WATCH: A History of Expansion
January 8, 2025
CN Editor-in-Chief Joe Lauria joined the Rachel Blevins Show to discuss the incoming Trump regime in the context of a history of U.S. territorial expansion in a world that increasingly opposes it.
TRANSCRIPT
RACHEL BLEVINS: It is January 8th, 2025, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now claiming that he has apparently discovered free speech. He wants to turn Facebook into the next X by removing third-party fact checkers and bringing some sort of community notes-based program to the platform. Now, if you’re a little bit skeptical about what Zuckerberg claims that he really wants to do, well, I’m right there with you. Because as we know, even though Elon Musk preaches about free speech every single day, that is not what we actually have on X. And all of that is happening. Well, what is Donald Trump up to now that he has less than two weeks until he returns to the White House?
He’s not talking about ways in which he’s going to improve life for Americans here at home. No, instead, he’s talking about expanding the United States even further to take over Canada or Greenland or whatever else he can come up with. And it’s so telling to me that we are in a position right now, one of the most important times for the United States, a pivotal breaking point where we’re looking at the possibility of World War III against Russia over NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine. We’re looking at the possibility of a future war with China, if Trump, and some of his neocons in his cabinet have their way.
And we’re also looking at the possibility of war with Iran or of continuing to support Israel and its ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. So what does that tell us when we have an incoming president who is suddenly so focused on Greenland and Canada? Well, we discussed all of that and more with a very special guest earlier. So let’s take a listen to that conversation now.
More… or WATCH
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/01/08/watch-a-history-of-expansion/

Posted by: Menz | Jan 10 2025 10:13 utc | 103

“In the US we have climate denier soon-to-be President Trump, in Canada we will get climate denier Polievre (and Trudeau did sweet FA about climate in reality)..”
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jan 9 2025 20:19 utc | 37
Are you incapable of learning?
Climate change is cyclical; period!
In the last 2 million years the earth has had 17 ice ages-one every 100 years or so; hence, after an ice age the world get warmer-the stage w are currently in; in 30,000 years or so the world will get cooler as it descends into ice ages.
I live on the North shore of Lake Ontario-500 MM years ago it was a tropical climate; 17,000 years ago there was 1.5 miles of ice over where my house still stands.
In 1000 AN Eric the Red colonized Greenland where they grew barley. Three hundred years later the Vikings had to abandon Greenland because of a minor ice age and barley could not be grown anymore..
All these events occurred before the advent of ‘fossil fuels’.
You really don’t know what you are talking about on this issue.

Posted by: canuck | Jan 10 2025 11:58 utc | 105

MoA’s more deeply researched and more balanced theorists and original thinkers from faaaar outside of the box will be required by the play of the game to take on the better of the best of Deep $tate interference patternrers.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 10 2025 4:34 utc | 95
It’s far from a structured disinformation campaign, just straight raids to trash the comment section.
A disinformation campaign would rely on well integrated users and only sparsely used to detour conversations that could be heading to where it could be dangerous , or dropping an alternate view that would resound with at least a part of the users so that the truth would be confused with the alternatives.
That’s why I sometimes remind that we were discussing something and a squirrel just distracted everyone .
Does it mean we should suspect anyone? In a way yes, but not really, more of a not letting discussions get detoured and keeping in mind several sets of hypothesis , not forgetting just because there is a momentary consensus.
One good rule is to use each thread for its purpose, discuss from a fact or opinion on it. I am talking here because it’s the open thread, in the others I try to stick to the theme, even adding something from the theme if answering something that went a bit sideways.
Many of us, me included, have personal worldviews that sometimes might look like slightly off topic (but that we genuinely consider part and parcel of the answer) and nobody is forced to agree, but that is different from what I mentioned above.
Would take the occasion to ask if anyone has news on Pete, it really rattled me that the trolls would use his handle.
Will also take the occasion to say to B that we thank his continued work and would love to know that he is mending well.
Best wishes for all

Posted by: Newbie | Jan 10 2025 12:22 utc | 107

T minus 10.
Mrs Obama not present! The Changeling in animated bonhomie with the Donald whose body language indicates …what? Shoulder lowered obedience to the real current potus – cause it sure ain’t sleepy Joe or cackling sweet lips Kamala on the front row… ignored by both Obama and Drumpff.
But she got a sweet appreciative stare of her booty from slick Willy as she slinked infront of him – ooh yeah they had a thing …can’t hidey that.
It’s pretty much obvious how much most politics is fake.
It’s always been about fake choices – most of the time.
The last century and bit have been about perception management via Cinema and TeeVee.
Hollywood was built as the grand cathedral , the ‘Vatican City’ of the fake religion of make believe, the Cultural Hegemony that hides the truth of the never ending human misery, human exploitation under the hoary hands of the forever Slave Owners and Money dynasties.
Oh to see it burn is almost like … a message from God! the Burning of Soddom and Gomorrah, the cleansing of the Augean stables … the Karmic response of a hundreds of years imperial lies. Please god let it return to brush and desert.
Let it’s slimey ziofascist critters melt like wax. like the nightmares they made and sold using human slaves bodies for their grand designs…poisoning billions of minds especially the most deluded seeking quick fame and fortune to lord it over the rest of humanity – expecting us to fawn over them and believe their fascist lies and reinvention of history.
Just as Manchild Elon tries to recast Nazis as Actually Red Commie Russkies!
Funny then that as Holly Wood Burns – the fairytale of US Democracy has a preinaugural ‘rehearsal’ At Carters church service.
Ah lookey there’s Gore and Pence sitting side by side in the second row behind the ex presidents Mr and Mrs shadey cia super agents. Next to Mr and Mrs Dubya their daddies employees, and there’s CIA Barack having to sit next to Drumpff and his Missus at the end of the row!
Watch and weep! 😂
‘ Empire Of Lies
@berningman16
14h
Trump and his buddy Barack chopping it up. 😂
And Trump ignoring Bush, Hillary, and Bill? It is pure comedy.
The dynamic is obvious. Trump & Obama are the cool kids. The other nerds? They’re not in the club.’
‘ Howard Mortman
@HowardMortman
17h
Obama and Trump talk before Jimmy Carter funeral begins …. full uninterrupted video of their chat up to Kamala Harris arrival here: invidious.poast.org/watch?v=iFcpwJVn…
Jan 9, 2025 · 9:01 PM UTC ‘

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 10 2025 12:28 utc | 109

the Duran on Trump
I listen to Mercouris daily. This one with him and Cristoforou is a must view, over an hour. They tend to cut Trump more slack than I but we agree on a lot. They say Trump is “retrenching” (“retreating” for now). But he’s still chest puffing and claiming the Western hemisphere without checking with the people who live there. MAGA addicts will get high off his latest pivot since he’s still throwing out red meat while the smarties are pearl clutching in horror; unfortunate for them that their white knights are melting like witches– Adam Schiff is in LA trying to rally his team, Kagan looks like Humpty Dumpty (see Simplicius picture: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/medley-report-israels-rising-threat).
“Sphere of influence” is getting talked about more and more. It’s an important but loaded concept as it indicates how power relationships are managed. One key factor though: how you treat people matters. Look at the top 3, Russia, China, USA. How have they treated “the little people”? on a scale of, say, 1 to 10, we could probably get some ratings since we have the internet now and maybe get some help from people across the planet but my guess is that the US will score very low. Like a 1. China? Vietnamese would not give them a 10 but I’d like for them to voice their rating, not me. African countries? Russia would score very high. probably China too but not as high as Russia. Latin American countries would not likely rate the US above 1 or 2.
That’s what Trump is going to deal with when he sends his people, led by little Marco Rubio, to Mexico and south. One opportunity he has if he’s thinking right: Trump and AMLO got along. Scheinbaum is open to working cooperatively with Trump. BUT… she will insist that the interests of the Mexican people be respected and represented. She has red lines, she doesn’t do bluster, but she is very tough and she does her homework and she has upper 70% support, including Mexicans who live in the US, a few of whom voted for Trump. Her standing among Latin leaders is strong, including Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, basically everyone except Ecuador’s Noboa, Peru’s Boluarte and Argentina’s Millei. And, she’s only been in office since October! Regarding “sphere of influence” Scheinbaum already laid out an invitation to Trump when she responded by open letter to Trump’s threat, politely but firmly telling him that Mexico and the US need each other so let’s not damage our connections because we– Mexico– will fight you if you come at us.
https://www.newsweek.com/claudia-sheinbaum-pens-fiery-letter-trump-over-mexico-tariffs-1992306
bottom line, Latinos don’t like Gringos much anymore. If Trump wants a “sphere of influence” there he will need to pay more attention to Claudia Scheinbaum and less attention to Margorie Taylor Greene and Little Marco.
Mercouris says Greenland is gone from Denmark. Trump will probably get it and get some poll bumps. Latin America is much more dicey. Europe… I’ll leave it to you all over there to describe what’s going on there but here in the rotten core of the Empire we’re “retrenching”. I have to admit I do take some pleasure in watching the neocon (Kagan especially) pigs squeal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLnELopAQZk

Posted by: migueljose | Jan 10 2025 13:21 utc | 111

Guys, what’s going on in Los Angeles? I know wildfires are common in California at a certain time of the year, etc. But could it be that, beyond the current scale, it’s being manufactured? Like by drones?
…
Posted by: Nick | Jan 10 2025 13:20 utc | 111
Lots of things going wrong at the same time.
1. Hot weather + 60mph wind gusting to 90+ mph.
2. Inadequate water supply to fire hydrant system = hydrants running dry.
3. LA Residential Building Code geared to earthquakes = lightweight flexible structures built to survive severe shaking.
Masonry construction collapses in an earthquake.
On the plus side, LA has the gutsiest firefighters in the Universe. I wouldn’t go into that Hell Hole for $1 Million per hour.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 10 2025 13:52 utc | 113

Trump spent all that time in Korea and what did it achieve ?
Diddly squat !!!
Trump spent all that time with Putin and what did it achieve?
Diddly squat !!!
The second Trump was gone it was business as usual. The neocons and neolibs were back in charge. Trumps first term was a nothingburger. Geopolitically it was if Trump hadn’t even been the president.
His second and final term will end in a few hundred days. Moving forward from that date, again without question, it will be as if he hadn’t even been there. Apart from increasing the neocon and neolib presence in Greenland, Panama and Mexico.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jan 10 2025 14:27 utc | 115

It is imperative and priority number one that both Russia and China and BRICS in general treat Trumps second and final term as an empty suit.
They MUST agree to treat any deal made with Trump as if it was the now infamous Minsk accords. It is crucial they take none of it very seriously. See any deal they make like the deal Trump made with North and South Korea. Written on sand and and a big fat nothingburger.
BRICS and their allies have 4 years to get ready for the neocons and neolibs being back in charge. This should be their priority as the West get ready to turn back to business as usual.
The next 4 years must be spent wisely and not spent on Trump deals that won’t stand the test of time.
The neocons and neolibs will do exactly like they did during his first term. They will very simply wait him out. Get ready to pounce the second he is gone.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jan 10 2025 14:43 utc | 117

The neocons and neolibs will do exactly like they did during his first term. They will very simply wait him out. Get ready to pounce the second he is gone.
Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jan 10 2025 14:43 utc | 119
This time you’ll get 12 years, 4 trump + 8 Vance (bit like reagan+bush sr)
Mighty long time to wait.

Posted by: Newbie | Jan 10 2025 15:05 utc | 119

@33 on Palestine thread Tom-Q
Hudson is a smart person, though I differ on his approach – he tends towards money being a social application or reality, whereas I view money as being a private or individual utility.
So he tends to approach it from governance, where Austrian school might view governance as an unfortunate necessity. Where with one ownership or property is reduced or non existant for being managed centrally, with the other it is fundamental in the working of the economy. Capitalist extremes can create monopoly, but from a more (classical) anarchist view the largest monopoly around is the state ,via monopoly of the use of force, as well as intelligence information (data on population etc.).
So Hudson seems to have the ideal ‘of a kind forgiving state’ , Austrian might prefer minimal state intervention. Pragmatically with Austrian, safeguarding from monopoly and ability to intervene with force for matters of law (or to reduce private accumulation of force) require some kind of answer, because people being people, someone would just take over by force otherwise…governments seem to be about that.
So creating a monopoly to stop monopoly is a contradiction of sorts, or a ‘less worse’. There are answers to those questions but the process tends to be circular, as once granted, authority tends to get corrupted or expanded on.
I part read the last link (and have not read Hudson’s work in minute detail) . He notes historically taxation could be construed as existing before land grant, and payment/money (of tax and labour) derived from that. So he might construe it as state organisation from the start, but Austrian has people trading long before land ownership, so starts there.
More recently property is used in the way he mentions, especially in US (going on global finance) and he is right that credit it is extractive and not supportive. The US tied money to property early on, I think Franklin himself was involved in that. So rates (on debt) adjust the spending ability of a large part of the US population as well as reserve values of their realty – management. Historically, when standard balance of payments mess up (often on purpose due to expanding supply way beyond supportable) , property has been used to stabilise values, after Weimar in Germany, the french turned to that method earlier etc. .
Balance of payments is as he says but that is a fraction of it. Say China, they aren’t stupid, it suits to industrialise and advance the country, bring in technology and use rural labour, undercut US prices by setting exchange rates, confiscate differences and invest them in US (partly treasuries, but there is much more to it than that). The US agrees to that – cheap goods means apparent wealth, big business takes a cut etc. Fueling property prices by foreign investment suits the property lending pyramid in US mentioned above also. Saudi, they buy US arms, its what appears to suits . Etc.
So you have a lot of interests, banks, government establishments, military, arms, corporations, distributors, energy companies, etc. etc. all sort of working together (tacitly or openly) along with the currently elected, royalties, religious movements, media organisation etc. etc.
And they all decide the tune, and we are presented with whatever is chosen, often prepped to accept it. Some have more say or influence than others . USG has big say on many details, other countries or organisations are preffered as participating, others have ability to stall or redirect events, others are just influencial in presentation.
We won’t figure it out, because there is no ‘recorded picture’ of how that all goes along, the reason behind the reason behind the reason. We might encounter a detail here, a detail there – enough to change our views, or simply confuse us, but nowhere even near what is actually going on (or has gone on).
I suppose people are welcome to try to get some kind of truth out of it, but we have blatant truths right before our eyes and few seem to care or to be willing to object. Finding a detail to blame some corp or personality, is that going to rile people up ? Change directions ? Just be a feel-good distraction ?
No answer to that…’it depends’.

Posted by: Ornot | Jan 10 2025 15:10 utc | 121

Guys, what’s going on in Los Angeles? I know wildfires are common in California at a certain time of the year, etc. But could it be that, beyond the current scale, it’s being manufactured? Like by drones?
Is it hitting the homes of Hollywood elites, famous actors, mega producers and executives from major studios?
Posted by: Nick | Jan 10 2025 13:20 utc | 111
Arson. There was a wave of arson during Black Lives Matter along the west coast, and a few were even caught. There was a wave of arson (90s) after a “Beavis & Butthead” episode aired that featured the boys starting a fire. That particular episode was subsequently banned.
The numbers and locations suggest intention. It is possible one or two might have been accidental. It is possible they all started with just one person with either class envy or mental illness or both. It could also be part of some predictive programming, as the topic was broached a few months ago on the “Joe Rogan Experience”.
A modified drone is possible, but I would guess as soon as it is connected or near to a computing device, all that geo located data would be downloaded to a centralized data base, if it is a lone wolf type perpetrator. A spatially defined area could have instructions for all drones to download flight information. Digitally defined areas where operations are blocked, and malicious attempts are communicated is something thought of, and implemented decades ago.
The arson potential is covered up by the MSM, as copy cat crimes are all too easy to replicate. Drones are subject to digital trails or control, so would be the province of the deep state.

Posted by: jopalolive | Jan 10 2025 15:18 utc | 123

I do not understand the fuss about Groenland and Canada. Apart from Trump’s trolling and rhetoric, it is about anchoring spheres of influence more than about formal annexation of countries.
In the early cold war the Americans already built a secret base in Groenland to test movable launch sites for nuclear missiles. It is called project Iceworm. It was later abandoned and covered by ice. The BBC made a docu about the remnants being found a few years ago.
Groenland belongs to a nominally independent country Denmark but was seventy years ago part of a US test shield! Bizar independence!
Denmark itself is nominally independent but is itself very much committed to the Anglosaxon Five Eyes electronic spy network. It is known that the Five Eyes spied on European leaders’ phones through their Denmark station (e.g. Merkel). It is obvious that a country acting like that gives away its sovereignty to the empire. So what does the “independence” of Denmark still mean?
So it is with Canada. All independent foreign policy (e.g. towards Cuba, China, Nicaragua..) has been thrown out of the window for twenty years. Moreover technically Canada is still the “Monarchy of Canada” with the “sovereign” on a throne in… London. Bizar independence!
Mexico is a somewhat different story. Canada, Groenland (Denmark) are originally protestant countries which according to the anthropologist Emmanuel Todd are in a zero phase now. That means there is a rampant nihilism, woke fanaticism and a search for identities even if negative to cover up the void. Denmark, Canada have acted in extremely belligerent ways, fanatically supported the Ukrainian regime and threw at it a big part of their military reserves. That is completely different with Mexico.
Mexico belongs moreover to the catholic sphere of South America, where the religious decline is different and up to now more limited than in mainstream northern protestantism.
The Duran talks about the resurgence of(regional) “spheres of influence” and (regional) “spheres of interest” geopolitics. Canada and Groenland are part of the US “sphere of influence”, they have the same zero mainstream protestant religion, Anglosaxon orientation. Mexico arguably belongs to the US “sphere of interest” in the economical fields but not to its “sphere of influence” in the civilisational sense. The driving ideological force in the US was always exceptionalism and suprematism, derived from the puritan settlers, the “shining city on the hill”. The puritans loathed the South American catholics more than anything in the world. They saw idol worshipers in them.
So Mexico has a somewhat different status than Groenland or Canada.
All in all the resurgence of (regional) “spheres of influence” geopolitics as promoted by Trump in his recent press conference has good points. Other great powers in the world have implicity also a right to their (regional) sphere of influence like e.g. China and Taiwan.

Posted by: Teraspol | Jan 10 2025 15:30 utc | 125

Nigeria deepening ties with China – this will piss-off the Yanks, who were meant to be building a huge military base in the country.
“Nigeria and China have agreed to strengthen cooperation in key areas, including security, trade, clean energy, and finance. The move comes at a time when the West African country is suffering from its worst cost-of-living crisis in years.
The commitment was made on Thursday following talks between Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, who was visiting Africa’s most populous nation.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 10 2025 16:08 utc | 127

Slovakia’s Fico ready to take the gloves-off – go on Fico.
“Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned that Bratislava may block humanitarian and financial aid to Kiev if the cessation of Russian gas transit through Ukraine is not resolved. Fico made the statement after talks with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen on Thursday.
Fico cited potential losses from the blocked transit as the reason for his threat.
“If this problem is not resolved, the government of the Slovak Republic will take strict reciprocal measures in the near future,” Fico told reporters in Brussels.
“There is nothing – not international law or sanctions – that prevents the transit of gas through Ukraine,” he added, as quoted by Reuters.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 10 2025 16:19 utc | 129

The Japanese are still putting up Yankee troops sexually assaulting their women – I guess that a price to pay for being a Yankee staging post.
“Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi has urged the American military stationed on Okinawa Island to make changes to prevent further sex crimes, following a fifth sexual assault incident involving a US Marine in just over a year, it was reported on Thursday.
The most recent case, in which a serviceman in his 30s was accused of raping a woman, resulting in injury in November. The incident reignited concerns among Okinawa residents, Hayashi said. The southernmost prefecture is home to the majority of American military facilities in Japan.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 10 2025 16:30 utc | 131

Britain’s gas supply has reached ‘concerningly low’ levels and could run out in a matter of days after an Arctic blast sent temperatures plunging.
The icy weather over the last few days has seen demand for gas-fired power stations skyrocket, energy firm Centrica said.
Now it’s feared a fresh blast of freezing weather – which could see temperatures plunge to a bone-chilling -20C – might trigger an energy crisis.
The UK is heavily reliant on natural gas to keep the homes of millions of Brits warm during the winter. It also uses a significant amount to power the electricity grid.
But as of Thursday, storage sites across the UK were 26 per cent down on last year’s supply, leaving them around ‘half full’, Centrica said.
‘This means the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store,’ the energy giant, which owns British Gas, warned.
‘Gas storage was already lower than usual heading into December as a result of the early onset of winter.’
It came as Downing Street denied claims the nation came ‘within a whisker’ of energy blackouts earlier this week amid the cold weather and low wind-power generation.
Years ago big storage facilities were shut down and gas prices were left to the spot market hence huge increases. Better buy some Russian LNG damn quick.Get a pipeline.

Posted by: Jo | Jan 10 2025 17:08 utc | 133

Red Star | Jan 9 2025 20:14 utc | 36
*** I’ve no love for Starmer – quite the opposite – but its a slippery slope once an American billionaire decides who can and cant be the UK government.
Next thing, Musk will be demanding Reform UK will be installed, so we’ll have a government of oligarchs backed by Trump & co – what could possibly go wrong there ?***
Bit late to complain now about Musk, when Pompeo of the US government already declared during the 2019 election in the UK that the USA would never allow Corbyn (weak and fatally compromising though he was) to become Prime Minister.
So the precedent already set.
It was accepted then…
“Antisemitic” to object!
Boris, Starmer and (as an emergency substitute since more overtly Establishment figures have all become thoroughly detested) Farage/’Reform’ are the US-approved “leadership”.

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2025 18:05 utc | 135

Red Star | Jan 9 2025 22:14 utc | 63
*** Reform UK are a minor party – only 5 MPs in parliament ***
A misleading indicator of what constitutes “minor” … they actually got more votes in total than the LibDems who now have 75 seats.

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2025 18:35 utc | 137

ZH has a posting up with the title of
“Disinformation”: Trudeau Offers Laughable Excuse For His Ouster
quote

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed “right-wing attacks” and “disinformation” on Thursday as the main causes behind his long-awaited resignation.
“When you get a con – you know, I was going to say conflagration – but at least an intersection of both right-wing attacks and social media, you end up with a lot of misinformation, disinformation,” Trudeau claimed.
“Responsible governments have to stay focused on the policies that are making a difference. And that’s what we’ve been doing,” he added.
Trudeau’s comments followed a lengthy and incoherent response to Tapper’s question about Canadian and American voters delivering a blunt verdict against leftist governance.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 10 2025 18:49 utc | 139

For all those looking forward to the success of the AfD in Germany, its lesbian co-chair Alice Weidel stated in a podcast with Musk that the Nazis were socialists. The Nazis were funded and put in power by the German Junkers and bourgeoisie, who made out like bandits from Nazi rule. She knows this, she is just lying to fool enough voters.
Previously she has worked at Goldman Sachs, the Bank of China, and Allianz Global Investors. She is a fully paid up member of the neoliberal extremist elite, a member of the Frederick Hayeck Society. Her first federal campaign was illegally funded by a Swiss billionaire through money-laundering, this was proven but she did not suffer any consequences. She spent a number of years in China and speaks Mandarin.
Watch this woman, she is the perfect Manchurian candidate within the AfD for the German establishment to utilize. Especially if they move more toward a German sovereignty orientation and the Ukraine war gets ended. Then they will need good relations with China while they continue with full bore neoliberalism at home.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jan 10 2025 19:14 utc | 141

Re my (147) comment the Vatican has previous.
“During WWII, with very few exceptions, bishops (Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran) collaborated with the Nazis. Hamlet-like Pius XII kept trying to make up his mind as to whether he should put the Catholic Church at some risk, while Jews were being murdered.
A political pope, Pius XII chose not to speak out. But silence can speak as loudly as words. So Hitler had no need to visit the Vatican to try to get papal blessing for his genocide.
More recently, when German Pope Benedict XVI visited Washington in April 2008, he, too, gave scandal. He arrived amid intense discussion of the war of aggression on Iraq, torture and capital punishment. The Supreme Court, with a majority of judges calling themselves Catholic, was openly debating whether one gram, or two, or perhaps three of this or that chemical would be the preferred way to execute people. Always colorful prominent Catholic Antonin Scalia complained impatiently, “Where does it say in the Constitution that executions have to be painless?””

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 10 2025 19:22 utc | 143

Posted by: Teraspol | Jan 10 2025 15:30 utc | 127
Good points and perspective on Mexico and Latin America in general!
Mexicans are different from north Americans and within Mexico there are lots of different cultures and languages. Beyond Mexico even more which mix out of the indigenous and foreign (Spanish & more).
Regarding “sphere of influence” or “sphere of interest” the two concepts apply to regions as well. Clans in Appalachia and the Ozarks of the US, for example, have their own red lines while they co-exist and depend on the larger US culture. Same for neighborhoods in Chicago.
Same for Mexico. One example: Cherán, Michocán, Mexico, almost 100% Puréchepa speaking Indians. About 13 years ago they got fed up with cartels stealing and logging their pine forests (communal land) so, while the neolib government looked the other way with their thumbs up their respective asses the women went out and blocked the roads with bonfires, sticks and pitchforks–guns too– and ran off the bad guys. A few townspeople were killed, some of the cartel drivers were “arrested” and the town won. I posted the story a few years ago but here it is again.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cheran-mexico
This is an example of grassroots sovereignty. The local level gets very little attention by most of us as we lock into the geopolitical stories on the web– I’m guilty too– but there are reservoirs of knowledge and organizing “how to” skills that exist in many corners of the planet where we can learn how to build out from the ground up as the Empire decays. Mexico is very rich with communities like Cherán. Most are thousands of years old. AMLO and now Scheinbaum have been working to embrace and enhance Mexico’s relationship with its people. So when Trump or whatever clique follows him attempts to gain advantage with Mexico and other countries the local people will be active players influencing the relationship. The elites have no idea this is a “thing”, nor do many podcasters. It is.
“Before dawn on April 15, 2011, as loggers arrived to begin the day’s destructive work, the women took them hostage, locking them in the church and then setting off fireworks to signal to the rest of the town that the uprising had started. The loggers’ vehicles were seized and burned. It was the start of a war that lasted for more than a year, with locals using dozens of fogatas, or bonfires, through the mountainous forest to relay information about their enemy’s activities.”

Posted by: migueljose | Jan 10 2025 19:23 utc | 145

Starmer, is a monster, he backed the wicked Saudi regime – whilst condemning the Assad regime – he is also aiding and abetting the Zio-Nazi’s in a genocide in Gaza – whilst propping up a Neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine.
“Keir Starmer’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia laid bare the moral bankruptcy of Britain’s foreign policy – a policy that eagerly courts despots while slamming its doors on those fleeing their repression.
Starmer’s trip, sold as a bid to bolster trade and security partnerships, conspicuously sidestepped any mention of Mohammed bin Salman’s grotesque human rights abuses. ”
https://www.declassifieduk.org/starmers-silence-on-human-rights-in-saudi-arabia-speaks-volumes/

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 10 2025 19:33 utc | 147

Assad was replaced by what some people claim to be israeli Yonatan Zvi-David. Under a fake name and fake nationality of course, as always.
Surely they can find another jew to put on a turban and rule Egypt.
Posted by: Jack M | Jan 10 2025 15:24 utc | 126
Sacha Baron Cohen?

Posted by: KMRIA | Jan 10 2025 19:51 utc | 149

Jo | Jan 10 2025 17:08 utc | 135
*** Years ago big [gas] storage facilities were shut down ***
Like much else in neoliberal Britain …. all to the massive profit of private companies and developers. Politicians, top Civil Servants and business spivs involved in such so-called “privatisation” ought to all face charges of treason and murder — with their genetically degenerate families, friends and rich descendants rounded up and disposed of as well.
Time the self-serving monarch and other ‘royals’ were flushed down the pan, too — they’ve never done bugger-all to protect the public..
Same goes in relation to water, electric and other essentials. Many of the profiteers are foreign, which certainly shouldn’t save them either.

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2025 20:07 utc | 151

Zuckerberg’s change in Meta policies around fact checking and censorship
Please listen carefully to Mark’s video on the announcement of changes in Meta’s policies around fact checking and censorship. Look at his eyes and face, closely. They are empty from what I see….there is nothing showing conviction or sincerity. He is reading from a teleprompter, I would guess. Shapeshifting snake.
All the fact checking and censorship done by facebook over the years has been sanctioned at all levels of management, and was intertwined with the US intelligence communities and political correctness, wokeness at all times. If you think Zuckerberg had a “come to Jesus” moment and realized the errors of his ways now, after meeting with Trump and Musk…many bridges are waiting to be sold!!
Evidently, Meta is not doing very well in maintaining it’s subscribers, and is being outdone by Tick-Tock in a big way. I believe he is shapeshifting to preserve/grow his business; and also following orders.
One must remember the main purpose of facebook from a surveillance point of view. It was developed to spy on the general population first. CIA was in on it from the beginning. Also first was the desire to control people’s thoughts and opinions through “correct” information, via ads, newsfeeds, etc. All the tools used such as shadow banning and slowing or speeding up the spread of posts. Remember Cambridge Analytica? Remember shutting down journalists accounts just before the election in 2024? Secondly their goal is to monetize individuals preferences and priorities in commercial businesses.
Think for a minute what happens when a platform for social interaction becomes laden with censorship, shadow banning, outright banning, etc. for numerous reasons, including selling “woke” religions. Does this attract people that do not agree with the thought products and processes being sold? NO. It turns people away, and they seek other platforms and attitudes. This works against the objective of personal spying to identify people that may be “risks” to those bent on controlling and correctly “wrong think”. So now the people you are trying to identify…they aren’t there any more.
I would propose that these actions are to bring out the people with opposing views and encourage them to form groups, and be prolific on the platform. Now they can be identified, and tracked, and at some point in the future…dealt with as needed.
See the movie “Colors”, a 1988 movie starring Sean Penn, and Robert Duvall in gang ridden Los Angeles. Robert Duvall the elder cop coaches Sean Penn with a story about two bulls on a hilltop. The story relates to how to break up and destroy the gangs that are ravaging the neighborhood.
There’s two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: “Hey pop, let’s say we run down there and f**k one of them cows”. The older one says: “No son. Let’s walk down and f**k ’em all”.
Zuckerberg’s doin the walk, now…..

Posted by: Norsk Borscht | Jan 10 2025 21:30 utc | 153

Protectionnist decisions on AI by Biden’s admin
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1877598102087151787?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet%7Ctwtr%5Etrue
Counterproductive beyond short term ?

Posted by: Dany | Jan 10 2025 22:05 utc | 155

What’s your sense?
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Jan 9 2025 19:11 utc | 27
——————
I see it as both waiting on Trump and seeing how the situation in Syria develops.

Posted by: financial matters | Jan 11 2025 0:43 utc | 157

LA burns.
Fires in Los Angeles have destroyed more than 10,000 home and businesses.
How many bombs does it take to do that kind of damage in a war? At least no foreign country is dropping bombs and getting nuked as a response for this.
Yet, retribution is a bitch.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Jan 11 2025 1:34 utc | 159