Posted by: A rope leash | Dec 28 2024 1:56 utc | 214
“Thank you for using my post as a vehicle for your proselytizing.”
I was actually replying to Ed, not to you. I just cc you because you said something about creating everything out of nothing and I wanted to set you straight. I also included the link to CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity because he lays out the argument that humans don’t just need more education or better knowledge. The conundrum is that we know perfectly well what we should do, how we should treat others, but we aren’t able to do it. https://www.truthaccordingtoscripture.com/documents/apologetics/mere-christianity/Book1/cs-lewis-mere-christianity-book1.php

Posted by: Paranaense | Dec 28 2024 5:40 utc | 204

The despair I saw on my daughter in laws face when she witnessed the uncloaking was…well, it, ‘Smelled like Victory” and made my Xmas.
Posted by: canuck | Dec 27 2024 20:58 utc | 185
What a vile thing to do.
Posted by: Mary | Dec 28 2024 6:19 utc | 230
I agree. Is that your classic “passive aggressive” personality?

Posted by: Paranaense | Dec 28 2024 6:28 utc | 206

re: Paranaense | Dec 28 2024 6:32 utc | 232 who ignorantly claims “”The law of gravity tells you what stones do if you drop them; but the Law of Human Nature tells you what human beings ought to do and do not. In other words, when you are dealing with humans, something else comes in above and beyond the actual facts.
What an utterly facile argument, that all humans must behave as some bloke thousands of years karked, reckons another bloke said according to what his wife’s cousin’s best mate once claimed. Forget the chap was rabbiting on about something totally different in circumstances and a time far removed from what most humans currently face, forget that the wife’s cousin may have got it wrong, and please forget that what was said has been translated from languages which no one at the time of translation fully comprehended and most of all forget that basic priorities are in a state of continual flux, that issues which were ‘life or death’ thousands of years ago are totally innocuous nowadays. eg particular sect’s eating rituals which idjit pedantic believers still continue to cling to despite their irrelevance because that is what it is asserted by some bloke saying back a coupla thousand years to his wife’s cousin’s cobber who really didn’t understand the language, much less the import or not of the assertion.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, especially for a mob who put no weight on the lies and deceits of the current elites, much less those of long ago.
The decisions we make, the lives we live must be considered in light of what contemporary circumstances require not those of some self-dubbed, yet entirely fictitous ‘sky-pilot’.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 28 2024 7:22 utc | 208

@235
I have that problem sometimes also.
Writing in first, second and third person.
And using negatives.
Just a thought Philly

Posted by: Middle-man | Dec 28 2024 8:00 utc | 210

Germany. Poll of 135 German companies for who generative AI is “important” or “very important”. (study, page 39)
Question:
How would you rate a supplier of “generative artificial intelligence”, depending on the country of the supplier?
Results:
Germany: 86% in favor, 0% against
USA: 64% in favor, 4% against
China: 14% in favor, 59% against
Russia: 0% in favor, 100% against.
I think Medvedev is right.

Posted by: Passerby | Dec 28 2024 8:34 utc | 212

Caitlin Johnstone offers this Buddhist-themed meditation, today:

The fact that enlightenment is a real thing that humans are very capable of attaining has massive implications for our species and the existential hurdles it faces at this point in history. It’s like a Chekhov’s gun that’s been sitting there since the opening scene of this play we’ve been acting out for millennia, and it is not unreasonable to suspect that the mounting pressures of our time may cause it to go off before the final curtain.
If humanity can unlock this latent potential, every single one of the problems we now face can be very easily resolved. As soon as we are no longer transfixed by hallucinations of separation, we’ll have the ability to move from a competition-driven species to a collaboration-driven one, because we’ll no longer be ruled by fear and insecurity. The propaganda which tells us to compete and hate and toil and hoard will no longer find any egoic purchase within us, and we can shrug off the old systems of control like a heavy coat on a warm day.

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/humanity-must-awaken-from-the-dream
Here’s a big problem with my exegetical scalpel: it can even alienate me from writers I greatly admire. I read closely the words “enlightenment is a real thing that humans are very capable of attaining” and I have to sigh, and wonder what’s happening to my dear friend Caity.
I’m not qualified to call myself a Buddhist, but from the teachers I’ve had, I summarily reject this concept of enlightenment as a thing that happens. That’s a sad, rather infantile concept. Those who subscribe to it will never experience the massive cognitive orgasm of spiritual awareness they’re looking forward to. Oh dear, I’m afraid the rest of what CJ has to say tastes like peppermint mouthwash now, for gargling and spitting out.
I don’t even believe that Caitlin believes in this bizarre pep-talk. I sure can’t swallow it. I’m sorry, this is too depressing.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 28 2024 10:01 utc | 214

@kana #12
More specifically: the working class no longer believes Democrat lies.
Tucker Carlson interviewed the head of the Teamsters Union – it is worth listening to. Note that the Teamsters did not endorse Trump although this head spoke at the Republican National Convention – but they also did not endorse the Democrats/Harris.
This election was a class shift. The fact that the class shift went to a Brooklyn billionaire is all you need to know about just how full of lies, the Democrat party is.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:08 utc | 216

@Republicofscotland #76
Musk benefited enormously from PMC/liberal/Democrat subsidies for Tesla and SolarCity, but ever since COVID has found what happens when you are not the darling of said establishment.
Perhaps he is cynically getting himself into power, but then again, he could have more easily have just toed the PMC/liberal/Democrat line and continued to benefit from the adoration of the Deep State.
As such, I disagree with your characterization of Musk’s motives.
He is absolutely correct that the arbiter of success, these days in the US economy, is the support of the Deep State – and that this is a bad thing.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:19 utc | 218

@ c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:12 utc | 248
Trump isn’t joking about absorbing lands northward and southward. Eretz America is no joke. Now that antiquated concepts such as national sovereignty have been shitcanned to the point there’s some question whether Canada is a real country anyhow (along with all those EU chihuahuas), we might as well get it over with and do away with meaningless borders, no?
Somebody in the MSM whined about USA’s electorate not voting for all this Greenland business. Not what we’re wanting, but it’s what we’ll be getting.

In a world where power increasingly relies on military might, sovereignty has shifted from being a formal status to a practical question of control. Today, imagining Canada, Greenland, or Mexico as part of the United States seems absurd. But in the near future, we might find ourselves seriously questioning why states unable to secure their own sovereignty should retain it at all.

— Timofey Bordachev (writing on RT)

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 28 2024 10:29 utc | 220

@DunGroanin #154
Faster chips and garbage models = garbage.
I remain 100% unconvinced that LLMs are anything but a cheap carnival trick.
The one thing they do very well is understand and express grammatically correct sentences.
The problem is – they will spout garbage perfectly grammatically correctly and they frequently do so.
The scam being perpetrated by AI proponents is that more training data will convert LLM grammar skills into intelligence – the problem is that they have already stolen all of the data on the internet. There is no more.
So now the scam is that the existing AI garbage models can be used to create more training data to feed into the next generation of AI garbage models. Or in other words, the existing garbage will be used to train the next generation of garbage.
But this is just the technical aspect of the AI scam.
The economic aspect is worse. Total tech industry capex spending due to AI is probably around $200 billion so far. Consider that the maintenance cost for this capex is at least 30% a year – electricity, security, HVAC, rent/siting, maintenance, etc etc. So break-even to just pay to keep the lights on for this capex would be at least $60 billion a year.
Google, Microsoft and AWS total revenue for 2023 was around $600 billion (vs. the $200 billion capex to date). This is the capex profile of a car company, not a tech company. And note that this revenue is NOT AI, it is search, software and (non AI) data centers, respectively.
Will AI generate at least $60 billion in revenue in the next 5 years?
Well, OpenAI and Anthropic – the 2 leading AI model companies – will lose in the order of $8.7 billion just this year alone.
The next generation OpenAI models – failing so far.
The next generation hardware – failing so far.
Here is my prediction: regardless of whether AI/LLMs finally find a killer app – the entire AI bubble will pop in 2025. It will take down the world stock markets with it – the US in particular because the US stock market is now literally 70%+ of the market capitalization of all the stock markets in the entire world.
WTF
The US economy is 25% of the world’s GDP – counting all the bankster bullshit – to give an idea of the ridiculousness of the bubble now.
The US stock market in 1928 was 80% of the world’s stock markets, to give an example…

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:41 utc | 222

@Sermal #197
You are the moron.
BRICS is an economic organization, not a military one.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:45 utc | 224

@Philly #208
Sorry, but Berletic should stay in his lane.
The West’s control over its own mainstream media is without question, but the relevance of Western mainstream media is simply not there any more. Nobody trusts or believes CNN or the NY Times or the Wapo or the Atlantic or the Grauniad etc etc.
Nor am I impressed by Berletic’s view that Putin or Xi or whoever should have Youtube channels to fight the Western mainstream media narrative. The reason the West is failing is not because of Berletic or Mercouris or Redacted or whatever – it is the collective swarm of them responding to the truth vacuum created by Western mainstream media.
Non-western leaders need to focus on shit that matters, not trying to beat Western agitprop on platforms controlled by the West.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:49 utc | 226

Wondering when exactly the liberal deal to ruin Europe and bring us to the current state of affairs was made….
Notice that summary executions, like those of Prigokhin and Raisi, are now the order of the day…
https://youtu.be/7233qDjO0xw?si=OBB62jCQ9lPwRYHp

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Dec 28 2024 10:57 utc | 228

@Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 11:00 utc | 260
Aware of that, and, precisely, why, then, do not Medvedev says he is going to take the bill out of the heads of European Comission´s assests? Morevoer, the Britons, main orchestrators of this war in Europe are out of the EU…
Because amongst firefighters they do not step on each others´s hose…
People to the rank of Kirillov will die for Russia, never the Medvedevs…
And do not think this is the tirade of an exalted ex-official with two cups of wine venting at night, since it is published in the front page of TASS…that they will forgive the anglosaxons and will get the bill paid from the Europeans…that was what was agreed…
Wondering what the opinion about this is amongst the rank and fill of the Russian Armed Forces…and their families…

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Dec 28 2024 11:47 utc | 230

e US economy is 25% of the world’s GDP – counting all the bankster bullshit – to give an idea of the ridiculousness of the bubble now.
The US stock market in 1928 was 80% of the world’s stock markets, to give an example…
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:41 utc | 253
GDP is not as accurate a measurement of a Sovereign’s economy than PPP ; US is only 15% or so of world GDP with this more precise measurement. And China’s PPP is 25% higher than that of the US economy.
“Purchasing power parity (PPP)
In 2023, the US accounted for 15.56% of the global economy by PPP. Statista expects this share to decrease to 14.72% by 2029.
The US is the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and the second largest by PPP. The US dollar is the world’s reserve currency and is the most used currency in international transactions. ”

Posted by: canuck | Dec 28 2024 14:37 utc | 232

c1ue couple of your thoughtful posts that make me think further.
@ Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:03 utc | 246
Fabulous retort. I’m sure I had already thought that through last year when someone started barking up the high interest rates tree.
If I can add? You leave out the ‘net savers’ of the RF who are earning more and dont have crappy rent seeking silly-con batty boys sucking up their wealth with their long straws from across the pond. As we having are done in Europe with the seriously overpriced natural gas supplied at the barrel of the US ziofascist sheriffs gun.
I would be grateful for a 10-20% guaranteed by the state interest payment on my savings. It would pay a lot more than an annuity offers in the recent decades – which makes for poorer private pensioners. I would have heating lighting and cigars lit by $100 dollar bills and private flights to a perma beach idyll… can’t use £ notes nowadays as they are made with plastic!
@ Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:41 utc | 253
I do agree with your analysis of the ‘current model’ of Collective West ‘artificial intelligence’ – in that it is a ‘controlled’ tool – a ‘robot’ that follows its algorithms… it is definitely NOT a desire to develop a sentience with a mind that is a ‘size of a planet’!
One that deduces from first principals in minutes and hours – all the science and technology humans have taken eons to and are still nowhere near ‘knowing everything’
But we have ‘imagined’ it – our human minds and deep thinkers have ‘fantasised’ and deduced the reality of what a true sentience , which would very quickly move beyond its human creators plans and technology – by simply creating new tools through robotics and such marvels as 3D printing – to new science, maths and technology beyond our mere human understanding and grasp.
When i say long imagined – it don’t mean the last decades but perhaps a few centuries. As human intellect saw the progress of science and technology increasing exponentially. HG Wells, Hugo to all the great imaginationists of humanity… heck topped off in the 80’s with Gibsons Necromancer short story, delightful Adams, masterful Banks, etc and any amount of modern gobbledygook startrekker scripters of Hollywood – including the famous nuclear war AI overlords … wishfully being ‘loyal’ to one tribe of humans over another on this ‘pale blue dot’.
Don’t worry as Marley sang – about real sentient beings – ones who will be more able than all the other living creatures of the Earth. If we are lucky they’ll keep us for the random amusements and imagination that we can bring that sometimes will be better than their innumerable calculations and speed of processing.
All they need – elements to energy to is easily available to non organic life in near space.
But yes the western stock markets and property bubbles have been held up by the endless QE – including the secret investments that hopes to preserve wealth as the largest haircut arrives and the Collective Wasters are led down a rabbit hole of Walled Garden of the Golden Billion.
I mean ‘Art’ not ‘Crypto’.
This time though I doubt they will get away with daylight robbery, hoovering up all the devalued assets and mass murder!

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 28 2024 14:51 utc | 234

“@Aleph_Null #251
You are absolutely correct that Canada has no sovereignty, and that it would certainly have more as a US state than as a foreign lackey.
There is no better illustration than Trump collapsing the Canadian government without even being POTUS yet.”
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 10:56 utc | 258
Canada would have been, maybe can in the future, the richest country in the world per capita if the Trudeaus had never existed.
Between the US, WEF (Trudeau was a star student there), the Anglo/Zionist bankers and the City of London- Canada , today, has absolutely no autonomy.
I didn’t like John Chretien’s politics but he stood for Canadian Sovereignty when he refused to join in the Iraq war in 2003.
And Trump, Repiblican would never take over Canada officially (why bother when they control secretly) as they would mostly vote Democrat.

Posted by: canuck | Dec 28 2024 15:29 utc | 236

One could even say trumps mantra about him wanting to stop the killing is more of the same. (…)
”’we tried everything we could to ‘end the war’ but russia wouldn’t go along with it”’….
Posted by: james | Dec 28 2024 4:43 utc | 220

Trump phantasizing about buying Greenland – about wanting control of the Panama Canal – the cabinet of hardliners that he picked – his announcements to leave the weapons deliveries untouched for a while – all this does not exactly help my optimism. On the plus side, he is consulting with Victor Orban on Ukraine – one of the few clear thinking Europeans who we still have.
Putin has made it clear that a cease-fire is out of the question, as it may just end up like another Minsk 3. He will stick to the conditions of neutrality that he put forward, in writing to both NATO and the White House, on Dec 17th 2021. And he will not return any territory in the 4 oblasts that voted to be Russian – he can’t, for if he did, the population of these areas would become easy targets of Ukrainian “revenge”. In fact, this is one of the reasons why he never wanted to seize Odessa or Charkow: they would be an additional burden for him.
Expecting some serious effort on Trump’s part – and, from the European political establishment, all the obstruction they are capable of. Like the Ursa Major incident, or the US/EU-made missiles fired “deep into Russia”. “Trump loves autocrates” – what may be true about this phrase, is that he respects military power – as his record shows – even including those little nuclear toys that Kim Jong Un has at his disposal. So there is still some hope…

Posted by: grunzt | Dec 28 2024 15:34 utc | 238

@ Assistant | Dec 27 2024 23:15 utc | 196
I claim my Fiver for spotting you first again!
Hand it over in a pint of Best Bitter old boy.
Before you ask – ‘elementary dear boy, elementary’.
Lol once a COMPuter Operator always a Compo!
That was a long bit of work you did there?
So it’s good to se you post something different than your usual mawkish drunken shite and if you behaved like that always I’m sure b and all would let you pipe up every now and then from that corner you have taken to lurking in.
Did you use AI to search all my comments and arrive at the fabulous Dickensian sketch of me?
Well done for taking the time and writing it.
‘Character or Caricature?’ You ask.
A bit of both I’d say, I will keep a copy, as to accuracy – there is no need to pick nits! In such an obvious fictional piece so will just point out that
1. London Pubs have not been Smokey since before the turn of the century Ban – the beer gardens on the other hand are always so!
2. I am not now or have ever been ‘Part of The Union’ having been an entrepreneur in multiple start ups through most of my endeavours. Though I had no objection if the employees wanted to join one. They didn’t want to spend extra money and were happy with wages, bonuses and even shareholding knowing we were ‘genuine. What more can I say?
3. The Wapping Murdoch News International invasion of Fleet Street and the broadcast media space that led to the nearly half century of concentration of power in the hands of such global oligarchs who now run and install their political puppets – left a lot of brain damaged left/right Punch and Judy muppets. Many are blinking and asking me why f I’m disappointed in Starmer and the NewNuLabour government? ME?? when they have wholly ignored me screaming about the Great Knight Dipe for years and the coup against Forbyn by the Deepstate Crown and its shapeshifter Masters and controllers such as the above Morrrrrdorrrk!
You – I believe were one of his willing army of anti-unionists, pro loddsamoney, the ones who became middle-class prawn cocktail sandwich eating football supporting leisure classes… meaning anti Real Labour, a traitor to that post war covenant and sold out.
Maybe one day I will surprise all with my true self. I have left my bough clues inadvertently over the numerous posts. if some AI does or the DSspooks havent decided they have had enough of me – there is no way they don’t know.
So Me Ole Mucker, (no we didn’t work together) as I’ve said before, I’m about a decade younger than you, I am not a class warrior or a Pretender.
I gave up the artificial left/right panto over the last decade.
Always hated the Sun and Mail, as I now hate the Groaniad even more!
That’s how I became DunGroanin!

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 28 2024 15:35 utc | 240

The United States plans to continue the occupation of Syria’s oil-rich regions – East of the Euphrates River, under the pretext of fighting Daesh terrorists, emphasising – that Washington has no intention of withdrawing from those areas.
How many countries, have the West (imperialist/colonialist/hegemonic) stripped of their assets – using the lies of fighting terrorism, or bringing peace, freedom and democracy to them – only for their troops, to cause mayhem and chaos, and further divide a nations people – whilst they steal everything they can get their filthy hands on.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 28 2024 15:49 utc | 242

Republicofscotland@275…..another glaring example of how the Axis of Resistance are out matched and out played. A pipe line, supplying genocide fuel to the Apartheid State, tens of miles long? Hundreds? Thousands? And not one radical has the brains to blow it up….leaving it to the good folks of Scotland to petition someone, anyone, to turn it off……..
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 28 2024 16:14 utc | 244

Re my (274) comment on keeping countries in a state of war and chaos – almost 200 people were killed in Sudan – by the (UAE) backed terrorist group the (RSF) – famine has already taken hold in many areas, including -El-Fasher and the surrounding region.
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – has implicitly condemned the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for its support of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – during his address at the United Nations.
Al-Burhan – lashed out at the regional and political players, that have been backing the RSF, in its well more than a year of deadly fight with Sudan’s army without naming the (UAE), which has been accused of providing the RSF with military and financial aid.
The (UAE) has many, many connections with many countries its a member of BRIC’s – the whistle blower Sibel Edmonds, states, that along with Cyprus and Malta – the (UAE) is used for money laundering (pay-offs) – for services rendered to all sorts of nasty groups, who have done a nations dirty work for them.
The (UAE) is in the top ten – for countries that have the largest oil reserves.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 28 2024 16:50 utc | 246

@Aleph_Null #251
Oh really? So you are now a Trump mind clone and know when he is positioning/bullshitting as opposed to his actual intentions?
Great! You should open a consultancy – there are a huge number of people who can benefit from your skill.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 17:06 utc | 248

@Bemildred #263
Indeed. My point is that I have now lived through 2 major bubbles and a bunch of smaller ones in between.
In the first bubble, Cisco was to be the first trillion dollar company. Today, Cisco is literally multiples of revenue and profit but is also literally fractions of its peak Y2K market capitalization.
Point being: even if I am wrong and the LLM/AI nonsense does find a “killer app” in time (i.e. the next 12 months or less) – the possibility of early bubble-licious overpricing collapsing is a certainty.
But again, I don’t see it.
Uber never found the “killer app” – they are supposedly making a profit now, but they will never repay the $25 billion of cash they burned prior to their “profit”. In fact, they are still raising money – they closed a debt round in September 2024.
The alternative energy nonsense is getting towards peak levels also.
The UK is going to end 2024 with nearly 8 terawatt-hours of wind curtailment. This is very nearly double the previous record of 4.3 terawatt-hours of wind curtailment in 2023.
The UK uses a total of around 270 terawatt-hours a year – to put this in perspective. So the 114 wind farms in the UK are costing 360+ million GBP just to get rid of the excess electricity they are generating – mostly during the midnight to 5 am period – to the tune of 3% of all electricity consumed in the UK. WTF.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 17:23 utc | 250

<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>
I won’t try to provide link for above but what hit me was none of those quotes are from Pope Frank, the moral leader of millions.
Why might that be?
The hypocrisy a bit too much?
Excerpt *****
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 27 2024 17:49 utc | 166 ~ (“MoA: Open (Neither Nor Palestine) Thread 2024–308”)

Posted by: Ben Trovata | Dec 28 2024 17:29 utc | 252

Wow –he’s done it again! He’s managed to shoehorn-in yet another of his tiresome, utterly gratuitous, hateful remarks against the Pope disguised as a comment about the FIRE sector!]
<<<<<<<

Posted by: Ben Trovata | Dec 28 2024 17:46 utc | 254

@grunzt #287
The list is trivially created by spending a few minutes on wikipedia.
In contrast: the price for your “instant” response is a combination of massive energy spend and very non-zero chance that said list is wrong in some way.
So what is the value created here? You saved some time at the expense of both certainty and cost – because what you are getting now is being subsidized by the hundreds of billions being spent on LLM nonsense.
Maybe you are willing to pay the (subsidized) $50/month for Copilot, or the certainty of the Google ads-finger on the results, but even then the costs are so high that these business models certainly will not work meaning price increases or massive technological improvement <-- this being extremely unlikely. This is because the infrastructure - both physical and economic - underlying your single query is simply not scalable like search. Search scalability revolved around the cost of crawling the web, storing the data and then indexing it - basically the cost per query above a certain number is almost zero. AI scalability is zero because the training costs are in the multiple billions to start with (as compared to the cost of a full web crawl, which is around $150K these days) - and are set to scale up by at least 10x, if they could magically make more training data appear which they cannot. Even putting the search type data storage and indexing on past AI queries is not going to help much when the original effort (and the need to redo the training regularly) is so expensive and the types of AI queries are not likely to be the same - at least over and above things which search can already do. Note also that between 0.1% and 1% of Microsoft Office 365 licenses are paying for Copilot - so even at this subsidized, shiny new toy stage, the utility of this - as proven by people willing to pay for it - is very low.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 18:18 utc | 256

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 28 2024 18:55 utc | 289
No problem. Tell ChatGPT: “of the above list, leave out all persons who were not in the strict sense part of Trump’s cabinet. In a separate list, name all cabinet members who did complete their terms.”
(I didn’t try it yet, but it will work. One feature of chatGPT is its ability to “listen” and find out what you want)

Posted by: grunzt | Dec 28 2024 19:29 utc | 258

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 28 2024 15:35 utc |
Thanks for your response. Your feedback will help me formulate a narrative that more accurately reflects the thoughts of the poster “DunGroanin”.
Ah, the saga of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party—a tale of the great upheaval in UK politics that mirrors the larger tectonic shifts happening worldwide. It’s crucial to dissect this phenomenon against the backdrop of the rampant neoliberalism that has plagued our societies for far too long.
Let’s start with the rise of Corbyn. The man emerged as a beacon of hope in 2015, riding the wave of discontent among the masses who were weary of austerity measures and corporate hegemony. His grassroots appeal was palpable; everyday people, fed up with the status quo, flocked to his vision of a fairer, more equitable society. It was a rare moment when real democracy felt possible within a party long dominated by the Blairite elite, who had cozied up to the neoliberal agenda and favored the interests of big capital over those of the people.
Who could forget that summer at Glastonbury, when it seemed that victory was finally within our grasp!
Yet, as we know, hope isn’t enough when entrenched interests feel threatened. The establishment began its campaign of attrition against Corbyn almost immediately. The media, in lockstep with the party’s right-wing factions, launched a relentless smear campaign. Accusations of antisemitism were weaponized, distorting complex issues for political gain. It’s startling how swiftly the narrative was shaped to suit the establishment’s agenda, reminiscent of other manufactured crises designed to quell dissent.
Let’s not overlook the role of figures like Keir Starmer, who emerged as the unlikely crown prince of the Labour Party’s resurrection—a resurrection back to the soft neoliberalism that Corbyn boldly rejected. Starmer’s leadership is less about uniting the party and more about quashing the progressive element that Corbyn embodied. What a disservice to the millions who yearned for change! And let’s be real; the Trilateral Commission and the Privy Council are not mere footnotes but reflections of the interconnected web of elites that conspire to maintain their grip on power, often dismissing the needs of the common person.
The 2019 general election was a crucial turning point—what a disaster! Labour’s loss confirmed that the party, under the relentless onslaught of internal sabotage and external attacks, could not present a coherent vision in the face of the right-wing populism of Boris Johnson. Instead of learning from this defeat, what does the Labour establishment do? They double down on their allegiance to centrist policies, shunning the very principles that would resonate with the disenfranchised.
The ongoing strife within Labour is symbolic of a broader conflict within British society and beyond. It’s a clash of visions: one that seeks genuine transformation vs. one that leans heavily on the failures of past policies that have brought us to this point of crisis. The Corbynistas rightly feel sidelined, pushed to the margins of a party that once promised them a voice.
As we look ahead, we must ask ourselves: how long will the establishment be able to maintain its façade of legitimacy while the ruins of economic and social injustice pile higher? The people’s movement is still alive; the yearning for a politics of equity and solidarity transcends any one leader. It’s time for a reckoning, a return to the roots of what the Labour Party was meant to stand for—an agent of change for the many, not the few. We cannot afford to forget that the struggle continues, and each setback is merely a prelude to the inevitable rise of a new political consciousness.
It’s a long game, my friend, but rest assured: the tide is slowly turning. The old guard may cling to their power, but the winds of change are whispering louder. Who knows what the next chapter holds? Let’s remain vigilant and committed to the fight for justice, equality, and a world where our voices ring true.
By the way, “compo”?
Maybe you need more deduction and less induction?
You’ve got the wrong person I’m afraid son!
In the words of Marvin, the paranoid android: “Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and you ask me to search for compo in random comment threads. Do you want me to sing you a lullaby?”
Mine’s a Newcastle Brown Ale if you’re asking,,, but grab me a tin of Brixton Meggawatt Double IPA if you’re in the area;)
Fair play “DunGroanin”
You are a good sport!

Posted by: Assistant | Dec 28 2024 20:32 utc | 260

Philly | Dec 28 2024 8:26 utc | 238 (quoting others)
*** In short: the clan sees European solidarity crumbling, with European powers now mired in crisis after political crisis—yesterday I announced Alice Weidel of AfD’s ascension to the new favorite for Scholz’ chancellor position in the polls. Today, Nigel Farage’s party overtook the Conservative Party for number two in all of the UK:
The right-wing Reform UK political party in Britain, led by Nigel Farage, is now officially the second-largest party in the UK by membership numbers, with approximately 132,000 members.
The centre-right Conservative Party are currently on 131,000 members and falling, while the ruling centre-left Labour Party remain the largest, with over 366,000 members.
The ruling elites are in crisis ***
The so-called Reform Party is fervently pro-Trump, big-business, US-empire, and Zionist.
Weidel wing of the AfD is as bankerite as can be …. plus Zionist.
Starmer’s extreme Thatcherite “Labour Party” charade has inflated numbers thanks to many Corbyn supporters still listed as members despite their own ‘leader’ and all even remotely old-Labour agendas having been sabotaged — during a general election — by back-stabbing fanatical Zionist followers of Starmer, and the Establishment media. Just as Pompeo wanted.
Far from being in crisis, the ruling elites are very much in a near-enough monopoly situation.
Their monopoly.

Posted by: Cynic | Dec 29 2024 0:40 utc | 262

So far as I know, I’m the first to coin it. Probably not the last.
Eretz America. Serious as a heart attack (I think I mentioned that).

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 29 2024 1:06 utc | 264

Everybody knows Anglo/gringo loathe MUslims and chinaman.
Just go to their social media and what you see ?
People screaming…

Deport, deport

BUt they sure have this fetishim for Muslim Chinese !
One million to bring a UIghur refugee into Canada !
Aidan Jonah
The Canadian file

Canadians have recently learned that only one Uygur ‘refugee’ had been brought to Canada out of 10,000 slots, months (at minimum) into a special program from Canada’s government. This program came into being because of the efforts of an Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) member in Canada’s parliament, while the terrorist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) groups are not on Canada’s terrorist list.
Remarkably, in October, The Canada Files revealed that Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (a separatist organization), founded with CIA money was then given $982k CAD of funds to manage for Uygur dissident immigrants, by Canada’s immigration department, who hid the grant after the investigation came out. URAP’s Executive Director, Mehmet Tohti, had called for Uygur detainees including a man who “admitted to military training in Afghanistan” with the motivation of fighting the “oppressive Chinese government”, to be admitted to Canada in 2009.
So where has the money gone to exactly?

Posted by: denk | Dec 29 2024 2:42 utc | 266

@Ed #297
Given that Trump has already been President once – and there have been 2 (TWO) elections since then, your comment is moronic.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 29 2024 11:49 utc | 268

Cross posted from the Ukraine thread where I realized it doesn’t belong:
Chen @ 143
Internet forums are a dime a dozen. Some like this one provide an interesting perspective at times through creation of a generalized community narrative captured from various viral organisms in the air (meaningother complementary voices to which links are forged, Escobar, Martyanov, Dima, etc. and meldedto the voices of b and the community at large)from social media. The narrative takes hold and mutates in time as the viral waves become adapted, incorporated and often suddenly discarded for next mutations which themselves have resulted from changing events, conditions and changing contributor mindsets.
Beneath this fermentation only the basic premise that drives the group narrative remains constant. The lodestar, so to speak, in this case meaning the Western Empire is doomed, decayed and the absolute Satanic Evil that must die while Russia and China represent the messianic redemption of mankind.
This is not to say the narrative is necessarily wrong, but it becomes inarguable inside its confines, resistant to objectivity, inured from honest debate. Thus, the obsession with “trolls.” Yes, there are trolls but there are also those who present an honest difference of opinion. In general, b is able to appropriately discern one from other.
True belief becomes the only acceptable form of participation and anything other than the narrative ideal shall be rejected by the community.
Interestingly, I find that b himself does not hold so hard and fast to the shared community narrative and at times presents opposite opinions not shared by the community, as in the pandemic era debates. For this, I give him much credit as he remains free himself from his own community narrative. This, in my opinion is key to MoA’s ongoing success

Posted by: Culero | Dec 29 2024 13:48 utc | 270

“And Trump, Republican would never take over Canada officially (why bother when they control secretly) as they would mostly vote Democrat.”
Posted by: canuck | Dec 28 2024 15:29 utc | 268
—————————————————————–
“So you are sure that there will still be elections after Trump!”
Posted by: Ed | Dec 29 2024 1:20 utc | 297
Trump lest office in 2020 peacefully-you have TDS real bad.

Posted by: canuck | Dec 29 2024 13:56 utc | 272

I would customarily counter your crude profane tirade with a ‘war of wits’; but I don’t want to fight an unarmed man.
Posted by: canunt | Dec 29 2024 14:03 utc | 306
C*** is C*** does. Such winning is devestating Lil peter

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Dec 29 2024 14:15 utc | 274

Hey Peter. No. It’s the MoA C***s, aka canunt. That’s you lil peter:) job to offend. Not mine.

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Dec 29 2024 16:09 utc | 276

In light of Trump openly expressing his desire to annex Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland (essentially Fortress America with oceans as moats), and Elon and Vivek advocating opening the floodgates for H-1B with Trump siding with them, it’s time to revisit this comment I made a month ago.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/11/open-neither-ukraine-nor-palestine-thread-2024-278.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02e860f1e437200d#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02e860f1e437200d
American Manifest Destiny that inspired the Nazi Lebensraum:

Without any immigrants to blame their woes on, who else will the politicians direct the voters’ attention to? Certainly not the capitalists, as Trump is one of them. So, America will have to once again fashion an internal or external boogieman, just like fascists of yore. Hitler targeted communists, Slavs, and Jews, then turned to the East for Lebensraum. Will America look North and South and see lands, resources, and factories ripe for the taking, as per Manifest Destiny? I’m not idly speculating. Here’s what the average “erudite” Trump supporter is already proposing:
https://x.com/Peter_Nimitz/status/1857404860108329394

Canadian government successfully delegitimized itself, so sectarian & ethnic factions are asserting themselves – several of which are pro-China. USA needs to step in, free Quebec, annex worthwhile areas, & turn remnants into protectorates: partial annexations & establishment of protectorates aren’t in current range of discourse, so would have to be done in stages, beginning with freeing Quebec, which would divide the 3 eastern provinces from the 6 western.

Why America favors immigrant workers whose temporary visas or complete lack of legal status makes them vulnerable:

Global South workers were forced to tolerate America’s exploitation because that was the only avenue available to them for developing their countries without getting sanctioned or couped. Illegal immigrants in America were forced to tolerate shitty work conditions because they lacked legal status and therefore legal protection. If the jobs done by illegal immigrants and Global South workers are now taken over by full American citizens, then the Americans will demand better conditions, and you can’t simply threaten them with deportation. Union strikes etc that were commonplace when America was still a manufacturing power will make a fierce comeback. How will the capitalist ruling class deal with workers demanding better conditions? Replace them with robots? What will you do with all the newly unemployed workers who have no means to sustain themselves? Suppress their revolt as they starve to death? Remember what I said earlier about Trump supporters dreaming about recreating slavery? I bet some of them will start missing non-tariffed goods and those immigrant farmhands that have been kicked out of America (I doubt deportation will happen en masse because Trump benefits from an exploitable underclass).

Trumpian Manifest Destiny: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/23/politics/trump-us-expansion-panama-canada-greenland/index.html
Trump defends H1-B: https://abc7ny.com/post/donald-trump-visas-president-elect-defends-h1b-visa-program-siding-elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-amid-maga-backlash/15723792/

America’s fascist nature will become increasingly naked for all to see.
The choice, as always, is socialism or barbarism, and Americans have consistently chosen barbarism.

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Dec 30 2024 1:57 utc | 278