Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
February 23, 2025
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-035

Last week’s posts on Moon of Alabama:

☀️👀 @zei_squirrel – 15:53 UTC · Feb 21, 2025

> one of the few benefits of Elon Musk giving me a bluecheck without me asking for it is that I can post videos of any length. So here is the full Gaza documentary the BBC just removed from their site because genocidal Zionist freaks demanded they censor it: >>> video <


Other issues:

Spot on:

Doge:

Romania/Eastern Europe:

Aukus: “If someone made the effort to visit you it is only polite to visit them too.”

Miscellaneous:

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

Comments

I know why Trump threatened to take over the Panama Canal. It has nothing to do with China – it’s all about Ukraine and offshore banking!
According to Larry Johnson, the Trump administration has traced 50 billion dollars stolen from aid to Ukraine to offshore bank accounts in the Caribbean. Guess what – the threat to the Panama Canal has got to be a threat to Panama to open up info on offshore bank accounts in Panama implicated in the Ukraine heist.
Having solved Panama, what about Greenland, does Denmark have any offshore banking centres? Maybe, but I haven’t heard of any. Probably no relation to the Panama case.

Posted by: BM | Feb 23 2025 14:15 utc | 1

BBC Video.
X says it does not exist.

Posted by: kupkee | Feb 23 2025 14:31 utc | 2

offshore banking!
Posted by: BM | Feb 23 2025 14:15 utc | 1

Elon’s autistic savants should be able to get to the bottom of this in no time.
Why aren’t they?

Posted by: too scents | Feb 23 2025 14:40 utc | 3

BM@1……barely a week since Tiny Dancer and his wife set up untraceable accounts in Saudia Arabia. Trump sent a bag man several day later. Then Tiny Dancer and his wife set up untraceable accounts in France, they likely have better laundry services there….if a Trump bag man makes a visit to Paris will he find the dirt. Tiny Dancer is well recieved with his money……well protected.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 23 2025 14:49 utc | 4

if a Trump bag man makes a visit to Paris
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 23 2025 14:49 utc | 4

Trump’s bagmen are carrying, not collecting.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 23 2025 14:56 utc | 5

“RFK Jr. Flunky LOSES IT When Confronted On Measles Outbreak”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J81A16jIld4
There is an outbreak of measles in West Texas and spreading to New Mexico. Are too little vaccinations in Texas to blame ? When Trump & Musk cuts healthcare even more then this is going tohappen even more.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 14:59 utc | 6

MoA brought this link:
“INTERVIEW: Certain EU countries nourishing ideas of annexing Ukrainian lands — Medvedchuk”
https://tass.com/politics/1913751
I am NOT surprised to see that this is contemplated. It’s simply a reversal of what happened after 1945. If the Ukraine becomes “a failed state” then this is only a logic outcome. Then we could go back to the boundaries of say 1918/1919.
( Isn’t this website blocked by western internet providers ? Like “RT” (“Russia Today”) ???

Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 15:10 utc | 7

In just six years, China has completely reoriented its new bank lending from a heavy dependence upon property development to a focus upon industrial development. This represents Xi’s drive to have growth that drives the development of the productive forces in China and upgrades those forces. The fruits of this drive are now showing as China overtakes in one industry and high technology sector after another. The sheer speed of this transformation, like so much change in China, has completely caught the Western leaders, policy makers and commentators off guard.
While they are wailing about “under-consumption” and property bad debts, China has already moved on while greatly containing the impact of property price falls; all the while the economy is growing at around 5%. This reminds me of the Western commentators when China was first building out its high speed rail network (now more kms than the rest of the world) or when air pollution became a major issue (now significantly solved). My piece on the subject:
The Astonishing Reorientation of the Chinese Economy

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 15:14 utc | 8

Since we will probably be supplied with even more propaganda in the near future and since some people here still fall for such things or even use these methods themselves (as trolls), I would like to recommend this 18-minute video by Chris Hughes on the subject of engineered realities.
Once You Know This, Every PSY OP Becomes Obvious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3AN2wY4qAM
He explains the FATE model plus a lot of other things like novelty, identity, context, simplification, etc. Most of us will know the basics but this video is packing all the important stuff into a short & clear overview.
Watch it and distribute it – there are a lot of people falling for this day after day after day…

Posted by: Zet | Feb 23 2025 15:15 utc | 9

“Surrendered Ukrainian troops confirm Kiev’s plans of massive offensive in Donbass — DPR”
https://tass.com/defense/1413035
I know that the Ukraine had concetrated some 60,000 troos close to the Donbas right before february 22, 2022 for an attack. Or are thse people talkning about an ukrainian offensive in e.g. 2023 or 2024 ?

Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 15:17 utc | 10

Oh, and if you want to use a tool to simplify spotting these methods, then feel free to fetch a 1-page PDF called Engineered Reality Scoring System here:
https://shorturl.at/nU9vD

Posted by: Zet | Feb 23 2025 15:18 utc | 11

@Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 15:10 utc | 7
Oh yes please, but lets do the 1914 borders. Then Germany and Belarus/Russia would share a border and Poland, the Baltic States, Finland and Moldova would not exist (all within Russia). Immediate peace in Europe.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 15:19 utc | 12

When will DOGE go after Larry Fink and Blackrock?

Posted by: stubby | Feb 23 2025 15:22 utc | 13

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 23 2025 6:26 utc | 257 (From the previous, but now closed open thread)

“I don’t spend any time thinking about what happens to me after this life because living fills every nook and cranny…and I believe/live the 4th/last Hopi precept of not owning the outcome…..I consider my life to be a spiritual journey, not religious.
Namaste (I bow to the teacher of me in you)”

Since you’re a fan of ivermectin I thought I’d let you in a fairly, newly discovered combination of drugs that can reportedly defeat stage four cancers. Ivermectin taken in conjunction with Fenbendazole, which like ivermectin is an anti parasitic, but meant strictly for animals. Nurse John Campbell has more on an eighteen minute video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpDbGZoCHgU&t=33s
Perhaps unlike the Hopis’ we can ‘own the outcome’?

Posted by: aye, myself & me | Feb 23 2025 15:23 utc | 14

Perhaps this will be useful in assessing the purge of the officer corps: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-retired-air-force-lt-gen-dan-caine-became-trump-s-pick-for-joint-chiefs-chairman/ar-AA1zBAog?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=fa3c1d5104614da0b9f2bd0c8cdc292f&ei=105
There seems to be a widespread assumption at MoA commentariat that some unspecified so-called bureaucrats run an independent CIA regardless of political appointees made by the president, with budgets they somehow write for themselves instead of needing either political appointees much less Congress to approve them. Or maybe the assumption is that the CIA doesn’t need money, unlike armies? In any event, perhaps the story of Team B can suggests that political leadership has ways to bring the CIA around to what they want, regardless of what the lower levels of the institution, such as mere analysts, believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_B

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 23 2025 15:48 utc | 15

Posted by: too scents | Feb 23 2025 14:40 utc | 3
#########
I have long believed that all terrorist groups are funded by the West.
The Africans have figured this out and talk about it regularly now.
If Putin and the IRGC can be sanctioned, surely Boko Haram and HTS could have been sanctioned. The cartels could have been sanctioned.
Meditate on that.
The only answer I can come up with is that those parties are allowed to evade sanctions.
Whoops!
We’re immersed in endless lies and manipulations.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 15:54 utc | 16

When will DOGE go after Larry Fink and Blackrock?
Posted by: stubby | Feb 23 2025 15:22 utc | 13
First, you would have to get consent from the Fink Family and all the other Families that control the New York Branch of the Federal Reserve.
You know… the source of funding/conjuring currency when the Too Big To Fail clause is declared in the Ape-Ax contract.

Posted by: kupkee | Feb 23 2025 15:54 utc | 17

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 23 2025 15:48 utc | 15
The Hot Rock got turned over and voila! The U.S. Taxpayer was being robbed to fund the Deep Stench and the Demented Party via the institutionalized Crime Organizations funding B.S. NGOs.
And the first tap got shut off. Much more to come.
Armies may march on their bellies but Criminals require funds.

Posted by: kupkee | Feb 23 2025 15:58 utc | 18

America is headed towards serious confrontation with Trump’s threat openers falling flat over and over.
Zelensky is now openly mocking him.
Gazans won’t voluntarily leave.
Russia hasn’t given an inch.
The Mexicans have fought back in the American courts using the US government’s conclusions to push back on colonialism.
Panama agreed with Rubio’s demands, and then cut back the concessions.
China is winning the tariff war (never mentioned in the media, … yet)
Egypt (a vassal) refused a meeting with Trump.
I wanted America to be diminished bloodlessly and Trump has been many times more effective than I could have dreamed.
Europe is mortally wounded. De-dollarization accelerates.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 16:03 utc | 19

In response to

Perhaps unlike the Hopis’ we can ‘own the outcome’?
Posted by: aye, myself & me | Feb 23 2025 15:23 utc | 14

I encourage focus on the other end of the “time stick” as evidenced by the future element in my web site graphic……Keep intention pure.
I will watch the video over breakfast, thanks

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 23 2025 16:17 utc | 20

“How Gaza Shattered the West’s Mythology”
Don’t waste your time on this promising sounding article. It takes a long time to get to its point which is just more misanthropic mythology. It’s not US imperialism and the Zionazis, it’s wicked, abstract “humanity”, again. Any journal in the west has its familiar gatekeepers. That conclusion is what got this confused article published.
Honestly, if you find even a suggestion of this misanthropic explanation of events while reading about any atrocity committed by the ruling class (or scrolling through the comments at MOA), you can be certain it’s imperialist propaganda.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 23 2025 16:17 utc | 21

Very interesting speech by Jeffrey Sachs recently; I note distinct undertones of MoA bar talk throughout.
It’s starting to look like the current Zeitenwende is partially engineered from Hamburg by a bunch of poor poets, freelancing analysts and idealist philosophers, like my colleague Andreas Ehlers who lives even more like Carl Spitzweg’s figure in the famous painting than Bernhard or me. I’m happy to be able to lend a hand here and there, be it through grocery-shopping, firing virtual 28cm grenades at the enemy in dispute, or aiding in the formulation of phenomenological ethics, which Andreas wrote last year for an ominous organization who only called him on the phone a few times and obviously were monitoring his computer screen and our conversations, too. Well, it was saving everyone’s time, so fine with me I guess.
Bits and pieces from the writing are starting to show up in prominent places now, ranging from articles by Alexander Dugin, over speeches by Victor Orban, to the excerpts from the phone conversation between Trump and Putin, where the two men were said to agree about „common sense“ as their fundamental interest. – Common Sense, really?!
Well, yes. But not in the modern, linguistically corrupted understanding as ‚everyone’s reasoning‘, but in its true meaning as sensus communis (notionally: having an informed understanding of the common good), which is transported likely in just one place, the reflections of Marc Aurel. An englishman, the 17th century Earl of Shaftesbury, gave the hint in a fairly obscure footnote, where he traces the expression back to its original old greek form. Here’s an introduction.
The current, phenomenological understanding would start with the realization that notion (~consciousness) is; simple as that may sound, it isn’t. The buddhist tradition of contemplative meditation-philosophy carries an understanding of that, nicely expressed by the aperçu ascribed to a Walisian bus driver which the barfly Scorpion related here:
First, there is a mountain. Then, there is no mountain. Then there is —
From this, we may appreciate that each and all sense of self (~consciousness) is prerequisited on an encounter with a Thou, categorically, even constitutionally so. Hence, God is probably a barfly too. And ‚it‘ converses with us not by decrete, force and threats, but eminently ethically; another thought established by a now almost forgotten strand of English philosophy. It’s really the only sensible way to deal(!) with others, that would not bring oneself in jeopardy with the goal of achieving rational agency over one’s actions; both directly and indirectly.
And so it goes …
[jukebox] Johnny Cash – One

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 23 2025 16:19 utc | 22

@kupkee – BBC Video. X says it does not exist.
Works for me without problems …

Posted by: b | Feb 23 2025 16:32 utc | 23

re Posted by: persiflo | Feb 23 2025 16:19 utc | 22
A better version of the Jeffrey Sachs speech including questions is at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjcMoDFU1xg

Posted by: laguerre | Feb 23 2025 16:50 utc | 24

Defender of the Fatherland Day coincides with the German elections. Russians will celebrate, but how many Germans will go out and vote?
Within the Empire, how long before someone takes a shot at Musk?

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 23 2025 17:02 utc | 25

Below is a Reuters posting title showing tactic change in the EU
Macron, Starmer to meet Trump as Europeans flesh out ideas for Ukraine guarantees
So, Starmer can’t make it on his own and I doubt Marcon will add much but it will be fun to watch.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 23 2025 17:06 utc | 26

The 1st numbers for German elections are out:
CDU: 28,5% – 29%
SPD: 16% – 16,5%
Greens: 13%- 13,5%
AFD: 19,5% – 20%
Linke: 8,5 – 9%
BSW and FDP: <5%
Let's see how that will develop during tonight...

Posted by: Zet | Feb 23 2025 17:08 utc | 27

I can hear the gnashing of ratty teeth from the purveyors of that Old Great Game and their aristo ‘Boys Own’ and Jolly Hockey stick mistresses of the ridiculously naked Institute of Fakecraft, integrity initiative, school of wizardry, lamplighters, tinker tailor spies and the absurdly trained and fluent in Russian ‘journalists’ in their halls of media and state!
BBC Rosenberg’s a C**T ! ‘Steven’ same old lies, citing BellEndshits !
What’s happening witg the Codswallop brigade? The Obsessive Groan and their DS mastery?
10 headlines on international geopolitics and interference including the shameful support of the ziofascist illegal apartheid entity ! Not a single one about their daily genocidal child serial killing and fake bus explosions… before a single domestic U.K. issue! Here’s their poxy spooky opinion piss.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/22/the-observer-view-of-us-foreign-policy-a-dangerous-new-international-order-is-unfolding
They really don’t care what they say any more – it literally is running around like chicken little – claiming the sky is falling!
It literally is the boy crying wolf wolf wolf…
It literally is claiming that The Great Knight Dope has some relevance in going to Washington like Mr Smith and Drumpff has somehow cancelled all the Cancellation of The Russian Federation and ‘curssssse you Pooooooptin’ Russophobia.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 23 2025 17:12 utc | 28

thanks b and thanks to the posters who help to keep me informed.. there are too many to name..

Posted by: james | Feb 23 2025 17:14 utc | 29

Ha ha Adam Curry says “Winds of Change” was written by the CIA
JRE excerpt on Youtube
This in the conversation about Adam Curry being on a plane carrying a bunch of Western rockers into the Soviet Union on…a USAID sponsored concert.
Article referenced in show: Grauniad

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 23 2025 17:15 utc | 30

Posted by: kupkee | Feb 23 2025 15:58 utc | 18 The point that Caine’s background in JSOC is evidence Caine should be identified as a Deep State operator by people who profess to believe there really is such a thing is missed or simply ignored? That Caine is by first indications an enthusiastic imperialist rather than an anti-war activist does fit the Trumpery insisting the Second Coming Incarnate is anti-war. JSOC appears to be the officer corps share of the secret state terror operations. Trumpers arbitrarily decree this isn’t war, but it is. As I said, the preliminary indications are the Caine is what any rational person who really believed the so-called Deep State is a real thing, should call a tried and true Deep Stater.
This comment is somewhat incoherent, but the most sensible reading I can get is, USAID was the CIA’s funding of Democratic Party globalism (which would be anti-God Trump Satanic activity, whatever?) This is a dutiful reading of the latest encyclical letter from God’s Vicar but…such USAID activities as funding food programs designed to act as export subsidies that conveniently undermined domestic competition to US imports benefited factions of US farmers, a group that as property owners (mortgage owners?) had and has a very healthy number of Republicans cannot honestly be called funding the Democratic Party. Nor for that matter can the famous PEPFAR program. It still seems to me that targeting USAID first is very much about attacking the notion of foreign aid, period. The belief that all US government expenditures must directly benefit property owners in the US otherwise all foreigners are ripping the so-called us off is not a particular advance. This is diversionary at best, with a fake anti-war veneer of apologetics.
Even worse, the CIA’s black propaganda activities are not conducted primarily through USAID, so far as I can tell. Secret relationships with key publishers and editors seem to be key especially to falsely sourcing CIA propaganda for dissemination back to its real target, the US public, under false guise of originating in foreign countries.
There is definitely nonsense in the last sentence. Armies very much need money to march on their bellies, just like so-called criminals. Saying “but” is an absurd insinuation they don’t. That’s why Trump stands for a massive military budget, even if he is playing with lessening the rate of increase in non-operational. Note the exceptions to the projected cuts in projected spending. The notion that the CIA gets its money via USAID rather than fake entries in the military budget (one reason the Pentagon can’t do an audit, along with garden variety obfuscation of sweetheart deals and officially illegal forms of corruption) or from it’s drug operations and proprietary businesses, is not an established fact. That insinuation is merely a dubious talking point.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 23 2025 17:15 utc | 31

I just wanted to post this for consideration alongside the first post (about which, I had no idea). From Telesur’s daily email: “CARICOM leaders propose to invite Donald Trump to ‘enter meaningful discussions’ “
https://www.telesurenglish.net/caricom-leaders-propose-to-invite-donald-trump-to-enter-meaningful-discussions/
Also, about that plane collision b reported on, just wanted to toss in that there was a recent plane incident in Toronto. Mike Mihajlovic (defence analyst, former Canada Armed Forces member) posted about it.
https://x.com/MihajlovicMike/status/1891835888897814921

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Feb 23 2025 17:25 utc | 32

appears that German election will result in a Christian Democrat – Social Democrat majority coalition. Equals little or no fundamental change.
The AFD (populist-libertarian) doubled their votes from 2021, likely 23-24% of Parliament seats.
roughly 30% of the votes went to anti-war parties.

Posted by: exile | Feb 23 2025 17:42 utc | 33

@Roger Boyd #8
Bollocks.
China did not become a world spanning manufacturing power by not lending for manufacturing capital investment.
All that is happening is a reduction in personal real estate lending.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 23 2025 17:51 utc | 34

BBC Video.
X says it does not exist.
Posted by: kupkee | Feb 23 2025 14:31 utc | 2

I see it in Canada, posted by other X users as well. Perhaps it is blocked in your country. Or this X user has blocked you… zei_squirrel
An X Search for “BBC Gaza documentary” should turn up multiple instances of the video. If not, then your country or ISP has blocked it.

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Feb 23 2025 17:52 utc | 35

QUOTE (in italics):
@Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 15:10 utc | 7
Oh yes please, but lets do the 1914 borders. Then Germany and Belarus/Russia would share a border and Poland, the Baltic States, Finland and Moldova would not exist (all within Russia). Immediate peace in Europe.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 15:19 utc | 12

I think that going back to the 1914 borders is a good recipe for MORE “tensions” in Europe. So, thanks but I don’t hink it’s good solution.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 17:53 utc | 36

@steven t johnson #15
I continue to be highly amused at your attempt to defend the US military, USAID and what not.
Please, prostitute your supposed ideals more.
Brown? A literal non-entity for his entire 2-ish years in position. Can you name a single damn thing the guy did besides speak up for George Floyd?
As for Franchetti: She is best known for heading up 7th fleet during its period of numerous 7th fleet ship collisions with wharves, other ships, sand bars and the like.
A standard which has now apparently infected Sixth Fleet with the Harry Truman’s recent collision with a 50,000 ton merchant ship. What, did you not see this monster ship? Could the Truman not steer away from it? Hull pierced, one elevator destroyed, serious damage as is to be expected when a 100,000 ton carrier smacks into a 50,000 ton ship.
Buh bye now.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 23 2025 17:58 utc | 37

@Posted by: c1ue | Feb 23 2025 17:51 utc | 34
So predictable.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 18:06 utc | 38

@Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 17:53 utc | 36
France, the UK and Germany are now in no position to start wars with Russia (Napoleon, Crimean War, WW1, WW2) and Russia is not an expansionary power. It is the Finnish and Baltic State chihuahuas that bark the most for war, and the rabidly anti-Russian Polish elite. The worst things ever done were the recreation of Poland at Versailles, the creation of the Baltic States, Lenin’s creation of a large Ukraine SSR and Finnish independence. We have lived with the shit created by those decisions ever since.
If Trump does actually remove NATO troops from these states then a lasting peace is possible. That will be the test of whether or not he is serious and has the power to implement his wishes.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 18:16 utc | 39

The German elections seem to have delivered the nearly perfect outcome for the German oligarchy
– CDS/CDU and SPD ruling coalition (Merz is even more warmongering than Scholz)
– AfD sidelined for now, but will gain significant legitimacy from its 20% vote share and seats in the Bundestag
– The fake Greens warmongers did not lose much of their vote
– The Die Linke fake left surged above 5% to continue their role as sheepdogs for those on the left
– BSW driven below 5%, so no seats in the Bundestag and can be fully dumped down the memory hole
Nothing significant changed, and the AfD set up to be legitimized enough to have a role in government next election which is at the latest four years from now. And the BSW kept down. At least no more of the insufferable Baerbock, maybe VdL will offer her a job.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 18:25 utc | 40

Not being up on German politics, but did Germany just democratically elect a War government…..could everyday Germans be that apathetic….or might one suspect the thing was rigged.
Russia should blow up the other pipe line then tell them to fuck off….
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 23 2025 18:29 utc | 41

“Historian Heather Cox Richardson: ‘We’re already in a coup'” (in the US).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOaUuEzq6bY (length: 4 minutes).

Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 18:36 utc | 42

“Historian Heather Cox Richardson: ‘We’re already in a coup'” (in the US).
Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 18:36 utc | 42
########
Ironic. Live by the coup, die by the coup.
Hopefully, it stays relatively bloodless.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 18:40 utc | 43

@Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 15:14
Nice piece of work, Roger. Hopefully this will get some thoughtful attention at the national econ policy level. Deserves it.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Feb 23 2025 18:53 utc | 44

Piece on Merz and Blackrock in Unherd worth reading …
https://unherd.com/2025/02/will-merz-sell-germany-to-blackrock/

Posted by: Don Firineach | Feb 23 2025 19:15 utc | 45

karlof1 | Feb 23 2025 17:02 utc | 25
*** .. but how many Germans will go out and vote? ***
Just see the outcome….
After all that’s been happening for years — all of it bad — the Kraut morons still elect (assuming counts haven’t been rigged) more of the same!
Including the po-faced bankerite false flag Thatcherite absurdity Weidel.
The Germans are as bad as the lobotomised UK population.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 23 2025 19:36 utc | 46

Posted by: kupkee | Feb 23 2025 14:31 utc | 2
“Free Speech” Elon had it taken down immediately. LMFAO

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 19:41 utc | 47

– CDS/CDU and SPD ruling coalition

At least no more of the insufferable Baerbock, maybe VdL will offer her a job.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 18:25 utc | 40
I disagree, slightly. As it stands at the moment three parties will be needed to form a government:
CDU 28,4 + SPD 16,4 = just 44,8% (7 seats missing when broken down)
It all depends on the small parties and which of them will make it. I guess it won’t work without the Greens or FDP but the latter stands at 4,8% so didn’t make it…
Oh, and looks like BSW could be in by a tiny margin, right now at exactly 5%.
To sum up: I wouldn’t rule out seeing Baerbock again, hopefully not as Foreign Freak eh Minister…

Posted by: Zet | Feb 23 2025 19:45 utc | 48

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 23 2025 17:15 utc | 31
Sometimes I agree with the wordsalad output of whatever Democrat GPT LLM you’re using to concoct your posts, but you seriously think the Deep State (proper noun, why not?) isn’t a real thing?
https://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/
That was written before becoming President wasn’t even a glimmer in DJT’s eye.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 19:49 utc | 49

‘We’re already in a coup’
Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2025 18:36 utc | 42
Sure, we are! The only question is: who is overthrowing who?
I’m of the opinion that it’s a class coup and it’s not the lower classes overthrowing the upper one, as some might think.

Posted by: Zet | Feb 23 2025 20:01 utc | 50

Louis Proyect Lite and obvious Establishment tool steps forward to defend the most villainous organization on the planet: “There seems to be a widespread assumption at MoA commentariat that some unspecified so-called bureaucrats run an independent CIA…”
Nobody here every said bureaucrats run the CIA. That is the fake leftist’s own addition so that if anyone cares about his nonsense and questions it he can say “I didn’t say there wasn’t an independent organization operating under the aegis of the CIA. I just said it wasn’t run by bureaucrats”. Technically his post is the truth, but it is twisted to suggest that the CIA is nothing more than some bookish and bespectacled “analysts” sitting in cubicles clipping articles from foreign newspapers.
“…with budgets they somehow write for themselves instead of needing either political appointees much less Congress to approve them. Or maybe the assumption is that the CIA doesn’t need money, unlike armies?”
No assumptions at all. The CIA’s “off-budget financing” (that is what they call it) from trafficking in drugs, weapons, and humans (slaves) is several times their official Congressionally appropriated budget. Everyone in the Swamp knows the CIA has off-budget financing and they don’t complain because he CIA does evil shit they don’t want to hear about or see in CBO reports.
Always keep in mind this fraud’s gaslighting on behalf of the foulest criminal organization on the planet to keep everything else he posts in context.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 23 2025 20:10 utc | 51

The Man from Blackrock
Is a good descriptor for Merz.

Posted by: Exile | Feb 23 2025 20:11 utc | 52

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 23 2025 16:17 utc | 21
Absolutely. That shit is straight up Zionist-imperial propaganda. Don’t know why b linked it.
Here’s a brief excerpt:

e horizon.
Two people hold signs at the foreground of a crowd on a street lined with buildings. The signs read: I thought we said never again, Silence = violence, and Free Palestine.
Two people hold signs at the foreground of a crowd on a street lined with buildings. The signs read: I thought we said never again, Silence = violence, and Free Palestine.
The Shoah scarred several Jewish generations; Jewish Israelis in 1948 experienced the birth of their nation state as a matter of life and death, and then again in 1967 and 1973 amid annihilationist rhetoric from their Arab enemies. For many Jews who have grown up with the knowledge that the Jewish population of Europe was almost entirely wiped out for no reason other than it was Jewish, the world cannot but appear fragile. Among them, the massacres and hostage-taking in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, by Hamas and other Palestinian groups rekindled a fear of another Holocaust.

Dishonest Holocaust Industry perpetrating BULL SHIT.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 20:27 utc | 53

Whoops, stupid browser copied too much (or some built in script did) in the excerpt from the FP propaganda article quoted above.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The CIA’s “off-budget financing” (that is what they call it) from trafficking in drugs, weapons, and humans (slaves) is several times their official Congressionally appropriated budget.
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 23 2025 20:10 utc | 51
Exactly. I work with some pretty hard core pro-Trumpers and during a conference call the other day they were celebrating the CIA resignation offers and a renewed cracking down on the cartels, to which I asked “well then how are they going to keep funding themselves?”
Crickets….
But thanks for trying to decipher the Dembot’s prose. I had no idea what to make of it when I saw it.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 20:30 utc | 54

WMG do NOT read this!!!
https://x.com/Factschaser/status/1893548720798515588

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 20:36 utc | 55

Posted by: BM | Feb 23 2025 14:15 utc | 1
Here’s a little secret: The “Paradise Papers” and “Panama Papers” were US 3LA propaganda to expose NON-American, non-UK tax cheats and distract from the real “off-shoring” going on in states like North Dakota and Delaware. Who needs “off-shore” when you have on-shore havens?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 20:40 utc | 56

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 20:36 utc | 55
Sweet SUV, kind of a cross between a new Bronco and some Land Rover model, but I seriously doubt it’s the equivalent of $21K US in China or any other non-tariff foreign market. I did some looking around a few weeks ago and was surprised that even without penalties like tariffs, the Chinese cars weren’t as cheap as I expected. The Jetour tops out at about $30K US and dealers and tax collectors would probably drive the price up to about $40K when all is said and done, without any tariffs. That said, it’s still cheaper than the average USED car price in the US!!!

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 20:46 utc | 57

The feeble ghost of Louis Proyect rhetorically asks:“…perhaps [gibberish redacted] can suggests that political leadership has ways to bring the CIA around to what they want…”
TQC answers: “…they were celebrating the CIA resignation offers and a renewed cracking down on the cartels, to which I asked “well then how are they going to keep funding themselves?””
There you go, dembot Establishment tool, does that answer your question? Trump, in essence, ordered the CIA to shoot its own feet off. Pretty clever if you ask me. Can they refuse? Not without giving Trump clear cause and legal grounds to shut them down completely, and I am betting Trump hopes they refuse.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 23 2025 20:48 utc | 58

I guess I’ll post a bit of spleen, the State of Britain today, a demi-sermon.
We …They, really believe we the British public don’t notice why they have to be so interested in all things Russia just like their fathers and grandfathers have always been!
That it is an obsession of their aristo classes not the grassroots, who not so long ago were encouraged to get Russian Brides. Many have seen with their eyes the reality of Russian culture and lifestyles and affordability on their Football tournament trips.
Why the obsession with Russia which is not anywhere near our doorstep? Our ‘little island’ no longer able to claim a Great Empire that the sun never sets on, which now apparently is under attack by ‘migrant invaders’!
‘Errr.. look here proles ok if you don’t care about that, look at the swarms, the hoards, the invaders at our shore…sic them! ‘
The fucking pearl clutching about a few hundred thousands of peoples on the move – not a single reference to all the ages of land clearances and transportation’s to the far off continents over the last centuries! As If there is no responsibility for that occupation by unsettled British natives. The clandestine un reported ‘wars’.
At one time, pre BrexShit, there were hundreds arriving and staying illegally from all the ex commie Russian and Warsaw pact nations – and they all spoke to each other in Russian!
The young peoples forced, encouraged, to find work in our country as unofficial labourers. The Emerging New London employed them. I did. They were great workers. Paid cash.
Some were able to eventually go into legal employment, the Public services, or high quality Rail maintenance, the NHS etc. some intermarried or brought their families over … now settled many remain, many others have gone back.
Certainly the flow of new migrants from these parts is now restricted to the hundreds and thousands of ukranians; London is infested, with the young guys with impossible amounts of money they keep trying to transfer from Ukraine, causing much suspicion and consternation amongs the bank clerks and other customers witness to that.
There are whole families with young kids, no English spoken amongst themselves, being guided by each other, around the shops and multicultural, multi ethnic vibrant London.
Gaggles of fatlipped young girls who are equally guided by early comers to the nail shops, hair shops, cheap clothes and make up …doomed to a life of pole dancing and sex work they have already grown into ‘back home’ or ultimately a British working man who will spend all his money for a Ukranian whore…
Seen it all before, at least the Slavs and Polish girls were innocent, gorgeous and REAL from nice family’s.
This lot … not so much and they’ll forever need constant surgery, until their faces and bodies melt by the time they are in their thirties.
Never mind that we caused it with our adventurism look at that squizzle of black people drowning in the Channel as our coastguards look on. Encouraging it!
The BBC, The Guardian, The fake left, self declared smug liberals; right shock jocks and cable teevee and social media whores like Piss Moron, all flailing around, as Drumpff and unelected Musk do the Yankee Doodle shuffle – taking the Money and leaving us holding the stinky pile of shit.
We … They..: are up a creek without a paddle.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 23 2025 20:50 utc | 59

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 20:46 utc | 57
###################
It’s less about the sticker price IMO (I worked in automotive for a decade) but more about features.
The top-end Tesla doesn’t measure up for features with some of the lower-end Chinese vehicles.
It’s the AI paradigm all over again. China is ahead of the curve in engineering and software design.
I’m old enough to remember when “Made in China” meant junk. In 45 years that has become Made in China = cutting edge.
Trump’s revolution, if sincere, has to find a way to address American education. Any failure to do so means the future will belong to others due to the compounding effect of information asymmetry.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 20:52 utc | 60

Posted by: kupkee | Feb 23 2025 14:31 utc | 2
“Free Speech” Elon had it taken down immediately. LMFAO
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 19:41 utc | 47

As per my post at #35, the video was not blocked by X. I can still see it. Others have also posted it.
Any censorship would have to be via a block by the user, the ISP or the country.

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Feb 23 2025 20:56 utc | 61

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 23 2025 20:48 utc | 58
I’ll believe it when I see it. Do you really think Trump (or his people) want the CIA to disappear? Clearly, it was a CIA mole in his first term in office that led to the Ukrainegate impeachment BS, but again – I’ll believe it when I see it. US big business and bankers NEED the CIA (or agents/agencies like it) to continue raping the Global South and “decolonize” Russia and China. If the CIA does go away, God willing, something new and worse will take its place.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 20:57 utc | 62

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Feb 23 2025 20:56 utc | 61
It’s blocked or deleted here in the US, and I tried using a proxy server in Mexico as well. Typical message provided: “Hmm…this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else.”

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 20:59 utc | 63

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 19:49 utc | 49 Given that nobody can give honest and sensible answers as to what constitutes the Deep State (which necessarily means, what isn’t?) or draw the most minimal sketch of how it’s defies everything, rules everybody or even how it perpetuates itself past over decades, no, of course not. It’s why I don’t believe there really is such a thing as so-called totalitarianism either. You, with your delusions about being a sharp thinker, noticed that you think @18 is coherent and insightful, while pretending what I wrote is word salad. I suggest either you are a demented English teacher with a very selective brevity fetish, or…let’s be charitable. It was just another mindless insult hurled, probably because what I wrote was too understandable, and you don’t want to be understood.
I write a comment about how thing’s look very bad with Caine and his connections to JSOC. Your friend @37 somehow turns that into a defense of militarism. The ones like you who ignore the activity of JSOC are the militarists. (The notion that saying food programs and PEPFAR are not CIA black ops is somehow defending USAID is two things. First, it’s a demand for total agreement with the silliest dogmas pronounced from God Trump. Second, it’s a way of defending imperialism by pretending the dirty work is over, because the CIA has been disarmed. Shame on you, for both.)
And you sign on with the likes of @37. You think if I write of the state terror activities of JSOC—J means Joint with the CIA—that’s word salad. But this clown calls that defending the CIA. You people are stupid or dishonest or genuinely deranged Trump cultists. (I don’t really remember any of your comments at the moment, don’t know which is your personal problem.)
And by the way, notice this about the Company you keep:

No assumptions at all. The CIA’s “off-budget financing” (that is what they call it) from trafficking in drugs, weapons, and humans (slaves) is several times their official Congressionally appropriated budget.

No doubt it’s common gossip at the weekly briefings! The truth, in which you have zero interest but still, is that likely no one knows how much of this is simply stolen by case officers, stolen by supposed foreign assets, profitably but otherwise uselessly stashed in ruling class banks—with their fair share or more of Republicans by the way—incompetently run money losers, shoveled into congressional campaigns after suitable laundering (seems to be direct so far at the enemy party, the Democrats, at the moment, you subvert your enemies first, bribes and favors and the cold shoulder service your so-called friends) etc. or otherwise generally wasted.
Didn’t bother to follow your excursion into the heights, rather, depths, of Bill Moyers Thought. Somehow I’m sure Bill Moyers would be happy to promote the subsitute conspiracy theory of a Deep State over a class analysis, like Marxism. Sue me if I don’t waste my time.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 23 2025 21:00 utc | 64

@WMG | Feb 23 2025 14:59 utc | 6
There are various alternative theories about what measles really is.
Some are about effects of pollution but no matter what alternative theory one uses, virology sucks. A reliable theory would need to explain the datacommunication among biological entities and so called virus particles are likely to be just that and not what MDs are instructed to believe.
Prestige at high levels has been invested in the offical narrative and even those who are in the know will still defend the offical narrative in order to help maintain peoples trust in authority.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Feb 23 2025 21:02 utc | 65

Tom_Q_Collins @62: “Do you really think Trump (or his people) want the CIA to disappear?”
No, he wants to clean house and get that dog to heel.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 23 2025 21:04 utc | 66

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 23 2025 20:48 utc | 58
What happened to the last sitting president who even hinted at shutting them down? Assuming that whole “scatter them to the wind” quote can even be taken at face value, that is.
You’re giving Trump and Co. way too much intellectual and intent-based credit. I guess time will tell……….As noted, I would thank Heaven if the CIA was destroyed.
Not everyone who doesn’t kiss Trump’s ass is a dembot or establishment tool, but STJ probably is, despite occasionally making noises to the contrary. He’s not completely wrong about USAID, but the truths are mixed in with convenient distractions.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 21:05 utc | 67

@Posted by: Zet | Feb 23 2025 19:45 utc | 48
You have to look at each vote share as the share without those parties that got under 5%. So FDP definitely under 5% and if BSW under 5% then CDU/CSU + SPD very close to above 50%. So if BSW > 5%, then they probably need the detested Greens. But the Greens will be the junior third partner.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 21:05 utc | 68

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 23 2025 21:00 utc | 64
LOL. No shit you didn’t follow; it wasn’t written by Bill Moyers, but this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lofgren
And since you will probably see the word “Republican” and stop reading, he said this: both American parties are “rotten captives to corporate loot” and that the deep state is: a “web of entrenched interests in the US government and beyond (most notably Wall Street and Silicon Valley, which controls access to our every click and swipe) that dictate America’s defense decisions, trade policies and priorities with little regard for the actual interests or desires of the American people.”
Is he wrong? No Marxian class analysis really needed to answer that, and I’m no stranger or opponent to it, either.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 21:09 utc | 69

No, he wants to clean house and get that dog to heel.
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 23 2025 21:04 utc | 66
I don’t disagree. But heel to which directives/factions? Seriously, I am interested in fleshing the theory out a little more. What possible end-game (intended or otherwise) do you see with respect to Trump and the CIA?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 21:12 utc | 70

Zet | Feb 23 2025 19:45 utc | 48

Oh, and looks like BSW could be in by a tiny margin, right now at exactly 5%.

When my country went from the Westminster style ‘first past the post’ system to a proportional system they pretty much copy/pasted from the German system, including the 5% threshold for parliamentary representation (despite having no Communists to keep out). But an exception is made for parties that win at least one local ‘electorate seat’, who are granted a proportional share of seats despite polling under 5%.
Does Germany have this exception? Quite often parties will withdraw candidates from certain local electorates so their allies can win and guarantee them representation whether they meet the 5% or not. Surely there is some seat in the East that the BSW could win, especially if the AfD pulled its candidate to spite the ‘extreme centre’? Or are they too committed to ‘fighting the [fake] left’ to countenance helping the real thing?

Posted by: S.P. Korolev | Feb 23 2025 21:15 utc | 71

Argentina is the model for the oligarch (and project 2025) wet dream of an utterly disabled regulatory state, a destroyed social state and a cowed and immiserated working class. Milei is running a short term con game that is not sustainable so expect yet another financial crash and massive currency depreciation within a year. But the oligarchs will be allowed to front run this once again, rinse and repeat. My analysis of the Argentine situation, no wonder Trump & Musk love the guy!
Argentina: Short Term Stability, Long Term Crash and the Oligarchy Wins Again. Argentinian Oligarchs Doing What They Have Always Done: Rinse & Repeat

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 21:19 utc | 72

I was able to find the censored BBC documentary. Apologies for taking up so much thread space; Twitter/X still seems to have it blocked in the Americas.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/bbc-faces-backlash-after-pulling-gaza-documentary-on-childs-survival-story/
Entire 59 minute video available at the link.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 21:20 utc | 73

Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok
USAID’s Haiti scandal is staggering. The U.S. sent $4.4B after the 2010 earthquake—yet less than 2% reached Haitians, while 56% lined the pockets of D.C. firms.
The Red Cross claimed to shelter 130,000 people—but built just SIX homes.
No transparency. No accountability. USAID and NGOs refuse to answer where the money went—while Haitians were left with nothing.
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1893480709697712243

Posted by: Menz | Feb 23 2025 21:29 utc | 74

roger and zet – thanks for the germany election updates..

Posted by: james | Feb 23 2025 21:44 utc | 75

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 20:57 utc | 62
#########
I think people have been, and continue to, ascribe powers to Trump that he simply does not have.
The CIA is not a stand-alone agency. It works with the other Western intel agencies in the UK, Italy, and Germany.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 21:45 utc | 76

Menz | Feb 23 2025 21:29 utc | 74
*** USAID’s Haiti scandal is staggering. The U.S. sent $4.4B after the 2010 earthquake—yet less than 2% reached Haitians, while 56% lined the pockets of D.C. firms.
The Red Cross claimed to shelter 130,000 people—but built just SIX homes.
No transparency. No accountability. USAID and NGOs refuse to answer where the money went—while Haitians were left with nothing.
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1893480709697712243 ***
Recall there being reports at the time that the Clintons (for themselves) grabbed ownership of gold mines in Haiti.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 23 2025 21:52 utc | 77

@ LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 21:45 utc | 76 quote –
“The CIA is not a stand-alone agency. It works with the other Western intel agencies in the UK, Italy, and Germany.”
that is a big part of the problem today… i think we know which one the lead sled dog is at the moment though, which makes the cia a bit more of a problem across the board.. csis here in canada gets sucked into all this bs on a regular basis too, while feeding it to the local news agencies..

Posted by: james | Feb 23 2025 21:52 utc | 78

@Posted by: james | Feb 23 2025 21:52 utc | 78
The CIA is a tool of the US oligarchy, many times managed by actual oligarchy members (Bush) or their courtiers (Dulles, Tenet, Casey, Panetta and now Ratcliffe). The other “five eyes” intelligence agencies, plus the German BND etc. are junior partners/enforcers.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 22:03 utc | 79

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 23 2025 21:52 utc | 77
##############
The Red Cross is another NGO. They get privileged access all over the world. Some West African countries recently banned them because there was a belief that the Red Cross was providing intel and material aid to (Western-funded) terrorists.
The RC is the perfect trojan/honeypot.
Every institution in the West is tainted to some degree.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 22:03 utc | 80

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 23 2025 22:03 utc | 79
#############
Many American commentators are missing the picture because they can only conceive of the world in the context of American exceptionalism and propaganda.
Like trying to describe the world with one eye closed at all times.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 22:10 utc | 81

Looks like the majority of the German population doesn’t feel any war fatigue or de-industrialization fatigue and instead choose for a continuation of the hostile and bellicose course. Ursula “Lady Pfizer” Von der Leyen must be thrilled that her party won.
There’s this cartoon where Lady Europe herself severed one arm with the caption “I’m not sure the sanctions are working” upon which Uncle Sam replies “Try the other hand”. Guess that’s what just happened.
https://nitter.poast.org/zhao_dashuai/status/1893526836694643084

Posted by: xor | Feb 23 2025 22:11 utc | 82

@ xor | Feb 23 2025 22:11 utc | 82 describing Europe becoming the Black Knight…”Tis but a scratch”.
What body part will Europe lose when the Starmer/Marcon Black Knight duo meet Trump this next week?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 23 2025 22:26 utc | 83

Recall there being reports at the time that the Clintons (for themselves) grabbed ownership of gold mines in Haiti.
Posted by: Cynic | Feb 23 2025 21:52 utc | 77
Correct. The Clinton Foundation was one of the so-called “DC Firms” that lined their own pockets.

Posted by: Menz | Feb 23 2025 22:31 utc | 84

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 23 2025 22:26 utc | 83
Good one 🙂

Posted by: xor | Feb 23 2025 22:45 utc | 85

Posted by: xor | Feb 23 2025 22:11 utc | 82
#########
In my experience, many Westerners think that voting can solve problems.
Ha!
If it was that easy, we would live in a very different world.
Things will get much, much worse in the West before it gets better.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2025 22:46 utc | 86

the deep state is: a “web of entrenched interests in the US government and beyond (most notably Wall Street and Silicon Valley, which controls access to our every click and swipe) that dictate America’s defense decisions, trade policies and priorities with little regard for the actual interests or desires of the American people.”
Is he wrong?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 21:09 utc | 69
Just looking at the definition on its face there are a several reasons it could be wrong.
Its one thing to be aware that both govt and industry are extremely intrusive in citizens privacy. That especially applies to citizens that use credit cards, cell phones and travel by air, but what does that have to do with defense decisions and trade policies?
What you are calling a definition is a list of grievances and presumably the reader of this list is supposed to jump to the conclusion some single bogeyman is the cause.
Where does USAID fit in your definition? There is no doubt that USAID is up to no good, but is it invading the privacy of US citizens? Is it even acting against the interests and desires of US citizens? The simple fact is that US citizens benefit from living in the Imperial USA. And USAID helped make that happen. Sure, the coal mining, steel mill, electronics factory and other cotton picking jobs are all gone, but the average American is so soft they would not survive a day in any job like that.
As far as I can see for the Trumpers the Deep State is whatever does not support Trump. And they haven’t even figured out what favors Trump and what doesn’t, so that’s a big problem for them to solve. And so they are just shaking the tree to see what falls out. That’s not a very clinical way to examine the problem, but I agree with you on one point – let’s see what happens.

Posted by: jinn | Feb 23 2025 23:32 utc | 87

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2025 19:49 utc | 49
Thanks, Tom – that was a good read! (I was going to say ‘enjoyable’ but, sigh, so many hills of sand! Up one side and down the other.) It seems like yesterday …
;(

Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2025 0:00 utc | 88

In my experience, many Westerners think that voting can solve problems.
I’m also amazed that so many think how you vote is some sort of definitional aspect of your persona, when the lot of candidates is so dismal.
I’d be more likely to say: how you spend your money, says who you are (at least in systems where you can spent it relatively freely).

Posted by: Call it what u will | Feb 24 2025 0:11 utc | 89

Looks like they kept the BSW out of the Budestag by the tiniest margin, the BSW got 4.9% of the vote – 0.1% less than the 5% cut off! Nothing to see here, move on …
The only alternative in the future for the working class must be the fascist AfD.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 24 2025 0:22 utc | 90

Posted by: Call it what u will | Feb 24 2025 0:11 utc | 89
###########
The great trick of Democracy is to make people proud of their participation in a system without accountability, one where they can later “blame” the other guys when things don’t work out. “At least I voted!!!”
I understand that it provides catharsis to many who are disenfranchised and want to do “something.” Voting feels like that, but in my lifetime, I have yet to see a truly transformational election anywhere in the world. It may have happened, but I have looked for it and have come up short.
The closest I can think of was the election of Imran Khan in Pakistan, and we all know that he is still under house arrest several years later.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 24 2025 0:33 utc | 91

I’m of the opinion that it’s a class coup and it’s not the lower classes overthrowing the upper one, as some might think.
Posted by: Zet | Feb 23 2025 20:01 utc | 50
It isn’t really a coup at all. Its simply two political factions of the ruling class fighting it out. It’s been nothing more than that since 2016 at least.
The Trump faction, like the aborted Sanders campaign, encourages working people to feel as though they are carrying out a “coup” by simply voting or protesting or whatever other impotent signalling.
The Bernie campaign was shut down by the Dem faction as it was a little to scary for it’s billionaire base, who prefer racial, gender, etc struggle, anything really, to even a nutless rhetorical class struggle.
Trump, per force, did not have the luxury of shutting down it’s populist appeal and so it reaped the benefits of taking an anti war (with Ukraine at least), anti idpol stance. Thus, he is now in charge. Generally, the populace hates foreign wars and Idpol divisiveness at home.
Nonetheless, there is an objective economic and cultural crisis in the US that is not changed by bourgeois partisan spin. It will continue apace or worsen depending on Trump’s ability or inclination to take radical measures, far beyond what he has done so far.
It is however highly likely that despite Trump’s publicity stunts, the USS Imperialism will continue to sink, opening up an entry of the masses of wage slaves directly into US history for the first time since the 1930s.
There are many cynics and nihilistic elements here who will smirk at my prediction, but can you deny the world historic shift underway since 2008 to present? The predicable rules of politics in the west since WW2 are gone. We’ve entered a period where anything from real organic revolution to fascism is possible once again.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 24 2025 0:52 utc | 92

@91 LD
“I have yet to see a truly transformational election anywhere in the world”
Many are, what the politicians say gets transformed into something completely different once they are elected.
Maybe that is why people vote, to watch the politicians transform. Sort of mesmerising.
On the other hand it is possibly a form of cruelty, given the complete loss of orientation politicians then have to go through, which is usually accompanied by a loss of any values they might still possess.
I don’t feel sorry for them though, maybe they should all just be banned, to avoid public contagion, or something like that.

Posted by: Ornot | Feb 24 2025 0:53 utc | 93

LoveDonbass@55…..the vehicle shown has striking similarities to the new Broncos. Pretty sleek, lots of flashy lights and screens, a bit gimmickie for my tastes, just more things to break when it hits -30…..you are aware that most Asian, including Chinese, car manufacturers got their manufacturing systems set up by GM and Ford….most Asian cars are built on GM and Ford rolling platforms……diversified portfolios, many not prone to US tariffs. With China buying up US farm land as fast as Bill Gates, how long before GM and Ford build plants for Chinese cars made in the US? Bidness be bidness.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 24 2025 0:55 utc | 94

As I noted earlier, today was Defender of the Fatherland Day in Russia in a year dedicated to the Defenders of the Fatherland. I produced two items. The first, “Germans Vote Today; Russians Defend the Fatherland”, covers the tradition ceremonies for the day and omits comment on the elections since their results weren’t yet available. Yeah, I should have deleted that part of the title. The second, “Medvedev’s Defender’s Sermon”, provides the full unedited text of Medvedev’s Telegram message to Russians and the world, which as is becoming usual, differs from what RT reproduces. As you’ll read, Medvedev has adopted a new POV when it comes to punishing Nazis, which the major Nazis will find appeasing.
I find it disappointing to see that many have yet to read “Plenary Session of the Future Technologies Forum at Moscow’s World Trade Centre”, but that’s the reader’s loss. One last note. Although most of it’s behind a paywall, the first set of paragraphs of Crooke’s latest essay, “America as Republic, not as Empire — Europe’s ‘Sound and Fury’ after Jaw-dropping Pivots in US Policy”, is worth reading because it will provide some context for Crooke’s Monday chat with Judge Napolitano.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 24 2025 1:03 utc | 95

Ahenobarbus | Feb 24 2025 0:52 utc | 92–
Many pro-Trump voting locales–rural in particular–have already suffered damage from the initial volley of Trump’s EOs with more to fall on their fragile governance structures. I wasn’t jesting when I suggested above that someone will soon take a shot at Musk. My wife opines that’s why he keeps his 4-year-old son next to him as a shield since he’s never been known as a hands-on father. IMO, Trump is clearly channeling W by treating the Constitution he’s charged with upholding and enforcing as merely a “Goddamned piece of paper.” IMO, despite the surface appearance, he’s already earned the title of Genocide Don. Clearly the cabal of Republican crazies feels empowered by Trump to submit legislation to remove the Outlaw US Empire from the UN which will actually cause more harm to the Empire than the UN.
There’s already a battle brewing between several major states and Team Trump, and the rural Trump voters will not take kindly to being thrown under the bus in a manner similar to Hillary. And Trump has yet to announce his domestic plans or submit a budget proposal. IMO, the domestic war is just getting started; and yes, it’s a Class War. At least it appears we’ll avoid nuclear war.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 24 2025 1:31 utc | 96

The following is interestingly salacious
ZH posting title
Ashley St. Snare? Laura Loomer Goes Scorched Earth On Musk’s Baby Mama As ‘Seduce Elon’ Text Emerges
Text messages from her last May

elon followed me
I need his rocket babies
Lol

He 10000% saw my moon landing tweet
Look ill take one for the team,
seduce elon and get in a rocket to see what’s up

To which Musk has responded “Whoa!”
Did I mention that she is jewish?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 24 2025 1:35 utc | 97

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 24 2025 0:22 utc | 90
Guardian is reporting it as 5.0 It is touch and go.
Thing is not sure how Germans will react to a “grand coalition” which is actually the only option available

Posted by: watcher | Feb 24 2025 1:38 utc | 98

Sorry
Guardian fine print as SW on 4.972%

Posted by: watcher | Feb 24 2025 1:39 utc | 99

It isn’t really a coup at all. Its simply two political factions of the ruling class fighting it out. It’s been nothing more than that since 2016 at least.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 24 2025 0:52 utc | 92
##############
Agreed. I would say it goes back much further, certainly at least to 2000.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 24 2025 2:01 utc | 100