The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-161

Repost:
lots to unpack in this article, they are getting ready to loot….
KKR: Don’t Hedge Risk Assets with Government Bonds’
The alternatives manager has shifted its view on the impact of U.S. national debt.
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/kkr-dont-hedge-risk-assets-government-bonds

Posted by: Exile | Jul 20 2025 13:16 utc | 1

More on the impact of Epstein.
The MAGA split seems to be widening. Rage over the predations of the ruling class is gaining momentum. The deep and pervasive involvement of the entire ruling class has now burst into the public consciousness; heretofore it was well-hidden, now its all out there for everyone to see.
“I don’t want to be ruled by these people”. That’s Tucker Carlson’s reaction, for the benefit of 4.3 million subscribers, during his 2-hour interview with Darryl Cooper.
Cooper’s testimony is measured, thorough and authoritative. Cites facts, tells the full story of the relation of Attorney General Barr, Epstein, Robert Maxwell. Cooper explains that Epstein’s core function was to move money invisibly; his second genius was to learn the art of blackmail, and his last genius was to build a system for entrapment of vulnerable political figures.
At one point in the interview, Cooper asks “Is there anyone in the upper reaches of Government that’s not one degree of separation away from Epstein?”.
The Epstein debacle has forced middle America to confront the _actual nature_ of their rulers. These predators are accurately cast as totally amoral, sick, relentless monsters devouring us from within.
Remember, this well-crafted delivery was presented to 4.3 million viewers. It’s as direct, shocking and sickening a spectacle as has ever been thrust upon the trusting and naive Americans in living memory.
I don’t see a way for Trump, the Deep State, the Rulers et. al. to keep a lid on this. The controlled fury of Cooper is a bellwether.
So B, I don’t see this as a “distraction” from other world-events. This is a direct hit to the credibility and what remains of the trust Americans have in their leaders.
I can’t see this issue going away; it’s too salacious, too illuminating, too pervasive to ignore. As it intensifies it may well be the factor that takes down what remains of Trump’s presidency.
But the damage won’t be confined to Trump’s presidency. Each faction of the Deep State is fully involved, and this on-full-display predatory behavior is what many, maybe most MAGA adherents despise most about their government.
Repeat Tucker’s statement: “I don’t want these people as rulers”.
He’s painting with a very broad brush; listen again to Cooper:
“Is there anyone in the upper reaches of Government that’s not one degree of separation away from Epstein?”.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Jul 20 2025 14:22 utc | 2

Tom Pfotzer | Jul 20 2025 14:22 utc | 3
I appreciate your report. I strongly agree with your contention that “Epstein’s List” is no mere distraction. The Epstein pathology suppurates at the very core of metastacized neoliberal depravity — the global cancer.
Illuminati onboard the Lolita Express include prominent Dims & Repubs, US Americans and Europeans, artists and intellectuals of all (pedophilic) stripes. So-called leaders throughout media & academia, biz & gov, have been neck-deep in child-rape for decades. It’s the icing on the cake of the intergenerational predation which defines our depraved times. Someone left the cake out in the rain.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 20 2025 14:54 utc | 3

Take with a huge grain of Daily Mail salt, but the rumor mill has JD Vance being put in charge and Trump retired shortly.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14921809/JD-Vance-trip-Rupert-Murdoch-Montana-ranch.html

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 20 2025 15:01 utc | 4

thanks b! thanks everyone here too…
@ Tom Pfotzer | Jul 20 2025 14:22 utc | 3
i think that is the concern.. the whole edifice can come crashing down if there is no separation between the leadership and epstein…

Posted by: james | Jul 20 2025 15:45 utc | 5

Re: The Russiagate investigation and Taibbi –
Matt is playing to his base by giving them the red meat they want. Unfortunately, and I say this both due to my personal opinion and in relation to his sure-to-be-disappointed audience, SCOTUS recently ruled that a sitting president cannot be charged for anything he did while in office. One must presume that this covers past sitting presidents for things they did while in office. Trump is old enough to probably not care, and he’s made of teflon anyway (depending on what happens with Epstein). So he is probably fine with breaking precedent and charging Obama with high crimes including treason; but will the rest of the political overworld be OK with this? It opens the door for a whole new reality in terms of presidential accountability – barring, of course – that SCOTUS decision.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 20 2025 16:07 utc | 6

I repeat that initiation rites is a normal component of creating handles on members in secret societies handling sensitive tasks that matter to the functioning of the oligarchies power. It isnt just about people happening to be depraved.
I abstain from sharing examples of what such initiation rites may consist in. The examples I have read are about prominent people who take part in very ugly acts just because that provides an effective handle on those involved.
The oligarchies collective lojalty is supposedly secured in that way.
I am not suggesting Epstein would be mainly organising such cases but the machinery he uses would be convenient so I make the guess that it is used for the more severe applications as well.
By encouraging depraved peoples urges this machinery is simultaneously trimmed like you trim an engine to make it runs smoothly when it is needed.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jul 20 2025 16:13 utc | 7

The reappearance of Russiagate is an obvious distraction from Epstein.
Going after Obama is “playing the oldies,” and Trump always resorts to stuff to fire up the Boomers.
To cover his butt on Epstein, he has to sabotage any progress that was made with Russian relations.
The cannibalism of his second term within a year.
As the Empire winds down, we will see more and more of this.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 20 2025 16:16 utc | 8

China announces a major uranium ore find buried very deep underground, “China discovers world’s deepest industrial sandstone-type uranium mineralization in Xinjiang’s Tarim Basin”, which IMO is quite remarkable. China’s prospecting for resource deposits buried deep under the sea floor and under deserts has produced results very few expected.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 20 2025 16:20 utc | 9

@ walt
Been a while since Unz has posted a good wwii revisionist essay for us to enjoy.
The way I see it, the U.S. can either be woken up by complete economic collapse with the accompanying looting by the usual suspects as they run out the door, or it can awake by galvanizing against the ideology of global hegemony, principally accomplished by understanding the truth about wwii and the U.S.’s role after.
Look forward to reading your offering.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 20 2025 16:52 utc | 10

Look forward to reading your offering.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 20 2025 16:52 utc | 12
It’s already up at Walt’s Substack (linked by him). I think he was just saying that Unz plans to RE-publish it on his site later today. ICYMI.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 20 2025 16:55 utc | 11

The Hudson essay is long but very useful for those unsure of how we got to our current dilemma and the potential way out. Standing together in solidarity and not wavering in the face of Trump’s Trade/Tariff War while creating parallel international institutions that bypass Imperial control is the winning strategy. One other major event will need to be the joint renunciation of odious debt by the many nations so afflicted. Again, the key is acting together.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 20 2025 17:15 utc | 12

“Europe died in Gaza – Thomas Fazi”
Nice contrast between western reaction to Russia in Ukraine vs it’s reaction to Israeli genocide of Palestine. This is a good model for explaining the current geopolitical reality to beginners. Memorize it and repeat to anyone that wishes to know more.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 20 2025 17:20 utc | 13

Carney’s Canada Corner:
PM Tells Chiefs ‘No Amendments’ to Bill C5
https://x.com/SeanCarleton/status/1946381195438117148
“Canada has abandoned the path of reconciliation and nation-to-nation building in favour of a continuation of ruthless settler capitalism disguised as ‘elbows-up’ nationalism. This isn’t going to end well.”
Redacted: ‘What is he Trying To Hide?’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5gjOHHkeqA
“Canada’s Mark Carney has some explaining to do.”
#1194 Conflict Con Carney
https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/1194-conflict-con-carney/
“Carney’s sprawling ethics screens cover over 100 companies and reveals the details of what went into his blind trust. Did he lie to Canadians about his conflicts of interest?”

Posted by: JohnGilberts | Jul 20 2025 17:25 utc | 14

“Netherlands rations electricity to ease power grid stresses (archived) – FT”
Nearly identical situation in California including peak hours restrictions and TV propaganda. It’s a western problem, not merely something in the Netherlands. However, as a European country, they are likely harder pressed by the forced elimination of cheap Russian gas.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 20 2025 17:27 utc | 15

Larry Johnson’s essay from last night is also a must read, “The CIA Initiated an Intelligence and Terrorist War on Russia Based on a Lie”.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 20 2025 17:39 utc | 16

This is worthy reading from Adam Tooze https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-397-dollar-trap-or-empire?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=192845&post_id=167048072&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2rylou&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The post concerns the net international investment position of the US economy, which is currently estimated at twenty trillion in the red. As a percentage of GDP (net foreign asset position) has persistently trended down, Tooze reports

In the first quarter of 2025, according to data recently released by US BEA, America’s net international investment position currently stands at negative $24.61 trillion i.e. US liabilities to foreigners exceed US claims on the rest of the world to the tune of 90 percent of US GDP.

But Tooze cites data to show this cannot be due solely to current account deficits, as those diminished in the 2010s even as the NFA position deteriorated. He quotes the conclusion that a major part of this was increasing foreign purchases of US equities whose returns were unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Since foreign investors own roughly 30 percent of the US corporate sector, their share of the increased profitability of this sector corresponds to an annual flow of about 1.3 percent of US GDP.

Tooze himself says

We talk as though the rest of the world as a collectivity suffers the unequal terms of trade implied by America’s exorbitant privilege. It is often said that the “safe asset” status of US Treasuries is ultimately grounded in America’s national military power. Both claims have an element of truth to them. But as Atkeson et al remind us, global investors flock to the United States not simply because the United States supplies protection, or serves as a unique issuer of “safe assets”, but because investing in America offers outsized returns thanks to the country’s lop-sided domestic political economy. America is a great place for corporates to make profit and that is ultimately what attracts investors and accounts for a large part of America’s net foreign liabilities. Managers of foreign capital enthusiastically buy into the American profits bonanza.

Tooze is hesitant to reach many conclusions, but the article itself is well worth reading.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 20 2025 17:55 utc | 17

Outlaw Empire financing
Mike Benz lays out in detail how he thinks the system has been working to finance and negotiate “projects” which did not or would not pass broader institutional scrutiny or approval because they do not serve the national interest. (Bechtel Iraq pipeline, Iran Contra, etc)
“Financial Fixers” and “Cooperative Contacts” are categories used by the relevant rogue agency for the players and they do not require 201 form filings documenting them as agents and assets. So the wrong question is being asked to elucidate the network functioning in Benz’ opinion. It is not was Epstein an asset but what were his dealings with the agency.
Benz provides what he thinks needs to be asked by a special prosecutor.
According to Benz this system of covert ‘private’ funding of projects began shortly after the agency was founded by Truman. He gives a 1950 example. And then after the Church commission’s investigation of the agency’s covert activities in the 1970s, Jimmy Carter imposed some tougher rules which were quickly circumvented by the blob in the 1980s.
Short take. Epstein was a financial fixer who relied on others to do the details of the deals. His role was to be an irresistible socialite who brought the monied and status elite together for romping, often degenerate, “fun” while providing posh settings for secret financial deals.
Benz sees the big picture as a network of rogue private financing of projects not in the interest of the national state but desired by a group of actors who personally and or ideologically benefit and who have or can acquire, ahem, the money to pay.
Children and young people are used, abused and discarded in the process as enticements, treats, and if necessary leverage. Disgusting.
~~
Here is a link to Mike Benz’ presentation, “A different way to understand Jeffrey Epstein.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9yKdvNsOQs
This link was provided by JohnGilberts | Jul 20 2025 2:18 utc | 241
last night. (I listened to it on fast speed.)

Posted by: suzan | Jul 20 2025 18:01 utc | 18

Walt | Jul 20 2025 13:49 utc | 2
That’s a magisterial reference, thank you. One sees the deeply blooded hand of Churchill in that second war, but this was outside the scope of your essay.
Zooming out, I would only add that it seems most true of all to me that “every war is a banker’s war” and that the Rothschild matriarch was correct when she said that “the next war will start when my sons decide it will start.”
Given this, one can very easily regard the totality of Zionism as an Op, and a Rothschild one at that.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 20 2025 18:12 utc | 19

karlof1 | Jul 20 2025 17:39 utc | 18
That’s an excellent piece of work by Larry Johnson – thank you, I would have missed it.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 20 2025 18:14 utc | 20

@ Ahenobarbus | Jul 20 2025 17:20 utc | 15
i posted that link here at moa earlier in the week, along with the link to benz that wagelabour had first shared ( which suzan highlights), also earlier in the week.. glad to see people appreciating both… now i will check out the link to larry johnson that karlof1 has shared..

Posted by: james | Jul 20 2025 18:23 utc | 21

MOATS with George Galloway: Ghost Story [MUST HEAR]
https://x.com/georgegalloway/status/1946992812970688805
‘Some ghosts don’t stay buried – and one of them is named Jeffrey Epstein.’
With Afshin Rattansi & Scott Ritter.

Posted by: JohnGilberts | Jul 20 2025 18:36 utc | 22

Peter Hitchens: from the link above –
“I’m not going over all this again, except to defy liars by pointing out that I condemned the Russian invasion from the start and still do. What I also said was that Ukraine was being used by others, who did not care about the country or its people.
They turned it into a battering ram, so they could have a war with Russia without actually fighting themselves.
I rather think events have proved my point.
The last thing we need now is to pour petrol on the glowing embers of the stupidest war in modern history.”
I read Hitchens. One of my go-to ‘Conservatives’ – [back in in time a great interview with William Buckley on uTube] rarely agree but he has been consistent on Ukraine madness from its beginning …

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 18:45 utc | 23

Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
Abstract
CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE HEADING TOWARD A WAR NEITHER WANTS. The reason is Thucydides’s Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one. This phenomenon is as old as history itself. About the Peloponnesian War that devastated ancient Greece, the historian Thucydides explained: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” Over the past 500 years, these conditions have occurred sixteen times. War broke out in twelve of them. Today, as an unstoppable China approaches an immovable America and both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump promise to make their countries “great again,” the seventeenth case looks grim. Unless China is willing to scale back its ambitions or Washington can accept becoming number two in the Pacific, a trade conflict, cyberattack, or accident at sea could soon escalate into all-out war. In Destined for War, the eminent Harvard scholar Graham Allison explains why Thucydides’s Trap is the best lens for understanding U.S.-China relations in the twenty-first century. Through uncanny historical parallels and war scenarios, he shows how close we are to the unthinkable. Yet, stressing that war is not inevitable, Allison also reveals how clashing powers have kept the peace in the past — and what painful steps the United States and China must take to avoid disaster today
Citation
Allison, Graham. Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 18:56 utc | 24

Tuned in to this earlier in week – with Glen Diesen – Recommended
Michael Hudson: Today’s Civilizational Conflict – Naked Capitalism

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 18:58 utc | 25

@ Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 18:45 utc | 25
what ”from the link above” are you referencing?? thanks.. it’s not obvious to me!

Posted by: james | Jul 20 2025 18:59 utc | 26

LIVE – Interlude – Salmon and Bears & Birds – river sounds –
Brooks Falls – Katmai National Park, Alaska 2025 powered by EXPLORE.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73-EekdVVU8

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 19:07 utc | 27

@james | Jul 20 2025 18:59 utc | 28
From the links posted by ‘b’ above – I prob should also have linked to it.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 19:09 utc | 28

– PETER HITCHENS: Ukraine’s the stupidest war in modern history. Darkness is closing in (archived) – Mail on Sunday

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 19:11 utc | 29

lol i see it now don.. his name at the beginning of the link not at the end.. thanks.

Posted by: james | Jul 20 2025 19:13 utc | 30

@ Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 19:11 utc | 31
i imagine most people see it as a very stupid war, or more generally that war is a really horrible past time that is of no benefit to anyone..

Posted by: james | Jul 20 2025 19:18 utc | 31

almost no one..

Posted by: james | Jul 20 2025 19:19 utc | 32

Notions …
“To Brussels, these sanctions serve a higher purpose: a line drawn in the sand, a signal of resolve in the face of aggression. They are framed not just as economic tools, but as moral imperatives. But” ‡
“I’m not going over all this again, except to defy liars by pointing out that I condemned the Russian invasion from the start and still do. Wha”‡
O o

The CIA and its foreign allies were cross-fertilizing intelligence

“China started large-scale island building in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands in late 2013.”
“In 1996, before China could threaten American aircraft carriers, President Clinton sent two US Navy CSG into the Taiwan Strait as the PLA was conducting missile tests to sway Taiwan’s presidential election. Out-“‡
Flashback: “The CIA and its foreign allies were cross-fertilizing intelligence”
“-flexed by the US Navy CSGs, China’s intimidation tactics failed with President Lee Teng-hui, the despised “separatist,” handily winning reelection.”
“These sanctions—initially opposed by President Obama and the Clinton State Department, which knew Browder’s checkered history and was skeptical of his tale— helped kick off Cold War 2.0.” … ‡
The rest is `history’.

Posted by: Laurence | Jul 20 2025 19:21 utc | 33

@Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 20 2025 17:55 utc | 19
I recently did a post on this here. The US has run a very large net debtor position for quite a while (accelerating recently) but its investments abroad earned a greater return than foreigners investments in the US (much of which was in US Treasuries) allowing it to continue to run an investment income surplus. But that reversed last year, with the US running an investment income deficit for the first time.
The other negative is the foreign aid budget which sends dollars abroad, which has now been slashed by the Trump administration. Also the foreign military aid to Ukraine got slashed and now Trump wants Europe to pay. With a 7% budget deficit and a 4% current account deficit, the administration needs to reduce outflows as much as possible and keep inflows coming. That means making the US as attractive to foreign investors as possible and driving down demand for imports. Its a very thin line that the administration will have to skate on as long as they refuse real domestic austerity (i.e. cutting the budget deficit). QE will just suck in imports and be very toxic for the US$. Short of another EU debt crisis, the circle cannot be squared for very long. Next will come massive bullying to allies to pay more for foreign US bases, and if that doesn’t work closures of foreign US bases.
I am in the middle of writing a piece on the replacement of Trump with Vance, which to me is looking more and more probable. Trump has served his purpose and is now becoming more and more politically toxic as well as unpredictable. The Murdoch Empire (Wall Street Journal, NY Daily post, Fox News) turning on him is a big tell.
Also my latest quarterly update on the global car market in Asia and Africa here

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:30 utc | 34

@Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:30 utc | 36
Incorrect second link, here is the correct one.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:33 utc | 35

@Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 18:56 utc | 26
The Thucydides trap is based on an utterly ignorant reading of history by realist international relations scholars. From my own unpublished book:
“One such example [of universalist ahistorical IR theories] is the Thucydides Trap, recently utilized by the realist scholar Allison (2017) to represent the fundamental dynamic between China and the US. This relies upon the assumption that a small-scale war in a then back-water of the world (ancient Greece) two millennia ago is universally relevant to the present. It also relies upon a somewhat simplistic reading of Thucydides, an author that may in fact be a highly unreliable narrator (Podoksik 2005) and events that are open to significant scholarly disagreement – especially over which state actually started the war and why (Dickins 1911; Tannenbaum 1975; Bagby 1994; Kagan 2013).”
In an interview given as part of his book tour, Graham admitted that he had never researched the politics and history of China.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:40 utc | 36

Follow the post office scandal in the UK. Exactly the same happened here in Australia with the Robodebt debacle. The bureaucratic managers responsible for the execution and cover up get promoted (after all they performed well in the roles they were appointed to play), while the wreckage is incalculable. Walter Benjamin’s thesis IX never ceases to be true.
This why I can’t face the world anymore and remain sane. So goddam awful everywhere one turns… the triumph of death.

Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 20 2025 19:51 utc | 37

@ Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:40 utc | 38
Point taken Roger.
I posted the Abstract for illustrative purposes for those unfamiliar with the term
I read your earlier posts on this in MoA.
The fact that Allison had not studied China tells a tale.
Keep up the good work on your subtrack.
The ‘ahistorical universalists’ are usually very ontologically challenged – yet unaware of being so. One Prob is that the scientific method, which ignores time and context, has limits – leading to reams of published sh1te at times.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 19:58 utc | 38

“Canada has abandoned the path of reconciliation and nation-to-nation building in favour of a continuation of ruthless settler capitalism disguised as ‘elbows-up’ nationalism. This isn’t going to end well.”
Posted by: JohnGilberts | Jul 20 2025 17:25 utc | 16
What Trump’s `trade war’ is all about: Ruse de guerre.

Posted by: Laurence | Jul 20 2025 20:12 utc | 39

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:30 utc | 36
========
Worth close reading of Roger‘s post

Posted by: Exile | Jul 20 2025 20:22 utc | 40

I listened to one Doctor Brovkin about the Baltics
The talk is 17 minutes. He explains how the Baltics had better material conditions than Russia and industrialisation there was more substantial.
Therefore russian industry workers moved there to work.
After independence the Balts wanted to get rid of the Russians and deindustrialisation in the Baltics was partly caused by a wish for the Russians to go home. But they now are old and poor and their appartments are worthless so they cant afford to go anyware.
Learning a language like english or german would make sense for going somewhere to have a future but in the Baltic countries the young competitive Balts go abroad so the countries develop in the opposite direction to what the Balts were hoping for. The Balts leave but the russians have nowhere to go being poor.
Under Stalinism the NKVD, if they struck, would not act with any ethnic discrimination. The decisive reason would be class.
Before they acquired their independence they promised that Russians would not be discriminated with respect to language etc
When the Balts wanted independence, as Brovkin pointed out, the democratic movement inside Russia was supporting the Baltic independence because they wanted to dissolve the USSR and get rid of communism. And the fact that Russians had helped them and were promised to be fairly treated was now forgotten.
Brovkin finishes about a new trend that he says isnt mentioned much, namely that Russia is becoming a magnet.
No unemployment and there is prosperity in St Petersburg and Moscow when compared with the Baltic cities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h72IkjK5Myk
The Baltic Republics: The Past, the Present, the Future
Vladimir Brovkin 1 year ago

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jul 20 2025 20:23 utc | 41

@Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:30 utc | 36

Also the foreign military aid to Ukraine got slashed and now Trump wants Europe to pay.

Trump said “NATO” should pay. But the US is the biggest NATO member so by implication US must “pay” also.
Or alternatively, if he thinks “Europe” when he says “NATO” it really means NATO in its current form is falling apart, something which is confirmed by Germany and GB forming a new military alliance even though they are both already allied in NATO.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 20 2025 20:25 utc | 42

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 18:45 utc | 25
I think the Buckley interview was with Christopher Hitchens, not Peter Hitchens.

Posted by: ThouShalt | Jul 20 2025 20:29 utc | 43

@Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 19:58 utc | 40
About invalid historical accounts.
I recently tried to publish a comment about how the topic of British imperialism is ignored. The comment seemed to vanish into cyberspace.
.
I repeat part of that comment. It is borrowed from the following document
https://www.sott.net/article/309984-How-British-Zionism-created-both-the-Kingdom-of-Saudi-Arabia-and-Israel
But i just quote concerning the opinion about the lack of interest about british imperialism
.
The covert alliance between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Zionist entity of Israel should be no surprise to any student of British imperialism.
.
The problem is the study of British imperialism has very few students.
.
Indeed, one can peruse any undergraduate or post-graduate British university prospectus and rarely find a module in a Politics degree on the British Empire let alone a dedicated degree or Masters degree. Of course if the European-led imperialist carnage in the four years between 1914 – 1918 tickles your cerebral cells then it’s not too difficult to find an appropriate institution to teach this subject,
.
but if you would like to delve into how and why the British Empire waged war on mankind for almost four hundred years you’re practically on your own in this endeavor.
.
One must admit, that from the British establishment’s perspective, this is a formidable and remarkable achievement.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jul 20 2025 20:47 utc | 44

@ThouShalt | Jul 20 2025 20:29 utc | 45
Oops – my bad – confused them. Ta.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 20:51 utc | 45

@petergrfstrm | Jul 20 2025 20:47 utc | 46
I’m Irish. We were the first Laboratory Experiment of English Imperialism of a particular class – the term I prefer –
Yes – amazing how little discussed … or researched – or taught.
Lesson from The Irish – Imperialism (and fascism) has to be fought – and believe it or not, it continues to this day. And now we experience another Imperialism – as Patroklos | Jul 20 2025 19:51 utc | 39 notes citing Benjamin’s Thesis IX – as the sh1te piles higher – and …
… “ … you must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on” – “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Beckett – I’ll go on.
I need a stiff drink first!

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 20 2025 21:12 utc | 46

@Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jul 20 2025 20:47 utc | 46
Shashi Tharoor’s “Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India” and William Dalrymple’s “The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence and the Pillage of an Empire” are two very good sources on what the British Empire was like to be a foreign subject of.
The continuance of the British Myth that is taught in schools is very dependent on no large scale public knowledge of what the Empire actually did or how Britain actually became rich. So it will not be taught and funding for such research will not be forthcoming. The same for the history of the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the US, Australia etc.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 21:55 utc | 47

Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:40 utc | 38–
As Hudson has also noted, Sparta wasn’t a trading society while Athens was, meaning Sparta wasn’t trying to replace Athens as the primary regional trade power. Today, we have BRICS that seeks to freely trade outside the Outlaw US Empire’s hegemonic system–they are not trying to compete. What is said to be competition is all brought forth by the Empire while BRICS just continues to try and develop as best they can. The Empire’s failure and cause of its eventual downfall is/was its refusal to integrate itself with the rest of the world on the equal basis set forth in the UN Charter and instead insisting on continuing to enforce its primacy using any and all means–war and terrorism as we’re seeing very clearly.
The global situation is at a familiar point where those wanting freedom from hegemony must be united for divided they will fall.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 20 2025 22:04 utc | 48

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 21:55 utc | 49
I would also suggest “Legacy of Violence” by Caroline Elkins.

Posted by: Archetypex | Jul 20 2025 22:09 utc | 49

@ karlof1 and others… john helmer has an informative post up today on the complicated dynamic involving azerbaijan, and russia with iran, turkey, israel and etc. etc all overlapping… definitely worth a look..a video helmer did with nima from 4 days ago is also highlighted from the 42 minute mark forward… check it out if interested…
HOW TO EAT AZERBAIJAN MEAT PIE WITHOUT GETTING IT IN YOUR FACE

Posted by: james | Jul 20 2025 22:17 utc | 50

Head-slapping moment? Everyone already knew that negotiations with the global hegemon are worse than useless. Gaddafi’s grotesque fate, some 14 years ago, was just one of the many historical lessons teaching us that meeting Leviathan for dinner means you’re on the menu. Maybe bombing Iran in the midst of phony negotiations will make a more durable impression, this time…

Diplomatic resolution with the U.S., once a key objective of DPRK foreign policy, is no longer considered desirable until Washington changes its “hostile policy” of sanctions, constant war drills, and attempts at domestic interference.
Trump’s attack on Iran will now cement this position. Israel technically struck Iran first, but this hardly matters to Pyongyang, and it shouldn’t matter to the rest of us either. The facts speak for themselves. The U.S. was engaged in diplomatic talks with Iran when, on the verge of an agreement, Washington provided logistical and tactical support for Israel’s unprovoked and illegal attack on military and civilian targets that killed hundreds of people. Israeli officials contested White House claims that they had acted alone, saying they received a “green light” from the president himself. Sen. Ted Cruz, in a now-viral gaffe, felt there was such little distinction between Israel and the U.S. that he simply told Tucker Carlson, “We are striking Iran.”
The lesson is clear for observers around the world: Washington’s word cannot be trusted, and diplomacy could even be a fig leaf masking its real strategy of coercion or aggression.

https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-war-on-iran-killed-any-shot-at-dialogue-with-north-korea/

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 20 2025 22:18 utc | 51

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 20 2025 22:49 utc | 52

So it will not be taught and funding for such research will not be forthcoming. The same for the history of the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the US, Australia etc.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 21:55 utc | 49
Correction. It’s actually all taught in schools and universities, but it’s curated and then explained as the result of genetically inherited racism sexism and homophobia of the white working class.
The Western ruling class is in fact a bit more clever than you give them credit for. Droning on about telling the “truth” about the historic crimes of US Imperialism without a class analysis just gets Dems elected again, or labor or die linke or insert left posing Imperialist party here.
The critique of the working class must at least be superior to the fraud of the ruling class.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 20 2025 22:58 utc | 53

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:30 utc | 36 Tooze’s issue, which I think is valid and relevant, is that there are powerful elements of foreign ruling classes who are heavily invested in the dollar. Yes, it does see likely if some creditor haled the US government into bankruptcy court that…wait, there is no bankruptcy court for governments. The closest approach is the IMF/World Bank, which the US still dominates. So far as making the US attractive to foreign investors, it has been, for years now. And so far as I can tell, it has been precisely because cheap credit has fueled truly titanic gains in US equities etc. They are financial, unproductive in the accumulation of real capital, but paper profits are still deemed profits. As I say, the issue Tooze is trying to highlight is how much of the ruling classes of other nations (he specifically cites allies, especially the case of Taiwan, by the way,) have to lose if the US bubble is popped before they cash in. Most nations of the world suffer from the dollar system…but the ruling classes of the world don’t all suffer. That’s Tooze’s point I think. And I think it worth considering.
Replacing the dollar is not as I see it an inexorable process where US government deficits lower the return on US treasuries so that the government can’t afford the empire any more. Actually replacing the dollar means providing not just a sufficiently widespread reserve currency (or handful of currencies.) It also means devising a lender of last resort and a system for correcting (punishing?) long term trade imbalances and providing a safe haven capital where financial returns can be higher when the national economy has fewer profitable opportunities) or at least safer, that is, more liquid. US treasuries are not bought as money making investments but for money preserving along with quick access to cash. And that’s why it’s so unlikely that a breakdown in that part of the system would be yet another global financial crisis, that bids fair to trigger a world depression. A world economy broken up into a handful of currency blocs (mini-empires of finance?) would be a smaller economy. It would resemble the world of the Thirties I suspect, with a similar trajectory to general war.
As to the notion, the government will be forced to close down foreign bases? That’s not peace through strength, that’s not why you massively increase military budgets and that’s nothing like anything Trump has ever done, or even hinted at.
As to Trump being replace, the US political system is too centered on a chieftain for this to happen. Trump can’t be impeached. Trump can’t be pressured into resigning. And Trump can’t even be replaced by the 25th Amendment, at least not without Melania swearing Trump is too ill to write a letter to Congress saying, hell no!

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 20 2025 23:11 utc | 54

Hailed by von der Leyen,
Ben Stiller and Sean Penn.
The star of NATO’s mise-en-scéne.
But polls look real bleak;
Counteroffensive’s weak.
The bankers say I’m obsolete.
I said, “I get the hint,
but who’s the next marionette?”
They said, “I don’t know.
All we got is Zaluzhny.”
So, what can I do,
to dodge Putin, Trump, and Azov too?
I bet they’ve got fifty ways to replace me…
Fifty ways to replace Zelensky.
They said…
“You just slip out the back, Jack.
Fly to a new stan, man.
Help fake a new coup, Lou.
Just get yourself free.
Gotta keep on the down low.
Don’t start a new show, Joe.
Don’t talk about Blaaaack-Rooock!
Keep your cock off the keys, Lee.
We’ll fly you to Miami.
We’ll see you in Miami.

Posted by: Bibi King | Jul 20 2025 23:37 utc | 55

Popular Semantics …
Why Trump’s leg swelling could be a warning sign for millions [ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250718031201.htm ]

President Trump’s recent diagnosis sparks interest in chronic venous insufficiency, a common vascular condition.

Posted by: Laurence | Jul 20 2025 23:50 utc | 56

Some musings on the state of Carney’s Canada at…

Posted by: JohnGilberts | Jul 20 2025 17:25 utc | 16
and
Posted by: Laurence | Jul 20 2025 20:12 utc | 41

The Aboriginal chiefs are threatening to appeal the new legislation to the Supreme Court. They must not be aware that many SC appointees owe their sinecures to the Liberal Party of Canada. In any case, even after they lose, expedited projects in the “national interest” will still involve payouts to tribal councils where they cross treaty lands.
As for PM Mark Carney, he is the ultimate technocrat, one who believes his own press releases, that he is the smartest guy in the room. Canada is about learn the same lessons as the EU has learned, that a technocracy can be even more corrupt and make even worse decisions than a democratic majority.
Technocrat Carney can take advantage of the current national hate toward Trump and say; “See, look what a disaster populism creates.”
In any case, time to research different places to relocate if things get as bad as I think they will.

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Jul 21 2025 0:01 utc | 57

@Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 20 2025 22:58 utc | 55
You are quite correct! Yes, leaving out the political economy and teaching that its all because of racism is the definite elite escape route now that they have to deal with the imperial legacy. I find though that the really awful details tend to be kept out from a somewhat airbrushed history. I still wonder if they really teach the details of King Leopold’s Congo to the Belgian school children, and then the state’s legacy in Congo after they took over from Leopold.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 21 2025 0:19 utc | 58

@Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 20 2025 23:11 utc | 56
I did make the point about the foreign creditors having an interest in playing this game out to protect their investments in my piece. My point is that it is a game that can only be played for so long until someone decides to get ahead of the pack. That’s why Trump is working so hard to make the US even more appealing to foreign investors, including the buying of US citizenship. Got to keep the wheel turning long enough. But the sheer greed of the oligarchy gets in the way as with the BBB that shows 7% deficits as far as they eye can see.
The canary in the coal mine will always be the 10-year and 30-year Treasury rates, if they start blowing out then the game is up and we are going straight to QE and dollar depreciation. The big increases in the defence and DHS budgets have very little to do with security and very much to do with increased elite looting of the public purse. And of course the US oligarchy will not close foreign bases unless they are forced to.
10-year is at 4.423%, 30-year 4.986%. We could easily end up seeing a repeat of the post-WW2 “operation twist” where QE is used to buy up the longer-dated securities to keep the yield down. The 30-year is approaching 2006 levels, all of the post GFC crushing of long term interest rates is gone. The 30-year rate also feeds US mortgage rates.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 21 2025 0:31 utc | 59

Re: Separation between Epstein and ruling elites
Who else but sociopaths would wish to rule in the current climate?

Posted by: necromancer | Jul 21 2025 1:40 utc | 60

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Jul 21 2025 0:01 utc | 59

The Aboriginal chiefs are threatening to appeal the new legislation to the Supreme Court. They must not be aware that many SC appointees owe their sinecures to the Liberal Party of Canada.

Doesn’t count for much in Canada.
AI Overview
In Canada, Supreme Court Justices can only be removed from office by Parliament, and only for “serious reasons”, such as infirmity, misconduct, or failure to properly execute their judicial duties. The process involves a complaint, review by the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC), and potentially a recommendation to Parliament.
The real things are the transcripts wherein we’ll catch the conscience of the play.

Posted by: Laurence | Jul 21 2025 1:40 utc | 61

Thanks Tom @ 3.
Alon Mizrahi, suggest the Epstein obsession is a direct result of the failed attempt at destroying Iran.
Had that succeeded, no one would have cared about the Epstein saga.
The fear that Netanyahu might succeed in getting the US involved in another round with Iran is why the
pushback against Israel is happening and why Israel’s hold over the US political class needs to be exposed.

Posted by: Suresh | Jul 21 2025 2:02 utc | 62

Bibi King | Jul 20 2025 23:37 utc | 57
#🥃

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 21 2025 2:14 utc | 63

@ Bibi King | Jul 20 2025 23:37 utc | 57
yes, i enjoyed that variation on 50 ways to loser your lover ‘paul simon’ song too… thanks..

Posted by: james | Jul 21 2025 2:17 utc | 64

@Suresh | Jul 21 2025 2:02 utc
That theory has plausibility. Here’s some q’s for you:
a. first, can you provide a link to Alon Mizarahi? He’s not in my reading rolodex, maybe I should take a look
b. Not sure “no one would have cared”; this focus on Epstein apparently goes way back before election-time. However, you may be right that it got elevated due to the need to rein in Israel
But it seems like this (rage at elites, and the hold of Israel-firsters on U.S. gov’t) is getting more than “controlled” traction, wouldn’t you say? This looks more like a levee-break than a dam-gate being lowered a few feet to apply some targeted pressure.
It seems like a lot of people in MAGA and even across into Independent territory are pretty livid.
And this brings up another interesting point:
Trump doesn’t seem like he’s got any good moves:
a. Release more Epstein material to pacify MAGA.America-firsters. More they know, more pissed they get. Feeding frenzy, and Americans love nothing more than a good reason to be outraged. It’s the national sport. This is blood-on-the-water time.
b. Stonewall in defense of the Rulers. MAGA.America-firsters are past pacification; they know they have a hammer in their hand (vulnerable elites), and they really, really want to smash the “edifice”. Been wanting it for at least 10 yrs, which is why Trump got elected Version 1 and 2. So stonewall means freak-out.
So Trump’s got real problems. I give him a lot of credit for his ability to obfuscate and confuse, but he’s going to have to do some real magic to deal with this bomb.
And if you’re right, Suresh, and part of the Deep State wants Israel reined in … well, there’s already a bonfire alight, and all they have to do is to put a few logs on it.
This is going to be very interesting. To MAGA.America-firsters: Tell your friends about the Tucker-Cooper vid. It makes a _great_ hammer.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Jul 21 2025 2:26 utc | 65

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Jul 21 2025 2:26 utc | 67
Agree with the “no one” bit. There are the ordinary decent folks who reject the LGBTQ++ / transgender / sexualization of children that fall into the MAGA camp. These people are mighty upset.
However, it’s the other crowd that I would lump Tucker Carlson/E Musk with that “matters”.
Someone brought up Peter Theil as a sick deviant in an earlier thread. His tie with intelligence and Epstein is well known. If there were to be a Palace coup, I suspect his pet JD Vance was maneuvered to take rein.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/agent-of-intelligence-how-a-deviant-philosopher-built-palantir-a-cia-funded-data-mining-juggernaut/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/business/jeffrey-epstein-peter-thiel-estate.html
https://alonmizrahi.substack.com/p/iran-is-crushing-aipac-power-israels

Posted by: Suresh | Jul 21 2025 2:54 utc | 66

The ADL’s Johnathan Greenblatt has emerged from the shadows to defend the Jewish people against claims that Jews censor the internet, calling for social media companies to ban people making this claim.

Posted by: Chaim | Jul 21 2025 2:57 utc | 67

Masonic/Initiation/Epstein all seem to have 1 purpose, cultist culture.
Down the rabbit hole behind the Esoteric veil, from the Canadian couple Cynthia Chung and Matt Ehret.
https://rumble.com/v3tgl5v-the-hidden-hand-behind-ufos-episode-1-lifting-the-esoteric-veil.html
https://canadianpatriot.org/2025/07/18/irans-eurasian-pivot-is-the-key-to-averting-wwiii/

Posted by: Suresh | Jul 21 2025 3:20 utc | 68

Walt @ 2
Grieved @ 21
Thanks for the very informative links. The maps in Walt’s essay are very nice. The tour de force by Walt is amazing, to make sense from a very complicated history of WW1 and WW2.
I have noticed that bevin commented on Walt’s article and claimed that Jewish influence in USA and elsewhere is not that important, and on that issue Walt is wrong. It is difficult to understand how a so well informed person as bevin could claim such ignorance of the massive influence of Jewish people on governments, in USA and elsewhere in the West, in the past and present. Bevin seems to emphasize the role of imperialism and not Jewish influence. Enough said.

Posted by: fanto | Jul 21 2025 3:44 utc | 69

2nd try
ZH has an interesting posting up with the title
Grappling With Existential Panic Over AI
quote

If There’s an SOP, You’re SOL
…
It’s “Future Shock” writ large, to use the Alvin and Heidi Toffler phrase from their books in the 70’s, 80’s. It’s actually, “Future Shock squared” – accelerating acceleration, I and created a neologism “tachyosis” (using chatGPT, as it were) to describe the dynamic:

Tachyosis (n.)
A state of recursively compounding acceleration — where systems evolve faster than they can stabilize, perception fragments, and causality begins to blur. Considered the experiential threshold of the kinematic continuum.
“Civilizations in tachyosis cease to distinguish between signal and noise — they become pure velocity.”

…
The world we’re headed into, is one where you should worry less about being replaced by AI and think about career risk you’re taking on from being unable or unwilling to use AI.

The process of tachyosis can be applied to labor all over the world and the crisis over having excess labor in relation to “required” jobs will cause a fairly existential human crisis…..The Marx Labor Theory of [human] Value will be seriously challenged, eh?
Just what will be the expectations from and responsibility to our future forms of government for individual humans? 50+ years ago when I was studying the future, one of the main factors influencing our model was global population…..the faith breathers at the time were livid about insuring that any discussion of birth control not be included.
I believe that the impacts of AI will be significant but will cause more problems than it will solve and never outthink/reason a human, in spite of the marketing hype of the West.
The West will lose the AI race with China because the China R&D is not profit driven and will outperform the West at all levels….and if the bully isn’t down by the time this evolves this will be another nail in the coffin of the exceptionalist West monopoly on global tech…wait for the fight over the global internet plumbing and management…..the shit show continues until it doesn’t

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 21 2025 6:02 utc | 70

The ADL’s Johnathan Greenblatt has emerged from the shadows to defend the Jewish people against claims that Jews censor the internet, calling for social media companies to ban people making this claim.
Posted by: Chaim

Chaim wins this thread !

Posted by: Exile | Jul 21 2025 6:14 utc | 71

Concerning history of British imperialism
Thanks Roger Boyd and Archetypex for mentioning Dalrymple’s and Elkins texts

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jul 21 2025 6:21 utc | 72

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 20 2025 19:30 utc | 36
Its a very thin line that the administration will have to skate on as long as they refuse real domestic austerity (i.e. cutting the budget deficit). QE will just suck in imports and be very toxic for the US$.

Exactly right. Musk tried to bring austerity but he failed.

Next will come massive bullying to allies to pay more for foreign US bases, and if that doesn’t work closures of foreign US bases.

Here it’s possible you’re missing options for the USA. I think the main conduit for American policy in the matter of the transfer of wealth from vassals will be buying American weapons and treasuries.
Closing off US foreign military bases is not an option. Actually, keeping them is one of the main priorities, if not the single most important priority.
Those bases will be emptied if and only if the US$ collapses to a very low value.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Jul 21 2025 6:39 utc | 73

@71 fanto
bevin has taken issue many times with any “revisionist” take of wwii going back years. Any time I have referenced the fantastic work of Ron Unz on the subject or others like Buchanan or Suvorov, bevin swoops in to chide me and remind the bar that Germany and Germany alone was responsible for wwii.
But we all know it takes two to tango. And the Jewish hold on the popular mind can not help but fall by the wayside as the years drag on and their atrocity propaganda and victim-identity and paranoia become too pronounced to sweep aside.
As to why bevin feels the need to lay everything at Germany’s feet, I can only infer. It stands to reason that the allegations against Germany can not be 100% true regarding atrocity any more than the ones against the Soviets. There is room in between for analysis. But that is where the trouble begins for ideologues: nuance and the gray area.
Neither Unz nor Buchanan nor any other revisionist ever said that it was actually only the Soviets who started it. But their work does imply that Hitler as historical figure has been a curated one in that we are not to try to understand but to permanently regard with horror.
The only horror I see right now are in the eyes of those losing their grip on gatekeeping the overarching narrative of wwii, whether it be the myth of the Good War or the ridiculous notion that Stalin and the U.S.S.R. was a meek victim and had no territorial or ideological ambition for Europe.
As Americans, we are left scratching our head and wondering what could have been and whether the outcome of wwii actually did not deliver us a thousand year peace between the nations but rather a liberal totalitarian landscape that is perhaps even more insidious than either fascism or communism, or some inhuman monster that shares the heads of both.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 21 2025 6:40 utc | 74

ICYMI
Pam Bondi. Age 60
Served as Florida’s Attorney General from 2011 to 2019
Covered up Epstein’s first arrest and charges when she served in Florida, after Trump fundraised for her at Mar-a-Lago as a kickback for dropped the Trump University investigation in NYC, which Trump also -allegedly- bribed her to do through an LLC.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 21 2025 6:54 utc | 75

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 20 2025 16:52 utc | 12
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 20 2025 16:55 utc | 13
Posted by: Grieved | Jul 20 2025 18:12 utc | 21
Posted by: fanto | Jul 21 2025 3:44 utc | 71
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 21 2025 6:40 utc | 76
Thanks for your comments.
I have to say that I have been a fan of bevin for a long time but I on this occasion I struggle to follow his argument (comment is under the Substack article, link at 2)
Ron put it up today. I think there will be a lot of discussion when it wakes up later.

Posted by: Walt | Jul 21 2025 8:56 utc | 76

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 21 2025 6:40 utc | 76
Bullshit.
Suvorov was a great Russian military that lived in the 18th century. The guy you are mentioning has a different name and he is a Russian traitor that defected to the U.K.
Unz has one major weakness: he tries too hard to find alternative narratives for all historical events. With the start of WWII he went too far and fell for bullshitters.
But of course all cryptonazies such as yourself jumped to the opportunity given to them by Unz, blaming other parties for the start of WWII, especially the Soviet Union.
The seeds of WWII are in Mein Kampf, where the lowly Austrian corporal confessed in advance.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Jul 21 2025 9:06 utc | 77

Posted by: Walt | Jul 21 2025 8:56 utc | 78
Sure, all nazi fanboys will jump to blame anyone but the lowly Austrian corporal, the worst loser of the 20th century, who dictated an advanced confession while spending time behind bars.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Jul 21 2025 9:12 utc | 78

@Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 21 2025 6:40 utc | 76
Just read Stalin’s speeches, again and again he states that the Soviets must rearm themselves because the Germans/West will come again and the Soviet Union needed to be strong. Stalin tried to get an alliance with France and the UK against Germany but they refused. In the end he agreed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to push the start line for a German invasion as far away from Moscow as possible. That one diplomatic stroke saved the Soviet Union. Stalin acted in a defensive manner, not in an offensive one. And Unz never states that the Soviets were on the offensive.
WW2 was caused by the treachery in blaming Germany for WW1 and then imposing an utterly unjust peace settlement upon it, all part of crushing a challenger to the empires and saving the US bankers. That does not absolve Hitler (fully created by the German oligarchy) from the colossal crimes that he oversaw, most especially in the Soviet Union where the population were treated no better than other colonial victims. The genocide of up to 20 million Soviet civilians, including about half of the Jews that died in WW2, is always treated much less than the Jewish genocide. From about mid 1940 the US decided to enter the war to establish their own global dominance, that is well documented. It worked hard to start a war with both Germany (in the Atlantic) and with Japan (in the Pacific by cutting off its oil supplies). Nothing also absolves Japan for the colossal crimes it committed in China, another 20 million deaths.
Did the UK and USA commit mass murder through the carpet bombing of German and Japanese cities then the completely unnecessary use of two nuclear bombs, absolutely. Were those war crimes for which senior people should have been hung, absolutely. But the victors never have to face justice.
But Unz has to go further with the anti-semitic and holocaust denying tripe that just feeds into the propaganda of the current Zionist genocidal regime and takes the focus away from the real issues of WW2.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 21 2025 9:32 utc | 79

Repeat Tucker’s statement: “I don’t want these people as rulers”.
@ Tom Pfotzer | Jul 20 2025 14:22 utc | 3
I can’t believe I watched the whole (nearly 3 hour) thing. Thanks to you and others for recommending it. Cooper comes off like Sgt. Friday from One Adam Twelve (albeit more buffed): “Only the facts, ma’am.”
Carlson seems more human all the time. In particular, I share with Carlson an emotional level of anger with myself for not previously realizing the satanic level of fallen-empire depravity roiling the most elevated corridors of power in Washington D.C. People like Tony Podesta, with modern-art masterpieces depicting child-rape bedecking his palatial residence. People like Tony Blinken, whose Zionist devotion necessitates child-sacrifice of genocidal proportions. (Also, notably skipped over in Carlson & Cooper’s exhange: People like DJT, who publicly slobbers over his own daughter.)
I deeply appreciate Carlson’s use of the word “satanic” to describe the intelligence networks which produced Epstein. Evil is a force, which has to be met head-on before it collect even more momentum.
It doesn’t look like DJT has the savvy to survive the Epstein earthquake.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 21 2025 10:26 utc | 80

Roger Boyd@0:19
The chocolate hands of Belgium, a tradition begun in 1934 has been linked to punitive mutilation of rubber workers in the Belgian Congo
This article discusses the colonial legacy of mutilation and Belgian attitudes to Africans
https://karmacolonialism.org/the-chocolate-hands-of-belgium/
“ “I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre. Prejudice no doubt. I had no difficulty in finding the Company’s offices. It was the biggest thing in the town, and everybody I met was full of it. They were going to run an oversea empire, and make no end of coin by trade.”
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

Posted by: will moon | Jul 21 2025 10:30 utc | 81

“I was following orders” only stops working after your side loses.
That was Cooper’s response to Carlson asking how this could happen. In other words: Epstein’s side is still very much in charge, here in USA. With each passing day, more citizens confront that painful truth. Maybe sometimes, when the truth stings sharply enough, it can be a good pain.
That’s true of physical pain. I accidentally smacked my ungloved left hand with a hammer. The consequent pain, not to mention blood, was enough to inspire more deliberate precautions, the next time I had to pick up that hammer. Pain is your body’s way of saying “please stop it!”

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 21 2025 10:44 utc | 82

Posted by: Exile | Jul 20 2025 13:16 utc | 1
Same in The UK
Here:
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=62675
The sound money freaks scratch their heads wondering why we get asset inflation when every time the sound money freaks walk into a voting station and vote for this bullshit.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jul 21 2025 10:47 utc | 83

Posted by: Exile | Jul 20 2025 13:16 utc | 1
Right wing free markets , Right wing free markets, Right wing free markets, Right wing free markets.
Voters are dumb you see. Brainwashed out their tiny little minds. Even after watching all the damage it has caused they still vote right wing. There’s no helping these people the kids are our only hope to stop these bastards.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jul 21 2025 10:51 utc | 84

Posted by: Exile | Jul 20 2025 13:16 utc | 1
Compare that city of London bullshit above with what I proposed a couple of days ago and killing the FIRE sector at source.
Only complete brainwashed morons would want more deregulation and not want to kill the FIRE sector at source.
The FIRE sector is like a massive ball bearing rolling around in the back of a truck. With the driver of the truck struggling to keep the truck on the road.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jul 21 2025 10:58 utc | 85

The FIRE sector is a massive ball bearing rolling about in the back of a truck. The driver of the truck is always struggling to keep the truck on the road.
In the UK they have just added another 2 tonnes to it.
Only complete morons would continue to vote for even more deregulation.
Compare what they are doing with what I proposed a couple of days ago that would kill the FIRE sector at source.
It’s an absolute no brainer but the population have been completely brainwashed.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jul 21 2025 11:06 utc | 86

They are that stupid they think right wing populism will save them. With even more trickle up. Nigel Farage is cheering and clapping what Rachel Reeves has just done.
Always remember, the reason Farage exists is because the conservatives weren’t right wing enough for these crazy bunch of ideologues. Moving the Overton as far right as they could for the last 40 years. Wasn’t enough for the right wing populists.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jul 21 2025 11:13 utc | 87

“Neither Unz or Buchanan or any other revisionist ever said that it was actually only the Soviets that started it”
NemesisCalling@6:40
I was under the impression that Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. By my reckoning that means Germany “started it”.

Posted by: will moon | Jul 21 2025 12:24 utc | 88

psychohistorian @72:

The process of tachyosis can be applied to labor all over the world and the crisis over having excess labor in relation to “required” jobs will cause a fairly existential human crisis…..The Marx Labor Theory of [human] Value will be seriously challenged, eh?

No more so than the Jacquard loom, or any other productivity enhancing machine did. AI will eliminate many positions, but those are mostly not economically productive positions anyway. Think the current conception of ”journalist” (what economic value do they add over a blogger?), or HR department staff. Productive economic activity cannot be replaced by AI and automation within capitalism as this drives profit rates to zero (profits come from the value of labor that is not paid to the laborer, and you cannot underpay a machine).
Yes, China now has ”dark factories”, but these are early adopters, and even so profit rates for capitalist enterprises in China are crashing to zero. Since China uses ”The Invisible Hand of the Market” instrumentally and is not controlled by it, they will accommodate this problem in a socialist manner. On the other hand, this will only massively amplify the profit crisis in the capitalist West, driving investment into silly, economically non-productive financial nonsense (ie: crypto currencies, aka buying and selling prime numbers).
The Labor Theory of Value is baked in to the very core of capitalism. It is fundamental to how capitalism works. Adding productivity enhancing technology only quickens capitalism’s death spiral.
This is a good thing! It causes lots of social disruption, but omelets and broken eggs and all of that. It forces the West one step closer to reorganizing society away from the centrality of the profit motive.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 21 2025 13:18 utc | 89

@Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jul 21 2025 10:58 utc | 87
After the 1929 crash the FIRE sector was broken up and placed into straight-jackets in padded cells. It worked, with limited asset price inflation (including houses) and investment in productive assets. Then from the late 1970s, and especially in the 1990s, the straight-jackets were taken off and the doors to the padded cells opened. And the financial serial-killers a la “Silence of the Lambs” were released once again on society. And once again there were financial crimes and bailouts and coverups:
– Third World Debt Crisis of the 1980s
– S&L Crisis of the 1980s/1990s
– Asia Crisis of late 1990s
– Long Term Capital Management 1998
– .com crash 2001
– GFC 2008
– Repo Crisis 2019
– Raping and Pillaging of corporations and workers by Private Equity and Rapacious CEOs
But also the lunatics took over the asylum and refuse to be put back into their straight-jackets and padded cells. China never let them leave home and kept them grounded for ever.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 21 2025 13:42 utc | 90

@Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 21 2025 13:18 utc | 91
The Party-State enforces actual real competition within markets in China, and that means that competition will force profits strongly down. That is why profits in China are about half what they are in the US, as in the latter anti-trust is hardly implemented and businesses can bribe government officials. Profits will always be lower in competitive markets vs oligopolistic and monopolistic markets.
You can get rich in China, but you will have to generally work for the good of the people to become so. It was different in the more corrupt go-go years of the 2000s, but that is one of the things that Xi was brought in to combat and he has.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 21 2025 13:50 utc | 91

“comes off like Sgt. Friday from One Adam Twelve”
clear as mud.
how many four door 67 Fairlanes were sacrificed for your sins?
and still there are those who did not get the message…

Posted by: Not Ewe | Jul 21 2025 13:51 utc | 92

@ fanto 71 // nemesis calling 76 and // @ 81 roger boyd
an interesting exchange, especially rogers commentary.. thanks all..

Posted by: james | Jul 21 2025 14:53 utc | 93

@ William Gruff | Jul 21 2025 13:18 utc | 91 who wrote
”
The Labor Theory of Value is baked in to the very core of capitalism. It is fundamental to how capitalism works. Adding productivity enhancing technology only quickens capitalism’s death spiral.
This is a good thing! It causes lots of social disruption, but omelets and broken eggs and all of that. It forces the West one step closer to reorganizing society away from the centrality of the profit motive.
”
Yes, it is the centrality of the profit motive [for a few] I would add, that needs reorganizing to a subordinate role in our form of social organization. Currently in the West, capital is in control of governments and needs to be subordinated to it, IMO. And capital needs to not be allowed to grow to the point of influencing government….like it looks like was done with Jack Ma in China.
I think that it will become crucial for governments to provide a social safety net for all citizens including organizing/providing meaningful “employment” that furthers social goals as one of the citizen pay-backs for the safety net….no FREE lunch but lots of support….will be very complicated as transition to post-profit/post-labor scarce world where available skills don’t necessarily meet needs that are changing fast and dramatically in ways hard to predict.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 21 2025 16:24 utc | 94

@ psychohistorian | Jul 21 2025 16:24 utc | 96
It

….will be very complicated as transition to post-profit/post-labor scarce world where available skills don’t necessarily meet needs that are changing fast and dramatically in ways hard to predict.

We are spiraling into the abyss….

Posted by: maja | Jul 21 2025 16:43 utc | 95

NemesisCalling | Jul 21 2025 6:40 utc | 76
I, like many others, have more or less given up reading these comments so it was surprising to discover that a straw effigy sharing my name was being ritualistically kicked by one of the blog’s resident and most senior fascists.
I by no means blame Germany entirely for the Second World War, the blame for which is shared by Europe’s ruling classes desperately trying to stave off domestic social reformers while preserving their grip on the vast empire and its informal hinterland that they had built up in Asia, Africa and America since the fifteenth century.
As to the Soviet Union’s ambitions in the 1930s, the diplomacy of Chicherin, Litvinov and their associates showed quite obviously that, for reasons that should be clear to anyone, it wanted peace and had no appetite for territorial expansion.
It is an indication of ‘nemesis’s deceitful argument that he slips the word ‘ideological’ alongside territorial as if the feeling among communists and their allies that the world would be better place if it were not largely ruled by greedy, genocidal imperialists represented a threat to women and children on a par with wars of conquest.
There is no doubt that the Soviet government was ambitious for changed attitudes in Europe but, and a glance at the map which showed large regions of Russia (Belarus for example) in the hands of foreign fascist powers shows this, the Red Army made no moves to invade any state during the 1930s. In fact it respected the sovereignty of Poland and Rumania to the extent that it did not go to the assistance of Czechoslovakia, which it would have saved from Hitler, in 1938 or Poland itself in 1939.
It is true that, in September 1939, it did move its forces back to the Curzon line saving Belarussians and Ukrainians from Nazi rule but it can hardly be blamed for this.
The truth is that, like it or not, the Soviet Union was the only force in western Europe and north America that consistently stood up against fascism which, from first to last, was and is a specific antidote to democracy not just in its representative form but as equality and civil rights.
The Nazis then, like the Zionists today promoted an ideology of heirarchy and supremacy of race, gender, class- the Soviet Union even in the deformed state to which continual campaigns of war and terrorist subversion had reduced it by 1939, was committed, internally and throughout the world to the truth that all are equal, all races, genders, conditions are worthy of and require equal rights and equal access to the fruits of labour and that any society rejecting justice and the claims of humanity is not just destined to implode but is likely to take the rest of us and our posterity with it.
I won’t be returning to this thread to read any reply.

Posted by: bevin | Jul 21 2025 17:04 utc | 96

My reply to the June 20th Adam Tooze piece:
“US corporations benefit from extremely lax implementation of anti-trust laws, and environmental and other regulations. As well as having a political system in which buying politicians is legal. As well as the sick care system, the military industrial complex and the DHS being largely profiteering troughs for corporations. “Obamacare” was a massive profit boon for the sick care industry. Keeping tax rates for corporations low, with the facilitation of massive tax avoidance, also increases corporate profitability. The BBB continues with this, as does the gutting of the regulatory state.
Profitability in China has been much lower, even though China’s economy has massively outperformed the US one due to the enforcement of actual competitive markets and the much stronger walls of the Party-state against corruption (especially under Xi). The current dynamism of Chinese corporations is much greater than US ones in field after field, because a more competitive economy is inherently more dynamic than an oligopolistic corrupt one. Of course, Chinese industrial policy (that does not pick winners but industries) and long-term stable planning play a very large part.
In addition, the US has gone out of its way to encourage flows of dirty money into the US, including drug money and the proceeds of corrupt extraction from around the world. Now Trump is hawking the US around with his promise of purchased citizenship. The slashing of foreign aid also stems a source of dollar outflow.
The US historically benefitted from its foreign investments having much greater returns than foreign investments in the US (much of it parked in low yielding US Treasuries), so it still ran a surplus on investment returns even though it had a growing negative on its net foreign assets. That ended in 2024, so now US investments abroad earn less than foreigner investments in the US. How long can this state of affairs continue while the US runs 7% budget deficits and 4% current account deficits? Who knows, but at some point some group or groups will try to front run the exits.
Any stock market large fall may also drive investors to the exits, maybe that’s why Trump is so hyper-focused on US stock market movements, especially at such high P/E multiples.”

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jul 21 2025 18:38 utc | 97

@bevin 98
Fwiw, Kaiser Wilhelm II. is said to have said that “it’s a good thing revolution broke out in Russia, for this means we can come together with them at a later point”.

Posted by: persiflo | Jul 21 2025 20:06 utc | 98

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 21 2025 6:40 utc | 76
I’ll gladly take Bevin’s place, just like I have in the past stomped on your nazi apologism both veiled and overt. Yours and others’.
We don’t need the “beloved ones” – to employ a current euphemism – to tell us what the fascists did to us.
We don’t need people from another continent to tell us what the fascists did to us.
We have our own memory, thank you very much.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Jul 21 2025 22:01 utc | 99

Were MAGA-voters *pre-soaked* in the Horseshoe theory? What do you think?

Posted by: Ben Trovata | Jul 21 2025 22:27 utc | 100

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