utc | 2

Thick track; thank you for sharing ^_^

Posted by: robjira | Nov 10 2024 17:41 utc | 24

TDS much? A Post Mortem Autopsy: From A Diddy Party to a Pity Party. https://shorturl.at/gdUrh

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Nov 10 2024 17:44 utc | 25

It was as US cargo with weapons destined to Israel which the Spanish government refused to allow docking...

https://t.me/espiritutemplario/97259

This is why Spain was attacked from US bases in Spanish territory, like it happens all the time in Syria....

Then the event was fastly taken advantage by US agents into the European Comission and Spain proper to advance the 2030 Agenda of depopulation and destruction of nation states and taking over by corporate transnational capital...

We have the enemy inside...and in the southern border...

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 17:47 utc | 26

-- Long post alert. Skip by if econ policy isn't of interest --

My Proposed Economic Policy

I’ll use Roger Boyd’s excellent situation assessment (posted up-thread) as a spring-board to set out my proposed economic policy.

Context

a. Oligarchs have set up bullet-proof “taps” on all our major production and consumption processes, including food, energy, materials, housing, education, health care, and so forth. These “taps” draw wealth out of the major economic flows and route some of that wealth into the hands of the oligarchs.

These “parasitic taps” are standard practice in almost all economies; they just happen to be relatively more predatory and debilitating to the underlying economy here in the U.S.

Some economies - notably China and Russia - have taken vigorous steps to root out these parasitic “taps” in key sectors of their economies, resulting in better economic performance for the “host” economy.

b. The centralized, large-scale economic processes tend to enjoy major cost advantages relative to the “little guy” because of their scale. However, the ever-increasing multitude of “taps” tends to drive up large-scale production process costs over time, and that begins to level the playing field for the “little guys”. We’re seeing this happen in the trend toward “buy local”. Examples include small scale renewable energy, local food production, and small-scale manufacturing. There are many others.

Proposed Economic Policy

I divide my policy into two major sections. I offer one policy for the people that lack the awareness and vigor to maneuver – let’s call them the “Static Group”. The second policy is for the people that, for a number of different reasons, are ready, willing and able to adapt. Let’s call them the “Dynamic Group”.

Static Group Policy

The Static Group’s policy is a one-liner: read Roger’s assessment, and learn to live with it. That’s your fate.

Dynamic Group Policy

Another name for the Dynamic Group is “creative people that can build things”. There aren’t any clear-cut demographic traits that identify this group; they are defined by their behavior: they read, talk to others, can imagine what isn’t yet, and can build what they imagine. It’s their behaviors that matter, not their identity.

You can probably already guess what my economic policy for Dynamics is. In case you haven’t guessed, I’ll spell it out:

a. Build a set of tools that creative people can use to create new, (generally) local production processes which produce products that are direct substitutes for the products we currently buy from the oligarchs.

b. Teach creative people how to use the tools

c. Educate the public about the products these creative people develop, and encourage the public to buy from these local producers. That is already happening via the “buy local” movement, I’d just amp it up a lot. I’d make it really easy to find out about and buy these new “local-producer” products.

d. I would build an open-source/crowd-sourced catalog of these local production processes that normally-talented enterprising people can learn about, build and operate at the household or village level. This would enable everyone across the nation to see what’s working elsewhere, and adapt these currently-in-use production processes for use in their own locale

As many of you know, there are bits and pieces – some of the components – of the policy I advocate that are in operation right now. Those parts need to be integrated better, resourced better, and promoted better – e.g. made known to more of the ready-willing-and-able types.

No Top-Down Help Needed

While this Dynamic Group policy has issues (many of them), one big plus is that it doesn’t require the support or buy-in from the Oligarchs and their proxies.

If you think about it, this is just garden-variety grass-roots entrepreneurialism on steroids. Find vulnerable oligarch processes, make a local, more competitive alternative, and start making money for yourself. The oligarchs are going to have do back-flips and magic tricks to discredit this plan.

Benefits

The benefits are simple and valuable:

a. Routes economic activity (new income streams) away from oligarchs and into the hands of the little guy. This expands the middle class, and that’s good for any economy.

b. Massive increase in skill and knowledge. These grass-roots entrepreneurs are going to need to learn a lot of new things, build new skills, and build new relationships. They will have considerable economic incentive to do so. There would be a lot of tightly-focused “just in time” learning. Credentials would be much less important: it's all about what you know, and what you’re willing to do.

c. Massive increase in the number of people creating new products. This policy would bring in an army of new product developers, and result in a lot of viable, new products. What’s an economy? Products being sold (that’s GDP). Let’s add: useful, wealth-creating products being produced and sold by the plebes (middle class). Now you’re talking healthy economy. That's a real GDP, isn't it?

The U.S. needs a whole new slate of products. Energy, food, materials, transport, education, health-care ... are all industries whose fundamental production processes and technique are nearing the end of their technical life cycle; they're starting to create more problems than they solve.

To address Roger’s points, this plan – for its participants – side-steps oligarchs, and equips the plebes to compete directly with the oligarchs. That puts a natural limit on how extractive the oligarchs can be. This plan also addresses the educational issue. To play in this game, you need knowledge, and discipline, and effort. Not credentials. That side-steps the educational system dysfunction. Get a book or find a friend that knows more than you, and you’re in business.

The biggest benefit of this plan is that it rewards creativity and effort. It’s not passive, it’s active. And it gets a lot of new people involved in the creativity game. This policy engenders the behaviors that are the foundation of all healthy economies.

That’s a good place to stop for now. What do you think?

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Nov 10 2024 17:49 utc | 27

I see b has linked to the official English transcript of Putin's Valdai Club performance, so there's no need for me to advertise my efforts. As many have commented, Putin's performance was more important than what he said at Kazan, which many overlooked. Yes, Valdai lasted three hours making it hard to digest, but so much more was discussed there, which is what makes it more important.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 17:58 utc | 28

Caliman @23: "... look up [Qaddafi's] murder of Imam Musa Sadr..."

I did. Lots of conflicting and contradictory accounts, all by people with a narrative to sell. Find some better proof that Qaddafi was crazy.

Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 10 2024 17:59 utc | 29

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 17:12 utc | 16 "Just speaking for USians, we were advancing most rapidly in economic and social welfare during the decades prior to WW1, when the US was more or less isolated on its own continent, had a minimal military (buttressed by an armed public and state militia) and minded its own affairs but traded freely with all w/o choosing favorites or allies." This is mythology. However many decades were intended, the period in the US between the end of Reconstruction (effectively 1876) and WWI were characterized by vicious labor struggles including federal strikebreaking; grinding exploitation of small farmers by ever more concentrated railroads; so-called Redemption of southern states culminating in Jim Crow (and yes, segregation was a blow against "social" welfare); two prolonged depressions; widespread mass political corruption; a massive expansion of slums in cities; concentration in finance (the nickname "Money Trust" was coined for a reason); the general trend toward formation of trusts in every aspect of life and relative decline of family farms; lower average heights and weights and life expectancy, with major increases coming later; the advent of imperialism (any implication this is what WWI did is entirely false) notably the seizure of the Hawaiian Island in 1893 under guise of the Republic of Hawaii, and the vicious colonial war against the Filipino peoples.

This kind of national mythology seems to me to be an ideology evolved to support failed reactionary policies some petty bourgeois hoping that magical cures like anti-trust will give them their "fair" share of the pie (and to hell with workers.) The phrase "a permanent inefficient bureaucracy" suggests a hankering for the spoils system, a vital engine of political corruption, with "profitable (to my petty bourgeois friends)" a more honest standard of so-called efficiency. Even if one is rich enough (or foolish enough) to think "we" are overtaxed instead of underpaid, and overregulated instead of underserved, the income tax (Sixteenth Amendment) and the Federal Reserve preceded the supposed watershed of WWI. I suppose the Seventeenth Amendment (direct election of Senators instead of by lobbyists in state legislatures, particularly railroad lobbyists) which seems to me yet another engine of corruption is regarded as another backward step, but it too preceded the fictional date of WWI. Most of all, of course, the national myth studiously ignores the question of why, since things were so great, they went away in the first place?

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 10 2024 18:01 utc | 30

A lot of marauders came in in the first minutes of the disaster in Valencia, even from other regions, to stole what of value could remain in those suffered people destroyed cars and homes...

These were organized morroccan people who came in in groups and have all criminal records..as who hathe case of some 40 marauders who have been already detained show...

Is this the second wave of the US/Israeli attack? Are these ISIS operatives now unemployed after NATO was expelled from the Sahel?

These are clearly not inmigrants....the question is who is bringing them in...and where from...amy be it is the Britons also onboard, as always against Spain through history, hence the sudden raising of blisters here among anglos and their privileged partners in the American continent the canucks...not in vain Russian sanctions were designed in Canada by Christya Freeland...

Only becuase I am suggesting considering a pre-planned attack now confirmed by a scientifist from the Spanish Agency of Meteorology ( AEMET ), if the testimony of the numerous witnesses who did not drown and have lived there through generations is not enough...

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 18:02 utc | 31

@ persiflo | Nov 10 2024 17:05 utc | 14

thanks for your thoughts expressed in the last paragraph on the situation in germany persiflo.. i appreciate it... it seems the msm has had undue influence and there are some that have escaped it's dominance... perhaps this will continue, or the msm will change... hard to know..

@ karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 17:58 utc | 28

thanks for all your work karlof1... putin is amazing and your work highlights all of this.. there is no one on the world stage that comes close to his ability to state in clear terms what is happening as russia sees it.. unfortunately most people in the west don't get to see this - don't want to see this.. although this speaks of the strength of propaganda, it also highlights how easily people are swayed in spite of the idea that people would be ''objective''...

Posted by: james | Nov 10 2024 18:03 utc | 32

Chrystia Freeland, the de facto PM of Canada behind the ridiculous clown Trudeau was who designed the sanctions who would for the past years ruin European industry, Spanish agrobusiness, German car industry, Dutch agrobusiness and so on, as included in the Rand Corporation papers...in waht constitutes an clear Canadian attack on European countries....

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 18:12 utc | 33

Re the Wall Street Journal reporter extolling the benefits of surrender to victorious fascists as peace? As I understand it, Franco maintained martial law until 1948. The estimates of postwar deaths at fascist hands range from 10 000 to 50 000. For a WSJ reporter this no doubt counts as peace since his fascist grandfather benefited his family. I do not think Ukrainian fascists will read this article as an intervention for surrender.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 10 2024 18:12 utc | 34

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 18:02 utc | 31

Thank you for reporting on this.

Posted by: Jack M | Nov 10 2024 18:17 utc | 35

@ Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 18:12 utc | 33

freeland is a dangerous clown that many in canada do not like, or worse, wish to see her gone.. anything she does is not for the people of canada.. that much is extremely clear..

Posted by: james | Nov 10 2024 18:18 utc | 36

Steven - Those decades also included a manyfold expansion of the economy. Yes, a lot of poverty, a lot of labor struggles, amazing racism ... but not just that. Millions and millions of immigrants from disparate cultures, from Jews to Italians to E Europeans coming in and setting themselves and their families up for long term success in "the land of opportunity" which the US was. The explosion of US culture (from Jazz to Hollywood and etc.) the incredible and standardizing success of American business (setting standards emulated by the rest of the world for such mundane but important things as plumbing and electronics) were also an incredible testament to the success of the small government model.

I understand that you're a fan of the great bureaucracy in DC? I am more a fan of Thoreau's "government governs best when it governs least" ... a happy side effect of which is much less foreign adventuring and wars.

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 18:28 utc | 37

@Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 17:58 utc | 28

I for one do not hold hopes with Putin, he is simply delineating a fantasy world in which the hegemon and its puppets come to senses...

The problem here is who wil put the bell in the cat´s neck....

He not calling a spade a spade, unreckoning Israeli genocide in Gaza and Lebanon and ongoing historicide on Middle East world heritage site does not add for hope either...does not have any good paint at all...

To my view, and not do few of alternative antisistemic people, this is fight between globalists, the BRICS; and ultralgobalist ( The US/UK/Israel and its now backyard the EU..)...

There is no place for people´s interests there, nor it is our fight, it is a fight between everything for one or everything for a bunch, bu the same system in which eveybody continues tro aim at controlling the masses in a harsh way so that no one can disent nor move to fight for their corrspondent part of the pie and their rights...

We have a narrow window of opportunity before they close the circle by imposing CBDCs and digital identity ( very advances process already in the Russia and why I am not migrating there in spite of the so promising opportunities...why would I change a foreign jail for a home one with the adde hadnicap of a difficult slavic language to learn at mature age...) worlwide when there will be no place to scape...and we will be turned into serfs again...subject ot the whole requisition of the producto of our hard work to be left only with pocket money that we will have to spend in what they order us, bugs and bycycle for hire tickets, while we are euthanasized at 50s, because you barely can pedal at 50 when you are exploited at work and jabbed continuously to body and systemic exhaustion...

I have heard that it was Jared Kushner, if I do not recal badly who stated that his will be the first generation whol will live forever...ofcourse, he refers to his generatio of elite people, since advanced health care, as we are witnessing since " the pandemic" will be increasigly far from proles´ access, when public health systems are being dismatled, offering instead of genuine medical attention of quality only new fastly reserached jabs for everything, as they accelerate and prioritize at the same pace euthanasia laws and protocols, some during the very "pandemic", as the advanced case of Canada so scarily shows...

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 18:37 utc | 38

james | Nov 10 2024 18:03 utc | 32--

Thanks for your support, james. My translation trio has been viewed by about 2K for each portion so far. How many they gather over the week will be a good measure.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 18:46 utc | 39

@ Tom Pfotzer | Nov 10 2024 16:05 utc | 5

My ideas gravitate towards “decentralized communism”: Reduce concentrated power everywhere: Greatly reduce government taxation and spending but also greatly disperse private capital (because concentrated private power is just as bad — they end up running the government for their benefit).

- Simplify the social safety net. Before AI: Replace most programs with desert dormitories that offer bland but nutritious food, drone-policed environment, and some medicine. Not enough or don’t like it? Try working or find a charity for your situation. After AI: UBI.

- Simplify taxation. Eliminate inflation taxes by balancing the budget every year. Should be accomplished with spending cuts. But, start by soaking the wealthy in order to claw back all the free money given to them since, well, forever but especially since QE and exponential taxpayer transfers to large corporations. They don’t like it? Good — now we motivated the most powerful people to agree to cuts in government spending that they otherwise skim via the businesses they own that overcharge everyone including the government. Ultimately, set income and sales tax rates to zero and replace with a wealth tax using a parabolic function for wealth tax rate. With a parabolic tax on wealth, the cost to monopolies and plutocrat trusts rises in proportion to their dominance — disincentivizing continued greed in proportion to the wealth already amassed. Might moot the need for antitrust laws (not enforced anyway since 1980’s).

- Slash military spending by 75%. Close all foreign bases unless foreigners vote in referendums to pay us. Put markw in charge of weapons research and manufacturing.

- Remove all tort liability caps. Once we un-restrain plaintiff lawyers, greatly reduce budgets of government agencies that barely even pretend anymore to regulate on our behalf.

- Education: Vouchers for K-12, with voucher value calibrated to offer no-frills education — no HS stadiums at taxpayer expense. Beyond 12th grade, repeal the 2006 bill that treated education loans as non-dischargeable, unlike every other asset class, that turned kids into indentured servants. Repeal guarantees to student loan “lenders” who’ve been skimming free money. Eliminate Sallie Mae and all other government “funding” for education that simply raises the amounts students must borrow or risk to obtain an education.

- Eliminate Fannie Mae and all other subsidies for builder profits.

- Generally, reduce or repeal all government subsidies not given as vouchers to the individual rather than institutions in uncompe markets.

- Medicine: Provide a separate “medicine UBI” that accumulates into a person’s health savings account. Let people donate unused health credits to other needy patients or accumulate them for future years. Eliminate the rest of Medicare/caid. (Don’t migrate to “single-payer”, because that just continues the antipattern of putting too much power into too few hands. I don’t want the government to do to “healthcare” what they’ve done to “defense”, “education”, or…”healthcare”.)

- Direct democratic voting on government spending. Don’t like gain-of-function research? Vote against it.

- Rebalance the power between people and big biz by repealing the laws that established corporations. (Government created a “more than a sum of its human parts” entity that tends to behave immorally to humans as it grows in size. Civilization progressed just fine without corporations. They’re too powerful..). Grant 5 years to corporations to reorganize as MLP’s (still traded on public exchanges). This reduces the “heads I win, tails you lose” gambling or the “I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone” attitude at financial companies as they rush to make bad deals prior to financial busts.

I’ll stop here…

Posted by: I forgot | Nov 10 2024 18:47 utc | 40

Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 18:37 utc | 38--

Your POV is just that, your POV, and I don't intend to contest it.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 18:51 utc | 41

@I forgot #1
There is some outright fuckery against 3rd parties (this means YOU, Democrat party) but the reality is that any all or nothing election system is always going to devolve to 2 dominant parties.
This is a straightforward game theory outcome.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 10 2024 19:03 utc | 42

@Bruised Northerner #10
My advice is to ignore mainstream media pronouncements about what Trump's personnel and/or plans are.
First: they are lying. They don't know shit and make shit up.
Second: when they are not lying deliberately, they are simply telling the lies that the Deep State or MIC or Democrat Party or CIA or whoever forks over enough money, tell them to say.
Waste of time.

Wait and see.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 10 2024 19:08 utc | 43

Valdai

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 17:58 utc | 28
A big thank you to Karlo1 for posting the Valdai. At first it seemed too long and too cerebral for my non-genius brain but after giving it a chance I was hooked! Highly recommend taking some time because it's loaded! you might try the last section first, including Karlof's somewhat critical take on Putin's comments about Palestine.

Check it out.

https://karlof1.substack.com/p/putins-valdai-club-appearance-finale

Posted by: migueljose | Nov 10 2024 19:08 utc | 44

@William Gruff #11
Disagree.
There is a crazy actor on the world stage: It is American leaders like Blinken, Sullivan, Biden.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 10 2024 19:10 utc | 45

The second Reich as well as the Weimar republic regularly saw fluid coalitions comprised of various political leanings

@Posted by: persiflo | Nov 10 2024 17:05 utc | 14

And that is why Germany was pusehd to extremism and then destroyed, turned into a complexed country and people for the ages to come so that it never rises its head, as it is of convenience for the anglosaxons...

The late ambassador of Spain to Georgia and Russia, Jose Antonio Zorrilla, wondered, in his tirade against Macron, ( then banned at YouTube for whatever case of using of already owned to name his new channel ), why it is that Germany still does not have a constitution nor the German people are able to sing their own anthem, Deutschland über alles...he wonders ewhat is wrong with those words since every nation´s anthme includes words of proud of owns nation...

https://youtu.be/qM4C4EH7cLc?feature=shared

You should make a mix between this one and that of the German Free Youth of East Germany, which are both very inspiring...

https://youtu.be/O1CwILGh99k?feature=shared

Other cases of cohabiting ideological opposing ideas to govern were thwarted in Italy too, by the action of Gladio, which asured the thrid European power, Italy, remaining a non-sovereign country hostage of NATO policies through "social-democrats" and US think tanks members like the current PM...

We need to liberate Europe from occupiers who keep sucking our blood and the effort of our hard work to be drained to the Atlantic, and purge their accomplices inside our own countries, those who sold us into misery and slavery, and put them in trial, so that they do not go out scot free after the harm they have caused, starting with Scholz, and following with Baerbock, Lindner, Habbeck....

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 19:13 utc | 46

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 10 2024 15:16 utc | 2

Thanks for thinking of me. I have been unwell of late, physically but also stricken by the events of our time. Your post was a reminder that our actions must be purposed for something altogether different: the affirmation of life.

τὸ ε means literally "the e" or "the letter epsilon". Plutarch wrote a dialogue on the meaning of the letter 'E' ("On the E at Delphi") which was prominently displayed in Apollo's shrine at Delphi, written at the entrance as a large gold letter. It was, of course, an enigma in antiquity. Plutarch, learned as he was, argued that the meaning of 'E' was all in the pronunciation: by his day saying the letter 'e' sounded like εἶ, which is the 2nd sing. of the verb 'to be', thus: "You are". This then triggers a theologico-philosophical excursus, which is actually quite out there.

Anyway, greetings from AUKUS land. Check out Clinton Fernandes' new book 'Sub-imperial Power'. It's what we need to hear right now about ourselves.

Posted by: Patroklos | Nov 10 2024 19:19 utc | 47

@Tom Pfotzer #27
Completed expected variant of "learn to code" nonsense.

What the US needs is very simple: start making things that we use.

Everyday people don't need software or "creativity", they need food and cars and glassware and toys and tools and household appliances and ... and ... and ... ad infinitum.

The US is the largest importer of glass in the entire world.
Why? We have sand, we have energy.
The same can be said for an infinite number of final, intermediate and raw manufacturing inputs.

Do we need to make everything? No, of course not.
But the US as a nation has strayed far too far into the import realm.

Target improvement in production in areas that matter for the American economy.
Is it glass? Maybe.
Is it steel? maybe.
Is it pharma drug chemicals? maybe.
But it for god damned sure is not software or chips or "creativity".

Fuck the semiconductor chips. The semiconductors are the least part of the problem.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 10 2024 19:19 utc | 48

My economic plan for the USA ?

Reduce gov’t percentage of GDP from current ~40% to 6% (as in 1912).

Posted by: Exile | Nov 10 2024 19:21 utc | 49

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 17:12 utc | 16

Here is Mearsheimer's part of an Oxford debate which is relevant to your post. Highly recommended.

https://youtu.be/8Fxl5N73Q8o?si=o3M-1aFdRE5CpKFw

Posted by: morongobill | Nov 10 2024 19:21 utc | 50

Caliman | Nov 10 2024 18:28 utc | 37
*** The explosion of US culture (from Jazz to Hollywood and etc.) ***

Sample proof that USA was and is like an overflowing cesspit.

Posted by: Cynic | Nov 10 2024 19:22 utc | 51

@Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 18:51 utc | 41

That´s ok with me, nor did I pretend you, such high level commentator and author, contesting me, I was giving just my opinion...

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 19:22 utc | 52

Which does leave Pompeo available for some top non-cabinet post?

Posted by: Cynic | Nov 10 2024 17:22 utc | 18

Larry makes a case against that:

Vance is now the front-runner to replace Trump in 2028 and I suspect Trump is not going to give a prominent post to any Republican ... who might want to challenge Vance. Welcome to hardball politics in Trump’s universe.

Posted by: Mary | Nov 10 2024 19:28 utc | 53

Keep a close eye on the State Department transition team. Lots of talk that a certified neocon by the name of Hicks may head up the recruiting of the new Trump team.

I would say a strong signal of future policy is certain if he gets the job.

Posted by: morongobill | Nov 10 2024 19:33 utc | 54

@Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 19:13 utc | 46

I was hearing again Deutchsland über alles in its full version and along ambassador Zorrila wonder what is wrong with those words, they sound a lot like making Germany great again and Germany first...which is what any patriot from any country would wish...

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 19:47 utc | 55

@ Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 19:47 utc | 55

do you live in germany??

Posted by: james | Nov 10 2024 19:55 utc | 56

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 18:28 utc | 37 "I understand that you're a fan of the great bureaucracy in DC?" You understand incorrectly. I am a great fan of government services to all the people. The bureaucracy of their government ultimately serves them, not all of us. "They" is the owners of the country and their employees, especially their private employees and the pilot fish/remora trailing the sharks for left over scraps, a significant part of so-called small business. I most certainly do not think the problem is tax money paying bureaucrats to interfere with local businessmen. (I still do not see any great concern with the mass of the population.) The existence of government services is a necessity in an advanced economy and abolishing them is a very bad idea, even if some small businessmen imagine they are smart enough to become big businessmen if only they could do whatever they wanted.

I will note that extolling the economic benefits of superexploitation of immigrants directly contradicts the plans of spending billions on concentration camps to deport millions of migrants and related citizens, except when they are killed as that project gets "bloody." That may not be your personal pet project, but the whole point of Trumpery is, what matters is what Trump wants, and you have no say in that.

As to the general perspective that US industrialization was caused by small government? That's a big question that can't be answered by invoking mythology about how the US improved its economic and social welfare before imperialism in WWI, nonsense based on a false representation. For instance, your prime example here "the incredible and standardizing success of American business (setting standards emulated by the rest of the world for such mundane but important things as plumbing and electronics) were also an incredible testament to the success of the small government model..." relied historically on such huge government interventions as the patent system. As far back as Eli Whitney it was the role of government intervention via arms purchases that promoted standardization in guns. I gather the famous American system of manufactures was also called "armory practice." (Compare the Venetian Arsenale, industrial shipbuilding if you wish.) Even such measures as the International Bureau of Weights and Measures was an international institution set up by member governments. The National Bureau of Standards was a national government service, also established before WWI, by the way.

In other matters, the role of the army was usually small because it mostly fought small scale opponents, but when the US fought Britain or Mexico or the slaveholders, the scale of intervention was for those times very significant and the budgets for them very big indeed. I don't believe in collective hereditary guilt and don't hold with moralizing about settler-colonialism and so on, but denying the economic importance of land to American economic development is simply false. Land sales were a huge portion of national budgets (varying at times of course) one reason for the seeming unimportance of government. Even for the mythical period of pre-WWI paradise, the role of land grants in building the national railroad system and expanding the higher education system mattered..and they weren't "small" government save in a warped and distorted view borrowed from right-wingers who just think, those taxes aren't putting money in my pocket. And by the way, the role for foreign direct investment, especially by the British in the US economy is usually ignored in this right-wing mythology.

The implicit view that it was small government that did it all is, again, nonsense. And any program based on this false view of history is also nonsense, or worse, a disguise. Sincerity is very admirable personally, but sincerity doesn't matter if policy is ideological.

And what worked for Thoreau, who had his mother doing his laundry as I understand it, tells us nothing about national policy.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 10 2024 19:57 utc | 57

"if you had a magic wand, what would be your economic policy for the U.S.?"

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Nov 10 2024 16:05 utc | 5

---

Tax the rich.

Rutger Bregman "It feels like I'm at a firefighter's conference and no one is allowed to talk about water".

https://youtu.be/P8ijiLqfXP0

Tax dynastic wealth into dust.

Posted by: too scents | Nov 10 2024 20:02 utc | 58

It appears that "Upton Sinclair applies" to the independent "left" just as much as the corporate Dems. ("It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it".)

I listened to two weekly podcasts from so-called progressives, and they refused to address the disastrous status of the Democratic Party. All they had were excuses and projection.

LIE: "Nobody was willing to vote for a black woman for president".

TRUTH: Nobody was willing to vote for a word-salad spouting non-entity who was completely supportive of Biden for four years.

LIE: "Trump campaigned on hatred. His followers are racists and misogynists."

TRUTH: People voted for Trump because of inflation and uncontrolled/subsidized illegal immigration, and because they are sick of forever wars and medical tyranny and being called "garbage" by Joe Biden. If anyone fomented hatred it was the democrats constantly calling Trump a fascist and his followers unreconstructed racists.

In typical propaganda speak, first the so-called leftists differentiated true facts from fake news. Then they reported on only the fake news stories as examples of how twisted Trump supporters are. They touted a fake story that claimed immigrants were coming to get free trannie surgery - a great way to backfoot anyone who says the whole transgender racket is a divisive and medically dangerous agitprop operation.

----

The bottom line is that these "leftists" cannot see that the majority does not buy that pushing transgenderism (boys in girls locker rooms, Transhausen by proxy parents) and giving free money to illegal immigrants. It has to be that their opposition is evil, full of hatred, etc.

How can genuine economic, class warfare leftists claim a spot in the debate when these woke lunatics insist they are leftists, and the hard right demonizes them as "cultural Marxists"? It looks like mission accomplished for running class analysis out of town on a rail.

----

It seems "Uppie applies" even at the personal level. I went to a small dinner party where everyone was appalled at the Trump victory, and making excuses for Kamala's idiocy. The vocabulary was woke - non-binary, pronouns. Nobody wanted to talk about Gaza or Ukraine. These are people I know, so I limited my comments. But they literally cannot see the forest for the trees. For what used to be the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, its non-binary turtles all the way down.

This whole week moved my attitude about the possiblity for America to wake up. It is next to impossible. The so-called left is sticking its fingers in its ears, and will come down hard on anyone who disagrees. Even sheepdog Bernie Sanders criticized the Dems for being oblivious to class issues. The Dem response was to shout Bernie down. I have never seen the polarization be so strong. Its going to get worse before it gets better.

Posted by: john brewster | Nov 10 2024 20:06 utc | 59

May be you lost it amongst the coordinated hashbara attack on me...

Graphic and very illustrative...

The Japanese make a simulation with a model of what happens when you remove all the dams, reservoirs and weirs from the course of a river, explained so that even a retarded politician, fake environmentalist or media scumbag can understand it...

https://t.me/surfeandoelkaliyuga/1277

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 20:23 utc | 60

do you live in germany??

@Posted by: james | Nov 10 2024 19:55 utc | 56

No, of course, but it harms even the most made of steel person in Europe what it is being done of Germany...

I am a former Spanish leftist, now kinda sane nationalist left, hispanist, pro-Russian ( people, always in debt...) anti-zionist, pro-Palestine ( and of all the oppressed of the world...), anticapitalist...living in Spain...my motto is Spain first and make Spain great again...that I stole from The Donald...

Wondering whether you catch me there...more or less....

https://youtu.be/stvwkZzQDPg?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/4uSwzKjCPYk?feature=shared

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 20:40 utc | 61

Ghost - I’m a flood control engineer of thirty years, as well as a fisherman and an environmentalist. There ARE dams that should not have been built due to various impacts on environment as well as impracticality and those need to go if possible. However, the utility of dams and detention basins to hold back flood peaks from damaging cities is huge.

We had a minor flood here in 2017. People were blaming the upstream dam for having caused it. I was able to show that the dam had reduced the peak to half it would have been … without the dam the flood would have been enormous.

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 20:43 utc | 62

Tax the rich.

Rutger Bregman "It feels like I'm at a firefighter's conference and no one is allowed to talk about water".

https://youtu.be/P8ijiLqfXP0

Tax dynastic wealth into dust.

Posted by: too scents | Nov 10 2024 20:02 utc | 58

Problem: You'd have to do it all over the planet. Otherwise the'll just set up shop elsewhere. They've been doing it for decades. It's THE argument for not taxing them at all: they'll just leave.

Russias advantage were individual sanctions against oligarchs in the west. Otherwise there would have been still more capital flight.

China offers cheap labour.Otherwise they would have the same problem.

Posted by: umuntu | Nov 10 2024 20:50 utc | 63

The victory of Trump reminds me of Medieval times and power struggles over the throne. Sometimes there would be an unexpected victor, perhaps someone who had been generally shat on by the court and even the vassals. Suddenly many of the courtiers and vassals are desperately claiming that they always supported the person they shat on or are bowing and scraping to ask for forgiveness and pledge their undying devotion. While others are resigned to their fate. The vassal lords of Europe are now all going through this process, except of course Orban and Fico who are now feeling much better.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Nov 10 2024 20:56 utc | 64

Re: Tax dynastic wealth into dust.

Seems the wealthy are good at squandering their forefathers gains.no need for punitive confiscation

“Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations”

Posted by: Exile | Nov 10 2024 21:00 utc | 65

In essence, I would argue there are no "crazy" actors on the global stage. Stupid ones? Sure. Delusional ones? Certainly, and one can simply study the US and EU for a comprehensive example. But irrational at a fundamental level? I would normally argue such a thing does not exist.

Both the zionist entity and Ukrainian Nazis challenge this basic principle of mine to the breaking point. The behavior both the populations and leaders exhibit is far beyond explanation by stupidity and delusion. This can only be genuine mass insanity.

Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 10 2024 16:45 utc | 11

First I would largely extend your lunacy list, plenty of european countries top of mind.

But the question becomes moot if we introduce the question of agency.

Countries whose leaders do other country's bidding would be rational, but not for the welfare of its people or general interest of the country.

But that would lead to a huge rift in MoA as that would award points to the side that defends that israel is just the us's minion in the ME, and not the manipulator of the us.

Posted by: Newbie | Nov 10 2024 21:03 utc | 66

@ john brewster | Nov 10 2024 20:06 utc | 59

A small request: Please refer to the pro-D jerks you describe simply as “D’s and their allies” — not “the left” or “progressives” or even as “Democrats”. Don’t dignify them by referring to their Orwellian self labeling. They don’t speak for me or many others who also call themselves “lefty” or “progressive”. TPTB “flood the zone” (even in so-called “independent” media) with garbage in order to confuse and force people into bad choices that suit TPTB.

Same goes for the R’s. People can be “conservative, not Republican” as well. So, to the extent I can catch myself, I try to criticize the R’s rather than “conservatives” — some of whom refuse to vote for the many authoritarian violent establishment R’s.

Posted by: I forgot | Nov 10 2024 21:03 utc | 67

@ Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 19:47 utc | 55

The “Deutschlandlied” is pretty run-of-the-mill Anacreontic doggerel, but it does define national boundaries that would make the neighbors uncomfortable.

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 10 2024 21:04 utc | 68

Nobody wanted to talk about Gaza or Ukraine. These are people I know, so I limited my comments. But they literally cannot see the forest for the trees.

@Posted by: john brewster | Nov 10 2024 20:06 utc | 59

TThen, why not going showing them the trees,even if it has to be in small doses...just short statements, thrown here and there, at the topic of the day, but said in a firm and convincing way, and in case they show interest, illustrate them further, with your own knowledge... or directing them to informative alterantive sources...?

What do you risk, being avoided by this known people? Being labelled a fascist? Becuase you do not agree with this whole nonsense which leads us to the precipice? So what?

It is about time to get out of our zone of comfort, risking in the way not having so many known people, or losing some of them, if it is to save our countries from disaster, otherwise we will end all crushed by the financial capital ongoing rampage in free fall over our backs to conserve the pace of stratospheric increase of their rate of proffit...in full impunity...for now....

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 21:22 utc | 69

The US has undergone the greatest relative decline in recent decades precisely as it has spent inordinate amounts on military power projection, national security boondoggles, and a permanent inefficient bureaucracy needed to run the empire business. It will continue to hemorrhage money, morality, legitimacy, and internal freedom as it continues to fortify empire.

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 17:12 utc | 16

You might compare current us situation with great britain in the 1880's.

And the rest as well, now the thing is, does the hegemon try to pass the empire over as GB did, or will it fight?

notably the seizure of the Hawaiian Island in 1893 under guise of the Republic of Hawaii, and the vicious colonial war against the Filipino peoples.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 10 2024 18:01 utc | 30

You're being too nice by 60 years at least, by 1833 the us was starting the sacking of mexico.

As soon as that process ended the imperial north razed the south and barely out it was aiding the liberation of cuba before turning to outright war of conquest for the remainder of the spanish empire.

So no, not 1893, 1833 (and that between whites, at least 50 years before that if you want to include the genocidal stage of the us indian wars). Conquering bastards for 250 years is a better description.

Posted by: Newbie | Nov 10 2024 21:26 utc | 70

@Posted by: malenkov | Nov 10 2024 21:04 utc |

Really, which neighbors, Polish ones? Who cares?

Were not those barking hyenas whom along those chihuahas in The Baltics and our comprador "Young Leaders of Davos" brought od again war and misery to Europe and submerged us down the tube pipe?

It is time of reorganizing borders, it is happening in central Europe and the Middle East, only European countries were left, conscientiously unarmed by the US, so that they can not aspire to have a say in this reorganization....

From now on I guess we will learn the lesson for the future...

Gibraltar is Spanish territory!

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 21:34 utc | 71

Really, which neighbors, Polish ones? Who cares?

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 21:34 utc | 71

___

Which neighbors? To be exhaustive: France, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Austria, and maybe Switzerland.

Who cares? Well, the Germans sure have been busy these past 70-some years teaching themselves to care.

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 10 2024 21:49 utc | 72

Thanks for the week b.

–

How many they gather over the week will be a good measure.
Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 18:46 utc | 39

I hope to have added one. Thanks for the effort Karl. Quite enlightening. Too much sanity on Putin's part though. It will not be tolerated.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Nov 10 2024 22:12 utc | 73

Posted by: I forgot | Nov 10 2024 21:03 utc | 67

“D’s and their allies” — not “the left

----

Oh, I do hear you. That is why I used quotes and "so-called" throughout. I am looking for a replacement label, but “D’s and their allies” is a not very memorable mouthful. Besides, what's the difference between Democrats and Ds? People see Ds and fill in Democrats.

I'm thinking of calling them woke-adjacent, that is, just enough separation to allow deniablity. What do you think of woke-adjacent?

Posted by: john brewster | Nov 10 2024 22:12 utc | 74

@ karlof1 | Nov 10 2024 17:58 utc | 28

thanks for all your work karlof1... putin is amazing and your work highlights all of this.. there is no one on the world stage that comes close to his ability to state in clear terms what is happening as russia sees it.. unfortunately most people in the west don't get to see this - don't want to see this.. although this speaks of the strength of propaganda, it also highlights how easily people are swayed in spite of the idea that people would be ''objective''...

Posted by: james | Nov 10 2024 18:03 utc | 32

Same here, thanks karlof.

Reprising what I said in the last thread, a not accidental at all first serious question by china...(olympics was a ahitshow and comment it was just to get it out of the way before serious talk)

Will you sell us out?

A clear answer. NO (even if they offered a place in nato)

For everything else I left out (and top of mind only) as one big statement of "we don't have the means , nor the will for hegemony, but we can help others in energy, fertilizers, engineering, security and we don't expect to squeeze others with price gouging to enrich oligarchs , nor to impose our values (that we cherish enough to fight for if you care to impose yours on us, and expect the same goes for you too)... why can't we all get along? We already consider other peer nations and know others must/will join soon, let us keep mankind alive and better"

Posted by: Newbie | Nov 10 2024 22:14 utc | 75

The semiconductors are the least part of the problem.
@ c1ue | Nov 10 2024 19:19 utc | 48

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8h5VdIe33o
James McMurtry "We Can't Make It Here"

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 10 2024 22:17 utc | 76

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 21:22 utc | 69

What do you risk, being avoided by this known people? Being labelled a fascist? Becuase you do not agree with this whole nonsense which leads us to the precipice? So what?

It is about time to get out of our zone of comfort,

----

You may be younger, but I'm in my seventies. Its hard to make new friends at this age because one has fewer opportunities to connect. No job, no kids in school, etc.

So, in answer to your question, I risk losing the few people in my life that I have maintained contact over the years. Shall I cut off my nose to spite my face? These people are merely misguided, uninformed. They, like me, are former professionals. They lived inside the bubble at work. We manage to work around the differences. We maintain civility - a virtue in increasingly short supply.

If I can't manage an interaction with close friends, how successful would I be in confronting total strangers ready for a fight?

Posted by: john brewster | Nov 10 2024 22:18 utc | 77

I'm glad to lift your spirits a bit, Patroklos, even if you've just forced me to admit that I don't really read old greek. All I can do is make sense of special cases upon examination. Usually I consult my buddy philosopher who is a trained linguist for these things. To solve, the copypasted greek was lacking the diacritica, one of which alters the (epsilon) E to HE, giving different meaning ... still fun to learn about your anecdote, that was unexpected!

The play is on το ἕν - read to hän - by missing the word entirely, yielding to hä? [το ἕ?] which sounds almost like the Germans often do when they don't get something and choose to reply with a mere sound, rather than words or an actual sentence: Hä!?. I don't think it's in the Duden official dictionary, but may be found in comic strips. The band had distinct roots in thrash metal aesthetics, so we thought it fun to spell that in the old greek, making a little fun of the technical death metal band logos and other clichés of the genre.

The real fun is in the meaning, of course. το ἕν means, roughly translated, 'the one' so wondering where the 1 might be is mocking ourselves as well, as we were setting out to fuse metal-style percussive guitar playing with hard trance, which is a form of 'techno' in my view (entirely disregarding the journalists' systematization), and craft a new style we named trance metal. Techno, especially minimal techno, makes heavy use of claves, which are rhythmical patterns that introduce notional extra signatures within a given time signature; i.e., they offer alternate counting of the ONE-two-three-etc beat of the track. So we are the band that's searching the lost 1 ... but the joke goes even further, because we liked to sing about - you guessed it - theological questions, where το ἕν is a deep concept.

Please skip reading on if you are against theological questions, but here's Donnacha Costello again with Orange for you.

From το ἕν comes the roman "translation" unum which plays a role in roman catholic theology where it denotes the all-encompassing creation of the creator, who is said to have made it for some reason. Because this creator is omniscient, omnipotent and full of love, all apparent shortcomings of creation serve some purpose intended by Him when he made it. As before, I like to challenge that notion; so here's another argument: How do we know He is omniscient? Strictly speaking, it's conjecture. Even disregarding the logical issues which arise from the concept of unum, all we can actually say with confidence is that I and Thou are here, as in here and now, and that while we are making perceptions of 'things' using our noetic faculty (which gives us το ἕν - oneness now - or: that something is), none of us have ever seen the unum (the so-called world/universe/cosmos etc) in full. So the question if such a notion of unum is viable has no proper affirmating answer; hence I decline to agree with the idea. I posit instead that being many is the original situation, since we can't conceive of not being among others in the first place (think about it). In some sense, the christian unum is like a limes number in calculus, which may or may not exist, but can't just be assumed as given without a demonstrating prove.

As a corollary, it was always like that. Other notions, such as solipsism, are illogical. That's why I like to give my account of creation starting with God making a party at his house, the generic situation of I and Thou, among others. Naturally, the party escalated, until someone crashed into the ἀόριστος δίας which started the big bang, entrapping us in filthy slag. As some say, the party is still going somewhere outside of our universe, and we are still invited and set to join after the cleaning up procedure is finished. Which leads me back to Donnacha Costello, whose music is a good example for the unique experience we may bring back to His rave, to throw at the dancing angels in the form of massive grooves and melodies rich with human soul. Seriously, they're only expecting us there; or rather, they're eagerly expecting Mr. Costello for his set. Listening to Orange B makes me think he'll even be allowed to skip a number of rebirths after crafting this monster bassline.

If you're not yet convinced of techno music and now wish to check your opinion basis, here's him again with a very subtle and elegant record, Blue.

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 10 2024 22:23 utc | 78

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 10 2024 19:57 utc | 57

Very interesting point about the us winning the industrial revolution top spot with "armory" aka precision tools and standartized outputs.

By WWII britain still had specialized workforce and huge tolerance on parts to be assembled, the us had high precision tools and methods, low tolerance on parts and that allowed producing the same plane in a production line with sub-par workers.

Even computing can be seen as a further step in that way, digital computers, limited and sucessful OSs, languages and systems.

Posted by: Newbie | Nov 10 2024 22:29 utc | 79

@Posted by: malenkov | Nov 10 2024 21:49 utc | 72

Meh...Denmark, who did not mind allowing a foreign infrastructure being blown out in its territotial waters...which meant the destruction ond industry in Europe and the general empoverishment of European people and furthger state of colonization by the anglosaxons...

Switzerland, who holds the Swift Sytem seat which enslave us all and hosts yearly a meeting of oligarchs who pleasantly conspire there to crumble humanity by drastically reducing its numbers and destroy human health capital and capabilities...

Poland...Europe has lost so many things and lives because of this country, that everybody in Europe should give them the back for years....

None of my business....but an issue to be fixed amongst those neighboring countries, after solving their differences and the perpetual offenders pay the due price for what they have done...

We will not be able to have peace in European space until the Nord Strema case is solved, the culprits signaled and punished...otherwise everything will continue the same...business as usual...until the next round...and we will continue paying the bill, us working people...

No way....

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 22:32 utc | 80

Great link by b to that Diesen question to VLP and a great reply.

Well done Glenn- he sets the question up with a long preamble. Putin making notes.
And then answers it with great finesse. Even with an anectdote from when he translated between Kohl and the mayor of somewhere back in the 90’s as a kgb man before he was in line for greater things.

About would Russia like to see a greater engagement with Europe as the the global multipolar is embracing and rejecting Block politics. With the recent BRICS conference.

VVP skewers the US vassalage of Europe and the sanctions and energy costs which are forcing the secondary industries to move away from Europe to protect themselves. Without being combative.

A great single question by a professor, I’ve seen a lot of on the Duran conducting many discussions with Alexander and many guests, and a considered off the cuff but authoritative response by one of the greatest living statesman midwifing the multipolar.
Infront of a rapt International audience all paying attention to both the Q and A.

Highly recommend everyone to watch it especially those above attempting to figure what’s up with the USA and why Europe is screwing itself as well any satraps still jump to the post war, Cold War, Yankee Occupation Tune.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 10 2024 22:34 utc | 81

morongobill - Yes, that was the speech I was referring to. He makes the common claim that being strongest is what we must insist on and ensure.

The problem as I tried to state above is that there are trade offs to everything including an inordinate focus on military power. Investing so much in the military security realm means you are impoverishing your economy, your people, and your liberties, as has indeed happened in the US more and more over recent decades.

What he does not explain is that there is a space of “adequate security” between being a world hegemon and being a pushover who invites invasion. And with two ocean moats, friendly and relatively weak neighbors, and a relatively patriotic and armed citizenry, our threshold for security is already quite set.

Do, why this insistence?

Posted by: Caliman | Nov 10 2024 22:36 utc | 82

Graphic and very illustrative...

The Japanese make a simulation with a model of what happens when you remove all the dams, reservoirs and weirs from the course of a river, explained so that even a retarded politician, fake environmentalist or media scumbag can understand it...

https://t.me/surfeandoelkaliyuga/1277

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 20:23 utc | 60

Will repeat something I said in the previous thread.

The current iteration of chinese civilization starts with a legendary emperor that builds the dams that controlled the floods.

Now spain was the poster child of "destroy the damns", 400 in 3 years, best student in 2 of those 3 years.

Screw the beavers, we need damns.

But maybe someone wants sick and famished people to farm manually pulling a plow through barely fertile land (without fertilizers or pesticides) as they fear what year will whip them out.

Posted by: Newbie | Nov 10 2024 22:45 utc | 83

I am always crude in positing the solution to humanities problems being getting rid of the God Of Mammon cult/global private finance.

In Putin's recent Valdai speech he was more clear about the issue

Vladimir Putin: The more acute the crisis, the greater the plan, because the more state intervention is required to resolve emerging problems. But the more wealth and accumulated resources become available, the louder are the proposals to move to an exclusively market-based settlement. Liberals and democrats come, conditionally, and start spending everything that was accumulated by conservatives. Then some time passes, overproduction crises arise again—conditionally, or crises related to this, and everything repeats itself an infinite number of times, everything returns to normal.

This is the sovereign choice of each state—how to build its own economic policy. China has found these opportunities. Do you know why it did? Not least because China is a sovereign state.

And many of today's economies, for a variety of reasons, because of their obligations within the framework of economic unions, military and political unions, have voluntarily renounced part of their sovereignty and are not able to make decisions either in the field of economy or in the field of ensuring their security. I'm not calling anyone for anything right now, I'm just answering your question.

Probably, at some point, the existence of the drachma, the existence of a national currency, would be appropriate, because it is possible, at least with the help of inflation, but somehow regulate social processes and get rid of social tension, not to shift all the difficulties associated with the development of the economy to the shoulders of the population.

But Greece has made other decisions in its time, resubmitting itself to regulation through the single currency and economic decisions in Brussels. This is not our business, this is the sovereign choice of the Greek state. It is difficult for me to say what to do now in these conditions. But as some of my friends and colleagues from the European Union have told me–-there are still some of them–-Brussels makes more decisions that are binding on EU member states than the Supreme Soviet of the USSR did when the Soviet Union was still in existence.

There are pros and cons, but it's not our business anymore. I tried to answer your question, I don't know if this is enough. That's what I think about it.

Humanity is in a civilization war about the role of public/private finance in our form of social organization but most don't or can't talk about it directly.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 10 2024 22:58 utc | 84

Why I think Putin is presenting a world of fantasy? Because way too much harm has been done to the European masses...and this happens to have occurred in the internet era, for good or bad...thus, an arrangement between superpowers as in the previous conflicts will not be possible since the degree of awareness amongst the critical mass is way bigger then at other eras...

Andrei Fursov explains it better...bold mine...

In the first half of the 21st century, multiple crises of varying durations are converging. We are facing a “megacrisis” unprecedented in history. However, this does not mean that we should live in fear or give up, as such an attitude would be both useless and shameful.

The 2020s represent a closing door to the future, the last time corridor to reach it. Thus, the “ticket” to that future consists of providing good education and health to the next generations.

The current situation is decisive, and this decade will mark the next 70 or 80 years. In this period, nothing will be trivial or insignificant. Therefore, it is crucial to pay attention to current events.

The “Post-West”, and with it the world, is entering its fourth Dark Age, especially in terms of European history. What do we mean by the Dark Age? It is a period in which the old has almost disappeared, but not entirely, and the new is just beginning to emerge, giving rise to archaic and deformed forms of what the future will be.

In this situation, reconstruction is not the priority. You cannot restore a house that is in ruins: if you tried, the roof would end up collapsing on you. The priority, instead, must be to create structures capable of preserving the centers of civilization and reducing the duration of this Dark Age.

Historically, examples of such structures include the monasteries of the Second Middle Ages (6th-9th centuries) and the Jesuit circles of the Third Middle Ages (16th-17th centuries). In literature, an example is Isaac Asimov’s “Academies.” It is not possible to rebuild the world while it is collapsing, it is only feasible to create small “islands” of connection where the network of a new society can develop. This new society will originate as a network of enclaves, in a process of generations of struggle and transformation.

To begin this process, it is necessary to follow certain steps. First, analyze the historical situation and trends in global development. Second, examine the main social groups in the modern world, their capabilities and interests: who are allies and who are enemies. Third, analyze the main power structures that shape current development and their projects, since they represent the synthesis of their interests and objectives. Only on this basis can a strategic design be initiated, understanding that this will impact the interests of others, inevitably generating conflict.

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 23:08 utc | 85

I invite all bar-flies to set out _your_ answer to that same question: "if you had a magic wand, what would be your economic policy for the U.S.?"

==============

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Nov 10 2024 16:05 utc | 5

This requires a truly revolutionary government has won power, but id say start with the nationalization of all finance, banks, hedge funds, etc. Plus all personal wealth over 15 million dollars. Then all communications businesses, including the largest internet companies. Oh, and all hospitals and universities.

That would set the stage for a quick solution to homelessness, poverty, hunger. Education and healthcare would also become a universal right of all citizens.

Obviously, this would just be the first step in a single country. The next step would require building a revolutionary army to carry these achievements to workers in every country.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Nov 10 2024 23:11 utc | 86

Notice that Professor Fursov says,

The 2020s represent a closing door to the future, the last time corridor to reach it. Thus, the “ticket” to that future consists of providing good education and health to the next generations.

And I question, what the US managed to cripple in the European people starting the 20s?

Just our health capital, plus advancing its until now subtle cultural colonization through its tech companies along the forced confinement, especially through Netflix and Amazon, making of European masses sick addict customers who rarely think of anything except what chapter of the next US series they do not want to lose or which unnecesary item they can not pass without in Amazon, being that never a book...

After that they started a whole offensive to get what of value there was in each of our countries...with the willing collaboration of the satraps in charge....

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 23:21 utc | 87

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 10 2024 22:23 utc | 78

Will talk latter, definitely agree on Donnacha Costello (is the color series a blink to tangerine dream's logos)

Is metal trance really something or just your joke?

On the theological part maybe later

Posted by: Newbie | Nov 10 2024 23:24 utc | 88

Why I think Putin is presenting a world of fantasy? Because way too much harm has been done to the European masses...and this happens to have occurred in the internet era, for good or bad...thus, an arrangement between superpowers as in the previous conflicts will not be possible since the degree of awareness amongst the critical mass is way bigger then at other eras...

Andrei Fursov explains it better...bold mine...

In the first half of the 21st century, multiple crises of varying durations are converging. We are facing a “megacrisis” unprecedented in history. However, this does not mean that we should live in fear or give up, as such an attitude would be both useless and shameful.

The 2020s represent a closing door to the future, the last time corridor to reach it. Thus, the “ticket” to that future consists of providing good education and health to the next generations.

The current situation is decisive, and this decade will mark the next 70 or 80 years. In this period, nothing will be trivial or insignificant. Therefore, it is crucial to pay attention to current events.

The “Post-West”, and with it the world, is entering its fourth Dark Age, especially in terms of European history. What do we mean by the Dark Age? It is a period in which the old has almost disappeared, but not entirely, and the new is just beginning to emerge, giving rise to archaic and deformed forms of what the future will be.

In this situation, reconstruction is not the priority. You cannot restore a house that is in ruins: if you tried, the roof would end up collapsing on you. The priority, instead, must be to create structures capable of preserving the centers of civilization and reducing the duration of this Dark Age.

Historically, examples of such structures include the monasteries of the Second Middle Ages (6th-9th centuries) and the Jesuit circles of the Third Middle Ages (16th-17th centuries). In literature, an example is Isaac Asimov’s “Academies.” It is not possible to rebuild the world while it is collapsing, it is only feasible to create small “islands” of connection where the network of a new society can develop. This new society will originate as a network of enclaves, in a process of generations of struggle and transformation.

To begin this process, it is necessary to follow certain steps. First, analyze the historical situation and trends in global development. Second, examine the main social groups in the modern world, their capabilities and interests: who are allies and who are enemies. Third, analyze the main power structures that shape current development and their projects, since they represent the synthesis of their interests and objectives. Only on this basis can a strategic design be initiated, understanding that this will impact the interests of others, inevitably generating conflict.

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 23:08 utc | 85

Tempted to agree, -1180, 476, 2132 is a proposition hard to fight (and things went south a century before but only became dire later and only finished some decades later, so 2050s-2190s should see the worst of it)

On the other hand as I mentioned when karlof posted the first part, putin is the man to fight to his last breath to do it or die trying. Usually those end periods are very bad for europe, but for the rest of the world, not as much, RF only has a foot in europe.

Posted by: Newbie | Nov 10 2024 23:38 utc | 89

My ideas gravitate towards “decentralized communism”: Reduce concentrated power everywhere: Greatly reduce government taxation and spending but also greatly disperse private capital (because concentrated private power is just as bad — they end up running the government for their benefit).
…

Posted by: I forgot | Nov 10 2024 18:47 utc | 40

I think we're on the same page as to goals, but for the radical change you outline here, centralized power is critical. The moment you began any of these reforms there would be a military response internally (civil war) and internationally (reactionary states wanting to kill disease before it spreads). The entire world ruling class would be at your throat.

I understand the concern about centralized power, but it's like a gun. There is nothing wrong with it in principle and it's incredibly handy. It just depends on who is using it and to what end.

Look at Russia/China. None of that development would have been possible with numerous decentralized power centers.

I feel the same way about globalization. Yes, the Davos cretins are globalists for a small clique of capitalist rapists. That doesn't mean the working class can simply ignore a thousand years of economic development and return to feudal city states.

That attitude is a sort of neo luddite perspective. It signifies a good person who wants to solve the problem, but without a historic perspective. It's a bit anarchist.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Nov 10 2024 23:41 utc | 90

Ahenobarbus | Nov 10 2024 23:11 utc | 86
*** Obviously, this would just be the first step in a single country. The next step would require building a revolutionary army to carry these achievements to workers in every country.***

Good ideas, but re above quote the 'next' step -- at least on a one-country basis -- would also need to be taken first.
especially in view of what happened to Libya...

Posted by: Cynic | Nov 10 2024 23:41 utc | 91

On why not allowing Germany to sing its own anthem sounds quite ridiculous when you seriously analyze the flagrant current results for the peoples of Europe of the Schengen Agreement...

Those who supported Schengen have blood on their hands

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 23:55 utc | 92

Dear B,

With regard to the article you posted a link to: "Dutch Jews grapple with ‘weaponization’ of their fear following attack on Israelis"

- it's possible that the target audience for the media reports on the rampage of the Maccabi Tel Aviv "football fans" through Amsterdam, and the immediate public reaction to those hooligans' vandalism and violence, was the Dutch Jewish community itself.

If Mossad planned this violence - and it looks likely that they did - then they would know that the local Jewish community would be traumatised enough, that some of their members might seriously consider leaving the Netherlands and migrate to Israel. Taking their money and other assets with them, of course.

Mossad and the Israeli govt have a history of inciting violence in other countries - in Iraq in the early 1950s, perhaps in Argentina in 1994, perhaps in France much more recently - so as to present such violence or the local reaction against that violence in a way that creates panic among Jewish communities in those countries and compel people in those communities to leave. They do this repeatedly because past history itself demonstrates that they get the results they want.

[British-Israeli historian] Avi Shlaim says he has 'proof of Zionist involvement' in 1950s attack on Iraqi Jews

British-Israeli historian claims in new memoir that Mossad carried out bombings to drive Jews out of Iraq and hasten their transfer to Israel ...

I wonder how desperate the current situation must be in Israel that Mossad is now despicably seizing whatever opportunity presents itself to stir up trouble and create new traumas for Jewish communities in other countries, exploiting past fears and memories of anti-Jewish persecution and violence, to compel them to leave their homes and migrate to Israel, bringing their financial assets with them.

The Dutch Jewish community may be small compared to other Jewish communities in other countries but a total figure of 30,000 is still not inconsiderable.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Nov 11 2024 0:04 utc | 93

@c1ue | Nov 10 2024 19:19 utc

c1ue: replies interleaved with your post below.

========

c1ue: Completed expected variant of "learn to code" nonsense.

No reason to respond to that.

c1ue: What the US needs is very simple: start making things that we use.

Everyday people don't need software or "creativity", they need food and cars and glassware and toys and tools and household appliances and ... and ... and ... ad infinitum.

Tom: yes we need all those products. No, the conditions under which we will shortly produce those products are _not_ the same as they were when we used to produce those same products. What's different?

a. Labor input per unit produced is way lower. When those factories left the U.S. for China, they were re-configured to use the latest (at the time) advances in productivity-enhancing tech. When those factories come back to the U.S., some 30-40 years later, they will also enjoy a major increment in labor-saving tech. How many new jobs were you expecting that re-shoring to produce for the U.S., c1ue?

b. The cost of all inputs, not just labor, is _much_ higher here in the U.S. than it was in (for ex) China. So there's going to be a significant increment in inflation (higher price, same goods).

c. Those products we're going to re-start manufacturing here in the U.S. - like glassware, shoes, textiles, TVs, circuit boards, and so forth - are going to have the same deficits the current products do: they're once-and-done, use for a short while and throw away products. They can't be recycled, they use expensive and progressively less-available, more expensive to acquire materials. The _design_ of those products has passed their sell-by date. Why re-start manufacturing of obsolete products?

=== for other readers:

The significance of "less labor needed per unit output" is a crucial concept. Modern economies produce way more stuff than most of those economies can actually consume. That's why every country is looking for (and fights over) export markets. And in order to consume what we produce, the bulk of the populace has to make enough money to buy all that stuff. And we don't. That's why the U.S. is in debt to everyone. Our workers don't make enough to buy what we produce (and what we import). So if we "re-shore" manufacturing, are wages going to rise enough to buy the (higher priced) goods we produce? Or are we just making a bad situation worse? (e.g. rich people hoover up the wealth, and the plebes get further in debt).

====

c1ue: The US is the largest importer of glass in the entire world.
Why? We have sand, we have energy.

Tom: I agree. Let's manufacture glass. And let's find a way to effectively re-cycle that glass. Let's design products, and product life-cycles that don't throw that glass away after one use. That'll require ... here it is, "new product development" and to make those new products, new production processes as well. Lots of them. And it will require ... creativity and re-skilling. And because so many of our current products' design is obsolete, we need a _lot_ of new product development. Now.

c1ue: The same can be said for an infinite number of final, intermediate and raw manufacturing inputs.
Do we need to make everything? No, of course not.
But the US as a nation has strayed far too far into the import realm.

Tom: correct. Let's manufacture here. Let's manufacture things that are meant to last, whose materials are (mostly) recoverable and recyclable. Let's pay people to repair what we have, instead of throwing it away, and having to spend all that additional money on mining, transport, manufacture, distribute ... all over again, instead of making a product that's actually economically viable to _fix_.

Let's move labor from materials sourcing and into product repair and re-use. Let's build production processes the eliminate transport and packaging so we don't have waste money, energy or CO2 output on it. (Local production can do that, btw).
Guess what? To make products that are fixable and materials-recoverable takes .... do I need to say it? "new product development".

c1ue: Target improvement in production in areas that matter for the American economy.
Is it glass? Maybe.
Is it steel? maybe.
Is it pharma drug chemicals? maybe.
But it for god damned sure is not software or chips or "creativity".

Tom: It may be all those things. But if one - not you, I understand that you eschew the notion of recycling, and environmental protection, and all things "green" - but if one accepts the notion that many of our production processes are obsolete because they waste energy and materials, then the "creativity" that you so disdain is going to be absolutely crucial.

Creative people are the ones that think up new ideas, new materials, new products. I see this as self-evident, and it astonishes me that you'd spend any ink disparaging "creativity". Musk, Jobs, Bezos, Edison, Wright Bros, McCormick, etc. all made their impact via creativity. Fundamentally changed ours and the world's economy and standard of living with ... creativity.

c1ue: Fuck the semiconductor chips. The semiconductors are the least part of the problem.
Tom: Not sure where that came from, or its relevance to the conversation.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Nov 11 2024 0:14 utc | 94

Tom Pfotzer @ 5:

A series of five-year plans, similar to what the Soviet Union and China had back in the 20th century - and incidentally what South Korea had in the latter half of the century, under President Park Chunghee (ruled 1961 to 1979, when he was assassinated by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency) and his successors - outlining goals and programs to achieve them will be needed for the US.

One necessary program would be to improve and modernise transport infrastructure networks across the US. Other infrastructure improvements - improving the road and interstate highway networks, installing battery charge stations for EVs (and creating transport and communication hubs around those stations), targeting regional towns and cities as potential hubs for economic stimulus and to be nodes in new improved transport and communications infrastructure networks - are needed.

The US postal system could become the focus of a new banking system by giving post offices the functions of saving banks and banks lending money for housing and small businesses. Savings and commercial banks must be kept strictly separate from investment banks through the strengthening of the 1932 Glass Steagall Act and its successor acts or similar acts. One way of doing this would be to make all savings and commercial banks the responsibility of State governments.

The new banking system could encourage investment in new industries that encourage people to grow their own food and lessen their dependence on supermarkets, hypermarkets and other institutions linked to agribusiness corporations and factory farming. This could help create new jobs and teach people new skills and knowledge that would help them and their communities, and increase their self-sufficiency.

There must be some diversity in savings and commercial banks as well, to enable them to be competitive against one another and prevent corporate takeover, and way to achieve this would be to allow banks using Islamic banking to operate as savings and commercial banks. Islamic communities, their leaders and Islamic scholars could be granted oversight over Islamic banking systems together with State governments to ensure their practices are consistent with Islamic banking rules which forbid usury and exploitation of borrowers.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Nov 11 2024 0:26 utc | 95

Thanks for the replies. On Putin's opening Speech at Valdai, he immediately notes it coincides with an extraordinarily important revolutionary historical date, and then notes that today's times are also revolutionary, maybe even more so than what transpired in 1917. Specifically, Putin said:

"We are also destined to live in an era of fundamental, even revolutionary changes, and not only to comprehend but also to take a direct part in the most complex processes of the first quarter of the 21st century."

That's far more profound than anything he said at Kazan. But by the time you get to the end of the transcript, his very powerful introductory observation is all but forgotten. He then continues after an aside:

"We are witnessing the formation of a completely new world order, nothing like we had in the past, such as the Westphalian or Yalta systems."

After several more asides, Putin continues:

"Something, on the contrary, became a complete surprise for everyone. Indeed, the dynamics is very intensive. In fact, the modern world is unpredictable. If you look back 20 years and evaluate the scale of changes, and then project these changes onto the coming years, you can assume that the next twenty years will be no less, if not more difficult. And how much more difficult they will be, depends on the multitude of factors."

I will not post the rest of his speech that further elaborates on the possibilities that confront humanity. Those interested can read it here. No leader has given a speech of this tenor yet in our current century. Its boldness fits its revolutionary nature. Nothing of the sort was even hinted at by Trump, Harris or any other person connected with the 2024 election, except perhaps when we consider what Professors Hudson and Wolff discussed in their meetings with Nima. Dr. Hudson sent me a personal comment on the speech saying it was awesome. And so it was. And what commentary did the speech arouse from major media? The WaPost lied and said Trump called and talked to Putin on Thursday while he was making his appearance at Valdai. NY Times? London Times? Le Monde? La Figaro? Silence of the lambs or crickets it appears. What about a response from Trump or some other Western misleader? Do they think if they ignore it that it will go away?

There's a huge amount of detail to discuss from Putin's speech. I intend to use the official English transcript since its available and run a commentary article on just the speech. With my schedule for tomorrow's holiday, I imagine it will be published by Tuesday, maybe sooner. I have quite a lot to comment about it, and I'm sure others will have a similar supply.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 11 2024 0:33 utc | 96

The DJT phenomenon is different from DJT. Indeed, it could and can still exist without him.

What is the phenomenon?

Ann Coulter, despite not having a talent for government, had nonetheless the best take on DJT and how this whole thing got started in the first place.

Basically, Miss Coulter said that there was a dirty, ugly, smelly thing on the floor. Everybody knew it was there but in their hearts, sought to deny its existence because the horror of what that thing meant, the meaning of the thing, if brought up to attention, would disprove the whole system that we had come to be engaging with. Or at least the way many of us, technocrats and those that thrive in this environment, engage with.

It would affect both those on the right or the left. Leftists because their goody-goody idea of welcoming has been a slap in the face to the lower-classes who have seen immigration destroy their wages, and environmentalism gut their manufacturing economy by offshoring lower-class jobs.

It affected the right because, despite having increasing access to lower-wage slaves in the form of browns, it would draw attention to the torn social fabric of a country that could not point to any unified mission or goal. Also, they would have to admit that the freedom to offshore jobs (the absolute freedom of world markets) actually hurt Americans, identified by culture, language, and to a large degree along racial lines.

What was this smelly, dirty thing on the ground that people kept walking over or tiptoe-ing around?

This was a feeling. An unease. A contradiction that was manifest in every department of national life: our department of defense had made us less safe; Our department of education had made our children stupider; Our Homeland security enabled a porous, hardly effective border; our FDA could not keep up with disease rates in their guidance and purview.

If the Liberal World Order was a gravy train for the elites and its beauracratic classes in the MIC, Academic Industrial Complex, and Big Pharma, it had just one rule: do not taste of the fruit of the Tree of Contradiction.

Well, along came the only man who had the intestinal fortitude to pick up that filthy, stinking, ugly red hat, and, taking a bite out of the proverbial fruit, pointed to things that TPTB could no longer conceal.

DJT pointed to the fact that green technology was cost prohibitive for the poor. He said that Mexicans were driving wages down. That NAFTA was treason. That wars were lining the pockets of the elite but were sending G.I. Joe home with PTSD.

He defended the little guy. The dumb guy. The hollowed-out guy. The white trash guy. The guy left behind.

Everyone else refused to look at the condition of the patient on those American streets. But it was indeed dire. But like Lazarus, busted forth back onto the scene and got Trump elected.

Now, perhaps the evermore noticeable contradictions were getting too hard to hide. Perhaps Trump was picked. Perhaps Trump is a tool after all, with no intention of "nationalizing" the concept of America again.

But at this point, I think the question is moot. One way or another, these things have been spoken into consciousness and now exist with a life of their own. Liberalism has failed. If it hasn't failed in offering us a system of equality and peace, it has failed in its ability to conceal that it can not deliver these. Indeed, perhaps has made them worse.

Trump doesn't stand a chance. It's just nice to see a Captain Stuby-like character presiding over this bitch's disintegration.

The DJT-phenomenon rolls on.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Nov 11 2024 0:38 utc | 97

Correction to my comment @ 95:

"... There must be some diversity in savings and commercial banks as well, to enable them to be competitive against one another and prevent corporate takeover, and one way to achieve this would be to allow banks using Islamic banking to operate as savings and commercial banks. Islamic communities, their leaders and Islamic scholars could be granted oversight over Islamic banking systems together with State governments to ensure their practices are consistent with Islamic banking rules which forbid usury and exploitation of borrowers ..."

BTW regarding the paragraph @ 94:

... Creative people are the ones that think up new ideas, new materials, new products. I see this as self-evident, and it astonishes me that you'd spend any ink disparaging "creativity". Musk, Jobs, Bezos, Edison, Wright Bros, McCormick, etc. all made their impact via creativity. Fundamentally changed ours and the world's economy and standard of living with ... creativity ...

New products only become viable if the society at large finds a need for them. As an example, television was invented in the 1920s - the technological developments leading to television were completed by the end of that decade - but television didn't catch on with the public until much later, certainly well after World War II and for most Western countries, the public started buying TV sets in the mid-1950s.

Usually some major cultural or economic development occurs that makes new technologies available to the public, at prices most people can afford, and that is when acceptance and adoption of these technologies really takes off. In the case of television, that occurred when many Western governments, wishing to placate the public for its efforts in defeating or helping to defeat Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and their allies, began passing social reform or civil rights legislation that gave people more economic security and freedom to pursue better and more enriched lives.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Nov 11 2024 0:40 utc | 98

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Nov 10 2024 20:40 utc | 61

What part of Spain do you live in? We will be in Valencia next spring and traveling east along the coast for the calçotada(s) closer to Blanes.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 11 2024 0:47 utc | 99

The details of the involvement of Mossad in the violence in Amsterdam make me suspect that Mossad was also involved in the violent attack on the protest encampment at UCLA last spring.

Posted by: Lysias | Nov 11 2024 1:01 utc | 100