The former military town of Bicester is a casebook example of this.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Nov 3 2025 20:31 utc | 204
I know, its the same everywhere. Luxury flats, shopping malls (both now with many empty units). vape shops and Turkish barbers (for some reason, some say money laundering).
I’m still cringing from the time David (now Lord) Cameron showcased Bicester Shopping Village to Xi Jinping. Imagine flying all that way to see the shelves groaning with stuff made in China. Lol.
Still, he got a pint of beer in a fake Olde English Pub (TM).

Posted by: ChatNPC | Nov 3 2025 20:41 utc | 204

@ChatNPC #202
While privatization of public utilities is absolutely a problem – it is not the problem with UK energy ie UK fossil fuels.
There are innumerable ways to prevent fossil fuel development starting with public sentiment, on to leases and permits, and onwards to a wide variety of market skewing mechanisms such as subsidies for competitors, discriminatory regulation, etc etc.
In California, for example, you need a permit to do any kind of drilling whether for oil, for CO2 capture, for geothermal etc.
Prior to Gavin Newsome coming in to office, annually about 3000 permits were issued by the state.
In Newsome’s first year (2019), this fell to 2400.
And now? dozens.
This is one example of how it works.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 3 2025 21:58 utc | 206

persiflo | Nov 3 2025 14:55 utc | 177
 
I had a mate who was a crop duster pilot. Fully loaded with fertilizer, he had to fly in ground effect until getting rid of some of the load. Would fly under power lines instead of over. I think he got caught in a narrow rising valley one time and had to put it down.
 
But anyway he wanted to come up and see me, and he had a couple of mates wanted to come up pig hunting so they all chipped in and hired a Cessna for a week. While his mates were playing Rambo in the creek, we would go up flying. This was before I had learnt to fly. Eldest daughter liked flying to so she would get in the back seat.
We would have bit of a look around but once in the air he would pass the control to me. If we saw some goats, he’d take over and we would go in and buzz them a few times. One day, coming back in, he told me to have a go at landing. I came in with a bounce and bounced from one wheel to the other down the strip. He would just sit there quite relaxed with arms folded and hands nowhere near the controls. We were doing what is called touch and goes. Touch down and before pulling to a stop, open the throttle and take off again. When I had bounced most of the way down the strip, he would take over and take off again. I think the first time after taking off he gave the controls back to me and said to turn around and give it another go. I started a mild banking turn, but then he said ‘I’ve got’ it and he what I think is called a P turn. Just pulled the nose up, jammed one rudder peddle right down and we were pointed back at the strip. So we did that for awhile. I would bounce along the strip, and then he would do the P turn to set me up for another landing attempt. I think we were doing that for about 15 or 20 minutes when I suddenly remembered my daughter in the back seat. There had not been a peep out of her and I had forgotten she was there.
She was white as a sheet and looked like she had been drugged. We landed pretty quick and got her out onto solid ground. She ended up getting her private pilots licence when in her twenties, but shortly after obtaining it, stopped flying altogether.
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 3 2025 23:13 utc | 208

This anti-fossil fuel direction of UK society and government is directly an outcome of higher education; the level of fervor against fossil fuels is very closely aligned with level of education.So is education to blame? lol
Posted by: c1ue | Nov 3 2025 17:14 utc | 194
 
*****************
 
I presume you are serious?
 
The “level of education” can also be blamed for increased life expectancy, decreased infant mortality, decreased (sustainable) birthrate, improved living standards, decrease in poverty… I’m sure you can think of at least one more positive outcome.
 
Should we forego all the advantages of education just so we can enthusiastically pursue the consumption of fossil fuels? Or should we instead ensure that all participants in any education program exit with the firm understanding that the unbridled consumption of fossil fuels is the answer to all problems?
 
Without getting too coy about reserves of fossil fuels and associated consumption rates, I’m guessing that we can agree that we live in a finite world? That being the case, at some point in the future when reality and the finite world intersect, what do you think will be our energy source(s) when fossil and nuclear sources are exhausted? Should we start planning/preparing?
 
Maybe it is too hard. Maybe we should just be crickets in the sun, chirping away merrily, and leave the problem to our great-great—grandchildren…

Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 3 2025 23:26 utc | 210

GE Report: Ben Norton
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKF-jrrv5yA
 
“The world opposes the US terror war on Latin America.”
 
 
RNN: The Great Caribbean Betrayal
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRxmNWYfIiQ
 
“Grenada then, Venezuela now. In this RNN Live, we break down how the Caribbean’s betrayal of Grenada set the stage for today’s political and economic subservience to US interests…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 3 2025 23:43 utc | 212

Do you call SpaceX “a small engineering workshop”?
Posted by: c1ue | Nov 3 2025 17:01 utc | 190
 
Musks SpaceX and Starlink are the one standout in the US. I think Tesla is Musk, but with the other two he is a Pentagon front. He does have the ability to pull the right people together but I always wondered where he required the STEM to make those rockets work. Turned out he and the Pentagon required the old Soviet design Bureau in 2014 that according to the Russians consisted of about 4,500 highly educated and trained people. That’s a lot of brainpower suddenly on board.
 
They had been contracting for the Russian space agency prior to 2014, but were likely contracting to SpaceX as well in that time.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 0:00 utc | 214

@General Factotum #208
General approaches used by China:
1) Massive, historically unprecedented printing of money
China has printed at least $40 trillion during its buildup. This is roughly 12000% of its 1984 GDP. The West cannot even remotely do this.
2) Assisted offshoring of US and, to a lesser extent, European manufacturing.
China won’t be assisting
3) Decadal planning combined with provincial (US equivalent = state level) “survival of the fittest”.
The CPC clearly retains control and provides direction for specific areas such as rare earth processing, oil refining, solar PV and wind turbines, etc etc.
These are not chosen at random – they are strategic choices which address China’s economic weak points or serve as escalation dominance fodder in case of trade wars.
We have seen the rare earths already this year.
The refining – China has 200% refining capacity vs. what it would need for internal use. This extra refining capacity plays out in almost all of Asia depending on China for refining – which causes an oil war on China to hurt everybody around them, too. A nice way to “make” friends.
Solar PV and wind turbines: while China has use for solar PV and wind because it is one way of converting coal to electricity – the higher goal is to cause Western economies to lose their sanity and believe in Net Zero. While this is producing the most obvious fruit in Europe’s multi-decadal de-industrialization, the actual impact is on the US. The US is a fossil fuel superpower: oil, natural gas and coal all together. Yet a large percentage of US states have chosen to go all-in on solar PV and wind despite it driving up electricity costs and driving down grid reliability. Win Win, as they say.
Another is consumer electronics: Huawei, Haier and a number of other gigantic, nation spanning conglomerates.
There are certainly other areas – we don’t know what they are yet but I am 100% sure they exist.
The “survival of the fittest” algorithm is province based. Unlike US states or present EU member nations, the provinces in China are able to print money. The CPC must have some kind of control over this in general, but this ability to print money is why you see ghost cities, mounds of electric scooters etc etc – each province has chosen its own unique mix of subsidized industries by which said province believes it can meet the economic progress goals set by the CPC’s master plans. Note these are outside of the CPC specific strategic economic goals.
Which brings us to:
4) Low starting labor cost base, high starting general education base but also a giant pool of rural labor – uprooted by consolidation into more modern farming practices along with mass urbanization.
China’s urbanization in 1984 was around 22%. It is now 67%, give or take. That comes out to around 770 million people moving from rural areas into urban areas.
How’s that for a work force and economic impetus to work hard?
None of these 4 factors is remotely replicable by the US or Europe.
Note that none of this detracts from the amazing job that the CPC has delivered on. The above could easily describe India or Pakistan or Brazil or any number of other nations – only China has pulled it off the date.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2025 0:36 utc | 216

Earlier I put in a comment on evolution not being possible in the US due to political climate so it must be revolution.
 
I think there is now a large faction in the US, not the peasants but amongst the people of influence that knows America must change. I think this really only formed up and solidified after the failure of the southern offensive towards Crimea.
 
Revolution tends to plumb the depths. China – From the time of the defeat of the ROC government till Mao’s death was revolution China. The leadership that came to power after Mao’s death was and still is post revolution China.
 
Post revolution China is quite different from both Pre revolution and revolution China.
 
Russia – The Russian empire, the Soviet Union, The Russian federation. Two revolutions. The Soviet Union never really broke out of revolution mindset so a second revolution was required to end the first revolution. The Russian 90’s, that was revolution Russia. Putin emerged as the post revolution leader.
 
For the US, it will be different again. Although it comes in the colours of armed robbery devoid of fig leaves (oil anyone?), I think what we are seeing is the beginning of revolution America. I suspect this is what the Russian and Chinese leaderships are also seeing. Their countries have been there, done that.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 0:57 utc | 218

c1ue | Nov 4 2025 0:36 utc | 217
 
There were aspects of your comment I little or nothing about but in full agreement on the aspects I know about.
 
I was thinking on China’s ability to print money. In the US, it is printed on faith alone as the international trade currency.
 
In China, it seems to be printed on the bricks and mortar of its infrastructure which is the backbone, the foundation of China’s rise to prosperity. As the infrastructure and economy grows, more money is require within the quickly growing economy.
 
Western media likes to write doom and gloom about Chinese debt, but I don’t think you are doing that.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 1:21 utc | 220

Ahenobarbus and c1ue, thank you for your service.
 
Death to America
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Nov 4 2025 1:36 utc | 222

And Peter AU1 too, of course. Thank you.
 
Death to America
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Nov 4 2025 1:37 utc | 224

The communist majesty of Marx and Engles. A theory. The communist revolutions of Russia and China tested that theory. Revolution phase that theory was followed. Post revolution, the aspects that worked were kept, the aspects that did not work were discarded.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 1:46 utc | 226

Hudson some years ago talked about two to three decades of turbulence. I disbelieved it at the time. Russia is gearing up for an extended period of turbulence in the world.
 
Since WWII, US emerged as, and is the cornerstone, the mainstay the foundation of what is now termed the west. The US is now entering into a revolution phase and it is likely to last the two or three decades Hudson spoke about.
 
What will emerge at the other side of the American revolution phase is anybody’s guess.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 2:30 utc | 228

1) Massive, historically unprecedented printing of moneyChina has printed at least $40 trillion during its buildup. This is roughly 12000% of its 1984 GDP. The West cannot even remotely do this.
 
Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2025 0:36 utc | 217
 
*******************
 
Thanks for your considered and detailed response. I read your point  1), and felt uncomfortable. I had not previously seen any quantitative claims regarding money printing. So I’ll fly blind, document my journey, and see where it goes.
 
First observation: 12,000% seems a very big number, while a factor of 120 is nowhere near as scary.
 
Second thought: I knew China has had large and sustained growth, but I had no figures in my head. Statista has a plot of China GDP at current prices since 1985. Through sheer laziness I chose a comparison of 1985 to 2025, a nice round 40 years to make my mental arithmetic easier.
 
https://www.statista.com/statistics/263770/gross-domestic-product-gdp-of-china/?srsltid=AfmBOoohno_aooQaLtLEnqgA6XpJvPwJWiI5lRMP1bBUAZFRAYc4mha5
 
Still feeling like my sap is rising, I’m going to try a table :
 
YEAR          CHINA GDP (CURRENT DOLLARS, BILLIONS)
1985                310
1990                387
1995                737
2000            1,220
2005            2,330
2010            6,140
2015            11,310
2020            15,100
2025            19,400
2030            26,300 (projected)
 
So, growth in China’s GDP in real terms in current dollars over the 40 years to the present has been a factor of 62.58 or a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 10.89% over 40 years.
 
If money supply, through printing, has been double the total growth over 40 years, given improvements in living standards, massive development of every sector I can think of, and a massive decrease in the extent and depth of poverty, I can’t see that it is irresponsible. Am I missing something?
 
Also, over the same time the US Government debt, as a proportion of GDP, has grown from 31.8% in 1981 to 124% in 2024 and now stands at US$38 Trillion, or around double China’s GDP this year.
 
Over the last 40 years, the US cannot claim the same increase in living standards, infrastructure development, or decrease in poverty that China has demonstrated.
 
I’d like to know where I have gone wrong with understanding your point 1) before I rush off and get lost in the weeds on the rest of your post.
 
 

Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 4 2025 3:49 utc | 230

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 4:24 utc | 234
 
######
 
 
I followed the ghost city narrative closely back in 2009. It was another Uyghur/Tibetan genocide Western narrative.
 
China’s 3rd tier cities are cleaner and more advanced than the nicest city in the West.
 
I expect a lot more copium narratives, like the social credit score nonsense.
 
Can’t have people see what socialism can accomplish!!!

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 4 2025 4:31 utc | 232

LoveDonbass | Nov 4 2025 4:33 utc | 236
 
Thinking about China’s progress from poverty ridden peasant farmers to where they are today. Technology and manufacturing have pulled China out of poverty. With mechanised and modern farming, China can now feed itself and only a small amount of labour is required.
A country of 1,3 or 1.4 billion people, that’s a massive shift from peasant farming to the urban technology and manufacturing centers. A massive amount of housing required for that shift.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 4:42 utc | 234

I know in Thailand they use heavy drones to spray fields. 
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 4 2025 5:12 utc | 241
 
 
Yes. In china the same. They are ideal for the small fields that exist in many areas.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 5:25 utc | 236

it would just require educating (or re-educating) the populace and decision-makers
 
Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 4 2025 6:13 utc | 243
 
—
 
That sounds like a Cultural Revolution.
 

Posted by: too scents | Nov 4 2025 6:39 utc | 238

@ General Factotum | Nov 4 2025 6:13 utc | 243 about China high-speed rail and such…thx
 
The scary thing to me is reading recently that China has contracted out some part of high-speed rail to a private organization.
 
I am of the opinion that if China, rightly so, IMO, provides major forms of public transportation built and managed by the government, that they are at risk by having a private organization, with the additional goal of profit which has to come out of service or safety.
 
I think that sovereign governments should provide broad communication capabilities much the same way….education, health care, housing…….and finance as a public utility instead of a private jackboot.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 4 2025 6:59 utc | 240

General Factotum | Nov 4 2025 6:13 utc | 243
 
Thanks for that comparison. We used to  do that in Australia but it was a long time ago and it is now viewed as the Government picking  winners, something that is anathema to Western political thought.  Heaven forbid that an elected government might like to  steer the country towards a better quality of life for its citizens. No, no, no. The current and only acceptable role of government is to restrain the public while the private sector picks their pocket.

Posted by: ZimZum | Nov 4 2025 7:04 utc | 242

I’d argue that the SR71 was the pinnacle of US planes but not the last great one.
 
The USSR built (modified?) MiG 25 as a response to the Blackbird. Had a fancy afterburner feature for Mach 2.5 for about 30 seconds iirc. Have always wondered if it was calm and composed or like a small economy car being pushed well past it’s limits?
 
The last great plane built by the yanks was the Rockwell B1. The Russians copied it. They’ve not done it since.

Posted by: Some Random Passerby | Nov 4 2025 8:04 utc | 244

Some Random Passerby | Nov 4 2025 8:04 utc | 246
 
The SR-71 was quickly developed after the U2 was shot down and the highly publicised trial of the pilot, Gary Powers. With the U2, the CIA thought the Soviet radars would not see it let alone be able to shoot it down.
 
The A-12/SR-71 came at a time when the Americans were developing high flying mach 3+ bombers. TheSR-71 was more a very expensive custom built or very low production aircraft.
 
The Mig- 25, which the Soviets first deployed in 1970 was a production interceptor. I think it was designed as a mach 3 interceptor but mach 3 and above would destroy the engines, requiring a full engine replacement when the returned, the removed engines I think were scrap and could not be rebuilt. Its max speed was I think lowered to mach 2.7. Along with the mig-25, the Soviets also deployed the S-200 long range mach 7 intercepter missile and that pretty much put an end to American development of high altitude, high mach speed bombers.
 
The mig-31 was developed very quickly after a pilot defected to Japan with a 25. By then, the American were going towards the very low flying cruise missile so the 31 was designed as a look down cruise missile interceptor. A little slower but a low speed flying bug in the 25 was ironed out in the 31 and apparently it has better flying characteristics through all the speed ranges than the 25. 
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 9:05 utc | 246

Jon_in_AU | Nov 4 2025 9:39 utc | 252
 
I looked at a small rough block of land in the early 2000’s. It had no power and at that time, I don’t think there where government subsidies on solar. After that time, panels started to reduce in price, especially when China got into the game and with government subsidies, solar suddenly became economically very feasible.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 9:55 utc | 248

“The more you try to drown out reality, the harder we’ll work to establish the facts…It’s the pursuit of truth that gives us our calling,” an ad for the BBC boasts. “Trust is earned.”
 
But just minutes after DJT gave his speech @ the Capitol on 6 January 2021, biased BBC News wonks were busily editing his words and remixing the sequence of how he had uttered them in order to warp what had been DJT’s actual message to his supporters.
 
Panorama, a program on BBC News, edited DJT’s speech outside Congress on the day of the Capitol riots so that when he actually said he would walk with the protestors “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” he appeared instead to be inciting violence, telling them to “fight like hell.”
 
Panorama spliced together different and unrelated sections from the beginning and end of an hour long speech – then blended the video so the joins could not be seen, making it appear that DJT had said something he did not.   His words were spliced together from three different portions of the actual speech, omitting his call for people to march “peacefully.”   Who needs AI deepfakes when you have the BBC instead?
 
The BBC applied Insurrection Helper to the events of J6.
 
When Michael Prescott, an adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee for three years until resigning in June 2025, highlighted what had happened, he was met with a wall of obfuscation.
 
Concerned he was getting nowhere with the chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness, he then contacted the BBC’s chairman, Samir Shah: “This is a very, very dangerous precedent.  I hope you agree and take some form of action to ensure this potentially huge problem is nipped in the bud.”  He did not receive a reply.
 
Donald Trump Jr was with his father on 6 January as he addressed supporters before they stormed the US Capitol.   He criticized the BBC’s coverage of his father, calling its journalists “dishonest” after The Telegraph newspaper revealed the way the BBC had edited his father’s speech.
 
“The FAKE NEWS ‘reporters’ in the UK are just as dishonest and full of s—t as the ones here in America!!!!” Donald Trump Jr posted on X after he was told about the distorting edits.
 
The White House called out the BBC for its biased reporting:  “Trust in the media is at an all-time low because of deceptive editing, misleading reporting, and outright lies. This is yet another example, of many, highlighting why countless Americans turn to alternative media sources to get their news.” Abigail Jackson, White House spokeswoman told The Telegraph.
 
CBS News paid out to DJT $16mn for its role in deceptively editing Kamals’s sit-down interview w/ the show ’60 Minutes,’ in which the news corporation heavily edited, remixed and spliced various word salad answers Kamala gave in order to make her responses seem coherently communicative.
 
DJT filed the lawsuit against CBS News alleging that the broadcasting network was recasting reality in these biased edits and therefore misleading the public.
 
CBS agreed to settle the lawsuit out of court, and DJT applied every dime of the $16mn payout to building the new ballroom @ the White House.
 
I can believe DJT will sue the BBC under similar circumstances—-and after receiving a hefty settlement, he will donate every dime to the ballroom costs.
 
Interstingly, the ballroom is becoming a shrine to the way the media tried to bamboozle the public on what DJT said & when he said it.
 
Additionally in the matter involving the BBC, in the week before the 5 November 2024 presidential election, an influential U.S. pollster, Anne O. Selznick, showed Kamala winning the bellwether state of Iowa by 15% of the votes.  Although Selznick’s poll, the Des Moines Register Poll, was widely considered the gold standard of American polling, this particular report by Selznick seemed distinctly out of sync w/ an electorate which ultimately ensured that DJT beat Kamala in Iowa by 7%.   So close to the actual election, analysts found it odd that Selznick’s formerly rock solid a poll could be so wrong.   But it was.Nevertheless, in the days before the 2024 election the BBC boosted & amplified Selznick’s faulty poll as if it was the New Jesus.   Ditto w/ the legacy media, the Permanent Washington media, in the U.S.
 
Both media ecosystems, in the UK and in the states, tried to speak Kamals’s win into existence by magnifying the faulty polling, as if to discourage citizens from showing up to vote because the odds against a DJT win seemed so strong.
 
This is the hoodwinking mesmerism of disinformation/misinformation playing out in a whole-of-media system.
 
DJT filed a lawsuit against Selznick soon after he won the 2024 election, and the Des Moines Register is now footing the bill of her defense.  I can believe that Selznick, via Iowa’s paper-of-record, will wind up contributing to the new ballroom.
 
Some will whinge & cry & scream that DJT is bitterly seeking retribution against his enemies—CBS News, Anne O. Selznick, and now the BBC.
 
Even if retribution were purely DJT’s motive, it would not excuse the outright warping of reality in which each of the above engaged:   they asked the public to trust them but served up only lies.
 
As a member of that abused public, I may never sip from a sparkling flute of champagne under the shimmering chandeliers of the new ballroom, but I don’t have to.  That it exists and that others will celebrate w/ champagne there is everything.
 
D.C. is full of heavy monuments, commemorating the nation’s hallowed events.  It’s wonderful to walk among them and feel what you feel.  The ballroom will rightly assume its weighty place beside them, a cathedral to how they were not able to outrun their lies.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Nov 4 2025 11:10 utc | 250

Just turned on the teevee and breaking news made the day a bit brighter.  Darth Vader is dead

Posted by: dan of steele | Nov 4 2025 12:12 utc | 252

Posted by: too scents | Nov 3 2025 11:44 utc | 148
.
.
 
So basically, you confirm that Russian aviation was stunted, and had to get jet engine technology from the bongs and krauts. Got it. 

Posted by: seer | Nov 4 2025 12:18 utc | 254

More pearls afore swine …
 
 
Did DJT’s realpolitik kowtow to Xi upset a few deepstate clowns? 
 
 
There is some strange reigniting in the U.K. of Sinophobia using the Uigher campaign by a US flunky ‘professor’ supposedly based at Sheffield University.  who seemed to transcend from an English major via writing about west African slavery in Yankee literature to suddenly be employed by Homeland Security, NED, USAID to be transformed into a ‘professor’ and expert in Uigher slavery in the Biden administration! 
” An investigation into allegations that Sheffield Hallam University faced sustained pressure from China to shut down human rights research has been referred to counter-terrorism police.

The BBC and the Guardian newspaper have been reporting that documents show China waged a two-year campaign of intimidation and harassment, including demands the university stop sensitive research by one of its professors into claims of forced labour in the Xinjiang region of China…”

 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0e1lyyvdlo 
 
 
Lol  Beeb and Grauniad! Nothing spooky there,  right? 
 
 Who is this crusader being maligned by the sneaky Chinese from a long long way away ? 
Murphy, L., Taylor, R., & Bolden, C. (2015). Trafficking and exploitative labor among homeless youth in New Orleans. Loyola University New Orleans.
to 
 
“Financing & Genocide: Development Finance and the
Crisis in the Uyghur Region.” Atlantic Council. February 2022.
2021
with anonymous co-authors. “Laundered Cotton: How the Problematic Provenance of Xinjiang Cotton is Obscured in International Supply Chains.” Sheffield Hallam University. October 2021.
 
‘Atlantic Council’ … ‘anonymous’ coauthors.
 
 
Quite a trajectory – from small town gal to Steel City Professor who has been on a sabbatical and was not required on her return this year by the University! 
 
 In her own words :
“My work has been funded by the Laudes Foundation, Freedom Fund, USAID, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, and others.”
 
 
Ho hum just another day at the propaganda mill in the 51st state. 
 
 
suddenly all the toys are out of the pram and we suddenly haveThe latest China Uigher cold vomit she served up being reheated.
 
 
Start here oinks  
 
 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 4 2025 14:05 utc | 256

DunGroanin@257……oy, hang on there a wee minute, what’s this talk, 51st State, huh…….take a number and get in line……. Canadians might object to your assertions…..they yearn to be like their southern cousins, they just do it in disguise, like a snake dressed as a scorpion……..
 
Cheers M 

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Nov 4 2025 14:17 utc | 258

Every time Britain is about to announce a budget, the OBR magically reveals some massive fiscal gap. Why haven’t markets just concluded that the British government are cooking the books and price it into the gilt yield?

https://x.com/philippilk/status/1985721618866528659

Posted by: unimperator | Nov 4 2025 14:54 utc | 260

@ Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Nov 4 2025 14:17 utc | 259
I should have written FIRST state of the Ziofascists imperialism.
 
 
ANYWAY AN APPEAL TO BERNHARD!
 
 
When will you write about the AirIndia Boeing 777 fall?
‘the airline, which is owned by Tata Group’
 
The lone survivor says he isn’t allowed to talk about what he witnessed INSIDE the plane. 
———
‘Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Ramesh said the lights inside the aircraft “started flickering” moments after take off.
 
Within five to 10 seconds, it felt like the plane was “stuck in the air”, he said.
 
“The lights started flickering green and white…suddenly slammed into a building and exploded.” ‘
…..
 
‘The BBC had detailed discussions with his advisers around his duty of care before the interview.’
 
‘When asked about his memories of the day of the crash, he said: “I can’t say anything about that now.” ‘
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp85zvne1m3o
 
‘I’m the luckiest man alive, but also suffering, says Air India crash sole survivor ‘
 
 
I have never seen such a major airline crash with a flagship aeroplane being so completely ignored MONTHS after all the pieces were gathered!
 
 
what are they hiding ??? b?
 
 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 4 2025 15:08 utc | 262

@ChatNPC #249
The pre-Trump Republican party, the one of Dubya Bush, is neocon. This is Lindsay Graham and Marco Rubio and company.
MAGA is a vastly different beast. Among other things, it is very much blue collar unlike the (not entirely incorrect) stereotype of fat cat Republicans.
But even MAGA and neocon are new versions of old phenomena: MAGA is much closer to the Goldwater small r, small government type Republicans of 2 generations ago whereas neocons are more like “Red Scare” Joseph McCarthy of the same rough era.
And of course, neoliberal interventionists like HRC and Obama are extremely difficult to separate, in foreign policy, vs neocons.
Mark Levin is neocon and also Israel First. While a substantial demographic of the Trump coalition is neocon/Israel first – primarily the Boomer age old people – the views of the younger (ie 50 and under) MAGA are very different. These people are anti-interventionist and anti-Israel in many demographics. To give one extreme example: while the expatriate Cubans and Venezuelans in Florida are rabidly anti-communist, they are also very unsupportive, overall, of Trump’s threatened Venezuela invasion.
The various pro- and anti- Israel, pro- and anti-interventionist demographics in the Republican party are still fighting it out in contrast to the Democrat party – which has chosen to go all-in (as is their Borg-like wont) on Israel First despite vociferous opposition from the progressive and also the young liberals.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2025 15:12 utc | 264

I will want to learn where Dick Cheney is buried so I can go piss on his grave some day in my retirement.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 4 2025 15:19 utc | 266

You want to know how fucked health care is in America?  From ZH
 
The Pill For Everything: Why Off-Label Gabapentin Prescriptions Are Soaring
 

What do hot flashes, back pain, and insomnia have in common? Increasingly, they all lead to the same prescription: gabapentin.
The anti-seizure medication has quietly become the fifth most prescribed drug in the U.S., not because seizure disorders are skyrocketing, but because doctors are writing millions of prescriptions for uses the FDA never approved.
Now, as concerns mount about dependency and long-term cognitive risks, experts are questioning whether the medication warrants closer scrutiny.

But we can’t get Ivermectin if we want.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 4 2025 15:23 utc | 268

it is hard to understand what motivated dick cheney which is why it seems easy for some folks to hate the man.. hating never got anywhere though, so maybe some understanding would go further…  we don’t know what happens to people when they die.. maybe that’s it and nothing happens, or maybe they have a soul that lives on – even might have to reflect on what they did while they were on planet earth.. so many possibilities exist because we can’t ever know just what happens…  this is similar to not knowing what motivates a person.. is it purely self interest, or can it be something greater? i personally think it can be something greater, although not everyone agrees with me or is interested in this idea…  

Posted by: james | Nov 4 2025 15:51 utc | 270

c1ue | Nov 4 2025 15:23 utc | 268
 
I had not seen it put like that before but it makes sense.
 
Economists like Hudson and others have written and spoken about how US could exort its inflation that might normally occur with money printing, due to having the world reserve currency or trade currency. That is something I have not understood. Putin has spoken about the massive US money printing during covid and that it would cause problems all though I did not see any sines of it causing inflation in the US at that time. Off memory, I think Putin said US increased its money supply by thirty or fourty percent with the covid money printing and that would cause problems for other countries.
 
Straight off covid and the Russian move of early 2022 and now we see a lots of countries beginning to trade in national currencies so less US dollars required in circulation.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 4 2025 15:59 utc | 272

@ james | Nov 4 2025 15:51 utc | 270 who wrote
”
we don’t know what happens to people when they die.. maybe that’s it and nothing happens, or maybe they have a soul that lives on – even might have to reflect on what they did while they were on planet earth.. so many possibilities exist because we can’t ever know just what happens…
”
 
My healer, Jeff Tarrant, is documenting areas you write about…check this out
The Telepathy Tapes
 

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 4 2025 16:23 utc | 274

@Peter AU1 #272

Economists like Hudson and others have written and spoken about how US could exort its inflation that might normally occur with money printing, due to having the world reserve currency or trade currency.

When the US prints money – it devalues the purchasing power of said money ie the USD. This ripples all through the entire world because of the USD’s role in global trade. And it is “exporting” inflation because it is the US printing the money, but the world getting future taxed – at least as long as any given part of the world stays in the USD system.

Putin has spoken about the massive US money printing during covid and that it would cause problems all though I did not see any sines of it causing inflation in the US at that time.

It is false to say that there were no effects in the US – there were massive effects, after a short delay. Some examples: the prices of used cars skyrocketed and are only now starting to come down. Fed Reserve Data aka Fred shows this.
Other liquidity dependent assets shot up: meme stocks, bitcoin/cryptocurrencies, etc etc. This liquidity took a bit longer to show up in everyday goods because food, for example, is significantly priced based on last year’s fertilizer and seed prices but it occurred as well, although reinforced by Western sanction effects (and NordStream) on fertilizer.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2025 16:59 utc | 276

 psychohistorian | Nov 4 2025 6:59 utc | 240—
 
There’re many graves worthy of being pissed on. Yes, Cheney was evil but so were those who preceded him during the late 1940s onward who he learned from–they killed many millions in several separate yet connected genocides and changed several dozen governments. This excellent short paragraph from the intro to The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade & the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World needs very broad circulation:
 

Most shockingly, and most importantly for this book, the two events [“what happened in Brazil in 1964 and Indonesia in 1965”] led to the creation of a monstrous international network of extermination–that is, the systematic mass murder of civilians--across many more countries, which played a fundamental role in building the world we all live in today. [My Emphasis]

 
Author Vincent Bevins says the above is in addition to the Southeast Asian Genocide that was the Outlaw US Empire’s war on Indochina.  
 
As for China transport tech, take a look at this. Make sure to scroll down the page while watching the videos. 

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 4 2025 17:16 utc | 278

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 4 2025 17:37 utc | 279
 
Thanks for your well considered response Karl.

Yes, of course chakras are well worth considering.
The psychospritual value chakras are pretty much unknown in the west. True that Shirley McLain (yeah, the actress) talked about them a long time ago, but who listened to her?

On a personal note: I think all objects in the universe are connected somehow. I mean I was just about take a bite of my sandwich, when the 40 year old plant in my living room communicated that it had not been watered recently. I usually water this plant on Saturdays, but was away for the weekend. I stopped eating, and fulfilled my watering duties first. Now, that’s chakras to the nth degree.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Nov 4 2025 18:38 utc | 280

I think all objects in the universe are connected somehow.

 
This vision has often been reported. Some have seen the golden strings of light themselves, and intruigingly there is an ancient coptic which denotes precisely this: lihme. The L-H-M spine of this word can still be heard in today’s turkic lahmacun, and indeed its primary meaning was the strands of dough which form when kneading, but also the irrigation channels crisscrossing the land. 
 
“The lihme are like strings, but not of matter; they are connecting me with you, the stars, and with god” said Mani. I fully subscribe to the idea and would like to revive this beautiful word. 

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 4 2025 20:34 utc | 282

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Nov 4 2025 20:52 utc | 284
So, cast your mind back to the 2010 General Election. Britain was stony broke after the bank bailouts required by the 2007 GFC, swingeing austerity was being threatened by the Uniparty. Cameron had vowed to reduce immigration “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands” and managed to get the most seats but no majority. Well, the day before William Hague was in Dublin for a not-so-secret meeting of the Trilateral Commission, from which he emerged muttering something about buying a lot more weaponry from the US, apropos of nothing*.
After much horse trading a coalition was formed with Nick Clegg’s LibDems, Cameron was anointed PM, in a fortunate coincidence Will Hague became Foreign Minister oh, and you became Culture Secretary.
Austerity followed with defence cuts meaning the scrapping of Nimrod AWACS aircraft, the Harriers of RAF and FAA and the aircraft carrier. However, we ordered two brand new aircraft carriers (which still don’t work). RC-35 Rivet Joint ISR planes and a biiiiig order for  F-35 ‘Lemons’ for both RAF and FAA.
Fast forward 15 years, and a further 4 Tory PMs, we cannot defend the Kent Coast, we’re still skint and we are drowning in immigrants thanks to the Boriswave.
Incompetence or malice? Well, if it were incompetence they would occasionally make a mistake in our favour.
We also got Brexit, which, looking at the state of the EU looks like a net positive.
Thank you, Lords Cameron and Hague.
*Reported in Private Eye iirc, back when it was still any good.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Nov 4 2025 21:42 utc | 284

@ ChatNPC | Nov 4 2025 21:42 utc | 285
 
Dear oh dear! I remember those days all too clearly. In my political naïvety back then I had actually voted LibDem, as a “none of the other two” choice – it seemed to be a choice between Compo (Brown), Foggy (Cameron) and Clegg (Clegg).
 
I certainly didn’t vote for the Rose Garden “Call me Dave” coalition that emerged, and proceeded to continue with the neoliberal demolition of the British economy and culture.
 
As for the F-35, my mind boggles at the idea of an updated software package being 5 years overdue. What the heck are they doing? Was the kernel originally built from scratch, but then the MBA’s took over and decided software development was cheaper if outsourced to India, having no regard for the legacy implications?
 
The F-35 should be given the designation of the “Combat-Shy Super-Recurring Invoice”…

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Nov 4 2025 22:06 utc | 286

Mid-week madness…
 
Please forgive me. I have no intention of offending anyone, but I have this irrational desire to be stupid. It may be the full moon. The moon is closer now than at almost any time. Look at the effect it has on tides. It also reduces my weight by a few hundredths of a gram when it is overhead – by the additional gravitational attraction force, you know. Think what that force could do to my brain, which is much more sensitive than my leg bones, or elbows. The moon affected me at birth, along with the position of the planets and the sun, pre-destining me to be an idiot. There was nothing I could do. There is no hope now.
 
I watched the Melbourne Cup horse race yesterday – magnificent animals. I had never noticed it before, but you know, every single one of those dumb animals (including the jockeys) were mouth-breathers! It was not a bad performance, as horse races go – but just imagine how the performance of those horses could be improved if they breathed through their nostrils and paced themselves – in a mindful manner, of course. Heaven knows their nostrils alone are big enough for the job. Have you actually seen the size of those things? Puts Jimmy (The Snoz) Durante to shame. And I’ll bet that none of them were even mindful about breathing during the race, or the intricacies of the mouth-nose dichotomy; although they could have been a bit distracted by the whip.
 
And don’t get me started on Olympic freestyle swimmers – bloody mouth-breathers, all of them, to the last place. If only they would breathe through their nose, be mindful, and pace themselves. I’ll contact the trainer and suggest that the free-stylers wear dummies with an open mouth painted on them. Then they can breathe through their noses, getting all the associated advantages, but their opponents won’t realise their disadvantage. The cunning nose-breathing dummy wearers  can sweep the pool (so to speak) with their painted decoys.
 
I’m currently developing a theory on abiotic oil production that ties together souls in the after-life, hell, and chi energy flow conversions. I hope I can finish it later, but right now I need to go and howl at the moon. I’m sure the neighbors will understand. They don’t call the police anywhere near as often as when I first moved here.

Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 4 2025 22:20 utc | 288

full moon is tomorrow nov 5th – exact between 1-2pm london.. 

Posted by: james | Nov 4 2025 22:44 utc | 290

@  psychohistorian | Nov 4 2025 16:23 utc | 275
 
thanks james! reading the comments backwards playing catch up.. i have read about these ideas for most of my life.. some ideas interest people and some don’t… i am interested in this so i will check it out.. thanks.. 

Posted by: james | Nov 4 2025 22:48 utc | 292

Things are certainly feeling a bit end-timey.
Trump’s (unwitting) Revelation of the Method with his speech to the Knesset.
Cats and dogs lying down together (Carlson/Fuentes, Owens/Finkelstein) and the GOP Israel Firsters wailing like banshees at the Genocide Convention 2025 (aka Republican Jewish Coalition) – “We’re killing all the right people and cutting your taxes*” – Warpig-in-Chief.
It’s like an Apprentice two-header The Rapture Edition where all the political ghouls come out to audition for Messiah and Anti-Christ respectively, Quite who the End Timers should throw their weight behind remains to be seen…
*rich folks only, natch. Yuk, yuk.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Nov 5 2025 0:36 utc | 294

Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 4 2025 23:10 utc | 294
 
Thanks for the merriment. 

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Nov 5 2025 1:17 utc | 296

full moon is tomorrow nov 5th – exact between 1-2pm london.. Posted by: james | Nov 4 2025 22:44 utc | 291
 
Happily during the day I was composing my Nov 4th celebration—   that is, it being a year until we in the US  elect our very own midterm  replacelments for Nancy and her ilk– I have not been voting but this time around I will, I will!  So having been since Nader officially green,  I composed a change of regisration to:-
 

INDEPENDENT

 
And duly walked this statement of intent down, down, to the mailbox and off it went!!!!!

Posted by: juliania | Nov 5 2025 1:21 utc | 298

The cost of Canada’s PM Mark ‘Carnivorous’ Carney:
 
R2R: Canada’s War Budget
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I35MtIFLnDY
 
“The Canadian government has just proposed a budget that slashes the civil service while increasing military spending radically. Dimitri Lascaris examines Mark Carney’s war budget with Prof Radhika Desai, a geopolitical economist, and Yves Engler, an author and activist who is running to be the leader of Canada’s  New Democratic Party (NDP)*”
 
http://www.yvesforndpleader.ca

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 5 2025 2:35 utc | 300