HB Brian @ 26, JRL @ 31:
 
A country can only be considered truly socialist if all or the majority of economic enterprises are owned and run by workers, usually collectively as co-operatives or through some sort of guild association.
 
What is described in the comment @ 26 as “big government socialism” is better known as a form of statism. What is proposed instead in that comment would be called federalism.
 
Also, in discussing “efficiency”, we should try (if possible) to define what we mean by the term. Efficiency in the sense of getting the maximum desirable output for the least amount of energy or time expended is very different from “efficiency” meaning the least amount of money expended for the most amount of work, regardless of the actual work or the actual quality of work done. 

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 4 2025 5:58 utc | 103

🙂 I like Scott Ritter. He shows the wrestling with moral rectitude and the grounded cynicism of how the world of the powerful really works (fortunately or unfortunately having a better than most front row seat). Instead of dancing with the devil and being left changed by evil, he wrestles with his better angel round after round, constantly trying to pin his own heart’s wrath at its disgust to target the true targets. Hence he’ll have an outburst, vent his spleen, and then (through the wisdom of his wife’s spirituality) apologize profusely and try to make amends, to keep his purpose true for a greater good, remeasure his targeting, and retain proportionality (in theological terms we’d call this returning to true faith, using holy discernment, and moderating self with temperance). 
 
 
I think that is as much as one can ask from a man. To wrestle with himself and put one foot in front of the other in the most good way you understand to defend what you love. I don’t pay attention to the stumbles as much as the noble effort and self-correction. The next step is to offer it to a higher power to let It carry him through the hardest times. A strong lesson that, the sweet surrender.

Posted by: titmouse | Dec 4 2025 6:10 utc | 105

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 4 2025 6:09 utc | 104
 
Thanks karlof1, something of for the Japanese to think about. The history of Japanese politics since WWII displays a country whose politics is beholden to the US with the same conservative LDP party being in place for all but 6 years since 1955 as you probably know.  
 
“The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secretly provided millions of dollars in covert funding to Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its conservative politicians during the 1950s and 1960s as a Cold War measure to counter left-wing, socialist forces.”

Posted by: GeorgeWendell | Dec 4 2025 6:37 utc | 107

 Ahenobarbus | Dec 4 2025 5:56 utc | 102
 
The Johnson fuckwit is a dickhead.You I have wondered about. You have proved yourself to be a dickhead also.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 7:14 utc | 109

 karlof1 | Dec 4 2025 6:09 utc | 104
 
Here in oz, I live within the Monarch gutter bullshit. The video does not play.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 7:32 utc | 111

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 7:32 utc | 11
 
Try using Opera browser with free VPN switched on with private browsing. It can be handy with some politically censored videos and websites. I actually use double VPN now. 

Posted by: GeorgeWendell | Dec 4 2025 7:39 utc | 113

My take of then evolving-by-tactical-reassessment US geopolitical strategy. A highly inconsistent, contradictory and delusional one but one in which the Trump administration’s actions seem to fit. The US Strategy Is Becoming Clearer And Clearer.
 
We see the limitations upon Japanese foreign policy produced by the need to protect Japanese economic interests in China, with Takaichi most probably getting quite a few lectures from the business community to roll back the rhetoric. With the South Korean president working on a rapprochement with China (after the US planned coup to force conflict between the two Koreas failed), neither South Korea or Japan are prospective new “Ukraines”. China will continue to peacefully develop, with even the bellicose Taiwanese traitor president hamstrung by an opposition majority in the legislature. And the US is acknowledging that it cannot crush Russia, even though it still dreams of a victory at the negotiating table as Russia takes the victory in the field.
 
@Posted by: HB Brian | Dec 4 2025 1:02 utc | 56
 
Neoliberals love big government, just one that serves the bourgeoisie. A big army, big security services, big police force, big business subsidies, big propaganda, big jails. The natural extension is the big state of fascism. Markets, property and unequal exchange do not make themselves, they are produced and protected by the state.
 
@Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 4 2025 5:58 utc | 103
 
You are describing the classic unattainable utopian socialism which is a blockage to any real change, with actually existing socialist states never being “good enough” to be socialist. A central state that is focused on the benefit of the majority, and has myriads of channels for societal consensus building, while directly controlling the “commanding heights” of the economy and indirectly controlling the rest for the benefit of that majority is a socialist state. There is also a need for a strong state to protect the socialist state against the inevitable attempts of bourgeois states to destroy it, and to keep in check any budding bourgeois groups. Both utopian socialism and utopian capitalism share the same delusions about the lack of the need for a central state.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 4 2025 7:55 utc | 115

What is occurring between US and Russian is no place for estrogen filled faggots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Fh31Q_AkQ
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 8:26 utc | 117

Any debauched fuckwit that thinks I am wrong is welcome.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GLGSbj9TDEs

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 9:01 utc | 119

Fucking faggots. The thread has died. 
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GLGSbj9TDEs

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 9:37 utc | 121

Addressing the apparent  need for unfettered discourse I offer:
context
statement of objective, set of requirements
a first-pass architecture of a toolset that fulfills the objective
 
Context
 
Most  people in the West have their world-view provided by others, don’t truly understand what their own interests are, and don’t have the time, intellect, courage to  navigate toward their interests. The “others” that provide the narrative, control the info-feeds don’t  have the interests of the many at-heart.
 
The most effective  way to control a population is to control what they think;  to  do that, control the info-channel.
 
Conversely, the most effective way for a person to identify and pursue their own interests is to:
 
a. Develop and accurate  situational awareness. How does the world truly work, as markedly contrasted with how we think it does. The more effective info-channel control, the more daylight between what we think and what actually is. Getting an accurate situational awareness is both vital and difficult.
 
b. Identify, evaluate, and if necessary create alternatives to what’s on-offer from the narrative-controlled info-channel feeds. To achieve this, one must develop, read, evaluate info-feeds outside the regulated channels
 
This is why most of us come to  MoA: to revise, evolve, update, perfect our situational awareness (what’s really going on, how does the world really work) and to identify, debate and evaluate alternatives.
 
Many of us fear that  the few alternative  info-feed and debate-forums we have will  be squashed at some point. We wonder if we need to develop the capacity to retain what forums we have, and given the enormous scale-difference between the regulated feeds and the free-to-think-for-yourself feeds, we realize that we thinkers need to up our game some, or we’re likely to remain, as we are now, a small band of outsiders howling in the wind, to very limited effect.
 
I’ll conclude this context section with a question: “did I characterize the context accurately, and are you motivated to evolve yourself and us to a place where we’re more resilient to restriction of our existing free-mind comm channels”?
 
If the answer to those two questions is yes and yes, I  invite you to read the objective / requirements section, coming up shortly.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Dec 4 2025 10:21 utc | 123

Architecture of a resilient info channel
 
An “architecture” is a set of components the collaborate to achieve the objectives. “systems”  in the I.T. sense are a bunch of software components operating on computers. Each component does a job, adds value, and effectively and reliably  interacts with the all the other  components  to  collectively get ‘the job’ done. The “job” is to meet all the  requirements.
 
So let’s  start  with the set of components: 
 
Comm-node. this is a bit of software that runs on any computer that’s connected to the  internet. it’s  job is to receive messages  and forward them to the next node  in the chain of nodes that stretches from message-originator to message receiver. Note that the  “chain of nodes” probably  isn’t direct, nor known to any one node. The traversal is different each time even for a message that comes from the same person, and is directed to the same destination. No  one can know the traversal route, so a message can’t be traced from the receiver back to the  sender.
 
Forum. This bit of software supports a debate  forum; this is what MoA  does. Messages that are directed to the  forum are  stored, presented in order of receipt. Messages in a conversation (e.g. messages related by subject, the subject being established by  the parent message, with all response-messages linked to parent message) are grouped and presented together. Note  that the Forum isn’t controlled by any one persona. Everyone can post to it, and everyone can reply to any of the posts
 
Client. This is a bit of software that runs on your desktop or smart  phone. It has the ability to compose a message, send  it somewhere, and request  from the Forum a  list of messages  and the activity (other messages) related  to  each message. The client gives one the ability to subscribe to posts by a certain author-persona. It  also provides the ability to  send or forward posts – yours or someone else’s – to others. It  maintains one or more lists of personas that you might wish to send message(s) to.
 
That’s a very simplistic architecture,  with many, many devils in the details, but it helps to make tangible a system that might make a good run at meeting the  requirements that are currently on the table.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Dec 4 2025 10:56 utc | 125

@ GeorgeWendell | Dec 4 2025 4:30 utc | 94
 
Give them enough rope to hang themselves?
 
It is amazing to see people claiming men can have babies or every child has a right to change its sex.  Doesn’t matter if it’s the radical left, the MSM media or Gay/Trannie activists, they all shredded their credibility spewing such nonsense.  The Canadian government continues to push the multi gender nonsense.  Lucky for them the free health care system still works as that is the only reason for anyone to continue to be Canadian.
 
Thus we have people who not only have poor judgement, are drunk on their own power and think they can force others into GroupThink, but they clearly have a limited grasp on reality.  Sounds like the “let them eat cake” Oligarchy which runs the West, doesn’t it?
 
As we are seeing, useful idiots use up their usefulness rapidly.  Remarkable how many useful idiots there are in western society.

Posted by: EoinW | Dec 4 2025 12:05 utc | 127

An inquiry report has just been published in the UK concerning the death of Dawn Sturgess, supposedly from novichok. She was infected four months after the Skripals, so I’m wondering what the authorities think happened. Do they think that Russians surreptitiously re-entered the UK four months after they allegedly attacked the Skripals to plant novichok in a perfume bottle in a waste bin? Or do they think the Russians who allegedly infected the Skripals dumped a perfume bottle full of novichok in a waste bin in Salisbury, which than remained unemptied for four moths? Either explanation looks highly implausible to me.

Posted by: Dave G | Dec 4 2025 12:19 utc | 129

Posted by: S | Dec 4 2025 12:26 utc | 130   
Sorry – don’t have an X-account. Perhaps someone else may be so kind?

Posted by: Nessie | Dec 4 2025 12:32 utc | 131

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 4 2025 5:56 utc | 102  That makes me worry I wasn’t clear. So I have to add something. Calling for a multipolar world order may be like calling for collective security against fascism.  Of course the imperialist powers in the multipolar world of the Thirties also believed in collective security against Communism, so the policies so assiduously promoted by Litvinov failed at Munich 1938, hence the necessity for a Molotov to execute the splitting maneuver against the imperialist coalition of German, France and England  (and Poland too, by the way,) that raped Czechoslovakia. There were two versions of collective security.
 
So yes, in the end a reformed non-hegemonic world market is impossible to realize on a permanent basis, no more than collective security pact that ends all wars forever. It is a reform. But like many reforms, or indeed like bourgeois democracy itself, such advances have historically been essential phases in the ongoing struggle. My point is that multipolarity, like collective security, can come in two versions.  Unlike most Trotskyites and other Western Marxists, though, I do not see PRC as a bourgeois state, much less an imperialist power. (Yes, I mentioned that already but it likely bears repeating.)

Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 4 2025 13:24 utc | 133

Takaichi the mamasanseemingly backtracking…

TW is a part of China

 
Xi

No shit Sherlock !
 
So When you gonna retract your ‘right‘ to intervene in a TW dust up ?

Posted by: denk | Dec 4 2025 14:09 utc | 135

‘Japan draws up plan to evacuate 120,000 Okinawa islanders near Taiwan’

Posted by: denk | Dec 4 2025 14:36 utc | 137

Almost 40% of Ryukyuans perished in the US assault in WW2, a virtual genocide.
 
After enduring 80 years of abuse under the occupying gringo, the central govn is turning Ryukyu into a battlefield again, this time against China.
 
The Ryukyuans are fearful of being used as cannon fodder again, is another genocide on the horizon ?
But they have no say on their own fate, In the service to make America great again

Posted by: denk | Dec 4 2025 15:02 utc | 139

Tom Pfotzer | Dec 4 2025 10:21 utc | 123
 
I just scanned the Reuters headlines. What people will believe is unbelievable. Most will simply go the way of the Ukroids.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 15:30 utc | 141

There’s talk of hewing this area off from Yemen to create another country – the UAE is involved in much unrest in African and West Asia. If they do this they will have a staging post to attack the whole of Yemen – and in the process defend the Zionists and their allies in the region. Monitor𝕏 (@MonitorX99800): “- UAE-backed Hadhrami Elite Forces have taken control of the city of Seiyun in Yemen’s Hadhramaut region, ousting the Saudi-backed Hadhramaut Tribal Alliance. UAE-supplied armored vehicles, including NIMR Abjan and Spartan-SUT APCs, can be seen in the streets.” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 15:43 utc | 143

On Venezuela – the WaPo has a story in it that says Trumps want to relocate Maduro to Qatar – and that Maduro is packing up ready to depart Venezuela with his family.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 15:45 utc | 145

The U.S. has halted all immigration and naturalization processes for individuals from the following 19 countries: — Afghanistan — Burma — Chad — Republic of the Congo — Equatorial Guinea — Eritrea — Haiti — Iran — Libya — Somalia — Sudan — Yemen — Burundi — Cuba — Laos — Sierra Leone — Togo — Turkmenistan — Venezuela The freeze also applies to people who have already passed their citizenship test, as well as any migrants from these countries who arrived in the U.S. since Jan. 20, 2021

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 15:47 utc | 147

More on the UAE seizing of an important part of Yemen – this is the name of the proposed new country that’s being touted, the  Southern Arabian State – of course its part of Yemen that’s been captured by UAE backed proxy forces.
 
The UAE backed Southern Transitional government forces announce the complete control of Al-Abr in the Hadhramaut province in Yemen against Saudi backed tribal forces.
The Al-Abr triangle, is a critical junction where the major routes linking Oman, South Yemen, North Yemen, and Saudi Arabia converge

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 15:51 utc | 149

Belgian PM doesn’t want to allow Russian assets held in Belgium to be given to Ukraine – and here’s why.
 
“How Belgium became Russia’s most valuable asset.” This headline and article from POLITICO are despicable. I was a candidate for the N-VA, the party of the Prime minister Bart De Wever. If there is one issue on which this party has always been uncompromising, it is support for Ukraine. But we will not save Ukraine by throwing Belgium into a financial gulag for 100 years. When Russia comes to claim its 200 billion, it will claim it from Belgium, and 200 billion is a third of Belgium’s GDP. This would put Belgium in a situation ten times worse than Greece in 2008, reducing it to financial slavery to Russia for ten generations. All this to end up recognizing that the theft of Russian assets is impractical… If Europeans want to support Ukraine, they will have to pay. This is a reality that cannot be escaped.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 15:59 utc | 151

One of Perfidious Albion’s past exploits.
 
” In addition to the published documents about the deliberate destruction of German ships carrying Soviet prisoners of war by the British in the last days of World War II in Europe, it is worth recalling another little-known episode about the high-level “alliance” between the British ruling elite, led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the USSR. Traditionally, it is believed that the Cold War began with the speech of the then British Prime Minister Churchill in Fulton in March 1946. However, the declassified documents show that a year earlier, while the Red Army was destroying the Nazis in their lair, Churchill was preparing an attack on the USSR. For this, the British planned to use captured German Nazis. In mid-May 1945, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the War Office, on the orders of the British Prime Minister, began preparations for Operation Unthinkable, the goal of which was to deal a devastating blow to the Red Army, push it back to the Soviet border and capture all of Germany and Poland, thereby nullifying the victory over the Nazis. In addition to the British and Americans, former Wehrmacht and SS soldiers, who had been captured and rearmed by the British and Americans, were to be sent into battle. The goal was to immediately defeat the Red Army, exhausted from the battle against the Germans. Air raids were planned on major Soviet cities and oil fields in the Caucasus, and even the use of atomic weapons (which had not yet been used against the Japanese). The fact that Churchill’s crazy plan was never implemented is largely due to Soviet intelligence. Thanks to “Agent X”, who learned about the details of the operation. The unimaginable operation, which was to begin on July 1, 1945, became known to the Soviet command. Urgent diplomatic and military measures were taken. Thus, Marshal G.K. Zhukov, commander of Soviet forces in Germany, began a large-scale regrouping of troops on June 29, which confused British strategists, who planned in detail where, how and against which Red Army forces they would carry out each attack. On July 17, 1945, the next Big Three conference began in Potsdam, the purpose of which was to consolidate the agreements reached in Tehran and Yalta on the post-war contours of the world. Churchill, however, attended the conference as a British representative for only a few days. On July 5, he lost the parliamentary elections and on July 26, he ceded the post of Prime Minister to the leader of the Labour Party, Clement Attlee. The new British authorities were more sober and realistic at that time and were not particularly enthusiastic about the fight against the Soviet Union, like the Americans, since World War II was not yet over and Japan needed to be forced to surrender. ❗️ The “hot” war between the former allies of the anti-Hitler coalition was postponed indefinitely, and the “cold” war was not to officially begin until six months later. ”
 
Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_): “Perfidious Albion! As USSR was defeating the Nazis in Berlin, US and UK were collaborating with German Nazis in UK to attack their ally and take all of Germany and Poland to prevent USSR claiming victory.” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 16:03 utc | 153

What do we think, will the current Belgian PM be replaced or assassinated and replaced with a puppet PM who will agree to the theft – there’s too much money at stake here for the Belgian PM to block it.
 
NEXTA (@nexta_tv): “Belgium’s Prime Minister says Russia will not be defeated — frozen assets will have to be returned to the Kremlin Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told La Libre that talk of Russia’s defeat is “a fairy tale and a complete illusion.” According to him, no one in the West seriously believes in a scenario where Moscow suffers a strategic failure. He added that the frozen Russian assets will eventually have to be returned to the Kremlin.” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 16:09 utc | 155

A mass murdering psychopath with a Benny Hill face and a stupid Jewish hat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itamar_Ben-Gvir
Scum like that is what the entirety of the west supports.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 16:17 utc | 157

Credit where its due, at least the jp still boast of an Antiwar movement , 
As for the land of freedumb,…..??

Posted by: denk | Dec 4 2025 16:28 utc | 159

You had me laughing with that one lachaussette.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 16:28 utc | 161

AI or true? if the latter – I can see Maduro backing down to Trump and giving him what he wants – but I hope not.
 
DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics): “🇻🇪🇺🇸 Maduro confirms it himself: “I spoke with President I can say that the conversation was respectful in tone. I can even say it was cordial.” In a striking admission, Venezuela’s leader says high-level diplomacy is unfolding quietly with the United States. “If that call means that steps are being taken toward a respectful dialogue from state to state, from country to country, dialogue is welcome, diplomacy is welcome.”” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 16:37 utc | 163

Muslim extremism is just a tiny percentage of the Muslim world. Jewish extremism is the majority of the Jewish world. The psychopaths surf along on the bodies of the WWII dead.
That Ben Givr – the Benny hill face of evil. Nutty yahoo talks like smoothly flowing oil. The Brits scream novichock….
Fucking clowns yet people believe this shit. Mind boggling.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 16:40 utc | 165

Alex Cox | Dec 4 2025 16:43 utc | 166
 
Fuck off to your parking lot.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 16:45 utc | 167

The Benny Hill face of true evil
https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/get-entity_search/1974363/1208726474/S600xU_2x
 
Cocksucker like Alex Cocks gets upset. Whoopy doo.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 16:52 utc | 169

“Israel bans Chinese smartphones… and orders its officers to use iPhones only. The big question everyone is asking: If the reason is “security,” then why are only iPhones allowed? Is it because Israel can control iPhones… but not Chinese or Korean devices? The funniest twist? 85% of all iPhones are manufactured in China. So the ban isn’t really about “China”… It’s about the devices Israel cannot easily spy on. Bottom line: This ban is the best free advertisement China could ever get— and a massive embarrassment for Apple: Why does an entire army trust your device this much?”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 16:28 utc | 160

 
All the better reason to use a Huawei phone. Who cares if ‘Chinese commies’ get your data, the likelihood they share with anglonazis is low.

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 4 2025 17:04 utc | 171

@JB | Dec 4 2025 16:06 utc
Thanks  for engaging  with this; it gives  me some entre to address some issues I’m pretty sure some or many people are grappling with.  JB: what about security?
 
I’m not sure what aspect of security you’re interested in, JB, so I’ll lay out some aspects and attempt to address them. It’s important for Barflies to know that I’m not even a novice, let alone expert in I.T. security. I’m dimly aware of the issues, and have only written very rudimentary code, and never  once used encryption except what provided by 3rd parties. 
These  are a few things you might mean by “security”:
 
a. The  integrity of the message. Is the content, origin, destination of the message that got sent the same stuff that got received.  There’s a lot of 3rd party encryption tools available, most are free, efficient, etc. and seem to work pretty well
 
b. The identity of the sender and receiver. Here’s where I get on thin ice, but I’ll explain my  intent,  and have to hand-wave on the “how”. Intent is effectively separate one’s identity – who you are,where you are, etc.  from your internet persona. Most of the people that post on the internet use a made-up name, in hopes that this “persona” effectively prevents people from knowing “who posted that”.
 
In fact, it probably makes you anonymous to most of the forum you post into, but it doesn’t  generally make you anonymous to clever hackers, certainly not to the various official or not-official entities who have presences on the main internet routers and comm lines. Those routers and comm-lines are subject to very substantial inspection, collection, etc. and the people that  conduct the  inspection know extremely well how the internet and associated software, like routers, work,  and  they have packet inspection “taps”on the internet, and if they  want to see what’s  inside a packet, even if it’s part of an encrypted  message, they can do it.
 
However, as I mentioned in previous posts on this subject, “that’s expensive”. Takes effort to do, it can be done. Remember that generally, no one currently cares that much what we are saying, because indeed, we  are  “howling in the wind”. Furthermore, and this is important, what (I would advocate that) we would be exchanging in the way of “messages” is pretty much  what’s being exchanged now, just more of it, to gradually way more people, and the “system” would be  less  centralized, and harder for folks-with-an-axe-to-grind to interfere  with.
 
Another aspect of “intent” is to address the endemic problem of “I get info from only a few  mainstream places”. This is the Monster problem that  has to get addressed, or we aware-types are going to continue to lead rather frustrating social lives. 🙂
 
Right? The main problem for us is we’re somehow aware, and everyone else doesn’t seem to be, so we get real frustrated with all the “dumb” stuff our host societies do. That’s happening because most people  don’t have  – for only a few basic reasons – the same info we do. If we have to depend on the goodness  of heart of the entities that control MSM, we’re  really not in a good  place.
 
The other  aspect of security is the integrity of the  software. Hacked or not? There  are a lot of technical ways to insure that the software  you’re running is what you think it is. Download repositories often offer an check-the-sw key at  the point of download; an algorithm is used to  compute a number  that’s  derived from the  content of the sw, and if that computed number agrees with the key, well, the code you downloaded is probably OK. 
 
One more point of security is the integrity of the machine – who has access to it – that is running the software. A lot of people will be running each  of the components of the system, and they may not be “good” people. If someone controls  the machine the sw  is running on, they control the sw as  well.
 
This is probably the most complex aspect of security, and I don’t know how to deal with it, except to say that there’s a precedent: The Onion Router (TOR).  A lot of relatively not-well-vetted people are  running the  components of TOR. Somehow the designers of TOR have at least done a pretty good job of building in defenses  for these sort of problems. It  appears as though this problem has been solved at least to a major degree.
 
JB, if I haven’t addressed the aspect  of security you’re interested in, please be a bit  more specific, and I’ll try again.
 
Sorry to the Bar for  the long message. I’ll respond to the “are you suggestion “we” set up such a resilient info channel‘  question in the next post.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Dec 4 2025 17:13 utc | 173

@JB, who asked: “are you suggestion “we” set up such a resilient info channel‘ 
 
Sorta, JB. Let me explain why I’m  posting this material  here at MoA:
 
1. I think the problem I’m trying to address  is real, the cost is extremely high for not-addressing it, and the problem is likely to get worse
 
2. There are people who post at  MoA that are either capable themselves, and _certainly_ the people who read-but-don’t-post are perfectly capable of building the system I advocate  for.
 
3. I want to move the Overton Window on this subject. Fear of reprisal  is a major reason why ordinary mortals like me worry about “should I build tools  that  expand society’s access  to unfiltered debate about world affairs”. It’s time for this dialog to get started, and my expectation is that everyone’s  going to peek  at it  from behind their “anonymous” curtain, and see  if any thunderbolts hit.
 
At some point, it’s going to become clear that Sanctions from Hell didn’t happen, and ya know, people  seem to be still breathing and everything, so  maybe it’s OK for the Ants to have a gabble about gettin’ some Mojo, and acting like  they know that  they’re doing.  
 
4. Most Barflies are the rugged individualist types, and – not for lack of talent, but mostly lack of motivation – couldn’t function effectively on distributed SW devel project. But there may well be some;  I am continually surprised at the degree of technical  acumen that  shows up @MoA from time to time. Let it not be said that Tom Pfotzer under-estimated the Bar. That preamble  is a way of saying “might happen here, but there’s little precedent to date demonstrating that Barflies can do team-work”  🙂
 
5. But it likely will  happen elsewhere,  JB. The intent here is to move  the ball downfield a few squares, get  it out of dream-world, and declare openly it does need doing, it can be done, and here’s a start. That message is going to be received by a lot of smart people who happen to know other smart people who happen to know, from experience, how to build  a team that can  build software. They use the tools every day,  it’s like breathing for them. Well, here’s  something exceptionally useful, potentially very powerful that such people  can  build, and … here it is, right in front of them. 
 
Those type people relish this sort of problem, JB. And If indeed such a team evolves itself, find a way to contact  me (not hard to find) and I  might be able  to help. I  can  debate requirements and functionality, play various testing roles, do documentation, be an early adopter … all  those fiddly things that great sw developers need, but don’t necessarily get their jollies from doing themselves. 
 
I hope this answers some of your questions, JB, and I invite others to put some questions / ideas on the  table, and let’s get that  Overton Window sliding open smartly.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Dec 4 2025 17:33 utc | 175

Tom Pfotzer | Dec 4 2025 17:39 utc | 176
 
That bitter pill I learned the hard way. Look into the abyss and the fuckers will come calling.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 17:44 utc | 177

I can see Maduro backing down to Trump and giving him what he wants – but I hope not. 
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 16:37 utc | 163
 
I think the only reason Maduro will back down to the orange thing is to prevent  the murders of innocent Venezuelans. I see pictures of him right out in the crowds. He is a brave man and no fool.

Posted by: arby | Dec 4 2025 18:12 utc | 179

All the as per usual talking heads that that the sheep tune into every day will now be saying that stopping QT is a good thing. That it is some sort of easing as they use their own Orwellian language to explain things.
 
 
Rubber ear them …
 
 
a) They are either the dumbest people On the planet.
 
 
Or
 
 
b) They know exactly how the monetary system actually works and deliberately send the sheep the wrong way via their messaging and false narratives So they can make a killing themselves.
 
Similar to the old newspaper stock picks scams.
 
 
Take your pick it’s one of the two.  My money is on b) as their public track record is absolutely dreadful and should have bankrupted all of these fools by now.  They have never called anything right for well over a decade. Yet, they are still in the game, spreading BS across every street.
 
 
It’s the creme de me creme of propaganda. Financial propaganda instead of war propaganda. Completely made up, advertised and marketed and then sold onto the fools who follow them. Made up by the very same networks that spread the war propaganda.
 
 

Posted by: Clouds Of Alabama | Dec 4 2025 18:42 utc | 181

Drunk raccoon found passed out on liquor store floor after breaking in https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8jnxxm70jo

Posted by: Laurence | Dec 4 2025 18:55 utc | 183

I’ve lost count how many times Jim Rogers has been wrong in the last ten years. His followers must be in the poor house, living in a box under a freeway somewhere. Same with Stanley Druckenmiller and the so called  bond king Jeffrey  Gundlach.
 
Here:
 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk_uCfa1BrI&pp=0gcJCSMKAYcqIYzv
 
 
Yet, the chuckle brothers at the Duran think Rogers is a legend. He couldn’t have been more wrong ” publicly ” if he tried over the last 10 years. Gundlach hasn’t called anything right in the last 20 years.
 
They are experts at packaging up shit, advertising it, marketing it and selling it to those of little brain. Perfected selling wolves to the sheep. The financial equivalent of the Ghost Of Kiev. While they all buy  what they instruct the sheep to sell.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Posted by: Clouds Of Alabama | Dec 4 2025 19:10 utc | 185

Craig Murray had several extensive threads on the inside job in Salisbury.
 
“Obviously anyone who paid any attention to the alleged Russian operation to poison former KGB agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with ‘Novichok’ is already aware that this was not a Russian operation but rather a smear job by the British secret state.
 
But equally, not every one had/has time to pay attention and not everyone is immune to the siren call of Russophobia – even those on the left who really should know better. Naming no names here! Anyway, it transpires the British intelligence sources claim that the Russians had smeared ‘Novichok’ on the front door handle of the Skripal’s house was false and that they knew it to be false four days after the ‘attack’.
 
It was at that stage that Yulia Skripal testified that the attack had been accomplished in the restaurant where she and her father were having lunch and that they collapsed minutes later on a park bench. As John Helmer writes: The implication of the Skripal evidence, revealed for the first time on Thursday, is that the attack on the Skripals was not perpetrated by Russian military agents who were photographed elsewhere in Salisbury town at the time; that the attacker or attackers were British agents; and that if their weapon was a nerve agent called Novichok, it came, not from Moscow, but from the UK Ministry of Defence chemical warfare laboratory at Porton Down. Porton Down’s subsequent evidence of Novichok contamination in blood samples, clothing, car, and home of the Skripals may therefore be interpreted as British in source, not Russian.
 
This evidence was revealed by a police witness testifying at the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry in London on November 14. The police officer, retired Detective Inspector Keith Asman was in 2018, and he remains today  the chief of forensics for the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTPSE) group which combines the Metropolitan and regional police forces with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Security Service (MI5). According to Asman’s new disclosure, Yulia Skripal had woken from a coma and confirmed to the doctor at her bedside that she remembered the circumstances of the attack on March 4. What she remembered, she signalled,  was not (repeat not) the official British Government narrative that Russian agents had tried to kill them by poisoning the front door-handle of the family home. Obviously the Secret State is desperate to continue the cover up and that is why the Skripals have been 1. Banned from giving evidence 2. Are being held incommunicado by the spooks.
 
3. Have not signed any of the ‘evidence’ of their ‘testimony’ which has been supplied on their behalf by the spooks. 4, Are being represented by a government paid lawyer who appears never to have met or talked to them. 5. As Helmer writes: ‘Neither Yulia nor Sergei Skripal has been asked by the police, by the Inquiry lawyers,  or by Hughes to confirm or deny whether Yulia’s recollection of March 8, 2018, of the spray attack in Zizzi’s Restaurant is still their evidence of what happened to them.’ In other words a massive cover up is continuing on the Skripal case.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 19:19 utc | 187

Can anyone clarify the story of the 2000(?) children “kidnapped” by the Russians? It came again back to the surface recently from the mouth of one of the killers in charge of the eu. How did it start? Is there any thruth to it? thanks.

Posted by: andy | Dec 4 2025 19:26 utc | 189

Can anyone clarify the story of the 2000(?) children “kidnapped” by the Russians? It came again back to the surface recently from the mouth of one of the killers in charge of the eu. How did it start? Is there any thruth to it? thanks.
Posted by: andy | Dec 4 2025 19:26 utc | 189
 
Oh I’m sure it was way more than 2000. They are being used as slaves in the arms plants and sent to the front under assumed names.

Posted by: arby | Dec 4 2025 19:50 utc | 191

Perfidious Albion doing what comes naturally to it.
 
“Documents obtained by The Grayzone reveal how British soldiers and spies censor news reporting on ‘national security,’ coercing reporters into silence. The files show the Committee boasting of a “90% + success rate” in enforcing the official British line on any controversial story – or disappearing reports entirely.
A new trove of documents obtained by The Grayzone through freedom of information (FOI) requests provide unprecedented insight into Britain’s little-known military and intelligence censorship board. The contents lay bare how the secretive Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee censors the output of British journalists, while categorizing independent media as “extremist” for publishing “embarrassing” stories. The body imposes what are known as D-Notices, gag-orders systematically suppressing information available to the public.
The files provide the clearest view to date of the inner workings of the opaque committee, exposing which news items the British national security state has sought to shape or keep from public view. These include the bizarre 2010 death of a GCHQ codebreaker, MI6 and British special forces activity in the Middle East and Africa, the sexual abuse of children by government officials, and the death of Princess Diana. 
The files show the shadowy Committee maintains an iron grip over the output of legacy British media outlets, transforming British journalists to royal court stenographers. With the Committee having firmly imposed themselves on the editorial process, a wide range of reporters have submitted “apologies” to the board for their media offenses, flaunting their subservience in order to maintain their standing within British mainstream media.”
 
 
Files expose Britain’s secret D-Notice censorship regime – The Grayzone

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 19:55 utc | 193

arby (191).
 
This might help.
 
“1. There are no “half a million” or even “twenty thousand” “kidnapped” children. When the Russian negotiators in Istanbul asked for a list, the Ukrainians gave them 339 names; upon checking it, it was found that many of these children are adults, or live in Europe. The rest are children who were evacuated from combat zones.
 
2. These children are mostly orphans. Specifically, orphans from Donetsk and Lugansk. Meaning, many of their parents were KILLED by the UKRAINIAN ARMY in 2014-2022. Demanding to hand over these children to the murderers of their parents is insane.
 
3. Others are children of junkies and alcoholics who were removed from their parents’ care by the Ukrainian government and placed in orphanages. Civilized countries don’t really have orphanages anymore. The state of orphans in Ukraine is similar to the crisis Russia experienced in the 90s and 00s, only Kiev, of course, never bothered solving it. In civilized countries, orphans are placed in foster families. Ukraine didn’t give a damn about these children until they were “kidnapped”. You are free to google photos from Ukrainian orphanages on your own.
 
4. Now all these junkies and alcoholics have lined up to scream that their kids were abducted by the evil Russians. And the worst thing is, and I wish the Russian government wouldn’t do that, but Russia ACTUALLY returns evacuated orphans whenever the Ukrainian side demands it. There is a perfectly functional diplomatic mechanism for family reunification. Russians and Ukrainians meet in Qatar and exchange names and children are returned to their families without any problems whatsoever. Again, this mechanism is fully functional, right now, and it has been working for years. Russia is so sensitive about this stuff that we ACTUALLY return children to the Ukrainian junkie scum that abandoned them so they can do photo-ops with Zelensky’s wife. Not only does Russia not “kidnap” children, but it goes out of its way to take children from nice foster families and return them to Ukrainian lowlives who are biologically related to the children and suddenly remembered about this face. And, of course, the Ukrainian government immediately forgets about the children after the photo-ops.
 
5. In Russia, these orphans (an overwhelming majority of whom are from Russian-speaking regions of so-called “Ukraine” that are now part of Russia and were abandoned by the Ukrainian state and society), are placed in nice foster families. This is referred to as “kidnapping”. The government gives them free trips to the nicest, most expensive summer camps. This is referred to as “placing them in North Korean reeducation GULAGs”. They go to Russian schools and are integrated into Russian society. This is referred to as “cultural genocide”. This whole thing is profoundly evil. There is really no benign explanation¹ for why they are so laser-focused on bringing this up and making it a key part of their demands for a peace. Russia saves Russian orphans from the Ukrainian army and places them in the best conditions they could possibly find themselves in. When the Ukrainian side presents some alcoholic lowlive who abandoned his child, Russia returns these kids to them. This is the only thing Russia is doing wrong about the whole situation. ¹Of course, Ukraine is the child trafficking capital of Europe, and has been ever since 1991, and there are probably people in the West who are really mad about Ukrainian orphans going to Christian foster families instead of the Epstein Islands of this world. You are free to research how many Ukrainian children who were “evacuated” by Western NGOs since 2022 have “gone missing”, though it’s probably going to ruin your day.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 4 2025 20:09 utc | 195

Alex Cox | Dec 4 2025 16:43 utc | 166 Fuck off to your parking lot.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 4 2025 16:45 utc | 167
 
Glad to see you’re in better form Peter. A touch of The Brendan Behan is often a philosophical statement.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Dec 4 2025 20:21 utc | 197

When you look at debt to GDP ratios across the Eurozone. The general rule is that your debt to GDP shouldn’t go above 60% of GDP.
 
Because  – you can’t issue your own currency anymore and use a foreign currency ” the Euro ” . Whatever you borrow you have to pay back via taxation.
 
 
China steps in and says- ”  look If you use your excess Euros you have and buy euro debt . There is a chance even more countries will go over the 60% debt to GDP threshold. Even more eurozone countries will find themselves in trouble in the future.
 
We sell a lot of stuff to the Eurozone. The last thing we want is Eurozone countries finding themselves in trouble as we will lose sales and our exports will decrease to Europe. That will generate job loses in China.
 
We’ll speak to a couple of European banks based in Hong Kong and Luxembourg. We will offer a Chinese sovereign debt instrument and instead of normally buying these with Yuan. We will let you buy these using Euros.
 
So your debt to GPD that you measure in Euros won’t rise any higher and keep some countries  under the 60% threshold. You have managed to invest your excess Euros. We keep our exports to the Eurozone flowing.
 
We can do the auction at the end of November start of December 2025 ?
 
 

Posted by: Clouds Of Alabama | Dec 4 2025 20:23 utc | 199