Open Thread - 21 March 2018

pl

Comments

[LondonBob]

Outside of North America the World Cup is definitely a much bigger event than the Olympics. I already have my tickets for England v Panama in Nizhny Novgorod, as well as a second round match in Moscow. I don't care much for the Olympics, although I do like the Winter Olympics. I just thought we would see the same nonsense we saw to undermine the Sochi Olympics, this just seems much more than just derogatory media coverage, or officials boycotting attending the event. I was interested to see Professor Richard Sakwa, his book on the Ukraine crisis is probably the best out there, interviewed on RT regarding this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcKQ-4Qqel0

[SmoothieX12]

I never stated that that it is wrong or otherwise, I merely stated a cold hard fact that behind PC term FON are intentions which have very little to do with FON per say. Obviously intelligence collection is a routine task. However:

We don't bar Russian ships from the Gulf of Mexico. The Black Sea is not a Russian lake, its littorals include several other nations.

That is beyond the point, neither does Russia in terms of the Black Sea. But we live in a real world, not some university auditorium white board-driven virtual legal reality and it will be absolutely preposterous to ignore one of the Black Sea states in which the US, under different disguises, played a crucial role in bringing to power basically Russophobic neo-nazis. Your argument would be valid only under one condition: if Russia would violently remove Canadian government and install there viscerally anti-American regime. Then, we would have some even plane in discussing the issue.

I am not a fan of LNG. If I was a Euro there is no way I would allow LNG in, whether from Sabetta in Russia or from Sabine Pass in the US.

Being fan or no fan of specific type of energy hardly factors into economic reality of Europe and coercing it into buying American LNG. If Europe continues to buy Russian gas--that will be bad news for US. The US, however, may yet succeed in sabotaging Nord Stream II and thus, in a long run, kill European industrial competitiveness thus opening European market for US products. At least that is the plan. Here is a small taste of what is at stake.

http://www.unz.com/article/the-russo-chinese-alliance-revisited/

Since this article publication two major things happened:

1. China released White Paper on North Sea Route calling it a strategic interest of PRC;
2. Putin gave his March 1st speech.

[SmoothieX12]

Ralph Peters is Russia "analyst"? Then I am a Chinese cosmonaut. US Russia "analytical" field is, for the most part, a sewer, a pseudo-academic trash--Peters is an ultimate embodiment of that.

[Jonst]

Nate, I am on vacation, and unable to access my resources. But if you are still interested, in the next open thread asked the question again, and by that time I’ll be home and I could more readily put my hands on citations that might provide answers for you. In the meantime if you’re interested in reading a book that might guide you in these questions you might consider reading : The Passing of an Illusion, by François Fucet. You will get lots of ‘answers’......Because all things are relative

[David Habakkuk]

b,

Re comment 22

On Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, there is a good deal of useful material on the page entitled ‘Talk: British involvement in Syria’, now renamed ‘Porton Down investigatives Syria, on the ‘A Closer Look On Syria’ site.

(See http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Porton_Down_investigates_Syria .)

[Sid Finster]

The answer is that the Soviet government hadn't seized *all* money, many people still had stashes of money, gold or other valuables that could be turned into money.

[Sid Finster]

To make the story more plausible.

"We destroyed super top secret Syrian WMD factory that nobody else even ever heard about! Oopsies! I guess I wasn't supposed to talk about that...."

[Account Deleted]

Fred

If you torture the data long enough it confesses.

I love it; Disraeli + EIT

Or perhaps Beria for the 21st century: 'show me the data and I'll find you the crime'.

[mikee]

#54 I'm no expert on natural gas transmission but from what I understand LNG can only be moved short distances via special cryogenic pipelines.
So no, Nordstream or any other existing long haul pipeline would not be used to move LNG.

[outthere]

The Untold Story of John Bolton’s Campaign for War With Iran
Everyone knows Bolton is a hawk. Less understood is how he labored in secret to drive Washington and Tehran apart.
By Gareth Porter • March 22, 2018
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-a-john-bolton-appointment-is-scarier-than-you-think-mcmaster-trump/

[Peter AU]

The Anglo deep state in plain view?
Swearing allegiance to a foreign hereditary monarch rather than their own country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CfS9Ewjczk NZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDqvWbA11OM Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT1l5kesjKA&feature=youtu.be Canada

It was somewhat disturbing watching the three videos together the other day.
Today Craig Murray has a short piece up titled 'Deep state breaks surface'.
He links to this piece on Strategic Communication Laboratories
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/03/20/scl-a-very-british-coup/

There is a group called 'est2west news' that supply original photographs of the required Russians for many UK and Ukraine anti Russia articles. The photographs they supply can be found by using the search terms 'credit east2westnews' or picture 'east2west news'
They also supply pictures of Ukrainians for tabloid articles.
They are the group that supplied the picture of the two Skripals together in the restaurant.
I can find no information on this entity called east2west news.
There is a company called 'east2west media group' located in the US but I doubt they are the ones supplying the pictures.

SCL, having an operation in Ukraine as well as other ex soviet states seems a likely candidate as supplier of the photos for anti Russia pieces under the alias of east2west news.

[Anna]

Mr. Meyssan has a well-recognized name. He has been working on clearing the poisonous fog created by the presstituting MSM. His articles are well informed. And who is "mikee?" - Where is your data? Where is your research?

[Adrestia]

Yesterday local elections in the Netherlands and the second ever (and last) citizen-initiated referendum on the new Intelligence and Security (services) Law. The outcome is:
* local elections: traditional (centre) political parties lost again with a huge swing to local parties.
* a very small majority against the new Intelligence and Security law which gives extra capabilities (the main problem is unwarranted collection of internet information)

The same trend that brought Trump, Brexit and all other elections in OECD countries. People vote against their politicians while the politicians and MSM are surprised every time.

The new law will be implemented 'as is' with a pro-forma evaluation in the (prime)minister cabinet meeting, which is as technocratic as things get and makes a farce of democracy. The first referendum was an overwhelming 'No' against Ukraine in the EU.

The social-liberal coalition-partner (which for decades was principally the initiator of the citizen-initiated public referendum) sold its principals out in order to govern. They were the largest losers in the local elections. Again, people see what politicians are: unreliable frauds.

Interesting also is that local chapters of centre parties are changing their names because they don't want to be associated with the national parties.

Although individual humans are often very superficial and not very smart, the wisdom of crowds keeps sending messages. They want something else.

IMO unless politicians start listening to the crowds, democracy will disappear. Either right-wing populists will be elected, and they will grow into authoritarian despots (Trump seems like a candidate) or the federations and nation-states will shatter in smaller parts. Neither will be nice.

For example my country, the Netherlands. Most national law is superseded by EU-law. The national politicians are increasingly passing the hot potatoes to lower, local governments who have to solve a lot from poverty, health-care to radicalization and unemployment.

What is the value added by our so-called national politicians?
Most of the important functions are severely restricted by the EU (especially economic and monetary) and major societal problems have to be solved by lower governments. For the population they are talking heads that don't represent them.

[turcopolier]

smoothiex12

He is a total lightweight fraud who was not well though of in the Army. pl

[Thomas]

"IMO unless politicians start listening to the crowds, democracy will disappear. Either right-wing populists will be elected, and they will grow into authoritarian despots (Trump seems like a candidate) or the federations and nation-states will shatter in smaller parts. Neither will be nice."

Or a third way, people will get so fed up they will start participating by running for office and putting the grifters, freeloaders and other assorted pathological freaks into the unemployment line. After which they will actually do the tasks set out for them by the electorate while the usual culprits will whine to the highest heavens that the deplorable peasants fail to understand (ignorant fools can't you see WE are the Superior Beings) that the vanguard are here to guide them to the perfect world.

[Babak Makkinejad]

There was a commentator called Andy a few years ago, who, in response to a comment about submarines having to surface in order to pass through the Straits of Hormuz, as some claimed, stated, in essence, "Make me do it."

[Terry]

It's not about "income", rather purchasing power. I personally know people making less in 2017 than in 1990 working in the same plant - and with reduced benefits like medical deductions changing from $500 to $3000 - but also costs of goods has increased.

I have also personally seen pricing and how the same product gets priced differently in different areas, usually by 2X or 3X.

Has the bottom 50% in the USA seen a real decline in their quality of life - absolutely. Has the bottom 50% in China seen an increase. I suspect so.

[outthere]

Scott Ritter reviews the arms race since Bush's 2002 renunciation of ABM Treaty.
"The intellectual stasis displayed by both Mattis and Pompeo is disturbing. These are not so-called “experts” drummed up by the New York Times to further the anti-Putin narrative that has become the centerpiece of the Times’s coverage over the years, but rather serious professionals who hold the security of the United States in their hands. Putin’s pronouncements during his State of the Nation address weren’t a spur-of-the-moment articulation of fantasy, but rather, as he made quite clear, the byproduct of more than a decade of focused intent to counter the threat posed to Russian national security by America’s ballistic missile defense programs. Not only had Russia not masked its intentions in this regard, it had gone out of its way to make sure that the United States was aware of what it was doing and why. In 2007, Russia purposely leaked details about the RS-28 “Sarmat” heavy missile that featured prominently in Putin’s 2018 State of the Nation address to the CIA in a futile effort to get the United States to seriously engage in arms control negotiations.
Ritter concludes:
"Contrary to Secretary Mattis’s dismissive commentary, the RS-28 does, in fact, fundamentally alter the strategic balance between Russia and the United States. Moreover, Mike Pompeo knows full well that the Russians are not bluffing. Both Mattis and Pompeo had been laboring under the false impression that Russia could not afford to field a follow-on to the R-36 missile, especially considering that that missile had been built in the Ukraine during Soviet times, and as such those capabilities were lost to Russian defense industry. The RS-28, however, is a reality—the Russians simply reconfigured their own indigenous missile production capability and will have at least 50 of the new missiles operational by 2020. It’s a reality that America’s leadership might want to factor into any future policy toward Moscow."
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/no-putin-isnt-bluffing-on-nukes/

[Fred]

Terry,

You left out causation as well as the make up of that 50% of the population. For China how much is immigration based change? For the US where did the immigrants come from, what was their education level and English language proficiency when they arrived, and how did that affect wages? The World Bank and the IMF don't mention either.

[mikee]

Oh, So the Pentagon WAS struck by a missile on 9/11 as Meyssan wrote about in 'La Pentagate' and not American Airlines Flight 77

[turcopolier]

mikee

Friends of mine watched from the windows of the Naval Annex on the hill overlooking to Pentagon as the plane flew by with the passengers still in their seats. pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

Your problem in US is not immigrants, it is yourselves. Yes, the roads in Southeadt Michigan are awful because of so many ill educated immigrants with a complexion off beige.

[mikee]

Thank you colonel

[Laura]

John Bolton...Dear Merciful God.

[Laura]

I do not doubt it. The conspiracy theorists are despicable. Any historian knows that what is unimaginable can often be completely true.