The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-059

re: Why the EU Is Failing – Kevin Kirk / Naked Capitalism
Lots of detail when a simple analysis works
The European Union is illegal because the United Nations Charter says:
“The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles. 1. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 23 2025 15:18 utc | 1

“ Comments are Welcome’
Claims a site that appears to have perma-modded me for some reason.
Not MoA, relax.
So I’ll venture it here as todays sermon- the first Sunday of spring. Feel free to ignore.
All is the attempted controlled transfer of the imperial power center and the global reserve currency.
(the question is to where and what? I’ll leave that hanging for now)
The Collective West is unsustainable. It has lost its grip on the Global South. Centuries of their exploitation and slavery are coming to a rather unexpectedly fast end.
The whole project for Western Economic Dominance of the future centuries was based on an illusionary ‘end of history’ hubris and hegemony.
It was based on the fiat money scam that ran from the 70’s and that gives us the world that we swim and grew in.
Instead of our world being ours to be the top dogs in we find that the master plan hasn’t quite worked out as our masters of the universe expected.
The globalisation, financial control through the WB and IMF as the ‘child catchers’ capturing nations with debts in $ that have to be repaid in $ by selling off their Public services and resources to the hedge funds for $. A neat enslavement system.
The system many including my banished seem to be crying over.
Simply put, the plan was to send industrial production to these benighted continents. To move up the ladder of a system where the profits would always stream upwards. Become the service suppliers and financial managers and ultimate rentierism gatherers.
The silly con boys were set up with the long captured IP patents and the world wide deployment of the media apps that would rule the roost and take a cut from the simplest product and service in the furthest village of the most undeveloped nations and send it up to them forever.
‘Uber’ alles if you will.
The ‘third world’ were not supposed to rise above being the industrial workforce. Or become independent competitors making their own products. They were not supposed to have the education, intelligence or nous to achieve any such things. Not be innovators, not create and own their own financial structures, not balk at dollar chains that forced them to grow cash crops for dollars instead of their own food. Which they would have to buy as GM foods from the Collective Wests GMO AggroCorps. Foods processed and unhealthy as they are unnatural.
See? a perfect future of enslaved humanity for ever the best and most complete empire ever!
Frankly, a wholly racist, Anglo European imperialist notion born of centuries of the same through entitlement, superiority complex and taught through media entertainmen, classic literature fiction and yes academia! J’accuse!!
As can be seen that whole mindset and plan of perpetual dominance has gone spectacularly out of the window in the last decade – just as they thought they had it all done and dusted. Only to raise their cups and drink deeply – agenda 2030, Golden Billion, a Garden and the Jungle and just the culling of the ‘useless eaters’ to be enjoyed – perhaps even as big game hunters!
Well it seems to have turned to ashes on their tongues between cup and lip!
It seems a get out was needed. A panicked escape and Shapeshifting to that new rising world order instead, as some attempts at retaining the lofty wealthy heights. To ensure dynastic futures suddenly in doubt.
A war that would cripple the BRICS and Multipolarists. Sanctions that could bring down the mightiest of economic beasts!
And if that failed an abandon the ship, let the poor go down with its captain. A fog of austerity and civil unrest. Fascist martial laws and censorship. Prisons without trials made up criminal charges …
While the richest escape pretending to be women and children or having a ‘private life boat’ – the scum of the earth that they are now and always have been.
What better than a modern Caligula, a willing scapegoat. One that can hope to negotiate with the rising multipolar as an ‘outsider’ not one of the ageless exploiters. Or if that fails one that history can use as the sin eater. A willing one.
Where we go from here is not certain if we tie ourselves to that crashing burning hegemony of the unipolar minority, instead of welcoming and embracing the majority of humanity (85%) as equals, which is now unstoppable, as the multipolar human civilsation.
Or we can be herded into ever narrower confines, states, cities, parishes… to live a life behind a wall from that Human World; as the serfs of the local barons who will lord it over our slave grand kids in n a neo feudal ever decreasing circle of Life in The West.
A..nd that will do!
Remember the daily murder of the Gazans.
The bloodied, terrorised and blown up children.
The fucking horror.
The perpetrators and witnesses (us!) who will forever be marked as guilty, for not having taken up arms against the fascist murderers- especially our own states which fully supports the genocide.
We deserve all the shit coming our way – as our reward for complicity.
We are the bad guys. ‘Come friendly bombs…’

Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 23 2025 15:18 utc | 2

It seemed to me that the recent high profile national infrastructure mishaps for the UK – shipping collision off the Humber and Heathrow power outage – seemed too striking to be coincidences alone; given Britain’s role in trying to undercut any rapprochment between US and Russia and influence role in fomenting attacks on Russia.
I pointed to a Feb 27 speech by Putin to the FSB where he said:
“We realise that not everyone is happy to see Russia-US contacts resume. A portion of Western elites are still committed to maintaining instability in the world, and these forces will try to disrupt or to compromise the newly resumed dialogue. You and I see this. We need to keep this in mind and leverage every possibility offered by diplomacy and special services to thwart such attempts. Most importantly, just like before, it is important for us to staunchly uphold our national interests, sovereignty, and protect the lives and freedoms of our citizens against any threats.
In this regard, the FSB needs to continue the system-wide work across all specialised areas, primarily, to fight international terrorism. Notably, the number of terrorist crimes has grown over the past year, and more than half of them have been planned and organised by the Ukrainian special services and their curators.
The FSB, other departments and law enforcement agencies, in coordination with the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, must use their available powers and resources as effectively as possible. Focus must be placed on preventive measures, increasing the anti-terrorist protection of military and industrial facilities, life support systems, public facilities, as well as energy and transport infrastructure.”
Has the British side finally been warned off, successfully?

Posted by: diagonal | Mar 23 2025 15:46 utc | 3

thanks so much b for all the work you put out here and in the articles… thanks to the fine posters of moa as well..

Posted by: james | Mar 23 2025 15:48 utc | 4

DunGroanin
Seconded !

Posted by: Croat | Mar 23 2025 15:56 utc | 5

@ DunGroanin | Mar 23 2025 15:18 utc | 2
good post.. thanks… not sure where we are headed here, but at present it looks grim – is grim.. and yet, i think there is more to it..

Posted by: james | Mar 23 2025 15:56 utc | 6

@ diagonal | Mar 23 2025 15:46 utc | 3
good question… your reflection on what is happening here is very relevant too… not sure how this will end..

Posted by: james | Mar 23 2025 15:58 utc | 7

“The vast investments in scaling… always seemed to me to be misplaced.”

Well that goes the USA’ chance of ever getting back level with China.
There were only 2 hopes for USA.
1. Accept a secondary role in a China lead but Multi-polar world (Psychologically impossible for Americans)
2. Grab not just an AI lead, but first to AGI.
So long as AI requires hyper-intelligent Humans (wetware) to direct it to Economic purposes, China has to win, as China has most of the elite wetware (half of US’s elite wetware has Chinese origins).
So the only hope for the US egos was reaching AGI – the point where AI can match the geeks, and US can match even China on intelligent Agents.
Note – best hope, not necessarily likely, but these are desperate times and “best hope” dries decisions – like Bezos and Musk joining forces with Trump because the next 4 years really are critical.
And the only way for US to get to AGI first is to hope scaling works so that their ability to invest trillions and their current lead in chip tech can get to AGI before the smarter and more numerous Chinese do.

Posted by: Michael Droy | Mar 23 2025 16:07 utc | 8

diagonal@3……the Brits? Warned off by words? Surely you jest. Maybe Russia got the message….
Cheers M
…..Russia will now expend treasure to secure infrastructure from the Brits, with or without Trump….

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 23 2025 16:08 utc | 9

Trump’s aims:
1. Re-trench, embrace a new nationalism, while at the same time acquiring new territory to form a large(r) geographical power block. In the Club of Rome division of the world one zone includes US, Canada, Greenland – maybe add Mexico. Iceland is part of Europe.
2. Wind down the war in UKR, it is lost. Even before his 1st term, he expressed the intention of being friendly w. Russia (perhaps w. the idea of splitting Russia / China, now no longer an option), to have good relations with one of the other blocks. Yet, he went along w. the war in UKR, continued the long-standing policy (since 2004 at least, the Orange Revol.) of using UKR as a hammer contra Russia – he even recently boasted he gave UKR Javelins.
3. First term: Normalize relations between Israel and the Arab States (Abraham Accords), ensure the existence of Israel (donors, voters, Kushner) perhaps even some expansion. Now the turn is to openly support Isr. at all cost, and quash the axis of resistance (Syria, Iran, Lebanon-Hezb., Yemen-Houthis, Pals-Hamas). Europe is not geo-strategically of much interest (stuck between ‘a’ US block and Russia-Asia) but should be better exploited. The special relationship (USuk) is fading for now.
Internally:
4. Re-industrialise, force others to ‘create’ in the US, make more/better employment. Get rid of immigrants / lower immig. rate / get ‘better’ immigrants. I.e, stop reverse colonialism in favor of ‘gun boat’ take-overs. Slash Fed. Gvmt. spending (he even mentioned cutting the defense budget by half), lower taxes for the Top, while sorta going for a better deal for ‘workers.’ No Tax on Tips for ex.
5. Primary targets here are married to the culture wars, i.e. banishing ‘woke-ism’, removing some of the Dem’s hold, the funding distribution to followers, vs. enforcing ‘trad. fam. values.’ Trump seemingly doesn’t care about projection of soft power abroad via ‘cultural / image / memes’ efforts, see for ex. turning off Voice of America Radio… zero budget in comparison with other…
6. All is in line w. a MAGA USA becoming One Great Power amongst several, this is the ‘multipolarity’ Rubio mentions. Regionalisation, returning some decisionary and spending powers to the States (for ex. abortion, Dpt. of Education) lowers ‘big gov’ and reduces tensions within, each can decide what they want, the hope -> it lowers the risk of civil war and paradoxically augments the power of the Central (here Fed) Authority, thru control of the Army + Security Bodies.
7. More could be developed, e.g. RFK and Make Americans Healthy Again.
The aims are mostly tall orders. Some are not achievable (re-industrialise), some are contradictory (Foreign Cos come to the US to exploit US workers?), some go against powerful instituted bodies, Corps, the Rich, ex. (against cheap immigrant labor, blocking cheap imports from China, Big Pharma huge profits, etc.)
Trump Admin has no master plan, no clear principles, no clear way forward, is floundering as beset by different povs, interests, analyses, demands, pressures, predicted ricochets / effects, leading to internal quarrels, stark contradictions, confusion…
No good outcome I fear, the risk of escalation and Nuke war in what is now called West Asia is high.
Studebaker on tariff mess. Excerpt:
Is Trump looking for Canada to fulfill NATO security obligations? Is he trying to create a crisis in Canada that might result in its annexation?
https://benjaminstudebaker.com/2025/02/02/the-us-canada-trade-war/#more-6144
Club of Rome 10 kingdoms map.
https://www2.ministries-online.org/biometrics/rome.html

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 23 2025 16:21 utc | 10

my zh link/post got zapped. Dont know if wordpress or b.
Anyways, Sudan has recaptured its presidential palace today, after 2 years, and is retaking Khartoum, in its civil war.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 23 2025 16:28 utc | 11

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 23 2025 16:21 utc | 10
#########
Canada is a British colony, they don’t even want to be independent, let alone American.
The only way I see America getting Canada is if the British sell it off.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2025 16:30 utc | 12

regarding b’s link – Stepan Bandera’s Sinister MI6 Alliance Exposed – Kit Klarenberg
i highly recommend the book by ian johnson, ‘a mosque in munich’ which parallels this article of his in much greater detail…

Posted by: james | Mar 23 2025 16:37 utc | 13

Recep Tayip Erdogan has lost his marbles and has had his political rival tossed in the slammer. And the Turkish people are livid.
Despite the ultra-violence inflicted on protesters by Erdo’s Goon Squad, Turks are turning out in their tens of thousands, and multiple acres, in several cities.
Imo, he’s going to pay the ultimate price for believing too much of his own bullshit…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 23 2025 16:37 utc | 14

Love Donbass at 12, for sure Canada is in a very poor position, despite its large territory, ressources, etc. Doubt it though that the collapsing GB has much say, but who knows, well we will see.

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 23 2025 16:41 utc | 15

Canada’s Carney calls snap election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwyd2x7xxwet

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 23 2025 17:08 utc | 16

A couple of questions for our Canadian barflies:
– did this election come out of the blue or have there been domestic rumblings within Canada predicting it?
– what, if anything, is it intended to solve/sort out?

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 23 2025 17:22 utc | 17

And Climate Change is accelerating, but that doesn’t make the headlines because that doesn’t suit the outright deniers, nor the soft deniers who claim that its just an eco-modernist “engineering” problem. I went to a talk by Gwynne Dyer on geo-engineering where he spent 90% of the time blaming some bullshit pseudo-evolutionary biological theory for why humanity has not dealt with climate change without ever touching on political economy and then blithely pushing an utterly untested technological solution that “will happen within 3-5 years”.
Wrote a couple of pieces on this, we live in a truly sad world where the oligarchy is too busy fucking over the rest of society and maintaining the status quo to allow for a truthful discussion of the possible paths forward. And of course waging energy intensive wars to keep the possibility of a more equitable society at bay, and to further the Zionist genocide. While Rome burns as the saying goes.
Eco-modernism as Delusionary Soft Climate Change Denial
Climate Change Has Accelerated

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Mar 23 2025 17:35 utc | 18

@Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 23 2025 17:22 utc | 17
– completely predictable
– absolutely bloody nothing

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Mar 23 2025 17:36 utc | 19

DunGroanin
Seconded !
Posted by: Croat
Thirded!
Great summary.
Would add that WE’ll be reduced normalized drone-serfs when the outside colonies disconnect.
Cheers

Posted by: Ledovik1 | Mar 23 2025 17:41 utc | 20

DunGroanin
Seconded !
Posted by: Croat
Thirded!
Great summary.
Would add that WE’ll be reduced normalized drone-serfs when the outside colonies disconnect.
Cheers

Posted by: Ledovik1 | Mar 23 2025 17:41 utc | 21

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2025 16:30 utc | 12
—-
King Charles Philip Arthur George has invited DJT to meet in London. British colony Canada is on the table.

Posted by: pepe | Mar 23 2025 17:43 utc | 22

@Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 23 2025 17:22 utc | 17
===============================================================
The Canadian election has been trailed for some time under Carney’s new leadership.
It’s a trick used by leaders who see their position in need of strengthening.
It doesn’t always work.
Remember the election called by “Strong and Stable” Teresa May in UK during the Brexit years.
Her hopes for a stronger electoral mandate blew up in her face.
Her credibility never recovered from it.
In Canada, there is nothing that can be done to strengthen the objective situation which will continue to be fragile.
Carney will likely win the race.
He will have polished his own ego, but will have gained little.

Posted by: Engineer-John | Mar 23 2025 17:52 utc | 23

@ Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 23 2025 17:22 utc | 17
i second rogers comment @ 19… canada continues to diminish in size, lol..

Posted by: james | Mar 23 2025 18:08 utc | 24

Posted by: pepe | Mar 23 2025 17:43 utc | 22
#######
In return for WW3?
I’d be very careful cutting deals with the House of Windsor. These are some of history’s most ruthless and predatory people.
If Trump can’t handle Putin, he’s not ready for the British.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2025 18:20 utc | 25

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 23 2025 16:37 utc | 14
Recep Tayip Erdogan has lost his marbles and has had his political rival tossed in the slammer. And the Turkish people are livid.
Well, Erdogan and Imamoglu agrees on something
“In April 2024, İmamoğlu publicly condemned Hamas, labeling it a “terrorist organization.” In an interview with CNN, İmamoğlu expressed sorrow over the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel, stating that any group responsible for organized terrorist attacks and mass killings should be considered a terrorist organization.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekrem_%C4%B0mamo%C4%9Flu

Posted by: Paul from Norway | Mar 23 2025 18:56 utc | 26

İmamoğlu…
Yeah, there are no good political parties in Turkiye.
This guy is more anti-Russia and pro-Israel than Erdogan. (from my quick research on him).
And I guess Erdogan thinks he is more of a risk out of jail than in. Seems really risky to throw him in jail.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 23 2025 19:00 utc | 27

The Schlesinger Memo: JFK v CIA
The Bay of Pigs ocurred a few months into Kennedy’s term, initially conceived as a small covert operation but growing after the 1960 election into the much larger event which appeared designed to ensnare JFK into escalation. The end result instead was a high-profile fact-finding probe followed by high-profile firings of top CIA officials.
At the time, the CIA was being referred as a “fourth force” within the US armed forces, capable of shaping or directing policy. This was intentional, a process led by Allen Dulles and endorsed by the deep political structure which had also incorporated Nazi structures and initiated the Cold War.
Part of Kennedy’s intention with plans to withdraw from Vietnam was to remove the CIA from covert operations entirely. This was thwarted with his assassination, and the CIA’s power in shaping foreign policy increased – to the point of farce during Obama’s 2nd term in Syria where rival militias variously sponsored by US military, US State Department, and CIA would be fighting amongst each other.
Recent documentary outlines this history:
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2025/02/20/real-life-mr-x-in-oliver-stones-jfk-participated-in-pioneering-covert-operations/

Posted by: jayc | Mar 23 2025 19:18 utc | 28

Posted by: jayc | Mar 23 2025 19:18 utc | 28
jfk literally started americans in vietnam, ran as a rabid anti-communist.
He had so many enemies, we’ll never know who killed him. I’d bet anything, the actual jfk files say exactly that.
Please, everybody, DO NOT TRY TO CONVINCE ME of your pet theory. They are all quite valid.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 23 2025 19:25 utc | 29

Roger Boyd @ 18
You are way too moderate.
Instead of reading my commentary suggest you head over to NASA Worldview, toggle to Arctic. In lower left of page you can toggle the years backwards. Ice is currently at maximum and looks nothing like what it looked even a few years back. High chance the ice goes this year. Then what you are imagining as just a few decades happens in months.
Photos don’t lie. Spend a bit of time learning how to read them.

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 23 2025 20:03 utc | 30

Not being discuss in depth is UAE’s role in all the strife in that region.
Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Syria & obviously Palestine and the demonisation of the so called “Shia Crescent”.
There’s a feel of a new organic Arab Spring in the air without Western (USAID/Facebook) input. Massive demonstration in front of the US Consulate in Casablanca at the moment protesting US involvement in the ongoing genocide.
I could have been wrong about Trump’s Vietnam being Palestine, it’s looking very much to be Iran.

Posted by: Suresh | Mar 23 2025 21:07 utc | 31

Multiple posters opining about the status of Canada and the pending election.
Canada enjoyed a brief fling with independence from about 1955 to 1975, while transitioning from a British to a USA protectorate. The Brits currently provide zero oversight, other than the antiquated rituals and symbolism of the Crown. However, if America says jump, the government response is “where to next”. Sanctions against foreign individuals and regimes initiated by the USA are mirrored instantly. Chinese executives are arrested on request.
What is bizarre about Trump’s 51st state gambit is that it has aroused a level of patriotism not seen for over 50 years. Even hyphenated Canadians, who cared more about there ancestral homelands, have joined the movement.
Has Trump even thought the annex Canada scenario through? Federally over 60% of Canadian voters consistently vote for “leftish” candidates. Is he trying to rescue the Democratic Party?
All political parties are trying to capitalize on the patriotism. So the choice becomes a leader who will drift us further toward the agendas of the WEF or or one that attempt to maintain the “cool but cordial” pre-Trump status quo with the USA.

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Mar 23 2025 21:20 utc | 32

If you’re a MAGA American you may find this video very disturbing.
If you have any manufacturing or fabrication experience this will blow your mind.
China’s factories are in another world

Without firing a shot, the war is over.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2025 21:25 utc | 33

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Mar 23 2025 21:20 utc | 32
#############3
There is no Constitutional process to annex anything.
I think Trump is doing his usual “talking loud and saying nothing” (James Brown, I believe).
Nothing significant will happen in America until we see how far Trump takes reciprocal tariff enforcement in early April.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2025 21:35 utc | 34

Artificial Intelligence means increased productivity and that in turn leads to fewer jobs.

Posted by: WMG | Mar 23 2025 21:36 utc | 35

“The attacks against Alawites raise questions about whether interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa can fulfill his promise to rule Syria in an inclusive way, ensuring the protection of minorities, and stop any insurgent factions from becoming a serious threat to the country’s prospects for peace.” – CNN says about the former ISIS / A Nusra commander that it has spent years writing twisted fluf peices about trying to rebrand him and HTS as some form or reformed moderate rebels or freedom fighter. I remember feeling sick as I watched PBS’s 40 minute special from a few years ago about how Abu Mohammad al-Julani was reformed man and now a good guy and friend of the West who now champions human rights for the minority groups. How do these “journalist’s” even sleep at night? How does Killary and her whole cabinet sleep at night? Much less Biden, Trump, Blinkin, Nuland, Bernie.. the whole lot. How do the US special forces (many of whom probably claim to be Christians) that trained these Al Qaeda monsters live with themselves?

Posted by: James C | Mar 23 2025 21:52 utc | 36

Canadian Ambassador Sarah Taylor, who visited the Piskarevskoye cemetery and laid flowers at the Motherland monument, did so not out of respect for the memory of the fallen in besieged Leningrad, but to distort historical facts and expose the USSR to blame for the blockade, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. She called the Canadian diplomat’s actions a “mock performance” and quoted Taylor’s post.
“Our best offering to the dead is the truth. Remember the heroism and suffering of Leningrad, the consequences of the Molotov — Ribbentrop-Yalta pact – in order to learn from history, and not distort it for your own benefit”
— the ambassador wrote.
These words Zakharova called blasphemous, insulting and mocking.
“In three lines, it blasphemously managed to hold the USSR equally responsible for unleashing World War II, trample on the decisions of the Yalta Conference and at the same time accuse us of distorting the historical truth”, the Russian diplomat said.

Certainly there is no need for the Russian Federation to lump together Canada and the Hitler regime as Canada has already done a great job of equating itself with the Nazis all on their own. Recall the two standing ovations for Waffen SS volunteer Yaroslav Hunka back in the fall of 2023 in the Canadian Parliament.
Maybe the “diplomat” can pursue a political career in the Canadian Parliament as an election is imminent. May I suggest the riding of North Bay, Ontario, where a previous Liberal Nazi bootlicker also ran for office? Mind you, his career did not end so well. ha ha.
See the following (in Russian).

Posted by: NH | Mar 23 2025 21:54 utc | 37

That Medusa article is harrowing. I read every word and I deeply regret it. An ugly, traumatizing article. I honestly hope “Ukraine” is completely destroyed down to the bedrock – that’s the only hope for the “Ukrainians” ever having a peaceful and safe life.

Posted by: Argh | Mar 23 2025 22:05 utc | 38

Posted by: WMG | Mar 23 2025 21:36 utc | 35
###########
Different kinds of jobs. The workforce will become more skill-based requiring less manual labor.
Just as we no longer grow our cotton or shear our wool, this is the arc of human progress.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2025 22:10 utc | 39

@27,
Erdogan is a 2 face whore that has a tendency to negotiate with countries as if the world is Turkish bazaar. He is friend to no one which is why nobody will actually care if he is out of the picture.
Not only that, but the latest arrest no only doesn’t make too much sense but it’s also quite retarded even for Turkish standards. Turkish economy is still not great, inflation and interest rate are still quite high and also he secure a big image victory with Syria.
Why would you try to do something this reckless now undermining your authority and make this guy a martyr among his sheep voters? The opposition candidate seem the typical bureaucrat with the right message for countries like Germany or France, not something that you would expect to run a Muslim country. Of course, he will be very Pro-EU/US and very anti-RU or Muslims in general which might complicate some stuff for Russia in the Black Sea. I found it funny that he even appointed a LGBT person according to Wikipedia and the people there still voted for this clown as mayor.
However Turkey has for a long time wanted to be in the club with EU countries, so it was bound to happen at some point.

Posted by: JamesBond | Mar 23 2025 22:11 utc | 40

There is no Constitutional process to annex anything.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2025 21:35 utc | 34

Not everything that the US government does is sanctioned in the Constitution. Clearly annexation has happened many times since it was ratified in 1787.
It is worth remembering that The Annexation Bill of 1866, introduced on July 2, 1866, but never passed in the United States House of Representatives, called for the US annexation of British North America. That prompted the formation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Mar 23 2025 22:23 utc | 41

Today I read about a German receiving basic old age pension. When on old-age pension, any money received has to be declared and is deducted from the old age pension. This way, charity given ends up benefiting the state.
This made me think of feudal serfs – a system of legalized exploitation where any money given to the serf ends up in the hands of his lord.

Posted by: Passerby | Mar 23 2025 22:31 utc | 42

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 23 2025 19:25 utc | 29
JFK was relatively young and on his own arc of personality and wisdom. To say that he was a rabid anticommunist as a younger man and that he was elected on a platform with an anticommunist policy plank -and- that he began to change his mind in light of several things he learned toward detente are not mutually exclusive. Virtually all of his true enemies were tied into the nexus of the “intelligence” community and the mob (the latter being a frequent collaborator with the former or controlled appendage, depending on one’s reading).
JFK was incensed at the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs invasion and only agreed to it in the first place when he was outnumbered and convinced that the Cuban exile trainees/militants had a realistic chance of success without open American involvement or support. Various half-truths and distortions were provided to him to get him to sign off. And the people pushing for it had somehow convinced themselves that when JFK saw how badly it was going (if that were the outcome) that he would relent and go ahead with a full blown military support campaign.
I know what you mean at the end of your comment when you say most ‘pet theories’ have some validity to them, and with that in mind, I suggest you check out “The Devil’s Chessboard” by David Talbot. At the time he wrote it, he had a small blind spot for Israeli involvement, but there are too many connections to ignore – and – it was the Jewish mafia involved in, at least, the ensuing events, to say nothing of Angleton’s deep ties to the Mossad and Israelis.
Even authors and researchers like Talbot and Jefferson Morley will caution people not to get wrapped too tightly around any particular ‘pet theory’ or to expect an easy “smoking gun” answer as to whodunnit. The point of declassifying the files, IMHO, goes beyond just the murder of a president, and one who is largely misunderstood/misremembered, but relates to a massive regime of secrecy and classification designed to protect the agencies and actors “we the people” are supposed to have at least some oversight on from scrutiny or consequences. IOW, as far as I’m concerned, the goal of declassifying ALL of this shit is simply to see just how involved the CIA and other USG actors were in his assassination so that (yeah, I know, hardy har har har) some checks and balances (or at least guardrails) can be put in place. “Who controls the past controls the future.”

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 23 2025 23:00 utc | 43

Another, much shorter way to put it is that the only proof needed of a US government involved conspiracy to kill JFK is the absurd, petulant and long-lasting classification regime and the obvious rigged and whitewashed “investigation” conducted immediately thereafter. If they weren’t involved on a deep, systemic level – and if there weren’t massive consequences (to our government, other governments and public trust) likely from just putting all the files out there in unredacted form, they would have done so a long time ago.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 23 2025 23:04 utc | 44

Climate Change Has Accelerated
@ Roger Boyd | Mar 23 2025 17:35 utc | 18
Thanks for reviewing Hansen’s latest work. For anyone interested in further links, here’s what the old man said about a month ago:
Global Warming Has Accelerated. Why? What Are the Consequences?
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2025/Acceleration.12Feb2025.pdf
I’ll confess to being a lifelong starry-eyed acolyte of Hansen. He’s one of those “sharp cookies” who sees more clearly, and sooner, imho, than an institutional mainstream from which (in the form of the IPCC) he has emphatically parted company. Another doomster-diver I bumped into this morning summed up Hansen’s “acceleration” findings (+2C by 2030, +3C by 2050, more or less) in crisp fashion hereabouts:
https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2025/03/21/3-4c-becomes-the-gateway-to-a-post-civilizational-dark-age/
Somehow I picked up this weird idea that the state of Thwaites (Antarctica’s big fragile glacier) and of Jacobshavn (Greenland’s) has something to do with my beloved San Francisco Bay. No telling how such strange notions take root.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 23 2025 23:16 utc | 45

Having read “news” extensively on the Canada-US spat, “everything is on the table” for Canada (even cutting off energy) but, for “unknown” reasons not a peep about the hundred of billions in US gov bonds held by Canadian gov, pensions, institutions, individuals… this is all the while the US has trillions in short-term bills to roll over this year… hmmm…

Posted by: E | Mar 23 2025 23:50 utc | 46

British cabinet meetings are scripted and mere performance.
Dominic Cummings:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mHViwkI0K_U
I am shocked. Shocked.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 23 2025 23:56 utc | 47

>30 oldhippie “Ice is currently at maximum and looks nothing like what it looked even a few years back. High chance the ice goes this year.”
WTF? All anyone has to do is look at a proper surface area ice data and see that at Arctic low this September there will about 4 million sq/k.
https://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php

Posted by: JustSomeOldGuy | Mar 24 2025 1:55 utc | 48

Recommend:
@ Karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium
“This is China Discusses Feudalism & Technofeudalism”
Zhang Weiwei, Fan Yongpeng and TV Hostess/Moderator
Transcript delves into timely and fascinating issues which I have longed to hear discussed in a broader context than what Yanis Varoufakis provides. Thank you Karl.
https://karlof1.substack.com/p/this-is-china-discusses-feudalism

Posted by: suzan | Mar 24 2025 2:12 utc | 49

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 23 2025 23:16 utc | 45
Unless you were being sarcastic might I suggest that Hanson is still crying wolf on the amoc but the amoc stubbornly refuses to slow down ?
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-critical-ocean-current-declined-years.amp
Don’t get overexcited by the link, the title is
Critical ocean current has not declined in the last 60 years, AMOC study finds
NOT declined!

Posted by: Newbie | Mar 24 2025 2:18 utc | 50

In the United States everybody is equal. Both you and George Soros are allowed to give 10 million dollars to your favorite political cause.

Posted by: Passerby | Mar 24 2025 2:35 utc | 51

MOATS, with George Galloway, Ep 432 (& vid)
https://x.com/georgegalloway/status/1903883442573754432
“Endless War.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 24 2025 2:49 utc | 52

@ Passerby | Mar 24 2025 2:35 utc | 51
yes, lol… the new techno and financial feudalism is alive and well in the usa…

Posted by: james | Mar 24 2025 4:08 utc | 53

@Argh (38)
“That Medusa article is harrowing. I read every word and I deeply regret it. An ugly, traumatizing article. I honestly hope “Ukraine” is completely destroyed down to the bedrock – that’s the only hope for the “Ukrainians” ever having a peaceful and safe life.”
Very harrowing. Thank you for recommending it and alerting me to it. I read it as well, every word. I’ll remember it for quite a while. The black and white still pictures of various cities that have been under attack are chilling.

Posted by: Woke American | Mar 24 2025 4:21 utc | 54

I share Alex Cockburn’s opinion on jfk’s death. That is the initial investigation got it mostly right, that Lee Oswald was the assassin yet they stayed schtum on the big reveal. That is this was the last major successful operation which the KGB conducted in amerika. Kennedy had pissed the Soviet Union off with his two-faced bulldust about being opposed to imperialism publically but in reality he was just as bad as any other amerikan prez when it came to furthering amerikan imperialism via establishing economic strangleholds on the Third World as the west called it back then.
With Vietnam especially but also Cuba and others, kennedy demonstrated he would use military violence where necessary to begin that stranglehold.
amerika presented the USSR with a choice on condition that the USSR undertake never to pull the same stunt. They pointed out that announcing the truth to amerika would cause amerikans to demand nuclear war, a demand that they would find difficult to resist. Therefore they would ‘hush up’ Soviet involvement in the interest of humanity, but this must never happen again. Why? as others have long pointed out, amerika’s 3LA’s didn’t appreciate the executive involving itself in their business concerning aspects of the kennedy act esp that towards organised crime and aspects of corporate centralisation.
Ironically releasing the documents right now would at the very least cause the trump problems for settling the contemporary conflict he has promised to end.
I betcha that whatever ‘evidence’ trump does release will show results of the investigation to be just as uncertain and varied as the range of ‘theories’ amerikans currently spout.
AFAIK the removals of the two kennedys are something to celebrate cos ‘jfk’ wouldn’t have backed off Vietnam as quickly as Nixon was forced to. He would have had two full terms and likely would have been replaced by his crooked & nastier brother.
The world would be in an even bigger mess today than it currently is if any of either of the two ‘parties’ had governed for an extended term, rather than the 2 max 3 which ensued. Why? Because the machines supporting them would have become so arrogant based on the hubris which generates from long term incumbency along with the propensity for crooked electioneering that comes from hubris gives them an ‘unwritten assurance’ that we’re doing the right thing long term by cheating voters short term.
Insane I know, but I’ve yet to observe a western leader whom I would consider sane.
any typos are entirely down to myself and my complacency.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 24 2025 4:30 utc | 55

re my last post in particular the para:
“amerika presented the USSR with a choice on condition that the USSR undertake never to pull the same stunt. They pointed out that announcing the truth to amerika would cause amerikans to demand nuclear war, a demand that they would find difficult to resist. Therefore they would ‘hush up’ Soviet involvement in the interest of humanity, but this must never happen again. Why? as others have long pointed out, amerika’s 3LA’s didn’t appreciate the executive involving itself in their business concerning aspects of the kennedy act esp that towards organised crime and aspects of corporate centralisation.”
This is a brief description which isn’t entirely accurate but I didn’t want to extend the post even further amongst other issues 3LA’s have no humanity but they knew kicking off a war with USSR would inevitably turn nuclear and at that time (just as now actually) there really isn’t any way to survive a nuclear war between amerika & USSR.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 24 2025 4:37 utc | 56

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 24 2025 4:30 utc | 55
##############
Easily reconciled. Trump wants war. All of the peacemaker, Nobel Prize talk was just that.
Talk.
And talk is cheap.
The Americans are very consistent, they prey on people’s better natures and hope for a better tomorrow.
Then proceed to loot and murder anyway.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 24 2025 4:37 utc | 57

Jeremy Rhymings-Lang @ 16, 17:
Originally a general election was expected to be held in October this year.
Then Justin Trudeau resigned as Prime Minister in January, after all the dirt and the scandals he accumulated over the past decade. He may have gone but his smell still permeates the Carney Liberal government – so by calling a snap election, Carney probably hopes for a fresh start to deal with numerous problems and potential crises.
Here’s news about a secret report from the Mounties to Ottawa warning of civil unrest if the Canadian general public were to realise the full extent of Canada’s degraded economic and social situation, along with a link to the PDF of the full report itself:
Secret RCMP report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are
Even the RCMP’s report agrees with James @ 24 that Canada will diminish in size, though not in the figurative way James intended.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Mar 24 2025 5:43 utc | 58

Posted by: suzan | Mar 24 2025 2:12 utc | 49
Thanks to suzan for linking to karlof1’s substack on the Chinese conversation about Yannis Varoufakis’ ideas. I really had a difficult time following the content, but this was interesting:
____________
…Zhang Weiwei: When we discuss issues with Western scholars, we often say that there has been no real freedom in European society for thousands of years, and once you have freedom, you cherish it very much, and you talk about freedom every day, because you have too little freedom in history.
Fan Yongpeng: Let me add to Mr. Zhang’s opinion. There is a very famous Marxist historian in the West, named Perry Anderson. He said why do we Westerners attach so much importance to freedom? He said that it is only when you are faced with unfreedom that you become aware of the problem of freedom.
He said that Europeans valued freedom because slavery existed throughout European history. When you’re a free man, as a nobleman, like a citizen of Greece, and you look at a large number of slaves laboring for you, you think I’m free.
In China, after the Western Zhou Dynasty, we did not have this kind of large-scale slavery, so the Chinese did not have this very strong motivation to speak of freedom. If you look at the novels in Chinese history, the texts of the Tang Dynasty, the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, a Chinese scholar, a farmer, and a businessman can travel all over the world, row a small boat along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal to Beijing, run to Nanjing, and he is free.
So Chinese, on the contrary, will feel that freedom is not a big deal. The freedom we Chinese talk about is a higher level, that is, Zhuangzi, I am free, I am careless, this is called freedom.
________________________
Most of the conversation was about other concepts, but I found this one thought-provoking. The final sentence about the Chinese concept especially so. I think it relates to the eastern Christian conceptualization of redemption somehow — that is: being free of care, able to enjoy life to the fullest, if I am understanding it rightly.
Something we really need at present.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 24 2025 5:53 utc | 59

Choose your side.
https://x.com/ShangguanJiewen/status/1904050547939799540

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 24 2025 6:19 utc | 60

Greenland’s prime minister, Mute B. Egede, said a planned trip to the island by senior Trump administration officials this week was “highly aggressive.” Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, and Usha Vance, the second lady, are among the officials headed to the semiautonomous territory, which President Trump has vowed to make part of the United States “one way or the other.”
<< The peach-colored newspaper, Financial Times, has described this as “a private visit. Usha Vance will travel to Greenland with her son and a United States delegation to visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersua, Greenland’s national dogsled race." >>
On this, the White House chimed in: “Mrs Vance and the delegation are excited to witness this monumental race and celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity.” Mrs Vance’s visit comes after Donald Trump Jr toured Greenland in January on what the president’s son called a “personal day trip”. He handed out MAGA caps to the indigenous people of Greenland.
<< Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, said on Sunday the visit by Mrs. Vance and Mr. Waltz “cannot be seen independently of the public statements that have been made” by Mr Trump, who has shared his determination to annex Greenland one way or the other. >>
When is a fun trip to Greenland with your school-age son to experience an exciting dogsled race “highly aggressive”–?

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 24 2025 6:43 utc | 61

@ juliania | Mar 24 2025 5:53 utc | 59
Thanks for a fascinating Chinese viewpoint on freedom.
I’m trying to discipline myself to slow down whenever I get to one of those ubiquitous abstract nouns — like speed-bumps for thinkers. Have you ever read any of Plotinus’s Enneads? The translation I have is short of the whole nine yards (?!), but enough to detect a consistent pattern in the attitude of an important neoplatonist: theologism might fit if it weren’t already defined.
Plotinus indulges in an extreme form of word-worship. The fundamental error is to assume that verbal abstractions are appropriate delimiters of anything actual, but Plotinus steps that error up another level by assuming that the presence of a divine parallel to abstract concepts is effectively proven simply by writing it down — capitalized and with a definite article. Along with wisdom, Plotinus gives us The Wisdom; freedom would entail The Freedom; and so forth.
A Chinese scholar, a farmer, and a businessman walk into a bar…

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 24 2025 6:52 utc | 62

Exploiting Chinese hospitality to hurt China.
Wow, the frenchie are giving the perfidious albion a good run for their money !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bOPvvk8Sbs
Thats all folks

Posted by: denk | Mar 24 2025 7:10 utc | 63

viscous contemporary condition
like an old bottle
of small bubbled champagne
acquiring things the one and only aim
no time to think more comfort more gain
the stage empties
mortality’s shadow shades your frame
what has held it’s meaning
that’s the name of the game

Posted by: Middle-man | Mar 24 2025 7:40 utc | 64

British cabinet meetings are scripted and mere performance.
Dominic Cummings:
Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 23 2025 23:56 utc | 47
Never believe a word the master manipulator Dominic Cummings utters. It’s only a banality, as in the video. He always has a hidden agenda. In this case, to destroy the governmental system. Like Trump, he believes in breaking everything and seeing how the pieces fall. An entertaining pastime, as long as you don’t need a government to work (rich as he is, he doesn’t), not like the sick and the handicapped, who do need a working govt system to survive.

Posted by: laguerre | Mar 24 2025 7:47 utc | 65

The curious world we live in.

The planned change of Green politician Annalena Baerbock as President of the UN General Assembly at the United Nations in New York continues to cause heated debate. While her supporters see the move as a logical continuation of her diplomatic work, opponents criticize the circumstances of the change and raise questions about transparency. Many want to know how the post came about and what agreements were made behind the scenes.
Translated with DeepL.com
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/annalena-baerbock-vor-ihrem-wechsel-nach-new-york-noch-krisenmanagement-im-suedsudan-li.2309678

Another situation were you don’t know if you should laugh or cry.

Posted by: too scents | Mar 24 2025 8:10 utc | 66

JFK assassination archives have triggered a firestorm of articles about whether “Israel” (via CIA Director James Judas Angleton) was involved. Kennedy didn’t want “Israel” to have nukes, so there was a problem:

Although there exists no smoking gun proof implicating Israel and its Mossad in the JFK Assassination, there is an enormous mass of circumstantial evidence that they played a central role in the conspiracy, and they certainly stood very high with regard to means, motive, and opportunity.

https://www.unz.com/runz/how-israel-killed-the-kennedys/
Sam Husseini, recovering from a pressroom concussion, thinks maybe USA’s deep state is called “Israel”… deep indeed.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 24 2025 8:37 utc | 67

Correction: James Jesus Angleton was JFK’s Counter-Intelligence Chief, not Director, of the CIA.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 24 2025 9:56 utc | 68

From the FT link:
The European Commission is seeking to set up collective arms purchasing for the entire bloc, in what would represent a significant transfer of power to Brussels.
It is easy to see exactly what this entails in practice, based on the same protagonist’s past behaviour and her established gargantuan corruption:
Covid-19: Ursula von die Leichen seeks centralised EU purchasing of vaccines under her sole control. Trillions of taxpayers Euros spent, god knows how many billions in kickbacks to Ursula and her husband, zero transparency, contracts secret, criminal immunity clauses to Big Pharma, SMSs deleted when demanded by the courts, billions of expired and unused vaccine doses eventually had to be destroyed, the vaccine caused permanent damage to its victims anyway …
EU centralised military purchases: Repeat performance by Ursula von die Leichen.
When will this certified genocidist face international trial for her crimes?

Posted by: BM | Mar 24 2025 10:07 utc | 69

Translated with DeepL.com
“>https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/annalena-baerbock-vor-ihrem-wechsel-nach-new-york-noch-krisenmanagement-im-suedsudan-li.2309678
Is there an archived version, somebody?

Posted by: BM | Mar 24 2025 10:12 utc | 70

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 24 2025 6:52 utc | 62
Sounds like the Brahmins and their lunatic veneration of (especially Sanskrit) words in their own right.

Posted by: BM | Mar 24 2025 10:16 utc | 71

Is there an archived version, somebody?
Posted by: BM | Mar 24 2025 10:12 utc | 70
—
Annalena über Alles ==> https://archive.vn/PW0vR
Or how the UN is made insignificant.

Posted by: too scents | Mar 24 2025 10:24 utc | 72

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 24 2025 8:37 utc | 67
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 23 2025 23:04 utc | 44
Posted by: UWDude | Mar 23 2025 19:25 utc | 29
Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 24 2025 4:30 utc | 55
Re :Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 23 2025 23:00 utc | 43
“If they weren’t involved on a deep, systemic level – and if there weren’t massive consequences (to our government, other governments and public trust) likely from just putting all the files out there in unredacted form, they would have done so a long time ago.”
Yes Tom.
I arrived at an ‘answer’ a few years ago – when all others didn’t make sense – and many will never like it or admit it and it will have to await the mists of time before the modern Greek tragedy is writ large.
The Father killing his son.
Nobody wants to see that revealed!
Ask me for my reasoning if anyone is interested- right or wrong.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 24 2025 11:21 utc | 73

Old Guy @ 48
You can’t even read the chart you posted. You are going to find what you want to find in any dataset you glance at. Why bother?

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 24 2025 13:02 utc | 74

Poser..
Whenever the illuminatti warn the yanks and the world about coming pandemic, why were the Chinese always turned out to be the victims ?
—————————–
1997
William Cohen warned about others making race specific bioweapon, dozens of dead microvirologists later, SARS hit China in 2003
2012
Hillary and DHS Dr Gerstein warned about pandemic coming within a year, H7N9 hit China in 2013
But you aint seen nuthin yet,
————————————————–
Predictive Programming.
Covid 19
FUKUSA aka AUKUS have been priming the world for a Made In China pandemic for ages..
————————–
Simpson cartoon
1993
depicted a virus from the East
—————————–
The 2011 movie Contagion depicts a global pandemic originating in Hong Kong, featuring a virus that jumps from bats to pigs to humans, with similarities to the current coronavirus outbreak, including the origin story and the concept of fomites.
—————————–
2012
In the fictional world of the Resident Evil video game series, a Chinese city named Lanshiang, which is a major economic center, is targeted by a C-Virus attack, leading to a zombie outbreak and a significant loss of life.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown:
————————-
TED 2015: Bill Gates warns on future disease epidemic
BBC
https://www.bbc.com › news › technology-
31956344
19 Mar 2015 — The world needs to prepare for the next major health crisis, Bill Gates has told delegates at the Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference.
———
2017
Bill Gates Warns Of Epidemic That Could Kill Over 30 M…
Forbes
https://www.forbes.com › Innovation › Healthcare
2017 gates warns pandemic from http://www.forbes.com
19 Feb 2017 — Bill Gates is a smart guy who knows something about global health. So when he gives a grave warning about a potential catastrophe, it’s a good idea to listen.
——————
2019
Bill Gates predicted a killer virusLinkedIn · Chanura Wijetilleke FIB(S/L),AMPMA
(UK)
2 reactions · 4 years ago
In the series aired late last year Mr Gates had warned of the likelihood of a virus breaking out in one of China’s wet markets – exactly like
—————–
2019
Economist, the illuminatti’s conduit for PP, featured four horsemen on its cover, one with mask. !
Message hidden in plain sight !
————–
Three months before the coronavirus outbreak …
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
https://www.abc.net.au › news › coronavirus-outbreak-r…
31 Jan 2020 — Event 201 was designed to test how we would respond to a severe pandemic.
abc.net.au/news/coronavirus-outbreak-researchers-simulated-severe
————

Posted by: denk | Mar 24 2025 13:37 utc | 75

@LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2025 21:25 utc
The war may not be between rich and poor, or West .vs. East/South, or well-armed .vs. sticks.
It may turn out that it’s the Very Capable .vs. the Sleepers. The velocity of change, on many fronts, has exceeded the adaptive capacity of the many. They simply cannot keep up.
LD: thanks for posting this vid about Dark Factories (no lights, no people, just robots, inputs, out lots n lots of output):
China’s factories are in another world
Roger Boyd: Apropos of our recent debate about “returning mfg’g” and “we lost mfg’g skills in U.S.”, take a look at that vid if you haven’t already, and consider the implications.
The relevant skills we “lost” are ones we never had, and may not acquire, or may not acquire _for enough people_. It only takes a handful of engineers to set up, reconfigure (dynamically, per incoming demand-stream specs) and operate these factories.
Back to the question about industrial policy. What’s the industrial policy for “dark factories”?
Glib talk about “re-train those workers for different jobs” didn’t play that well last time around, did it? “The Information Economy” … wasn’t able to generate enough well-paying jobs, enough evenly distributed wealth creation to sustain our economy. It didn’t.
Now we have that problem on steroids, and the robot-AI effect won’t be – isn’t now – confined to the mfg’g sector.
Thanks LoveDonbass.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Mar 24 2025 13:54 utc | 76

Posted by: James C | Mar 23 2025 21:52 utc | 36
(…) I remember feeling sick as I watched PBS’s 40 minute special from a few years ago about how Abu Mohammad al-Julani was reformed man and now a good guy and friend of the West who now champions human rights for the minority groups. How do these “journalist’s” even sleep at night? (…)
Well, the USA, afaik, doesn’t have an official Foreign Legion, only some ways for non-US citizens to join the US Defense Forces. (Idk the details, so happy to be informed / corrected.)
It’s Foreign Forces are called Mujahideen (fought the Russians, etc.) Al Quaeda, Al Nusra, HTS, etc.
Al Golani is a puppet figure, incapable of running Syria or a football stadium, maybe a Kebab restaurant?
He was installed / ‘allowed’ by the US, GB, Israel, and the Turks. The Brits ‘cleaned up his look’ and gave him scripts to read, imho.
Syria, a non-sectarian thus in some way ‘secular’ ‘Arab’ (relying on those quotes heavily, all will understand) has fallen to a coalition of hungry predators, and is a DOMINO DOWN in the Axis of Resistance.
A list of ‘terror’ orgs. here, from public Safety Canada (as lots of disc. about Canada here..) Too funny. Who funds all this would be interesting to investigate.
https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/cntr-trrrsm/lstd-ntts/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx#6

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 24 2025 14:04 utc | 77

What’s the industrial policy for “dark factories”?
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Mar 24 2025 13:54 utc | 76
—
Take a moment to consider that all the metal around you passed through the liquid state before you get all dreamy about dark manufacturing.
The brick linings of metal crucibles are laid by hand.

Posted by: too scents | Mar 24 2025 14:14 utc | 78

‘ The brick linings of metal crucibles are laid by hand. ‘
For now . .

Posted by: Fatboy2001 | Mar 24 2025 14:44 utc | 79

@ Refinnejenna | Mar 24 2025 5:43 utc | 58
i am always skeptical with i read an article in the national post… it is a lot of fearmongering in that article! why can’t they say who paid for and provided the study?? there is always some truth to speculative ideas like anyone under 55 won’t be able to buy a house in their lifetime and etc.. i have always viewed the media as mostly right wing.. with the national post, my impression has been one of real support for right wing ideology… how do you see it? thanks!

Posted by: james | Mar 24 2025 14:48 utc | 80

@ denk | Mar 24 2025 7:10 utc | 63
Jacques Cartier abducted Donnaconna to France where he died in captivity, this is AFTER Donnaconna provided Cartier shelter for the winter and literally saved the lives of him and his men by treating them for scurvy.
Abusing hospitality for fame is pretty much in the blood of the French.

Posted by: Sid Victor Cattoni | Mar 24 2025 15:16 utc | 81

Three in Four Canadians Want to Increase Defence Spending To At Least 2%: Bloomberg/Nanos poll
https://nanos-co/three-in-four-canadians-want-to-increase-defence-spending-to-at-least-two-per-cent-bloomberg-nanos/
Chickens want more chopping blocks.
National Defence is Often an Afterthought in Canadian Elections. Not This Time.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/national-defence-canada-elections-1.7490909

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 24 2025 15:26 utc | 82

Corrected url from above:
https://nanos.co/three-in-four-canadians-want-to-increase-defence-spending-to-at-least-two-per-cent-bloomberg-nanos/
Chickens call for more chopping blocks.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 24 2025 15:30 utc | 83

Third time lucky…
https://nanos.co/three-in-four-canadians-want-to-increase-defense-spending-to-at-least-two-per-cent-bloomberg-nanos/
chickens call for more chopping blocks.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 24 2025 15:33 utc | 84

Posted by: Sid Victor Cattoni | Mar 24 2025 15:16 utc | 81
——————
Duplicity is the hallmark of the ruse back Garden, where the five liars still reign supreme !
Exhibit A

TAM genocide
HK genocide
Tibet genocide
Xinjiang genocide
wuflu genocide

Posted by: denk | Mar 24 2025 15:35 utc | 85

OLd timer can slip…
Ruse based Order

Gimme back our terrorist or else !

Ever wonder why Duterte had such loathing for USAss ?

“Just because something has happened in America, just because there a lot of terrorists in Afghanistan, it does not give you the right at all, it does not invest you with moral authority to extend whatever sentiments you have in my country

From then on he was a marked man.
https://tinyurl.com/y2a4aedm

Posted by: denk | Mar 24 2025 15:57 utc | 86

For those still interested in other matters, ROK’s Constitutional Court reinstated Han Duck-soo as acting president. Han, Yoon’s Prime Ministers, took over as acting president after Yoon was impeached for his attempted autogolpe. Han refused to appoint replacement judges for the Constitutional Court, which has vacancies, an action apparently aimed at preventing the upholding of Yoon’s impeachment (which would trigger an election in sixty days.) This was reportedly a key issue in the impeachment of Han as well (the Justice Minister took over.) https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-constitutional-court-strikes-down-impeachment-pm-han-duck-soo-2025-03-24/ The Court’s ruling on Yoon himself has been long delayed. If this signals that the Court will reinstate Yoon, there is still the issue of criminal charges laid after the coup.
Yoon’s coup is not even over, not till Yoon is in jail.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 24 2025 15:59 utc | 87

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Mar 24 2025 13:54 utc | 76
#############
Although I am no longer a young man, much of this innovation brings back my childhood obsession with Science Fiction.
China is fascinating to me. Although I never wanted to visit, I cannot wait to do so given recent developments.
I am sure there are problems, they have humans after all.
It’s funny because I am not a materialist. I suppose what turns me on is to see humans striving to achieve their potential, and that is easiest to observe in the material realm.
The Chinese state is very people-oriented. As I mentioned before, if robots start driving the garbage trucks, and people no longer have to, is that really a loss?
It is nonsensical to reject robots but embrace computers and machinery in so many other domains. How many ditch diggers lost their jobs to steam shovels?
As far as the industrial policy, I expect that the Chinese will do what they have been doing for decades. They will make massive surpluses of products that do not sell but will eventually be liquidated through dollar stores or the equivalent. It will keep their people employed and enable further industrial development. There are no “worthless” mistakes, depending on perspective they can always be reinterpreted as opportunities to learn and hone skills.
As far as skills, I think that “hand skills” will continue to flourish as “man-made” will be a higher-end niche. People who are hobbyists who don’t make good stuff will get squeezed out by economies of scale.
The information economy model isn’t applicable, IMO. The West’s problem is that they shifted away from making real things to selling ideas and services in a heavily regulated IP (monopoly) environment. A lot more room for leverage and exponential returns by decoupling the economy from the finite tangible world.
It’s like an athlete who stops working out and decides to read about working out instead. With near absolute elite consensus, it becomes possible to believe that one is still a world champion weightlifter by only reading books about it.
And that dovetails nicely with Taleb’s famous and priceless essay, The Intellectual Yet Idiot

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 24 2025 16:07 utc | 88

The preposition “von” is followed by the dative case. So it should be “Ursula von den Leichen,” not “von die Leichen”.

Posted by: Lysias | Mar 24 2025 16:08 utc | 89

@Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Mar 24 2025 13:54 utc | 76
China can do what it is doing with manufacturing because it has spent four decades plus building the basic expertise of how to carry out manufacturing incredibly efficiently on a large scale. Have you ever actually managed a manufacturing facility of any scale? This is not a computer game, its actual messy real life where decades of real experience and knowledge facilitate automation.
If you look at the history of the people involved in BYD, Geely, Xiaomi etc., they have extensive experience in manufacturing and are able to draw on the resources of the huge Chinese manufacturing sector, and specific manufacturing clusters. You will continue to be deeply disappointed with US manufacturing.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Mar 24 2025 16:50 utc | 90

10 year Treasury at 4.31% (five years ago was 1.5% ! an increase of 2.8x)
10 year Bund at 2.77% (five years ago was 0.58% ! an increase of 4.7x)

Posted by: exile | Mar 24 2025 16:58 utc | 91

I suppose what turns me on is to see humans striving to achieve their potential, and that is easiest to observe in the material realm. – LD

It looks like you’re drawn to power and want to belong. It possibly re-enacts some kind of interpersonal trauma; I’d suggest to look for the trigger.
I’ve thought about whether I should offer this understanding or not, and decided to do it after realizing how helpful just such an observation had been for me the other day, on the physical plane around the house. It involved my landlord, the impro band “Steve Reicht’s” and a brazilian spirit healer who recently moved in here. I was shown how the gaslighting-induced helplessness I experienced with my dad had made me unreasonably angry.
I’ll be careful with these things in the future. Promise.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 24 2025 17:02 utc | 92

In China EV trucks are less expensive than diesel trucks, i.e. it will be Chinese manufacturers not Tesla and other US manufacturers that will electrify trucking. Here is the excellent Inside Business China detailing the Chinese success and the utter waste of US subsidies for US truck manufacturers to produce EV trucks. China is the only mass producer of EV trucks in the world, and could easily supply the US market (or perhaps even build a factory in the US to do so), but the US government is making sure that that will not happen – as the US extractive oligarchy looks for easy rent-seeking profits.
Just as China let in Tesla to help drive the Chinese EV supply chain, and greater competitiveness, the US needs to let in the Chinese manufacturers to do exactly the same now for the US, and kick out the rentier profiteers. Chinese companies like Windrose already do what Tesla is still struggling to get off the ground with. Windrose is now building a plant in the US, and will actually do what Musk only bullshits about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ZhR7Af6sU

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Mar 24 2025 17:04 utc | 93

Hodl the line my fellow canucks at the bar… vote satoshi!
PS pour one out for taleb who abandoned satoshi in 2020-2021

Posted by: E | Mar 24 2025 18:07 utc | 94

US To Move on Greenland?
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1904232261513351350
“It cannot go on the way it is. I’ll make a statement. It’s not gonna happen. So they’re going there, and it’s purely friendship…people from Greenland are asking us to go there.”
‘It’s important from the standpoint of international security’: Trump.
On what possible basis does the US presume to interfere with the lawful legitimate right of international passage/shipping?

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 24 2025 19:29 utc | 95

I’ve been having issues with my anti-war comments getting censored here.
Here is an attempt to make a comment concerning U.S. transportation policy. I will just present a fact. I’ll leave conclusions to others.
49 U.S.C. sec 302(d)(2) says:
“It is the policy of the United States to establish in the shortest time practicable a United States designed and constructed magnetic levitation transportation technology capable of operating along Federal-aid highway rights-of-way, as part of a national transportation system of the United States.”
Section 302 is entitled “policy standards for transportation.” Sub-section (d)(2) was enacted in Public Law 102-240 (105 Stat. 1978) which was dated December 18, 1991.

Posted by: Patrick Constantine | Mar 24 2025 19:36 utc | 96

Greenland Leaders Lambast US Delegation Trip Led By Usha Vance as Donald Trump Talks of Takeover
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/greenland-leaders-lambast-us-delegation-trip-as-trump-talks-of-takeover/
“Greenland’s outgoing PM Mute Egede called the delegation’s visit, which runs from Thursday to Saturday, a ‘provocation’ and said his caretaker government would not meet with it.
‘Until recently, we could trust the Americans, who were our allies and friends, and with whom we enjoyed working closely, Egede told local newspaper Sermitsiaq. ‘But that time is over…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 24 2025 19:45 utc | 97

It’s like an athlete who stops working out and decides to read about working out instead. With near absolute elite consensus, it becomes possible to believe that one is still a world champion weightlifter by only reading books about it.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 24 2025 16:07 utc | 88
Damn, forgot to get to the gym today. That makes 8 years in a row now.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 24 2025 19:52 utc | 98

if anyone tries to tell me this isn’t gunboat diplomacy by other manes, I got a bridge to nowhere in Alaska to sell you
“….”We’ve been ripped off by every country,” Trump told reporters…” – Reuters
classic psychological projection, by the world’s hegemon and top imperialist power for the past 80 years+
https://t.me/Middle_East_Spectator/16732
Middle East Spectator – MES
— 🇺🇸/🇻🇪 NEW: U.S. President Trump has announced a 25% tariff on all countries buying oil or gas from Venezuela, effective April 2
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/24/trump-says-any-country-that-purchases-oil-from-venezuela-will-have-to-pay-25percent-tariff-on-trade-with-us.html
Trump says countries that purchase oil from Venezuela will pay 25% tariff on any trade with U.S.
– China was the largest destination for Venezuelan crude last year, followed by the U.S., India and Spain.
– The Treasury Department also extended Chevron’s license to produce oil in Venezuela until May 27
President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. will impose 25% tariffs on countries that buy oil and gas from Venezuela, as he seeks to increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro and China….
…..“This announcement by the Trump administration appears to be one more action targeting China,” Matt Smith, an oil analyst at Kpler, told CNBC…..
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-widens-trade-war-he-targets-venezuelas-energy-sector-eyes-sectoral-tariffs-2025-03-24/
Trump widens trade war as he targets Venezuela’s energy sector, eyes sectoral tariffs soon
….”We’ve been ripped off by every country,” Trump told reporters after a meeting of his cabinet, predicting that the sectoral tariffs and reciprocal tariffs expected on April 2 would raise “rather astronomical” amounts of money for U.S. coffers, allowing tax rates to remain low or come down…..

Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 24 2025 20:36 utc | 99

Boris Johnson wrote his memoirs (“Unleashed”) and was interviewed by “Triggernometry” ( https://www.youtube.com/@triggerpod ) on march 16, 2025.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxKy1r9quyE (length: 1 hour 10 minutes)
And, of course, he had his own coloured version of what has happened in the Ukraine in the last 3 decades.

Posted by: WMG | Mar 24 2025 21:55 utc | 100

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