@ Ed | Dec 28 2024 16:27 utc | 1
i think putting emphasis on the class system and how it is horrible for everyone is a good idea, although this writer is not trying to say that, is he?? he seems to be saying the opposite… upper class priviledge, raping and pillaging off the lower classes is supposed to be okay…. it isn’t.. entrance into this elite class of rip off artists is not something to admire…
capitalism sucks and late stage capitalism really sucks…find a better system which is good for everyone and where you aren’t squeezing the bottom class to prop up you own inflated position…

Posted by: james | Dec 28 2024 16:44 utc | 3

Posted by: elonmuskiscool | Dec 28 2024 16:35 utc | 2
A thoughtful, well done post but I differ on the American sanction strategy on these drones.
If America sanctions drone sales from this Chinese company it essentially forces the Company to sell to the likes of Iran, Russia .
Incredibly short sighted policy UNLESS the idea was to force China to sell drones to Russian and Iran such that it gives the US point its ah-ha
moment , illustrating China’s complicity with the Axis in order to stimulate “moar war’ bleating from the intellectually unwashed.

Posted by: canuck | Dec 28 2024 17:48 utc | 5

I hope the Assad family enjoys New Year’s in their new apartment in Moscow!
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 28 2024 17:27 utc | 5
—————————————————————————
I bet it is not as comfortable as his Mansion in Syria. I hear he left the country with a bundle of cash, as Dictators always do. I am thinking about Shaw of Iran, who was run out of the country twice, but I am also thinking about how the oil companies loved him.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 28 2024 18:03 utc | 7

Since then we have had Fascism-with the Western governments and oligarchic controlled companies working together; surveillance state; if one cannot figure out what the Covid spectacle was all about-it was about eliminating small business and putting the hoi polloi on the govrnment payroll….
Posted by: canuck | Dec 28 2024 17:54 utc | 7
————————————————————–
Is that like ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’ but rephrased to “Fascism with American Characteristics?” LOL

Posted by: Ed | Dec 28 2024 18:16 utc | 9

Top Pentagon contractor stock traders for 2024:
Josh Gottheimer;
Nancy Pelosi;
Suzan Delbene;
Scott Franklin;
Thomas Kean Jr.;
Johnathan Jackson;
Tommy Tuberville;
Michael Burgess;
Kathy Manning; and
Caroline Devine Miller …
Tuberville has stated that restricting members of CONgress from stock trading would result in fewer people wishing to serve in CONgress.
Thomas Kean Jr. was/is a sitting member of the House Foreign Affairs committee.
– Responsible Statecraft.
This might help explain why the U.S. is always so keen to go to war. I would opine that removing so-called ‘defence’ companies from the stock market would go a long way in reducing the war imperative.
As a side note, I would also say that removing so-called ‘health’ companies from the stock market would likewise result in a far better medical system in the U.S. The operative word in ‘stock market’ is ‘stock’, i.e. historically referring to animal stock. Americans have been reduced to nothing more than commodities which so-called law makers make tons of bucks off of.

Posted by: rgl | Dec 28 2024 19:00 utc | 11

@Posted by: Ed | Dec 28 2024 18:16 utc | 10
We have had “Fascism with American Characteristics” since the time of Wilson’s fascist state of 1917-1921, with interludes in the 1930s and 1960s/1970s. Including Hoover’s FBI directly conspiring with the Mob (which the FBI worked hard to deny existed), COINTELPRO, the Homeland Security Act etc.,
The immiseration of the American working people through the neoliberalism of the past few decades has greatly loosened their support for the fascist state as it provides less and less to them, while at the same time becoming more and more brazen in its fascistic tendencies and its service in the interests of a shrinking group of mega-billionaires and their cronies.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 28 2024 19:44 utc | 13

Roger Boyd @ 13:
Thanks for your comment linking to your Substack blog. A better informed and researched summary of economic and political trends and events than yours is increasingly hard to find, even outside the MSM outlets. Thank you very much!
I suggest that Sth Korean presidential elections next year are likely to suffer similar blockage as has been seen in the first round of Romania’s presidential elections – or, at the other extreme, the Sth Korean publuc will be subjected to continuous rounds of elections they vote in the “right” (that is, pro-US and agreeing to policies that put Sth Korea in junior positions to both US and Japan) President. Koreans themselves won’t stand for either political extreme and martial law may be imposed yet again.
If Zurabichvili knows what’s good for her, she’ll leave the Presidential office and fly out of Tbilisi back to Paris or wherever the US can put her up in Columbia University where she can commiserate with Cookie Monster Nuland over coffee and cakes. If Zurabishvili stays in her office, the Georgians can just build a fence around it with barbed wire, lock the gates and lose the keys.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 28 2024 20:16 utc | 15

Posted by: elonmuskiscool | Dec 28 2024 16:35 utc | 2
The actual report says it’s a Chinese govt procurement order meant to be completed in 2026, and not export order. The company said they have to stop accepting orders from outside China to prioritize this.
Looks like ramped up Chinese military focus on using large scale drone swarms for saturating air defense networks on the cheap.

Posted by: Surferket | Dec 28 2024 21:31 utc | 17

I had little ideal of the immense depth and breadth of Anti-China propaganda which the average American meathead is being exposed to (until a super smart meathead shared some of the terrible things that are going on in China). Examples:
Chinese workers are on strike and revolting with great fervor across the entire country.
Chinese Car Sales are so abysmal that the Chicoms are literally burying inventory in the ground.
Xi, terribly unpopular, is facing a coup.
There was so much more that I can’t remember. I was obliged to keep my composure.

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Dec 28 2024 21:41 utc | 19

if one cannot figure out what the Covid spectacle was all about-it was about eliminating small business and putting the hoi polloi on the govrnment payroll….
Posted by: canuck | Dec 28 2024 17:54 utc | 7

COVID-19″ Genocide: 30,000,000+ dead
https://denisrancourt.substack.com/p/breaking-our-largest-study-of-its
Virology is pseudoscience. Contagion is superstition. Vaccines are weapons of genocide.
“Great Reset” = Global War on Humanity
“Agenda 2030/Sustainable Development” = Fascism of the 21st century (redistribution, deindustrialisation, depopulation, transhumanism, technocracy)

Posted by: KOB | Dec 28 2024 22:21 utc | 21

Is a way out for Iran a possibility? Will Trump give them a chance to get rid of their nuclear program in exchange for not being attackesd? Will new realities make Iran amiable to that? Will Israel attack Iran before Trump to eliminate any possibility but war? How will Iran respond to a attack on its nuclear facilities? Unrestrained war? WE find out very soon folks. Will Russia sign a defense pact with Iran on the eve of a very probable attack?
We find out soon.
My guess Iran gives up their nuclear program if they get the chance. Some sanctions get lifted. Genocide ranch becomes the undisputed regional nuclear power. Nothing like having the ICC finding that Israel is comitting genocide being the background for them becoming the sole nuclear power in the region.
Outrageous you say? Outrageous is that the world is accepting genocide as determined by the worlds court. Can anything really surprise after that? Yes the chosen get to commit genocide. Netanyahu will go down in history as the leader responsible for greater Israel. Israelis will chuckle and whisper the truth about the LIHOP that let them do what they always wanted and gave them unrestricted ability to genocide whomever they want in the region with nuclear weapons. After all there can always be another LiHOP if someone else gets on their bad side and they decide they have to go away. The truth comes out. One chosen life is worth a billion others. Even if they kill that one themselves in a LIHOP. Precedent set. All hail Netanyahu. Creator of the truth. Israel kills when they want and whom they want. Truth. Its the golden age. Israelis will chuckle even more when thinking back at the fun they had committing genocide in Gaza. Who else gets to do that? No one. Just the chosen. Oh they may pretend a bit. They went somewhere after they got loaded on the cattle cars. France Germany Turkey. Somewhere. But everyone knows. They know. We know. They chuckle. Look at your feet and be polite lest they murder you on a whim. Its those darn Russians who are cold blooded killers! And those dirty Palestinians! And anybody else we decide in the future. Got it? I thought so. WE want you to know the truth. Your not allowed to say it though. Got it? I thought so. All part of the great fun! Good Times!

Posted by: Spud | Dec 28 2024 23:07 utc | 23

Iran don’t have a nuclear program. Their late ayatollah gave that up. Their enrichment is just enrichment to pressure US. It’s Israel that keeps up the propaganda that Iran is just a week from having a nuclear warhead.
Posted by: Surferket | Dec 28 2024 23:17 utc | 25
And at the same time saying they threw it back a decade with their latest attack.
dissonance …

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 28 2024 23:19 utc | 25

Chris Cosmos | Dec 28 2024 21:50 utc | 21
Once they steal Social Security and Medicare, the US will be a lot more like Mexico or the Philippines. which is what the PTB are aiming for. Debt-enslavement, Neo-feudalism.

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Dec 28 2024 23:39 utc | 27

Spud @ 24:
My understanding is that Iran’s nuclear industry is needed to produce electricity and nuclear-based medicines as part of the nation’s economic autarky program.
I can’t see that Tehran will give up its nuclear energy program if it means Iranians will have to suffer electricity blackouts, especially in summer and winter.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 28 2024 23:59 utc | 29

Chaka Khagan @ 20:
I’ve heard that Beijing actually does encourage worker industrial activity like strikes, walk-outs, work-to-rule and mass protests. How else does the government know if workers are unhappy with their employers?
Southern China is the most strike-happy part of the country and has been so for the past 20 years at least. By now the South Chinese should have declared Guangdong an independent state and civil war should have been raging there and in nearby areas like Fujian for over a decade.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 29 2024 0:09 utc | 31

Welcome home, B, and Best Wishes for a quick recovery. And best wishes for a Happy New Year to all at the bar! Salud!

Posted by: Clever Dog | Dec 29 2024 0:34 utc | 33

Talking about Working Class Heroes, United Health and Luigi Mangione…
Wouldn’t it be funny/awkward if someone started a GoFundMe account for Mangione’s legal defence, and it whizzed past $10,000,000 in the first week? Especially since the assassination occured in the Home Of The Brave and The Land Of The Free to adopt a Military Solution?
Ordinary People seem to be far less critical of Mangione than The Powers That Be.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 29 2024 0:49 utc | 35

How many bridges of knowledge have been burned?
How many tablets of insight destroyed?
Purposefully
To arrive, at this pitiful absurd condition.
Modern fatigue.

Posted by: Middle-man | Dec 29 2024 1:38 utc | 37

Finnish authorities stole Russian oil and Vladimir Putin wouldn’t do anything about this.

Posted by: La Petite Culotte | Dec 29 2024 1:49 utc | 39

…
An alternate site called GiveSendGo has taken up the slack; as of now the Mangione defense fund has raised $216K.
Posted by: malenkov | Dec 29 2024 1:30 utc | 37
Thank you malenkov. I wasn’t aware of that. But it doesn’t surprise me. I believe that Mangione’s attack was a carefully and minutely choreographed Publicity Stunt for which he was prepared to sacrifice his own life.
Shooting the CEO in the back, without prior warning, was an essential element of the stunt, imo.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 29 2024 2:20 utc | 41

if one cannot figure out what the Covid spectacle was all about-it was about eliminating small business and putting the hoi polloi on the govrnment payroll….
Posted by: canuck | Dec 28 2024 17:54 utc | 7
“COVID-19” Genocide: 30,000,000+ dead
https://denisrancourt.substack.com/p/breaking-our-largest-study-of-its
Virology is pseudoscience. Contagion is superstition. Vaccines are weapons of genocide.
“Great Reset” = Global War on Humanity
“Agenda 2030/Sustainable Development” = Fascism of the 21st century (redistribution, deindustrialisation, depopulation, transhumanism, technocracy)
Posted by: KOB | Dec 28 2024 22:21 utc | 22″
Im sorry I disagree with this and the conclusion of the paper. If Contagion is a superstition how is it that Genome mapping identify s the same virus down to a T (mutations aside) as a contagion spreads through the world. These are tens of thousands of people mapping virus genomes all coming up with the exact same results in various and virtually every nation taking samples from the local populations.
The paper itself seems to have reached a conclusion then found data to support it. Yes the countermeasures caused lots of excess mortality as experimental technologies. They are a attempt at plug and play countermeasures first revealed to the public my DARPA in 2016.
The paper does not examine that c19 was a obvious attempt to target genetically. It was in my opinion not a successful attempt. None the less the sporadic nature of the disease is attributable to genetics of those infected. specifically the amount ofACE-2 receptors and whether they were located in the upper respiratory system or lower. For some C19 was just as bad as we were told. I know a strapping man who worked in heavy industry his whole life who is in a wheelchair now from c19. He was as far as I know scadanavian descent. he was eating Ivermectin like candy. Ivermectin worked well if your genes were not keyed to covid. If the receptors were present in quantity covid truly destroyed lung tissue.
he paper cited lack of antibiotics in treatment but not lack of oxyclor q ivermectin and steroids? Nor any analysis of genetic factors? the excess mortality was from the lockdowns? Look thats stressful but it dont waste you. Having your lung tissue looking like it had a blowtorch applied to it did. thats exactly c19 did if ace-2 was present in the lungs. There wasnt shit they could do. they did what they did for all terminal patents. Fentanyl drip set on the high side. If you dont know that about treatment you dont know nothing.
My best guess is this was a bioweapon release targeted at Iran genetically. I base that on the shared genetics between Iranians and Italians. And how Italy was hit so hard. Omicron was clearly a sterilizing virus and lab derived. Ther e is simply no doubt. eight spontaneous genome changes all in the receptor area. Thats a fact. That it was targeted at Iran (and China) genetically is speculation. Dont mistake the sporadic nature of the severity of c19 which is a function of the genetics of the victim with the premise that the whole thing was fake. Pierre Kory developer of early treatment protocol will be the first to tell you how destructive this pathogen was for some people. whats taboo to talk about is this was a alpha test of genetic targeting. If a researcher wanted to unravel this all the pieces would fall right into place if they examined that.Sure the countermeasures were unhealthy. It was a complete experimentation of gene therapy class of drugs on the world population with absolutely illegal process control in the manufacturing to boot. The countermeasures were not pharmaceutical products. They were DOD contract substances. The whole thing a hoax and all the excess mortality from the lock downs and the countermeasures? The countermeasures may have even been the lions share of the excess mortality. To disregard the facts about those that got hit by this thing like they inhaled hydrochloride acid is not a pursuit of the truth.
The shared genetics of Italians and Iranians is well known. They are both very diverse genetically. Often Italians when testing their genetics are shocked to see significant Iranian percentages. If my speculation is true we can be glad this was a failure. Targeting genetically was only partially accurate. The advantages of biological weapons systems as self delivering can not be disputed but they can not use geographical targeting the targeting must be genetic in nature.
You think the biolabs in Ukraine were a hoax? you think kirillov death was a fluke? Another biological release is quite likely the next shoe to drop. Its perfect for the escalation thats not a escalation. You know Oreshnik western style only with half billion collateral damage.
I understand why virology is a bit non intuitive. But the absaloute matching of results across tens of thousands of researchers in every nation on the planet proves its not a hoax. No Klaus didnt “get ” to all of them. Valence electrons on the periodic table aint exactly intuitive in nature either.
This is the same as people saying nuclear weapons dont exist. Nuclear power proves the power of the atom which basically proves nuclear weapons do exist. People dont like fear. They see how its used to manipulate . But bio weapons are not a hoax. Nuclear weapons are not a hoax. My mommy said there are no monsters but there are.
If you want to ponder something ponder this. virology is basically a study of virus genetics. But no analysis of the effects of c19 from a human genetics standpoint? The variability of the virus genetics is 100% the study from a causal viewpoint but human genetics is completely ignored? If that doesnt make you smell squid unrefrigerated for a week I dont know what to tell you. Yes the NWO is real. So is one of their technological loves Virology. virus pets.

Posted by: Coco | Dec 29 2024 3:39 utc | 43

Posted by: Surferket | Dec 28 2024 21:31 utc | 18
The company was hit with US sanctions and lost international business. The US threatens to put sanctions on any buyer who deals with a company already subject to US sanctions. This threat is quite effective for getting most business partners to stay away. The Chinese government is ordering the drones according to the press release. Does that mean Iran and Russia can’t be the ultimate buyer?

Posted by: elonmuskiscool | Dec 29 2024 4:39 utc | 45

@ canuck | Dec 28 2024 17:54 utc | 7
i agree with you…
@ Ed | Dec 28 2024 18:08 utc | 9
i didn’t see any link to common dreams in your post, so no..
—— i have been out all day…
@ roger boyds substack…
i recommend it and am a subscriber to it…

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2024 4:44 utc | 47

Tin Foil Hat Virus Deniers
KOB | Dec 29 2024 4:40 utc | 49
It’s people like this who make calls for enforced sterilization so logical. Either that or forcing them to dig a hole, crawl into it and die. Too harsh? Then how about an Internet Driving Licence Test they have to pass before being allowed to play with the adults of the real world (*using the term very loosely*).
Posted by: X | Dec 29 2024 5:41 utc
gonna paste a copy based mostly on Tarpley, from 2006. Not vouching for anything.
Just had this open and then spotted these posts. seems relevant. the sterilization remark is disgusting and should be the only criteria for such desperate measures.
George Bush was director of the CIA from 1976-77, and became a director of Eli Lilly 1977-78. What’s the connection? Lilly has long-time ties to the CIA. The company history is quite interesting. Lilly reportedly supplied major amounts of LSD during MK-Ultra. Lilly has worked extensively on recombinant DNA human insulin, the key technology that makes new viruses possible to engineer. (New viruses might include AIDS, Mad Cow, Aspartam, Gulf War.) Lilly marketed its first recombinant DNA product immediately after the AIDS epidemic was noted, about 1982.
I don’t know if Bush was an investor in Lilly. (The Quayle family apparently owns a large block of stock.) He put his pharmaceuticals into blind trust after taking heat for exerting influence that would benefit the industry.
Lilly’s reputation isn’t too pure; lots of controversy about testing on homeless in soup kitchens and other sorts of victimizations of human guinea pigs.
And then comes Tanox. A company that sells biochemical substances to the Middle East and whose owners include GHWB and James Baker III. Reportedly a class action suit was filed against the company by Gulf War veterans. The charge is that the company developed and tested contaminated vaccines on servicemen and women.
Seriously, some of the characters associated with the Bush dynasty have a history of dabbling in eugenics, population engineering, and other tinkering that displays an arrogance for non-elite life. GHWB best friend Will Farrish. Close associate and appointee C. Boyden Gray. Blind trust manager Will Draper III. Look up their grandparents and parents. Pretty frightening stuff. It isn’t too far a step from those vicious predilections to thinking that Bush and Baker own a company that infected our own fighting troops for some sort of personal gain.
In 1969, Congressman George Herbert Walker Bush convened hearings on population control for blacks. These hearings were based on the theories of population control developed and espoused by William Draper, Jr., whose business at the time he became an affiliate of the Bush dynasty in 1926 was short-term loans and financial management tricks for clients who sponsored Hitler’s terroristic takeover; his clients led the buildup of the Nazi war industry; his clients made war against the United States. The Nazis were Draper’s direct partners in Berlin and New Jersey. Draper III managed Bush’s blind trust.
C. Boyden Gray’s family history is even more colorful. From the Unauthorized Biography of GHWB:
When Boyden Gray was four and five years old, his father organized the pilot project for the present worldwide sterilization program, from the Gray family household in North Carolina.
It started in 1946. The eugenics movement was looking for a way to begin again in America.
Nazi death camps such as Auschwitz had just then seared the conscience of the world. The Sterilization League of America, which had changed its name during the war to “ Birthright, Inc., ” wanted to start up again. First they had to overcome public nervousness about crackpots proposing to eliminate “ inferior ” and “ defective ” people. The League tried to surface in Iowa, but had to back off because of negative publicity: A little boy had recently been sterilized there and had died from the operation.
They decided on North Carolina, where the Gray family could play the perfect host. Through British imperial contacts, Boyden Gray’s grandfather, Bowman Gray, had become principal owner of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Boyden’s father, Gordon Gray, had recently founded the Bowman Gray (memorial) Medical School in Winston-Salem, using his inherited cigarette stock shares. The medical school was already a eugenics center.
As the experiment began, Gordon Gray’s great aunt, Alice Shelton Gray, who had raised him from childhood, was living in his household. Aunt Alice had founded the “ Human Betterment League, ” the North Carolina branch of the national eugenical sterilization movement.
Aunt Alice was the official supervisor of the 1946-47 experiment. Working under Miss Gray was Dr. Claude Nash Herndon, whom Gordon Gray had made assistant professor of “ medical genetics ” at Bowman Gray Medical School.
Dr. Clarence Gamble, heir to the Proctor and Gamble soap fortune, was the sterilizers’ national field operations chief.
The experiment worked as follows. All children enrolled in the school district of Winston-Salem, N.C., were given a special “ intelligence test. ” Those children who scored below a certain arbitrary low mark were then cut open and surgically sterilized.
A side note: in 1952, the American Eugenics Society left its headquarters at Yale University./

Posted by: Not Ewe | Dec 29 2024 8:18 utc | 49

I keep encountering people (even Scott Ritter!) expecting Iran to surrender its nuclear program. This idea of surrendering essential liberty for a little temporary sanctions lifting is, IMHO, outright insanity that I do not expect Iran to be stupid enough to go along with.
Posted by: Bedford | Dec 29 2024 3:04 utc | 45
It would be insanity and stupidity for Iran, just like going to war against Russia is insanity and stupidity for Ukraine.
But it’s not insanity at all for the jews like Zelensky looking to empty Ukraine of slavs, nor is it insanity for the “another jew in a turban”, as Miles W. Mathis calls the current Iranian leader.

Posted by: Jack M | Dec 29 2024 9:25 utc | 51

“Musk, Ramaswamy (who made his money from a stock pump and dump scheme) and the other Deportable Ungrateful Immigrants (DUIs) are showing that they are just of the standard anti-working people rich bastard variety.”
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 28 2024 19:44 utc | 14
Total nonsense.
You have no ear for private business as you rely on your crude Leftist warped ideology which is not capable of explaining venture capital businesses.
Ramaswamy is a brilliant businessman who has developed drugs to help the afflicted; your affliction, stupidity, there isn’t drug for that yet-perhaps Vivek will work on that for you.
“The core company Mr. Ramaswamy built has since had a hand in bringing five drugs to market, including treatments for uterine fibroids, prostate cancer and the rare genetic condition he mentioned on the stump in Iowa. The company says the last 10 late-stage clinical trials of its drugs have all succeeded, an impressive streak in a business where drugs commonly fail.” (1)
1.https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/us/politics/vivek-ramaswamy-wealth.html

Posted by: canuck | Dec 29 2024 10:54 utc | 53

Posted by: Chen | Dec 29 2024 9:00 utc | 55
Nanny watching you at every corner – takes the fun completely out of it. A dialog with other posters will not be possible. I’m not going to post there – allthough RT is my main source of information.

Posted by: grunzt | Dec 29 2024 11:12 utc | 55

Another 737 crash.

Posted by: Cavery | Dec 29 2024 11:39 utc | 57

@elonmuskiscool #2
There is no “normal” when it comes to US sanctions.
Not after the SWIFT cutoff of Russia.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 29 2024 11:55 utc | 59

@rgl #12
Delisting health insurance companies would do absolutely nothing to change their behavior.
Profit occurs whether or not you are listed in a stock exchange.
The only path forward, that I see, is the creation of a national health provision system – perhaps an expansion of the VA setup.
The only reason people buy health insurance now is because they know any kind of major health situation is unaffordable, so buying the insurance or risking death/dismemberment are the only choices for most Americans.
Give them an affordable option, and the need to buy insurance shrinks dramatically.
Medicare for all is another option but a bad one – because Medicare listed prices are still far higher than anywhere else in the world; they are just lower than the “market” price in the US. So you reduce the problem a bit but Medicare for all still does not address the core problem: getting health care in the US is ridiculously expensive and not even predictable on cost.
Anywhere else in the world – you know up front what the cost will be whether it is a sprain or a broken limb, a doctor’s visit or cancer treatment.
In the US – nobody knows. Not the doctors, not the patients. The actual cost is not understood until the final medical bill comes in – which gives tremendous scope for fuckery all up and down the billing life cycle.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 29 2024 12:05 utc | 61

@Chaka Khagan #20
What you see is very possibly just the tip of the iceberg.
The rise of the Epoch Times – ex-Falun Gong rag – is another example.
So is the ongoing blitz of Shen Yun advertising.
Both are unquestionably supported by the US Deep State as part of its agitprop against China.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 29 2024 12:11 utc | 63

@Chen #42
Your listing of idols has completely destroyed what little reputation you had remaining.
Varoufakis is a failure – Economics minister for a Greek political party that surrendered to the EU.
Hansen is a fanatic before he is a scientist.
Keen is fine when he sticks to economics – but his politics are watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside).
Nor am I impressed by your attempts to invoke the climate consensus.
As I type this – the UK has just exceeded 8 terawatt-hours of wind curtailment for 2024. This wind curtailment alone has cost British utility customers over 360 million GBP.
This number is nearly double the prevous record curtailment of 4.3 terawatt-hours in 2023.
To put this in perspective: 8 terawatt-hours is more than the power put out in a year by a 1 gigawatt nuclear or fossil fuel plant. The UK uses around 270 terawatt-hours in an entire year.
I have no problem with desiring the replace fossil fuel based electricity production or transportation with a better option – the problem is that solar PV generation, wind turbine generation and EVs are not better options.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 29 2024 12:21 utc | 65

“@Roger Boyd #13,#14
It is laughable that you call the incoming people fascists given the outgoing administration.
Diktat senile candidate for President? check
Diktat replacement of said candidate because he was not polling well? check
Utterly vapid, platformless woke token replacement? check
Wars, civil liberty infringements, censorship? check
The one thing the Biden administration did well with was Lina Khan.
That’s literally it.”
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 29 2024 12:09 utc | 69
Yes, Boyd is a hopeless Leftist unanchored by reality-he is an academic but he doesn’t believe in ‘free speech’ as he censors posters on his own blog that don’t agree with his POV.
He is a joke, yes.

Posted by: canuck | Dec 29 2024 12:48 utc | 67

Even if Zelensky decides not to cut-off the Russian gas pipeline that travels through Ukraine on Jan 1st -(the end for the contract) – Moldova ran by the ardent anti-Russian president Sandu – Gazprom will still cut-off gas to Moldova on Jan 1st because Moldova hasn’t paid its gas bill which currently stands at around $709 million dollars.
It looks as though Moldovan authorities, will not pay the bill but seek gas from elsewhere such as Europe – In response, Moldovagaz’s interim CEO, Vadim Ceban, assured citizens – that contracted gas volumes from European and regional markets – would meet the consumption needs of the right-bank of the Dniester River, which is territory controlled by Chisinau.
Gazprom, has a 50% in Moldovagaz.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 29 2024 13:36 utc | 69

The German authorities – which are currently trying to undermine – Russia and it allies, whilst supporting a Neo-Nazi Dictatorship in Ukraine – and aiding and abetting in a genocide in Palestine, have admitted that they have no answer to Russia new Oreshink missiles.
Germany’s air defenses – are not capable of effectively protecting the country from Russia’s new hypersonic Oreshnik missile, Bild has reported, citing German Foreign Ministry analysis.
The intermediate-range ballistic rocket, which can carry multiple types of warhead, including nuclear ones – was first used on November 21, when it struck Ukraine’s Yuzhmash military industrial facility – in the city of Dnepr. Commenting on the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the Oreshnik travels at ten times the speed of sound.
Germany’s economy – has suffered greatly due the stance that it has taken against Russia – at the behest of the USA – which has benefitted from Germany’s demise.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 29 2024 13:47 utc | 71

Looks like some craziness going on here, there and everywhere.
Boeing 737 – surely must be heading for grounding again?
b will tell us soon enough.
Drumpffs ‘team’ or is it still the 46ths Admin now begining to float some generational surrender in the ukraine – ‘you can have No natzios and Bankers for 20 years then it’s ours – ok?
They must think the RF and Multipolarists are thick, backward and will always do their bidding!
They aren’t going to get much agreement with that ‘roll over and die’ offer.
The apparent land grab and extension of the illegal apartheid entity way beyond its illegal establishment and borders of 1947 into the illegal borders of West Asia , previously drawn by British Imperialist female super spy and self declared ‘Arabist’ Gertrude Bell, are also supposed to be accepted by that regions peoples at gun point!
All to be guaranteed by Yankee Doodle gun slingers, used to lifetimes of banditry in the US and Beyond!
Along with the whole Anglo European imperial aristos of the centuries!
And the millions of mercenaries from around the world bought for fractions of soon to be worthless $$ from India, Africa , Turkey and South America’s!
Everyone in west Asia to North Africa must comply with the Great Master Race.
Africans have to remain on their knees and die as required as cheap expendable miners of loot.
Asians must be the smart kids and nimble fingers until AI and robotics are reliable.
Delusion of Supremacy of a Gammon Variety is supposedly reason for it all.
Oh and no one can have nukes unless they already have them!
🤨
The New Year Feast at the last ever Vampyre Ball is going to choke a few as it turns to ashes upon their tongues. And what doesn’t get them there must be cured by a few Kinzhell deliveries and hazelnuts far from the masses they exploits eyes.
Right oh, barflies, we too are going to have a brawl here – there’s a few that have snuck in too poison the well of MoA through the year.
I’m looking forward to it! The morbidities have reached maximal aspects.
Sending old men and teenagers to their certain deaths being a prime indicator.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 29 2024 14:05 utc | 73

French citizen Salome Zurabishvili will leave the residence of the President of Georgia. She announced this at a briefing.
Until the very end, she hoped for a violent seizure of power by the opposition.
Intel Slava Z

Posted by: Apollyon | Dec 29 2024 14:48 utc | 75

Medicare for all is another option but a bad one – because Medicare listed prices are still far higher than anywhere else in the world; they are just lower than the “market” price in the US. So you reduce the problem a bit but Medicare for all still does not address the core problem: getting health care in the US is ridiculously expensive and not even predictable on cost.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 29 2024 12:05 utc | 65
You are contradicting yourself. The US health market is higher than the rest of the world precisely because the ROW has something akin to Medicare for all wherever the standard of living is high enough that widespread poverty doesn’t control prices. The unpredictable cost is a feature not a bug for the providers that are raking in the profits. That’s why they hate Medicare.
The system of private health insurance and private market forces in the US is designed to milk maximum profit from the population. Propaganda has been used to convince that population that this works to their benefit.

Posted by: jinn | Dec 29 2024 15:26 utc | 77

10 year back above 4.6%
De-dollarizatoob brings peace my fellow barflies
Posted by: Exile | Dec 28 2024 20:58 utc | 16
_____________________
Could you provide a few explanatory links for us economics-challenged readers?

Posted by: Gene Poole | Dec 29 2024 15:38 utc | 79

737 Jeju crash = punishment for foiling the Empire’s coup?

Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 29 2024 17:45 utc | 81

Posted by: Ed | Dec 28 2024 16:27 utc | 1
Good post.
Many of the UK working class assume values and attitudes more appropriate to the middle (professional) class, trying to be “better.”
In Dickens’ Great Expectations, the ex-criminal Magwitch said to the effect that he may not be a a gentleman but he owns one, ie he created the wealth behind Pip. Perhaps we could add, he shit on a lot of people to do so.

Posted by: horseguards | Dec 29 2024 18:28 utc | 83

@ horseguards @ 18:28 utc | 87
John Steinbeck nailed it: “I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”
One wonders whether this is an Anglo thing, or plain old human nature.

Posted by: malenkov | Dec 29 2024 19:32 utc | 85

“737 Jeju crash = punishment for foiling the Empire’s coup?”
Posted by: William Gruff
No, not a punishment. It’s a little “motivation” for another coup attempt, even if the South Korean pro-democracy demonstrators have to be shot down by the South Korean military.

Posted by: Apollyon | Dec 29 2024 21:16 utc | 87

@Posted by: canuck | Dec 29 2024 10:54 utc | 57
Do you not think that I would go back and check the article? The utterly pathetic selective quoting BS!
The NY Times article correctly states that his first venture, the pump and dump scheme, was a complete failure. He then sold a second venture that he had had no success with, the company that bought it then developed those drugs – nothing at all to do with Ramaswamy! “had a hand in” is doing a lot of work there!

Mr. Ramaswamy’s enterprise is best known for a spectacular failure. As a 29-year-old with a bold idea and Ivy League connections, he engineered what was at the time the largest initial public offering in the biotechnology industry’s history — only to see the Alzheimer’s drug at its center fail two years later and the company’s value tank.
But Mr. Ramaswamy, now 37, made a fortune anyway. He took his first payout in 2015 after stirring investor excitement about his growing pharmaceutical empire. He reaped a second five years later when he sold off its most promising pieces to a Japanese conglomerate.
The core company Mr. Ramaswamy built has since had a hand in bringing five drugs to market, including treatments for uterine fibroids, prostate cancer and the rare genetic condition he mentioned on the stump in Iowa. The company says the last 10 late-stage clinical trials of its drugs have all succeeded, an impressive streak in a business where drugs commonly fail.

And the actual details of the con, as reported in that very same article:

In late 2014, the Roivant subsidiary that would be called Axovant bought for $5 million upfront — pocket change in the biotech industry — an Alzheimer’s drug that GlaxoSmithKline had given up on after four failed clinical trials. Six months later, before starting any new clinical trials for the drug, Mr. Ramaswamy took Axovant public in a debut that sent the company’s market value to nearly $3 billion. Around that time, the company reported it had just eight employees, including Mr. Ramaswamy’s mother and brother, both of them physicians.
Mr. Ramaswamy was a powerful salesman. He talked up the Alzheimer’s drug, intepirdine, as a potential breakthrough that “could help millions” of people. “The potential opportunity is really tremendous for delivering value to patients,” he said on CNBC.
Patrick Machado, a former director of Roivant and Axovant, described Mr. Ramaswamy as “brilliant and audacious.” Others said Mr. Ramaswamy was overpromising. Thanks to the public stock offering, Mr. Ramaswamy held a large and suddenly extraordinarily valuable stake in Axovant throughits parent company Roivant, which was still privately held and controlled about 80 percent of Axovant. With the drug headed into a crucial clinical trial, he set out to raise more money to finance his broader ambitions with Roivant. In late 2015, Mr. Ramaswamy sold off a portion of his Roivant shares to an institutional investor, Viking Global Investors, that wanted in. The sale was a major payday: On his 2015 tax return, Mr. Ramaswamy claimed more than $37 million in capital gains.

Then the drug quite predictably failed for a fifth time, the stock crashed and he walked away with his cash out.

In 2019, Roivant sold off its stake in five of its most promising spinoff companies to Sumitomo, a giant Japanese conglomerate. That proved to be Mr. Ramaswamy’s biggest payday. His 2020 tax return included nearly $175 million in capital gains

We are provided with no details of how the sold company “had a hand in” anything.
So your own source proves your attempt to lie by selective quoting. What are you a Ramaswamy fanboy or something? Just can’t handle the truth? Pathetic.
Wayback machine of the referenced article: https://web.archive.org/web/20230628013114/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/us/politics/vivek-ramaswamy-wealth.html

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 29 2024 22:54 utc | 89

n a comment to Thom Hartmann, who wrote an article picked up by Common Dreams called: Why Can’t the US Get the Giant, Bloodsucking Health Insurance Tick off Its Back? Now Thom, who I once respected 15 years ago, is a worthless liberal pretending to be a “progressive.” He supports Biden and Netanyahu in the Gaza genocide, and he supports Biden and Zelensky in the US proxy war in Ukraine. Hartman’s article wasn’t actually bad, but he lets Democrats like Joe Biden off the hook. Below is my response to Toms’s article.
—————————————————————-
Thom, Thom, you got it all backward. The CEOs of big Pharma and Health Insurance Companies are not the TICKS biting Americans. The TICKS are in Congress, the Senate, and the White House; without them, the empire of healthcare CEOs could not exist and do what they do to America.
The TICK$ in our government loves to bite both the healthcare CEOs who make significant campaign contributions to the TICK$ in both parties and the American Taxpayers who pay out the nose for medical care that other countries provide at a reasonable cost. The excrement secreted from the TICK$ (the American political critters) is the billion-dollar windfall that returns to the healthcare and big pharma CEOs.
In other words, as you stated, the problem is the obscene amount of money in politics due to the TICK$’s legislative power. Money is the TICK$’s lifeblood.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 30 2024 0:08 utc | 91

John Steinbeck nailed it: “I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”
One wonders whether this is an Anglo thing, or plain old human nature.
@ malenkov | Dec 29 2024 19:32 utc | 89
There’s a third possibility: it could be a John Steinbeck thing. There’s no reason to conclude it’s either human or Anglo nature, as Steinbeck can be regarded as a dim and flickering bulb, himself.
I don’t know a thing about Steinbeck aside from having read all his major works, and then some. His very early To a God Unknown (1933) is his masterpiece, in my eyes; quite surprising and surreal. Everything he wrote since then, including Grapes of Wrath, doesn’t “age well” — by which I mean, it doesn’t tolerate re-reading, like an old Beach Boys album which doesn’t tolerate re-listening. Practically my whole Steinbeck shelf is headed for the little free library boxes around here.
Would you like my copies of Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row? Those two are the epitome of my repugnance for Steinbeck, as he jeers at the funny colored people.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 30 2024 0:39 utc | 93

Posted by: Vanessa Beeley | Dec 30 2024 0:37 utc | 96
—————————————————————————
So what is your point, Vanessa? That Erdogan is a backstabbing son of a bitch? It sure looks that way, but who knows? Could Russia really develop oil fields in Syria while the US was there? Only if Assad was willing to train and arm his military forces to stand up to the US and Turkey; which he didn’t.
Get the picture?

Posted by: Ed | Dec 30 2024 0:56 utc | 95

UN Votes on Cuban embargo…
Exhibit A
2009 187-3
[US, Israel, Palau]
Wonder hOW much they bribed Palau for that favour ?
USA, always at the right side of history !
https://tinyurl.com/454zpzv3
Someone should do an autopsy on Blum,

Posted by: denk | Dec 30 2024 1:24 utc | 97

Trump has now unambiguously stated his desire to annex Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland (creating Fortress America with oceans as moats). Trump has also unambiguously backed Elon and Vivek who advocated for opening America up to H-1B visa holders.
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/
With Trump’s recent statements, it’s time to revisit a comment I posted in MoA Nov 21 this year. 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).

(Posted this in an older thread. Automated content filter is likely catching spam/duplicated posts, rewording my post to see if it gets through.)

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Dec 30 2024 2:17 utc | 99