Posted by: malenkov | Jan 26 2026 0:26 utc | 99
 
######
 
While not Hammurabian in origin, the Chinese laws reflect a similar idea, “to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak”, which was the original basis for all law, whether from a deity or among men.
 
It should surprise no one that Chinese society is ascending as the less justice-oriented ones are not.
 
A judiciary must be ready to remove the oppressive elements from society, swiftly, and permanently.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 0:52 utc | 104

unimperator | Jan 26 2026 0:38 utc | 103—
 
140 years ago it was argued that silver ought to be in a 16:1 ratio gold:silver. I just saw gold at $5050 meaning silver ought to be $315 at that ratio. 

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 26 2026 0:54 utc | 106

 LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 0:52 utc | 104—
 
The formula is simple. China/Chinese value Harmony and for that to prevail justice must be served and have no favorites. When you examine the original Communist Party of China’s doctrinal papers, they are extremely strict about that for both historical and contemporary reasons. The Chinese world portrayed by Pearl Buck in her books was to be eliminated and a new social order built. That’s what fascinated Edgar Snow.  

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 26 2026 1:02 utc | 108

@ LoveDonbass @ 0:52 utc
@ karlof1 @ 1:02 utc
 
Yrs, thanks!
 
 

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 26 2026 1:08 utc | 110

Bitcoin (continued from previous post) “How would a criminal know you have bitcoin? / Posted by: EoinW | Jan 25 2026 12:54 utc | 417”
 
Quite simple : many countries (example France) require you to declare your bitcoin holding to the tax bureau, every year. This information is stored on a computer system, together with all your information (name, physical address, email address). This information has high market value on the dark web.
 
So either hackers get it and sell it, or there is a mole in the tax bureau who makes lots of money selling the information. For a 50,000$ criminal profit, I guess a mole can get 5000$ per name.
 
Many cases recently in France, the criminals knew the holder had bitcoin, and yes they use violent means to obtain 50,000 euros.
 
Activities are well separated (mole, hacker, violent criminal) and don’t know each other.

Posted by: Asian Frog | Jan 26 2026 1:12 utc | 112

 karlof1 @ 106
16:1 Was the 1896 promise.
15.5: 1 Was the Bank of England ratio for many years.
When the Esst India Company first started trading with China  I believe that the rate was about 5 oz of silver to 1 of gold
It is generally held that the actual ratio (in the earth’s crust) is 7:1
 

Posted by: bevin | Jan 26 2026 1:19 utc | 114

bevin | Jan 26 2026 1:19 utc | 114—
 
Thanks, bevin! Good to get a reply from you. China’s hard money was silver historically as was most of Asia’s for obvious reasons. 

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 26 2026 1:32 utc | 116

@ bevin | Jan 26 2026 1:19 utc | 114
 
please please PLEASE don’t be a stranger around these parts!!!

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 26 2026 1:47 utc | 118

RIP Michael Parenti
 
“Michael Parenti – The U.S. War on Yugoslavia”
 
Talk given in Seattle Washington 1999
 
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ6QpjPTaG8

Posted by: suzan | Jan 26 2026 2:06 utc | 120

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 26 2026 2:09 utc | 122
 
Thank you, I wonder who the money lenders were at the time, setting the the exchange rate, hmmmmm!

Posted by: Menz | Jan 26 2026 2:15 utc | 122

@114 Bevin

They cannot keep a peg of two or more metals, because market value will naturally vary, the only way to do that is by force and by manipulating the market, which leads to corruption.

The most obvious answer is to just choose one metal for whatever ‘official currency’. If that is say silver, then people can still keep or pay in gold or other, it just gets converted to silver at market value at moment of transaction.

@122 psycho

Even where devaluation was forced (same unit number but less metal for example), the coins themselves would trade at actual metal content (except where unit payment was forced) . At times there were coins from all around being used, but valued in transaction by metal content. The last of that was the Latin Monetary Union, where coins across much of europe were standardised to same weight, but keeping their national origin. That ended between first and second world war…I actually found a last Italian silver coin on a beach in Spain (don’t know how it ended up there)…had hardly been circulated. Much prefer silver coins to gold, gold doesn’t seem right for a coin to me, too much…bling. Some really nice copper coins were made at certain times also, very familiar or friendly feel to them.

Various retail have introduced self serve tills over the years, with ratio of card only to cash payment at 4 to 1 for some…making always queues to pay cash. When they dish out the change, receipt is near till height, paper notes lower down, and for coin change it is half way to floor, making people grovel. Couldn’t be any more obvious.

Posted by: Ornot | Jan 26 2026 2:57 utc | 124

“How has China done so well so consistently for so long?
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 26 2026 1:14 utc | 113”
 
The Chinese are extrememely smart. And fast. Their way (social interaction) favours cooperation and trust (among Hans at least).They are extremely good at looking for compromise, and move on (saves time and energy).
 
Compared to East Asia, the West is turning into a shithole.
 
In the West, you often encounter people that are so dumb you just realize Idiocracy is not 500 years in the future. It’s already here. You never feel like that in China.

Posted by: Asian Frog | Jan 26 2026 3:22 utc | 126

New words for my country
usania
Insania
excusania
 
 

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 26 2026 4:01 utc | 128

fyi -this is good on the Arctic trade route and Russia’s monopoly   — 20mins
 
IT’S OVER: The Suez Canal Is Dead

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jan 26 2026 4:47 utc | 130

“France seizes Russian tanker” – Telegraph 
 
And the Brutish are planning to do so too.
 
https://t.me/c/1335606541/296613
 

The Mail on Sunday reveals London’s plans to continue seizing tankers belonging to the “Russian shadow fleet.” The newspaper reports that the movements of 544 vessels against which Britain has imposed sanctions are currently being monitored.
 
Russia must acknowledge that it will have to respond in kind. First, Russia must impose sanctions against merchant vessels belonging to the British and French “shadow fleet.” Then, conduct demonstration seizures of a couple of them in international waters. Otherwise, this epidemic of impudence will not be stopped!

 
 
Stopped how? 
 
In order to cut costs, Putin has systematically degraded the Russian navy (including closing down the Cam Ranh Bay base) so that it’s a green water navy at best now, a corvette and submarine navy with long range missiles. That’s fine as long as the purpose is to fight WWIII, but such a navy is absolutely useless for anything short of WWIII. At this point Russia isn’t even constructing destroyers, and the only reason the Admiral Kuznetsov isn’t being scrapped (though everyone knows it’ll never return to service) is that Russia can’t construct aircraft carriers anymore and it can’t be replaced. If Russia had even the carrier capability it had in the mid-90s, it could have provided air support to tanker groups at chokepoints but now there is no such capability. And Russia isn’t going to start WWIII over tankers officially belonging to other countries anyway.
 
The Russian navy is now just a green water coastal force incapable of power projection and the French and British have nothing to fear from it. 
 
And yes, that weakness is Putin’s fault.
 
If Russia wants to rebuild a surface navy it’ll have to ask China to build the ships for it.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayastha | Jan 26 2026 5:15 utc | 132

Excellent MOATS podcast onYou Tube tonight, featuring George Galloway interviewing the redoubtable Scott Ritter.  The former Marine intel officer laid it out quite directly that he feels it is a probability that Wa$hington will order U$$A forces to fulfill the blackmailed Commander in Chief’s promise to follow the orders of his I$rael first son in law and follow through with orders emanating from highest financier “authorities” to attack Iran.
 
The assault on Iran would be balls to the walls this time, not a modest fly-over attack by aircraft alone.  According to Galloway, or was it Ritter, that the Izzies would be willing to swallow up to 700 Iranian missiles IF the U$$A forces essentially obliterate Iran.
 
 That country may be a tough nut to crack and then swallow.  Pakistan has previously announced that their nuclear capacity might come into play if their neighbor is being demolished.  American forces located within easy missile and even drone range around the Persian Gulf would suffer for the sins of the Di$trict of Corruption and their financier bosses.  That U$N carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, heavily defended by numerous anti-aircraft weapons of many types, might not be a target for sinking, rather their flight deck torn to bits.
 
It’s quite possible that mass media will scream their bloody, greasy throats off to con the American people to rally around the flag.  This time, after the ICE outrages in Minneapolis, the huff and puff about conquering Greenland, along with the sneak attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of their president, plus the murder of all those small boats in the Caribbean and piracy against various nation’s oil tankers…may have succeeded in making a significant proportion of the American people highly cynical…to say the least.
 
 Ritter also firmly fielded Galloway’s questions regarding those two ICE murders in Minneapolis, where American citizens were brutally taken down by the goons and thugs answering to the contra-Constitutional orders emanating from the Tainted House on Pennsylvania Avenue in the Di$trict of Corruption.  Even as a Marine veteran, Ritter voiced his hope that the public will maintain their peaceful and constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of speech and of assembly to protest heinous acts by the federal regime.  He did recognize the 2nd Amendment, but cautioned against actions which would allow the Commander in Chief’s deliberate provocations to enable him to engage the Insurrection Act protocols.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 26 2026 5:29 utc | 134

Biswapriya@5:15:  If push must come to shove, Russia does possess a formidable submarine fleet.  Even recent models of American destroyers are not immune to torpedoes.  Secondly, as per WWII, those tankers could be armed…in this situation not with a 5″ popgun, rather with an array of both anti-ship missiles as well as weaponry which would be death on helicopters attempting to sling down some special forces types onto the decks of the tanker.
 
Piracy on the high seas cannot be protected by a one-sided declaration of lawfully unrecognized “sanctions”. Perhaps it is high time that the raggedy old Lion gets its tail pulled.  Perhaps we could describe Perfidious Albion’s Royal Navy as a farcical clown force….or possibly a near toothless Sea Dragon, as per its piratical origins dating back to the time of Francis Drake.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 26 2026 5:42 utc | 136

ZH finally has something substantive up
 
China’s Sacked Top General Accused Of Leaking Nuclear Secrets To US
 

On Saturday morning the world woke up to news that China’s most senior military officer, who is second only to Xi Jinping, has been put under investigation over alleged “grave violations of discipline and the law.”  The detained Gen. Zhang Youxia is a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party body that controls China’s armed forces, and this was a major shock given he is widely regarded as President Xi’s closest ally within the military, until now.
Another shock is just what he is being investigated for. While all the initial speculation focused on corruption, The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reveals the top general is accused of leaking information about the country’s nuclear-weapons program the United States. However, this has not yet been confirmed through official Chinese statements or sources.

 
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in reality.
 
Just how much filthy lucre does it take to corrupt military officials in China/Venezuela/Iran/Russia?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 26 2026 6:26 utc | 138

Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 26 2026 5:51 utc | 139
 
#####
 
It doesn’t surprise me that he is not well. If I were in the shadows, I would chemically manage the President as well as manage what he is told and what he understands.
 
Probably relatively easy to do with older men like Biden and Trump.
 
I pay very little attention to the man; I am much more interested in the machine, and even that is getting very boring. Stuff like kidnapping barely shocks anymore. With what I believe about human trafficking by many states, it is hard to surprise me.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 6:37 utc | 140

Morning is threading in London. It wakes me as usual. I see that the Persians haven’t taken the bait to attack first. And no one has answered my query from hours ago. 
 
The whole eschatological bullshit Zionist Abrahamic begetting judaeo Christian shtick has ALWAYS required that events have to happen as ‘predicted ’ – since they were made up a Millenia and half ago from Holy Rome being set up. Maybe just a few hundred years ago as they were refined.
 
By the Slav-ers and spice and silk road shapeshifters – the Old Bastards. They CREATED Christianity as a subset of Abrahamic Levantine and Ethiopian local beliefs. To upgrade the Romans expired wolf raised babies myths.
 
They put themselves at the centre of it as the secret Jesuites that wielded the power – through torture, execution and control of MONEY.
 
Their khazer empire to control EurAsia and Africa – the known inhabited world at that time.
 
They have come to the end of the road.
 
The scatological stinking eschatology requires the deluded Talmudic braindead supremacists to be ATTACKED by Iran/Russia/China so they can unleash their nukes and install an artificial life form under Jerusalem.
 
If Iran does NOT strike first then the dumb prophecy can’t be played out as ‘written’ and all the dumb followers expecting Armageddon and rapture – will smell the rat – HasbaRat !

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 26 2026 7:40 utc | 142

https://fixvx.com/mylordbebo/status/2015536928649568459
 
I think I found video of PeterAU

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 26 2026 8:18 utc | 144

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 6:47 utc | 143

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayastha | Jan 26 2026 6:30 utc | 141 ##### Russia (and China) is on the verge of completing the trade route to end all trade routes. That is why Russia (and now China) is building nuclear icebreakers. The West can have its chokepoints. The Axis will go around them to places where the West cannot operate militarily. …

What you are effectively saying is that the West is going to interdict Russian (and Chinese) everywhere it can operate militarily. I seriously doubt that either country shares your enthusiasm at that prospect.
 
Evidently, the West is planning to increase its pressure on Russian maritime trade. So what are Russia’s options if there is a general erosion of International law?
 
Geography is a double curse here. First, there is the obvious vulnerability of having to sail past those choke points that the Northern Sea Route doesn’t resolve. But, should Russia feel confident enough to consider reciprocal actions against Western shipping, it becomes obvious that opportunities for such actions will be difficult to find.

Posted by: robin | Jan 26 2026 8:29 utc | 146

1-10 ton silver orders in the Middle East. 300 is achievable because supply isn’t increasing that much, despite the price. Most new projects are and will remain exploratory for years. 
https://x.com/WSBGold/status/2015623128588910827

Posted by: unimperator | Jan 26 2026 9:06 utc | 148

Good day, interesting video Minneapolis
https://t.me/infantmilitario/176004
 
Humanoid robot controlled by ChatGPT
https://t.me/infantmilitario/176036
 
BRICS
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/geopolitik/brics-dollar-digitale-waehrungen-cbdc-brics-pay-indien-gipfel-2026-li.10015640

Posted by: Sany Dnepropetrovsk | Jan 26 2026 10:45 utc | 150

Re: aircraft carriers.
 
China has three and is building two more, one of which is a nuclear powered supercarrier. Will China stop at just one nuclear supercarrier? Probably not. They will recognize oversights and room for improvement in their first design iteration and build at least one more, though probably two or three, given China’s well-known “spiral design” philosophy. 
 
 
China’s “Spiral Design”: A more conservative version of Elon Musk’s “move fast and break things” design philosophy. An understanding that the first version isn’t going to be the best, so have additional design iterations in a pipeline of development, with each iteration actively feeding off the lessons learned in prior iterations. This is opposed to the more typical western development philosophy which is siloed to protect from possible technological “leakage” to competitors, even within the same organization. This is why the F-35 still sucks even though it has been in development for decades. Its development philosophy is predicated on the idea that the first version to hit production will have to be the best, so insanely expensive efforts go into trying to keep that version viable.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 26 2026 11:40 utc | 152

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 26 2026 11:05 utc | 152
The more it last, the more I’m thinking this abduction was made to rewrite the results of the 2024 Venezuelan elections by forcing a new election. A kind of delayed Regime change instead of the classic “coup” policy.
Good move by Russia tho, now will other countries use the same move to pressure the US administration one way or another ? That would be an interesting blow-back, also cheap and quite telling about the current state of affairs.
If the USN and the DoS could also stop the “gunboat diplomacy” toward South America and the bad remake of “pirate of the Caribbean” with the tankers that would be a plus.
 
On a different matter, I watch the events in the US with circumspection ; it’s not the first time the US has problem with it’s racial policy and it only degenerate once ! For now it’s just another riot … but IF the congress manage to get a “shutdown” in February (and that’s a big and bold IF), that things can spiral into a power struggle rather fast. 

Posted by: Savonarole | Jan 26 2026 11:58 utc | 154

@ Posted by: robin | Jan 26 2026 10:11 utc | 150
“gunboat diplomacy” 
 
lol. Davy Jones locker calling the Old Bastard Pirates to send Gun Boats – the previous wrecks have collapsed after centuries and decades and the fish and kraken need new homes and more crunchy sailors … chomp chomp .
 
 
Hurry up before they can never leave ports due to the guard dog unmanned Chinese and Russian multipolar submarines stop all such nasties ever leaving their home, if they are ever able to build any again – collective waster industry is now exemplified by 3D printing! 
 
‘Computer build me a battleship!’ 
‘Sure boss – just load up the rare earth and steel toner cartridges and we good to go … boss? Boss you there ??? – hey Ground Control seem to have lost communication with the boss, can you send a repair drone to check…’ 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 26 2026 12:09 utc | 156

“EXECUTION OF ANOTHER AMERICAN CITIZEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
 
In the US ICE shot another US citizen (in Minneapolis, Minnesota ????). The author of the video, called “Stella MagZ”, also showed in her video a recent tweet from Donald Trump. What he tweeted was a good message also for US citizens.
 
Quote:
“Iranian patriots, KEEP PROTESTING. TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS !!! Save the names of the killers and the abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all talks with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters stop. HELP IS ON ITS WAY, MIGA !! PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlDwbdi6JGQ  ( length: 4 minutes).

Posted by: WMG | Jan 26 2026 12:43 utc | 158

“The Christian Nationalist Plan Behind Greenland, Venezuela & NATO”
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkD_fN7lDB8  (length:  13 minutes, dated january 19, 2026)
 
Keywords: Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, Stephen Miller, resources, Christian Dominion Church, ……………….. .
 
Andra Watkins has a substack website called “Decoded” with more information about this topic. She writes on her website that she “Escaped Christian Nationalism”. Scary stuff !!!!

Posted by: WMG | Jan 26 2026 12:59 utc | 160

@ Posted by: robin | Jan 26 2026 12:25 utc | 158lol. Just parse it like a human. Pretend I’m laughing.
Just not with you.  Geedit? “Gunboat diplomacy is very real and very effective.”
 
 
No it is not. This isn’t the conquistador, pirate, EIC, Europeans sailing in to defeat the Boxer rebellion by shelling age anymore. 
 
Any such wishful thinking is absurd. This is the age of satellites, missiles, submarines and unmanned sea drones. As even the dumb show of blowing up the fast boats in the Caribbean show.
 
That was not gunboat diplomacy that was protecting the vulnerable gunboats from Iranian style fast boats and doing it in the relatively shallow small pond where the submersibles couldn’t easily close in. 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 26 2026 13:28 utc | 162

If only Trump had said “Cuba” instead of “Greenland”…

Posted by: duck n cover | Jan 26 2026 13:46 utc | 164

Evidently, the West is planning to increase its pressure on Russian maritime trade. So what are Russia’s options if there is a general erosion of International law?
 
Posted by: robin | Jan 26 2026 8:29 utc | 147
 
########
 
I will keep harping on this because I believe it to be true.
 
America and the West at large is in decline.
 
Every day these fits and tantrums are dying gasps, losing strength and efficacy.
 
Russia and China have a multi-domain super weapon.
 
It is called patience.
 
The strength of the West’s navies are not at their apex. Their capacity for ship building has become a fraction of China’s. The West isn’t deindustrialized, it is still deindustrializing.
 
I shouldn’t have to bring this up but it matters and makes my point brilliantly.
 
Ansar Allah, a revolutionary group that isn’t even the official government of its country, the subject of decades long bombing campaigns and insurgency, unable to pump and sell its oil, having one of the poorest populations in the world, was able to chase off 2 aircraft carriers, badly damaging one.
 
What must the Chinese and Russians fear?
 
Your premise is that the West is mighty and can do what it wants. I see no evidence to support that.
 
They took some tankers. They kidnapped Maduro. They tried to kill Putin. And yet Russia is still selling oil, Venezuela still won’t pump oil for Trump, and Putin has turned off the lights and heat in Kiev.
 
The West was mighty, arguably at its apex post 9/11.  That was a long time ago. The Chinese were still mostly riding bicycles then. Now they are working on flying cars and have driverless taxis.
 
Better questions for you to ask are what are the Western options to overcome Chinese global supply chain dominance in the next decade, and what are the Western options to overcome the effects of compound interest on their substantial national debts?
 
The US wants to do things. Ok. Everyone wants to do things. It’s not even the end of January and endless resolutions already have been abandoned.
 
To achieve an aspiration requires two things.
 
Will and means.
 
The West, IMO, has neither.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 15:04 utc | 166

Posted by: MAKK | Jan 26 2026 13:06 utc | 162
 
#####
 
Trump, who doesn’t believe in international law, wants the Arctic legal claims Greenland would grant.
 
The US is already too far behind.
 
Larry Johnson said yesterday that the US has one functional icebreaker. Good luck operating in the Arctic without a fleet of icebreakers.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 15:28 utc | 168

Bit of a sidebar. Thinking about Amb. Chas Freemen as one of the higher quality guests on the alt-media circuit – he isn’t shouty or sensationalist but offers an intelligent comment based on decades as a high level diplomat of the kind America and the West so sorely lack these days.
Look at his bio on Wikipedia (I know, I know), and was surprised to find that he was principal interpreter for Nixon’s epoch making visit to China in 1972. He spent many years in the Gulf states and clearly has a fondness for that part of the world. He was blocked from joining Obomber’s administration as chair of the National Intelligence Council for not being a hardcore Zionist. How different things might be had  that not happened.
Anyhoo, he made a prescient speech shortly after the death of Obama Bin Laden which is quite an eye-opener:

Thanks mainly to the late Osama bin Laden and his co-conspirators, the detractors of Islam in the West are now legion. They have spilled a lot of ink and vitriol to demonstrate the obvious: that Muslims and Muslim societies often belie these messages of tolerance as well as the sacred instruction to avoid “compulsion in religion.” In places in America where no Muslim has ever trod, good folk fear the imposition of Shar`iah law — the Islamic Talmud. Their fear is all the greater since they have absolutely no idea what either the Shar`iah or the Talmud is. Western Islamophobia is one of Osama’s most loathsome legacies, if far from his only one.
By any standard of righteousness, Osama bin Laden deserved to die. His life dishonored Islam. His death in Abbottabad dishonored no one but himself. He was condemned by his own actions, which violated the moral principles of every religion. He personally incarnated the exception to the rule against the killing of human beings that is recounted in the Holy Qur’an. It recalls (5:32) that God:
“decreed for the Children of Israel that to kill any person who has not committed murder or horrendous crimes is like murdering all of humankind.”
Osama was that very murderer who directed the commission of horrendous crimes. He leaves behind him many monuments to the evil in his heart. He does not deserve them, but these monuments are both numerous and large. It will take a long time to pull them down, but this must now be done.
Osama expected to die by violence, as he did. Sadly, he probably died a satisfied man. In addition to alienating Muslims and the West from each other, as was his aim, he achieved so many other transformations of the order he sought to overthrow. Everyone who walks shoeless through a metal detector in an airport pays grudging tribute to him. His legacies include hatred and suspicion that have erected barriers to travel to and within the West and that impede the sort of dialogue you in this gathering are about to begin. He catalyzed two wars. He bears responsibility for the death of thousands in the West and hundreds of thousands in this region. The unfunded financial burden of the conflicts he ignited has come close to bankrupting the United States. Indirectly, it is upending the international monetary system. It has produced recession in the West. Osama will have been pleased.
The mass murders Osama contrived inflamed passions that spurred American political leaders to set aside the constraints of the United States constitution and laws. There has been serious erosion in American civil liberties amidst popular disdain for the rule of law both at home and abroad. This is what paved the way for the horrors of Abu Ghraib, “extraordinary rendition,” and “enhanced interrogation techniques” — otherwise known as “cruel and unusual punishment,” “kidnapping,” and “torture.”
Ironically, the manner of Osama’s death confirmed his success at having swept away much of the traditional American deference to due process of law. He was subjected to an extrajudicial execution carried out in violation of the sovereignty of another nation. This was as lawless as it was emotionally fulfilling. Few objected. For most, the end fully justified the means. Not many have taken the time to ponder the implications of the precedent his ruthless slaying may have established for the targeted killing of American and other leaders by their foreign enemies.
In short, Osama left the world a far worse place than it had been when he entered it. It is up to those of us who have outlived him to carry out the patient work of undoing as much as possible of the harm he and others of his kind have done. This will take time and much effort. The dialogue you begin here today is an invaluable part of this task. But you must know that you at the Emirates Center and the University of Maine are far from alone in your efforts to help craft a basis for enlightened coexistence between Islam and the West.

Whilst it is good that we can still hear his words of wisdom, it is a sad reflection of affairs that he is only respected on niche alt-media channels.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Jan 26 2026 15:37 utc | 170

My apologies for the messy post above that I could not edit, delete, to begin / format again in some other way.
 
I probably won’t post here anymore, so wishing all the long time, old posters (no names as some would be forgotten ..) all the best from my heart, keep well, Noirette.
 
 
 

Posted by: Noirette | Jan 26 2026 15:40 utc | 172

https://www.euronews.com/2026/01/26/lightning-strike-at-brasilia-rally-injures-89-bolsonaro-supporters
God will have to do better if he expects changes. But it’s a start.

Posted by: Martina | Jan 26 2026 15:48 utc | 174

Ambassador Freeman’s view is very Western centric.
 
Osama was the hero in Afghanistan who undermined the USSR for Reagan.
 
Islam has had issues with the West for centuries, long before Osama.
 
After all, bin Laden wasn’t alive for the numerous Crusades the Vatican launched.
 
Islam is a problem for the West because it is anti-Capitalist excesses (wealth is good but never to be hoarded), anti-colonial, anti-slavery, and pro-charity/community.
 
All of that attribution to Osama overlooks what are commonly understood to be Zionist orchestrations behind 9/11 and America’s response.
 
From a non-American anti-Imperialist perspective, GWB did much more harm to America than Osama bin Laden did.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 15:55 utc | 176

Good luck operating in the Arctic without a fleet of icebreakers.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 15:28 utc | 169

 
No problem. They’ll just hijack, kidnap or “capture” them.

Posted by: Avtonom | Jan 26 2026 16:11 utc | 178

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 16:19 utc | 180
it doesn’t matter to the Arctic who rapes the Arctic. 
 
there won’t even be any ice floes to euthanize aged eskimos after ya’ll are done.

Posted by: duck n cover | Jan 26 2026 16:43 utc | 180

Nobody wants to talk to Kaja Kallas. So sad.
 
I remember that Lavrov even talked to Liz Truss, though he probably needed a strong drink afterwards.

Posted by: Avtonom | Jan 26 2026 16:49 utc | 182

From previous thread….
 
Brit karen
‘That pandemic came from China
The chicom wanna get rid of us and take over the world’Bandits crying robberyWestern elites are the champion of eugenics and population culling [of the others.]
Exhibit A
Jack LOndon
‘China’s population must be seven hundred millions, eight hundred millions, nobody knew how many millions, but at any rate it would soon be a billion. There were two Chinese for every white-skinned human in the world… There was talk of all countries putting bounties on children to increase the birth rate, but it was laughed to scorn by the arithmeticians, who pointed out that China was too far in the lead in that direction.
 
The Western nations set aside their differences and mobilized. The mission was for containment. Biological warfare did the dirty work—a pretty grim end
 
Five years and hundreds of millions of treasure were consumed, and then the world moved in—
After Western nations repopulated the desolate land that was China…’

Posted by: denk | Jan 26 2026 17:01 utc | 184

Posted by: ChatNPC | Jan 26 2026 16:47 utc | 182
 
######
 
My point is that OBL was very useful until the Zionists used him as the fall guy for a false flag.
 
Forgetting OBL, Ambassador Freeman’s take on Islam omits centuries of Western history, the occupation, the Iranian Revolution, etc.
 
There never was a period of peace and cultural respect between America and West Asia.
 
That’s not on OBL, who wasn’t alive for most of it.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 17:06 utc | 186

Persecution as prosecution: Carney’s Canada crushes anti-Zionist activist, free speech and democratic rights:
 
Yves Engler The Canadian Political ‘Criminal’ Convicted Over A Letter-Writing Campaign
 
https://x.com/AlexTyrellPVQ/status/201556527886
 
“Yves Engler found guilty in letter-writing case: a full account. This article goes through the case from arrest to conviction and what comes next. A must-read for anyone involved in politics or activism in Canada…’
 
http://www.yvesforndpleader.ca

Posted by: John Gilberts | Jan 26 2026 17:13 utc | 188

The who’s who of population culling guru, culling of the others that is.
 
https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/population-control.html

Posted by: denk | Jan 26 2026 17:19 utc | 190

(Nel has an interesting view of what was achieved at Davos and how to u nderstand Carney’s talk., here,
 
https://substack.com/home/post/p-185722726
 
I think that the Davos countries, if I can say so, give way too much importance to security issues in relation to the basis of economic development. This approach is the opposite of ths recipe for success as it was demonstrated in China and in Russia.
 
The Davos forum does the synchronization of the West on a losing agenda.  Openibg up to BRICS and tp the South would have been a more lucky bet, I think.

Posted by: Richard L | Jan 26 2026 17:25 utc | 192

‘Global flashpoints…..’

 
Gaza, UKraine, yemen, Iran, Somalia, Mali, Congo, Sudan, SCS, ECS, TW, Venezuala, Cuba….
 
Wonder who’s the naughty one ?
 
 

Posted by: denk | Jan 26 2026 17:56 utc | 194

Posted by: Sebgo | Jan 26 2026 18:05 utc | 196
 
Source:
 
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/global-terrorism-index/#/

Posted by: Sebgo | Jan 26 2026 18:07 utc | 196

Posted by: Sebgo | Jan 26 2026 18:07 utc | 197
 
#####
 
Run by a Western Think Tank and cited often in the Western media. IEP runs that site.
 

IEP research regularly features in leading international media publications including the New York Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Deutsche Welle, Washington Post, CNN, and the BBC. IEP works alongside a range of multilateral partners, from the United Nations and the World Bank, to the Lloyds foundation, the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT), and many others.

 
Personally, I would be more impressed by numbers from those countries than from a Western NGO.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 18:17 utc | 198

Thats all folks !

Posted by: denk | Jan 26 2026 18:23 utc | 200