Paul Kagame's Foray in Eastern Congo Leaves Thousands Dead and Sparks Fear of a Broader War

https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/paul-kagames-foray-in-eastern-congo-leaves-thousands-dead-and-sparks-fears-of-a-broader-war

Fighters loyal to Paul Kagame have killed Congolese civilians for 3 decades. The 'international community' has watched the carnage unfold while financially and militarily supporting his regime.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 9 2025 14:19 utc | 1

On de-dollarization

China launches pilot program for insurance fund investments in gold

Xinhua | Updated: 2025-02-08 10:59

BEIJING - China on Friday launched a pilot program allowing certain insurance companies to invest in gold as part of their medium to long-term asset allocation strategies.

The move aims to broaden the channels through which insurance funds can be utilized, optimize the structure of insurance asset allocation, and enhance the asset-liability management capabilities of insurance firms, according to the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

Ten insurance companies are participating in the pilot program, which permits gold investments through various means. These include spot contracts for gold traded on the main board of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, deferred delivery contracts for gold, centralized pricing agreements, spot inquiry contracts, swap contracts for gold inquiries, and gold leasing operations.

The pilot program is expected to deepen the reform in insurance fund utilization and promote high-quality development in the insurance industry, according to the administration.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202502/08/WS67a6c890a310a2ab06eaae6b.html

Posted by: too scents | Feb 9 2025 14:30 utc | 2

Ahh good lot of stuff to get through b.

Before I lay down the heavy barrage here’s a nugget most might have missed.

Elon The Great has a swarthy Rival.

Phwoar! as my missus says and our gay friends too getting suddenly past their ‘all things Poootin is bad’ - yup I have dumb family and friends too but slowly slowly they are awakening.

‘Russians With Attitude
@RWApodcast
17h
Dmitry Bakanov has been appointed as the CEO of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation. He has a successful background in the IT industry and in a satellite systems company. Seems like a powerful choice.
Feb 7, 2025 · 9:12 PM UTC

Russians With Attitude
@RWApodcast
16h
When the Russian ruling class rejuvenates and respectfully dismisses most of its older members, it will be a new country. Without the baggage of the XX century and with work experience in the private sector, new leaders will be more intelligent, more efficient, and more ruthless ‘

Dmitry is what Musk wants to be when he grows up 😂

Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 9 2025 14:33 utc | 3

Emmanual Todd wrote a book called "The Defeat of the West". (Was this book discussed here on Moon Of Alabama ??) This book won't be translated into english. Is Todd afraid to be sanctioned by the US / UK for such a (in the eyes of the US / UK) blasfemous book ???

Those who want to know what the general idea is behind this book (in english), there is one (of many more ???) possibility to learn more. Visit Jeff Rich's Youtube channel ("The Burning Archive") and watch 2 videos on his YouTube channel.

Jeff Rich's general view on the theory of Emmanuel Todd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXZYDtBt9k0
Jeff Rich discusses "10 surprises of the Ukraine war": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYwOiwi3baA

Jeff Rich has very interesting YouTube channel which contains multiple videos on history.
Jeff Rich's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theburningarchive

Here the link to the french version of the book: https://www.amazon.fr/D%C3%A9faite-lOccident-Emmanuel-Todd/dp/2073041132

There is also an interview available with Todd with a german videochannel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abRrI5OU5Do (length: 58 minutes, in english)

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 14:41 utc | 4

A very provocative title of a video: "Capitalism is over. What's next".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNblIGVKgks (length: 17 minutes)

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 14:43 utc | 5

@Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 14:41 utc | 4

Emmanuel Todd (yes that is how you spell his first name) is utterly lost in ungrounded non-materialist social theory, like so many of his French philosophical counterparts. He is simply either ignorant, or consciously playing dumb, about the real political economic reasons for the fall of the West. Just go watch some of the presentations and discussions with Micheal Hudson where the decay of the Western bourgeois oligarchy into rentiership, financialization, and the outright corruption of the state is covered. Then go study the recovery of Russia under Putin (who put the oligarchs in their place) and the rise of China with an independent Party-state that utilizes markets and bourgeois greed in a very controlled fashion for the good of the people, and makes sure that the bourgeois will not be allowed to corrupt the Party-state (why Xi was brought in).

Todd is utter cultural bullshit misdirection.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 15:02 utc | 6

@too scents #2
Gold bugs are happy, but insurance investment in gold is as stupid as imaginable.
Among other things: gold price increases have lagged inflation even during its recent rise.
The challenge insurance companies, pension funds, etc have always had is that they are limited in what they are allowed to invest in, but at the same time are ultimately on the hook if they cannot get enough yield on their float to meet survival and payout draws.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 9 2025 15:03 utc | 7

@WMG - linked and discussed Todd a while ago.

The book in English:
The Defeat of the West

See also:
How the West Was Lost - REVIEW ESSAY Le Défaite de l’Occident by Emmanuel Todd

Posted by: b | Feb 9 2025 15:05 utc | 8

On the Front Lines Against Bird Flu, Egg Farmers Say They’re Losing the Battle

If Bird Flu achieves human-to-human transmission, we won’t be having an origins controversy: We will have done it to ourselves as the outcome of an enormous experiment on the human population run by Big Ag, the USDA, and CDC. Everybody will have played their part.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/02/bird-flu.html

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 9 2025 15:07 utc | 9

@Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 14:43 utc | 5

Capitalism is not dead in the West, it is just transforming itself into a kleptocratic, utterly corrupt and decaying form which is increasingly allied with fascism. The latter is what happens when the bourgeois oligarchy cannot control society through the manufacture of consent, known as "liberal democracy".

"Wisecrack" is an utterly bullshit channel feeding entertainment not actual insights. Now go away and do your homework on political economy and actual reality before polluting this site with such trash.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 15:07 utc | 10

- @B: Thanks !!!!

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 15:09 utc | 11

- No, "wisecrack" is only repeating things that has been said before (e.g. Yanis Varoufakis)

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 15:11 utc | 12

@Roger Boyd:

- Perhaps Todd's analysis may have some weak spots but I DO NOT consider his book to "utter nonsense". Far from. Other people have previously said similar things but I think Todd ties together A LOT OF more things to a more consistent theory.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 15:24 utc | 13

This might explain why Russia wants to take in Indian workers.

- Russian Tech Talent Exodus Hinders AI Progress -

https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Russian-Tech-Talent-Exodus-Hinders-AI-Progress.html

Posted by: Lavrov | Feb 9 2025 15:39 utc | 14

thanks b!

@ wwg - i have enjoyed listening to emmanuel todd videos and articles i have read.. he brings insights that are quite relevant as i see it..there is an english translation which was available for free which i have, but have not read yet.. when i was in france, i bought a copy for a friend who is fluent in french..

Posted by: james | Feb 9 2025 16:00 utc | 15

Emmanuel Todd is absolutely relevant to how the world is changing on a generational scale and not just in Ukraine. He predicted in the late 1970's the collapse of the Soviet Union within 15 years based on demographic data and anthropological changes. Despite vehement attacks and criticism from contemporary academics and think tanks his predictions proved correct. I remember this because I was studying International Relations at a university in France a few years after his work first appeared.

His primary area of research and theories revolves around family structures including systems of inheritance, which are not same across humanity. Family structures and systems of inheritance provide the basis for understanding anthropological and sociological phenomena like religions and, after a certain level of literacy is attained in a society, dominant ideologies. He discovered that the absolute nuclear family structures common in England and to a lesser extent in the Parisian basin of France, are firstly extremely rare, and secondly are in effect the most unequal to be found. So it is little surprising that they gave rise to a form of liberalism which often reverts to a mode of having little care for other social values like equality. One can also see that the attempt to impose anglo nuclear family structures in other areas of the world are a cause of rising inequality world wide as well as emerging unrest. In La defaite de l'occident he emphasizes how liberalism detached from previous religious concerns has lead to western nihilism, which is now in the West destroying economic, political and social institutions that previous generations had built as well as more humane and even more pragmatic attitudes, that previous generations had acquired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG_WZcBarIg (In French)

Posted by: kvp | Feb 9 2025 16:33 utc | 16

@John Gilberts 1

Thank you for bringing up the ongoing conflict in Eastern Congo, and the takeover of the city of Goma (pop 782 000) by M23 with the help of Rwanda. I'm not very well informed about these events, aside from what I've picked up on French radio. I've been looking forward to a discussion here at the bar. The absence of any discussion is a bit disappointing.

Unfortunately I have too little time due to work demands to investigate it further. I'm sure if a city of over 700 000 inhabitants fell practically overnight in Ukraine, the discussion thread here could reach 1 000 comments.

Posted by: kvp | Feb 9 2025 16:43 utc | 17

Make the American Youth Smart Again. No parent approves of sending their son to school to learn how to be a girl. https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/return-to-sender-a-letter-for-the?utm_source=activity_item

A General Overview of the Chinese Military

https://geopoliticalfutures.com/a-general-overview-of-the-chinese-military/?tpa=MThiMzIzZDA4YTNmNzNkYmE0NDMyYzE3NDAwNjY1NzgwNmMwYWU&utm_source=GPF+Free+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d9424a7c73-20250207_FL_Readers_Choice&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f716b3bf65-d9

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Feb 9 2025 17:11 utc | 18

Re: deficits and De-Dollarization ?

Solid German financial press review of the challenge and possible responses ; apparently one solution is a cartel of Central Banks holding interest rates lower than nominal growth rate. ( use Machine translation)

https://www.handelsblatt.com/meinung/kolumnen/us-notenbank-nicht-nur-donald-trump-braucht-niedrige-zinsen/100106339.html

Posted by: Exile | Feb 9 2025 17:32 utc | 19

Brilliant reporting b)

Russell Vought, the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, tells the Chairman of the Federal Reserve that the CFPB does not require any additional funds for now.

This, of course, means they are gutting the agency.

Here's the official letter

https://bsky.app/profile/yasharali.bsky.social/post/3lhpow2px2k26

Maybe MAGA voters think that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is just to protect libtards instead of themselves.

The CFPB pays out billions of dollars each year in consumer relief when ordinary citizens are bilked by unscrupulous companies. The $711 million balance wouldn't begin to cover 2025.

Who knew Musk was going to gut Consumer Financial Protection?

Put your hands up.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 17:36 utc | 20

People still don't believe me when I say this was not about USAID or US foreign policy.

What are they going to gut next ( which is illegal by the way) as it has bypassed congress.

What else do They not ideologically believe in ?

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 17:40 utc | 21

There are way too many people who think there is nothing to see here as they perform this constitutional crime.

They need to wake the fuck up...

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 17:44 utc | 22

Todd is utter cultural bullshit misdirection.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 15:02 utc | 6

Respectfully disagree. Todd's book contains some valuable insights and should of be read critically. Yeah, he's not a Marxist, but if that's the litmus test, we wouldn't have much to read. There is a chapter in his book however that repeats the slanders on the American working class, so common amongst bourgeois intellectuals and trolls here. This chapter is really the essence of my disagreement with Todd.

And, he does use anthropology a little too much in the analysis. Still that is a material science. Although not as precise and clear as Hudson, it still reveals more truth about the world situation, than most bourgeois academics are willing to do nowadays.

No support for WMG either. Promoting "the end of capitalism". Give me a fucking break! Your soaking in it, dipshit.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 9 2025 17:57 utc | 23

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 17:36 utc | 20

You're a Democrat. Its just too obvious you think they are a lesser evil. Don't waste your time around here, Sum.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 9 2025 18:03 utc | 24

Lithuanian president today with von der Leyen celebrated the detaching of electric grid from the Russian grid. Immediate effects are electricity prices jumping on average 2.5x in the Baltic states, and even more in Finland.

Apparently their goal was to isolate and cut off power from Kaliningrad, but they didn't consider Kaliningrad has its own electric generation 4x of peak usage.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2025 18:04 utc | 25

In La defaite de l'occident he emphasizes how liberalism detached from previous religious concerns has lead to western nihilism, which is now in the West destroying economic, political and social institutions that previous generations had built as well as more humane and even more pragmatic attitudes, that previous generations had acquired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG_WZcBarIg (In French)

Posted by: kvp | Feb 9 2025 16:33 utc | 16

Right. I like the book. It has real value and an interesting perspective. But, again, this aspect of the analysis is just reactionary and wrong. Its true that a religious Christian perspective amongst the RC and population would be preferable to the nihilistic insanity that currently reign, but going back to religion is impossible at this point. The issue is more subtle: you have a bourgeois that has abandoned one coherent perspective but has not replaced it with something more modern, like Marxism. In fact, they promote nihilistic perspective to counteract the development of class consciousness ala Marxism in the larger population. So, perspective wise, religious codes have been stripped from society and the modern scientific perspective has been artificially suppressed in the class interests of our masters. Hence, no principles anywhere and the resulting chaos.

Todd, in line with his class interests, won't tell you this, leaving the impression that the west must return to a Christian perspective to regain its health. Another massive problem with the book.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 9 2025 18:12 utc | 26

...
Posted by: Dogon Priest | Feb 9 2025 17:11 utc | 18
(A General Overview of the Chinese Military by Andrew & Victoria)

This essay overlooks the fact that, in ~1990 +/- 5 years, Russia and China jointly announced that they have crossed the threshold of the Missile Age.

Since neither country is seeking territorial expansion, China won't need an expeditionary army to occupy a country which has attacked it. China can disable/destroy the adversary with long-range missiles. Missiles can also sink ships so that places a foreign expeditionary force near China in great peril - a long way from home or help.

The essay insinuates that the Chinese leadership suffers from tunnel vision and/or ineptitude. There is no evidence that China carries either burden.

Look up the 2024 TV documentary The New Trade War and skip to the end where Xi briefly outlines his vision for, and committment to, China's future.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 9 2025 18:14 utc | 27

@roger Boyd;

There are multiple ingredients that - put together - make an economy and a society in that economy:

1) financial
2) demographic
3) social
4) climatological
5) religious
6) political
7) ............

All these ingridients work together to make a country/land/society/economy. And of all these components I consider religion to be the least important. Todd mainly focusses on the social aspects but these social aspects are also driven by the other aspects as mentioned above.

Or one should combine Micheal Hudson and Todd.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 18:17 utc | 28

@ Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 17:40 utc | 21

you'd benefit from reading some of the links that b so graciously posted here, starting with the one at the top from lee fang..

Posted by: james | Feb 9 2025 18:23 utc | 29

Lavrov | Feb 9 2025 15:39 utc | 14--

The source is an anti-Russian outlet knowing little about Russia which is very common for all such publications. Russophobia and anti-Russian policies across NATOstan are causing many tech and science researchers to return to Russia, as Putin commented in my most recent article, "Presentation to and Conversation with Presidential Prize Winners in Science and Innovation for Young Scientists". What the West can't admit is Russia and Chinese R&D are kicking its ass, and the Tech-Gap is widening primarily because Western education is so dismal in comparison along with levels of government funded R&D. Yes, the article I provided centered on the recent meeting of Russia's Science and Education Council, "Russian Resurgence: Meeting of the Council for Science and Education", is long and very detailed, but only 2,000 readers have viewed it, meaning millions remain ignorant of what's actually happening.

All that said, I must thank b for placing one of my articles in MoA's Week in Review as that's the first time he's done so. Thanks b!!!

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 9 2025 18:31 utc | 30

Europe is lost. Celebrating our own impoverishment. Paying higher energy bills. Destroying our own industry. No wonder the US doesn't take us seriously. And treats us like a vasal. The great statesmen of Europe went to bed long ago.

https://x.com/johnnyjmils/status/1888642986273312783

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2025 18:37 utc | 31

@WMG #4
The Defeat of the West is worth reading, but mostly for the half that is interesting vs the half that is flat out wrong.

The interesting part is the description of Western societies: ethics, culture, society etc. Todd is not a disciple of the woke nonsense so his views are more objective than the garbage put out by most of the "learned" in the West today.

The not interesting part:
Todd is like that dumbfuck Zeihan: "Demographics is destiny". Too few babies = the end of a nation/civilization/whatever.

The problem is demographics can change, and change quickly. The present "baby bust" is entirely a function of negative real wages, for decades, in the working classes in the West in my view.

This is particularly inexcusable in a Frenchman given the very well documented virtual population growth freeze that France experienced for 2 generations starting around 1700. France's population in 1700 was a bit under 20M; its population in 1762 was well under 22. In contrast, France's population in 1801 jumped to over 27 million. So barely 10% growth over 62 years followed by 25.6% growth in just 39 years. And since this happened before 1801 - this is well before germ theory/penicillin and before the bulk of industrialization.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 9 2025 18:39 utc | 32

@Sun Of Alabama #20
Meh. Just because the CFPB *could* do some good, does not mean it *has* done some good.
I don't see any "consumer protections" in the credit card sphere, for example.

But the biggest problem I have with your focus on CFPB is that you clearly are failing to understand that Trump and Musk are hitting ALL the US departments: State, Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Treasury, etc etc etc.

This isn't a liberal/Democrat targeted purge per se, it is a top to bottom audit of everything, everywhere which is under the Executive Branch.

The core principle is: If the President is the head of the Executive Branch, does he or does he not have the authority to run said Executive branch any which way he sees fit.

The Deep State is trying to say no - the President does NOT have the authority to run all the agencies in the Executive Branch even though he is their legal and Constitutional head.

Well fuck them.

Of course, the fact that the vast majority of Federal bureaucrats are Democrat party supporters, that's just gravy.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 9 2025 18:45 utc | 33

Ecuador election today
Left leaning Luiza Gonzalez is again favored to win over banana tycoon scion Daniel Noboa. I hope she prevails but I'm guessing she won't. Ecuador has spiraled down and is now a feudal narco state with strong ties to US imperial scum, especially military (centcom), DEA, (drugs) finance (drugs). If Gonzalez wins over 50% she'll avoid a treacherous run-off but the local power barrons-- costal mafias and mountain mafias-- would likely take her out. Galapagos has been offered up as a US imperial base-- again-- to prepare for war with China.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/the-ecuadorian-people-to-prevail-luisa-gonzalez/
Here' a long, 2 part deep dive into what's going on in Ecuador, also giving some insight into Ecuador's role as a US colony as plans for war with China begin to shape up.

"On January 3rd, Black Agenda Report contributor Clau O’Brien Moscoso interviewed economic analyst Juan Fernando Terán on the deadly war on crime that President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa has imposed on the Ecuadorian people, with fatal consequences for African, indigenous and poor communities. One such case is that of the Guayaquil Four , four young African boys forcibly disappeared then murdered by members of the Ecuadorian Air Force on Dec 8, 2024. The following is the second part of the interview; the first can be found here."
Part 1
"Once on track to be the safest country in Latin America, now Ecuador finds itself mired deep in gang violence, robberies, assassinations and insecurity. Under the last three neoliberal governments of Lenin Moreno, Guillermo Lasso, and current president Daniel Noboa, there has been a surge in violent crime that has derailed any of the gains made during the leftist Correa government. On January 3rd, Black Agenda Report contributor Clau O’Brien Moscoso spoke to economic analyst Juan Fernando Terán to discuss how the surge in violence in Ecuador has political, economic and geostrategic dimensions, with implications for the whole region. This is part 1 of the conversation."
https://blackagendareport.com/dollarization-ecuador-how-safest-country-latin-america-became-money-laundering-transnational-crime

Part 2
https://orinocotribune.com/the-perfect-us-puppet-narco-state-cia-and-state-department-control-over-ecuador/

Posted by: migueljose | Feb 9 2025 18:47 utc | 34

- Nihilism ? Too strong of a word. I think that pure unadulterated "financial greed" has become the new religion.

Take e.g. the Ukraine. NATO told Zelensky that the Ukraine wouldn't be able to join NATO (in the near future). But publicly NATO continued to say that the Ukraine would join NATO. This was in spite the fact that the aim was to "weaken Russia as much as possible".

So, I assume NATO knew that the Ukraine wasn't able to beat Russia even with help of NATO. Russia was to be weakened as much as possible. Then Russia was to be torn into shreds so NATO / US would be able to play a game of "divide and rule" and in the process the Ukraine would be destroyed as much as possible as well.
Now here comes the most cynical part. I fear that the aim was to destroy both Russia and the Ukraine (as much as possible) and then all kind of western companies would have been able to rob both the Ukraine and Russia blind as much as possible without any of little regard for the people of Russia and the Ukraine.

I fear that with the Ukraine severely weakened this game called "rob them blind" will still continue to be played in the Ukraine in the near future (without the ukrainian people enjoying any benefits of the robbing of their resources). It's nihilistic capitalism at its best.
I also fear that this is the game Trump and his capitalistic/nihilistic buddies are going to play.

There was a video in which RF Kennedy JR told that Zelensky already had signed a nukmber of deals with a whole range of companies to "exploit" the natural resources of the Ukraine. Nihilistic Capitlaism at its best.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 18:48 utc | 35

c1ue "The problem is demographics can change, and change quickly. The present "baby bust" is entirely a function of negative real wages, for decades, in the working classes in the West in my view."

This has been stated many times here ... it just ain't so. The reduction in babies per woman has happened in every culture and nation around the world as cultures and nations modernize and, in my opinion crucially, as women get equal(ish) rights and ability to become educated and work outside of home. The biggest drops in having children tend to happen early in the process actually, often when people are gaining relative wages (like Europe and N America in the 50s and 60s).

Support for childcare may slightly increase birthrates but only slightly ... look at China and Japan and Korea where rates are absolutely collapsing.

Posted by: Caliman | Feb 9 2025 18:52 utc | 36

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 18:48 utc | 35

Gut feeling says USAID dismantling does a lot of damage to Nato war effort in Ukraine. 90% of Ukrainian propaganda channels vanish into thin air with no more funding. Previously mobilization exempted reporters and USAID now put to front lines. The thing will fall, more switch to Russian ranks or surrender, Nato loses grip, at least east of Dnieper. Kiev will become a cheap whorehouse with a lot of unemployed TikTokers and USAID employed propagandists. The new capital will be Zaporozhye or Dnepropetrovsk, which is RU oriented or at minimum neutral.

The bonus would be Nikolaev and Odessa oblast to the new Dnepropetrovsk based government, which can easily sway Romania and Hungary, and begin a death spiral of EU/Nato dismantling.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2025 18:55 utc | 37

Posted by: Caliman | Feb 9 2025 18:52 utc | 36

##########

It would be wise to discount whatever you hear about China unless it comes from the Chinese state, which is an infinitely more reliable source than the US State Dept.

A lot of Western disinfo out there shaping perceptions. I only found out last week that the one-child policy only applied to Han Chinese, not the many racial subgroups in China.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 18:58 utc | 38

This is an amusing explanation of DOGE: https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-s-junta-establishes-him-as-head-of-government
A serious subject taken seriously but not solemnly is the best kind of satire. Truth is gallows humor at its finest?

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 9 2025 19:10 utc | 39

Musk was talking about DOGE years ago. That's the power of inception.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 19:16 utc | 40

@Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 15:11 utc | 12

I have painfully come to the conclusion that Varoufakis is controlled opposition as he displays the classic symptoms of always pulling his punches and misdirection. So, again stop sharing your slop and go do your homework.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:24 utc | 41

@Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 15:24 utc | 13

Go read the Prison Notebooks then read Todd, you will see how vacuous Todd really is as he goes around and around in the critical theory and cultural turn void - just a right-wing version of the liberal progressive slop.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:27 utc | 42

@Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 18:17 utc | 28

Hudson also deals with many of these issues, Gramsci integrates politics, economy and culture as Marx did (if you actually read his work you will find this). Gramsci improved upon Marx. Chinese socialism also very much integrates these.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:30 utc | 43

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 15:02 utc | 6
and
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 15:07 utc | 10

Agree on both Todd and "death" of capitalism

Posted by: Linda | Feb 9 2025 19:33 utc | 44

@Posted by: kvp | Feb 9 2025 16:33 utc | 16

The usual cultural dross BS to cover up the actual underlying political economy. He uses a very large amount of selective reporting and mis-definition to make the data fit his ridiculous theories. The "men are only really creative when they are sexually deprived" theories don't merit any serious consideration. His examples tend also to be predominantly Eurocentric. Let's see him try to deal with the success of China, Vietnam etc. and their ups and downs in history. Utterly simplistic, single-variable causation rubbish.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:35 utc | 45

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:30 utc | 43

###########

Why do white people often ignore the contributions of Mao?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 19:40 utc | 46

@Posted by: migueljose | Feb 9 2025 18:47 utc | 34

Thankyou for your post. The destruction of the socialist revolution in Ecuador, and all the benefits that it brought to the Ecuadorian people, is so sad. The traitor Moreno destroyed the legacy of Correa so fast, and then handed over to Lasso who combined with the narcos to produce hell in the nation. Then the people turned to the strongman Noboa (the son of the country's biggest oligarch) in the highly manipulated elections (I am convinced that the oligarchy murdered that presidential candidate to stoke the levels of fear).

And now even in Gonzalez wins she will preside over the utter destruction of Correa's legacy (and Correa was not perfect, he made mistakes) and the hell-hole that the narco-capitalists have delivered, under the IMF loan the traitor Moreno foisted on the country. The same old story, just like in Argentina. Hopefully we are not seeing the same being done to Bolivia, but the situation there is worrying.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:45 utc | 47

@Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 19:40 utc | 46

Losurdo wrote a very good book about that, "Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn". The revolutionary movements of the East, including in China, were from the masses. In the West in the twentieth century, Marxism had predominantly become the remit of cozy upper middle class intellectuals who were doused in Trotsky's utopianism (of his writings, not his actual doing during the Revolution). They love "pure" revolutions that always fail and hate "state communism", and hate Mao for breaking with the Soviet Union to keep aligned with state communism and Stalinism. Those upper middle class intellectuals hated the state and state communism more than they hated bourgeois capitalist exploitation. As they still do.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:52 utc | 48

Capitalism exists outside of government. Get rid of all government and capitalism would still be there.

It is not a form of government. It is a philosophy practiced by the powerful since forever. It's the law of commerce and economics. Communists, socialists, theocracies, dictatorships of all sorts all practice capitalism to some extent.

It's the human game...capitalization of resources and opportunities.

The USA is a republic and faux democracy. Capitalism is a big part of it, but it exists with or without the USA.

Saying capitalism will end is the same as saying that the human race will cease to exist in its current form or in its entirety.

Posted by: A rope leash | Feb 9 2025 19:58 utc | 49

@Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:52 utc | 48

Those upper middle class intellectuals hated the state and state communism more than they hated bourgeois capitalist exploitation. As they still do.

What do these "upper middle class intellectuals" pursue? Don't they want good well being of the general mass? If the general mass's well being is not these upper middle class intellectuals' concern, then what are they for? Would you mind elaborating a little further on this? Thanks in advance.

Posted by: LuRenJia | Feb 9 2025 20:03 utc | 50

@Posted by: A rope leash | Feb 9 2025 19:58 utc | 49

Utter bullshit. Capitalism relies on the sanctity of private property that is protected by the state. Take away the state and you get feudalism. Markets can easily exist without capitalism, they existed for centuries under feudalism and other social arrangements - markets do not make a society capitalist. The dominance of society by a bourgeois elite make a country capitalist.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 20:05 utc | 51

Capitalism exists outside of government. Get rid of all government and capitalism would still be there.

That's actually incorrect. The history of capitalism can be traced back to the history of state sovereignty (Peace of Westphalia, Thirty Years' War). Who protects private property? the state does.

Posted by: KOB | Feb 9 2025 20:07 utc | 52

Thank you, B, for linking "Musk’s digital coup in Washington: Effects and prospects" by one Helena Cobban.

In spite of its dry style, her text is actually quite hilarious. And I've got to give her credit for getting the importance and magnitude of the DOGE tsunami right, and the technical implications. That's impressive for her age. Everything else, this Englishwoman intentionally and wilfully misunderstands and hence misrepresents.

Yes, Musk is unelected - and so is everyone else of the people he's currently giving the boot to.

No, Musk is not there as a "private individual" and he is not "non-governmental". It's glaringly obvious. He and the body he leads are a perfectly legitimate part of Trump's administration.

Deal with it maybe, even if Helena Cobban's very own taxpayer-funded "NGOs" will now wither away?

No, instead she's calling for "constitutional protections" against the elected head of the administration administering the administration. It's beyond silly - and a bit thick, coming from someone born the subject of a deranged, constitution-less kingdom.

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Feb 9 2025 20:08 utc | 53

@Posted by: LuRenJia | Feb 9 2025 20:03 utc | 50

No, they are generally sad careerists making sure that they paint within the lanes that guarantee them a comfortable living. That's what the whole anti-communist critical theory is also about, an intellectual prison that academics keep themselves within to earn a comfortable living while cosplaying as "leftists".

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 20:09 utc | 54

On the CFPB, an agency I've come to believe is actually doing good things:

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/revolution-town

Of all of the federal government’s departments, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is perhaps the most straightforwardly helpful to the public. It tries, within the confines of bureaucracy, to stop people from getting ripped off. It does not leaven its work with plots to destabilize foreign governments or spy on subversives. It is Consumer Reports with enforcement powers, providing a modest firewall against the constant deluge of banks and tech companies that make it their business to refine the practice of confusing people and deluging them with misleading verbiage and picking their pockets. If the CFPB was the size of the CIA, all Americans would be better off.

So naturally it is being dismantled, as a favor to the very sort of people who were the subjects of its enforcement. Russell Vought, Trump’s unblinking bureaucratic hatchet-wielder, who has spent a lifetime of dark nights pleasuring himself to the idea of a government that does nothing for anyone, has ordered the CFPB to cease all activity. Elon Musk, after a single day’s work of his destructa-kids, on Friday tweeted “CFPB RIP,” the act of a Wild West conman selling fraudulent patent medicines and thumbing his nose at the sheriff he just shot, before riding on to the next town.

On the CFPB and credit cards (and consumer credit in general):

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/understand-how-cfpb-debt-collection-rule-impacts-you/

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-finalizes-rule-to-remove-medical-bills-from-credit-reports/

So, yes. They have taken some actions. At the very least they're chronicling the surge in predatory credit practices that drive the massive amount of consumer debt in the US.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 9 2025 20:21 utc | 55

Quote (in italics):

LMAO !!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: WMG | Feb 9 2025 20:21 utc | 56

@Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 20:09 utc | 54,

Thanks for the reply. If that is the case, I don't think those are deserved to be called "intellectuals". They are more like the Chinese terms BaiTso (白左, idiotic left) and GongZhi (公知， public "intellectual").

Posted by: LuRenJian | Feb 9 2025 20:24 utc | 57

Talk to me when Elon and his crew go about trying to access Pentagram servers and datasets to which they are not privy by nature of one of his (many?) Pentagram contracts to SpaceX and StarLink.

Something tells me that won't be happening, and not because President Elon wants to but will be prevented - it's simply because he doesn't want to and neither does Vice President Trump.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 9 2025 20:26 utc | 58

Capitalism and free markets are very different ... you can have either w/o the other. As just an example, you can have worker-owned co-op businesses (like the engineering company I work for) that participate in free markets and this is very different from the same companies under capitalist owners, as in the former the means of production and decision making is controlled by the workers themselves.

I don't agree with his marxism but Dr. Richard Wolff explains the differences very well.

Posted by: Caliman | Feb 9 2025 20:27 utc | 59

Posted by: LuRenJian | Feb 9 2025 20:24 utc | 57

Similar to "boba liberal" in the US and EU?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 9 2025 20:41 utc | 60

One wonders how many "Controlled Offensive Behavior" leftists the CIA was able to create through MKUltra and other such programs (h/t to those discussing Laurel Canyon in yesterday's thread).

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300010001-7

Many years before Ochs’ metamorphosis, in an interesting bit of foreshadowing, psychological warfare operative George Estabrooks explained how US intelligence agencies could create the perfect spy: “We start with an excellent subject ... we need a man or woman who is highly intelligent and physically tough. Then we start to develop a case of multiple personality through hypnotism. In his normal waking state, which we will call Personality A, or PA, this individual will become a rabid communist. He will join the party, follow the party line and make himself as objectionable as possible to the authorities. Note that he will be acting in good faith. He is a communist, or rather his PA is a communist and will behave as such. Then we develop Personality B (PB), the secondary personality, the unconscious personality, if you wish, although this is somewhat of a contradiction in terms. This personality is rabidly American and anti-communist. It has all the information possessed by PA, the normal personality, whereas PA does not have this advantage ... My super spy plays his role as a communist in his waking state, aggressively, consistently, fearlessly.

Estabrooks never explained what would happen if the programming were to go haywire and Personality B were to become the conscious personality, but my guess is that such a person would be considered a severe liability and would be treated accordingly. They might even be find themselves swinging from the end of a rope. Phil Ochs was thirty-five at the time of his death.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 9 2025 20:50 utc | 61

A wildlife tangent: I have heard a barn owl hooting in the nearby woods, seen wildlife photographers and film-makers capture the lives of tawny owls, but I’ve never come across a superb owl; could someone from the US help me out here, and explain the fascination with the superb owl?

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 9 2025 20:54 utc | 62

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 9 2025 20:54 utc | 62

Us superb owls don't give a hoot about the Super Bowl.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 9 2025 21:00 utc | 63

Europe is lost. Celebrating our own impoverishment. Paying higher energy bills. Destroying our own industry. No wonder the US doesn't take us seriously. And treats us like a vasal. The great statesmen of Europe went to bed long ago.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2025 18:37 utc | 31

Agree. Just look at Germany. Happy with being ordered around by the AngloSaxons, since 1945. Not questioning the lies surrounding Nordstream 2. Throwing away all relations with neighboring Russia. German careers, including Merkel's and Scholz's, are decided by the yankees. Now we're going to elect a russophobic Blackrock creature to become our new leader. Which is about the worst choice we could make.

Posted by: grunzt | Feb 9 2025 21:13 utc | 64

Posted by: too scents | Feb 9 2025 14:30 utc | 2

Exactly the same as the Chinese tin pot oil refineries. No big deal.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 9 2025 20:21 utc | 55

Well said Tom.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 21:15 utc | 65

Posted by: grunzt | Feb 9 2025 21:13 utc | 64

#############

After WW2, Europe has been completely vassalized by the Yankees.

There is no Germany. No Italy.

Two provinces of the Anglosphere. Like Japan, the Phillippines, and South Korea.

There are still a German people (not for long though) but Germany as Germany died at the end of WW2. Not even Rammstein could bring it back.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 21:27 utc | 66

The core principle is: If the President is the head of the Executive Branch, does he or does he not have the authority to run said Executive branch any which way he sees fit ?

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 9 2025 18:45 utc | 33

Nope he does not. Unless he wants to become an authoritarian leader. Have you not watched a budget proposal over the last century and how it actual works before ?

https://www.crisesnotes.com/author/crisesnotes/

"The OMB order :

As OMB says, this affects appropriations which amounted to nearly three trillion dollars in the 2024 fiscal year. In particular, the memo didn’t list any programs it applied to.

Besides the chaos, another reason the OMB guidance was rescinded was that a DC court was in the process of issuing an injunction against the freeze. Why? Because the OMB guidance was wildly unconstitutional. The president does not have the authority to pick and choose which laws to implement. As the constitution puts it, the President has the responsibility to "faithfully execute the laws".

On top of that constitutional law states Congress has the “power of the purse”, and this was the president trying to take control of the purse strings.

What the OMB guidance did is known in constitutional terms as “impoundment”. Impoundment is only constitutional if the legislation “appropriating” funds to be disbursed authorizes the president to spend less than what was appropriated.

Note that they are legislative proposals because these require statutory authorization and cannot legally be done unilaterally. They would also cost money to enact, which requires appropriations. Conversely, if an agency is illegally not paying someone who should be paid, it is the responsibility of the Judiciary, Congress or oversight bodies in the executive branch to deal with this problem.

In the 2024 fiscal year the Treasury’s internal payments system processed 1.4 billion payments with an aggregate monetary value of $5.4 trillion. This is 88 percent of the total payments the federal government makes.

It is not the job of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service to do the due diligence others were supposed do considering they have very little staff that is an enormous task. Nor is discretionarily stopping payments at the operational payments level remotely consistent with even the barest minimum standard of due process of law. What their job is is to serve as a payments intermediary between the rest of the Federal Government and the wider payments system by routing payments to recipients through the Federal Reserve and onto the banking system. "

If Trumps team don't back off it will be the biggest constitutional crises since the civil war. Hence why Musk's programmer resigned. He knew it, everybody knows it.

What happens from here is anyone's guess.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 22:08 utc | 67

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 19:30 utc | 43

###########

Why do white people often ignore the contributions of Mao?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 19:40 utc | 46

Oh, white people! Why I don't think anyone can speak for the amorphous "white people", Marxists don't talk much about Mao because he revised Marxism so thoroughly, he could not in truth be considered a Marxist. In the same sense the beloved Che Guevara can not really be considered a Marxist. In short they disregard the working class of the city for the peasant of the countryside. In Mao's case he allowed a number of Chinese capitalists to seamlessly become leading "communists". This led of course to the total liquidation of all pretense of communism with Deng.

Mao's achievement's were a bit more like those of Ataturk. Via Stalin, he modernized and revitalized a preexisting ancient empire. Its Stalinism with Chinese characteristics or simply state capitalism.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 9 2025 22:17 utc | 68

Now go away and do your homework on political economy and actual reality before polluting this site with such trash.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 15:07 utc | 10

Geez...who peed in your cheerios this morning?

Posted by: Mary | Feb 9 2025 22:37 utc | 69

A lot of Western disinfo out there shaping perceptions. I only found out last week that the one-child policy only applied to Han Chinese, not the many racial subgroups in China.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 18:58 utc | 38

And not even all, rural populations could have another if first was a girl.

Posted by: Newbie | Feb 9 2025 22:45 utc | 70

could someone from the US help me out here, and explain the fascination with the superb owl?

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 9 2025 20:54 utc | 62

A superb owl sat on a nearby fence post & oversaw the building of my barn. He was so superbowly calm he let me take his pic from less than an arm's length away.

Posted by: Mary | Feb 9 2025 22:46 utc | 71

First, I'd like to order a drink to Roger's liking for he must be thirsty after throwing some nifty punches. I always enjoy reading your comments.

Secondly, pardon if already shared in earlier threads, i will leave this:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-graduated-from-the-com/

Some background on the DOGE team staffers. Turns out, to no big surprise i'd wager, Musk only recruited the finest third grade scriptkiddies to do his bidding. Their experience seems to primarily stem from shady dealings in a network of Discord-Servers, specialising in DDoS attacks and harrassing and extorting other people. As it befits such 1337-haXxors, they made their misdeeds public record by using public chatrooms with accounts easily traceable to LinkedIn. Speak of OpSec and the glorious benefits of the cloud.

Truly, the '4channification' of public discourse is a sight to behold and one wonders wether Musk hired these trolls primarily for their 'experience', or lack thereof, or because he wants to hang out with the cool kids.

If there is a single person with a brain left in the Pentagon, they by now have set up a new server full of garbage for these goons to fiddle around with to no avail.

You couldn't make all this crap up even with the amount of hallucinogenes and stimulants Musk gobbles down on a daily basis.

Posted by: kspr | Feb 9 2025 22:54 utc | 72

Posted by: kspr | Feb 9 2025 22:54 utc | 72

##################

You're glowing.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 23:13 utc | 73

Posted by: kspr | Feb 9 2025 22:54 utc | 72

Good.

Maybe next, he will hire the edgiest of memelords to drive all these USAID fuckers, and all their "independent journalist" friends taking home six figure to regurgitate the murderous lies of empire, and drive them to suicide with secret weapons grade spicy and dank memes, to spare us all the cost and effort of trials and hangings.

The tsunamis of tears just isn't quenching my hatred. I am guessing I am needing something a little closer to ref wine than white.

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 9 2025 23:15 utc | 74

Trump’s executive order to begin the process of establishing a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) for the United States.

Again people called me out when I said Trumps team looks through a gold standard, fixed exchange rate lens. Doesn't understand modern money. The librarian gold bugs had a cheek to call me crazy for even suggesting such a thing.

The truth is The US Needs a Sovereign Wealth Fund Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle.

The Why is explained here:

https://stephaniekelton.substack.com/p/the-us-needs-a-sovereign-wealth-fund

The main reason being is that Even if it became “one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds” in the world, it wouldn’t give the federal government any more spending power it doesn’t already have. Quite simply because as everybody knows the US issues the $.

The gold standard, fixed exchange rate thinking doesn't stop there.....

The administration sees it as a way to turn a relatively small pile of cash into a much bigger slush fund. Even though the US administration can create and issue $'s at will.

People are obviously asking a very simple question. since the U.S. runs neither budget surpluses nor large trade surpluses, everyone is wondering where the Trump administration expects to “find” the small pile of cash to seed the sovereign wealth in the first place ??

I reasonable question many would think apart from the fact they think the US can't issue $'s in the first place.

Here's their solution ....... Wait for it , wait for it...

Trump has floated the idea of directing revenue from tariffs into the Sovereign wealth fund, and the fact sheet that accompanied his executive order pointed to a “vast sum of highly valued assets that can be invested through a sovereign wealth fund for greater long-term wealth generation.” To turn those highly valued assets into cash-on-the-books, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. will “monetize the asset side” of the federal balance sheet.

And that....

One of the assets that might be slated for the monetization scheme is gold. The idea is that the U.S. Treasury could revalue America’s gold stocks, which are currently valued at $42.22 per troy ounce in national accounts. If they were accounted for at current market values—around $2,800 an ounce that “it could inject $800bn into the Treasury General Account (TGA), via a repurchase agreement.

By topping up the balance in the TGA, the move would also create additional breathing room with the debt ceiling limit (since Treasury could issue fewer bonds).

At this point, Secretary Bessent hasn’t indicated that revaluing America’s gold stock is part of the president’s plan. But she suggests that investors would be wise to take the prospect seriously, because “Bessent has an incentive to be creative, given the scary fiscal hole.”

:) :) :) :)

It is hilarious !!!!

If that doesn't prove beyond any doubt that Trumps advisors see the American monetary system through a gold standard, fixed exchange rate lens then nothing does.

" We don't have any money. So we have to ..... "

a) Use tariffs to fund the Sovereign wealth fund.

b) Revalue American gold stocks to today's value to give us more money to spend.

Ha, ha, ha, ha Brilliant !!!

The libertarian gold bugs had the cheek to call me crazy. Told you all along how they view the world. They are insane.

I rest my case your honour.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 23:15 utc | 75

Normally, countries with Sovereign Wealth Funds run a trade surplus.

China has one. KSA has one.

America is underwater on trade.

Trump's establishing a Sovereign Wealth Fund seems more like "throw stuff at a wall and see what sticks".

America's sovereign wealth fund was always "We'll visit with one of our aircraft carriers and stage a free airshow for your people (nudge nudge, wink wink)".

The US invests in NOTHING. The US consumes faster than it can steal.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 23:23 utc | 76

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 23:15 utc | 75

Impossible. Kamala won because women voted for her to save abortion rights, as you so confidently predicted.

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 9 2025 23:27 utc | 77

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 23:23 utc | 76

It is nuts Love Donbass.

:)

Are the librarian gold bugs going to ask if it is inflationary ???

Ha, ha, ha, ha, !!!

I can see them right now discussing it between themselves.

"Is it more inflationary if they revalue the US gold stocks and then repo them into $'s to fill a sovereign wealth fund."

Or

" Is it more inflationary if they just keystroked $ 800 billion into the Sovereign wealth fund"

They won't even grasp the irony of it all... They don't even need a sovereign wealth fund.

LOL !!!!

I told them time and time and time again..his team look through a gold standard fixed exchange rate lens.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 9 2025 23:35 utc | 78

Interesting.
Japanese Prime Minister undertook his pilgrimage to the White House…..and then…

Japan considering accepting Gazans for medical aid: Prime minister
… Islamuddin Sajid. ISLAMABAD
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said his government is considering offering medical support in Japan to Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, local media reported.
"We're making efforts to find ways to accept people in Japan who have fallen ill or been injured in Gaza," Ishiba told a parliamentary session, according to Kyodo News Agency.
He added that Japan will also try to launch a special program for Palestinian students to study at Japanese universities.
Last month during a visit to Malaysia, Ishiba said his country would facilitate the development of Palestine.
Later, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his government will establish a fund along with Japan to build hospitals, schools and mosques in Gaza which have been destroyed by Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023.

Curious. What was the carrot what was the stick what was the SanctionsFromHell that Trump wielded ????

Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 10 2025 0:11 utc | 79

Bishop who used her bully pulpit at Trump’s inauguration a recipient of $53million of U$AID largesse
@6m30s -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIyWuxcuNbQ

In the information war, Ordnance are doxxing duels and condemnation based on who you follow on social media.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/myw_AK81_9E

Jeffrey Sacks says The Virus came from a North Carolina University lab.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OTrDesBawic

Joe Rogan dumbfounded by Bernie Sanders gaslighting and Alex Soros complaining about “unelected billionaires” meddling in government.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BXKGs-nhddE

Bernie seems very concerned about Trump’s cost cutting.
Not known him to be concerned about oligarchs before now.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a6gK6EXL1Og

Joe Rogan: they gave $27m to the George Soros prosecutor fund….
$330m to help Afghanis “grow crops” [wink]
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gSWjowQYW9Q

Bill Gates exposed in less than 30sec
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/L_DX8Z5d5Yg

Elon on the campaign talking government efficiency and the need for radical cuts.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/foq_xoYlZ0

Chagos Islands
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fvkfiU7qqOE

Actor Paul Newman knew.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0Wk4mrv1CgM

Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 10 2025 0:22 utc | 80

Who's watching The Stupor Bowl?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 10 2025 0:24 utc | 81

he let me take his pic from less than an arm's length away.
Mary | Feb 9 2025 22:46 utc | 71
I too enjoy /am grateful for / those snippets of magic.
A fleeting moment, that lasts long in the memory.
——
Right this minute the thunder and downpour is so intense it’d make Noah’s deluge seem like a simple summer shower.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 10 2025 0:27 utc | 82

An okay video less than twenty minutes long about historical US and USSR space and/or high altitude* nuclear tests/explosions, some of the physical results including EMP, and the resulting treaties. Ignore the little bit about Russian space-based weapons that sneaks in towards the end and keep going; as MoA readers should/will know the person who made the video is simply misinformed from living in the MSM bubble.

[Astrum] The Big Problem that Happened after We Nuked Space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPq5fGZdUJo

Alternatively for download:
https://www.ssyoutube.com/watch?v=oPq5fGZdUJo

* The Kármán line is set at 100 kilometers by the FAI and is the closest there is to an international definition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Feb 10 2025 0:47 utc | 83

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 23:13 utc | 73

Takes one to know one, i guess.

Interesting:

Trump indicates 'irregularities' found while analyzing treasury records, meaning the US 'has less dept than expected'.

Trump to announce import tariffs for aluminium and steel on monday.

Posted by: kspr | Feb 10 2025 0:53 utc | 84

I am well beyond certain prognostications, but I still like to try and guess, in this chaotic world, with red headed commander of chaos quickly re-assurting his authority.

The USAID freeze, et al, is just a vulgar display of power telling all government employees to submit, or fond work elsewhere.

He will take back those who bend the knee, and USAID et al, will still exist, though ten stone slimmer, via self-exile.

The story from Japan is wonderful news. Isn't Trump in a meeting with the pm of Japan today or yesterday?

Hard to criticize, except that it may never happen.

On the hope side,Japan is slightly more antisemitic, and was ally to world's biggest noticer once.

Speaking of which, an anecdote, somebody I know was just kicked put of his parents house because they found out he was miscegenatin.

Damn racist Indians. When will the hate stop?

Never, especially with agents of destabilization and chaos everywhere collecting profit and power from it, and splitting it among the oligarchs.

This is likely a form of hegemonic projection that will only fade away two or three hundred years from now.

Long story short, dont tell me Japan would be offering assistance to Palestinians under Kamala.

Of course, there is also that matter of Trump et al defining Jews as Palestine. These people are clever. pagers, night goggles, illicit hezbollah explosives harbored in Beirut. We will never know the last.

By Deception thou shallst war.

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 1:06 utc | 85

MOATS, EP 420, with George Galloway: 'Homeward Bound'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBgdwIDjjOc

Abdel Bari Atwan - Diana Panchenko

#Gaza #Trump #Ukraine #Putin

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 10 2025 1:23 utc | 86

DH: Prof Richard Wolff - 'The Collapse is Here'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paNpI6zfnpM

"The fall of the US empire - US denial, Europe burns, BRICS and China rise. The hard truth for the US empire and its client states in the West..."

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 10 2025 1:35 utc | 87

I read that Trump is the first president to attend the Super Bowl which we all know is a Hollywood extravaganza. It fits Trump's style.

Trump is attempting a Super bowl of tariffs and his first three have been suspended, kinda, sorta. Trump needs a tariff score to show his strategy works and I see his next ploy is tariffs on steel and aluminum.

in the steel world, it looks like China has the two largest followed by Japan and South Korea. We know that Japan has been a colony of empire since WWII and South Korea since the Korean war. I posit that Trump will get the Japan and South Korea firms to cave to help put pressure on China

In the aluminum world, the top 4 producers are China and Russia who produce over 50% of global production.....I wonder what Rio Tinto, EGA, Vedanta and Norsk Hydro think?

Will this be a win for Trump?

Stay tuned....

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 10 2025 2:00 utc | 88

@Roger Boyd | Feb 9 2025 20:05 utc | 51

"The dominance of society by a bourgeois elite make a country capitalist."

Of course. The oppression of the informed and connected over the desperate and ignorant masses has always been and it will always be for the hapless human race. Private ownership of business for profit is just business in a free civilization, and would exist in some form on its own without formal government.
Exploitation of lowly rubes is a way of life for all capitalists. It's a big club, but minuscule compared to the big club containing the rest of the human race.

There are capitalistic aspects to socialism and authoritarianism. Not everybody gets to play, though.

Capitalism is a way of life. It will never go away until the human race returns to its primitive form...but even a cave man understood the power of a club. There will always be lords over humanity. It is what it is.

How's that for utter bullshit?

Posted by: A rope leash | Feb 10 2025 2:12 utc | 89

[email protected] Palestinian aid goes through the hands of the genociders, they control how much aid Palestine gets....someone is just gonna walk in and rebuild....any idea who is providing security guarantees that the work of rebuilding gets done. And the safety of said Palestinians? The Apartheid Agreement Incapable State? Who? Russia? Iran? Yemen? Egypt.....it's a running joke, like the song that never ends......

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 10 2025 2:33 utc | 90

@ c1ue | Feb 9 2025 18:39 utc | 32

You are right that demographic trends can change, of course, even though there is a certain amount of lag involved, even in the French example you gave.

But the current trends everywhere are down, down, down, even in Africa. No country now has the historic pre-birth-control total fertility rate of eight. Niger is the highest now, but even it is under seven, and almost all other countries are under six, with an annual decline going on almost everywhere. This is a spectacular refutation of the expectation of Paul Erlich in The Population Bomb and of course threatens as well to undermine capitalism, perhaps presaging something else.

The precise cause of this is no doubt multifaceted. The economic conditions you specified, the lack of ability to earn a living wage, must indeed be paramount, but there are probably many other factors. Some think there is an unidentified environmental factor coming from some particular chemical or combination of chemicals spread around the earth by technology, and that would not be impossible. There is also definitely the cost of raising children, who no longer bring economic benefit by working so young but have so many expensive needs. And what about dismal apocalyptic expectations that the world is soon going to be destroyed by one of the converging lines of annihilation or another? That one I see from my college students all the time, and they have plenty of mental problems as well, though these indeed are often traceable to the dysfunctional and cruel economic system.

Should the total fertility rate continue its plunge, which may not take place but is possible, it could still lead to a changing demography, for while some countries might tread water by approaching zero population growth, others might undergo a mass die-off. What will be the fate of South Korea's 51 million people should the fertility rate reach say 0.5 children per woman. Right now, there is a mass movement of women in Korea rejection childbearing, and maybe marriage too. So the emancipation of women and third-wave feminism could play a role in this as well. It would be quite interesting in the future to see cities full of abandoned skyscrapers.

Posted by: Cabe | Feb 10 2025 2:33 utc | 91

A quick browse thru this thread did not dig up mention of the news from Tesla today, which I think is very relevant. Elon Musk is now offering homes for sale! Pricing is some 10k bucks per unit. The houses are pre-fabricated, transportable and come with appliances already installed. This absolutely looks like a thoroughly planned and prepared initiative to me, aimed at tackling the homelessness problem in the US. Or I am dreaming this!?

I'll throw in a prediction and say this is yet another sign that the team behind Trump is well-prepared to pull off a major turn in grand strategy, and well on their way too. Essentially I see them giving up NWO style dreams of unipolarity and prepare a wholly different future instead. I believe the basic shape of that is already becoming visible, but it's still a little nebulous to argue the case, so my first attempt at sketching a scenario for the time after this inflection point (aka the future) will follow below in a second post.

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 10 2025 2:34 utc | 92

Posted by: Cabe | Feb 10 2025 2:33 utc | 91

Its everything you said and dozens of other things. There is also porn, contraception, feminism, and social media, all just completely causing a time of chaos.

Humanity will stabilize, but its gonna be weird for a couple more decades at least.

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 2:48 utc | 93

A rope leash | Feb 9 2025 19:58 utc | 49
*** Saying capitalism will end is the same as saying that the human race will cease to exist in its current form or in its entirety. ***

Absolutely everything reduced to just a monetary (alleged) "value". Billions of gibbering killer-chimps with delusions of grandeur while frantically serving a system of perpetual and irredeemable debt, its corrupt institutions plus its sociopathic Oligarchs really don't deserve anything better than extinction.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 10 2025 2:57 utc | 94

Trump Says He is Serious About Canada Becoming 51st State in Super Bowl Interview

https://nationalnewswatch.com/2025/02/09/trump-says-he-is-serious-about-canada-becoming-51st-state-in-super-bowl-interview

"President Donald Trump said he is serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st state in an interview that aired Sunday during the Super Bowl preshow.

Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada would be better off if it agreed to become the 51st US state - a prospect that is deeply unpopular among Canadians.

Trump said he would on Monday announce a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the US, including from Canada and Mexico and a plan for reciprocal tariffs later in the week..."

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 10 2025 3:02 utc | 95

Re | Feb 9 2025 22:54 utc | 72 with link to krebsonsecurity. I only read the initial pages before giving up on the grounds that I knew no more of the subject than I did before reading, the writer had told me far more about himself; that he is a derp that prefers insinuation to facts when working to follow an editorial line. The line is the same old, same old garbage -rescue the dims by sledging every human, no matter how remote with a connection to d trump esp via offsider and proven cheat musk.

If the bloke were a middle aged chancer you'd chalk it to to him just bein unlucky, but he sledges a 19 year old kid trying to make his way as a self trained engineer. This is how amerika is gonna beat the chinamen - push up the cost of education so high no smart person would consider formal study, then rip up some kid tryin to do it the smart way.

There is no meaningful indication Ed was holding any political motivation but he was harassed because he mixed with other people.

I don't much care, amerika seems like the gurgler is inevitable, that is going to stop a lot of things which need be stopped & while I recognise that is a concern to amerikans it isn't to ROW .

Posted by: Debsisdead | Feb 10 2025 3:24 utc | 96

10 year 4,48%

Posted by: Exile | Feb 10 2025 3:48 utc | 97

Posted by: Cabe | Feb 10 2025 2:33 utc | 91
Sperms counts are falling dramatically across all mammals. The cause is endocrine disrupting compounds from one type of microplastic in the environment. That being vulcanised rubber overwhelmingly from car tires. Not good to be sucking in protoestrogens all day.

Posted by: Badjoke | Feb 10 2025 4:02 utc | 98

The past two weeks have turned our present 'interesting times' into a kaleidoscopic mess, but I have a feeling there is method to this madness. I know it's bonkers, but the general outlook has a lot in common with what the QAnon info op related during Trump's first term. Already back then I thought this was likely done in preparation of a deep state turf war offensive by a faction we now may call the 'realists', who rose against the 'globalists' whom I shall not further explore at this point. Make up your own mind. A good primer on the scenario is given by former Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in a recent letter published at LifeSiteNews, which is somewhat hard to find, full-on alu cap material.

On a related note, pizza gate is real [if the link doesn't work, use google trends to compare pizza gate with fake news, post truth, postfaktisch, alternative facts and what other of those strange orwellic concoctions you remember, to reveal this was a bullshit operation intended to drown out the news after the Podesta emails emerged into public].

There are other, more classically strategic rearrangements in play, too. The World War is not yet over, but it looks a lot like the original combatants UK and Germany are by now basically ground to dust between the US and Russia, with the latter now about to achieve full victory. Japan fell aside, Persia is still standing, Israel is but a nuisance in more general terms, and of course the rise of China overshadows the whole thing. If you're America at this point, you will do well to realize what's about to happen, and act accordingly to prepare for the defeat. It was a stupid idea to begin with, World Domination my ass, dear Yankees, but alas. -- The major aim must be to reorient their strategic zones of interest, and to develop a competitive nation-state to adequately play a role in the new context of multipolarity.

This is not a trivial matter if you're the US. The most basic problem the US is facing is very much a philosophical one: they need a new body of ethics, to allow for community development and policies which then enable an economic rebound with a long-term perspective to compete somewhat on par with the Eurasian powers. Education is a major deficit; but there's also the case for inherent higher productivity of a mixed economy à la Chine when compared to a pure capitalist model that revolves about self-interest only. Somewhat intruigingly, I have reason to believe this novel ethics are already visible, too. They are not dependent on a certain history of any sort, not religious, and not rigid as set in an ideological framework. Instead, the methodical reflection of the essential question of ethics (which is but ONE question) possible after Husserlian Phenomenology now allows to transcend the old metaphysics of substance paradigm quite naturally answers the foundational necessitities on which to build; they are very simple, yet only now can be argued with complete consistency. - More on that from me in another night here at the bar.

For now, it's capitalism all the way in the disintegrating former 'west'. Europe is in for a wild ride, obviously. The single decisive question is how long it will take to throw off the imperial yoke and re-integrate into the Eurasian political and economical space. It's hard to predict, and harder still to guess what by then will be left over from my country, Germany. For now, things appear thusly to me: Olaf Scholz' coalition broke down just days after Trump won for a reason. The German deep state is busily preparing for the transition, with the upcoming election as a major step into the future. Basically, the Altparteien, as AfD calls all the parties from past times BRD, are up against the wings, with BSW on the left somehow being marginalized for now. The reasons are not clear to me; yet I readily expect sabotage by intelligence agencies, who seem to try and keep the whole mess on the track of a capitalist economy framework for the time being. Volt is a Soros outfit, and AfD itself is highly likely to turn course after the election, as I sense they are thoroughly in the bag as well. Still, this is the single most sensible option at this time: get away from the old atlanticist orientation ASAP, open up eastwards, and then integrate into the new space that is developing in Russia and China especially. The future will be socialist, but I can't give a timeline. For now, AfD is the party of everyman, including the immigrants interestingly; but I expect they will be lead along the garden path eventually, so something else will have to pick up. On a personal note, I am not planning to get involved with this much after the turn just ahead has been wheeled in.

[juke box] Queen - Radio Gaga (yt video)

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 10 2025 4:04 utc | 99

Australian media scrambling as the iron + steel tariffs loom.
>…” but we promised Trump $800m for AUKUS just last week…. didn’t that buy us special treatment????”
Indeed.. Aust could not have prostrated / prostituted / humiliated itself more than it did when Oz defence minister met with Hegseth.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 10 2025 4:20 utc | 100