Diego Garcia: platform for a U.S. attack on Iran
Some may be wondering what Diego Garcia is, and why it’s in the news these days. It’s a platform in the middle of the Indian Ocean that provides a staging ground for U.S. bombers to attack Iran.
There are currently 6 B2 bombers on Diego Garcia. The U.S. has 18 such bombers, so that’s 1/3 of the U.S.’ B2 fleet currently in service.
B2s can carry very heavy ordinance, like bunker-busting bombs, as well as nuke bombs.
Walt King, who many of you will recognize as a MoA poster from years back, has written an excellent history of Diego Garcia. It covers all the bases, with lots of pictures.
Here’s a link to his timely and thorough article.
=====
Re-posted from the War With Iran thread, which is aging out, and this subject has general-interest utility.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Apr 13 2025 15:43 utc | 3

Hey b!
Why is this an Open Thread while you just posted a Weekly Review AND you don’t have a Palestine thread?
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 13 2025 16:01 utc | 4
Yes, probably a typo, by logic this should be the palestine thread
Let he who never f**** up throw the first stone
Meanwhile as it’s an open thread I’ll take the opportunity to ask b if he’s better (after mentoning he was feeling under the weather the other day)
Though he already knows… get better, get well, we care

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 13 2025 17:22 utc | 5

“Swift”
https://gl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT
SWIFT is just a means of sending messages, like a telegram or an email.
The settlement occurs on the CHIPS network, which is where the Treasury Department in Washington blocks you.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_House_Interbank_Payments_System
CHIPS is the core of the ‘death stern’ of the Judeo-Roman Empire

Posted by: Simon | Apr 13 2025 17:49 utc | 7

That’s why China has developed CIPS
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-Border_Interbank_Payment_System
And is developing mBridge
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBridge

Posted by: Simon | Apr 13 2025 17:55 utc | 9

Posted by: Simon | Apr 13 2025 17:50 utc | 8
That’s why China has developed CIPS
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-Border_Interbank_Payment_System
You mean swift 2.0?
“In March 2016, SWIFT and CIPS signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). With the ISO 20022 standard already adopted by CIPS for its payment system, SWIFT went through the implementation process of the standard that can allow the use of Chinese characters, in addition to its richer content functionalities.[5][6]
In September 2017, as one of the MOU’s plans signed between SWIFT and CIPS, reference data indicating financial institutions’ direct and indirect participation in CIPS will be published via SWIFTRef and updated on a monthly basis. This data covers BIC, LEI, national bank codes, IBAN data, standing settlement instructions, credit ratings, and financial institutions’ memberships to domestic and cross-border payment market infrastructures.[7] ”

Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 13 2025 18:23 utc | 11

China is too involved. My hope with the caspian area and east. Youth. Energy producers to the west and south. manufaactured foods to the east. State leaders that have a eye on a new economy model that breaks the rules in a good way. Sucess happens in the real world. it happens in the real world not academic. The sheep hearder doesnt give a F***. He wamts to get paid and able to buy the things he needs and maybe give his family a better life. If success happens with a totally new model the world is ready. China will adabt and tghe USA will adapt. hard learning curves but will adapt. academics may be involved but the world pays attention to success and what works.
Currency stashes have to be eliminated in a way thats fair to innovation and productivity. We cant imagine that with our current models but it has to happen. Right now our model is resource providing nations are compensated with a currency stash. That curency rises in value .
The uni token is one of the things that has allowed efficiency. Our world is unthinkable without the uni token. With A modern and fair system of currency exchange it might be possible to eliminate ANY uni token. Absaloute fidelity would have to be enforced globally. Currencys would be like eggs. You only buy what you nedd. No need to stash a trillion eggs.
Ill tell you right now neither the USA or china would find that desirable within the current paradigm for the opposite reason. yuan would go up radically in value. Dollar would go down radically in value.
Crisis is a time of both extreme learning and extreme loss. No one likes either.

Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 13 2025 18:55 utc | 13

Posted by: Simon | Apr 13 2025 18:22 utc | 10
#####
They will have an opportunity, but if they are kept fractured by the two party system and drowning in wedge issues, they will not.
The regular American will need good leadership with vision and integrity, not the usual cults of personality that have been around Obama and Trump.
Don’t think that the deepest parts of the deep state are not already seeding the process decades in advance as they did with Obama and Tulsi.
Someone very smart around the elites figured out that if the only choices the people have are ones created by the elites, then they cannot lose.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 13 2025 19:05 utc | 15

“You mean swift 2.0?”
—
What !?
CIPS is not autistic and logically allows connection to other communication networks
Posted by: Simon | Apr 13 2025 18:57 utc | 14″
You appear to be willfully missing the whole purpose. The purpose is the rate of exchange. Swift and CIPS are not “comunication”. They are not sending love letters. THe rate of exchange defines economys and visa versa. how that rate of exchange is determined is the issue. A new system of determining rate of exchange is what is needed. That is the point of contention with everyone pretty much arguing for their interests. A benavalent super powe is somthing that fits within our paradigm. Trouble is it doesnt exist and it never did. Only when people realize that a truly impartial and globally enforced determination of currency rates is the only thing that prevents needless war and suffering will this manifest. Do you think the first attempt came from somthing nice? The first attempt which wasnt all that hot bretton woods came from the understanding from WW2.

Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 13 2025 19:17 utc | 17

a truly impartial and globally enforced determination of currency rates

Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 13 2025 19:17 utc | 17
We could always try gold as the impartial denominator between currency values…
(and with that, @SunOfAlabama desperately tries to remember where he left his smelling salts…)

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 13 2025 19:23 utc | 19

Id trust Russia way before China. but Russia understands. Russia learneds it lesson. No one nation can be trusted. Thats a nice idea but it doesnt work. Yea you big boy just run it we trust you. Next thing the bombs are falling. We learn the lesson over and over again.
Justice requires order.
Respect for order is required for peace.
The process must be fair.
No one will like it.
It beats the alternative.
When we were still duking it out with swords self interest was a self balancing paradigm. Certainly not desirable but self balancing.
Look I respect China. I admire many things about their civilization. China looks after China. No one nation can be trusted to look after the whole.

Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 13 2025 19:31 utc | 21

A Brazilian company wants to buy a machine from a Chinese company.
The Brazilian company’s bank communicates with the Central Bank of Brazil.
The Central Bank of Brazil communicates with the Central Bank of China.
The Central Bank of China communicates with the Chinese company’s bank.
Fast and very, very very cheap.
Freedom of trade.
If Indonesia wants to trade with Brazil, it doesn’t need anyone’s permission; it has the freedom to communicate with Brazil thanks to this Multiple Bridge.
Freedom of trade.

Posted by: Simon | Apr 13 2025 20:06 utc | 23

Tick tock, next block (on average every 10 minutes)
-Satoshi
Energy-backed, globally-available, encrypted ledger for 16 years now… but the nations and peoples largely don’t “believe” it (or prefer warfare/lawfare/lies ?!?

Posted by: E | Apr 13 2025 20:10 utc | 25

Blockchain
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain
The Network belongs to everyone
Obviously, I’m referring to a future where the Multiple Bridge project becomes a reality: a network of many Central Banks.
Perhaps in 10 years we’ll see its efective beginnings.

Posted by: Simon | Apr 13 2025 20:22 utc | 27

Energy-backed

Posted by: E | Apr 13 2025 20:10 utc | 25
Which is something of a peculiar concept; if something uses energy it cannot be backed by that same energy, as the energy has already been consumed. This is inherently dissipative, not conservative, therefore ultimately entropic.
It is not possible to “back” anything by energy already used (otherwise we would not demolish coal-burning power stations, because they would be “backed” by the energy they previously consumed), it’s a one-off transaction, there is no iteration process; once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 13 2025 20:32 utc | 29

Death Star
“Constructed by the Autocratic Galactic Empire, the Death Star is capable of obliterating entire planets (that is: entire countrys) and serves to enforce the (Judeo-Roman) Empire’s reign of terror”
“CHIPS forms the primary U.S. network for large-value international USD payments where it has a market share of around 96%”

Posted by: Simon | Apr 13 2025 20:46 utc | 31

Posted by: Billb | Apr 13 2025 20:48 utc | 32
Well, not really; as puny humans we get the truly colossal entropy involved in the cataclysmic formation of gold for free, whereas for our own artificially-created crypto-“currencies”, we own the entire entropy.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 13 2025 21:01 utc | 33

no zero escalation of cost [in energy terms] will readily inflate […]

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 13 2025 21:28 utc | 35

Posted by: vargas | Apr 13 2025 20:10 utc | 26
Did you read somewhere the sky is falling too?
Apparently, Steve Witkoff tried to get invited to Iran for the next round but was politely told US officials are not welcomed.

Posted by: Suresh | Apr 13 2025 22:09 utc | 37

my bc post got lost.
try again, more succinct
heat waste can be used.
current ledger system corruptible, and full of energy waste. Every commuter mile of every financial worker waste in corruptible ledger system. Every skyscraper, A/C-heating unit, server farm, desk, chair and hard copy, waste.

Posted by: UWDude | Apr 13 2025 22:14 utc | 39

Posted by: E | Apr 13 2025 22:12 utc | 38
You could probably have some fun discussions with @SunOfAlabama…
I’d be an interested bystander for that, after all, currency doesn’t need “backing” (apparently), the government just issues it and then cancels it, regardless of velocity or flow, or indeed energy required to make such issuance.
May I recommend Ukrainian government bonds as a sure-fire winning investment? Somebody is backing them somewhere…

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 13 2025 22:37 utc | 41

@Jeremy Rhymings-Lang #42
Supposedly their ~40 tons of gold was hastily flown from Kiev to the USA “for safekeeping” in early 2014. That’s about $4bn worth at current prices if I got the numbers right. I guess they still have an IOU of some kind, for what that’s worth.
https://news.metal.com/newscontent/100058331/ukraine-gold-reserves-reported-to-be-hastily-aircrafted-to-us/

Posted by: Billb | Apr 13 2025 23:08 utc | 43

China has been destroying American manufacturing regions, like the Great Lakes basin for decades. Yet the DC swamp has paid off so as to be silent as church mice…
Globalist American Presidents like Carter, Hw Bush, Clinton, Gw Bush, Obama and Joementia have allowed the scam under the heading of “free trade”.
Millions of American jobs lost in steel, autos, iron, aluminum, iron ore, coke, glass, building supplies, lumber…all on the fake altar of “free trade”.
That era is over, and its back to Jeffersonian self sufficiency, and guess what I could care less if a smart phone rises in price……..

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 1:13 utc | 45

China has been destroying American manufacturing regions
Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 1:13 utc | 45
————————————
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

We Are Duped Into Blaming Our Problems On Everyone Except Our Rulers

Tobias personifies the maga junkies psychosis…
They deserve their asshole leaders.
https://tinyurl.com/5n6cc2jc

Posted by: denk | Apr 14 2025 2:42 utc | 47

Why’d the DJT team want a lean and mean military, minus the fluff ?
From the horse mouth
Fucker Carlson

“We don’t need a military that’s woman-friendly. We don’t need a military that’s gay-friendly, with all due respect to the Air Force. We need a military that’s flat-out hostile. We need a military full of Type-A men who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls.”

https://tinyurl.com/mmr8evhf

Posted by: denk | Apr 14 2025 3:39 utc | 49

Indian Punchline:
Posted on April 13, 2025 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
US, Iran take a leap forward in trust building
Posted on April 13, 2025 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
US, Iran take a leap forward in trust building
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian (C) at an exhibition “National Day of Nuclear Technology”, Tehran, April 9, 2025
With the foreplay over and US-Iranian talks commencing in Muscat on Saturday, a constructive engagement has begun in right earnestness. The sure sign of it is that Iran’s currency rose nearly 6 percent on Sunday. The Tehran bazaar, the weathervane of Shia politics, has spoken.
Most important, the two key negotiators in Muscat Steve Witkoff and Abbas Araqchi have decided to return to the talks on April 19 in exactly a week’s time after reporting back to their principals in Washington and Tehran respectively and seeking fresh guidelines going forward.
The White House said the talks were positive and constructive and appreciated that “direct communication was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome.” Witkoff described the talks as “very positive and constructive.”
Iran’s foreign ministry said the talks were held in “a constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect. Araqchi also described the negotiations as “promising and constructive.” Significantly, Araqchi told the Iranian national television that the talks brought the two sides closer to establishing “the basis of negotiations” for future discussions.
He added cryptically that while Oman will continue to act as mediator in the upcoming round on April 19, the venue for the next session may change.
MORE…
https://www.indianpunchline.com/us-iran-take-a-leap-forward-in-trust-building/

Posted by: Menz | Apr 14 2025 5:14 utc | 51

Witkoff is clueless about Ukraine and Gaza. I thought he made a fool of himself on Tucker Carlson.
Perfect envoy for an Administration that doesn’t know who is in BRICS and thinks the world owes America money for 800 bases of occupation, wars, and regime change.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 14 2025 6:26 utc | 53

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 1:13 utc | 45
If you have bothered to read Karlof1 fantastic work, you would have read a reader comment which he shared.
The comment was about the skilled workforce required takes 3 generations to get to the stage where it no longer just copies but create new and better products.
The US did it to itself by hanging on to legacy designs with tweaks here and there. The US STEM employees are only producing lemons like the F35.
I’m not doing any justice to the actual comment, so go read Karlof1 substack.
Maybe then you wouldn’t be making such childish comments about China.

Posted by: Suresh | Apr 14 2025 7:50 utc | 55

Debt ceiling:
I’m going to use the figures from the H.4.1 US government report I looked at a month ago. As I like to keep an eye on it from time to time.
The TGA account was down to 450b. Which meant in a very short space of time TGA account had dropped from 800b to 450b.
The TGA account is the account the government spends from and as the government prints reserves 350b went onto the banks balance sheets as reserves. This has caused huge issues for the banks.
The problem has been TGA has dropped from 800b to 450b in just the short period since ceiling hit on Fed 20th forcing non risk reserve assets to flow towards the banks and negatively effecting the values/quatity of risk assets to maintain a required constant regulatory ratio.
So let’s assume they keep screwing around and eventually empty the TAG out at 50b leaving a further threat of another 400b reserves in TGA that could be forced upon the banking system …
Due to regulatory requirements To cover that 400b, banks would need at least 1/10th of that in capital for SLR of 0.1 … (might be a bit less) but we’ll be conservative …
1/10th is 40b… so if the banks were given 40b of additional free capital right now, then they could cover those additional 400b reserve assets without effecting any other asset levels/prices at the banks…
IOR – interest on reserves is providing additional free capital to the banks every month…
H.4.1 report had reserves up at >3.4T and IOR is 4.40% so that is approx 12b per month of capital flowing to banks every month … 40b divided by 12b per month = 3.333 months. So in a bit over 3 months the banks will have been given the additional capital to potentially support a TGA drawdown to 50b …
With the Huge tax drains approaching in April. We are about to head into a period of at least fiscal balance as taxes are paid (maybe even a budget surplus) … so if they can stabilise TGA here for 3 months then banks might have near the additional 40b of additional capital they need by then that they will need to cover an additional 400b of reserve flow from the TGA account.
So they could stabilise here at the current 10% drop in equities level for a while if TGA account stabilises…
Then quickly recover this 10% drop in the markets when the debt ceiling is raised by the budget going through the house (allowing restart of reserve asset “drains!”) and Fed starts to cut rates in May or June (increasing all bank asset NPVs and capital) …
Because that’s all government borrowing is – A reserve drain.
It moves reserves into treasuries and takes the pressure off the banks to meet the capital and regulatory requirements since Basel.
What’s been happening during the debt ceiling farce is the banks have been choking on reserves stuffed down their throats from the TGA account and thus has dramatically slowed down bank lending. As they struggle to raise capital and meet the regulatory requirements.
They are Not out of the woods yet but maybe some relief from the constant liquidation on the way due to the typical fiscal calendar seasonality…. The Huge April tax drain will help that removes $’s from the system.
Bank residual rose $54,6 bln to a new high in the three weeks ended March 5, so they’re looking better.
They need to resolve the debt ceiling farce ASAP.
Reserve balances are at the highest level in nine months and the market is tanking. Can anyone connect the dots yet?
For those who want to improve their knowledge. Explained in layman terms
Here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P_cjWzAKbjc

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Apr 14 2025 8:13 utc | 57

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 1:13 utc | 45
If you have bothered to read Karlof1 fantastic work, you would have read a reader comment which he shared.
The comment was about the skilled workforce required takes 3 generations to get to the stage where it no longer just copies but create new and better products.
Posted by: Suresh | Apr 14 2025 7:50 utc | 55
In short what I have been saying for 3 years on here . Conservatives and right wing ideologues think They can move people around the economy like ignots of steel.
I was at a heart of a debate once regarding the SNP policy debate of removing tridant from Scotland. Very few people understood it. Brainwashed by the school gates 90% of the people involved thought the difficult part was finding the money. When that is the extremely easy part using an index finger and a computer keyboard. What are you going to do with your skills and real resources are the difficult part as you can very quickly run out of both.
Nobody knows how much Trident will cost in monetary terms. Ever wondered why?
That is what is so revealing about debates over military spending. When the chips are down the numbers become irrelevant. Not one government minister anywhere has ever said that they can’t bomb Baghdad, Bazra or the Balkans because they don’t have the budget.
Lunatics still believe the tax payer money myth.
Of course that is because the numbers are indeed largely irrelevant for all government spending. In fact the numbers have become a mechanism in debates to avoid talking about the substance of government intervention in the economy — what the government proposes to use resources for, where it is going to get those resources from, and what the alternative uses are for those resources.
But we can never get there because idiots and evil people brainwash people by saying – How are we going to pay for it.
The truth is – Whatever is required to get the job done will be procured and placed at the disposal of the project. The cost, as with any government intervention, has nothing to do with money. If it is available for sale in the government’s denomination, then the government can always purchase it — whether that is missile systems or social housing. And, if it wants to, it can set the price in its own currency — simply by banning or restricting alternative uses of those real resources until it gets what it needs.
You see this all the time when a country is at war, but people express surprise when you suggest it at other times. Because 90% of people are stupid.
The REAL cost is, of course, the people ( skills) and resources required to create and build the submarines, crew the submarines and the ancillary services and suppliers that feed into the process. The unions representing these workers rightly asked what else these people would be doing instead if Trident was not renewed, and there were very few answers to be had on that point in the debate. MPs opposed to Trident failed to make any reasonable case for alternative engagements for lost jobs.
Most MPs opposing the motion talked in terms of money, about how the money could be spent on the NHS, social care, or housing. But again the use of figures masked the actual problem. Since money is keystroked into existence anyway the NHS, social care, or housing can be funded anyway. Regardless of trident.
The ship builders on the Clyde, or in Barrow don’t get up in the morning and think “today I’ll be a doctor”. The Navy staff don’t decide that they will build houses on a Thursday instead of piloting boats. It’s a ridiculous notion, and one that was rightly dismissed by the unions as hand-waving.
But it shows how ill-informed our representatives are about the way government spending works. They implicitly rely upon the magic of the market to provide ship builders, navy crew and parts manufacturers with alternative orders and engagements. They assume that people are mutable between professions at the snap of a finger.
Trump is doing that right now with tariffs. A snap of a finger and all these skills will come back to America.
It was down to Scottish National MPs to make an actual case. The engineers engaged in Trident could perhaps be used to create more wind farms, or renew other Navy vessels instead of Trident. But it didn’t seem to be at the scale or intensity require to replace the whole of the Trident proposal.
Those opposing Trident failed to win the argument on that point alone. They really had no alternative plan for the people working in the industries. And that always seems to be the case. When government lays people off, there is never a list of private sector employers sat there with cheque books at the ready. Even outsourcing’s open secret is that it is really a way for government to fire people without getting their hands dirty.
Regardless what the lunatic right wing free marketeers say. They always talk shite anyway.
Government never seems to realise that the only way it can fire people is if they are hired and retained by the private sector. If that doesn’t happen then government just goes from paying people to do something, to paying people to do nothing. Hardly sensible.
The Thatcher and Reagan ancient right wing texts that hollowed out communities and towns and turned rural areas into deserts. People are so stupid and brainwashed that the rural areas have the biggest right wing vote.
So we have learnt a great deal from this debate:
1. when the chips are down numbers become irrelevant to a government, because they are largely irrelevant. Government spending is a matter of people and stuff. Always is. Always will be.
2. numbers are used by both libtards and fascists as a way of avoiding the difficult questions relating to real people and alternative uses.
3. government is very willing to deploy vast quantities of people and resources on a huge white elephant project, but refuses to do so on anything more useful to mankind. They just love war.
Now It is time to break down the frame of numbers. It is time to refuse to speak in terms of numbers, and start talking only in terms of people and resources required to get things done. That way we can avoid the nonsense of pretending submarine crew can become surgeons overnight. We can address the actual shortage of skilled staff without believing they will magically pop into being just because you’ve taxed some rich people.
And we can debate the actual use of the nation’s skills and real resources and ask if what people are currently doing is actually the best thing they could be doing.
If the debate can ever get there the right will lose that debate by a HUGE majority of the population voting for things that improve their lives rather than just bank lending for businesses. The corporate sector and oligarichs.
Once the population understand their taxes fund nothing. The right will become irrelevant. Why of course the right cling onto the tax payer money myths, deficit myths and debt myths like children holding onto their comfort blankets.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Apr 14 2025 8:56 utc | 59

During the whole debt ceiling farce the banks have been using the Overnight (O/N) Reserve Repo facility (O/N RRP) to try and move the reserves from the their balance sheets to stop themselves choking on them.
Over 120b a month in some cases.
It’s imperative that they can start drawing the reserves again by issuing treasuries and the debt ceiling gets sorted out ASAP.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Apr 14 2025 10:42 utc | 61

He added cryptically that while Oman will continue to act as mediator in the upcoming round on April 19, the venue for the next session may change.
MORE…
https://www.indianpunchline.com/us-iran-take-a-leap-forward-in-trust-building/
Posted by: Menz | Apr 14 2025 5:14 utc | 51
The venue was changed to Rome at the US request.
Middle East Spectator – MES
— ❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷/🇮🇹 NEW: The next round of US-Iran talks will take place in Rome, Italy, after the U.S. requested a change of venue
The change in location was made due to ‘political and practical’ reasons, according to sources. Reportedly, the United States did not like the ‘symbolism’ of having to travel all the way to Oman, a country near Iran.
Additionally, dialogue is expected to intensify in the next few weeks, with possible direct negotiations coming up, and the flight time from Washington to Muscat would be too long for frequent discussions.

Posted by: Mary | Apr 14 2025 11:14 utc | 63

As our Never Again Great Britain finally rediscovers ‘nationalisation’ of a vital industry through the ‘saving’ of the last steel furnace – the supposed ‘socialist’ sir kyivStarmztrooper and his wholly compromised neoliberal neocon government, refuses to do the same for the nations capitals water supply!
Happy to leave it in the hands of his ZioBanker hedge fund masters and owners, collecting rent from Brits and sending it off-shore! What’s left of it.
How did we get here? From the glorious world envious public services and safety nets of postwar Britain? Not austentatious just fair, affordable or free at the point of need to the full on return to the have-have not era of Victorian and Edwardian ages – when the jumped up proles knew their place?
I have long alluded to that mental self rechaining that was unleashed at government level openly by Thatcher (having been set up traitorously by the preceding Labour moles …
The preparation started earlier.
The authors of one of the cultural brainwashing TeeVee series has finally demised.
There were many such strands whch were reinforced ever since.
That is ‘How the hell did we get here?’ – the retrenchment of socialism and democracy used cultural propaganda via Telly addiction to get the lumpen masses to let the elitists back into the house.
It has led the majority back ‘below the stairs’ as forever willing masochistic class victims raising the current kids and grand kids to servility of the rich and propertied ; leaving themselves poor but ‘happy’.
“ Upstairs Downstairs is said to have partly inspired the Downton Abbey series and was later revived and reimagined by the BBC in 2010. Marsh became the only original cast member to return, portraying the same role in five episodes.
Asked by the Daily Telegraph in 2010 why viewers appeared to be so interested in master-and-servant dramas, Marsh said: “We still seem to want it because if you rose out of your class, you knew you had done well. And we like it because the past is not as worrying as the news.”
‘ Upstairs Downstairs actress Jean Marsh dies aged 90 ‘
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c045dk29xqqo
Voila! from missing being dumb butlers and maids to loving costume dramas and believing yourselves to be flamboyant rich lusty gentlemen and wholesome girly prizes.
That is how the old raised its rotten claws from the grave and grasped free Britons and pulled us under into their blood sucking , man eating world.
Serfs Again!

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 14 2025 11:21 utc | 65

Ecuador election – son of country’s richest man wins presented in western press as support for his anti drug campaign.
Demand for recount ignored. No shenanigans, thanks Monroe

Posted by: Polli | Apr 14 2025 11:59 utc | 67

Sorry this is too delicious not to repost from the old Palestine thread now.
This is the c**t who was hanging around wasrael morgues tryouts by to make dead burnt babies at the begining.
No new thread?
This is too delicious to be left standing.
‘ 📹 THROWBACK: Hardcore Zionist Douglas Murray says ‘WESTERN CIVILIZATION WOULD DIE’ without Israel
“Western civilization could not survive the destruction of the Jewish state because it would be, among much else, the cutting away of the whole tree that we’re on,” Murray claims.
He says that the Jewish people are now facing “the existential threat,” which is “not just about the Jewish people” but “it’s about America.”
“Could America survive if the Jewish people were no more on its watch? Or if everybody was forcibly deported from the Holy Land? Come on, of course not,” the British journalist concluded. ‘
https://t.me/geopolitics_live/48309
—————-
Please please do you promise Duggy?
Will you shrivel and melt too!
Please tell me that is so.
And hurry up doing it.
PS Yo Ho Ho HasbaRats!
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 14 2025 12:47 utc | 69

Dont like the DJT agenda ? Move to the UK and Ireland….see how that works for you sparky!!

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 12:59 utc | 71

@tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 12:57 utc | 71
You really are clueless; ignorantly and nonsensically clueless.
Humbly suggest you hop back up on your Honda50 to the nearest library and do some reading. I usually ignore your posts but this comment is so ludicrous that I feel compelled to mark you as a fool in the bar to be avoided.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Apr 14 2025 13:22 utc | 73

@Posted by: Mark Rutte | Apr 14 2025 8:54 utc | 58
The whole list is just utter bullshit, the poster needs a psychiatrist for treatment with schizophrenia.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Apr 14 2025 13:28 utc | 75

Forbes. “Trump Responds To Russia’s Deadly Attack On Ukraine’s Sumy, Which Killed At Least 34 People”

Do you have a reaction to Russia’s Palm Sunday attack?
I think it was terrible, and I was told they made a mistake,
but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing.
I think the war is, for that war to have started, is an abuse of power.
This country would have never allowed that war to have started if I were president.
That war is a shame. Millions of people are dead that should be alive.
The cities are being destroyed all over Ukraine.
The whole culture is gone. It’s certainly very severely hurt.
You know, the chapels, the churches, the spirals,
all of the things that they had in Ukraine were among the most beautiful anywhere in the world.
Most of them were knocked down and blown up into a million pieces.
But most importantly, you have millions of people dead that shouldn’t be dead.
Think of it. Think of what a rigged election means.
We would have had absolutely—we wouldn’t have had the war in Ukraine.
We wouldn’t have had the Russia-Ukraine situation.
We wouldn’t have had October 7th, Israel, the Middle East.
We wouldn’t have had inflation.
We wouldn’t have had the most embarrassing day or period in the history of our country.
That’s Afghanistan, one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of our country, Afghanistan.
All of these things wouldn’t have taken place.
Think of it. We wouldn’t have had inflation.
But millions of people would be alive except for the fact that the election were rigged
because that war would have never started, and Putin never would have started that war.
Okay, any other questions?
When you say they made a mistake in the attack, you said they made a mistake—you were told they made a mistake.
Do you mean it was unintentional?
They made a mistake. I believe it was—look, you’re going to ask them.
This is Biden’s war. This is not my war.
I’ve been here for a very short period of time.
This is a war that was under Biden.
He gave him billions and billions of dollars.
He should have never allowed—if he had any brain, which he didn’t have and doesn’t have,
and now it’s being proven, he wouldn’t have allowed that war to start.
I would have absolutely not—that war would never have taken place.
But remember this. This is Biden’s war.
I’m just trying to get it stopped so that we can save a lot of lives.
They happen to be Ukrainian and Russian lives.
But all I want to do is get it stopped.
Mr. Witkoff, sir, did you meet with Mr. Witkoff today? (forbes)

The question becomes: who in the White House is giving the President false information or, at the very least, omitting information?

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 14 2025 14:10 utc | 77

Ireland needs to get out of the EU …
Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 12:57 utc | 71

If Ireland ever left the EU, their value as a tax haven is lost … and Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft would skedaddle. On the other hand … the Germans might dance a jig.

Posted by: Tel | Apr 14 2025 14:24 utc | 79

Passerby@78…..what info was withheld from President Trump? What the actual target was? Moot. He very skillfully tip towed through a minefield……he said, not nice, it’s a war, it was an accident (diplomacy at work) he’s sad about all the death, wants it stopped…..oh, Biden bad…..
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 14 2025 14:53 utc | 81

This is an utter ass-licking report by the Whitehouse doctor – the Zionist monster had this to say of on his medical – “Overall, I felt I was in very good shape. A good heart, a good soul, a very good soul,”
“US President Donald Trump remains in “excellent cognitive and physical health,” White House physician Captain Sean Barbabella has said.
On Friday, Trump underwent the first physical of his second presidential term at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, which included a five-hour medical examination, blood work and a cognitive test.
The results of the check-up have shown the 78-year-old president to be “fully fit” for the job, Barbabella said in a memorandum on Sunday.
”President Trump remains in excellent health, exhibiting robust cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and general physical function,” the memo read.
The US leader’s “active lifestyle,” which includes meetings, public appearances and “frequent victories in golf events,” has contributed significantly to his well-being, the doctor stressed.
Trump currently weighs 224 pounds (101.6kg) and is 75 inches (190cm) tall. His resting heart rate is 62 beats per minute and his blood pressure is 128/74 mmHg”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 14 2025 15:11 utc | 83

China to us
“do you want skynet? That’s how you get skynet”
Uncontrolled AI growth in US could doom humanity — Chinese ambassador
Zhang Hanhui stressed that China regards security as a fundamental principle of AI development, “emphasizing the priority of ethical norms and the need to keep AI under control”
https://tass.com/world/1943151

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 14 2025 15:19 utc | 85

It amazes me, that the Algerian authorities even let French officials into Algeria – after what the French have done to the country and its people over the decades.
“Diplomatic tension has risen between Algeria and France as the former colony calls on 12 French diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot reported on Monday that Algeria has demanded the French diplomats leave the country following the arrest of three Algerian nationals in France,
For decades, ties between Algeria and France have gone through several diplomatic upheavals, and Monday’s announcement comes at a sensitive time in relations and shows difficulties in repairing ties.
“I am asking Algerian authorities to abandon these expulsion measures,” Barrot said, adding, “If the decision to send back our officials is maintained, we will have no other choice but to respond immediately.””

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 14 2025 15:26 utc | 87

“Diplomatic tension has risen between Algeria and France as the former colony calls on 12 French diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 14 2025 15:26 utc | 88
Meanwhile Algeria already has su-35
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/satellite-footage-confirms-su35-algerian-base
Not that with a full complement of RF AD (including s400) and good fighter (even good old mig-25 foxbat) algeria was ever less than near peer even for the full nato complement
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/us-training-fight-algeria-drills-attack-s400

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 14 2025 15:42 utc | 89

I’m not sure the connotations of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations are particularly positive at the moment.
The lone T-34 was a nadir, but it’s not like anyone is serious impressed by Putin’s war machine any longer. We’ve seen all that kit in action, we know how it works.

Posted by: acur | Apr 14 2025 15:45 utc | 91

Mark2 75 – So the FF/FG Irish coalition government is right wing? Really !
Lets see now fascist, but certainly not right wing, and by right wing I assume you mean conservative.
You refuted not one thing I stated in 71, not one.
This FF/FG government has jailed school teachers for expressing pro Christian opinions, censored social media and all media, used lawfare to limit Presidential choices in this years election, threatened priests and nuns with arrest for celebration of the Catholic mass and for prayers for the unborn human beings being murdered at abortion “clinics”, sold out to green communists destroying the Irish power grid, attacked farmers and fisherman for their trade and put down their lawful protests, allowed the Irish air corps to be non-existent and dependent on of all forces the RAF (yup the same folks who wantonly murdered Irish citizens for centuries), actually constructed a memorial to the fascist Kevin O’Higgins and the Brit troops who murdered folks in Cork and Dublin………..shut down Irish power plants, Irish coal mines, Irish fish factories……..sure sounds like commofascism to most folks…..

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 19:01 utc | 93

The Trump admin’s rejection of due process and stubborn refusal to correct a mistake is extremely concerning and has the appearance of a deliberate strategy to set precedents which will undermine Constitutional protections. This is referring to the man who, despite being a legal resident of the United States, was abducted by federal agents and delivered to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
While the administration concedes this man was detained due to “administrative error” and flown out of the country in defiance of a court order, the official position is now one of indifference to his predicament as government lawyers argue in court that there is no legal requirement the situation be remedied. Meanwhile, the leader of El Salvador, ahead of a meeting in Washington with Trump, declared the man to be a “terrorist” and signalled that any further legal judgments or court orders from the U.S. would be ignored. The Trump administration appears to support this rejection of due process.
In this way, El Salvador is effectively volunteering to make itself the new Guantanamo Bay. Trump himself has already floated the concept that incarcerated American citizens could be shipped to prisons in countries such as El Salvador, setting another previously unthinkable precedent. Seen alongside concurrent efforts to create government task forces to enforce decreed limits to speech, it can be accurately asserted that this administration is determined to upend basic Constitutional protections. It will be interesting to see the extent the “freedom and liberty” MAGA constituency will accept and defend these practices.

Posted by: jayc | Apr 14 2025 19:11 utc | 95

Going Underground, with Prof James Galbraith (corrected url)
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/615663-russian-economy-sanctions-transformation/

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 14 2025 19:13 utc | 97

@tobias cole | Apr 14 2025 19:01 utc | 94 & 97
Total nonsense dear boy … you really are incorrigible …
Remind me again – when did the RAF bomb Ireland?
Dublin/Monaghan atrocity in 1974 was organised by British Military Intelligence in Northern Ireland, using Loyalist proxies, with the approval of the British PM of the time to force Irish government to make certain legislative changes – the legislative changes ensued.
MI6 were contentedly drinking rakes of pints in Dublin at the time and chasing fine lookin Irish women down in Leeson Street at the time – a comfort posting.
The rest of your nonsense is not worth commenting on – have you read Edward Lear?

Posted by: Don Firineach | Apr 14 2025 20:02 utc | 99