The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-191

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August 24, 2025

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

Aug 18 – Europe Demands 'Security Guarantees' For Ukraine … Russia Can Give Those
Related:
– For peace in Ukraine, Russia needs 'security guarantees' too – Responsible Statecraft
– Trump’s Ukraine endgame – An American retreat will be disguised as peace – Unherd
– Systemic Corruption Doesn’t Give a Chance for Peace in Ukraine – Antiwar
– Once a top backer, Poland fades from Ukraine peace talks amid domestic turmoil – Kyiv Independent

Aug 19 – Trump Continues To Humiliate Europe
Related:
– Europe Gets a Written Trump Trade Deal, With a Caveat for Automakers (archived) – NY Times
– Europe to halt postal services to US after tax deal scrapped – Euronews
– The New Economic Geography – Who Profits in a Post-American World? – Adam S. Posen / Foreign Affairs
"China, the country whose behavior most U.S. officials want to change, will likely be the least affected, while the United States’ closest allies will be the most damaged."

Aug 21 – Gaza – First They Came …
Aug 23 – Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Over Gaza
Related:
– 'Starvation Is Everywhere': Virtual Tours of Gaza Clinics Expose the Scale of the Horror (NOT paywalled) – Haaretz
– GAZA STRIP: Famine confirmed in Gaza Governorate, projected to expand – IPC
– Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians – +972mag
– Inside the IDF's plan to relocate 1 million Gazans – Israel Hayom

> The unit is responsible for mapping the population, gathering intelligence on it, and coordinating actions to facilitate its movement – distributing leaflets, sending text messages, and, ultimately, firing artillery shells, which send the clearest message to residents that they must evacuate. <

Aug 21 – Ukraine's Future – A 'Steppe Corridor' – A Neutral, Transit-oriented State
Related:
– Trump: I may let Russia and Ukraine fight it out – Telegraph
– Pentagon Has Quietly Blocked Ukraine’s Long-Range Missile Strikes on Russia WSJ via MSN
– Fishnets and fortifications: Troops on Ukraine’s southern front dig in as peace talk hopes fade – CNN
– Ukraine is stepping up attacks on Russian energy – and it’s working – CNN

—
Other issues:

Intel:

The Long, Painful Downfall of Intel (archived) – NY Times
The Silicon Valley chipmaker’s journey from icon to a government project, with the sale of a 10 percent stake to the Trump administration, underlines how even the mightiest in tech can fall.

There is not one mention in the above piece of what really brought Intel down:

How Intel's $108 billion [share] buyback gambit backfired—a cautionary tale for tech giants – CalCalis Tech

China:

What Does China Want? – MITPress
China is a Rich Society. No Western Country Is. – Ian Welsh
Breakneck divide: China’s builders vs America’s lawyers – Asia Times
China’s lithium mining faces strict new regulatory era – Asia Times

A.I.:

AI, layoffs, productivity and The Klarna Effect – Gary Marcus
GPT-5: Overdue, overhyped and underwhelming. And that’s not the worst of it. – Gary Marcus
It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes – Defector
Brace for a crash before the golden age of AI (archived) – Financial Times
History teaches that tech revolutions follow a predictable cycle of installation followed by creative destruction

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

Posted by b on August 24, 2025 at 12:19 UTC | Permalink

Comments

” – Inside the IDF’s plan to relocate 1 million Gazans – Israel Hayom
> The unit is responsible for mapping the population, gathering intelligence on it, and coordinating actions to facilitate its movement – distributing leaflets, sending text messages, and, ultimately, firing artillery shells, which send the clearest message to residents that they must evacuate. < =============== This is so bone-chilling. This whole thing is a war crime. This must be stopped. What good is the UN if it cannot defend its law, its members, its international standing as the adjudicator? What will it take for those who have finally acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide to acknowledge that only military intervention can stop these barbaric maniacs? (See quite a good piece at Mondoweiss on this dynamic, aka mental gymnastics: https://mondoweiss.net/2025/08/why-it-took-palestinians-starving-for-many-to-finally-admit-israel-is-committing-genocide-in-gaza/?)
How is it that Israel is able to pursue its Bronze Age tribal program while the “civilized” world wrings its hands over the effects of tribalism in, say, Africa or Syria or the Balkans?

Posted by: Jane | Aug 24 2025 12:56 utc | 1

In regards to the CNN’s stories on Ukraine, I’ve noticed an increase in pro-Ukraine stories in the mainstream propaganda outlets. Some claim Ukraine is actually winning or at least turning the tide. I think this is deliberate and comes from the virtual Central Committee of the Party that rules the Empire. The idea is to threaten Trump with mountains of stories of how Ukraine could have won the war if only Trump hadn’t abandoned the brave and “free” country of Ukraine who were killing millions of Russians
It is always the US media that keeps the permanent war machine going. I saw the same stories in the media during the Vietnam era. All the more reason to encourage, as I do, to avoid mainstream news other than “read” it as reflecting what the Central Committee intends to do.

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Aug 24 2025 13:16 utc | 2

Bolivia: view from a MAS member
Sacha Llorenti gives his perspective on what’s happening in Bolivia. In summary, Arce is a traitor, similar to Ecuador’s Lenin Moreno.
Here is his bio in wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacha_Llorenti
According to Llorenti, MAS is stronger and more deeply rooted than outsiders believe. He says they will prevail.
“The electoral results show that the Bolivian left is based on Indigenous and peasant social organizations and that the undisputed leader remains Evo Morales. This is the true opposition to the right-wing parties that will assume political power in November.
Just as it happened after the coup, it was those organizations and their leadership that were able to restore democracy. After the series of blows that this time came from the Arce government and Rodríguez’s exit, it will be those organizations that set the course for the popular and revolutionary movement in Bolivia to follow.”
https://orinocotribune.com/five-myths-about-the-crisis-of-the-left-in-bolivia/

Posted by: migueljose | Aug 24 2025 14:12 utc | 3

thanks b… i appreciate the links..

Posted by: james | Aug 24 2025 15:04 utc | 4

Netanyahu and his crew of serial criminals aren’t committing genocide. They’re committing extinction. Extinction of the Palestinians. Like the wooly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, the passenger pigeon. Driven to oblivion. In the future if we want to see an example of the Palestinians, we would need to go to a museum to do that. And as a footnote, a question. What will Netanyahu order to do with all the dead bodies, which will number in the hundreds of thousands, before they and Trump lay the cornerstones of their Mediterranean resorts, casinos and beach front properties?

Posted by: octavian61 | Aug 24 2025 15:07 utc | 5

Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre, then also Prime Minister, was centrally complicit in the granting of safe haven to Thousands of known Nazis who had “killed Jews with their own hands”
Back in 1997, the US media occasionally told the truth. Here it is.

News investigation video
https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1959624152710619163
Oh Canada…

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 24 2025 15:09 utc | 6

MAO (1945): “There is an ancient Chinese fable called “The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains”.
It tells of an old man who lived in northern China long, long ago and was known as the Foolish Old Man of North Mountain.
His house faced south and beyond his doorway stood the two great peaks, Taihang and Wangwu, obstructing the way. He called his sons, and hoe in hand they began to dig up these mountains with great determination.
Another graybeard, known as the Wise Old Man, saw them and said derisively, “How silly of you to do this! It is quite impossible for you few to dig up those two huge mountains.”
The Foolish Old Man replied, “When I die, my sons will carry on; when they die, there will be my grandsons, and then their sons and grandsons, and so on to infinity. High as they are, the mountains cannot grow any higher and with every bit we dig, they will be that much lower. Why can’t we clear them away?”
Having refuted the Wise Old Man’s wrong view, he went on digging every day, unshaken in his conviction. God was moved by this, and he sent down two angels, who carried the mountains away on their backs.
Today, two big mountains lie like a dead weight on the Chinese people.
One is imperialism, the other is feudalism.
The Communist Party of China has long made up its mind to dig them up.
We must persevere and work unceasingly, and we, too, will touch God’s heart.
Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people.
If they stand up and dig together with us, why can’t these two mountains be cleared away?”

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1959612589274509724

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 24 2025 15:23 utc | 7

Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre, then also Prime Minister, was centrally complicit in the granting of safe haven to Thousands of known Nazis who had “killed Jews with their own hands”
Back in 1997, the US media occasionally told the truth. Here it is.
News investigation video
https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1959624152710619163
Oh Canada…
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 24 2025 15:09 utc | 12

Com’on dude, you think the US was not doing propaganda in 1997?
The US hired the best and brightest of the Nazis after the war, that has been well documented. Others went on to UN and NATO leadership. Canada was encouraged to take in the less useful.
The insinuation that Trudeau Sr. had anything to do with it is false. He was an idle-rich Montreal playboy at the time.

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Aug 24 2025 15:44 utc | 8

Adam S. Posen / Foreign Affairs
More ridiculous Imperialist propaganda “analysis” here. One would think the Post WW2 order was a perfect utopia before Trump arrived on the scene. What all these Imperialist “intellectuals” seem to cover up is the fact that Trump gained his position and popularity because the Post WW2 system had virtually collapsed.
Reality: Trump’s opponents laid out the red carpet for China at the turn of the century in exchange for healthy personal profits from the new “China trade”, Trump’s opponents squandered immense resources on a string of pointless and failed military adventures, culminating in the biggest disaster yet: Ukraine. Trumps opponents ended all significant production in the US and finacialized the entire economy so that nobody advances except billionaires and their hangers on. Then Trump’s opponents supported a live streamed Zionist genocide for years and slandered, beat up or arrested anyone who opposed them on the issue.
US Imperialism was a sinking ship well before Trump. Posen, almost certainly a Zio, now wants to create a new mythology to cover his faction’s role in creating the best conditions for the emergence of Trump.
This is just Imperialist ass covering. When Trump finally collapsed the system, they will all be ready with this fairy story to demand their return to power.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Aug 24 2025 15:50 utc | 9

From the Intel piece at calcalistech

Innovation isn’t stifled solely by diverting cash to raise stock prices; it’s also suffocated by the cycle of “creative destruction,” which major tech giants participate in. Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have become notorious for buying startups before they become competitive threats. Rather than creating innovation, they purchase it.
Meta is a prime example, having added WhatsApp and Instagram to its portfolio. Before acquiring Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg wrote that if startups like it were allowed to “grow to scale,” they could be “very disruptive to us.” The list of acquisitions is long, but if we focus on today’s hottest market—artificial intelligence—we see the same pattern. Google acquired DeepMind, Microsoft poured $13 billion into OpenAI, and Amazon invested $4 billion in Anthropic, OpenAI’s primary competitor.
This strategy is a major reason why, in the last decade, no new tech giant has emerged alongside the existing titans. It’s not that Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon are invincible or unmatched in innovation—it’s that they simply buy all potential threats, sometimes integrating the innovations, and sometimes eliminating them.
With their massive market shares, these giants have little incentive to innovate or disrupt their existing product pipelines. As long as these pipelines generate enough cash to satisfy shareholders with dividends, why should they care?

The incentive that empire tech is missing is that while they are ignoring R&D in favor of stock buy backs, China is all about collaborative R&D and less/nothing about private elite profit.
The massive market shares in tech by empire is about to go POOF! just like in autos and all other areas where profit leads innovation and providing a quality product.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 24 2025 15:57 utc | 10

China is a Rich Society. No Western Country Is. – Ian Welsh
Short, sweet truth here. This is the reality.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Aug 24 2025 15:58 utc | 11

The idea is to threaten Trump with mountains of stories of how Ukraine could have won the war if only Trump hadn’t abandoned the brave and “free” country of Ukraine who were killing millions of Russians
It is always the US media that keeps the permanent war machine going. I saw the same stories in the media during the Vietnam era. All the more reason to encourage, as I do, to avoid mainstream news other than “read” it as reflecting what the Central Committee intends to do.
Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Aug 24 2025 13:16 utc | 2
If Trump actually disengages from the Ukraine debacle (big if), the opposing section of the ruling class will certainly scream from it’s MSM “Trump stabbed Ukraine in the back!”.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Aug 24 2025 16:06 utc | 12

Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Aug 24 2025 15:23 utc | 7
That’s similar to my God: the wage slaves of the world acting as one in their own class interests. Sadly, my God has been drugged and locked in an Imperialist basement since at least the 1970s.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Aug 24 2025 16:15 utc | 13

@Walt
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve only read two so far. Anglesey is nice. Was there at the beginning of the month. You’ll have more chance of Skylarks there as the fields are still small. Almost like going back in time, almost.
Enjoy whatever it is you have planned, cheers.

Posted by: Some Random Passerby | Aug 24 2025 16:24 utc | 14

A very refreshing post from Alex Christoforou this morning:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgKDJRFpbH0
How silly of me it was, ever to suppose this horrible situation we find ourselves in is about the sale of weapons. It’s not! It’s all about the sale — no, not even of the trafficing of underage youg women — it’s about the trafficing of drugs!
How silly of me to think that it was ever a case of the CIA dealing in drugs in order to burrow into the lower levels of crime families dealing in the same, in order to find out what foreign countries were ripe for revolution and stick it to them.
It’s not!
It’s about having a surefire money supply being manufactured in the US in order to send that to Ukraine (or whatever country we, the US happen to be destroying — by whatever devious methods) — so the leadership there and in the EU and other places can still obtain the drugs they are hooked on!!
That is what this is all about.
There needs to be an island set aside, maybe in the Mediterranian , (which seems to have shallow waters all the way to Gibraltar )– or maybe Gibraltar itself would be a good place for this. Fence it all around, and have plenty of razor sharp wire atop the fence — and put all the druggy politicians in for lifetime rehabilitation! I’m serious about this. Maybe b could have a special category here called ‘Gibraltar’.
Also, Alex, how about you go walkabout (or wadeabout) around the Mediterranion and find another island to be on, or rather in the waters of? I would love to see you explore Patmos, for instance. Do some lovely historic, archeological videos with Alexander. Forget politics.
I know, I’m a Dreamer. Sorry to be so verbose this morning. I guess it was that ocean overdose … utterly lovely!

Posted by: juliania | Aug 24 2025 17:23 utc | 15

From Poland fades “Poland’s foreign policy is used for domestic political purposes, meaning it is, in a certain sense, subordinated to them…” What?!? Democracy. The chutzpah of them damn Poles!!!

Posted by: JohnH | Aug 24 2025 17:36 utc | 16

A lot of those stock buybacks are used to buy the shares from exercised options that the insiders are given.

Posted by: arby | Aug 24 2025 17:37 utc | 17

A note on the Welsh article: A great deal of the empirical justification for his argument is the relative number of scientific publications and patents by PRC universities. (Reduction of absolute immiseration is the other.) I have to say that padding the resume can be an art in PRC as well as the US. And historically the kinds of inventions that truly change lives are much less common in recent years, as compared to a century ago. Patents can be useful refinements on old technologies. And fundamental breakthroughs in physics and chemistry are not as common either. It is commonly observed that physics for example hasn’t been revolutionized as it was by the development of quantum mechanics nearly a century ago. (General relativity is over a century old!) This is not to say that PRC isn’t advancing, just that the empirical indicators Mr. Welsh was using are not quite so definitive as he suggests. Of course, it is clear he is using a different definition of rich than is usual.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Aug 24 2025 17:51 utc | 18

Klarna sucks with or without “AI”, a shit company making paying worse and more convoluted 😀 Used them once, stayed away ever after and will not use/buy from anyone who forces me to use them. Wouldn’t be the least surprised if they’re zionists.
AI makes workers worse and less capable, something like 20% worse (a lot!), I do not have a link to the study, it is out there one the internet somewhere. A nice silver lining 🙂
It’s the GPS thing; people driving into the sea because “computer told me to”, people having no idea at all about where they really are or where anything else is… well at least those zippedidoo electric planks with wheels don’t have GPS so there’s that 😀
“AI” wins the Darwin Award for a species, accelerated evolutionary selection but with plenty of hurt (or dead) bystanders (will anyone be left?). Next: “AI” nuclear power plants? 😛
Not even a “first world” problem 🙂

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 24 2025 18:03 utc | 19

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Aug 24 2025 16:06 utc | 12 This is dishonest in the extreme. All factions of the MSM will scream about Trump’s responsibility for yet another defeat of imperialism! We know this is true, because that’s what happened to Biden when he disengaged from Afghanistan. Given that Trump proposed the withdrawal and even negotiated terms—to be executed after Trump left office and could escape responsibility—yet everyone attacked Biden, Trump knows that there is no way to escape to stigma of surrender. That I surmise is why he didn’t take the opportunity to take responsibility for ending the war upon taking office. Simply withdrawing would have been a surrender

Posted by: steven t johnson | Aug 24 2025 18:05 utc | 20

@ juliania | Aug 24 2025 17:23 utc | 15
thanks for the link to alex christoforu wading in the water.. i enjoyed it! i think i am going to have to go for a swim in qualicum beach to satisfy both of our attraction to that video location!!
i love what the italian fellow salvini said on macron – get on a train and go fight in ukraine… i love this guy for saying that… he cuts right thru all the diplomatic bs that defines macron and every other politician in ukraine advocating for more war, while having less then 25% of local support politically…
yes, it’s a money grab and it is screwing europe completely, not to mention everyone else – specifically ukrainians and russians tasked with maintaining this ongoing slaughter.. these vampires love money and hate people…
one thing i like about this video is it is under 30 minutes.. i am getting tired of the hour + videos that are regularly being dispensed on these important topics.. of course i would prefer transcripts… i find myself turning the sound off and the subtitles on, and playing them at 2x speed.. that is as close as i can get to a transcript.. thanks again juliania..

Posted by: james | Aug 24 2025 18:08 utc | 21

oh and the idea of some folks going out on a yacht and destroying nordstream… what kind of joke do they take people for??

Posted by: james | Aug 24 2025 18:11 utc | 22

So what is the deal with Trump fighting (taking over) the coke bussines in Venezuela? Are they even a big player compared to Columbia, Peru or Bolivia?
And since it is probably anyway about oil, can they pull something off with 4000 boots on the beach and some ships?
Take over the oil infrastructure?
Nuke Caracas in selfdefense?

Posted by: El Lissitzky | Aug 24 2025 18:21 utc | 23

Russia To Print New Syrian Banknotes – Reuters
https://www.rt.com/business/623471-syria-money-print-russia/
“…Damascus reached a deal with Russian state-owned firm Goznak to print the new notes, according to two bankers and another source with alleged knowledge of the plans.
The agreement was reportedly finalized during Syrian [head-chopper] Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaiban’s visit to Moscow in late July.
Sources told Reuters one goal of the current overhaul is to bring an estimated 40 trillion pounds circulating outside the formal financial system under oversight.
The new notes will also reportedly no longer feature Assad or his father Hafez, whose portraits appear on the 2,000 and 1,000-pound bills, respectively…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Aug 24 2025 18:22 utc | 24

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Aug 24 2025 15:50 utc | 9

Reality: Trump’s opponents laid out the red carpet for China at the turn of the century in exchange for healthy personal profits from the new “China trade”, Trump’s opponents squandered immense resources on a string of pointless and failed military adventures, culminating in the biggest disaster yet: Ukraine. Trumps opponents ended all significant production in the US and finacialized the entire economy so that nobody advances except billionaires and their hangers on. Then Trump’s opponents supported a live streamed Zionist genocide for years and slandered, beat up or arrested anyone who opposed them on the issue.

The move to open up trade with PRC at the turn of the century was also intended to strengthen capitalism in the PRC, indeed leading to its triumph. It was a bipartisan policy. It seems to me that restorationist tendencies in PRC were in fact strengthened, hence all the wailing about Xi’s dictatorship and reactionary turn (as in, cracking down on Chinese billionaires.) The military adventures such as Iraq and Afghanistan were not led by Trump’s opponents but by Republicans, Trump’s party. They were bipartisan, as was Ukraine. But it is simply factually incorrect to characterize Ukraine as the biggest disaster yet. There is actually still quite a lot of production in the US so that’s factually incorrect. (as they say, there is a lot of ruin in a country.) In any event, the significant de-industrialization that has occurred has taken place over the decades. Trump has never been an enemy of finance, finance is his main upscale market for his hotels and casinos. His main boast for years was about how the stock market’s up. Trump’s party, the Republicans, have been in power more often than the Democrats. Most outrageous is how this comment covers up for Trump’s leadership in the Zionist genocide. It is Trump who is the great leader of taming the universities, and Trump supporters like billionaire Bill Ackman, Harvard alumnus, fighting so-called anti-Semitism. The whole campaign for DEI in universities is part of that too.
The article this ironically unreal version of reality means to refute is also BS. It’s BS because it starts out by agreeing with Trump that US imperialism serves the world (meaning capitalism, as I see it.) But of course this guy and Trump can agree that American imperialism is good, they’re both supporters of imperialism. Trying to cover this reality up is reactionary.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Aug 24 2025 18:36 utc | 25

Carney’s ‘Canada Strong’ aka fascism & war capitalism.
Beating Ploughshares into Swords: An Industrial Strategy For Canada
https://nationalnewswatch.com/2025/08/15/beating-ploughshares-into-swords-a-defence-industrial-strategy-for-canada
“It has become a truism to say that Canada and the broader Western alliance – faces a more threatening international environment then at anytime since the end of the Cold War. Furthermore, changes in modern warfare, hastened by the Russia-Ukraine war, mean that Canada can no longer hide behind its geography.
To its credit, the Carney government has recognized this gap. In June, the PM and Minister of Defence announced $2.1 billion to lay the groundwork for a ‘comprehensive Defence Industrial Strategy.’
During WWII, Canada was able to quickly refashion its economy to produce the tanks, planes and ships – and the food and raw materials – that helped the allies win the war, as well as laying the groundwork for three decades of economic success.
We can do it again.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Aug 24 2025 18:47 utc | 26

26 corrected:
https://nationalnewswatch.com/2025/08/19/beating-ploughshares-into-swords-a-defence-industrial-strategy-for-canada

Posted by: John Gilberts | Aug 24 2025 18:51 utc | 27

Paradigm shifts are not frequent. It would turn it into something like an oxymoron if they were.
They are so large that the reverberations take a lot of time to work themselves out and only then does it makes sense for a new paradigm shift to be possible; only after one has started to get a good grasp on everything that changed.
With quantum mechanics and field theory we might get there in a few decades but it could easily take longer, much longer, centuries. If we are “unlucky” (or lucky depending on how one sees it) it could take millennia.
Not because anything has stopped or decelerated but because there is such a vast new vista and so much to learn now within what we found.
Really the last one was so big that the last hundred and twenty years or so can be seen as one long protracted one. It brought on computers and completely changed the world since the 1960ies. Most of the world would not be alive without it; there wouldn’t have been enough structure to support the expansion of humanity, not enough glue to hold things together.
(As an aside to the aside this is why Y2K mattered. It was very real primarily due to the potential consequences that one needed to have some sort of confidence against, one truly needed to check at the very least nuclear power plants and chemical factories and military systems and those old COBOL beasts and much much more, as much as possible).
The size of the paradigm shift and the onset of the computer age was/is the cause of the silly dreams of “AI”. Well, maybe in the future something like “AI” could happen but certainly not right now; not LLMs and now recently even other forms/examples of much more focused and dedicated “AI” are drawing harsh criticism (not all though; the protein stuff still looks like a major success).
Anyway back to the last paradigm shift in physics.
It killed Determinism! Physics beat up philosophy, hard! :O (and maths cheered it on).
That was maybe just thirty years ago when it really sunk in?
But Determinism is a stubborn idea and stupid/evil(!) people still try to save it with nonsense such as “no free will” etc. —people looking for anything as an excuse.
Einstein too has been beaten by this paradigm shift: LIGO 😀
After a century this paradigm shift might just be getting started, there could be much more to come and maybe (if it is not also an intrinsic part of it, which it kind of feels like it might be) the next one will dovetail smoothly into it if something like the amplituhedron that Arkani-Hamed and others are working on turns out to be correct 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplituhedron

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 24 2025 19:12 utc | 28

juliania | Aug 24 2025 17:23 utc | 15
The big money is not in young women, young children and babies. Mel Gibson become aware of it in Hollywood and teamed up with an ex CIA agent who had been investigating the child trafficking for some time. The are used as sex objects or for sacrifices in satanic rituals. I saw a short bit of video on twitter a few years ago where Gibson talked about and the documentary he was making.
Ukraine was the main source of children and babies. Child trafficking into the US is far more lucrative that drugs.
Just a few weeks back, I read something on an ex USB agent who had recently got out of Ukraine. I believe he gave an interview to Tass. He said about 10,000 young children and babies had been trafficked from Ukraine. Ukraine is saying Russia abducted 20,000 children so the the true number may be closer to that figure than the SBU agents 10,000.
Organ harvesting is also very big in Ukraine, especially in the frontline hospitals supposedly treating the wounded. I assume a fair number of wounded would have been killed for their organs in those hospitals.
The children and babies that go into the US are completely undocumented so even if their bodies are found, they cannot be identified and of course nobody would have reported them missing and impossible to investigate what happened to them or who killed them.
I tried to find the Mel Gibson video on google and a lot of rubbish came up about him not making the documentary.
Its talked about here by the person that asked Gibson to make a video on the plight of the children.
He says that child trafficking is now a 32 billion dollar industry and growing very rapidly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1QofXcNVxg

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 24 2025 19:42 utc | 29

Oh Humpty Drumpffty!
Falling off his wall
Demanding a peace prize
Starting the continental war
In his backyard
The multipolar will answer the calls!
‘Sprinter Express
@SprinterExpres0
19m
Maduro announced the mobilization of the Bolivarian National Militia, as well as reservists and volunteers across the country due to a possible threat from the United States.
The U.S. Navy has gathered off the coast of Venezuela for an attack that many expect within a week.
🇧🇷 Brazil has expressed concern about the U.S. Navy approaching the coasts of Venezuela.
Aug 24, 2025 · 7:30 PM UTC ‘

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 24 2025 19:54 utc | 30

More on the world wide child trafficking trade. The person in the other video I linked is Tim Ballard the ex CIA agent. He is interviewed here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTBGNEliczc
“Dr. Jordan B. Peterson discusses the new film “Sound of Freedom,” with star Jim Caviezel and real life inspiration Tim Ballard. The film details Ballard’s work as a Special Agent to fight against sex trafficking and the child sex trade. They go into depth on the psychology of pedophilia, the nature of good and evil, and how a steady faith in God has guided all three.
Tim Ballard is the founder and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), which locates and rescues endangered children victimized by sex trafficking rings. Previously, he accrued a decade of experience as a Special Agent in the Dept. of Homeland Security, working as an undercover op for the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team.”

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 24 2025 20:02 utc | 31

China is a Rich Society. No Western Country Is. – Ian Welsh
Short, sweet truth here. This is the reality.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Aug 24 2025 15:58 utc | 11
And as Ian himself admits in response to commenter GM:
‘They’re [China is] running a standard playbook and doing it well. But the playbook is a profoundly stupid one at this point.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/china-is-a-rich-society-no-western-country-is/#comment-162778
—
Unexpected China Factory Contraction Confirms Deflationary Headwinds, Overcapacity
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/07/unexpected-china-factory-contraction-confirms-deflationary-headwinds-overcapacity.html
‘China may not be ‘financialized’ in the way the US or other western economies are, but the underlying problem is the same – out of control debt and speculation which has become disconnected from real productivity growth.’
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/07/unexpected-china-factory-contraction-confirms-deflationary-headwinds-overcapacity.html#comment-4253523
—
Industrial Colossus: China vs 1950s America
https://www.cogitations.co/p/industrial-colossus-china-vs-1950s
The Scam That Turned China’s Housing Slump Into a Cash Machine
https://www.caixinglobal.com/2025-07-11/cx-daily-the-scam-that-turned-chinas-housing-slump-into-a-cash-machine-102340002.html
—
Chinese Government Tries to Combat Destructive Deflation. Will It Succeed?
‘he fact that they have done so many things right does not mean that they cannot also have very serious problems.’
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/07/chinese-government-tries-to-combat-destructive-deflation-will-it-succeed.html#comment-4245218

Posted by: Dan Kelly | Aug 24 2025 20:22 utc | 32

🇧🇷 Brazil has expressed concern about the U.S. Navy approaching the coasts of Venezuela.
Aug 24, 2025 · 7:30 PM UTC ‘
Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 24 2025 19:54 utc | 30
It sounds like Maduro could use a few P800 Onyx missiles. Have the Russians or Chinese provided any anti-ship missiles???

Posted by: Original Newbie | Aug 24 2025 20:25 utc | 33

Well it’s going to be an interesting Bank Holiday Monday and end to August
Shelensky is going all in Downfall.
This time our ziofascist collective waste is going along too!
Driven by the usual suspects, our road to hell.
‘Sprinter Express
@SprinterExpres0
Aug 6
Jolani’s Defense Minister Muharraf Abu Qasra meets with British National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell in Damascus and discusses ways to strengthen bilateral relations.
SANA
Aug 6, 2025 · 8:37 AM UTC’
The great gamers and their Greenmantle’s riding forth. Again. And again.. angels of death.
And this follows from that:
‘HTS leader Al Jolani : There is “advanced” discussion regarding a security agreement between Damascus and Tel Aviv.
Aug 24, 2025 · 7:50 PM UTC’
And this:
‘A British Army military transport aircraft has landed at Ben Gurion Airport.
⏺The transfer of equipment and resources to support the Israeli regime continues with high intensity.
Aug 24, 2025 · 7:40 PM UTC’
And just next door, this:
‘A former high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer stated:
⏺The new confrontation between Israel and Iran, as well as the Lebanese “Hezbollah,” is inevitable and will happen simultaneously.
According to him, the second phase of the war will inevitably be much larger in scale
Aug 24, 2025 · 7:33 PM UTC’
Which is matched by :
‘Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani: President Masoud Pezeshkian will travel to China soon.
➡️Relations with China and following up on the strategic cooperation agreement between the two countries are top priorities for the 14th government.
Aug 24, 2025 · 7:46 PM UTC’
The world is accelerating to full blown war and new iron curtain made by the CW.
The SCO meets shortly. Vvp is due there for at least 4 days.
And right now this:
‘ 🇺🇸🇮🇶 The US has decided to “suddenly” withdraw its troops from the Ain al-Asad and Victoria bases in Iraq, as well as to accelerate the withdrawal of forces from the country
American troops are beginning to transfer their personnel to the military base in Erbil and a neighboring Arab country.
— Sky News Arabia.
➡️ Join us! | @MyLordBebo ‘
Tik fuckin Tock. There is no easy climb down from these heights.
Goodnight barflies, early night for me. Busy day,early start. Hope to catch up in the morrow.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 24 2025 21:12 utc | 34

“Also, Venezuela has an unknown number of Italian-made Otomat and Chinese-made YJ-83 anti-ship cruise missiles, each with ~200 kg warheads and Mach .9 speed.
It has also been rumored that the Russians have recently delivered to Venezuela a small quantity of Mach 2.9 P-800 Oniks anti-ship missiles, although there is no solid confirmation of this.”
https://x.com/imetatronink
From what Shryver writes at the link, the American force of the coast of Venezuela is little more than a token force. That makes me think the Americans may well have a proxy force inside Venezuela or Columbia.
Back when Trump held the male ‘model’ up by the scruff of the neck and declared him President of Venezuela, the opposition could only get around 20% of the vote and off memory didn’t even bother to stand in the election.
At the last election, the opposition party received a far higher percentage of the vote so there may be enough fertile ground for the US to have created a proxy there.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 24 2025 21:12 utc | 35

And just to make sure this is escalated to the whole of West Asia and North Africa a bit of crazed frothing mad dog. Jeez they need putting down!
‘Sprinter Express
@SprinterExpres0
32m
Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich: “We will defeat Ansar Allah just as we defeated the octopus in Iran and just as we defeated Hamas in Gaza.”
Aug 24, 2025 · 7:32 PM UTC’

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 24 2025 21:16 utc | 36

INTERLUDE
LIVE: Brooks Falls – Katmai National Park, Alaska 2025 powered by EXPLORE.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73-EekdVVU8
The bears are busy at lunch time

Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 24 2025 21:20 utc | 37

Louis Proyect lite, is as I have repeatedly pointed out, a paid shill for The US Democrat party. Observe the indignant butt hurt over the foul piece of shit’s perceived injustice to his “team”‘s champion:

“All factions of the MSM will scream about Trump’s responsibility for yet another defeat of imperialism! We know this is true, because that’s what happened to Biden when he disengaged from Afghanistan. Given that Trump proposed the withdrawal and even negotiated terms—to be executed after Trump left office and could escape responsibility—yet everyone attacked Biden”

What a foul scumbag.
The problem with Biden and Afghanistan was not that the US withdrew from its intervention there. The problem is that the Biden Administration completely screwed the pooch on the withdrawal. This nasty shithead’s “team” didn’t even begin to plan for a withdrawal from Afghanistan until after the US military had almost completed its timely withdrawal on a well-established and advertised schedule. The military was on time for the specified date to leave. It was retarded, woke, DEI infested civilian Establishment that completely missed the deadline and panicked when they realized the military really was leaving promptly as they were ordered to do.
The dembot isn’t pleased that the US got out of Afghanistan like a real leftist would be. Rather he is butt hurt over the process making his “tribe” look like the ignorant and incompetent fools that they are, so he blames Trump even though the fault for the fiasco lies solely with his own incompetent “tribe”.
I don’t see how much clearer he can make it that he is a partisan dembot shill.

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 24 2025 21:50 utc | 38

Peter Thiel is the major backer of JD Vance – probably the next POTUS. Thiel is an avid follower of Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt.
Subscriber Only
Opinion
JD Vance is a key advocate for the Trump regime’s view of the EU as an enemy
This world view prizes imperial strength, tradition, faith and order
Paul Gillespie
Sun Aug 24 2025 – 06:00
Suzerains or vassals? Judaeo-Christians or secularists? Censors or regulators? Post-liberals of right or left? Sovereign or liberal internationalists?
Where power lies across the Atlantic is highlighted by the US-Russian and US-European summitry on Ukraine and trade – and these rhetorical polarities from their antagonistic discourse reveal the deep ideological and material interests now at play in their wider confrontations.
Europe’s military dependency on the United States is starkly revealed in what should be the (inevitably messy) endgame of the Ukraine war. Taking full advantage of that power, Donald Trump convened the Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin on a basis of sovereign equality. He then consulted the Europeans at the White House on the security guarantees, ceasefires and territorial compromises needed to end the fighting.
Trump remains the prime mover of the process, but is open to bargaining these terms in coming weeks. His endgame is to preserve superior US power across the Atlantic whatever the outcome – and that is plainly related to the other dimensions of US power involved in these confrontations.
Contd.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 24 2025 22:29 utc | 39

contd.
The lopsided trade deal reached in Scotland between Trump and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, imposed a 15 per cent tariff on EU goods for none the other way, plus EU vows to purchase US arms and energy. Geopolitical considerations, and especially the need to preserve Nato security guarantees in Europe, underlay her relatively weak deal. Critics say it conceded too much to Trump’s bullying tactics. A more resolute retaliation like China’s against US service exports and access to EU markets would have better protected European interests.
The intensity and coherence of the Trump administration’s animus against the EU’s world views are revealed in recent statements by its advocates and theorists. A number of them centre on vice-president JD Vance in his role as a serious and ambitious political networker of radical right-wing conservatism in Europe.
In a recent post on Substack on “The Need for Civilisational Allies in Europe” Marco Rubio’s State Department argues for a return of Roman and Judaeo-Christian values to steer western civilisation away from the European multiculturalism and secularism that betray it. Alliance realignment, conditional aid and visa bans are needed to confront liberal European enemies of the Trump administration’s new values: imperial strength, tradition, faith and hierarchical order.
The themes draw on a speech given by Trump in Poland in 2017 celebrating its conservatism and another by Vance in Munich earlier this year in which he berated European ideological censorship of far-right and Christian fundamentalist activists.
They are further taken up in a Daily Telegraph article this week by three members of the congressional judiciary committee. They say EU and European laws regulating content and hate speech of high tech and other companies undermine and penalise US online free speech. “While Europe struggles with a surging migrant crisis and a stagnant economy, it looks to American companies to bail it out. Instead of fixing these problems, Europe’s leaders revert to censoring critics of their failing policies.”
On a more philosophical plane Patrick Deneen, the Irish-American professor of political theory in Notre Dame university has become one of Vance’s most influential Catholic advisers. His 2023 book Regime Change: Towards a Postliberal Future, advocates the restoration of religious, cultural and family values to replace liberalism’s protection of individual rights and freedoms through a value-neutral proceduralism.
Regime change is required through “the peaceful but vigorous overthrow of a corrupt and corrupting liberal ruling class in which existing political forms can remain in place, as long as a fundamentally different ethos informs those institutions and the personnel who populate key offices and positions”.
Quoting him in the Jesuit review Studies, its editor Dermot Roantree critically examines these Catholic intellectuals advising Vance. He shows how Vance combines such approaches with a darker influence from the German legal theorist Carl Schmitt, who justified Hitler’s seizure of dictatorial power in 1933-34 in the name of state supremacy. Trump’s sovereigntist logic similarly justifies state power, he argues. Deneen admires the Hungarian leader Viktor Orban and in a recent interview there said Trump had made a strong start towards such regime change in his first six months.
European leaders responding to Trump need to stiffen their resolve if they want to resist his reactionary politics and effectively defend their own liberal internationalist regime. They are ill-equipped to do so given their own irresolution and right-wing drift. Collectively they equal US economic strength and are 10 times stronger than Russia’s but they cannot match their political and military cohesion or current authoritarianism.
To renew such a degenerative West they should actively pursue beneficial alliances with other world regions and states with which they share interdependent and multilateral values in a more multipolar setting. Otherwise they risk becoming vassals of Trump’s proffered suzerainty.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025/08/24/jd-vance-is-a-key-advocate-for-the-trump-regimes-view-of-the-eu-as-an-enemy/
European Leadership – OxyMoronic

Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 24 2025 22:32 utc | 40

Rather he is butt hurt over the process making his “tribe” look like the ignorant and incompetent fools that they are, so he blames Trump even though the fault for the fiasco lies solely with his own incompetent “tribe”.
Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 24 2025 21:50 utc | 38
And yet here we are stuck in an endless unwinnable war because Trump and his tribe don’t want to look like the ignorant and incompetent fools that they are by pulling out. So Trump will drag it out and leave it to the next president just as he did last time with Afghanistan.
But I should point out it is not Trump or Biden that are the “ignorant and incompetent fools”. They are just the hired hands doing what they were hired to do.

Posted by: jinn | Aug 24 2025 22:45 utc | 41

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 24 2025 21:50 utc | 38 As I recall I’ve already been accused of being a Dembot for pointing out that Biden at least ended the war in Afghanistan (not just kicked the can down the road)on the grounds that’s approving the end of the war no matter what and who by was praising Biden. Now I’m allegedly a Dembot for not approving the end of the Afghan war no matter what and who by. I suppose the next step is to borrow from bevin’s textbook and say that not cheerleading for the Taliban is anti-Leninist or something.
The claim that Biden “screwed the pooch” on withdrawal and that’s the only reason all factions of the MSM turned against him is Witless Guff, true to its namesake. What wasn’t supposed to happen and what constituted the screwing of the pooch was, the Taliban winning! This hack’s substitute for an argument is, the divine revelation (from God Trump presumably) that if Trump had been re-elected, the Taliban wouldn’t have won. Or at least would have decorously waited until Trump the God let them take the prize discreetly. This claim is just more Witless Guff.
Let me suggest that it was the MSM who puffed up the Taliban’s inevitable victory into a supposed marvel of incompetence by Biden. Maybe Trump was friendly enough with the Taliban that they wouldn’t want to embarrass their friend, but I don’t know that. And unlike some I wouldn’t say it, even to score points about how Trump and the Taliban really are so Handmaid’s Tale it’s not funny. I’m old enough to recall the Marine barracks explosion in Lebanon under Saint Reagan (he was God once, but those were ancient times) The Blessed Saviour Reagan promptly withdrew his troops. Reagan’s Lebanon intervention was classic screwing the pooch. No, the issue is not imperialist incompetence, it is routine to minimize those, bring on new distractions and simply forget untold numbers of disasters. I say, even decompensated Trump is still smart enough to know that withdrawing from Ukraine, even or maybe especially after making noises vaguely anti-war on any principle at all would stil be interpreted as a defeat for imperialism and it would probably bring all factions of MSM down on him, maybe permanently.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Aug 24 2025 23:13 utc | 42

I think this makes an very important point.
WHAT IF THE RUSSIANS HAD CONDUCTED THE COUP IN 2014?
In 2014 the United States (aligned with a faction in the Ukrainian government) conducted a coup in Kiev (to replace the democratically elected Yanukovich government which was considered insufficiently pro-Europe).
Many in Eastern Ukraine rebelled against this coup-government.
A civil war began.
The coup-government claimed authority over all of Ukraine
and called itself “the Ukrainian government”.
The coup-government sent in the military to deal with the eastern rebels.
The media claimed, and still claims, that the U.S. backed coup-government had a “right” to all of Ukraine and they champion (vigorously support) a march to the Russian border.
WHAT IF THIS HAD HAPPENED IN 2014?
In 2014 Russia (aligned with a faction in the Ukrainian government) conducted a coup in Kiev (to replace the Yanukovich government which was considered too pro-Europe).
Many in Western Ukraine rebelled against this coup-government.
A civil war began.
The coup-government claimed authority over all of Ukraine
and called itself “the Ukrainian government”.
The coup-government called in the Russian military to deal with the western rebels.
Of course, to be consistent, the media would have to claim that the Russian backed coup-government had a “right” to all of Ukraine and that they championed a march of the Russian military to the Polish border.
The important point is that statements such as “Ukraine will not give up any of its land,” make no sense.
This is because the coup-government, and its successors, never established authority over all of Ukraine.
ANOTHER SCENARIO
What if the Chinese (aligned with a leftist faction in the Ukrainian government) had conducted a coup in Kiev. Would this give them authority over all of Ukraine?

Posted by: John | Aug 24 2025 23:32 utc | 43

AI-related >>
Per Gary Marcus, LLMs do markedly better on coding benchmarks than in real-world practice. Developers like Dario Amodei (Anthropic) and Sam Altman (Open AI) post methodologically flawed, non-peer-reviewed experimental results on their own websites, claiming *breakthroughs* right & left, without submitting their benchmarks to independent scrutiny.
Upholding basically reliable longstanding proven scientific norms—-such as interrogating proofs & critiques—-doesn’t align w/ their PR and bottom line. The vast majority of academic AI researchers doubt that scaling will get AI all the way to AGI, for instance—-but those voices aren’t heard in the boardrooms. In light of this, LLMs most likely will not lead the way to AGI.
The economic force being driven by AI investment amounts to four companies—Microsoft, Amazon, Google & Meta. They hire contractors to build data centers & then lease the centers from a 3rd party in order to burn through generative AI, a product which makes a relatively small amount of money before losing a lot more.
The generative AI industry is, @ its core, unnatural. It does not make significant revenue compared to its burdensome costs, nor does it have much revenue potential.
Unlike software, it requires an unbelievable amount of physical infrastructure to run—not just in gigawatts of natural gas-produced electricity to run but also in water consumption for cooling of the hardware. Emissions from Musk’s xAI Colossus in Memphis is said to have increased asthma rates among residents and other lung ailments, as evaluated by University of Tennessee researchers.
Weirdly, there are no profits in AI & there are no exit strategies for liquidity.
Cursor is a coding product built atop Anthropic’s LLM-derived AI. Cursor is Anthropic’s largest client, the 2nd largest being Github Copilot. An acquisition price for Cursor hovers @ the $10bn tier, and no investors are rushing to acquire it @ that rate.
Companies like Cursor @ $10bn and Open AI @ $500bn (in August 2025,) can’t be bought and can’t go public because the valuations are outlandishly out of reach.
If there are no IPOs or buyouts, it is not possible for venture firms, who ploughed billions of cap into these businesses, to gain a return.
Both Silicon Valley & the U.S. government agree that we must invest untold billions to build supporting infrastructure for an error-prone, energy-hungry technology w/ an unproven business model & and unpredictable impact on the economy and on jobs.
Not to be overlooked: 35% of the U.S. stock market is propped up by 6 companies buying Nvidia’s GPUs. Each quarter, Nvidia has to sell *more* GPUs than it did the quarter before in order to post the expected earnings.
88% of Nvidia’s revenue comes from GPUs primarily used for generative AI, of which 5 companies make up 42% of its revenue.
By the end of 2025, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google & Tesla will have spent $560bn in AI capex since late 2023, only to earn around $35bn.
Elon’s xAI burns $1bn per month and rakes in $8.3mn.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Aug 25 2025 0:00 utc | 44

@Peter AU1 | Aug 24 2025 19:42 utc | 29
They are used as sex objects or for sacrifices in satanic rituals.
Afterwards, their organs are harvested. More information is available on Vassily Prozorov’s substack under the heading UKR Leaks Investigation Centre
https://ukrleakseng.substack.com
Christelle Neant carried out an investigation in 2023 on child trafficking and the activities of the “White Angels”
https://www.donbass-insider.com/2023/08/16/organ-trafficking-paedophile-networks-the-hell-of-children-abducted-by-ukraine/
More information on organ trafficking in Ukraine
https://medium.com/@deborahlarmstrong/every-day-we-were-working-like-frankensteins-slaves-cb76bff7bdbd
https://medium.com/@deborahlarmstrong/human-beings-disassembled-like-legos-faab1e19ef41
https://medium.com/@deborahlarmstrong/when-you-see-it-you-wont-forgive-37ea609914fe

Posted by: cirisum | Aug 25 2025 0:11 utc | 45

@ steel_porcupine | Aug 25 2025 0:00 utc | 44 about the US AI ponzi marketing…thx
This reminds me of a certain alternative money that consumes massive amounts of resources to create their mythical value but retain none of the intrinsic value of the resources used.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 25 2025 0:14 utc | 46

I give up on this site. After the stupidity of a couple of weeks ago when I tried to publish a piece about how the cessation of india’s pharma sales to amerika would mean amerikans were denied far more medicines than merely cheap versions of drugs as a lot of premium pharma products were affected, and seeing it consistently rejected. Then bernard refused to restore even a hugely truncated version of it and today, when a piece I have tried to post here on amerika’s new tax has consistently refused to reproduce for whatever reason, many will be pleased to hear that is it for me. I cannot tolerate trying to post to a site where what I post is constantly rejected.
I’m no longer interested in tales of ‘errors’ with software and now recognise that this site has become just like every other site on the net, it only allows those posts that the owner permits. In other words this site has lost its point as well as its value as a resource.
If some people are not free to post what they want to, while others cut n paste huge articles from others on bulldust with no remonstrance, the worth of the joint is destroyed. That is the state of affairs here now.
It’s gonna be a tough habit to break but I’ve dealt with worse so I hope I can restrain myself sufficiently, as it is I have been posting less than 20% of what I write for moa posting, so ending that last 20% will be doable.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Aug 25 2025 0:14 utc | 47

i thought this was a good article – “The New Economic Geography – Who Profits in a Post-American World? – Adam S. Posen / Foreign Affairs
here is a quote from it, early in the article..
“Trump and his advisers would argue that this is simple reciprocity or fair treatment for countries that, in their view, exploited the United States for decades. Yet those countries never extracted anything that remotely matched what the United States received: dirt cheap long-term loans to the U.S. government; disproportionately massive foreign investment in American corporations and the U.S. workforce; a near-global adherence to U.S. technical and legal standards that advantaged U.S.-based producers; reliance on the U.S. financial system for the vast majority of global transactions and reserves; compliance with U.S. initiatives on sanctions; payments for garrisoning American troops; widespread dependence on the U.S. defense industry; and best of all, a sustained rise in the American standard of living. Not only did the United States profit handsomely from being an insurance provider that others valued, but its allies also ceded many important security-related decisions to Washington.
The great thing about providing insurance is that for years at a time, you don’t have to do or pay anything to collect your premiums. That is even truer for the form of economic insurance the United States provided globally than it is for a home insurance provider, because the very existence of the U.S. security guarantees reduced the real-world threats to policyholders. This reduced the claims paid out. But the Trump administration is jettisoning this profitable and steady business model in favor of one that reinforces the opposite cycle. Ever-fewer clients will become more at risk. Already, businesses, governments, and investors are fundamentally changing their practices to try to self-insure instead.”
i am not sure why @ Ahenobarbus | Aug 24 2025 15:50 utc | 9 or steven t johnson | Aug 24 2025 18:36 utc | 25 pans this article in the way they do… i thought it was a good overview and although the guy is panning this new approach that trump and friends have thrown onto the world stage here, i think it is more of a reflection of the law of diminishing returns where the usa and capitalist system finds itself in at present..

Posted by: james | Aug 25 2025 0:19 utc | 48

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