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December 22, 2024
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-305

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

Prof Francois Balloux @BallouxFrancois – 3:18 UTC · Dec 21, 2024

– The audience's down. We need a plot twist for this year's finale.
– A terror attack on a German Christmas market?
– Boooring …
– By a far right, Greater-Israel supporter, Saudi, atheist psychotherapist, mourning the demise of Germany's safety?
– A bit OTT, but it will do …

—
Other issues:

Romania:

Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand – 4:06 UTC · Dec 22, 2024

This is an absolutely bombshell: the story about the cancelled elections in Romania is even far more sinister than previously thought.

A new report from investigative outlet http://snoop.ro (https://snoop.ro/anaf …) reveals that the TikTok campaign which was cited in the declassified Romanian intelligence documents (summarized in my post below 👇) as evidence of foreign interference – and used as grounds to cancel the presidential election – was actually paid for by the ruling National Liberal Party (PNL), the very party that supported cancelling the elections! …

—

Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand – 4:27 UTC · Dec 22, 2024

Also, interestingly, Politico is completely misrepresenting this bombshell investigation: https://politico.eu/article/investigation …

Let me show you how they're trying to spin it.

Politico claims that the investigation shows that "a campaign from a governing center-right party may have been hijacked to benefit far-right candidate." They're framing PNL as being a victim here, seeing their TikTok campaign "hijacked to benefit Georgescu".

But the http://snoop.ro investigation demolishes this narrative with hard evidence …

Biden:

Syria:

Use as open (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) thread …

Posted by b on December 22, 2024 at 13:09 UTC | Permalink
Comments

A final sermon before the western Xmas – the Christianity which is being dismantled nearly two Millenia after it was invented to manage the faltering Roman Empire as the Holy Roman Empire. With its invention. Of the Judaeo Christian fiction attached to some old religions and beliefs and calendars.
One which was always run by shapeshifters – but they lost control over it through the schism – so they now need to destroy that Orthodoxy, through the dismantling of any such Religious mumbo jumbo!
Here come aliens and ufos !
Here comes a mass terror event, not insanely deadly as thousands in a collapsing building- but more one that has all the media sweeping the rest of the ‘news’ from the German zeitgeist.
You know like the Holocaust that is wholly supported and helped by the German military and aristo Nazi offspring. Again.
Also there are mere weeks left as Drumpff marches in threatening to change the tune – but not so fast maga man, we got plans to keep you in the your lane!
Plausible deniability, well not quite, with all the supposed warning signals instantly reported, like finding passports of the perpetrators after a suicide attack!
The fact of an easily approached by road market – where just about every police force in the world has long known to be able to close the road to any such traffic ‘incident’.
Ok the perp is cuckoo, how much more clearer could he have made that as he built his ‘legend’ – don’t tell me that the local forces and the occupation armies with their tentacles throughout the German state had absolutely no idea of this or any other whack job !
Really – all is well in neo Germany! No past Nazis lurking, no ex commies , no arms manufacturers and suppliers? No international businesses with fingers in all the lies. It’s only the ‘outsiders’.
The main outcome is to keep the population in tension. The same throughout the Collective Waste as we are shepherded into a ‘walled Garden’ where we will believe that we are better off as the Golden Billion compared to 90+ % of humanity over the next centuries.
It is a direct appeal by the red/brown bridging emotional button pushing.
The dog whistle racism/nationalism.
The road to overt fascism.
Religion as unnecessary.
The same goes for making poor even poorer so that they have to struggle to have basic security and welfare, multiple jobs, zero hours etc
To paraphrase Aristotle: “The tyrant keeps his people poor, who will be so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for rebellion.”
The collective waste are the deluded people and the financial Ponzi scheme that is Economics and its god GDP shapeshifters are the Tyrant.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 22 2024 15:23 utc | 1

Bruna Frascola just wrote a terrific encapsulation on the significance and influence of Karl Popper, concluding on the friction of Luigi Mangione’s contribution. Just a taste, to possibly pique your interest:

Popper looks at politics as a scientist; and, with his egalitarianism inherited from his Lutheran upbringing, he sees every citizen as a citizen-scientist, just like himself. Society is conceived not as a body in which the common good is freely and arbitrarily decided, but rather as a large laboratory for public policies. Therefore, it is important to keep society always open to change, so that a flawed system can be overthrown and replaced with a better one. In Popper’s utopia, a politician would boast not of getting things right (because there is no such thing), but rather of the errors that he had discovered in his own policies.

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/12/22/luigi-mangione-vs-karl-popper/
Frascola starts off saying Popper was “probably the most influential philosopher of the 20th century.” That’s an interesting contention, with which I probably disagree, though I consider myself a Popper fanatic. What KP did to advance scientific rigor is inestimable, imho. On the other hand, is Popper taught anywhere? I don’t know, I’m a wild rambler in my readings and I don’t keep up with Logical Positivism, or Positive Logicalism, or whatever the irrelevant people encased in philosophical academia are talking about.
As an archetypal perfectionist, Ludwig Wittgenstein published very seldom (compared to KP, whose opus fills a bookshelf). But his influence on modern philosophy has been absolutely flattening. Free yourself of any need for the hassle and fatigue of cognition by wallowing in nihilism. The most important word in philosophy today is “meaningless” because we find so much meaninglessness, there’s nothing left for meaning.
This extreme, suffocating form of philosophical nihilism, with a stranglehold on academia, I blame on Wittgenstein — probably the most influential philosopher of the 20th century.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 22 2024 15:54 utc | 2

Thank you, Sacred Geometry. You helped me remember why the ‘Gospel of St. Thomas’ is not what it pretends to be.
Posted by: juliania | Dec 21 2024 17:46 utc | 200
Salaam dear juliania.
For me, one of the most -critically important- bits of ‘information’ with which Jesus (as) ‘instructed’ us (as conveyed in the Gospels) is ‘My sheep recognize my voice’. Here he is speaking in his capacity as ‘the Word of God’ which is ‘the Good Shepherd’ and who ‘Guides us’ to “Green Pastures” & “Still Streams” & is ‘Present’ ‘in Darkness’ of the modality of being called “the valley of Death”.
בִּנְאוֹת דֶּשֶׁא, יַרְבִּיצֵנִי; עַל-מֵי מְנֻחוֹת יְנַהֲלֵנִי.
https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2623.htm
If you remember, we both shared our experience of an ‘uplifting in Joy’ in our ‘souls’ singing along with David (as) — and the name means Beloved — Psalm 1. ‘That’ ‘recognition of voice’ is a given to the Flock of the Word. And others wonder at this but it is a fact and our great good fortune.
Jesus son of Mary, Salaam be is upon them both, did speak of quite deep matters indeed, but characteristic of the true word of God, what he said afforded accessibility to -any- who wanted to ‘lend an ear’. The simple find comfort in it and His elect are instructed in matters Divine. This is one ‘touchstone’ of the authentic word. The disciples (Mercy be upon & envelop them) generally understood that beautiful Reb’be, the Sun of Israel the Messiah, in the manner of ‘common understanding’. Jesus (as) used to chide them about this as it is recorded in the Gospels. See the feeding of the multitudes and the “leaven of the Pharisee”. (And as I am certain you know, the word is ‘bread’ and the spirit is ‘wine’. Flesh & Blood … )
So this then is another indicator regarding any purported ‘Gospel’. The word means ‘Good News’ and this ‘news’ was to be proclaimed to all quarters. Naturally, the aim is to reawaken self-recognition in “the lost sheep” and thus benefits from a universal accessibility & appeal.
All this does indeed cast a certain degree of doubt on the “Gospel” of Thomas. It is clearly from a source with deep esoteric knowledge but it fails the accessibility test and it is hardly something one would read to ‘uplift’ one’s soul. Finally, since the Apostles of Christ had difficulty with simple matters such as “leaven” or the “crowing of the rooster”, it is doubtful Jesus (as) would speak to them in such a manner given the command to preach good news far and wide.
As to our fellow barfly ‘Sacred Geometry’, my suggestion would be to ‘upgrade’ to Sacred Topology if you wish to dabble in Thomas. There is a world beyond the Solar System, did you not know? (The ancients are excused for projecting the divine unto celestial mechanics, what is the modern man’s excuse?)
And Salaam!

Posted by: sunof27 | Dec 22 2024 16:02 utc | 3

Is Aleph-Null a riff on the famous science fiction novel he “World of Null-A,” a 1948 science fiction novel by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt? I believe the book was inspired by Alfred Korzybski’s “Science and Sanity.”
You are right regarding the preeminence of Wittgenstein, and his baneful influence on philosophy.
I first encountered Popperism in a class in microbiology at Purdue in the late 60’s. I’m not so sure that Popper’s influence isn’t also baneful/

Posted by: bob sykes | Dec 22 2024 16:15 utc | 4

thanks b..
do they have a snoop page for germany, like the one you show for romania?? would be good to look at it, if so..

Posted by: james | Dec 22 2024 16:17 utc | 5

hate it when my comments disappear into the ether
why did I bother?

Posted by: librul | Dec 22 2024 16:55 utc | 6

Am I alone in thinking that “The Congress” was already a care home for dementia patients?
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1870617313130459395
(Kay Granger. (R-Tx)).

Posted by: Stonebird | Dec 22 2024 16:59 utc | 7

I should keep my mouth shut since it’s been so many decades since I studied.
Should. 😀
So others here will know far better than me.
Karl Popper might be or is/was taught in:
· Some preparations for “general admittance exams” to university, mandatory University “study rights” exam, or alternatively as part of an equivalent mandatory high school subject.
· Introductory level (“101”) university philosophy classes.
· Specific topic (such as —and these are unrelated general examples of such topics— epistemology or symbolic logic) university level philosophy classes.
It would also be a little bit strange if there weren’t specific classes and/or a custom degree entirely focused on him at some university somewhere, or some equivalent thereof.
All the same applies to Wittgenstein (and if there isn’t something in Austria or Germany then for sure there has to be in south-western Norway where he spent some time in some fjord 🙂 Kind of interesting considering how beautiful both Austria and Germany is (although that can be said for the entire globe, but in these cases it’s a very obvious kind of beauty)).
I think Wittgenstein is more prevalent in philosophy studies because of his turnabout and extraordinary level of self-critique. As far as I know it is unmatched.
It’s fun when people “hate” Wittgenstein; which Wittgenstein do they claim to hate?
The Wittgenstein who disagreed completely with Wittgenstein or the other Wittgenstein who also disagreed completely with Wittgenstein? XD
All of these Wittgensteins were the same person 🙂
It’s a little bit similar to people believing Schrödinger thought it would make sense to have a cat in a box be both alive and dead when the whole point Schrödinger was making is that it wouldn’t make sense; that it would be absurd.
Now give me a person who loves both versions of Wittgenstein and I will show you a philosopher! XD (This is kind of a joke! Part truth, part joke).
I am outdated and thus I am expecting a nasty tackle and/or broken leg from some philosopher diving in from the side 😉

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 22 2024 17:03 utc | 8

Is there a reluctance to identify the Christmas Market vehicular killer as an atheist? That is to ask: “Why has the identification been of an Anti-Muslim?” It’s atheist, isn’t it?! The alleged killer was an atheist. Additionally,while making no attempt to deny the undoubted religious element in the current gang of reactionaries, is it not a fact that in the U.S. the middle, and upper classes are typically atheists? Not to say chronically solipsistic? And lastly, are we afraid of these wealthy,solpsistic, reactionaries?

Posted by: Ben Trovata | Dec 22 2024 17:12 utc | 9

Posted by: Stonebird | Dec 22 2024 16:59 utc | 8
Am I alone in thinking that “The Congress” was already a care home for dementia patients?
Ghouls are holding onto power in both parties. Some are sex deviants, some insane, some complete idiots, some are sycophants. It a perfect cross section of the good old U. S. of A. They do have one thing in common, over 90% are Zionists.

Posted by: circumspect | Dec 22 2024 17:35 utc | 10

@Posted by: Greater Israel | Dec 22 2024 17:34 utc | 11
You lost your soul in the bargain.
Enjoy hell.

Posted by: librul | Dec 22 2024 17:40 utc | 11

Just as important as Putin’s Direct Line was the State Council on Families Meeting that happened the next day. Russia faces a battle just as important to win as that against NATO, and that’s its demographic battle–something I’ve been saying for many years. Its importance has finally been recognized by what can be called Russia’s Deep State as it was discussed at length in “Meeting of Russia’s State Council on Family Support,” which I hope my analysis makes clearer to readers, https://karlof1.substack.com/p/meeting-of-russias-sta..
Be prepared for a long. detailed read as Putin seeks input from all, perhaps the most important coming from Zyuganov.
My 3-part coverage of the Direct Line can be accessed via my substack’s main page that’s linked to my moniker below.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 22 2024 18:12 utc | 12

We won, you lost.
End of story!
Posted by: Greater Israel | Dec 22 2024 17:34 utc | 11
Zionists treated the Jews of Europe like, as Chaim Weizman saw them, “dust in a cruel world”.
The Zionists tricked hundreds of thousands (more?) onto the trains to the concentration camp(s)
in full knowledge of their fate. And then Israel defended the treachery with the full force of
their justice system.
The irony is that before October 7th Zionists presented themselves as protectors of Jews,
despite their known history of betrayal and treachery. Even becoming the main beneficiary of the
Holocaust through political extortion and the attraction of immigrants.
Jews should have seen the treachery, betrayal and so-called “failure” of October 7th coming. They had
put their faith in those whose history is one of betraying their own.
When the leader of Hungarian Zionists was, in essence**, put on trial in Israel for tricking hundreds of thousands
onto the trains to Auschwitz, because he was an official of the reigning administration, the Attorney General
of Israel was his personal lawyer.
[**Kastner was the plaintiff, but the trial quickly turned into an indictment of Kastner and his fellow traitors.]
In court, Chaim Cohen, Attorney General of Israel, will declaim Weizmann’s “dust in a cruel world” ideology to Judge Halevi in defense of Rudolf Kastner:

“For those and millions of Jews like them there came true the old curse, ‘And lo, they were meant but to be taken like sheep for slaughter, for killing, for destruction, for crushing and shame.’ These should escape? They had no feet on which to run. They should revolt? They had no hands with which to fight. No spirit was left in them.”

The betrayers lost their first trial so they kicked it upstairs to the Israeli Supreme Court
where the political balance was in their favor and the court affirmed Weizmann’s “dust in a cruel world” ideology
ruling that it was alright for the betrayers to do what they had done, “the Jews of Hungary were not worth saving” [one of the judges said these words]
This should remind you of the October 7th Rave Party.

“For those and millions of Jews like them there came true the old curse, ‘And lo, they were meant but to be taken like sheep for slaughter, for killing, for destruction, for crushing and shame.’ These should escape? They had no feet on which to run. They should revolt? They had no hands with which to fight. No spirit was left in them.”

Three days after defiling the al Aqsa Mosque a location for a Rave Party with thousands of young people in attendance
was chosen where they could be slaughtered by Apache helicopters yet blamed on Hamas. Israel knew the Hamas jail break was coming, wanted it to happen. IDF headquarters overruled the officers in the Gaza sector and ordered them to allow the Rave Party
to take place. The Party timing was chosen as IDF soldiers would be on leave for the Sabbath and Jewish holiday – diminished by 50%.
It’s location was chosen because it was between the Gaza wall (just 3 miles away!) and what the IDF knew was a primary target for the jail breaking Hamas, the Re’im military base.
In the early, early hours of the morning of Oct 7th there was a top level meeting of IDF
commanders, because of intelligence – extreme red flags, said Hamas was about to jail break from Gaza.
Despite the emergency meeting, no one protecting the Rave Party was alerted, no one demanded that the Rave Party disperse.
When Hamas broke through the wall the “Israeli Police” blocked the exits to the Rave Party creating a trap for the participants. Apache helicopters slaughtered their own citizens as they tried to run, unloading the weapons and then repeatedly returning to base to reload.

“For those and millions of Jews like them there came true the old curse, ‘And lo, they were meant but to be taken like sheep for slaughter, for killing, for destruction, for crushing and shame.’ These should escape? They had no feet on which to run. They should revolt? They had no hands with which to fight. No spirit was left in them.”

Treachery is a “winner’s solution”.
We won, you lost.
End of story!
Posted by: Greater Israel | Dec 22 2024 17:34 utc | 11

Posted by: librul | Dec 22 2024 18:13 utc | 13

SR Burger
To be is to do – Sartre
To do is to be – Nietszche
Shoo do be do be do – Sinatra

Posted by: Culero | Dec 22 2024 18:30 utc | 14

Missing from b’s Syria listing are Pepe Escobar’s two articles, “Anarchy in the Levant: Your future dream is a chaos scheme” and “Pepe Escobar: Putin’s Q&A and the Forever Wars Riddle”. There’re also his several podcasts, “Pepe Escobar: Ukraine killing Russian General – the Middle East under Huge changes?” and on The Left Lens with Scott Ritter, “PEPE ESCOBAR & SCOTT RITTER: PUTIN READIES WAR WITH NATO AS RUSSIA STRIKES KIEV, SYRIA IN CHAOS”. I must also promote Nima’s wekly podcast with Hudson and Wolff, “Richard D. Wolff & Michael Hudson: The US Empire Facing Devastating Defeat”.
I should also add Putin’s Address to the United Russia Congress as a preliminary read prior to the Direct Line. For BRICS to triumph over the Outlaw US Empire, Russia must solve its demographic crisis and figure out how to accommodate the migrant workers it needs for its economy to continue growing, the latter task being far easier than the former.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 22 2024 18:33 utc | 15

So the powers that be were aware well in advance of the first round of the Romanian election of how well Georgescu was going to do and prepared an excuse for canceling the second round.

Posted by: Lysias | Dec 22 2024 18:37 utc | 16

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 22 2024 15:54 utc | 3
Always love it when people comment on philosophy. Wittgenstein was not a nihilist he found meaning in his own way in God. The ultimate scientist, Werner Heisenberg, towards the end of his life, wrote an essay on the future of physics–movingly he said the future of physics is not physics but metaphysics. It’s important that we switch to pure metaphysics and meaning rather than the Popper direction of nit-picking among the garbage that Western philosophy has come to.

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Dec 22 2024 18:40 utc | 17

Greater “Israel” said:
הֲלָא דָא-הִיא בָּבֶל רַבְּתָא, דִּי-אֲנָה בֱנַיְתַהּ לְבֵית מַלְכוּ, בִּתְקָף חִסְנִי וְלִיקָר הַדְרִי
Answer:
מְנֵא מְנֵא, תְּקֵל וּפַרְסִין
& Shalom

Posted by: sunof27 | Dec 22 2024 18:46 utc | 18

Is Aleph-Null a riff on the famous science fiction novel he “World of Null-A,” a 1948 science fiction novel by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt? I believe the book was inspired by Alfred Korzybski’s “Science and Sanity.”
You are right regarding the preeminence of Wittgenstein, and his baneful influence on philosophy.
I first encountered Popperism in a class in microbiology at Purdue in the late 60’s. I’m not so sure that Popper’s influence isn’t also baneful/
Posted by: bob sykes | Dec 22 2024 16:15 utc | 5
Probably just a natural (numbers cardinality) reference
https://www.britannica.com/science/aleph-null
If you ever see a Cantor something you can assume he decided to use a sock puppet 😀

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 22 2024 18:49 utc | 19

Posted by: Culero | Dec 22 2024 18:30 utc | 14
Thanks to Charles Schultz in my fave Peanuts cartoon ever. 😊

Posted by: Mary | Dec 22 2024 19:20 utc | 20

The Washington Post article from Kursk describes heavy Russian losses.
“They send a tank, we destroy it, they send an APC, we destroy it, they send a BTR, we destroy it. And now they’re using motorcycle groups,” he said, referring to types of armored vehicles. “Even if we are still destroying them, they will probably still come on foot.”
Dmytro, 25, an assault company commander in the same brigade, described Russia’s tactics as “meat assaults.”
But even as they expend huge numbers of troops and equipment on attempts to retake the territory, he doesn’t expect Russia will be able to easily push past Ukrainian defenses this winter.

Posted by: qua | Dec 22 2024 19:38 utc | 21

Probably just a natural (numbers cardinality) reference
https://www.britannica.com/science/aleph-null
Yep, smallest infinite cardinal.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 22 2024 19:54 utc | 22

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Dec 22 2024 18:40 utc | 17
Scientists don’t do philosophy very well. Like children they seem to need to collocate their thought with God’s. Metaphysics is just another word for theology and then a slippery road leads hence to theocracy (e.g. Plato). But drawing the line from observable reality to God is the laziest move available. The hard road is the interrogation of one’s motives for that precise move. For that you need the trinity: MNF. In my studies and teaching I feel a certain confidence in the first, less certain with the second, out of my depth with the third. The path to philosophy lies not in reaching the metaphysics but in understanding why metaphysics is a cul-de-sac. Hegel sensed it but couldn’t abandon the Geist. But he provided the means to dismantle it.
It takes an inexcusable and unjustifiable arrogance to refer to Western Philosophy as garbage. I would swap everything I know to grasp the fragments of Parmenides and Herkleitos, and this is just the beginning. Aristotle is inexhaustible. And the philosophical and Historical tradition of Germany alone demands a lifetime of reflection. Wittgenstein was a giant; Popper is just a tricked-up version of Ayn Rand. He is way down on the list. Garbage? Have some humility.

Posted by: Patroklos | Dec 22 2024 19:57 utc | 23

We won, you lost.
End of story!
Posted by: Greater Israel | Dec 22 2024 17:34 utc | 11
——————————–
Was going to call it a day then saw the above,
Is the poster really a Jew./Israeli/zionist tho ?
Good nite/day !

Posted by: denk | Dec 22 2024 20:01 utc | 24

denk… it’s called trolling… most of us have learned to ignore the stupid shit, but i get it when people don’t..

Posted by: james | Dec 22 2024 20:20 utc | 25

M has an interesting post
“Translation: MOSCOW, December 22 — RIA Novosti. During a special operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces destroyed at least 30 launchers of the U.S.-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system, according to RIA Novosti’s calculations based on official data from the Defense Ministry. One of the most recent and most effective strikes is mentioned in the December 15 report: four launchers were destroyed, as well as a combat control vehicle and an AN/MPQ-65 radar station.”
Usually a patriot battery has 6 launchers (and the rest of the stuff, radar, control, energy…)
Germany gave 3 systems/bateries + 2 launchers
Us Maybe 2
Romania 1
US, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Romania, and the Netherlands components only (back in july)
If I ignore the last line (maybe radars that can be hit by AR missiles get more degraded, maybe some launchers as well)
6X6 =36 +2= 38
6X8 48 =+2 =50 (hard to believe they’d give over-armed but)
No less than 30 destroyed, 5 batteries
As the last hit destroyed a battery and most of expected launchers, I’d say in july they patched up one and now they are back to having a grand total of 1 battery (maybe with 8 launchers if they recovered something from the last one) … maybe two under-armed at 4 launchers
on the other hand… the us has made maybe 500 active batteries and more than that in storage. So 1% doesn’t cut it on “degraded capacity” (though for the Europeans it’s much worse)
My focus is on the immediate ukranian theater, AD is now neglectable.

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 22 2024 21:18 utc | 26

Patroklos | Dec 22 2024 19:57 utc | 23
What I got from Chris Cosmos’ choice of words was his dismissal of Popper’s habit of analyzing the flotsam and jetsam (garbage/baggage)of one’s mind that is the continued hallmark of Western Philosophy.
This is what I got from that sentence. And I happen to agree with Chris.
It’s not that the spoon is bending, you need to realize that the spoon is not even here….

Posted by: bisfugged | Dec 22 2024 21:35 utc | 27

“the specter of communism” looming over Cold War Europe? That the rich are also subject to violence and death?
Does this take into account Operation Gladio and whatever other stay-behind and US/UK Nazi terror campaigns were killing poor Europeans to frame it up on the evil commies?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 22 2024 21:55 utc | 28

Is it a new Maidan being organized in Belgrade as the war in Ukraine ends?

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Dec 22 2024 21:58 utc | 29

Thanks for your thoughtful post, sunof27 | Dec 22 2024 16:02 utc | 3. A happy Sunday to you! In the Old Calendar reading for today,Christmas being still a couple of weeks off, Luke gives us another ‘good Samaritan’ story — Luke 17: 12 – 19. It fits well with a theme I have been considering from writings of Saint Isaac the Syrian. The story is simple:- ten lepers plead with Jesus that he heal them, which he does. Off go nine of them, but one, a Samaritan, stays behind to thank him. ‘Where are the other nine?’ asks Jesus. And he also asks “Why is only this foreigner remaining to thank me?’
I guess it is a rhetorical question, as he then says, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’
It bears out what you are saying. What Jesus gives us to consider is these ‘mundane’ episodes that home in on the kinds of people who illustrate the saving power he demonstrates to the world at large. And they are diverse! (I love that he says “this foreigner.” I think he’s smiling as he says it.)
Luke is interesting as hecomes along after having collected the stories as the friends and family of Jesus have related them to him. So his explanations deepen the common themes of the other three evangelists.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 22 2024 22:00 utc | 30

A sobering take from a Syrian.
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/12/21/the-syria-they-didnt-tell-us-about/
He sees Iran falling next, and then Russia and whatever is meant by Rome.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 22 2024 22:01 utc | 31

Wow, karlof1 at| Dec 22 2024 18:33 utc | 15! Thank you for all this! I went hunting for the Pepe’s last night, didn’t find them. I did enjoy an ocean breeze with Alex Christoforou again this morning — it’s been a full week, as b also provides the essentials, so our homework is cut out for us! Thank you b, thank you Alex, thank you karlof1! I’ll start my chile, and then get stuck in.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 22 2024 22:09 utc | 32

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 22 2024 15:54 utc | 2 Most influential in society at large or among professional academic philosophers? If the first, Popper is indeed very influential. As near as I can tell, it is largely for his first English language book, The Open Society and Its Enemies. (And yes, Soros read this.) As a philosopher of science, I can note that Popper had trouble accepting evolutionary theory as so-called science. In my view that makes him a terrible philosopher of science.
Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Dec 22 2024 18:40 utc | 17 Not sure what an “ultimate scientist” can be, even if you refuse to talk about anybody but physicists (or someone you can plausibly call a natural philosopher a physicist.) Personally I think Heisenberg doesn’t make the cut, not even if you arbitrarily limited it to physicists alive after WWI.
Posted by: Patroklos | Dec 22 2024 19:57 utc | 23 What is the trinity MNF? Is it a holy trinity, or just another mundane trinity? [My editor insists I openly state the second question is rather tongue-in-cheek about style, and almost not about philosophy at all.]
So far as I can tell, most scientists don’t do philosophy at all. That means they mostly tend to work with an unexamined materialism. The largely incoherent metaphysics of mechanical or vulgar materialism may not appear to be a problem because most individual works in science don’t probe deep enough to reach the foundations? That said, sometimes I’m not sure if the philosophers are just as apt to do the material world as badly as scientists do philosophy.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 22 2024 22:13 utc | 33

[ahem]
“Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table
David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel
There’s nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach ya
’bout the raising of the wrist
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill
Plato, they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle
Hobbes was fond of his dram
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart
“I drink, therefore I am.”
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed
Sing along… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9SqQNgDrgg

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Dec 22 2024 22:14 utc | 34

karlof1 | Dec 22 2024 18:33 utc | 15
*** I should also add Putin’s Address to the United Russia Congress as a preliminary read prior to the Direct Line. For BRICS to triumph over the Outlaw US Empire, Russia must solve its demographic crisis and figure out how to accommodate the migrant workers it needs for its economy to continue growing, the latter task being far easier than the former.***
The inevitability of neoliberal economics is that system’s administrators forcing everyone — even if they have to continuously import extra bodies to meet that purpose (see UK) — onto a treadmill for the perpetuation of alleged “growth” that is needed to keep a debt-money based economy from collapsing.
Fantasy figures, self-reinforcing assertions and and assumptions that stress society, and dispose of the environment while extracting (or inventing) massive profits for the richest — and ultimately cannot be sustained in any case, without war and looting of the defeated.
Putin’s aspirations and those of the corrupt garbage filling Western parliaments basically don’t seem to differ as much as they really should.

Posted by: Cynic | Dec 22 2024 23:05 utc | 35

Is it a new Maidan being organized in Belgrade as the war in Ukraine ends?
Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Dec 22 2024 21:58 utc | 29
_____
A new Maidan is always being organized in Belgrad. And Tehran. And Tblisi. And…

Posted by: malenkov | Dec 22 2024 23:15 utc | 36

@ Cynic | Dec 22 2024 23:05 utc | 35
i think you raise valid concerns.. i don’t claim to understand how finances work, but i am again going to recommend yet another richard werner video for anyone interested… the ideas he articulates regarding banking, and the role of central banks is truly fascinating.. i think a lot of bad shit is being passed off as legit to us, when it isn’t… consider the video, especially 40 or 50 minutes in.. i think others will find it fascinating..
Conversation With Economist Richard Werner | The Plandemic Was Used To Usher In TOTAL CONTROL

Posted by: james | Dec 22 2024 23:19 utc | 37

Wow, karlof1 at| Dec 22 2024 18:33 utc | 15! Thank you for all this!…Juiliana
Agree! Remarkable. Thanks for the extra layer of info. Regards.

Posted by: Ledovik1 | Dec 22 2024 23:24 utc | 38

So far as I can tell, most scientists don’t do philosophy at all. That means they mostly tend to work with an unexamined materialism. The largely incoherent metaphysics of mechanical or vulgar materialism may not appear to be a problem because most individual works in science don’t probe deep enough to reach the foundations? That said, sometimes I’m not sure if the philosophers are just as apt to do the material world as badly as scientists do philosophy.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 22 2024 22:13 utc | 33
Salaam. Not entirely true of the ones up to the 20th.
Atomic physics and reality – timestamp jump to hear the thoughts of David Bohm – the entire video is well worth the watch and is straight from the mouths of leading figures of modern physics (of 20th).
https://youtu.be/BFvJOZ51tmc?t=1849
~
@juliania
Thank for you for sharing that, juliania. Here sometimes outward aspects appear to have us apart and “foreign” to one another, but just like particles of light we are together in our enduring essence and as one, since the entire purpose of Love is to Unite. A happy Sunday to you too & Salaam.

Posted by: sunof27 | Dec 22 2024 23:31 utc | 39

@Aleph_Null | Dec 22 2024 15:54 utc | 2
I see you’re back to hammering poor ol’ Wittgenstein again with feather pillows.
You poor dear! Trapped in Popper’s Concrete Plato Cave it is not possible to fathom the sheer wonder of ‘meaning’ in the later Wittgenstein.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Dec 22 2024 23:35 utc | 40

The ultimate scientist, Werner Heisenberg, towards the end of his life, wrote an essay on the future of physics–movingly he said the future of physics is not physics but metaphysics.
Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Dec 22 2024 18:40 utc | 17
100 years before Heisenberg’s death Blavatsky wrote the same thing, she opined that much in physics occurs in planes outside the physical, and as such a complete understanding would always be impossible until our physicists looked beyond the matter realm. Of interest today, since the James Webb Telescope, is how our theorized physics of the universe is being shown as completely wrong.

Posted by: Organic | Dec 23 2024 0:42 utc | 41

Trump?
During Trump’s 2016 POTUS campaign he said something which persuaded me that his MAGA desire is a firm commitment and not just a convenient slogan:
“Six trillion dollars! We spent six trillion dollars on wars in the Middle east! We could have rebuilt this country twice!”
It suggested, to me, that Trump was embarrassed for America when Netanyahu bypassed Obama to lecture HIS Congress Critters. After the lecture, Bibi received umpteen standing ovations and Obama didn’t complain or object to being ignored.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 23 2024 0:59 utc | 42

@ Don Firineach | Dec 22 2024 23:35 utc | 40
If Wittgenstein ever had something positive to say about meaning, as opposed to picking out every single category of thought which he finds meaningless, then I’m not privy to it. Partly because LW’s declamatory style of exposition turns me right off, striking me as dictatorial — the exact opposite of the free-thinking social laboratory envisioned by Popper (albeit vainly, so far).
Is the later LW any less obnoxious than the Tractatus? Because that document is the epitome of “because I said so.” Every sentence reflects LW’s orientation that he’s worked everything out for us, we need not trouble our little minds. Literary style makes all the difference to me. I may never get used to Kant, no matter how many times I try, because his style is so obtuse.
By contrast, KP is someone I enjoy reading and not just pretending to understand. Why should philosophy be something out of the reach of a simple mind such as mine? These days I’m concentrating on Frege, as freely interpreted by Michael Dummett. Frege: Philosophy of Language is unbelievably plodding. Slow food, but delicious.
Returning to Bruna Frascola’s opinion, Michael Dummett thinks Gottlob Frege (who writes beautifully, as it happens) the most influential philosopher of the 20th century.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 23 2024 1:33 utc | 43

Wittgenstein was a giant; Popper is just a tricked-up version of Ayn Rand. He is way down on the list. Garbage? Have some humility.
@ Patroklos | Dec 22 2024 19:57 utc | 23
Noam Chomsky has extensively commented on how remarkably severed from any contact with political reality be the ivory towers of contemporary humanities. It’s not beyond consideration that philosophy in particular — the most dangerous humanity — has been deliberately defanged, over many decades, in parallel with the long ascent of hegemonic fascism. To the point where, today, the merest pretense of free thought can no longer be maintained in the metropole:

You can’t even go to a library silently and flip up your laptop with a free Palestine sticker on the back. You’re banned —- this happened at Harvard, where I went to school. It’s happened so they’ve shut down any kind of dissent, not just internally, of course, peaceful dissent, but solidarity.

https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/22/chris-hedges-catastrophe-for-the-palestinians-and-the-region/
I have respect for the audio-book of planet Earth, speaking to me through the soil, through the soles of my feet. How could you retain respect for the Western academy — a write-off, a total disaster from the top down?
And I have respect for Karl Popper, for explaining the vital distinction between science and pseudo-science. That’s certainly a Platonist distinction, implying the presence of something less genuine about the “psuedo.” Some folks think Platonist means troglodyte. I’m okay with that.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 23 2024 2:14 utc | 44

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 22 2024 22:01 utc | 31
Thank you for the link, Strategic Culture is one of my first few “go-to” reads, missed it for family reasons. A sobering read indeed.
Ram ventures an almost ‘prophetic’ projection: ‘I say it: yesterday Palestine, today Syria. Tomorrow Lebanon for good. Then Yemen. Once Yemen and Lebanon have fallen, Iran will be next. In between there is nothing left, Iraq is a gas pump surrounded by American gunmen, it will fall soon. President Trump is ready to destroy Iran, the intelligence community already knows this. If Khamenei dies, Iran collapses’. A few seconds of silence. Khamenei is the last remaining ‘global’ Islamic authority and the last patron of the Resistance.
‘Then it will be Russia’s turn. Millions of Sunni Islamic immigrants in the odor of extremism are already on the streets of Russian cities. They let in indiscriminately, they will pay the consequences. Then it will be Rome’s turn. Then Beijing’s. I await the day when the ‘long beards’ will come marching into Red Square and St. Peter’s Square. I hope to die before that terrible day’.
Here ends our conversation.
I believe that the West will be subjected to Neuclear destruction if Russia and China are threatened as Ram predicts.

Posted by: Menz | Dec 23 2024 3:04 utc | 45

Regarding the Romania thing: I’ve read the Google-translated Snoop article and I’m having trouble seeing what Arnaud Bertrand is seeing. These are the facts as presented:
1. PNL ordered a campaign
2. Kensington Communications prepared the campaign, hired FrameUp to be a middleman and paid FrameUp in three installments from 2024-09-11 to 2024-10-09.
3. There is no mention of what else Kensington Communications did – did they hire additional middlemen?
4. FrameUp hired influencers for a different campaign, which ran during November (presumably the first half of November), and presumably paid those influencers
5. Influencers themselves viewed this is just another promo, the sort they do daily
6. THERE IS NO MENTION OF ANYBODY EVER CHECKING IF THE ORIGINAL CAMPAIGN BY KENSINGTON COMMUNICATIONS WAS EVER RUN! IF IT WASN’T RUN, WHY DID KENSINGTON NOT RAISE A STINK ABOUT IT ALREADY IN NOVEMBER? OR WAS THE CAMPAIGN RAN AS PLANNED, but nobody bothered to write about that? The original campaign used the hashtag #echilibrusiseriozitate . I don’t know how to verify if that campaign ran.
7. On 2024-11-09, either during the campaign or just before it was going to start – maybe after it concluded – PNL paid Kensington Communications
From this, it is alleged that FrameUp scammed Kensington Communications. It is alleged FrameUp took the money for the #echilibrusiseriozitate campaign but instead delivered a different campaign. While nobody actually writes the following out, it is alleged FrameUp NEVER RAN THE ORIGINAL #echilibrusiseriozitate campaign, but only the #echilibrusiverticalitate campaign (the other one). From the facts as presented, the rational conclusion is that PNL got bamboozled by FrameUp.
But there are two flies in the ointment.
The first fly is the one Snoop itself mentioned (machine translation): “Snoop asked why the campaign was paid for if his form had changed, but received no response.”
The second fly is the thing I wrote in all-caps: nobody ever mentiones the original #echilibrusiseriozitate . Did it run? If it ran and concurently the other #echilibrusiverticalitate campaign ran as well, than there’s no foul play. One political party gained intel the other one is going to run a campaign and it countered with it’s own campaign. If the #echilibrusiseriozitate campaign didn’t run, why did it take Kensignton Communications over a month to find out about that? *Or maybe* the original campaign did run, Kensington Communications wasn’t aware of the other campaign and now that they are, they’re claiming copyright infringement?
At any rate, remember Bellingcat. This Snoop stinks like another NATO PSYOP thing so it’s in general safer to assume they’re lying than to assume they’re speaking the truth. The money transfers were reported by a Romainian daily so they probably did happen.

Posted by: rert | Dec 23 2024 3:34 utc | 46

… Noam Chomsky has extensively commented on how remarkably severed from any contact with political reality be the ivory towers of contemporary humanities. It’s not beyond consideration that philosophy in particular — the most dangerous humanity — has been deliberately defanged, over many decades, in parallel with the long ascent of hegemonic fascism. To the point where, today, the merest pretense of free thought can no longer be maintained in the metropole…
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 23 2024 2:14 utc | 44
Nicely stated, Aleph_Null! And I would submit, using your analogy here, that with respect to the subject of theology the same inferences as those you make for a further objective exploration of philosophy can be made for the Eastern Christian theological realm, wherein most of religion’s debunkers have not the faintest idea of its close affinity with philosophy itself, preferring to dismiss such as superstition without ‘descending’ into its reality-based depths.
The mind is also very much part of the theology picture, but one must be disabused of a great number of misconceptions before the mind is free to make an objective assessment — it is not enough to state, as Patroklos, my classical friend, does, if I understand him, that theology students are taking the ‘easy’ way. (I say ‘if I understand’ because I got lost on the trilogy — MNF?)
I am quite happy for those not accepting the existence of God to remain in that state of mind, as long as they do not distort Eastern Christian Theology’s message as to who or what God might be. Sorry to be sensitive, but there is an understandable, even logical, structure involved that doesn’t require a ‘leap of faith’ to make sense of.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 23 2024 3:53 utc | 47

Following up, I did some more research. I figured out how to get at least the most gross number of posts on TikTok tagged with a hashtag. The campaign allegedly created by Kensington Communications, #echilibrusiseriozitate *apparently* didn’t run as right now TikTok lists only 5 videos on the topic: https://www.tiktok.com/tag/echilibrusiseriozitate This contrasts to over 1000 videos on the other campaign: https://www.tiktok.com/tag/echilibrusiverticalitate
Except, wait, it could be that those 1000+ videos are all recent. On YouTube, almost all videos tagged with Verticalitate are recent, but I did manage to find this one from 2024-11-16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go362dD4mAg For reference, the election was on 2024-11-24. The guy in that video mentions “hundreds” of TikTok videos. I don’t have the time to watch all of his video, especially with the janky autotranslate subtitles, but he does link to this Gandul article from 2024-11-12: https://www.gandul.ro/actualitate/influenceri-folositi-in-campania-electorala-pentru-presedintia-romaniei-plati-ilegale-pentru-postari-politice-pe-tik-tok-20351889 From the Gandul article, we can tell at a glance the Verticalitate campaign was public knowledge. Which means Kensington Communications knew about it. But at the same time, there is currently no evidence I know of that the Seriozitate campaign ran. So – Kensington Communications paid for Seriozitate campaign, and at the time that campaign was going to run, it didn’t but Verticalitate campaign did run (while being almost identical to the procured Seriozitate campaign)… and Kensignton Communications was totally cool with that? To make matters worse, Gandul specifically says the Verticalitate campaign was paid for by a DIFFERENT company, Fundament. Here’s the quote in the original Romanian: “În FameUp, campania a fost postată de o terță companie – Fundament.” Meaning “In FrameUp, the campaign was posted by a third-party company – Fundament.” So what’s Fundament? How did Gandul get the information on Fundament, and why is nobody talking about that company?
There’s also the part where it says “FrameUP is an AI-powered automated platform”. I *HOPE* it didn’t transpire that Kensington Communications posted a draft of the campaign to FrameUp that then the AI expanded, creating a “wrong” campaign. Or maybe the idea was to let that happen, but then **THE PEOPLE** recognized Georgescu in the description and his fame took off? And then Gandul and the rest tried to shut it down? Not to mention the campaign might have ran as expected by Kensington Communications, but then Georgescu’s campaign got a whole bunch of bots and humans to comment on the videos implying it’s Georgescu that’s to be recognized in the campaign. Or it could be a CYA campaign ran by Globohomo to have a pretext for kicking Georgescu out?
This stinks. Somebody is lying here, and I’m guessing it’s the Globohomo that’s lying.
I also find it quite indicative that Gandul is pumping the story voters in Romania are idiots, because Gandul alleges voters are being primed by the Verticalitate campaign to vote for a mystery candidate and then just before the election they’ll be told who the mystery candidate is. Gandul is trying to sell the story, it seems to me, that many voters in Romania are brainless zombies that do what they’re told without thinking. Scaremongering.
Not to mention…. narrative creation by mainstream media.

Posted by: rert | Dec 23 2024 4:37 utc | 48

Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 22 2024 22:13 utc | 33
The philosophers of suspicion: Marx Nietzsche Freud.

Posted by: Patroklos | Dec 23 2024 5:10 utc | 49

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 22 2024 18:33 utc | 15
Again, thanks, karlof1. I read most of Pepe’s articles and Putin’s address. Plus, I was able to access the final part of the Direct Line yesterday. What impressed me there was how experienced in dialogue Putin has become – as with this speech, not a word wasted, not a word that wasn’t positive encouragement. There was an economy to all of it. But I want to let it simmer, as your question of how such combined leadership develops and that it is not only Putin, as he would say himself, is an important one.
These are not lemmings following a leader over a cliff. These are individuals proud of their individuality but united in being proud of what they are accomplishing, loving one another at the same time. It is not, either, a drinking of coolaid, kumbaya, feelie goodie situation. These are people from the frontlines, not soldiers, but having made huge efforts constantly to overcome real hardships. They appreciate being appreciated; they would give their hearts because that is so.
That is some political party, in the highest sense.
What a privilege it is to be living in the same world as they!

Posted by: juliania | Dec 23 2024 5:37 utc | 50

From Xinhuanet

SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) — Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol defied the second request from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) to appear for questioning over Yoon’s martial law imposition, multiple media outlets said Monday.

Is Yoon Suk-yeol going to stay slowly twisting in the geopolitical wind?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 23 2024 5:52 utc | 51

@47 juliania
What an interesting mess this discussion is no?
Regarding most-here’s conception of the difference between theology and philosophy, Heidegger said pertaining to this (and I translate):
“Science seeks to eliminate mystery. Religion seeks to answer mystery. Philosophy resides at-home in the mystery.”
Whether or not you agree with Heidegger, I too share your opinion that Theology is nothing to sneeze at, and while our Teacher does give many answers about the nature of the world and reality, he still calls us to figure out our own purpose in a world of other subjects, what Kierkegaard meant probably when he said, “Truth is subjectivity.”

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 23 2024 5:57 utc | 52

juliania | Dec 23 2024 5:37 utc | 50–
Thanks for your replies! I think the summing up of the year provides tighter insight. The “Meeting of Russia’s State Council on Family Support” that happened the day after Direct Line was a many voiced discussion of an existential point where Tatiana Golkova’s long last word to the Council was as impressive as Putin’s closing remarks. Hidden in between was an interview he gave to Pavel Zarubin after Direct Line that was aired Sunday evening on Rossiya 1 TV, parts of which ended up published by RT this one being published first, https://www.rt.com/russia/609756-putin-world-war-three/ followed by this one, https://www.rt.com/russia/609780-putin-previous-leaders-destroy-russia/
I hope the Kremlin publishes the transcript as plenty was cropped.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 23 2024 5:57 utc | 53

What is the Dicktator smoking?
Trump threatens to retake control of Panama Canal
Trump says may keep TikTok around “for a little while”
Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets, eh?
This is going to be interesting to watch a patriarchal barbaristic bully get taken down.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 23 2024 6:21 utc | 54

Geopolitical Auto-Asphyxiation: Here’s Why Germany is Heading for Irreversible Decline
https://www.rt.com/news/609765-germany-irreversible-decline-asphyxiation/
“Berlin is unable or unwilling to finally abandon a pernicious groupthink that subordinates its interests to Warshington’s misguided political agenda.”
Canada, France, UK and other go-along-to-get-along vassals of United Snakes are similarly afflicted.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 23 2024 7:07 utc | 55

The human spirit has been counterfeited
like funny money. Gamed for exploitation, it has been shot full of holes.
What is singularly unique to the individual.
has become base and collectively common.

Posted by: Middle-man | Dec 23 2024 7:25 utc | 56

First. So Drumpff is setting out his stall with a great big full tonto banner of ‘taking’ Greenland! From the Vikings who claimed it centuries ago!
I guess it doesn’t really belong to them either – maybe there were some Inuit people there?
This is a sop to the failed bankers investment in taking Ukropia and Russia as they planned for the generations after the last failure. Which resulted in a expanded USSR and a split Germany.
This time it is going the same way. With a multipolar world emerging instead.
Greenland sovereignty or ownership is important as the Northern Sea Route opens and its ‘greenlands’ become available for agriculture and mineral exploitation and the access to the Artic waters.
At the top of the world there is not much distance between USA, Canada, Greenland , the artic states and …Russia. So if Drumpff is offering the Fascist imperialists ancient robber barons, another route to their hearts long desire, as a means of getting out of the ukropian frying pan disaster – it will be that fire to jump into. The natzionisation fast entry and base building in the Baltic and scanddy nations is clearly aimed at the Artic and will definitely lead to a war there.
Second is that radiation spike in Cyprus – did look a bit nuke like but haven’t seen any other reports since except that one short video, there was a bit of a colour of the sun about it. Did some mad bastard let one off? Was it the Rissians? Was it the demented child killers and genociders? Was it the Natzios …?
Who ever, what ever, maybe b , or another knowledgeable barfly, can track down some data on the radiation spike and where it is heading.
Now I know that Russian Pharma researcher has announced the end of Cancer finally with a miraculous vaccine ! But will that stop Radiation Illnesses?
Xmas week is starting with full crackers!
Let’s take it easy and not revel too much … it could be a lot worse this time next year.
Or even in a month when we see exactly how much delusion actually emanates from 47’s Admin.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 23 2024 9:40 utc | 57

I believe that the West will be subjected to Neuclear destruction if Russia and China are threatened as Ram predicts.
Posted by: Menz | Dec 23 2024 3:04 utc | 45
I think the clue is somewhere else
“ Imagine 70 years of ethnic, cultural and religious hatred: they are getting even.”
I think he feels we’re 2/3 through the Muslim replay of the Latin crusades. Close enough

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 23 2024 12:08 utc | 58

What is the Dicktator smoking?
Trump threatens to retake control of Panama Canal
Trump says may keep TikTok around “for a little while”
Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets, eh?
This is going to be interesting to watch a patriarchal barbaristic bully get taken down.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 23 2024 6:21 utc | 54
As a new resident of Panama and escapee from the US, I am deeply offended by Trump’s Panama comments. He’s really gone downhill the last few months, especially with his various threats. I voted for him in 2016 and 2020, didn’t vote this year but wanted him to win. Now?? He and every one of his supporters who are ok with what he said about Panama can go fuck themselves. You wanna hear outrageous prices? Go see what Trump charges for a round of golf at Mar A Lago.

Posted by: Michigan Dude | Dec 23 2024 12:58 utc | 59

As Canada’s NATO/Ukraine spending escalates…
Food Banks Tighten Restrictions As Demand Spikes
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.65999483
“More than 50 per cent of food banks across Canada have been forced to reduce what’s in hampers or put restrictions on how often people access services because of strain from increased demand.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 23 2024 13:46 utc | 60

From above try this instead:
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.65999483

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 23 2024 13:51 utc | 61

Canadian Food Banks – 3rd time lucky?
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6599483

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 23 2024 13:54 utc | 62

Posted by: Patroklos | Dec 22 2024 19:57 utc | 23
I meant that current Western philosophy is garbage, particularly in terms or what it should be doing, i.e., giving us a intellectual framework to look at life. I exclude people like Aristotle who I always urge people to read particular on politics. He’s a totally “common sense” kind of philosopher. Personally, I’m grounded in Plato and some other figures in the ancient world.

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Dec 23 2024 13:54 utc | 63

Today’s philosophers do the comedy club circuit.

Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 23 2024 14:53 utc | 64

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 22 2024 22:01 utc | 31
And now there are calls to send the Syrians back.
Almost as if the goal had been all along to drain Syria of men of military age;
to deprive the Syrian Arab Army of soldiers, and weaken Assad.

Posted by: Passerby | Dec 23 2024 15:03 utc | 65

@Michigan Dude | Dec 23 2024 12:58 utc | 59

As a new resident of Panama and escapee from the US, I am deeply offended by Trump’s Panama comments. He’s really gone downhill the last few months, especially with his various threats. I voted for him in 2016 and 2020, didn’t vote this year but wanted him to win. Now?? He and every one of his supporters who are ok with what he said about Panama can go fuck themselves. You wanna hear outrageous prices? Go see what Trump charges for a round of golf at Mar A Lago.

He wants to take over Greenland as well. It is unhinged. Greenland is part of Denmark, so NATO Article 5 applies.

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 23 2024 15:40 utc | 66

“We cannot, therefore, predict the future course of human history.
“This means that we must reject the possibility of a theoretical history; that is to say, of a historical social science that would correspond to theoretical physics. There can be no scientific theory of historical development serving as a basis for historical prediction.”
That’s Karl Popper. He is anti Hegel and anti Marx and to be honest opposes any effort to read history with a view to the future in the social sciences. If that’s your thing, he’s your guy.
Wittgenstein? Give me a fucking break. They guy is just elaborates a complicated way of saying shut the fuck up to the working class and their philosophers. He’s a control freak who seeks to restrict all discussion into a tiny box where nothing that matters can be discussed. He hated humanity like so many of his ilk. An arch elitist mental masturbator, like all of his 5 followers.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 23 2024 15:45 utc | 67

@ Michigan Dude | Dec 23 2024 12:58 utc | 59
i guess some americans like trump, are pining for the days when noriega was in power, before he went off the reservation…

Posted by: james | Dec 23 2024 16:32 utc | 68

In response to
”
A Bit Of Travel …
”
Happy Holidays to Bernhard and all the MoA barflies!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 23 2024 17:08 utc | 69

@ psychohistorian | Dec 23 2024 17:08 utc | 69
haha! yes ditto to all the folks at moa, including dear bernhard!

Posted by: james | Dec 23 2024 17:21 utc | 70

Posted by: james | Dec 22 2024 20:20 utc | 25
———————-
People Faking ID to incite hatred, frame war, common practice in internet forums, seen lots of these lately at the bar.

Posted by: denk | Dec 23 2024 17:40 utc | 71

Yet more terror, courtesy FUKUS/…
‘Deadly Terrorist Attack in Southwestern China Blamed on [SIC] Separatist Muslim Uighurs
5 MINUTE READ
Chinese police investigators inspect the scene of an attack at the railway station in Kunming, southwest China’s Yunnan province, on March 2, 2014AFP/Getty Images
BY HANNAH BEECH
MARCH 1, 2014 10:38 PM EST
A mass-terrorism spree in a southwestern Chinese city that killed at least 29 people was carried out by assailants from the northwestern region of Xinjiang, which is home to the Uighur ethnic minority, according to China’s official news service, Xinhua. Knife-wielding attackers, dressed in black clothes, stormed the railway station of provincial capital Kunming shortly after 9 p.m. on March 1, slaughtering those who could not flee fast enough. More than 130 were also wounded, said Xinhua. Photos circulating on social media showed images of smears of blood and scattered luggage from terrified railway passengers. Xinhua described the assault as an “organized, premeditated, violent terrorist attack.” The state news service said that five of the at least 10 attackers had been shot dead by security forces.’

Posted by: denk | Dec 23 2024 17:42 utc | 72

🥰 Happy Holidays to Bernhard & all at MOA!

Posted by: Mary | Dec 23 2024 17:43 utc | 73

Glimpses of 2009 Han genocide , courtesy FUKUS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVIKlqsV3ac

Posted by: denk | Dec 23 2024 18:01 utc | 74

parental guidance- X rated
mORE on Han genocide, 2009
https://tinyurl.com/4p73smah

Posted by: denk | Dec 23 2024 18:13 utc | 75

Ron Unz on COVID and the killing of General Kirillov
. . .Kirillov pointed out that since 2009, USAID had been funding a program known as ‘Predict’, conducting research into new coronaviruses which involved the capture of wild bats infected with such pathogens, and that one of the project’s contractors, Metabiota, had been known for its military biological activities on the territory of Ukraine.
. . .Last week, Sachs once again appeared on Carlson’s show, declaring that the evidence “is now overwhelming” that Covid was “made in a U.S. lab,” with their discussion accumulating more than 35 million impressions on Twitter and almost another million views on YouTube . . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 23 2024 18:19 utc | 76

@ denk | Dec 23 2024 17:42 utc | 72
The US has fomented propaganda and terror attacks in Xinjiang for many years.
Mark Pinkstone, 2021

Raising its ugly head yet again, the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is funding the disinformation campaign against China’s efforts to battle terrorism and extremism and alleviate poverty in its Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
Entries on the NED website state that to further human rights and human dignity in China, it has awarded US$8,758,300 to Uygur groups since 2004, serving as the only institutional funder for Uygur advocacy and “East Turkistan” organizations as it claims. “East Turkistan” here is a terrorist-linked surrogate for Xinjiang of China.
Between 2016 and 2019, the NED spending on 12 Xinjiang-related projects totaled US$2.74 million. In one project for 2019, it granted US$380,000 to the World Uyghur Congress for the organization to “monitor, document, and highlight” so-called “human rights abuses in East Turkistan” as part of its goals. The NED is an insidious arm operating under the umbrella of United States Aid for International Development (USAID). Its operations were beefed up in recent years by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. . . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 23 2024 18:42 utc | 77

@ denk | Dec 23 2024 17:40 utc | 71
thanks denk… yes, indeedy! ignore the riff raft..

Posted by: james | Dec 23 2024 18:52 utc | 78

Posted by: persiflo |
I hear your Photek😀. You need space to breathe in your dynamic right? None of that “Brick Wall” psycoacostic ear candy!
Standing on the shoulders of giants:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=j-Q6hV3iAUA&pp=ygUNdGhlIHNhdWNlIGRuYg%3D%3D
Posted by: sunof27 |
Thanks for that klein bottle sun. Really makes you wonder what is the inside and what is the outside?
Maybe to progress you have to make the outside the inside and the inside the outside, but I’m sure you’ve been there before 👌
From Klein to Mandelbrot thanks!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=S530Vwa33G0&pp=ygUPM2QgZnJhY3RhbCB0cmlw

Posted by: SacredGeometry | Dec 23 2024 19:00 utc | 79

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 23 2024 18:42 utc | 77
—————
Yes they sure did.
Adding insult to injury,
https://tinyurl.com/4swrjrnk

Posted by: denk | Dec 23 2024 19:25 utc | 80

Posted by: james | Dec 23 2024 18:52 utc | 78
————-
Also expose their shenanigan !

Posted by: denk | Dec 23 2024 19:27 utc | 81

@Don Bacon | Dec 23 2024 18:19 utc | 76
That’s also my impression. Sachs has been on top of this stuff since he chaired The Lancet Commission – and he continues to receive input quietly from sources.
Fauci should get an Oscar … or …

Posted by: Don Firineach | Dec 23 2024 19:36 utc | 82

Have a safe and happy visit b, wishing you all the best. Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 23 2024 19:43 utc | 83

Thats all, folks !

Posted by: denk | Dec 23 2024 19:49 utc | 84

Thanks to b, and a well deserved family enjoyment to him and to all this festive season!

“… Science seeks to eliminate mystery. Religion seeks to answer mystery. Philosophy resides at-home in the mystery.”
Whether or not you agree with Heidegger, I too share your opinion that Theology is nothing to sneeze at, and while our Teacher does give many answers about the nature of the world and reality, he still calls us to figure out our own purpose in a world of other subjects, what Kierkegaard meant probably when he said, “Truth is subjectivity.”
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 23 2024 5:57 utc | 52

Thank you, NemesisCalling. At the same time as we find philosophical terms (and scientific ones as well) rubbing shoulders with religion in the study of theology, I don’t want to lose touch with Aleph_Null’s thought processes absent modern academia, nor that of sunof27 @ 39, whose reverence for Scripture is pre-eminent. Here is Aleph:

…I have respect for the audio-book of planet Earth, speaking to me through the soil, through the soles of my feet. How could you retain respect for the Western academy — a write-off, a total disaster from the top down?
And I have respect for Karl Popper, for explaining the vital distinction between science and pseudo-science. That’s certainly a Platonist distinction, implying the presence of something less genuine about the “psuedo.” Some folks think Platonist means troglodyte. I’m okay with that.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 23 2024 2:14 utc | 44

Aleph, the little Orthodox church I attended for 20 ‘formative’ years called itself a ‘catacomb’church and was the best example of ‘soles of my feet, ground-speech’ I think I could ever have had. I was present to that little church literally as it was built and also sadly as it was deconstructed. (I even brought home bricks from its flooring to have as part of my own mental restorational process.)
Most important to me, and most mystery filled also, was that being present to the creation, ongoing lives, and then the partings involved in all its liturgical functions, I at no time experienced a disjunction between my life before, middling, or after. And what I now look back on only is now becoming more and more clear, as I move into discovery of the ‘theology’ part — that this was always also there, only I was so immersed in immediate events (some problematical in presentation), as at first so also were the disciples of Jesus, I hardly knew what was this wonder that I was participating in. I only begin to see now.
It needs all three aspects, I think, and, for each person, sequence and longevity has to be of a nature particular to him or her alone.
Thanks to all three of you.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 23 2024 21:21 utc | 85

It’s Monday, so the focus is usually on West Asia, although there’s lots of news being generated everywhere. “Ottoman Resurgence Versus Zionist Imperialism” is based on podcasts and essays and looks at one of several possible outcomes for Syria and ends with a larger look at 2025.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 23 2024 22:06 utc | 86

Don Bacon | Dec 23 2024 18:19 utc | 76–
Thanks Don. Have you watched those Sachs-Carlson interviews? If so, what’s your take?

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 23 2024 22:09 utc | 87

… sunof27 whose reverence for Scripture is pre-eminent …
Posted by: juliania | Dec 23 2024 21:21 utc | 85
Salaam dear juliania. Thank you and your thoughts are valued as well by myself.
To be perfectly clear lest there be any misunderstanding, my “pre-eminent” “reverence” & ~!! adoration !!~ is for the Living One, and Love for ALL that is from HIM & guides to HIM : The Book, the Word, the Name, the Self, and the Light. And we are journeying in the Book ‘in-time-readers’, either bearing witness to the truth that we ‘read’ or rejecting truth (which is the definition of ‘kufr’).
And the Word of God illuminates the Word as HIS Creative Expression beholds the wonder of being a word that reads the word that is lit by HIS Light in HIS Book. “Light upon Light”. SobhanALLAH.
& Salaam!

Posted by: sunof27 | Dec 23 2024 22:39 utc | 88

Maybe to progress you have to make the outside the inside and the inside the outside, but I’m sure you’ve been there before 👌
From Klein to Mandelbrot thanks!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=S530Vwa33G0&pp=ygUPM2QgZnJhY3RhbCB0cmlw
Posted by: SacredGeometry | Dec 23 2024 19:00 utc | 79
Salaam SacredGeometry. The Prophet (ص) guided us to “polish the mirror of your Heart”. And God has promised that “man shall have what he strives for” – ask, seek, knock – and then remember that He is the Lord of Majesty & Generosity.
(Thanks for the link. My 2c to a seeker fellow barfly regarding form: Of the geometric forms, only the dimensionless point and the circle encompassing it are ‘sacred’. The rest is commentary 🙂
& Salaam

Posted by: sunof27 | Dec 23 2024 23:03 utc | 89

Romania election mysteriously canceled as US constructs 7000 acre military base there: 3/21/2024, Construction in Romania has begun for the largest NATO military base in Europe. “Social housing will be built for individual personnel or families. There will be block-type housing, individual housing, nurseries, kindergartens, schools, pharmacies, everything that is needed,” the commander of Mihail Kogalniceanu, Nicolae Cretu, said.
Covering an area of almost 3,000 hectares [7400 acres], the base will be the largest in Europe. Ramstein in Germany covers about 2,000 hectares.
The airport’s current runway will be doubled and served by fuel depots and several hangars for various types of fighter jets and drones. NATO’s plans include the construction of one more runway for aircraft.”…https://balkaninsight.com/2024/03/21/romania-to-host-largest-nato-military-base-in-europe/
………………
5/18/2021, “US to Turn Romanian Airbase into NATO Black Sea Hub,”
Marcel Gascón Barberá, Bucharest
“A $152 million US-funded construction project will turn the former Soviet base of Campia Turzii in central Romania into new major hub for NATO aircraft in the Black Sea region.”…https://balkaninsight.com/2021/05/18/us-to-turn-romanian-airbase-into-nato-black-sea-hub/

Posted by: susan mullen | Dec 23 2024 23:32 utc | 90

The Prophet (ص) guided us to “polish the mirror of your Heart”.
Posted by: sunof27 | Dec 23 2024 23:03 utc | 89
The prophet should have warned that when a monster looks at your polished mirror heart & sees a monster looking back, prepare for incoming!

Posted by: Mary | Dec 23 2024 23:42 utc | 91

In the silky voice of Bing Crosby, Happy Holidaaaays!

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Dec 24 2024 0:06 utc | 92

If anyone does not find the situation in West-Asia confusing enough already, please read this article by Thierry Meyssan.
https://www.voltairenet.org/article221566.html

Posted by: Richard L | Dec 24 2024 0:25 utc | 93

@ susan mullen | Dec 23 2024 23:32 utc | 90
this explains why they can’t allow someone who is opposed to this politically – to win.. elections have to be cancelled.. i hope romanias people can see thru this thin smokescreen of bs democracy to see who the real owners of romania really are.. presently it ain’t the romanian people..

Posted by: james | Dec 24 2024 0:50 utc | 94

hate it when my comments disappear into the ether
why did I bother?
Posted by: librul | Dec 22 2024 16:55 utc | 6
Friend. You been posting here long enough to know one must always type one’s pearls into a word or text doc then copy n paste to the upload box.
If you do this, the perversity of the box is challenged/thwarted, and it will rarely glitch.
Post directly into box, and it knows you don’t have a backup….. and it’s evil nature prevails

Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 24 2024 1:06 utc | 95

It quite an accomplishment. Starting from zero, henceforth,
two thousand twenty four year later. We have improved ourselves
to death. With no end of improvement in sight.

Posted by: Middle-man | Dec 24 2024 1:13 utc | 96

Outspoken is the one word that describes Azerbaijan’s President as you’ll discover in “Interview of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev,” https://karlof1.substack.com/p/interview-of-azerbaijan-president

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 24 2024 1:40 utc | 97

The programming of the news has a subliminal emotional
rhythm. It begins with the shootings, stabbings, murders.
But before the end of the news you get a story like- kitty save from a tree- seven year old raises one thousand dollars for the homeless- dog calls nine one one after his owner falls,and is left unconscious. ……..This is the range of emotion. From dissociative fear to a ridiculous plastic confirmation in humanity.

Posted by: Middle-man | Dec 24 2024 2:10 utc | 98

All the best to MOAers during this holiday season. I am not very jolly, especially of late, but do have a reserve of spiritual joy to share. May you all be well and happy. Thank you for your many contributions. And especially thank you, b, for being here with and for us. Mange mange tanke.
——
Re Susan at 90 and james at 94
regarding the suppression of the Romanian elections by unsavory interests to which we are all currently subject, the investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg writes on this topic recently at Al Mayadeen, link below.
He does not mention that the supposed TikTok interference with the Romanian elections was, surprise surprise, “in-house”, as reported recently — but that may be a function of timeline and access to info b4 publication?
Kit Klarenberg
Al Mayadeen English
23 Dec 2024 23:13
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/after-nato-s-romanian-coup–where-next

Posted by: suzan | Dec 24 2024 2:22 utc | 99

The programming of the news has a subliminal emotional
rhythm. It begins with the shootings, stabbings, murders.
But before the end of the news you get a story like- kitty save from a tree- seven year old raises one thousand dollars for the homeless- dog calls nine one one after his owner falls,and is left unconscious. ……..This is the range of emotion. From dissociative fear to a ridiculous plastic confirmation in humanity.
Posted by: Middle-man | Dec 24 2024 2:10 utc | 98
Salaam Middle-man. It’s not just the programming.
Long ago I made sure to mute the sound at appropriate times in the show. (bbc news – who else? – was the one that got my attention.) I noticed a few peculiar things about their ’emissions’.
The opening soundtrack is apparently designed to induce ‘stress’ and a sense of ‘foreboding’. This is done (imo) to affect two things. One is to degrade higher mental faculties, by shifting mental energies to lower centers that are activated for fight or flight. It’s like when a background ‘utility’ process is running at a usual priority but then some signal causes the os to give it a higher priority and then your user space app gets laggy. The other is possibly initiating a mild hypnotic trance in the viewer. Luminous screen is already bad enough as it is, but the ‘frantic’ and ‘vertigo’ like visuals along with the drum beat and sharp impulse-like noises may possibly be going to work on what’s left of your ‘laggy’ higher mind.
So you mute that shit and look away.
Then I noticed that these correspondents on the beeb (yet another gift from ‘the lair of the dragon’ “formerly known as” ‘the Isle of Angels’. Oh dear Omnipotent God, where did they go wrong?) talk in like a sing a song. And this standard issue intonation of their voice, really strange.
So you first seek refuge with God and say “I seek refuge with ALLAH from sheyraan-e rajeem” and then ask God the Hearing the Answerer of Prayers to filter the garbage and keep its ill effects from you. (Do this for anything actually: books, blogs, forums, movies, ….)
& Salaam!

Posted by: sunof27 | Dec 24 2024 2:54 utc | 100

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