Some times freandships arent what we hoped or beleaved them to be. Some times they can be ‘exploitative’  as in the trump -epstien freandship,, or netinyhoo  –  trump relationship.   Some times freands people make on blogs like this one can make people look complete fools.  People then can be to embaressed to see the obveous truth.
 
This is a commen occurence with  marrage partners, everyone else can see the truth about the cheating partner, the partner thats being cheated very often the last to see.
 
‘The stranglers,  skin deep’ youtube
 

Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 16 2025 23:24 utc | 103

Posted by: denk | Nov 16 2025 15:54 utc | 30
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 16 2025 16:21 utc | 32

I wrote this comment on the current Daily Chronicles thread over at Sovereignista (née Global South) and have yet to receive an answer:

One the one hand, we have people calling Sanae Takaichi a puppet making her provocative statements under orders of the USA.On the other hand, some parts of the Chinese internet have picked up a quote suggesting Trump is distancing himself from it. Even GlobalTimes says this:US President Donald Trump appeared to “defend China,” as described by the Daily Mail, during a Monday night interview with Fox News, when the host raised Takaichi’s recent claims about Japan potentially interfering in the Taiwan Straits and asked whether China was “not our friend.” Trump pushed back, saying, “A lot of our allies are not friends either.”[Then Trump goes on about how its “allies” (vassals) unfairly take advantage of the States, but that’s another story]http://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202511/1347951.shtmlWouldn’t this be theater for the masses, in light of the Pentagon approving arms sales to Taiwan?

Mao must be turning in his grave if what chernq says is true:

Chinese netizens tend to be more nationalist than having any idea or care about international solidarity, let alone socialism/communism.

I could be looking at the wrong places, but in the parts of the Chinese internet I’ve been to within the past few days, comments naming the USA as a puppet master manipulating Japan to act against its own interests are few and far in between, and the few of those I’ve seen on Baidu and Guancha have been accused by responders of shifting blame. Then there is this attitude that the US military presence prevents Japan from waging war on China and/or that Japan is dragging the US to war with China (just how much agency does Japan even have to do that??). Hardly any moral qualms about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings either – enough so that on the 80th anniversary thereof there was even a mushroom cloid souvenir being sold.
The first red flag for me was when Takaichi began her campaign and a lot of Chinese netizens expressed support for her hawkish policy so Japan could wage war on China and give it a reason/excuse to take revenge on it – an attitude the likes of @BeijingDai on Twitter claims speaks for 1.4 billion people. When Takaichi publicly refused to visit the Yasukuni shrine, netizens in China complained. When dissidents like Yukio Hatoyama and Taro Yamamoto spoke against Takaichi’s lunacy, some netizens in China asked them to shut up and let Takaichi do her thing.
I can understand if it all boils down to deep-seated hatred of Japan, but you’d think that a country like China that went through what it did to reclaim its sovereignty 80 to 94 years ago would want to just be left alone in peace and cooperate with other countries, even including Japan. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I didn’t join the bandwagon 6½ years ago in search for netizenry that can see the forest for the trees for this.
Six years ago there was this video of someone in the Chinese military talking about Japan’s subjugation to the US as a factor in Japan’s anti-China policies and the difference between the people and the government. If it’s still relevant today, I’d like to find it again.

Posted by: joey_n | Nov 16 2025 23:49 utc | 105

I give up. I’ll just let what I have speak for itself.

Posted by: joey_n | Nov 16 2025 23:53 utc | 107

nothing will happen with the epstein files is my take.. the 2 party  ( war party ) system – has too much to lose.. both parties who represent the oligarchs – lose… on the other hand if they are looking to replace trump with vance, i suppose it is possible as a take down strategy… the whole thing has israel continuing to call the shots and the 2 parties being entirely subservient to israel – competing over who can serve israel better… sick dynamic, but that is what it looks like to me..

Posted by: james | Nov 17 2025 0:16 utc | 109

You  dont believe Mexico has a severe cartel / gang problem ? SMH
Posted by: The Painter | Nov 16 2025 22:55 utc | 100
 
*****************
 
… and if so, what is the principal market it serves?

Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 17 2025 0:26 utc | 111

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 16 2025 18:37 utc | 61
 
RE:   Your whataboutism on behalf of Trump is really low quality. The moral equivalency is basically valueless.
 
<<
 
I totally hear you.
 
My point is simply that we have seen the Hoax Industrial Complex run this particular chapter of their playbook by us already, several times in fact.
 
 
In each case from the past they delivered plenty of smoke but no fire.
 
 
I suspect the same thing in this case:  it’s a smoke hoax.
 
 
Once bitten, twice shy.
 

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Nov 17 2025 0:41 utc | 113

In the pair of lawsuits Bradley Edwards and co-counsel David Boies brought against JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, on behalf of Jane Doe and her lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstine, they asserted that Epstein’s criminal enterprise “had everything a sex-trafficking organization needed—funding, infrastructure, the appearance of legitimacy, and perhaps more importantly a complicit banking institution.  It was by many accounts the most powerful and wealthiest sex-trafficking venture ever created,” Edwards and Boies claimed.
 
For the purposes of Boies & Edwards, the word “wealthiest” was the key descriptor.
 
 
In a June 2023 hearing, Boies sought to persuade Judge Rakoff to approve Boies’s request that 30% of the anticipated settlement funds be earmarked for his and Edwards’ legal fees.  At first the judge balked but eventually did approve the request.
 
 
And so the firms Boies Schiller Flexner and Edwards Henderson Lehrman did in fact receive 30% of the eventual settlement funds, plus millions in additional expenses.  With a total of $365mn disbursed from Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, simple arithmetic reveals what kind of payday these lawyers have enjoyed in their high-minded crusade against “trafficking.”
 
The term “prostitution” has disappeared in cases like these since 2019, to be replaced by “trafficking.”  In fact, Epstein’s first criminal trial in Florida in 2008 was based on the allegation that he had “organized prostitution” in order to carry out his pedophilic abuse of minors.
 
The 2019 criminal charge in New York was set up to re-litigate the prior charge against Epstein (from the Florida court case), but to use the term “trafficking” instead of “prostitution.”
 
It’s a double-jeopardy, to be sure, but it is also indicative of the fact that somehow/somewhere the Powers That Be did not believe Epstein had fully paid for his crimes against minors.
 
Naturally, Epstein died in custody before his 2019 trial could play out, so there’s much we’ll never know.
 
What’s certain is that a Trafficking Industrial Complex has arisen within well-heeled law firms like Boies & Edwards in their pursuit of justice for underage victims.  What’s clear is that law firms representing trafficked victims can expect to recoup 30% of the ultimate proceeds (high seven-figure sums) for their own coffers.
 
Is this justice-?  Or just ice-?

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Nov 17 2025 1:00 utc | 115

short article by Jonathon Cook
info on iran 
“Islamist” was not the main term used in 1979.
People mostly said “Islamic Revolution,” “Islamic movement,” “the clergy,” “Khomeinists,” or “Shi’a clerical leadership.”The specific political-science label “Islamist” only became common after the revolution, especially in Western writing in the 1980s–90s.
If you want historically precise language as it was used at the time: “The Shi’a clerical revolutionary movement in Iran”  “Khomeinist revolutionaries” “Islamic Revolutionaries” “The Shi’a clergy-led opposition” — more like the French revolution. 
 
If you want a modern analytic term: “Islamists” is fine today, because Khomeini’s movement fits the definition of Islamist (a political program based on establishing a state governed by Islamic law).  But definitions change all the time – in reverse.
 
Extra nuance-The coalition that overthrew the Shah was not purely clerical or Islamist: included secular nationalists; leftists & Marxists (Fedayeen, Tudeh, Mojahedin-e Khalq – though MEK was Islamic-leftist); bazaar merchants; religious conservative networks All joined together. Only after 1979 did the clerical-Islamist consolidate power and eliminate the others.
 
and 
Afghanisan is ruled by the Islamists of the Taliban, young radicals who emerged after prolonged super-power meddling by the Soviets and Americans left their country ravaged and in the grip of feudal warlords.
 
Not really accurate either. Calling them simply “Islamists” misses the tribal, rural, Pashtun cultural base which shaped their worldview as much as religion. They were not just “young radicals” created by geopolitics; they were also the product of a deep, conservative, patriarchal, rural Pashtun society. and not  “Islamists” mentioned in the article.
 
 
And what about all the Capitalists? A political program based on establishing a state governed by wealth money power and fanatical Cult of  Capitalists? 

Posted by: voknelam | Nov 17 2025 1:22 utc | 117

What’s really hidden in the Epstein files that both sides want ignored.
§| they’d rather you talk about the child s€x trafficking than their financial crimes…

Jes Staley to Epstein on the BAILOUT from FED during the 2008 Financial Crisis, a crisis that was created by the collapse of Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns.

Bear Stearns was Jeffrey Epstein’s bank, that owned 40% of the Jeffrey Epsteins company “Liquid Funding”, the company that “revolutionized” the financial sector through the creation of Collateralized Debt Obligations or CDO’s and “caused” the 2008 financial crisis.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 17 2025 1:45 utc | 119

Worth repeating
”
as always. Follow The Money 
Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 17 2025 1:50 utc | 119
”
Thanks!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2025 1:55 utc | 121

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2025 2:05 utc | 120
 
#######
 
I think it is genuine because it is so predictable and repetitive.
 
One can prompt an AI to behave like someone or to respond like someone. To use say, the style of some political strategist or genius marketer.
 
I don’t think TPTB know how to make use of AI to its full potential and I am not scared if they figure it out.
 
The fundamentals remain the same, garbage in, garbage out. Lipstick on a pig is still a pig.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 17 2025 2:48 utc | 123

@73 Patroklos

I would go further.

AI is a synthetic placebo served to absorb attention and return nothing. We are not connecting with any consciousness when accepting AI beyond that of a programmer and corporation.

Looking back, it is an unusual path of gadgetry that has been introduced. Maybe TV or radio were the first major forms of programming, because they serve without being questionable. Writing could be said the same, except there is an obvious exercise of own imagination involved, which lends towards individual insight or perception.

The most obvious shift I remember was the introduction of automatic answering at call centers. I detest those – if you want to speak to a person first you have to ‘communicate’ with a computer simulation , which is to introduce acceptance, or doubt on your own rejection of that.

Money though, the trickery of fiat runs deep and it is of a similar nature, which might explain how ‘capitalism’ ties in with the current direction (I use quotes there because our definitions will differ probably).

That takes me to :

“…in this sociality we thumb our nose at usefulness, efficiency, saving time and money..”

Which made me think of settings where ‘business’ is a social event. That would be small shops in small localty, and there it would be as much a social venue as buying anything. Some I remember and the owner would obviously be more interested in the person before them, and not for making a sale (I mean these are just local stores etc.) …almost like walking into someone’s home.

Same in some rural settings, farmers will just stop and talk for an hour. In fact if you ignored an opportunity at conversation then it might be considered bad mannered or disrespectful… ‘cityish’.

Family businesses come to mind also.

The point I am trying to make is that in ‘a good society’, all these facets inter-relate in a way that makes sense, in a form of sociality.

People learn naturally to combine effort (which is necessary to whatever degree) and leisure or socialising, when allowed.

Added to that, some are fortunate enough to find a similar reward to socialising from the world around but without people, and without being purposefully ascetic.

@ General

I didn’t catch up with any answers in previous open thread… I thought you might appreciate another “honest fact that is untrue” but in mathematical ‘language’ ?

Circumference = 2πr

It might take you a while to figure that one out, I won’t explain.

@Nemesis

Same goes for ‘euro project’, even tourism if excessive. Media and other forms of globalisation all add to the effect.

@ Re. Mexico

https://www.newarab.com/opinion/claudia-sheinbaum-mexicos-new-president-no-pal-palestine

https://jacobin.com/2024/06/claudia-sheinbaum-radical-jewish-heritage

“In 2025, Mexico formally mandated the use of a new biometric-based digital ID system. Under the new law, CURP IDs will now incorporate detailed personal biometric records, including fingerprints, iris scans, and photographs embedded within a QR code. A separate program will systematically collecti biometric data from minors.” Spooks

Posted by: Ornot | Nov 17 2025 4:01 utc | 125

It seems to be working better this time, but is the threat to US imperialism from China, Russia etc so severe that the ruling class would countenance full-on Fascism even in the absence of a strong domestic left?
Posted by: S.P. Korolev | Nov 16 2025 20:56 utc | 87

While there isn’t a left in America, there is concern among the capitalists that the White labor aristocrats won’t fully stand behind them when they escalate their war against China, Russia etc due to stagnating living standards. This is why the capitalists have deployed the Boydian fascists. Instead of blaming the capitalists for keeping too much of the workers’ surplus value for themselves (as proper Marxists would), the Boydian fascists insist that it’s the Brown immigrants willing to work for lower wages who are to blame for wages not keeping up with inflation.
 
When the Great Expulsion of the Browns™ inevitably fail to bring about the promised rise in living standards, the Boydian fascists will then shift the blame to China and Russia. The argument is simple: if there wasn’t overproduction/overcapacity in China (manufactured goods) and Russia (minerals and fossil fuels), cost of goods worldwide wouldn’t be low. And if goods cost more, then Western firms would have higher profits and be able to pay White labor aristocrats more. Boydian fascists will call for waging wars against China and Russia to destroy their productive capacity so that the White labor aristocrats can have a better bargaining position when demanding wage raises. Here’s a relevant quote from Marco Rubio:

At the same time, China is moving up the value chain. The competition we face from China is no longer about cheap labor making McDonald’s toys. China has the largest telecommunications equipment company in the world and has more global market share than U.S. companies in high-value goods ranging from solar panels to commercial ships and electric vehicles.

 
And here is a quote from an article analyzing the political economy of U.S.-China Tech War:

China’s participation in labor-intensive and low value-added segments of global value chains also enables U.S. firms to specialize in lucrative design and marketing activities.50 Hence, the best scenario for the U.S. capitalists is that China would give up industrial upgrading and stick to the current international division of labor.51 If China succeeds in industrial upgrading, the profits of core capitalists, incomes of core states, and privileges of their peoples are likely to be squeezed.

 
Fascism is driven by external contradictions as much as internal contradictions, or the fascist powers Japan and Germany wouldn’t have signed the 1936 Anti-Comintern Pact that targeted the Soviet Union.
 
Death to America
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Nov 17 2025 4:29 utc | 127

I have to follow up with my comment above about Trump backing the Congress voting to force him to release the now fully cleansed Epstein files.
 
This is like him trying to be the mediator in Ukraine or with Occupied Palestine.  Trump may try to play those Hollywood roles but his fat naked ass role as the bully face of failing empire is his sucky supporting role.
 
How much will the Epstein files be an Ouroboros event for empire?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2025 4:54 utc | 129

Posted by: Friul | Nov 16 2025 17:56 utc | 47
 
While I agree that the whole thing reeks, and both factions of the uniparty are likely in it up to their dingly-danglies, you should consider the possibility that when people think they are above the law they get sloppy.

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Nov 17 2025 5:01 utc | 131

Hail barflies. Middle of night here still but am awake for a beverage so have a couple of links of interest  
 
The Pope goes to Hollywood!
 
it starts with Hollywood strutting the Vatican.  It’s just another grand scheme that the dynasts play through generations of failure.
 
‘ Pope Leo welcomes Hollywood stars to the Vatican ‘
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxr5drrpqxo
 
 
& the fearless Craig Murray from earlier today n the month.
Worth it for the ‘eptinesque’ stormy weather besetting the Americas.
 
‘The Four Mentors of King Charles’
 
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/11/the-four-mentors-of-king-charles/
 
 
 
 
Which brings us a full circle to the sordid Epsteinesque means the Old Bastards have chosen and used ever since they invented the word Slaves, and slavery, from the tribes they exploited the Slavic Peoples.
 
When they shapeshifted in Euro ‘nobility’ and brought their ways and habits with them – the structured exploitation of children in their rituals and daily abuse – via the Catholic Church and its Jesuites (the shapeshifters secret deepstate within that slave religion).
 
Craig Murray bravely extends his head again to address it with the pointing the fingers at the top of the establishment in Britain; seeing as the tremors have finally led to the sacrificial Prince to protect the king and the Crown Ziofascist State it always has been.
 
I expect it might thus survive unless the blowbacks keep flying across the oceans.
 
Fingers crossed that the can of worms keeps exploding and the birth of the multipolar finally ends the khazars vampyre ball – even as Drumpff opens the Ballroom in the East wing as some further compensation to the Ziolords.
 
 
 
Let them run West, out of EurAsia to that benighted invaded genocidal land they believed was EurAsia by the back door. Which is the reality of the old bastard khazar slave breeding and exploiting dynasties imperialist successes. The Anglo European colonisations. 
 
The yankeedoodles are their slaves to destroy as they please. As they have ALWAYS been from when Columbus sailed to when the Brits arrived to the Fake Revolution to the totally fake American Dream.
 
 
A dream built and sustained by faith and imagination the epitome of which is the Hollywood Cultural hegemony that was born as the new pulpit, the new churches and the extension of the cultish ziochristianity of the Older JudaeoChristian invention.
 
That too is writ large now with the elevation of the Chicago Ziolords hoodlums man in the Vatican  openly installed to save that dying opaque magesterium by a full on transfer to the North America’s and attempt at securing the south too. With the coming invasive wars. 
 
 
back laters. 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 17 2025 5:18 utc | 133

DunGroanin | Nov 17 2025 5:18 utc | 131
 
This thread looks to be about the kiddy fiddlers. I haven’t got into that too much. My guess is nothing will come of it as too many have their rude finger in the pie so to speak. More bullshit for the masses. That means it is smoke and mirrors for something else.
 
I saw something less than 24 hours back, though its a day or two since it happened. All the big gun money men in the US (20 of them) met with the so called fed. Money supply. Their scam investments, their lending is going bust. The big boys need a bailout.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 6:58 utc | 135

Ah daylight! Let’s get to it. 
 
@ Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2025 2:05 utc | 120
 
I guessed that!
 
It is Isla margarita as i recently posted and the fast boats destruction are about protecting the big lumbering targets in the bathtub – the Resistance is global and empire dies by a thousand needles – Solemani will be avenged. So will Nasrallah.
 
The ziofascist imperial demise has to be global. And defeated where they live and prosper not just on the far away killing fields they set up to genocide millions.
 
They know because they own isis, they owned jewliani.
So the resistance has spies; the emirates and Saudis are them, the Pakistanis sis is them …and they have been used as the traitors to their Peoples and religion to keep the unipolar Ziolords empire in place.
 
Not much longer.
 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 17 2025 7:49 utc | 137

too scents | Nov 17 2025 7:51 utc | 138
 
It is organ harvesting. Virtually every part of a fresh body can be used. Added bous, it lowers the death toll as those will simply be counted as MIA.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 7:55 utc | 139

The big boys need a bailout.
 
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 6:58 utc | 135
 
—
 
The Saudis have come for a timely visit.
 
https://www.google.com/search?q=Saudis+in+Washington&udm=14
 

Posted by: too scents | Nov 17 2025 7:57 utc | 141

too scents | Nov 17 2025 7:57 utc | 141
 
You are likely right. I had seen that but not linked it, or forgotten it or whatever. Looks like the Americans will now loot the Saudis. Or try too. I would guess the Americans have a lot of leverage. Plenty of bones in those Saudi closets.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 8:07 utc | 143

Posted by: Organic | Nov 17 2025 3:14 utc | 122
 
Stalin – the GOAT, before vvp came along – both know exactly who Russians real enemy is/are – they have known for a thousand years!
 
It’s the Old Empire they destroyed by caming into being.
 
They were mere slaves of it long exploited. Finally collectively uprising as the hundreds of exploited tribes of EurAsia, to throw off the old bastards yoke; cast their minion fake converts to the winds of the steppes and beyond, into The Pale.
To stop them from attempting to restablish that Bastardly Tyranny.
 
Being ordinary human they didn’t genocide or annihalate tge minions. Some they let stay because they were innocent of their khazar masters sins.
 
From beyond that Pale and even with some shapeshifters internally, including the Bolshevik ‘saviours’ , hot housed by the Old Bastards using their imperial pirated stolen wealth – the bastards refuse to lay down and forget their lost empire.
 
Having used north and west ‘Europeans’ for centuries, along with satraps collected in the global robbery in countless attempts to destroy and take Russia and EurAsia!
 
It has been so for centuries.
 
Knowing that Stalin and VVP and co have always kept their enemies close.
 
‘Allies’ in WW2 and ziofriends/‘partners’ for recent decades, incuding the compensatory WasNeverReal since it was established and millions of Russians moving there in madness.
 
or for the weather or some false hope after collapse of the ussr and attempted hijacking of the resources left Russia an economic basket case.
 
Making it easier to balkanise and eat up.
 
Always knowing the shapeshifter convert dynasties have never and will never give up – will keep their vampyres ball and it’s bloodthirsty child consuming habits.
 
They transgressed their exiled Pale.
Supposed to stay in – they went well beyond it.
The shapeshifter dynasts will never accept the loss and are ‘Implacable’ even with their feet in west Asia and the 5 eyes straddling continents!
 
The RF with just a population of about 150 million and losses of twenty millions in surviving ww2 just 80 years ago  – there is much to be cautious about.
 
The old bastard enemy and their never ending proxy grand armees and great game.
 
The winning strategy is to fight an existential war!
 
Not against the dumb proxies civilians propagandised into Russophobia but against the dynastic shapeshifter oligarchs personally! defeat them again, in their neo empire, they built beyond the Pale!
 
 
The world is too small for those bastards; they refuse to live and let live – they have chosen their fate.
They must be exterminated this time in their deepest bunkers.
Their secret islands and estates. They are to far beyond the Pale!
 
In the meantime the (shadow) boxing in carries on! 
https://infodefense.press/2025/11/16/ushakov-names-the-basis-for-negotiations-with-the-u-s-on-ukraine/
 

Ushakov names the basis for negotiations with the U.S. on Ukraine
16 November 2025, 20:05
Russia is actively engaged in negotiations with the United States on resolving the Ukrainian conflict “on the basis of the understandings” reached at the meeting of the two heads of state in Anchorage (Alaska). This was stated by Yury Ushakov, aide to the Russian president.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 17 2025 8:28 utc | 145

DunGroanin | Nov 17 2025 8:28 utc | 145
 
those torpedoes. Fools like at one. The boats carry six. I f push comes to shove, the Russians will not dick about. Each sub will fire them in a salvo spanned out. Nothing will exist above bedrock. Rats hiding in their holes will be drowned.
 
Incoming atmospheric apocalypse and they would scurry into their holes and let the peasants take it.  Those torpedoes, it won’t make no difference. They will go too.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 8:44 utc | 147

Big Financial crisis is nearly upon us ? 
 
Posted by: Exile | Nov 17 2025 8:40 utc | 146
 
—
 
It has already been set in motion by PE firms extending credit on fraudulent collateral.  Unregulated non-depository financial institutions are the mechanism that has been used to circumvent risk reporting and enable fraud on a massive scale.  The previous repo blowout led the FED to institute a new safety valve, the SRF.

At its July 2021 meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) established the SRF to serve as a backstop in money markets to support the effective implementation and transmission of monetary policy and smooth market functioning.
 
https://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/repo-agreement-ops-faq

 
What is happening now.

Oct 31 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve liquidity facilities caught fire on Friday as month-end pressures pushed a key lending tool to a record level of usage.

The Fed’s Standing Repo Facility lent a total of $50.35 billion on Friday to eligible financial firms in two separate availabilities, the highest-ever usage since the tool was put in place in 2021 to provide fast loans collateralized with Treasury or mortgage bonds.

 
Don’t believe Reuters’ “window dressing” spin.  Intra-month SRF borrowing have been elevated since September.
 
Secured Overnight Financing has been exceeding the Fed Funds Rate ==> https://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/reference-rates/sofr 
 
The FED is discounting its own paper.  It has lost pricing power.
 
 

Posted by: too scents | Nov 17 2025 9:06 utc | 149

The FED is discounting its own paper.  It has lost pricing power.
 
Posted by: too scents | Nov 17 2025 9:06 utc | 149
 
—
 
Supporting video.  13 minutes.
 
Meltdown in Repo Markets ==> https://youtu.be/99EqyOlEqQI
 

Posted by: too scents | Nov 17 2025 9:24 utc | 151

@ 152 sorry – my foolish attempt at beautiful equations fell off the page. Just derive them for homework!

Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 17 2025 9:27 utc | 153

second attempt – not as pretty.
Stefan Boltzmann’s law  P/A = σ.T^4
The constant of proportionality, σ, is defined as
 
σ = (2.π^5.k^4)/(15.c^2.h^3)
 
 c is the speed of light, h is Planck’s constant, and k is Boltzmann’s constant that relates molecular kinetic energy to temperature.
 
But where did π come from, and why to the fifth power

Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 17 2025 9:39 utc | 155

DunGroanin at | Nov 17 2025 8:28 utc |145:
 
“There has still been no official denial on their part that these agreements and understandings are no longer valid,” Ushakov noted.  He added that there had been many signals — some Russia “likes, some it does not — but the basis of everything is Anchorage.”
 
Thank you for this post, DunGroanin and for the link you provide above!  And to all before you on this late night thread — I am beginning here and will read back.
 
I must be very dense, but nothing I read on this important subject during the day was  clear to me!   Nothing!   I could not make sense of any of it.  But Ushakov’s statement at your link, and what you yourself have written in this comment, DunGroanin, come together  —  and I am finally beginning to understand. 
 
It has all been very confusing as it is entangled with the Epstein revelations, which are so unpalatable that we obtusely ordinary folk shudder to contemplate them.  I tried all evening before bed  reading through what is being reported as well as everyone’s comments here on this forum —  none of it made any sense to me!   Am I stupid?  No, I am not.  Nor are you here in this post.
 
I think the problem for ordinary folk like me is that we cannot absorb it because we aren’t strong enough,  except in  religious terms .  But those are terms tha t–  to so many of our friends here — are equally anathema!  Terms they shudder at,  just as do I at the Epstein stuff!  For each of us, theist or atheist, there is a chasm we can’t cross because we don’t want to give up our independent thoughts about the matter.  We are so opposed :   to the nonreligious,  our ‘framing’ is as anathema as pornography and salacious descriptions are to us. 
 
This is a divide in human sensibilities which somehow we must overcome!  It is exploited by the enemy which is evil to us both!
 
In this comment you have bridged the gap, DunGroanin,  and if I am understanding you correctly, that is what we all must do.  In 1988 my church choir celebrated the millenium of Russian Orthodoxy as Vladimir the Great ‘baptized all of Russia in a princely fashion”.  We did that by performing a concert of Russian Orthodox music in the Saint Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe. 
 
Yuk! say those who are not believers — and that is what divides us.
 
Christ himself associated with the cast off members of society and in particular with women who had been badly used by men.  That is why Mary Magdalene is the first to have seen the risen Christ and she is called “Equal to the Apostles” by Orthodoxy!  She is the first to see the risen Christ! Why is that?   I rediscovered one of my own paintings featuring her at a garage sale in my own neighborhood only the weekend before this last one.  I was overjoyed to buy it back!  I was amazed to see it!  Just as the disciples gathered together are amazed when Mary Magdalene comes and says to them “I have seen the Lord!”  And the look on their faces says ‘What!’  ‘You?’  And the text says ‘And they did not believe her.’
 
What is said about her by Christ before his crucifixion is that ‘her sins are many, but she has loved much so her sins are forgiven her. ‘  In this is the contrast between what is expressly forbidden, the committing of adultery which could be and often was a matter for stoning, and the condition of the victim of that great sin, the woman herself.  We, in different ways,  avoid the message —
 
–you have not!  Thanks, DunGroanin!  I knew that coming here late at night, I would find the way back to a fuller understanding of what that original national baptism meant for Russia and the world.  I am overwhelmed by the significance of your post, DunGroanin —thank you again, this is HUGE!!! 

Posted by: juliania | Nov 17 2025 9:48 utc | 157

where did π come from
 
Posted by: General Factotum | Nov 17 2025 9:39 utc | 155
 
—
 
Riemann’s Zeta function.  
 

Posted by: too scents | Nov 17 2025 9:58 utc | 159

DunGroanin, 
 
YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: juliania | Nov 17 2025 10:09 utc | 161

It has all been very confusing as it is entangled with the Epstein revelations, which are so unpalatable that we obtusely ordinary folk shudder to contemplate them. 
 juliania | Nov 17 2025 9:48 utc | 157
 
The world, especially this world we live in now I not nice. There is no rules Juliana. Traveling across the north when I was young, there was few rules. Though young girls were safe as far as I know. But this world we watch, in this so called west, there is no rules.
Only rule of strength. 
 
Putin understands it. I think most Russians understand it. 
 
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 10:18 utc | 163

I want to know what the r is.
 
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 10:25 utc | 164
 
—
 
There is no r in the Stephan-Bolzmann Law, as the energy is measured at the surface of the emitting object.
 
π arises from integrating the energy over the spectral region of interest [0 .. ∞].  This integration uses ζ(z) for statistical reasons.
 

Posted by: too scents | Nov 17 2025 10:34 utc | 165

Professor. double your radius, times it by pi and you have the diameter of a circle.
 
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 10:50 utc | 167

Almost Half of Japanese Back Military Intervention For Taiwan
 
https://www.rt.com/news/627859-taiwan-japan-china-takaichi/
 
“More than 60% of those surveyed also said they want Tokyo to boost defense spending…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 17 2025 11:18 utc | 169

steel_porcupine 
 
You mentioned the case in Florida in 2008, The price for Epstein pleading guilty to a misdemeanour for “Soliciting a Minor for Prostitution” was all  co-conspirators became non-prosecutable  Though around three dozen young girls were involved only the oldest, a girl off seventeen was used to “”represent” the victims in the public aspects of the case. The first girl to contact the police was aged fourteen The chief investigating officer believed that many more children were involved, complaining that the scope of the investigation had been limited geographically  which hindered the search for victims 
The three dozen girls and their families were not  told about the plea deal nor that co-conspirators had become non-prosecutable. Maxwell had been instrumental in recruiting the majority of the victims  according to sworn corroborating testimony  
 
The case in Florida was the epitome of  elite corruption and a crippling blow against the notion of justice in America.  Give some thought to those who came forward to tell their story and were ignored  – the criminals were given every consideration, the victims none.

Posted by: will moon | Nov 17 2025 11:56 utc | 171

……The FED is discounting its own paper.  It has lost pricing power. Posted by: too scents……
 
oh My Lord 

Posted by: Exile | Nov 17 2025 12:27 utc | 173

@denk #41
While Washington is a key player today – the mutual hostility between Japan and China goes back long before the existence of the United States.
Even when the United States was around – China and Japan have fought each other in wars in living memory.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 17 2025 12:44 utc | 175

The FT must be lumped in with all of the other UK mass media
 
Posted by: c1ue | Nov 17 2025 12:49 utc | 176
 
—
 
The FT is Nikkei Asia.  China bashing comes naturally to them.
 

Posted by: too scents | Nov 17 2025 12:53 utc | 177

Posted by: ChatNPC | Nov 17 2025 12:54 utc | 178
Fred Harrison, it was a 18.6 year property cycle.
He is still going, predicting problems for 2026:
The Global Collapse of 2026

Posted by: ChatNPC | Nov 17 2025 12:58 utc | 179

@too scents #177
FT is owned by Japan by operates as it always has: a mouthpiece for UK financial interests.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 17 2025 13:07 utc | 181

Aynur Kurmanov, co-chair of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan, on Turkey’s role in Ukrainizing the Central Asian republics:
 
Turkey is infecting Russia’s national republics with separatism via Central Asia (Politnavigator, Aynur Kurmanov, November 17, 2025 — in Russian)

We have repeatedly stated that the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) poses no less a threat than Bandera’s Ukraine. Both are “Anti-Russia” projects. However, the OTS is already aiming to separate the Turkic peoples and regions of Russia and China.
 
Currently, under the guise of the OTS, the de facto Turkish colonization of Kazakhstan and Central Asia is underway, becoming a springboard for further expansion. This is no longer hidden after Ankara officially introduced the “New Turkey” ideological doctrine this year, which effectively denies the legacy of the Kemalist Republic and introduces neo-Ottomanism as the main pillar of its foreign policy.
 
For many years, Turkish cultural centers have been operating in Central Asian countries and in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. They now work in collaboration with the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TÜRKSOY) to promote the ideas of pan-Turkism and neo-Ottomanism, serving as a fully-fledged instrument of Ankara’s “soft power.”
 
Meanwhile, the Baykar Makina messaging app and the Turanity social network, which we recently wrote about and which are being implemented with the participation of Turkish intelligence services and the military, are intended to strengthen this “general cultural” activity in the OTS republics by actively recruiting Russian citizens and emigrants to create promising adepts and agents of influence.
 
Numerous Turkic NGOs, working with Turkish international organizations, also operate in tandem, spreading myths, using the aforementioned methodology, about the “genocide” of Turkic peoples by the Russian Empire, and later the USSR, and the non-existence of any historical or political commonality with the Russian and Slavic peoples.
 
This is even repeated in the advertising preamble of the same social network, Turanity, which talks about the shared “bitter fate” of the Turkic peoples, who together survived an era of persecution and forced Russification, and now allegedly strive to unite and live under the auspices of a resurgent Istanbul.
 
This narrative is very reminiscent of the “Holodomor” tale, which was actively implemented in Ukraine and Kazakhstan by the Anglo-Saxons, which clearly reveals the real origins of these stories. One might conclude that this concept was developed in London with the participation of “experts” in subversion and psychological warfare, especially since England has always stood behind Turkey in imposing pan-Turkism on the “brothers.”
 
Meetings are also being held to publicize these “Turkic victories.” For example, the first solidarity forum of non-governmental organizations from the OTS member states will be held in Baku from November 23 to 26. The organizers make no secret of the event’s aim to secure political support from Baku and Washington in developing the “Trump Route”:
 
“The program includes panel discussions on ‘Zangezur Corridor: A Bridge Connecting Turkic Geographies’ and ‘Towards WUF13 – A First in the Turkic World.’ The event will be attended by 300 NGO representatives from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Central Asian countries, Hungary and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).”
 
There are also plans to hold the 1st Azerbaijan–Kazakhstan NGO Cooperation Forum there, where they plan to establish an NGO platform for the member states of the OTS in Nakhchivan, uniting organizations from eight countries.
 
NGO representatives from various regions of Russia have often been invited to such gatherings in Turkey for cultural reasons. A number of public figures and “independent journalists” from the Russian Federation’s national republics were given grants and commissions through Turkish centers to produce pseudo-scientific works “on the plight” of the Turks, clearly aimed at fostering separatist sentiment and undermining domestic peace.
 
In contrast to this activity, several conferences, “The Slavic–Turkic World: History and Modernity” and “Slavic–Turkic Historical and Cultural Heritage,” have already been held at various venues in several regions and in Altai. These conferences aim to expose the distortion of history and reveal the reality. The real truth cannot be hidden, even for Turkish liras.

Posted by: S | Nov 17 2025 14:09 utc | 183

Posted by: ChatNPC | Nov 17 2025 12:54 utc | 178
 
My favorite economic cycle Prophet is the Russian Nicolas Kondratieff who held it is roughly a 50 years cycle with 4 constituent parts: 
 
“In the 1920s the Russian economist Nicholas Kondratieff discovered a pattern of recurring 50-year megacycles in the economies of Germany, France, Great Britain, the United States and presocialist Russia. Each cycle is characterized by four distinct phases–(1) a growth period culminating in an inflationary peak, (2) a short-lived primary depression, (3) a plateau phase and (4) a long period of economic stagnation including a secondary depression. The U.S. has experienced three complete Kondratieff cycles–from the 1780s to 1843, 1843 to 1896 and 1896 to 1940. The first phase of each cycle has lasted an average of 27 years, only to be followed by a one-year second phase–a primary depression. The third–plateau–phase, lasting four to eight years, has typically failed to regain the levels of growth that preceded the primary depression. The fourth phase–economic stagnation–has averaged 19 years and been characterized by at least one major secondary depression. On average, recessions during the stagnant phase have lasted a year longer than recessions during the growth phase. M.I.T. professor Jay Forrester has concluded that the Kondratieff cycle can be explained by capital investment. During the growth phase, demand is imposed on the capital goods sector by both the consumer durables sector and the capital goods sector itself. At the peak, a labor shortage encourages capital intensive production, which puts even greater demands on the capital goods sector. The plateau phase fails to exploit the capacity created during the growth phase, while a relative reduction in labor costs, encouraging a shift back to greater use of labor, further diminishes the need for new capital goods. The stagnant phase is marked by a secondary depression and a rapid collapse of the capital goods sector. Accumulating physical depreciation then sets the stage for the next growth phase. It appears that the U.S. is now in the midst of the third phase of a fourth cycle that began in 1940 and will possibly end sometime in the 1990s. Investors who consider only the economic experience of the post World War II era may find they have rezd the wrong history book” (1)
 
1. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4478241

Posted by: canuk | Nov 17 2025 14:42 utc | 185

@ C1ue (various)
 
Japan was/is one of the oldest pirate islands surrounding Mackinders World Island that the ousted khazars set out to conquer from the seas when they were overcome and thrown out of the Great Civilisational Roads they had gained control over. They have launched countless invasions using those proxy Nipponese who believed their King was a God!
 
The Jesuites did a lot in sustaining that mythology. As they shapeshifted through the world but ‘underneath’ have never relented in their common cause of enslavement of the whole world. Building proxy killers to take EurAsia by the seas.
 
They went to the Mediterranean and the North Sea to launch that attempt a millenia ago. Set sail to win the world from the seas when they couldn’t do it though the massive EurAsia continent.
The other such islands are Formosa, the subcontinent an island by virtue of the Himalayas; the 5 Eyes, especially their favoured British Isles (all of it! That is why they cannot countenance the independence of Scotland!)
 
 
They have created the USA/Canada fortress between seas and laid their claim on the Levant as the crossroads between EurAsia and Africa.
 
That is why Palestine and it’s ancient history (and religions) are being erased.
 
That is why they are de-Russifying Ukraine through its mass slaughter of nazified Slavs.
 
PS. The FT and all the modern Bibles of the Bankers supremacist religion of Magik Money are owned and run by a select group of multinationals – guess which? 
Tbey are seeded daily by the same News Agencies which demand a constant Narrative Management. Anyone who fails is bounded out or worse from such enterprises. 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 17 2025 14:59 utc | 187

chernq
Chinese netizens tend to be more nationalist than having any idea or care about international solidarity, let alone socialism/communism
………….reclaim its sovereignty 80 to 94 years ago would want to just be left alone in peace and cooperate with other countries, even including Japan. Maybe my expectations were too high,
Posted by: joey_n | Nov 16 2025 23:49 utc | 105
——————
Solidarity with who ?
 

In recent polls, approximately 89% of Japanese people have an unfavorable view of China, though this is slightly down from previous years. This figure has remained high for many years, highlighting persistent negative sentiment in Japan toward China[same for the entire G7, aka the pirates brotherhood]

 
Takes two hands to clap innit ?
 
I’ve got news for you.The Chinese would dearly want to be left alone , they had hell of a lot to catch up with the G7, were they given a chance ?
 
We are coming after you again !
 
 

Posted by: denk | Nov 17 2025 15:35 utc | 189

The PLA just warned jp 
‘Dare to intervene in TW, the entire jp would be a battlefield’
 
Why stop at Jp ?
China should let the yanks know, ‘dont think that you can instigate proxy wars on China , then groat on the ‘wonderful sight to behold‘ again.’
 
‘If SHTF the entire USA would become a battlefield.’
 
This message is for Tobias Cole and his ilks.,
Tobias the unabashed empire shill was crowing about Takaichi’s partnership with Trump the other day
 
gringo like Tobias would keep on celebrating pax murikka unless bombs start falling on their heads
 
,’A 2025 survey found 70% support military action if China invades, while another survey showed 61% support the US defending Taiwan if attacked by China. Support for this policy has also increased in recent years’

Posted by: denk | Nov 17 2025 15:49 utc | 191

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 17 2025 15:55 utc | 192
 
We meet again, DunGroanin!  Well met, my friend !!!   So I can tell you to your face, embracing you:-
 
Kiev will be Camelot again !!!!!
 
 
 
 

Posted by: juliania | Nov 17 2025 16:05 utc | 193

Back, back in the day, I and my husband saw Camelot,  the musical performed in a theatre in the round in the little town where Charlie Kirk was murdered, north of Salt Lake City.  Howard Keel was King Arthur.  We had front row seats because there’d been a ticket mixup so those were given us, right below the stage, front and center!
 
“If ever I would leave you…”  
 
And  we also took our three month old son to the highway near the airport to welcome Mr. and Mrs John F. Kennedy riding in their blue open limousine, sun tanned and smiling,  into the city which had also become briefly Camelot, months before his own assassination!  Salt Lake City was a rightwing place but it welcomed President John F. Kennedy, and I was there lifting my little son so he could see the glamorous pair, that sunny day, sweep into the city in their powder blue open chariot.  The only time I ever saw them in the flesh, a moment briefly   ….
 
I have seen Camelot!!!
 
Kiev was founded like Camelot back in the day, knightly princes honor bound.  It did not last but it shone while it existed as the records say.  The Golden Horde destroyed it, burned it,  razed it to the ground, and it was gone. 
 
But like the phoenix,  Kiev has only been asleep in the ashes; it will rise again.  And those were holy ashes — the first of Russia’s saints,  Boris and Gleb, brothers in pacifying non-violence are of those ashes!  Each being newly baptized refused to contest hegemony, fascism, zionism; they were Christian martyrs, slain by their own uncle in a brutal act!  And Kiev burned, and they burned, and it has waited a millenium to be reborn!  
 
Kiev was more than Christian  —  it was Camelot!!!  And yes, now it has been challenged by that golden — no not toilet seat  — but phone that Netanyahu handed Trump — remember that?  Kiev, Ukraine, is the golden phone!  Did you know that, Trump?  Yes, I think you knew.  What happened to that phone?  That phone and the kingly chair that you pulled back for the fake king/uncle/betrayer proud in his dastardly deed of destruction, mad.  Where is that phone?
 
I say, melt it down!!
 

Posted by: juliania | Nov 17 2025 16:36 utc | 195

Professor. double your radius, times it by pi and you have the diameter of a circle.
 
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 17 2025 10:50 utc | 167

 
Lol!! That’s just massive, Peter. I’m not going to believe a word about you sucking at math from you henceforth. Though the real feat here is to trust your own judgement that much.
Anyhow, there is an argument which says we have defined π incorrectly, and it is a good argument. Basically, as Peter said, the definition of π should not be circumference/radius, but circumference/diameter , so π is off by a factor of 2. Of course, all the computations done in this manner are still honest and give the same numerical result. But many foundational results of Geometry are off by a factor of 2 somewhere as well, which means you need to correct for this by schlepping along a 1/2 term. Practically, it shows in everything distantly related to wave mechanics, like the Fourier transform, Schrödinger’s equation, and even Euler’s identity which is often considered the most beautiful expression of maths anyway. It messes up the aesthetics, which is a good reason say it’s all done honestly, but not quite true. The Euler identity, for instance, would read exp(iπ)=1 instead of -1.

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 17 2025 17:24 utc | 197

I need to rant about yahoo.com
 
I have had a free yahoo email account for years and was using it for my web site and it is on my old business cards that I still give out.  Yahoo recently sent me an email that forced me to try and sign into my yahoo account.  That login did not work and when I tried to reset the password they said they were going to send a code to my phone and the parts of the number I can see are correct but I never got the call/code…..and they don’t let me redirect to my comcast or gmail email accounts.  I would purchase support but am faced with the same sign in issue….Duh!
 
And the real issue for me is that there is no way in that I can find……no telephone number to call and every input I try and make online wants me to sign in….GRRRRRRRRRRRR.
 
Maybe I need to hunt down corporate and get me a real person….GRRRRRRRRRRRR

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2025 17:34 utc | 199