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There’s apparently popular demand for a new Open Thread so here you go! Though I probably won’t be checking up on the comments here much.

I needed to recharge the past month. But I’ll start writing much more frequently on the Substack from next Friday on.

 
• Tags: Blogging, Open Thread 
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  1. It is good to still see your open threads, Anatoly!
    I would insist that the geopolitics of gas and oil should be one of the main issues of your threads.

    • Agree: Not Raul, Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib


    I would insist that the geopolitics of gas and oil should be one of the main issues of your threads.
     
    I would suggest that "insisting" is the not correct way to phrase such a request.
    ___

    That being said, it is an important topic (1)

    The brief OPEC+ meeting concluded without surprises and by *rejecting the plea from Biden* and other energy starved countries to pump more, instead sticking to its previously approved plan of a 400,000 barrel-a-day production hike for December. That’s a pace that major consumers say is too slow to sustain the post-Covid economic recovery, with the U.S. asking for as much as double that amount.

    The next OPEC+ meeting date is set for Dec 2 where the cartel and assorted hangers on will likely ignore Biden's pleas for more output again unless oil is trading in triple digits by then
     
    Yet more inflationary pressure created by Not-The-President Biden's incompetence.

    North America needs more drilling, more pipelines, and... Yes.... More COAL. None of this will happen until the SJW Globalists are crushed in the 2022 midterms.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________


    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/oil-jumps-investors-expect-cartel-balk-bidens-demands-boost-output-opec-preview

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

  2. A superb article on Russian’s ABM/ASAT systems:

    https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4262/1

    • Thanks: mal
  3. Many of these Chinese EVs are looking really nice, like almost Tesla replicas.

    Although too late for us to throw all our money in things like BYD stock which climbed already 6 times. I guess it was in 2020, investors could all see the Tesla climb, and how promising the Chinese automaker positions were also for EVs.

    • Replies: @Not Raul
    @Dmitry

    Of the top ten automakers, who do you think is the best investment, being mindful that more and more market share is going electric?

    Ford and VW seem to be betting big on electric.

    I wish I had bought Ford stock months ago; but now the valuation looks too high.

    Stellantis has big plans; but moving to electric is easier said than done. GM’s recall of the LG battery is worrying; and Stellantis seems to be relying on LG, too.

    Is there some breakthrough battery technology that gives anyone an edge?

    I’d be happy to buy Tesla; but at half the valuation.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @Vishnugupta
    @Dmitry

    Tesla is the Apple of Electric Vehicles.

    Hardware wise Apple is clearly inferior to leading Android phone makers in everything except the processor but its superb marketing and control of its eco system ensures it makes around 90 % of the industry profits.

    Tesla though not only has Apple tier marketing and control of the EV ecosystem its hardware is also class leading be it component wise i.e. the power density of its cells or its new SRM permanent magnet motor or the manufacturing process die casted chassis etc.

    Catching up with Tesla will be significantly more difficult than most people realize.

  4. I miss AK! 😢

    The interaction on Twitter is not the same.

    AK is a serious talent.

    • Agree: RadicalCenter, Voltarde
  5. @Dmitry
    Many of these Chinese EVs are looking really nice, like almost Tesla replicas.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLapF3A54Mc

    Although too late for us to throw all our money in things like BYD stock which climbed already 6 times. I guess it was in 2020, investors could all see the Tesla climb, and how promising the Chinese automaker positions were also for EVs.

    https://i.imgur.com/JKVy7EU.jpg

    Replies: @Not Raul, @Vishnugupta

    Of the top ten automakers, who do you think is the best investment, being mindful that more and more market share is going electric?

    Ford and VW seem to be betting big on electric.

    I wish I had bought Ford stock months ago; but now the valuation looks too high.

    Stellantis has big plans; but moving to electric is easier said than done. GM’s recall of the LG battery is worrying; and Stellantis seems to be relying on LG, too.

    Is there some breakthrough battery technology that gives anyone an edge?

    I’d be happy to buy Tesla; but at half the valuation.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Not Raul

    I don't understand much about money or investment, so my advice is probably worse than bad. I do sometimes go to investor presentations in my industry so maybe I'm not completely naive about how they try to sell things to you.

    In terms of stocks, I own only in a few companies where I know personally people that work there in my industry.

    Total value of my total stocks has increased in value multiple times, which is very uncommonly successful for investor (I can pretend to be like Warren Buffett). But it's just arbitrary - because there is a crazy bubble in the industry this year, and the stocks I own are not something I had selected for a non-personal reason.


    ten automakers, who do you think is the best investment, being mindful that more and more market share is going electric
     
    I don't work in anything related to the automobile industry, so my advice would be useless. Moreover, picking stocks is usually advised against, as - efficient market hypothesis.

    Personally I was (without any knowledge or reason to be) excited about the Volvo IPO of this week. This is just an emotional reaction when I read about it.

    However, what we've been told in my industry, is that we view IPO as basically capital raising events within the company, and you should wait a few months for anything to calm after before you buy anything yourself as a private person.

    So just as a random gambling pleasure, I would like to buy Volvo, but I resisted the temptation to buy anything this week. Perhaps I will invest in Volvo in a few months though for non-rational, emotional reasons.

    Otherwise, perhaps these high risk, super volatile Chinese EV stocks might be fun for gamblers like Xpeng, Nio, Li Auto, or (maybe less risky) Geely?

    I guess a lot of their potential was already "priced-in" in the last year though. And anything China is high risk, and these are extremely risky and probably not a responsible idea. However, if you want to visit a crazy high-risk Chinese casino?


    Is there some breakthrough battery technology that gives anyone an edge?

     

    (With disclaimer my views are useless as I do not work in or know anything about auto industry) Toyota is supposedly leading in the solid state batteries, but it will be not introduced for several years.

    Daimler has strategic partnership with the Israeli startup Storedot, which will introduce the fastest rapid charging batteries. But Daimler's stock looked very "price in" after it has climbed for a year?

    Storedot was preparing to IPO and I guess would be a lot of hype when this happens.

  6. @Aedib
    It is good to still see your open threads, Anatoly!
    I would insist that the geopolitics of gas and oil should be one of the main issues of your threads.

    Replies: @A123

    I would insist that the geopolitics of gas and oil should be one of the main issues of your threads.

    I would suggest that “insisting” is the not correct way to phrase such a request.
    ___

    That being said, it is an important topic (1)

    The brief OPEC+ meeting concluded without surprises and by *rejecting the plea from Biden* and other energy starved countries to pump more, instead sticking to its previously approved plan of a 400,000 barrel-a-day production hike for December. That’s a pace that major consumers say is too slow to sustain the post-Covid economic recovery, with the U.S. asking for as much as double that amount.

    The next OPEC+ meeting date is set for Dec 2 where the cartel and assorted hangers on will likely ignore Biden’s pleas for more output again unless oil is trading in triple digits by then

    Yet more inflationary pressure created by Not-The-President Biden’s incompetence.

    North America needs more drilling, more pipelines, and… Yes…. More COAL. None of this will happen until the SJW Globalists are crushed in the 2022 midterms.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/oil-jumps-investors-expect-cartel-balk-bidens-demands-boost-output-opec-preview

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @A123

    I mostly agree, but coal should be replaced by nuclear stations. They do not pollute and in addition they get MAD (lol!) the SJWs.

    Replies: @A123

    , @Barbarossa
    @A123

    On energy I sometimes wonder if the political class is just incredibly dishonest or really that stupid.
    (I know. The correct answer is all of the above.)

    The pivot to "clean renewables" such as wind and solar is purely shambolic and incapable of sustaining current levels of consumption, much less massive increases in electrical demand from widespread EV usage.

    The only real options if one actually wants to curtail carbon emissions are to massively decrease consumption, which would crater an economy predicated on ever-rising consumption, or to massively invest in nuclear power.

    I'm not particularly thrilled by the prospect of nuclear, since that has it's own issues. (My county of residence was once slated to be home to a nuclear waste dump, a proposal which was defeated by a civil disobedience guerrilla uprising.)
    As we have discussed in the past alternatives like Molten Salt Reactors may be promising, but I'm not entirely convinced that they will be a magic bullet either.

    The real question is what the hell the political class is doing in regards to energy policy. Do they know that they are on a quixotic path chasing "renewables" or have they drunk so deeply of their own kool-aid that they truly believe? It seems that actionable courses are certainly not discussed in a realistic way in any event.

    But...promoting fantasy land is a sure-fire way to re-election, so perhaps it's not surprising.

    Replies: @iffen, @Aedib

  7. @Dmitry
    Many of these Chinese EVs are looking really nice, like almost Tesla replicas.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLapF3A54Mc

    Although too late for us to throw all our money in things like BYD stock which climbed already 6 times. I guess it was in 2020, investors could all see the Tesla climb, and how promising the Chinese automaker positions were also for EVs.

    https://i.imgur.com/JKVy7EU.jpg

    Replies: @Not Raul, @Vishnugupta

    Tesla is the Apple of Electric Vehicles.

    Hardware wise Apple is clearly inferior to leading Android phone makers in everything except the processor but its superb marketing and control of its eco system ensures it makes around 90 % of the industry profits.

    Tesla though not only has Apple tier marketing and control of the EV ecosystem its hardware is also class leading be it component wise i.e. the power density of its cells or its new SRM permanent magnet motor or the manufacturing process die casted chassis etc.

    Catching up with Tesla will be significantly more difficult than most people realize.

    • Thanks: Almost Missouri
  8. 😁 Weekly Open Thread Humor 😂

    A few below [MORE]
    ___

    The AR-15 lower is genuine:

    https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-ar-15-letsgo-15-stripped-lower-receiver-pre-order-ships-in-approximately-10-12-weeks.html

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

     

    [MORE]

     

     

     

     

    • Thanks: Jatt Aryaa, Chrisnonymous
  9. Does anyone have updates on the Donbass Military situation? Any sources I should follow? How likely is a conflict to break out?

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Archimedes

    Check https://southfront.org/

    It is quite reliable and objective.

    , @Mikhail
    @Archimedes

    https://www.donbass-insider.com/

  10. Hooray, another Open Thread!

    I support US passports being changed to accommodate trannies. Other countries should know who the crazies are, when they seek to enter.

  11. @A123
    @Aedib


    I would insist that the geopolitics of gas and oil should be one of the main issues of your threads.
     
    I would suggest that "insisting" is the not correct way to phrase such a request.
    ___

    That being said, it is an important topic (1)

    The brief OPEC+ meeting concluded without surprises and by *rejecting the plea from Biden* and other energy starved countries to pump more, instead sticking to its previously approved plan of a 400,000 barrel-a-day production hike for December. That’s a pace that major consumers say is too slow to sustain the post-Covid economic recovery, with the U.S. asking for as much as double that amount.

    The next OPEC+ meeting date is set for Dec 2 where the cartel and assorted hangers on will likely ignore Biden's pleas for more output again unless oil is trading in triple digits by then
     
    Yet more inflationary pressure created by Not-The-President Biden's incompetence.

    North America needs more drilling, more pipelines, and... Yes.... More COAL. None of this will happen until the SJW Globalists are crushed in the 2022 midterms.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________


    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/oil-jumps-investors-expect-cartel-balk-bidens-demands-boost-output-opec-preview

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

    I mostly agree, but coal should be replaced by nuclear stations. They do not pollute and in addition they get MAD (lol!) the SJWs.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib

    There is what is needed now. And, what is needed in the future.

    MAGA will bring low priced energy, and thus economic recovery, as soon as they can.

    Long term -- Thorium based energy is the obvious solution for commercial electricity. However, it will take a significant number of years to bring to market.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  12. @Archimedes
    Does anyone have updates on the Donbass Military situation? Any sources I should follow? How likely is a conflict to break out?

    Replies: @Aedib, @Mikhail

    Check https://southfront.org/

    It is quite reliable and objective.

  13. @Aedib
    @A123

    I mostly agree, but coal should be replaced by nuclear stations. They do not pollute and in addition they get MAD (lol!) the SJWs.

    Replies: @A123

    There is what is needed now. And, what is needed in the future.

    MAGA will bring low priced energy, and thus economic recovery, as soon as they can.

    Long term — Thorium based energy is the obvious solution for commercial electricity. However, it will take a significant number of years to bring to market.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  14. FBI arrests Igor Danchenko:

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-source-analyst-aided-trump-141621368.html

    Among some others, Sean Hannity can be quite dense on Russia related matters. The above linked article doesn’t say that Igor Danchenko collaborated with the Russian government in producing misinformation on Donald Trump.

    If anything, Danchenko’s ties to the Brookings Institution and Fiona Hill, suggest a neocon/neolib preferred Russian, who isn’t particularly Trump and Putin friendly.

    Like Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, there (at least for now) appears to be no conclusive evidence that Danchenko is some kind of a Russian government agent.

    On the same day as Danchenko’s arrest, I received an FBI hand delivered message pertaining to:

    https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/09/14/2018-20203/imposing-certain-sanctions-in-the-event-of-foreign-interference-in-a-united-states-election

    The FBI agent who delivered the letter doesn’t have anything better to do?

    Trump signed the above linked order. Now, a Dem admin is using it to further persuade Americans to not write for the Strategic Culture Foundation. I hope to have more out on this shortly.

    Where’s my Noble Prize for journalism? A rhetorical shot concerning the two who received such. On the matter of false claims having to do with a US election and Russia (as well as some other Russia related issues), Evelyn Farkas has apparently not been penalized for her lies pertaining to yours truly.

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/05/22/bbc-limits-and-related-censorship-on-russia-coverage/

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    Here you go:

    https://thenib.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/the-bizarro-nobel-prizes-3b81ce588f5f-1-3.jpg

    Forgive me, but I just couldn't resist. Maybe one of the last times that I can rib you using a prop. But to show you that I can be a nice guy (sometimes at least) I'm going to plug your very own website, saving you the need (I know what a drudgery that must be for you to do, all of the time). So, for all of you aficionados out there, who just can't get your fill of Mike Averko's brilliant insights, especially about the greatness of Russia under Putin's 26 year autocracy, here's his own, not too popular, website:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/michael-averko/

    For those of you on a restricted financial budget plan, looking for a new venue to while away all of your time, this could be the place to go - it's still free! I'm just hoping that Karlin hasn't put any fresh new ideas into Averko's head, I mean how much longer can he afford to live and create all of this stuff for free? :-)

    Replies: @Mikhail, @songbird

  15. @Archimedes
    Does anyone have updates on the Donbass Military situation? Any sources I should follow? How likely is a conflict to break out?

    Replies: @Aedib, @Mikhail

  16. #NeverTrump yahoo racism is a force, like stupidity, that cannot be underestimated. It takes a special kind of low-IQ vapidness to portray the election of a black woman as “White Power”. Yet…. There it is….

    # LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123

    The campaign to ban the Confederate flag seems to have been a more successful power move, than anyone could have anticipated. Apparently, turns out it is not only about the statues, or the public buildings, but once you marginalize a symbol enough, it becomes an effective and regular false flag to signal low status in the eyes of people wired to be extreme status-seekers and color-signalers.

    Much harder in the day of Rascal King, James Michael Curley, who had to outfit the costumes of a group of fake clansmen to menacingly burn a cross on a hill in the background, while he gave a speech.

    Replies: @schnellandine

  17. @A123
    #NeverTrump yahoo racism is a force, like stupidity, that cannot be underestimated. It takes a special kind of low-IQ vapidness to portray the election of a black woman as "White Power". Yet.... There it is....

    # LetsGoBrandon 😇


    https://twitter.com/JHolmsted/status/1455904955022417922?s=20

    Replies: @songbird

    The campaign to ban the Confederate flag seems to have been a more successful power move, than anyone could have anticipated. Apparently, turns out it is not only about the statues, or the public buildings, but once you marginalize a symbol enough, it becomes an effective and regular false flag to signal low status in the eyes of people wired to be extreme status-seekers and color-signalers.

    Much harder in the day of Rascal King, James Michael Curley, who had to outfit the costumes of a group of fake clansmen to menacingly burn a cross on a hill in the background, while he gave a speech.

    • Replies: @schnellandine
    @songbird

    The South may not rise again, but I bet the CSA battle flag will.

    Replies: @songbird

  18. @songbird
    @A123

    The campaign to ban the Confederate flag seems to have been a more successful power move, than anyone could have anticipated. Apparently, turns out it is not only about the statues, or the public buildings, but once you marginalize a symbol enough, it becomes an effective and regular false flag to signal low status in the eyes of people wired to be extreme status-seekers and color-signalers.

    Much harder in the day of Rascal King, James Michael Curley, who had to outfit the costumes of a group of fake clansmen to menacingly burn a cross on a hill in the background, while he gave a speech.

    Replies: @schnellandine

    The South may not rise again, but I bet the CSA battle flag will.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @schnellandine

    Each year, I think the cachet of the US national flag diminishes further, becoming more a symbol of the regime and less one of any people.

    On a related note: if there is ever civil war in Europe, I suspect that not many people will rally to the rather uninspiring EU Flag. Maybe, it will be the rainbow flag against the cross.

  19. @schnellandine
    @songbird

    The South may not rise again, but I bet the CSA battle flag will.

    Replies: @songbird

    Each year, I think the cachet of the US national flag diminishes further, becoming more a symbol of the regime and less one of any people.

    On a related note: if there is ever civil war in Europe, I suspect that not many people will rally to the rather uninspiring EU Flag. Maybe, it will be the rainbow flag against the cross.

  20. @A123
    @Aedib


    I would insist that the geopolitics of gas and oil should be one of the main issues of your threads.
     
    I would suggest that "insisting" is the not correct way to phrase such a request.
    ___

    That being said, it is an important topic (1)

    The brief OPEC+ meeting concluded without surprises and by *rejecting the plea from Biden* and other energy starved countries to pump more, instead sticking to its previously approved plan of a 400,000 barrel-a-day production hike for December. That’s a pace that major consumers say is too slow to sustain the post-Covid economic recovery, with the U.S. asking for as much as double that amount.

    The next OPEC+ meeting date is set for Dec 2 where the cartel and assorted hangers on will likely ignore Biden's pleas for more output again unless oil is trading in triple digits by then
     
    Yet more inflationary pressure created by Not-The-President Biden's incompetence.

    North America needs more drilling, more pipelines, and... Yes.... More COAL. None of this will happen until the SJW Globalists are crushed in the 2022 midterms.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________


    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/oil-jumps-investors-expect-cartel-balk-bidens-demands-boost-output-opec-preview

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

    On energy I sometimes wonder if the political class is just incredibly dishonest or really that stupid.
    (I know. The correct answer is all of the above.)

    The pivot to “clean renewables” such as wind and solar is purely shambolic and incapable of sustaining current levels of consumption, much less massive increases in electrical demand from widespread EV usage.

    The only real options if one actually wants to curtail carbon emissions are to massively decrease consumption, which would crater an economy predicated on ever-rising consumption, or to massively invest in nuclear power.

    I’m not particularly thrilled by the prospect of nuclear, since that has it’s own issues. (My county of residence was once slated to be home to a nuclear waste dump, a proposal which was defeated by a civil disobedience guerrilla uprising.)
    As we have discussed in the past alternatives like Molten Salt Reactors may be promising, but I’m not entirely convinced that they will be a magic bullet either.

    The real question is what the hell the political class is doing in regards to energy policy. Do they know that they are on a quixotic path chasing “renewables” or have they drunk so deeply of their own kool-aid that they truly believe? It seems that actionable courses are certainly not discussed in a realistic way in any event.

    But…promoting fantasy land is a sure-fire way to re-election, so perhaps it’s not surprising.

    • Replies: @iffen
    @Barbarossa

    The real question is what the hell the political class is doing in regards to energy policy.

    One thing that they are doing is raising transportation costs for the rural population in order to subsidize the Prius driving metros.

    , @Aedib
    @Barbarossa

    The rational path to down carbon emissions is to massively re-start nuclear power plants, big hydro build-up and to massively replace coal by gas. Wind and solar are OK but, as they are random, they can’t be part of the energy base-matrix. They can be a nice complement and occasional replacement but not anymore.
    But you are OK: the political class seems to be that stupid.
    You say nuclear, they say “nooooo, see Chernobyl, Fukushima!!”
    You say hydro, the say “nooooo, they are harmful to the ecosystems!!”
    You say gas, they say “nooooooo, it will empower the evil Russians!!”
    Well, let the “smart-guys” enjoy their own stupidity.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  21. @Not Raul
    @Dmitry

    Of the top ten automakers, who do you think is the best investment, being mindful that more and more market share is going electric?

    Ford and VW seem to be betting big on electric.

    I wish I had bought Ford stock months ago; but now the valuation looks too high.

    Stellantis has big plans; but moving to electric is easier said than done. GM’s recall of the LG battery is worrying; and Stellantis seems to be relying on LG, too.

    Is there some breakthrough battery technology that gives anyone an edge?

    I’d be happy to buy Tesla; but at half the valuation.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    I don’t understand much about money or investment, so my advice is probably worse than bad. I do sometimes go to investor presentations in my industry so maybe I’m not completely naive about how they try to sell things to you.

    In terms of stocks, I own only in a few companies where I know personally people that work there in my industry.

    Total value of my total stocks has increased in value multiple times, which is very uncommonly successful for investor (I can pretend to be like Warren Buffett). But it’s just arbitrary – because there is a crazy bubble in the industry this year, and the stocks I own are not something I had selected for a non-personal reason.

    ten automakers, who do you think is the best investment, being mindful that more and more market share is going electric

    I don’t work in anything related to the automobile industry, so my advice would be useless. Moreover, picking stocks is usually advised against, as – efficient market hypothesis.

    Personally I was (without any knowledge or reason to be) excited about the Volvo IPO of this week. This is just an emotional reaction when I read about it.

    However, what we’ve been told in my industry, is that we view IPO as basically capital raising events within the company, and you should wait a few months for anything to calm after before you buy anything yourself as a private person.

    So just as a random gambling pleasure, I would like to buy Volvo, but I resisted the temptation to buy anything this week. Perhaps I will invest in Volvo in a few months though for non-rational, emotional reasons.

    Otherwise, perhaps these high risk, super volatile Chinese EV stocks might be fun for gamblers like Xpeng, Nio, Li Auto, or (maybe less risky) Geely?

    I guess a lot of their potential was already “priced-in” in the last year though. And anything China is high risk, and these are extremely risky and probably not a responsible idea. However, if you want to visit a crazy high-risk Chinese casino?

    Is there some breakthrough battery technology that gives anyone an edge?

    (With disclaimer my views are useless as I do not work in or know anything about auto industry) Toyota is supposedly leading in the solid state batteries, but it will be not introduced for several years.

    Daimler has strategic partnership with the Israeli startup Storedot, which will introduce the fastest rapid charging batteries. But Daimler’s stock looked very “price in” after it has climbed for a year?

    Storedot was preparing to IPO and I guess would be a lot of hype when this happens.

    • Thanks: Not Raul
  22. sher singh says:

    2 part post

    1. Troons come to Endia
    2. Tinkzorg’s 3 latest blog posts themed around negative sum, decline & cannibalization of Empire

    [MORE]

    https://twitter.com/Parikramah/status/145604313670740788

    https://tinkzorg.wordpress.com/

    He mentions how a 2019 standard of living is impossible now, a Negative sum economy is where Idpol groups gain sinecures at the cost of someone else: white men or brahmins.

    More than that won’t comment.

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

  23. I tried reading Faye’s Archeofuturist manifesto and realized this is the direction globalists have set out – Technological luxury & advancement for the elites, neo-medievalism for the masses (The difference is in whether the masses are UBI recipients or agrarians)

    Think about this – globalists arriving at almost the same conclusions as an ideology that ostensibly opposes Western modernity! Different ideologies and attitudes, but almost the same outcome!

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    I should clarify what I've said because these visions have similarities and more superficial differences. The most striking similarity is the consolidation of the elite, with its technological and political dominance, into an unassailable one, and the subsequent appropriation of all the gains modern technological development have produced; and the reduction of status of the rest: for Davos, it is passive recipients of UBI, workers of the digital economy, or test subjects; for , it is the neo-serfs.

  24. @Yellowface Anon
    I tried reading Faye's Archeofuturist manifesto and realized this is the direction globalists have set out - Technological luxury & advancement for the elites, neo-medievalism for the masses (The difference is in whether the masses are UBI recipients or agrarians)

    Think about this - globalists arriving at almost the same conclusions as an ideology that ostensibly opposes Western modernity! Different ideologies and attitudes, but almost the same outcome!

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    I should clarify what I’ve said because these visions have similarities and more superficial differences. The most striking similarity is the consolidation of the elite, with its technological and political dominance, into an unassailable one, and the subsequent appropriation of all the gains modern technological development have produced; and the reduction of status of the rest: for Davos, it is passive recipients of UBI, workers of the digital economy, or test subjects; for , it is the neo-serfs.

  25. @Barbarossa
    @A123

    On energy I sometimes wonder if the political class is just incredibly dishonest or really that stupid.
    (I know. The correct answer is all of the above.)

    The pivot to "clean renewables" such as wind and solar is purely shambolic and incapable of sustaining current levels of consumption, much less massive increases in electrical demand from widespread EV usage.

    The only real options if one actually wants to curtail carbon emissions are to massively decrease consumption, which would crater an economy predicated on ever-rising consumption, or to massively invest in nuclear power.

    I'm not particularly thrilled by the prospect of nuclear, since that has it's own issues. (My county of residence was once slated to be home to a nuclear waste dump, a proposal which was defeated by a civil disobedience guerrilla uprising.)
    As we have discussed in the past alternatives like Molten Salt Reactors may be promising, but I'm not entirely convinced that they will be a magic bullet either.

    The real question is what the hell the political class is doing in regards to energy policy. Do they know that they are on a quixotic path chasing "renewables" or have they drunk so deeply of their own kool-aid that they truly believe? It seems that actionable courses are certainly not discussed in a realistic way in any event.

    But...promoting fantasy land is a sure-fire way to re-election, so perhaps it's not surprising.

    Replies: @iffen, @Aedib

    The real question is what the hell the political class is doing in regards to energy policy.

    One thing that they are doing is raising transportation costs for the rural population in order to subsidize the Prius driving metros.

  26. @Barbarossa
    @A123

    On energy I sometimes wonder if the political class is just incredibly dishonest or really that stupid.
    (I know. The correct answer is all of the above.)

    The pivot to "clean renewables" such as wind and solar is purely shambolic and incapable of sustaining current levels of consumption, much less massive increases in electrical demand from widespread EV usage.

    The only real options if one actually wants to curtail carbon emissions are to massively decrease consumption, which would crater an economy predicated on ever-rising consumption, or to massively invest in nuclear power.

    I'm not particularly thrilled by the prospect of nuclear, since that has it's own issues. (My county of residence was once slated to be home to a nuclear waste dump, a proposal which was defeated by a civil disobedience guerrilla uprising.)
    As we have discussed in the past alternatives like Molten Salt Reactors may be promising, but I'm not entirely convinced that they will be a magic bullet either.

    The real question is what the hell the political class is doing in regards to energy policy. Do they know that they are on a quixotic path chasing "renewables" or have they drunk so deeply of their own kool-aid that they truly believe? It seems that actionable courses are certainly not discussed in a realistic way in any event.

    But...promoting fantasy land is a sure-fire way to re-election, so perhaps it's not surprising.

    Replies: @iffen, @Aedib

    The rational path to down carbon emissions is to massively re-start nuclear power plants, big hydro build-up and to massively replace coal by gas. Wind and solar are OK but, as they are random, they can’t be part of the energy base-matrix. They can be a nice complement and occasional replacement but not anymore.
    But you are OK: the political class seems to be that stupid.
    You say nuclear, they say “nooooo, see Chernobyl, Fukushima!!”
    You say hydro, the say “nooooo, they are harmful to the ecosystems!!”
    You say gas, they say “nooooooo, it will empower the evil Russians!!”
    Well, let the “smart-guys” enjoy their own stupidity.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Aedib

    Hydro potential is pretty much close to exhausted, it seems to me. Nuclear plant construction on the scale of replacing a large part of fossil fuel energy won't be forthcoming (not just the political will but the lead time might be too long), and gas price actually surged everywhere, even in the US. This means something bigger and structural is afoot, and you should read the link I posted in the last open thread.

    Replies: @Aedib

  27. What if skull deformation increases IQ, or some other factor, like will to power, and that is why a lot of these groups that created empires, like the Inca and Huns practiced it?

    In early modern times, when it was still practiced in areas, some people used to have the idea that changing the shape of the skull changes the shape of thoughts that fit in the head.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @songbird

    Eggheads indeed!

    It sounds like a hard one to either prove or falsify. Most all of my kids are too old to try a test group and control... so that's right out!

    Just imagine the teasing at school though.

    "Why is your head shaped like a pyramid, freak?!"

    "My parents say it will increase my cognitive acuity and foster an indomitable will to power! Yesssss!"

  28. They should remake the movie Idiocracy, so that it is more watchable, more accurate, and better natalist propaganda.

    • LOL: Yellowface Anon
  29. Used to think that society needed cultural norms mostly because of dumb people. But what if exactly the opposite is true? Smart people are governed less by instinct, so therefore they need strong cultural norms to take the place of instinct and to help them reproduce without fretting much about various things.

    • Agree: Jatt Aryaa
  30. @Aedib
    @Barbarossa

    The rational path to down carbon emissions is to massively re-start nuclear power plants, big hydro build-up and to massively replace coal by gas. Wind and solar are OK but, as they are random, they can’t be part of the energy base-matrix. They can be a nice complement and occasional replacement but not anymore.
    But you are OK: the political class seems to be that stupid.
    You say nuclear, they say “nooooo, see Chernobyl, Fukushima!!”
    You say hydro, the say “nooooo, they are harmful to the ecosystems!!”
    You say gas, they say “nooooooo, it will empower the evil Russians!!”
    Well, let the “smart-guys” enjoy their own stupidity.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Hydro potential is pretty much close to exhausted, it seems to me. Nuclear plant construction on the scale of replacing a large part of fossil fuel energy won’t be forthcoming (not just the political will but the lead time might be too long), and gas price actually surged everywhere, even in the US. This means something bigger and structural is afoot, and you should read the link I posted in the last open thread.

    • Agree: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Yellowface Anon

    Can you paste the link here?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  31. @Yellowface Anon
    @Aedib

    Hydro potential is pretty much close to exhausted, it seems to me. Nuclear plant construction on the scale of replacing a large part of fossil fuel energy won't be forthcoming (not just the political will but the lead time might be too long), and gas price actually surged everywhere, even in the US. This means something bigger and structural is afoot, and you should read the link I posted in the last open thread.

    Replies: @Aedib

    Can you paste the link here?

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Aedib

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/spike-in-energy-prices-suggests-that-sharp-changes-are-ahead.html

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

  32. @Aedib
    @Yellowface Anon

    Can you paste the link here?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    • Thanks: Aedib
    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Yellowface Anon


    European economists should have told European citizens, “There is no way you can get along using renewables alone for many, many years. Treat the countries that are exporting fossil fuels to you very well. Sign long term contracts with them. If they want to use a new pipeline, raise no objection. Your bargaining power is very low.”
     
    They were too accustomed to spite the Russians in the face. It is like a Pavlovian response. Now that reality started to bite, the still insist in with their Pavlovian response. Someone should tell Eurocrats that the East Asian market is bigger and brighter and that no one care anymore about their hypocrite moral lessons any longer.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    , @Barbarossa
    @Yellowface Anon

    That is a generally good article and mirrors some of my own observations. This is part of what I was getting at with my previous comment. The energy options being publicly discussed are not really realistic or actionable.

    I live near the epicenter of shale gas and it has gone significantly bust for the time being with many fields also under-performing.

    There was a big push on big wind projects a few years back but these have also been big disappointments and a seven year old wind farm near me is having massive foundation reconstruction and blade replacement. I drove past a massive pile of fiberglass blades chopped in half next to the highway, being prepped to make their way out West to get buried. The wind farms have turned out to be a joke.

    Now the big push is solar farms, even though this part of the country has less days of sunlight than almost anywhere else. There is a 900 acre solar farm in the works just the hill over from me.

    It's all completely dependent on subsidies, naturally. As far as actual impacts these seem to be massive outlays of government cash for very little actual benefit.

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

  33. @Mikhail
    FBI arrests Igor Danchenko:

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-source-analyst-aided-trump-141621368.html

    Among some others, Sean Hannity can be quite dense on Russia related matters. The above linked article doesn't say that Igor Danchenko collaborated with the Russian government in producing misinformation on Donald Trump.

    If anything, Danchenko's ties to the Brookings Institution and Fiona Hill, suggest a neocon/neolib preferred Russian, who isn't particularly Trump and Putin friendly.

    Like Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, there (at least for now) appears to be no conclusive evidence that Danchenko is some kind of a Russian government agent.

    On the same day as Danchenko's arrest, I received an FBI hand delivered message pertaining to:

    https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/09/14/2018-20203/imposing-certain-sanctions-in-the-event-of-foreign-interference-in-a-united-states-election

    The FBI agent who delivered the letter doesn't have anything better to do?

    Trump signed the above linked order. Now, a Dem admin is using it to further persuade Americans to not write for the Strategic Culture Foundation. I hope to have more out on this shortly.

    Where's my Noble Prize for journalism? A rhetorical shot concerning the two who received such. On the matter of false claims having to do with a US election and Russia (as well as some other Russia related issues), Evelyn Farkas has apparently not been penalized for her lies pertaining to yours truly.

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/05/22/bbc-limits-and-related-censorship-on-russia-coverage/

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Here you go:

    Forgive me, but I just couldn’t resist. Maybe one of the last times that I can rib you using a prop. But to show you that I can be a nice guy (sometimes at least) I’m going to plug your very own website, saving you the need (I know what a drudgery that must be for you to do, all of the time). So, for all of you aficionados out there, who just can’t get your fill of Mike Averko’s brilliant insights, especially about the greatness of Russia under Putin’s 26 year autocracy, here’s his own, not too popular, website:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/michael-averko/

    For those of you on a restricted financial budget plan, looking for a new venue to while away all of your time, this could be the place to go – it’s still free! I’m just hoping that Karlin hasn’t put any fresh new ideas into Averko’s head, I mean how much longer can he afford to live and create all of this stuff for free? 🙂

    • LOL: Mikhail
    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @Mr. Hack


    So, for all of you aficionados out there, who just can’t get your fill of Mike Averko’s brilliant insights, especially about the greatness of Russia under Putin’s 26 year autocracy, here’s his own, not too popular, website:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/michael-averko/
     
    Another:

    https://www.eurasiareview.com/author/michael-averko/

    I’m just hoping that Karlin hasn’t put any fresh new ideas into Averko’s head, I mean how much longer can he afford to live and create all of this stuff for free? 🙂

     

    If anything, it's more the other way around. FYI, the SCF pays - albeit not tops.

    Your sarcasm should be directed at the FBI and US Treasury for spending so much time on the likes of yours truly.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @songbird
    @Mr. Hack

    One way to get Mr. Karlin to come back to UNZ might be to use a Ukrainian as a placeholder.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack


  34. As Patriarch Bartholomew recently also endorsed Biden, while in New York, after he visited with him:

    He said at the White House later Monday that he was abundantly satisfied with his visit, praising Biden as a “man of faith, and man of vision.”

    https://www.voanews.com/a/orthodox-patriarch-praises-biden-after-meeting-/6285621.html

    This might spur the creation of a new TV comedy sitcom: “Everybody Loves Joe.”
    Pro- Choice President Joe Biden. Apparently nobody informed The Pope nor the Patriarch about Joe’s stance on abortion, just a minor detail I suppose, in the world we now live in?

  35. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    Here you go:

    https://thenib.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/the-bizarro-nobel-prizes-3b81ce588f5f-1-3.jpg

    Forgive me, but I just couldn't resist. Maybe one of the last times that I can rib you using a prop. But to show you that I can be a nice guy (sometimes at least) I'm going to plug your very own website, saving you the need (I know what a drudgery that must be for you to do, all of the time). So, for all of you aficionados out there, who just can't get your fill of Mike Averko's brilliant insights, especially about the greatness of Russia under Putin's 26 year autocracy, here's his own, not too popular, website:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/michael-averko/

    For those of you on a restricted financial budget plan, looking for a new venue to while away all of your time, this could be the place to go - it's still free! I'm just hoping that Karlin hasn't put any fresh new ideas into Averko's head, I mean how much longer can he afford to live and create all of this stuff for free? :-)

    Replies: @Mikhail, @songbird

    So, for all of you aficionados out there, who just can’t get your fill of Mike Averko’s brilliant insights, especially about the greatness of Russia under Putin’s 26 year autocracy, here’s his own, not too popular, website:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/michael-averko/

    Another:

    https://www.eurasiareview.com/author/michael-averko/

    I’m just hoping that Karlin hasn’t put any fresh new ideas into Averko’s head, I mean how much longer can he afford to live and create all of this stuff for free? 🙂

    If anything, it’s more the other way around. FYI, the SCF pays – albeit not tops.

    Your sarcasm should be directed at the FBI and US Treasury for spending so much time on the likes of yours truly.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    It's actually two separate websites? Wow. That's encouraging to know, for if you can handle the responsibilities of running two sites, why not Karlin? One for the plebes, and one for the patricians. :-)

    Is the Deep State still harassing you? What for now?

  36. Want to get smart people breeding?

    Throw out all the required lit! Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, and the growing catalogue of woke trash. Instead, assign smart, impressionable kids Reader’s Digest or National Geo from 1980, 2000, and 2020 and let them reach their own conclusions, while making dating mandatory.

    • Replies: @Jatt Aryaa
    @songbird

    >dating mandatory

    As if female sexual autonomy isn't at root the issue.

    https://blog.reaction.la/images/JapanFert4.png

    Even banning education doesn't do much tbh,

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

    Replies: @songbird

  37. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    Here you go:

    https://thenib.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/the-bizarro-nobel-prizes-3b81ce588f5f-1-3.jpg

    Forgive me, but I just couldn't resist. Maybe one of the last times that I can rib you using a prop. But to show you that I can be a nice guy (sometimes at least) I'm going to plug your very own website, saving you the need (I know what a drudgery that must be for you to do, all of the time). So, for all of you aficionados out there, who just can't get your fill of Mike Averko's brilliant insights, especially about the greatness of Russia under Putin's 26 year autocracy, here's his own, not too popular, website:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/michael-averko/

    For those of you on a restricted financial budget plan, looking for a new venue to while away all of your time, this could be the place to go - it's still free! I'm just hoping that Karlin hasn't put any fresh new ideas into Averko's head, I mean how much longer can he afford to live and create all of this stuff for free? :-)

    Replies: @Mikhail, @songbird

    One way to get Mr. Karlin to come back to UNZ might be to use a Ukrainian as a placeholder.

    • LOL: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @songbird

    I'm not quite following you? Do you mean have a steady stream of comments here by a "Ukrainian", so that it might prove to be difficult to turn it all off? Why a Ukrainian, though? I think that you're doing a wonderful job here of keeping the comments going, probably three or four comments to my one? At some point, I think that Karlin may try to increase his payorship base ($) and turn this one off, totally. Can you imagine all of the addicts of this blog being cut off from their daily dose, going cold turkey? :-)

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/food-drink-alcohol-alcoholics-hard_liquor-drinker-heavy_drinker-twtn86_low.jpg

    Replies: @songbird

  38. Hey , off-topic, but I have a question for you:

    In the event of a full-on outright full-scale future Russo-Ukrainian war, could we see Russia occupy everything to the east of Kiev and create an independent neutralist East Ukraine led by Yuri Boyko (or by Viktor Medvedchuk) and propped up by Russian bayonets (the Donbass would presumably be outright annexed by Russia in this scenario)? I mean, the much poorer Soviet Union managed to do this in East Germany for almost half a century, so if the willpower to do this would be there, it might actually be doable. But of course this would virtually certainly mean a complete and total rupture of all of Russia’s relations with the West. Expulsion from the SWIFT banking system, crippling North Korea-level sanctions, et cetera.

    Such an independent East Ukraine would, again, be formally neutralist–so, not a member of the Eurasian Economic Union or anything else (for Eastern and Southern Ukraine, the current situation is something like this: 25% pro-Eurasia, 25% pro-neutrality, 50% pro-Europe. So, a pro-neutrality course could get the support of all of Eurasianists as well as all of the neutralists, who combined make up half of the population there. Though the younger generations could end up being more of a problem over time, especially if they are much more pro-Western than their elders are) but a state that would still rely on extensive trade links with Russia as well as on cheap natural gas from Russia. It would be a kleptocracy along the lines of Yanukovych’s regime, but perhaps a bit more competent and less brutal. West Ukraine (so, Kiev, Uman, and everything to the west of them) would of course be free to join both the EU and NATO, if these blocs would actually be interested in them. But Russia will make permanent neutrality a precondition for any Ukrainian reunification in such a scenario, similar to what the Soviet Union did for German reunification in the 1950s with the Stalin Note (the West declined, of course).

    So, what do you think?

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mr. XYZ

    Nah, I can't see it. To achieve this, a huge war would need to take place, that would leave both Russia and Ukraine in a complete mess. Who needs it, who wants it, just look at Donbas today, but it would be many times worse. Russia had its chance to incorporate more Ukrainian lands than Crimea and Donbas in 2014, and failed miserably outside of these two territories. Even Donbas is somewhere in the 50/50 range of control between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine is getting stronger everyday with partners like Turkey selling Ukraine the latest in drone technology:

    https://gdb.rferl.org/c34e4ad2-6705-4aed-8441-033c69c33339_w1023_r1_s.jpg
    High tech Turkish Drones to be manufactured in Ukraine. Already being used in Donbas.

    https://www.stopfake.org/en/russian-propaganda-on-ukraine-s-drone-use-in-donbas/

    Replies: @Aedib, @Mr. XYZ, @Mr. XYZ

    , @AP
    @Mr. XYZ


    In the event of a full-on outright full-scale future Russo-Ukrainian war, could we see Russia occupy everything to the east of Kiev and create an independent neutralist East Ukraine led by Yuri Boyko (or by Viktor Medvedchuk) and propped up by Russian bayonets (the Donbass would presumably be outright annexed by Russia in this scenario)?
     
    Russia has very good intelligence on Ukraine and would have taken as much as would have been cheap and feasible in 2014. It ended up taking Crimea and setting up a puppet state in the urban 2/3 of Donbas. These are the only parts of Ukraine that could be removed from Ukraine fairly smoothly. Not coincidentally, these are the only parts of Ukraine where Ukrainians aren't the majority ethnically (they were under 50% in Donetsk City but might be barely above 50% in the rest of the DPR/LPR republics).

    Since then, Russian activists have left eastern Ukraine and capability for resistance there has grown considerably, with national guard units, Azov (based in Kharkiv), etc. An occupation thus would mean, at a minimum, a lot of IRA-style attacks and bombings, a sullen unfriendly population, and massive expenditures. It's rather unlikely, other than perhaps some areas adjacent to the Republics.

    More likely would simply be a lot of missile attacks and bombings all over Ukraine in order to screw it up, without trying to occupy it. This would incur counterattacks against Russian positions and facilities within Ukrainian missile range, about 100 km into Russia and all over Donbas (Ukraine has plenty of missiles of its own now) so even if Russia sent no troops on the ground right into Ukraine it would not be a cost-free cakewalk as would have been the case in 2014. Russia would probably formally annex Donbas.

    I mean, the much poorer Soviet Union managed to do this in East Germany for almost half a century, so if the willpower to do this would be there, it might actually be doable.
     
    Eastern Ukraine has about the same population as East Germany, but Russia has only about half the population of the USSR. Because Russia is not a dictatorship, it is uncertain if the Russian leaders would be tolerated by the Russian people if they were spending a huge amount of money occupying half of Ukraine, and if Russian boys were regularly coming home in body bags due to IRA-style attacks.

    But of course this would virtually certainly mean a complete and total rupture of all of Russia’s relations with the West. Expulsion from the SWIFT banking system, crippling North Korea-level sanctions, et cetera.
     
    True of the USA but unknown with regards to Europe, which has very stupidly gotten rid of much of its nuclear power and is thus dependent on Russian gas.

    Replies: @Mr. XYZ

  39. @songbird
    Want to get smart people breeding?

    Throw out all the required lit! Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, and the growing catalogue of woke trash. Instead, assign smart, impressionable kids Reader's Digest or National Geo from 1980, 2000, and 2020 and let them reach their own conclusions, while making dating mandatory.

    Replies: @Jatt Aryaa

    >dating mandatory

    As if female sexual autonomy isn’t at root the issue.

    Even banning education doesn’t do much tbh,

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Jatt Aryaa


    As if female sexual autonomy isn’t at root the issue.
     
    I am a radical on this.

    VE Day was May 8, 1945. Knew people who fought in the war, though they are all dead now. To a lot of people, WW2 is the end of history. But I know it isn't. In only, two or three years, we will be closer to 2100, than 1945. That is Nigeria of 750 million/Africa of 4 billion/40% of the world pop territory, if the projections pan out. And I know that they are not just going to sit there.

    Point is I want smart, civilized women to believe that they need to have enough children to make Niger seem like Singapore. You can't do that by just taking away the pill. That takes intense propaganda and a cultural drive. One point I like to make is that Japan has never had that. They are too concerned about their limited resources and constrained living space, not concerned enough about global demographics and migration.

    Replies: @sher singh, @sher singh

  40. @songbird
    @Mr. Hack

    One way to get Mr. Karlin to come back to UNZ might be to use a Ukrainian as a placeholder.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I’m not quite following you? Do you mean have a steady stream of comments here by a “Ukrainian”, so that it might prove to be difficult to turn it all off? Why a Ukrainian, though? I think that you’re doing a wonderful job here of keeping the comments going, probably three or four comments to my one? At some point, I think that Karlin may try to increase his payorship base (\$) and turn this one off, totally. Can you imagine all of the addicts of this blog being cut off from their daily dose, going cold turkey? 🙂

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Mr. Hack


    a steady stream of comments here by a “Ukrainian”
     
    I knew there would be a big surprise and someone would change their worldview by the end of this blog. But, if you want to incite AK to come back, by taking it over and changing the title, don't you think you had better stop putting quotation marks around the word Ukrainian?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  41. @songbird
    What if skull deformation increases IQ, or some other factor, like will to power, and that is why a lot of these groups that created empires, like the Inca and Huns practiced it?


    In early modern times, when it was still practiced in areas, some people used to have the idea that changing the shape of the skull changes the shape of thoughts that fit in the head.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    Eggheads indeed!

    It sounds like a hard one to either prove or falsify. Most all of my kids are too old to try a test group and control… so that’s right out!

    Just imagine the teasing at school though.

    “Why is your head shaped like a pyramid, freak?!”

    “My parents say it will increase my cognitive acuity and foster an indomitable will to power! Yesssss!”

    • LOL: songbird
  42. @Mr. XYZ
    Hey @Mr. Hack, off-topic, but I have a question for you:

    In the event of a full-on outright full-scale future Russo-Ukrainian war, could we see Russia occupy everything to the east of Kiev and create an independent neutralist East Ukraine led by Yuri Boyko (or by Viktor Medvedchuk) and propped up by Russian bayonets (the Donbass would presumably be outright annexed by Russia in this scenario)? I mean, the much poorer Soviet Union managed to do this in East Germany for almost half a century, so if the willpower to do this would be there, it might actually be doable. But of course this would virtually certainly mean a complete and total rupture of all of Russia's relations with the West. Expulsion from the SWIFT banking system, crippling North Korea-level sanctions, et cetera.

    Such an independent East Ukraine would, again, be formally neutralist--so, not a member of the Eurasian Economic Union or anything else (for Eastern and Southern Ukraine, the current situation is something like this: 25% pro-Eurasia, 25% pro-neutrality, 50% pro-Europe. So, a pro-neutrality course could get the support of all of Eurasianists as well as all of the neutralists, who combined make up half of the population there. Though the younger generations could end up being more of a problem over time, especially if they are much more pro-Western than their elders are) but a state that would still rely on extensive trade links with Russia as well as on cheap natural gas from Russia. It would be a kleptocracy along the lines of Yanukovych's regime, but perhaps a bit more competent and less brutal. West Ukraine (so, Kiev, Uman, and everything to the west of them) would of course be free to join both the EU and NATO, if these blocs would actually be interested in them. But Russia will make permanent neutrality a precondition for any Ukrainian reunification in such a scenario, similar to what the Soviet Union did for German reunification in the 1950s with the Stalin Note (the West declined, of course).

    So, what do you think?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @AP

    Nah, I can’t see it. To achieve this, a huge war would need to take place, that would leave both Russia and Ukraine in a complete mess. Who needs it, who wants it, just look at Donbas today, but it would be many times worse. Russia had its chance to incorporate more Ukrainian lands than Crimea and Donbas in 2014, and failed miserably outside of these two territories. Even Donbas is somewhere in the 50/50 range of control between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine is getting stronger everyday with partners like Turkey selling Ukraine the latest in drone technology:

    High tech Turkish Drones to be manufactured in Ukraine. Already being used in Donbas.

    https://www.stopfake.org/en/russian-propaganda-on-ukraine-s-drone-use-in-donbas/

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Mr. Hack

    Going from a Flanker to a Bayraktar seems to be an accurate metaphor of the post-1991 Ukraine.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @Mr. XYZ
    @Mr. Hack

    If Ukraine tries to settle the Donbass question by force and/or to join NATO, then a huge war could indeed take place. Could.

    , @Mr. XYZ
    @Mr. Hack

    BTW, do you view the present-day Donbass and interwar Upper Silesia as being comparable? Both heavily industrial regions with a lot of natural resources (especially coal) that were divided and that had a strong regionalist and autonomist streak and mentality. Pro-Russian separatist Donbass (possibly future Russian Donbass) = interwar Polish Upper Silesia; Ukrainian Donbass = German Upper Silesia. And even Polish Upper Silesia previously had an insurgency--right after WWI, in fact, with Korfanty's uprising! Russophiles got the good parts of the Donbass and the Poles got the good parts of Upper Silesia. And of course when Germany tried to settle the Upper Silesia dispute (and other disputes) by force, it subsequently ended up losing the remainder of its part of Upper Silesia. The same could happen to Ukraine's part of the Donbass if Ukraine will ever try settling the Donbass conflict by force. Not saying this to be mean to Ukraine; just making an observation.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  43. @Mikhail
    @Mr. Hack


    So, for all of you aficionados out there, who just can’t get your fill of Mike Averko’s brilliant insights, especially about the greatness of Russia under Putin’s 26 year autocracy, here’s his own, not too popular, website:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/michael-averko/
     
    Another:

    https://www.eurasiareview.com/author/michael-averko/

    I’m just hoping that Karlin hasn’t put any fresh new ideas into Averko’s head, I mean how much longer can he afford to live and create all of this stuff for free? 🙂

     

    If anything, it's more the other way around. FYI, the SCF pays - albeit not tops.

    Your sarcasm should be directed at the FBI and US Treasury for spending so much time on the likes of yours truly.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    It’s actually two separate websites? Wow. That’s encouraging to know, for if you can handle the responsibilities of running two sites, why not Karlin? One for the plebes, and one for the patricians. 🙂

    Is the Deep State still harassing you? What for now?

  44. @Mr. Hack
    @Mr. XYZ

    Nah, I can't see it. To achieve this, a huge war would need to take place, that would leave both Russia and Ukraine in a complete mess. Who needs it, who wants it, just look at Donbas today, but it would be many times worse. Russia had its chance to incorporate more Ukrainian lands than Crimea and Donbas in 2014, and failed miserably outside of these two territories. Even Donbas is somewhere in the 50/50 range of control between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine is getting stronger everyday with partners like Turkey selling Ukraine the latest in drone technology:

    https://gdb.rferl.org/c34e4ad2-6705-4aed-8441-033c69c33339_w1023_r1_s.jpg
    High tech Turkish Drones to be manufactured in Ukraine. Already being used in Donbas.

    https://www.stopfake.org/en/russian-propaganda-on-ukraine-s-drone-use-in-donbas/

    Replies: @Aedib, @Mr. XYZ, @Mr. XYZ

    Going from a Flanker to a Bayraktar seems to be an accurate metaphor of the post-1991 Ukraine.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Aedib

    From the evidence of year 2020, against third world militaries that do not have modern air defense, Bayraktar seemed like the most effective close-air support weapon being used in the world - raping the Syrian army for YouTube videos in March
    ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern_Syria_offensive_(December_2019%E2%80%93March_2020 ) and the Armenian in October ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Nagorno-Karabakh_war) ), and Kurdish separatists the rest of the time.

    So Turkey has now developed a capacity to destroy third world militaries for people to watch on YouTube.

    However, when Armenia has inspected a crashed one, there was evidence that its internal components are North American and German imports.
    https://hetq.am/en/article/134966

    So much of their complicated parts are just North American dual use exports. Bayraktar is full of dual-use Western components.


    -

    On a related news, Erdogan-Aliev has constructed and opened Fuzil Airport in Southern Nagorno-Karabakh, with insane speed, building from nothing in 10 months.

    This is only the first of three new airports they are building in Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Oil and gas prices have been booming, so Aliev spending money like crazy again. These people spend like they are new lottery winner, anytime oil prices are booming.

    With all the new rise in oil and gas money this year, Aliev will be surely be building the train along the southern border very fast as well.

    But apart from Erdogan, which international tourists is going to use it to visit a damaged provincial hinterland in the recent war-zone, with three new airports? Maybe they will plan to force Turkish tourists to vacation there by giving them free tickets?

    So far they achieved their first American tourist - a compulsive tourist considered the world's most traveling man. (https://report.az/ru/karabakh/izvestnyj-amerikanskij-puteshestvennik-ya-vpechatlen-aeroportom-v-fizuli/)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EzwZ73ochc

    Replies: @Aedib

  45. @Mr. Hack
    @songbird

    I'm not quite following you? Do you mean have a steady stream of comments here by a "Ukrainian", so that it might prove to be difficult to turn it all off? Why a Ukrainian, though? I think that you're doing a wonderful job here of keeping the comments going, probably three or four comments to my one? At some point, I think that Karlin may try to increase his payorship base ($) and turn this one off, totally. Can you imagine all of the addicts of this blog being cut off from their daily dose, going cold turkey? :-)

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/food-drink-alcohol-alcoholics-hard_liquor-drinker-heavy_drinker-twtn86_low.jpg

    Replies: @songbird

    a steady stream of comments here by a “Ukrainian”

    I knew there would be a big surprise and someone would change their worldview by the end of this blog. But, if you want to incite AK to come back, by taking it over and changing the title, don’t you think you had better stop putting quotation marks around the word Ukrainian?

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @songbird

    I put the quotation marks around the word "Ukrainian" to highlight your inclination for it to be a Ukrainian. Besides, the only Ukrainian that I know that has become somewhat of a regular contributor here is "Svidomyatheart" and although he's made some great strides in improving his English language skills as of late, I don't think that he's quite up to Karlin's stature, yet.

    Why not yourself, I always enjoy and usually agree with your slants - you'd be a great replacement for Karlin. You don't have to be a Ukrainian to fill Karlin's shoes, ya know. :-)

  46. @songbird
    @Mr. Hack


    a steady stream of comments here by a “Ukrainian”
     
    I knew there would be a big surprise and someone would change their worldview by the end of this blog. But, if you want to incite AK to come back, by taking it over and changing the title, don't you think you had better stop putting quotation marks around the word Ukrainian?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I put the quotation marks around the word “Ukrainian” to highlight your inclination for it to be a Ukrainian. Besides, the only Ukrainian that I know that has become somewhat of a regular contributor here is “Svidomyatheart” and although he’s made some great strides in improving his English language skills as of late, I don’t think that he’s quite up to Karlin’s stature, yet.

    Why not yourself, I always enjoy and usually agree with your slants – you’d be a great replacement for Karlin. You don’t have to be a Ukrainian to fill Karlin’s shoes, ya know. 🙂

    • LOL: songbird
  47. @Jatt Aryaa
    @songbird

    >dating mandatory

    As if female sexual autonomy isn't at root the issue.

    https://blog.reaction.la/images/JapanFert4.png

    Even banning education doesn't do much tbh,

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

    Replies: @songbird

    As if female sexual autonomy isn’t at root the issue.

    I am a radical on this.

    VE Day was May 8, 1945. Knew people who fought in the war, though they are all dead now. To a lot of people, WW2 is the end of history. But I know it isn’t. In only, two or three years, we will be closer to 2100, than 1945. That is Nigeria of 750 million/Africa of 4 billion/40% of the world pop territory, if the projections pan out. And I know that they are not just going to sit there.

    Point is I want smart, civilized women to believe that they need to have enough children to make Niger seem like Singapore. You can’t do that by just taking away the pill. That takes intense propaganda and a cultural drive. One point I like to make is that Japan has never had that. They are too concerned about their limited resources and constrained living space, not concerned enough about global demographics and migration.

    • Replies: @sher singh
    @songbird

    You're so gay, wtf does the pill have to do with women being property?


    75% of White non-college women voted for Youngkin.

    78% of White non-college men voted for Youngkin.

    https://occidentaldissent.com/2021/11/03/mcauliffe-concedes/

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

    , @sher singh
    @songbird

    Btw, the insults are a sign of friendship.

    Anyway, good thing we got the new open thread.

    I asked Karlin if this was zapoi posting (Russian multi-day drunk festival) & he deleted||

    https://akarlin.substack.com/p/wagmi/comments

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

    Replies: @German_reader, @songbird

  48. @Aedib
    @Mr. Hack

    Going from a Flanker to a Bayraktar seems to be an accurate metaphor of the post-1991 Ukraine.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    From the evidence of year 2020, against third world militaries that do not have modern air defense, Bayraktar seemed like the most effective close-air support weapon being used in the world – raping the Syrian army for YouTube videos in March
    ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern_Syria_offensive_(December_2019%E2%80%93March_2020 ) and the Armenian in October ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Nagorno-Karabakh_war) ), and Kurdish separatists the rest of the time.

    So Turkey has now developed a capacity to destroy third world militaries for people to watch on YouTube.

    However, when Armenia has inspected a crashed one, there was evidence that its internal components are North American and German imports.
    https://hetq.am/en/article/134966

    So much of their complicated parts are just North American dual use exports. Bayraktar is full of dual-use Western components.

    On a related news, Erdogan-Aliev has constructed and opened Fuzil Airport in Southern Nagorno-Karabakh, with insane speed, building from nothing in 10 months.

    This is only the first of three new airports they are building in Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Oil and gas prices have been booming, so Aliev spending money like crazy again. These people spend like they are new lottery winner, anytime oil prices are booming.

    With all the new rise in oil and gas money this year, Aliev will be surely be building the train along the southern border very fast as well.

    But apart from Erdogan, which international tourists is going to use it to visit a damaged provincial hinterland in the recent war-zone, with three new airports? Maybe they will plan to force Turkish tourists to vacation there by giving them free tickets?

    So far they achieved their first American tourist – a compulsive tourist considered the world’s most traveling man. (https://report.az/ru/karabakh/izvestnyj-amerikanskij-puteshestvennik-ya-vpechatlen-aeroportom-v-fizuli/)

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Dmitry

    Aliyev should better think about building a reserve fund. The new rich meme strikes back.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  49. The Little Russian Reaction!

    I’m very good with titles.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @iffen

    Here it is in it's full glory:

    https://i.obozrevatel.com/2017/6/29/ansambl_imeni_virskogo.jpg?size=630x300

    Do you think that you could keep up? :-)

    Replies: @schnellandine

  50. @songbird
    @Jatt Aryaa


    As if female sexual autonomy isn’t at root the issue.
     
    I am a radical on this.

    VE Day was May 8, 1945. Knew people who fought in the war, though they are all dead now. To a lot of people, WW2 is the end of history. But I know it isn't. In only, two or three years, we will be closer to 2100, than 1945. That is Nigeria of 750 million/Africa of 4 billion/40% of the world pop territory, if the projections pan out. And I know that they are not just going to sit there.

    Point is I want smart, civilized women to believe that they need to have enough children to make Niger seem like Singapore. You can't do that by just taking away the pill. That takes intense propaganda and a cultural drive. One point I like to make is that Japan has never had that. They are too concerned about their limited resources and constrained living space, not concerned enough about global demographics and migration.

    Replies: @sher singh, @sher singh

    You’re so gay, wtf does the pill have to do with women being property?

    [MORE]

    75% of White non-college women voted for Youngkin.

    78% of White non-college men voted for Youngkin.

    https://occidentaldissent.com/2021/11/03/mcauliffe-concedes/

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

  51. @iffen
    The Little Russian Reaction!

    I'm very good with titles.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Here it is in it’s full glory:

    Do you think that you could keep up? 🙂

    • Replies: @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack

    I know that dude!

    https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SJMqkT1Tmn0/VgvXWh15TZI/AAAAAAAB1P8/N_I9vQ6Z08c/s1600/1978.%2BDavid%2BLee%2BRoth%2Band%2BEddie%2BVan%2BHalen.jpg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  52. @Yellowface Anon
    @Aedib

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/spike-in-energy-prices-suggests-that-sharp-changes-are-ahead.html

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

    European economists should have told European citizens, “There is no way you can get along using renewables alone for many, many years. Treat the countries that are exporting fossil fuels to you very well. Sign long term contracts with them. If they want to use a new pipeline, raise no objection. Your bargaining power is very low.”

    They were too accustomed to spite the Russians in the face. It is like a Pavlovian response. Now that reality started to bite, the still insist in with their Pavlovian response. Someone should tell Eurocrats that the East Asian market is bigger and brighter and that no one care anymore about their hypocrite moral lessons any longer.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Aedib

    Not sure about this if a China-Taiwan or China-Japan war comes at the same time...

    Replies: @Aedib

  53. @Dmitry
    @Aedib

    From the evidence of year 2020, against third world militaries that do not have modern air defense, Bayraktar seemed like the most effective close-air support weapon being used in the world - raping the Syrian army for YouTube videos in March
    ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern_Syria_offensive_(December_2019%E2%80%93March_2020 ) and the Armenian in October ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Nagorno-Karabakh_war) ), and Kurdish separatists the rest of the time.

    So Turkey has now developed a capacity to destroy third world militaries for people to watch on YouTube.

    However, when Armenia has inspected a crashed one, there was evidence that its internal components are North American and German imports.
    https://hetq.am/en/article/134966

    So much of their complicated parts are just North American dual use exports. Bayraktar is full of dual-use Western components.


    -

    On a related news, Erdogan-Aliev has constructed and opened Fuzil Airport in Southern Nagorno-Karabakh, with insane speed, building from nothing in 10 months.

    This is only the first of three new airports they are building in Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Oil and gas prices have been booming, so Aliev spending money like crazy again. These people spend like they are new lottery winner, anytime oil prices are booming.

    With all the new rise in oil and gas money this year, Aliev will be surely be building the train along the southern border very fast as well.

    But apart from Erdogan, which international tourists is going to use it to visit a damaged provincial hinterland in the recent war-zone, with three new airports? Maybe they will plan to force Turkish tourists to vacation there by giving them free tickets?

    So far they achieved their first American tourist - a compulsive tourist considered the world's most traveling man. (https://report.az/ru/karabakh/izvestnyj-amerikanskij-puteshestvennik-ya-vpechatlen-aeroportom-v-fizuli/)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EzwZ73ochc

    Replies: @Aedib

    Aliyev should better think about building a reserve fund. The new rich meme strikes back.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Aedib

    They have a sovereign wealth fund, but it is not very transparent, and people are writing that it is probably used to throw contracts around the ruling families and their friends. (Well, like any postsoviet country).

    -
    I was thinking about this war of last year.

    One of the culture shocks for contemporary European people, of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, could be watching the appearance of "journalistic objectivity" of the media of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    For example, in Azerbaijan news on federal channel, the newsreader was crying with happiness when the war has begun.

    Although it was already perhaps clear for professionals in the first day of the war that Azerbaijan was going to win all its objectives, as they uploading dozens of drone massacre videos in the first day. But I guess Caucasus media might be like this even if it wasn't seeming like their side would win.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfF-LYn1oEo

    And obviously at the end of the war, journalists do not feel a need to control their emotions or present an objective attitude. I don't know if anyone can translate what she says.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vwMG_eV5s

  54. @Mr. Hack
    @iffen

    Here it is in it's full glory:

    https://i.obozrevatel.com/2017/6/29/ansambl_imeni_virskogo.jpg?size=630x300

    Do you think that you could keep up? :-)

    Replies: @schnellandine

    I know that dude!

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    That's the spirit!!!...........................

  55. @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack

    I know that dude!

    https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SJMqkT1Tmn0/VgvXWh15TZI/AAAAAAAB1P8/N_I9vQ6Z08c/s1600/1978.%2BDavid%2BLee%2BRoth%2Band%2BEddie%2BVan%2BHalen.jpg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    That’s the spirit!!!………………………

  56. Sailer’s blog has an interesting post about Graeber’s new book, which mentions ancient cities in Ukraine. In another part, Steve says this:

    In contrast, in Athens in the 400s BC, the navy came to the fore, with working class men making good money rowing ships. We have the impression from movies like Ben Hur that only tyrannized slaves rowed galleys, but the proles of Periclean Athens and Piraeus actually liked rowing, which made democratic Athens’ aggressive sea-based grand strategy politically feasible.

    Found the above quite surprising. My previous impression was that there was a timeless conflict in the Med about gaining slaves for rowing warships and pirate vessels, which explains part of the strife between Muslims and Christendom into the 1500s, such as with the Knights of Saint John on Rhodes. (though to be sure, the Ottoman Empire was built around expansionary mechanisms, and there were many other factors).

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
  57. So Turkey has now developed a capacity to destroy third world militaries for people to watch on YouTube.

    That drone has capacity of like 150 kg? For about \$6 million a pop? A howitzer from a century ago is more cost effective. Real weapons don’t have the time to film YouTube videos because they are out of range before impact even occurs. I mean, for the price of 4 Bayraktars you can buy an obsolete Su-24 that can deliver 8 tons of bombs, with the only bottleneck being pilot training.

    Never understood obsession with weak drones – long range rocket artillery (with drone spotters) is vastly more cost effective. Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are the future for the ground forces, not Bayraktars.

    YouTube videos is not the same as combat efficiency.

    Meanwhile, in the more important world of satellite warfare, Konanykhin published a video.

    This is far more consequential than silly drone videos.

    Here are the satellite tracks.
    https://vimeo.com/comspoc

    It is clear that in 2019 USA 271 jumped Chinese Chinasat 6A and Chinese were asleep at the wheel. But Chinese also clearly conduct combat training for their satellite crews as explained in this video.

    This is the future of warfare, not some silly 150 kg Turkish drones.

    • Agree: Aedib
    • Replies: @utu
    @mal


    This is the future of warfare, not some silly 150 kg Turkish drones.
     
    Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency recognized that obvious obviousness signed agreement with Roscosmos.
    https://tass.com/science/1356779

    And Zambia already knew it in 1964
    https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/zambian-space-programme

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Do3dz9TR0

    Replies: @mal

    , @Philip Owen
    @mal

    Under the radar. Drones can go down into the clutter.

    , @Dmitry
    @mal

    During Azerbaijan-Armenia war last year in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan was uploading daily compilation videos of its drone attacks on Armenian soldiers. In some of these videos, you can count that there appear to be hundreds of Armenian soldiers being injured or perhaps killed by drones.

    So drones killed perhaps thousands of Armenian soldiers when the sky was without clouds, and for a country of Armenia's size it was then obvious to be a short war. That's despite Armenia having the defensive positions in the fortified mountain terrain. So even with their small munitions, drones allowed Azerbaijan to win the war from an unlikely terrain situation. And Azerbaijan has almost no air force. ​


    4 Bayraktars you can buy an obsolete Su
     
    Bayraktars being used by a country with an air force (unlike Azerbaijan), would be more effective again, as when they discover by loitering a stationary enemy position, they could send the co-ordinates for the air force that carries heavier munitions.

    But I haven't read that any planes in the non-drone air force are suitable for loitering slowly for hours above enemy soldiers, watching them with powerful cameras, and following them around, and firing immediately when it wants from a short distance.


    more cost effective. Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are the future for the ground forces
     
    It's like saying snipers cannot be effective, compared to artillery, because the munitions are too small. Or that landmines will not be effective, because of the small munitions compared to an aerial bomb.

    Obviously the munitions on the Bayraktar drones were too small to kill large convoys of tanks or groups of soldiers in a single attack.

    On the other hand, how easily they were following the soldiers behind the enemy lines, seems to be something unprecedented.

    They could watch the area with a camera for hours, discover the targets, and and fire small munitions, which were according to YouTube hitting directly on soldiers in opportunistic way.


    Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are

     

    By the time it travels this distance, the soldiers will be in a different position. So the munitions would need to be larger for the same effect.

    When Bayraktar drones loiter for hours in the enemy territory, with very effective cameras, which were following the soldiers around. Because of the short distance, the sensor to shooter loop is far shorter than firing from a longer distance.

    It's the equivalent of having snipers in the air, at close range, on those days when the sky was clear of clouds. Scary, dystopian future.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufd6JSxR8n8

    Aside from small munitions, the main limitation of Bayraktar drone during this war seems to be on days when there were clouds and fog. These drones were operating in clear days without clouds. On days when there are clouds, they were not flying I have read, and people have claimed that Armenia was able to re-attain advantage in the defense in those days.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

  58. @songbird
    @Jatt Aryaa


    As if female sexual autonomy isn’t at root the issue.
     
    I am a radical on this.

    VE Day was May 8, 1945. Knew people who fought in the war, though they are all dead now. To a lot of people, WW2 is the end of history. But I know it isn't. In only, two or three years, we will be closer to 2100, than 1945. That is Nigeria of 750 million/Africa of 4 billion/40% of the world pop territory, if the projections pan out. And I know that they are not just going to sit there.

    Point is I want smart, civilized women to believe that they need to have enough children to make Niger seem like Singapore. You can't do that by just taking away the pill. That takes intense propaganda and a cultural drive. One point I like to make is that Japan has never had that. They are too concerned about their limited resources and constrained living space, not concerned enough about global demographics and migration.

    Replies: @sher singh, @sher singh

    Btw, the insults are a sign of friendship.

    Anyway, good thing we got the new open thread.

    I asked Karlin if this was zapoi posting (Russian multi-day drunk festival) & he deleted||

    https://akarlin.substack.com/p/wagmi/comments

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sher singh

    It's an entertaining story. Bit hard to understand though, if one isn't part of this crypto subculture and doesn't know its jargon.
    I didn't quite get one of the main points of the story...did the basement dweller create the AI which ends up incinerating him on his own? Is something like that even feasible for an individual? Or did he use some pre-prepared programme? How much of this is realistic given current technology? My basic assumption has always been that true AI is a long way off (if it's even possible), but I'm technologically largely illiterate.

    , @songbird
    @sher singh

    I think AK is enough kebab, where that would not be a problem.

  59. German_reader says:
    @sher singh
    @songbird

    Btw, the insults are a sign of friendship.

    Anyway, good thing we got the new open thread.

    I asked Karlin if this was zapoi posting (Russian multi-day drunk festival) & he deleted||

    https://akarlin.substack.com/p/wagmi/comments

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

    Replies: @German_reader, @songbird

    It’s an entertaining story. Bit hard to understand though, if one isn’t part of this crypto subculture and doesn’t know its jargon.
    I didn’t quite get one of the main points of the story…did the basement dweller create the AI which ends up incinerating him on his own? Is something like that even feasible for an individual? Or did he use some pre-prepared programme? How much of this is realistic given current technology? My basic assumption has always been that true AI is a long way off (if it’s even possible), but I’m technologically largely illiterate.

  60. Alex Baldwin. Murderer. Karma caught up with him. He spent his time and energy lying about Donald Trump. Now he has met his comeuppance. It’s not that God has personally intervened in the Universe to chastise Baldwin. It’s that a man cannot give his life over to spinning lies and inventing falsehoods about another man–Trump–as Baldwin has done, without incurring a price. And the price of his incessant lying is that he developed a disdain for Truth and Logos. Disdain for Truth and Logos carried over into all aspects of Baldwin’s life, hence the casual attitude towards firearms on the set. The flippant attitude towards Truth and Logos backfired and Baldwin has destroyed himself. This, to sneer at the Holy Gods of Logos, the fundamental orderly nature of the Universe, is/was hubris. And, just as the ancients would have predicted, the result is the destruction of the man who was its bearer.

  61. @Mr. Hack
    @Mr. XYZ

    Nah, I can't see it. To achieve this, a huge war would need to take place, that would leave both Russia and Ukraine in a complete mess. Who needs it, who wants it, just look at Donbas today, but it would be many times worse. Russia had its chance to incorporate more Ukrainian lands than Crimea and Donbas in 2014, and failed miserably outside of these two territories. Even Donbas is somewhere in the 50/50 range of control between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine is getting stronger everyday with partners like Turkey selling Ukraine the latest in drone technology:

    https://gdb.rferl.org/c34e4ad2-6705-4aed-8441-033c69c33339_w1023_r1_s.jpg
    High tech Turkish Drones to be manufactured in Ukraine. Already being used in Donbas.

    https://www.stopfake.org/en/russian-propaganda-on-ukraine-s-drone-use-in-donbas/

    Replies: @Aedib, @Mr. XYZ, @Mr. XYZ

    If Ukraine tries to settle the Donbass question by force and/or to join NATO, then a huge war could indeed take place. Could.

  62. Not a fan of Nikki Haley. But I really do like her plan which proposes making any politician above a “certain age” in the House, Senate or White House pass “some sort of cognitive test.”

    Would set the age at 25, which is how old you have to be to join the House.

    • Replies: @A123
    @songbird


    Not a fan of Nikki Haley. But I really do like her plan which proposes making any politician above a “certain age” in the House, Senate or White House pass “some sort of cognitive test.”
     
    It sounds good at first glance, but it is likely a bad idea.

    Who would design, administer, and score the test? Degree welding Leftoids like Dr. Fauci? They would try to add DIE mythology, like gender & ethnic sensitivity, to the criteria for "cognitive competence".

    The Judiciary would probably overturn it as unconstitutional. Or, possibly kill it as a precedent that could threaten to geriatric SCOTUS justices. Either way, it is pretty much a non-starter.


    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @songbird

  63. @Mr. Hack
    @Mr. XYZ

    Nah, I can't see it. To achieve this, a huge war would need to take place, that would leave both Russia and Ukraine in a complete mess. Who needs it, who wants it, just look at Donbas today, but it would be many times worse. Russia had its chance to incorporate more Ukrainian lands than Crimea and Donbas in 2014, and failed miserably outside of these two territories. Even Donbas is somewhere in the 50/50 range of control between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine is getting stronger everyday with partners like Turkey selling Ukraine the latest in drone technology:

    https://gdb.rferl.org/c34e4ad2-6705-4aed-8441-033c69c33339_w1023_r1_s.jpg
    High tech Turkish Drones to be manufactured in Ukraine. Already being used in Donbas.

    https://www.stopfake.org/en/russian-propaganda-on-ukraine-s-drone-use-in-donbas/

    Replies: @Aedib, @Mr. XYZ, @Mr. XYZ

    BTW, do you view the present-day Donbass and interwar Upper Silesia as being comparable? Both heavily industrial regions with a lot of natural resources (especially coal) that were divided and that had a strong regionalist and autonomist streak and mentality. Pro-Russian separatist Donbass (possibly future Russian Donbass) = interwar Polish Upper Silesia; Ukrainian Donbass = German Upper Silesia. And even Polish Upper Silesia previously had an insurgency–right after WWI, in fact, with Korfanty’s uprising! Russophiles got the good parts of the Donbass and the Poles got the good parts of Upper Silesia. And of course when Germany tried to settle the Upper Silesia dispute (and other disputes) by force, it subsequently ended up losing the remainder of its part of Upper Silesia. The same could happen to Ukraine’s part of the Donbass if Ukraine will ever try settling the Donbass conflict by force. Not saying this to be mean to Ukraine; just making an observation.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mr. XYZ

    Sure, I think they're comparable. I know that you can still enter someone's home in Silesia and find a likeness of Hitler hung on the living room wall, as you would find a similar type image of Stalin hung in the same reverential position somewhere in Donbas. Similar type of hero worship. As to the rest, it sounds like you've been thinking about this a lot longer than I have, what do you think?

  64. @sher singh
    @songbird

    Btw, the insults are a sign of friendship.

    Anyway, good thing we got the new open thread.

    I asked Karlin if this was zapoi posting (Russian multi-day drunk festival) & he deleted||

    https://akarlin.substack.com/p/wagmi/comments

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

    Replies: @German_reader, @songbird

    I think AK is enough kebab, where that would not be a problem.

    • LOL: sher singh
  65. After the Virginia loss, one would expect t the SJW DNC to move towards sanity.

    However, their reaction to increasing U.S. energy production doubles down on under supply (1)

    Energy Secretary Erupts in Laughter When Asked if Biden Administration Will Start Increasing U.S. Oil Production

    What can a U.S. President and administration specifically do?

    -1- Permit the use of preexisting approved leases in ANWAR (Alaska) to put more volume into the Alaskan oil pipeline that is severely underutilized.
    -2- Finish the Dakota access pipeline.
    -3- Reapprove the preexisting energy leases in New Mexico, Arizona, NE Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
    -4- Retract the stoppage of the Keystone pipeline to permit efficient oil transport shipments from Canada.
    -5- Stop blocking the expansion of coastal oil refineries in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama (regulatory issue), as well as Northwest, Northeast and Southeast Seaboard.
    -6- Continue to develop natural gas as a clean burning fuel.
    -7- Drive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as an export.

    None of this requires any approval from OPEC. Strategically, the all of the above approach enhances U.S. national security and diminishes the influence of Russia, China and Iran. Within six months of the above, gasoline will plummet

    All of these, with the exception of #7, are “no brainers” to increase jobs and decrease inflation.

    — Are they just completely clueless?
    — Or, are they deliberately trying to cripple America’s economy via high energy costs?

    Either way, the are going to lose more elections as they offend everyone who has to pay more for eveything.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

  66. @songbird
    Not a fan of Nikki Haley. But I really do like her plan which proposes making any politician above a "certain age" in the House, Senate or White House pass “some sort of cognitive test.”

    Would set the age at 25, which is how old you have to be to join the House.

    Replies: @A123

    Not a fan of Nikki Haley. But I really do like her plan which proposes making any politician above a “certain age” in the House, Senate or White House pass “some sort of cognitive test.”

    It sounds good at first glance, but it is likely a bad idea.

    Who would design, administer, and score the test? Degree welding Leftoids like Dr. Fauci? They would try to add DIE mythology, like gender & ethnic sensitivity, to the criteria for “cognitive competence”.

    The Judiciary would probably overturn it as unconstitutional. Or, possibly kill it as a precedent that could threaten to geriatric SCOTUS justices. Either way, it is pretty much a non-starter.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123

    One of my secret ambitions is to increase the entertainment factor of politics by mandating the publication of various HBD tests for all legislators, bureaucrats, and candidates for public office.

    Obviously, some of it like 2D:4D, or craniometric volume is pie-in-sky, at the moment. The holy grail, as far as I am concerned, would be one of those unlabeled world maps, where they have to indicate where certain countries are.

    Under my system it would all be televised and recorded, using a secure room and system. Eventually, the DNA sample would serve as a check - although I am not sure that we are quite there yet, to predict age-related decay.

  67. @Mr. XYZ
    Hey @Mr. Hack, off-topic, but I have a question for you:

    In the event of a full-on outright full-scale future Russo-Ukrainian war, could we see Russia occupy everything to the east of Kiev and create an independent neutralist East Ukraine led by Yuri Boyko (or by Viktor Medvedchuk) and propped up by Russian bayonets (the Donbass would presumably be outright annexed by Russia in this scenario)? I mean, the much poorer Soviet Union managed to do this in East Germany for almost half a century, so if the willpower to do this would be there, it might actually be doable. But of course this would virtually certainly mean a complete and total rupture of all of Russia's relations with the West. Expulsion from the SWIFT banking system, crippling North Korea-level sanctions, et cetera.

    Such an independent East Ukraine would, again, be formally neutralist--so, not a member of the Eurasian Economic Union or anything else (for Eastern and Southern Ukraine, the current situation is something like this: 25% pro-Eurasia, 25% pro-neutrality, 50% pro-Europe. So, a pro-neutrality course could get the support of all of Eurasianists as well as all of the neutralists, who combined make up half of the population there. Though the younger generations could end up being more of a problem over time, especially if they are much more pro-Western than their elders are) but a state that would still rely on extensive trade links with Russia as well as on cheap natural gas from Russia. It would be a kleptocracy along the lines of Yanukovych's regime, but perhaps a bit more competent and less brutal. West Ukraine (so, Kiev, Uman, and everything to the west of them) would of course be free to join both the EU and NATO, if these blocs would actually be interested in them. But Russia will make permanent neutrality a precondition for any Ukrainian reunification in such a scenario, similar to what the Soviet Union did for German reunification in the 1950s with the Stalin Note (the West declined, of course).

    So, what do you think?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @AP

    In the event of a full-on outright full-scale future Russo-Ukrainian war, could we see Russia occupy everything to the east of Kiev and create an independent neutralist East Ukraine led by Yuri Boyko (or by Viktor Medvedchuk) and propped up by Russian bayonets (the Donbass would presumably be outright annexed by Russia in this scenario)?

    Russia has very good intelligence on Ukraine and would have taken as much as would have been cheap and feasible in 2014. It ended up taking Crimea and setting up a puppet state in the urban 2/3 of Donbas. These are the only parts of Ukraine that could be removed from Ukraine fairly smoothly. Not coincidentally, these are the only parts of Ukraine where Ukrainians aren’t the majority ethnically (they were under 50% in Donetsk City but might be barely above 50% in the rest of the DPR/LPR republics).

    Since then, Russian activists have left eastern Ukraine and capability for resistance there has grown considerably, with national guard units, Azov (based in Kharkiv), etc. An occupation thus would mean, at a minimum, a lot of IRA-style attacks and bombings, a sullen unfriendly population, and massive expenditures. It’s rather unlikely, other than perhaps some areas adjacent to the Republics.

    More likely would simply be a lot of missile attacks and bombings all over Ukraine in order to screw it up, without trying to occupy it. This would incur counterattacks against Russian positions and facilities within Ukrainian missile range, about 100 km into Russia and all over Donbas (Ukraine has plenty of missiles of its own now) so even if Russia sent no troops on the ground right into Ukraine it would not be a cost-free cakewalk as would have been the case in 2014. Russia would probably formally annex Donbas.

    I mean, the much poorer Soviet Union managed to do this in East Germany for almost half a century, so if the willpower to do this would be there, it might actually be doable.

    Eastern Ukraine has about the same population as East Germany, but Russia has only about half the population of the USSR. Because Russia is not a dictatorship, it is uncertain if the Russian leaders would be tolerated by the Russian people if they were spending a huge amount of money occupying half of Ukraine, and if Russian boys were regularly coming home in body bags due to IRA-style attacks.

    But of course this would virtually certainly mean a complete and total rupture of all of Russia’s relations with the West. Expulsion from the SWIFT banking system, crippling North Korea-level sanctions, et cetera.

    True of the USA but unknown with regards to Europe, which has very stupidly gotten rid of much of its nuclear power and is thus dependent on Russian gas.

    • Replies: @Mr. XYZ
    @AP


    Eastern Ukraine has about the same population as East Germany, but Russia has only about half the population of the USSR. Because Russia is not a dictatorship, it is uncertain if the Russian leaders would be tolerated by the Russian people if they were spending a huge amount of money occupying half of Ukraine, and if Russian boys were regularly coming home in body bags due to IRA-style attacks.
     
    Please keep in mind, though, that the USSR had to prop up puppet states throughout Eastern Europe, not only in East Germany. This won't be an issue for Russia since Central Asian autocrats can prop themselves up.

    True of the USA but unknown with regards to Europe, which has very stupidly gotten rid of much of its nuclear power and is thus dependent on Russian gas.
     
    Can Europe not get gas from elsewhere?

    By the way, another question for you: In the event of a German victory in World War I, might it have been prudent for Germany to set Russia's western border at the Daugava-Dnieper Line (except perhaps including Livonia and Estonia on the German side, thus making it look more like World War II's Panther-Wotan Line)? This would have stripped Russia of its Poles, most of its Jews, and most of its Ukrainian nationalists while also allowing the German sphere of influence in Eastern Europe to have a very defensible eastern border. And of course Russia could have still become a Great Power even without these territorial losses--and Russian nationalists would (or at least should) be happy that Russia has been purged of most of its undesirable elements (Poles, Ukrainian nationalists, and Jews). There would still be some Ukrainians and Jews left over on the Russian side but they could always move. And the Russians and Russophiles in Odessa could move to Russia or to the part of Ukraine east of the Dnieper.

    BTW, I've tended to notice that Germany's idea of Mitteleuropa and Poland's idea of Intermarium were rather compatible with one another. If only Imperial Germany wasn't Polonophobic, then maybe it would have actually been smart enough to realize this.

    I would have of course also enjoyed the idea of mass Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish immigration to Germany in such a scenario (brain drain for Eastern Europe, brain gain for Germany). It's better for Germany to import smart Semites in this scenario as opposed to importing dull Semites like it is doing right now in real life.

    Replies: @A123

  68. @Aedib
    @Dmitry

    Aliyev should better think about building a reserve fund. The new rich meme strikes back.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    They have a sovereign wealth fund, but it is not very transparent, and people are writing that it is probably used to throw contracts around the ruling families and their friends. (Well, like any postsoviet country).


    I was thinking about this war of last year.

    One of the culture shocks for contemporary European people, of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, could be watching the appearance of “journalistic objectivity” of the media of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    For example, in Azerbaijan news on federal channel, the newsreader was crying with happiness when the war has begun.

    Although it was already perhaps clear for professionals in the first day of the war that Azerbaijan was going to win all its objectives, as they uploading dozens of drone massacre videos in the first day. But I guess Caucasus media might be like this even if it wasn’t seeming like their side would win.

    And obviously at the end of the war, journalists do not feel a need to control their emotions or present an objective attitude. I don’t know if anyone can translate what she says.

  69. @Yellowface Anon
    @Aedib

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/spike-in-energy-prices-suggests-that-sharp-changes-are-ahead.html

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

    That is a generally good article and mirrors some of my own observations. This is part of what I was getting at with my previous comment. The energy options being publicly discussed are not really realistic or actionable.

    I live near the epicenter of shale gas and it has gone significantly bust for the time being with many fields also under-performing.

    There was a big push on big wind projects a few years back but these have also been big disappointments and a seven year old wind farm near me is having massive foundation reconstruction and blade replacement. I drove past a massive pile of fiberglass blades chopped in half next to the highway, being prepped to make their way out West to get buried. The wind farms have turned out to be a joke.

    Now the big push is solar farms, even though this part of the country has less days of sunlight than almost anywhere else. There is a 900 acre solar farm in the works just the hill over from me.

    It’s all completely dependent on subsidies, naturally. As far as actual impacts these seem to be massive outlays of government cash for very little actual benefit.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Barbarossa


    I live near the epicenter of shale gas and it has gone significantly bust for the time being with many fields also under-performing
     
    Shale Oil is a more stable business than Shale Gas, though both have a role in the U.S. Energy mix. The breakeven cost for oil production is highly dependant on geography (chart below).

    With WTI Over $80/bbl, all of the plays are theoretically above water. However, firms still need financing, equipment, and skilled workers. There are not enough resources to go around. Permian, Eagle Ford, and possibly Anadarko are the likely leaders as transport to Gulf Coast facilities is available & affordable.

    Of course, Biden's cronies could make everything impossible....

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇


     
    https://assets.bbhub.io/professional/sites/24/2018/05/Untitled-11.jpg
    , @Yellowface Anon
    @Barbarossa

    Solar farms are only feasible on a large scale in a desert. Wind power - nowhere.

    I can only say the supply-demand shock of the COVID agenda has eliminated 30%+ of oil & gas extraction potential. Supply chain break-ups, 70% of the rest.

  70. I have been bullish on Russia since 2014, and i feel vindicated, and happy about Russian improvements since then. Russians have demonstrated that they can troll and perform at the same time, which is the key metric for developed nations. Service sector/GDP and all that.

    Russia Forward!

    • Agree: songbird
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @mal

    The style and premise of this clip harkens back to a much earlier era, perhaps the club scene of the 1980's, so looking at it today is kind of nostalgically bizarre. What does not harken back to an earlier era, however, are the planes on display and their capabilities. I've never seen stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging is incredible!

    Replies: @schnellandine, @Dmitry, @mal

  71. Is Russia Setting a New Course in Middle East? (1)

    Tension in the Fatah Camp: Russia Received Mahmoud Abbas’ Greatest Foe, Mohammed Dahlan

    In a surprising development, Mohammed Dahlan, the opposition leader of the Palestinian “Democratic Reform Movement,” met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on November 2, 2021. Dahlan, a former Fatah official who now resides in the United Arab Emirates, is a bitter foe of the Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas. There are some in the PA who accuse Dahlan of facilitating the Abraham Accords

    In Mahmoud Abbas’s eyes, Dahlan is a red flag. He ousted him from Fatah, nearly arrested him in Ramallah, [Dahlan fled him for his life], accused him of corruption, and asked Interpol to arrest him.

    If Russia is moving toward Dahlan, a consensus must have emerged from the world powers and leading Arab countries pointing to the end of Mahmoud Abbas’s political career. It may also indicate why Abbas is also seeking Russia’s aid to reinvigorate the Quartet.

    The 17 years of his 4 year may be coming to a close for the failed Fatah ‘leader’ Mahmoud Abbas. Under his misrule, the Muslim Authority broke every promise it ever made.

    The final triumph of Abbas’s legacy is likely to be blackouts in areas under his rule. (2)

    For two years, the Palestinian Authority has been receiving electricity from the Israel Electric Company. In that time, the PA has racked up a an accumulated debt of around NIS 500 million (\$156.8 million USD) to the IEC. And like any company, the IEC cannot continue to carry such a debt on its books; it needs to be paid.

    In mid-October, the IEC issued the first of two notices sent to the PA about the outstanding debt. This week, the second notice was issued; it said that if the debt was not paid within one week, power will be cut to various PA-controlled areas of the West Bank

    The question becomes, “What can Dalhan can do should he take office?”

    Certainly Dalhan could end the current corruption and abuse of power. This will make the lives of individuals in the West Bank better. He will have to spend years rebuilding institutions destroyed by Abbas.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://jcpa.org/tension-in-the-fatah-camp-russia-received-mahmoud-abbas-greatest-foe-mohammed-dahlan/

    (2) https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/deadbeat-palestinian-authority-wont-pay-its-hugh-fitzgerald/

  72. @A123
    @songbird


    Not a fan of Nikki Haley. But I really do like her plan which proposes making any politician above a “certain age” in the House, Senate or White House pass “some sort of cognitive test.”
     
    It sounds good at first glance, but it is likely a bad idea.

    Who would design, administer, and score the test? Degree welding Leftoids like Dr. Fauci? They would try to add DIE mythology, like gender & ethnic sensitivity, to the criteria for "cognitive competence".

    The Judiciary would probably overturn it as unconstitutional. Or, possibly kill it as a precedent that could threaten to geriatric SCOTUS justices. Either way, it is pretty much a non-starter.


    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @songbird

    One of my secret ambitions is to increase the entertainment factor of politics by mandating the publication of various HBD tests for all legislators, bureaucrats, and candidates for public office.

    Obviously, some of it like 2D:4D, or craniometric volume is pie-in-sky, at the moment. The holy grail, as far as I am concerned, would be one of those unlabeled world maps, where they have to indicate where certain countries are.

    Under my system it would all be televised and recorded, using a secure room and system. Eventually, the DNA sample would serve as a check – although I am not sure that we are quite there yet, to predict age-related decay.

    • LOL: A123
  73. @Barbarossa
    @Yellowface Anon

    That is a generally good article and mirrors some of my own observations. This is part of what I was getting at with my previous comment. The energy options being publicly discussed are not really realistic or actionable.

    I live near the epicenter of shale gas and it has gone significantly bust for the time being with many fields also under-performing.

    There was a big push on big wind projects a few years back but these have also been big disappointments and a seven year old wind farm near me is having massive foundation reconstruction and blade replacement. I drove past a massive pile of fiberglass blades chopped in half next to the highway, being prepped to make their way out West to get buried. The wind farms have turned out to be a joke.

    Now the big push is solar farms, even though this part of the country has less days of sunlight than almost anywhere else. There is a 900 acre solar farm in the works just the hill over from me.

    It's all completely dependent on subsidies, naturally. As far as actual impacts these seem to be massive outlays of government cash for very little actual benefit.

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

    I live near the epicenter of shale gas and it has gone significantly bust for the time being with many fields also under-performing

    Shale Oil is a more stable business than Shale Gas, though both have a role in the U.S. Energy mix. The breakeven cost for oil production is highly dependant on geography (chart below).

    With WTI Over \$80/bbl, all of the plays are theoretically above water. However, firms still need financing, equipment, and skilled workers. There are not enough resources to go around. Permian, Eagle Ford, and possibly Anadarko are the likely leaders as transport to Gulf Coast facilities is available & affordable.

    Of course, Biden’s cronies could make everything impossible….

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

  74. Alternative explanation for all these unbalanced miscegenation commercials, with a dark black male and a blonde is that they want to sex sell (blonde) while they color signal (dark black male), and they can’t flip the formula because dark black women are widely regarded as unattractive.

  75. Special Report :

    The Myth of the 214 IQ :

    Since Ron Unz wrote the famous ‘The Myth of Hispanic Crime’ article series, it is time to tackle another myth. It is funny that Ron Unz has the sheer chutzpah to write into his own Wikipedia article that he has an IQ of 214. I never got more uproarious laughter online then when I linked to Ron Unz’s Wikipedia article on a mainstream Republican blog (Instapundit) where others could see that he wrote this claim into it.

    The reality is, his IQ is 124. The only reason he thinks it is 214 is that he made his own IQ test, and then took the test knowing all the answers beforehand. He predictably got a perfect score and thus an IQ of 214 on his own test, as though he didn’t know the answers beforehand. That is all there is to it.

    I guarantee that no one with a verified IQ above 160 thinks RUnzie Baby’s IQ is 214. They will shoot that pretense down with ‘Kung Fu fightin’, fast as lightnin” speed.

    Even the fictitious Sheldon Cooper has an IQ of just 187. People of that IQ tend to finish their Bachelor’s Degrees by 17 and their doctorates by 20. RUnzie Baby entered Harvard at 18, and dropped out of the Physics program in his 20s, when a person of an unheard of IQ of 214 ought to have completed his PhD long before the age that RUnzie Baby dropped out.

    Plus, a number other decisions are of questionable smarts. For example, if someone runs as a Republican in CA, even back in 1994, that is already a disadvantageous party to run under the banner of in CA. But on top of that, to take far-left positions as a Republican is even more unwise. But it gets worse :

    RUnzie Baby campaigned on a high minimum wage (a far-left position) and simultaneously pushes for illegal immigration to not be curbed. Any fool can see that to the extent that a high minimum wage can even work at all, you cannot possibly have a large number of illegals willing to work at the market wage, thus moving most labor into a black market that only illegals can partake in. Hence, this combination of polices, if it were to be enacted, is just about the worst obliteration of working-class US citizens one could devise. Hence, the intelligence on display here is questionable.

    But, his IQ is 124. That is high, but unspectacular.

    Now, the funny part that you all have been waiting for :

    An IQ of 124 can fit into a cranial volume of this size :

    A superhuman IQ of 214, however, which is well above any known world record, requires a more powerful hardware system. That hardware takes up more volume, and also generates a lot of heat.
    Hence, when RUnzie Baby imagines that his IQ is 214, he imagines that he looks like this :

    Note the higher temperature being generated by the augmented hardware. The normal human brain consumes 100 Watts, but if your IQ is to be 214, the amount of power consumed also has to double. Let’s call it corresponding 214 Watts.

    Heh heh heh heh

    • Replies: @Grahamsno(G64)
    @Thomm


    RUnzie Baby campaigned on a high minimum wage (a far-left position) and simultaneously pushes for illegal immigration to not be curbed.
     
    That's both moronic & oxymoronic.

    Replies: @Thomm

  76. Swear that I saw somewhere that the Rosenbaum character who attacked Rittenhouse was only 5’3″. IIRC, pedophiles average like 2 cm shorter than standard height. Wish I could find a good profile pic showing his ears in close up, for detail.

    Had some related thoughts: certain military/police orgs have a tall height for a requirement – when combined with their fitness or mental tests, these would be your least pedophiliac orgs, ever.

    IMO, would be a good idea construct a church with screening test to remove possible pedophiles. Sure, they are already rare – but they do a lot of damage, when it comes to trust, so if you reduced their presence by two orders of magnitude, when compared to other orgs, that would be a really big positive, IMO. It would be more than worth the expense, and I think it is currently possible. BTW, churches not very subject to civil rights laws, so I am no lawyer, but I think you could do it.

  77. These “Is Africa the new China?” economists base their arguments on China’s past rock bottom economic stats being the same as Africa’s current rock bottom stats. Really, the whole thing is just an unwitting acknowledgement of the tragedy of the earlier phase of communism, which is a strange meta-commentary on the blank-slatism implicit in the comparison.

  78. @Mr. XYZ
    @Mr. Hack

    BTW, do you view the present-day Donbass and interwar Upper Silesia as being comparable? Both heavily industrial regions with a lot of natural resources (especially coal) that were divided and that had a strong regionalist and autonomist streak and mentality. Pro-Russian separatist Donbass (possibly future Russian Donbass) = interwar Polish Upper Silesia; Ukrainian Donbass = German Upper Silesia. And even Polish Upper Silesia previously had an insurgency--right after WWI, in fact, with Korfanty's uprising! Russophiles got the good parts of the Donbass and the Poles got the good parts of Upper Silesia. And of course when Germany tried to settle the Upper Silesia dispute (and other disputes) by force, it subsequently ended up losing the remainder of its part of Upper Silesia. The same could happen to Ukraine's part of the Donbass if Ukraine will ever try settling the Donbass conflict by force. Not saying this to be mean to Ukraine; just making an observation.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Sure, I think they’re comparable. I know that you can still enter someone’s home in Silesia and find a likeness of Hitler hung on the living room wall, as you would find a similar type image of Stalin hung in the same reverential position somewhere in Donbas. Similar type of hero worship. As to the rest, it sounds like you’ve been thinking about this a lot longer than I have, what do you think?

  79. @Aedib
    @Yellowface Anon


    European economists should have told European citizens, “There is no way you can get along using renewables alone for many, many years. Treat the countries that are exporting fossil fuels to you very well. Sign long term contracts with them. If they want to use a new pipeline, raise no objection. Your bargaining power is very low.”
     
    They were too accustomed to spite the Russians in the face. It is like a Pavlovian response. Now that reality started to bite, the still insist in with their Pavlovian response. Someone should tell Eurocrats that the East Asian market is bigger and brighter and that no one care anymore about their hypocrite moral lessons any longer.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Not sure about this if a China-Taiwan or China-Japan war comes at the same time…

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Yellowface Anon

    China-Taiwan war, if happens (very unlikely) will be a blitz. China will suffer heavy looses but all wil end in around 48-72 hs.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

  80. @Barbarossa
    @Yellowface Anon

    That is a generally good article and mirrors some of my own observations. This is part of what I was getting at with my previous comment. The energy options being publicly discussed are not really realistic or actionable.

    I live near the epicenter of shale gas and it has gone significantly bust for the time being with many fields also under-performing.

    There was a big push on big wind projects a few years back but these have also been big disappointments and a seven year old wind farm near me is having massive foundation reconstruction and blade replacement. I drove past a massive pile of fiberglass blades chopped in half next to the highway, being prepped to make their way out West to get buried. The wind farms have turned out to be a joke.

    Now the big push is solar farms, even though this part of the country has less days of sunlight than almost anywhere else. There is a 900 acre solar farm in the works just the hill over from me.

    It's all completely dependent on subsidies, naturally. As far as actual impacts these seem to be massive outlays of government cash for very little actual benefit.

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

    Solar farms are only feasible on a large scale in a desert. Wind power – nowhere.

    I can only say the supply-demand shock of the COVID agenda has eliminated 30%+ of oil & gas extraction potential. Supply chain break-ups, 70% of the rest.

  81. @Yellowface Anon
    @Aedib

    Not sure about this if a China-Taiwan or China-Japan war comes at the same time...

    Replies: @Aedib

    China-Taiwan war, if happens (very unlikely) will be a blitz. China will suffer heavy looses but all wil end in around 48-72 hs.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Aedib

    The Pentagon thinks China will use the military threat to force the government in Taipei on the negotiation table by 2027. But provocations can be used as a pretext for war. There are already clips of troop movements posted in Chinese groups, and I watched 2 reposted on Twitter.

    A war involving China (not just over Taiwan) means embargos from the Pacificist bloc, and an market open for whatever Russians can offer, mainly gas, other minerals and military high-tech. Whatever the Atlanticist & Pacificist blocs (joined at the hip by the US) do, it promotes autarky, which is exactly what Putin & Xi wants.

    , @A123
    @Aedib


    China-Taiwan war, if happens (very unlikely) will be a blitz. China will suffer heavy looses but all will end in around 48-72 hs.
     
    It would take substantially longer than your prediction. However, the outcome is inevitable.

    The defenders will embed into the industrial facilities & other high value locations. The PLA will have to fight building by building to root out resistance. Industry and infrastructure will be turned into scrap along the way.

    Would Xi Jinping:
    -- Emulate GW Bush's inadequate Iraq aftermath?
    -- Or, make huge resource transfers from the mainland to Taipei to repair the devastation inflicted by the PRC military?

    Both of those options are very unappealing. The economics are terrible. And, the politics would be personally perilous to Xi's regime.

    Hong Kong remains a problem over a decade after a peaceful handover. How many decades would it take the CCP to absorb Taiwan when many families will have dead sons?
    ____

    There is no upside to taking Taiwan by force. It would take multiple catastrophic errors on all sides to accidentally start a war that no one wants.

    PEACE 😇

    “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” -- WarGames, 1983
     

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

  82. I wonder if German_reader would agree with this description of America that I saw somewhere:

    [MORE]

    America is an autistic faggot perched on a custom chopper made out of legos with a gay nigger riding on the back destroying everything its path while spraying body glitter, anal lube, AIDS blood and vomit in all directions.

    BTW, it does have a strange resonance with me. Sometime back, I remember trying to watch the movie Fright Night Part 2 (1988) and puzzling over the fact why there was a black tranny on rolllerskates who died of AIDS in the movie, when the first movie did not have one.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    It isn't the "authentic" America that "survives" mainly among those with a rightoid ideology.

    Replies: @songbird

    , @German_reader
    @songbird

    Is that from Andrew Anglin?
    Anyway, I wouldn't put it like that (and why legos? Lego is from Denmark).
    Btw, SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can't be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors); they also cited anti-Trump "conservatives" like Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol, lol. Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can't say I'd be looking forward to it, the Trump show got pretty tiresome last time around imo, and I don't think it will even do much good for the interests of most of his voters.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird, @A123, @AP

  83. Not opposed to giving migrants free laptops and phones, if they are loaded with spyware for intelligence-gathering purposes.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Police state for thee, not for me.

    Replies: @songbird

  84. @mal
    I have been bullish on Russia since 2014, and i feel vindicated, and happy about Russian improvements since then. Russians have demonstrated that they can troll and perform at the same time, which is the key metric for developed nations. Service sector/GDP and all that.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFYGjtrynMg

    Russia Forward!

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    The style and premise of this clip harkens back to a much earlier era, perhaps the club scene of the 1980’s, so looking at it today is kind of nostalgically bizarre. What does not harken back to an earlier era, however, are the planes on display and their capabilities. I’ve never seen stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging is incredible!

    • Replies: @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack


    perpendicular hot dogging
     
    That was clever intercutting of RC (model) planes, though still impressive.
    , @Dmitry
    @Mr. Hack

    For this clip they hired nightclub "go-go dancers" that have this distinctive special dancing style.

    In nightclubs in Russia, they have a job of groups of girls who dance like this wearing underwear or bikinis.

    Also there are men that do this job (wearing dark shirts and shiny ties as well, and they kind of dance more like in Korean boybands).

    This dancing style works perfect with alcohol and techno style of music. Not so much for hiring them apparently making YouTube clips.

    -

    Russia has probably the world's best nightclubs, but only at 2am, when extremely drunk, and losing co-ordination of your limbs.

    You know you are in Russia when you have a blurry vision of these guys at 2am and the DJ is shouting random words of the song
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3I3nE_-YQY


    stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging
     
    They are wooden RC models, which have a different weight ratio and you can make them float like this.

    Replies: @AP, @Mr. Hack

    , @mal
    @Mr. Hack

    Yea, those are RC toy planes. To the best of my knowledge, lightened up MiG 29 can pull off something like that (nose up hover), but not Sukhoy heavy fighter.

    Still, very impressive in the video :) As for music, that's Eurodance style that Russians faithfully preserve, carry forward, and innovate upon. Russia will be the cultural preservation center of Europe if things continue as they are.

    *Eurodance is electronic music in Europe from late 80's to late 90's.

    Replies: @LatW

  85. @Mr. Hack
    @mal

    The style and premise of this clip harkens back to a much earlier era, perhaps the club scene of the 1980's, so looking at it today is kind of nostalgically bizarre. What does not harken back to an earlier era, however, are the planes on display and their capabilities. I've never seen stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging is incredible!

    Replies: @schnellandine, @Dmitry, @mal

    perpendicular hot dogging

    That was clever intercutting of RC (model) planes, though still impressive.

    • Agree: mal
    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
  86. @Aedib
    @Yellowface Anon

    China-Taiwan war, if happens (very unlikely) will be a blitz. China will suffer heavy looses but all wil end in around 48-72 hs.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    The Pentagon thinks China will use the military threat to force the government in Taipei on the negotiation table by 2027. But provocations can be used as a pretext for war. There are already clips of troop movements posted in Chinese groups, and I watched 2 reposted on Twitter.

    A war involving China (not just over Taiwan) means embargos from the Pacificist bloc, and an market open for whatever Russians can offer, mainly gas, other minerals and military high-tech. Whatever the Atlanticist & Pacificist blocs (joined at the hip by the US) do, it promotes autarky, which is exactly what Putin & Xi wants.

  87. @songbird
    Not opposed to giving migrants free laptops and phones, if they are loaded with spyware for intelligence-gathering purposes.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Police state for thee, not for me.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    Police state for thee, not for me.
     
    As a generality, I am against broad-spectrum surveillance. I think most intelligence agencies in the West have a pernicious influence, even when they are doing "good", and not evil. Frankly, I don't think it makes strategic sense to have thousands of agents monitoring Muslims. If they are unassimilable, then it is better to let the fact be demonstrated and to have public sentiment rise against them.

    Though, i would separate this from wanting to gather intelligence about migration, in order to stop it more effectively, and also info that demonstrates how these people aren't doctors.

    Might make sense in certain areas of the world though, (city states in Africa) if you are trying to increase the functionality of third world countries for economic purposes, as part of a plan to contain migration or the radical egalitarianism of people promoting it (make the economic difference less staggering). If it is a choice between being destroyed and colonialism 2.0, then the latter is clearly the more moral course. Though, personally, I rather move to something like repatriation followed by the Prime Directive of Star Trek (woke series, though it was)
  88. @songbird
    I wonder if German_reader would agree with this description of America that I saw somewhere:

    America is an autistic faggot perched on a custom chopper made out of legos with a gay nigger riding on the back destroying everything its path while spraying body glitter, anal lube, AIDS blood and vomit in all directions.
     
    BTW, it does have a strange resonance with me. Sometime back, I remember trying to watch the movie Fright Night Part 2 (1988) and puzzling over the fact why there was a black tranny on rolllerskates who died of AIDS in the movie, when the first movie did not have one.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader

    It isn’t the “authentic” America that “survives” mainly among those with a rightoid ideology.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Interesting debate where America went wrong.

    TBH, I think it is a bit autistic to say it was always woke because they went against monarchy (was the British monarchy the real power back then?) or because "all men are created equal" (how many slave owners?). Or that Madison intended judicial review (Marbury v. Madison)

    If I had to say where it could have gone better. I think it would be if they wargamed the Constitution for ten or twenty years, instead of a break-neck rush to approve it. Not that I believe a piece of paper is the end-all-be-all (Liberia), but instructions can help.

    IMO, the country was refounded during the Civil War. Though, I stress the average American was unwoke until, perhaps even slightly past the Civil Rights Era.

    Replies: @schnellandine

  89. @Aedib
    @Yellowface Anon

    China-Taiwan war, if happens (very unlikely) will be a blitz. China will suffer heavy looses but all wil end in around 48-72 hs.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    China-Taiwan war, if happens (very unlikely) will be a blitz. China will suffer heavy looses but all will end in around 48-72 hs.

    It would take substantially longer than your prediction. However, the outcome is inevitable.

    The defenders will embed into the industrial facilities & other high value locations. The PLA will have to fight building by building to root out resistance. Industry and infrastructure will be turned into scrap along the way.

    Would Xi Jinping:
    — Emulate GW Bush’s inadequate Iraq aftermath?
    — Or, make huge resource transfers from the mainland to Taipei to repair the devastation inflicted by the PRC military?

    Both of those options are very unappealing. The economics are terrible. And, the politics would be personally perilous to Xi’s regime.

    Hong Kong remains a problem over a decade after a peaceful handover. How many decades would it take the CCP to absorb Taiwan when many families will have dead sons?
    ____

    There is no upside to taking Taiwan by force. It would take multiple catastrophic errors on all sides to accidentally start a war that no one wants.

    PEACE 😇

    “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” — WarGames, 1983

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    The defenders will embed into the industrial facilities & other high value locations. The PLA will have to fight building by building to root out resistance. Industry and infrastructure will be turned into scrap along the way.

    Would Xi Jinping:
    — Emulate GW Bush’s inadequate Iraq aftermath?
    — Or, make huge resource transfers from the mainland to Taipei to repair the devastation inflicted by the PRC military?
     

    The latter simply wouldn't work for much of Taiwan's production of semiconductors, that's part of a world wide ecosystem where embargoes subsequent to the hostilities would leave anything intact inoperable and I'll bet this is not the only industry where that's true. There would also be no replacing of TSMC's already embargoed to the PRC EUV lithography machines, which the PRC is at best decades away from being able to copy, they're crazy intense bleeding edge state of the art technology, start with a droplet of molten tin being zapped by a laser....

    Now the PRC in and of itself can get by pretty well with earlier technology semiconductors, one of the things that will really matter is how extensive export and import bans would get, as well a potentially a blockade, something the US Navy can still do to the extent it abstains from making people with names like Cameron Mahmood Aljilani captains of our attack and guided missile submarines.

    Of course going that far would likely start a general war, just as it did with Imperial Japan when a financial blockade you might call it put its leaders in a politically impossible position and facing mass starvation. Here a great deal of the PRC would also stop running without crude oil and natural gas imports, contrary to Yellowface Anon's thoughts, Russia could not quickly replace either, and does anyone know if it could supply both Europe and the PRC with enough natural gas? And see what among other things an import ban of Australian coal over COVID issues handled by "Wolf Warrior" "diplomacy" has done to the PRC's ability to supply electricity to its factories.

    Other problems with likely lethal consequences is how much of the world's essential manufacturing has been outsourced to the PRC, although some of that it mostly Green insanity, like the magnesium needed to make strong aluminum. So while they aren't much trusted to make drugs in their final forms, the supply chains for everything from chemical precursors to finished active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) trace back to the PRC for the majority of the world's drugs. Many would die in the time necessary to reestablish production outside of it.

    So it would be a colossal mess where deaths way outside of the actual area(s) of fighting would be significant, and likely far exceed those in it, a not uncommon historical pattern. And what if Xi's faction's hold on power is predicated on taking Taiwan? Internal faction fights can have awful effects to completely unrelated countries, see how the US ruling trash has done almost everything they can to start a hot shooting war with Russia, starting in 2016 primarily because of the BAD ORANGE MAN. Who then had to be "tough" with Russia to not further feed the insane collusion narrative and various legal efforts related to it, including one impeachment effort that just happened to coincide with the PRC's export of COVID to the rest of the world....

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

  90. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    I wonder if German_reader would agree with this description of America that I saw somewhere:

    America is an autistic faggot perched on a custom chopper made out of legos with a gay nigger riding on the back destroying everything its path while spraying body glitter, anal lube, AIDS blood and vomit in all directions.
     
    BTW, it does have a strange resonance with me. Sometime back, I remember trying to watch the movie Fright Night Part 2 (1988) and puzzling over the fact why there was a black tranny on rolllerskates who died of AIDS in the movie, when the first movie did not have one.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader

    Is that from Andrew Anglin?
    Anyway, I wouldn’t put it like that (and why legos? Lego is from Denmark).
    Btw, SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can’t be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors); they also cited anti-Trump “conservatives” like Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol, lol. Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can’t say I’d be looking forward to it, the Trump show got pretty tiresome last time around imo, and I don’t think it will even do much good for the interests of most of his voters.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    Hard rightoids see everything disagreeable to them in their biggest enemy, their biggest object of hate. That description is only true for a portion of the American elite culture in the last 10 years, outside of the imperial aggressiveness. You can definitely come up with an image less vulgar and right to the point, while no less critical.

    I think much of the genuine support to the Dems have vaporized especially when economic chaos is coming before whatever economic gains the Green New Deal & BBB are purported to realize, and the oligarchic foundation of their real power isn't negated: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/11/michael-hudson-is-this-the-end-of-the-unreformable-democratic-party.html
    Hudson should do a piece on how GOP is a false alternative for true economic progressives, and keep them from falling into the bad parts of Trumpism (with lots of policies Hudson has criticized).


    Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can’t be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors)
     
    Racialists here will legitimize it with basically "Black can't decide the best (which is always GOP) for themselves and they should never have a say in politics". But in fact, neither party actually does good for the interests of Blacks' community development - the GOP wants to neglect them and the Dems wants to spoil them in their woke status elevation far above where they really are.

    Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility?
     
    It's realistic. How likely it is, I can't say, but it seems that they are consolidating themselves by harnessing the backlash against the COVID agenda, left-identity politics, the wrong kind of "statism", etc. They're hitting it big while realities are converging with how rightoids have long seen the world. My prediction is a dominant-party administration in 2024, whether Dem or Trumpist, and with opponents heavily prosecuted. Both will look good to their true believers, but ugly to everyone else.

    Can’t say I’d be looking forward to that, the Trump show got pretty tiresome last time around imo, and I don’t think it will even do much good for the interests of most of his voters.
     
    I'll let A123 say whatever "contributions" idealistically future Trumpism will have to the cause of MAGA and you can see who will bear the greatest burdens or plainly suffer from that.

    I now see Trump as someone like every president from Clinton on - big in promises, but failing to deliver the substance of their platforms because of the Deep State, and whatever they can do, ends up messing up things further to reach the terminal state we have now under Biden/Harris.

    , @songbird
    @German_reader


    Is that from Andrew Anglin?
     
    Seems to have a similar style. Can't source it too well, but don't think so.


    and why legos? Lego is from Denmark
     
    Poetic license. Think it was meant to invoke plastic, diversity, and built-in structural fragility. That legos are from Denmark was the one bur in it, otherwise, I thought it was funny, if a bit too obscene.

    Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility
     
    If, as I predict, Biden resigns to give Kamala the position for historic reasons and strategy, then I still doubt that it is possible to steal all the votes that would be required to elect her. Don't have a great record of predicting the exact path of the downward spiral though.

    Wouldn't call myself a Trumpist, but I appreciate his trolling attitude. It is something I'd like to see more people adopt. Was recently amused to see Musk reference Storm of Steel and have a spat with some UN food agency, even if I'm not cultist of him.
    , @A123
    @German_reader


    SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can’t be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors)
     
    Wait a sec..... Germany requires a picture ID to vote!
    _____

    In addition to voter ID, Red States are taking steps to secure absentee ballot handling. For example, Florida: (1)


    At the event, Governor DeSantis called on the Legislature to take four additional steps to safeguard our elections:

    • Establish an Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State to investigate election crimes and fraud;
    • Elevate the crime of ballot harvesting to a third-degree felony, recognizing that this offense is a serious attack on democracy;
    • Require timelines for supervisors of elections to clean the voter rolls of ineligible voters; and
    • Prohibit unsecure, haphazard drop box locations in Florida.

    The 2022 legislative proposal builds on election integrity legislation signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis in May 2021 through Senate Bill 90. In 2021, Governor DeSantis worked with the Florida Legislature to strengthen voter identification, prohibit the mass mailing of ballots, ban ballot harvesting and prohibit private money (Zuckerbucks) from influencing elections in our state
     

    Ideally, absentee ballots should only be available for "genuine need", such as medical disability or out-of-country. However, that is not going to happen soon.

    A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can’t say I’d be looking forward to it,
     
    If a true MAGA candidate can be locked in without running, there are incentives for Trump to go down that path. The "idea" of Trump running allows him to live, rent-free, in the heads of SJW Leftoids. If he uses up his 2nd Term, that is it forever. If someone else runs, he can drive the low-IQ, #NeverTrump yahoos batty for a decade or more -- Trump 2028, Trump 2032, Trump 2036.... No decision will be made "yea or nay" until action is required to be an official Primary candidate.

    Transforming the GOP into a reliable MAGA party needs a great deal of work in terms of the U.S. Legislature, State Government, and internal party roles. The focus is on those changes, which are tied up with the 2022 midterms.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/11/03/governor-ron-desantis-announces-legislative-session-plan-to-address-election-integrity/

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @AP
    @German_reader


    Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility?
     
    Trump is the most popular person among Republicans, so if he chooses to run there is a 90% chance that he will be the Republican nominee. Which means he has a good chance to become president.
  91. @German_reader
    @songbird

    Is that from Andrew Anglin?
    Anyway, I wouldn't put it like that (and why legos? Lego is from Denmark).
    Btw, SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can't be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors); they also cited anti-Trump "conservatives" like Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol, lol. Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can't say I'd be looking forward to it, the Trump show got pretty tiresome last time around imo, and I don't think it will even do much good for the interests of most of his voters.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird, @A123, @AP

    Hard rightoids see everything disagreeable to them in their biggest enemy, their biggest object of hate. That description is only true for a portion of the American elite culture in the last 10 years, outside of the imperial aggressiveness. You can definitely come up with an image less vulgar and right to the point, while no less critical.

    I think much of the genuine support to the Dems have vaporized especially when economic chaos is coming before whatever economic gains the Green New Deal & BBB are purported to realize, and the oligarchic foundation of their real power isn’t negated: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/11/michael-hudson-is-this-the-end-of-the-unreformable-democratic-party.html
    Hudson should do a piece on how GOP is a false alternative for true economic progressives, and keep them from falling into the bad parts of Trumpism (with lots of policies Hudson has criticized).

    Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can’t be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors)

    Racialists here will legitimize it with basically “Black can’t decide the best (which is always GOP) for themselves and they should never have a say in politics”. But in fact, neither party actually does good for the interests of Blacks’ community development – the GOP wants to neglect them and the Dems wants to spoil them in their woke status elevation far above where they really are.

    Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility?

    It’s realistic. How likely it is, I can’t say, but it seems that they are consolidating themselves by harnessing the backlash against the COVID agenda, left-identity politics, the wrong kind of “statism”, etc. They’re hitting it big while realities are converging with how rightoids have long seen the world. My prediction is a dominant-party administration in 2024, whether Dem or Trumpist, and with opponents heavily prosecuted. Both will look good to their true believers, but ugly to everyone else.

    Can’t say I’d be looking forward to that, the Trump show got pretty tiresome last time around imo, and I don’t think it will even do much good for the interests of most of his voters.

    I’ll let A123 say whatever “contributions” idealistically future Trumpism will have to the cause of MAGA and you can see who will bear the greatest burdens or plainly suffer from that.

    I now see Trump as someone like every president from Clinton on – big in promises, but failing to deliver the substance of their platforms because of the Deep State, and whatever they can do, ends up messing up things further to reach the terminal state we have now under Biden/Harris.

  92. @A123
    @Aedib


    China-Taiwan war, if happens (very unlikely) will be a blitz. China will suffer heavy looses but all will end in around 48-72 hs.
     
    It would take substantially longer than your prediction. However, the outcome is inevitable.

    The defenders will embed into the industrial facilities & other high value locations. The PLA will have to fight building by building to root out resistance. Industry and infrastructure will be turned into scrap along the way.

    Would Xi Jinping:
    -- Emulate GW Bush's inadequate Iraq aftermath?
    -- Or, make huge resource transfers from the mainland to Taipei to repair the devastation inflicted by the PRC military?

    Both of those options are very unappealing. The economics are terrible. And, the politics would be personally perilous to Xi's regime.

    Hong Kong remains a problem over a decade after a peaceful handover. How many decades would it take the CCP to absorb Taiwan when many families will have dead sons?
    ____

    There is no upside to taking Taiwan by force. It would take multiple catastrophic errors on all sides to accidentally start a war that no one wants.

    PEACE 😇

    “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” -- WarGames, 1983
     

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    The defenders will embed into the industrial facilities & other high value locations. The PLA will have to fight building by building to root out resistance. Industry and infrastructure will be turned into scrap along the way.

    Would Xi Jinping:
    — Emulate GW Bush’s inadequate Iraq aftermath?
    — Or, make huge resource transfers from the mainland to Taipei to repair the devastation inflicted by the PRC military?

    The latter simply wouldn’t work for much of Taiwan’s production of semiconductors, that’s part of a world wide ecosystem where embargoes subsequent to the hostilities would leave anything intact inoperable and I’ll bet this is not the only industry where that’s true. There would also be no replacing of TSMC’s already embargoed to the PRC EUV lithography machines, which the PRC is at best decades away from being able to copy, they’re crazy intense bleeding edge state of the art technology, start with a droplet of molten tin being zapped by a laser….

    Now the PRC in and of itself can get by pretty well with earlier technology semiconductors, one of the things that will really matter is how extensive export and import bans would get, as well a potentially a blockade, something the US Navy can still do to the extent it abstains from making people with names like Cameron Mahmood Aljilani captains of our attack and guided missile submarines.

    Of course going that far would likely start a general war, just as it did with Imperial Japan when a financial blockade you might call it put its leaders in a politically impossible position and facing mass starvation. Here a great deal of the PRC would also stop running without crude oil and natural gas imports, contrary to Yellowface Anon’s thoughts, Russia could not quickly replace either, and does anyone know if it could supply both Europe and the PRC with enough natural gas? And see what among other things an import ban of Australian coal over COVID issues handled by “Wolf Warrior” “diplomacy” has done to the PRC’s ability to supply electricity to its factories.

    Other problems with likely lethal consequences is how much of the world’s essential manufacturing has been outsourced to the PRC, although some of that it mostly Green insanity, like the magnesium needed to make strong aluminum. So while they aren’t much trusted to make drugs in their final forms, the supply chains for everything from chemical precursors to finished active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) trace back to the PRC for the majority of the world’s drugs. Many would die in the time necessary to reestablish production outside of it.

    So it would be a colossal mess where deaths way outside of the actual area(s) of fighting would be significant, and likely far exceed those in it, a not uncommon historical pattern. And what if Xi’s faction’s hold on power is predicated on taking Taiwan? Internal faction fights can have awful effects to completely unrelated countries, see how the US ruling trash has done almost everything they can to start a hot shooting war with Russia, starting in 2016 primarily because of the BAD ORANGE MAN. Who then had to be “tough” with Russia to not further feed the insane collusion narrative and various legal efforts related to it, including one impeachment effort that just happened to coincide with the PRC’s export of COVID to the rest of the world….

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @That Would Be Telling

    Good job for pinpoint how fragile our economics system is, if not geopolitics.

    The only thing I want to add is the fact that factions of varying size, in some places with access to policy-making, want things to fall apart instead of having constructive changes or even maintaining the status quo.

    , @A123
    @That Would Be Telling

    You are correct.

    Every country, and every faction in those countries, has good reason to oppose a war that would damage the global economy.

    The stated policy of the:
    -- CCP/PRC is waiting for Peaceful reunification.
    -- ROC is avoiding anything so provocative it might change CCP policy.

    There is more commerce, more personal interaction, and direct flights between the PRC and ROC. The relationship is much better than it was in the 80's.

    PEACE 😇

  93. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Police state for thee, not for me.

    Replies: @songbird

    Police state for thee, not for me.

    As a generality, I am against broad-spectrum surveillance. I think most intelligence agencies in the West have a pernicious influence, even when they are doing “good”, and not evil. Frankly, I don’t think it makes strategic sense to have thousands of agents monitoring Muslims. If they are unassimilable, then it is better to let the fact be demonstrated and to have public sentiment rise against them.

    Though, i would separate this from wanting to gather intelligence about migration, in order to stop it more effectively, and also info that demonstrates how these people aren’t doctors.

    Might make sense in certain areas of the world though, (city states in Africa) if you are trying to increase the functionality of third world countries for economic purposes, as part of a plan to contain migration or the radical egalitarianism of people promoting it (make the economic difference less staggering). If it is a choice between being destroyed and colonialism 2.0, then the latter is clearly the more moral course. Though, personally, I rather move to something like repatriation followed by the Prime Directive of Star Trek (woke series, though it was)

  94. @German_reader
    @songbird

    Is that from Andrew Anglin?
    Anyway, I wouldn't put it like that (and why legos? Lego is from Denmark).
    Btw, SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can't be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors); they also cited anti-Trump "conservatives" like Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol, lol. Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can't say I'd be looking forward to it, the Trump show got pretty tiresome last time around imo, and I don't think it will even do much good for the interests of most of his voters.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird, @A123, @AP

    Is that from Andrew Anglin?

    Seems to have a similar style. Can’t source it too well, but don’t think so.

    and why legos? Lego is from Denmark

    Poetic license. Think it was meant to invoke plastic, diversity, and built-in structural fragility. That legos are from Denmark was the one bur in it, otherwise, I thought it was funny, if a bit too obscene.

    Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility

    If, as I predict, Biden resigns to give Kamala the position for historic reasons and strategy, then I still doubt that it is possible to steal all the votes that would be required to elect her. Don’t have a great record of predicting the exact path of the downward spiral though.

    Wouldn’t call myself a Trumpist, but I appreciate his trolling attitude. It is something I’d like to see more people adopt. Was recently amused to see Musk reference Storm of Steel and have a spat with some UN food agency, even if I’m not cultist of him.

  95. Would be interesting to test, if people who are blind from birth color signal. I half-suspect that they would not. That they don’t have that primordial pathway that works through some visual center.

    But, OTOH, they may be canny enough to understand that there is a culturally preference for blacks, and might be able to reflect it, through blacks having different voices.
    ______
    Men’s voices naturally become deeper around women, but higher among children. (This is one of the tests that can be used to screen for pedophiles: reverse for them). But I wonder if kargyraa throat-singing, (encouraging men to make deep sounds) can increase T.

  96. @German_reader
    @songbird

    Is that from Andrew Anglin?
    Anyway, I wouldn't put it like that (and why legos? Lego is from Denmark).
    Btw, SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can't be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors); they also cited anti-Trump "conservatives" like Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol, lol. Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can't say I'd be looking forward to it, the Trump show got pretty tiresome last time around imo, and I don't think it will even do much good for the interests of most of his voters.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird, @A123, @AP

    SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can’t be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors)

    Wait a sec….. Germany requires a picture ID to vote!
    _____

    In addition to voter ID, Red States are taking steps to secure absentee ballot handling. For example, Florida: (1)

    At the event, Governor DeSantis called on the Legislature to take four additional steps to safeguard our elections:

    • Establish an Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State to investigate election crimes and fraud;
    • Elevate the crime of ballot harvesting to a third-degree felony, recognizing that this offense is a serious attack on democracy;
    • Require timelines for supervisors of elections to clean the voter rolls of ineligible voters; and
    • Prohibit unsecure, haphazard drop box locations in Florida.

    The 2022 legislative proposal builds on election integrity legislation signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis in May 2021 through Senate Bill 90. In 2021, Governor DeSantis worked with the Florida Legislature to strengthen voter identification, prohibit the mass mailing of ballots, ban ballot harvesting and prohibit private money (Zuckerbucks) from influencing elections in our state

    Ideally, absentee ballots should only be available for “genuine need”, such as medical disability or out-of-country. However, that is not going to happen soon.

    A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can’t say I’d be looking forward to it,

    If a true MAGA candidate can be locked in without running, there are incentives for Trump to go down that path. The “idea” of Trump running allows him to live, rent-free, in the heads of SJW Leftoids. If he uses up his 2nd Term, that is it forever. If someone else runs, he can drive the low-IQ, #NeverTrump yahoos batty for a decade or more — Trump 2028, Trump 2032, Trump 2036…. No decision will be made “yea or nay” until action is required to be an official Primary candidate.

    Transforming the GOP into a reliable MAGA party needs a great deal of work in terms of the U.S. Legislature, State Government, and internal party roles. The focus is on those changes, which are tied up with the 2022 midterms.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/11/03/governor-ron-desantis-announces-legislative-session-plan-to-address-election-integrity/

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @A123


    Wait a sec….. Germany requires a picture ID to vote!
     
    You don't need to tell me, I see nothing wrong with requiring ID for voting, the present practice in many US states seems overly lax and might facilitate voting fraud (or at least leads to persistent insecurity about the legitimacy of official election results).

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

  97. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    It isn't the "authentic" America that "survives" mainly among those with a rightoid ideology.

    Replies: @songbird

    Interesting debate where America went wrong.

    TBH, I think it is a bit autistic to say it was always woke because they went against monarchy (was the British monarchy the real power back then?) or because “all men are created equal” (how many slave owners?). Or that Madison intended judicial review (Marbury v. Madison)

    If I had to say where it could have gone better. I think it would be if they wargamed the Constitution for ten or twenty years, instead of a break-neck rush to approve it. Not that I believe a piece of paper is the end-all-be-all (Liberia), but instructions can help.

    IMO, the country was refounded during the Civil War. Though, I stress the average American was unwoke until, perhaps even slightly past the Civil Rights Era.

    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @schnellandine
    @songbird


    IMO, the country was refounded during the Civil War.
     
    …to the extent that most people refer to a war between two countries as 'civil war'. Like so much of 'history', a monstrous, pointed lie.
  98. German_reader says:
    @A123
    @German_reader


    SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can’t be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors)
     
    Wait a sec..... Germany requires a picture ID to vote!
    _____

    In addition to voter ID, Red States are taking steps to secure absentee ballot handling. For example, Florida: (1)


    At the event, Governor DeSantis called on the Legislature to take four additional steps to safeguard our elections:

    • Establish an Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State to investigate election crimes and fraud;
    • Elevate the crime of ballot harvesting to a third-degree felony, recognizing that this offense is a serious attack on democracy;
    • Require timelines for supervisors of elections to clean the voter rolls of ineligible voters; and
    • Prohibit unsecure, haphazard drop box locations in Florida.

    The 2022 legislative proposal builds on election integrity legislation signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis in May 2021 through Senate Bill 90. In 2021, Governor DeSantis worked with the Florida Legislature to strengthen voter identification, prohibit the mass mailing of ballots, ban ballot harvesting and prohibit private money (Zuckerbucks) from influencing elections in our state
     

    Ideally, absentee ballots should only be available for "genuine need", such as medical disability or out-of-country. However, that is not going to happen soon.

    A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can’t say I’d be looking forward to it,
     
    If a true MAGA candidate can be locked in without running, there are incentives for Trump to go down that path. The "idea" of Trump running allows him to live, rent-free, in the heads of SJW Leftoids. If he uses up his 2nd Term, that is it forever. If someone else runs, he can drive the low-IQ, #NeverTrump yahoos batty for a decade or more -- Trump 2028, Trump 2032, Trump 2036.... No decision will be made "yea or nay" until action is required to be an official Primary candidate.

    Transforming the GOP into a reliable MAGA party needs a great deal of work in terms of the U.S. Legislature, State Government, and internal party roles. The focus is on those changes, which are tied up with the 2022 midterms.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/11/03/governor-ron-desantis-announces-legislative-session-plan-to-address-election-integrity/

    Replies: @German_reader

    Wait a sec….. Germany requires a picture ID to vote!

    You don’t need to tell me, I see nothing wrong with requiring ID for voting, the present practice in many US states seems overly lax and might facilitate voting fraud (or at least leads to persistent insecurity about the legitimacy of official election results).

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader

    Sorry.

    I was calling SPIEGEL out. Not you... I should have been more explicit. My bad.
    ____

    If SPIEGEL thinks picture ID is offensive, why didn't they call out Germany? Or, every nation with mandatory voter ID? After all, only a handful of countries require ID.... Right.... Wait....

    Nope. It is just about everyone:

     
    https://i.redd.it/sk128lmz91611.png
     

    Haiti has stronger ID requirements than the U.S.
    _____

    It goes back to the Fake Stream Media pushing Globalist propaganda. Accurately informed voters and citizens must be avoided at all costs.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    , @songbird
    @German_reader

    You'd be surprised how many people I've heard take the line of the media. IMO, it is so dumb, that they could not come to that opinion independently. It has to be programatically.

    They say that black turnout is high, but I have often wondered if that is really true. Is it really so hard to believe that they use the monolithic nature of the black vote, just to send in lots of fake votes in black areas? Not uncommon to get like 97% of the vote in some wards, very comparable to the tally of many third world dictators.

    I have heard African immigrants complain about the black vote being stolen during presidential elections. Funny how it always seems to be about the Big Man. As though, there aren't many obvious signs of black political power, like the Black Congressional Caucus, or blacks don't control major cities.

  99. @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    The defenders will embed into the industrial facilities & other high value locations. The PLA will have to fight building by building to root out resistance. Industry and infrastructure will be turned into scrap along the way.

    Would Xi Jinping:
    — Emulate GW Bush’s inadequate Iraq aftermath?
    — Or, make huge resource transfers from the mainland to Taipei to repair the devastation inflicted by the PRC military?
     

    The latter simply wouldn't work for much of Taiwan's production of semiconductors, that's part of a world wide ecosystem where embargoes subsequent to the hostilities would leave anything intact inoperable and I'll bet this is not the only industry where that's true. There would also be no replacing of TSMC's already embargoed to the PRC EUV lithography machines, which the PRC is at best decades away from being able to copy, they're crazy intense bleeding edge state of the art technology, start with a droplet of molten tin being zapped by a laser....

    Now the PRC in and of itself can get by pretty well with earlier technology semiconductors, one of the things that will really matter is how extensive export and import bans would get, as well a potentially a blockade, something the US Navy can still do to the extent it abstains from making people with names like Cameron Mahmood Aljilani captains of our attack and guided missile submarines.

    Of course going that far would likely start a general war, just as it did with Imperial Japan when a financial blockade you might call it put its leaders in a politically impossible position and facing mass starvation. Here a great deal of the PRC would also stop running without crude oil and natural gas imports, contrary to Yellowface Anon's thoughts, Russia could not quickly replace either, and does anyone know if it could supply both Europe and the PRC with enough natural gas? And see what among other things an import ban of Australian coal over COVID issues handled by "Wolf Warrior" "diplomacy" has done to the PRC's ability to supply electricity to its factories.

    Other problems with likely lethal consequences is how much of the world's essential manufacturing has been outsourced to the PRC, although some of that it mostly Green insanity, like the magnesium needed to make strong aluminum. So while they aren't much trusted to make drugs in their final forms, the supply chains for everything from chemical precursors to finished active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) trace back to the PRC for the majority of the world's drugs. Many would die in the time necessary to reestablish production outside of it.

    So it would be a colossal mess where deaths way outside of the actual area(s) of fighting would be significant, and likely far exceed those in it, a not uncommon historical pattern. And what if Xi's faction's hold on power is predicated on taking Taiwan? Internal faction fights can have awful effects to completely unrelated countries, see how the US ruling trash has done almost everything they can to start a hot shooting war with Russia, starting in 2016 primarily because of the BAD ORANGE MAN. Who then had to be "tough" with Russia to not further feed the insane collusion narrative and various legal efforts related to it, including one impeachment effort that just happened to coincide with the PRC's export of COVID to the rest of the world....

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    Good job for pinpoint how fragile our economics system is, if not geopolitics.

    The only thing I want to add is the fact that factions of varying size, in some places with access to policy-making, want things to fall apart instead of having constructive changes or even maintaining the status quo.

  100. Why Trumpism after 2024 will suck for a sizable segment of the US population:

    https://foreignpolicynews.org/2021/09/01/is-donald-trump-preparing-an-orwellian-government-for-2024/
    https://katehon.com/en/article/donald-trump-preparing-his-return-white-house

    Biden sux but Trump won’t be any better. The only good he could do at that moment is to remove most if not all of COVID restrictions, but the damage and economic realignment are done by then.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Yellowface Anon

    The Orwellian Lügenpresse of deception and fake news is lying about Trump.

    There is a huge amount that a MAGA Presidency supported by a MAGA Legislature can do.

    On energy policy -- Cancel wind & solar subsidies. Remove restrictions on domestic hydro carbon fuels.

    On visas -- Sharply cut visa classes that are associated with U.S. Citizen wage suppression (H1, H2, OPT, etc.).

    On Reindustrialization -- Take steps to mandate domestic extraction of raw materials and production costs of national security goods.

    On Taxes and Outsourcing -- Pass a $50K+ surcharge tax on every outsourced job (direct and contractor). Keep this charge completely separate from income & other taxes that may dilute the financial impact with offsetting credits.

    On Education -- Make openly racist propaganda in the schools illegal as child abuse. Fake teachers who get caught damaging students with CRT go on the "Child Abuser Registry" and are permanently barred from jobs that interact with children.

    On the FBI (and similar agencies) -- Investigate, remove, and convict corrupt officials who illegally spied on Americans in a deliberate attempt to undermine the Rule of Law. Follow the chain up to those who funded and controlled the effort.
    _____

    I could go on. The key is avoiding unreasonable expectations. The Lügenpresse will deploy trickery in an attempt to fracture the MAGA base. It is impossible to deliver 100% of everything immediately and perfectly.

    A MAGA House for Appropriations combined with a MAGA Senate for Confirmations is huge. However, the chances of obtaining 60 Senators is fairly slim. Even after a win, some things will require compromise to clear the Filibuster.

    Again, It took decades of SJW malevolence to dig this hole. It is going to take significant time & effort to repair the damage.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  101. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Interesting debate where America went wrong.

    TBH, I think it is a bit autistic to say it was always woke because they went against monarchy (was the British monarchy the real power back then?) or because "all men are created equal" (how many slave owners?). Or that Madison intended judicial review (Marbury v. Madison)

    If I had to say where it could have gone better. I think it would be if they wargamed the Constitution for ten or twenty years, instead of a break-neck rush to approve it. Not that I believe a piece of paper is the end-all-be-all (Liberia), but instructions can help.

    IMO, the country was refounded during the Civil War. Though, I stress the average American was unwoke until, perhaps even slightly past the Civil Rights Era.

    Replies: @schnellandine

    IMO, the country was refounded during the Civil War.

    …to the extent that most people refer to a war between two countries as ‘civil war’. Like so much of ‘history’, a monstrous, pointed lie.

    • Agree: songbird
  102. @German_reader
    @A123


    Wait a sec….. Germany requires a picture ID to vote!
     
    You don't need to tell me, I see nothing wrong with requiring ID for voting, the present practice in many US states seems overly lax and might facilitate voting fraud (or at least leads to persistent insecurity about the legitimacy of official election results).

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

    Sorry.

    I was calling SPIEGEL out. Not you… I should have been more explicit. My bad.
    ____

    If SPIEGEL thinks picture ID is offensive, why didn’t they call out Germany? Or, every nation with mandatory voter ID? After all, only a handful of countries require ID…. Right…. Wait….

    Nope. It is just about everyone:

      

    Haiti has stronger ID requirements than the U.S.
    _____

    It goes back to the Fake Stream Media pushing Globalist propaganda. Accurately informed voters and citizens must be avoided at all costs.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  103. @German_reader
    @songbird

    Is that from Andrew Anglin?
    Anyway, I wouldn't put it like that (and why legos? Lego is from Denmark).
    Btw, SPIEGEL today ran a rather hysterical piece about Trump preparing for his 2nd term, and Republicans changing voting laws in several states (to disenfranchise blacks, who can't be bothered to get ID or whatever; also state legislatures having the final say about electors); they also cited anti-Trump "conservatives" like Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol, lol. Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility? Can't say I'd be looking forward to it, the Trump show got pretty tiresome last time around imo, and I don't think it will even do much good for the interests of most of his voters.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird, @A123, @AP

    Now I know MAGA fans like A123 think Trump might be back in 2024, but is that really a realistic possibility?

    Trump is the most popular person among Republicans, so if he chooses to run there is a 90% chance that he will be the Republican nominee. Which means he has a good chance to become president.

  104. @Yellowface Anon
    Why Trumpism after 2024 will suck for a sizable segment of the US population:

    https://foreignpolicynews.org/2021/09/01/is-donald-trump-preparing-an-orwellian-government-for-2024/
    https://katehon.com/en/article/donald-trump-preparing-his-return-white-house

    Biden sux but Trump won't be any better. The only good he could do at that moment is to remove most if not all of COVID restrictions, but the damage and economic realignment are done by then.

    Replies: @A123

    The Orwellian Lügenpresse of deception and fake news is lying about Trump.

    There is a huge amount that a MAGA Presidency supported by a MAGA Legislature can do.

    On energy policy — Cancel wind & solar subsidies. Remove restrictions on domestic hydro carbon fuels.

    On visas — Sharply cut visa classes that are associated with U.S. Citizen wage suppression (H1, H2, OPT, etc.).

    On Reindustrialization — Take steps to mandate domestic extraction of raw materials and production costs of national security goods.

    On Taxes and Outsourcing — Pass a \$50K+ surcharge tax on every outsourced job (direct and contractor). Keep this charge completely separate from income & other taxes that may dilute the financial impact with offsetting credits.

    On Education — Make openly racist propaganda in the schools illegal as child abuse. Fake teachers who get caught damaging students with CRT go on the “Child Abuser Registry” and are permanently barred from jobs that interact with children.

    On the FBI (and similar agencies) — Investigate, remove, and convict corrupt officials who illegally spied on Americans in a deliberate attempt to undermine the Rule of Law. Follow the chain up to those who funded and controlled the effort.
    _____

    I could go on. The key is avoiding unreasonable expectations. The Lügenpresse will deploy trickery in an attempt to fracture the MAGA base. It is impossible to deliver 100% of everything immediately and perfectly.

    A MAGA House for Appropriations combined with a MAGA Senate for Confirmations is huge. However, the chances of obtaining 60 Senators is fairly slim. Even after a win, some things will require compromise to clear the Filibuster.

    Again, It took decades of SJW malevolence to dig this hole. It is going to take significant time & effort to repair the damage.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    PBUYT, my point is that Trumpists like you want to repay authoritarianism with authoritarianism. You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    Replies: @Pericles, @iffen, @A123

  105. @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    The defenders will embed into the industrial facilities & other high value locations. The PLA will have to fight building by building to root out resistance. Industry and infrastructure will be turned into scrap along the way.

    Would Xi Jinping:
    — Emulate GW Bush’s inadequate Iraq aftermath?
    — Or, make huge resource transfers from the mainland to Taipei to repair the devastation inflicted by the PRC military?
     

    The latter simply wouldn't work for much of Taiwan's production of semiconductors, that's part of a world wide ecosystem where embargoes subsequent to the hostilities would leave anything intact inoperable and I'll bet this is not the only industry where that's true. There would also be no replacing of TSMC's already embargoed to the PRC EUV lithography machines, which the PRC is at best decades away from being able to copy, they're crazy intense bleeding edge state of the art technology, start with a droplet of molten tin being zapped by a laser....

    Now the PRC in and of itself can get by pretty well with earlier technology semiconductors, one of the things that will really matter is how extensive export and import bans would get, as well a potentially a blockade, something the US Navy can still do to the extent it abstains from making people with names like Cameron Mahmood Aljilani captains of our attack and guided missile submarines.

    Of course going that far would likely start a general war, just as it did with Imperial Japan when a financial blockade you might call it put its leaders in a politically impossible position and facing mass starvation. Here a great deal of the PRC would also stop running without crude oil and natural gas imports, contrary to Yellowface Anon's thoughts, Russia could not quickly replace either, and does anyone know if it could supply both Europe and the PRC with enough natural gas? And see what among other things an import ban of Australian coal over COVID issues handled by "Wolf Warrior" "diplomacy" has done to the PRC's ability to supply electricity to its factories.

    Other problems with likely lethal consequences is how much of the world's essential manufacturing has been outsourced to the PRC, although some of that it mostly Green insanity, like the magnesium needed to make strong aluminum. So while they aren't much trusted to make drugs in their final forms, the supply chains for everything from chemical precursors to finished active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) trace back to the PRC for the majority of the world's drugs. Many would die in the time necessary to reestablish production outside of it.

    So it would be a colossal mess where deaths way outside of the actual area(s) of fighting would be significant, and likely far exceed those in it, a not uncommon historical pattern. And what if Xi's faction's hold on power is predicated on taking Taiwan? Internal faction fights can have awful effects to completely unrelated countries, see how the US ruling trash has done almost everything they can to start a hot shooting war with Russia, starting in 2016 primarily because of the BAD ORANGE MAN. Who then had to be "tough" with Russia to not further feed the insane collusion narrative and various legal efforts related to it, including one impeachment effort that just happened to coincide with the PRC's export of COVID to the rest of the world....

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    You are correct.

    Every country, and every faction in those countries, has good reason to oppose a war that would damage the global economy.

    The stated policy of the:
    — CCP/PRC is waiting for Peaceful reunification.
    — ROC is avoiding anything so provocative it might change CCP policy.

    There is more commerce, more personal interaction, and direct flights between the PRC and ROC. The relationship is much better than it was in the 80’s.

    PEACE 😇

  106. Would be better if the “It’s okay to be white” people, transitioned to “It’s okay to be Euro.”

    Don’t play the blank-slatists’ game. Make it nakedly about genetics. Make the BBC explain that it has nothing to do with the EU, and then make them call it a hate crime.

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    Would be better if the “It’s okay to be white” people, transitioned to “It’s okay to be Euro.”

    Don’t play the blank-slatists’ game. Make it nakedly about genetics....
     
    That's dialectic, which has its place.

    But a lot of the "It's okay to be white" movement is about getting Leftists to blow a gasket about something that on its surface is OK to a lot of whites, especially when the Leftists hotly deny it's true. Maybe anti-white hatred is so overt now that this meme is no longer useful, but it not, don't hold such powerful rhetoric in disdain.

    Replies: @German_reader, @songbird

  107. @songbird
    Would be better if the "It's okay to be white" people, transitioned to "It's okay to be Euro."

    Don't play the blank-slatists' game. Make it nakedly about genetics. Make the BBC explain that it has nothing to do with the EU, and then make them call it a hate crime.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    Would be better if the “It’s okay to be white” people, transitioned to “It’s okay to be Euro.”

    Don’t play the blank-slatists’ game. Make it nakedly about genetics….

    That’s dialectic, which has its place.

    But a lot of the “It’s okay to be white” movement is about getting Leftists to blow a gasket about something that on its surface is OK to a lot of whites, especially when the Leftists hotly deny it’s true. Maybe anti-white hatred is so overt now that this meme is no longer useful, but it not, don’t hold such powerful rhetoric in disdain.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @That Would Be Telling

    I think songbird was referring to this:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-59179914

    , @songbird
    @That Would Be Telling

    When I see people in Europe call themselves white, I really feel like that is a loss. One thing is that it results in easy capture of different nationalities. When you accept "white", so simple to add the modifier "black" to any nationality, basically neutralizing the term. And I think people are a bit reluctant to use the proper term by itself anyway because of the influx of other Euro nationalities and hybrids.

    I also wonder if "Euro" wouldn't be a sort of curveball to the mind of progressives. "White" may instantly drive them to color signal, to be opposed, but "Euro" might not have the same grip on their hindbrain. While they may still be opposed to it, in theory, it may undercut the emotional response - the immediate answer, and its organizing capacity.

    Replies: @Pericles

  108. @German_reader
    @A123


    Wait a sec….. Germany requires a picture ID to vote!
     
    You don't need to tell me, I see nothing wrong with requiring ID for voting, the present practice in many US states seems overly lax and might facilitate voting fraud (or at least leads to persistent insecurity about the legitimacy of official election results).

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

    You’d be surprised how many people I’ve heard take the line of the media. IMO, it is so dumb, that they could not come to that opinion independently. It has to be programatically.

    They say that black turnout is high, but I have often wondered if that is really true. Is it really so hard to believe that they use the monolithic nature of the black vote, just to send in lots of fake votes in black areas? Not uncommon to get like 97% of the vote in some wards, very comparable to the tally of many third world dictators.

    I have heard African immigrants complain about the black vote being stolen during presidential elections. Funny how it always seems to be about the Big Man. As though, there aren’t many obvious signs of black political power, like the Black Congressional Caucus, or blacks don’t control major cities.

  109. @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    Would be better if the “It’s okay to be white” people, transitioned to “It’s okay to be Euro.”

    Don’t play the blank-slatists’ game. Make it nakedly about genetics....
     
    That's dialectic, which has its place.

    But a lot of the "It's okay to be white" movement is about getting Leftists to blow a gasket about something that on its surface is OK to a lot of whites, especially when the Leftists hotly deny it's true. Maybe anti-white hatred is so overt now that this meme is no longer useful, but it not, don't hold such powerful rhetoric in disdain.

    Replies: @German_reader, @songbird

    I think songbird was referring to this:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-59179914

    • Agree: songbird
  110. @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    Would be better if the “It’s okay to be white” people, transitioned to “It’s okay to be Euro.”

    Don’t play the blank-slatists’ game. Make it nakedly about genetics....
     
    That's dialectic, which has its place.

    But a lot of the "It's okay to be white" movement is about getting Leftists to blow a gasket about something that on its surface is OK to a lot of whites, especially when the Leftists hotly deny it's true. Maybe anti-white hatred is so overt now that this meme is no longer useful, but it not, don't hold such powerful rhetoric in disdain.

    Replies: @German_reader, @songbird

    When I see people in Europe call themselves white, I really feel like that is a loss. One thing is that it results in easy capture of different nationalities. When you accept “white”, so simple to add the modifier “black” to any nationality, basically neutralizing the term. And I think people are a bit reluctant to use the proper term by itself anyway because of the influx of other Euro nationalities and hybrids.

    I also wonder if “Euro” wouldn’t be a sort of curveball to the mind of progressives. “White” may instantly drive them to color signal, to be opposed, but “Euro” might not have the same grip on their hindbrain. While they may still be opposed to it, in theory, it may undercut the emotional response – the immediate answer, and its organizing capacity.

    • Thanks: That Would Be Telling
    • Replies: @Pericles
    @songbird



    I also wonder if “Euro” wouldn’t be a sort of curveball to the mind of progressives. “White” may instantly drive them to color signal, to be opposed, but “Euro” might not have the same grip on their hindbrain. While they may still be opposed to it, in theory, it may undercut the emotional response – the immediate answer, and its organizing capacity.

     

    Probably not. We have for some time been at the stage that the negro that arrived yesterday is as much Swedish as you, etc. Or that SAS ad where a grinning gaptoothed black specimen was going on about 'our' ancestors. So the official answer would obviously be that Hamid from Morocco already is a European too.

    Replies: @songbird

  111. @Mr. Hack
    @mal

    The style and premise of this clip harkens back to a much earlier era, perhaps the club scene of the 1980's, so looking at it today is kind of nostalgically bizarre. What does not harken back to an earlier era, however, are the planes on display and their capabilities. I've never seen stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging is incredible!

    Replies: @schnellandine, @Dmitry, @mal

    For this clip they hired nightclub “go-go dancers” that have this distinctive special dancing style.

    In nightclubs in Russia, they have a job of groups of girls who dance like this wearing underwear or bikinis.

    Also there are men that do this job (wearing dark shirts and shiny ties as well, and they kind of dance more like in Korean boybands).

    This dancing style works perfect with alcohol and techno style of music. Not so much for hiring them apparently making YouTube clips.

    Russia has probably the world’s best nightclubs, but only at 2am, when extremely drunk, and losing co-ordination of your limbs.

    You know you are in Russia when you have a blurry vision of these guys at 2am and the DJ is shouting random words of the song

    stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging

    They are wooden RC models, which have a different weight ratio and you can make them float like this.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Dmitry

    Is the video contemporary? It feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven't changed much? I have not gone clubbing in many years.

    I was at a Russian wedding in Brooklyn before Covid and there was an African-American DJ singing the "Kaifuyem" song in decent Russian.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Dmitry

    To be honest, I never was a great fan of clubbing. Sure, way back in the day I went to a few clubs that played disco music, but not much since then. The images that I had in mind when I wrote the above comment were fueled by the many images that I've seen watching film and TV. I've enjoyed going to concerts much more. I haven't been to any since the pandemic went full throttle. The last two concerts that I remember going to included one by Al DiMeola and another one with Latin jazz pianist Eliane Elias. I think that you might enjoy the music of both of these artists.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  112. I think it is also possible that what happened to the US was purely based on an economic process, that the ideology followed the economics. That it had to do with the scale, the boundless potential for growth, and profit. The mass movement of people attracted by this wealth.

    [MORE]

    Consider there were a lot of European immigrants who went to the UK or France (Conrad went to both places), just nowhere near as many, to make it the same political-dynamic process, at least in those days. (though both places are certainly quite corrupt now). One reason being that the standard of living in America was undoubtedly higher.

    The USSR was very woke compared to the US, in the ’30s. Robert Robinson (black man) was elected (he was not running) to the Moscow Soviet along with Khrushchev, while Ford blacklisted him from Ford plants in America because of the bad press he generated.

    Ford perfected production in America, paying his employees high wages. Think of the complexity of a car, and see how it suggests the complexity of the economy. The many layers for graft, the wealth of the employees to be stolen, skimmed by unions, or other means, Ford’s wealth to go to charities. (the Ford Foundation being a really sinister one today, but no Russian organization from a contemporary)

    While the picture in the USSR was dramatically different. Not much complexity. The foundations of Ford’s factories there were made in part from demolished churches. (No complexity to make the proper frost-resistant foundations) No trucks used. Only women using wheelbarrows and horses, and the horses were obviously underfed. They did not have the complexity for the trucks, nor to even feed the horses well.

    Wokeness declined in America during the Depression, Hollywood and immigration were brought under control, when the economic spigots were turned off.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    You're getting on the right track in your thinking.

    Replies: @songbird

  113. @Dmitry
    @Mr. Hack

    For this clip they hired nightclub "go-go dancers" that have this distinctive special dancing style.

    In nightclubs in Russia, they have a job of groups of girls who dance like this wearing underwear or bikinis.

    Also there are men that do this job (wearing dark shirts and shiny ties as well, and they kind of dance more like in Korean boybands).

    This dancing style works perfect with alcohol and techno style of music. Not so much for hiring them apparently making YouTube clips.

    -

    Russia has probably the world's best nightclubs, but only at 2am, when extremely drunk, and losing co-ordination of your limbs.

    You know you are in Russia when you have a blurry vision of these guys at 2am and the DJ is shouting random words of the song
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3I3nE_-YQY


    stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging
     
    They are wooden RC models, which have a different weight ratio and you can make them float like this.

    Replies: @AP, @Mr. Hack

    Is the video contemporary? It feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven’t changed much? I have not gone clubbing in many years.

    I was at a Russian wedding in Brooklyn before Covid and there was an African-American DJ singing the “Kaifuyem” song in decent Russian.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @AP

    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip, because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style.

    They are a kind of office workers who need to clock in the same hours per week at the club, and use labour-saving mechanical movements.

    It must be a relaxing job for them, repeating always these same routine movements, looking at the drunk people everynight, while getting the aerobic exercise to maintain a good looking figure.

    Nowadays people can't smoke in the club so they haven't much downside
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odQ8MqhiEx0


    I have not gone clubbing in many years.
     
    Surely your lack of hearing loss and tinnitus will be thanking you. Congratulations, you can enjoy excellent hearing at the philharmonic concert.

    Although aside from hearing sensitivity, since they banned all indoor smoking, clubbers are pretty healthy people if we think about it.

    Weekly jumping around aerobically is excellent exercise, at least offsetting negative effects of the coca cola and vodka. (And it's usually diet cola). Disco-ordinated crazy dancing of the club people, probably good for you psychologically as well.


    t feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven’t changed

     

    Late 90s looks like the utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours in the summer mornings, and recreating strange pagan rituals outside of any capitalist club system.

    They even enjoy clean air, and some kind of charity of giving people free mineral water and low alcohol healthfood drinks like Heineken beer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69jNFTFPn8

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP, @LatW, @SafeNow

  114. @mal

    So Turkey has now developed a capacity to destroy third world militaries for people to watch on YouTube.
     
    That drone has capacity of like 150 kg? For about $6 million a pop? A howitzer from a century ago is more cost effective. Real weapons don't have the time to film YouTube videos because they are out of range before impact even occurs. I mean, for the price of 4 Bayraktars you can buy an obsolete Su-24 that can deliver 8 tons of bombs, with the only bottleneck being pilot training.

    Never understood obsession with weak drones - long range rocket artillery (with drone spotters) is vastly more cost effective. Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are the future for the ground forces, not Bayraktars.

    YouTube videos is not the same as combat efficiency.

    Meanwhile, in the more important world of satellite warfare, Konanykhin published a video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVsvUQHr7Ec

    This is far more consequential than silly drone videos.

    Here are the satellite tracks.
    https://vimeo.com/comspoc

    It is clear that in 2019 USA 271 jumped Chinese Chinasat 6A and Chinese were asleep at the wheel. But Chinese also clearly conduct combat training for their satellite crews as explained in this video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx5zevd6AdU

    This is the future of warfare, not some silly 150 kg Turkish drones.

    Replies: @utu, @Philip Owen, @Dmitry

    This is the future of warfare, not some silly 150 kg Turkish drones.

    Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency recognized that obvious obviousness signed agreement with Roscosmos.
    https://tass.com/science/1356779

    And Zambia already knew it in 1964
    https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/zambian-space-programme

    • Replies: @mal
    @utu


    The two sides discussed cooperation in the field of remote sensing of the Earth and in training space industry personnel.
     
    Nicee nice! Russia is getting a Florida, finally! This means Sphere satellite manufacturing problems caused by sanctions are getting resolved.

    Basically, a hint. When it comes to satellites, whenever you hear garbage buzzwords such as "remote sensing", or "environmental monitoring", or "atmospheric studies", or "communications relay", it means - battlefield command and control stations.

    And sure, their official declared use will be to watch polar bears eat dinner, or watch geese migrate, or help teenagers in rural Alabama win Call of Duty death match thanks to low latency. All true, but we are not spending $trillions on satellite constellations to watch polar bears eat dinner. That's more of a side benefit.

    Russia of course had troubles with equatorial orbits (no Russian territories close to equator, New Guinea spaceport is more French than Russian), but it looks like Zimbabwe is stepping up to the plate. Good on them - hosting Russian military satcom (satellite command center) is the second best thing to being under Russian nuclear umbrella. Zimbabwe will be going places with this.

    Also:

    The programme eventually fell apart, and not just because of the lack of funds. Mwamba fell pregnant and returned home. Other astronauts left, reportedly going on drinking sprees and never returning or moving onto other pastimes such as tribal song and dance.
     
    Based.

    Replies: @songbird

  115. @Dmitry
    @Mr. Hack

    For this clip they hired nightclub "go-go dancers" that have this distinctive special dancing style.

    In nightclubs in Russia, they have a job of groups of girls who dance like this wearing underwear or bikinis.

    Also there are men that do this job (wearing dark shirts and shiny ties as well, and they kind of dance more like in Korean boybands).

    This dancing style works perfect with alcohol and techno style of music. Not so much for hiring them apparently making YouTube clips.

    -

    Russia has probably the world's best nightclubs, but only at 2am, when extremely drunk, and losing co-ordination of your limbs.

    You know you are in Russia when you have a blurry vision of these guys at 2am and the DJ is shouting random words of the song
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3I3nE_-YQY


    stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging
     
    They are wooden RC models, which have a different weight ratio and you can make them float like this.

    Replies: @AP, @Mr. Hack

    To be honest, I never was a great fan of clubbing. Sure, way back in the day I went to a few clubs that played disco music, but not much since then. The images that I had in mind when I wrote the above comment were fueled by the many images that I’ve seen watching film and TV. I’ve enjoyed going to concerts much more. I haven’t been to any since the pandemic went full throttle. The last two concerts that I remember going to included one by Al DiMeola and another one with Latin jazz pianist Eliane Elias. I think that you might enjoy the music of both of these artists.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Mr. Hack

    Did you notice when Chick Corea has unfortunately died this year?

    I was occasionally following his YouTube channel when he was livestreaming practicing sessions. He stopped only two weeks before he died. He was doing "musical portraits" on YouTube for his fans a month before he died. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ktLYIEaGU0.

    Replies: @schnellandine, @Mr. Hack

  116. @songbird
    I think it is also possible that what happened to the US was purely based on an economic process, that the ideology followed the economics. That it had to do with the scale, the boundless potential for growth, and profit. The mass movement of people attracted by this wealth.

    Consider there were a lot of European immigrants who went to the UK or France (Conrad went to both places), just nowhere near as many, to make it the same political-dynamic process, at least in those days. (though both places are certainly quite corrupt now). One reason being that the standard of living in America was undoubtedly higher.

    The USSR was very woke compared to the US, in the '30s. Robert Robinson (black man) was elected (he was not running) to the Moscow Soviet along with Khrushchev, while Ford blacklisted him from Ford plants in America because of the bad press he generated.

    Ford perfected production in America, paying his employees high wages. Think of the complexity of a car, and see how it suggests the complexity of the economy. The many layers for graft, the wealth of the employees to be stolen, skimmed by unions, or other means, Ford's wealth to go to charities. (the Ford Foundation being a really sinister one today, but no Russian organization from a contemporary)

    While the picture in the USSR was dramatically different. Not much complexity. The foundations of Ford's factories there were made in part from demolished churches. (No complexity to make the proper frost-resistant foundations) No trucks used. Only women using wheelbarrows and horses, and the horses were obviously underfed. They did not have the complexity for the trucks, nor to even feed the horses well.

    Wokeness declined in America during the Depression, Hollywood and immigration were brought under control, when the economic spigots were turned off.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    You’re getting on the right track in your thinking.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Also, think of Sweden. Sat out both world wars, so was richer. Many people consider it to be the most pozzed country in the world. (Might be changing? I wonder, as we move further from the wars. No lockdown. Less peace on the streets, as grenades from ethnic gangs explode)

    US went through both wars and a few others. But in a kind of weak way, if you count the scale. Easy to see when you compare American cars from the '50s to those of other countries. Add the casualties all up and it will be a lot less than other countries. Virtually zero bombing or shelling of mainland.

    Switzerland sat out both wars, but is landlocked. This probably had a political effect on it, which helps distinguish it from Sweden or the US. Women's suffrage came fairly late to parts of it. Though, it is by no means super-based, as it is prosperous. Being landlocked in Europe - which is maybe the most developed place on Earth, by size, probably isn't as bad as being landlocked in other places.

    Austria is a little less pozzed than Germany. Maybe, because smaller scale and landlocked. Not the economic tiger of Europe, like Germany. Though still very pozzed by any reasonable standard. some crossover due to language.

  117. @A123
    @Yellowface Anon

    The Orwellian Lügenpresse of deception and fake news is lying about Trump.

    There is a huge amount that a MAGA Presidency supported by a MAGA Legislature can do.

    On energy policy -- Cancel wind & solar subsidies. Remove restrictions on domestic hydro carbon fuels.

    On visas -- Sharply cut visa classes that are associated with U.S. Citizen wage suppression (H1, H2, OPT, etc.).

    On Reindustrialization -- Take steps to mandate domestic extraction of raw materials and production costs of national security goods.

    On Taxes and Outsourcing -- Pass a $50K+ surcharge tax on every outsourced job (direct and contractor). Keep this charge completely separate from income & other taxes that may dilute the financial impact with offsetting credits.

    On Education -- Make openly racist propaganda in the schools illegal as child abuse. Fake teachers who get caught damaging students with CRT go on the "Child Abuser Registry" and are permanently barred from jobs that interact with children.

    On the FBI (and similar agencies) -- Investigate, remove, and convict corrupt officials who illegally spied on Americans in a deliberate attempt to undermine the Rule of Law. Follow the chain up to those who funded and controlled the effort.
    _____

    I could go on. The key is avoiding unreasonable expectations. The Lügenpresse will deploy trickery in an attempt to fracture the MAGA base. It is impossible to deliver 100% of everything immediately and perfectly.

    A MAGA House for Appropriations combined with a MAGA Senate for Confirmations is huge. However, the chances of obtaining 60 Senators is fairly slim. Even after a win, some things will require compromise to clear the Filibuster.

    Again, It took decades of SJW malevolence to dig this hole. It is going to take significant time & effort to repair the damage.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    PBUYT, my point is that Trumpists like you want to repay authoritarianism with authoritarianism. You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    • Replies: @Pericles
    @Yellowface Anon

    Perhaps it is our turn to eat, mister?

    , @iffen
    @Yellowface Anon

    You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    The woke are socialist totalitarians. They are the extreme left of the Democratic Party which is a moderate socialist party. Both factions are ignorant and detached from "economic" reality.

    Trump is a populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Trump's base would acquiesce in authoritarian actions against the extreme woke left, but not against the moderate and regular socialists in the Democratic Party.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123, @Barbarossa

    , @A123
    @Yellowface Anon


    my point is that Trumpists like you want to repay authoritarianism with authoritarianism.
     
    Except, I am not a "Trumpist". I am not overly wrapped up on a single individual. I want to seize the opportunity to build something better. A MAGA party resistant to control by Oligarchs and foreign nations.

    Do you agree that the education and media establishment us a huge part of the problem?

    I really do not want to repay with authoritarianism. I am realistic that SJW MegaCorporations and their allies are engaged in Orwellian manipulation of the U.S. population.

    What is your "non-authoritarian" option to clean up the Lügenpresse?


    while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.
     
    MAGA wants to investigate the Oligarchs for their manipulation. Given their personal enrichment paid by foreign governments, a more rational future expectation is:

    ...while oligarchs are whimpering, powerless behind the bars.
    __________________________________________

    You are badly trapped in a logical conundrum of your own making. It is preventing you from thinking clearly. Try this as a thought experiment:

    If _________ is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for __________.

    If "gravity" is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for "gravity". This makes sense. Right? Dealing with "gravity" is simply realism.

    If "authoritarianism" is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for "authoritarianism". This makes sense. Right?

    You keep defining 100% of everything as "authoritarianism", and then you decry "authoritarianism". If everything must be "authoritarianism", then your cries are at best futile and at worst counterproductive.

    What is your "non-authoritarian" option?

    Accusations of "authoritarianism" are only meaningful if there is a "non-authoritarian" alternative. You have yet to present one.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  118. 21st Century will be the century of fascism. Why?
    https://lateralthinkingtechnology.wordpress.com/2021/11/06/fascism-without-fascism-or-whatever-happened-to-the-ubermensch-of-tomorrow/

    Something the post hasn’t mentioned is the fascistization of oligarchic capitalism and the project of extreme economic polarization pursued by globalist ideologues.

    From Michael Hudson:

    [Paul Jay:] The power that the financial institutions wield over government is what Roosevelt defined as fascism. He said that when one sector of the economy, one group of companies essentially controls or owns the government, that’s fascism. And we are virtually, or we are there.

    Michael Hudson:
    You’re quite right. You’re absolutely right.

    That is the problem, we are in a centrally planned economy, but central planning is done on Wall Street, not in Washington. Now that you’ve essentially privatized and financialized the political process, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, and corporations can buy control of the political process. So that’s basically what the problem is.
    Let’s get back to fascism because that’s very important. Around the time that Roosevelt made that comment, Trotsky analyzed fascism in Germany and Italy, and he said that fascism is what occurred when the socialists don’t have a solution to the problems.

    I think we are indeed emerging in that kind of fascism today because you don’t have the left or the progressive interests really coming up with a solution to the problems. And that’s because the only kind of solution is so radical that it can’t be solved within the existing political framework and the existing legal framework. There has to be the equivalent of a revolution. It’s not going to be an anti-fascist revolution; then it’ll be a fascist revolution. What we’re seeing is that kind of a slow revolution.

    Warren Buffett said there is a war and we’re winning, but we seem to be the only people that know that the wars on. The war is on, and we’re moving towards an economy ruled by the one percent. And I mean, fascism basically is the integration of corporations and the state leaving out the voters and the working class. It’s a corporate state. And as you pointed out, we’re not simply a corporate state here. Otherwise, the industrialists would be trying to run the economy to promote the industry. We’re in a financialized state, and that’s finance capitalism, which is very different from industrial capitalism. Many of the Left, especially the Marxists, still talk about industrial capitalism as being the problem. And yet industrial capitalism is being phased out in the United States, as you pointed out at the beginning of this show. And it’s being phased out by finance capitalism. […]

  119. @songbird
    @That Would Be Telling

    When I see people in Europe call themselves white, I really feel like that is a loss. One thing is that it results in easy capture of different nationalities. When you accept "white", so simple to add the modifier "black" to any nationality, basically neutralizing the term. And I think people are a bit reluctant to use the proper term by itself anyway because of the influx of other Euro nationalities and hybrids.

    I also wonder if "Euro" wouldn't be a sort of curveball to the mind of progressives. "White" may instantly drive them to color signal, to be opposed, but "Euro" might not have the same grip on their hindbrain. While they may still be opposed to it, in theory, it may undercut the emotional response - the immediate answer, and its organizing capacity.

    Replies: @Pericles

    I also wonder if “Euro” wouldn’t be a sort of curveball to the mind of progressives. “White” may instantly drive them to color signal, to be opposed, but “Euro” might not have the same grip on their hindbrain. While they may still be opposed to it, in theory, it may undercut the emotional response – the immediate answer, and its organizing capacity.

    Probably not. We have for some time been at the stage that the negro that arrived yesterday is as much Swedish as you, etc. Or that SAS ad where a grinning gaptoothed black specimen was going on about ‘our’ ancestors. So the official answer would obviously be that Hamid from Morocco already is a European too.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Pericles

    IMO, blacks suffer the most from the euphemism treadmill. Observation always catches up with their new reputation. I think the word African-American was conceived because it was difficult to say, so would be said less.


    Or that SAS ad where a grinning gaptoothed black specimen was going on about ‘our’ ancestors.
     
    Makes me laugh every time. I hope they will live to regret that.

    The idea of expropriating people's ancestors to fake a kinship with blacks seems to go back a long time, but with never as bold a visual. IIRC, HG Wells castigated Americans for their attitude towards blacks - that they shared ancestors with blacks, like William the Conqueror, unlike Italians. (Of course, he was wrong on both counts. I.e., Italians are also descended from Normans, and English more closely related to Italians than blacks.)
  120. @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    PBUYT, my point is that Trumpists like you want to repay authoritarianism with authoritarianism. You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    Replies: @Pericles, @iffen, @A123

    Perhaps it is our turn to eat, mister?

  121. @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    PBUYT, my point is that Trumpists like you want to repay authoritarianism with authoritarianism. You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    Replies: @Pericles, @iffen, @A123

    You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    The woke are socialist totalitarians. They are the extreme left of the Democratic Party which is a moderate socialist party. Both factions are ignorant and detached from “economic” reality.

    Trump is a populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Trump’s base would acquiesce in authoritarian actions against the extreme woke left, but not against the moderate and regular socialists in the Democratic Party.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @iffen


    Both factions are ignorant and detached from “economic” reality.
     
    The center of American politics is deeply right-wing, and this means the only permissibly "realistic" interpretation of American economy is flavors of right-wing liberalism. Go read Michael Hudson.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.
     
    Some of those sensibilities probably comes from holding centers of power.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    , @A123
    @iffen


    Trump is a populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Trump’s base would acquiesce in authoritarian actions against the extreme woke left, but not against the moderate and regular socialists in the Democratic Party.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.
     
    MAGA is Populist movement with realistic tendencies. Given its focus on American Jobs for American citizens, it is in the middle of the broken left-right spectrum.

    The MAGA base would like to win over moderates with schools that teach patriotism and reinforce traditional Judeo-Christian values. No more acceptance of skirt wearing men obtaining sexual access to vulnerable girls.

    Extreme woke oligarchs and their acolytes are Nazi-like. And, De-Nazification requires stern measures. They have to be driven out and kept out. It does not have to happen everywhere immediately. The key areas are media, education, and law enforcement. Nazi loyalists and disinformation operatives will also have to be moved out to save these institutions.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @iffen

    , @Barbarossa
    @iffen

    Yes, the way I differentiate it too is that Trump tends strongly toward authoritarianism while the current left tends strongly toward totalitarianism.

    A lot of folks don't get the difference between the two, but I would far prefer the former to the latter.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  122. @iffen
    @Yellowface Anon

    You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    The woke are socialist totalitarians. They are the extreme left of the Democratic Party which is a moderate socialist party. Both factions are ignorant and detached from "economic" reality.

    Trump is a populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Trump's base would acquiesce in authoritarian actions against the extreme woke left, but not against the moderate and regular socialists in the Democratic Party.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123, @Barbarossa

    Both factions are ignorant and detached from “economic” reality.

    The center of American politics is deeply right-wing, and this means the only permissibly “realistic” interpretation of American economy is flavors of right-wing liberalism. Go read Michael Hudson.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.

    Some of those sensibilities probably comes from holding centers of power.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Yellowface Anon


    The center of American politics is deeply right-wing
     
    I would change "right-wing" to libertarian for clarity.

    If conservative and liberal are ideological cultural counterpoints I think it is fair to say that there is no political organization that embodies any form of actual conservatism. It seems that most people who say they are conservative are actually libertarians, who by supporting free-market fundamentalism, are actually supporting the most basic underpinnings of the liberal/ progressive world view.

    Global consumer capitalism seems to me in effect the most anti-conservative force in history.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  123. @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    PBUYT, my point is that Trumpists like you want to repay authoritarianism with authoritarianism. You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    Replies: @Pericles, @iffen, @A123

    my point is that Trumpists like you want to repay authoritarianism with authoritarianism.

    Except, I am not a “Trumpist”. I am not overly wrapped up on a single individual. I want to seize the opportunity to build something better. A MAGA party resistant to control by Oligarchs and foreign nations.

    Do you agree that the education and media establishment us a huge part of the problem?

    I really do not want to repay with authoritarianism. I am realistic that SJW MegaCorporations and their allies are engaged in Orwellian manipulation of the U.S. population.

    What is your “non-authoritarian” option to clean up the Lügenpresse?

    while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    MAGA wants to investigate the Oligarchs for their manipulation. Given their personal enrichment paid by foreign governments, a more rational future expectation is:

    …while oligarchs are whimpering, powerless behind the bars.
    __________________________________________

    You are badly trapped in a logical conundrum of your own making. It is preventing you from thinking clearly. Try this as a thought experiment:

    If _________ is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for __________.

    If “gravity” is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for “gravity”. This makes sense. Right? Dealing with “gravity” is simply realism.

    If “authoritarianism” is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for “authoritarianism”. This makes sense. Right?

    You keep defining 100% of everything as “authoritarianism”, and then you decry “authoritarianism”. If everything must be “authoritarianism”, then your cries are at best futile and at worst counterproductive.

    What is your “non-authoritarian” option?

    Accusations of “authoritarianism” are only meaningful if there is a “non-authoritarian” alternative. You have yet to present one.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @A123

    I'm personally not entirely opposed to some measure of authoritarianism, since it may be the best viable path to reset policies on a system wide scale. As we have seen, bureaucracy excels at covering it's own ass and preventing anything that would threaten it's grip.

    That said, I'm not at all convinced that Trump is really that needed change. I think that Trump is most interested in personal power and saw the opening present itself from the right wing of American politics, since they were the politically marginalized group. My observation has been that Trump has neither principles or ideology, just opinion and self interest. This leads to a kind of refreshing pragmatism which led Trump to express truths which were politically impermissible for others to express, but it also leads to the diffuse and distractable application which epitomized Trump.

    I don't expect to convince you on Trump, so we'll probably just have to agree to disagree; but being what I would regard as a Trump realist, I have no high hopes if he does get a second term.

    Replies: @Pericles

  124. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    You're getting on the right track in your thinking.

    Replies: @songbird

    Also, think of Sweden. Sat out both world wars, so was richer. Many people consider it to be the most pozzed country in the world. (Might be changing? I wonder, as we move further from the wars. No lockdown. Less peace on the streets, as grenades from ethnic gangs explode)

    US went through both wars and a few others. But in a kind of weak way, if you count the scale. Easy to see when you compare American cars from the ’50s to those of other countries. Add the casualties all up and it will be a lot less than other countries. Virtually zero bombing or shelling of mainland.

    Switzerland sat out both wars, but is landlocked. This probably had a political effect on it, which helps distinguish it from Sweden or the US. Women’s suffrage came fairly late to parts of it. Though, it is by no means super-based, as it is prosperous. Being landlocked in Europe – which is maybe the most developed place on Earth, by size, probably isn’t as bad as being landlocked in other places.

    Austria is a little less pozzed than Germany. Maybe, because smaller scale and landlocked. Not the economic tiger of Europe, like Germany. Though still very pozzed by any reasonable standard. some crossover due to language.

  125. @Pericles
    @songbird



    I also wonder if “Euro” wouldn’t be a sort of curveball to the mind of progressives. “White” may instantly drive them to color signal, to be opposed, but “Euro” might not have the same grip on their hindbrain. While they may still be opposed to it, in theory, it may undercut the emotional response – the immediate answer, and its organizing capacity.

     

    Probably not. We have for some time been at the stage that the negro that arrived yesterday is as much Swedish as you, etc. Or that SAS ad where a grinning gaptoothed black specimen was going on about 'our' ancestors. So the official answer would obviously be that Hamid from Morocco already is a European too.

    Replies: @songbird

    IMO, blacks suffer the most from the euphemism treadmill. Observation always catches up with their new reputation. I think the word African-American was conceived because it was difficult to say, so would be said less.

    Or that SAS ad where a grinning gaptoothed black specimen was going on about ‘our’ ancestors.

    Makes me laugh every time. I hope they will live to regret that.

    The idea of expropriating people’s ancestors to fake a kinship with blacks seems to go back a long time, but with never as bold a visual. IIRC, HG Wells castigated Americans for their attitude towards blacks – that they shared ancestors with blacks, like William the Conqueror, unlike Italians. (Of course, he was wrong on both counts. I.e., Italians are also descended from Normans, and English more closely related to Italians than blacks.)

  126. @iffen
    @Yellowface Anon

    You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    The woke are socialist totalitarians. They are the extreme left of the Democratic Party which is a moderate socialist party. Both factions are ignorant and detached from "economic" reality.

    Trump is a populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Trump's base would acquiesce in authoritarian actions against the extreme woke left, but not against the moderate and regular socialists in the Democratic Party.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123, @Barbarossa

    Trump is a populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Trump’s base would acquiesce in authoritarian actions against the extreme woke left, but not against the moderate and regular socialists in the Democratic Party.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.

    MAGA is Populist movement with realistic tendencies. Given its focus on American Jobs for American citizens, it is in the middle of the broken left-right spectrum.

    The MAGA base would like to win over moderates with schools that teach patriotism and reinforce traditional Judeo-Christian values. No more acceptance of skirt wearing men obtaining sexual access to vulnerable girls.

    Extreme woke oligarchs and their acolytes are Nazi-like. And, De-Nazification requires stern measures. They have to be driven out and kept out. It does not have to happen everywhere immediately. The key areas are media, education, and law enforcement. Nazi loyalists and disinformation operatives will also have to be moved out to save these institutions.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @iffen
    @A123

    the broken left-right spectrum.

    The spectrum is not broken.

    The left is mutating toward totalitarianism in service to the elites and this seems to be some sort of natural progression for the left. (Notice tax cuts for the rich coming from both parties.)

    The Republican Party is swamped with "conservatives" who are as vehemently determined as ever to prevent the use of the power of the government to improve the lives of the poor and the working class.

    Replies: @A123

  127. How much for an apartment like this in Crimea? Or is it to warm there to need it?

    A Nuclear-Powered Shower? Russia Tests a Climate Innovation:

  128. @A123
    @iffen


    Trump is a populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Trump’s base would acquiesce in authoritarian actions against the extreme woke left, but not against the moderate and regular socialists in the Democratic Party.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.
     
    MAGA is Populist movement with realistic tendencies. Given its focus on American Jobs for American citizens, it is in the middle of the broken left-right spectrum.

    The MAGA base would like to win over moderates with schools that teach patriotism and reinforce traditional Judeo-Christian values. No more acceptance of skirt wearing men obtaining sexual access to vulnerable girls.

    Extreme woke oligarchs and their acolytes are Nazi-like. And, De-Nazification requires stern measures. They have to be driven out and kept out. It does not have to happen everywhere immediately. The key areas are media, education, and law enforcement. Nazi loyalists and disinformation operatives will also have to be moved out to save these institutions.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @iffen

    the broken left-right spectrum.

    The spectrum is not broken.

    The left is mutating toward totalitarianism in service to the elites and this seems to be some sort of natural progression for the left. (Notice tax cuts for the rich coming from both parties.)

    The Republican Party is swamped with “conservatives” who are as vehemently determined as ever to prevent the use of the power of the government to improve the lives of the poor and the working class.

    • Replies: @A123
    @iffen


    The Republican Party is swamped with “conservatives” who are as vehemently determined as ever to prevent the use of the power of the government to improve the lives of the poor and the working class.
     
    Let us look at the most recent House vote. 13 Republicans voted against the poor and the working class. 200 voted for them.

    So according to your theory ~6% = Swamped. Your use of the English language is quite unique. I do not believe most people would use the term swamped for 6%.

    That being said, 13 traitors is 13 too many. These 13 Corporate Globalists need to be Primaried and defeated. That would let MAGA win these seats.

     
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/House-Infrastructure-Bill-Vote.jpg
     



    the broken left-right spectrum.
     
    The spectrum is not broken.

    The left is mutating toward totalitarianism in service to the elites and this seems to be some sort of natural progression for the left.
     

    I think you just accidentally helped my point. Serving MegaCorporations = Right. The Left is for MegaCorporations, as shown by their tax policy. Thus:

        Left = Serving MegaCorporations = Right

    Simplify by removing the middle term:

        Left = Right

    It is hard to see how a spectrum has meaning when both ends are identical. The terms Conservative and Liberal are even worse.
    ___

    The clearest option for current U.S. politics is "Globalist-Populist".

    If you want to state the pro worker Populism is Left, that could work. However, the consequence of such logic is that the pro worker MAGA is a Left-wing political movement. While true, you are likely to confuse readers with statements such as:
        • Biden = The Right
        • Trump = The Left

    Perhaps Left & Right still make sense in other nations. In today's America, their use leads to massive ambiguity.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  129. @iffen
    @Yellowface Anon

    You are just substituting piecemeal bureaucratic authoritarianism the Dems are enacting, with Trumpist charismatic authoritarianism, while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.

    The woke are socialist totalitarians. They are the extreme left of the Democratic Party which is a moderate socialist party. Both factions are ignorant and detached from "economic" reality.

    Trump is a populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Trump's base would acquiesce in authoritarian actions against the extreme woke left, but not against the moderate and regular socialists in the Democratic Party.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123, @Barbarossa

    Yes, the way I differentiate it too is that Trump tends strongly toward authoritarianism while the current left tends strongly toward totalitarianism.

    A lot of folks don’t get the difference between the two, but I would far prefer the former to the latter.

    • Agree: iffen
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Barbarossa

    All ideologies are totalizing. Therefore American might be a bit better under a right-wing government, but both paths will eventually lead to systemic failure.

  130. @A123
    @Yellowface Anon


    my point is that Trumpists like you want to repay authoritarianism with authoritarianism.
     
    Except, I am not a "Trumpist". I am not overly wrapped up on a single individual. I want to seize the opportunity to build something better. A MAGA party resistant to control by Oligarchs and foreign nations.

    Do you agree that the education and media establishment us a huge part of the problem?

    I really do not want to repay with authoritarianism. I am realistic that SJW MegaCorporations and their allies are engaged in Orwellian manipulation of the U.S. population.

    What is your "non-authoritarian" option to clean up the Lügenpresse?


    while oligarchs are laughing behind the scene.
     
    MAGA wants to investigate the Oligarchs for their manipulation. Given their personal enrichment paid by foreign governments, a more rational future expectation is:

    ...while oligarchs are whimpering, powerless behind the bars.
    __________________________________________

    You are badly trapped in a logical conundrum of your own making. It is preventing you from thinking clearly. Try this as a thought experiment:

    If _________ is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for __________.

    If "gravity" is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for "gravity". This makes sense. Right? Dealing with "gravity" is simply realism.

    If "authoritarianism" is inevitable, it is unfair to blame people for "authoritarianism". This makes sense. Right?

    You keep defining 100% of everything as "authoritarianism", and then you decry "authoritarianism". If everything must be "authoritarianism", then your cries are at best futile and at worst counterproductive.

    What is your "non-authoritarian" option?

    Accusations of "authoritarianism" are only meaningful if there is a "non-authoritarian" alternative. You have yet to present one.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    I’m personally not entirely opposed to some measure of authoritarianism, since it may be the best viable path to reset policies on a system wide scale. As we have seen, bureaucracy excels at covering it’s own ass and preventing anything that would threaten it’s grip.

    That said, I’m not at all convinced that Trump is really that needed change. I think that Trump is most interested in personal power and saw the opening present itself from the right wing of American politics, since they were the politically marginalized group. My observation has been that Trump has neither principles or ideology, just opinion and self interest. This leads to a kind of refreshing pragmatism which led Trump to express truths which were politically impermissible for others to express, but it also leads to the diffuse and distractable application which epitomized Trump.

    I don’t expect to convince you on Trump, so we’ll probably just have to agree to disagree; but being what I would regard as a Trump realist, I have no high hopes if he does get a second term.

    • Agree: iffen
    • Replies: @Pericles
    @Barbarossa

    It's somewhat difficult to see what Trump could have achieved due to the four year mudwrestle with the Deep State. It seems unclear whether Trump can realistically run due to age, primarily, but it would also be interesting to know what he would do the second time around. Anything different?

    With Trump and, perhaps to a greater degree, Biden, it has at the very least been shown that the presidency is not a strong office. Thus it seems likely it and its electios will remain a side show as things worsen. (I find it difficult to see how things would turn around and get better at this point, e.g., the Deep State becoming neutral rather than unabashedly leftist. How? Why?)

    Regarding principles, well, where are the principles in politics? Leftism is fully oligarch sponsored, conservatism conserves nothing, etc.

    Replies: @A123, @Barbarossa

  131. @Yellowface Anon
    @iffen


    Both factions are ignorant and detached from “economic” reality.
     
    The center of American politics is deeply right-wing, and this means the only permissibly "realistic" interpretation of American economy is flavors of right-wing liberalism. Go read Michael Hudson.

    Oligarchs are like Nazis and hard-core commies; they do not have a sense of humor and they do not laugh.
     
    Some of those sensibilities probably comes from holding centers of power.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    The center of American politics is deeply right-wing

    I would change “right-wing” to libertarian for clarity.

    If conservative and liberal are ideological cultural counterpoints I think it is fair to say that there is no political organization that embodies any form of actual conservatism. It seems that most people who say they are conservative are actually libertarians, who by supporting free-market fundamentalism, are actually supporting the most basic underpinnings of the liberal/ progressive world view.

    Global consumer capitalism seems to me in effect the most anti-conservative force in history.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Barbarossa

    "Libertarians" will tell you current conservatives don't have the NAP & anti-statism in mind. But you are basically right, real conservatism died when Spain left Francoism (and even Francoist Spain accepts capitalistic economic growth)

  132. @Barbarossa
    @iffen

    Yes, the way I differentiate it too is that Trump tends strongly toward authoritarianism while the current left tends strongly toward totalitarianism.

    A lot of folks don't get the difference between the two, but I would far prefer the former to the latter.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    All ideologies are totalizing. Therefore American might be a bit better under a right-wing government, but both paths will eventually lead to systemic failure.

  133. @Barbarossa
    @Yellowface Anon


    The center of American politics is deeply right-wing
     
    I would change "right-wing" to libertarian for clarity.

    If conservative and liberal are ideological cultural counterpoints I think it is fair to say that there is no political organization that embodies any form of actual conservatism. It seems that most people who say they are conservative are actually libertarians, who by supporting free-market fundamentalism, are actually supporting the most basic underpinnings of the liberal/ progressive world view.

    Global consumer capitalism seems to me in effect the most anti-conservative force in history.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    “Libertarians” will tell you current conservatives don’t have the NAP & anti-statism in mind. But you are basically right, real conservatism died when Spain left Francoism (and even Francoist Spain accepts capitalistic economic growth)

  134. @iffen
    @A123

    the broken left-right spectrum.

    The spectrum is not broken.

    The left is mutating toward totalitarianism in service to the elites and this seems to be some sort of natural progression for the left. (Notice tax cuts for the rich coming from both parties.)

    The Republican Party is swamped with "conservatives" who are as vehemently determined as ever to prevent the use of the power of the government to improve the lives of the poor and the working class.

    Replies: @A123

    The Republican Party is swamped with “conservatives” who are as vehemently determined as ever to prevent the use of the power of the government to improve the lives of the poor and the working class.

    Let us look at the most recent House vote. 13 Republicans voted against the poor and the working class. 200 voted for them.

    So according to your theory ~6% = Swamped. Your use of the English language is quite unique. I do not believe most people would use the term swamped for 6%.

    That being said, 13 traitors is 13 too many. These 13 Corporate Globalists need to be Primaried and defeated. That would let MAGA win these seats.

      

    the broken left-right spectrum.

    The spectrum is not broken.

    The left is mutating toward totalitarianism in service to the elites and this seems to be some sort of natural progression for the left.

    I think you just accidentally helped my point. Serving MegaCorporations = Right. The Left is for MegaCorporations, as shown by their tax policy. Thus:

        Left = Serving MegaCorporations = Right

    Simplify by removing the middle term:

        Left = Right

    It is hard to see how a spectrum has meaning when both ends are identical. The terms Conservative and Liberal are even worse.
    ___

    The clearest option for current U.S. politics is “Globalist-Populist”.

    If you want to state the pro worker Populism is Left, that could work. However, the consequence of such logic is that the pro worker MAGA is a Left-wing political movement. While true, you are likely to confuse readers with statements such as:
        • Biden = The Right
        • Trump = The Left

    Perhaps Left & Right still make sense in other nations. In today’s America, their use leads to massive ambiguity.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @A123


    Let us look at the most recent House vote. 13 Republicans voted against the poor and the working class. 200 voted for them.
     
    The consensus view at Naked Capitalism is that only the 8 Democrat contrarians voted for the poor and the working class. Those 13 Republicans voted with some 200 odd Democrats for Team (Amazon + Moderna + Lockheed).

    This partisan shit destroys your brain and your heart.

    Replies: @iffen

  135. @AP
    @Dmitry

    Is the video contemporary? It feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven't changed much? I have not gone clubbing in many years.

    I was at a Russian wedding in Brooklyn before Covid and there was an African-American DJ singing the "Kaifuyem" song in decent Russian.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip, because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style.

    They are a kind of office workers who need to clock in the same hours per week at the club, and use labour-saving mechanical movements.

    It must be a relaxing job for them, repeating always these same routine movements, looking at the drunk people everynight, while getting the aerobic exercise to maintain a good looking figure.

    Nowadays people can’t smoke in the club so they haven’t much downside

    I have not gone clubbing in many years.

    Surely your lack of hearing loss and tinnitus will be thanking you. Congratulations, you can enjoy excellent hearing at the philharmonic concert.

    Although aside from hearing sensitivity, since they banned all indoor smoking, clubbers are pretty healthy people if we think about it.

    Weekly jumping around aerobically is excellent exercise, at least offsetting negative effects of the coca cola and vodka. (And it’s usually diet cola). Disco-ordinated crazy dancing of the club people, probably good for you psychologically as well.

    t feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven’t changed

    Late 90s looks like the utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours in the summer mornings, and recreating strange pagan rituals outside of any capitalist club system.

    They even enjoy clean air, and some kind of charity of giving people free mineral water and low alcohol healthfood drinks like Heineken beer.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours
     
    I wonder if electric cars could result in a revival of this if they had vehicle-to-grid functionality.

    You wouldn't need so much organization, to carry electric generators. And nowadays you would only need some $1000 of Active PA speakers and connect them to the car.

    I guess a problem is that Generation Z people nowadays are more addicted to their phones and headphones, and it's not necessarily mainstream or exciting for them to play loud music from speakers.

    , @AP
    @Dmitry


    I have not gone clubbing in many years.

    Surely your lack of hearing loss and tinnitus will be thanking you. Congratulations, you can enjoy excellent hearing at the philharmonic concert.
     

    Well, my music in the car can be rather loud, though it's usually late at night to stay awake.

    Late 90s looks like the utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours in the summer mornings, and recreating strange pagan rituals outside of any capitalist club system.
     
    In my part of the world it was going to abandoned factories in empty urban warzones. It was before internet and GPS, so for the address we would call telephone hotlines from flyers that would be passed around, then have to use paper maps to orient ourselves as we drove through these wastelands. The promoters hired/paid off the local gangs to keep an eye on our cars. They also provided chemical enhancements to those who wanted them. Amazing light shows, lasers, smoke machines. Good exercise until the morning. Nice girls also.

    I went to a few with this DJ and same promoter lol (maybe I was there, though I don't remember the name Aura):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va_gi98Yjaw

    Sometimes police would find them. This news report is hilarious:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lj-HrUkM8M

    Others, with better video quality:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGBFZ7ACVFI&list=RDdGBFZ7ACVFI&start_radio=1&rv=dGBFZ7ACVFI&t=199

    The English ones, in nature, seem very nice too. Never experienced that.

    All of us are in our 40s and 50s now.

    My kids are often annoyed by this weird music and think it isn't cool. Though they prefer it to Russian bard music :-)

    , @LatW
    @Dmitry


    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip,
     
    Come one, those are not real dancers, but just chicks showing up looking a certain way (ehem) to generate excitement. They're like brand ambassadors.


    because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style
     
    The real German EBM dance style is actually not "energy saving" at all, but quite intense. First of all, it is typically twice as fast as what those chicks are doing in your video. Also, it takes quite some energy to keep your core muscles rigid to do those mechanical, robotic routines. You keep your shoulders in a straight line with your hips. It may actually be easier for a guy, although some German chicks do it very well, too.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @SafeNow
    @Dmitry

    Go-Go Dancers from back in my era were better:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=love+grows+where+my&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

    Replies: @A123

  136. @Dmitry
    @AP

    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip, because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style.

    They are a kind of office workers who need to clock in the same hours per week at the club, and use labour-saving mechanical movements.

    It must be a relaxing job for them, repeating always these same routine movements, looking at the drunk people everynight, while getting the aerobic exercise to maintain a good looking figure.

    Nowadays people can't smoke in the club so they haven't much downside
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odQ8MqhiEx0


    I have not gone clubbing in many years.
     
    Surely your lack of hearing loss and tinnitus will be thanking you. Congratulations, you can enjoy excellent hearing at the philharmonic concert.

    Although aside from hearing sensitivity, since they banned all indoor smoking, clubbers are pretty healthy people if we think about it.

    Weekly jumping around aerobically is excellent exercise, at least offsetting negative effects of the coca cola and vodka. (And it's usually diet cola). Disco-ordinated crazy dancing of the club people, probably good for you psychologically as well.


    t feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven’t changed

     

    Late 90s looks like the utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours in the summer mornings, and recreating strange pagan rituals outside of any capitalist club system.

    They even enjoy clean air, and some kind of charity of giving people free mineral water and low alcohol healthfood drinks like Heineken beer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69jNFTFPn8

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP, @LatW, @SafeNow

    utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours

    I wonder if electric cars could result in a revival of this if they had vehicle-to-grid functionality.

    You wouldn’t need so much organization, to carry electric generators. And nowadays you would only need some \$1000 of Active PA speakers and connect them to the car.

    I guess a problem is that Generation Z people nowadays are more addicted to their phones and headphones, and it’s not necessarily mainstream or exciting for them to play loud music from speakers.

  137. @Mr. Hack
    @Dmitry

    To be honest, I never was a great fan of clubbing. Sure, way back in the day I went to a few clubs that played disco music, but not much since then. The images that I had in mind when I wrote the above comment were fueled by the many images that I've seen watching film and TV. I've enjoyed going to concerts much more. I haven't been to any since the pandemic went full throttle. The last two concerts that I remember going to included one by Al DiMeola and another one with Latin jazz pianist Eliane Elias. I think that you might enjoy the music of both of these artists.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    Did you notice when Chick Corea has unfortunately died this year?

    I was occasionally following his YouTube channel when he was livestreaming practicing sessions. He stopped only two weeks before he died. He was doing “musical portraits” on YouTube for his fans a month before he died. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ktLYIEaGU0.

    • Replies: @schnellandine
    @Dmitry

    Didn't stick with Chick Corea, but he was one of my intros into what I consider 'the real stuff', and he played on some of my favorite Miles Davis tracks. After seeing him play "Groovin' High" on some PBS deal (still can't find at YouTube) in the 70s, I found bop and that was that. He may have drifted into the cheesy now and then, but he could play acoustic piano with the best. His acoustic album with Herbie Hancock was another study for a marveling kid. Thanks for the news, which I hadn't heard.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Dmitry

    I heard the news rather shortly after his passing. Also, our Gerard mentioned it here early on within one of his comments. Al Di Meola, of course had some memorable early outings with Miles Davis and later with piano virtuoso Chick Corea. If for no other reason, Miles Davis should be lauded for his penchant to continually find young great talent that he allowed to incubate their musical skills, before branching out on their own. Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, Airto Moreira, Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius,
    John McGgaughlin and Joe Zawinul are some of the artists I have in mind, all went on to create seminal music in their own right.

  138. @Barbarossa
    @A123

    I'm personally not entirely opposed to some measure of authoritarianism, since it may be the best viable path to reset policies on a system wide scale. As we have seen, bureaucracy excels at covering it's own ass and preventing anything that would threaten it's grip.

    That said, I'm not at all convinced that Trump is really that needed change. I think that Trump is most interested in personal power and saw the opening present itself from the right wing of American politics, since they were the politically marginalized group. My observation has been that Trump has neither principles or ideology, just opinion and self interest. This leads to a kind of refreshing pragmatism which led Trump to express truths which were politically impermissible for others to express, but it also leads to the diffuse and distractable application which epitomized Trump.

    I don't expect to convince you on Trump, so we'll probably just have to agree to disagree; but being what I would regard as a Trump realist, I have no high hopes if he does get a second term.

    Replies: @Pericles

    It’s somewhat difficult to see what Trump could have achieved due to the four year mudwrestle with the Deep State. It seems unclear whether Trump can realistically run due to age, primarily, but it would also be interesting to know what he would do the second time around. Anything different?

    With Trump and, perhaps to a greater degree, Biden, it has at the very least been shown that the presidency is not a strong office. Thus it seems likely it and its electios will remain a side show as things worsen. (I find it difficult to see how things would turn around and get better at this point, e.g., the Deep State becoming neutral rather than unabashedly leftist. How? Why?)

    Regarding principles, well, where are the principles in politics? Leftism is fully oligarch sponsored, conservatism conserves nothing, etc.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Pericles


    It’s somewhat difficult to see what Trump could have achieved due to the four year mudwrestle with the Deep State. It seems unclear whether Trump can realistically run due to age, primarily, but it would also be interesting to know what he would do the second time around. Anything different?
     
    MAGA was new and had not yet taken hold in the Legislature. Trump's 1st Term was against the House, the Senate, and the Deep State. Non-MAGA members of the GOP significantly reduced what could be accomplished.

    While the swamp is not yet fully drained, MAGA is gaining strength in the GOP pushing out Corporate stooges. The next MAGA President will have the House, Senate, or both. This opens the door for a much higher level of achievement.
    ___

    Trump is quite healthy for his age. There are no obvious physical or mental impediments to a 2nd term. However, the MAGA movement is much larger than Trump. A genuine bench of additional MAGA candidates continues to develop. There are solid MAGA strategic reasons for a candidate other than Trump.

    There is no upside to making the decision early, so it will likely be an open question for a couple more years.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    , @Barbarossa
    @Pericles

    I do acknowledge that Trump faced an uphill fight against the entrenched establishment. However he seemingly showed up with no discernible plan as to how to win that fight. Political sea changes have happened in various places at various times, but Trump proved incapable of accomplishing anything of the sort. His political enemies bested him which should be a damning indictment in it's own right.

    I had some cautious optimism going into Trump's presidency, but I was quite disillusioned within a few months at his frittering approach to political influence.

    I personally explain Trump's weak start to what I believe is the fact that he never intended of expected to win the presidency. I think he entered the Republican race as little more than a PR stunt and fully expected Hillary to win the race. I remember vividly the look of deer-in-the-headlights despair on Trump's face as the it became clear the electoral votes were definitely swinging in his direction.

    Principles or ideology of some sort are I think necessary if one intends to radically challenge the status quo and win. Otherwise, what will provide the stability of vision which will sustain during difficulties?

    Replies: @iffen, @A123

  139. Don’t tell me you missed the Kadena train, Anatoly

  140. @Dmitry
    @AP

    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip, because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style.

    They are a kind of office workers who need to clock in the same hours per week at the club, and use labour-saving mechanical movements.

    It must be a relaxing job for them, repeating always these same routine movements, looking at the drunk people everynight, while getting the aerobic exercise to maintain a good looking figure.

    Nowadays people can't smoke in the club so they haven't much downside
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odQ8MqhiEx0


    I have not gone clubbing in many years.
     
    Surely your lack of hearing loss and tinnitus will be thanking you. Congratulations, you can enjoy excellent hearing at the philharmonic concert.

    Although aside from hearing sensitivity, since they banned all indoor smoking, clubbers are pretty healthy people if we think about it.

    Weekly jumping around aerobically is excellent exercise, at least offsetting negative effects of the coca cola and vodka. (And it's usually diet cola). Disco-ordinated crazy dancing of the club people, probably good for you psychologically as well.


    t feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven’t changed

     

    Late 90s looks like the utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours in the summer mornings, and recreating strange pagan rituals outside of any capitalist club system.

    They even enjoy clean air, and some kind of charity of giving people free mineral water and low alcohol healthfood drinks like Heineken beer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69jNFTFPn8

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP, @LatW, @SafeNow

    I have not gone clubbing in many years.

    Surely your lack of hearing loss and tinnitus will be thanking you. Congratulations, you can enjoy excellent hearing at the philharmonic concert.

    Well, my music in the car can be rather loud, though it’s usually late at night to stay awake.

    Late 90s looks like the utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours in the summer mornings, and recreating strange pagan rituals outside of any capitalist club system.

    In my part of the world it was going to abandoned factories in empty urban warzones. It was before internet and GPS, so for the address we would call telephone hotlines from flyers that would be passed around, then have to use paper maps to orient ourselves as we drove through these wastelands. The promoters hired/paid off the local gangs to keep an eye on our cars. They also provided chemical enhancements to those who wanted them. Amazing light shows, lasers, smoke machines. Good exercise until the morning. Nice girls also.

    I went to a few with this DJ and same promoter lol (maybe I was there, though I don’t remember the name Aura):

    Sometimes police would find them. This news report is hilarious:

    Others, with better video quality:

    The English ones, in nature, seem very nice too. Never experienced that.

    All of us are in our 40s and 50s now.

    My kids are often annoyed by this weird music and think it isn’t cool. Though they prefer it to Russian bard music 🙂

    • Agree: mal
    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon
    • LOL: Dmitry
  141. Does anyone notice that our leaders seem to be cosplaying the late 19th century, and this is attracting them to try to recreate the “Great Game”?

    It’s like the elite are beginning to feel powerful enough today that they have to go to the 19th century to find their spiritual brothers.

    Well Boris Johnson is literally just a crazy English prince, that lives like his ancestors. Macron (and Sarkozy before) seems to be believe he is part of the Bonaparte family.

    Aesthetically, Putin still presents as if he is a standard KGB officer that became a postsoviet oligarch. But mentally, he believes he is a re-incarnation of Metternich and Bismarck

    Erdogan and Aliev are even nowadays dressing like they are Ottoman aristocrats of the late 19th century.

    Putin’s family buys property in Biarritz, like 19th century Russian aristocrats. Although aesthetically is still a modern man, sometimes his spiritual brotherly feeling to von Metternich’s people is coming out of the closet.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    Boris Johnson is literally just a crazy English prince, that lives like his ancestors
     
    Still confused with exciting modern technologies like umbrella and the bicycle.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F30oGnipOYo

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPWFrl4e7l4
    Tea is somekind of special luxury from his empires in India.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r799U_-jAnk

    Replies: @A123, @AP

  142. @Pericles
    @Barbarossa

    It's somewhat difficult to see what Trump could have achieved due to the four year mudwrestle with the Deep State. It seems unclear whether Trump can realistically run due to age, primarily, but it would also be interesting to know what he would do the second time around. Anything different?

    With Trump and, perhaps to a greater degree, Biden, it has at the very least been shown that the presidency is not a strong office. Thus it seems likely it and its electios will remain a side show as things worsen. (I find it difficult to see how things would turn around and get better at this point, e.g., the Deep State becoming neutral rather than unabashedly leftist. How? Why?)

    Regarding principles, well, where are the principles in politics? Leftism is fully oligarch sponsored, conservatism conserves nothing, etc.

    Replies: @A123, @Barbarossa

    It’s somewhat difficult to see what Trump could have achieved due to the four year mudwrestle with the Deep State. It seems unclear whether Trump can realistically run due to age, primarily, but it would also be interesting to know what he would do the second time around. Anything different?

    MAGA was new and had not yet taken hold in the Legislature. Trump’s 1st Term was against the House, the Senate, and the Deep State. Non-MAGA members of the GOP significantly reduced what could be accomplished.

    While the swamp is not yet fully drained, MAGA is gaining strength in the GOP pushing out Corporate stooges. The next MAGA President will have the House, Senate, or both. This opens the door for a much higher level of achievement.
    ___

    Trump is quite healthy for his age. There are no obvious physical or mental impediments to a 2nd term. However, the MAGA movement is much larger than Trump. A genuine bench of additional MAGA candidates continues to develop. There are solid MAGA strategic reasons for a candidate other than Trump.

    There is no upside to making the decision early, so it will likely be an open question for a couple more years.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  143. @Dmitry
    @Mr. Hack

    Did you notice when Chick Corea has unfortunately died this year?

    I was occasionally following his YouTube channel when he was livestreaming practicing sessions. He stopped only two weeks before he died. He was doing "musical portraits" on YouTube for his fans a month before he died. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ktLYIEaGU0.

    Replies: @schnellandine, @Mr. Hack

    Didn’t stick with Chick Corea, but he was one of my intros into what I consider ‘the real stuff’, and he played on some of my favorite Miles Davis tracks. After seeing him play “Groovin’ High” on some PBS deal (still can’t find at YouTube) in the 70s, I found bop and that was that. He may have drifted into the cheesy now and then, but he could play acoustic piano with the best. His acoustic album with Herbie Hancock was another study for a marveling kid. Thanks for the news, which I hadn’t heard.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    There were two albums highlighting the interplay of Corea and Hancock. If you liked one of them, you'll probably enjoy the other one too:


    https://chickcorea.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/An-Evening-with-Herbie-and-Chick.jpg
    https://chickcorea.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Corea-Hancock.jpg

    , @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    If you're a big fan of the bop style, you're probably enamored with Charlie Parker's music. Miles Davis was once asked to define jazz music, to which he replied: "Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker". Of course he went on to expand the boundaries quite a bit, but still.....

    Replies: @schnellandine

  144. @Dmitry
    Does anyone notice that our leaders seem to be cosplaying the late 19th century, and this is attracting them to try to recreate the "Great Game"?

    It's like the elite are beginning to feel powerful enough today that they have to go to the 19th century to find their spiritual brothers.

    Well Boris Johnson is literally just a crazy English prince, that lives like his ancestors. Macron (and Sarkozy before) seems to be believe he is part of the Bonaparte family.

    Aesthetically, Putin still presents as if he is a standard KGB officer that became a postsoviet oligarch. But mentally, he believes he is a re-incarnation of Metternich and Bismarck

    Erdogan and Aliev are even nowadays dressing like they are Ottoman aristocrats of the late 19th century.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goO3gePB5kA

    Putin's family buys property in Biarritz, like 19th century Russian aristocrats. Although aesthetically is still a modern man, sometimes his spiritual brotherly feeling to von Metternich's people is coming out of the closet.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlZbWUQTJEU

    Replies: @Dmitry

    Boris Johnson is literally just a crazy English prince, that lives like his ancestors

    Still confused with exciting modern technologies like umbrella and the bicycle.

    Tea is somekind of special luxury from his empires in India.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Dmitry


    Still confused with exciting modern technologies like umbrella and the bicycle
     
    BoJo on a zipline.... Priceless....

    It is like Dukakis in a tank.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇



     
    https://i.redd.it/etl7scekjln41.jpg

     
    https://images.dailykos.com/images/210299/story_image/Dukakis-Tank-Ad-e1384898913712.jpg
    , @AP
    @Dmitry

    You are really turning me into a BoJo fan.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  145. @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    Boris Johnson is literally just a crazy English prince, that lives like his ancestors
     
    Still confused with exciting modern technologies like umbrella and the bicycle.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F30oGnipOYo

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPWFrl4e7l4
    Tea is somekind of special luxury from his empires in India.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r799U_-jAnk

    Replies: @A123, @AP

    Still confused with exciting modern technologies like umbrella and the bicycle

    BoJo on a zipline…. Priceless….

    It is like Dukakis in a tank.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    [MORE]

     

     

  146. @Dmitry
    @AP

    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip, because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style.

    They are a kind of office workers who need to clock in the same hours per week at the club, and use labour-saving mechanical movements.

    It must be a relaxing job for them, repeating always these same routine movements, looking at the drunk people everynight, while getting the aerobic exercise to maintain a good looking figure.

    Nowadays people can't smoke in the club so they haven't much downside
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odQ8MqhiEx0


    I have not gone clubbing in many years.
     
    Surely your lack of hearing loss and tinnitus will be thanking you. Congratulations, you can enjoy excellent hearing at the philharmonic concert.

    Although aside from hearing sensitivity, since they banned all indoor smoking, clubbers are pretty healthy people if we think about it.

    Weekly jumping around aerobically is excellent exercise, at least offsetting negative effects of the coca cola and vodka. (And it's usually diet cola). Disco-ordinated crazy dancing of the club people, probably good for you psychologically as well.


    t feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven’t changed

     

    Late 90s looks like the utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours in the summer mornings, and recreating strange pagan rituals outside of any capitalist club system.

    They even enjoy clean air, and some kind of charity of giving people free mineral water and low alcohol healthfood drinks like Heineken beer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69jNFTFPn8

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP, @LatW, @SafeNow

    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip,

    Come one, those are not real dancers, but just chicks showing up looking a certain way (ehem) to generate excitement. They’re like brand ambassadors.

    because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style

    The real German EBM dance style is actually not “energy saving” at all, but quite intense. First of all, it is typically twice as fast as what those chicks are doing in your video. Also, it takes quite some energy to keep your core muscles rigid to do those mechanical, robotic routines. You keep your shoulders in a straight line with your hips. It may actually be easier for a guy, although some German chicks do it very well, too.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @LatW


    dance style is actually not “energy saving” at all, but
     
    Yes but those people are doing it for enjoyment.

    Whereas club dancers have to clock in hours of this every night, so they need to do it with autopilot.

    It's like the same energy saving dance moves are all standardized across the country, without much regional variation, as if they study it from a textbook.

    Well probably nowadays learn from YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTHyT1_ni9U


    generate excitement. They’re like brand ambassadors
     
    In Russian nightclubs, they also have more dancers, entertainers, audience interactive competition, foam spraying from above, magicians, indoor fireworks (this is not a good idea e.g. in Perm).

    The more fun is just because of the low cost of labour in the postsoviet space of course.

    Labour is so cheap, it's still affordable to hire real people to entertain drunk people. Whereas in some hipster Western club you can probably hardly afford to pay for the DJ and the electricity bill.

    2am is still more fun in Russia there is a whole pantomime, comedians, and magicians.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OHevNkt01w


    -

    One of strange things of the last few years in Russia, is apparently that "Cabaret" became fashionable. I don't even know what "Cabaret" is apparently supposed to be. This is some kind apparent of new fashion that emerges from after my time.

    From reading reviews, all I can understand apparently this is like an expensive restaurant where you can eat oysters while watching magicians (with snakes), dancing girls, where they can also just hire "women of low social responsibility" to go to a private room. They just needed to add dancing bears and indoor fireworks (well maybe not e.g. Perm).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJAH38r2WPg

    Replies: @Dmitry, @LatW

  147. @A123
    @iffen


    The Republican Party is swamped with “conservatives” who are as vehemently determined as ever to prevent the use of the power of the government to improve the lives of the poor and the working class.
     
    Let us look at the most recent House vote. 13 Republicans voted against the poor and the working class. 200 voted for them.

    So according to your theory ~6% = Swamped. Your use of the English language is quite unique. I do not believe most people would use the term swamped for 6%.

    That being said, 13 traitors is 13 too many. These 13 Corporate Globalists need to be Primaried and defeated. That would let MAGA win these seats.

     
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/House-Infrastructure-Bill-Vote.jpg
     



    the broken left-right spectrum.
     
    The spectrum is not broken.

    The left is mutating toward totalitarianism in service to the elites and this seems to be some sort of natural progression for the left.
     

    I think you just accidentally helped my point. Serving MegaCorporations = Right. The Left is for MegaCorporations, as shown by their tax policy. Thus:

        Left = Serving MegaCorporations = Right

    Simplify by removing the middle term:

        Left = Right

    It is hard to see how a spectrum has meaning when both ends are identical. The terms Conservative and Liberal are even worse.
    ___

    The clearest option for current U.S. politics is "Globalist-Populist".

    If you want to state the pro worker Populism is Left, that could work. However, the consequence of such logic is that the pro worker MAGA is a Left-wing political movement. While true, you are likely to confuse readers with statements such as:
        • Biden = The Right
        • Trump = The Left

    Perhaps Left & Right still make sense in other nations. In today's America, their use leads to massive ambiguity.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    Let us look at the most recent House vote. 13 Republicans voted against the poor and the working class. 200 voted for them.

    The consensus view at Naked Capitalism is that only the 8 Democrat contrarians voted for the poor and the working class. Those 13 Republicans voted with some 200 odd Democrats for Team (Amazon + Moderna + Lockheed).

    This partisan shit destroys your brain and your heart.

    • Replies: @iffen
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    There is some "good stuff" in the bill that will benefit America.

  148. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @A123


    Let us look at the most recent House vote. 13 Republicans voted against the poor and the working class. 200 voted for them.
     
    The consensus view at Naked Capitalism is that only the 8 Democrat contrarians voted for the poor and the working class. Those 13 Republicans voted with some 200 odd Democrats for Team (Amazon + Moderna + Lockheed).

    This partisan shit destroys your brain and your heart.

    Replies: @iffen

    There is some “good stuff” in the bill that will benefit America.

    • LOL: A123
  149. • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader

    Don't know if I am too cynical, but I immediately think of gay tourism.

    IIRC, there is some sort of gay NGO in Canada that specializes in importing gays from these countries. Hard not to see some hidden purpose in it.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  150. @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    Boris Johnson is literally just a crazy English prince, that lives like his ancestors
     
    Still confused with exciting modern technologies like umbrella and the bicycle.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F30oGnipOYo

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPWFrl4e7l4
    Tea is somekind of special luxury from his empires in India.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r799U_-jAnk

    Replies: @A123, @AP

    You are really turning me into a BoJo fan.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @AP

    https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2018/03/18/12/gettyimages-170702322.jpg

    Do not be distracted by the fifty-year-obsolete racquet. Look at the not-ever-appropriate running shoes!

  151. @utu
    @mal


    This is the future of warfare, not some silly 150 kg Turkish drones.
     
    Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency recognized that obvious obviousness signed agreement with Roscosmos.
    https://tass.com/science/1356779

    And Zambia already knew it in 1964
    https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/zambian-space-programme

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Do3dz9TR0

    Replies: @mal

    The two sides discussed cooperation in the field of remote sensing of the Earth and in training space industry personnel.

    Nicee nice! Russia is getting a Florida, finally! This means Sphere satellite manufacturing problems caused by sanctions are getting resolved.

    Basically, a hint. When it comes to satellites, whenever you hear garbage buzzwords such as “remote sensing”, or “environmental monitoring”, or “atmospheric studies”, or “communications relay”, it means – battlefield command and control stations.

    And sure, their official declared use will be to watch polar bears eat dinner, or watch geese migrate, or help teenagers in rural Alabama win Call of Duty death match thanks to low latency. All true, but we are not spending \$trillions on satellite constellations to watch polar bears eat dinner. That’s more of a side benefit.

    Russia of course had troubles with equatorial orbits (no Russian territories close to equator, New Guinea spaceport is more French than Russian), but it looks like Zimbabwe is stepping up to the plate. Good on them – hosting Russian military satcom (satellite command center) is the second best thing to being under Russian nuclear umbrella. Zimbabwe will be going places with this.

    Also:

    The programme eventually fell apart, and not just because of the lack of funds. Mwamba fell pregnant and returned home. Other astronauts left, reportedly going on drinking sprees and never returning or moving onto other pastimes such as tribal song and dance.

    Based.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @mal

    Don't know if my ideas are behind the times, but I keep imagining spacewar will be something like the Skyrora Space Tug grabbing hold of a Türksat and threatening to deorbit it, cutting off all Turkish soaps, and setting the Middle East on fire, unless Erdogan stops selling drones to Azerbaijan. But, maybe, that's archaic, and all the soaps will move to LEO and be shot down with lasers.

    Replies: @mal

  152. @Dmitry
    @Mr. Hack

    Did you notice when Chick Corea has unfortunately died this year?

    I was occasionally following his YouTube channel when he was livestreaming practicing sessions. He stopped only two weeks before he died. He was doing "musical portraits" on YouTube for his fans a month before he died. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ktLYIEaGU0.

    Replies: @schnellandine, @Mr. Hack

    I heard the news rather shortly after his passing. Also, our Gerard mentioned it here early on within one of his comments. Al Di Meola, of course had some memorable early outings with Miles Davis and later with piano virtuoso Chick Corea. If for no other reason, Miles Davis should be lauded for his penchant to continually find young great talent that he allowed to incubate their musical skills, before branching out on their own. Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, Airto Moreira, Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius,
    John McGgaughlin and Joe Zawinul are some of the artists I have in mind, all went on to create seminal music in their own right.

  153. @Mr. Hack
    @mal

    The style and premise of this clip harkens back to a much earlier era, perhaps the club scene of the 1980's, so looking at it today is kind of nostalgically bizarre. What does not harken back to an earlier era, however, are the planes on display and their capabilities. I've never seen stunts like those being performed starting at around 2:38. The perpendicular hot dogging is incredible!

    Replies: @schnellandine, @Dmitry, @mal

    Yea, those are RC toy planes. To the best of my knowledge, lightened up MiG 29 can pull off something like that (nose up hover), but not Sukhoy heavy fighter.

    Still, very impressive in the video 🙂 As for music, that’s Eurodance style that Russians faithfully preserve, carry forward, and innovate upon. Russia will be the cultural preservation center of Europe if things continue as they are.

    *Eurodance is electronic music in Europe from late 80’s to late 90’s.

    • Agree: Dmitry
    • Replies: @LatW
    @mal


    To the best of my knowledge, lightened up MiG 29 can pull off something like that (nose up hover).
     
    I wonder how the pilot is feeling. :)


    As for music, that’s Eurodance style that Russians faithfully preserve, carry forward, and innovate upon.
     
    That's just good old туц тац with some melodic synth added.
  154. @schnellandine
    @Dmitry

    Didn't stick with Chick Corea, but he was one of my intros into what I consider 'the real stuff', and he played on some of my favorite Miles Davis tracks. After seeing him play "Groovin' High" on some PBS deal (still can't find at YouTube) in the 70s, I found bop and that was that. He may have drifted into the cheesy now and then, but he could play acoustic piano with the best. His acoustic album with Herbie Hancock was another study for a marveling kid. Thanks for the news, which I hadn't heard.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

    There were two albums highlighting the interplay of Corea and Hancock. If you liked one of them, you’ll probably enjoy the other one too:

    [MORE]

    • Thanks: schnellandine
  155. @schnellandine
    @Dmitry

    Didn't stick with Chick Corea, but he was one of my intros into what I consider 'the real stuff', and he played on some of my favorite Miles Davis tracks. After seeing him play "Groovin' High" on some PBS deal (still can't find at YouTube) in the 70s, I found bop and that was that. He may have drifted into the cheesy now and then, but he could play acoustic piano with the best. His acoustic album with Herbie Hancock was another study for a marveling kid. Thanks for the news, which I hadn't heard.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

    If you’re a big fan of the bop style, you’re probably enamored with Charlie Parker’s music. Miles Davis was once asked to define jazz music, to which he replied: “Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker”. Of course he went on to expand the boundaries quite a bit, but still…..

    • Replies: @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack

    Yeah, been listening to Parker since age ~15, and was playing bop in clubs within a few years. Don't seek it anymore, but when it comes up in shuffle, always welcome.

    You mentioned Pastorius as a Miles Davis associate. Didn't know that. When?

    Have recently seen Davis glanced off here as more of a leader than player, but I consider him up there with the best. His transformation from bop overkill to diamond tone was pure intelligence. I got tired of most bop players who didn't move on, frankly; don't see it as a worthy permanent occupation—except for the originators, some of which I saw live. Anyway, Davis was the perfect launch for so many of those guys, and I was a big fan of at least 5 of them. A glorious time to be alive, and I'm grateful for the timing, especially these days.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  156. @mal
    @utu


    The two sides discussed cooperation in the field of remote sensing of the Earth and in training space industry personnel.
     
    Nicee nice! Russia is getting a Florida, finally! This means Sphere satellite manufacturing problems caused by sanctions are getting resolved.

    Basically, a hint. When it comes to satellites, whenever you hear garbage buzzwords such as "remote sensing", or "environmental monitoring", or "atmospheric studies", or "communications relay", it means - battlefield command and control stations.

    And sure, their official declared use will be to watch polar bears eat dinner, or watch geese migrate, or help teenagers in rural Alabama win Call of Duty death match thanks to low latency. All true, but we are not spending $trillions on satellite constellations to watch polar bears eat dinner. That's more of a side benefit.

    Russia of course had troubles with equatorial orbits (no Russian territories close to equator, New Guinea spaceport is more French than Russian), but it looks like Zimbabwe is stepping up to the plate. Good on them - hosting Russian military satcom (satellite command center) is the second best thing to being under Russian nuclear umbrella. Zimbabwe will be going places with this.

    Also:

    The programme eventually fell apart, and not just because of the lack of funds. Mwamba fell pregnant and returned home. Other astronauts left, reportedly going on drinking sprees and never returning or moving onto other pastimes such as tribal song and dance.
     
    Based.

    Replies: @songbird

    Don’t know if my ideas are behind the times, but I keep imagining spacewar will be something like the Skyrora Space Tug grabbing hold of a Türksat and threatening to deorbit it, cutting off all Turkish soaps, and setting the Middle East on fire, unless Erdogan stops selling drones to Azerbaijan. But, maybe, that’s archaic, and all the soaps will move to LEO and be shot down with lasers.

    • Replies: @mal
    @songbird

    Well, that's kinda what all the space junk removal talk is all about. Nobody ever mentions if space junk is cooperative or non-cooperative. If it's not cooperative, you increase your delta v budget and beat it down until it is cooperative.

    Same deal with "remote sensing". You need satellites to keep an eye on those geese flocks - geese are violent and can bite hard. So of course keeping tabs on them is a national security issue. Can't have those geese running wild.

    It is a mere side benefit that the satellite constellation designed to keep track of potentially malicious geese can also note operations of Turkish drones and help direct artillery rocket such as Iskander towards their command center.

    Generally speaking, for the next decade, all the satellite launches will be about geese monitoring (greatest threat to humanity), whatever they will call it - environmental or atmospheric studies. Incidentally, they will also monitor hypersonic weapons test tracks. But mostly geese. Also, rural Alabama teenagers playing video games. Low latency control over killer robot army will be rather coincidental to helping teenagers achieve fast reaction times and victories in shooting games.

    Lasers will come later as by 2030 space junk problem will become intolerable. So whether it cooperates or not, space junk will be removed from orbit. The only question that matters is who gets to define what is space junk to be removed.

    Replies: @songbird

  157. @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    If you're a big fan of the bop style, you're probably enamored with Charlie Parker's music. Miles Davis was once asked to define jazz music, to which he replied: "Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker". Of course he went on to expand the boundaries quite a bit, but still.....

    Replies: @schnellandine

    Yeah, been listening to Parker since age ~15, and was playing bop in clubs within a few years. Don’t seek it anymore, but when it comes up in shuffle, always welcome.

    You mentioned Pastorius as a Miles Davis associate. Didn’t know that. When?

    Have recently seen Davis glanced off here as more of a leader than player, but I consider him up there with the best. His transformation from bop overkill to diamond tone was pure intelligence. I got tired of most bop players who didn’t move on, frankly; don’t see it as a worthy permanent occupation—except for the originators, some of which I saw live. Anyway, Davis was the perfect launch for so many of those guys, and I was a big fan of at least 5 of them. A glorious time to be alive, and I’m grateful for the timing, especially these days.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    I double checked and couldn't find any outings that include both Davis and Pastorius together. Perhaps, it was wishful thinking on my part?...I do know that Davis thought that he was a great musician and even dedicated a song in his honor:

    https://youtu.be/0PZ7jB-TwSg

    I only really came to Charlie Parker about 10 years ago. I came across a wonderful box set that included 10 CD's, an anthology of sorts. Really, great music and equally good mixing too. Since then, I've purchased a couple of other of his albums, that corresponded to his orchestral period - sweet!

    Replies: @Agathoklis

  158. @Pericles
    @Barbarossa

    It's somewhat difficult to see what Trump could have achieved due to the four year mudwrestle with the Deep State. It seems unclear whether Trump can realistically run due to age, primarily, but it would also be interesting to know what he would do the second time around. Anything different?

    With Trump and, perhaps to a greater degree, Biden, it has at the very least been shown that the presidency is not a strong office. Thus it seems likely it and its electios will remain a side show as things worsen. (I find it difficult to see how things would turn around and get better at this point, e.g., the Deep State becoming neutral rather than unabashedly leftist. How? Why?)

    Regarding principles, well, where are the principles in politics? Leftism is fully oligarch sponsored, conservatism conserves nothing, etc.

    Replies: @A123, @Barbarossa

    I do acknowledge that Trump faced an uphill fight against the entrenched establishment. However he seemingly showed up with no discernible plan as to how to win that fight. Political sea changes have happened in various places at various times, but Trump proved incapable of accomplishing anything of the sort. His political enemies bested him which should be a damning indictment in it’s own right.

    I had some cautious optimism going into Trump’s presidency, but I was quite disillusioned within a few months at his frittering approach to political influence.

    I personally explain Trump’s weak start to what I believe is the fact that he never intended of expected to win the presidency. I think he entered the Republican race as little more than a PR stunt and fully expected Hillary to win the race. I remember vividly the look of deer-in-the-headlights despair on Trump’s face as the it became clear the electoral votes were definitely swinging in his direction.

    Principles or ideology of some sort are I think necessary if one intends to radically challenge the status quo and win. Otherwise, what will provide the stability of vision which will sustain during difficulties?

    • Agree: Aedib
    • Replies: @iffen
    @Barbarossa

    if one intends to radically challenge the status quo

    He didn't have any such plans. A changed attitude toward immigration. An adversarial relationship with woke media. A brash attitude in foreign affairs. That's about all there was.

    If the economy stays in the pits, and it looks like it will, he will be re-elected in 2024. Remember, only a change of about 44,000 votes and he would have been re-elected in 2020. It is safe to say that had there been no Covid he would have been handily re-elected.

    After re-election, nothing much will change other than the three items above. He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans. Nothing of importance will be accomplished and after 4 years the economy will have cycled out of the pits and Dems will ride a wave in 2028.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    , @A123
    @Barbarossa


    I do acknowledge that Trump faced an uphill fight against the entrenched establishment. However he seemingly showed up with no discernible plan as to how to win that fight.
     
    Let us examine you claim of no discernible plan. Here are some critical facts that encumbered any plan:

    -- MAGA never controlled the House (Appropriations)
    -- MAGA never controlled the Senate (Confirmations)
    -- Jeff "The Betrayer" Sessions let Mueller's Impeachment investigation run amok

    Impossible expectations are unreasonable. So, what *achievable* discernible plan were you expecting to see that you didn't see?

    Be specific! Please explain exactly what *achievable* discernible plan was missed.

    -1- What *achievable* action did you need to see as evidence of discernible plan?
    -2- How would the discernible plan have *achieved* funding via non-MAGA House (Appropriations)?
    -3- What subordinate(s) would have *achieved* Senate (Confirmation) to run the discernible plan?

    You will find it quite difficult, even with 20/20 hindsight, to craft an *achievable* discernible plan within the Constitutional & political limitations.
    ______

    Based on realistic expectations, Trump did quite well.

    We all would have liked to see more, but Judas Sessions delivered a crippling & unexpected blow to his administration. That single act crushed any plan based on moving the Senate -- Away from Establishment control / Towards MAGA policy.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
  159. @mal
    @Mr. Hack

    Yea, those are RC toy planes. To the best of my knowledge, lightened up MiG 29 can pull off something like that (nose up hover), but not Sukhoy heavy fighter.

    Still, very impressive in the video :) As for music, that's Eurodance style that Russians faithfully preserve, carry forward, and innovate upon. Russia will be the cultural preservation center of Europe if things continue as they are.

    *Eurodance is electronic music in Europe from late 80's to late 90's.

    Replies: @LatW

    To the best of my knowledge, lightened up MiG 29 can pull off something like that (nose up hover).

    I wonder how the pilot is feeling. 🙂

    As for music, that’s Eurodance style that Russians faithfully preserve, carry forward, and innovate upon.

    That’s just good old туц тац with some melodic synth added.

  160. @LatW
    @Dmitry


    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip,
     
    Come one, those are not real dancers, but just chicks showing up looking a certain way (ehem) to generate excitement. They're like brand ambassadors.


    because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style
     
    The real German EBM dance style is actually not "energy saving" at all, but quite intense. First of all, it is typically twice as fast as what those chicks are doing in your video. Also, it takes quite some energy to keep your core muscles rigid to do those mechanical, robotic routines. You keep your shoulders in a straight line with your hips. It may actually be easier for a guy, although some German chicks do it very well, too.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    dance style is actually not “energy saving” at all, but

    Yes but those people are doing it for enjoyment.

    Whereas club dancers have to clock in hours of this every night, so they need to do it with autopilot.

    It’s like the same energy saving dance moves are all standardized across the country, without much regional variation, as if they study it from a textbook.

    Well probably nowadays learn from YouTube

    generate excitement. They’re like brand ambassadors

    In Russian nightclubs, they also have more dancers, entertainers, audience interactive competition, foam spraying from above, magicians, indoor fireworks (this is not a good idea e.g. in Perm).

    The more fun is just because of the low cost of labour in the postsoviet space of course.

    Labour is so cheap, it’s still affordable to hire real people to entertain drunk people. Whereas in some hipster Western club you can probably hardly afford to pay for the DJ and the electricity bill.

    2am is still more fun in Russia there is a whole pantomime, comedians, and magicians.

    One of strange things of the last few years in Russia, is apparently that “Cabaret” became fashionable. I don’t even know what “Cabaret” is apparently supposed to be. This is some kind apparent of new fashion that emerges from after my time.

    From reading reviews, all I can understand apparently this is like an expensive restaurant where you can eat oysters while watching magicians (with snakes), dancing girls, where they can also just hire “women of low social responsibility” to go to a private room. They just needed to add dancing bears and indoor fireworks (well maybe not e.g. Perm).

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    don’t even know what “Cabaret” is apparently supposed to be. This is some kind apparent of new fashion that emerges from after my time.

     

    I started to experience an emigration culture shock - aside from to watch the fencing, this is also an expensive restaurant.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq8ldb8p6pk
    , @LatW
    @Dmitry


    I don’t even know what “Cabaret” is apparently supposed to be.
     
    Oh, stop pretending, young man. :) Anyway... it looks like it's hard to come up with something new. These shows are a little too decadent for my taste, but I can attest that Russians do have a great dance practice tradition. Not just high end things like ballet or Olympic sports, but even dance and working out for normal people (although my favorite is probably the krav maga style dance that the spetsnaz does).

    My sister used to have a Russian gymnastics coach back in the day when she was very young and oh boy. It was serious exercise that really helped develop discipline and stamina. You know what other type of dancing is pretty hard? Folk dance. It looks easy but it's not! It's insane cardio.

    But you're right about these clubs, these go-go dancers probably don't charge more than $50 per hour for showing up like that. Although there might be some high end places in Moscow, who knows.

    They just needed to add dancing bears
     
    Please, no. It's too cruel and the bear is a sacred totem animal.

    indoor fireworks (well maybe not e.g. Perm)
     
    Wow, it says 117 died there. That's insane. See, honey, this is the kind of sh*t you Russkies do that is kind of scary and awe inspiring but also very often ends up like a complete disaster. What a tragedy. :(

    Replies: @Dmitry

  161. @German_reader
    https://www.newsweek.com/gay-conservatives-launch-arabic-farsi-campaigns-reach-gays-abroad-opinion-1645670

    Replies: @songbird

    Don’t know if I am too cynical, but I immediately think of gay tourism.

    IIRC, there is some sort of gay NGO in Canada that specializes in importing gays from these countries. Hard not to see some hidden purpose in it.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @songbird


    gay tourism.

     

    My impression from Israel is that marketing for gay tourism is one of the world's most cynical games.


    For example Israel is describing themselves as the centre of LGBT in the Middle East, and seemed to be able to access the LGBT tourism market, and generate millions of dollars of the tourism from nice, middle class, non-religious European LGBT people.

    Also the LGBT brand separates Tel Aviv branding from Israel to an extent, and separates itself from the negative image most Europeans have of Israel, where they view Israel as "evil right-wing country".

    Problem is that the main tourism to Israel is still religious people. So you have to try to separate the two public relations campaigns from each other.

    You can see on YouTube, they never promote LGBT on the main Israel YouTube channel. As most of the tourism for Israel are religious people who could be angry. But the Israelis can present the LGBT angle when they talk to the secular European people, who love LGBT.

    -


    Israel is also clever how they boast about having the "only gay beach in the Middle East".

    But this is just Hilton beach with a rainbow flag. It cost Israel about $10 to buy the rainbow flag and add it to pre-existing Hilton Beach.

    This is "only gay beach in the Middle East" but I think it is just a normal beach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ7ya7jMpBo. The Israelis act like it is a normal beach, but they tell the tourists in the marketing brochure that it is a "special LGBT beach".

    Replies: @LatW, @songbird, @Emil Nikola Richard

  162. @songbird
    @mal

    Don't know if my ideas are behind the times, but I keep imagining spacewar will be something like the Skyrora Space Tug grabbing hold of a Türksat and threatening to deorbit it, cutting off all Turkish soaps, and setting the Middle East on fire, unless Erdogan stops selling drones to Azerbaijan. But, maybe, that's archaic, and all the soaps will move to LEO and be shot down with lasers.

    Replies: @mal

    Well, that’s kinda what all the space junk removal talk is all about. Nobody ever mentions if space junk is cooperative or non-cooperative. If it’s not cooperative, you increase your delta v budget and beat it down until it is cooperative.

    Same deal with “remote sensing”. You need satellites to keep an eye on those geese flocks – geese are violent and can bite hard. So of course keeping tabs on them is a national security issue. Can’t have those geese running wild.

    It is a mere side benefit that the satellite constellation designed to keep track of potentially malicious geese can also note operations of Turkish drones and help direct artillery rocket such as Iskander towards their command center.

    Generally speaking, for the next decade, all the satellite launches will be about geese monitoring (greatest threat to humanity), whatever they will call it – environmental or atmospheric studies. Incidentally, they will also monitor hypersonic weapons test tracks. But mostly geese. Also, rural Alabama teenagers playing video games. Low latency control over killer robot army will be rather coincidental to helping teenagers achieve fast reaction times and victories in shooting games.

    Lasers will come later as by 2030 space junk problem will become intolerable. So whether it cooperates or not, space junk will be removed from orbit. The only question that matters is who gets to define what is space junk to be removed.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @mal

    My theory of war is that the big guys won't fight each other. Too scared of nukes, or of a revolution, so the point of having a carrier is to scare someone like the Arabs.

    If we extend this to spacewar, big powers going all out might be damned inconvenient. Nobody wants a real war, and all those spy sats help discourage one. Shooting them down would be bad, might even cause Kessler syndrome. But Nigeria only has three satellites. Taking out one, NigComSat, would be a big inconvenience for Nigeria, but their retaliatory ability is pretty limited. Makes them an easy target to bully. No need to shoot it down, just show that you have the capacity to end the broadcast of those Nollywood soaps.


    The only question that matters is who gets to define what is space junk to be removed.
     
    Lot of ways to interpret "cleaning the trash from LEO."
  163. @Dmitry
    @LatW


    dance style is actually not “energy saving” at all, but
     
    Yes but those people are doing it for enjoyment.

    Whereas club dancers have to clock in hours of this every night, so they need to do it with autopilot.

    It's like the same energy saving dance moves are all standardized across the country, without much regional variation, as if they study it from a textbook.

    Well probably nowadays learn from YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTHyT1_ni9U


    generate excitement. They’re like brand ambassadors
     
    In Russian nightclubs, they also have more dancers, entertainers, audience interactive competition, foam spraying from above, magicians, indoor fireworks (this is not a good idea e.g. in Perm).

    The more fun is just because of the low cost of labour in the postsoviet space of course.

    Labour is so cheap, it's still affordable to hire real people to entertain drunk people. Whereas in some hipster Western club you can probably hardly afford to pay for the DJ and the electricity bill.

    2am is still more fun in Russia there is a whole pantomime, comedians, and magicians.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OHevNkt01w


    -

    One of strange things of the last few years in Russia, is apparently that "Cabaret" became fashionable. I don't even know what "Cabaret" is apparently supposed to be. This is some kind apparent of new fashion that emerges from after my time.

    From reading reviews, all I can understand apparently this is like an expensive restaurant where you can eat oysters while watching magicians (with snakes), dancing girls, where they can also just hire "women of low social responsibility" to go to a private room. They just needed to add dancing bears and indoor fireworks (well maybe not e.g. Perm).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJAH38r2WPg

    Replies: @Dmitry, @LatW

    don’t even know what “Cabaret” is apparently supposed to be. This is some kind apparent of new fashion that emerges from after my time.

    I started to experience an emigration culture shock – aside from to watch the fencing, this is also an expensive restaurant.

  164. @mal
    @songbird

    Well, that's kinda what all the space junk removal talk is all about. Nobody ever mentions if space junk is cooperative or non-cooperative. If it's not cooperative, you increase your delta v budget and beat it down until it is cooperative.

    Same deal with "remote sensing". You need satellites to keep an eye on those geese flocks - geese are violent and can bite hard. So of course keeping tabs on them is a national security issue. Can't have those geese running wild.

    It is a mere side benefit that the satellite constellation designed to keep track of potentially malicious geese can also note operations of Turkish drones and help direct artillery rocket such as Iskander towards their command center.

    Generally speaking, for the next decade, all the satellite launches will be about geese monitoring (greatest threat to humanity), whatever they will call it - environmental or atmospheric studies. Incidentally, they will also monitor hypersonic weapons test tracks. But mostly geese. Also, rural Alabama teenagers playing video games. Low latency control over killer robot army will be rather coincidental to helping teenagers achieve fast reaction times and victories in shooting games.

    Lasers will come later as by 2030 space junk problem will become intolerable. So whether it cooperates or not, space junk will be removed from orbit. The only question that matters is who gets to define what is space junk to be removed.

    Replies: @songbird

    My theory of war is that the big guys won’t fight each other. Too scared of nukes, or of a revolution, so the point of having a carrier is to scare someone like the Arabs.

    If we extend this to spacewar, big powers going all out might be damned inconvenient. Nobody wants a real war, and all those spy sats help discourage one. Shooting them down would be bad, might even cause Kessler syndrome. But Nigeria only has three satellites. Taking out one, NigComSat, would be a big inconvenience for Nigeria, but their retaliatory ability is pretty limited. Makes them an easy target to bully. No need to shoot it down, just show that you have the capacity to end the broadcast of those Nollywood soaps.

    The only question that matters is who gets to define what is space junk to be removed.

    Lot of ways to interpret “cleaning the trash from LEO.”

    • Agree: mal
  165. https://medium.com/@ryan79z28/im-a-twenty-year-truck-driver-i-will-tell-you-why-america-s-shipping-crisis-will-not-end-bbe0ebac6a91

    An excellent article about the supply chain issues. This confirms some of the thoughts I’ve had observing that this looks like it’s spiraling.

  166. New Hampshire is down to 88% white. In my youth, I remember seeing exactly one black in the state, who was on vacation, not far over the border. Old-time New Englanders are often stereotyped as woke, but it was not really true:

    [MORE]

    At an early hour, the people of this town and of the neighboring towns assembled, full of the spirit of ’75 [sic], to the number of about three hundred, with between ninety and one hundred yoke of oxen, and with all necessary materials for the completion of the undertaking. Many of the most respectable and wealthy farmers of this and the adjacent towns rendered their assistance on this occasion….

    The work was commenced and carried on with very little noise, considering the number engaged, until the building was safely landed on the common near the Baptist meeting-house, where it stands, …the monument of the folly of those living spirits, who are struggling to destroy what our fathers have gained.[13]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noyes_Academy

  167. @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack

    Yeah, been listening to Parker since age ~15, and was playing bop in clubs within a few years. Don't seek it anymore, but when it comes up in shuffle, always welcome.

    You mentioned Pastorius as a Miles Davis associate. Didn't know that. When?

    Have recently seen Davis glanced off here as more of a leader than player, but I consider him up there with the best. His transformation from bop overkill to diamond tone was pure intelligence. I got tired of most bop players who didn't move on, frankly; don't see it as a worthy permanent occupation—except for the originators, some of which I saw live. Anyway, Davis was the perfect launch for so many of those guys, and I was a big fan of at least 5 of them. A glorious time to be alive, and I'm grateful for the timing, especially these days.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I double checked and couldn’t find any outings that include both Davis and Pastorius together. Perhaps, it was wishful thinking on my part?…I do know that Davis thought that he was a great musician and even dedicated a song in his honor:

    I only really came to Charlie Parker about 10 years ago. I came across a wonderful box set that included 10 CD’s, an anthology of sorts. Really, great music and equally good mixing too. Since then, I’ve purchased a couple of other of his albums, that corresponded to his orchestral period – sweet!

    • Thanks: schnellandine
    • Replies: @Agathoklis
    @Mr. Hack

    The second Miles Davis Quintet was clearly the apex of American jazz/improvisational music. Sure, there was some highlights later such as Frank Zappa and Eric Dolphy but the consistent brilliance of that group will never be bettered.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  168. @songbird
    @German_reader

    Don't know if I am too cynical, but I immediately think of gay tourism.

    IIRC, there is some sort of gay NGO in Canada that specializes in importing gays from these countries. Hard not to see some hidden purpose in it.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    gay tourism.

    My impression from Israel is that marketing for gay tourism is one of the world’s most cynical games.

    For example Israel is describing themselves as the centre of LGBT in the Middle East, and seemed to be able to access the LGBT tourism market, and generate millions of dollars of the tourism from nice, middle class, non-religious European LGBT people.

    Also the LGBT brand separates Tel Aviv branding from Israel to an extent, and separates itself from the negative image most Europeans have of Israel, where they view Israel as “evil right-wing country”.

    Problem is that the main tourism to Israel is still religious people. So you have to try to separate the two public relations campaigns from each other.

    You can see on YouTube, they never promote LGBT on the main Israel YouTube channel. As most of the tourism for Israel are religious people who could be angry. But the Israelis can present the LGBT angle when they talk to the secular European people, who love LGBT.

    Israel is also clever how they boast about having the “only gay beach in the Middle East”.

    But this is just Hilton beach with a rainbow flag. It cost Israel about \$10 to buy the rainbow flag and add it to pre-existing Hilton Beach.

    This is “only gay beach in the Middle East” but I think it is just a normal beach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ7ya7jMpBo. The Israelis act like it is a normal beach, but they tell the tourists in the marketing brochure that it is a “special LGBT beach”.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Dmitry

    Not sure about Israel, but my hunch is that if these Western NGOs go and try to do their indoctrination in the 9 countries they mentioned above, they'll have their asses handed to them. It may not be safe for them. They'll probably enlist some poor local "activist" who will so provoke and enrage the locals that he'll end up suffering harshly and then the Western NGOs will scream "Hate crime!".

    , @songbird
    @Dmitry


    I wish I could buy stocks in the gay tourism industry.
     
    TBH, I was thinking of it more in the sense of slumming, or the sex trade, as a lot of these countries have very low per capita. (How HIV made it to the First World.) It is one of my theories that, since the steamship, gays have gone slumming in some of these very backward places. And that for example, that is why Roger Casement took his first job in the Congo. Or why Anderson Cooper defended Haiti after Trump's comments (though I am sure he stayed in a fancy place.) Or why Arthur C. Clarke lived in Madagascar. I think Foucault was another.

    But, on a different note, I have always been puzzled how it is that certain places become hot spots for gays, like Providencetown (also a beach spot), or San Francisco. I think part of it is that gays have more disposable income, but I still find it hard to figure out why those particular areas. I suppose part of it must be network effect.

    In America, gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities, as they don't have to worry about their kids being attacked. Maybe, a similar thing could be said about tourism? I don't know...

    Replies: @Pericles, @Svidomyatheart, @Dmitry

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Dmitry


    The Israelis act like it is a normal beach, but they tell the tourists in the marketing brochure that it is a “special LGBT beach”.
     
    Are there any L BT's on that beach?

    My a priori is absolutely not. I found this Florida outfit with google search on lesbian beach but that looks to me like a great business to go broke in really really fast.

    https://www.outcoast.com/events/biggest-lesbian-beach-party-2021/
  169. @Dmitry
    @LatW


    dance style is actually not “energy saving” at all, but
     
    Yes but those people are doing it for enjoyment.

    Whereas club dancers have to clock in hours of this every night, so they need to do it with autopilot.

    It's like the same energy saving dance moves are all standardized across the country, without much regional variation, as if they study it from a textbook.

    Well probably nowadays learn from YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTHyT1_ni9U


    generate excitement. They’re like brand ambassadors
     
    In Russian nightclubs, they also have more dancers, entertainers, audience interactive competition, foam spraying from above, magicians, indoor fireworks (this is not a good idea e.g. in Perm).

    The more fun is just because of the low cost of labour in the postsoviet space of course.

    Labour is so cheap, it's still affordable to hire real people to entertain drunk people. Whereas in some hipster Western club you can probably hardly afford to pay for the DJ and the electricity bill.

    2am is still more fun in Russia there is a whole pantomime, comedians, and magicians.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OHevNkt01w


    -

    One of strange things of the last few years in Russia, is apparently that "Cabaret" became fashionable. I don't even know what "Cabaret" is apparently supposed to be. This is some kind apparent of new fashion that emerges from after my time.

    From reading reviews, all I can understand apparently this is like an expensive restaurant where you can eat oysters while watching magicians (with snakes), dancing girls, where they can also just hire "women of low social responsibility" to go to a private room. They just needed to add dancing bears and indoor fireworks (well maybe not e.g. Perm).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJAH38r2WPg

    Replies: @Dmitry, @LatW

    I don’t even know what “Cabaret” is apparently supposed to be.

    Oh, stop pretending, young man. 🙂 Anyway… it looks like it’s hard to come up with something new. These shows are a little too decadent for my taste, but I can attest that Russians do have a great dance practice tradition. Not just high end things like ballet or Olympic sports, but even dance and working out for normal people (although my favorite is probably the krav maga style dance that the spetsnaz does).

    My sister used to have a Russian gymnastics coach back in the day when she was very young and oh boy. It was serious exercise that really helped develop discipline and stamina. You know what other type of dancing is pretty hard? Folk dance. It looks easy but it’s not! It’s insane cardio.

    But you’re right about these clubs, these go-go dancers probably don’t charge more than \$50 per hour for showing up like that. Although there might be some high end places in Moscow, who knows.

    They just needed to add dancing bears

    Please, no. It’s too cruel and the bear is a sacred totem animal.

    indoor fireworks (well maybe not e.g. Perm)

    Wow, it says 117 died there. That’s insane. See, honey, this is the kind of sh*t you Russkies do that is kind of scary and awe inspiring but also very often ends up like a complete disaster. What a tragedy. 🙁

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @LatW


    stop pretending, young man
     
    Lol I am sounding very naïve.
    I understand people will always want to go to see strippers, and hire the "women of low social responsibility", to go with you to "private rooms". But I didn't know there is nowadays the demand to mix this with a magician show, seafood restaurant, and artistic fencing performances.

    I can attest that Russians do have a great dance practice

     

    Yes it's something (figure skating, gymnastics, ballet) that matches to the mentality, also like classical piano achievements.

    -

    But what do you think about these new fashions like pole dancing exercise studios that open in the cities in Russia?

    On one hand, it's great for exercise. And I even don't think necessarily there is anything wrong with pole dancing.

    On the other hand, if I had a daughter in the future, you would not encourage her to choose this exercise class, as it could be too easy to transition into the professional version (which overlaps with the prostitution) and where their salary is higher than a doctor.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8abt8_G780


    , it says 117 died there. That’s insane. See, honey, this is the kind of sh*t you Russkies do that
     
    It killed 156 people. (graphic, if you were curious - you can see these idiot club allowed the fire on the bamboo roof at 11:30 and still continued the show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orNL9bnZvH0.). I guess the only thing to say is to always remember where the exit is when you go into any crowded buildings. If you notice any smoke, stay near the exit.

    Replies: @LatW

  170. @Dmitry
    @songbird


    gay tourism.

     

    My impression from Israel is that marketing for gay tourism is one of the world's most cynical games.


    For example Israel is describing themselves as the centre of LGBT in the Middle East, and seemed to be able to access the LGBT tourism market, and generate millions of dollars of the tourism from nice, middle class, non-religious European LGBT people.

    Also the LGBT brand separates Tel Aviv branding from Israel to an extent, and separates itself from the negative image most Europeans have of Israel, where they view Israel as "evil right-wing country".

    Problem is that the main tourism to Israel is still religious people. So you have to try to separate the two public relations campaigns from each other.

    You can see on YouTube, they never promote LGBT on the main Israel YouTube channel. As most of the tourism for Israel are religious people who could be angry. But the Israelis can present the LGBT angle when they talk to the secular European people, who love LGBT.

    -


    Israel is also clever how they boast about having the "only gay beach in the Middle East".

    But this is just Hilton beach with a rainbow flag. It cost Israel about $10 to buy the rainbow flag and add it to pre-existing Hilton Beach.

    This is "only gay beach in the Middle East" but I think it is just a normal beach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ7ya7jMpBo. The Israelis act like it is a normal beach, but they tell the tourists in the marketing brochure that it is a "special LGBT beach".

    Replies: @LatW, @songbird, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Not sure about Israel, but my hunch is that if these Western NGOs go and try to do their indoctrination in the 9 countries they mentioned above, they’ll have their asses handed to them. It may not be safe for them. They’ll probably enlist some poor local “activist” who will so provoke and enrage the locals that he’ll end up suffering harshly and then the Western NGOs will scream “Hate crime!”.

  171. @Dmitry
    @songbird


    gay tourism.

     

    My impression from Israel is that marketing for gay tourism is one of the world's most cynical games.


    For example Israel is describing themselves as the centre of LGBT in the Middle East, and seemed to be able to access the LGBT tourism market, and generate millions of dollars of the tourism from nice, middle class, non-religious European LGBT people.

    Also the LGBT brand separates Tel Aviv branding from Israel to an extent, and separates itself from the negative image most Europeans have of Israel, where they view Israel as "evil right-wing country".

    Problem is that the main tourism to Israel is still religious people. So you have to try to separate the two public relations campaigns from each other.

    You can see on YouTube, they never promote LGBT on the main Israel YouTube channel. As most of the tourism for Israel are religious people who could be angry. But the Israelis can present the LGBT angle when they talk to the secular European people, who love LGBT.

    -


    Israel is also clever how they boast about having the "only gay beach in the Middle East".

    But this is just Hilton beach with a rainbow flag. It cost Israel about $10 to buy the rainbow flag and add it to pre-existing Hilton Beach.

    This is "only gay beach in the Middle East" but I think it is just a normal beach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ7ya7jMpBo. The Israelis act like it is a normal beach, but they tell the tourists in the marketing brochure that it is a "special LGBT beach".

    Replies: @LatW, @songbird, @Emil Nikola Richard

    I wish I could buy stocks in the gay tourism industry.

    TBH, I was thinking of it more in the sense of slumming, or the sex trade, as a lot of these countries have very low per capita. (How HIV made it to the First World.) It is one of my theories that, since the steamship, gays have gone slumming in some of these very backward places. And that for example, that is why Roger Casement took his first job in the Congo. Or why Anderson Cooper defended Haiti after Trump’s comments (though I am sure he stayed in a fancy place.) Or why Arthur C. Clarke lived in Madagascar. I think Foucault was another.

    But, on a different note, I have always been puzzled how it is that certain places become hot spots for gays, like Providencetown (also a beach spot), or San Francisco. I think part of it is that gays have more disposable income, but I still find it hard to figure out why those particular areas. I suppose part of it must be network effect.

    In America, gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities, as they don’t have to worry about their kids being attacked. Maybe, a similar thing could be said about tourism? I don’t know…

    • Replies: @Pericles
    @songbird


    Or why Arthur C. Clarke lived in Madagascar.
     
    (Sri Lanka)

    Tangiers was a popular spot too, for much the same reason. I seem to recall plenty of degenerate writers ending up there.
    , @Svidomyatheart
    @songbird

    Read this, a comprehensive thread on how the aids started and about whats on the minds of these perverse creatures.

    https://archive.vn/AJNMS

    Niccolo actually posted it here a few times before. Its a shame he disabled his Salo forum in favor of Substack money though.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Emil Nikola Richard

    , @Dmitry
    @songbird

    My sense is that on average identifying-themselves sexual minority people, are more middle class, higher educated and higher income, than average people.

    One reason is maybe because in more difficult proletarian society, sexual minority people repress this social identity. But in more gentle, bourgeois society, this demographic are encouraged to be openly identifying as LGBT.

    So the openly identifying LGBT are at much higher rates in bourgeois society - i.e. their self-identification is much higher in this class.

    There might be some other correlations. In my industry, there seem to be not so many LGBT - except among women.

    There's an underproportion of women in the tech industry, but my sense is that of the underrepresented women there is a higher proportion of LGBT and non-binary.


    Anderson Cooper defended Haiti
     
    The wealthy LGBT hipsters of YouTube, don't seem to recommend Haiti lol. And that's despite being somekind of "expert level" travel bloggers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25WAXmmVm0.

    By comparison, they recommend Bahrain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz2sOvBc63k.

    LGBT tourists would be usually middle class European people (or European Americans), with higher incomes, liberal virtue-signalling politics, - i.e. co-extensive with hipsters.

    The stereotypes of these bourgeois liberals, is to pretend they like poor places and bohemianism, but not actually like them. They would like "shabby-chic", not "shabby" much.

    I would guess Tel Aviv would be just on the margin of acceptability in terms of shabbiness for this market. Central Moscow (which turned into a gay hipster paradise) would be the ideal for them - but there is a recent problem of inference of politics in the international marketing for that.


    beach spot), or San Francisco.
     
    From the example of San Francisco.
    It makes me think that maybe because the historic LGBT culture have taste for liberal politics, good architecture, urban planning and booming economy. On the other hand, it could show a revealed preference for economic inequality.

    San Francisco is one of the more architecturally and naturally beautiful cities in the USA, with the country's most successful economy. On the other hand, it has terrible problems of inequality and homeless.

    So the fact it is still popular with LGBT culture, can show the culture has high tolerance for these ultra-unequal conditions. Los Angeles is also similar.


    gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities

     

    I would guess because the openly-identifying LGBT people have been historically more bourgeois. In the proletarian culture (which is more frequent in America, with the African-Americans) there is less of the luxury of toleration, and so the LGBT are more repressing their identity.

    Historic centre of the LGBT culture, were movements like the "Bloomsbury Group". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsbury_Group These were ultra-elitist social groups.

    In recent years, LGBT culture became more mainstream in the West, and maybe this will result in the demographic becoming more representative of lower classes than it has been historically.

    Replies: @songbird, @Barbarossa

  172. @songbird
    @Dmitry


    I wish I could buy stocks in the gay tourism industry.
     
    TBH, I was thinking of it more in the sense of slumming, or the sex trade, as a lot of these countries have very low per capita. (How HIV made it to the First World.) It is one of my theories that, since the steamship, gays have gone slumming in some of these very backward places. And that for example, that is why Roger Casement took his first job in the Congo. Or why Anderson Cooper defended Haiti after Trump's comments (though I am sure he stayed in a fancy place.) Or why Arthur C. Clarke lived in Madagascar. I think Foucault was another.

    But, on a different note, I have always been puzzled how it is that certain places become hot spots for gays, like Providencetown (also a beach spot), or San Francisco. I think part of it is that gays have more disposable income, but I still find it hard to figure out why those particular areas. I suppose part of it must be network effect.

    In America, gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities, as they don't have to worry about their kids being attacked. Maybe, a similar thing could be said about tourism? I don't know...

    Replies: @Pericles, @Svidomyatheart, @Dmitry

    Or why Arthur C. Clarke lived in Madagascar.

    (Sri Lanka)

    Tangiers was a popular spot too, for much the same reason. I seem to recall plenty of degenerate writers ending up there.

    • Thanks: songbird
  173. @songbird
    @Dmitry


    I wish I could buy stocks in the gay tourism industry.
     
    TBH, I was thinking of it more in the sense of slumming, or the sex trade, as a lot of these countries have very low per capita. (How HIV made it to the First World.) It is one of my theories that, since the steamship, gays have gone slumming in some of these very backward places. And that for example, that is why Roger Casement took his first job in the Congo. Or why Anderson Cooper defended Haiti after Trump's comments (though I am sure he stayed in a fancy place.) Or why Arthur C. Clarke lived in Madagascar. I think Foucault was another.

    But, on a different note, I have always been puzzled how it is that certain places become hot spots for gays, like Providencetown (also a beach spot), or San Francisco. I think part of it is that gays have more disposable income, but I still find it hard to figure out why those particular areas. I suppose part of it must be network effect.

    In America, gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities, as they don't have to worry about their kids being attacked. Maybe, a similar thing could be said about tourism? I don't know...

    Replies: @Pericles, @Svidomyatheart, @Dmitry

    Read this, a comprehensive thread on how the aids started and about whats on the minds of these perverse creatures.

    https://archive.vn/AJNMS

    Niccolo actually posted it here a few times before. Its a shame he disabled his Salo forum in favor of Substack money though.

    • Thanks: songbird
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Svidomyatheart

    Is HIV bioweapon?

    Replies: @songbird, @That Would Be Telling

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Svidomyatheart

    The Dubrovnik Interviews: Marc Andreessen - Interviewed by a Retard

    https://niccolo.substack.com/p/the-dubrovnik-interviews-marc-andreessen

  174. @Svidomyatheart
    @songbird

    Read this, a comprehensive thread on how the aids started and about whats on the minds of these perverse creatures.

    https://archive.vn/AJNMS

    Niccolo actually posted it here a few times before. Its a shame he disabled his Salo forum in favor of Substack money though.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Is HIV bioweapon?

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Super-gays are Mother Nature's biowarfare lab. It is just how stuff works.

    That is why I advocate shipping super-gays (estimate <10% of gay pop) off to some isolated, tropical island. Could be their paradise and Sodom and Gomorrah, but travel would be only one way. No need to maintain police to constantly chase them (at least if you are a based country). And we would be able to have clean public bathrooms again, or at least be one step closer in getting there.

    Replies: @Svidomyatheart

    , @That Would Be Telling
    @Yellowface Anon


    Is HIV bioweapon?
     
    Songbird is right, but in general we think not. Biggest issue is that it's a retrovirus, violates the naive version of the "central dogma" of molecular genetics, with a lot of errors transcribes its RNA into DNA, then integrates it into the highjacked cell's genome.

    This class of viruses was officially, publicly discovered around 1970, and it's not the sort of thing a germ warfare effort would be likely to find on its own, vs. starting with known biological things. Stored samples of tissue etc. with HIV go back to 1959, and internal evidence of mutations suggests the first strain jumped from primates to humans ~1910.

    OK, it's possible germ warfare scientists followed the Peter Daszak/EcoHealth Alliance thing, exited their comfy labs and went out and discovered exotic primate viruses, and without needing to know how they worked, did the gain of function thing and adapted them to humans. But unless you want to kill "super-gays" as Songbird put it, and intravenous drug users, while for some time making it a deadly risk for you and yours to get blood transfusions like after an unpredictable accident, and also hazard a lot of healthcare workers it doesn't make any sense as a bioweapon. Whereas a zoonotic species jump to Africans to white super-gays path that happened multiple times makes complete sense.
  175. @Barbarossa
    @Pericles

    I do acknowledge that Trump faced an uphill fight against the entrenched establishment. However he seemingly showed up with no discernible plan as to how to win that fight. Political sea changes have happened in various places at various times, but Trump proved incapable of accomplishing anything of the sort. His political enemies bested him which should be a damning indictment in it's own right.

    I had some cautious optimism going into Trump's presidency, but I was quite disillusioned within a few months at his frittering approach to political influence.

    I personally explain Trump's weak start to what I believe is the fact that he never intended of expected to win the presidency. I think he entered the Republican race as little more than a PR stunt and fully expected Hillary to win the race. I remember vividly the look of deer-in-the-headlights despair on Trump's face as the it became clear the electoral votes were definitely swinging in his direction.

    Principles or ideology of some sort are I think necessary if one intends to radically challenge the status quo and win. Otherwise, what will provide the stability of vision which will sustain during difficulties?

    Replies: @iffen, @A123

    if one intends to radically challenge the status quo

    He didn’t have any such plans. A changed attitude toward immigration. An adversarial relationship with woke media. A brash attitude in foreign affairs. That’s about all there was.

    If the economy stays in the pits, and it looks like it will, he will be re-elected in 2024. Remember, only a change of about 44,000 votes and he would have been re-elected in 2020. It is safe to say that had there been no Covid he would have been handily re-elected.

    After re-election, nothing much will change other than the three items above. He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans. Nothing of importance will be accomplished and after 4 years the economy will have cycled out of the pits and Dems will ride a wave in 2028.

    • Agree: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @iffen

    Ask A123 for the plans. The first thing to do is to "avenge" his banning from most social media by their confiscation. Then reopen anything left standing and tell everyone that has gone in the meantime Galt to come out of their Gulches, as the biggest electoral reward ever. After that his hardened advisors and the Trumpist crowd will fill in the rest, "correcting" the course far to the right, which will put whatever the Biden crowd can come up with to shame. After that Trumpists will try to rebuild American "republicanism" on Putinist models, likely with Donald Jr. or Ivanka as the designated successor.

    This is why I'm not sure if there will be an election in 2024 - some excuse can be used to postpone it or introduce a higher level of voting irregularities.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    , @A123
    @iffen


    After re-election, nothing much will change other than the three items above. He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans. Nothing of importance will be accomplished
     
    Apparently as a #NeverMAGA doom caller, you missed the plan for MAGA governance. Let me repeat it for you.
    ________

    There is a huge amount that a MAGA Presidency supported by a MAGA Legislature can do.

    On energy policy — Cancel wind & solar subsidies. Remove restrictions on domestic hydro carbon fuels.

    On Visas — Sharply cut visa classes that are associated with U.S. Citizen wage suppression (H1, H2, OPT, etc.).

    On Reindustrialization — Take steps to mandate domestic extraction of raw materials and production of national security goods.

    On Taxes and Outsourcing — Pass a $50K+ surcharge tax on every outsourced job (direct and contractor). Keep this charge completely separate from income & other taxes that may dilute the financial impact with offsetting credits.

    On Education — Make openly racist propaganda in the schools illegal as child abuse. Fake teachers who get caught damaging students with CRT go on the “Child Abuser Registry” and are permanently barred from jobs that interact with children.

    On the FBI (and similar agencies) — Investigate, remove, and convict corrupt officials who illegally spied on Americans in a deliberate attempt to undermine the Rule of Law. Follow the chain up to those who funded and controlled the effort.
    _____

    I could go on. The key is *avoiding unreasonable expectations*. The Lügenpresse will deploy trickery in an attempt to fracture the MAGA base. It is impossible to deliver 100% of everything immediately and perfectly.

    A MAGA House for Appropriations combined with a MAGA Senate for Confirmations is huge. However, the chances of obtaining 60 Senators is fairly slim. Even after a win, some things will require compromise to clear the Filibuster.

    Again, It took decades of SJW malevolence to dig this hole. It is going to take significant time & effort to repair the damage.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @iffen

  176. Wonder if the difference in out-of-wedlock births in Taiwan (4%) when compared to Japan (2%) and Korea (1.5%) is explained in part by the indigenous Austronesians and admixing with them. Or, maybe, Taiwan is just the gayest of the three?

    Though it does all seam like a rounding era, when compared to Western societies now.

  177. @Yellowface Anon
    @Svidomyatheart

    Is HIV bioweapon?

    Replies: @songbird, @That Would Be Telling

    Super-gays are Mother Nature’s biowarfare lab. It is just how stuff works.

    That is why I advocate shipping super-gays (estimate <10% of gay pop) off to some isolated, tropical island. Could be their paradise and Sodom and Gomorrah, but travel would be only one way. No need to maintain police to constantly chase them (at least if you are a based country). And we would be able to have clean public bathrooms again, or at least be one step closer in getting there.

    • Replies: @Svidomyatheart
    @songbird

    ^^

    Read this and despair...some excerpts from that thread

    https://i.imgur.com/7bCD03P.png

    https://i.imgur.com/PEDDDUz.jpg

    It sucks some pictures dont load. I still remember scrolling through that horror thread...some of the images showed that they made a website and a forum for themselves where they'd try to specifically infect other people on purpose/get infected themselves.
    These ultra narcissistic "humans" or demons as id call them have 1000's of partners...yes you're probably going to get a disease if you have that many partners but they don't care they only care about themselves.

    They were LITERALLY trying to pozz themselves..ASKING for pozzed people to fuck them to spread it. And the US and West Europe is trying to spread this degenerate practice here its as if Ukraine doesnt have enough HIV(honestly if I was magically in charge id make it a crime to infect someone with aids and those causing it woul be sentenced to on 10+ years of hard labor...and all HIV people shipped off to some remote location like Chernobyl unless they're some sort of geniuses or something). Have ID cards and all that.

    Not hard to get volunteers or even cheaply paid people to get that kind of shit done.

    The male sexual drive is something else...women have 100's of partners the most(even the biggest whore had like what?200?) these have 1000's-10000's.

    Replies: @songbird

  178. Interesting, but atm Lukashenko decided to do a show off escalation of his tourist visa holder “refugee” crowd with Poland, which has overall less km of border and also is way more capable to push off with force than way smaller Latvia or Lithuania, so it looks like there is a need in his post-Covid head for dramatic pictures, even victims probably:

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It's what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.

    Replies: @A123, @Yevardian

    , @Aedib
    @sudden death

    Luka is the troll-master of the planet.

    Replies: @A123, @LatW

  179. @iffen
    @Barbarossa

    if one intends to radically challenge the status quo

    He didn't have any such plans. A changed attitude toward immigration. An adversarial relationship with woke media. A brash attitude in foreign affairs. That's about all there was.

    If the economy stays in the pits, and it looks like it will, he will be re-elected in 2024. Remember, only a change of about 44,000 votes and he would have been re-elected in 2020. It is safe to say that had there been no Covid he would have been handily re-elected.

    After re-election, nothing much will change other than the three items above. He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans. Nothing of importance will be accomplished and after 4 years the economy will have cycled out of the pits and Dems will ride a wave in 2028.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    Ask A123 for the plans. The first thing to do is to “avenge” his banning from most social media by their confiscation. Then reopen anything left standing and tell everyone that has gone in the meantime Galt to come out of their Gulches, as the biggest electoral reward ever. After that his hardened advisors and the Trumpist crowd will fill in the rest, “correcting” the course far to the right, which will put whatever the Biden crowd can come up with to shame. After that Trumpists will try to rebuild American “republicanism” on Putinist models, likely with Donald Jr. or Ivanka as the designated successor.

    This is why I’m not sure if there will be an election in 2024 – some excuse can be used to postpone it or introduce a higher level of voting irregularities.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Yellowface Anon

    He might win but the CIA would whack him before inauguration. No way will they ever let such an actor into that office again. The only way he got there in the first place is all their models said it was 20-1 against and they left it to chance.

    When they pay to fix a fight they expect it to stay fixed.

  180. @Barbarossa
    @Pericles

    I do acknowledge that Trump faced an uphill fight against the entrenched establishment. However he seemingly showed up with no discernible plan as to how to win that fight. Political sea changes have happened in various places at various times, but Trump proved incapable of accomplishing anything of the sort. His political enemies bested him which should be a damning indictment in it's own right.

    I had some cautious optimism going into Trump's presidency, but I was quite disillusioned within a few months at his frittering approach to political influence.

    I personally explain Trump's weak start to what I believe is the fact that he never intended of expected to win the presidency. I think he entered the Republican race as little more than a PR stunt and fully expected Hillary to win the race. I remember vividly the look of deer-in-the-headlights despair on Trump's face as the it became clear the electoral votes were definitely swinging in his direction.

    Principles or ideology of some sort are I think necessary if one intends to radically challenge the status quo and win. Otherwise, what will provide the stability of vision which will sustain during difficulties?

    Replies: @iffen, @A123

    I do acknowledge that Trump faced an uphill fight against the entrenched establishment. However he seemingly showed up with no discernible plan as to how to win that fight.

    Let us examine you claim of no discernible plan. Here are some critical facts that encumbered any plan:

    — MAGA never controlled the House (Appropriations)
    — MAGA never controlled the Senate (Confirmations)
    — Jeff “The Betrayer” Sessions let Mueller’s Impeachment investigation run amok

    Impossible expectations are unreasonable. So, what *achievable* discernible plan were you expecting to see that you didn’t see?

    Be specific! Please explain exactly what *achievable* discernible plan was missed.

    -1- What *achievable* action did you need to see as evidence of discernible plan?
    -2- How would the discernible plan have *achieved* funding via non-MAGA House (Appropriations)?
    -3- What subordinate(s) would have *achieved* Senate (Confirmation) to run the discernible plan?

    You will find it quite difficult, even with 20/20 hindsight, to craft an *achievable* discernible plan within the Constitutional & political limitations.
    ______

    Based on realistic expectations, Trump did quite well.

    We all would have liked to see more, but Judas Sessions delivered a crippling & unexpected blow to his administration. That single act crushed any plan based on moving the Senate — Away from Establishment control / Towards MAGA policy.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  181. @iffen
    @Barbarossa

    if one intends to radically challenge the status quo

    He didn't have any such plans. A changed attitude toward immigration. An adversarial relationship with woke media. A brash attitude in foreign affairs. That's about all there was.

    If the economy stays in the pits, and it looks like it will, he will be re-elected in 2024. Remember, only a change of about 44,000 votes and he would have been re-elected in 2020. It is safe to say that had there been no Covid he would have been handily re-elected.

    After re-election, nothing much will change other than the three items above. He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans. Nothing of importance will be accomplished and after 4 years the economy will have cycled out of the pits and Dems will ride a wave in 2028.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    After re-election, nothing much will change other than the three items above. He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans. Nothing of importance will be accomplished

    Apparently as a #NeverMAGA doom caller, you missed the plan for MAGA governance. Let me repeat it for you.
    ________

    There is a huge amount that a MAGA Presidency supported by a MAGA Legislature can do.

    On energy policy — Cancel wind & solar subsidies. Remove restrictions on domestic hydro carbon fuels.

    On Visas — Sharply cut visa classes that are associated with U.S. Citizen wage suppression (H1, H2, OPT, etc.).

    On Reindustrialization — Take steps to mandate domestic extraction of raw materials and production of national security goods.

    On Taxes and Outsourcing — Pass a \$50K+ surcharge tax on every outsourced job (direct and contractor). Keep this charge completely separate from income & other taxes that may dilute the financial impact with offsetting credits.

    On Education — Make openly racist propaganda in the schools illegal as child abuse. Fake teachers who get caught damaging students with CRT go on the “Child Abuser Registry” and are permanently barred from jobs that interact with children.

    On the FBI (and similar agencies) — Investigate, remove, and convict corrupt officials who illegally spied on Americans in a deliberate attempt to undermine the Rule of Law. Follow the chain up to those who funded and controlled the effort.
    _____

    I could go on. The key is *avoiding unreasonable expectations*. The Lügenpresse will deploy trickery in an attempt to fracture the MAGA base. It is impossible to deliver 100% of everything immediately and perfectly.

    A MAGA House for Appropriations combined with a MAGA Senate for Confirmations is huge. However, the chances of obtaining 60 Senators is fairly slim. Even after a win, some things will require compromise to clear the Filibuster.

    Again, It took decades of SJW malevolence to dig this hole. It is going to take significant time & effort to repair the damage.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • LOL: iffen, iffen
    • Replies: @iffen
    @A123

    He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans.

    Sorry about the ambiguity and confusion. I guess you read that as "loons have no plans". Loons always have plans. The Republican Party, not so much.

    Replies: @A123

  182. USNS Harvey Milk was christened by a tranny. How long until the USN has a ship named after a tranny? IMO, this is just the culmination of desegregation. Nobody would think of having a ship full of only gays.

    Another ship is named after Sojourner Truth. I remember being in school and being given the task of writing an essay about Sojourner Truth. These days they are probably given the task of writing an essay about Milk.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @songbird

    I had to look it up since I could scarcely believe that there is as USNS Harvey Milk.
    Alas and alack there is.

    Given the reputation of the goings on in the Navy, perhaps this is a really meta move!

    If we sail the USNS into the Persian Gulf, will we hear from NPR how it's "sending a strong message for human rights" !?

    Replies: @songbird

    , @Barbarossa
    @songbird


    USNS Harvey Milk
     
    Also, does it have a glitter cannon and will it get fired at Vladimir Putin?

    Replies: @songbird, @That Would Be Telling

  183. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    Interesting, but atm Lukashenko decided to do a show off escalation of his tourist visa holder "refugee" crowd with Poland, which has overall less km of border and also is way more capable to push off with force than way smaller Latvia or Lithuania, so it looks like there is a need in his post-Covid head for dramatic pictures, even victims probably:

    https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1457683292946321414

    Replies: @German_reader, @Aedib

    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It’s what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader


    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
     
    The better "force" option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines. Anyone who enters a mined area is committing suicide. There is no "trigger man" for the EU to blame.

    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It’s what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.
     
    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
    ________

    Poland will be building a barrier to keep undesirables out. (1)

    Polish Minister of the interior Mariusz Kamiński presented the details of the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border. He emphasized that the barrier would be one of the more important elements to decisively limit mass illegal migration to Poland.

    The border barrier will be 180 kilometers long, and feature 5-meter-tall (16 feet) steel columns topped by half-meter tall barbed wire coils (the barrier will have a total height of 5.5 meters). The barrier will also be equipped with motion sensors and both day and night surveillance systems. Additionally, a new group of officers will support the Border Guard as the government will dedicate 750 positions to strengthen the border.

    The government estimates that the wall and its auxiliary infrastructure will cost over 1.6 billion zloty (€350 million). The construction of the barrier should start as early as this year and will be finished in mid-2022, minister Kamiński declared
     
    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/heres-the-new-design-for-polish-belarusian-border-fence/

     
    https://rmx.news/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Border-Wall-Poland-TT-M-Kaminski.jpg

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @AP, @Mikhail

    , @Yevardian
    @German_reader

    Well, I don't know if this thread is still going, I assumed the previous thread was Akarlin's last. Haven't really checked in here except to check if Unz will start writing interesting articles again (he's still mostly just arguing with idiots about COVID).

    Anyway LOL, you really don't have no hope for your country at this point, do you?

    and many voters want, they should get it.
     

    Are things really so dire? I would imagine that the media in Germany is significantly more tightly controlled and mandated than virtually any other Western country, for multiple reasons, so judging the 'silent majority' must be even more difficult than usual.
    Yes, there are elections that at least nominally reflect the popular will (I highly doubt outright fraud is possible there), but what percentage of people even bother to vote (on average) in Germany?

    Or perhaps the lack of any pushback is due to that any would-be patriotic Germans have simply given up on their country entirely.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @German_reader

  184. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It's what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.

    Replies: @A123, @Yevardian

    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.

    The better “force” option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines. Anyone who enters a mined area is committing suicide. There is no “trigger man” for the EU to blame.

    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It’s what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.

    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
    ________

    Poland will be building a barrier to keep undesirables out. (1)

    Polish Minister of the interior Mariusz Kamiński presented the details of the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border. He emphasized that the barrier would be one of the more important elements to decisively limit mass illegal migration to Poland.

    The border barrier will be 180 kilometers long, and feature 5-meter-tall (16 feet) steel columns topped by half-meter tall barbed wire coils (the barrier will have a total height of 5.5 meters). The barrier will also be equipped with motion sensors and both day and night surveillance systems. Additionally, a new group of officers will support the Border Guard as the government will dedicate 750 positions to strengthen the border.

    The government estimates that the wall and its auxiliary infrastructure will cost over 1.6 billion zloty (€350 million). The construction of the barrier should start as early as this year and will be finished in mid-2022, minister Kamiński declared

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/heres-the-new-design-for-polish-belarusian-border-fence/

     

    • Agree: RadicalCenter
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @A123


    The better “force” option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines.
     
    Poland has signed the ban on anti-personnel land mines:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty

    Anyway, the problem is Germany's insane immigration and asylum policy, other countries should just try to minimise the damage to themselves.

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

    , @LatW
    @A123


    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
     
    Poland et al should care first and foremost about the security of their populations and stability of their police forces and borderguards, not Judeo anything. It is also possible that the young Arabs, once they get to Germany, will become secularized with time.

    The walls had to be built a long time ago. Poland et al should let Ursula von der Leyen know that this is how it's going to be, period. It is going to get very cold soon, there are children there. If there are casualties, that's on Luka's conscience and, unfortunately, Germany's, too.

    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

    , @AP
    @A123

    Could Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for this?

    Replies: @Svidomyatheart, @A123

    , @Mikhail
    @A123

    Polish Joke


    Re: https://www.rt.com/news/539781-poland-putin-belarus-migrants/

    I gather Putin was also directing the Belarusian government, when the latter has gone after some pro-Russian activists, along with periodically restricting Russian government funded media.

    Replies: @A123

  185. @A123
    @German_reader


    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
     
    The better "force" option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines. Anyone who enters a mined area is committing suicide. There is no "trigger man" for the EU to blame.

    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It’s what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.
     
    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
    ________

    Poland will be building a barrier to keep undesirables out. (1)

    Polish Minister of the interior Mariusz Kamiński presented the details of the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border. He emphasized that the barrier would be one of the more important elements to decisively limit mass illegal migration to Poland.

    The border barrier will be 180 kilometers long, and feature 5-meter-tall (16 feet) steel columns topped by half-meter tall barbed wire coils (the barrier will have a total height of 5.5 meters). The barrier will also be equipped with motion sensors and both day and night surveillance systems. Additionally, a new group of officers will support the Border Guard as the government will dedicate 750 positions to strengthen the border.

    The government estimates that the wall and its auxiliary infrastructure will cost over 1.6 billion zloty (€350 million). The construction of the barrier should start as early as this year and will be finished in mid-2022, minister Kamiński declared
     
    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/heres-the-new-design-for-polish-belarusian-border-fence/

     
    https://rmx.news/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Border-Wall-Poland-TT-M-Kaminski.jpg

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @AP, @Mikhail

    The better “force” option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines.

    Poland has signed the ban on anti-personnel land mines:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty

    Anyway, the problem is Germany’s insane immigration and asylum policy, other countries should just try to minimise the damage to themselves.

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader



    The better “force” option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines.
     
    Poland has signed the ban on anti-personnel land mines:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty
     
    Your own source indicates withdrawal is viable:

    In Finland, the National Coalition Party and the Finns Party proposed withdrawing from the treaty.[87][88] The stance is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Defence report from 2003, which sees landmines as an effective weapon against a mechanised invasion force.[89]
     

    Ukraine has also signaled that they might have to withdraw from the treaty due to military necessity.[92]
     
    That makes the better “force” option:

    -1- Withdrawing from the treaty
    -2- Then, creating a DMZ filled with land mines

    Anyway, the problem is Germany’s insane immigration and asylum policy, other countries should just try to minimise the damage to themselves.
     
    Again, I see how the tactic makes sense.

    The question becomes, "Is it strategic in the long-term?" Destabilizing Germany to the point where there is a Muslim versus Infidel civil war creates all sorts of problems for European Christians.

    PEACE 😇
    , @songbird
    @German_reader

    I've always suspected that the Ottawa Treaty was secretly about migration. I mean, is the developed world really in the habit of leaving a bunch of landmines everywhere and then forgetting where they put them? Certain parts of Africa, certainly.

    Maybe, richer countries signing lends prestige to the process, but, even so, it seems largely meaningless. The concept of a nation-state applies only tenuously in Africa, where in war you typically have a lot of factions, so getting governments to sign seems largely meaningless. Would Angola respect the treaty, if they found themselves once again embroiled in the same type of conflict? Probably not, IMO. And not with 3x the population they had in 1997, rapidly growing.

    Africa might be the place most in need of landmines, to encourage peace.

    Of course, some say that Nigeria 750 million is a pipedream and there is no way that the US would hand over half its corn corp.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

  186. @German_reader
    @A123


    The better “force” option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines.
     
    Poland has signed the ban on anti-personnel land mines:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty

    Anyway, the problem is Germany's insane immigration and asylum policy, other countries should just try to minimise the damage to themselves.

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

    The better “force” option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines.

    Poland has signed the ban on anti-personnel land mines:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty

    Your own source indicates withdrawal is viable:

    In Finland, the National Coalition Party and the Finns Party proposed withdrawing from the treaty.[87][88] The stance is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Defence report from 2003, which sees landmines as an effective weapon against a mechanised invasion force.[89]

    Ukraine has also signaled that they might have to withdraw from the treaty due to military necessity.[92]

    That makes the better “force” option:

    -1- Withdrawing from the treaty
    -2- Then, creating a DMZ filled with land mines

    Anyway, the problem is Germany’s insane immigration and asylum policy, other countries should just try to minimise the damage to themselves.

    Again, I see how the tactic makes sense.

    The question becomes, “Is it strategic in the long-term?” Destabilizing Germany to the point where there is a Muslim versus Infidel civil war creates all sorts of problems for European Christians.

    PEACE 😇

  187. @AP
    @Dmitry

    You are really turning me into a BoJo fan.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    Do not be distracted by the fifty-year-obsolete racquet. Look at the not-ever-appropriate running shoes!

    • LOL: Barbarossa
  188. @sudden death
    Interesting, but atm Lukashenko decided to do a show off escalation of his tourist visa holder "refugee" crowd with Poland, which has overall less km of border and also is way more capable to push off with force than way smaller Latvia or Lithuania, so it looks like there is a need in his post-Covid head for dramatic pictures, even victims probably:

    https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1457683292946321414

    Replies: @German_reader, @Aedib

    Luka is the troll-master of the planet.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib

    😀Open Thread Humor😁

    I thought Luka lived on the 2nd floor.

    https://genius.com/Suzanne-vega-luka-lyrics

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    https://youtu.be/vQGKGADvNIQ

    , @LatW
    @Aedib


    Luka is the troll-master of the planet.
     
    Is he acting all on his own though? It's understandable that he wants revenge for what happened with the Belarusian opposition, but to create this elaborate transport of refugees, while at the same time everyone's still reeling from Covid and EE countries are in fact experiencing a major flare up, and with Russian troop movements close to the Ukrainian border... the whole scene looks like classic Gerasimov. The man's a genius.

    Replies: @Aedib

  189. @Aedib
    @sudden death

    Luka is the troll-master of the planet.

    Replies: @A123, @LatW

    😀Open Thread Humor😁

    I thought Luka lived on the 2nd floor.

    https://genius.com/Suzanne-vega-luka-lyrics

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  190. @Aedib
    @sudden death

    Luka is the troll-master of the planet.

    Replies: @A123, @LatW

    Luka is the troll-master of the planet.

    Is he acting all on his own though? It’s understandable that he wants revenge for what happened with the Belarusian opposition, but to create this elaborate transport of refugees, while at the same time everyone’s still reeling from Covid and EE countries are in fact experiencing a major flare up, and with Russian troop movements close to the Ukrainian border… the whole scene looks like classic Gerasimov. The man’s a genius.

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @LatW

    I think this is his own initiative. May be he wants to play the Eastern Europe Count of Monte Cristo

  191. @Dmitry
    @songbird


    gay tourism.

     

    My impression from Israel is that marketing for gay tourism is one of the world's most cynical games.


    For example Israel is describing themselves as the centre of LGBT in the Middle East, and seemed to be able to access the LGBT tourism market, and generate millions of dollars of the tourism from nice, middle class, non-religious European LGBT people.

    Also the LGBT brand separates Tel Aviv branding from Israel to an extent, and separates itself from the negative image most Europeans have of Israel, where they view Israel as "evil right-wing country".

    Problem is that the main tourism to Israel is still religious people. So you have to try to separate the two public relations campaigns from each other.

    You can see on YouTube, they never promote LGBT on the main Israel YouTube channel. As most of the tourism for Israel are religious people who could be angry. But the Israelis can present the LGBT angle when they talk to the secular European people, who love LGBT.

    -


    Israel is also clever how they boast about having the "only gay beach in the Middle East".

    But this is just Hilton beach with a rainbow flag. It cost Israel about $10 to buy the rainbow flag and add it to pre-existing Hilton Beach.

    This is "only gay beach in the Middle East" but I think it is just a normal beach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ7ya7jMpBo. The Israelis act like it is a normal beach, but they tell the tourists in the marketing brochure that it is a "special LGBT beach".

    Replies: @LatW, @songbird, @Emil Nikola Richard

    The Israelis act like it is a normal beach, but they tell the tourists in the marketing brochure that it is a “special LGBT beach”.

    Are there any L BT’s on that beach?

    My a priori is absolutely not. I found this Florida outfit with google search on lesbian beach but that looks to me like a great business to go broke in really really fast.

    https://www.outcoast.com/events/biggest-lesbian-beach-party-2021/

  192. @A123
    @German_reader


    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
     
    The better "force" option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines. Anyone who enters a mined area is committing suicide. There is no "trigger man" for the EU to blame.

    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It’s what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.
     
    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
    ________

    Poland will be building a barrier to keep undesirables out. (1)

    Polish Minister of the interior Mariusz Kamiński presented the details of the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border. He emphasized that the barrier would be one of the more important elements to decisively limit mass illegal migration to Poland.

    The border barrier will be 180 kilometers long, and feature 5-meter-tall (16 feet) steel columns topped by half-meter tall barbed wire coils (the barrier will have a total height of 5.5 meters). The barrier will also be equipped with motion sensors and both day and night surveillance systems. Additionally, a new group of officers will support the Border Guard as the government will dedicate 750 positions to strengthen the border.

    The government estimates that the wall and its auxiliary infrastructure will cost over 1.6 billion zloty (€350 million). The construction of the barrier should start as early as this year and will be finished in mid-2022, minister Kamiński declared
     
    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/heres-the-new-design-for-polish-belarusian-border-fence/

     
    https://rmx.news/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Border-Wall-Poland-TT-M-Kaminski.jpg

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @AP, @Mikhail

    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.

    Poland et al should care first and foremost about the security of their populations and stability of their police forces and borderguards, not Judeo anything. It is also possible that the young Arabs, once they get to Germany, will become secularized with time.

    The walls had to be built a long time ago. Poland et al should let Ursula von der Leyen know that this is how it’s going to be, period. It is going to get very cold soon, there are children there. If there are casualties, that’s on Luka’s conscience and, unfortunately, Germany’s, too.

    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.
     
    That's hardly enforced anyway, number of deportations from Germany to other EU countries according to the Dublin regulations was only around 3000 in 2020 (while there were more than 100 000 new asylum applications, and obviously a large percentage will have come through other EU countries). Poland just needs to create unpleasant living conditions for refugees, then the left, the churches etc. will agitate for deporting nobody to Poland (as they already do with regard to Greece and Hungary).

    Replies: @LatW

    , @A123
    @LatW


    Poland et al should care first and foremost about the security of their populations and stability of their police forces and borderguards, not Judeo anything
     
    Poland should care long term about their Judeo-Christian citizens. Making Germany more Islamic, and therefore more hostile to Christian Poland, is less than strategic thinking.

    It is also possible that the young Arabs, once they get to Germany, will become secularized with time.
     
    It is more likely that Leprechauns will spring forth from the earth handing out pots of gold.

    Objective fact shows that Muslim rape-ugees are incapable of assimilation. Thus, they will have to eventually be returned home.

    The walls had to be built a long time ago. Poland et al should let Ursula von der Leyen know that this is how it’s going to be, period. It is going to get very cold soon, there are children there. If there are casualties, that’s on Luka’s conscience and, unfortunately, Germany’s, too.
     
    With limited funds, projects have to be prioritized. Belarus was not a Muslim terror corridor until recently. Given the EU as a whole benefits from strong border enforcement, the EU should be offering up funding to keep the border closed.

    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.
     
    There is no EU funding and no total containment facility for effective detention. As a practical matter non-island, periphery refugee have no capability to prevent subsequent, theoretically criminal, travel. It should be no surprise that illegal immigrants break the law. Even if the EU "Stops Orban", the transits will still take place.

    Nations that offer the most money to illegals should expect to inherit large numbers of sex offenders. Sweden had among the most generous benefits in the EU and is now the most dangerous, criminalized nation in the EU.
    _____

    The long term solution is a total containment asylum facility in North Africa. All asylum seekers would be sent there. Benefits to illegals would be set to €0.00 in all EU countries. Only successful claimants would be let in.

    The EU as a whole has to work together to solve the problem Merkel created. Hopefully the new German government will do the right thing. However, it does not look promising. Given the irreconcilable Green/Yellow policy differences, there may never be a "new government" based of the recent elections.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @LatW

  193. @Yellowface Anon
    @iffen

    Ask A123 for the plans. The first thing to do is to "avenge" his banning from most social media by their confiscation. Then reopen anything left standing and tell everyone that has gone in the meantime Galt to come out of their Gulches, as the biggest electoral reward ever. After that his hardened advisors and the Trumpist crowd will fill in the rest, "correcting" the course far to the right, which will put whatever the Biden crowd can come up with to shame. After that Trumpists will try to rebuild American "republicanism" on Putinist models, likely with Donald Jr. or Ivanka as the designated successor.

    This is why I'm not sure if there will be an election in 2024 - some excuse can be used to postpone it or introduce a higher level of voting irregularities.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    He might win but the CIA would whack him before inauguration. No way will they ever let such an actor into that office again. The only way he got there in the first place is all their models said it was 20-1 against and they left it to chance.

    When they pay to fix a fight they expect it to stay fixed.

  194. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @A123


    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
     
    Poland et al should care first and foremost about the security of their populations and stability of their police forces and borderguards, not Judeo anything. It is also possible that the young Arabs, once they get to Germany, will become secularized with time.

    The walls had to be built a long time ago. Poland et al should let Ursula von der Leyen know that this is how it's going to be, period. It is going to get very cold soon, there are children there. If there are casualties, that's on Luka's conscience and, unfortunately, Germany's, too.

    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.

    That’s hardly enforced anyway, number of deportations from Germany to other EU countries according to the Dublin regulations was only around 3000 in 2020 (while there were more than 100 000 new asylum applications, and obviously a large percentage will have come through other EU countries). Poland just needs to create unpleasant living conditions for refugees, then the left, the churches etc. will agitate for deporting nobody to Poland (as they already do with regard to Greece and Hungary).

    • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader

    Oh, ok. I thought Germany would insist on sending them back to Poland. Unfortunately, creating unpleasant living conditions is not very nice and this is something that immigration critics already warned about years ago - when the actual refugees arrive, it will be too late, because then we'll be forced to overcome our humanity as it will be hard to dish out inhumane treatment towards them. What might work, is that the subsidies they'll be getting, will be low. But I think there is more wealth now to go around in the civil society.

    The Polish Catholic Church has already started gathering donations. The Church has no other choice, they see it as their duty. I have a Catholic friend who already started posting stuff like "Jesus is coming to us in the guise of the refugees" during the initial refugee crisis.

    Luckily, these refugees seem to not be interested in Poland at all (although I'm sure some will remain there). Some of them, even teenage boys, have become quite bold. I say let them pass through. The only issue is that it sets a precedent and it's against Polish immigration laws.


    then the left, will agitate for deporting nobody to Poland (as they already do with regard to Greece and Hungary).
     
    At least in this case the left serves some positive purpose after all!

    Replies: @Dmitry

  195. @Svidomyatheart
    @songbird

    Read this, a comprehensive thread on how the aids started and about whats on the minds of these perverse creatures.

    https://archive.vn/AJNMS

    Niccolo actually posted it here a few times before. Its a shame he disabled his Salo forum in favor of Substack money though.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Emil Nikola Richard

    The Dubrovnik Interviews: Marc Andreessen – Interviewed by a Retard

    https://niccolo.substack.com/p/the-dubrovnik-interviews-marc-andreessen

  196. @German_reader
    @LatW


    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.
     
    That's hardly enforced anyway, number of deportations from Germany to other EU countries according to the Dublin regulations was only around 3000 in 2020 (while there were more than 100 000 new asylum applications, and obviously a large percentage will have come through other EU countries). Poland just needs to create unpleasant living conditions for refugees, then the left, the churches etc. will agitate for deporting nobody to Poland (as they already do with regard to Greece and Hungary).

    Replies: @LatW

    Oh, ok. I thought Germany would insist on sending them back to Poland. Unfortunately, creating unpleasant living conditions is not very nice and this is something that immigration critics already warned about years ago – when the actual refugees arrive, it will be too late, because then we’ll be forced to overcome our humanity as it will be hard to dish out inhumane treatment towards them. What might work, is that the subsidies they’ll be getting, will be low. But I think there is more wealth now to go around in the civil society.

    The Polish Catholic Church has already started gathering donations. The Church has no other choice, they see it as their duty. I have a Catholic friend who already started posting stuff like “Jesus is coming to us in the guise of the refugees” during the initial refugee crisis.

    Luckily, these refugees seem to not be interested in Poland at all (although I’m sure some will remain there). Some of them, even teenage boys, have become quite bold. I say let them pass through. The only issue is that it sets a precedent and it’s against Polish immigration laws.

    then the left, will agitate for deporting nobody to Poland (as they already do with regard to Greece and Hungary).

    At least in this case the left serves some positive purpose after all!

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @LatW


    forced to overcome our humanity
     
    Because the real solution would not require that, but it would be expensive - which is to determine who is a real refugee and who is an economic immigrant.

    The majority of people entering Europe as refugees, are actually economic immigrants, not refugees. But this concept of post-immigration filtering who is really a refugee and who is an economic immigrant is an expensive process, and doesn't seem to have been applied successfully many places. It also creates "facts on the ground" where it becomes difficult to return people even if they were determined to be economic immigrants.

    Providing temporary space for real refugees, is an important almost “categorical imperative”. But it doesn’t have to be in developed countries – the important thing is the refugee is safe from the particular danger they had faced in the country where they were persecuted, not that their standard of living will be elevated (too much of the latter also motivates falsification of refugee status by economic immigrants).

    There should be land areas (maybe an artificially created country) determined by the UN which will be providing a safe place for any persecuted peoples.

    As for economic immigrants. I'm an economic immigrant myself to Europe, so pretty similar to the rest of the flood that has happened in the last decade. But I was at least filtered by employment, contribution to the economy, visa interviews and paperwork. This is mutual consent of both sides where the country accepts you because you have a job in an industry they want to encourage, not climbing over a fence.

    Replies: @LatW

  197. @LatW
    @A123


    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
     
    Poland et al should care first and foremost about the security of their populations and stability of their police forces and borderguards, not Judeo anything. It is also possible that the young Arabs, once they get to Germany, will become secularized with time.

    The walls had to be built a long time ago. Poland et al should let Ursula von der Leyen know that this is how it's going to be, period. It is going to get very cold soon, there are children there. If there are casualties, that's on Luka's conscience and, unfortunately, Germany's, too.

    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

    Poland et al should care first and foremost about the security of their populations and stability of their police forces and borderguards, not Judeo anything

    Poland should care long term about their Judeo-Christian citizens. Making Germany more Islamic, and therefore more hostile to Christian Poland, is less than strategic thinking.

    It is also possible that the young Arabs, once they get to Germany, will become secularized with time.

    It is more likely that Leprechauns will spring forth from the earth handing out pots of gold.

    Objective fact shows that Muslim rape-ugees are incapable of assimilation. Thus, they will have to eventually be returned home.

    The walls had to be built a long time ago. Poland et al should let Ursula von der Leyen know that this is how it’s going to be, period. It is going to get very cold soon, there are children there. If there are casualties, that’s on Luka’s conscience and, unfortunately, Germany’s, too.

    With limited funds, projects have to be prioritized. Belarus was not a Muslim terror corridor until recently. Given the EU as a whole benefits from strong border enforcement, the EU should be offering up funding to keep the border closed.

    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.

    There is no EU funding and no total containment facility for effective detention. As a practical matter non-island, periphery refugee have no capability to prevent subsequent, theoretically criminal, travel. It should be no surprise that illegal immigrants break the law. Even if the EU “Stops Orban”, the transits will still take place.

    Nations that offer the most money to illegals should expect to inherit large numbers of sex offenders. Sweden had among the most generous benefits in the EU and is now the most dangerous, criminalized nation in the EU.
    _____

    The long term solution is a total containment asylum facility in North Africa. All asylum seekers would be sent there. Benefits to illegals would be set to €0.00 in all EU countries. Only successful claimants would be let in.

    The EU as a whole has to work together to solve the problem Merkel created. Hopefully the new German government will do the right thing. However, it does not look promising. Given the irreconcilable Green/Yellow policy differences, there may never be a “new government” based of the recent elections.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @LatW
    @A123


    Poland should care long term about their Judeo-Christian citizens. Making Germany more Islamic, and therefore more hostile to Christian Poland, is less than strategic thinking.
     
    Obviously, Christianity should be protected (in its traditional, not woke form) and the state already protects Christianity to some extent. As to the future, it's a question of an ethical nature - should Eastern Europeans stand up for those, in the name of higher universal values, who do not want to stand up for themselves and who might in fact be feeling pretty ok with the situation (e.g., Westerners).

    Objective fact shows that Muslim rape-ugees are incapable of assimilation.

     

    Well, it seems that in some cases the second generation tends to become more Islamic or radicalized than their parents who first arrive to Europe, but who knows. Some become secular. Again, this does not solve the problem, even if it may alleviate the situation a little.

    With limited funds, projects have to be prioritized.
     
    There are funds available. And as it seems to be the case with these protective walls, political will is often more important than the actual funds. You have to want to build it. There is a sense of urgency about it in EE.

    Given the EU as a whole benefits from strong border enforcement, the EU should be offering up funding to keep the border closed.
     
    Poland et al have insisted on this since day one. But Ursula von der Leyen is a Teutonic ice queen, nothing could break her will. It's kind of sad because it used to be that it was possible to talk to the EU People's Party faction (which she technically represents via the CDU), although she seems to have a rather cosmopolitan background. The Commission is going to insist on housing the refugees where they land. But letting them pass through may be an option for now. However, Germans themselves are having issues on the Polish-German border. It looks like there were small groups of brothers in Germany trying to defend the smaller border towns. Of course, they were subdued by their own compatriots.

    It should be no surprise that illegal immigrants break the law.
     
    Well, this is exactly the crux of the matter. If you let them pass, then technically you're allowing them to break the law. The EE approach has so far been to drive them back, and it implies a certain level of brutality. Again, the E.Europeans will be painted as more brutal (there is already such a meme floating around re: WW2, how even the Germans used to be "shocked at the brutality of the locals", history repeating ~eye roll~).

    The EU as a whole has to work together to solve the problem Merkel created.
     
    She didn't create it, just exacerbated it. Yes, the EU should work together, but the a priori thinking is that there will be some kind of a policy that will be based on the woke version of "common values", while the East has a different understanding of this. Instead of diluting its position through a compromise with the West, the East should hold steadfast and insist on its own position. Which is roughly, we don't let anyone in and we house only a few.


    Hopefully the new German government will do the right thing.
     
    I hope and trust in the rationality and pragmatism of the German people. But how can one trust the reds regarding the immigration policy? Germany is in an unprecedented position now as the historic two-way coalition is out of whack. They may have what ironically is called "a rainbow coalition" with more parties involved. This may be a more fragile set up (although Germans can probably handle it ok). Scholz is moderate, but Greens are not. It seems like Scholz is more of an old school social democrat who cares more about the environment and labor rights. Let's hope his rationality prevails over some of the radical parts of the future coalition.

    Replies: @A123

  198. @songbird
    @Dmitry


    I wish I could buy stocks in the gay tourism industry.
     
    TBH, I was thinking of it more in the sense of slumming, or the sex trade, as a lot of these countries have very low per capita. (How HIV made it to the First World.) It is one of my theories that, since the steamship, gays have gone slumming in some of these very backward places. And that for example, that is why Roger Casement took his first job in the Congo. Or why Anderson Cooper defended Haiti after Trump's comments (though I am sure he stayed in a fancy place.) Or why Arthur C. Clarke lived in Madagascar. I think Foucault was another.

    But, on a different note, I have always been puzzled how it is that certain places become hot spots for gays, like Providencetown (also a beach spot), or San Francisco. I think part of it is that gays have more disposable income, but I still find it hard to figure out why those particular areas. I suppose part of it must be network effect.

    In America, gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities, as they don't have to worry about their kids being attacked. Maybe, a similar thing could be said about tourism? I don't know...

    Replies: @Pericles, @Svidomyatheart, @Dmitry

    My sense is that on average identifying-themselves sexual minority people, are more middle class, higher educated and higher income, than average people.

    One reason is maybe because in more difficult proletarian society, sexual minority people repress this social identity. But in more gentle, bourgeois society, this demographic are encouraged to be openly identifying as LGBT.

    So the openly identifying LGBT are at much higher rates in bourgeois society – i.e. their self-identification is much higher in this class.

    There might be some other correlations. In my industry, there seem to be not so many LGBT – except among women.

    There’s an underproportion of women in the tech industry, but my sense is that of the underrepresented women there is a higher proportion of LGBT and non-binary.

    Anderson Cooper defended Haiti

    The wealthy LGBT hipsters of YouTube, don’t seem to recommend Haiti lol. And that’s despite being somekind of “expert level” travel bloggers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25WAXmmVm0.

    By comparison, they recommend Bahrain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz2sOvBc63k.

    LGBT tourists would be usually middle class European people (or European Americans), with higher incomes, liberal virtue-signalling politics, – i.e. co-extensive with hipsters.

    The stereotypes of these bourgeois liberals, is to pretend they like poor places and bohemianism, but not actually like them. They would like “shabby-chic”, not “shabby” much.

    I would guess Tel Aviv would be just on the margin of acceptability in terms of shabbiness for this market. Central Moscow (which turned into a gay hipster paradise) would be the ideal for them – but there is a recent problem of inference of politics in the international marketing for that.

    beach spot), or San Francisco.

    From the example of San Francisco.
    It makes me think that maybe because the historic LGBT culture have taste for liberal politics, good architecture, urban planning and booming economy. On the other hand, it could show a revealed preference for economic inequality.

    San Francisco is one of the more architecturally and naturally beautiful cities in the USA, with the country’s most successful economy. On the other hand, it has terrible problems of inequality and homeless.

    So the fact it is still popular with LGBT culture, can show the culture has high tolerance for these ultra-unequal conditions. Los Angeles is also similar.

    gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities

    I would guess because the openly-identifying LGBT people have been historically more bourgeois. In the proletarian culture (which is more frequent in America, with the African-Americans) there is less of the luxury of toleration, and so the LGBT are more repressing their identity.

    Historic centre of the LGBT culture, were movements like the “Bloomsbury Group”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsbury_Group These were ultra-elitist social groups.

    In recent years, LGBT culture became more mainstream in the West, and maybe this will result in the demographic becoming more representative of lower classes than it has been historically.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Dmitry


    The wealthy LGBT hipsters of YouTube, don’t seem to recommend Haiti lol.
     
    Probably makes a difference if you are travelling together or seeking companionship.
    , @Barbarossa
    @Dmitry

    I think that the current narcissistic navel gazing obsession with identity, especially "gender identity", requires one to have way too much time to stew in ones own head as well as a general weakening of other identifying social bonds.

    These would seem to be a commonality between older elites as well as our own post industrial masses of the perpetually bored and titillated bourgeois.

    Those engaged in dealing with the actual trials of life have little time to become absorbed with such things. Like your Grandma used to say...Idle hands are the devil's workshop!

  199. @LatW
    @German_reader

    Oh, ok. I thought Germany would insist on sending them back to Poland. Unfortunately, creating unpleasant living conditions is not very nice and this is something that immigration critics already warned about years ago - when the actual refugees arrive, it will be too late, because then we'll be forced to overcome our humanity as it will be hard to dish out inhumane treatment towards them. What might work, is that the subsidies they'll be getting, will be low. But I think there is more wealth now to go around in the civil society.

    The Polish Catholic Church has already started gathering donations. The Church has no other choice, they see it as their duty. I have a Catholic friend who already started posting stuff like "Jesus is coming to us in the guise of the refugees" during the initial refugee crisis.

    Luckily, these refugees seem to not be interested in Poland at all (although I'm sure some will remain there). Some of them, even teenage boys, have become quite bold. I say let them pass through. The only issue is that it sets a precedent and it's against Polish immigration laws.


    then the left, will agitate for deporting nobody to Poland (as they already do with regard to Greece and Hungary).
     
    At least in this case the left serves some positive purpose after all!

    Replies: @Dmitry

    forced to overcome our humanity

    Because the real solution would not require that, but it would be expensive – which is to determine who is a real refugee and who is an economic immigrant.

    The majority of people entering Europe as refugees, are actually economic immigrants, not refugees. But this concept of post-immigration filtering who is really a refugee and who is an economic immigrant is an expensive process, and doesn’t seem to have been applied successfully many places. It also creates “facts on the ground” where it becomes difficult to return people even if they were determined to be economic immigrants.

    Providing temporary space for real refugees, is an important almost “categorical imperative”. But it doesn’t have to be in developed countries – the important thing is the refugee is safe from the particular danger they had faced in the country where they were persecuted, not that their standard of living will be elevated (too much of the latter also motivates falsification of refugee status by economic immigrants).

    There should be land areas (maybe an artificially created country) determined by the UN which will be providing a safe place for any persecuted peoples.

    As for economic immigrants. I’m an economic immigrant myself to Europe, so pretty similar to the rest of the flood that has happened in the last decade. But I was at least filtered by employment, contribution to the economy, visa interviews and paperwork. This is mutual consent of both sides where the country accepts you because you have a job in an industry they want to encourage, not climbing over a fence.

    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @LatW
    @Dmitry


    There should be land areas (maybe an artificially created country) determined by the UN which will be providing a safe place for any persecuted peoples.
     
    While refugees do suffer real pain and it is heartbreaking to watch the children in particular being put on those unimaginable long journeys, the truth is that there are large swaths of peaceful places in Africa and the Middle East. There is peace in certain places even in the worst countries. They are supposed to stay in the first country they land that is peaceful.

    Btw, they are treated really terribly in Belarus, even though Belarus is peaceful.

    What you argue about refugees vs economic migrants, not sure the onus should be on EE states to sift through that.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  200. @LatW
    @Aedib


    Luka is the troll-master of the planet.
     
    Is he acting all on his own though? It's understandable that he wants revenge for what happened with the Belarusian opposition, but to create this elaborate transport of refugees, while at the same time everyone's still reeling from Covid and EE countries are in fact experiencing a major flare up, and with Russian troop movements close to the Ukrainian border... the whole scene looks like classic Gerasimov. The man's a genius.

    Replies: @Aedib

    I think this is his own initiative. May be he wants to play the Eastern Europe Count of Monte Cristo

    • LOL: LatW
  201. @A123
    @iffen


    After re-election, nothing much will change other than the three items above. He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans. Nothing of importance will be accomplished
     
    Apparently as a #NeverMAGA doom caller, you missed the plan for MAGA governance. Let me repeat it for you.
    ________

    There is a huge amount that a MAGA Presidency supported by a MAGA Legislature can do.

    On energy policy — Cancel wind & solar subsidies. Remove restrictions on domestic hydro carbon fuels.

    On Visas — Sharply cut visa classes that are associated with U.S. Citizen wage suppression (H1, H2, OPT, etc.).

    On Reindustrialization — Take steps to mandate domestic extraction of raw materials and production of national security goods.

    On Taxes and Outsourcing — Pass a $50K+ surcharge tax on every outsourced job (direct and contractor). Keep this charge completely separate from income & other taxes that may dilute the financial impact with offsetting credits.

    On Education — Make openly racist propaganda in the schools illegal as child abuse. Fake teachers who get caught damaging students with CRT go on the “Child Abuser Registry” and are permanently barred from jobs that interact with children.

    On the FBI (and similar agencies) — Investigate, remove, and convict corrupt officials who illegally spied on Americans in a deliberate attempt to undermine the Rule of Law. Follow the chain up to those who funded and controlled the effort.
    _____

    I could go on. The key is *avoiding unreasonable expectations*. The Lügenpresse will deploy trickery in an attempt to fracture the MAGA base. It is impossible to deliver 100% of everything immediately and perfectly.

    A MAGA House for Appropriations combined with a MAGA Senate for Confirmations is huge. However, the chances of obtaining 60 Senators is fairly slim. Even after a win, some things will require compromise to clear the Filibuster.

    Again, It took decades of SJW malevolence to dig this hole. It is going to take significant time & effort to repair the damage.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @iffen

    He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans.

    Sorry about the ambiguity and confusion. I guess you read that as “loons have no plans”. Loons always have plans. The Republican Party, not so much.

    • LOL: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @iffen

    Thank you for self identifying a Loon. Your crazy & doomed plan is to be an oblivious #NeverTrump yahoo. Sadly, you lack the mental capacity to grasp the clear policies offered by the mentally advantaged MAGA movement.

    (shrug) ... You can lead Low-IQ, SJW #NeverTrump yahoos to facts, but you can not make them rational.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @iffen

  202. @A123
    @LatW


    Poland et al should care first and foremost about the security of their populations and stability of their police forces and borderguards, not Judeo anything
     
    Poland should care long term about their Judeo-Christian citizens. Making Germany more Islamic, and therefore more hostile to Christian Poland, is less than strategic thinking.

    It is also possible that the young Arabs, once they get to Germany, will become secularized with time.
     
    It is more likely that Leprechauns will spring forth from the earth handing out pots of gold.

    Objective fact shows that Muslim rape-ugees are incapable of assimilation. Thus, they will have to eventually be returned home.

    The walls had to be built a long time ago. Poland et al should let Ursula von der Leyen know that this is how it’s going to be, period. It is going to get very cold soon, there are children there. If there are casualties, that’s on Luka’s conscience and, unfortunately, Germany’s, too.
     
    With limited funds, projects have to be prioritized. Belarus was not a Muslim terror corridor until recently. Given the EU as a whole benefits from strong border enforcement, the EU should be offering up funding to keep the border closed.

    As to the possible corridor, how did Orban deal with the issue that refugees have to be given asylum in the first state they arrive in? There are legal issues there.
     
    There is no EU funding and no total containment facility for effective detention. As a practical matter non-island, periphery refugee have no capability to prevent subsequent, theoretically criminal, travel. It should be no surprise that illegal immigrants break the law. Even if the EU "Stops Orban", the transits will still take place.

    Nations that offer the most money to illegals should expect to inherit large numbers of sex offenders. Sweden had among the most generous benefits in the EU and is now the most dangerous, criminalized nation in the EU.
    _____

    The long term solution is a total containment asylum facility in North Africa. All asylum seekers would be sent there. Benefits to illegals would be set to €0.00 in all EU countries. Only successful claimants would be let in.

    The EU as a whole has to work together to solve the problem Merkel created. Hopefully the new German government will do the right thing. However, it does not look promising. Given the irreconcilable Green/Yellow policy differences, there may never be a "new government" based of the recent elections.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @LatW

    Poland should care long term about their Judeo-Christian citizens. Making Germany more Islamic, and therefore more hostile to Christian Poland, is less than strategic thinking.

    Obviously, Christianity should be protected (in its traditional, not woke form) and the state already protects Christianity to some extent. As to the future, it’s a question of an ethical nature – should Eastern Europeans stand up for those, in the name of higher universal values, who do not want to stand up for themselves and who might in fact be feeling pretty ok with the situation (e.g., Westerners).

    Objective fact shows that Muslim rape-ugees are incapable of assimilation.

    Well, it seems that in some cases the second generation tends to become more Islamic or radicalized than their parents who first arrive to Europe, but who knows. Some become secular. Again, this does not solve the problem, even if it may alleviate the situation a little.

    With limited funds, projects have to be prioritized.

    There are funds available. And as it seems to be the case with these protective walls, political will is often more important than the actual funds. You have to want to build it. There is a sense of urgency about it in EE.

    Given the EU as a whole benefits from strong border enforcement, the EU should be offering up funding to keep the border closed.

    Poland et al have insisted on this since day one. But Ursula von der Leyen is a Teutonic ice queen, nothing could break her will. It’s kind of sad because it used to be that it was possible to talk to the EU People’s Party faction (which she technically represents via the CDU), although she seems to have a rather cosmopolitan background. The Commission is going to insist on housing the refugees where they land. But letting them pass through may be an option for now. However, Germans themselves are having issues on the Polish-German border. It looks like there were small groups of brothers in Germany trying to defend the smaller border towns. Of course, they were subdued by their own compatriots.

    It should be no surprise that illegal immigrants break the law.

    Well, this is exactly the crux of the matter. If you let them pass, then technically you’re allowing them to break the law. The EE approach has so far been to drive them back, and it implies a certain level of brutality. Again, the E.Europeans will be painted as more brutal (there is already such a meme floating around re: WW2, how even the Germans used to be “shocked at the brutality of the locals”, history repeating ~eye roll~).

    The EU as a whole has to work together to solve the problem Merkel created.

    She didn’t create it, just exacerbated it. Yes, the EU should work together, but the a priori thinking is that there will be some kind of a policy that will be based on the woke version of “common values”, while the East has a different understanding of this. Instead of diluting its position through a compromise with the West, the East should hold steadfast and insist on its own position. Which is roughly, we don’t let anyone in and we house only a few.

    Hopefully the new German government will do the right thing.

    I hope and trust in the rationality and pragmatism of the German people. But how can one trust the reds regarding the immigration policy? Germany is in an unprecedented position now as the historic two-way coalition is out of whack. They may have what ironically is called “a rainbow coalition” with more parties involved. This may be a more fragile set up (although Germans can probably handle it ok). Scholz is moderate, but Greens are not. It seems like Scholz is more of an old school social democrat who cares more about the environment and labor rights. Let’s hope his rationality prevails over some of the radical parts of the future coalition.

    • Replies: @A123
    @LatW


    [Merkel] didn’t create it, just exacerbated it.
     
    You might want to tell Merkel that. She is out doing victory laps over her migration success. (1)

    the EU should work together, but the a priori thinking is that there will be some kind of a policy that will be based on the woke version of “common values”
     
    I concur. At this point, pretty much everyone grasps that the mythical "European Values" that were supposed to underpin the EU do not actually exist. (2)

    The Clash of Cultures Conference -- Debate in Warsaw: Poland should actively create a Christian Europe

    Poland needs to take a more active role in promoting a Christian Europe, said Former Polish Speaker of the Sejm Marek Jurek, who took part in the “Gender, Cancel Culture, and Freedom of Speech in the 21st Century” panel at the Clash of Cultures conference in Warsaw.

    “In a very active way, Poland should aim to create a Christian Europe and Christian public opinion in Europe. Without it, there will not be an actual reconstruction of European civilization,” he said.
    ...
    Father Dariusz Oko, who is also a professor, emphasized during the debate that the rules of nature and existence are unchangeable.

    “The madness of gender ideology lies in the fact that they want to break the rules of nature because they live in a foundational lie. They are negating the truth of existence, and they are negating God. They consider themselves to be above God. This is nonsense that inevitably leads to even greater nonsense. This is why Nazism existed, why communism existed, and now we have genderism — a mutation of communism,” Oko said.
     
    It would be wise for Europe to look at ending the EU in an orderly manner. The current course is towards a disorganized end.

    Germany is in an unprecedented position now as the historic two-way coalition is out of whack. They may have what ironically is called “a rainbow coalition” with more parties involved. This may be a more fragile set up (although Germans can probably handle it ok).
     
    Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the 2-way Black/Red coalition always undermined Red policy and party strength. Both sides #1 Red & #2 Black have signalled that they will not participate with the other.

    Based on the math & either Red or Black, there are only two possible 3-way coalitions:
        -- Red/Green/Yellow (Traffic Light)
        -- Black/Green/Yellow (Jamaica)
    However, the #4 FDP wants to bring down energy prices while the #3 Greens are intransigent about their 'environmentalism'. It is hard to see how a Green/Yellow compromise will work.

    Beyond these, nothing is mathematically sound:
        -- None of the major parties will work with #5 AfD, which is the true German Workers party.
        -- #6 Linke (Purple) is too small to matter. Red/Green/Purple is a few seats short. If negotiations drag on long enough, perhaps enough legislators will be permitted to go 'free agent', launching this combination as an inherently minority government.

    Your term "fragile" is a good choice. Any government will be weak and unstable. However, Germany needs substantial policy modification to escape Merkel style SJW Globalism. It is hard to see how a fragile government can deliver the needed change.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/yes-we-did-it-merkel-claims-2015-migration-crisis-was-a-success/

    (2) https://rmx.news/article/debate-in-warsaw-poland-should-actively-create-a-christian-europe-and-christian-public-opinion-in-europe/

    Replies: @LatW

  203. @iffen
    @A123

    He has no plans. The Republican Party has no plans.

    Sorry about the ambiguity and confusion. I guess you read that as "loons have no plans". Loons always have plans. The Republican Party, not so much.

    Replies: @A123

    Thank you for self identifying a Loon. Your crazy & doomed plan is to be an oblivious #NeverTrump yahoo. Sadly, you lack the mental capacity to grasp the clear policies offered by the mentally advantaged MAGA movement.

    (shrug) … You can lead Low-IQ, SJW #NeverTrump yahoos to facts, but you can not make them rational.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @iffen
    @A123

    You should return to your bot handler and apologize for claiming that you have an understanding of the American political scene. Go back to your ludicrous idea of promoting animosity toward Muslims by claiming that they are really SJWs. Or is it he other way around?

    Replies: @A123

  204. @LatW
    @Dmitry


    I don’t even know what “Cabaret” is apparently supposed to be.
     
    Oh, stop pretending, young man. :) Anyway... it looks like it's hard to come up with something new. These shows are a little too decadent for my taste, but I can attest that Russians do have a great dance practice tradition. Not just high end things like ballet or Olympic sports, but even dance and working out for normal people (although my favorite is probably the krav maga style dance that the spetsnaz does).

    My sister used to have a Russian gymnastics coach back in the day when she was very young and oh boy. It was serious exercise that really helped develop discipline and stamina. You know what other type of dancing is pretty hard? Folk dance. It looks easy but it's not! It's insane cardio.

    But you're right about these clubs, these go-go dancers probably don't charge more than $50 per hour for showing up like that. Although there might be some high end places in Moscow, who knows.

    They just needed to add dancing bears
     
    Please, no. It's too cruel and the bear is a sacred totem animal.

    indoor fireworks (well maybe not e.g. Perm)
     
    Wow, it says 117 died there. That's insane. See, honey, this is the kind of sh*t you Russkies do that is kind of scary and awe inspiring but also very often ends up like a complete disaster. What a tragedy. :(

    Replies: @Dmitry

    stop pretending, young man

    Lol I am sounding very naïve.
    I understand people will always want to go to see strippers, and hire the “women of low social responsibility”, to go with you to “private rooms”. But I didn’t know there is nowadays the demand to mix this with a magician show, seafood restaurant, and artistic fencing performances.

    I can attest that Russians do have a great dance practice

    Yes it’s something (figure skating, gymnastics, ballet) that matches to the mentality, also like classical piano achievements.

    But what do you think about these new fashions like pole dancing exercise studios that open in the cities in Russia?

    On one hand, it’s great for exercise. And I even don’t think necessarily there is anything wrong with pole dancing.

    On the other hand, if I had a daughter in the future, you would not encourage her to choose this exercise class, as it could be too easy to transition into the professional version (which overlaps with the prostitution) and where their salary is higher than a doctor.

    , it says 117 died there. That’s insane. See, honey, this is the kind of sh*t you Russkies do that

    It killed 156 people. (graphic, if you were curious – you can see these idiot club allowed the fire on the bamboo roof at 11:30 and still continued the show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orNL9bnZvH0.). I guess the only thing to say is to always remember where the exit is when you go into any crowded buildings. If you notice any smoke, stay near the exit.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Dmitry


    Lol I am sounding very naïve.
     
    I can now tell when you pretend to be clueless to illicit some kind of a reaction. :)

    But I didn’t know there is nowadays the demand to mix this with a magician show, seafood restaurant, and artistic fencing performances.
     
    Hey, seafood is great and fencing might be fun to watch. But yea... it sounds like they're really living it up in Moscow. :)

    Yes it’s something (figure skating, gymnastics, ballet) that matches to the mentality, also like classical piano achievements.
     
    Yea, it's amazing, I'm a huge fan of Russian hockey, it is just so technical and yet so graceful. And smart, too, with great combinations. It matches well with a Northern mentality. As to gymnastics, I haven't really followed up on it, but the old school was very tough. They would literally make you stretch out to reach your toes while sitting on the ground and then an adult trainer would sit on your back. I'm not sure if today's youth can endure that. As to hockey, you're probably too young to know, but my dad used to tell me about the Russian hockey coach slash dictator Viktor Tikhonov. He was super strict.


    But what do you think about these new fashions like pole dancing exercise studios that open in the cities in Russia?
     
    I dunno, do you want to hear the nationalist version or the realist version? :) From the athletic POV, it's great, and the girl in the clip you posted is excellent, what she's doing is very tough, plus she's really built for it. From purely athletic POV there are skills in classic gymnastics that are very similar, e.g., climbing up the rope, splits, etc. So you don't need to do pole dancing to practice those skills. But, ofc, the erotic side of it has gotten way too normalized, I can't believe there are children in the audience. I don't know, why do Slavic girls do that... some Baltic girls do it too, ofc, but Slavic girls just take to a whole different level.

    Btw, did you know that there are also straight male pole performances out there? They are fully clothed, ofc, and it's more like pure entertainment. I've seen such a group perform in Gotland, Sweden, during a medieval festival. It was supposed to be kind of like circus entertainment and they did a great job. The dude could do that perpendicular hold on the pole, like sideways. Insane.

    as it could be too easy to transition into the professional version (which overlaps with the prostitution) and where their salary is higher than a doctor.
     
    Yes, someone at 18 can make what her parents make together or more. I don't know. Maybe it should be allowed at a very discreet, high end, very expensive level. But it shouldn't be normalized. Certainly, in an ideal world, Baltic women should not be allowed to do it, but they should be kept in close proximity to capable, hard working, attractive men.

    It killed 156 people.
     
    It's an incredible tragedy, it looks like hell on earth. There were husbands looking for their wives that were stuck inside. The place was overcrowded, the people were huddling together as Slavic people enjoy doing. I know it's a country of 140 million and all kinds of things can happen, but sometimes I wonder how the Russian people can take such sorrow.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  205. @Dmitry
    @LatW


    forced to overcome our humanity
     
    Because the real solution would not require that, but it would be expensive - which is to determine who is a real refugee and who is an economic immigrant.

    The majority of people entering Europe as refugees, are actually economic immigrants, not refugees. But this concept of post-immigration filtering who is really a refugee and who is an economic immigrant is an expensive process, and doesn't seem to have been applied successfully many places. It also creates "facts on the ground" where it becomes difficult to return people even if they were determined to be economic immigrants.

    Providing temporary space for real refugees, is an important almost “categorical imperative”. But it doesn’t have to be in developed countries – the important thing is the refugee is safe from the particular danger they had faced in the country where they were persecuted, not that their standard of living will be elevated (too much of the latter also motivates falsification of refugee status by economic immigrants).

    There should be land areas (maybe an artificially created country) determined by the UN which will be providing a safe place for any persecuted peoples.

    As for economic immigrants. I'm an economic immigrant myself to Europe, so pretty similar to the rest of the flood that has happened in the last decade. But I was at least filtered by employment, contribution to the economy, visa interviews and paperwork. This is mutual consent of both sides where the country accepts you because you have a job in an industry they want to encourage, not climbing over a fence.

    Replies: @LatW

    There should be land areas (maybe an artificially created country) determined by the UN which will be providing a safe place for any persecuted peoples.

    While refugees do suffer real pain and it is heartbreaking to watch the children in particular being put on those unimaginable long journeys, the truth is that there are large swaths of peaceful places in Africa and the Middle East. There is peace in certain places even in the worst countries. They are supposed to stay in the first country they land that is peaceful.

    Btw, they are treated really terribly in Belarus, even though Belarus is peaceful.

    What you argue about refugees vs economic migrants, not sure the onus should be on EE states to sift through that.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @LatW

    This is exactly the case. Rather than simplistic "Euros vs refugees", we should look at why countries are exporting refugees/economic migrants, and which countries have the capacity to accept them without destroying its social & cultural fabric.

  206. @Dmitry
    @songbird

    My sense is that on average identifying-themselves sexual minority people, are more middle class, higher educated and higher income, than average people.

    One reason is maybe because in more difficult proletarian society, sexual minority people repress this social identity. But in more gentle, bourgeois society, this demographic are encouraged to be openly identifying as LGBT.

    So the openly identifying LGBT are at much higher rates in bourgeois society - i.e. their self-identification is much higher in this class.

    There might be some other correlations. In my industry, there seem to be not so many LGBT - except among women.

    There's an underproportion of women in the tech industry, but my sense is that of the underrepresented women there is a higher proportion of LGBT and non-binary.


    Anderson Cooper defended Haiti
     
    The wealthy LGBT hipsters of YouTube, don't seem to recommend Haiti lol. And that's despite being somekind of "expert level" travel bloggers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25WAXmmVm0.

    By comparison, they recommend Bahrain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz2sOvBc63k.

    LGBT tourists would be usually middle class European people (or European Americans), with higher incomes, liberal virtue-signalling politics, - i.e. co-extensive with hipsters.

    The stereotypes of these bourgeois liberals, is to pretend they like poor places and bohemianism, but not actually like them. They would like "shabby-chic", not "shabby" much.

    I would guess Tel Aviv would be just on the margin of acceptability in terms of shabbiness for this market. Central Moscow (which turned into a gay hipster paradise) would be the ideal for them - but there is a recent problem of inference of politics in the international marketing for that.


    beach spot), or San Francisco.
     
    From the example of San Francisco.
    It makes me think that maybe because the historic LGBT culture have taste for liberal politics, good architecture, urban planning and booming economy. On the other hand, it could show a revealed preference for economic inequality.

    San Francisco is one of the more architecturally and naturally beautiful cities in the USA, with the country's most successful economy. On the other hand, it has terrible problems of inequality and homeless.

    So the fact it is still popular with LGBT culture, can show the culture has high tolerance for these ultra-unequal conditions. Los Angeles is also similar.


    gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities

     

    I would guess because the openly-identifying LGBT people have been historically more bourgeois. In the proletarian culture (which is more frequent in America, with the African-Americans) there is less of the luxury of toleration, and so the LGBT are more repressing their identity.

    Historic centre of the LGBT culture, were movements like the "Bloomsbury Group". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsbury_Group These were ultra-elitist social groups.

    In recent years, LGBT culture became more mainstream in the West, and maybe this will result in the demographic becoming more representative of lower classes than it has been historically.

    Replies: @songbird, @Barbarossa

    The wealthy LGBT hipsters of YouTube, don’t seem to recommend Haiti lol.

    Probably makes a difference if you are travelling together or seeking companionship.

  207. @A123
    @iffen

    Thank you for self identifying a Loon. Your crazy & doomed plan is to be an oblivious #NeverTrump yahoo. Sadly, you lack the mental capacity to grasp the clear policies offered by the mentally advantaged MAGA movement.

    (shrug) ... You can lead Low-IQ, SJW #NeverTrump yahoos to facts, but you can not make them rational.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @iffen

    You should return to your bot handler and apologize for claiming that you have an understanding of the American political scene. Go back to your ludicrous idea of promoting animosity toward Muslims by claiming that they are really SJWs. Or is it he other way around?

    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon
    • LOL: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @iffen

    You really should give up on your loony, Low-IQ, #NeverTrump yahooism.

    Clearly no one is paying for your imcoherent gibberish, so the question is "Why?":

    -- Do you enjoy losing in service to your Great Leader, Not-The-President Biden?
    -- As an SJW, are you really as oblivious to American reality as you appear?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @iffen

  208. @iffen
    @A123

    You should return to your bot handler and apologize for claiming that you have an understanding of the American political scene. Go back to your ludicrous idea of promoting animosity toward Muslims by claiming that they are really SJWs. Or is it he other way around?

    Replies: @A123

    You really should give up on your loony, Low-IQ, #NeverTrump yahooism.

    Clearly no one is paying for your imcoherent gibberish, so the question is “Why?”:

    — Do you enjoy losing in service to your Great Leader, Not-The-President Biden?
    — As an SJW, are you really as oblivious to American reality as you appear?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @iffen
    @A123

    Clearly no one is paying for your

    Right, but we can't say that for you, can we?

    Replies: @A123

  209. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Super-gays are Mother Nature's biowarfare lab. It is just how stuff works.

    That is why I advocate shipping super-gays (estimate <10% of gay pop) off to some isolated, tropical island. Could be their paradise and Sodom and Gomorrah, but travel would be only one way. No need to maintain police to constantly chase them (at least if you are a based country). And we would be able to have clean public bathrooms again, or at least be one step closer in getting there.

    Replies: @Svidomyatheart

    ^^

    Read this and despair…some excerpts from that thread

    It sucks some pictures dont load. I still remember scrolling through that horror thread…some of the images showed that they made a website and a forum for themselves where they’d try to specifically infect other people on purpose/get infected themselves.
    These ultra narcissistic “humans” or demons as id call them have 1000’s of partners…yes you’re probably going to get a disease if you have that many partners but they don’t care they only care about themselves.

    They were LITERALLY trying to pozz themselves..ASKING for pozzed people to fuck them to spread it. And the US and West Europe is trying to spread this degenerate practice here its as if Ukraine doesnt have enough HIV(honestly if I was magically in charge id make it a crime to infect someone with aids and those causing it woul be sentenced to on 10+ years of hard labor…and all HIV people shipped off to some remote location like Chernobyl unless they’re some sort of geniuses or something). Have ID cards and all that.

    Not hard to get volunteers or even cheaply paid people to get that kind of shit done.

    The male sexual drive is something else…women have 100’s of partners the most(even the biggest whore had like what?200?) these have 1000’s-10000’s.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Svidomyatheart

    Nobody ever thinks about the death toll, pain, or destruction caused by radical tolerance (ex: tolerating the bathhouses, or the grooming gangs in the UK), but it must be really massive.

    I understand that syphilis was on track to kill as many as HIV, if antibiotics hadn't been invented.


    The male sexual drive is something else…women have 100’s of partners the most(even the biggest whore had like what?200?) these have 1000’s-10000’s.
     
    There's probably some extreme network effect with supergays, that you wouldn't get with lesbians or mixed sex pairings.

    But, keeping that in mind, it is really amazing to consider that in Africa, HIV is primarily a heterosexual disease. (Whoring is really a big past-time there. I read a book once about a white family that owned a vacation resort in Rhodesia, when it became Zimbabwe, their primary income was from officials renting the bungalows out to whore.)
  210. @A123
    @iffen

    You really should give up on your loony, Low-IQ, #NeverTrump yahooism.

    Clearly no one is paying for your imcoherent gibberish, so the question is "Why?":

    -- Do you enjoy losing in service to your Great Leader, Not-The-President Biden?
    -- As an SJW, are you really as oblivious to American reality as you appear?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @iffen

    Clearly no one is paying for your

    Right, but we can’t say that for you, can we?

    • Replies: @A123
    @iffen

    I follow Jesus. I follow God.

    Telling the TRUTH is a duty and a privilege that those without souls, such as yourself, are incapable of understanding. It is beyond mere 'pay'.

    What you are missing is Faith. I wish I could help you, but as a mortal it is beyond my ken.

    I feel *pity* for you. And, I forgive you.

    PEACE

  211. @Dmitry
    @LatW


    stop pretending, young man
     
    Lol I am sounding very naïve.
    I understand people will always want to go to see strippers, and hire the "women of low social responsibility", to go with you to "private rooms". But I didn't know there is nowadays the demand to mix this with a magician show, seafood restaurant, and artistic fencing performances.

    I can attest that Russians do have a great dance practice

     

    Yes it's something (figure skating, gymnastics, ballet) that matches to the mentality, also like classical piano achievements.

    -

    But what do you think about these new fashions like pole dancing exercise studios that open in the cities in Russia?

    On one hand, it's great for exercise. And I even don't think necessarily there is anything wrong with pole dancing.

    On the other hand, if I had a daughter in the future, you would not encourage her to choose this exercise class, as it could be too easy to transition into the professional version (which overlaps with the prostitution) and where their salary is higher than a doctor.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8abt8_G780


    , it says 117 died there. That’s insane. See, honey, this is the kind of sh*t you Russkies do that
     
    It killed 156 people. (graphic, if you were curious - you can see these idiot club allowed the fire on the bamboo roof at 11:30 and still continued the show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orNL9bnZvH0.). I guess the only thing to say is to always remember where the exit is when you go into any crowded buildings. If you notice any smoke, stay near the exit.

    Replies: @LatW

    Lol I am sounding very naïve.

    I can now tell when you pretend to be clueless to illicit some kind of a reaction. 🙂

    But I didn’t know there is nowadays the demand to mix this with a magician show, seafood restaurant, and artistic fencing performances.

    Hey, seafood is great and fencing might be fun to watch. But yea… it sounds like they’re really living it up in Moscow. 🙂

    Yes it’s something (figure skating, gymnastics, ballet) that matches to the mentality, also like classical piano achievements.

    Yea, it’s amazing, I’m a huge fan of Russian hockey, it is just so technical and yet so graceful. And smart, too, with great combinations. It matches well with a Northern mentality. As to gymnastics, I haven’t really followed up on it, but the old school was very tough. They would literally make you stretch out to reach your toes while sitting on the ground and then an adult trainer would sit on your back. I’m not sure if today’s youth can endure that. As to hockey, you’re probably too young to know, but my dad used to tell me about the Russian hockey coach slash dictator Viktor Tikhonov. He was super strict.

    But what do you think about these new fashions like pole dancing exercise studios that open in the cities in Russia?

    I dunno, do you want to hear the nationalist version or the realist version? 🙂 From the athletic POV, it’s great, and the girl in the clip you posted is excellent, what she’s doing is very tough, plus she’s really built for it. From purely athletic POV there are skills in classic gymnastics that are very similar, e.g., climbing up the rope, splits, etc. So you don’t need to do pole dancing to practice those skills. But, ofc, the erotic side of it has gotten way too normalized, I can’t believe there are children in the audience. I don’t know, why do Slavic girls do that… some Baltic girls do it too, ofc, but Slavic girls just take to a whole different level.

    Btw, did you know that there are also straight male pole performances out there? They are fully clothed, ofc, and it’s more like pure entertainment. I’ve seen such a group perform in Gotland, Sweden, during a medieval festival. It was supposed to be kind of like circus entertainment and they did a great job. The dude could do that perpendicular hold on the pole, like sideways. Insane.

    as it could be too easy to transition into the professional version (which overlaps with the prostitution) and where their salary is higher than a doctor.

    Yes, someone at 18 can make what her parents make together or more. I don’t know. Maybe it should be allowed at a very discreet, high end, very expensive level. But it shouldn’t be normalized. Certainly, in an ideal world, Baltic women should not be allowed to do it, but they should be kept in close proximity to capable, hard working, attractive men.

    It killed 156 people.

    It’s an incredible tragedy, it looks like hell on earth. There were husbands looking for their wives that were stuck inside. The place was overcrowded, the people were huddling together as Slavic people enjoy doing. I know it’s a country of 140 million and all kinds of things can happen, but sometimes I wonder how the Russian people can take such sorrow.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @LatW


    economic migrants, not sure the onus should be on EE states
     
    It seems like Lukashenko is trying to do his own version of Castro's "Mariel boatlift"?

    I guess you can be grateful for small things - he is only flying people from ISIS hotzones - he didn't empty Minsk prison on your border yet. If he wants, Lukashenko could turn you into the next Riga Vice instead of Miami Vice, just with less cool clothes and added Syrian militants.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl9OddN29Z4


    now tell when you pretend to be clueless
     
    Lol this is flattering - unfortunately when my post sounds clueless I might be just clueless. And too much time in Western Europe is probably destroying my former street knowledge I had.

    I'm such a person who was some years ago wondering for a couple minutes "massage must be really popular", because there are so many adverts for massage in Russia.


    So you don’t need to do pole dancing to practice those skills. But, ofc, the erotic side of it has gotten way too normalized, I can’t believe there are children in the audience. I don’t know, why do Sla

     

    I don't even think the erotic side is a problem. If people want to do erotic dancing, then that's fine. Peoples' body is only young and attractive for a short time, it's not such a crime to show it - they will be old for decades later and nobody will want to look at them.

    But the reason it seems a bit scary to me, is that is in the context of country where prostitution is one of the main national hobbies, where prostitution can overlap with pole dancers, and where there is not available acceptable paying jobs for most young people.

    So if make pole dancing the new fitness hobby, then it's good for the peoples' health and so on. Many women would enjoy it as a sport, with no influence on their professional life.

    But what percentage will be tempted use their skills they learned professionally, and what percentage of those pole dancing clubs (I think a very high one) are also offering prostitution? And I'm not even saying prostitution is wrong, but it could seem not good to encourage in the context when normal jobs for the people are so badly paid.

    (Even I would not say prostitution in general is the problem, but prostitution in the local context of relative lack of normal jobs with non-slave level salaries.)


    t should be allowed at a very discreet, high end, very expensive level. But it shouldn’t be normalized
     
    Well what can be of our individual opinions, I would outline what I think is the realism perspective in a sentence: prostitution/sex industry is now so vast and popular multi-billion dollar industry in Russia, that it's unrealistic that authorities would intervene - it's an "opium of the masses", people using opium are less rebellious, and in the authorities' self-interest that people will stay in it.

    -

    Maybe just if you didn't pay the right officials, the police can sometimes come to verify if you have the correct paperwork to sell alcohol, and probably wanting to see if the location is suitable for their next afterwork party.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phK30GKCQd8.


    I know it’s a country of 140 million and all kinds of things can happen, but sometimes I wonder how the Russian people can take such sorrow.
     
    Well to look on the happy side, at least there are no serious earthquakes in Russian, outside of in Sakhalin once ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Neftegorsk_earthquake ).

    And there are most countries with much higher suffering in all areas of life - life in Russia is far above average by international standards. A day in India or Africa will have more suffering than a year in Russia.

    Risk of dying in fires in Russia is higher than in Europe, but perhaps it could be improving in recent years, and not too common anyway by world standards.

    But then there are places where life in Russia is bad even relative to world levels. A million people are dying from coronavirus, and authorities are relatively not worried compared to many other countries.

    And this lack of care about epidemics not just in United Russia politicians, but even the opposition. For example, perhaps 2% of the residents of Ekaterinburg (and some other cities like Perm), are infected with HIV now. And there was liberal mayor Evegny Roizman during all this time - and there was still no needle exchange system established in Ekaterinburg to control the epidemic. This is a liberal opposition politician Roizman who criticizes United Russia, and yet his reaction to the HIV epidemic was even worse than you would expected from United Russia.

    Replies: @LatW

  212. @German_reader
    @A123


    The better “force” option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines.
     
    Poland has signed the ban on anti-personnel land mines:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty

    Anyway, the problem is Germany's insane immigration and asylum policy, other countries should just try to minimise the damage to themselves.

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

    I’ve always suspected that the Ottawa Treaty was secretly about migration. I mean, is the developed world really in the habit of leaving a bunch of landmines everywhere and then forgetting where they put them? Certain parts of Africa, certainly.

    Maybe, richer countries signing lends prestige to the process, but, even so, it seems largely meaningless. The concept of a nation-state applies only tenuously in Africa, where in war you typically have a lot of factions, so getting governments to sign seems largely meaningless. Would Angola respect the treaty, if they found themselves once again embroiled in the same type of conflict? Probably not, IMO. And not with 3x the population they had in 1997, rapidly growing.

    Africa might be the place most in need of landmines, to encourage peace.

    Of course, some say that Nigeria 750 million is a pipedream and there is no way that the US would hand over half its corn corp.

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    I’ve always suspected that the Ottawa Treaty was secretly about migration. I mean, is the developed world really in the habit of leaving a bunch of landmines everywhere and then forgetting where they put them?
     
    An interesting thought. It is in fact a war crime to set up a minefield with permanent, not self-defuzing after an interval land mines that you don't record. Although the vagarities of war will result in some of those recording being lost, and someone still has to do the difficult and dangerous job of demining the locations.

    There's one other reason to think twice about such a method: people of ill intent but probably more smarts than rapeugees will locate and remove these mines and harvest their explosives and detonators, you might not want that, or the expense of monitoring the minefield and ... what, shooting anyone trying to do that? You also might need a mixture of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines so expedient use of the latter can't defeat it. But if I was dictator of the USA one of the first things I'd do would be to make huge orders for both of such mines, have long thought that.

    Replies: @songbird

  213. @iffen
    @A123

    Clearly no one is paying for your

    Right, but we can't say that for you, can we?

    Replies: @A123

    I follow Jesus. I follow God.

    Telling the TRUTH is a duty and a privilege that those without souls, such as yourself, are incapable of understanding. It is beyond mere ‘pay’.

    What you are missing is Faith. I wish I could help you, but as a mortal it is beyond my ken.

    I feel *pity* for you. And, I forgive you.

    PEACE

  214. Each year, \$175.8 billion in international goods travel by truck and rail between Detroit and Canada.

    Detroit isn’t exactly the middle of nowhere. If you filled it with Russians, and sent the blacks back to Alabama, it would become America’s fastest growing city, IMO.

  215. @songbird
    USNS Harvey Milk was christened by a tranny. How long until the USN has a ship named after a tranny? IMO, this is just the culmination of desegregation. Nobody would think of having a ship full of only gays.

    Another ship is named after Sojourner Truth. I remember being in school and being given the task of writing an essay about Sojourner Truth. These days they are probably given the task of writing an essay about Milk.

    Replies: @Barbarossa, @Barbarossa

    I had to look it up since I could scarcely believe that there is as USNS Harvey Milk.
    Alas and alack there is.

    Given the reputation of the goings on in the Navy, perhaps this is a really meta move!

    If we sail the USNS into the Persian Gulf, will we hear from NPR how it’s “sending a strong message for human rights” !?

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Barbarossa

    Tend to think that the US military would get rolled pretty easily nowadays. I wonder how long before they go after the special forces.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  216. @Svidomyatheart
    @songbird

    ^^

    Read this and despair...some excerpts from that thread

    https://i.imgur.com/7bCD03P.png

    https://i.imgur.com/PEDDDUz.jpg

    It sucks some pictures dont load. I still remember scrolling through that horror thread...some of the images showed that they made a website and a forum for themselves where they'd try to specifically infect other people on purpose/get infected themselves.
    These ultra narcissistic "humans" or demons as id call them have 1000's of partners...yes you're probably going to get a disease if you have that many partners but they don't care they only care about themselves.

    They were LITERALLY trying to pozz themselves..ASKING for pozzed people to fuck them to spread it. And the US and West Europe is trying to spread this degenerate practice here its as if Ukraine doesnt have enough HIV(honestly if I was magically in charge id make it a crime to infect someone with aids and those causing it woul be sentenced to on 10+ years of hard labor...and all HIV people shipped off to some remote location like Chernobyl unless they're some sort of geniuses or something). Have ID cards and all that.

    Not hard to get volunteers or even cheaply paid people to get that kind of shit done.

    The male sexual drive is something else...women have 100's of partners the most(even the biggest whore had like what?200?) these have 1000's-10000's.

    Replies: @songbird

    Nobody ever thinks about the death toll, pain, or destruction caused by radical tolerance (ex: tolerating the bathhouses, or the grooming gangs in the UK), but it must be really massive.

    I understand that syphilis was on track to kill as many as HIV, if antibiotics hadn’t been invented.

    The male sexual drive is something else…women have 100’s of partners the most(even the biggest whore had like what?200?) these have 1000’s-10000’s.

    There’s probably some extreme network effect with supergays, that you wouldn’t get with lesbians or mixed sex pairings.

    But, keeping that in mind, it is really amazing to consider that in Africa, HIV is primarily a heterosexual disease. (Whoring is really a big past-time there. I read a book once about a white family that owned a vacation resort in Rhodesia, when it became Zimbabwe, their primary income was from officials renting the bungalows out to whore.)

  217. @Barbarossa
    @songbird

    I had to look it up since I could scarcely believe that there is as USNS Harvey Milk.
    Alas and alack there is.

    Given the reputation of the goings on in the Navy, perhaps this is a really meta move!

    If we sail the USNS into the Persian Gulf, will we hear from NPR how it's "sending a strong message for human rights" !?

    Replies: @songbird

    Tend to think that the US military would get rolled pretty easily nowadays. I wonder how long before they go after the special forces.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @songbird

    No doubt that the U.S. is a paper tiger. Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq have proven that.

    The special forces should be all trans groups. Nothing could be more special than that!

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  218. @songbird
    @Barbarossa

    Tend to think that the US military would get rolled pretty easily nowadays. I wonder how long before they go after the special forces.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    No doubt that the U.S. is a paper tiger. Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq have proven that.

    The special forces should be all trans groups. Nothing could be more special than that!

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Barbarossa

    There have been effective (proto-)LGBTQ military units:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes

    And ineffective ones too under the current American military culture of over-technification of war.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  219. @A123
    @German_reader


    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
     
    The better "force" option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines. Anyone who enters a mined area is committing suicide. There is no "trigger man" for the EU to blame.

    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It’s what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.
     
    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
    ________

    Poland will be building a barrier to keep undesirables out. (1)

    Polish Minister of the interior Mariusz Kamiński presented the details of the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border. He emphasized that the barrier would be one of the more important elements to decisively limit mass illegal migration to Poland.

    The border barrier will be 180 kilometers long, and feature 5-meter-tall (16 feet) steel columns topped by half-meter tall barbed wire coils (the barrier will have a total height of 5.5 meters). The barrier will also be equipped with motion sensors and both day and night surveillance systems. Additionally, a new group of officers will support the Border Guard as the government will dedicate 750 positions to strengthen the border.

    The government estimates that the wall and its auxiliary infrastructure will cost over 1.6 billion zloty (€350 million). The construction of the barrier should start as early as this year and will be finished in mid-2022, minister Kamiński declared
     
    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/heres-the-new-design-for-polish-belarusian-border-fence/

     
    https://rmx.news/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Border-Wall-Poland-TT-M-Kaminski.jpg

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @AP, @Mikhail

    Could Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for this?

    • Replies: @Svidomyatheart
    @AP

    I dont really pay attention to Belarus much (even tho Lukashenko has long overstayed his presence) but the fact remains that Poland/Lithuania instigated this conflict first by trying to destabilize and remove him via color revolution so hes just responding by doing what European NGO's have been doing for decades and selflessly bringing in more diversity (strength) to Europe


    No offense but this kind of thinking "Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for this?" is American level thinking.

    Btw Lukashenko is overplaying his hand I can see how this is going to be framed as Putin shenanigans and immigration restrictionism and border security put in place as a firm response , whether they're Putin psyops or not

    Replies: @Aedib, @Coconuts

    , @A123
    @AP


    Could Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for [Poland's Barrier]?
     
    Involuntarily transferring funds from a Russia bloc country to a NATO country is subject to misinterpretation risk. It would be justified, but require back channel work between the U.S. & Russian governments. Given Not-The-President Biden's leadership vacuum, it seems unlikely.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @LatW

  220. @Yellowface Anon
    @Svidomyatheart

    Is HIV bioweapon?

    Replies: @songbird, @That Would Be Telling

    Is HIV bioweapon?

    Songbird is right, but in general we think not. Biggest issue is that it’s a retrovirus, violates the naive version of the “central dogma” of molecular genetics, with a lot of errors transcribes its RNA into DNA, then integrates it into the highjacked cell’s genome.

    This class of viruses was officially, publicly discovered around 1970, and it’s not the sort of thing a germ warfare effort would be likely to find on its own, vs. starting with known biological things. Stored samples of tissue etc. with HIV go back to 1959, and internal evidence of mutations suggests the first strain jumped from primates to humans ~1910.

    OK, it’s possible germ warfare scientists followed the Peter Daszak/EcoHealth Alliance thing, exited their comfy labs and went out and discovered exotic primate viruses, and without needing to know how they worked, did the gain of function thing and adapted them to humans. But unless you want to kill “super-gays” as Songbird put it, and intravenous drug users, while for some time making it a deadly risk for you and yours to get blood transfusions like after an unpredictable accident, and also hazard a lot of healthcare workers it doesn’t make any sense as a bioweapon. Whereas a zoonotic species jump to Africans to white super-gays path that happened multiple times makes complete sense.

    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon
  221. @Dmitry
    @songbird

    My sense is that on average identifying-themselves sexual minority people, are more middle class, higher educated and higher income, than average people.

    One reason is maybe because in more difficult proletarian society, sexual minority people repress this social identity. But in more gentle, bourgeois society, this demographic are encouraged to be openly identifying as LGBT.

    So the openly identifying LGBT are at much higher rates in bourgeois society - i.e. their self-identification is much higher in this class.

    There might be some other correlations. In my industry, there seem to be not so many LGBT - except among women.

    There's an underproportion of women in the tech industry, but my sense is that of the underrepresented women there is a higher proportion of LGBT and non-binary.


    Anderson Cooper defended Haiti
     
    The wealthy LGBT hipsters of YouTube, don't seem to recommend Haiti lol. And that's despite being somekind of "expert level" travel bloggers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25WAXmmVm0.

    By comparison, they recommend Bahrain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz2sOvBc63k.

    LGBT tourists would be usually middle class European people (or European Americans), with higher incomes, liberal virtue-signalling politics, - i.e. co-extensive with hipsters.

    The stereotypes of these bourgeois liberals, is to pretend they like poor places and bohemianism, but not actually like them. They would like "shabby-chic", not "shabby" much.

    I would guess Tel Aviv would be just on the margin of acceptability in terms of shabbiness for this market. Central Moscow (which turned into a gay hipster paradise) would be the ideal for them - but there is a recent problem of inference of politics in the international marketing for that.


    beach spot), or San Francisco.
     
    From the example of San Francisco.
    It makes me think that maybe because the historic LGBT culture have taste for liberal politics, good architecture, urban planning and booming economy. On the other hand, it could show a revealed preference for economic inequality.

    San Francisco is one of the more architecturally and naturally beautiful cities in the USA, with the country's most successful economy. On the other hand, it has terrible problems of inequality and homeless.

    So the fact it is still popular with LGBT culture, can show the culture has high tolerance for these ultra-unequal conditions. Los Angeles is also similar.


    gays are often seen as the shocktroops of gentrification in cities

     

    I would guess because the openly-identifying LGBT people have been historically more bourgeois. In the proletarian culture (which is more frequent in America, with the African-Americans) there is less of the luxury of toleration, and so the LGBT are more repressing their identity.

    Historic centre of the LGBT culture, were movements like the "Bloomsbury Group". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsbury_Group These were ultra-elitist social groups.

    In recent years, LGBT culture became more mainstream in the West, and maybe this will result in the demographic becoming more representative of lower classes than it has been historically.

    Replies: @songbird, @Barbarossa

    I think that the current narcissistic navel gazing obsession with identity, especially “gender identity”, requires one to have way too much time to stew in ones own head as well as a general weakening of other identifying social bonds.

    These would seem to be a commonality between older elites as well as our own post industrial masses of the perpetually bored and titillated bourgeois.

    Those engaged in dealing with the actual trials of life have little time to become absorbed with such things. Like your Grandma used to say…Idle hands are the devil’s workshop!

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
  222. @songbird
    @German_reader

    I've always suspected that the Ottawa Treaty was secretly about migration. I mean, is the developed world really in the habit of leaving a bunch of landmines everywhere and then forgetting where they put them? Certain parts of Africa, certainly.

    Maybe, richer countries signing lends prestige to the process, but, even so, it seems largely meaningless. The concept of a nation-state applies only tenuously in Africa, where in war you typically have a lot of factions, so getting governments to sign seems largely meaningless. Would Angola respect the treaty, if they found themselves once again embroiled in the same type of conflict? Probably not, IMO. And not with 3x the population they had in 1997, rapidly growing.

    Africa might be the place most in need of landmines, to encourage peace.

    Of course, some say that Nigeria 750 million is a pipedream and there is no way that the US would hand over half its corn corp.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    I’ve always suspected that the Ottawa Treaty was secretly about migration. I mean, is the developed world really in the habit of leaving a bunch of landmines everywhere and then forgetting where they put them?

    An interesting thought. It is in fact a war crime to set up a minefield with permanent, not self-defuzing after an interval land mines that you don’t record. Although the vagarities of war will result in some of those recording being lost, and someone still has to do the difficult and dangerous job of demining the locations.

    There’s one other reason to think twice about such a method: people of ill intent but probably more smarts than rapeugees will locate and remove these mines and harvest their explosives and detonators, you might not want that, or the expense of monitoring the minefield and … what, shooting anyone trying to do that? You also might need a mixture of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines so expedient use of the latter can’t defeat it. But if I was dictator of the USA one of the first things I’d do would be to make huge orders for both of such mines, have long thought that.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @That Would Be Telling

    Think if they had been trying to discourage future conflict, as a moral stance, then the most effective thing they could have done would be to ban the migration of alien groups.

    Used to think that the East Germans had some sort of automated rocket launcher at their border with West Germany. Apparently, though many others thought so too, including intelligence services, it seems to be some propaganda campaign or misconception. They did employ a directional mine, activated by a tripwire though:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-70

    But, from my reading of it, I suspect they would have been better off using normal landmines.

  223. @AP
    @A123

    Could Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for this?

    Replies: @Svidomyatheart, @A123

    I dont really pay attention to Belarus much (even tho Lukashenko has long overstayed his presence) but the fact remains that Poland/Lithuania instigated this conflict first by trying to destabilize and remove him via color revolution so hes just responding by doing what European NGO’s have been doing for decades and selflessly bringing in more diversity (strength) to Europe

    No offense but this kind of thinking “Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for this?” is American level thinking.

    Btw Lukashenko is overplaying his hand I can see how this is going to be framed as Putin shenanigans and immigration restrictionism and border security put in place as a firm response , whether they’re Putin psyops or not

    • Agree: RadicalCenter
    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Svidomyatheart

    I don’t think this is a Putin & Gerasimov psyop. Luka simply likes to take revenge against Poles and Lithuanians because of their instigation to the failed color revolution. In some sense it is a wise move: he retaliates against the sponsors of color revolutions in order to deter them from the next move. The scenes are too colorful to be a dark op from the FSB. It looks more like Italian comedia from the 1960s. And this is really funny because gets the Eurocrats hysterical.

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

    , @Coconuts
    @Svidomyatheart


    I dont really pay attention to Belarus much (even tho Lukashenko has long overstayed his presence) but the fact remains that Poland/Lithuania instigated this conflict first by trying to destabilize and remove him via color revolution...
     
    I think Lukashenko was destablised first, and that was because he allowed Barbariko to run in the presidential election, and there was also Tikhonovskaya's husband who seems to have been an effective social media hustler. Poland and so on only made significant moves later when the scale of the opposition to the result and the aggressive measures against the early demonstrations were reported.

    Then Luka created this narrative about the opposition being made up of prostitutes, drug addicts and people paid by Poland/US, different foreign powers, when lots of it was just people under 50, especially if they had tertiary education. OTOH, Lukashenko probably has quite based views about democracy and in an unironic way sees himself as the real representative and conduit of the general will of the people, what he has been doing makes sense from this point of view.
  224. @songbird
    USNS Harvey Milk was christened by a tranny. How long until the USN has a ship named after a tranny? IMO, this is just the culmination of desegregation. Nobody would think of having a ship full of only gays.

    Another ship is named after Sojourner Truth. I remember being in school and being given the task of writing an essay about Sojourner Truth. These days they are probably given the task of writing an essay about Milk.

    Replies: @Barbarossa, @Barbarossa

    USNS Harvey Milk

    Also, does it have a glitter cannon and will it get fired at Vladimir Putin?

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Barbarossa

    Somewhat oddly (or appropriately?) , it is an oiler.

    BTW, if the rumors can be believed, it was not too many decades ago that the Air Force was considering some sort of gay bomb:
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/13/usa.danglaister

    Though, I think the real the Tsar Bomba would be a tranny bomb.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    , @That Would Be Telling
    @Barbarossa



    USNS Harvey Milk
     
    Also, does it have a glitter cannon and will it get fired at Vladimir Putin?
     
    By today's standards it's almost unarmed, just some .50 BMG machine guns which are serviced by some of the few people in the military who are on these mostly civilian run ships. Serious ones have 25mm Bushmasters at a minimum, although this John Lewis (really) class ship is set up to have Phalanx CIWS added, or the SeaRAM modification of that which replaces the 20mm Vulcan canon with Rolling Airframe Missiles.
  225. @LatW
    @Dmitry


    Lol I am sounding very naïve.
     
    I can now tell when you pretend to be clueless to illicit some kind of a reaction. :)

    But I didn’t know there is nowadays the demand to mix this with a magician show, seafood restaurant, and artistic fencing performances.
     
    Hey, seafood is great and fencing might be fun to watch. But yea... it sounds like they're really living it up in Moscow. :)

    Yes it’s something (figure skating, gymnastics, ballet) that matches to the mentality, also like classical piano achievements.
     
    Yea, it's amazing, I'm a huge fan of Russian hockey, it is just so technical and yet so graceful. And smart, too, with great combinations. It matches well with a Northern mentality. As to gymnastics, I haven't really followed up on it, but the old school was very tough. They would literally make you stretch out to reach your toes while sitting on the ground and then an adult trainer would sit on your back. I'm not sure if today's youth can endure that. As to hockey, you're probably too young to know, but my dad used to tell me about the Russian hockey coach slash dictator Viktor Tikhonov. He was super strict.


    But what do you think about these new fashions like pole dancing exercise studios that open in the cities in Russia?
     
    I dunno, do you want to hear the nationalist version or the realist version? :) From the athletic POV, it's great, and the girl in the clip you posted is excellent, what she's doing is very tough, plus she's really built for it. From purely athletic POV there are skills in classic gymnastics that are very similar, e.g., climbing up the rope, splits, etc. So you don't need to do pole dancing to practice those skills. But, ofc, the erotic side of it has gotten way too normalized, I can't believe there are children in the audience. I don't know, why do Slavic girls do that... some Baltic girls do it too, ofc, but Slavic girls just take to a whole different level.

    Btw, did you know that there are also straight male pole performances out there? They are fully clothed, ofc, and it's more like pure entertainment. I've seen such a group perform in Gotland, Sweden, during a medieval festival. It was supposed to be kind of like circus entertainment and they did a great job. The dude could do that perpendicular hold on the pole, like sideways. Insane.

    as it could be too easy to transition into the professional version (which overlaps with the prostitution) and where their salary is higher than a doctor.
     
    Yes, someone at 18 can make what her parents make together or more. I don't know. Maybe it should be allowed at a very discreet, high end, very expensive level. But it shouldn't be normalized. Certainly, in an ideal world, Baltic women should not be allowed to do it, but they should be kept in close proximity to capable, hard working, attractive men.

    It killed 156 people.
     
    It's an incredible tragedy, it looks like hell on earth. There were husbands looking for their wives that were stuck inside. The place was overcrowded, the people were huddling together as Slavic people enjoy doing. I know it's a country of 140 million and all kinds of things can happen, but sometimes I wonder how the Russian people can take such sorrow.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    economic migrants, not sure the onus should be on EE states

    It seems like Lukashenko is trying to do his own version of Castro’s “Mariel boatlift”?

    I guess you can be grateful for small things – he is only flying people from ISIS hotzones – he didn’t empty Minsk prison on your border yet. If he wants, Lukashenko could turn you into the next Riga Vice instead of Miami Vice, just with less cool clothes and added Syrian militants.

    now tell when you pretend to be clueless

    Lol this is flattering – unfortunately when my post sounds clueless I might be just clueless. And too much time in Western Europe is probably destroying my former street knowledge I had.

    I’m such a person who was some years ago wondering for a couple minutes “massage must be really popular”, because there are so many adverts for massage in Russia.

    So you don’t need to do pole dancing to practice those skills. But, ofc, the erotic side of it has gotten way too normalized, I can’t believe there are children in the audience. I don’t know, why do Sla

    I don’t even think the erotic side is a problem. If people want to do erotic dancing, then that’s fine. Peoples’ body is only young and attractive for a short time, it’s not such a crime to show it – they will be old for decades later and nobody will want to look at them.

    But the reason it seems a bit scary to me, is that is in the context of country where prostitution is one of the main national hobbies, where prostitution can overlap with pole dancers, and where there is not available acceptable paying jobs for most young people.

    So if make pole dancing the new fitness hobby, then it’s good for the peoples’ health and so on. Many women would enjoy it as a sport, with no influence on their professional life.

    But what percentage will be tempted use their skills they learned professionally, and what percentage of those pole dancing clubs (I think a very high one) are also offering prostitution? And I’m not even saying prostitution is wrong, but it could seem not good to encourage in the context when normal jobs for the people are so badly paid.

    (Even I would not say prostitution in general is the problem, but prostitution in the local context of relative lack of normal jobs with non-slave level salaries.)

    t should be allowed at a very discreet, high end, very expensive level. But it shouldn’t be normalized

    Well what can be of our individual opinions, I would outline what I think is the realism perspective in a sentence: prostitution/sex industry is now so vast and popular multi-billion dollar industry in Russia, that it’s unrealistic that authorities would intervene – it’s an “opium of the masses”, people using opium are less rebellious, and in the authorities’ self-interest that people will stay in it.

    Maybe just if you didn’t pay the right officials, the police can sometimes come to verify if you have the correct paperwork to sell alcohol, and probably wanting to see if the location is suitable for their next afterwork party.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phK30GKCQd8.

    I know it’s a country of 140 million and all kinds of things can happen, but sometimes I wonder how the Russian people can take such sorrow.

    Well to look on the happy side, at least there are no serious earthquakes in Russian, outside of in Sakhalin once ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Neftegorsk_earthquake ).

    And there are most countries with much higher suffering in all areas of life – life in Russia is far above average by international standards. A day in India or Africa will have more suffering than a year in Russia.

    Risk of dying in fires in Russia is higher than in Europe, but perhaps it could be improving in recent years, and not too common anyway by world standards.

    But then there are places where life in Russia is bad even relative to world levels. A million people are dying from coronavirus, and authorities are relatively not worried compared to many other countries.

    And this lack of care about epidemics not just in United Russia politicians, but even the opposition. For example, perhaps 2% of the residents of Ekaterinburg (and some other cities like Perm), are infected with HIV now. And there was liberal mayor Evegny Roizman during all this time – and there was still no needle exchange system established in Ekaterinburg to control the epidemic. This is a liberal opposition politician Roizman who criticizes United Russia, and yet his reaction to the HIV epidemic was even worse than you would expected from United Russia.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Dmitry


    It seems like Lukashenko is trying to do his own version of Castro’s “Mariel boatlift”?
     
    Well, where I would agree is that one shouldn't rely on Mr Lukashenko's good graces to protect one's borders. Hence, the barriers that will be built. And, btw, the nationalists have been talking for years about the need for this as well as the need to exit the Ottawa convention. This refugee problem is a crisis now, but the truth is that almost all of the illegal immigration had been coming from East for years and years, just in smaller numbers.

    I’m such a person who was some years ago wondering for a couple minutes “massage must be really popular”, because there are so many adverts for massage in Russia.
     
    Aw, that's so naive and kind of nerdy. LOL

    But then there are places where life in Russia is bad even relative to world levels. A million people are dying from coronavirus, and authorities are relatively not worried compared to many other countries.

     

    Yes, it's very serious, over 1000 daily deaths. It's very serious in the Baltic States, too, and, btw, the Russophones are more reluctant to take the vaccine (about 10% less than Latvians, for example). They don't want to be told what to do and they procrastinate.

    And this lack of care about epidemics not just in United Russia politicians, but even the opposition. For example, perhaps 2% of the residents of Ekaterinburg (and some other cities like Perm), are infected with HIV now.
     
    It's lame because Ekaterinburg seems like a very modern city. I like how they have built it out, especially around the waterfront. Maybe the population there grew and that's why the increase?

    no needle exchange system established in Ekaterinburg
     
    It might be that there is a strong bias and they don't want to "encourage the vice" (even though the result would be safety). Or maybe it is just pofigism.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  226. @Barbarossa
    @songbird

    No doubt that the U.S. is a paper tiger. Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq have proven that.

    The special forces should be all trans groups. Nothing could be more special than that!

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    There have been effective (proto-)LGBTQ military units:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes

    And ineffective ones too under the current American military culture of over-technification of war.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Yellowface Anon

    Certainly. I can see where adding a sexual dimension to the already powerful bonds of male comradeship would create a particularly fanatical devotion. Historically homosexual men have not been necessarily "wimpy" as modern gays often seem to often self-conform to. There are probably interesting social reasons for that, not that anyone could do a research study these days called Exploring the Sociological Roots of Effeminate Behaviors in the Modern Gay Community !

    My real beef is with identity politics ideology, not necessarily homosexual attraction. I personally know homosexual people that are pretty much well rounded people with a variety of interests and facets. Then there are people who make their sexual preferences, or "gender identity", so central to their life and identity that one cannot escape it. It's obnoxious in the extreme, and I feel rather bad for those people since it seems like a very shallow and boring foundation to build one's entire identity on.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  227. @LatW
    @Dmitry


    There should be land areas (maybe an artificially created country) determined by the UN which will be providing a safe place for any persecuted peoples.
     
    While refugees do suffer real pain and it is heartbreaking to watch the children in particular being put on those unimaginable long journeys, the truth is that there are large swaths of peaceful places in Africa and the Middle East. There is peace in certain places even in the worst countries. They are supposed to stay in the first country they land that is peaceful.

    Btw, they are treated really terribly in Belarus, even though Belarus is peaceful.

    What you argue about refugees vs economic migrants, not sure the onus should be on EE states to sift through that.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    This is exactly the case. Rather than simplistic “Euros vs refugees”, we should look at why countries are exporting refugees/economic migrants, and which countries have the capacity to accept them without destroying its social & cultural fabric.

  228. By now everyone should know WWIII is not a matter of if, but how and when, and what comes after it.

  229. @Dmitry
    @LatW


    economic migrants, not sure the onus should be on EE states
     
    It seems like Lukashenko is trying to do his own version of Castro's "Mariel boatlift"?

    I guess you can be grateful for small things - he is only flying people from ISIS hotzones - he didn't empty Minsk prison on your border yet. If he wants, Lukashenko could turn you into the next Riga Vice instead of Miami Vice, just with less cool clothes and added Syrian militants.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl9OddN29Z4


    now tell when you pretend to be clueless
     
    Lol this is flattering - unfortunately when my post sounds clueless I might be just clueless. And too much time in Western Europe is probably destroying my former street knowledge I had.

    I'm such a person who was some years ago wondering for a couple minutes "massage must be really popular", because there are so many adverts for massage in Russia.


    So you don’t need to do pole dancing to practice those skills. But, ofc, the erotic side of it has gotten way too normalized, I can’t believe there are children in the audience. I don’t know, why do Sla

     

    I don't even think the erotic side is a problem. If people want to do erotic dancing, then that's fine. Peoples' body is only young and attractive for a short time, it's not such a crime to show it - they will be old for decades later and nobody will want to look at them.

    But the reason it seems a bit scary to me, is that is in the context of country where prostitution is one of the main national hobbies, where prostitution can overlap with pole dancers, and where there is not available acceptable paying jobs for most young people.

    So if make pole dancing the new fitness hobby, then it's good for the peoples' health and so on. Many women would enjoy it as a sport, with no influence on their professional life.

    But what percentage will be tempted use their skills they learned professionally, and what percentage of those pole dancing clubs (I think a very high one) are also offering prostitution? And I'm not even saying prostitution is wrong, but it could seem not good to encourage in the context when normal jobs for the people are so badly paid.

    (Even I would not say prostitution in general is the problem, but prostitution in the local context of relative lack of normal jobs with non-slave level salaries.)


    t should be allowed at a very discreet, high end, very expensive level. But it shouldn’t be normalized
     
    Well what can be of our individual opinions, I would outline what I think is the realism perspective in a sentence: prostitution/sex industry is now so vast and popular multi-billion dollar industry in Russia, that it's unrealistic that authorities would intervene - it's an "opium of the masses", people using opium are less rebellious, and in the authorities' self-interest that people will stay in it.

    -

    Maybe just if you didn't pay the right officials, the police can sometimes come to verify if you have the correct paperwork to sell alcohol, and probably wanting to see if the location is suitable for their next afterwork party.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phK30GKCQd8.


    I know it’s a country of 140 million and all kinds of things can happen, but sometimes I wonder how the Russian people can take such sorrow.
     
    Well to look on the happy side, at least there are no serious earthquakes in Russian, outside of in Sakhalin once ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Neftegorsk_earthquake ).

    And there are most countries with much higher suffering in all areas of life - life in Russia is far above average by international standards. A day in India or Africa will have more suffering than a year in Russia.

    Risk of dying in fires in Russia is higher than in Europe, but perhaps it could be improving in recent years, and not too common anyway by world standards.

    But then there are places where life in Russia is bad even relative to world levels. A million people are dying from coronavirus, and authorities are relatively not worried compared to many other countries.

    And this lack of care about epidemics not just in United Russia politicians, but even the opposition. For example, perhaps 2% of the residents of Ekaterinburg (and some other cities like Perm), are infected with HIV now. And there was liberal mayor Evegny Roizman during all this time - and there was still no needle exchange system established in Ekaterinburg to control the epidemic. This is a liberal opposition politician Roizman who criticizes United Russia, and yet his reaction to the HIV epidemic was even worse than you would expected from United Russia.

    Replies: @LatW

    It seems like Lukashenko is trying to do his own version of Castro’s “Mariel boatlift”?

    Well, where I would agree is that one shouldn’t rely on Mr Lukashenko’s good graces to protect one’s borders. Hence, the barriers that will be built. And, btw, the nationalists have been talking for years about the need for this as well as the need to exit the Ottawa convention. This refugee problem is a crisis now, but the truth is that almost all of the illegal immigration had been coming from East for years and years, just in smaller numbers.

    I’m such a person who was some years ago wondering for a couple minutes “massage must be really popular”, because there are so many adverts for massage in Russia.

    Aw, that’s so naive and kind of nerdy. LOL

    But then there are places where life in Russia is bad even relative to world levels. A million people are dying from coronavirus, and authorities are relatively not worried compared to many other countries.

    Yes, it’s very serious, over 1000 daily deaths. It’s very serious in the Baltic States, too, and, btw, the Russophones are more reluctant to take the vaccine (about 10% less than Latvians, for example). They don’t want to be told what to do and they procrastinate.

    And this lack of care about epidemics not just in United Russia politicians, but even the opposition. For example, perhaps 2% of the residents of Ekaterinburg (and some other cities like Perm), are infected with HIV now.

    It’s lame because Ekaterinburg seems like a very modern city. I like how they have built it out, especially around the waterfront. Maybe the population there grew and that’s why the increase?

    no needle exchange system established in Ekaterinburg

    It might be that there is a strong bias and they don’t want to “encourage the vice” (even though the result would be safety). Or maybe it is just pofigism.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @LatW


    ery serious, over 1000 daily death
     
    In Russia it's more like 5000 people dying each day from coronavirus during the peaks of the waves ( https://doctorpiter.ru/articles/688489/ ).

    And authorities were faking the data to maintain the economy open. For example, in November 2020 in Novosibirsk there were proportionally more people dying from coronavirus than in New York in April 2020. But the restaurants, bars and nightclubs, were open, and most people were not wearing masks.

    By comparison, in April 2020 in New York, with less people dying as a proportion of the population that in Novosibirsk in November 2020, the city had mostly shut down, and the media reported that there was an epidemic in the city.


    Russophones are more reluctant to take the vaccine (about 10% less than Latvians, for example). They don’t want to be told what to do and they
     
    And partly because the Russian media and politicians have been acting like coronavirus is problem in other countries not Russia, partly has been promoting anti-vax attitudes about Western vaccines. For example, all this obsession about the dangers of Pfizer, or "monkey DNA" in Astrazeneca vaccine, etc.

    https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/news/2020/09/09/839323-otlichiya-rossiiskoi-i-anglo-shvedskoi-vaktsin
    https://www.interfax-russia.ru/moscow/main/putin-tragicheskih-posledstviy-posle-polucheniya-rossiyskih-vakcin-net
    https://www.rbc.ru/society/12/09/2020/5f5cf2cd9a794702eecbbf28

    If you believed that Western vaccines were already dangerous, then the logical implication of media messaging has been you definitely should not injected with a Russian one.


    Ekaterinburg seems like a very modern city. I like how they have built it out, especially around the waterfront. Maybe the population
     
    It's on one hand being on the silk road for opium, and being an economically successful, resilient city - that therefore has been profitable for drug sales. Because it's one of the most economically robust cities, therefore it is always one of the most profitable for narcotics.

    It's on the other hand, because of the most stupid and incompetent authorities that can be imagined, in terms of understanding of international epidemiological guidelines for fighting this epidemic, which had been solved decades ago in other countries.


    population there grew and that’s why the increase?

     

    It's a proportional increase in HIV rates, which is a result of more widely the drug addiction, and more narrowly the needle sharing.

    So for example, the HIV prevalence in the total population (all normal residents) of Ekaterinburg, is 1/3 higher than the total HIV prevalence of sex workers in Amsterdam.

    And there are many other cities in Russia like Perm, Omsk, where it has been a similar situation.


    strong bias and they don’t want to “encourage the vice” (even though the result would be safety). Or maybe it is just pofigism.
     
    Roizman has blamed the open borders immigration system, in relation to central Asia, where the drugs are moved on the silk road through the cities. And that is true that experts have said that open borders immigration policy of Russia has probably been one contributing factor to the drug epidemic, that therefore resulted in the high level of HIV.

    Roizman also was justified to criticize the authorities, but his history of parallel state initiatives does not inspire confidence.

    We don't have to be professionally trained epidemiologists, to be skeptical that you could manage drug addicts by capturing them and adding them to a kind of private prison "rehabilitation centre".

    Roizman's centres used to chain by hand famously the male addicts to the beds.

    And an equivalent centre (important to say, not related to Roizman) in Krasnokamsk was famous for allegedly torturing, beating, perhaps raping and killing some of its captured drug addicts.

    -

    Although later Roizman women's centre he opened in Beryozovsky (which I think police tried to close at one time later), looked like the most normal and modern one - as they had things like therapeutic gardening, which is used in some advanced Western countries for managing traumatized people. And not chaining them to the bed. So maybe Roizman's methods were not so bad by the 2010s.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoADbTK-nrE

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  230. The pathetic tail of CO2 growth on the right turns out to be a “climate catastrophe”.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Mike_from_Russia

    How much GHG does it actually take for runaway GH effect? Anything below that is tolerable.

    Replies: @songbird

  231. @Mike_from_Russia
    https://aftershock.news/sites/default/files/u40665/co2_and_temperature.jpg

    The pathetic tail of CO2 growth on the right turns out to be a "climate catastrophe".

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    How much GHG does it actually take for runaway GH effect? Anything below that is tolerable.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    The environmentalists always go overboard. I don't think that wood stoves should need to have catalytic converters. Not to mention, the early requirements about low flush toilets were a real disaster.


    By now everyone should know WWIII is not a matter of if, but how and when, and what comes after it.
     
    Maybe, it is already here and we just can't mentally adjust ourselves to the way that the nature of warfare has changed and the tactics have evolved. Postwar up to now has been way more consequential to the British than anything since the Anglo-Saxon invasion. And yet, we are supposed to think it is peace and prosperity. If so, it is like no former peace, which ever existed.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling, @Yellowface Anon

  232. @Svidomyatheart
    @AP

    I dont really pay attention to Belarus much (even tho Lukashenko has long overstayed his presence) but the fact remains that Poland/Lithuania instigated this conflict first by trying to destabilize and remove him via color revolution so hes just responding by doing what European NGO's have been doing for decades and selflessly bringing in more diversity (strength) to Europe


    No offense but this kind of thinking "Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for this?" is American level thinking.

    Btw Lukashenko is overplaying his hand I can see how this is going to be framed as Putin shenanigans and immigration restrictionism and border security put in place as a firm response , whether they're Putin psyops or not

    Replies: @Aedib, @Coconuts

    I don’t think this is a Putin & Gerasimov psyop. Luka simply likes to take revenge against Poles and Lithuanians because of their instigation to the failed color revolution. In some sense it is a wise move: he retaliates against the sponsors of color revolutions in order to deter them from the next move. The scenes are too colorful to be a dark op from the FSB. It looks more like Italian comedia from the 1960s. And this is really funny because gets the Eurocrats hysterical.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Aedib


    And this is really funny because gets the Eurocrats hysterical.
     
    Well, the ever caring uncle Lavrov just joined the trolling by suggesting that the EU pay Belarus to keep the migrants at bay.

    Replies: @Aedib, @A123

    , @Dmitry
    @Aedib

    The irony is nobody in the world hates Putin/Kremlin, more than Lukashenko.

    But his position is always vulnerable on the both flanks, and the EU and Poland considers him more unacceptable than he has naively understood before 2020.

    This is partly why he seemed distracted so much and idiotically trying to be friendly to Poland/EU in 2019, as his "multivector" strategy, when he was hit from the other flank last year.

    Nowadays his bargaining position is even far weaker than in 2019, and he has almost no leverage against Russia (but still he seems to try to bargain).

    Replies: @Aedib

  233. @Svidomyatheart
    @AP

    I dont really pay attention to Belarus much (even tho Lukashenko has long overstayed his presence) but the fact remains that Poland/Lithuania instigated this conflict first by trying to destabilize and remove him via color revolution so hes just responding by doing what European NGO's have been doing for decades and selflessly bringing in more diversity (strength) to Europe


    No offense but this kind of thinking "Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for this?" is American level thinking.

    Btw Lukashenko is overplaying his hand I can see how this is going to be framed as Putin shenanigans and immigration restrictionism and border security put in place as a firm response , whether they're Putin psyops or not

    Replies: @Aedib, @Coconuts

    I dont really pay attention to Belarus much (even tho Lukashenko has long overstayed his presence) but the fact remains that Poland/Lithuania instigated this conflict first by trying to destabilize and remove him via color revolution…

    I think Lukashenko was destablised first, and that was because he allowed Barbariko to run in the presidential election, and there was also Tikhonovskaya’s husband who seems to have been an effective social media hustler. Poland and so on only made significant moves later when the scale of the opposition to the result and the aggressive measures against the early demonstrations were reported.

    Then Luka created this narrative about the opposition being made up of prostitutes, drug addicts and people paid by Poland/US, different foreign powers, when lots of it was just people under 50, especially if they had tertiary education. OTOH, Lukashenko probably has quite based views about democracy and in an unironic way sees himself as the real representative and conduit of the general will of the people, what he has been doing makes sense from this point of view.

  234. I think Lukashenko was destablised first, and that was because he allowed Barbariko to run in the presidential election, and there was also Tikhonovskaya’s husband who seems to have been an effective social media hustler.

    Both of them were RF attempts (Babariko – Gazprom banker, Tikhonovskaya’s husband supported Crimean grab) to create some additional leverage against Lukashenko and to coerce him into joining RF under the guise of strenghtened union while economically strangling him by doing de facto oil supply blockade at the start of 2020.

  235. @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    I double checked and couldn't find any outings that include both Davis and Pastorius together. Perhaps, it was wishful thinking on my part?...I do know that Davis thought that he was a great musician and even dedicated a song in his honor:

    https://youtu.be/0PZ7jB-TwSg

    I only really came to Charlie Parker about 10 years ago. I came across a wonderful box set that included 10 CD's, an anthology of sorts. Really, great music and equally good mixing too. Since then, I've purchased a couple of other of his albums, that corresponded to his orchestral period - sweet!

    Replies: @Agathoklis

    The second Miles Davis Quintet was clearly the apex of American jazz/improvisational music. Sure, there was some highlights later such as Frank Zappa and Eric Dolphy but the consistent brilliance of that group will never be bettered.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Agathoklis

    Do you really find listening to Dolphy's music enjoyable? And Zappa, although he would come up with some good stuff and was straddling the boundaries of both rock and jazz music, will be ultimately remembered as a rock star. What came after the Quintet's music, after "Kind of Blue" and a couple of others, was by and large noise as far as I'm concerned. Miles became a very strange and kooky guy whose musical genius was erased by his descent into a nightmare of drugs and dark strange people.

    Replies: @Agathoklis

  236. • Replies: @A123
    @sudden death

    What is your point?
    That the death rates are trivial and thus irrelevant?

    .00003 - .00002 is a net difference of .00001. Even if it is accurate, it is hardly demographically noticeable.

    Compare this number to Red voters fleeing from states like California. Relocation of Trump voters into Trump voting counties is much larger than any possible impact from the WUHAN-19 virus.

    Another thing to consider is that Biden has collapsed over 10% in the polls (10,000 per 100,000). This impact also swamps any possible WUHAN-19 impact (net 100 per 100,000) by a factor of 100x.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    , @RadicalCenter
    @sudden death

    We’ll need age-adjusted rates of death allegedly caused by covid-19. Aren’t the pro-Trump districts older, on average, than the anti-Trump districts? Exit polling broken down by age could help here too.

  237. @Barbarossa
    @songbird


    USNS Harvey Milk
     
    Also, does it have a glitter cannon and will it get fired at Vladimir Putin?

    Replies: @songbird, @That Would Be Telling

    Somewhat oddly (or appropriately?) , it is an oiler.

    BTW, if the rumors can be believed, it was not too many decades ago that the Air Force was considering some sort of gay bomb:
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/13/usa.danglaister

    Though, I think the real the Tsar Bomba would be a tranny bomb.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @songbird

    But that was back in the ancient days of...14 years ago.

    Now a "gay bomb" would be hailed as a perfect way to increase representation in the military and everywhere else!

    Replies: @songbird

  238. @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    I’ve always suspected that the Ottawa Treaty was secretly about migration. I mean, is the developed world really in the habit of leaving a bunch of landmines everywhere and then forgetting where they put them?
     
    An interesting thought. It is in fact a war crime to set up a minefield with permanent, not self-defuzing after an interval land mines that you don't record. Although the vagarities of war will result in some of those recording being lost, and someone still has to do the difficult and dangerous job of demining the locations.

    There's one other reason to think twice about such a method: people of ill intent but probably more smarts than rapeugees will locate and remove these mines and harvest their explosives and detonators, you might not want that, or the expense of monitoring the minefield and ... what, shooting anyone trying to do that? You also might need a mixture of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines so expedient use of the latter can't defeat it. But if I was dictator of the USA one of the first things I'd do would be to make huge orders for both of such mines, have long thought that.

    Replies: @songbird

    Think if they had been trying to discourage future conflict, as a moral stance, then the most effective thing they could have done would be to ban the migration of alien groups.

    Used to think that the East Germans had some sort of automated rocket launcher at their border with West Germany. Apparently, though many others thought so too, including intelligence services, it seems to be some propaganda campaign or misconception. They did employ a directional mine, activated by a tripwire though:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-70

    But, from my reading of it, I suspect they would have been better off using normal landmines.

  239. @Agathoklis
    @Mr. Hack

    The second Miles Davis Quintet was clearly the apex of American jazz/improvisational music. Sure, there was some highlights later such as Frank Zappa and Eric Dolphy but the consistent brilliance of that group will never be bettered.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Do you really find listening to Dolphy’s music enjoyable? And Zappa, although he would come up with some good stuff and was straddling the boundaries of both rock and jazz music, will be ultimately remembered as a rock star. What came after the Quintet’s music, after “Kind of Blue” and a couple of others, was by and large noise as far as I’m concerned. Miles became a very strange and kooky guy whose musical genius was erased by his descent into a nightmare of drugs and dark strange people.

    • Replies: @Agathoklis
    @Mr. Hack

    Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch is one of the greatest discs of the 20th century. Sit down and give it a try. It is highly innovative but also retained its musicality which cannot be said for some free and avant-garde jazz. Regarding Frank Zappa, most serious music listeners know he was not just a rockstar. He was a serious musician and he hired serious musicians like George Duke, Jean Luc-Ponty, Vinnie Colaiuta, Ruth Underwood, Adrian Belew and many more. Try listening to the Grand Wazoo, Big Swifty or Shut and Play Yer Guitar. Or the Yellow Shark for his orchestral music.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  240. @songbird
    @Barbarossa

    Somewhat oddly (or appropriately?) , it is an oiler.

    BTW, if the rumors can be believed, it was not too many decades ago that the Air Force was considering some sort of gay bomb:
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/13/usa.danglaister

    Though, I think the real the Tsar Bomba would be a tranny bomb.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    But that was back in the ancient days of…14 years ago.

    Now a “gay bomb” would be hailed as a perfect way to increase representation in the military and everywhere else!

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Barbarossa

    I once argued that, if there was a "gay germ", then it would have been weaponized, and someone hit back with. "Maybe, it has been."

    Thinking it over, it might be pretty consequential or effective, even if it only effected <10% the population. Kind of like covid (not that I am conspiracy-minded), but if it had been invented as a bioweapon, then they might be happy with the results, just based on the economic and political damage that it has done. The real test of a weapon's effectiveness is in the response that it solicits.

  241. @Yellowface Anon
    @Mike_from_Russia

    How much GHG does it actually take for runaway GH effect? Anything below that is tolerable.

    Replies: @songbird

    The environmentalists always go overboard. I don’t think that wood stoves should need to have catalytic converters. Not to mention, the early requirements about low flush toilets were a real disaster.

    By now everyone should know WWIII is not a matter of if, but how and when, and what comes after it.

    Maybe, it is already here and we just can’t mentally adjust ourselves to the way that the nature of warfare has changed and the tactics have evolved. Postwar up to now has been way more consequential to the British than anything since the Anglo-Saxon invasion. And yet, we are supposed to think it is peace and prosperity. If so, it is like no former peace, which ever existed.

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    The environmentalists always go overboard. I don’t think that wood stoves should need to have catalytic converters.
     
    It does raise their price, but as I understand it provides two direct benefits to the owner, a lot of volatile fuel that would otherwise be wasted into the atmosphere is burned in them, and that removes a lot of the fractions of fuel which are prone to deposit on the exhaust pipe. Have also read, but this must be taken with a grain of salt, that Denver was getting smoggy with a lot of use of the old fashioned types of stoves.

    Replies: @A123

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    You mean the Cold War, and now hybrid wars. I mean a hot, potentially MAD war.

    Replies: @songbird

  242. @Yellowface Anon
    @Barbarossa

    There have been effective (proto-)LGBTQ military units:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes

    And ineffective ones too under the current American military culture of over-technification of war.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    Certainly. I can see where adding a sexual dimension to the already powerful bonds of male comradeship would create a particularly fanatical devotion. Historically homosexual men have not been necessarily “wimpy” as modern gays often seem to often self-conform to. There are probably interesting social reasons for that, not that anyone could do a research study these days called Exploring the Sociological Roots of Effeminate Behaviors in the Modern Gay Community !

    My real beef is with identity politics ideology, not necessarily homosexual attraction. I personally know homosexual people that are pretty much well rounded people with a variety of interests and facets. Then there are people who make their sexual preferences, or “gender identity”, so central to their life and identity that one cannot escape it. It’s obnoxious in the extreme, and I feel rather bad for those people since it seems like a very shallow and boring foundation to build one’s entire identity on.

    • Agree: iffen
    • LOL: sher singh
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Barbarossa

    I always feel identity politics is putting the cart before the horse. For starters, biological-racial identities before economics and ethno-culture.

  243. @LatW
    @A123


    Poland should care long term about their Judeo-Christian citizens. Making Germany more Islamic, and therefore more hostile to Christian Poland, is less than strategic thinking.
     
    Obviously, Christianity should be protected (in its traditional, not woke form) and the state already protects Christianity to some extent. As to the future, it's a question of an ethical nature - should Eastern Europeans stand up for those, in the name of higher universal values, who do not want to stand up for themselves and who might in fact be feeling pretty ok with the situation (e.g., Westerners).

    Objective fact shows that Muslim rape-ugees are incapable of assimilation.

     

    Well, it seems that in some cases the second generation tends to become more Islamic or radicalized than their parents who first arrive to Europe, but who knows. Some become secular. Again, this does not solve the problem, even if it may alleviate the situation a little.

    With limited funds, projects have to be prioritized.
     
    There are funds available. And as it seems to be the case with these protective walls, political will is often more important than the actual funds. You have to want to build it. There is a sense of urgency about it in EE.

    Given the EU as a whole benefits from strong border enforcement, the EU should be offering up funding to keep the border closed.
     
    Poland et al have insisted on this since day one. But Ursula von der Leyen is a Teutonic ice queen, nothing could break her will. It's kind of sad because it used to be that it was possible to talk to the EU People's Party faction (which she technically represents via the CDU), although she seems to have a rather cosmopolitan background. The Commission is going to insist on housing the refugees where they land. But letting them pass through may be an option for now. However, Germans themselves are having issues on the Polish-German border. It looks like there were small groups of brothers in Germany trying to defend the smaller border towns. Of course, they were subdued by their own compatriots.

    It should be no surprise that illegal immigrants break the law.
     
    Well, this is exactly the crux of the matter. If you let them pass, then technically you're allowing them to break the law. The EE approach has so far been to drive them back, and it implies a certain level of brutality. Again, the E.Europeans will be painted as more brutal (there is already such a meme floating around re: WW2, how even the Germans used to be "shocked at the brutality of the locals", history repeating ~eye roll~).

    The EU as a whole has to work together to solve the problem Merkel created.
     
    She didn't create it, just exacerbated it. Yes, the EU should work together, but the a priori thinking is that there will be some kind of a policy that will be based on the woke version of "common values", while the East has a different understanding of this. Instead of diluting its position through a compromise with the West, the East should hold steadfast and insist on its own position. Which is roughly, we don't let anyone in and we house only a few.


    Hopefully the new German government will do the right thing.
     
    I hope and trust in the rationality and pragmatism of the German people. But how can one trust the reds regarding the immigration policy? Germany is in an unprecedented position now as the historic two-way coalition is out of whack. They may have what ironically is called "a rainbow coalition" with more parties involved. This may be a more fragile set up (although Germans can probably handle it ok). Scholz is moderate, but Greens are not. It seems like Scholz is more of an old school social democrat who cares more about the environment and labor rights. Let's hope his rationality prevails over some of the radical parts of the future coalition.

    Replies: @A123

    [Merkel] didn’t create it, just exacerbated it.

    You might want to tell Merkel that. She is out doing victory laps over her migration success. (1)

    the EU should work together, but the a priori thinking is that there will be some kind of a policy that will be based on the woke version of “common values”

    I concur. At this point, pretty much everyone grasps that the mythical “European Values” that were supposed to underpin the EU do not actually exist. (2)

    The Clash of Cultures Conference — Debate in Warsaw: Poland should actively create a Christian Europe

    Poland needs to take a more active role in promoting a Christian Europe, said Former Polish Speaker of the Sejm Marek Jurek, who took part in the “Gender, Cancel Culture, and Freedom of Speech in the 21st Century” panel at the Clash of Cultures conference in Warsaw.

    “In a very active way, Poland should aim to create a Christian Europe and Christian public opinion in Europe. Without it, there will not be an actual reconstruction of European civilization,” he said.

    Father Dariusz Oko, who is also a professor, emphasized during the debate that the rules of nature and existence are unchangeable.

    “The madness of gender ideology lies in the fact that they want to break the rules of nature because they live in a foundational lie. They are negating the truth of existence, and they are negating God. They consider themselves to be above God. This is nonsense that inevitably leads to even greater nonsense. This is why Nazism existed, why communism existed, and now we have genderism — a mutation of communism,” Oko said.

    It would be wise for Europe to look at ending the EU in an orderly manner. The current course is towards a disorganized end.

    Germany is in an unprecedented position now as the historic two-way coalition is out of whack. They may have what ironically is called “a rainbow coalition” with more parties involved. This may be a more fragile set up (although Germans can probably handle it ok).

    Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the 2-way Black/Red coalition always undermined Red policy and party strength. Both sides #1 Red & #2 Black have signalled that they will not participate with the other.

    Based on the math & either Red or Black, there are only two possible 3-way coalitions:
        — Red/Green/Yellow (Traffic Light)
        — Black/Green/Yellow (Jamaica)
    However, the #4 FDP wants to bring down energy prices while the #3 Greens are intransigent about their ‘environmentalism’. It is hard to see how a Green/Yellow compromise will work.

    Beyond these, nothing is mathematically sound:
        — None of the major parties will work with #5 AfD, which is the true German Workers party.
        — #6 Linke (Purple) is too small to matter. Red/Green/Purple is a few seats short. If negotiations drag on long enough, perhaps enough legislators will be permitted to go ‘free agent’, launching this combination as an inherently minority government.

    Your term “fragile” is a good choice. Any government will be weak and unstable. However, Germany needs substantial policy modification to escape Merkel style SJW Globalism. It is hard to see how a fragile government can deliver the needed change.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/yes-we-did-it-merkel-claims-2015-migration-crisis-was-a-success/

    (2) https://rmx.news/article/debate-in-warsaw-poland-should-actively-create-a-christian-europe-and-christian-public-opinion-in-europe/

    • Replies: @LatW
    @A123


    the mythical “European Values” that were supposed to underpin the EU do not actually exist.
     
    Well, they do exist, it's just that there are very differing interpretations of them, and the term is also very conveniently thrown in to necessitate certain un-European agendas.

    [..]they want to break the rules of nature because they live in a foundational lie. They are negating the truth of existence, and they are negating God. They consider themselves to be above God. This is nonsense that inevitably leads to even greater nonsense.
     
    I like this debate from Warsaw. I like how he says "it is nonsense that leads to more nonsense". Very accurate. They come up with nonsense but it can't stop, it has to lead to more nonsense. It should be the left party slogan "We promise you more nonsense", "Sustainable nonsense", etc. Hypothetically, at the end of this road, is there enough nonsense that they can keep coming up? Will they ever run out of nonsense?

    It is understandable that the Poles are calling for this because if you look at the darkest moments of their history they really didn't have anyone, they only had God and each other.

    May God bless the Polish border guards, give them strength, stamina and a cool head.
    God bless Poland.
    Ave Maria.

  244. @sudden death
    https://preview.redd.it/3ppn7js56fy71.png?width=1320&format=png&auto=webp&s=72958abacb18ca086416bc9f62be79587c3ba774

    Replies: @A123, @RadicalCenter

    What is your point?
    That the death rates are trivial and thus irrelevant?

    .00003 – .00002 is a net difference of .00001. Even if it is accurate, it is hardly demographically noticeable.

    Compare this number to Red voters fleeing from states like California. Relocation of Trump voters into Trump voting counties is much larger than any possible impact from the WUHAN-19 virus.

    Another thing to consider is that Biden has collapsed over 10% in the polls (10,000 per 100,000). This impact also swamps any possible WUHAN-19 impact (net 100 per 100,000) by a factor of 100x.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
  245. @AP
    @A123

    Could Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for this?

    Replies: @Svidomyatheart, @A123

    Could Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for [Poland’s Barrier]?

    Involuntarily transferring funds from a Russia bloc country to a NATO country is subject to misinterpretation risk. It would be justified, but require back channel work between the U.S. & Russian governments. Given Not-The-President Biden’s leadership vacuum, it seems unlikely.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    It would not be “mis”-interpreted as theft and bullying. It would be rightly seen as just that. Who the Hell are you to talk about stealing from Belarus? This is the obnoxious arrogance that has caused widespread, justifiable resentment of the Thug US and its pervert hypocrite “allies.”

    France and Germany and Poland and the rest of the aging, dying, pro-deviant, anti-family, self-hating “Europe” should mind their business about Russia and Belarus. Don’t meddle in other countries’ affairs if you don’t want those countries striking back with whatever means are at their disposal. Good for Belarus.

    Give the pussy “Europeans” what they say they want, good and hard. Especially the suicidal sanctimonious German “Besserwisser” (know-it-alls).

    Unlimited “diversity” so that social cohesion and high levels of social trust become impossible. Importation of large numbers of racial and religious groups that are traditionally hostile to each other and/or dangerously hostile to non-Muslims.

    Importation of people from cultures that degrade and dominate women.

    Importation of hordes who immediately become net-tax-consumers in “Europe” and often remain that way for the rest of their lives.

    Importation of hordes with no experience with, or appreciation of, the rule of law, our notions of fair play and justice — certainly many do not share our tradition of respecting the rights and dignity of people with arbitrary absurd religious beliefs that are different from their own arbitrary absurd religious beliefs.

    Someone should confiscate your property as punishment for urging others to steal from Belarus and interfere in their affairs. Turnabout is fair play.

    You’re right, though, that Biden/Harris were selected president/veep by systematic vote fraud. But if your casual advocacy of stealing from and trying to control other countries is representative of “our side” in the USA, we’re in trouble.

    Replies: @A123, @AP

    , @LatW
    @A123


    Involuntarily transferring funds from a Russia bloc country to a NATO country is subject to misinterpretation risk. It would be justified, but require back channel work between the U.S. & Russian governments.
     
    Btw, speaking of money (and I'm not endorsing any action here): in the Rus opposition YouTube the so called "arresting of the Russian trillion" is often brought up as a potential punishment that the West could dole out to Putin's regime. Basically, as the last resort, if Russia invades Ukraine, the West should confiscate or freeze all those assets. Which apparently amount to a trillion USD. It's all the private money and the private money that's intermingled with the state that is located in the West (bank accounts, properties, etc). There might be some money from Belarusian indviduals there, too.
  246. @Barbarossa
    @songbird

    But that was back in the ancient days of...14 years ago.

    Now a "gay bomb" would be hailed as a perfect way to increase representation in the military and everywhere else!

    Replies: @songbird

    I once argued that, if there was a “gay germ”, then it would have been weaponized, and someone hit back with. “Maybe, it has been.”

    Thinking it over, it might be pretty consequential or effective, even if it only effected <10% the population. Kind of like covid (not that I am conspiracy-minded), but if it had been invented as a bioweapon, then they might be happy with the results, just based on the economic and political damage that it has done. The real test of a weapon's effectiveness is in the response that it solicits.

  247. @Barbarossa
    @songbird


    USNS Harvey Milk
     
    Also, does it have a glitter cannon and will it get fired at Vladimir Putin?

    Replies: @songbird, @That Would Be Telling

    USNS Harvey Milk

    Also, does it have a glitter cannon and will it get fired at Vladimir Putin?

    By today’s standards it’s almost unarmed, just some .50 BMG machine guns which are serviced by some of the few people in the military who are on these mostly civilian run ships. Serious ones have 25mm Bushmasters at a minimum, although this John Lewis (really) class ship is set up to have Phalanx CIWS added, or the SeaRAM modification of that which replaces the 20mm Vulcan canon with Rolling Airframe Missiles.

  248. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    The environmentalists always go overboard. I don't think that wood stoves should need to have catalytic converters. Not to mention, the early requirements about low flush toilets were a real disaster.


    By now everyone should know WWIII is not a matter of if, but how and when, and what comes after it.
     
    Maybe, it is already here and we just can't mentally adjust ourselves to the way that the nature of warfare has changed and the tactics have evolved. Postwar up to now has been way more consequential to the British than anything since the Anglo-Saxon invasion. And yet, we are supposed to think it is peace and prosperity. If so, it is like no former peace, which ever existed.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling, @Yellowface Anon

    The environmentalists always go overboard. I don’t think that wood stoves should need to have catalytic converters.

    It does raise their price, but as I understand it provides two direct benefits to the owner, a lot of volatile fuel that would otherwise be wasted into the atmosphere is burned in them, and that removes a lot of the fractions of fuel which are prone to deposit on the exhaust pipe. Have also read, but this must be taken with a grain of salt, that Denver was getting smoggy with a lot of use of the old fashioned types of stoves.

    • Replies: @A123
    @That Would Be Telling

    If operated properly, a secondary combustion element can be a win. However it is not as simple as regular stove usage.

    Forcing/giving catalytic units to those who do not use them properly will achieve little to no benefit.

    For those genuinely using wood as a heat source for multiple months per year, the reduced wood consumption will be a huge motivation to learn the necessary techniques for the stove combustion lattice.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    https://armourchimneys.com/operation-catalytic-wood-stoves-vs-non-catalytic-burning-stoves/

     
    https://armourchimneys.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/combwork.png

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

  249. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    The environmentalists always go overboard. I don't think that wood stoves should need to have catalytic converters. Not to mention, the early requirements about low flush toilets were a real disaster.


    By now everyone should know WWIII is not a matter of if, but how and when, and what comes after it.
     
    Maybe, it is already here and we just can't mentally adjust ourselves to the way that the nature of warfare has changed and the tactics have evolved. Postwar up to now has been way more consequential to the British than anything since the Anglo-Saxon invasion. And yet, we are supposed to think it is peace and prosperity. If so, it is like no former peace, which ever existed.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling, @Yellowface Anon

    You mean the Cold War, and now hybrid wars. I mean a hot, potentially MAD war.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    I mean a hot, potentially MAD war.
     
    Forget about MAD! It is obsolete. What holds is MALC: Mutually-Assured Lack of Cappuccino. Or, maybe, MAP? Mutually-Assured Proletarianization. (Sorry, can someone please suggest better?),

    Basically, much of the elite's status comes from living in premier cities - centers of power. With high end amenities and creme-de-le-crem social circles. New York/Washington/Moscow/St. Petersburg/London/Beijing/Shanghai. None of these places would survive a barrage. Especially the good neighborhoods, restaurants, and luxury stores.

    Even if the families of the elite could somehow get early warning and sneak off in the middle of the night to Butte, Montana, or someplace that might stand a chance of interceptor defense, they wouldn't want to live among rednecks, eat at the McDonald's, shop at K-Mart, and lose their status. Nothing could be worse from their perspective. Not even millions of proles dying in the trenches.

    You mean the Cold War, and now hybrid wars.
     
    Actually, I had something quite different in mind. Cold War and hybrid wars are pretty well related to old conceptions of wars. They are doctrinal, war-gamed, and ultimately about men fighting somewhere. Huge sums are devoted to playing the game, and there is nothing controversial in talking about it.

    But what if you had a lot of the consequences of war - such as loss of territory, of resources - in a process which nobody thought of as war? Partly, because it was too politically incorrect to name enemies. But mostly because the violence was lower-grade. Of course, I am talking about mass migration. On a long time scale, it has consequences much greater than modern wars, more like the prehistoric ones.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

  250. @Barbarossa
    @Yellowface Anon

    Certainly. I can see where adding a sexual dimension to the already powerful bonds of male comradeship would create a particularly fanatical devotion. Historically homosexual men have not been necessarily "wimpy" as modern gays often seem to often self-conform to. There are probably interesting social reasons for that, not that anyone could do a research study these days called Exploring the Sociological Roots of Effeminate Behaviors in the Modern Gay Community !

    My real beef is with identity politics ideology, not necessarily homosexual attraction. I personally know homosexual people that are pretty much well rounded people with a variety of interests and facets. Then there are people who make their sexual preferences, or "gender identity", so central to their life and identity that one cannot escape it. It's obnoxious in the extreme, and I feel rather bad for those people since it seems like a very shallow and boring foundation to build one's entire identity on.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    I always feel identity politics is putting the cart before the horse. For starters, biological-racial identities before economics and ethno-culture.

  251. @sudden death
    https://preview.redd.it/3ppn7js56fy71.png?width=1320&format=png&auto=webp&s=72958abacb18ca086416bc9f62be79587c3ba774

    Replies: @A123, @RadicalCenter

    We’ll need age-adjusted rates of death allegedly caused by covid-19. Aren’t the pro-Trump districts older, on average, than the anti-Trump districts? Exit polling broken down by age could help here too.

    • Agree: Barbarossa
  252. @A123
    @AP


    Could Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for [Poland's Barrier]?
     
    Involuntarily transferring funds from a Russia bloc country to a NATO country is subject to misinterpretation risk. It would be justified, but require back channel work between the U.S. & Russian governments. Given Not-The-President Biden's leadership vacuum, it seems unlikely.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @LatW

    It would not be “mis”-interpreted as theft and bullying. It would be rightly seen as just that. Who the Hell are you to talk about stealing from Belarus? This is the obnoxious arrogance that has caused widespread, justifiable resentment of the Thug US and its pervert hypocrite “allies.”

    France and Germany and Poland and the rest of the aging, dying, pro-deviant, anti-family, self-hating “Europe” should mind their business about Russia and Belarus. Don’t meddle in other countries’ affairs if you don’t want those countries striking back with whatever means are at their disposal. Good for Belarus.

    Give the pussy “Europeans” what they say they want, good and hard. Especially the suicidal sanctimonious German “Besserwisser” (know-it-alls).

    Unlimited “diversity” so that social cohesion and high levels of social trust become impossible. Importation of large numbers of racial and religious groups that are traditionally hostile to each other and/or dangerously hostile to non-Muslims.

    Importation of people from cultures that degrade and dominate women.

    Importation of hordes who immediately become net-tax-consumers in “Europe” and often remain that way for the rest of their lives.

    Importation of hordes with no experience with, or appreciation of, the rule of law, our notions of fair play and justice — certainly many do not share our tradition of respecting the rights and dignity of people with arbitrary absurd religious beliefs that are different from their own arbitrary absurd religious beliefs.

    Someone should confiscate your property as punishment for urging others to steal from Belarus and interfere in their affairs. Turnabout is fair play.

    You’re right, though, that Biden/Harris were selected president/veep by systematic vote fraud. But if your casual advocacy of stealing from and trying to control other countries is representative of “our side” in the USA, we’re in trouble.

    • Replies: @A123
    @RadicalCenter


    It would not be “mis”-interpreted as theft and bullying. It would be rightly seen as just that
     
    Belarus started the theft and bullying by intentionally creating Muslim throughput to coerce, Poland, Lithuania, & Latvia.

    Now Bullyrus is complaining that it is being stuck with Muslims that cannot proceed further. You will find that sympathy for Bullyrus is quite limited. And, whining about a bully being bullied is guaranteed to fall on deaf ears.

    That being said, "Luka the Blackmailer" is a leader within the Russian bloc. As it is in everyone's interest to avoid additional NATO hot spots, their are limitations on what Europe can do to respond.

    The current political structure did not anticipate having an illegitimate and mentally incompetent White House occupant. Fortunately, the USSR gerontocracy is recent enough that Russia has realistic views. They can anticipate problems currently facing the U.S. Thus, there is unlikely to be overreaction to Not-The-President Biden's gibberish.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    Two Wrongs Do Not Necessarily Make a Right.
    However, They Often Make Justice.
    , @AP
    @RadicalCenter


    Who the Hell are you to talk about stealing from Belarus?
     
    Lukashenko chose to import migrants from Syria and Iraq, to bus them to the Polish border and even to have his men cross the border and destroy border fencing. It would surely not be theft to confiscate state asserts in order to pay for the troop mobilization, border repairs, and more robust fencing that are a direct consequence of Belarusian state policy.

    Were you opposed to Trump’s insistence that Mexico pay for America’s wall btw?

    Replies: @RadicalCenter

  253. @A123
    @LatW


    [Merkel] didn’t create it, just exacerbated it.
     
    You might want to tell Merkel that. She is out doing victory laps over her migration success. (1)

    the EU should work together, but the a priori thinking is that there will be some kind of a policy that will be based on the woke version of “common values”
     
    I concur. At this point, pretty much everyone grasps that the mythical "European Values" that were supposed to underpin the EU do not actually exist. (2)

    The Clash of Cultures Conference -- Debate in Warsaw: Poland should actively create a Christian Europe

    Poland needs to take a more active role in promoting a Christian Europe, said Former Polish Speaker of the Sejm Marek Jurek, who took part in the “Gender, Cancel Culture, and Freedom of Speech in the 21st Century” panel at the Clash of Cultures conference in Warsaw.

    “In a very active way, Poland should aim to create a Christian Europe and Christian public opinion in Europe. Without it, there will not be an actual reconstruction of European civilization,” he said.
    ...
    Father Dariusz Oko, who is also a professor, emphasized during the debate that the rules of nature and existence are unchangeable.

    “The madness of gender ideology lies in the fact that they want to break the rules of nature because they live in a foundational lie. They are negating the truth of existence, and they are negating God. They consider themselves to be above God. This is nonsense that inevitably leads to even greater nonsense. This is why Nazism existed, why communism existed, and now we have genderism — a mutation of communism,” Oko said.
     
    It would be wise for Europe to look at ending the EU in an orderly manner. The current course is towards a disorganized end.

    Germany is in an unprecedented position now as the historic two-way coalition is out of whack. They may have what ironically is called “a rainbow coalition” with more parties involved. This may be a more fragile set up (although Germans can probably handle it ok).
     
    Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the 2-way Black/Red coalition always undermined Red policy and party strength. Both sides #1 Red & #2 Black have signalled that they will not participate with the other.

    Based on the math & either Red or Black, there are only two possible 3-way coalitions:
        -- Red/Green/Yellow (Traffic Light)
        -- Black/Green/Yellow (Jamaica)
    However, the #4 FDP wants to bring down energy prices while the #3 Greens are intransigent about their 'environmentalism'. It is hard to see how a Green/Yellow compromise will work.

    Beyond these, nothing is mathematically sound:
        -- None of the major parties will work with #5 AfD, which is the true German Workers party.
        -- #6 Linke (Purple) is too small to matter. Red/Green/Purple is a few seats short. If negotiations drag on long enough, perhaps enough legislators will be permitted to go 'free agent', launching this combination as an inherently minority government.

    Your term "fragile" is a good choice. Any government will be weak and unstable. However, Germany needs substantial policy modification to escape Merkel style SJW Globalism. It is hard to see how a fragile government can deliver the needed change.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/yes-we-did-it-merkel-claims-2015-migration-crisis-was-a-success/

    (2) https://rmx.news/article/debate-in-warsaw-poland-should-actively-create-a-christian-europe-and-christian-public-opinion-in-europe/

    Replies: @LatW

    the mythical “European Values” that were supposed to underpin the EU do not actually exist.

    Well, they do exist, it’s just that there are very differing interpretations of them, and the term is also very conveniently thrown in to necessitate certain un-European agendas.

    [..]they want to break the rules of nature because they live in a foundational lie. They are negating the truth of existence, and they are negating God. They consider themselves to be above God. This is nonsense that inevitably leads to even greater nonsense.

    I like this debate from Warsaw. I like how he says “it is nonsense that leads to more nonsense”. Very accurate. They come up with nonsense but it can’t stop, it has to lead to more nonsense. It should be the left party slogan “We promise you more nonsense”, “Sustainable nonsense”, etc. Hypothetically, at the end of this road, is there enough nonsense that they can keep coming up? Will they ever run out of nonsense?

    It is understandable that the Poles are calling for this because if you look at the darkest moments of their history they really didn’t have anyone, they only had God and each other.

    May God bless the Polish border guards, give them strength, stamina and a cool head.
    God bless Poland.
    Ave Maria.

  254. @Aedib
    @Svidomyatheart

    I don’t think this is a Putin & Gerasimov psyop. Luka simply likes to take revenge against Poles and Lithuanians because of their instigation to the failed color revolution. In some sense it is a wise move: he retaliates against the sponsors of color revolutions in order to deter them from the next move. The scenes are too colorful to be a dark op from the FSB. It looks more like Italian comedia from the 1960s. And this is really funny because gets the Eurocrats hysterical.

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

    And this is really funny because gets the Eurocrats hysterical.

    Well, the ever caring uncle Lavrov just joined the trolling by suggesting that the EU pay Belarus to keep the migrants at bay.

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @LatW


    Well, the ever caring uncle Lavrov just joined the trolling by suggesting that the EU pay Belarus to keep the migrants at bay.
     
    LOL. Epic trolling.

    May be the Belarusians took the initiative with a tacit approval from “the big brother”, but I think this is, mostly a Luka’s initiative. I must confess I’m really enjoying the spectacle. Can you tell us how this comedy is seen from Latvia?

    Replies: @LatW

    , @A123
    @LatW

    To give credit where it is due.... This is an excellent Troll by Lukashenko (1)


    A Jan.6 'Capitol Rioter' Is Being Hailed As A Hero In Belarus, Where He's Hiding From The FBI

    A 48-year old man who is an alleged Jan.6 'Capitol rioter' is currently seeking political asylum in Belarus, in a bizarre story capturing global headlines, also given heavy FBI involvement and a manhunt underway.

    After California resident Evan Neumann was charged in July with six criminal counts he reportedly fled to eastern Europe, and was subsequently placed on the US Most Wanted List. He's since emerged in Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus, where he's been given a hero's treatment, with state media portraying him as a "simple American" who is fleeing "political persecution".
    ...
    interestingly, the ex-Soviet Republic of Belarus - which is widely described as Europe's last dictatorship (given President Alexander Lukashenko's rule of 26 years) - is featuring his story as an example of Western hypocrisy and America's crackdown on human rights.

     
    How can Not-The-President Biden's illegitimate administration respond?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/jan6-capitol-rioter-being-hailed-hero-belarus-where-hes-hiding-fbi

    Replies: @LatW

  255. @LatW
    @Aedib


    And this is really funny because gets the Eurocrats hysterical.
     
    Well, the ever caring uncle Lavrov just joined the trolling by suggesting that the EU pay Belarus to keep the migrants at bay.

    Replies: @Aedib, @A123

    Well, the ever caring uncle Lavrov just joined the trolling by suggesting that the EU pay Belarus to keep the migrants at bay.

    LOL. Epic trolling.

    May be the Belarusians took the initiative with a tacit approval from “the big brother”, but I think this is, mostly a Luka’s initiative. I must confess I’m really enjoying the spectacle. Can you tell us how this comedy is seen from Latvia?

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Aedib


    May be the Belarusians took the initiative with a tacit approval from “the big brother”, but I think this is, mostly a Luka’s initiative.
     
    Well, I'm not saying that the elder brother created or instigated this situation per se, it's just that given the current environment, just making a few steps or approving those steps, is the use of "hybrid warfare" (destabilization, etc) that is an example of the new doctrine which was a great prediction of how foreign affairs are now playing out.

    I must confess I’m really enjoying the spectacle.
     

    Well, Luka's trolling has always been highly entertaining, it goes both ways, towards Russia, too. I can't believe some of the stuff he said to the Russians last year with a straight face. LOL
    Like when Russia tried to cut the gravy train a little, he immediately was like "Somebody must think we are no longer brothers". It's just so blunt. It sounds like something that a sassy woman would say. :)

    And in this case, with the migrants, there is really not much that can be done to him. He can just act rogue. But the EU has always considered him that anyway.

    On a more serious note, he is actually a very ruthless dictator, given what he has done to the zmagars and other opposition.


    Can you tell us how this comedy is seen from Latvia?
     
    It's not really considered a comedy there. :) Obviously, it is widely believed that Luka is doing this deliberately. Unlike other dictators who just threatened to let the migrants pass or just put them on boats or whatever, Luka is actually deliberately trafficking them in and his siloviks are escorting them to the border in a police bobik. So that looks really bad.

    Also, the most recent trolling outburst where he said something along the lines of: "We know that if we, God forbid, make a mistake, if we derail, then Russia will be pulled into this whirlpool and it's a huge nuclear state", that's a little much. :) So if Poles and Lithuanians push the migrants back into the Belarusian territory, Russia is going to take out the nukes? That's just crazy talk. :)

    Of course, the concentration of soldiers along the border, while needed, is not ideal, nobody wants to shoot in the direction of Belarus. Even if you had to fire warning shots for the migrants, that can create a bad situation.

    The nationalists have been concerned for a long time that some kind of a northern corridor for migrants could appear. Also, they believe that if the EU is not going to provide any tangible help then they should stop expressing "deep concern". Although there has been some assistance from the EU. It's just not principled enough. The good thing at least is that they are not as pushy about human rights this time. Because these flows are coming from Belarus (or general East Slavic direction), the refugees immediately turn into "economic migrants".

    In general, I think it's a messed up situation, it's unnecessary antagonism between Belarus and Poland & the Baltic States.

  256. @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    The environmentalists always go overboard. I don’t think that wood stoves should need to have catalytic converters.
     
    It does raise their price, but as I understand it provides two direct benefits to the owner, a lot of volatile fuel that would otherwise be wasted into the atmosphere is burned in them, and that removes a lot of the fractions of fuel which are prone to deposit on the exhaust pipe. Have also read, but this must be taken with a grain of salt, that Denver was getting smoggy with a lot of use of the old fashioned types of stoves.

    Replies: @A123

    If operated properly, a secondary combustion element can be a win. However it is not as simple as regular stove usage.

    Forcing/giving catalytic units to those who do not use them properly will achieve little to no benefit.

    For those genuinely using wood as a heat source for multiple months per year, the reduced wood consumption will be a huge motivation to learn the necessary techniques for the stove combustion lattice.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    https://armourchimneys.com/operation-catalytic-wood-stoves-vs-non-catalytic-burning-stoves/

     

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @A123

    Let this to be known by Svidos. General Winter is coming and the chief executive clown is advising Ukrainian people to use firewood in order to avoid buying imperial gas to the Moskaly-Mongols.
    LOL.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @Barbarossa
    @A123

    Right. The wood has to be well seasoned and one has to be particular about burning at the correct temps. No closing the damper and smoldering.

    They are great when used properly but do not tolerate abuse from ignorant owners well.

    Wood stove regulations are another instance where it should be addressed in a very local way. In densely populated areas mandating cleaner burning stoves makes sense. In the countryside where population density and income is low it can put an undue burden on people who can't perhaps afford a $3000 wood stove.

    I burn wood for heat and have observed that a great many people don't do it well. I've finally prioritized getting a year ahead with my firewood supply so my wood is always dry, which is a huge benefit. Wet wood is the worst. Hot clean burns are also much more efficient for cleanliness of smoke and heating.

    Even a non-catalytic should not be belching dark smoke other than at start up if the wood is good quality and it's tended properly.

  257. • Replies: @German_reader
    @Aedib

    German tabloid BILD also had a headline today "Thousands pushing towards Germany - Putin and Lukashenko are blackmailing Europe".
    Obviously I have no idea, if Russia is or isn't somehow involved in this, but the (feigned) outrage is kind of ridiculous, given the pro-immigration stance by the establishment throughout Western Europe.

    Replies: @Aedib, @Pericles

  258. @A123
    @That Would Be Telling

    If operated properly, a secondary combustion element can be a win. However it is not as simple as regular stove usage.

    Forcing/giving catalytic units to those who do not use them properly will achieve little to no benefit.

    For those genuinely using wood as a heat source for multiple months per year, the reduced wood consumption will be a huge motivation to learn the necessary techniques for the stove combustion lattice.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    https://armourchimneys.com/operation-catalytic-wood-stoves-vs-non-catalytic-burning-stoves/

     
    https://armourchimneys.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/combwork.png

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

    Let this to be known by Svidos. General Winter is coming and the chief executive clown is advising Ukrainian people to use firewood in order to avoid buying imperial gas to the Moskaly-Mongols.
    LOL.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Aedib


    General Winter is coming and the chief executive clown is advising Ukrainian people to use firewood in order to avoid buying imperial gas to the Moskaly-Mongols.
     
    Don't laugh, dear. The pinecones are actually an underused resource. :)
  259. @A123
    @That Would Be Telling

    If operated properly, a secondary combustion element can be a win. However it is not as simple as regular stove usage.

    Forcing/giving catalytic units to those who do not use them properly will achieve little to no benefit.

    For those genuinely using wood as a heat source for multiple months per year, the reduced wood consumption will be a huge motivation to learn the necessary techniques for the stove combustion lattice.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    https://armourchimneys.com/operation-catalytic-wood-stoves-vs-non-catalytic-burning-stoves/

     
    https://armourchimneys.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/combwork.png

    Replies: @Aedib, @Barbarossa

    Right. The wood has to be well seasoned and one has to be particular about burning at the correct temps. No closing the damper and smoldering.

    They are great when used properly but do not tolerate abuse from ignorant owners well.

    Wood stove regulations are another instance where it should be addressed in a very local way. In densely populated areas mandating cleaner burning stoves makes sense. In the countryside where population density and income is low it can put an undue burden on people who can’t perhaps afford a \$3000 wood stove.

    I burn wood for heat and have observed that a great many people don’t do it well. I’ve finally prioritized getting a year ahead with my firewood supply so my wood is always dry, which is a huge benefit. Wet wood is the worst. Hot clean burns are also much more efficient for cleanliness of smoke and heating.

    Even a non-catalytic should not be belching dark smoke other than at start up if the wood is good quality and it’s tended properly.

    • Agree: iffen
  260. @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    It would not be “mis”-interpreted as theft and bullying. It would be rightly seen as just that. Who the Hell are you to talk about stealing from Belarus? This is the obnoxious arrogance that has caused widespread, justifiable resentment of the Thug US and its pervert hypocrite “allies.”

    France and Germany and Poland and the rest of the aging, dying, pro-deviant, anti-family, self-hating “Europe” should mind their business about Russia and Belarus. Don’t meddle in other countries’ affairs if you don’t want those countries striking back with whatever means are at their disposal. Good for Belarus.

    Give the pussy “Europeans” what they say they want, good and hard. Especially the suicidal sanctimonious German “Besserwisser” (know-it-alls).

    Unlimited “diversity” so that social cohesion and high levels of social trust become impossible. Importation of large numbers of racial and religious groups that are traditionally hostile to each other and/or dangerously hostile to non-Muslims.

    Importation of people from cultures that degrade and dominate women.

    Importation of hordes who immediately become net-tax-consumers in “Europe” and often remain that way for the rest of their lives.

    Importation of hordes with no experience with, or appreciation of, the rule of law, our notions of fair play and justice — certainly many do not share our tradition of respecting the rights and dignity of people with arbitrary absurd religious beliefs that are different from their own arbitrary absurd religious beliefs.

    Someone should confiscate your property as punishment for urging others to steal from Belarus and interfere in their affairs. Turnabout is fair play.

    You’re right, though, that Biden/Harris were selected president/veep by systematic vote fraud. But if your casual advocacy of stealing from and trying to control other countries is representative of “our side” in the USA, we’re in trouble.

    Replies: @A123, @AP

    It would not be “mis”-interpreted as theft and bullying. It would be rightly seen as just that

    Belarus started the theft and bullying by intentionally creating Muslim throughput to coerce, Poland, Lithuania, & Latvia.

    Now Bullyrus is complaining that it is being stuck with Muslims that cannot proceed further. You will find that sympathy for Bullyrus is quite limited. And, whining about a bully being bullied is guaranteed to fall on deaf ears.

    That being said, “Luka the Blackmailer” is a leader within the Russian bloc. As it is in everyone’s interest to avoid additional NATO hot spots, their are limitations on what Europe can do to respond.

    The current political structure did not anticipate having an illegitimate and mentally incompetent White House occupant. Fortunately, the USSR gerontocracy is recent enough that Russia has realistic views. They can anticipate problems currently facing the U.S. Thus, there is unlikely to be overreaction to Not-The-President Biden’s gibberish.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    Two Wrongs Do Not Necessarily Make a Right.
    However, They Often Make Justice.

  261. German_reader says:
    @Aedib
    Lord Putler is doing it again. LOL

    https://www.rt.com/news/539781-poland-putin-belarus-migrants/

    Replies: @German_reader

    German tabloid BILD also had a headline today “Thousands pushing towards Germany – Putin and Lukashenko are blackmailing Europe”.
    Obviously I have no idea, if Russia is or isn’t somehow involved in this, but the (feigned) outrage is kind of ridiculous, given the pro-immigration stance by the establishment throughout Western Europe.

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @German_reader

    Well, there is, obviously, something of Schadenfreude from Luka and his Siloviky. Also, it seems that (big)Russians also took the trolling-train. On a morfe serious note, I'm not sure this is an hybryd offensive as LatW thinks. But it seems that both Russias took the initiative and are exploiting the scenario to hurt Eurocrats by using their very same hypocricy. In summary, this is a oportunistic strike to return chaos that Atlanticists love to inject in "evil regimes".

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Pericles
    @German_reader

    “Thousands of dentists, engineers and medical doctors pushing towards Germany – Putin and Lukashenko are blackmailing Europe”, I suppose? Human capital rising to dangerous levels.

  262. @Aedib
    @LatW


    Well, the ever caring uncle Lavrov just joined the trolling by suggesting that the EU pay Belarus to keep the migrants at bay.
     
    LOL. Epic trolling.

    May be the Belarusians took the initiative with a tacit approval from “the big brother”, but I think this is, mostly a Luka’s initiative. I must confess I’m really enjoying the spectacle. Can you tell us how this comedy is seen from Latvia?

    Replies: @LatW

    May be the Belarusians took the initiative with a tacit approval from “the big brother”, but I think this is, mostly a Luka’s initiative.

    Well, I’m not saying that the elder brother created or instigated this situation per se, it’s just that given the current environment, just making a few steps or approving those steps, is the use of “hybrid warfare” (destabilization, etc) that is an example of the new doctrine which was a great prediction of how foreign affairs are now playing out.

    I must confess I’m really enjoying the spectacle.

    Well, Luka’s trolling has always been highly entertaining, it goes both ways, towards Russia, too. I can’t believe some of the stuff he said to the Russians last year with a straight face. LOL
    Like when Russia tried to cut the gravy train a little, he immediately was like “Somebody must think we are no longer brothers”. It’s just so blunt. It sounds like something that a sassy woman would say. 🙂

    And in this case, with the migrants, there is really not much that can be done to him. He can just act rogue. But the EU has always considered him that anyway.

    On a more serious note, he is actually a very ruthless dictator, given what he has done to the zmagars and other opposition.

    Can you tell us how this comedy is seen from Latvia?

    It’s not really considered a comedy there. 🙂 Obviously, it is widely believed that Luka is doing this deliberately. Unlike other dictators who just threatened to let the migrants pass or just put them on boats or whatever, Luka is actually deliberately trafficking them in and his siloviks are escorting them to the border in a police bobik. So that looks really bad.

    Also, the most recent trolling outburst where he said something along the lines of: “We know that if we, God forbid, make a mistake, if we derail, then Russia will be pulled into this whirlpool and it’s a huge nuclear state”, that’s a little much. 🙂 So if Poles and Lithuanians push the migrants back into the Belarusian territory, Russia is going to take out the nukes? That’s just crazy talk. 🙂

    Of course, the concentration of soldiers along the border, while needed, is not ideal, nobody wants to shoot in the direction of Belarus. Even if you had to fire warning shots for the migrants, that can create a bad situation.

    The nationalists have been concerned for a long time that some kind of a northern corridor for migrants could appear. Also, they believe that if the EU is not going to provide any tangible help then they should stop expressing “deep concern”. Although there has been some assistance from the EU. It’s just not principled enough. The good thing at least is that they are not as pushy about human rights this time. Because these flows are coming from Belarus (or general East Slavic direction), the refugees immediately turn into “economic migrants”.

    In general, I think it’s a messed up situation, it’s unnecessary antagonism between Belarus and Poland & the Baltic States.

    • Agree: Coconuts
    • Thanks: Aedib
  263. @Aedib
    @A123

    Let this to be known by Svidos. General Winter is coming and the chief executive clown is advising Ukrainian people to use firewood in order to avoid buying imperial gas to the Moskaly-Mongols.
    LOL.

    Replies: @LatW

    General Winter is coming and the chief executive clown is advising Ukrainian people to use firewood in order to avoid buying imperial gas to the Moskaly-Mongols.

    Don’t laugh, dear. The pinecones are actually an underused resource. 🙂

  264. @German_reader
    @Aedib

    German tabloid BILD also had a headline today "Thousands pushing towards Germany - Putin and Lukashenko are blackmailing Europe".
    Obviously I have no idea, if Russia is or isn't somehow involved in this, but the (feigned) outrage is kind of ridiculous, given the pro-immigration stance by the establishment throughout Western Europe.

    Replies: @Aedib, @Pericles

    Well, there is, obviously, something of Schadenfreude from Luka and his Siloviky. Also, it seems that (big)Russians also took the trolling-train. On a morfe serious note, I’m not sure this is an hybryd offensive as LatW thinks. But it seems that both Russias took the initiative and are exploiting the scenario to hurt Eurocrats by using their very same hypocricy. In summary, this is a oportunistic strike to return chaos that Atlanticists love to inject in “evil regimes”.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Aedib


    On a morfe serious note, I’m not sure this is an hybryd offensive as LatW thinks.
     
    It's certainly on the part of Belarus, they're just copying what the Turks did (or even earlier models, East Germany did pretty much the same thing in the 1980s, bringing in large numbers of asylum seekers and letting them pass over to West Berlin, to extract political concessions from West Germany).
    I've seen Lavrov has now suggested the EU should pay Belarus just as they do with Turkey, lol. I guess I should be offended (it's kind of shameless after all), but that's the inevitable result once you're no longer willing to defend your borders against invaders in the guise of beggars.

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

  265. @A123
    @AP


    Could Belarusian assets be confiscated in order to help pay for [Poland's Barrier]?
     
    Involuntarily transferring funds from a Russia bloc country to a NATO country is subject to misinterpretation risk. It would be justified, but require back channel work between the U.S. & Russian governments. Given Not-The-President Biden's leadership vacuum, it seems unlikely.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @LatW

    Involuntarily transferring funds from a Russia bloc country to a NATO country is subject to misinterpretation risk. It would be justified, but require back channel work between the U.S. & Russian governments.

    Btw, speaking of money (and I’m not endorsing any action here): in the Rus opposition YouTube the so called “arresting of the Russian trillion” is often brought up as a potential punishment that the West could dole out to Putin’s regime. Basically, as the last resort, if Russia invades Ukraine, the West should confiscate or freeze all those assets. Which apparently amount to a trillion USD. It’s all the private money and the private money that’s intermingled with the state that is located in the West (bank accounts, properties, etc). There might be some money from Belarusian indviduals there, too.

  266. German_reader says:
    @Aedib
    @German_reader

    Well, there is, obviously, something of Schadenfreude from Luka and his Siloviky. Also, it seems that (big)Russians also took the trolling-train. On a morfe serious note, I'm not sure this is an hybryd offensive as LatW thinks. But it seems that both Russias took the initiative and are exploiting the scenario to hurt Eurocrats by using their very same hypocricy. In summary, this is a oportunistic strike to return chaos that Atlanticists love to inject in "evil regimes".

    Replies: @German_reader

    On a morfe serious note, I’m not sure this is an hybryd offensive as LatW thinks.

    It’s certainly on the part of Belarus, they’re just copying what the Turks did (or even earlier models, East Germany did pretty much the same thing in the 1980s, bringing in large numbers of asylum seekers and letting them pass over to West Berlin, to extract political concessions from West Germany).
    I’ve seen Lavrov has now suggested the EU should pay Belarus just as they do with Turkey, lol. I guess I should be offended (it’s kind of shameless after all), but that’s the inevitable result once you’re no longer willing to defend your borders against invaders in the guise of beggars.

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader


    I’ve seen Lavrov has now suggested the EU should pay Belarus just as they do with Turkey,
     
    At least Turkey makes sense as it is a potential first stop point for Syrian refugees.

    Giving money directly to the Turkish government when many of the refugees are Kurds is problematic. However, NGO's are awful. UN agencies, such as UNRWA, are the worst possible choice as they are the #1 cause of "forever wars". One can see the need, but all of the mechanisms are corrupt. Paying Erdogan is probably the "least bad" & most reliable option.

    Allowing to Bullyrus to make a problem & then demand funds to fix the problem that Luka created is clearly a non-starter. If the EU pays the party that created a problem, more people would intentionally create problems.

    PEACE 😇
    , @songbird
    @German_reader


    but that’s the inevitable result once you’re no longer willing to defend your borders against invaders in the guise of beggars.
     
    It goes much deeper, IMO. It follows from 3 million Turks being in Germany, and 80% of them being on Hartz IV.

    I wonder what would happen if Putin and Xi starting openly promoting mass migration into the West. Would they suddenly become the good guys? Or would the elite do a 180 and denounce mass migration? If so, maybe, it would be worth the hit.
  267. @Mr. Hack
    @Agathoklis

    Do you really find listening to Dolphy's music enjoyable? And Zappa, although he would come up with some good stuff and was straddling the boundaries of both rock and jazz music, will be ultimately remembered as a rock star. What came after the Quintet's music, after "Kind of Blue" and a couple of others, was by and large noise as far as I'm concerned. Miles became a very strange and kooky guy whose musical genius was erased by his descent into a nightmare of drugs and dark strange people.

    Replies: @Agathoklis

    Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch is one of the greatest discs of the 20th century. Sit down and give it a try. It is highly innovative but also retained its musicality which cannot be said for some free and avant-garde jazz. Regarding Frank Zappa, most serious music listeners know he was not just a rockstar. He was a serious musician and he hired serious musicians like George Duke, Jean Luc-Ponty, Vinnie Colaiuta, Ruth Underwood, Adrian Belew and many more. Try listening to the Grand Wazoo, Big Swifty or Shut and Play Yer Guitar. Or the Yellow Shark for his orchestral music.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Agathoklis

    I'm quite familiar with Frank Zappa's output, and agree that he was quite innovative and entertaining. As a kid, I used to enjoyed listening to "Uncle Meat", "Ruben and the Jets" and of course "Hot Rats".
    I got disenchanted with the bizarre free-avante -garde jazz of the likes of Sun-Ra and Miles Davis during his "Bitches Brew" and "Live Evil' period. I saw him play live during this period several times, and although visually entertaining, not so much musically, at least for not for me. I'll give the albums that you suggest a listen, including Dolphy's.

    Replies: @Agathoklis

  268. @German_reader
    @Aedib


    On a morfe serious note, I’m not sure this is an hybryd offensive as LatW thinks.
     
    It's certainly on the part of Belarus, they're just copying what the Turks did (or even earlier models, East Germany did pretty much the same thing in the 1980s, bringing in large numbers of asylum seekers and letting them pass over to West Berlin, to extract political concessions from West Germany).
    I've seen Lavrov has now suggested the EU should pay Belarus just as they do with Turkey, lol. I guess I should be offended (it's kind of shameless after all), but that's the inevitable result once you're no longer willing to defend your borders against invaders in the guise of beggars.

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

    I’ve seen Lavrov has now suggested the EU should pay Belarus just as they do with Turkey,

    At least Turkey makes sense as it is a potential first stop point for Syrian refugees.

    Giving money directly to the Turkish government when many of the refugees are Kurds is problematic. However, NGO’s are awful. UN agencies, such as UNRWA, are the worst possible choice as they are the #1 cause of “forever wars”. One can see the need, but all of the mechanisms are corrupt. Paying Erdogan is probably the “least bad” & most reliable option.

    Allowing to Bullyrus to make a problem & then demand funds to fix the problem that Luka created is clearly a non-starter. If the EU pays the party that created a problem, more people would intentionally create problems.

    PEACE 😇

  269. Elon Musk is selling Tesla stock. Bigly. People say it’s because of tax disputes or personal loans, and maybe, but I don’t think so. Again, could be wrong here, but I think its because of this:

    Elon Musk says Starlink will need up to \$30 billion to survive. ‘If we succeed in not going bankrupt, then that’ll be great.’

    https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-starlink-spacex-bankruptcy-funding-30-billion-2021-6?amp

    Those rocket launches cost a pretty penny, and you can’t pay wages and other costs in Tesla stock.

    Musk is fighting to keep control over his Skynet. He can easily raise \$30 billion, those are pennies, very small sum for people involved. Both Pentagon and banks will gladly supply the cash. But in exchange for control. Which is not acceptable to Musk.

    Hence selling of Tesla to keep SpaceX trucking.

  270. @Agathoklis
    @Mr. Hack

    Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch is one of the greatest discs of the 20th century. Sit down and give it a try. It is highly innovative but also retained its musicality which cannot be said for some free and avant-garde jazz. Regarding Frank Zappa, most serious music listeners know he was not just a rockstar. He was a serious musician and he hired serious musicians like George Duke, Jean Luc-Ponty, Vinnie Colaiuta, Ruth Underwood, Adrian Belew and many more. Try listening to the Grand Wazoo, Big Swifty or Shut and Play Yer Guitar. Or the Yellow Shark for his orchestral music.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I’m quite familiar with Frank Zappa’s output, and agree that he was quite innovative and entertaining. As a kid, I used to enjoyed listening to “Uncle Meat”, “Ruben and the Jets” and of course “Hot Rats”.
    I got disenchanted with the bizarre free-avante -garde jazz of the likes of Sun-Ra and Miles Davis during his “Bitches Brew” and “Live Evil’ period. I saw him play live during this period several times, and although visually entertaining, not so much musically, at least for not for me. I’ll give the albums that you suggest a listen, including Dolphy’s.

    • Replies: @Agathoklis
    @Mr. Hack

    The second Miles David Quintet is very different from the later Bitches Brew and Live Evil records. The Quintet was still firmly in the jazz tradition however his later Bitches Brew period really veered away from that. For example, rhythmically the drummer and bassist played more ostinato-based funk grooves. Even harmonically, they were playing more vamps than jazz harmony. And of course, the textures are very different. Personally, I am not a huge fan of this period although it is musically closer to 70's Zappa.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  271. @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    It would not be “mis”-interpreted as theft and bullying. It would be rightly seen as just that. Who the Hell are you to talk about stealing from Belarus? This is the obnoxious arrogance that has caused widespread, justifiable resentment of the Thug US and its pervert hypocrite “allies.”

    France and Germany and Poland and the rest of the aging, dying, pro-deviant, anti-family, self-hating “Europe” should mind their business about Russia and Belarus. Don’t meddle in other countries’ affairs if you don’t want those countries striking back with whatever means are at their disposal. Good for Belarus.

    Give the pussy “Europeans” what they say they want, good and hard. Especially the suicidal sanctimonious German “Besserwisser” (know-it-alls).

    Unlimited “diversity” so that social cohesion and high levels of social trust become impossible. Importation of large numbers of racial and religious groups that are traditionally hostile to each other and/or dangerously hostile to non-Muslims.

    Importation of people from cultures that degrade and dominate women.

    Importation of hordes who immediately become net-tax-consumers in “Europe” and often remain that way for the rest of their lives.

    Importation of hordes with no experience with, or appreciation of, the rule of law, our notions of fair play and justice — certainly many do not share our tradition of respecting the rights and dignity of people with arbitrary absurd religious beliefs that are different from their own arbitrary absurd religious beliefs.

    Someone should confiscate your property as punishment for urging others to steal from Belarus and interfere in their affairs. Turnabout is fair play.

    You’re right, though, that Biden/Harris were selected president/veep by systematic vote fraud. But if your casual advocacy of stealing from and trying to control other countries is representative of “our side” in the USA, we’re in trouble.

    Replies: @A123, @AP

    Who the Hell are you to talk about stealing from Belarus?

    Lukashenko chose to import migrants from Syria and Iraq, to bus them to the Polish border and even to have his men cross the border and destroy border fencing. It would surely not be theft to confiscate state asserts in order to pay for the troop mobilization, border repairs, and more robust fencing that are a direct consequence of Belarusian state policy.

    Were you opposed to Trump’s insistence that Mexico pay for America’s wall btw?

    • Thanks: A123
    • Replies: @RadicalCenter
    @AP

    Yes. We can and should pay for it ourselves and also pay to mass-deport illegal aliens ourselves as well. Thanks for asking.

    Let’s Go Brandon.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  272. “Armed escalation”. LOL. The Polish poodle is barking more and more furiously at Lukashenko

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/09/poland-blocks-migrants-at-belarus-border-warns-of-armed-escalation-a75504

    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib


    “Armed escalation”. LOL. The Polish poodle is barking more and more furiously at Lukashenko
     
    Congratulations. The is the worst possible explanation justification of armed Bullyrus troops crossing into Polish territory. (1)

    On Monday night, another provocation from Belarusian services took place near the Polish-Belarusian border after Polish soldiers located three uniformed individuals armed with rifles 200 meters away from the border on Polish territory. After attempting to initiate contact, the individuals successfully returned to the Belarusian side. They did not possess identification on them
    ...
    General Roman Polko, the former deputy head of the National Security Bureau, emphasized in an interview for TVP Info that the situation was worrying and escalation was progressing.

    “It is quite difficult to judge what such actions may portend. Provocations from Belarusian services have already taken place and this may be an element of those provocations or the actions of services which could have ventured too deep,” he explained, adding that special forces usually act in disguises.
    ...
    Polko believes that the intruders most likely wanted to conduct deep reconnaissance and see how the Polish Border Guard would react to their activity. The general warned that the Belarusian government would most likely not hesitate to conduct even more controversial actions, and the situation could escalate with Belarusian forces threatening Polish officers on the border with weapons
     
    If you do not believe this is serious... How would Russia react if armed Polish troops were found well inside the Kaliningrad Oblast border?

    Your hypocrisy is very dangerous at times like this.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/polish-general-armed-little-green-men-broke-into-poland-from-belarus/

    Replies: @Aedib

  273. It might be considered some sort of cosmic poetic justice if Germany is destroyed by legal and illegal immigration considering that the Germanic peoples were instrumental in the destruction of the old Western Civilization.

  274. From the Rittenhouse trial.

    At what point is deliberately prosecuting a frivolous charge a crime?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • LOL: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Pericles
    @A123

    Lol, Captain Picard is that you?

    Replies: @A123

  275. @Dmitry
    @AP

    Yes you can see the air show has hired contemporary professional club dancers for that clip, because it is always the distinctive energy saving, robotic dancing style.

    They are a kind of office workers who need to clock in the same hours per week at the club, and use labour-saving mechanical movements.

    It must be a relaxing job for them, repeating always these same routine movements, looking at the drunk people everynight, while getting the aerobic exercise to maintain a good looking figure.

    Nowadays people can't smoke in the club so they haven't much downside
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odQ8MqhiEx0


    I have not gone clubbing in many years.
     
    Surely your lack of hearing loss and tinnitus will be thanking you. Congratulations, you can enjoy excellent hearing at the philharmonic concert.

    Although aside from hearing sensitivity, since they banned all indoor smoking, clubbers are pretty healthy people if we think about it.

    Weekly jumping around aerobically is excellent exercise, at least offsetting negative effects of the coca cola and vodka. (And it's usually diet cola). Disco-ordinated crazy dancing of the club people, probably good for you psychologically as well.


    t feels like the late 90s; perhaps things haven’t changed

     

    Late 90s looks like the utopian age for techno dancing internationally, when young people were driving to empty farms in the early hours in the summer mornings, and recreating strange pagan rituals outside of any capitalist club system.

    They even enjoy clean air, and some kind of charity of giving people free mineral water and low alcohol healthfood drinks like Heineken beer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69jNFTFPn8

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP, @LatW, @SafeNow

    • Replies: @A123
    @SafeNow

    I have not had the opportunity to visit Club Amnesia in Ibiza, but many have spoken about the spectacle.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     
    https://youtu.be/co0bTGezh2s

    Replies: @SafeNow

  276. @Aedib
    "Armed escalation". LOL. The Polish poodle is barking more and more furiously at Lukashenko

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/09/poland-blocks-migrants-at-belarus-border-warns-of-armed-escalation-a75504

    Replies: @A123

    “Armed escalation”. LOL. The Polish poodle is barking more and more furiously at Lukashenko

    Congratulations. The is the worst possible explanation justification of armed Bullyrus troops crossing into Polish territory. (1)

    On Monday night, another provocation from Belarusian services took place near the Polish-Belarusian border after Polish soldiers located three uniformed individuals armed with rifles 200 meters away from the border on Polish territory. After attempting to initiate contact, the individuals successfully returned to the Belarusian side. They did not possess identification on them

    General Roman Polko, the former deputy head of the National Security Bureau, emphasized in an interview for TVP Info that the situation was worrying and escalation was progressing.

    “It is quite difficult to judge what such actions may portend. Provocations from Belarusian services have already taken place and this may be an element of those provocations or the actions of services which could have ventured too deep,” he explained, adding that special forces usually act in disguises.

    Polko believes that the intruders most likely wanted to conduct deep reconnaissance and see how the Polish Border Guard would react to their activity. The general warned that the Belarusian government would most likely not hesitate to conduct even more controversial actions, and the situation could escalate with Belarusian forces threatening Polish officers on the border with weapons

    If you do not believe this is serious… How would Russia react if armed Polish troops were found well inside the Kaliningrad Oblast border?

    Your hypocrisy is very dangerous at times like this.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/polish-general-armed-little-green-men-broke-into-poland-from-belarus/

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @A123

    I'm sorry but I don't believe in Polish propaganda. If this is true, we would have the Polish poodles asking their American masters for a nuclear attack on Moscow. Two refugees crossing the border doesn´t mean an incursion of the Belarusian army into Poland. Luka may be the master of all trolls but he is not a fool.


    Your hypocrisy is very dangerous at times like this.
     
    Let's talk about hypocrisy. According to the globalist propaganda, Salvini is BAD because he doesn´t let the "refugees" in. But the Polish poodles are GOOD because they do not want the "refugees" in. May be we should ferry some "good refugees" from Lampedusa to Warsaw to show the hipocricy of Eurocrats and NATOcrats.

    Replies: @A123

  277. @A123
    @German_reader


    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
     
    The better "force" option is creating a DMZ filled with land mines. Anyone who enters a mined area is committing suicide. There is no "trigger man" for the EU to blame.

    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It’s what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.
     
    While tactically sound, it is unwise as strategy. Making Germany more Muslim creates a larger population against Judeo-Christian values.
    ________

    Poland will be building a barrier to keep undesirables out. (1)

    Polish Minister of the interior Mariusz Kamiński presented the details of the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border. He emphasized that the barrier would be one of the more important elements to decisively limit mass illegal migration to Poland.

    The border barrier will be 180 kilometers long, and feature 5-meter-tall (16 feet) steel columns topped by half-meter tall barbed wire coils (the barrier will have a total height of 5.5 meters). The barrier will also be equipped with motion sensors and both day and night surveillance systems. Additionally, a new group of officers will support the Border Guard as the government will dedicate 750 positions to strengthen the border.

    The government estimates that the wall and its auxiliary infrastructure will cost over 1.6 billion zloty (€350 million). The construction of the barrier should start as early as this year and will be finished in mid-2022, minister Kamiński declared
     
    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/heres-the-new-design-for-polish-belarusian-border-fence/

     
    https://rmx.news/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Border-Wall-Poland-TT-M-Kaminski.jpg

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @AP, @Mikhail

    Polish Joke

    Re: https://www.rt.com/news/539781-poland-putin-belarus-migrants/

    I gather Putin was also directing the Belarusian government, when the latter has gone after some pro-Russian activists, along with periodically restricting Russian government funded media.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Mikhail


    I gather Putin was also directing the Belarusian government, when the latter has gone after some pro-Russian activists, along with periodically restricting Russian government funded media.
     
    I just came up with the perfect solution.

    Russian Joke

    Every "Refugee" driven Belarus ⇒ Poland must complete the circuit Poland ⇒ Kaliningrad.

    -- Would Putin accept this as ... What is Good for the Giver, is also Good for the Givee?
    -- Or, would Putin stop Luka's provocation?

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mikhail

  278. @SafeNow
    @Dmitry

    Go-Go Dancers from back in my era were better:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=love+grows+where+my&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

    Replies: @A123

    I have not had the opportunity to visit Club Amnesia in Ibiza, but many have spoken about the spectacle.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

    • Replies: @SafeNow
    @A123

    Thank you. Yes, quite a spectacle!…and I can understand the appeal. But being old-fashioned, I find my dancer, in her short dress - - a dress! - - more appealing in a (sexy but sweet) girl-next-door way. A great prom date, and more.

  279. @Mr. Hack
    @Agathoklis

    I'm quite familiar with Frank Zappa's output, and agree that he was quite innovative and entertaining. As a kid, I used to enjoyed listening to "Uncle Meat", "Ruben and the Jets" and of course "Hot Rats".
    I got disenchanted with the bizarre free-avante -garde jazz of the likes of Sun-Ra and Miles Davis during his "Bitches Brew" and "Live Evil' period. I saw him play live during this period several times, and although visually entertaining, not so much musically, at least for not for me. I'll give the albums that you suggest a listen, including Dolphy's.

    Replies: @Agathoklis

    The second Miles David Quintet is very different from the later Bitches Brew and Live Evil records. The Quintet was still firmly in the jazz tradition however his later Bitches Brew period really veered away from that. For example, rhythmically the drummer and bassist played more ostinato-based funk grooves. Even harmonically, they were playing more vamps than jazz harmony. And of course, the textures are very different. Personally, I am not a huge fan of this period although it is musically closer to 70’s Zappa.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Agathoklis

    But you probably came to appreciate the Jazz-fusion period fueled by players that left Davis and went on to form groups of their own: Return to Forever (Chick Corea), Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McGlaughlin), Weather Report (Joe Zawinul), during the 1970's? Many other musicians that weren't associated with Miles Davis were making great strides in this direction too.

    Replies: @Mikhail

  280. @A123
    @SafeNow

    I have not had the opportunity to visit Club Amnesia in Ibiza, but many have spoken about the spectacle.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     
    https://youtu.be/co0bTGezh2s

    Replies: @SafeNow

    Thank you. Yes, quite a spectacle!…and I can understand the appeal. But being old-fashioned, I find my dancer, in her short dress – – a dress! – – more appealing in a (sexy but sweet) girl-next-door way. A great prom date, and more.

  281. @Mikhail
    @A123

    Polish Joke


    Re: https://www.rt.com/news/539781-poland-putin-belarus-migrants/

    I gather Putin was also directing the Belarusian government, when the latter has gone after some pro-Russian activists, along with periodically restricting Russian government funded media.

    Replies: @A123

    I gather Putin was also directing the Belarusian government, when the latter has gone after some pro-Russian activists, along with periodically restricting Russian government funded media.

    I just came up with the perfect solution.

    Russian Joke

    Every “Refugee” driven Belarus ⇒ Poland must complete the circuit Poland ⇒ Kaliningrad.

    — Would Putin accept this as … What is Good for the Giver, is also Good for the Givee?
    — Or, would Putin stop Luka’s provocation?

    PEACE 😇

    • LOL: Mikhail
    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @A123


    @Mikhail

    I gather Putin was also directing the Belarusian government, when the latter has gone after some pro-Russian activists, along with periodically restricting Russian government funded media.

    I just came up with the perfect solution.

    Russian Joke

    Every “Refugee” driven Belarus ⇒ Poland must complete the circuit Poland ⇒ Kaliningrad.

    — Would Putin accept this as … What is Good for the Giver, is also Good for the Givee?
    — Or, would Putin stop Luka’s provocation?

    PEACE
     
    Then again, it's the EU championing itself as the vanguard for better living.
  282. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    You mean the Cold War, and now hybrid wars. I mean a hot, potentially MAD war.

    Replies: @songbird

    I mean a hot, potentially MAD war.

    Forget about MAD! It is obsolete. What holds is MALC: Mutually-Assured Lack of Cappuccino. Or, maybe, MAP? Mutually-Assured Proletarianization. (Sorry, can someone please suggest better?),

    Basically, much of the elite’s status comes from living in premier cities – centers of power. With high end amenities and creme-de-le-crem social circles. New York/Washington/Moscow/St. Petersburg/London/Beijing/Shanghai. None of these places would survive a barrage. Especially the good neighborhoods, restaurants, and luxury stores.

    Even if the families of the elite could somehow get early warning and sneak off in the middle of the night to Butte, Montana, or someplace that might stand a chance of interceptor defense, they wouldn’t want to live among rednecks, eat at the McDonald’s, shop at K-Mart, and lose their status. Nothing could be worse from their perspective. Not even millions of proles dying in the trenches.

    [MORE]

    You mean the Cold War, and now hybrid wars.

    Actually, I had something quite different in mind. Cold War and hybrid wars are pretty well related to old conceptions of wars. They are doctrinal, war-gamed, and ultimately about men fighting somewhere. Huge sums are devoted to playing the game, and there is nothing controversial in talking about it.

    But what if you had a lot of the consequences of war – such as loss of territory, of resources – in a process which nobody thought of as war? Partly, because it was too politically incorrect to name enemies. But mostly because the violence was lower-grade. Of course, I am talking about mass migration. On a long time scale, it has consequences much greater than modern wars, more like the prehistoric ones.

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    Basically, much of the elite’s status comes from living in premier cities – centers of power. With high end amenities and creme-de-le-crem social circles. New York/Washington/Moscow/St. Petersburg/London/Beijing/Shanghai. None of these places would survive a barrage. Especially the good neighborhoods, restaurants, and luxury stores.
     
    This was a phenomena I saw in the 1980s in the urban elites I debated the issue of civil defense one. I posed it as pure materialism, that even if they and all their loved one were alive, life would be unbearable after losing their personal possessions when strategic defenses failed, but I've got to agree with your thesis it's the near total loss of status they'd suffer, even if it probably wouldn't be for all that many years. Althogh they'd have to climb the ladder again, and might not be so successful or some were too old for that.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird

  283. @German_reader
    @Aedib


    On a morfe serious note, I’m not sure this is an hybryd offensive as LatW thinks.
     
    It's certainly on the part of Belarus, they're just copying what the Turks did (or even earlier models, East Germany did pretty much the same thing in the 1980s, bringing in large numbers of asylum seekers and letting them pass over to West Berlin, to extract political concessions from West Germany).
    I've seen Lavrov has now suggested the EU should pay Belarus just as they do with Turkey, lol. I guess I should be offended (it's kind of shameless after all), but that's the inevitable result once you're no longer willing to defend your borders against invaders in the guise of beggars.

    Replies: @A123, @songbird

    but that’s the inevitable result once you’re no longer willing to defend your borders against invaders in the guise of beggars.

    It goes much deeper, IMO. It follows from 3 million Turks being in Germany, and 80% of them being on Hartz IV.

    I wonder what would happen if Putin and Xi starting openly promoting mass migration into the West. Would they suddenly become the good guys? Or would the elite do a 180 and denounce mass migration? If so, maybe, it would be worth the hit.

    • Agree: Aedib
  284. @A123
    @Mikhail


    I gather Putin was also directing the Belarusian government, when the latter has gone after some pro-Russian activists, along with periodically restricting Russian government funded media.
     
    I just came up with the perfect solution.

    Russian Joke

    Every "Refugee" driven Belarus ⇒ Poland must complete the circuit Poland ⇒ Kaliningrad.

    -- Would Putin accept this as ... What is Good for the Giver, is also Good for the Givee?
    -- Or, would Putin stop Luka's provocation?

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mikhail

    I gather Putin was also directing the Belarusian government, when the latter has gone after some pro-Russian activists, along with periodically restricting Russian government funded media.

    I just came up with the perfect solution.

    Russian Joke

    Every “Refugee” driven Belarus ⇒ Poland must complete the circuit Poland ⇒ Kaliningrad.

    — Would Putin accept this as … What is Good for the Giver, is also Good for the Givee?
    — Or, would Putin stop Luka’s provocation?

    PEACE

    Then again, it’s the EU championing itself as the vanguard for better living.

  285. @A123
    @Aedib


    “Armed escalation”. LOL. The Polish poodle is barking more and more furiously at Lukashenko
     
    Congratulations. The is the worst possible explanation justification of armed Bullyrus troops crossing into Polish territory. (1)

    On Monday night, another provocation from Belarusian services took place near the Polish-Belarusian border after Polish soldiers located three uniformed individuals armed with rifles 200 meters away from the border on Polish territory. After attempting to initiate contact, the individuals successfully returned to the Belarusian side. They did not possess identification on them
    ...
    General Roman Polko, the former deputy head of the National Security Bureau, emphasized in an interview for TVP Info that the situation was worrying and escalation was progressing.

    “It is quite difficult to judge what such actions may portend. Provocations from Belarusian services have already taken place and this may be an element of those provocations or the actions of services which could have ventured too deep,” he explained, adding that special forces usually act in disguises.
    ...
    Polko believes that the intruders most likely wanted to conduct deep reconnaissance and see how the Polish Border Guard would react to their activity. The general warned that the Belarusian government would most likely not hesitate to conduct even more controversial actions, and the situation could escalate with Belarusian forces threatening Polish officers on the border with weapons
     
    If you do not believe this is serious... How would Russia react if armed Polish troops were found well inside the Kaliningrad Oblast border?

    Your hypocrisy is very dangerous at times like this.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/article/polish-general-armed-little-green-men-broke-into-poland-from-belarus/

    Replies: @Aedib

    I’m sorry but I don’t believe in Polish propaganda. If this is true, we would have the Polish poodles asking their American masters for a nuclear attack on Moscow. Two refugees crossing the border doesn´t mean an incursion of the Belarusian army into Poland. Luka may be the master of all trolls but he is not a fool.

    Your hypocrisy is very dangerous at times like this.

    Let’s talk about hypocrisy. According to the globalist propaganda, Salvini is BAD because he doesn´t let the “refugees” in. But the Polish poodles are GOOD because they do not want the “refugees” in. May be we should ferry some “good refugees” from Lampedusa to Warsaw to show the hipocricy of Eurocrats and NATOcrats.

    • Agree: RadicalCenter
    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib


    Polish poodles asking their American masters for a nuclear attack on Moscow...
    Luka may be the master of all trolls but he is not a fool.
     
    You are underestimating Luka's efforts to play his Pudding Putin into war. Luka is intentionally provoking Poland seeking a justified Polish (a.k.a. NATO) response. Once NATO troops are in Bullyrus, Luka will go to Poolboy Putin seeking a ill considered Soviet bloc, nuclear first strike.

    Of course key problem with the type of inflammatory, derogatory phrasing is:
    -- Poland is not a poodle
    -- Putin is not a pudding
    -- Poland does not answer to the U.S.
    -- Putin is not a poolboy

    The only "slang" that holds up is Bullyrus, because Luka started the bullying.

    If you want to continue the equivalence, Poolboy Putin vs. Poodle Poland, we can do so. The choice is yours. You can be a proud member of Team Poolboy.

    PEACE 😇

  286. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    I mean a hot, potentially MAD war.
     
    Forget about MAD! It is obsolete. What holds is MALC: Mutually-Assured Lack of Cappuccino. Or, maybe, MAP? Mutually-Assured Proletarianization. (Sorry, can someone please suggest better?),

    Basically, much of the elite's status comes from living in premier cities - centers of power. With high end amenities and creme-de-le-crem social circles. New York/Washington/Moscow/St. Petersburg/London/Beijing/Shanghai. None of these places would survive a barrage. Especially the good neighborhoods, restaurants, and luxury stores.

    Even if the families of the elite could somehow get early warning and sneak off in the middle of the night to Butte, Montana, or someplace that might stand a chance of interceptor defense, they wouldn't want to live among rednecks, eat at the McDonald's, shop at K-Mart, and lose their status. Nothing could be worse from their perspective. Not even millions of proles dying in the trenches.

    You mean the Cold War, and now hybrid wars.
     
    Actually, I had something quite different in mind. Cold War and hybrid wars are pretty well related to old conceptions of wars. They are doctrinal, war-gamed, and ultimately about men fighting somewhere. Huge sums are devoted to playing the game, and there is nothing controversial in talking about it.

    But what if you had a lot of the consequences of war - such as loss of territory, of resources - in a process which nobody thought of as war? Partly, because it was too politically incorrect to name enemies. But mostly because the violence was lower-grade. Of course, I am talking about mass migration. On a long time scale, it has consequences much greater than modern wars, more like the prehistoric ones.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    Basically, much of the elite’s status comes from living in premier cities – centers of power. With high end amenities and creme-de-le-crem social circles. New York/Washington/Moscow/St. Petersburg/London/Beijing/Shanghai. None of these places would survive a barrage. Especially the good neighborhoods, restaurants, and luxury stores.

    This was a phenomena I saw in the 1980s in the urban elites I debated the issue of civil defense one. I posed it as pure materialism, that even if they and all their loved one were alive, life would be unbearable after losing their personal possessions when strategic defenses failed, but I’ve got to agree with your thesis it’s the near total loss of status they’d suffer, even if it probably wouldn’t be for all that many years. Althogh they’d have to climb the ladder again, and might not be so successful or some were too old for that.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @That Would Be Telling

    I only care about what the map will be after the nuclear exchanges.

    Replies: @songbird

    , @songbird
    @That Would Be Telling

    Somewhere in The Sword in the Stone, TH White wrote about armor making knights immune and thus indifferent to the consequences of war, which fall disproportionately on peasants.

    It's kind of a thin analogy, and, I'm not even sure how to judge the historicity of it. But, in any case, nuclear weapons must be the ultimate inversion of it. Despite their indiscriminate and awe-inspiring power - they are like heat-seeking missiles, shooting through the armor (the status) of the elite. Sure to take them down a peg or two, even if they are sitting in a custom-made fallout shelter, with plenty of supplies.

    Replies: @sher singh, @Philip Owen

  287. @Aedib
    @A123

    I'm sorry but I don't believe in Polish propaganda. If this is true, we would have the Polish poodles asking their American masters for a nuclear attack on Moscow. Two refugees crossing the border doesn´t mean an incursion of the Belarusian army into Poland. Luka may be the master of all trolls but he is not a fool.


    Your hypocrisy is very dangerous at times like this.
     
    Let's talk about hypocrisy. According to the globalist propaganda, Salvini is BAD because he doesn´t let the "refugees" in. But the Polish poodles are GOOD because they do not want the "refugees" in. May be we should ferry some "good refugees" from Lampedusa to Warsaw to show the hipocricy of Eurocrats and NATOcrats.

    Replies: @A123

    Polish poodles asking their American masters for a nuclear attack on Moscow…
    Luka may be the master of all trolls but he is not a fool.

    You are underestimating Luka’s efforts to play his Pudding Putin into war. Luka is intentionally provoking Poland seeking a justified Polish (a.k.a. NATO) response. Once NATO troops are in Bullyrus, Luka will go to Poolboy Putin seeking a ill considered Soviet bloc, nuclear first strike.

    Of course key problem with the type of inflammatory, derogatory phrasing is:
    — Poland is not a poodle
    — Putin is not a pudding
    — Poland does not answer to the U.S.
    — Putin is not a poolboy

    The only “slang” that holds up is Bullyrus, because Luka started the bullying.

    If you want to continue the equivalence, Poolboy Putin vs. Poodle Poland, we can do so. The choice is yours. You can be a proud member of Team Poolboy.

    PEACE 😇

  288. At around the 25:15 mark, John Podhoretz with Eli Lake on Durham, are indicative of more reasoned neocons than Bill Kristol:

    https://www.commentary.org/john-podhoretz/here-comes-the-durham-investigation/

  289. @LatW
    @Dmitry


    It seems like Lukashenko is trying to do his own version of Castro’s “Mariel boatlift”?
     
    Well, where I would agree is that one shouldn't rely on Mr Lukashenko's good graces to protect one's borders. Hence, the barriers that will be built. And, btw, the nationalists have been talking for years about the need for this as well as the need to exit the Ottawa convention. This refugee problem is a crisis now, but the truth is that almost all of the illegal immigration had been coming from East for years and years, just in smaller numbers.

    I’m such a person who was some years ago wondering for a couple minutes “massage must be really popular”, because there are so many adverts for massage in Russia.
     
    Aw, that's so naive and kind of nerdy. LOL

    But then there are places where life in Russia is bad even relative to world levels. A million people are dying from coronavirus, and authorities are relatively not worried compared to many other countries.

     

    Yes, it's very serious, over 1000 daily deaths. It's very serious in the Baltic States, too, and, btw, the Russophones are more reluctant to take the vaccine (about 10% less than Latvians, for example). They don't want to be told what to do and they procrastinate.

    And this lack of care about epidemics not just in United Russia politicians, but even the opposition. For example, perhaps 2% of the residents of Ekaterinburg (and some other cities like Perm), are infected with HIV now.
     
    It's lame because Ekaterinburg seems like a very modern city. I like how they have built it out, especially around the waterfront. Maybe the population there grew and that's why the increase?

    no needle exchange system established in Ekaterinburg
     
    It might be that there is a strong bias and they don't want to "encourage the vice" (even though the result would be safety). Or maybe it is just pofigism.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    ery serious, over 1000 daily death

    In Russia it’s more like 5000 people dying each day from coronavirus during the peaks of the waves ( https://doctorpiter.ru/articles/688489/ ).

    And authorities were faking the data to maintain the economy open. For example, in November 2020 in Novosibirsk there were proportionally more people dying from coronavirus than in New York in April 2020. But the restaurants, bars and nightclubs, were open, and most people were not wearing masks.

    By comparison, in April 2020 in New York, with less people dying as a proportion of the population that in Novosibirsk in November 2020, the city had mostly shut down, and the media reported that there was an epidemic in the city.

    Russophones are more reluctant to take the vaccine (about 10% less than Latvians, for example). They don’t want to be told what to do and they

    And partly because the Russian media and politicians have been acting like coronavirus is problem in other countries not Russia, partly has been promoting anti-vax attitudes about Western vaccines. For example, all this obsession about the dangers of Pfizer, or “monkey DNA” in Astrazeneca vaccine, etc.

    https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/news/2020/09/09/839323-otlichiya-rossiiskoi-i-anglo-shvedskoi-vaktsin
    https://www.interfax-russia.ru/moscow/main/putin-tragicheskih-posledstviy-posle-polucheniya-rossiyskih-vakcin-net
    https://www.rbc.ru/society/12/09/2020/5f5cf2cd9a794702eecbbf28

    If you believed that Western vaccines were already dangerous, then the logical implication of media messaging has been you definitely should not injected with a Russian one.

    Ekaterinburg seems like a very modern city. I like how they have built it out, especially around the waterfront. Maybe the population

    It’s on one hand being on the silk road for opium, and being an economically successful, resilient city – that therefore has been profitable for drug sales. Because it’s one of the most economically robust cities, therefore it is always one of the most profitable for narcotics.

    It’s on the other hand, because of the most stupid and incompetent authorities that can be imagined, in terms of understanding of international epidemiological guidelines for fighting this epidemic, which had been solved decades ago in other countries.

    population there grew and that’s why the increase?

    It’s a proportional increase in HIV rates, which is a result of more widely the drug addiction, and more narrowly the needle sharing.

    So for example, the HIV prevalence in the total population (all normal residents) of Ekaterinburg, is 1/3 higher than the total HIV prevalence of sex workers in Amsterdam.

    And there are many other cities in Russia like Perm, Omsk, where it has been a similar situation.

    strong bias and they don’t want to “encourage the vice” (even though the result would be safety). Or maybe it is just pofigism.

    Roizman has blamed the open borders immigration system, in relation to central Asia, where the drugs are moved on the silk road through the cities. And that is true that experts have said that open borders immigration policy of Russia has probably been one contributing factor to the drug epidemic, that therefore resulted in the high level of HIV.

    Roizman also was justified to criticize the authorities, but his history of parallel state initiatives does not inspire confidence.

    We don’t have to be professionally trained epidemiologists, to be skeptical that you could manage drug addicts by capturing them and adding them to a kind of private prison “rehabilitation centre”.

    Roizman’s centres used to chain by hand famously the male addicts to the beds.

    And an equivalent centre (important to say, not related to Roizman) in Krasnokamsk was famous for allegedly torturing, beating, perhaps raping and killing some of its captured drug addicts.

    Although later Roizman women’s centre he opened in Beryozovsky (which I think police tried to close at one time later), looked like the most normal and modern one – as they had things like therapeutic gardening, which is used in some advanced Western countries for managing traumatized people. And not chaining them to the bed. So maybe Roizman’s methods were not so bad by the 2010s.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry


    And authorities were faking the data to maintain the economy open. For example, in November 2020 in Novosibirsk there were proportionally more people dying from coronavirus than in New York in April 2020. But the restaurants, bars and nightclubs, were open, and most people were not wearing masks.

    By comparison, in April 2020 in New York, with less people dying as a proportion of the population that in Novosibirsk in November 2020, the city had mostly shut down, and the media reported that there was an epidemic in the city.
     
    We can basically see how it has turned out for NYC or CA - 100,000s moving out into the hinderlands or Florida, because expectations have changed about daily routines in relation to the attitude on state actions. We need to tell economic measures & public health measures apart, and lockdowns seem to me to be economic measures dressed in the language of public health.

    And partly because the Russian media and politicians have been acting like coronavirus is problem in other countries not Russia, partly has been promoting anti-vax attitudes about Western vaccines.
    ...
    If you believed that Western vaccines were already dangerous, then the logical implication of media messaging has been you definitely should not injected with a Russian one.
    ...
    because of the most stupid and incompetent authorities that can be imagined, in terms of understanding of international epidemiological guidelines for fighting this epidemic, which had been solved decades ago in other countries.
     
    Everything COVID is basically about institutional trust. Most states have squandered them after acting too drastically on lockdowns, and when people see lockdowns as a form of total political oppression, then vaccine mandates backed by coercion and the marginalization of antivaxxers will be seen as an even graver threat. This is how anti-state worldviews are propagated and I call this the "globalization of libertarianism". It will lead to far-reaching changes in entire systems of social organization this century, like what WWI did for the 20th.

    It's the endgame of picking the most socially disastrous way to address the COVID crisis globally. I think a lot of actors (not necessarily those in power!) have their death wish being played out.

    We don’t have to be professionally trained epidemiologists, to be skeptical that you could manage drug addicts by capturing them and adding them to a kind of private prison “rehabilitation centre”.
     
    The attitude towards drug addicts or social vices in general depends on the extent of punishment vs rehabilitation that should be dealt out to these groups, or whether to neglect the issue altogether. Conservative political cultures, believing in the strictness of moral values, will tend to punish, while liberal political cultures, believing in human improvement and the right for all forms of social expression to co-exist, will tend to rehabilitate or even neglect the issue.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  290. @Aedib
    @Svidomyatheart

    I don’t think this is a Putin & Gerasimov psyop. Luka simply likes to take revenge against Poles and Lithuanians because of their instigation to the failed color revolution. In some sense it is a wise move: he retaliates against the sponsors of color revolutions in order to deter them from the next move. The scenes are too colorful to be a dark op from the FSB. It looks more like Italian comedia from the 1960s. And this is really funny because gets the Eurocrats hysterical.

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

    The irony is nobody in the world hates Putin/Kremlin, more than Lukashenko.

    But his position is always vulnerable on the both flanks, and the EU and Poland considers him more unacceptable than he has naively understood before 2020.

    This is partly why he seemed distracted so much and idiotically trying to be friendly to Poland/EU in 2019, as his “multivector” strategy, when he was hit from the other flank last year.

    Nowadays his bargaining position is even far weaker than in 2019, and he has almost no leverage against Russia (but still he seems to try to bargain).

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Dmitry

    It is a matter of personality. He will always try to bargain.

  291. @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    Basically, much of the elite’s status comes from living in premier cities – centers of power. With high end amenities and creme-de-le-crem social circles. New York/Washington/Moscow/St. Petersburg/London/Beijing/Shanghai. None of these places would survive a barrage. Especially the good neighborhoods, restaurants, and luxury stores.
     
    This was a phenomena I saw in the 1980s in the urban elites I debated the issue of civil defense one. I posed it as pure materialism, that even if they and all their loved one were alive, life would be unbearable after losing their personal possessions when strategic defenses failed, but I've got to agree with your thesis it's the near total loss of status they'd suffer, even if it probably wouldn't be for all that many years. Althogh they'd have to climb the ladder again, and might not be so successful or some were too old for that.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird

    I only care about what the map will be after the nuclear exchanges.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    I only care about what the map will be after the nuclear exchanges.
     
    Minus the monorail:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Metro#/media/File:Moscow_metro_ring_railway_map_en_sb_future.svg
  292. @AP
    @RadicalCenter


    Who the Hell are you to talk about stealing from Belarus?
     
    Lukashenko chose to import migrants from Syria and Iraq, to bus them to the Polish border and even to have his men cross the border and destroy border fencing. It would surely not be theft to confiscate state asserts in order to pay for the troop mobilization, border repairs, and more robust fencing that are a direct consequence of Belarusian state policy.

    Were you opposed to Trump’s insistence that Mexico pay for America’s wall btw?

    Replies: @RadicalCenter

    Yes. We can and should pay for it ourselves and also pay to mass-deport illegal aliens ourselves as well. Thanks for asking.

    Let’s Go Brandon.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @RadicalCenter

    Why should Trumpists shoot themselves in the feet by depriving themselves of a large pool of manual labor. Go full Generalplan Ost, annex Mexico and turn it into the largest labor camp ever. Same thing with the entire swaths of those Brown lands southeast of Europe.

    Don't stop at that, reduce them to a suitable size as to not overwhelm the superior races.

    /s

    What migratory capitalism has done and still doing is reverse-fascism, if you will.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @RadicalCenter

  293. @Agathoklis
    @Mr. Hack

    The second Miles David Quintet is very different from the later Bitches Brew and Live Evil records. The Quintet was still firmly in the jazz tradition however his later Bitches Brew period really veered away from that. For example, rhythmically the drummer and bassist played more ostinato-based funk grooves. Even harmonically, they were playing more vamps than jazz harmony. And of course, the textures are very different. Personally, I am not a huge fan of this period although it is musically closer to 70's Zappa.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    But you probably came to appreciate the Jazz-fusion period fueled by players that left Davis and went on to form groups of their own: Return to Forever (Chick Corea), Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McGlaughlin), Weather Report (Joe Zawinul), during the 1970’s? Many other musicians that weren’t associated with Miles Davis were making great strides in this direction too.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @Mr. Hack


    But you probably came to appreciate the Jazz-fusion period fueled by players that left Davis and went on to form groups of their own: Return to Forever (Chick Corea), Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McGlaughlin), Weather Report (Joe Zawinul), during the 1970’s? Many other musicians that weren’t associated with Miles Davis were making great strides in this direction too.
     
    Larry Coryell? Saw him at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village, not far from your peeps.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

  294. @Dmitry
    @LatW


    ery serious, over 1000 daily death
     
    In Russia it's more like 5000 people dying each day from coronavirus during the peaks of the waves ( https://doctorpiter.ru/articles/688489/ ).

    And authorities were faking the data to maintain the economy open. For example, in November 2020 in Novosibirsk there were proportionally more people dying from coronavirus than in New York in April 2020. But the restaurants, bars and nightclubs, were open, and most people were not wearing masks.

    By comparison, in April 2020 in New York, with less people dying as a proportion of the population that in Novosibirsk in November 2020, the city had mostly shut down, and the media reported that there was an epidemic in the city.


    Russophones are more reluctant to take the vaccine (about 10% less than Latvians, for example). They don’t want to be told what to do and they
     
    And partly because the Russian media and politicians have been acting like coronavirus is problem in other countries not Russia, partly has been promoting anti-vax attitudes about Western vaccines. For example, all this obsession about the dangers of Pfizer, or "monkey DNA" in Astrazeneca vaccine, etc.

    https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/news/2020/09/09/839323-otlichiya-rossiiskoi-i-anglo-shvedskoi-vaktsin
    https://www.interfax-russia.ru/moscow/main/putin-tragicheskih-posledstviy-posle-polucheniya-rossiyskih-vakcin-net
    https://www.rbc.ru/society/12/09/2020/5f5cf2cd9a794702eecbbf28

    If you believed that Western vaccines were already dangerous, then the logical implication of media messaging has been you definitely should not injected with a Russian one.


    Ekaterinburg seems like a very modern city. I like how they have built it out, especially around the waterfront. Maybe the population
     
    It's on one hand being on the silk road for opium, and being an economically successful, resilient city - that therefore has been profitable for drug sales. Because it's one of the most economically robust cities, therefore it is always one of the most profitable for narcotics.

    It's on the other hand, because of the most stupid and incompetent authorities that can be imagined, in terms of understanding of international epidemiological guidelines for fighting this epidemic, which had been solved decades ago in other countries.


    population there grew and that’s why the increase?

     

    It's a proportional increase in HIV rates, which is a result of more widely the drug addiction, and more narrowly the needle sharing.

    So for example, the HIV prevalence in the total population (all normal residents) of Ekaterinburg, is 1/3 higher than the total HIV prevalence of sex workers in Amsterdam.

    And there are many other cities in Russia like Perm, Omsk, where it has been a similar situation.


    strong bias and they don’t want to “encourage the vice” (even though the result would be safety). Or maybe it is just pofigism.
     
    Roizman has blamed the open borders immigration system, in relation to central Asia, where the drugs are moved on the silk road through the cities. And that is true that experts have said that open borders immigration policy of Russia has probably been one contributing factor to the drug epidemic, that therefore resulted in the high level of HIV.

    Roizman also was justified to criticize the authorities, but his history of parallel state initiatives does not inspire confidence.

    We don't have to be professionally trained epidemiologists, to be skeptical that you could manage drug addicts by capturing them and adding them to a kind of private prison "rehabilitation centre".

    Roizman's centres used to chain by hand famously the male addicts to the beds.

    And an equivalent centre (important to say, not related to Roizman) in Krasnokamsk was famous for allegedly torturing, beating, perhaps raping and killing some of its captured drug addicts.

    -

    Although later Roizman women's centre he opened in Beryozovsky (which I think police tried to close at one time later), looked like the most normal and modern one - as they had things like therapeutic gardening, which is used in some advanced Western countries for managing traumatized people. And not chaining them to the bed. So maybe Roizman's methods were not so bad by the 2010s.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoADbTK-nrE

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    And authorities were faking the data to maintain the economy open. For example, in November 2020 in Novosibirsk there were proportionally more people dying from coronavirus than in New York in April 2020. But the restaurants, bars and nightclubs, were open, and most people were not wearing masks.

    By comparison, in April 2020 in New York, with less people dying as a proportion of the population that in Novosibirsk in November 2020, the city had mostly shut down, and the media reported that there was an epidemic in the city.

    We can basically see how it has turned out for NYC or CA – 100,000s moving out into the hinderlands or Florida, because expectations have changed about daily routines in relation to the attitude on state actions. We need to tell economic measures & public health measures apart, and lockdowns seem to me to be economic measures dressed in the language of public health.

    And partly because the Russian media and politicians have been acting like coronavirus is problem in other countries not Russia, partly has been promoting anti-vax attitudes about Western vaccines.

    If you believed that Western vaccines were already dangerous, then the logical implication of media messaging has been you definitely should not injected with a Russian one.

    because of the most stupid and incompetent authorities that can be imagined, in terms of understanding of international epidemiological guidelines for fighting this epidemic, which had been solved decades ago in other countries.

    Everything COVID is basically about institutional trust. Most states have squandered them after acting too drastically on lockdowns, and when people see lockdowns as a form of total political oppression, then vaccine mandates backed by coercion and the marginalization of antivaxxers will be seen as an even graver threat. This is how anti-state worldviews are propagated and I call this the “globalization of libertarianism”. It will lead to far-reaching changes in entire systems of social organization this century, like what WWI did for the 20th.

    It’s the endgame of picking the most socially disastrous way to address the COVID crisis globally. I think a lot of actors (not necessarily those in power!) have their death wish being played out.

    We don’t have to be professionally trained epidemiologists, to be skeptical that you could manage drug addicts by capturing them and adding them to a kind of private prison “rehabilitation centre”.

    The attitude towards drug addicts or social vices in general depends on the extent of punishment vs rehabilitation that should be dealt out to these groups, or whether to neglect the issue altogether. Conservative political cultures, believing in the strictness of moral values, will tend to punish, while liberal political cultures, believing in human improvement and the right for all forms of social expression to co-exist, will tend to rehabilitate or even neglect the issue.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    Managing or defeating the HIV epidemic was just an empirical topic. It's just a virus and there are many known ways to keep its reproduction number low.

    HIV epidemic was mostly defeated in Western countries in the 1990s, and the authorities in Russia (where HIV was mostly avoided until the 2000s) have years to study the epidemiological policies which achieved this.

    Intelligent authorities would study empirical evidence from past experience, and see what policies there was empirical evidence have been epidemiologically successful - e.g. establishing needle exchanges.

    But they didn't follow the international guidelines, and didn't establish needle exchanges. And Russia developed the highest HIV rates of almost any countries outside subsahara Africa, and in cities like Ekaterinburg there is 2% of the population with HIV (and the opposition mayor was not very helpful).

    My only conclusion can be - this is what happens when your government can't follow internationally recommended guidelines for managing virus based epidemics.


    Most states have squandered them after acting too drastically on lockdowns,
     
    In talking about coronavirus in Russia, there was non-local national lockdown when there was a first wave in Moscow/Saint-Petersburg, but no interregional quarantine.

    Instead of lockdown in non-affected areas in the first wave, there could have been simple interregional quarantine. They should have just closed Moscow, and maintained the non-infected parts of the country open, and it would have been much less expensive.

    In the second wave of autumn 2020, the authorities faked the data to maintain the economy open, which resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of old people.

    When there no cases of coronavirus in the first wave in a city like Tagil, the local government was proud to be locked down and spraying the streets.
    https://www.instagram.com/p/B-6Zut9KF1F/

    When coronavirus has entered the same place in the second wave, they were promoting indoor concerts.
    https://www.instagram.com/p/CF1uTAEqeqb/

    Within months of the beginning of the pandemic, epidemiological realities were almost disconnected from the policies of the government.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  295. @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    Basically, much of the elite’s status comes from living in premier cities – centers of power. With high end amenities and creme-de-le-crem social circles. New York/Washington/Moscow/St. Petersburg/London/Beijing/Shanghai. None of these places would survive a barrage. Especially the good neighborhoods, restaurants, and luxury stores.
     
    This was a phenomena I saw in the 1980s in the urban elites I debated the issue of civil defense one. I posed it as pure materialism, that even if they and all their loved one were alive, life would be unbearable after losing their personal possessions when strategic defenses failed, but I've got to agree with your thesis it's the near total loss of status they'd suffer, even if it probably wouldn't be for all that many years. Althogh they'd have to climb the ladder again, and might not be so successful or some were too old for that.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird

    Somewhere in The Sword in the Stone, TH White wrote about armor making knights immune and thus indifferent to the consequences of war, which fall disproportionately on peasants.

    It’s kind of a thin analogy, and, I’m not even sure how to judge the historicity of it. But, in any case, nuclear weapons must be the ultimate inversion of it. Despite their indiscriminate and awe-inspiring power – they are like heat-seeking missiles, shooting through the armor (the status) of the elite. Sure to take them down a peg or two, even if they are sitting in a custom-made fallout shelter, with plenty of supplies.

    • Replies: @sher singh
    @songbird

    Old, but Gold.

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/732/227/6c4.png

    Replies: @songbird

    , @Philip Owen
    @songbird

    High medieval knights fought to capture another knight and make him pay ransom. Armour made sure that war was not much more dangerous than a vigorous game of rugby. The French were horrified at Agincourt when the English killed their captives

    Replies: @songbird

  296. @RadicalCenter
    @AP

    Yes. We can and should pay for it ourselves and also pay to mass-deport illegal aliens ourselves as well. Thanks for asking.

    Let’s Go Brandon.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Why should Trumpists shoot themselves in the feet by depriving themselves of a large pool of manual labor. Go full Generalplan Ost, annex Mexico and turn it into the largest labor camp ever. Same thing with the entire swaths of those Brown lands southeast of Europe.

    Don’t stop at that, reduce them to a suitable size as to not overwhelm the superior races.

    /s

    What migratory capitalism has done and still doing is reverse-fascism, if you will.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    I'm not against repatriating immigrants who indeed entered the country illegally given that they haven't gained citizenship, or even restricting legal immigration esp. on skill and/or racial grounds (not for them either). It's your own country and your political leadership to decide whether foreigners are welcome, whatever power ethno-nationalists can gain. But we need to be on watch if this internal tendency become exported, i.e. justifying neo-fascist colonialism and serfdom of the indigenes in the sphere of influence of any ethno-nationalist state.

    , @RadicalCenter
    @Yellowface Anon

    Trumpist is a foolish word meant to make people sound silly rather than providing argument, and I didn’t vote for Trump in 2020 anyway.

    If you’re not just trolling, of course we should do none of those things and should mind our business when it comes to the internal affairs of other countries, whatever the skin color of the people there.

    As for a big pool of cheap foreign labor, it hasn’t been cheap at all — not in economic terms, not in social terms. Many of the jobs that these colonizers do in the USA can and should be done by native-born US citizens, if not automated. And an increasing number of such jobs are being automated as we speak, in agriculture and retail and rideshare, eventually even in the building trades.

    Pay native-born US citizens enough to induce them to do all jobs we need done, or automate the jobs. No “need” for massive Latino colonization of our country fifty years ago and no need now.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  297. @Mr. Hack
    @Agathoklis

    But you probably came to appreciate the Jazz-fusion period fueled by players that left Davis and went on to form groups of their own: Return to Forever (Chick Corea), Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McGlaughlin), Weather Report (Joe Zawinul), during the 1970's? Many other musicians that weren't associated with Miles Davis were making great strides in this direction too.

    Replies: @Mikhail

    But you probably came to appreciate the Jazz-fusion period fueled by players that left Davis and went on to form groups of their own: Return to Forever (Chick Corea), Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McGlaughlin), Weather Report (Joe Zawinul), during the 1970’s? Many other musicians that weren’t associated with Miles Davis were making great strides in this direction too.

    Larry Coryell? Saw him at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village, not far from your peeps.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    Larry Coryell's "The Eleventh House" was one of these early jazz-fusion groups that took the world by storm. How did you like the show?

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/bIoAAOSwyFBhip~L/s-l500.jpg

    Replies: @Mikhail

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    Here's a Ukie/Russkie transplant who's been making waives for a few years now. On this album, amongst others, is Larry Coryell playing along. Al DiMeola thinks highly of Roman Miroshnichenko too. Anybody out there heard or seen this guy play?

    https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518RIDr+8iL.jpg

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @Barbarossa

  298. @songbird
    @That Would Be Telling

    Somewhere in The Sword in the Stone, TH White wrote about armor making knights immune and thus indifferent to the consequences of war, which fall disproportionately on peasants.

    It's kind of a thin analogy, and, I'm not even sure how to judge the historicity of it. But, in any case, nuclear weapons must be the ultimate inversion of it. Despite their indiscriminate and awe-inspiring power - they are like heat-seeking missiles, shooting through the armor (the status) of the elite. Sure to take them down a peg or two, even if they are sitting in a custom-made fallout shelter, with plenty of supplies.

    Replies: @sher singh, @Philip Owen

    Old, but Gold.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @sher singh

    Someone should do a biomass calculation for different ethnic groups. Better yet, make it a trendline to 2100. Maybe, it could be split different ways, fat/muscle/brain. Testosterone/estrogen, if we had a good handle on it.

    I enjoy a lot of these BN-skeptical posts, but I am not sure what to think about the ordering of Western civilization. Hard to juggle and weigh the priorities of sub-Saharan Africa vs. Israel. Looking at the US Cabinet would definitely make it lean a certain way.

  299. @sher singh
    @songbird

    Old, but Gold.

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/732/227/6c4.png

    Replies: @songbird

    Someone should do a biomass calculation for different ethnic groups. Better yet, make it a trendline to 2100. Maybe, it could be split different ways, fat/muscle/brain. Testosterone/estrogen, if we had a good handle on it.

    I enjoy a lot of these BN-skeptical posts, but I am not sure what to think about the ordering of Western civilization. Hard to juggle and weigh the priorities of sub-Saharan Africa vs. Israel. Looking at the US Cabinet would definitely make it lean a certain way.

  300. @Yellowface Anon
    @RadicalCenter

    Why should Trumpists shoot themselves in the feet by depriving themselves of a large pool of manual labor. Go full Generalplan Ost, annex Mexico and turn it into the largest labor camp ever. Same thing with the entire swaths of those Brown lands southeast of Europe.

    Don't stop at that, reduce them to a suitable size as to not overwhelm the superior races.

    /s

    What migratory capitalism has done and still doing is reverse-fascism, if you will.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @RadicalCenter

    I’m not against repatriating immigrants who indeed entered the country illegally given that they haven’t gained citizenship, or even restricting legal immigration esp. on skill and/or racial grounds (not for them either). It’s your own country and your political leadership to decide whether foreigners are welcome, whatever power ethno-nationalists can gain. But we need to be on watch if this internal tendency become exported, i.e. justifying neo-fascist colonialism and serfdom of the indigenes in the sphere of influence of any ethno-nationalist state.

  301. @Mikhail
    @Mr. Hack


    But you probably came to appreciate the Jazz-fusion period fueled by players that left Davis and went on to form groups of their own: Return to Forever (Chick Corea), Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McGlaughlin), Weather Report (Joe Zawinul), during the 1970’s? Many other musicians that weren’t associated with Miles Davis were making great strides in this direction too.
     
    Larry Coryell? Saw him at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village, not far from your peeps.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

    Larry Coryell’s “The Eleventh House” was one of these early jazz-fusion groups that took the world by storm. How did you like the show?

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @Mr. Hack

    Thumbs up. Jorma Kaukonen also comes to mind.

  302. @Dmitry
    @Aedib

    The irony is nobody in the world hates Putin/Kremlin, more than Lukashenko.

    But his position is always vulnerable on the both flanks, and the EU and Poland considers him more unacceptable than he has naively understood before 2020.

    This is partly why he seemed distracted so much and idiotically trying to be friendly to Poland/EU in 2019, as his "multivector" strategy, when he was hit from the other flank last year.

    Nowadays his bargaining position is even far weaker than in 2019, and he has almost no leverage against Russia (but still he seems to try to bargain).

    Replies: @Aedib

    It is a matter of personality. He will always try to bargain.

  303. @LatW
    @Aedib


    And this is really funny because gets the Eurocrats hysterical.
     
    Well, the ever caring uncle Lavrov just joined the trolling by suggesting that the EU pay Belarus to keep the migrants at bay.

    Replies: @Aedib, @A123

    To give credit where it is due…. This is an excellent Troll by Lukashenko (1)

    A Jan.6 ‘Capitol Rioter’ Is Being Hailed As A Hero In Belarus, Where He’s Hiding From The FBI

    A 48-year old man who is an alleged Jan.6 ‘Capitol rioter’ is currently seeking political asylum in Belarus, in a bizarre story capturing global headlines, also given heavy FBI involvement and a manhunt underway.

    After California resident Evan Neumann was charged in July with six criminal counts he reportedly fled to eastern Europe, and was subsequently placed on the US Most Wanted List. He’s since emerged in Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus, where he’s been given a hero’s treatment, with state media portraying him as a “simple American” who is fleeing “political persecution”.

    interestingly, the ex-Soviet Republic of Belarus – which is widely described as Europe’s last dictatorship (given President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule of 26 years) – is featuring his story as an example of Western hypocrisy and America’s crackdown on human rights.

    How can Not-The-President Biden’s illegitimate administration respond?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/jan6-capitol-rioter-being-hailed-hero-belarus-where-hes-hiding-fbi

    • Agree: RadicalCenter
    • Replies: @LatW
    @A123


    Capitol rioter’ is currently seeking political asylum in Belarus
     
    Yes, I saw that and I remember this guy. I also remember a mother together with her grown son.

    Belarus is not a bad place to live, if he manages to get asylum there.

    But these types shouldn't be allowed into Ukraine or the Baltic States. They will side with Russia and in the case of a regional conflict they need to be taken out.

    Replies: @Mitleser

  304. @A123
    From the Rittenhouse trial.

    At what point is deliberately prosecuting a frivolous charge a crime?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1457778454062006277?s=20

    Replies: @Pericles

    Lol, Captain Picard is that you?

    • Replies: @A123
    @Pericles

    Possibly.... see [MORE]

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇




    https://i.pinimg.com/564x/97/5c/59/975c59692943cb30e51f293bf087a528.jpg

  305. @Pericles
    @A123

    Lol, Captain Picard is that you?

    Replies: @A123

    Possibly…. see [MORE]

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    [MORE]

  306. It is interesting how indifferent the US was to Americans rounded up by the NKVD during the Terror. Quite a contrast to modern America, which is stereotyped as sending in special forces to rescue American hostages/ which tries to turn the Third World gay/and which wants to take the last Afghan out of Kabul on a Chinook.

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    It is interesting how indifferent the US was to Americans rounded up by the NKVD during the Terror.
     
    That's because enough of our and the West's elites were already on the side of the USSR by that time. Couldn't for example explain why granting it diplomatic recognition earlier in the decade without getting anything in return turned out to be a bad deal, and completely and successfully denied the existence of the Holodomor. Even set up our legal system to explicitly allow a terror famine like it.

    Replies: @songbird

  307. @songbird
    It is interesting how indifferent the US was to Americans rounded up by the NKVD during the Terror. Quite a contrast to modern America, which is stereotyped as sending in special forces to rescue American hostages/ which tries to turn the Third World gay/and which wants to take the last Afghan out of Kabul on a Chinook.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    It is interesting how indifferent the US was to Americans rounded up by the NKVD during the Terror.

    That’s because enough of our and the West’s elites were already on the side of the USSR by that time. Couldn’t for example explain why granting it diplomatic recognition earlier in the decade without getting anything in return turned out to be a bad deal, and completely and successfully denied the existence of the Holodomor. Even set up our legal system to explicitly allow a terror famine like it.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @That Would Be Telling

    FDR's regime definitely seems to have favored the USSR, including his ambassador Davies (I'll have to try to read his glowing book about the USSR, sometime.)

    One could come up with competing theories too. Such as the elite wanted stuff from the Soviets. Master paintings, silver heirlooms, gold from Kolyma. Some people even say that the state department was full of canny WASPs, who understood that ideological supporters of communism were dangerous people to have around.

    But, I tend to take the view that the US was simply a different beast back then, for whatever reason. That the ideological modus was that you are responsible for yourself, wherever you are. Maybe, it takes a large army or economic hegemony to be assertive internationally. Or, maybe, it takes nightly television newscasts to drive rescue operations.

  308. @Mikhail
    @Mr. Hack


    But you probably came to appreciate the Jazz-fusion period fueled by players that left Davis and went on to form groups of their own: Return to Forever (Chick Corea), Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McGlaughlin), Weather Report (Joe Zawinul), during the 1970’s? Many other musicians that weren’t associated with Miles Davis were making great strides in this direction too.
     
    Larry Coryell? Saw him at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village, not far from your peeps.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

    Here’s a Ukie/Russkie transplant who’s been making waives for a few years now. On this album, amongst others, is Larry Coryell playing along. Al DiMeola thinks highly of Roman Miroshnichenko too. Anybody out there heard or seen this guy play?

    • Thanks: Mikhail
    • Replies: @RadicalCenter
    @Mr. Hack

    Russian guitar stronk. Russian guitar never break.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @Barbarossa
    @Mr. Hack

    Miroshnichencko is pretty awesome! I just gave some of his stuff a listen and will definitely keep it on rotation. Thanks for the recommendation.

    If you like Roman Miroshnichencko have you ever heard of Plini?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdSMeBrNp4A

    I listen to a fair bit of Prog Rock/Metal stuff and Plini seems a bit like a faster/ harder edged Miroshnichencko.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

  309. @German_reader
    @Aedib

    German tabloid BILD also had a headline today "Thousands pushing towards Germany - Putin and Lukashenko are blackmailing Europe".
    Obviously I have no idea, if Russia is or isn't somehow involved in this, but the (feigned) outrage is kind of ridiculous, given the pro-immigration stance by the establishment throughout Western Europe.

    Replies: @Aedib, @Pericles

    “Thousands of dentists, engineers and medical doctors pushing towards Germany – Putin and Lukashenko are blackmailing Europe”, I suppose? Human capital rising to dangerous levels.

  310. German_reader says:

    Hahaha, of course “experts” in Germany are clamoring for just letting the migrants in (because it’s only a “limited” number, and otherwise Poland would have to shoot on them, and that would destroy the “European idea”):
    https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2021/278026/

    Even better: Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel’s deal with Erdogan, thinks the “refugees” from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova. Poor Ukraine, now Western shitlibs want to turn it into a dumping ground for rapefugees!
    This goddamned “European idea” which only seems to consist in bending over for every goddamned Mohammedan or negro who turns up on European shores (never defense of genuine European interests) can’t die quickly enough.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @German_reader

    Wasn't so long ago when when Hungary was bashed for not letting in such people.

    , @LatW
    @German_reader


    Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel’s deal with Erdogan, thinks the “refugees” from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova.
     
    Well, neither Gerald Knaus nor some "experts" get to decide who lives in Ukraine, Poland or Lithuania. The laws of those states are still very much in place. The law is that one cannot stay there illegally. In Lithuania, only the Seimas should decide who to make exceptions for, if at all.

    These states are not some hotel lobbies or drive-throughs where anyone who wants can just walk in or walk through.

    Would Mr Knaus like to send a few helicopters (or rather a military plane) to pick up the migrants and take them to Austria? I don't wish that upon Austria, of course (nor do I wish a Mr Knaus upon them).

    But it looks like Brussels has been working the last few days. They're reaching out to the source countries, and they're considering financing the wall. Some EU solidarity has been shown.

    And btw all these hypocrites from Belarus who beat and rape their own population with batons and who now lecture Poland and Lithuania on how to treat the migrants, should remember that the migrants are technically still on the territory of Belarus. Hence, they are the responsibility of Belarus. Apparently, there are 10-15 thousand new arrivals walking around the streets of Minsk awaiting their turn. What if Poland wins the fight and they can't be let into the EU? Where will they go then?

    Replies: @Coconuts

    , @sudden death
    @German_reader


    Even better: Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel’s deal with Erdogan, thinks the “refugees” from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova.
     
    ROFL, that might be a pure Poe's law illustration, cause those plane arriving, 1000$ for Belarus visa paying "refugees" should be just as horrified by this perspective of being sent to Moldova/Ukraine, so one even might think Knaus is actually trying here to create some detterent for next batches of Lukashenko tourists :)

    Replies: @German_reader

  311. Russia and the Vatican in alliance against Poland…

    • Replies: @RadicalCenter
    @German_reader

    How about “the” Vatican take responsibility for them, personally? Where are the African and Muslim “refugees” being settled in “Vatican City”?

    Nobody should still be listening to these hypocrite deviant misfits.

    Replies: @German_reader

  312. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    Here's a Ukie/Russkie transplant who's been making waives for a few years now. On this album, amongst others, is Larry Coryell playing along. Al DiMeola thinks highly of Roman Miroshnichenko too. Anybody out there heard or seen this guy play?

    https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518RIDr+8iL.jpg

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @Barbarossa

    Russian guitar stronk. Russian guitar never break.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @RadicalCenter

    It no break, only melt...

    https://ctl.s6img.com/society6/img/lSPSCl3QpDjDk6I65tPjoSvRW1c/w_1500/serving-trays/large/front/~artwork,fw_2569,fh_3319,fx_-484,fy_-216,iw_3753,ih_3753/s6-original-art-uploads/society6/uploads/misc/3360b14445d9420fb8f21a11b1507a70/~~/salvador-dali-melting-clocks-serving-trays.jpg

    Clocks melt too...

  313. @German_reader
    https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1458050784529158144

    Russia and the Vatican in alliance against Poland...

    Replies: @RadicalCenter

    How about “the” Vatican take responsibility for them, personally? Where are the African and Muslim “refugees” being settled in “Vatican City”?

    Nobody should still be listening to these hypocrite deviant misfits.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @RadicalCenter


    Nobody should still be listening to these hypocrite deviant misfits.
     
    That's my own position. The Catholic church today must be considered an enemy of European peoples, the fact that even in the present situation (clearly orchestrated by Belarus and maybe Russia) they're actively trying to subvert Polish sovereignty because of their insane cult of migration is absolutely damning imo. They should be told to mind their own business, like dealing with pederast priests, there's a lot to do in that regard after all. But of course it's a very difficult situation for Polish right-wingers and conservatives, due to the unfortunate association of Polish national identity with Catholicism.

    Replies: @A123

  314. @Yellowface Anon
    @RadicalCenter

    Why should Trumpists shoot themselves in the feet by depriving themselves of a large pool of manual labor. Go full Generalplan Ost, annex Mexico and turn it into the largest labor camp ever. Same thing with the entire swaths of those Brown lands southeast of Europe.

    Don't stop at that, reduce them to a suitable size as to not overwhelm the superior races.

    /s

    What migratory capitalism has done and still doing is reverse-fascism, if you will.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @RadicalCenter

    Trumpist is a foolish word meant to make people sound silly rather than providing argument, and I didn’t vote for Trump in 2020 anyway.

    If you’re not just trolling, of course we should do none of those things and should mind our business when it comes to the internal affairs of other countries, whatever the skin color of the people there.

    As for a big pool of cheap foreign labor, it hasn’t been cheap at all — not in economic terms, not in social terms. Many of the jobs that these colonizers do in the USA can and should be done by native-born US citizens, if not automated. And an increasing number of such jobs are being automated as we speak, in agriculture and retail and rideshare, eventually even in the building trades.

    Pay native-born US citizens enough to induce them to do all jobs we need done, or automate the jobs. No “need” for massive Latino colonization of our country fifty years ago and no need now.

    • Agree: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @RadicalCenter

    Where I live there are a lot of lower class whites. All the good jobs left decades ago and the thriving small farms were rendered obsolete by government policy. The once respectable hard working people have degenerated over a couple of generations into welfare dependent, obese, meth and opioid addled white trash.

    This situation is analogous to what has happened to inner city blacks though the rural whites lag a couple decades.

    The powers that be would much rather let all these people rot, and import cheap hard working Central Americans to do the work required to run this country. It would be a long road to turn around the degenerate ethos of many inner city blacks and rural whites, but the government and industry has no interest in undertaking such a project even though their policies and greed have created the problems.

    I just did a travel job in Southampton Long Island and the customers were blown away that "real American men" (their words) who were competent, spoke English, and weren't drug addicts were working on their project. It's bad everywhere and it's only getting worse.

    I don't agree that jobs should be widely automated though. I think automation is the other prong to mass immigration in the same capital squeezing strategy. Wages need to rise sharply, so the present labor crunch may be a good corrective there.

    I hate those vile camera monitored self check out machines. Let's just pay cashier's well and expect them to provide a pleasant human interaction. It's deeply anti-social to remove all incidental human interaction. We need more of it, not less!

  315. German_reader says:
    @RadicalCenter
    @German_reader

    How about “the” Vatican take responsibility for them, personally? Where are the African and Muslim “refugees” being settled in “Vatican City”?

    Nobody should still be listening to these hypocrite deviant misfits.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Nobody should still be listening to these hypocrite deviant misfits.

    That’s my own position. The Catholic church today must be considered an enemy of European peoples, the fact that even in the present situation (clearly orchestrated by Belarus and maybe Russia) they’re actively trying to subvert Polish sovereignty because of their insane cult of migration is absolutely damning imo. They should be told to mind their own business, like dealing with pederast priests, there’s a lot to do in that regard after all. But of course it’s a very difficult situation for Polish right-wingers and conservatives, due to the unfortunate association of Polish national identity with Catholicism.

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader

    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.

    It will be interesting to see if the Catholic Church can do better with their next selection. At least one of the major Christian branches in the U.S. and Europe needs to fully revive as leader for traditional Judeo-Christian values.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader, @RadicalCenter, @Yellowface Anon

  316. @German_reader
    @RadicalCenter


    Nobody should still be listening to these hypocrite deviant misfits.
     
    That's my own position. The Catholic church today must be considered an enemy of European peoples, the fact that even in the present situation (clearly orchestrated by Belarus and maybe Russia) they're actively trying to subvert Polish sovereignty because of their insane cult of migration is absolutely damning imo. They should be told to mind their own business, like dealing with pederast priests, there's a lot to do in that regard after all. But of course it's a very difficult situation for Polish right-wingers and conservatives, due to the unfortunate association of Polish national identity with Catholicism.

    Replies: @A123

    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.

    It will be interesting to see if the Catholic Church can do better with their next selection. At least one of the major Christian branches in the U.S. and Europe needs to fully revive as leader for traditional Judeo-Christian values.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @A123


    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.
     
    It's hardly him alone. How many prelates are there who are skeptical about mass immigration? The only one I can think of is that cardinal from Ghana, bishop Sarah. Maybe some bishops in Hungary as well. But the majority of the hierarchy seem to be fanatical immigrationists who think there's a duty to accept basically unlimited numbers of migrants for reasons of economic "justice".

    Replies: @utu, @Aedib

    , @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    It would seem that a supposed Christian leader should advocate and model Christian values, not some other religion/race’s values conflated or mixed with Christian values. Judeo-Christian is a rather absurd term — or if it’s not, then perhaps Christianity itself is part of the problem.

    And it’s not just the current pope who is a liar, a corrupt thief, and an abetter of deviants who prey on teenage boys and young priests. It’s the previous popes, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, etc. You’re either indulging in wishful thinking or dissembling for the sake of the sickos running that institution for a loooong time now.

    The RC church is long past the point where anyone sensible and not a gullible schmuck would wait for their next selection to be “The Pope.” Who cares. Withdraw financial and moral support until they lose influence and eventually collapse. Enough already.

    Replies: @A123

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    PBUYT

    Will they even be able to select the Pope after Francis?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes#Petrus_Romanus

    Replies: @A123

  317. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    Larry Coryell's "The Eleventh House" was one of these early jazz-fusion groups that took the world by storm. How did you like the show?

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/bIoAAOSwyFBhip~L/s-l500.jpg

    Replies: @Mikhail

    Thumbs up. Jorma Kaukonen also comes to mind.

  318. @German_reader
    Hahaha, of course "experts" in Germany are clamoring for just letting the migrants in (because it's only a "limited" number, and otherwise Poland would have to shoot on them, and that would destroy the "European idea"):
    https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2021/278026/

    Even better: Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel's deal with Erdogan, thinks the "refugees" from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova. Poor Ukraine, now Western shitlibs want to turn it into a dumping ground for rapefugees!
    This goddamned "European idea" which only seems to consist in bending over for every goddamned Mohammedan or negro who turns up on European shores (never defense of genuine European interests) can't die quickly enough.

    Replies: @Mikhail, @LatW, @sudden death

    Wasn’t so long ago when when Hungary was bashed for not letting in such people.

  319. @A123
    @LatW

    To give credit where it is due.... This is an excellent Troll by Lukashenko (1)


    A Jan.6 'Capitol Rioter' Is Being Hailed As A Hero In Belarus, Where He's Hiding From The FBI

    A 48-year old man who is an alleged Jan.6 'Capitol rioter' is currently seeking political asylum in Belarus, in a bizarre story capturing global headlines, also given heavy FBI involvement and a manhunt underway.

    After California resident Evan Neumann was charged in July with six criminal counts he reportedly fled to eastern Europe, and was subsequently placed on the US Most Wanted List. He's since emerged in Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus, where he's been given a hero's treatment, with state media portraying him as a "simple American" who is fleeing "political persecution".
    ...
    interestingly, the ex-Soviet Republic of Belarus - which is widely described as Europe's last dictatorship (given President Alexander Lukashenko's rule of 26 years) - is featuring his story as an example of Western hypocrisy and America's crackdown on human rights.

     
    How can Not-The-President Biden's illegitimate administration respond?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/jan6-capitol-rioter-being-hailed-hero-belarus-where-hes-hiding-fbi

    Replies: @LatW

    Capitol rioter’ is currently seeking political asylum in Belarus

    Yes, I saw that and I remember this guy. I also remember a mother together with her grown son.

    Belarus is not a bad place to live, if he manages to get asylum there.

    But these types shouldn’t be allowed into Ukraine or the Baltic States. They will side with Russia and in the case of a regional conflict they need to be taken out.

    • Replies: @Mitleser
    @LatW

    Do you remember him? This is a guy who previously sided with the anti-Russians in the Ukraine.
    That is why he fled there after leaving the USA.


    Neumann had previously attended the Ukrainian Revolution in 2004 and 2005, the FBI found,...
     

    Replies: @LatW

  320. German_reader says:
    @A123
    @German_reader

    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.

    It will be interesting to see if the Catholic Church can do better with their next selection. At least one of the major Christian branches in the U.S. and Europe needs to fully revive as leader for traditional Judeo-Christian values.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader, @RadicalCenter, @Yellowface Anon

    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.

    It’s hardly him alone. How many prelates are there who are skeptical about mass immigration? The only one I can think of is that cardinal from Ghana, bishop Sarah. Maybe some bishops in Hungary as well. But the majority of the hierarchy seem to be fanatical immigrationists who think there’s a duty to accept basically unlimited numbers of migrants for reasons of economic “justice”.

    • Replies: @utu
    @German_reader


    the hierarchy seem to be fanatical immigrationists who think there’s a duty to accept basically unlimited numbers of migrants for reasons of economic “justice”
     
    Fanatical? Nonsense. Catholics are not fanatical about anything? The hierarchy can be principial on some issues like abortion but they are not fanatical.

    Fanaticism whether on the left or the right is what can be characterized as Germanic pagan quality which is by nature parochial. Speaking on behalf of all people of the world is what global organization like Catholic Church must do. It is just unavoidable.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Coconuts

    , @Aedib
    @German_reader

    May be he seems migration in a positive light because of he is Argentine. This population of this country was formed, mostly, by migrants from south and east Europe blending with an outnumbered native population. Now, in spite of economic woes, Argentina is still receiving migrants from other South-American countries. The “little problem” is that the experience is not applicable to European countries and that MENA vandals are not like south and eastern Europeans workers the departed to the Americas a century ago. It is not the same to build a population for a young country than preserve the population of an established country. On the other hand, what astonish me is that the “migration policy” is a sort of official Vatican policy. This indicates that the Pope is not alone supporting this. Therefore the Euro-establishment must be behind this suicide behavior.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @German_reader

  321. @German_reader
    Hahaha, of course "experts" in Germany are clamoring for just letting the migrants in (because it's only a "limited" number, and otherwise Poland would have to shoot on them, and that would destroy the "European idea"):
    https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2021/278026/

    Even better: Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel's deal with Erdogan, thinks the "refugees" from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova. Poor Ukraine, now Western shitlibs want to turn it into a dumping ground for rapefugees!
    This goddamned "European idea" which only seems to consist in bending over for every goddamned Mohammedan or negro who turns up on European shores (never defense of genuine European interests) can't die quickly enough.

    Replies: @Mikhail, @LatW, @sudden death

    Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel’s deal with Erdogan, thinks the “refugees” from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova.

    Well, neither Gerald Knaus nor some “experts” get to decide who lives in Ukraine, Poland or Lithuania. The laws of those states are still very much in place. The law is that one cannot stay there illegally. In Lithuania, only the Seimas should decide who to make exceptions for, if at all.

    These states are not some hotel lobbies or drive-throughs where anyone who wants can just walk in or walk through.

    Would Mr Knaus like to send a few helicopters (or rather a military plane) to pick up the migrants and take them to Austria? I don’t wish that upon Austria, of course (nor do I wish a Mr Knaus upon them).

    But it looks like Brussels has been working the last few days. They’re reaching out to the source countries, and they’re considering financing the wall. Some EU solidarity has been shown.

    And btw all these hypocrites from Belarus who beat and rape their own population with batons and who now lecture Poland and Lithuania on how to treat the migrants, should remember that the migrants are technically still on the territory of Belarus. Hence, they are the responsibility of Belarus. Apparently, there are 10-15 thousand new arrivals walking around the streets of Minsk awaiting their turn. What if Poland wins the fight and they can’t be let into the EU? Where will they go then?

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @LatW


    And btw all these hypocrites from Belarus who beat and rape their own population with batons and who now lecture Poland and Lithuania on how to treat the migrants, should remember that the migrants are technically still on the territory of Belarus. Hence, they are the responsibility of Belarus. Apparently, there are 10-15 thousand new arrivals walking around the streets of Minsk awaiting their turn. What if Poland wins the fight and they can’t be let into the EU? Where will they go then?
     
    Maybe the Belarusians would offer to let some stay (those with families), provided they went to live in villages to work on collective farms or something like that, and were constantly monitored by the security services. I imagine most would be sent back, they come on some kind of 5 day visa for a Covid vaccination, so when they stay in Belarus at the Polish border without making an official Belarusian claim for asylum within that period they probably become immigration criminals.

    On the other hand the Belarusians may also have all kinds of bureaucratic methods to make it difficult to lodge a claim for asylum, and AFAIK the KGB can deport any foreign alien on national security grounds and the only oversight on this comes from Lukashenko himself.

    But, it's true that Belarus is a safe country unless you engage in politics (e.g. wear any red/white combination of clothing, paint anything in a combination of red and white or carry a red and white object around in public, can't imagine any refugees wanting to do this). It can probably accommodate a certain number of refugees so rationally they should be ready to try to stay there and claim asylum if possible. That is if their main object is to flee persecution.

    The whole thing around the idea that refugees have a right to go 'country shopping' for the best deal on their asylum claim may end up compromising the international asylum system.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @LatW

  322. @RadicalCenter
    @Yellowface Anon

    Trumpist is a foolish word meant to make people sound silly rather than providing argument, and I didn’t vote for Trump in 2020 anyway.

    If you’re not just trolling, of course we should do none of those things and should mind our business when it comes to the internal affairs of other countries, whatever the skin color of the people there.

    As for a big pool of cheap foreign labor, it hasn’t been cheap at all — not in economic terms, not in social terms. Many of the jobs that these colonizers do in the USA can and should be done by native-born US citizens, if not automated. And an increasing number of such jobs are being automated as we speak, in agriculture and retail and rideshare, eventually even in the building trades.

    Pay native-born US citizens enough to induce them to do all jobs we need done, or automate the jobs. No “need” for massive Latino colonization of our country fifty years ago and no need now.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    Where I live there are a lot of lower class whites. All the good jobs left decades ago and the thriving small farms were rendered obsolete by government policy. The once respectable hard working people have degenerated over a couple of generations into welfare dependent, obese, meth and opioid addled white trash.

    This situation is analogous to what has happened to inner city blacks though the rural whites lag a couple decades.

    The powers that be would much rather let all these people rot, and import cheap hard working Central Americans to do the work required to run this country. It would be a long road to turn around the degenerate ethos of many inner city blacks and rural whites, but the government and industry has no interest in undertaking such a project even though their policies and greed have created the problems.

    I just did a travel job in Southampton Long Island and the customers were blown away that “real American men” (their words) who were competent, spoke English, and weren’t drug addicts were working on their project. It’s bad everywhere and it’s only getting worse.

    I don’t agree that jobs should be widely automated though. I think automation is the other prong to mass immigration in the same capital squeezing strategy. Wages need to rise sharply, so the present labor crunch may be a good corrective there.

    I hate those vile camera monitored self check out machines. Let’s just pay cashier’s well and expect them to provide a pleasant human interaction. It’s deeply anti-social to remove all incidental human interaction. We need more of it, not less!

    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon, Mr. Hack
  323. But it looks like Brussels has been working the last few days. They’re reaching out to the source countries, and they’re considering financing the wall. Some EU solidarity has been shown.

    There certainly will be some refugee deaths in those makeshift fireplaces and forest slums as below zero Celsius weather is arriving quite soon and Lukashenko clearly is betting on prevailing Brussels behaviour like this by Swedish social democrat commisariatee(sp?):

    European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson met with Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński in Warsaw to discuss the situation on the Eastern border of Poland and the EU with Belarus.

    The Commission is particularly concerned over the recent five deaths of migrants in Poland.

    The European Union’s Commissioner for Home Affairs has warned Greece to stop the practice of “pushbacks,” which force refugees and migrants back to Turkey instead of allowing them into the country.

    Ylva Johansson described the practice as “violations of our fundamental European values.”

    Johansson said Frontex’s dramatic expansion — including a program to create a 10,000-strong standing corps of border guards in the coming years — was no excuse for problems at the Warsaw-based agency, which stands accused of illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers and mismanagement, and is also facing allegations of harassment and misconduct.

    Johansson has previously signaled dissatisfaction with Frontex. In October, she called for an urgent board meeting following media reports alleging the agency’s involvement in pushbacks of asylum seekers at the Greek-Turkish maritime border.

    https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-13/Greece-warned-migrant-pushbacks-violate-EU-values-and-must-stop-11RTqgfqakw/index.html

    https://www.politico.eu/article/frontex-chief-fabrice-leggeri-under-fire-from-eu-commissioner-ylva-johansson/

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/commissioner-johansson-failed-to-convince-poland-on-pushbacks/

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @sudden death

    OTOH, the latest from von der Leyen, which at least formally current boss of Ylva Johansson:


    We were then focusing on the situation on the EU-Belarus border. This is not a bilateral issue of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. This is a challenge to the whole of the European Union. And this is not a migration crisis. This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours.
     
    https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_21_5906

    Replies: @LatW, @Aedib

    , @LatW
    @sudden death


    There certainly will be some refugee deaths in those makeshift fireplaces and forest slums as below zero Celsius weather is arriving quite soon
     
    It was -1 last night in Poland. There might be deaths and also some might have to give birth. What the fuck were the husbands thinking bringing their pregnant wives over?

    They should be given some relief but not allowed to cross the border. They are on Belarusian soil and should be asking for asylum there. They are testing us, "vzyat' na slabo" as Russians say.


    Lukashenko clearly is betting on prevailing Brussels behaviour like this
     
    Yes, but no one knows how the chips will fall. He may be stuck with thousands of migrants on his own soil.

    by Swedish social democrat commisariatee(sp?)
     
    What do you expect from a Swede. Don't worry, taken altogether, us, Poland, some support within the EU -- we are larger in numbers than Sweden. No, the language has to be straightforward: This is hybrid war, this is human trafficking, these are economic migrants, not fugees. And zero emotion in reaction to Russian propaganda.

    Back before Schengen, when we traveled to places in the Western Europe, they would make us go through lengthy interviews and what not, before we could be let in even for a few days as tourists (all dressed nicely, with good intentions to return home after the trip). This still happens in the US. They're in no position to lecture to us.

    The Poles are doing it right by not allowing anyone near the place. No transparency until real help is delivered. Political, financial, logistical.

  324. @German_reader
    Hahaha, of course "experts" in Germany are clamoring for just letting the migrants in (because it's only a "limited" number, and otherwise Poland would have to shoot on them, and that would destroy the "European idea"):
    https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2021/278026/

    Even better: Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel's deal with Erdogan, thinks the "refugees" from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova. Poor Ukraine, now Western shitlibs want to turn it into a dumping ground for rapefugees!
    This goddamned "European idea" which only seems to consist in bending over for every goddamned Mohammedan or negro who turns up on European shores (never defense of genuine European interests) can't die quickly enough.

    Replies: @Mikhail, @LatW, @sudden death

    Even better: Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel’s deal with Erdogan, thinks the “refugees” from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova.

    ROFL, that might be a pure Poe’s law illustration, cause those plane arriving, 1000\$ for Belarus visa paying “refugees” should be just as horrified by this perspective of being sent to Moldova/Ukraine, so one even might think Knaus is actually trying here to create some detterent for next batches of Lukashenko tourists 🙂

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death


    cause those plane arriving, 1000$ for Belarus visa paying “refugees” should be just as horrified by this perspective of being sent to Moldova/Ukraine
     
    It's total nonsense of course, would only make sense if one assumes that the "refugees" are people fleeing outright persecution and danger for their lives, so would be happy to go to any reasonably safe place. But they're mostly economic migrants (apparently many Kurds from northern Iraq) who insist on going to Germany and other northwest European welfare paradises, and nowhere else, so presumably would try to leave Ukraine at the first opportunity.
    Knaus must be either stupid or dishonest, but in any case "Let's send them to Ukraine" betrays a stunning arrogance.

    Replies: @A123

  325. @German_reader
    @A123


    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.
     
    It's hardly him alone. How many prelates are there who are skeptical about mass immigration? The only one I can think of is that cardinal from Ghana, bishop Sarah. Maybe some bishops in Hungary as well. But the majority of the hierarchy seem to be fanatical immigrationists who think there's a duty to accept basically unlimited numbers of migrants for reasons of economic "justice".

    Replies: @utu, @Aedib

    the hierarchy seem to be fanatical immigrationists who think there’s a duty to accept basically unlimited numbers of migrants for reasons of economic “justice”

    Fanatical? Nonsense. Catholics are not fanatical about anything? The hierarchy can be principial on some issues like abortion but they are not fanatical.

    Fanaticism whether on the left or the right is what can be characterized as Germanic pagan quality which is by nature parochial. Speaking on behalf of all people of the world is what global organization like Catholic Church must do. It is just unavoidable.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @utu


    Speaking on behalf of all people of the world is what global organization like Catholic Church must do.
     
    Ok, so you're fine with global freedom of migration now, the right for billions from the global south to come to Europe at their own choosing, getting full access to European welfare states and easy naturalization? Because that's what ultimately the position of the Catholic church comes down to, and obviously the consequences for European peoples (not just "fanatical Germanic pagans") would be disastrous.
    , @Coconuts
    @utu

    It seems strange to me though, usually the Church is more careful about sticking to international rules. In this case this would seem to involve the refugees trying to claim asylum in Belarus, since its the first safe territory they arrive in.

  326. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @German_reader


    Even better: Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel’s deal with Erdogan, thinks the “refugees” from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova.
     
    ROFL, that might be a pure Poe's law illustration, cause those plane arriving, 1000$ for Belarus visa paying "refugees" should be just as horrified by this perspective of being sent to Moldova/Ukraine, so one even might think Knaus is actually trying here to create some detterent for next batches of Lukashenko tourists :)

    Replies: @German_reader

    cause those plane arriving, 1000\$ for Belarus visa paying “refugees” should be just as horrified by this perspective of being sent to Moldova/Ukraine

    It’s total nonsense of course, would only make sense if one assumes that the “refugees” are people fleeing outright persecution and danger for their lives, so would be happy to go to any reasonably safe place. But they’re mostly economic migrants (apparently many Kurds from northern Iraq) who insist on going to Germany and other northwest European welfare paradises, and nowhere else, so presumably would try to leave Ukraine at the first opportunity.
    Knaus must be either stupid or dishonest, but in any case “Let’s send them to Ukraine” betrays a stunning arrogance.

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader


    they’re mostly economic migrants ... who insist on going to Germany and other northwest European welfare paradises
     
    And, there is the problem. The steps to fix it are easy to summarize:

    -1- End the handouts to those who entered illegally.
    -2- Provide limited support to a cross border haven that meets the minimum needs of true refugees, but is insufficient to attract economic migrants.
    -3- Strongly penalize *employers* that hire illegals under the table

    This also increases local wages of native citizens. A huge win reducing benefit payments and increasing tax collections.

    Why are politicians incapable of seeing easy solutions for easy problems? Wow! That is so naive. Pretend I did not ask that.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
  327. German_reader says:
    @utu
    @German_reader


    the hierarchy seem to be fanatical immigrationists who think there’s a duty to accept basically unlimited numbers of migrants for reasons of economic “justice”
     
    Fanatical? Nonsense. Catholics are not fanatical about anything? The hierarchy can be principial on some issues like abortion but they are not fanatical.

    Fanaticism whether on the left or the right is what can be characterized as Germanic pagan quality which is by nature parochial. Speaking on behalf of all people of the world is what global organization like Catholic Church must do. It is just unavoidable.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Coconuts

    Speaking on behalf of all people of the world is what global organization like Catholic Church must do.

    Ok, so you’re fine with global freedom of migration now, the right for billions from the global south to come to Europe at their own choosing, getting full access to European welfare states and easy naturalization? Because that’s what ultimately the position of the Catholic church comes down to, and obviously the consequences for European peoples (not just “fanatical Germanic pagans”) would be disastrous.

  328. @LatW
    @German_reader


    Gerald Knaus, the Austrian wanker who hit upon the brilliant idea of Merkel’s deal with Erdogan, thinks the “refugees” from Belarus should be sent to Western allies like Ukraine and Moldova.
     
    Well, neither Gerald Knaus nor some "experts" get to decide who lives in Ukraine, Poland or Lithuania. The laws of those states are still very much in place. The law is that one cannot stay there illegally. In Lithuania, only the Seimas should decide who to make exceptions for, if at all.

    These states are not some hotel lobbies or drive-throughs where anyone who wants can just walk in or walk through.

    Would Mr Knaus like to send a few helicopters (or rather a military plane) to pick up the migrants and take them to Austria? I don't wish that upon Austria, of course (nor do I wish a Mr Knaus upon them).

    But it looks like Brussels has been working the last few days. They're reaching out to the source countries, and they're considering financing the wall. Some EU solidarity has been shown.

    And btw all these hypocrites from Belarus who beat and rape their own population with batons and who now lecture Poland and Lithuania on how to treat the migrants, should remember that the migrants are technically still on the territory of Belarus. Hence, they are the responsibility of Belarus. Apparently, there are 10-15 thousand new arrivals walking around the streets of Minsk awaiting their turn. What if Poland wins the fight and they can't be let into the EU? Where will they go then?

    Replies: @Coconuts

    And btw all these hypocrites from Belarus who beat and rape their own population with batons and who now lecture Poland and Lithuania on how to treat the migrants, should remember that the migrants are technically still on the territory of Belarus. Hence, they are the responsibility of Belarus. Apparently, there are 10-15 thousand new arrivals walking around the streets of Minsk awaiting their turn. What if Poland wins the fight and they can’t be let into the EU? Where will they go then?

    Maybe the Belarusians would offer to let some stay (those with families), provided they went to live in villages to work on collective farms or something like that, and were constantly monitored by the security services. I imagine most would be sent back, they come on some kind of 5 day visa for a Covid vaccination, so when they stay in Belarus at the Polish border without making an official Belarusian claim for asylum within that period they probably become immigration criminals.

    On the other hand the Belarusians may also have all kinds of bureaucratic methods to make it difficult to lodge a claim for asylum, and AFAIK the KGB can deport any foreign alien on national security grounds and the only oversight on this comes from Lukashenko himself.

    But, it’s true that Belarus is a safe country unless you engage in politics (e.g. wear any red/white combination of clothing, paint anything in a combination of red and white or carry a red and white object around in public, can’t imagine any refugees wanting to do this). It can probably accommodate a certain number of refugees so rationally they should be ready to try to stay there and claim asylum if possible. That is if their main object is to flee persecution.

    The whole thing around the idea that refugees have a right to go ‘country shopping’ for the best deal on their asylum claim may end up compromising the international asylum system.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Coconuts

    The big Belarusian mobile company MTS has a logo with a white egg on a red background but somehow they still get away with it.

    , @LatW
    @Coconuts


    Maybe the Belarusians would offer to let some stay (those with families), provided they went to live in villages to work on collective farms or something like that
     
    These numbers are not yet that large, so, hypothetically, they can all be dispersed through out the country or even around Minsk. Village life could be really amazing. Also, we don't see too many from sub Saharan Africa. Syrians, Kurds... frankly, Belarusians can circumvent many rules, so hypothetically, they can not only settle them across the country and let them do gardening or what not, but also slap a Norplant on their arm (not that I am a supporter of doling out contraceptives), request that their women use only Slavic material for procreation but not allow the men to do the same and control them in other ways. Not saying it's ethical or that they would do it, they may not have the heart for it, just that they could if they wanted to. Their siloviks have done more cruel things to their own population. They are isolated enough as a country to get away with all kinds of sh*t.

    But, it’s true that Belarus is a safe country unless you engage in politics (e.g. wear any red/white combination of clothing, paint anything in a combination of red and white or carry a red and white object around in public, can’t imagine any refugees wanting to do this).

     

    That's what I meant. It is safe if you're completely neutral or don't promote the real Belarusian /
    GDL identity. If I were not a supporter of svidos and the zmahar, I would very happily stay in Belarus or in Russia for a while.

    Anyway, according to some YouTube sources in Belarus, the migrants are still arriving, they are in hotels in Minsk, some are gathering in tunnels downtown, it's an unusual sight for the locals, but they do not appear to be a real nuisance yet.

    Replies: @sher singh

  329. @sudden death

    But it looks like Brussels has been working the last few days. They’re reaching out to the source countries, and they’re considering financing the wall. Some EU solidarity has been shown.
     
    There certainly will be some refugee deaths in those makeshift fireplaces and forest slums as below zero Celsius weather is arriving quite soon and Lukashenko clearly is betting on prevailing Brussels behaviour like this by Swedish social democrat commisariatee(sp?):

    European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson met with Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński in Warsaw to discuss the situation on the Eastern border of Poland and the EU with Belarus.

    The Commission is particularly concerned over the recent five deaths of migrants in Poland.
     


    The European Union's Commissioner for Home Affairs has warned Greece to stop the practice of "pushbacks," which force refugees and migrants back to Turkey instead of allowing them into the country.

    Ylva Johansson described the practice as "violations of our fundamental European values."
     


    Johansson said Frontex’s dramatic expansion — including a program to create a 10,000-strong standing corps of border guards in the coming years — was no excuse for problems at the Warsaw-based agency, which stands accused of illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers and mismanagement, and is also facing allegations of harassment and misconduct.

    Johansson has previously signaled dissatisfaction with Frontex. In October, she called for an urgent board meeting following media reports alleging the agency’s involvement in pushbacks of asylum seekers at the Greek-Turkish maritime border.
     

    https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-13/Greece-warned-migrant-pushbacks-violate-EU-values-and-must-stop-11RTqgfqakw/index.html

    https://www.politico.eu/article/frontex-chief-fabrice-leggeri-under-fire-from-eu-commissioner-ylva-johansson/

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/commissioner-johansson-failed-to-convince-poland-on-pushbacks/

    Replies: @sudden death, @LatW

    OTOH, the latest from von der Leyen, which at least formally current boss of Ylva Johansson:

    We were then focusing on the situation on the EU-Belarus border. This is not a bilateral issue of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. This is a challenge to the whole of the European Union. And this is not a migration crisis. This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours.

    https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_21_5906

    • Replies: @LatW
    @sudden death

    I know, I saw that. That's my girl.

    But Poland and Lithuania should help her by providing some relief. Just throw it over the fence.

    Replies: @A123, @sudden death

    , @Aedib
    @sudden death


    This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours.
     
    It seems that the Eurocrats do not like to drink their own medicine.
  330. @sudden death

    But it looks like Brussels has been working the last few days. They’re reaching out to the source countries, and they’re considering financing the wall. Some EU solidarity has been shown.
     
    There certainly will be some refugee deaths in those makeshift fireplaces and forest slums as below zero Celsius weather is arriving quite soon and Lukashenko clearly is betting on prevailing Brussels behaviour like this by Swedish social democrat commisariatee(sp?):

    European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson met with Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński in Warsaw to discuss the situation on the Eastern border of Poland and the EU with Belarus.

    The Commission is particularly concerned over the recent five deaths of migrants in Poland.
     


    The European Union's Commissioner for Home Affairs has warned Greece to stop the practice of "pushbacks," which force refugees and migrants back to Turkey instead of allowing them into the country.

    Ylva Johansson described the practice as "violations of our fundamental European values."
     


    Johansson said Frontex’s dramatic expansion — including a program to create a 10,000-strong standing corps of border guards in the coming years — was no excuse for problems at the Warsaw-based agency, which stands accused of illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers and mismanagement, and is also facing allegations of harassment and misconduct.

    Johansson has previously signaled dissatisfaction with Frontex. In October, she called for an urgent board meeting following media reports alleging the agency’s involvement in pushbacks of asylum seekers at the Greek-Turkish maritime border.
     

    https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-13/Greece-warned-migrant-pushbacks-violate-EU-values-and-must-stop-11RTqgfqakw/index.html

    https://www.politico.eu/article/frontex-chief-fabrice-leggeri-under-fire-from-eu-commissioner-ylva-johansson/

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/commissioner-johansson-failed-to-convince-poland-on-pushbacks/

    Replies: @sudden death, @LatW

    There certainly will be some refugee deaths in those makeshift fireplaces and forest slums as below zero Celsius weather is arriving quite soon

    It was -1 last night in Poland. There might be deaths and also some might have to give birth. What the fuck were the husbands thinking bringing their pregnant wives over?

    They should be given some relief but not allowed to cross the border. They are on Belarusian soil and should be asking for asylum there. They are testing us, “vzyat’ na slabo” as Russians say.

    Lukashenko clearly is betting on prevailing Brussels behaviour like this

    Yes, but no one knows how the chips will fall. He may be stuck with thousands of migrants on his own soil.

    by Swedish social democrat commisariatee(sp?)

    What do you expect from a Swede. Don’t worry, taken altogether, us, Poland, some support within the EU — we are larger in numbers than Sweden. No, the language has to be straightforward: This is hybrid war, this is human trafficking, these are economic migrants, not fugees. And zero emotion in reaction to Russian propaganda.

    Back before Schengen, when we traveled to places in the Western Europe, they would make us go through lengthy interviews and what not, before we could be let in even for a few days as tourists (all dressed nicely, with good intentions to return home after the trip). This still happens in the US. They’re in no position to lecture to us.

    The Poles are doing it right by not allowing anyone near the place. No transparency until real help is delivered. Political, financial, logistical.

  331. @sudden death
    @sudden death

    OTOH, the latest from von der Leyen, which at least formally current boss of Ylva Johansson:


    We were then focusing on the situation on the EU-Belarus border. This is not a bilateral issue of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. This is a challenge to the whole of the European Union. And this is not a migration crisis. This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours.
     
    https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_21_5906

    Replies: @LatW, @Aedib

    I know, I saw that. That’s my girl.

    But Poland and Lithuania should help her by providing some relief. Just throw it over the fence.

    • Replies: @A123
    @LatW


    But Poland and Lithuania should help her by providing some relief. Just throw it over the fence.
     
    With a little modification, Thomas helps throw supplies over the fence. [MORE]

    PEACE 😇



    https://i.redd.it/lmnln4ghzmf31.jpg
    , @sudden death
    @LatW

    imho, during summer Poland quite succesfully trolled both Lukashenko and all those idiot type modern "refugee" righters by officially sending humanitarian refugee aid trucks to Belarus official border enter points, which were then refused to be let in by Lukashenko. Poland should certainly keep doing such official help convoys, besides those quick throwaway small help packets right over the fence.

  332. @Coconuts
    @LatW


    And btw all these hypocrites from Belarus who beat and rape their own population with batons and who now lecture Poland and Lithuania on how to treat the migrants, should remember that the migrants are technically still on the territory of Belarus. Hence, they are the responsibility of Belarus. Apparently, there are 10-15 thousand new arrivals walking around the streets of Minsk awaiting their turn. What if Poland wins the fight and they can’t be let into the EU? Where will they go then?
     
    Maybe the Belarusians would offer to let some stay (those with families), provided they went to live in villages to work on collective farms or something like that, and were constantly monitored by the security services. I imagine most would be sent back, they come on some kind of 5 day visa for a Covid vaccination, so when they stay in Belarus at the Polish border without making an official Belarusian claim for asylum within that period they probably become immigration criminals.

    On the other hand the Belarusians may also have all kinds of bureaucratic methods to make it difficult to lodge a claim for asylum, and AFAIK the KGB can deport any foreign alien on national security grounds and the only oversight on this comes from Lukashenko himself.

    But, it's true that Belarus is a safe country unless you engage in politics (e.g. wear any red/white combination of clothing, paint anything in a combination of red and white or carry a red and white object around in public, can't imagine any refugees wanting to do this). It can probably accommodate a certain number of refugees so rationally they should be ready to try to stay there and claim asylum if possible. That is if their main object is to flee persecution.

    The whole thing around the idea that refugees have a right to go 'country shopping' for the best deal on their asylum claim may end up compromising the international asylum system.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @LatW

    The big Belarusian mobile company MTS has a logo with a white egg on a red background but somehow they still get away with it.

  333. @RadicalCenter
    @Mr. Hack

    Russian guitar stronk. Russian guitar never break.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    It no break, only melt…

    Clocks melt too…

  334. @German_reader
    @sudden death


    cause those plane arriving, 1000$ for Belarus visa paying “refugees” should be just as horrified by this perspective of being sent to Moldova/Ukraine
     
    It's total nonsense of course, would only make sense if one assumes that the "refugees" are people fleeing outright persecution and danger for their lives, so would be happy to go to any reasonably safe place. But they're mostly economic migrants (apparently many Kurds from northern Iraq) who insist on going to Germany and other northwest European welfare paradises, and nowhere else, so presumably would try to leave Ukraine at the first opportunity.
    Knaus must be either stupid or dishonest, but in any case "Let's send them to Ukraine" betrays a stunning arrogance.

    Replies: @A123

    they’re mostly economic migrants … who insist on going to Germany and other northwest European welfare paradises

    And, there is the problem. The steps to fix it are easy to summarize:

    -1- End the handouts to those who entered illegally.
    -2- Provide limited support to a cross border haven that meets the minimum needs of true refugees, but is insufficient to attract economic migrants.
    -3- Strongly penalize *employers* that hire illegals under the table

    This also increases local wages of native citizens. A huge win reducing benefit payments and increasing tax collections.

    Why are politicians incapable of seeing easy solutions for easy problems? Wow! That is so naive. Pretend I did not ask that.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  335. @utu
    @German_reader


    the hierarchy seem to be fanatical immigrationists who think there’s a duty to accept basically unlimited numbers of migrants for reasons of economic “justice”
     
    Fanatical? Nonsense. Catholics are not fanatical about anything? The hierarchy can be principial on some issues like abortion but they are not fanatical.

    Fanaticism whether on the left or the right is what can be characterized as Germanic pagan quality which is by nature parochial. Speaking on behalf of all people of the world is what global organization like Catholic Church must do. It is just unavoidable.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Coconuts

    It seems strange to me though, usually the Church is more careful about sticking to international rules. In this case this would seem to involve the refugees trying to claim asylum in Belarus, since its the first safe territory they arrive in.

  336. @LatW
    @sudden death

    I know, I saw that. That's my girl.

    But Poland and Lithuania should help her by providing some relief. Just throw it over the fence.

    Replies: @A123, @sudden death

    But Poland and Lithuania should help her by providing some relief. Just throw it over the fence.

    With a little modification, Thomas helps throw supplies over the fence. [MORE]

    PEACE 😇

    [MORE]

  337. @LatW
    @sudden death

    I know, I saw that. That's my girl.

    But Poland and Lithuania should help her by providing some relief. Just throw it over the fence.

    Replies: @A123, @sudden death

    imho, during summer Poland quite succesfully trolled both Lukashenko and all those idiot type modern “refugee” righters by officially sending humanitarian refugee aid trucks to Belarus official border enter points, which were then refused to be let in by Lukashenko. Poland should certainly keep doing such official help convoys, besides those quick throwaway small help packets right over the fence.

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
  338. @Coconuts
    @LatW


    And btw all these hypocrites from Belarus who beat and rape their own population with batons and who now lecture Poland and Lithuania on how to treat the migrants, should remember that the migrants are technically still on the territory of Belarus. Hence, they are the responsibility of Belarus. Apparently, there are 10-15 thousand new arrivals walking around the streets of Minsk awaiting their turn. What if Poland wins the fight and they can’t be let into the EU? Where will they go then?
     
    Maybe the Belarusians would offer to let some stay (those with families), provided they went to live in villages to work on collective farms or something like that, and were constantly monitored by the security services. I imagine most would be sent back, they come on some kind of 5 day visa for a Covid vaccination, so when they stay in Belarus at the Polish border without making an official Belarusian claim for asylum within that period they probably become immigration criminals.

    On the other hand the Belarusians may also have all kinds of bureaucratic methods to make it difficult to lodge a claim for asylum, and AFAIK the KGB can deport any foreign alien on national security grounds and the only oversight on this comes from Lukashenko himself.

    But, it's true that Belarus is a safe country unless you engage in politics (e.g. wear any red/white combination of clothing, paint anything in a combination of red and white or carry a red and white object around in public, can't imagine any refugees wanting to do this). It can probably accommodate a certain number of refugees so rationally they should be ready to try to stay there and claim asylum if possible. That is if their main object is to flee persecution.

    The whole thing around the idea that refugees have a right to go 'country shopping' for the best deal on their asylum claim may end up compromising the international asylum system.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @LatW

    Maybe the Belarusians would offer to let some stay (those with families), provided they went to live in villages to work on collective farms or something like that

    These numbers are not yet that large, so, hypothetically, they can all be dispersed through out the country or even around Minsk. Village life could be really amazing. Also, we don’t see too many from sub Saharan Africa. Syrians, Kurds… frankly, Belarusians can circumvent many rules, so hypothetically, they can not only settle them across the country and let them do gardening or what not, but also slap a Norplant on their arm (not that I am a supporter of doling out contraceptives), request that their women use only Slavic material for procreation but not allow the men to do the same and control them in other ways. Not saying it’s ethical or that they would do it, they may not have the heart for it, just that they could if they wanted to. Their siloviks have done more cruel things to their own population. They are isolated enough as a country to get away with all kinds of sh*t.

    But, it’s true that Belarus is a safe country unless you engage in politics (e.g. wear any red/white combination of clothing, paint anything in a combination of red and white or carry a red and white object around in public, can’t imagine any refugees wanting to do this).

    That’s what I meant. It is safe if you’re completely neutral or don’t promote the real Belarusian /
    GDL identity. If I were not a supporter of svidos and the zmahar, I would very happily stay in Belarus or in Russia for a while.

    Anyway, according to some YouTube sources in Belarus, the migrants are still arriving, they are in hotels in Minsk, some are gathering in tunnels downtown, it’s an unusual sight for the locals, but they do not appear to be a real nuisance yet.

    • Replies: @sher singh
    @LatW


    slap a Norplant on their arm (not that I am a supporter of doling out contraceptives), request that their women use only Slavic material for procreation but not allow the men to do the same and control them in other ways
     
    Nigga, if u're gonna rape just be honest about it||

    I'm 50/50 whether he gets away with even half of that, and

    if this whole this is regime destabilization doesn't just turn into but think of the children||

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ
  339. @sudden death
    @sudden death

    OTOH, the latest from von der Leyen, which at least formally current boss of Ylva Johansson:


    We were then focusing on the situation on the EU-Belarus border. This is not a bilateral issue of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. This is a challenge to the whole of the European Union. And this is not a migration crisis. This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours.
     
    https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_21_5906

    Replies: @LatW, @Aedib

    This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours.

    It seems that the Eurocrats do not like to drink their own medicine.

  340. • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader

    Germany hasn't shown enough amicability towards Ukraine to request or expect this. Of course, not that Germany has to do anything for Ukraine to begin with and Germany has helped some, just not enough to make Ukraine feel obligated to anything. Ukraine could show a good will gesture of solidarity, because it is a regional / EU level crisis and that could demonstrate Ukraine's aspirations, but Ukraine doesn't have to do that and Ukraine can use other gestures to demonstrate its aspirations.

    Ukraine has already helped Lithuania by providing some material for the fence.

    Some Ukrainian Youtubers actually expressed concern that Luka could send some of the migrants to Ukraine.

    Btw, Dmitro Yarosh, who just got appointed to a high level post at the Defense ministry, said he is willing to help Poland protect itself from this onslought. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

    Replies: @German_reader

  341. @German_reader
    https://112.international/ukraine-top-news/germany-discuss-possibility-of-involving-ukraine-in-solving-refugee-problem-on-belarus-poland-border-66692.html

    Fortunately Ukraine has apparently rejected this idea.

    Replies: @LatW

    Germany hasn’t shown enough amicability towards Ukraine to request or expect this. Of course, not that Germany has to do anything for Ukraine to begin with and Germany has helped some, just not enough to make Ukraine feel obligated to anything. Ukraine could show a good will gesture of solidarity, because it is a regional / EU level crisis and that could demonstrate Ukraine’s aspirations, but Ukraine doesn’t have to do that and Ukraine can use other gestures to demonstrate its aspirations.

    Ukraine has already helped Lithuania by providing some material for the fence.

    Some Ukrainian Youtubers actually expressed concern that Luka could send some of the migrants to Ukraine.

    Btw, Dmitro Yarosh, who just got appointed to a high level post at the Defense ministry, said he is willing to help Poland protect itself from this onslought. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    Germany hasn’t shown enough amicability towards Ukraine to request or expect this.
     
    Sure, it's a bizarre idea on any level. Apparently the head of Ukraine's security council ridiculed it and said Schmid (the SPD politician who proposed it) could accept two or three migrants into his own home, but he doesn't get to tell Ukraine anything of the sort. I don't know what's going on in the heads of people who come up with such a demented proposal (doesn't even make any sense imo, and is of course absurdly arrogant towards Ukraine).

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

  342. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @German_reader

    Germany hasn't shown enough amicability towards Ukraine to request or expect this. Of course, not that Germany has to do anything for Ukraine to begin with and Germany has helped some, just not enough to make Ukraine feel obligated to anything. Ukraine could show a good will gesture of solidarity, because it is a regional / EU level crisis and that could demonstrate Ukraine's aspirations, but Ukraine doesn't have to do that and Ukraine can use other gestures to demonstrate its aspirations.

    Ukraine has already helped Lithuania by providing some material for the fence.

    Some Ukrainian Youtubers actually expressed concern that Luka could send some of the migrants to Ukraine.

    Btw, Dmitro Yarosh, who just got appointed to a high level post at the Defense ministry, said he is willing to help Poland protect itself from this onslought. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Germany hasn’t shown enough amicability towards Ukraine to request or expect this.

    Sure, it’s a bizarre idea on any level. Apparently the head of Ukraine’s security council ridiculed it and said Schmid (the SPD politician who proposed it) could accept two or three migrants into his own home, but he doesn’t get to tell Ukraine anything of the sort. I don’t know what’s going on in the heads of people who come up with such a demented proposal (doesn’t even make any sense imo, and is of course absurdly arrogant towards Ukraine).

    • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader


    I don’t know what’s going on in the heads of people who come up with such a demented proposal (doesn’t even make any sense imo, and is of course absurdly arrogant towards Ukraine).
     
    Politicians are just looking for ways to dilute the crisis. It makes sense from the point of view of the so called "burden sharing". Except it's not 2004 anymore and the international environment is more rugged now. It may make sense from Ukraine's POV - they may accept a small number of people, and then ask the EU to return the favor later. Ukraine is so big that this would not change much in their social fabric. However, it sets a precedent. It means more can be requested in the future. It also shows a little "who's boss" (Germany).

    As to the Ukrainian mentality, they may not be as compliant as the Czech or Baltic people. They will definitely talk back if they feel like it. Especially the ones outside of the European Solidarity party (the Poroshenko's party, Poroshenko himself is very grateful to Angela Merkel, he said "Nobody has done as much for us in Europe as Angela", so if he were in power the SPD may have pulled this off).

    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    If they are economic immigrants, as opposed to real refugees, then nobody apart from a few eccentrics would want to immigrate to Ukraine for the long-term.

    If they are economic immigrants, they will be trying to get to Germany. Not Ukraine, which has the same income as their home countries. Unlikely Poland either. Germany is where they will try to climb into.

    Belarus is safe from economic immigrants - its GDP per capita is not more than Iraq. Although there could be negative precedent for Belarus if too many people see these immigrants succeeding to get to Germany, as most of the young people in Belarus, like in most young people of the world, would also dream to immigrate to Germany.

    The border in Poland is also protecting Belarus from losing its citizens who would mass emigrate to the EU countries, so in this sense stricter Poland's border policy is saving such countries' demographics.


    https://i.imgur.com/UxKp6vy.jpg

  343. @That Would Be Telling
    @songbird


    It is interesting how indifferent the US was to Americans rounded up by the NKVD during the Terror.
     
    That's because enough of our and the West's elites were already on the side of the USSR by that time. Couldn't for example explain why granting it diplomatic recognition earlier in the decade without getting anything in return turned out to be a bad deal, and completely and successfully denied the existence of the Holodomor. Even set up our legal system to explicitly allow a terror famine like it.

    Replies: @songbird

    FDR’s regime definitely seems to have favored the USSR, including his ambassador Davies (I’ll have to try to read his glowing book about the USSR, sometime.)

    One could come up with competing theories too. Such as the elite wanted stuff from the Soviets. Master paintings, silver heirlooms, gold from Kolyma. Some people even say that the state department was full of canny WASPs, who understood that ideological supporters of communism were dangerous people to have around.

    But, I tend to take the view that the US was simply a different beast back then, for whatever reason. That the ideological modus was that you are responsible for yourself, wherever you are. Maybe, it takes a large army or economic hegemony to be assertive internationally. Or, maybe, it takes nightly television newscasts to drive rescue operations.

  344. @LatW
    @A123


    Capitol rioter’ is currently seeking political asylum in Belarus
     
    Yes, I saw that and I remember this guy. I also remember a mother together with her grown son.

    Belarus is not a bad place to live, if he manages to get asylum there.

    But these types shouldn't be allowed into Ukraine or the Baltic States. They will side with Russia and in the case of a regional conflict they need to be taken out.

    Replies: @Mitleser

    Do you remember him? This is a guy who previously sided with the anti-Russians in the Ukraine.
    That is why he fled there after leaving the USA.

    Neumann had previously attended the Ukrainian Revolution in 2004 and 2005, the FBI found,…

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Mitleser

    I had no idea. I meant I remembered him from seeing him on TV / web.

    Ukraine has had some issues with legalizing foreign volunteers.

  345. @German_reader
    @LatW


    Germany hasn’t shown enough amicability towards Ukraine to request or expect this.
     
    Sure, it's a bizarre idea on any level. Apparently the head of Ukraine's security council ridiculed it and said Schmid (the SPD politician who proposed it) could accept two or three migrants into his own home, but he doesn't get to tell Ukraine anything of the sort. I don't know what's going on in the heads of people who come up with such a demented proposal (doesn't even make any sense imo, and is of course absurdly arrogant towards Ukraine).

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

    I don’t know what’s going on in the heads of people who come up with such a demented proposal (doesn’t even make any sense imo, and is of course absurdly arrogant towards Ukraine).

    Politicians are just looking for ways to dilute the crisis. It makes sense from the point of view of the so called “burden sharing”. Except it’s not 2004 anymore and the international environment is more rugged now. It may make sense from Ukraine’s POV – they may accept a small number of people, and then ask the EU to return the favor later. Ukraine is so big that this would not change much in their social fabric. However, it sets a precedent. It means more can be requested in the future. It also shows a little “who’s boss” (Germany).

    As to the Ukrainian mentality, they may not be as compliant as the Czech or Baltic people. They will definitely talk back if they feel like it. Especially the ones outside of the European Solidarity party (the Poroshenko’s party, Poroshenko himself is very grateful to Angela Merkel, he said “Nobody has done as much for us in Europe as Angela”, so if he were in power the SPD may have pulled this off).

  346. @Yellowface Anon
    @That Would Be Telling

    I only care about what the map will be after the nuclear exchanges.

    Replies: @songbird

    I only care about what the map will be after the nuclear exchanges.

    Minus the monorail:

  347. @Mitleser
    @LatW

    Do you remember him? This is a guy who previously sided with the anti-Russians in the Ukraine.
    That is why he fled there after leaving the USA.


    Neumann had previously attended the Ukrainian Revolution in 2004 and 2005, the FBI found,...
     

    Replies: @LatW

    I had no idea. I meant I remembered him from seeing him on TV / web.

    Ukraine has had some issues with legalizing foreign volunteers.

  348. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    Here's a Ukie/Russkie transplant who's been making waives for a few years now. On this album, amongst others, is Larry Coryell playing along. Al DiMeola thinks highly of Roman Miroshnichenko too. Anybody out there heard or seen this guy play?

    https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518RIDr+8iL.jpg

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @Barbarossa

    Miroshnichencko is pretty awesome! I just gave some of his stuff a listen and will definitely keep it on rotation. Thanks for the recommendation.

    If you like Roman Miroshnichencko have you ever heard of Plini?

    I listen to a fair bit of Prog Rock/Metal stuff and Plini seems a bit like a faster/ harder edged Miroshnichencko.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Barbarossa

    I'm glad that you enjoyed listening to Miroshnichenko. I first got interested in him after I read a great endorsment of him by Al DiMeola, who BTW if you've never listened to I think that you'd greatly enjoy too.


    I listen to a fair bit of Prog Rock/Metal stuff and Plini seems a bit like a faster/ harder edged Miroshnichencko.
     
    I like Prog Rock and some Metal stuff too, and just this week got introduced to a group with a strange name "Porcupine Tree". I've listened to about 3-4 of their albums and some of it is quite listenable. The leader of the group, Steven Wilson , is in great demand as a record mixer, and has remixed many classic prog-rock albums by supergroups like Pink Floyd, ELP and Jethro Tull. His own music, I'm finding out, is quite good. You may already be familiar with them? This was my first album of theirs that I've listened to, quite interesting:

    https://open.spotify.com/album/59J51uy6r6QcYe7cX0Fzz6?si=zN4NmptCQJ-qxplxvjlaJg

    I'll definitely give Pliny a listen.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Barbarossa

    Finally gave a listen to the Pliny album that you recommended, nice stuff. Also, been continuing to listen to PT too. Didn't know if you aware that this type of music had its roots in the music of Al DiMeola and Jeff Beck, way back when, I call it "wired music", after the seminal record by Jeff Beck entitled "Wired". Give it a listen, it was way ahead of its time and other musicians are just catching up:

    https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/music/8/86/919/830/886919830224_2459920.jpg

    https://open.spotify.com/album/0vo9nZNFMaFASINLCzmzcU?si=dyqjogy5TU26s0_C8dEGAA

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Barbarossa

    Finally gave a listen to the Pliny album that you recommended, nice stuff. Also, been continuing to listen to PT too. Didn't know whether you're aware that this type of music had its roots in the music of Al DiMeola and Jeff Beck, way back when, I call it "wired music", after the seminal record by Jeff Beck entitled "Wired". Give it a listen, it was way ahead of its time and other musicians are just catching up:

    https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/music/8/86/919/830/886919830224_2459920.jpg

    https://open.spotify.com/album/0vo9nZNFMaFASINLCzmzcU?si=dyqjogy5TU26s0_C8dEGAA

    Replies: @schnellandine

  349. @German_reader
    @LatW


    Germany hasn’t shown enough amicability towards Ukraine to request or expect this.
     
    Sure, it's a bizarre idea on any level. Apparently the head of Ukraine's security council ridiculed it and said Schmid (the SPD politician who proposed it) could accept two or three migrants into his own home, but he doesn't get to tell Ukraine anything of the sort. I don't know what's going on in the heads of people who come up with such a demented proposal (doesn't even make any sense imo, and is of course absurdly arrogant towards Ukraine).

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

    If they are economic immigrants, as opposed to real refugees, then nobody apart from a few eccentrics would want to immigrate to Ukraine for the long-term.

    If they are economic immigrants, they will be trying to get to Germany. Not Ukraine, which has the same income as their home countries. Unlikely Poland either. Germany is where they will try to climb into.

    Belarus is safe from economic immigrants – its GDP per capita is not more than Iraq. Although there could be negative precedent for Belarus if too many people see these immigrants succeeding to get to Germany, as most of the young people in Belarus, like in most young people of the world, would also dream to immigrate to Germany.

    The border in Poland is also protecting Belarus from losing its citizens who would mass emigrate to the EU countries, so in this sense stricter Poland’s border policy is saving such countries’ demographics.

  350. @German_reader
    @A123


    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.
     
    It's hardly him alone. How many prelates are there who are skeptical about mass immigration? The only one I can think of is that cardinal from Ghana, bishop Sarah. Maybe some bishops in Hungary as well. But the majority of the hierarchy seem to be fanatical immigrationists who think there's a duty to accept basically unlimited numbers of migrants for reasons of economic "justice".

    Replies: @utu, @Aedib

    May be he seems migration in a positive light because of he is Argentine. This population of this country was formed, mostly, by migrants from south and east Europe blending with an outnumbered native population. Now, in spite of economic woes, Argentina is still receiving migrants from other South-American countries. The “little problem” is that the experience is not applicable to European countries and that MENA vandals are not like south and eastern Europeans workers the departed to the Americas a century ago. It is not the same to build a population for a young country than preserve the population of an established country. On the other hand, what astonish me is that the “migration policy” is a sort of official Vatican policy. This indicates that the Pope is not alone supporting this. Therefore the Euro-establishment must be behind this suicide behavior.

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Aedib

    Catholicism is a very fast growing religion internationally. But outside of Poland, Catholicism is generally falling or stable in wealthy European countries. Their growth market in terms of souls is from poorer countries.

    We could assume that their geographical prioritization will vary depending if they are counting souls, or dollar/euro bills.

    Financially their money is coming from Western Europe and North America. But the new souls mostly from the regions they are more successful in terms of missionary activity, like Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

    So the regional view of the Catholic church, could be moving less to Europe or more to Europe, depending if you think they prioritize respectively more about souls or finances. (I think they are not that cynically focused on finances though and that they seem to be reducing their focus on Western Europe.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6glIsZAR2w

    This video is a report on their 2020 year statistics for growth. It reminds of watching a company's presentation to investors.

    Replies: @iffen

    , @German_reader
    @Aedib


    This indicates that the Pope is not alone supporting this.
     
    Of course he isn't, the entire hierarchy throughout Western Europe is like this, I wrote in the previous open thread regarding Germany:
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-168/#comment-4987550

    Ireland:
    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/bishops-call-for-state-to-take-in-more-refugees-1.4651724

    Italy:
    https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/28949/asylum-in-europe-italian-bishops-conference-urges-safe-access-channels

    Spain:
    https://novenanews.com/spain-bishops-demand-government-close-immigration-detention-centres/

    And so on. There can be no doubt that the Catholic church as an institution sees facilitation of mass immigration as one of its central goals.

    Replies: @AP

  351. @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry


    And authorities were faking the data to maintain the economy open. For example, in November 2020 in Novosibirsk there were proportionally more people dying from coronavirus than in New York in April 2020. But the restaurants, bars and nightclubs, were open, and most people were not wearing masks.

    By comparison, in April 2020 in New York, with less people dying as a proportion of the population that in Novosibirsk in November 2020, the city had mostly shut down, and the media reported that there was an epidemic in the city.
     
    We can basically see how it has turned out for NYC or CA - 100,000s moving out into the hinderlands or Florida, because expectations have changed about daily routines in relation to the attitude on state actions. We need to tell economic measures & public health measures apart, and lockdowns seem to me to be economic measures dressed in the language of public health.

    And partly because the Russian media and politicians have been acting like coronavirus is problem in other countries not Russia, partly has been promoting anti-vax attitudes about Western vaccines.
    ...
    If you believed that Western vaccines were already dangerous, then the logical implication of media messaging has been you definitely should not injected with a Russian one.
    ...
    because of the most stupid and incompetent authorities that can be imagined, in terms of understanding of international epidemiological guidelines for fighting this epidemic, which had been solved decades ago in other countries.
     
    Everything COVID is basically about institutional trust. Most states have squandered them after acting too drastically on lockdowns, and when people see lockdowns as a form of total political oppression, then vaccine mandates backed by coercion and the marginalization of antivaxxers will be seen as an even graver threat. This is how anti-state worldviews are propagated and I call this the "globalization of libertarianism". It will lead to far-reaching changes in entire systems of social organization this century, like what WWI did for the 20th.

    It's the endgame of picking the most socially disastrous way to address the COVID crisis globally. I think a lot of actors (not necessarily those in power!) have their death wish being played out.

    We don’t have to be professionally trained epidemiologists, to be skeptical that you could manage drug addicts by capturing them and adding them to a kind of private prison “rehabilitation centre”.
     
    The attitude towards drug addicts or social vices in general depends on the extent of punishment vs rehabilitation that should be dealt out to these groups, or whether to neglect the issue altogether. Conservative political cultures, believing in the strictness of moral values, will tend to punish, while liberal political cultures, believing in human improvement and the right for all forms of social expression to co-exist, will tend to rehabilitate or even neglect the issue.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    Managing or defeating the HIV epidemic was just an empirical topic. It’s just a virus and there are many known ways to keep its reproduction number low.

    HIV epidemic was mostly defeated in Western countries in the 1990s, and the authorities in Russia (where HIV was mostly avoided until the 2000s) have years to study the epidemiological policies which achieved this.

    Intelligent authorities would study empirical evidence from past experience, and see what policies there was empirical evidence have been epidemiologically successful – e.g. establishing needle exchanges.

    But they didn’t follow the international guidelines, and didn’t establish needle exchanges. And Russia developed the highest HIV rates of almost any countries outside subsahara Africa, and in cities like Ekaterinburg there is 2% of the population with HIV (and the opposition mayor was not very helpful).

    My only conclusion can be – this is what happens when your government can’t follow internationally recommended guidelines for managing virus based epidemics.

    Most states have squandered them after acting too drastically on lockdowns,

    In talking about coronavirus in Russia, there was non-local national lockdown when there was a first wave in Moscow/Saint-Petersburg, but no interregional quarantine.

    Instead of lockdown in non-affected areas in the first wave, there could have been simple interregional quarantine. They should have just closed Moscow, and maintained the non-infected parts of the country open, and it would have been much less expensive.

    In the second wave of autumn 2020, the authorities faked the data to maintain the economy open, which resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of old people.

    When there no cases of coronavirus in the first wave in a city like Tagil, the local government was proud to be locked down and spraying the streets.

    When coronavirus has entered the same place in the second wave, they were promoting indoor concerts.

    Within months of the beginning of the pandemic, epidemiological realities were almost disconnected from the policies of the government.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    Thanks for restating these realities - I read too much Israel Shamir early on and my idea of Russia's management of the COVID crisis is basically his.

    But I think looking at total deaths will be far more useful to assess the general level of healthcare and public health policies.

    (Everyone and indeed I prefer keeping most things most of the time without discriminating the unvaccinated)

  352. @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    Managing or defeating the HIV epidemic was just an empirical topic. It's just a virus and there are many known ways to keep its reproduction number low.

    HIV epidemic was mostly defeated in Western countries in the 1990s, and the authorities in Russia (where HIV was mostly avoided until the 2000s) have years to study the epidemiological policies which achieved this.

    Intelligent authorities would study empirical evidence from past experience, and see what policies there was empirical evidence have been epidemiologically successful - e.g. establishing needle exchanges.

    But they didn't follow the international guidelines, and didn't establish needle exchanges. And Russia developed the highest HIV rates of almost any countries outside subsahara Africa, and in cities like Ekaterinburg there is 2% of the population with HIV (and the opposition mayor was not very helpful).

    My only conclusion can be - this is what happens when your government can't follow internationally recommended guidelines for managing virus based epidemics.


    Most states have squandered them after acting too drastically on lockdowns,
     
    In talking about coronavirus in Russia, there was non-local national lockdown when there was a first wave in Moscow/Saint-Petersburg, but no interregional quarantine.

    Instead of lockdown in non-affected areas in the first wave, there could have been simple interregional quarantine. They should have just closed Moscow, and maintained the non-infected parts of the country open, and it would have been much less expensive.

    In the second wave of autumn 2020, the authorities faked the data to maintain the economy open, which resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of old people.

    When there no cases of coronavirus in the first wave in a city like Tagil, the local government was proud to be locked down and spraying the streets.
    https://www.instagram.com/p/B-6Zut9KF1F/

    When coronavirus has entered the same place in the second wave, they were promoting indoor concerts.
    https://www.instagram.com/p/CF1uTAEqeqb/

    Within months of the beginning of the pandemic, epidemiological realities were almost disconnected from the policies of the government.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Thanks for restating these realities – I read too much Israel Shamir early on and my idea of Russia’s management of the COVID crisis is basically his.

    But I think looking at total deaths will be far more useful to assess the general level of healthcare and public health policies.

    (Everyone and indeed I prefer keeping most things most of the time without discriminating the unvaccinated)

  353. @Aedib
    @German_reader

    May be he seems migration in a positive light because of he is Argentine. This population of this country was formed, mostly, by migrants from south and east Europe blending with an outnumbered native population. Now, in spite of economic woes, Argentina is still receiving migrants from other South-American countries. The “little problem” is that the experience is not applicable to European countries and that MENA vandals are not like south and eastern Europeans workers the departed to the Americas a century ago. It is not the same to build a population for a young country than preserve the population of an established country. On the other hand, what astonish me is that the “migration policy” is a sort of official Vatican policy. This indicates that the Pope is not alone supporting this. Therefore the Euro-establishment must be behind this suicide behavior.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @German_reader

    Catholicism is a very fast growing religion internationally. But outside of Poland, Catholicism is generally falling or stable in wealthy European countries. Their growth market in terms of souls is from poorer countries.

    We could assume that their geographical prioritization will vary depending if they are counting souls, or dollar/euro bills.

    Financially their money is coming from Western Europe and North America. But the new souls mostly from the regions they are more successful in terms of missionary activity, like Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

    So the regional view of the Catholic church, could be moving less to Europe or more to Europe, depending if you think they prioritize respectively more about souls or finances. (I think they are not that cynically focused on finances though and that they seem to be reducing their focus on Western Europe.)

    This video is a report on their 2020 year statistics for growth. It reminds of watching a company’s presentation to investors.

    • Replies: @iffen
    @Dmitry

    See, what happened is many people take all that "love thy neighbor", giving up more if someone takes your cloak, and hundreds of other such verses as the gospel. They don't understand that it's all platitudes and show, not to be taken literally.

  354. German_reader says:
    @Aedib
    @German_reader

    May be he seems migration in a positive light because of he is Argentine. This population of this country was formed, mostly, by migrants from south and east Europe blending with an outnumbered native population. Now, in spite of economic woes, Argentina is still receiving migrants from other South-American countries. The “little problem” is that the experience is not applicable to European countries and that MENA vandals are not like south and eastern Europeans workers the departed to the Americas a century ago. It is not the same to build a population for a young country than preserve the population of an established country. On the other hand, what astonish me is that the “migration policy” is a sort of official Vatican policy. This indicates that the Pope is not alone supporting this. Therefore the Euro-establishment must be behind this suicide behavior.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @German_reader

    This indicates that the Pope is not alone supporting this.

    Of course he isn’t, the entire hierarchy throughout Western Europe is like this, I wrote in the previous open thread regarding Germany:
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-168/#comment-4987550

    Ireland:
    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/bishops-call-for-state-to-take-in-more-refugees-1.4651724

    Italy:
    https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/28949/asylum-in-europe-italian-bishops-conference-urges-safe-access-channels

    Spain:
    https://novenanews.com/spain-bishops-demand-government-close-immigration-detention-centres/

    And so on. There can be no doubt that the Catholic church as an institution sees facilitation of mass immigration as one of its central goals.

    • Replies: @AP
    @German_reader

    The irony is that Catholic believers are more opposed to immigration than the general population, despite what the hierarchy wants:

    https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-catholic-church-problem-attracted-by-matteo-salvini/

    But this seems to be a West problem, not a Church problem.

    https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/eastern-europes-church-leaders-face-growing-criticism-over-refugees

    Bishops in Slovakia endorsed a government decision in August 2015 to bar Muslims who might "not feel at home" in a predominantly Catholic country. In the Czech Republic, where human rights groups criticized police for stamping numbers on refugees' hands, the bishops' conference's previous president, Archbishop Jan Graubner, has demanded his country take only "Christian refugees."

    Even in the Polish church, traditionally noted for fierce loyalty to Rome, appeals by the pope have been treated with reserve. Bishop Henryk Tomasik of Radom, who also heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers, has insisted Poland is too poor to help, and that Polish parishes would have trouble "communicating with refugees."

    Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga, a former president of the Vatican's Pontifical Mission Societies, told Poland's Catholic information agency that Muslims would merely "open ghettoes which give birth to violence and terrorism." Msgr. Edward Frankowski, a retired Sandomierz auxiliary bishop, warned his congregation the refugees included "masked jihadists waiting to strike."

    Poland's Church in the latest crisis:

    https://catholicreview.org/polish-church-leaders-offer-support-for-refugees-but-back-border-security/

    Looks like it supports border security, while also helping the refugees stranded at the border by providing them with food, tents, etc.

    Replies: @German_reader

  355. @Barbarossa
    @Mr. Hack

    Miroshnichencko is pretty awesome! I just gave some of his stuff a listen and will definitely keep it on rotation. Thanks for the recommendation.

    If you like Roman Miroshnichencko have you ever heard of Plini?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdSMeBrNp4A

    I listen to a fair bit of Prog Rock/Metal stuff and Plini seems a bit like a faster/ harder edged Miroshnichencko.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

    I’m glad that you enjoyed listening to Miroshnichenko. I first got interested in him after I read a great endorsment of him by Al DiMeola, who BTW if you’ve never listened to I think that you’d greatly enjoy too.

    I listen to a fair bit of Prog Rock/Metal stuff and Plini seems a bit like a faster/ harder edged Miroshnichencko.

    I like Prog Rock and some Metal stuff too, and just this week got introduced to a group with a strange name “Porcupine Tree”. I’ve listened to about 3-4 of their albums and some of it is quite listenable. The leader of the group, Steven Wilson , is in great demand as a record mixer, and has remixed many classic prog-rock albums by supergroups like Pink Floyd, ELP and Jethro Tull. His own music, I’m finding out, is quite good. You may already be familiar with them? This was my first album of theirs that I’ve listened to, quite interesting:

    I’ll definitely give Pliny a listen.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Mr. Hack

    Yes, I'm definitely a big Porcupine Tree fan. Steven Wilson's solo stuff is very good too, other than his newest album which failed to make an impression on me. Steven's solo stuff has more jazz, pop, and other inflections while Porcupine Tree is a little more metal.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFwLVakl0c8


    I actually saw Steven Wilson in concert a few years back which was a great show. Porcupine Tree had disbanded for a number of years...but I found out they are back at it, so hopefully I can see them too eventually.

    Gavin Harrison is the current PT drummer as well as having done much drumming on Steven's solo work. As a drummer I find him quite incredible. Gavin's also a member of The Pineapple Thief (Where do these names come from? I suppose all the good band names have been long ago taken!) which is another quite worthy group.

    Fortunately, there is a lot of good music out there. Unfortunately, none of it is in the mainstream!

  356. @Mr. Hack
    @Barbarossa

    I'm glad that you enjoyed listening to Miroshnichenko. I first got interested in him after I read a great endorsment of him by Al DiMeola, who BTW if you've never listened to I think that you'd greatly enjoy too.


    I listen to a fair bit of Prog Rock/Metal stuff and Plini seems a bit like a faster/ harder edged Miroshnichencko.
     
    I like Prog Rock and some Metal stuff too, and just this week got introduced to a group with a strange name "Porcupine Tree". I've listened to about 3-4 of their albums and some of it is quite listenable. The leader of the group, Steven Wilson , is in great demand as a record mixer, and has remixed many classic prog-rock albums by supergroups like Pink Floyd, ELP and Jethro Tull. His own music, I'm finding out, is quite good. You may already be familiar with them? This was my first album of theirs that I've listened to, quite interesting:

    https://open.spotify.com/album/59J51uy6r6QcYe7cX0Fzz6?si=zN4NmptCQJ-qxplxvjlaJg

    I'll definitely give Pliny a listen.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    Yes, I’m definitely a big Porcupine Tree fan. Steven Wilson’s solo stuff is very good too, other than his newest album which failed to make an impression on me. Steven’s solo stuff has more jazz, pop, and other inflections while Porcupine Tree is a little more metal.

    I actually saw Steven Wilson in concert a few years back which was a great show. Porcupine Tree had disbanded for a number of years…but I found out they are back at it, so hopefully I can see them too eventually.

    Gavin Harrison is the current PT drummer as well as having done much drumming on Steven’s solo work. As a drummer I find him quite incredible. Gavin’s also a member of The Pineapple Thief (Where do these names come from? I suppose all the good band names have been long ago taken!) which is another quite worthy group.

    Fortunately, there is a lot of good music out there. Unfortunately, none of it is in the mainstream!

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
  357. sher singh says:
    @LatW
    @Coconuts


    Maybe the Belarusians would offer to let some stay (those with families), provided they went to live in villages to work on collective farms or something like that
     
    These numbers are not yet that large, so, hypothetically, they can all be dispersed through out the country or even around Minsk. Village life could be really amazing. Also, we don't see too many from sub Saharan Africa. Syrians, Kurds... frankly, Belarusians can circumvent many rules, so hypothetically, they can not only settle them across the country and let them do gardening or what not, but also slap a Norplant on their arm (not that I am a supporter of doling out contraceptives), request that their women use only Slavic material for procreation but not allow the men to do the same and control them in other ways. Not saying it's ethical or that they would do it, they may not have the heart for it, just that they could if they wanted to. Their siloviks have done more cruel things to their own population. They are isolated enough as a country to get away with all kinds of sh*t.

    But, it’s true that Belarus is a safe country unless you engage in politics (e.g. wear any red/white combination of clothing, paint anything in a combination of red and white or carry a red and white object around in public, can’t imagine any refugees wanting to do this).

     

    That's what I meant. It is safe if you're completely neutral or don't promote the real Belarusian /
    GDL identity. If I were not a supporter of svidos and the zmahar, I would very happily stay in Belarus or in Russia for a while.

    Anyway, according to some YouTube sources in Belarus, the migrants are still arriving, they are in hotels in Minsk, some are gathering in tunnels downtown, it's an unusual sight for the locals, but they do not appear to be a real nuisance yet.

    Replies: @sher singh

    slap a Norplant on their arm (not that I am a supporter of doling out contraceptives), request that their women use only Slavic material for procreation but not allow the men to do the same and control them in other ways

    Nigga, if u’re gonna rape just be honest about it||

    I’m 50/50 whether he gets away with even half of that, and

    if this whole this is regime destabilization doesn’t just turn into but think of the children||

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

  358. @German_reader
    @Aedib


    This indicates that the Pope is not alone supporting this.
     
    Of course he isn't, the entire hierarchy throughout Western Europe is like this, I wrote in the previous open thread regarding Germany:
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-168/#comment-4987550

    Ireland:
    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/bishops-call-for-state-to-take-in-more-refugees-1.4651724

    Italy:
    https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/28949/asylum-in-europe-italian-bishops-conference-urges-safe-access-channels

    Spain:
    https://novenanews.com/spain-bishops-demand-government-close-immigration-detention-centres/

    And so on. There can be no doubt that the Catholic church as an institution sees facilitation of mass immigration as one of its central goals.

    Replies: @AP

    The irony is that Catholic believers are more opposed to immigration than the general population, despite what the hierarchy wants:

    https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-catholic-church-problem-attracted-by-matteo-salvini/

    But this seems to be a West problem, not a Church problem.

    https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/eastern-europes-church-leaders-face-growing-criticism-over-refugees

    Bishops in Slovakia endorsed a government decision in August 2015 to bar Muslims who might “not feel at home” in a predominantly Catholic country. In the Czech Republic, where human rights groups criticized police for stamping numbers on refugees’ hands, the bishops’ conference’s previous president, Archbishop Jan Graubner, has demanded his country take only “Christian refugees.”

    Even in the Polish church, traditionally noted for fierce loyalty to Rome, appeals by the pope have been treated with reserve. Bishop Henryk Tomasik of Radom, who also heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers, has insisted Poland is too poor to help, and that Polish parishes would have trouble “communicating with refugees.”

    Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga, a former president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Mission Societies, told Poland’s Catholic information agency that Muslims would merely “open ghettoes which give birth to violence and terrorism.” Msgr. Edward Frankowski, a retired Sandomierz auxiliary bishop, warned his congregation the refugees included “masked jihadists waiting to strike.”

    Poland’s Church in the latest crisis:

    https://catholicreview.org/polish-church-leaders-offer-support-for-refugees-but-back-border-security/

    Looks like it supports border security, while also helping the refugees stranded at the border by providing them with food, tents, etc.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AP

    thx, I didn't know that about bishops in Slovakia, Czech republic and Poland, they seem to be more sensible than ones in Western Europe at least (let's hope the Vatican won't eventually replace them with ones more in line of the ideas of pope Francis). Obviously it's good to provide food, blankets etc. to the migrants at the border (though that should be primarily the responsibility of Belarus, which has cynically manufactured this crisis after all, it's perverse to blame Poland). It's just unacceptable imo to claim that there's a duty to accept anybody who wants to come, for whatever reason, as a permanent migrant (which is pretty much the position of many church leaders in Western Europe, they don't even pretend it's about temporary refuge from war or something like that, it's the full immigration programme or nothing).

    Replies: @A123

  359. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/11/3-ways-congress-could-hold-facebook-accountable-for-its-actions.html

    It’s frustrating but also revealing to see yet another set of proposals about Facebook. There are obvious routes for getting into their underwear, starting with busting them for criminal fraud (grotesque exaggeration of their readership; charging advertisers for views they never got and could not have gotten; also charging advertisers and refusing to refund them when Facebook ran ads that were not authorized). You don’t need to rely on antitrust litigation, which is a tough road to hoe… The most likely remedy for a successful Facebook antitrust action would be to make Facebook divest its recent acquisitions….which does nothing to rein in the core Facebook business which so many have come to know and hate.

    So an alternative, which in theory would be faster to implement, would be to regulate Facebook like a utility. But that would require a consensus of sorts about what curbs should be imposed. As you can see from this post, ideas are all over the map.

    Trumpists like A123 has said they would like outright bans, expropriation or sanctions if they move their operations overseas.

  360. @Dmitry
    @Aedib

    Catholicism is a very fast growing religion internationally. But outside of Poland, Catholicism is generally falling or stable in wealthy European countries. Their growth market in terms of souls is from poorer countries.

    We could assume that their geographical prioritization will vary depending if they are counting souls, or dollar/euro bills.

    Financially their money is coming from Western Europe and North America. But the new souls mostly from the regions they are more successful in terms of missionary activity, like Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

    So the regional view of the Catholic church, could be moving less to Europe or more to Europe, depending if you think they prioritize respectively more about souls or finances. (I think they are not that cynically focused on finances though and that they seem to be reducing their focus on Western Europe.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6glIsZAR2w

    This video is a report on their 2020 year statistics for growth. It reminds of watching a company's presentation to investors.

    Replies: @iffen

    See, what happened is many people take all that “love thy neighbor”, giving up more if someone takes your cloak, and hundreds of other such verses as the gospel. They don’t understand that it’s all platitudes and show, not to be taken literally.

  361. See, what happened is many people take all that “love thy neighbor”, giving up more if someone takes your cloak, and hundreds of other such verses as the gospel. They don’t understand that it’s all platitudes and show, not to be taken literally.

    No one takes that teaching seriously at a political level. Applying that teaching would mean say, Germany giving away its national wealth and assets so that GDP was more like that of Belarus or Iraq.

    If the Germans did that and somehow became more ascetic on a mass scale, deportations of Muslims would probably follow. The older Church tradition would re-emerge; love your inimicus, not your hostis.

    • Replies: @iffen
    @Coconuts

    No one takes that teaching seriously at a political level.

    My apology for not being clear.

    I was not talking about politics and political entities. Unless proven otherwise, I assume that politicians are opportunists, power seekers, running dogs for the elites and are amoral creatures without ethics or souls.

    I was talking about "the electorate" in Democratic countries like the U. S. and Europe who are allowing, or at least not actively preventing, the destruction of their countries by said politicians.

    , @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    If the Germans did that and somehow became more ascetic on a mass scale, deportations of Muslims would probably follow.
     
    On some level Germans are doing that, more than two thirds of Syrians in Germany (over 70% if you include those in language courses etc.) are on Hartz4, and obviously that money isn't available for other purposes (including spending on refugees in their areas of origin, where it would arguably achieve more). Now of course that situation is somewhat tolerable because of the good economic situation of recent years. But given Germany's demographic situation, with large numbers of boomers set for retirement in coming years, it's an open question imo if this will be sustainable (and if not, what happens when the Danegeld paid to migrants is reduced). In any case insane to add even more to that burden, as much of the establishment would like to.
    , @Barbarossa
    @Coconuts

    There is also a divide between what is can be practiced on an individual basis and what converts to government policy.

    Christ's message is deeply about individual action and responsibility, not government or institutional change. Christ was no SJW in that he accepted wider societal injustice and political realities as ultimately of little consequence. The attitude of the individual within that is all that matters.

    I don't have any problem within the Christian tradition for governments to strongly protect the interests of their population and maintain order in border issues. That doesn't conflict with a personal obligation to treat humanely and provide aid to anyone I come upon who is in real need.

    As others have pointed out, these are largely economic migrants, not really refugees at all.

    If Western countries would quite mucking around destabilizing the Middle East, this wouldn't be such an issue. US policy prolonging the Syrian civil war alone contributed greatly to the creation of millions of displaced people.

    If the Catholic Church wants to make a point it should be that one. The members of the responsible political class should each have their very own passel of young Middle Eastern men move in with them. Wouldn't Angela Merkel and Barack Obama love that!

    Replies: @German_reader, @iffen

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Coconuts


    Host Ira Glass talks to the Arnold Abbott, the founder of "Love Thy Neighbor," a Florida charity that's being sued by "Love Your Neighbor," a Michigan ministry and business. "Love Your Neighbor" owns the trademark on the phrases "Love Your Neighbor" and "Love Thy Neighbor;" the attorney for the Michigan business Julie Greenberg, contemplates whether suing a neighbor can fall within the category of loving them as yourself.
     
    https://www.thisamericanlife.org/184/neighbors
  362. German_reader says:
    @AP
    @German_reader

    The irony is that Catholic believers are more opposed to immigration than the general population, despite what the hierarchy wants:

    https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-catholic-church-problem-attracted-by-matteo-salvini/

    But this seems to be a West problem, not a Church problem.

    https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/eastern-europes-church-leaders-face-growing-criticism-over-refugees

    Bishops in Slovakia endorsed a government decision in August 2015 to bar Muslims who might "not feel at home" in a predominantly Catholic country. In the Czech Republic, where human rights groups criticized police for stamping numbers on refugees' hands, the bishops' conference's previous president, Archbishop Jan Graubner, has demanded his country take only "Christian refugees."

    Even in the Polish church, traditionally noted for fierce loyalty to Rome, appeals by the pope have been treated with reserve. Bishop Henryk Tomasik of Radom, who also heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers, has insisted Poland is too poor to help, and that Polish parishes would have trouble "communicating with refugees."

    Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga, a former president of the Vatican's Pontifical Mission Societies, told Poland's Catholic information agency that Muslims would merely "open ghettoes which give birth to violence and terrorism." Msgr. Edward Frankowski, a retired Sandomierz auxiliary bishop, warned his congregation the refugees included "masked jihadists waiting to strike."

    Poland's Church in the latest crisis:

    https://catholicreview.org/polish-church-leaders-offer-support-for-refugees-but-back-border-security/

    Looks like it supports border security, while also helping the refugees stranded at the border by providing them with food, tents, etc.

    Replies: @German_reader

    thx, I didn’t know that about bishops in Slovakia, Czech republic and Poland, they seem to be more sensible than ones in Western Europe at least (let’s hope the Vatican won’t eventually replace them with ones more in line of the ideas of pope Francis). Obviously it’s good to provide food, blankets etc. to the migrants at the border (though that should be primarily the responsibility of Belarus, which has cynically manufactured this crisis after all, it’s perverse to blame Poland). It’s just unacceptable imo to claim that there’s a duty to accept anybody who wants to come, for whatever reason, as a permanent migrant (which is pretty much the position of many church leaders in Western Europe, they don’t even pretend it’s about temporary refuge from war or something like that, it’s the full immigration programme or nothing).

    • Agree: AP
    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader

    AP & GR,

    You may find this article interesting: (1)


    Unholy Alliance: Pope Francis and President Biden

    Two Catholic newspapers battle it out over the U.S. president's visit to Rome

    Biden’s visit to Rome was just one of the many stories covered in the pages of the two major mainstream U.S. Catholic newspapers, The National Catholic Reporter (progressive) and The National Catholic Register (conservative). Editorially, these publications are so different from one anther they seem to confirm what a priest told me some time ago that, “The Catholic Church is really two Churches now.”
    ...
    The National Catholic Register, founded in 1927 by Matthew J. Smith, is part of the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) and the Catholic News Agency. It boasts a larger circulation than its leftist counterpart and has never had to defend the use of the word ‘Catholic’ in its name. The two newspapers haven’t had much to do with one another until recently when Pope Francis referred to EWTN indirectly to a group of Jesuits in Slovakia.

    "There is, for example,” Francis said, “a large Catholic television channel that has no hesitation in continually speaking ill of the pope. I personally deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the church does not deserve them. They are the work of the devil. I have also said this to some of them.”
     

    What happened to Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."? Francis has taken it upon himself to declare judgement on core Catholics.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/unholy-alliance-pope-francis-and-joe-biden-thom-nickels/

    Replies: @AP

  363. @Thomm
    Special Report :

    The Myth of the 214 IQ :

    Since Ron Unz wrote the famous ‘The Myth of Hispanic Crime’ article series, it is time to tackle another myth. It is funny that Ron Unz has the sheer chutzpah to write into his own Wikipedia article that he has an IQ of 214. I never got more uproarious laughter online then when I linked to Ron Unz’s Wikipedia article on a mainstream Republican blog (Instapundit) where others could see that he wrote this claim into it.

    The reality is, his IQ is 124. The only reason he thinks it is 214 is that he made his own IQ test, and then took the test knowing all the answers beforehand. He predictably got a perfect score and thus an IQ of 214 on his own test, as though he didn't know the answers beforehand. That is all there is to it.

    I guarantee that no one with a verified IQ above 160 thinks RUnzie Baby’s IQ is 214. They will shoot that pretense down with ‘Kung Fu fightin’, fast as lightnin” speed.

    Even the fictitious Sheldon Cooper has an IQ of just 187. People of that IQ tend to finish their Bachelor’s Degrees by 17 and their doctorates by 20. RUnzie Baby entered Harvard at 18, and dropped out of the Physics program in his 20s, when a person of an unheard of IQ of 214 ought to have completed his PhD long before the age that RUnzie Baby dropped out.

    Plus, a number other decisions are of questionable smarts. For example, if someone runs as a Republican in CA, even back in 1994, that is already a disadvantageous party to run under the banner of in CA. But on top of that, to take far-left positions as a Republican is even more unwise. But it gets worse :

    RUnzie Baby campaigned on a high minimum wage (a far-left position) and simultaneously pushes for illegal immigration to not be curbed. Any fool can see that to the extent that a high minimum wage can even work at all, you cannot possibly have a large number of illegals willing to work at the market wage, thus moving most labor into a black market that only illegals can partake in. Hence, this combination of polices, if it were to be enacted, is just about the worst obliteration of working-class US citizens one could devise. Hence, the intelligence on display here is questionable.

    But, his IQ is 124. That is high, but unspectacular.

    Now, the funny part that you all have been waiting for :

    An IQ of 124 can fit into a cranial volume of this size :

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a06ec1776fe47bd8bb0b610f83748ddcbd9799cb3df4f2a9e0a5aa8a9a7cdc72.jpg

    A superhuman IQ of 214, however, which is well above any known world record, requires a more powerful hardware system. That hardware takes up more volume, and also generates a lot of heat.
    Hence, when RUnzie Baby imagines that his IQ is 214, he imagines that he looks like this :

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d6b5cfe0fc6d104c6636614d97e075b7e6375ec65a7aaddb969316e6c815465e.jpg?w=800&h=529

    Note the higher temperature being generated by the augmented hardware. The normal human brain consumes 100 Watts, but if your IQ is to be 214, the amount of power consumed also has to double. Let’s call it corresponding 214 Watts.

    Heh heh heh heh

    Replies: @Grahamsno(G64)

    RUnzie Baby campaigned on a high minimum wage (a far-left position) and simultaneously pushes for illegal immigration to not be curbed.

    That’s both moronic & oxymoronic.

    • Replies: @Thomm
    @Grahamsno(G64)


    That’s both moronic & oxymoronic.
     
    Yes. RUnzie Baby is one of those overspecialized nerds who is super-theoretical, and doesn't see the contradictions amongst his own views. But that is also what makes him effective as a Confuse and Conquer Jew.

    He wrote into his own Wikipedia article that his IQ is 214, and then is baffled when people laugh at that.
  364. @Coconuts

    See, what happened is many people take all that “love thy neighbor”, giving up more if someone takes your cloak, and hundreds of other such verses as the gospel. They don’t understand that it’s all platitudes and show, not to be taken literally.
     
    No one takes that teaching seriously at a political level. Applying that teaching would mean say, Germany giving away its national wealth and assets so that GDP was more like that of Belarus or Iraq.

    If the Germans did that and somehow became more ascetic on a mass scale, deportations of Muslims would probably follow. The older Church tradition would re-emerge; love your inimicus, not your hostis.

    Replies: @iffen, @German_reader, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard

    No one takes that teaching seriously at a political level.

    My apology for not being clear.

    I was not talking about politics and political entities. Unless proven otherwise, I assume that politicians are opportunists, power seekers, running dogs for the elites and are amoral creatures without ethics or souls.

    I was talking about “the electorate” in Democratic countries like the U. S. and Europe who are allowing, or at least not actively preventing, the destruction of their countries by said politicians.

  365. German_reader says:
    @Coconuts

    See, what happened is many people take all that “love thy neighbor”, giving up more if someone takes your cloak, and hundreds of other such verses as the gospel. They don’t understand that it’s all platitudes and show, not to be taken literally.
     
    No one takes that teaching seriously at a political level. Applying that teaching would mean say, Germany giving away its national wealth and assets so that GDP was more like that of Belarus or Iraq.

    If the Germans did that and somehow became more ascetic on a mass scale, deportations of Muslims would probably follow. The older Church tradition would re-emerge; love your inimicus, not your hostis.

    Replies: @iffen, @German_reader, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard

    If the Germans did that and somehow became more ascetic on a mass scale, deportations of Muslims would probably follow.

    On some level Germans are doing that, more than two thirds of Syrians in Germany (over 70% if you include those in language courses etc.) are on Hartz4, and obviously that money isn’t available for other purposes (including spending on refugees in their areas of origin, where it would arguably achieve more). Now of course that situation is somewhat tolerable because of the good economic situation of recent years. But given Germany’s demographic situation, with large numbers of boomers set for retirement in coming years, it’s an open question imo if this will be sustainable (and if not, what happens when the Danegeld paid to migrants is reduced). In any case insane to add even more to that burden, as much of the establishment would like to.

  366. @Coconuts

    See, what happened is many people take all that “love thy neighbor”, giving up more if someone takes your cloak, and hundreds of other such verses as the gospel. They don’t understand that it’s all platitudes and show, not to be taken literally.
     
    No one takes that teaching seriously at a political level. Applying that teaching would mean say, Germany giving away its national wealth and assets so that GDP was more like that of Belarus or Iraq.

    If the Germans did that and somehow became more ascetic on a mass scale, deportations of Muslims would probably follow. The older Church tradition would re-emerge; love your inimicus, not your hostis.

    Replies: @iffen, @German_reader, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard

    There is also a divide between what is can be practiced on an individual basis and what converts to government policy.

    Christ’s message is deeply about individual action and responsibility, not government or institutional change. Christ was no SJW in that he accepted wider societal injustice and political realities as ultimately of little consequence. The attitude of the individual within that is all that matters.

    I don’t have any problem within the Christian tradition for governments to strongly protect the interests of their population and maintain order in border issues. That doesn’t conflict with a personal obligation to treat humanely and provide aid to anyone I come upon who is in real need.

    As others have pointed out, these are largely economic migrants, not really refugees at all.

    If Western countries would quite mucking around destabilizing the Middle East, this wouldn’t be such an issue. US policy prolonging the Syrian civil war alone contributed greatly to the creation of millions of displaced people.

    If the Catholic Church wants to make a point it should be that one. The members of the responsible political class should each have their very own passel of young Middle Eastern men move in with them. Wouldn’t Angela Merkel and Barack Obama love that!

    • Agree: Coconuts
    • Disagree: iffen
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Barbarossa


    US policy prolonging the Syrian civil war alone contributed greatly to the creation of millions of displaced people.
     
    The draconian sanctions by the US against Syria are a huge problem, this blocks all reconstruction and makes it impossible to send anybody back there (much of Syria probably isn't that dangerous today, it's just that the economic situation is disastrous). Of course even without that it would be difficult, since many Syrians in Europe probably have no intention of ever going back anyway, since their new life in Europe is much nicer. And you'd probably have to pay Assad's regime a hefty sum, so they give at least some assurances regarding the safety of returnees (many of whom must be Sunni Muslims whose return to Syria isn't necessarily welcome to Assad and his Alawites). But given the US sanctions and the ideological position of European political leaders (pro-immigration, anti-Assad) such a solution seems totally out of reach, and eventually there'll be a push for mass naturalization of Syrians in Germany and other countries.

    Replies: @A123

    , @iffen
    @Barbarossa

    A person has the right to support government policies that are in line with that person’s morality. And for many people that morality springs from religious conviction.

    What exactly is the difference for the religiously committed between missionaries going to Haiti to teach Haitians to be more like Americans or religious groups advocating for open borders in order to bring the Haitians here to learn how to be Americans?

    It’s like the difference between importing unskilled and desperate people to work in your factory here or moving your factory to a location in another country where there are plenty of unskilled and desperate people.

    It’s not beyond the realm of the possible that the Christian values of charity for all and universalism are, in fact, “unworkable” in today’s socially and economically complex societies embedded in the current geopolitical environment.

    Ideologies, empires, countries, cultures and religions fail all the time. Nothing new to see here.

  367. German_reader says:
    @Barbarossa
    @Coconuts

    There is also a divide between what is can be practiced on an individual basis and what converts to government policy.

    Christ's message is deeply about individual action and responsibility, not government or institutional change. Christ was no SJW in that he accepted wider societal injustice and political realities as ultimately of little consequence. The attitude of the individual within that is all that matters.

    I don't have any problem within the Christian tradition for governments to strongly protect the interests of their population and maintain order in border issues. That doesn't conflict with a personal obligation to treat humanely and provide aid to anyone I come upon who is in real need.

    As others have pointed out, these are largely economic migrants, not really refugees at all.

    If Western countries would quite mucking around destabilizing the Middle East, this wouldn't be such an issue. US policy prolonging the Syrian civil war alone contributed greatly to the creation of millions of displaced people.

    If the Catholic Church wants to make a point it should be that one. The members of the responsible political class should each have their very own passel of young Middle Eastern men move in with them. Wouldn't Angela Merkel and Barack Obama love that!

    Replies: @German_reader, @iffen

    US policy prolonging the Syrian civil war alone contributed greatly to the creation of millions of displaced people.

    The draconian sanctions by the US against Syria are a huge problem, this blocks all reconstruction and makes it impossible to send anybody back there (much of Syria probably isn’t that dangerous today, it’s just that the economic situation is disastrous). Of course even without that it would be difficult, since many Syrians in Europe probably have no intention of ever going back anyway, since their new life in Europe is much nicer. And you’d probably have to pay Assad’s regime a hefty sum, so they give at least some assurances regarding the safety of returnees (many of whom must be Sunni Muslims whose return to Syria isn’t necessarily welcome to Assad and his Alawites). But given the US sanctions and the ideological position of European political leaders (pro-immigration, anti-Assad) such a solution seems totally out of reach, and eventually there’ll be a push for mass naturalization of Syrians in Germany and other countries.

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader


    The draconian sanctions by the US against Syria are a huge problem, this blocks all reconstruction and makes it impossible to send anybody back there
     
    The European leaders have big words, but minimal capability. Obama's regime change policy was repudiated by the Trump administration. Not-The-President Biden shows little interest in a Syria escalation, and there are less than 1,000 U.S. troops in country.

    The biggest problem is now Turkey -vs- Iran. It has become a perpetual violence machine driven primarily via proxies, such as Hezbollah. As long as these hostilities are active, reconstruction cannot be successful. Finding a verifiable and enforceable deal that removes 100% of Turkish and Iranian meddling would unlock funding and other resources.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader

  368. @Barbarossa
    @Coconuts

    There is also a divide between what is can be practiced on an individual basis and what converts to government policy.

    Christ's message is deeply about individual action and responsibility, not government or institutional change. Christ was no SJW in that he accepted wider societal injustice and political realities as ultimately of little consequence. The attitude of the individual within that is all that matters.

    I don't have any problem within the Christian tradition for governments to strongly protect the interests of their population and maintain order in border issues. That doesn't conflict with a personal obligation to treat humanely and provide aid to anyone I come upon who is in real need.

    As others have pointed out, these are largely economic migrants, not really refugees at all.

    If Western countries would quite mucking around destabilizing the Middle East, this wouldn't be such an issue. US policy prolonging the Syrian civil war alone contributed greatly to the creation of millions of displaced people.

    If the Catholic Church wants to make a point it should be that one. The members of the responsible political class should each have their very own passel of young Middle Eastern men move in with them. Wouldn't Angela Merkel and Barack Obama love that!

    Replies: @German_reader, @iffen

    A person has the right to support government policies that are in line with that person’s morality. And for many people that morality springs from religious conviction.

    What exactly is the difference for the religiously committed between missionaries going to Haiti to teach Haitians to be more like Americans or religious groups advocating for open borders in order to bring the Haitians here to learn how to be Americans?

    It’s like the difference between importing unskilled and desperate people to work in your factory here or moving your factory to a location in another country where there are plenty of unskilled and desperate people.

    It’s not beyond the realm of the possible that the Christian values of charity for all and universalism are, in fact, “unworkable” in today’s socially and economically complex societies embedded in the current geopolitical environment.

    Ideologies, empires, countries, cultures and religions fail all the time. Nothing new to see here.

  369. Don’t the powers that be realize that Rittenhouse shot a guy who used the N-word? Why are they trying to railroad him? I hope it is not because he has a German surname.

  370. From the blog of the excellent Paul Kingsnorth –

    Perhaps you can see where I’m going here. The history of magic in the West is a long one, but one thing it teaches is that what we call ‘magic’ and what we call ‘science’ are intertwined. Many of the pioneers of science we know today were also magicians of one sort or another. Bacon was said to be a Freemason and an alchemist. Isaac Newton wrote far more about alchemy than he did about physics, and many of the august founders of England’s Royal Society, still one of its foremost scientific institutions, were alchemists or mages. In the early modern period, today’s distinction between ‘science’ (real, good, objective) and ‘magic’ (fantastical, bad, superstitious) did not really exist. Both were branches of the same effort: to understand the mysterious forces of the universe, and ultimately to control them.

    Here is Francis Bacon’s definition of science:

    The knowledge of causes and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.

    And here is the occultist Aleister Crowley’s definition of magic:

    The science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will.

    These could be swapped around without anybody really noticing. The thread that links them together is control. Both the scientific enterprise, and the magical quest which it was part of, spring from the same desire: to know the world, and to bend it to our will. Will, in both cases, is the key word. When Aleister Crowley, pioneering occultist, rampant self-publicist and self-described ‘Great Beast’, created his own occult religion, Thelema, in the early 20th century, he gave it its own famous commandment: do

  371. @Coconuts

    See, what happened is many people take all that “love thy neighbor”, giving up more if someone takes your cloak, and hundreds of other such verses as the gospel. They don’t understand that it’s all platitudes and show, not to be taken literally.
     
    No one takes that teaching seriously at a political level. Applying that teaching would mean say, Germany giving away its national wealth and assets so that GDP was more like that of Belarus or Iraq.

    If the Germans did that and somehow became more ascetic on a mass scale, deportations of Muslims would probably follow. The older Church tradition would re-emerge; love your inimicus, not your hostis.

    Replies: @iffen, @German_reader, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Host Ira Glass talks to the Arnold Abbott, the founder of “Love Thy Neighbor,” a Florida charity that’s being sued by “Love Your Neighbor,” a Michigan ministry and business. “Love Your Neighbor” owns the trademark on the phrases “Love Your Neighbor” and “Love Thy Neighbor;” the attorney for the Michigan business Julie Greenberg, contemplates whether suing a neighbor can fall within the category of loving them as yourself.

    https://www.thisamericanlife.org/184/neighbors

    • LOL: Barbarossa, Coconuts
  372. Again from Paul Kingsnorth –

    Our world is still run by magicians, working from the ‘sacred temples’ of their laboratories to discover how humanity may reshape the world in accordance with its will. The difference between Aleister Crowley and Richard Dawkins is that Crowley had enough self-knowledge to see where his path was leading. It’s why he called himself ‘The Great Beast 666.’ It’s why his books talk of magic as a ‘new science’, and are full of talk of ‘mastery’ over powers natural and supernatural. Crowley was Faust, and Faust is us. The Great Beast has a lot more in common with Pfizer’s finest than they would ever admit.

    Philip Sherrard again:

    Modern science presupposes a radical reshaping of our whole mental outlook. It involves a new approach to being, a new approach to nature, in short, a new philosophy … we have tended to take it for granted that it represents a great break-through, a marvellous advance on the part of mankind, even a sign of our coming of age. Now that we begin to see the consequences of our capitulation to it – and we are only now beginning to see these consequences – we are not so sure. But even so it is difficult for us to admit that, far from being an advance, the whole modern scientific project may be a ghastly failure. Yet there is no reason why it should not be. One has to judge things by their fruits. And one of the fruits of modern science, clear for all to see, and implicit in the philosophy on which it is based, is the dehumanisation both of man and of the society that he has built in its name.

    What is the way out of this dehumanisation? Sherrard is uncompromising. ‘To think and act without the constraint of any knowledge and values other than those of the modern scientific mentality’, he writes, ‘is to commit oneself to a tyranny of an unprecedented maleficence.’ If that mentality really is a tyranny – the tyranny of Bacon, Faust and Crowley, the tyranny of our times – then there can only be one response. To throw it off:

    The forms of our society, from those of our educational system down to those in which most of us spend our working lives, are such that they frustrate and even negate the expression and fulfilment of our true humanity at practically every turn. But as it is the pursuit of the ideals and methods of modern science that has brought us into this catastrophic situation, clearly there can be no issue from it without the renunciation of those ideals and methods.

    That renunciation has to be a long mental and spiritual effort: the sloughing off of a way of seeing; the refusal of the story we all grew up with and a return to an older one that lies, like the kingdom of God, both within and all around us. It’s hard work to change a story, especially when the society around you affirms it at every turn. At times like these, it is easy to become paranoid, angry, mistrustful: sometimes it can seem as if the entire Internet was designed with just this purpose in mind (and perhaps it was …) There is a reason that levels of trust in our cultures are measurably plummeting, and that conspiracy theories abound. Magic addles the mind.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB

    Sounds like obscurantist nonsense. There's probably a serious case against some modern technology (personally I increasingly think television was a disastrous invention, and smartphones are terrible as well) that has led to atomization and alienation...but dismissing science itself and saying it's equivalent to what some Satanist nutcase like Alistair Crowley was doing? What's Paul Kingsnorth's end goal? Does he want to return to something like 7th century Francia, or what exactly is he proposing?

    Replies: @AaronB, @AaronB, @Dmitry

  373. @German_reader
    @AP

    thx, I didn't know that about bishops in Slovakia, Czech republic and Poland, they seem to be more sensible than ones in Western Europe at least (let's hope the Vatican won't eventually replace them with ones more in line of the ideas of pope Francis). Obviously it's good to provide food, blankets etc. to the migrants at the border (though that should be primarily the responsibility of Belarus, which has cynically manufactured this crisis after all, it's perverse to blame Poland). It's just unacceptable imo to claim that there's a duty to accept anybody who wants to come, for whatever reason, as a permanent migrant (which is pretty much the position of many church leaders in Western Europe, they don't even pretend it's about temporary refuge from war or something like that, it's the full immigration programme or nothing).

    Replies: @A123

    AP & GR,

    You may find this article interesting: (1)

    Unholy Alliance: Pope Francis and President Biden

    Two Catholic newspapers battle it out over the U.S. president’s visit to Rome

    Biden’s visit to Rome was just one of the many stories covered in the pages of the two major mainstream U.S. Catholic newspapers, The National Catholic Reporter (progressive) and The National Catholic Register (conservative). Editorially, these publications are so different from one anther they seem to confirm what a priest told me some time ago that, “The Catholic Church is really two Churches now.”

    The National Catholic Register, founded in 1927 by Matthew J. Smith, is part of the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) and the Catholic News Agency. It boasts a larger circulation than its leftist counterpart and has never had to defend the use of the word ‘Catholic’ in its name. The two newspapers haven’t had much to do with one another until recently when Pope Francis referred to EWTN indirectly to a group of Jesuits in Slovakia.

    “There is, for example,” Francis said, “a large Catholic television channel that has no hesitation in continually speaking ill of the pope. I personally deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the church does not deserve them. They are the work of the devil. I have also said this to some of them.”

    What happened to Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”? Francis has taken it upon himself to declare judgement on core Catholics.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/unholy-alliance-pope-francis-and-joe-biden-thom-nickels/

    • Replies: @AP
    @A123

    This Pope is a disappointment, to put it mildly, but there has we been much worse and the Church will survive this as it had survived worse.

  374. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    Again from Paul Kingsnorth -

    Our world is still run by magicians, working from the ‘sacred temples’ of their laboratories to discover how humanity may reshape the world in accordance with its will. The difference between Aleister Crowley and Richard Dawkins is that Crowley had enough self-knowledge to see where his path was leading. It’s why he called himself ‘The Great Beast 666.’ It’s why his books talk of magic as a ‘new science’, and are full of talk of ‘mastery’ over powers natural and supernatural. Crowley was Faust, and Faust is us. The Great Beast has a lot more in common with Pfizer’s finest than they would ever admit.

    Philip Sherrard again:

    Modern science presupposes a radical reshaping of our whole mental outlook. It involves a new approach to being, a new approach to nature, in short, a new philosophy … we have tended to take it for granted that it represents a great break-through, a marvellous advance on the part of mankind, even a sign of our coming of age. Now that we begin to see the consequences of our capitulation to it - and we are only now beginning to see these consequences - we are not so sure. But even so it is difficult for us to admit that, far from being an advance, the whole modern scientific project may be a ghastly failure. Yet there is no reason why it should not be. One has to judge things by their fruits. And one of the fruits of modern science, clear for all to see, and implicit in the philosophy on which it is based, is the dehumanisation both of man and of the society that he has built in its name.

    What is the way out of this dehumanisation? Sherrard is uncompromising. ‘To think and act without the constraint of any knowledge and values other than those of the modern scientific mentality’, he writes, ‘is to commit oneself to a tyranny of an unprecedented maleficence.’ If that mentality really is a tyranny - the tyranny of Bacon, Faust and Crowley, the tyranny of our times - then there can only be one response. To throw it off:

    The forms of our society, from those of our educational system down to those in which most of us spend our working lives, are such that they frustrate and even negate the expression and fulfilment of our true humanity at practically every turn. But as it is the pursuit of the ideals and methods of modern science that has brought us into this catastrophic situation, clearly there can be no issue from it without the renunciation of those ideals and methods.

    That renunciation has to be a long mental and spiritual effort: the sloughing off of a way of seeing; the refusal of the story we all grew up with and a return to an older one that lies, like the kingdom of God, both within and all around us. It’s hard work to change a story, especially when the society around you affirms it at every turn. At times like these, it is easy to become paranoid, angry, mistrustful: sometimes it can seem as if the entire Internet was designed with just this purpose in mind (and perhaps it was …) There is a reason that levels of trust in our cultures are measurably plummeting, and that conspiracy theories abound. Magic addles the mind.
     

    Replies: @German_reader

    Sounds like obscurantist nonsense. There’s probably a serious case against some modern technology (personally I increasingly think television was a disastrous invention, and smartphones are terrible as well) that has led to atomization and alienation…but dismissing science itself and saying it’s equivalent to what some Satanist nutcase like Alistair Crowley was doing? What’s Paul Kingsnorth’s end goal? Does he want to return to something like 7th century Francia, or what exactly is he proposing?

    • Agree: Philip Owen
    • Replies: @AaronB
    @German_reader

    That's a good point - I'm not sure what his end goal is. He's writing a series of articles now exploring what went wrong with modern society, so I think he's still working it out. As the series progresses I'm sure his vision will become clearer.

    But I think it's clear his vision - and mine - will involve some level of reducing the role and impact of science and technology in our lives, outwardly, and inwardly, learning a new way to think and see the world - which is actually more important. It's probably more important to return to an "animist" outlook, in terms of personal mental health and psychology, them to stop driving cars, for instance (if that's even necessary - personally I love driving with open windows at high speed across the American Steppe).

    As for the connection between science and magic, that is indisputable - as Maynard Keynes said upon discovering the occult papers of Isaac Newton, he was not the first of the moderns, but the last of the great Wizards.

    I don't know if you were here for it, but in one of my extended arguments with Daniel Chieh, who used to be this blogs foremost defender of "science", admitted to using magic to control the world (he cast a spell to help his friend find a cat or something).

    So the connection is not merely historical and academic, but very much alive today, and both magic and science are found compelling by the sort of mind consumed by the desire for control.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @AaronB
    @German_reader

    The mistake you're making, is to think that science is merely "technique".

    But as that quote from Philip Sharridan shows, science is a whole mentality and outlook on life.

    And many of the things you most hate, like the loss of your culture and it's roots, and the unending flow of immigration, come directly from this outlook - that humans can control everything (Iraqis can be made into Germans), etc, and that the best way to see the world is through number and abstraction (German culture doesn't exist and is not worth preserving, only the economy matters, etc).

    That the scientific way of looking at the world is implicated in the disaster we now find ourselves on every level, seems clear.

    What to do about it seems less clear.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    In 20th century technologies, radio was the most dangerous one. You can see how it helps Hitler's speaking to hack the vulnerable software installed on German brains.

    We seem to have stronger "firewall" against images than speaking, and even the most effective television for brainwashing (Solovyov, Tucker Carlson, etc) is relying on words, rather than images. That is, when you want to use television for brainwashing, then it's most effective to make it like a recreation of radio.

    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.

    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building, which was almost indistinguishable from an episode of Pokemon GO, but where the users seemed to be unable to understand the boundary between online games they were addicted to and a real life with legal consequences.

    Replies: @songbird, @German_reader, @iffen, @Mikel

  375. @German_reader
    @AaronB

    Sounds like obscurantist nonsense. There's probably a serious case against some modern technology (personally I increasingly think television was a disastrous invention, and smartphones are terrible as well) that has led to atomization and alienation...but dismissing science itself and saying it's equivalent to what some Satanist nutcase like Alistair Crowley was doing? What's Paul Kingsnorth's end goal? Does he want to return to something like 7th century Francia, or what exactly is he proposing?

    Replies: @AaronB, @AaronB, @Dmitry

    That’s a good point – I’m not sure what his end goal is. He’s writing a series of articles now exploring what went wrong with modern society, so I think he’s still working it out. As the series progresses I’m sure his vision will become clearer.

    But I think it’s clear his vision – and mine – will involve some level of reducing the role and impact of science and technology in our lives, outwardly, and inwardly, learning a new way to think and see the world – which is actually more important. It’s probably more important to return to an “animist” outlook, in terms of personal mental health and psychology, them to stop driving cars, for instance (if that’s even necessary – personally I love driving with open windows at high speed across the American Steppe).

    As for the connection between science and magic, that is indisputable – as Maynard Keynes said upon discovering the occult papers of Isaac Newton, he was not the first of the moderns, but the last of the great Wizards.

    I don’t know if you were here for it, but in one of my extended arguments with Daniel Chieh, who used to be this blogs foremost defender of “science”, admitted to using magic to control the world (he cast a spell to help his friend find a cat or something).

    So the connection is not merely historical and academic, but very much alive today, and both magic and science are found compelling by the sort of mind consumed by the desire for control.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB


    but in one of my extended arguments with Daniel Chieh, who used to be this blogs foremost defender of “science”, admitted to using magic to control the world (he cast a spell to help his friend find a cat or something).
     
    I remember that, I found it absolutely bizarre and wasn't sure if it was a joke or meant to be serious. I seriously doubt it's typical of scientists though.
    Personally I'm strictly opposed to magic. I don't think any of it is real, but if it were, it would be crazy to meddle with these things.

    Replies: @AaronB

  376. @German_reader
    @Barbarossa


    US policy prolonging the Syrian civil war alone contributed greatly to the creation of millions of displaced people.
     
    The draconian sanctions by the US against Syria are a huge problem, this blocks all reconstruction and makes it impossible to send anybody back there (much of Syria probably isn't that dangerous today, it's just that the economic situation is disastrous). Of course even without that it would be difficult, since many Syrians in Europe probably have no intention of ever going back anyway, since their new life in Europe is much nicer. And you'd probably have to pay Assad's regime a hefty sum, so they give at least some assurances regarding the safety of returnees (many of whom must be Sunni Muslims whose return to Syria isn't necessarily welcome to Assad and his Alawites). But given the US sanctions and the ideological position of European political leaders (pro-immigration, anti-Assad) such a solution seems totally out of reach, and eventually there'll be a push for mass naturalization of Syrians in Germany and other countries.

    Replies: @A123

    The draconian sanctions by the US against Syria are a huge problem, this blocks all reconstruction and makes it impossible to send anybody back there

    The European leaders have big words, but minimal capability. Obama’s regime change policy was repudiated by the Trump administration. Not-The-President Biden shows little interest in a Syria escalation, and there are less than 1,000 U.S. troops in country.

    The biggest problem is now Turkey -vs- Iran. It has become a perpetual violence machine driven primarily via proxies, such as Hezbollah. As long as these hostilities are active, reconstruction cannot be successful. Finding a verifiable and enforceable deal that removes 100% of Turkish and Iranian meddling would unlock funding and other resources.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @A123


    Obama’s regime change policy was repudiated by the Trump administration.
     
    Trump's administration enacted really draconian sanctions ("Caesar act") that are meant to block reconstruction efforts in Syria. So maybe there was a change from trying to bring about violent regime change (which hasn't been a realistic prospect for several years anyway), but definitely still a policy intended to keep Syria fragmented and unstable, with terrible consequence for the civilian population.
    As for the rest, it probably would be best if Iran evacuated Syria, but the hostile stance by Western states towards Assad's government has only increased his dependence on Iran, so unless there's at least some accommodation of Syrian (and Iranian) interests by Western states, I don't see potential for change. Turkey's role is of course extremely negative, but I'm not sure anybody has good leverage over Erdogan and his ilk, they're unpredictable.

    Replies: @A123, @A123

  377. @German_reader
    @AaronB

    Sounds like obscurantist nonsense. There's probably a serious case against some modern technology (personally I increasingly think television was a disastrous invention, and smartphones are terrible as well) that has led to atomization and alienation...but dismissing science itself and saying it's equivalent to what some Satanist nutcase like Alistair Crowley was doing? What's Paul Kingsnorth's end goal? Does he want to return to something like 7th century Francia, or what exactly is he proposing?

    Replies: @AaronB, @AaronB, @Dmitry

    The mistake you’re making, is to think that science is merely “technique”.

    But as that quote from Philip Sharridan shows, science is a whole mentality and outlook on life.

    And many of the things you most hate, like the loss of your culture and it’s roots, and the unending flow of immigration, come directly from this outlook – that humans can control everything (Iraqis can be made into Germans), etc, and that the best way to see the world is through number and abstraction (German culture doesn’t exist and is not worth preserving, only the economy matters, etc).

    That the scientific way of looking at the world is implicated in the disaster we now find ourselves on every level, seems clear.

    What to do about it seems less clear.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB


    that humans can control everything
     
    Which serious scientist would make such a patently false claim?
    Ok, people like Richard Dawkins may be annoying in their dogmatic atheism, but I'm not sure even he would claim that humans will ever be able to know, let alone control everything.

    What to do about it seems less clear.
     
    Well, if you've hit upon some grand idea, let us know :-)

    Replies: @AaronB, @Coconuts

  378. Any well-designed system of government should have mechanisms for demolishing hypocrisy.

    For example, people who say that we should be housing migrants should have their house turned into a barracks where they would be hot-swapping triple-bunk beds with them. (as well as having their other houses sold for upkeep.) Or, if they have an apartment, they should have to move into the slums.

    People promoting AA should be forced to use black mechanics/doctors/service people.

    People promoting desegregation should have to send their kids to the most “enriched” schools (including colleges), or, alternatively, if they have no school-age children, they should be forced to teach/volunteer in those schools.

  379. German_reader says:
    @A123
    @German_reader


    The draconian sanctions by the US against Syria are a huge problem, this blocks all reconstruction and makes it impossible to send anybody back there
     
    The European leaders have big words, but minimal capability. Obama's regime change policy was repudiated by the Trump administration. Not-The-President Biden shows little interest in a Syria escalation, and there are less than 1,000 U.S. troops in country.

    The biggest problem is now Turkey -vs- Iran. It has become a perpetual violence machine driven primarily via proxies, such as Hezbollah. As long as these hostilities are active, reconstruction cannot be successful. Finding a verifiable and enforceable deal that removes 100% of Turkish and Iranian meddling would unlock funding and other resources.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader

    Obama’s regime change policy was repudiated by the Trump administration.

    Trump’s administration enacted really draconian sanctions (“Caesar act”) that are meant to block reconstruction efforts in Syria. So maybe there was a change from trying to bring about violent regime change (which hasn’t been a realistic prospect for several years anyway), but definitely still a policy intended to keep Syria fragmented and unstable, with terrible consequence for the civilian population.
    As for the rest, it probably would be best if Iran evacuated Syria, but the hostile stance by Western states towards Assad’s government has only increased his dependence on Iran, so unless there’s at least some accommodation of Syrian (and Iranian) interests by Western states, I don’t see potential for change. Turkey’s role is of course extremely negative, but I’m not sure anybody has good leverage over Erdogan and his ilk, they’re unpredictable.

    • Agree: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader


    Trump’s administration enacted really draconian sanctions (“Caesar act”) that are meant to block reconstruction efforts in Syria
     
    Iranian Hamas has proved that basic goods like concrete and pipe can be weaponized. Thus, Trump's administration enacted the minimum needed sanctions to limit fungible resources reaching Iranian terrorists. The path to ending necessary antiterrorism sanctions is getting the Iranian terrorists out of Syria.

    I do understand part of your point. The Iranian "Shia Crescent" presence (plus historical enmity with the Kurds) has geared up the Turkish response. And, proxy forces are rarely easy to control. Worse yet, Erdogan has his own expansionary ambitions. The whole thing now has a life of its own. Erdogan poked NATO in the eye with his S400 purchase, showing that "Western states" have little to no influence on his regime.

    While Turkish Sunni irregulars are in the field, Assad does not have good options to control the Iranian Shia proxies. At some point, there needs to be a verifiable and enforceable armistice agreement that sends both sides home. A return to the status quo ante with Russia serving as the stabilizing force.

    Bottom Line -- As long as the Shia-Sunni conflict is active, no amount of money will lead to successful reconstruction. Who wants to "go back" only to flee again when the front shifts?

    PEACE 😇
    , @A123
    @German_reader

    ADDAENDUM

    Iranian terrorists are repeating their revolutionary War Crimes (1)


    -- Iran-backed militants storm the US embassy facility in Yemen and seize hostages and equipment: State Department demands the release of staff
    -- Iran-backed Houthi fighters kidnapped at least 25 people linked to the United States embassy in Yemen, according to local reports from the region
    -- The State Department told DailyMail.com that a majority have been set free but that the US 'has been unceasing in its diplomatic efforts' to rescue the rest
     
    Will the Biden administration behave like the Carter administration?
    ____

    The only thing that Khamenei understands is force. The U.S. should seize everyone in the Iranian UN mission and trade them to the Houthis.

    Or, the more subtle option could be used. Shucks.... We do not know how those oil tankers vanished while transiting the Indian Ocean. Perhaps it was piracy....

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10191923/Iran-backed-militants-storm-embassy-Yemen-seize-hostages-State-Dept-demands-release.html
  380. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    @German_reader

    The mistake you're making, is to think that science is merely "technique".

    But as that quote from Philip Sharridan shows, science is a whole mentality and outlook on life.

    And many of the things you most hate, like the loss of your culture and it's roots, and the unending flow of immigration, come directly from this outlook - that humans can control everything (Iraqis can be made into Germans), etc, and that the best way to see the world is through number and abstraction (German culture doesn't exist and is not worth preserving, only the economy matters, etc).

    That the scientific way of looking at the world is implicated in the disaster we now find ourselves on every level, seems clear.

    What to do about it seems less clear.

    Replies: @German_reader

    that humans can control everything

    Which serious scientist would make such a patently false claim?
    Ok, people like Richard Dawkins may be annoying in their dogmatic atheism, but I’m not sure even he would claim that humans will ever be able to know, let alone control everything.

    What to do about it seems less clear.

    Well, if you’ve hit upon some grand idea, let us know 🙂

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @German_reader


    Which serious scientist would make such a patently false claim?
     
    Well, isn't that the aim and ambition of science itself, to ultimately control everything?

    Bacon on science - "The knowledge of causes and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.".

    Certainly, science is about controlling as much as possible - i.e, not recognizing the importance of limits or natural forces.

    If the best human life is one lived in accordance with nature - in cooperation with this larger force which we are a part of - then the imposing of human will on nature makes us live dehumanized and stunted lives.

    Well, if you’ve hit upon some grand idea, let us know 🙂
     
    When I figure it all out I will report it here first :)

    But realistically, we can all take small steps in our personal lives to liberate us from the tyranny of exclusively scientific thinking.

    For instance, I wrote here once that when I walk through Prospect Park (the central park of Brooklyn), I can still get lost even though I've been there hundreds of times, because I have deliberately avoided mapping out the park.

    I made a deliberate choice to approach my experience of walking through the park from an "aesthetic" orientation - or perhaps a spiritual one. I deliberately sacrificed efficiency, and stepped out of the scientific outlook for a while - and my experience was greatly enriched and my day better (although less efficient).

    Alan Watts lived on a beautiful mountain in California, and on the opposite side of a valley was a thick forest stretching into the distance - he once wrote that he loved imagining the endless mysteries of that forest, and had no intention of ever exploring it (fully).

    I think we can all take steps in our personal lives to, at least for some part of each day, step out of the scientific outlook - to stop obsessing over efficiency and control, for at least part of the day. Our days will be immeasurably enriched.

    Instead of thinking about large scale revolutions or social reordering, this kind of small scale personal transformation will have vastly more impact if enough people do it.

    The "big" solutions will present themselves in time - they cannot be clear in our current mentality.
    , @Coconuts
    @German_reader


    Ok, people like Richard Dawkins may be annoying in their dogmatic atheism, but I’m not sure even he would claim that humans will ever be able to know, let alone control everything.
     
    I remember with these guys, Sam Harris even more so IIRC, that they would start with some seemingly powerful claim about Science being our only real source of knowledge, implicitly sounding like they were talking about something like strong physicalism (that Physics is our only real source of knowledge about reality, so all knowledge is ultimately reducible to its content), then they would walk the claim back progressively. and Science would end up meaning more science in the Aristotelian sense; any organised body of knowledge.

    It was also done mainly for polemic so in substantial terms didn't move any debates forwards from where they were before, but some minority of people with nerd inclinations learned more about philosophy.

  381. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    @German_reader

    That's a good point - I'm not sure what his end goal is. He's writing a series of articles now exploring what went wrong with modern society, so I think he's still working it out. As the series progresses I'm sure his vision will become clearer.

    But I think it's clear his vision - and mine - will involve some level of reducing the role and impact of science and technology in our lives, outwardly, and inwardly, learning a new way to think and see the world - which is actually more important. It's probably more important to return to an "animist" outlook, in terms of personal mental health and psychology, them to stop driving cars, for instance (if that's even necessary - personally I love driving with open windows at high speed across the American Steppe).

    As for the connection between science and magic, that is indisputable - as Maynard Keynes said upon discovering the occult papers of Isaac Newton, he was not the first of the moderns, but the last of the great Wizards.

    I don't know if you were here for it, but in one of my extended arguments with Daniel Chieh, who used to be this blogs foremost defender of "science", admitted to using magic to control the world (he cast a spell to help his friend find a cat or something).

    So the connection is not merely historical and academic, but very much alive today, and both magic and science are found compelling by the sort of mind consumed by the desire for control.

    Replies: @German_reader

    but in one of my extended arguments with Daniel Chieh, who used to be this blogs foremost defender of “science”, admitted to using magic to control the world (he cast a spell to help his friend find a cat or something).

    I remember that, I found it absolutely bizarre and wasn’t sure if it was a joke or meant to be serious. I seriously doubt it’s typical of scientists though.
    Personally I’m strictly opposed to magic. I don’t think any of it is real, but if it were, it would be crazy to meddle with these things.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @German_reader

    That's probably true today, but it's worth stressing the conceptual relationship between science and magic, and historically, that nearly all early scientists were also occultists and magicians.

    Daniel Chieh was being perfectly logical and consistent in practicing both magic and science. They differ only in technique, but share the same goal. This is important to realize.

    Although I agree, today, it does seem to us archaic and bizarre - but I actually give Chieh credit for demonstrating internal consistency at the expense of social norms.

    I wouldn't meddle with these things either, but I'm also generally uninterested in controlling things; what I want out of life are experiences.

    I confess I am baffled and mystified by people who spend their whole life on projects extending their control - it seems to me, they have missed the point of life.

  382. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    that humans can control everything
     
    Which serious scientist would make such a patently false claim?
    Ok, people like Richard Dawkins may be annoying in their dogmatic atheism, but I'm not sure even he would claim that humans will ever be able to know, let alone control everything.

    What to do about it seems less clear.
     
    Well, if you've hit upon some grand idea, let us know :-)

    Replies: @AaronB, @Coconuts

    Which serious scientist would make such a patently false claim?

    Well, isn’t that the aim and ambition of science itself, to ultimately control everything?

    Bacon on science – “The knowledge of causes and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.”.

    Certainly, science is about controlling as much as possible – i.e, not recognizing the importance of limits or natural forces.

    If the best human life is one lived in accordance with nature – in cooperation with this larger force which we are a part of – then the imposing of human will on nature makes us live dehumanized and stunted lives.

    Well, if you’ve hit upon some grand idea, let us know 🙂

    When I figure it all out I will report it here first 🙂

    But realistically, we can all take small steps in our personal lives to liberate us from the tyranny of exclusively scientific thinking.

    For instance, I wrote here once that when I walk through Prospect Park (the central park of Brooklyn), I can still get lost even though I’ve been there hundreds of times, because I have deliberately avoided mapping out the park.

    I made a deliberate choice to approach my experience of walking through the park from an “aesthetic” orientation – or perhaps a spiritual one. I deliberately sacrificed efficiency, and stepped out of the scientific outlook for a while – and my experience was greatly enriched and my day better (although less efficient).

    Alan Watts lived on a beautiful mountain in California, and on the opposite side of a valley was a thick forest stretching into the distance – he once wrote that he loved imagining the endless mysteries of that forest, and had no intention of ever exploring it (fully).

    I think we can all take steps in our personal lives to, at least for some part of each day, step out of the scientific outlook – to stop obsessing over efficiency and control, for at least part of the day. Our days will be immeasurably enriched.

    Instead of thinking about large scale revolutions or social reordering, this kind of small scale personal transformation will have vastly more impact if enough people do it.

    The “big” solutions will present themselves in time – they cannot be clear in our current mentality.

  383. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    but in one of my extended arguments with Daniel Chieh, who used to be this blogs foremost defender of “science”, admitted to using magic to control the world (he cast a spell to help his friend find a cat or something).
     
    I remember that, I found it absolutely bizarre and wasn't sure if it was a joke or meant to be serious. I seriously doubt it's typical of scientists though.
    Personally I'm strictly opposed to magic. I don't think any of it is real, but if it were, it would be crazy to meddle with these things.

    Replies: @AaronB

    That’s probably true today, but it’s worth stressing the conceptual relationship between science and magic, and historically, that nearly all early scientists were also occultists and magicians.

    Daniel Chieh was being perfectly logical and consistent in practicing both magic and science. They differ only in technique, but share the same goal. This is important to realize.

    Although I agree, today, it does seem to us archaic and bizarre – but I actually give Chieh credit for demonstrating internal consistency at the expense of social norms.

    I wouldn’t meddle with these things either, but I’m also generally uninterested in controlling things; what I want out of life are experiences.

    I confess I am baffled and mystified by people who spend their whole life on projects extending their control – it seems to me, they have missed the point of life.

  384. I don’t know if AK still reads comments here but if he does I’d be curious to know if he plans on doing a review somewhere (Substack?) of McMeekin’s Stalin’s War. Pretty sure AK said he was reading it & at 700 pages he’d probably want to get some content out of such an effort.

    Unfortunately, most reviews I’ve seen online have been from Suvorov & Nazi fanboys with an axe to grind. Between the book length and the interviews McMeekin has done – he seems to be going overboard with his thesis, but I guess nuance doesn’t sell these days – I’ve put off buying it, for now. Thanks.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Matra

    Thorfinnsson reviewed it (according to him it's "an anticommunist American conservative polemic directed against the pro-Soviet foreign policy of the Roosevelt Administration"):
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-159/#comment-4815863

    Replies: @Matra

    , @Yevardian
    @Matra

    The book is very emotionally written, with many hyperbolic chapter titles and would-be tabloid-headline phrases throughout its prose. And yes, like Thorffinsson said, the core of original interest within the book is in it's critique of American policy, constantly decrying how 'naive' Roosevelt was in 'trusting' Stalin, 'enabling' the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe and so on ad nauseum.

    But frankly, the whole crux of Mcmeekin's argument is just dumb, even leaving aside the insanity of a 'democratic crusade against all the totalitarian regimes of the world'.
    Even in regard to just Germany, does he really think it would be worth it, or at all politically feasible, for American military to suffer the millions of additional casualties that would have ensued had Roosevelt denied Soviet aid and allowed Germany victory/stalemate on the Eastern Front?

    As for Naziboos or mere America-firsters, Mcmeekin doesn't step away from the usual religious horror of Hitler's Germany in any way. It's extremely obvious that the book was written by somoene with an unapologetically Neocon worldview, with America as the world's 'shining city' with a sacred duty to impose its own values on the rest of the world.

    I don't actually at all discount the idea of Stalin planning a first-strike on Nazi Germany, but I doubt it was planned any time in the near-future. I think Hitler's logic for Barbarossa was identical to that of German WWI war-planners, he considered it imperative to attack Russia before it could fully industrialise, which would make it unbeatable.

  385. The master of all trolls strikes back.
    “Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko has threatened to cut off gas transit to Europe through his country by shutting down the Yamal-Europe pipeline if the EU imposes new sanctions on the country.”

    https://www.intellinews.com/lukashenko-threatens-to-cut-gas-supplies-to-yamal-europe-gas-pipeline-if-eu-imposes-new-sanctions-promises-to-send-refugees-dry-firewood-226655/?source=belarus

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Aedib

    Congrats to Luka finaly becoming the ruler of whole RF! :) But if it did not happen yet, it just means he threatened Gazprom with tearing of gas transit contract, also whole Kaliningrad oblast with gas cut off, as European customers do not have any gas supply treaties with Belarus.

    However, if it all is just directed straight from the Kremlin and Lukashenko is reduced to visible talking head narrating Putin script now, then it makes way more sense.

    , @Dmitry
    @Aedib

    Lukashenko's status "master of trolls", can only be if being a troll master, doesn't include resistance to being trolled yourself - as most years Poland usually is trolling him more than vice-versa, when you consider Belsat, and how it is accessible to anyone in Belarus with a satellite receiver.

    Poland is permanently sending this into Belarus, with all its pro-nationalism anti-Lukashenko propaganda. Poland's trolling powers are not very internationally extensive, but relative to small Belarus they are strong.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ2UW1wDVTI

  386. @Aedib
    The master of all trolls strikes back.
    "Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko has threatened to cut off gas transit to Europe through his country by shutting down the Yamal-Europe pipeline if the EU imposes new sanctions on the country."

    https://www.intellinews.com/lukashenko-threatens-to-cut-gas-supplies-to-yamal-europe-gas-pipeline-if-eu-imposes-new-sanctions-promises-to-send-refugees-dry-firewood-226655/?source=belarus

    Replies: @sudden death, @Dmitry

    Congrats to Luka finaly becoming the ruler of whole RF! 🙂 But if it did not happen yet, it just means he threatened Gazprom with tearing of gas transit contract, also whole Kaliningrad oblast with gas cut off, as European customers do not have any gas supply treaties with Belarus.

    However, if it all is just directed straight from the Kremlin and Lukashenko is reduced to visible talking head narrating Putin script now, then it makes way more sense.

  387. @Matra
    I don't know if AK still reads comments here but if he does I'd be curious to know if he plans on doing a review somewhere (Substack?) of McMeekin's Stalin's War. Pretty sure AK said he was reading it & at 700 pages he'd probably want to get some content out of such an effort.

    Unfortunately, most reviews I've seen online have been from Suvorov & Nazi fanboys with an axe to grind. Between the book length and the interviews McMeekin has done - he seems to be going overboard with his thesis, but I guess nuance doesn't sell these days - I've put off buying it, for now. Thanks.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Yevardian

    Thorfinnsson reviewed it (according to him it’s “an anticommunist American conservative polemic directed against the pro-Soviet foreign policy of the Roosevelt Administration”):
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-159/#comment-4815863

    • Replies: @Matra
    @German_reader

    Thanks. Thorfinnsson's review and the comments below by Yevardian correspond with my own impressions from a couple of McMeekin's interviews. I've also just noticed that his last three books are available at my local public library so I'll just pick it up from there if they get it as, right now, it's priced at $50, which is just too much for a book that's not rare.

    Replies: @German_reader

  388. @German_reader
    @A123


    Obama’s regime change policy was repudiated by the Trump administration.
     
    Trump's administration enacted really draconian sanctions ("Caesar act") that are meant to block reconstruction efforts in Syria. So maybe there was a change from trying to bring about violent regime change (which hasn't been a realistic prospect for several years anyway), but definitely still a policy intended to keep Syria fragmented and unstable, with terrible consequence for the civilian population.
    As for the rest, it probably would be best if Iran evacuated Syria, but the hostile stance by Western states towards Assad's government has only increased his dependence on Iran, so unless there's at least some accommodation of Syrian (and Iranian) interests by Western states, I don't see potential for change. Turkey's role is of course extremely negative, but I'm not sure anybody has good leverage over Erdogan and his ilk, they're unpredictable.

    Replies: @A123, @A123

    Trump’s administration enacted really draconian sanctions (“Caesar act”) that are meant to block reconstruction efforts in Syria

    Iranian Hamas has proved that basic goods like concrete and pipe can be weaponized. Thus, Trump’s administration enacted the minimum needed sanctions to limit fungible resources reaching Iranian terrorists. The path to ending necessary antiterrorism sanctions is getting the Iranian terrorists out of Syria.

    I do understand part of your point. The Iranian “Shia Crescent” presence (plus historical enmity with the Kurds) has geared up the Turkish response. And, proxy forces are rarely easy to control. Worse yet, Erdogan has his own expansionary ambitions. The whole thing now has a life of its own. Erdogan poked NATO in the eye with his S400 purchase, showing that “Western states” have little to no influence on his regime.

    While Turkish Sunni irregulars are in the field, Assad does not have good options to control the Iranian Shia proxies. At some point, there needs to be a verifiable and enforceable armistice agreement that sends both sides home. A return to the status quo ante with Russia serving as the stabilizing force.

    Bottom Line — As long as the Shia-Sunni conflict is active, no amount of money will lead to successful reconstruction. Who wants to “go back” only to flee again when the front shifts?

    PEACE 😇

  389. @A123
    @German_reader

    AP & GR,

    You may find this article interesting: (1)


    Unholy Alliance: Pope Francis and President Biden

    Two Catholic newspapers battle it out over the U.S. president's visit to Rome

    Biden’s visit to Rome was just one of the many stories covered in the pages of the two major mainstream U.S. Catholic newspapers, The National Catholic Reporter (progressive) and The National Catholic Register (conservative). Editorially, these publications are so different from one anther they seem to confirm what a priest told me some time ago that, “The Catholic Church is really two Churches now.”
    ...
    The National Catholic Register, founded in 1927 by Matthew J. Smith, is part of the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) and the Catholic News Agency. It boasts a larger circulation than its leftist counterpart and has never had to defend the use of the word ‘Catholic’ in its name. The two newspapers haven’t had much to do with one another until recently when Pope Francis referred to EWTN indirectly to a group of Jesuits in Slovakia.

    "There is, for example,” Francis said, “a large Catholic television channel that has no hesitation in continually speaking ill of the pope. I personally deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the church does not deserve them. They are the work of the devil. I have also said this to some of them.”
     

    What happened to Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."? Francis has taken it upon himself to declare judgement on core Catholics.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/unholy-alliance-pope-francis-and-joe-biden-thom-nickels/

    Replies: @AP

    This Pope is a disappointment, to put it mildly, but there has we been much worse and the Church will survive this as it had survived worse.

  390. @German_reader
    @A123


    Obama’s regime change policy was repudiated by the Trump administration.
     
    Trump's administration enacted really draconian sanctions ("Caesar act") that are meant to block reconstruction efforts in Syria. So maybe there was a change from trying to bring about violent regime change (which hasn't been a realistic prospect for several years anyway), but definitely still a policy intended to keep Syria fragmented and unstable, with terrible consequence for the civilian population.
    As for the rest, it probably would be best if Iran evacuated Syria, but the hostile stance by Western states towards Assad's government has only increased his dependence on Iran, so unless there's at least some accommodation of Syrian (and Iranian) interests by Western states, I don't see potential for change. Turkey's role is of course extremely negative, but I'm not sure anybody has good leverage over Erdogan and his ilk, they're unpredictable.

    Replies: @A123, @A123

    ADDAENDUM

    Iranian terrorists are repeating their revolutionary War Crimes (1)

    — Iran-backed militants storm the US embassy facility in Yemen and seize hostages and equipment: State Department demands the release of staff
    — Iran-backed Houthi fighters kidnapped at least 25 people linked to the United States embassy in Yemen, according to local reports from the region
    — The State Department told DailyMail.com that a majority have been set free but that the US ‘has been unceasing in its diplomatic efforts’ to rescue the rest

    Will the Biden administration behave like the Carter administration?
    ____

    The only thing that Khamenei understands is force. The U.S. should seize everyone in the Iranian UN mission and trade them to the Houthis.

    Or, the more subtle option could be used. Shucks…. We do not know how those oil tankers vanished while transiting the Indian Ocean. Perhaps it was piracy….

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10191923/Iran-backed-militants-storm-embassy-Yemen-seize-hostages-State-Dept-demands-release.html

  391. Two books I just ordered –

    Apparently, Lewis Mumford wrote a massive book in the 30s called “The Myth of the Machine”! I did not know this, and it basically predicts the world we increasingly live in today.

    Mumford says that it’s a mistake to think that we actually succeeded in disenchanting the world, as it’s said, and that society is organized around material ends.

    In fact, we currently live in a new “sacred order”, with the Machine being the new sacred center. On the face of it, endless growth and control do not seem such important goals, which we are willing to sacrifice everything for.

    Mumford says that people don’t make supreme efforts for merely material ends, but only for sacred objects – for myths. The Machine is a sacred myth.

    That makes sense to me.

    Moreover, the Machine is not something new – it has it’s origins in the ancient civilizations of the Near East, especially Egypt with it’s vast work projects and pyramid building being the spiritual precursor to today’s Machine and embodying the same inhuman qualities and desire for “order and control”.

    For those who want to escape the trap, at the end of his book Mumford says –

    For those of us who have thrown off the myth of the machine, the next move is ours: for the gates of the technocratic prison will open automatically, despite their rusty ancient hinges, as soon as we choose to walk out.

    I look forward to delving into this – probably take me a month or more 🙂

    The second book I ordered is a little more light hearted – Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty.

    When I was much younger I read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, which made a huge impression on me at the time (the movie sucked).

    In one of the most fascinating chapters, he tells the story of a man who became so bewitched by the red rock deserts of Utah, fell so entirely under their spell, that one day he simply disappeared into them and was never seen again.

    I was always fascinated by this story and wanted to learn more. Well apparently, before he disappeared he sent many letters to friends and family, and this is the collection.

    I look forward to reading about this fascinating person!

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @AaronB

    Mumford is pretty lightweight. The real deal is Charles Manson and Ted Kaczynski. Manson didn't detail anything himself in writing because he was restricted. Nikolas Shreck's updated Manson File is the text to check out.

    For informational purposes only. I can't endorse whackos.

    Replies: @AaronB

  392. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    that humans can control everything
     
    Which serious scientist would make such a patently false claim?
    Ok, people like Richard Dawkins may be annoying in their dogmatic atheism, but I'm not sure even he would claim that humans will ever be able to know, let alone control everything.

    What to do about it seems less clear.
     
    Well, if you've hit upon some grand idea, let us know :-)

    Replies: @AaronB, @Coconuts

    Ok, people like Richard Dawkins may be annoying in their dogmatic atheism, but I’m not sure even he would claim that humans will ever be able to know, let alone control everything.

    I remember with these guys, Sam Harris even more so IIRC, that they would start with some seemingly powerful claim about Science being our only real source of knowledge, implicitly sounding like they were talking about something like strong physicalism (that Physics is our only real source of knowledge about reality, so all knowledge is ultimately reducible to its content), then they would walk the claim back progressively. and Science would end up meaning more science in the Aristotelian sense; any organised body of knowledge.

    It was also done mainly for polemic so in substantial terms didn’t move any debates forwards from where they were before, but some minority of people with nerd inclinations learned more about philosophy.

  393. @AaronB
    Two books I just ordered -

    Apparently, Lewis Mumford wrote a massive book in the 30s called "The Myth of the Machine"! I did not know this, and it basically predicts the world we increasingly live in today.

    Mumford says that it's a mistake to think that we actually succeeded in disenchanting the world, as it's said, and that society is organized around material ends.

    In fact, we currently live in a new "sacred order", with the Machine being the new sacred center. On the face of it, endless growth and control do not seem such important goals, which we are willing to sacrifice everything for.

    Mumford says that people don't make supreme efforts for merely material ends, but only for sacred objects - for myths. The Machine is a sacred myth.

    That makes sense to me.

    Moreover, the Machine is not something new - it has it's origins in the ancient civilizations of the Near East, especially Egypt with it's vast work projects and pyramid building being the spiritual precursor to today's Machine and embodying the same inhuman qualities and desire for "order and control".

    For those who want to escape the trap, at the end of his book Mumford says -


    For those of us who have thrown off the myth of the machine, the next move is ours: for the gates of the technocratic prison will open automatically, despite their rusty ancient hinges, as soon as we choose to walk out.
     
    I look forward to delving into this - probably take me a month or more :)

    The second book I ordered is a little more light hearted - Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty.

    When I was much younger I read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, which made a huge impression on me at the time (the movie sucked).

    In one of the most fascinating chapters, he tells the story of a man who became so bewitched by the red rock deserts of Utah, fell so entirely under their spell, that one day he simply disappeared into them and was never seen again.

    I was always fascinated by this story and wanted to learn more. Well apparently, before he disappeared he sent many letters to friends and family, and this is the collection.

    I look forward to reading about this fascinating person!

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    Mumford is pretty lightweight. The real deal is Charles Manson and Ted Kaczynski. Manson didn’t detail anything himself in writing because he was restricted. Nikolas Shreck’s updated Manson File is the text to check out.

    For informational purposes only. I can’t endorse whackos.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Ted Kaczynski didn't really escape from the "technocratic prison" - despite his very astute criticisms of technological progress, he accepted one of it's main assumptions; that progress is the purpose of life. He merely lamented that everything had already been discovered. (Unless I'm misremembering).

    He never really broke with that whole Faustian world view.

  394. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @AaronB

    Mumford is pretty lightweight. The real deal is Charles Manson and Ted Kaczynski. Manson didn't detail anything himself in writing because he was restricted. Nikolas Shreck's updated Manson File is the text to check out.

    For informational purposes only. I can't endorse whackos.

    Replies: @AaronB

    Ted Kaczynski didn’t really escape from the “technocratic prison” – despite his very astute criticisms of technological progress, he accepted one of it’s main assumptions; that progress is the purpose of life. He merely lamented that everything had already been discovered. (Unless I’m misremembering).

    He never really broke with that whole Faustian world view.

  395. https://www.rt.com/russia/539910-eu-border-migrant-crisis-belarus/

    Excerpt –

    The motives of Poland’s leadership, dominated by the nationalist-populist PiS party with strong illiberal tendencies, are no less obvious. It seeks to uphold long-standing Polish policy of not accommodating migration, except when the migrants are white and suit Polish-nationalist preferences. And so, Belarusians escaping from Lukashenko and Ukrainians fleeing a struggling, impoverished, country riven by conflict are welcome. Iraqis and Afghans trying to flee from political instability and war created by Western intervention, much less so.

    Moreover, PiS relies on many voters averse to foreigners or, again, at least those with skin darker than that of the average Pole. Repelling refugees is also yet another populist play for electoral support. In continual conflict with Brussels over their attempts to undermine democracy and the rule of law at home and, recently, in the EU in general, Poland’s PiS-ists are also welcoming the opportunity to grandstand as Europe’s bulwark against both migrants and Lukashenko’s pressure.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Mikhail

    lol, pathetic propaganda.
    Disturbingly enough this Tarik Cyril Amar seems to be a professor of Russian and Ukrainian history, with a Ph.D. from Princeton (and Stephen Kotkin as supervisor). I guess that's just more evidence how utterly worthless academics are. Or maybe he gets good money from RT, Belarus, Turkey or other interested parties for writing this garbage and doesn't have enough of a conscience to refuse (all the more so since the pro-migration stuff accords so well with Western shitlib sensibilities).

    Replies: @utu, @Mikhail, @Yevardian

  396. He’s back.

    Will Putin allow Lukashenko to cut off gas to the EU?

    Will Russia to war against Poland? Will NATO back Poland?

    No to all three questions?

  397. @mal

    So Turkey has now developed a capacity to destroy third world militaries for people to watch on YouTube.
     
    That drone has capacity of like 150 kg? For about $6 million a pop? A howitzer from a century ago is more cost effective. Real weapons don't have the time to film YouTube videos because they are out of range before impact even occurs. I mean, for the price of 4 Bayraktars you can buy an obsolete Su-24 that can deliver 8 tons of bombs, with the only bottleneck being pilot training.

    Never understood obsession with weak drones - long range rocket artillery (with drone spotters) is vastly more cost effective. Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are the future for the ground forces, not Bayraktars.

    YouTube videos is not the same as combat efficiency.

    Meanwhile, in the more important world of satellite warfare, Konanykhin published a video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVsvUQHr7Ec

    This is far more consequential than silly drone videos.

    Here are the satellite tracks.
    https://vimeo.com/comspoc

    It is clear that in 2019 USA 271 jumped Chinese Chinasat 6A and Chinese were asleep at the wheel. But Chinese also clearly conduct combat training for their satellite crews as explained in this video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx5zevd6AdU

    This is the future of warfare, not some silly 150 kg Turkish drones.

    Replies: @utu, @Philip Owen, @Dmitry

    Under the radar. Drones can go down into the clutter.

  398. German_reader says:
    @Mikhail
    https://www.rt.com/russia/539910-eu-border-migrant-crisis-belarus/

    Excerpt -

    The motives of Poland's leadership, dominated by the nationalist-populist PiS party with strong illiberal tendencies, are no less obvious. It seeks to uphold long-standing Polish policy of not accommodating migration, except when the migrants are white and suit Polish-nationalist preferences. And so, Belarusians escaping from Lukashenko and Ukrainians fleeing a struggling, impoverished, country riven by conflict are welcome. Iraqis and Afghans trying to flee from political instability and war created by Western intervention, much less so.

    Moreover, PiS relies on many voters averse to foreigners or, again, at least those with skin darker than that of the average Pole. Repelling refugees is also yet another populist play for electoral support. In continual conflict with Brussels over their attempts to undermine democracy and the rule of law at home and, recently, in the EU in general, Poland's PiS-ists are also welcoming the opportunity to grandstand as Europe's bulwark against both migrants and Lukashenko's pressure.
     

    Replies: @German_reader

    lol, pathetic propaganda.
    Disturbingly enough this Tarik Cyril Amar seems to be a professor of Russian and Ukrainian history, with a Ph.D. from Princeton (and Stephen Kotkin as supervisor). I guess that’s just more evidence how utterly worthless academics are. Or maybe he gets good money from RT, Belarus, Turkey or other interested parties for writing this garbage and doesn’t have enough of a conscience to refuse (all the more so since the pro-migration stuff accords so well with Western shitlib sensibilities).

    • Agree: AP, Coconuts
    • Replies: @utu
    @German_reader

    Whatever was behind the hybrid attack on Poland and EU by Luka and Putin backfired. That Poland was not afraid of the confrontation is one thing but that Poland has gained support of EU pro-immigration countries is another thing of much greater importance. This means that an opening in the discourse occurred where now you can be against immigration because Putin is behind it. The discourse has changed. This might be the beginning of the end of the official unconditional pro-immigration attitude in the EU.

    The attempt to destabilize EU and Poland by Luka and Putin failed and instead made Poland and EU stronger. So it is expected that Luka will back off and begin to send immigrants back to Bagdad and Damascus. Thank you Putin, thank you Luka. In the future if you want some idea to be completely compromised find a way to put Putin behind it.

    , @Mikhail
    @German_reader

    Any problems with this one?

    https://www.rt.com/news/539994-france-defends-russia-belarus-border/

    , @Yevardian
    @German_reader

    Eh, I think it's a rather huge stretch to assume Belorusian or Russian migrants abroad will act like Turkish ones. Besides, Poland does have a serious shortage of working age youth, with so many emigrating themselves to Germany and W. Europe. Not to mention the combination of an aging population.

    Edit: So I looked at the RT article... yeah, I misinterpreted. Yes, funny how RT often takes liberal-left stances on issues for foreign audiences that would never be accepted at home.
    Anyway, downplaying this makes sense from both a Russian and American perspective, Germany is the only country that's really capable of directing a relatively coherent pan-European policy without American or Russian tutelage.

  399. @songbird
    @That Would Be Telling

    Somewhere in The Sword in the Stone, TH White wrote about armor making knights immune and thus indifferent to the consequences of war, which fall disproportionately on peasants.

    It's kind of a thin analogy, and, I'm not even sure how to judge the historicity of it. But, in any case, nuclear weapons must be the ultimate inversion of it. Despite their indiscriminate and awe-inspiring power - they are like heat-seeking missiles, shooting through the armor (the status) of the elite. Sure to take them down a peg or two, even if they are sitting in a custom-made fallout shelter, with plenty of supplies.

    Replies: @sher singh, @Philip Owen

    High medieval knights fought to capture another knight and make him pay ransom. Armour made sure that war was not much more dangerous than a vigorous game of rugby. The French were horrified at Agincourt when the English killed their captives

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Philip Owen

    I am fortunate enough to be able to trace a tenuous pedigree to a family mentioned prominently in the Irish Annals.

    One fellow, if I understand the chronology correctly, was still fighting (or leading men into battle?) into his late sixties or seventies, a full 54 years, after his first battle feat was recorded, capturing the Earl of Kildare. Imagine riding a horse into battle, in your seventies, with (as can be imagined, if I understand correctly) no stirrups! The annals seem to hint that he was fighting nearly constantly. (Some say that Irish raiding was uniquely low stakes, in relative terms, though there were periods of more intense conflict) They state he was captured at least three times, and defeated several more.

    One capture was by treachery. Another time, he narrowly escaped capture, despite his sword and shield being taken and having a broken leg - he was put on a horse by his son and brother. The last two captures happened in his final recorded year of battles. The very last battle entry is him, in flight, falling off his horse twice, and refusing to be put up a third time. Ostensibly, to save his son from being captured. He lived for a few years afterward, but was probably atypical.
    __________
    It seems the case in much of Europe, that merchant families outpaced warrior ones. Usually, this is attributed to loss in battle.

  400. @German_reader
    @Mikhail

    lol, pathetic propaganda.
    Disturbingly enough this Tarik Cyril Amar seems to be a professor of Russian and Ukrainian history, with a Ph.D. from Princeton (and Stephen Kotkin as supervisor). I guess that's just more evidence how utterly worthless academics are. Or maybe he gets good money from RT, Belarus, Turkey or other interested parties for writing this garbage and doesn't have enough of a conscience to refuse (all the more so since the pro-migration stuff accords so well with Western shitlib sensibilities).

    Replies: @utu, @Mikhail, @Yevardian

    Whatever was behind the hybrid attack on Poland and EU by Luka and Putin backfired. That Poland was not afraid of the confrontation is one thing but that Poland has gained support of EU pro-immigration countries is another thing of much greater importance. This means that an opening in the discourse occurred where now you can be against immigration because Putin is behind it. The discourse has changed. This might be the beginning of the end of the official unconditional pro-immigration attitude in the EU.

    The attempt to destabilize EU and Poland by Luka and Putin failed and instead made Poland and EU stronger. So it is expected that Luka will back off and begin to send immigrants back to Bagdad and Damascus. Thank you Putin, thank you Luka. In the future if you want some idea to be completely compromised find a way to put Putin behind it.

    • Agree: AP
  401. @German_reader
    @AaronB

    Sounds like obscurantist nonsense. There's probably a serious case against some modern technology (personally I increasingly think television was a disastrous invention, and smartphones are terrible as well) that has led to atomization and alienation...but dismissing science itself and saying it's equivalent to what some Satanist nutcase like Alistair Crowley was doing? What's Paul Kingsnorth's end goal? Does he want to return to something like 7th century Francia, or what exactly is he proposing?

    Replies: @AaronB, @AaronB, @Dmitry

    In 20th century technologies, radio was the most dangerous one. You can see how it helps Hitler’s speaking to hack the vulnerable software installed on German brains.

    We seem to have stronger “firewall” against images than speaking, and even the most effective television for brainwashing (Solovyov, Tucker Carlson, etc) is relying on words, rather than images. That is, when you want to use television for brainwashing, then it’s most effective to make it like a recreation of radio.

    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.

    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building, which was almost indistinguishable from an episode of Pokemon GO, but where the users seemed to be unable to understand the boundary between online games they were addicted to and a real life with legal consequences.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Dmitry


    In 20th century technologies, radio was the most dangerous one.
     
    Radio was prominent in the Rwandan genocide, but I am not sure whether to give it great prominence in anything else. For example, I'm not sure that the German public were really hubristic enough to want to fight the US and USSR at the same time. Meanwhile, in the USSR, Stalin had a very Georgian accent, and he was very conscious of it, and the one time that I know he made a radio address (because of the war) it was at 6 AM.

    In terms of encouraging decadence. I would give the win to TV, by a country mile. I think a lot of decadence on the radio was actually facilitated by TV. TV makes movies more decadent to compete with TV, while also making radio more decadent, to compete with TV.

    Your typical radio show was a live broadcast in front of a studio audience. (In the US, into the '50s, it was illegal to pre-record a radio show. They would perform it live twice, once for each coast.) So, you could not push-pull a social message because it had to play well to the public, with no chance of syndication, or international markets. The shows typically had a single long-running sponsor, and companies were not giant conglomerations back then, so they were really worried about perceptions about their brand. The same was true of national radio networks - there were very few competing big stations, so one would really take a hit, if public perceptions were negatively crystallized about it.

    TV allowed for runaway color-signaling. The most popular radio show in the '30s was two guys in blackface voicing many different black characters. You could not show an interracial kiss on radio, let alone these insane miscegenation commercials. Hard to show a black doctor or scientist on radio. Not to mention, hard to sex-sell anything.
    , @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.
     
    The problem with television is not just the content, but its contribution to atomization and the breakdown of community life. It creates a fake reality which diverts people from real social relationships (if you have ever read Fahrenheit 451, think of the protagonist's wife who only lives for watching stupid soap operas).
    Internet is of course terrible too, with all that social media nonsense. Even commenting here is probably not all that healthy either. However, you can also use the internet for useful purposes like pirating books or seeking out information. So it's not completely bad, unlike Television which is probably one of the most evil inventions ever.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @songbird, @iffen

    , @iffen
    @Dmitry

    but where the users seemed to be unable to understand the boundary between online games they were addicted to and a real life with legal consequences.

    And how is this different from thousands of peasant revolts or Children's Crusades?

    , @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building
     
    It looks like that NYT documentary on Jan 6th that you saw on Youtube made a big impression on you. It's the one and only pro-Trump riot I can remember and it was highly significant in that they stormed the Capitol building but it wasn't particularly violent. They just dissolved themselves after a while and went back home without really achieving anything.

    By contrast, in the preceding months dozens of people were killed as antifa and looters burned down and ransacked cities across America.

    I guess that the uprising of the QAnon Shaman and the old ladies taking selfie pics in the Senate was mostly an internet thing. OAN and the other MAGA TV channel, whatever it's called, don't have much of an audience. But mainstream TV networks did play a big role in the destructive antifa riots. The "mostly peaceful" meme came out straight from TV reporting, that was very sympathetic to the rioters.

    By the same token, the same major TV networks right now seem to be doing everything in their power to make sure that if Rittenhouse is acquitted, we'll see new violent riots erupting in the US. Any unbiased person who's spent a couple of minutes watching the footage of the incident knows that he shot in self-defense but these TV networks keep twisting the facts beyond recognition for their viewers.

    I wouldn't say that television is such a harmless tool of communication at all.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  402. @mal

    So Turkey has now developed a capacity to destroy third world militaries for people to watch on YouTube.
     
    That drone has capacity of like 150 kg? For about $6 million a pop? A howitzer from a century ago is more cost effective. Real weapons don't have the time to film YouTube videos because they are out of range before impact even occurs. I mean, for the price of 4 Bayraktars you can buy an obsolete Su-24 that can deliver 8 tons of bombs, with the only bottleneck being pilot training.

    Never understood obsession with weak drones - long range rocket artillery (with drone spotters) is vastly more cost effective. Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are the future for the ground forces, not Bayraktars.

    YouTube videos is not the same as combat efficiency.

    Meanwhile, in the more important world of satellite warfare, Konanykhin published a video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVsvUQHr7Ec

    This is far more consequential than silly drone videos.

    Here are the satellite tracks.
    https://vimeo.com/comspoc

    It is clear that in 2019 USA 271 jumped Chinese Chinasat 6A and Chinese were asleep at the wheel. But Chinese also clearly conduct combat training for their satellite crews as explained in this video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx5zevd6AdU

    This is the future of warfare, not some silly 150 kg Turkish drones.

    Replies: @utu, @Philip Owen, @Dmitry

    During Azerbaijan-Armenia war last year in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan was uploading daily compilation videos of its drone attacks on Armenian soldiers. In some of these videos, you can count that there appear to be hundreds of Armenian soldiers being injured or perhaps killed by drones.

    So drones killed perhaps thousands of Armenian soldiers when the sky was without clouds, and for a country of Armenia’s size it was then obvious to be a short war. That’s despite Armenia having the defensive positions in the fortified mountain terrain. So even with their small munitions, drones allowed Azerbaijan to win the war from an unlikely terrain situation. And Azerbaijan has almost no air force. ​

    4 Bayraktars you can buy an obsolete Su

    Bayraktars being used by a country with an air force (unlike Azerbaijan), would be more effective again, as when they discover by loitering a stationary enemy position, they could send the co-ordinates for the air force that carries heavier munitions.

    But I haven’t read that any planes in the non-drone air force are suitable for loitering slowly for hours above enemy soldiers, watching them with powerful cameras, and following them around, and firing immediately when it wants from a short distance.

    more cost effective. Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are the future for the ground forces

    It’s like saying snipers cannot be effective, compared to artillery, because the munitions are too small. Or that landmines will not be effective, because of the small munitions compared to an aerial bomb.

    Obviously the munitions on the Bayraktar drones were too small to kill large convoys of tanks or groups of soldiers in a single attack.

    On the other hand, how easily they were following the soldiers behind the enemy lines, seems to be something unprecedented.

    They could watch the area with a camera for hours, discover the targets, and and fire small munitions, which were according to YouTube hitting directly on soldiers in opportunistic way.

    Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are

    By the time it travels this distance, the soldiers will be in a different position. So the munitions would need to be larger for the same effect.

    When Bayraktar drones loiter for hours in the enemy territory, with very effective cameras, which were following the soldiers around. Because of the short distance, the sensor to shooter loop is far shorter than firing from a longer distance.

    It’s the equivalent of having snipers in the air, at close range, on those days when the sky was clear of clouds. Scary, dystopian future.

    Aside from small munitions, the main limitation of Bayraktar drone during this war seems to be on days when there were clouds and fog. These drones were operating in clear days without clouds. On days when there are clouds, they were not flying I have read, and people have claimed that Armenia was able to re-attain advantage in the defense in those days.

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @Dmitry

    Initially I thought this propaganda video was garbage, except for showing a lot of scurrying troops. Wait until or move to ~1:40 into it to see evidence for the thesis of small scale precision drone strikes, which provides a credible explanation for the previous minute and a half of "armenian soldiers fleeing from war" per the title.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  403. @Aedib
    The master of all trolls strikes back.
    "Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko has threatened to cut off gas transit to Europe through his country by shutting down the Yamal-Europe pipeline if the EU imposes new sanctions on the country."

    https://www.intellinews.com/lukashenko-threatens-to-cut-gas-supplies-to-yamal-europe-gas-pipeline-if-eu-imposes-new-sanctions-promises-to-send-refugees-dry-firewood-226655/?source=belarus

    Replies: @sudden death, @Dmitry

    Lukashenko’s status “master of trolls”, can only be if being a troll master, doesn’t include resistance to being trolled yourself – as most years Poland usually is trolling him more than vice-versa, when you consider Belsat, and how it is accessible to anyone in Belarus with a satellite receiver.

    Poland is permanently sending this into Belarus, with all its pro-nationalism anti-Lukashenko propaganda. Poland’s trolling powers are not very internationally extensive, but relative to small Belarus they are strong.

    • Agree: Mikhail
  404. @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    In 20th century technologies, radio was the most dangerous one. You can see how it helps Hitler's speaking to hack the vulnerable software installed on German brains.

    We seem to have stronger "firewall" against images than speaking, and even the most effective television for brainwashing (Solovyov, Tucker Carlson, etc) is relying on words, rather than images. That is, when you want to use television for brainwashing, then it's most effective to make it like a recreation of radio.

    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.

    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building, which was almost indistinguishable from an episode of Pokemon GO, but where the users seemed to be unable to understand the boundary between online games they were addicted to and a real life with legal consequences.

    Replies: @songbird, @German_reader, @iffen, @Mikel

    In 20th century technologies, radio was the most dangerous one.

    Radio was prominent in the Rwandan genocide, but I am not sure whether to give it great prominence in anything else. For example, I’m not sure that the German public were really hubristic enough to want to fight the US and USSR at the same time. Meanwhile, in the USSR, Stalin had a very Georgian accent, and he was very conscious of it, and the one time that I know he made a radio address (because of the war) it was at 6 AM.

    [MORE]

    In terms of encouraging decadence. I would give the win to TV, by a country mile. I think a lot of decadence on the radio was actually facilitated by TV. TV makes movies more decadent to compete with TV, while also making radio more decadent, to compete with TV.

    Your typical radio show was a live broadcast in front of a studio audience. (In the US, into the ’50s, it was illegal to pre-record a radio show. They would perform it live twice, once for each coast.) So, you could not push-pull a social message because it had to play well to the public, with no chance of syndication, or international markets. The shows typically had a single long-running sponsor, and companies were not giant conglomerations back then, so they were really worried about perceptions about their brand. The same was true of national radio networks – there were very few competing big stations, so one would really take a hit, if public perceptions were negatively crystallized about it.

    TV allowed for runaway color-signaling. The most popular radio show in the ’30s was two guys in blackface voicing many different black characters. You could not show an interracial kiss on radio, let alone these insane miscegenation commercials. Hard to show a black doctor or scientist on radio. Not to mention, hard to sex-sell anything.

  405. @Philip Owen
    @songbird

    High medieval knights fought to capture another knight and make him pay ransom. Armour made sure that war was not much more dangerous than a vigorous game of rugby. The French were horrified at Agincourt when the English killed their captives

    Replies: @songbird

    I am fortunate enough to be able to trace a tenuous pedigree to a family mentioned prominently in the Irish Annals.

    One fellow, if I understand the chronology correctly, was still fighting (or leading men into battle?) into his late sixties or seventies, a full 54 years, after his first battle feat was recorded, capturing the Earl of Kildare. Imagine riding a horse into battle, in your seventies, with (as can be imagined, if I understand correctly) no stirrups!

    [MORE]
    The annals seem to hint that he was fighting nearly constantly. (Some say that Irish raiding was uniquely low stakes, in relative terms, though there were periods of more intense conflict) They state he was captured at least three times, and defeated several more.

    One capture was by treachery. Another time, he narrowly escaped capture, despite his sword and shield being taken and having a broken leg – he was put on a horse by his son and brother. The last two captures happened in his final recorded year of battles. The very last battle entry is him, in flight, falling off his horse twice, and refusing to be put up a third time. Ostensibly, to save his son from being captured. He lived for a few years afterward, but was probably atypical.
    __________
    It seems the case in much of Europe, that merchant families outpaced warrior ones. Usually, this is attributed to loss in battle.

    • Agree: Philip Owen
  406. In the Russian media, rapper Morgenshtern has been experiencing very bad publicity this month, because he said that “we focus too much on Victory Day”.

    Morgenshtern started as a kind of not funny joke from YouTube, but seemed to become more like a realistic satire in the last year.

    I was going to compliment him for his cynicism of the new video – it was like the concise description of the elite’s Zeitgeist, not only in Russia.

  407. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    In 20th century technologies, radio was the most dangerous one. You can see how it helps Hitler's speaking to hack the vulnerable software installed on German brains.

    We seem to have stronger "firewall" against images than speaking, and even the most effective television for brainwashing (Solovyov, Tucker Carlson, etc) is relying on words, rather than images. That is, when you want to use television for brainwashing, then it's most effective to make it like a recreation of radio.

    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.

    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building, which was almost indistinguishable from an episode of Pokemon GO, but where the users seemed to be unable to understand the boundary between online games they were addicted to and a real life with legal consequences.

    Replies: @songbird, @German_reader, @iffen, @Mikel

    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.

    The problem with television is not just the content, but its contribution to atomization and the breakdown of community life. It creates a fake reality which diverts people from real social relationships (if you have ever read Fahrenheit 451, think of the protagonist’s wife who only lives for watching stupid soap operas).
    Internet is of course terrible too, with all that social media nonsense. Even commenting here is probably not all that healthy either. However, you can also use the internet for useful purposes like pirating books or seeking out information. So it’s not completely bad, unlike Television which is probably one of the most evil inventions ever.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    television is not just the content, but its contribution to atomization
     
    In addition to the low apparent political impact in terms of leading to dictatorships, television corresponds with the socially happier times of the 20th century in the first and second worlds.

    This 1950-1990s, will be remembered as a social golden age in the first/second world countries.

    So at the limit, historically television seemed at least to be able to co-exist with the healthy social life in the USA, USSR and Europe.

    Television was very dominant in later Soviet life. But if you talk to older generations in Russia, about the effect of television on their life - I doubt many view it negatively. My parents have been children in a golden age of television, and their happy memories were watching television with their family. People were watching after they returned from work to relax in the evening.

    It was existing in the private space - and certainly creating perhaps passive subjects. But it was not in the public space. If you were going to the cafe, then I don't think television will be able to get you. Unlike internet today, where we can escape it even less in the public spaces than in the private spaces today.

    Of course, it would be displacing the radio, reading of books, and traditional entertainment like to go to musical theatre, and therefore has a negative effect on the culture production level of the second half of the 20th century.


    you can also use the internet for useful purposes like pirating books or seeking out information. So it’s not completely bad, unlike Television

     

    Television could also have positive effects, especially in its golden age when there was often higher quality of content. If you look at television of the 1970s for example.

    creates a fake reality which diverts people from real social relationships... Internet is of course terrible too, with all that social media nonsense. Even
     
    Internet is going to subordinate the real world, to a secondary status. This is something on another level.

    If you want to see something scary, look at the Cardi B performance in Coachella music festival, at 0:40. Nobody is watching, but everyone is recording to their smartphone.


    https://youtu.be/SZzWhhqYRBs?t=38

    ^ Say this image at 0:40 is not far more scary, than anything with the people sitting on the sofa being passively receptors for the television.

    This is the internet young people can seem to already act as if reality doesn't exist until it has been digitized and uploaded to the cloud. That is as if the purpose of the real world is a material for feeding information to the internet.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    , @songbird
    @German_reader

    Perhaps, what you are really denouncing is TV's mass appeal.

    Books do not have mass appeal generally, and the ones that do are usually beyond terrible: The Da Vinci Code, World War Z. Same with mainstream non-fiction. It is a problem of IQ. A typical history book appeals to a niche audience, necessarily a higher IQ. Higher IQ will always be more niche.

    Higher IQ people will dislike lower IQ stuff. It is a relative thing. Their brain struggles to interface with it, just like the brain of low IQ people will struggle to interface with high IQ stuff. Mismatch the brain, and it causes pain. Match it, and it can hit the pleasure centers. But hitting the pleasure centers does not necessarily mean it is a moral good. Books probably have the potential to atomize more than TV, but they appeal to less people. One could even make an argument that they are more evil because they target high IQ people, thus taking the people most able to solve problems out of society.

    Many people dissipate their lives trying to write books. It would be better if they tried to tell stories around a fire.

    Of course, I think TV is evil too, but for other reasons: more effective dissemination of propaganda.

    , @iffen
    @German_reader

    Even commenting here is probably not all that healthy either.

    But some, like me only have our internet friends like the commenters here. You want to take all that away from us lonely hearts?

  408. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.
     
    The problem with television is not just the content, but its contribution to atomization and the breakdown of community life. It creates a fake reality which diverts people from real social relationships (if you have ever read Fahrenheit 451, think of the protagonist's wife who only lives for watching stupid soap operas).
    Internet is of course terrible too, with all that social media nonsense. Even commenting here is probably not all that healthy either. However, you can also use the internet for useful purposes like pirating books or seeking out information. So it's not completely bad, unlike Television which is probably one of the most evil inventions ever.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @songbird, @iffen

    television is not just the content, but its contribution to atomization

    In addition to the low apparent political impact in terms of leading to dictatorships, television corresponds with the socially happier times of the 20th century in the first and second worlds.

    This 1950-1990s, will be remembered as a social golden age in the first/second world countries.

    So at the limit, historically television seemed at least to be able to co-exist with the healthy social life in the USA, USSR and Europe.

    Television was very dominant in later Soviet life. But if you talk to older generations in Russia, about the effect of television on their life – I doubt many view it negatively. My parents have been children in a golden age of television, and their happy memories were watching television with their family. People were watching after they returned from work to relax in the evening.

    It was existing in the private space – and certainly creating perhaps passive subjects. But it was not in the public space. If you were going to the cafe, then I don’t think television will be able to get you. Unlike internet today, where we can escape it even less in the public spaces than in the private spaces today.

    Of course, it would be displacing the radio, reading of books, and traditional entertainment like to go to musical theatre, and therefore has a negative effect on the culture production level of the second half of the 20th century.

    you can also use the internet for useful purposes like pirating books or seeking out information. So it’s not completely bad, unlike Television

    Television could also have positive effects, especially in its golden age when there was often higher quality of content. If you look at television of the 1970s for example.

    creates a fake reality which diverts people from real social relationships… Internet is of course terrible too, with all that social media nonsense. Even

    Internet is going to subordinate the real world, to a secondary status. This is something on another level.

    If you want to see something scary, look at the Cardi B performance in Coachella music festival, at 0:40. Nobody is watching, but everyone is recording to their smartphone.

    ^ Say this image at 0:40 is not far more scary, than anything with the people sitting on the sofa being passively receptors for the television.

    This is the internet young people can seem to already act as if reality doesn’t exist until it has been digitized and uploaded to the cloud. That is as if the purpose of the real world is a material for feeding information to the internet.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry


    television corresponds with the socially happier times of the 20th century in the first and second worlds.
     
    The real problem with whatever information technologies from the printing press on, isn't the dissemination of any idea, but becoming the "opiate of the masses" that has come to replace organized religion (as opposed to faith & philosophy).

    This is the internet young people can seem to already act as if reality doesn’t exist until it has been digitized and uploaded to the cloud. That is as if the purpose of the real world is a material for feeding information to the internet.
     
    We can clearly trace the line from this into the metaverse void.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  409. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.
     
    The problem with television is not just the content, but its contribution to atomization and the breakdown of community life. It creates a fake reality which diverts people from real social relationships (if you have ever read Fahrenheit 451, think of the protagonist's wife who only lives for watching stupid soap operas).
    Internet is of course terrible too, with all that social media nonsense. Even commenting here is probably not all that healthy either. However, you can also use the internet for useful purposes like pirating books or seeking out information. So it's not completely bad, unlike Television which is probably one of the most evil inventions ever.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @songbird, @iffen

    Perhaps, what you are really denouncing is TV’s mass appeal.

    Books do not have mass appeal generally, and the ones that do are usually beyond terrible: The Da Vinci Code, World War Z. Same with mainstream non-fiction. It is a problem of IQ. A typical history book appeals to a niche audience, necessarily a higher IQ. Higher IQ will always be more niche.

    Higher IQ people will dislike lower IQ stuff. It is a relative thing. Their brain struggles to interface with it, just like the brain of low IQ people will struggle to interface with high IQ stuff. Mismatch the brain, and it causes pain. Match it, and it can hit the pleasure centers. But hitting the pleasure centers does not necessarily mean it is a moral good. Books probably have the potential to atomize more than TV, but they appeal to less people. One could even make an argument that they are more evil because they target high IQ people, thus taking the people most able to solve problems out of society.

    Many people dissipate their lives trying to write books. It would be better if they tried to tell stories around a fire.

    Of course, I think TV is evil too, but for other reasons: more effective dissemination of propaganda.

  410. If Planet 9 is discovered, what are the odds that it will be named after a voodoo god?

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Not really likely but possible. There are already some dwarf planets and moons named after non-Greco-Roman deities, since Greco-Roman names have been "exhausted" after being spent on those same dwarf planets and moons. But at least those aren't as trivial as a voodoo god.

    My biggest bet will be a major Indian deity, but this will lower him/her onto the level of Navagraha.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Nine#Naming
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet#Mythology_and_naming

    Replies: @songbird

  411. @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    television is not just the content, but its contribution to atomization
     
    In addition to the low apparent political impact in terms of leading to dictatorships, television corresponds with the socially happier times of the 20th century in the first and second worlds.

    This 1950-1990s, will be remembered as a social golden age in the first/second world countries.

    So at the limit, historically television seemed at least to be able to co-exist with the healthy social life in the USA, USSR and Europe.

    Television was very dominant in later Soviet life. But if you talk to older generations in Russia, about the effect of television on their life - I doubt many view it negatively. My parents have been children in a golden age of television, and their happy memories were watching television with their family. People were watching after they returned from work to relax in the evening.

    It was existing in the private space - and certainly creating perhaps passive subjects. But it was not in the public space. If you were going to the cafe, then I don't think television will be able to get you. Unlike internet today, where we can escape it even less in the public spaces than in the private spaces today.

    Of course, it would be displacing the radio, reading of books, and traditional entertainment like to go to musical theatre, and therefore has a negative effect on the culture production level of the second half of the 20th century.


    you can also use the internet for useful purposes like pirating books or seeking out information. So it’s not completely bad, unlike Television

     

    Television could also have positive effects, especially in its golden age when there was often higher quality of content. If you look at television of the 1970s for example.

    creates a fake reality which diverts people from real social relationships... Internet is of course terrible too, with all that social media nonsense. Even
     
    Internet is going to subordinate the real world, to a secondary status. This is something on another level.

    If you want to see something scary, look at the Cardi B performance in Coachella music festival, at 0:40. Nobody is watching, but everyone is recording to their smartphone.


    https://youtu.be/SZzWhhqYRBs?t=38

    ^ Say this image at 0:40 is not far more scary, than anything with the people sitting on the sofa being passively receptors for the television.

    This is the internet young people can seem to already act as if reality doesn't exist until it has been digitized and uploaded to the cloud. That is as if the purpose of the real world is a material for feeding information to the internet.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    television corresponds with the socially happier times of the 20th century in the first and second worlds.

    The real problem with whatever information technologies from the printing press on, isn’t the dissemination of any idea, but becoming the “opiate of the masses” that has come to replace organized religion (as opposed to faith & philosophy).

    This is the internet young people can seem to already act as if reality doesn’t exist until it has been digitized and uploaded to the cloud. That is as if the purpose of the real world is a material for feeding information to the internet.

    We can clearly trace the line from this into the metaverse void.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    If you want to see more scary movements of our epoch, Moscow Metro is now installing a live facial recognition system so that the metro knows your face and adds the payment to your card when you approach the entrance. ( https://ria.ru/20211108/litso-1757613837.html )

    Scary thing, is the fact nobody has been protesting this continual digitization, and erosion of the rights we had for generations enjoyed as natural parts of the public space. Digital gulag is already being installed, and that's without even discussing the QR codes that are hopefully only temporary during the pandemic.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-sTDhi4or8

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  412. @Grahamsno(G64)
    @Thomm


    RUnzie Baby campaigned on a high minimum wage (a far-left position) and simultaneously pushes for illegal immigration to not be curbed.
     
    That's both moronic & oxymoronic.

    Replies: @Thomm

    That’s both moronic & oxymoronic.

    Yes. RUnzie Baby is one of those overspecialized nerds who is super-theoretical, and doesn’t see the contradictions amongst his own views. But that is also what makes him effective as a Confuse and Conquer Jew.

    He wrote into his own Wikipedia article that his IQ is 214, and then is baffled when people laugh at that.

  413. @German_reader
    @Mikhail

    lol, pathetic propaganda.
    Disturbingly enough this Tarik Cyril Amar seems to be a professor of Russian and Ukrainian history, with a Ph.D. from Princeton (and Stephen Kotkin as supervisor). I guess that's just more evidence how utterly worthless academics are. Or maybe he gets good money from RT, Belarus, Turkey or other interested parties for writing this garbage and doesn't have enough of a conscience to refuse (all the more so since the pro-migration stuff accords so well with Western shitlib sensibilities).

    Replies: @utu, @Mikhail, @Yevardian

  414. @A123
    @German_reader

    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.

    It will be interesting to see if the Catholic Church can do better with their next selection. At least one of the major Christian branches in the U.S. and Europe needs to fully revive as leader for traditional Judeo-Christian values.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader, @RadicalCenter, @Yellowface Anon

    It would seem that a supposed Christian leader should advocate and model Christian values, not some other religion/race’s values conflated or mixed with Christian values. Judeo-Christian is a rather absurd term — or if it’s not, then perhaps Christianity itself is part of the problem.

    And it’s not just the current pope who is a liar, a corrupt thief, and an abetter of deviants who prey on teenage boys and young priests. It’s the previous popes, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, etc. You’re either indulging in wishful thinking or dissembling for the sake of the sickos running that institution for a loooong time now.

    The RC church is long past the point where anyone sensible and not a gullible schmuck would wait for their next selection to be “The Pope.” Who cares. Withdraw financial and moral support until they lose influence and eventually collapse. Enough already.

    • Replies: @A123
    @RadicalCenter


    Judeo-Christian is a rather absurd term — or if it’s not, then perhaps Christianity itself is part of the problem.
     
    Jews & Christians share "Old Testament" values, such as the Ten Commandments. No serious Christian rejects Judeo-Christian (a.k.a. Old Testament) values.

    Perhaps you are onto something:
        • Why is Pope Francis such a bad Christian?
        • As an anti-Semite, has he rejected the Old Testament?

    This would explain why he openly supports anti-Christian SJW values.

    And it’s not just the current pope ... It’s the previous popes, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, etc. You’re either indulging in wishful thinking or dissembling
     
    I am definitely not dissembling.

    God provides Faith. And, Faith provides Hope. I hope that the Catholic Church will reform. What is the difference between "hopeful" and "wishful"? I prefer the former, as it ties to common sense such as, "Hope for the Best. Prepare for the Worst". Prudent contingency planning will require scenarios where the Catholic Church stays rogue or schisms into separate churches.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @RadicalCenter

  415. @A123
    @German_reader

    Certainly the current anti-Christian Pope is a serious problem.

    It will be interesting to see if the Catholic Church can do better with their next selection. At least one of the major Christian branches in the U.S. and Europe needs to fully revive as leader for traditional Judeo-Christian values.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader, @RadicalCenter, @Yellowface Anon

    PBUYT

    Will they even be able to select the Pope after Francis?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes#Petrus_Romanus

    • Replies: @A123
    @Yellowface Anon


    Will they even be able to select the Pope after Francis?
     
    As a practical matter, it takes 2/3 supermajority of the Cardinals to select a Pope. They could be deadlocked for an extended period.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  416. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.
     
    The problem with television is not just the content, but its contribution to atomization and the breakdown of community life. It creates a fake reality which diverts people from real social relationships (if you have ever read Fahrenheit 451, think of the protagonist's wife who only lives for watching stupid soap operas).
    Internet is of course terrible too, with all that social media nonsense. Even commenting here is probably not all that healthy either. However, you can also use the internet for useful purposes like pirating books or seeking out information. So it's not completely bad, unlike Television which is probably one of the most evil inventions ever.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @songbird, @iffen

    Even commenting here is probably not all that healthy either.

    But some, like me only have our internet friends like the commenters here. You want to take all that away from us lonely hearts?

  417. @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    In 20th century technologies, radio was the most dangerous one. You can see how it helps Hitler's speaking to hack the vulnerable software installed on German brains.

    We seem to have stronger "firewall" against images than speaking, and even the most effective television for brainwashing (Solovyov, Tucker Carlson, etc) is relying on words, rather than images. That is, when you want to use television for brainwashing, then it's most effective to make it like a recreation of radio.

    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.

    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building, which was almost indistinguishable from an episode of Pokemon GO, but where the users seemed to be unable to understand the boundary between online games they were addicted to and a real life with legal consequences.

    Replies: @songbird, @German_reader, @iffen, @Mikel

    but where the users seemed to be unable to understand the boundary between online games they were addicted to and a real life with legal consequences.

    And how is this different from thousands of peasant revolts or Children’s Crusades?

  418. Good guy Erdogan probably decided it’s not that good to lose his previous dominant market share of public Muslim trafficking to EU, lol 🙂

    Citizens from Syria, Yemen and Iraq will no longer be allowed to buy flight tickets from Turkey to Minsk, Turkey’s civil aviation general directorate has said, amid a standoff between Belarus and the EU over the arrival of thousands of people at the Polish border.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/12/turkey-bans-citizens-syria-yemen-iraq-from-flying-minsk

    MOSCOW, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Belarusian state-owned airline Belavia said on Friday it would stop allowing citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen to board flights from Turkey to Belarus at the request of Turkish authorities amid a migrant standoff between Belarus and Poland.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/belarus-airline-says-it-will-bar-syrians-iraqis-yemenis-boarding-turkey-ankaras-2021-11-12/

    • LOL: songbird
  419. @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    It would seem that a supposed Christian leader should advocate and model Christian values, not some other religion/race’s values conflated or mixed with Christian values. Judeo-Christian is a rather absurd term — or if it’s not, then perhaps Christianity itself is part of the problem.

    And it’s not just the current pope who is a liar, a corrupt thief, and an abetter of deviants who prey on teenage boys and young priests. It’s the previous popes, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, etc. You’re either indulging in wishful thinking or dissembling for the sake of the sickos running that institution for a loooong time now.

    The RC church is long past the point where anyone sensible and not a gullible schmuck would wait for their next selection to be “The Pope.” Who cares. Withdraw financial and moral support until they lose influence and eventually collapse. Enough already.

    Replies: @A123

    Judeo-Christian is a rather absurd term — or if it’s not, then perhaps Christianity itself is part of the problem.

    Jews & Christians share “Old Testament” values, such as the Ten Commandments. No serious Christian rejects Judeo-Christian (a.k.a. Old Testament) values.

    Perhaps you are onto something:
        • Why is Pope Francis such a bad Christian?
        • As an anti-Semite, has he rejected the Old Testament?

    This would explain why he openly supports anti-Christian SJW values.

    And it’s not just the current pope … It’s the previous popes, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, etc. You’re either indulging in wishful thinking or dissembling

    I am definitely not dissembling.

    God provides Faith. And, Faith provides Hope. I hope that the Catholic Church will reform. What is the difference between “hopeful” and “wishful”? I prefer the former, as it ties to common sense such as, “Hope for the Best. Prepare for the Worst”. Prudent contingency planning will require scenarios where the Catholic Church stays rogue or schisms into separate churches.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    Supporting the Catholic Church is supporting evil. You’re supporting the worst while hoping for the best.

    Replies: @A123

    , @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    Anyone who’s sane and self-respecting will immediately reject the disgusting irrational view of “The” old testament that God chose one arrogant in-bred race of people, on one little planet, above all others.

    Sane people, “Christian” or not, will also reject much of the sickening perverse material in “The” old testament. A man having sex with his own daughters, when the daughters know that he is their father, presented in a positive light, yeah those are the good old “Judeo-Christian” values of “the” old testament. More where that came from.

    The OT is a mishmash of sound advice, beautiful peaceful loving philosophy, useful observations about life and human nature — and racial-supremacist garbage, useless genealogies, absurd fairy tales meant to glorify that same race of people, sexual perversion (but then brutal treatment of other perversion, like homosexuality), meandering unclear fluff, and conclusory assertions. It should be embarrassing to pretend that it is uniformly a sensible, morally decent, useful book — or that it is even internally consistent with itself and “the” new testament. But Christians, and worse “Judeo-Christians”, keep on going with the transparent foolishness.

    Replies: @A123, @Che Guava

  420. @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    PBUYT

    Will they even be able to select the Pope after Francis?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes#Petrus_Romanus

    Replies: @A123

    Will they even be able to select the Pope after Francis?

    As a practical matter, it takes 2/3 supermajority of the Cardinals to select a Pope. They could be deadlocked for an extended period.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    PBUYT, I don't think you had a look at the link posted.

    Replies: @A123

  421. Would be interesting to try to create societies based on musical preferences. Jazz. Metal. Rock. Rap. Pop. Country.

    Would also be true of bureaucracies and organizations.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Basically, musical subcultures being regularized as cultures? Would be workable if:
    - ideological differences between musical subcultures were internalized (i.e. creating ideological monocultures from the previous mix of ideologies when musical subcultures co-existed)
    - these differences led to the realization of contrasting economic and social forms, and from that the change in corresponding culture (or vice versa)
    - the Othering between such proto-societies (i.e. they should ramp up self-other distinctions)

    Replies: @songbird

  422. @A123
    @Yellowface Anon


    Will they even be able to select the Pope after Francis?
     
    As a practical matter, it takes 2/3 supermajority of the Cardinals to select a Pope. They could be deadlocked for an extended period.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    PBUYT, I don’t think you had a look at the link posted.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Yellowface Anon

    I glanced at it, but dabbling in prophecy is notoriously unreliable.

    However, there are logical reasons why the next attempt to select a Pope may fail.

    PEACE 😇

  423. @songbird
    If Planet 9 is discovered, what are the odds that it will be named after a voodoo god?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Not really likely but possible. There are already some dwarf planets and moons named after non-Greco-Roman deities, since Greco-Roman names have been “exhausted” after being spent on those same dwarf planets and moons. But at least those aren’t as trivial as a voodoo god.

    My biggest bet will be a major Indian deity, but this will lower him/her onto the level of Navagraha.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Nine#Naming
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet#Mythology_and_naming

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    To try to keep it in a Roman context, I really like the name Ulysses, though, I suppose it would be rejected since he was not a god. Probably a much more appropriate name would be Janus. But they would probably try to find a female one.

    I was thinking recently that when they named Charon (of course, they had to work of the context of Pluto) but that was a long time ago - late '70s, so, in terms of political correctness, there have been pretty big changes, since then. I guess Indian would be a way that they could be semi-PC, but keep it in a PIE context.

  424. @songbird
    Would be interesting to try to create societies based on musical preferences. Jazz. Metal. Rock. Rap. Pop. Country.

    Would also be true of bureaucracies and organizations.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Basically, musical subcultures being regularized as cultures? Would be workable if:
    – ideological differences between musical subcultures were internalized (i.e. creating ideological monocultures from the previous mix of ideologies when musical subcultures co-existed)
    – these differences led to the realization of contrasting economic and social forms, and from that the change in corresponding culture (or vice versa)
    – the Othering between such proto-societies (i.e. they should ramp up self-other distinctions)

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    I was thinking of it mainly in demographic inputs. In such a rubric, sex ratios might be a problem for certain genres, but maybe, one could make patriarchies or matriarchies and just give them the opposite sex to control. I think it would also be interesting to consider what a justice system would look like, where the rank and file, the cops, and the judges, were fans of each genre.

    But I do like your idea to find ideology in the music. Rap seems to have certain economic ideas, and ideas about women and language. I wonder whether country would be more libertarian or about pulling oneself up by the bootstraps? Soft rock would be about not offending people. Pop maybe about radical feminism.

    What would K-pop and J-pop be? Do they reflect their national systems, or something else? I don't know. Seems almost a contradiction in feminized men (as I think in K-pop) and choreography.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  425. @Dmitry
    @mal

    During Azerbaijan-Armenia war last year in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan was uploading daily compilation videos of its drone attacks on Armenian soldiers. In some of these videos, you can count that there appear to be hundreds of Armenian soldiers being injured or perhaps killed by drones.

    So drones killed perhaps thousands of Armenian soldiers when the sky was without clouds, and for a country of Armenia's size it was then obvious to be a short war. That's despite Armenia having the defensive positions in the fortified mountain terrain. So even with their small munitions, drones allowed Azerbaijan to win the war from an unlikely terrain situation. And Azerbaijan has almost no air force. ​


    4 Bayraktars you can buy an obsolete Su
     
    Bayraktars being used by a country with an air force (unlike Azerbaijan), would be more effective again, as when they discover by loitering a stationary enemy position, they could send the co-ordinates for the air force that carries heavier munitions.

    But I haven't read that any planes in the non-drone air force are suitable for loitering slowly for hours above enemy soldiers, watching them with powerful cameras, and following them around, and firing immediately when it wants from a short distance.


    more cost effective. Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are the future for the ground forces
     
    It's like saying snipers cannot be effective, compared to artillery, because the munitions are too small. Or that landmines will not be effective, because of the small munitions compared to an aerial bomb.

    Obviously the munitions on the Bayraktar drones were too small to kill large convoys of tanks or groups of soldiers in a single attack.

    On the other hand, how easily they were following the soldiers behind the enemy lines, seems to be something unprecedented.

    They could watch the area with a camera for hours, discover the targets, and and fire small munitions, which were according to YouTube hitting directly on soldiers in opportunistic way.


    Drone guided Katyushas (with a few hundred mile range) are

     

    By the time it travels this distance, the soldiers will be in a different position. So the munitions would need to be larger for the same effect.

    When Bayraktar drones loiter for hours in the enemy territory, with very effective cameras, which were following the soldiers around. Because of the short distance, the sensor to shooter loop is far shorter than firing from a longer distance.

    It's the equivalent of having snipers in the air, at close range, on those days when the sky was clear of clouds. Scary, dystopian future.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufd6JSxR8n8

    Aside from small munitions, the main limitation of Bayraktar drone during this war seems to be on days when there were clouds and fog. These drones were operating in clear days without clouds. On days when there are clouds, they were not flying I have read, and people have claimed that Armenia was able to re-attain advantage in the defense in those days.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    Initially I thought this propaganda video was garbage, except for showing a lot of scurrying troops. Wait until or move to ~1:40 into it to see evidence for the thesis of small scale precision drone strikes, which provides a credible explanation for the previous minute and a half of “armenian soldiers fleeing from war” per the title.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @That Would Be Telling

    This is just typical videos they were uploading every few days. If you wanted to see wider compilation of these uploads it looks more like an hour and forty minutes of video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGW_MXryAgw.


    propaganda video was garbage, except for showing a lot of scurrying troops. Wait until or move to ~1:40
     
    I selected that video because beginning 0:30 - 1:40 in the video, as this shows how unprecedented the drone capacity is in terms of the target discovery and surveillance

    Drones can loiter for hours videoing soldiers from above with powerful cameras, while soldiers seem to be unaware. With the cameras, they can follow the soldiers' movements, and fire from a short distance at the moment of their choice.

    It's equivalent of having snipers standing on a platform above the enemy, and the negative morale effect for the soldiers who are targeted is evident, as in these videos they would be running to protect themselves without being aware of the direction of firing.

    In Azerbaijan-Armenia war 2020, Azerbaijan only had mostly small munitions from these drones (they don't have a significant air force), and with these smaller munitions they seem to only kill a limited proportion of the convoys.

    But the extent of the surveillance and loitering above of the soldiers is showing the new (pretty sinister) advantage introduced by the drone technology - this ability to loiter slowly above for hours, with powerful optics to see the soldiers below, and fire with guided (although small) weapons from a short distance.

  426. @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    PBUYT, I don't think you had a look at the link posted.

    Replies: @A123

    I glanced at it, but dabbling in prophecy is notoriously unreliable.

    However, there are logical reasons why the next attempt to select a Pope may fail.

    PEACE 😇

  427. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Not really likely but possible. There are already some dwarf planets and moons named after non-Greco-Roman deities, since Greco-Roman names have been "exhausted" after being spent on those same dwarf planets and moons. But at least those aren't as trivial as a voodoo god.

    My biggest bet will be a major Indian deity, but this will lower him/her onto the level of Navagraha.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Nine#Naming
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet#Mythology_and_naming

    Replies: @songbird

    To try to keep it in a Roman context, I really like the name Ulysses, though, I suppose it would be rejected since he was not a god. Probably a much more appropriate name would be Janus. But they would probably try to find a female one.

    I was thinking recently that when they named Charon (of course, they had to work of the context of Pluto) but that was a long time ago – late ’70s, so, in terms of political correctness, there have been pretty big changes, since then. I guess Indian would be a way that they could be semi-PC, but keep it in a PIE context.

  428. For those needing yet more proof that SJW IslamIc values are very real….

    Here are the hardcore eco-Palis in action at the COP26 Climate Change conference.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  429. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Basically, musical subcultures being regularized as cultures? Would be workable if:
    - ideological differences between musical subcultures were internalized (i.e. creating ideological monocultures from the previous mix of ideologies when musical subcultures co-existed)
    - these differences led to the realization of contrasting economic and social forms, and from that the change in corresponding culture (or vice versa)
    - the Othering between such proto-societies (i.e. they should ramp up self-other distinctions)

    Replies: @songbird

    I was thinking of it mainly in demographic inputs. In such a rubric, sex ratios might be a problem for certain genres, but maybe, one could make patriarchies or matriarchies and just give them the opposite sex to control. I think it would also be interesting to consider what a justice system would look like, where the rank and file, the cops, and the judges, were fans of each genre.

    But I do like your idea to find ideology in the music. Rap seems to have certain economic ideas, and ideas about women and language. I wonder whether country would be more libertarian or about pulling oneself up by the bootstraps? Soft rock would be about not offending people. Pop maybe about radical feminism.

    What would K-pop and J-pop be? Do they reflect their national systems, or something else? I don’t know. Seems almost a contradiction in feminized men (as I think in K-pop) and choreography.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    K-pop & J-pop being part of their national system, indeed.

  430. A promising development has taken place in Syria: (1)

    Assad Kicks Iranian Commander Out of Syria over ‘Major Breach of Syrian Sovereignty’

    Bashar al-Assad, had expelled Iranian Quds Force Commander Mustafa Javad Ghaffari from the country after the terror chief attempted to create a black market in Syria and needlessly inflamed tensions with the country’s neighbors.

    Assad felt Ghaffari’s troop movements against America and Israel “almost led to the entry of Syria into an unwanted regional war, including the attack on American targets in Syria on October 20 by Iranian-backed militias.” The attack in question reportedly caused no casualties.

    “Ghafari admitted the presence of Iranian elements and weapons in the areas where the Syrian regime prohibited their deployment,” the Saudi outlets reported. The commander also allegedly “transgressed Syrian customs and smuggled goods with the aim of creating a ‘black market,’ which constitutes a challenge and competition to the Syrian market” and engaged in “looting economic resources” away from an already beleaguered Syrian economy.

    Khamenei has been exploiting Syria for personal gain. Assad standing up for his people is the first step towards ejecting Iranian troops & proxies from Syria.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2021/11/11/assad-kicks-iranian-commander-out-syria-major-breach-syrian-sovereignty/

  431. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Obviously it would be best if Polish border guards just shot those assholes, but then it would probably cause EU sanctions against Poland.
    Poland should just do what Orban recently indicated, open a corridor for migrants to Germany. It's what the German establishment and many voters want, they should get it.

    Replies: @A123, @Yevardian

    Well, I don’t know if this thread is still going, I assumed the previous thread was Akarlin’s last. Haven’t really checked in here except to check if Unz will start writing interesting articles again (he’s still mostly just arguing with idiots about COVID).

    Anyway LOL, you really don’t have no hope for your country at this point, do you?

    and many voters want, they should get it.

    Are things really so dire? I would imagine that the media in Germany is significantly more tightly controlled and mandated than virtually any other Western country, for multiple reasons, so judging the ‘silent majority’ must be even more difficult than usual.
    Yes, there are elections that at least nominally reflect the popular will (I highly doubt outright fraud is possible there), but what percentage of people even bother to vote (on average) in Germany?

    Or perhaps the lack of any pushback is due to that any would-be patriotic Germans have simply given up on their country entirely.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Yevardian


    eally so dire
     
    Well from what perspective? Problem of Germany is mostly (aside from its low fertility and aging) that the country is far too successful, and therefore most of the world wants to live there, and this will only be more in the future.

    There is a reason nobody is trying to go in the other direction from Belarus to Russia or Ukraine. But most of the world is dreaming of living in Germany.

    Anyone lucky enough to get into Germany, can access its excellent healthcare and welfare services, go to university in Germany almost freely, study anything like engineering or computer science - and you have top of the world employers like BMW, Siemens, etc.

    That's also why they should install a highly selective immigration system and electrocuted border fence, as they are such a desirable destination, they are in a position to select the crème de la crème of the workers from most of the world - including most of the rest of Europe. On the other hand, with selective immigration regime e.g. Poland would not be able to select anything near to equivalent high quality of immigrants as Germany could.

    Replies: @Mikel

    , @German_reader
    @Yevardian


    but what percentage of people even bother to vote (on average) in Germany?
     
    76,6% at the federal election last September. Of course that number hides certain asymmetries (SPD and CSU/CDU are basically zombie parties at this stage, only kept alive by the huge cohorts of stupidly complacent boomers voting for them out of habit; AfD did well in East Germany, not least among younger voters), but still, one can't say there isn't significant support for the establishment parties.
    And yes, no hope at all.
  432. I’d really like to see Capcom reboot Street Fighter 2 to make it more HBD-centric. I feel like the game already had the beginnings of it, by including blood type and other physical stats and having the challenger fly to different countries to fight different ethnies.

    They could add a few characters to try to get a better representation of racial types. For ex: Nilotic, Khoisan, Horners, Negritos, redheads, Sikhs, Samoans. Not sure how they would balance the moves.

    In the background of character stages, they could add national stereotypes. Like T. Hawk could have Amerinds affected by firewater. Dhalsim could have a Dhalit cleaning his commode. Zangief could have Slavs squatting in tracksuits. E. Honda would have homeless people reading newspapers and looking neat. Meanwhile, Ken’s stage would have the characters dodging shit. Dee Jay’s stage would have tourists being robbed or kidnapped.

    If a non-African character when to an African stage, they would have to take quinine, or lose half their life. By the second stage they would have elephantiasis.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @songbird

    In a Latin American stage, the women in the background would be leering at any white male challenger, especially Guile because he is the most Teutonic. And if he were knocked out, they would rush to drag him away for their own purposes. Meanwhile, in MENA countries, the men would be trying to grope Cammy and Chun-Li.

    Some countries, like desert or Pacific ones would have obesity epidemics, with fat background characters overindulging in sweets and fatty foods.

    When the Asian characters flew to Europe, they would be confused and ask variously if they were in India, Africa, or North Africa. If a BIPOC defeated a white character, the head of state would come out and take a selfie with them.

  433. @songbird
    I'd really like to see Capcom reboot Street Fighter 2 to make it more HBD-centric. I feel like the game already had the beginnings of it, by including blood type and other physical stats and having the challenger fly to different countries to fight different ethnies.

    They could add a few characters to try to get a better representation of racial types. For ex: Nilotic, Khoisan, Horners, Negritos, redheads, Sikhs, Samoans. Not sure how they would balance the moves.

    In the background of character stages, they could add national stereotypes. Like T. Hawk could have Amerinds affected by firewater. Dhalsim could have a Dhalit cleaning his commode. Zangief could have Slavs squatting in tracksuits. E. Honda would have homeless people reading newspapers and looking neat. Meanwhile, Ken's stage would have the characters dodging shit. Dee Jay's stage would have tourists being robbed or kidnapped.

    If a non-African character when to an African stage, they would have to take quinine, or lose half their life. By the second stage they would have elephantiasis.

    Replies: @songbird

    In a Latin American stage, the women in the background would be leering at any white male challenger, especially Guile because he is the most Teutonic. And if he were knocked out, they would rush to drag him away for their own purposes. Meanwhile, in MENA countries, the men would be trying to grope Cammy and Chun-Li.

    Some countries, like desert or Pacific ones would have obesity epidemics, with fat background characters overindulging in sweets and fatty foods.

    When the Asian characters flew to Europe, they would be confused and ask variously if they were in India, Africa, or North Africa. If a BIPOC defeated a white character, the head of state would come out and take a selfie with them.

    • LOL: Svidomyatheart
  434. @AP
    @Mr. XYZ


    In the event of a full-on outright full-scale future Russo-Ukrainian war, could we see Russia occupy everything to the east of Kiev and create an independent neutralist East Ukraine led by Yuri Boyko (or by Viktor Medvedchuk) and propped up by Russian bayonets (the Donbass would presumably be outright annexed by Russia in this scenario)?
     
    Russia has very good intelligence on Ukraine and would have taken as much as would have been cheap and feasible in 2014. It ended up taking Crimea and setting up a puppet state in the urban 2/3 of Donbas. These are the only parts of Ukraine that could be removed from Ukraine fairly smoothly. Not coincidentally, these are the only parts of Ukraine where Ukrainians aren't the majority ethnically (they were under 50% in Donetsk City but might be barely above 50% in the rest of the DPR/LPR republics).

    Since then, Russian activists have left eastern Ukraine and capability for resistance there has grown considerably, with national guard units, Azov (based in Kharkiv), etc. An occupation thus would mean, at a minimum, a lot of IRA-style attacks and bombings, a sullen unfriendly population, and massive expenditures. It's rather unlikely, other than perhaps some areas adjacent to the Republics.

    More likely would simply be a lot of missile attacks and bombings all over Ukraine in order to screw it up, without trying to occupy it. This would incur counterattacks against Russian positions and facilities within Ukrainian missile range, about 100 km into Russia and all over Donbas (Ukraine has plenty of missiles of its own now) so even if Russia sent no troops on the ground right into Ukraine it would not be a cost-free cakewalk as would have been the case in 2014. Russia would probably formally annex Donbas.

    I mean, the much poorer Soviet Union managed to do this in East Germany for almost half a century, so if the willpower to do this would be there, it might actually be doable.
     
    Eastern Ukraine has about the same population as East Germany, but Russia has only about half the population of the USSR. Because Russia is not a dictatorship, it is uncertain if the Russian leaders would be tolerated by the Russian people if they were spending a huge amount of money occupying half of Ukraine, and if Russian boys were regularly coming home in body bags due to IRA-style attacks.

    But of course this would virtually certainly mean a complete and total rupture of all of Russia’s relations with the West. Expulsion from the SWIFT banking system, crippling North Korea-level sanctions, et cetera.
     
    True of the USA but unknown with regards to Europe, which has very stupidly gotten rid of much of its nuclear power and is thus dependent on Russian gas.

    Replies: @Mr. XYZ

    Eastern Ukraine has about the same population as East Germany, but Russia has only about half the population of the USSR. Because Russia is not a dictatorship, it is uncertain if the Russian leaders would be tolerated by the Russian people if they were spending a huge amount of money occupying half of Ukraine, and if Russian boys were regularly coming home in body bags due to IRA-style attacks.

    Please keep in mind, though, that the USSR had to prop up puppet states throughout Eastern Europe, not only in East Germany. This won’t be an issue for Russia since Central Asian autocrats can prop themselves up.

    True of the USA but unknown with regards to Europe, which has very stupidly gotten rid of much of its nuclear power and is thus dependent on Russian gas.

    Can Europe not get gas from elsewhere?

    By the way, another question for you: In the event of a German victory in World War I, might it have been prudent for Germany to set Russia’s western border at the Daugava-Dnieper Line (except perhaps including Livonia and Estonia on the German side, thus making it look more like World War II’s Panther-Wotan Line)? This would have stripped Russia of its Poles, most of its Jews, and most of its Ukrainian nationalists while also allowing the German sphere of influence in Eastern Europe to have a very defensible eastern border. And of course Russia could have still become a Great Power even without these territorial losses–and Russian nationalists would (or at least should) be happy that Russia has been purged of most of its undesirable elements (Poles, Ukrainian nationalists, and Jews). There would still be some Ukrainians and Jews left over on the Russian side but they could always move. And the Russians and Russophiles in Odessa could move to Russia or to the part of Ukraine east of the Dnieper.

    BTW, I’ve tended to notice that Germany’s idea of Mitteleuropa and Poland’s idea of Intermarium were rather compatible with one another. If only Imperial Germany wasn’t Polonophobic, then maybe it would have actually been smart enough to realize this.

    I would have of course also enjoyed the idea of mass Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish immigration to Germany in such a scenario (brain drain for Eastern Europe, brain gain for Germany). It’s better for Germany to import smart Semites in this scenario as opposed to importing dull Semites like it is doing right now in real life.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Mr. XYZ


    Please keep in mind, though, that the USSR had to prop up puppet states throughout Eastern Europe, not only in East Germany. This won’t be an issue for Russia since Central Asian autocrats can prop themselves up.
     
    Belarus is much poorer than Russia. If absorbing Belarus was cost effective, Putin would have done it some time ago to keep NATO at bay.

    Can Europe not get gas from elsewhere?
     
    Europe is the best place to obtain gas for Europe. Baltic Pipe 1 ( https://www.baltic-pipe.eu/ ) is fully approved and should go online next year. The BaP1 build is only 20-25% of the capacity of NS2. There is huge interest in additional supply, so any BaP2 project will be much higher capacity.

     
    https://www.baltic-pipe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/baltic-pipe-project-map-1-5-1.jpg
     

    The most important feature of the project is 100% bypass of the most authoritarian SJW territory. This will do much to limit anti-Christian, Elite Globalist meddling and aggression.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Not Raul

  435. @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    In 20th century technologies, radio was the most dangerous one. You can see how it helps Hitler's speaking to hack the vulnerable software installed on German brains.

    We seem to have stronger "firewall" against images than speaking, and even the most effective television for brainwashing (Solovyov, Tucker Carlson, etc) is relying on words, rather than images. That is, when you want to use television for brainwashing, then it's most effective to make it like a recreation of radio.

    Image based television has been surprisingly benign from the political point of in comparison to word-based media.

    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building, which was almost indistinguishable from an episode of Pokemon GO, but where the users seemed to be unable to understand the boundary between online games they were addicted to and a real life with legal consequences.

    Replies: @songbird, @German_reader, @iffen, @Mikel

    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building

    It looks like that NYT documentary on Jan 6th that you saw on Youtube made a big impression on you. It’s the one and only pro-Trump riot I can remember and it was highly significant in that they stormed the Capitol building but it wasn’t particularly violent. They just dissolved themselves after a while and went back home without really achieving anything.

    By contrast, in the preceding months dozens of people were killed as antifa and looters burned down and ransacked cities across America.

    I guess that the uprising of the QAnon Shaman and the old ladies taking selfie pics in the Senate was mostly an internet thing. OAN and the other MAGA TV channel, whatever it’s called, don’t have much of an audience. But mainstream TV networks did play a big role in the destructive antifa riots. The “mostly peaceful” meme came out straight from TV reporting, that was very sympathetic to the rioters.

    By the same token, the same major TV networks right now seem to be doing everything in their power to make sure that if Rittenhouse is acquitted, we’ll see new violent riots erupting in the US. Any unbiased person who’s spent a couple of minutes watching the footage of the incident knows that he shot in self-defense but these TV networks keep twisting the facts beyond recognition for their viewers.

    I wouldn’t say that television is such a harmless tool of communication at all.

    • Disagree: Yevardian
    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Mikel

    I'm not talking about the specifics of who has more points, Trump vs anti-Trump, but the ability to create this Pokemon GO online game of thousands of people, who are lost in a clue-based online game, and directed at the same time and place, and where this mob seem as if they have been controlled remotely.

    This is the creation by social media, of an internet flashmob, all brainwashed with the same game scenario and online mission - and which can be materialized into a certain place and time, with the contact with reality part of their brain hacked and disengaged enough to make them destroy their lives for the game.

    I'm sure it has happened already before, but January capital building riots will be seen as a historically until then unprecedented step in terms of its scale and its success. Unfortunately, this is likely just the "small beginning".


    TV networks did play a big role in the destructive antifa

     

    I doubt that even the world's most effective television, can materialize or co-ordinate this kind of flashmob. By design, television cannot hack brains with much individual specification (compared to cookies - it also has much wider audience than your particular Facebook or Twitter feed), it cannot find the same vulnerabilities as doesn't have learning feedback of the algorithm from user feedback.

    Television can prepare wider context or framework for brainwashing, as we see in CNN, Tucker Carlson, etc. But you need the internet to operationalize this.


    e Capitol building but it wasn’t particularly violent. They just dissolved themselves

     

    They created thousands of people with no connection to reality, that believe the narrative of an online clue-following game, and successfully were able to use them to break into the parliament building of the world's only superpower . And likely just the beginning of what this technology is capable of doing.

    “mostly peaceful” meme came out straight from TV reporting, that was very sympathetic to the rioters.
     
    The BLM riots were clearly two events - political/peaceful protesters who followed the media narrative about "anti-racism", and pogromists who follow their self-interest to break a shop window and access freely the consumer goods inside.

    Criminals using distraction or absence of police to break the shops, and access free things - it follows their self-interest (you don't require people to replace their self-interest with an online-game), and has been a bit of a folkloric anti-tradition there.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJC9JM_rfxc

    Replies: @Mikel, @Emil Nikola Richard

  436. @Matra
    I don't know if AK still reads comments here but if he does I'd be curious to know if he plans on doing a review somewhere (Substack?) of McMeekin's Stalin's War. Pretty sure AK said he was reading it & at 700 pages he'd probably want to get some content out of such an effort.

    Unfortunately, most reviews I've seen online have been from Suvorov & Nazi fanboys with an axe to grind. Between the book length and the interviews McMeekin has done - he seems to be going overboard with his thesis, but I guess nuance doesn't sell these days - I've put off buying it, for now. Thanks.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Yevardian

    The book is very emotionally written, with many hyperbolic chapter titles and would-be tabloid-headline phrases throughout its prose. And yes, like Thorffinsson said, the core of original interest within the book is in it’s critique of American policy, constantly decrying how ‘naive’ Roosevelt was in ‘trusting’ Stalin, ‘enabling’ the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe and so on ad nauseum.

    But frankly, the whole crux of Mcmeekin’s argument is just dumb, even leaving aside the insanity of a ‘democratic crusade against all the totalitarian regimes of the world’.
    Even in regard to just Germany, does he really think it would be worth it, or at all politically feasible, for American military to suffer the millions of additional casualties that would have ensued had Roosevelt denied Soviet aid and allowed Germany victory/stalemate on the Eastern Front?

    As for Naziboos or mere America-firsters, Mcmeekin doesn’t step away from the usual religious horror of Hitler’s Germany in any way. It’s extremely obvious that the book was written by somoene with an unapologetically Neocon worldview, with America as the world’s ‘shining city’ with a sacred duty to impose its own values on the rest of the world.

    I don’t actually at all discount the idea of Stalin planning a first-strike on Nazi Germany, but I doubt it was planned any time in the near-future. I think Hitler’s logic for Barbarossa was identical to that of German WWI war-planners, he considered it imperative to attack Russia before it could fully industrialise, which would make it unbeatable.

    • Agree: iffen
  437. @German_reader
    @Mikhail

    lol, pathetic propaganda.
    Disturbingly enough this Tarik Cyril Amar seems to be a professor of Russian and Ukrainian history, with a Ph.D. from Princeton (and Stephen Kotkin as supervisor). I guess that's just more evidence how utterly worthless academics are. Or maybe he gets good money from RT, Belarus, Turkey or other interested parties for writing this garbage and doesn't have enough of a conscience to refuse (all the more so since the pro-migration stuff accords so well with Western shitlib sensibilities).

    Replies: @utu, @Mikhail, @Yevardian

    Eh, I think it’s a rather huge stretch to assume Belorusian or Russian migrants abroad will act like Turkish ones. Besides, Poland does have a serious shortage of working age youth, with so many emigrating themselves to Germany and W. Europe. Not to mention the combination of an aging population.

    Edit: So I looked at the RT article… yeah, I misinterpreted. Yes, funny how RT often takes liberal-left stances on issues for foreign audiences that would never be accepted at home.
    Anyway, downplaying this makes sense from both a Russian and American perspective, Germany is the only country that’s really capable of directing a relatively coherent pan-European policy without American or Russian tutelage.

  438. @Mr. XYZ
    @AP


    Eastern Ukraine has about the same population as East Germany, but Russia has only about half the population of the USSR. Because Russia is not a dictatorship, it is uncertain if the Russian leaders would be tolerated by the Russian people if they were spending a huge amount of money occupying half of Ukraine, and if Russian boys were regularly coming home in body bags due to IRA-style attacks.
     
    Please keep in mind, though, that the USSR had to prop up puppet states throughout Eastern Europe, not only in East Germany. This won't be an issue for Russia since Central Asian autocrats can prop themselves up.

    True of the USA but unknown with regards to Europe, which has very stupidly gotten rid of much of its nuclear power and is thus dependent on Russian gas.
     
    Can Europe not get gas from elsewhere?

    By the way, another question for you: In the event of a German victory in World War I, might it have been prudent for Germany to set Russia's western border at the Daugava-Dnieper Line (except perhaps including Livonia and Estonia on the German side, thus making it look more like World War II's Panther-Wotan Line)? This would have stripped Russia of its Poles, most of its Jews, and most of its Ukrainian nationalists while also allowing the German sphere of influence in Eastern Europe to have a very defensible eastern border. And of course Russia could have still become a Great Power even without these territorial losses--and Russian nationalists would (or at least should) be happy that Russia has been purged of most of its undesirable elements (Poles, Ukrainian nationalists, and Jews). There would still be some Ukrainians and Jews left over on the Russian side but they could always move. And the Russians and Russophiles in Odessa could move to Russia or to the part of Ukraine east of the Dnieper.

    BTW, I've tended to notice that Germany's idea of Mitteleuropa and Poland's idea of Intermarium were rather compatible with one another. If only Imperial Germany wasn't Polonophobic, then maybe it would have actually been smart enough to realize this.

    I would have of course also enjoyed the idea of mass Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish immigration to Germany in such a scenario (brain drain for Eastern Europe, brain gain for Germany). It's better for Germany to import smart Semites in this scenario as opposed to importing dull Semites like it is doing right now in real life.

    Replies: @A123

    Please keep in mind, though, that the USSR had to prop up puppet states throughout Eastern Europe, not only in East Germany. This won’t be an issue for Russia since Central Asian autocrats can prop themselves up.

    Belarus is much poorer than Russia. If absorbing Belarus was cost effective, Putin would have done it some time ago to keep NATO at bay.

    Can Europe not get gas from elsewhere?

    Europe is the best place to obtain gas for Europe. Baltic Pipe 1 ( https://www.baltic-pipe.eu/ ) is fully approved and should go online next year. The BaP1 build is only 20-25% of the capacity of NS2. There is huge interest in additional supply, so any BaP2 project will be much higher capacity.

     

     

    The most important feature of the project is 100% bypass of the most authoritarian SJW territory. This will do much to limit anti-Christian, Elite Globalist meddling and aggression.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Not Raul
    @A123

    Where will Poland obtain gas for that pipeline?

    Replies: @A123, @A123

  439. @Yevardian
    @German_reader

    Well, I don't know if this thread is still going, I assumed the previous thread was Akarlin's last. Haven't really checked in here except to check if Unz will start writing interesting articles again (he's still mostly just arguing with idiots about COVID).

    Anyway LOL, you really don't have no hope for your country at this point, do you?

    and many voters want, they should get it.
     

    Are things really so dire? I would imagine that the media in Germany is significantly more tightly controlled and mandated than virtually any other Western country, for multiple reasons, so judging the 'silent majority' must be even more difficult than usual.
    Yes, there are elections that at least nominally reflect the popular will (I highly doubt outright fraud is possible there), but what percentage of people even bother to vote (on average) in Germany?

    Or perhaps the lack of any pushback is due to that any would-be patriotic Germans have simply given up on their country entirely.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @German_reader

    eally so dire

    Well from what perspective? Problem of Germany is mostly (aside from its low fertility and aging) that the country is far too successful, and therefore most of the world wants to live there, and this will only be more in the future.

    There is a reason nobody is trying to go in the other direction from Belarus to Russia or Ukraine. But most of the world is dreaming of living in Germany.

    Anyone lucky enough to get into Germany, can access its excellent healthcare and welfare services, go to university in Germany almost freely, study anything like engineering or computer science – and you have top of the world employers like BMW, Siemens, etc.

    That’s also why they should install a highly selective immigration system and electrocuted border fence, as they are such a desirable destination, they are in a position to select the crème de la crème of the workers from most of the world – including most of the rest of Europe. On the other hand, with selective immigration regime e.g. Poland would not be able to select anything near to equivalent high quality of immigrants as Germany could.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    most of the world is dreaming of living in Germany.
     
    I guess it's true that most of the world would like to live in a country that functions like Germany. But living in Germany itself? I doubt it. The climate, the grey skies, the language, the unfriendly reputation of its people,... if given the choice, most people seeking to emigrate would probably choose a different destination.

    In fact, I guess you didn't quite have in mind Europeans when you wrote that sentence but all 500+ million inhabitants of the European single market area could live in Germany if they so wished but only a few million have made the move, often with the hope of going back to their countries in the future.

    The UK is a very different case. Not only because of the language, that most people around the world are at least familiar with, but also because of a more welcoming and cosmopolitan reputation. In fact, yesterday I saw a BBC report about the Belarus migrants and an Iraqi guy explained (in English, of course) that he didn't know anybody in his group that was planning to go to Germany. They were all hoping to cross the EU and make it to the UK. Many in the permanent migrant camps at Calais actually risk their lives to cross the Channel when they could much more easily try to settle in Germany if they really dislike France so much.

    I've met a few South Americans who emigrated to Germany but didn't quite like the experience and moved somewhere else. An Argentinian of half German, half Armenian ancestry told me that he emigrated to Germany during one of the recurrent crises in his country, hoping to make a living in the land of his ancestors, but he didn't feel welcome and finally decided to try his luck in Chile instead, where I met him.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

  440. @That Would Be Telling
    @Dmitry

    Initially I thought this propaganda video was garbage, except for showing a lot of scurrying troops. Wait until or move to ~1:40 into it to see evidence for the thesis of small scale precision drone strikes, which provides a credible explanation for the previous minute and a half of "armenian soldiers fleeing from war" per the title.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    This is just typical videos they were uploading every few days. If you wanted to see wider compilation of these uploads it looks more like an hour and forty minutes of video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGW_MXryAgw.

    propaganda video was garbage, except for showing a lot of scurrying troops. Wait until or move to ~1:40

    I selected that video because beginning 0:30 – 1:40 in the video, as this shows how unprecedented the drone capacity is in terms of the target discovery and surveillance

    Drones can loiter for hours videoing soldiers from above with powerful cameras, while soldiers seem to be unaware. With the cameras, they can follow the soldiers’ movements, and fire from a short distance at the moment of their choice.

    It’s equivalent of having snipers standing on a platform above the enemy, and the negative morale effect for the soldiers who are targeted is evident, as in these videos they would be running to protect themselves without being aware of the direction of firing.

    In Azerbaijan-Armenia war 2020, Azerbaijan only had mostly small munitions from these drones (they don’t have a significant air force), and with these smaller munitions they seem to only kill a limited proportion of the convoys.

    But the extent of the surveillance and loitering above of the soldiers is showing the new (pretty sinister) advantage introduced by the drone technology – this ability to loiter slowly above for hours, with powerful optics to see the soldiers below, and fire with guided (although small) weapons from a short distance.

  441. @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    Unfortunately internet, will probably be far more dangerous than even radio, using mainly words again (rather than images), and we can see one of many of its beginning of its dystopian future with the January riots in the US Capitol Building
     
    It looks like that NYT documentary on Jan 6th that you saw on Youtube made a big impression on you. It's the one and only pro-Trump riot I can remember and it was highly significant in that they stormed the Capitol building but it wasn't particularly violent. They just dissolved themselves after a while and went back home without really achieving anything.

    By contrast, in the preceding months dozens of people were killed as antifa and looters burned down and ransacked cities across America.

    I guess that the uprising of the QAnon Shaman and the old ladies taking selfie pics in the Senate was mostly an internet thing. OAN and the other MAGA TV channel, whatever it's called, don't have much of an audience. But mainstream TV networks did play a big role in the destructive antifa riots. The "mostly peaceful" meme came out straight from TV reporting, that was very sympathetic to the rioters.

    By the same token, the same major TV networks right now seem to be doing everything in their power to make sure that if Rittenhouse is acquitted, we'll see new violent riots erupting in the US. Any unbiased person who's spent a couple of minutes watching the footage of the incident knows that he shot in self-defense but these TV networks keep twisting the facts beyond recognition for their viewers.

    I wouldn't say that television is such a harmless tool of communication at all.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    I’m not talking about the specifics of who has more points, Trump vs anti-Trump, but the ability to create this Pokemon GO online game of thousands of people, who are lost in a clue-based online game, and directed at the same time and place, and where this mob seem as if they have been controlled remotely.

    This is the creation by social media, of an internet flashmob, all brainwashed with the same game scenario and online mission – and which can be materialized into a certain place and time, with the contact with reality part of their brain hacked and disengaged enough to make them destroy their lives for the game.

    I’m sure it has happened already before, but January capital building riots will be seen as a historically until then unprecedented step in terms of its scale and its success. Unfortunately, this is likely just the “small beginning”.

    TV networks did play a big role in the destructive antifa

    I doubt that even the world’s most effective television, can materialize or co-ordinate this kind of flashmob. By design, television cannot hack brains with much individual specification (compared to cookies – it also has much wider audience than your particular Facebook or Twitter feed), it cannot find the same vulnerabilities as doesn’t have learning feedback of the algorithm from user feedback.

    Television can prepare wider context or framework for brainwashing, as we see in CNN, Tucker Carlson, etc. But you need the internet to operationalize this.

    e Capitol building but it wasn’t particularly violent. They just dissolved themselves

    They created thousands of people with no connection to reality, that believe the narrative of an online clue-following game, and successfully were able to use them to break into the parliament building of the world’s only superpower . And likely just the beginning of what this technology is capable of doing.

    “mostly peaceful” meme came out straight from TV reporting, that was very sympathetic to the rioters.

    The BLM riots were clearly two events – political/peaceful protesters who followed the media narrative about “anti-racism”, and pogromists who follow their self-interest to break a shop window and access freely the consumer goods inside.

    Criminals using distraction or absence of police to break the shops, and access free things – it follows their self-interest (you don’t require people to replace their self-interest with an online-game), and has been a bit of a folkloric anti-tradition there.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    I’m not talking about the specifics of who has more points, Trump vs anti-Trump
     
    Well, you did choose to use the pro-Trump riot to illustrate your point. But you are right that the Capitol riot will no doubt be remembered as an event of much more historical importance than the more deadly Antifa riots. However, that in itself may be an illustration of how important traditional media continue being, as they are the ones that ultimately decide what people consider to be more important.

    The Capitol had in fact been assaulted before, once by armed militants in the 70s IIRC. Was this assault more significant than the previous ones? Was any of them more significant than the Antifa riots that left many people dead, livelihoods destroyed, city centers burned and a new era where in some parts of the country certain crimes are no longer prosecuted? Perhaps 1/6 was more important than the aftermath of the BLM riots, I'm not sure. But it's not me who gets to decide that. The decision is taken by the chief executives of TV stations and other mass media through the amount and type of coverage they give to each event.


    Television can prepare wider context or framework for brainwashing, as we see in CNN, Tucker Carlson, etc. But you need the internet to operationalize this.
     
    From where I stand, it is indeed CNN, Fox, NBC and all the rest who create the narrative and incense and radicalize. I see it in people I know personally. Taking advantage of that radicalization by skillful agitators may be done through the internet these days but it wasn't all that different in the days of leaflets, banners and phone calls.

    Where I do see modern social media playing a big role is precisely by amplifying the message of the (left-wing) media and reaching larger audiences than traditional news organizations. When Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Apple, etc promote the very same narratives as NYT, CNN and MSNBC the potential for control of the masses is bigger than before.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @iffen

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Dmitry


    They created thousands of people with no connection to reality, that believe the narrative of an online clue-following game, and successfully were able to use them to break into the parliament building of the world’s only superpower . And likely just the beginning of what this technology is capable of doing.
     
    The information on this topic that I see is highly biased towards the point-of-view that this internet marketing technology is powerful and if you are an advertising buyer you should be spending money on it. I do not have adblock on an old computer for the express purpose of seeing how accurately adsense can pigeon-hole me. It is terrible. I do not now and have never owned a pet. I am male. I consistently get served advertisements for dog and cat crap and women's clothes.

    The data I have is the capabilities of this technology are wildly exaggerated. I don't think Cambridge Analytica's scheme in the 2016 president election moved one electoral vote.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

  442. @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry


    television corresponds with the socially happier times of the 20th century in the first and second worlds.
     
    The real problem with whatever information technologies from the printing press on, isn't the dissemination of any idea, but becoming the "opiate of the masses" that has come to replace organized religion (as opposed to faith & philosophy).

    This is the internet young people can seem to already act as if reality doesn’t exist until it has been digitized and uploaded to the cloud. That is as if the purpose of the real world is a material for feeding information to the internet.
     
    We can clearly trace the line from this into the metaverse void.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    If you want to see more scary movements of our epoch, Moscow Metro is now installing a live facial recognition system so that the metro knows your face and adds the payment to your card when you approach the entrance. ( https://ria.ru/20211108/litso-1757613837.html )

    Scary thing, is the fact nobody has been protesting this continual digitization, and erosion of the rights we had for generations enjoyed as natural parts of the public space. Digital gulag is already being installed, and that’s without even discussing the QR codes that are hopefully only temporary during the pandemic.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    Ironic given people still wear masks for COVID.

    China is far ahead in facial recognition rollout but they still stick to manual digital payments, for now.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  443. German_reader says:
    @Yevardian
    @German_reader

    Well, I don't know if this thread is still going, I assumed the previous thread was Akarlin's last. Haven't really checked in here except to check if Unz will start writing interesting articles again (he's still mostly just arguing with idiots about COVID).

    Anyway LOL, you really don't have no hope for your country at this point, do you?

    and many voters want, they should get it.
     

    Are things really so dire? I would imagine that the media in Germany is significantly more tightly controlled and mandated than virtually any other Western country, for multiple reasons, so judging the 'silent majority' must be even more difficult than usual.
    Yes, there are elections that at least nominally reflect the popular will (I highly doubt outright fraud is possible there), but what percentage of people even bother to vote (on average) in Germany?

    Or perhaps the lack of any pushback is due to that any would-be patriotic Germans have simply given up on their country entirely.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @German_reader

    but what percentage of people even bother to vote (on average) in Germany?

    76,6% at the federal election last September. Of course that number hides certain asymmetries (SPD and CSU/CDU are basically zombie parties at this stage, only kept alive by the huge cohorts of stupidly complacent boomers voting for them out of habit; AfD did well in East Germany, not least among younger voters), but still, one can’t say there isn’t significant support for the establishment parties.
    And yes, no hope at all.

  444. @Dmitry
    @Mikel

    I'm not talking about the specifics of who has more points, Trump vs anti-Trump, but the ability to create this Pokemon GO online game of thousands of people, who are lost in a clue-based online game, and directed at the same time and place, and where this mob seem as if they have been controlled remotely.

    This is the creation by social media, of an internet flashmob, all brainwashed with the same game scenario and online mission - and which can be materialized into a certain place and time, with the contact with reality part of their brain hacked and disengaged enough to make them destroy their lives for the game.

    I'm sure it has happened already before, but January capital building riots will be seen as a historically until then unprecedented step in terms of its scale and its success. Unfortunately, this is likely just the "small beginning".


    TV networks did play a big role in the destructive antifa

     

    I doubt that even the world's most effective television, can materialize or co-ordinate this kind of flashmob. By design, television cannot hack brains with much individual specification (compared to cookies - it also has much wider audience than your particular Facebook or Twitter feed), it cannot find the same vulnerabilities as doesn't have learning feedback of the algorithm from user feedback.

    Television can prepare wider context or framework for brainwashing, as we see in CNN, Tucker Carlson, etc. But you need the internet to operationalize this.


    e Capitol building but it wasn’t particularly violent. They just dissolved themselves

     

    They created thousands of people with no connection to reality, that believe the narrative of an online clue-following game, and successfully were able to use them to break into the parliament building of the world's only superpower . And likely just the beginning of what this technology is capable of doing.

    “mostly peaceful” meme came out straight from TV reporting, that was very sympathetic to the rioters.
     
    The BLM riots were clearly two events - political/peaceful protesters who followed the media narrative about "anti-racism", and pogromists who follow their self-interest to break a shop window and access freely the consumer goods inside.

    Criminals using distraction or absence of police to break the shops, and access free things - it follows their self-interest (you don't require people to replace their self-interest with an online-game), and has been a bit of a folkloric anti-tradition there.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJC9JM_rfxc

    Replies: @Mikel, @Emil Nikola Richard

    I’m not talking about the specifics of who has more points, Trump vs anti-Trump

    Well, you did choose to use the pro-Trump riot to illustrate your point. But you are right that the Capitol riot will no doubt be remembered as an event of much more historical importance than the more deadly Antifa riots. However, that in itself may be an illustration of how important traditional media continue being, as they are the ones that ultimately decide what people consider to be more important.

    The Capitol had in fact been assaulted before, once by armed militants in the 70s IIRC. Was this assault more significant than the previous ones? Was any of them more significant than the Antifa riots that left many people dead, livelihoods destroyed, city centers burned and a new era where in some parts of the country certain crimes are no longer prosecuted? Perhaps 1/6 was more important than the aftermath of the BLM riots, I’m not sure. But it’s not me who gets to decide that. The decision is taken by the chief executives of TV stations and other mass media through the amount and type of coverage they give to each event.

    Television can prepare wider context or framework for brainwashing, as we see in CNN, Tucker Carlson, etc. But you need the internet to operationalize this.

    From where I stand, it is indeed CNN, Fox, NBC and all the rest who create the narrative and incense and radicalize. I see it in people I know personally. Taking advantage of that radicalization by skillful agitators may be done through the internet these days but it wasn’t all that different in the days of leaflets, banners and phone calls.

    Where I do see modern social media playing a big role is precisely by amplifying the message of the (left-wing) media and reaching larger audiences than traditional news organizations. When Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Apple, etc promote the very same narratives as NYT, CNN and MSNBC the potential for control of the masses is bigger than before.

    • Agree: iffen
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Mikel

    How much of rightoid sentiments are stroked and how much is organic? What MSM does for leftoids, memes & forums does for rightoids.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Mikel

    , @iffen
    @Mikel

    1954 United States Capitol shooting

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_United_States_Capitol_shooting

  445. More from the excellent Paul Kingsnorth –

    ……the useful work now seems to me to be that outlined by Campbell: to conquer death by birth. As Simone Weil explained in the book I wrote about last time, the correct response to a rootless, lost or broken society is ‘the growing of roots’ – the name she gave to the final section of her work. Pull up the exhausted old plants if you need to – carefully, now – but if you don’t have some new seed to grow in the bare soil, if you don’t tend it and weed it with love, if you don’t fertilise it and water it and help it grow: well, then your ground will not produce anything good for you. It will choke up with a chaos of thistles and weeds.

    This, in practical terms is, the slow, necessary, sometimes boring work to which I suspect people in our place and time are being called: to build new things, out on the margins. Not to exhaust our souls engaging in a daily war for or against a civilisation that is already gone, but to prepare the seedbed for what might, one day long after us, become the basis of a new culture. To go looking for truth. To light particular little fires – fires fuelled by the eternal things, the great and unchanging truths – and tend their sparks as best we can. To prepare the ground with love for a resurrection of the small, the real and the true.

    But first, we are going to have to be crucified.

    I have come to basically the same conclusion this past summer. The time for stupid and pointless internet arguments with the last desperate defenders of an already dead civilization is over.

    I increasingly feel it’s pointless for me to post on Unz or anywhere on the net – there is something else I need to be doing, but I’m not quite sure what yet, except that my nature trips are a part of it.

    Paul Kingsnorth makes an excellent point that I had never considered before (I think he got it from Spengler) – that a culture is basically just a Story its members tell themselves. When people no longer believe the Story, that particular culture dies.

    The Woke nonsense may be the last, dying gasp of the Faustian Story – the death knell of the Faustian Story that animated Western culture for perhaps a thousand years.

    What is indisputable, is that Western elites hate the West – this is clearly a dying or dead culture. Woke may not be the “new” cultural synthesis being born, but merely be the death gasp of the old. This seems likely to me.

    But instead of fighting to preserve the dying culture – which never succeeds – one can plant the seeds of the new, as Paul says.

    What defeats death is new birth; not clinging to the old, as Campbell says.

    On the margins, to live new kinds of lives that represent alternatives to the Faustian Story. My nomadic trips out into the great wilderness are perhaps some small part of that.

    And this, surely, is a cheerful outlook 🙂

    But one should not forget, also, the last small line in the quoted text; first, we must be crucified.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @AaronB

    And if the task is to plant the seeds for a new culture, a new way of life, then David Graeber's new book is surely a sign of the times.

    I started reading it, and am about a quarter through only - it is as all of his books full of little known facts that shed new light on old issues and full of unexpected and interesting perspectives.

    It took a while for the main "point" to emerge, but Graeber is against "determinism" - the idea that social arrangements are merely inevitable responses to environment.

    He demonstrates how for most of prehistory, mankind was extremely flexible in political arrangements - even shifting between political styles seasonally (from egalitarian to hierarchical, from organized into states to loosely organized with no structure), a fact which I found remarkable! - and that the mystery is why we in the modern world have gotten "stuck" in one kind of political organization - so much so that we cannot even imagine alternatives.

    He shows fascinatingly, how the "standard anthropological narrative" we have today was a belated response to what he calls the "indigenous critique" of European society - apparently, the East Coast Woodlands American Indians, when Europeans first met them and tried to missionize them, articulated a well thought out - and devastating - critique of European civilization, which Europeans struggled to answer (and which had a tremendous impact on Enlightenment thinkers), until the Frenchman Turgot came up with the idea to defend European inequality by claiming it was inevitable in complex agricultural states just as equality was inevitable in hunter gathering society. Graeber gives example after example showing neither is true.

    Funnily, the Jesuits at the time did not value liberty or equality at all - they thought both were the mark of the savage :) A point hard for us to understand today.

    I keep on trying to summarize what I've read so far, but I keep on getting bogged down and giving up in despair and writing way too much :) It's impossible for me to summarize the richness of this book and follow it's often surprising train of thought without writing something far too long and boring.

    All I can say, this book is extremely timely for our times of disintegration and we'll worth reading!

    Replies: @RadicalCenter

    , @AaronB
    @AaronB

    And what will new culture that is birthing itself entail?

    All good and healthy cultures are based in some way on a story of integration - a story of return and a story of home. Whether it's Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, etc, the central organizing story is one of harmonizing with a sacred order, being connected to and integrated with all of life and existence, and returning to a state of integration which is our true home.

    The Garden of Eden, Taoist and Buddhist non-dualism - they are all stories of integration and return to our true home.

    That too is why a sense of longing and yearning is often at the heart of spiritual poetry and music - and is also the ache in the heart one experiences in a beautiful valley under a full moon. I have long felt it odd that English language poetry and literature seemed to lack that yearning quality I often found in Zen and Japanese lit, as well as German lit - but it makes sense, if the English speaking world is most under the malign spell of Faustian culture.

    For an example of this spiritual yearning in modern music, I recommend the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. While they are in no way religious, and are a modern hipster band, they make some of the most moving music today.

    The Faustian Story, of course, was the exact opposite - humans are completely seperate from nature, above it and outside it, and must dominate it and control it.

    Every spiritual tradition tells us that the pursuit of power and excessive knowledge in order to dominate is the source of our exile from the Garden of Eden.

    It is as if happiness and meaning and the pursuit of power are opposites - I have felt it in my own life. Periods where I have fallen under the spell of power and money, self-aggrandizement and self assertion, have invariably been the emptiest and least satisfying and least happy periods in my life - sterile, empty periods where the magic of life seemed gone forever, however materially successful I was.

    It was always in periods of breakdown, loss, forced humility that the magic and beauty of the world came rushing back into my life - it took a while for my atheist, secular self to grasp that my life was simply affirming the basic message of all spirituality :)

    The new culture being born will have an entirely different metaphysics than the dying and dead Faustian culture - it will have a metaphysics of integration and harmony, not domination and seperation.

    But the metaphysics will come later - first, lived life will be different and new.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  446. @AaronB
    More from the excellent Paul Kingsnorth -

    ......the useful work now seems to me to be that outlined by Campbell: to conquer death by birth. As Simone Weil explained in the book I wrote about last time, the correct response to a rootless, lost or broken society is ‘the growing of roots’ - the name she gave to the final section of her work. Pull up the exhausted old plants if you need to - carefully, now - but if you don’t have some new seed to grow in the bare soil, if you don’t tend it and weed it with love, if you don’t fertilise it and water it and help it grow: well, then your ground will not produce anything good for you. It will choke up with a chaos of thistles and weeds.

    This, in practical terms is, the slow, necessary, sometimes boring work to which I suspect people in our place and time are being called: to build new things, out on the margins. Not to exhaust our souls engaging in a daily war for or against a civilisation that is already gone, but to prepare the seedbed for what might, one day long after us, become the basis of a new culture. To go looking for truth. To light particular little fires - fires fuelled by the eternal things, the great and unchanging truths - and tend their sparks as best we can. To prepare the ground with love for a resurrection of the small, the real and the true.

    But first, we are going to have to be crucified.
     

    I have come to basically the same conclusion this past summer. The time for stupid and pointless internet arguments with the last desperate defenders of an already dead civilization is over.

    I increasingly feel it's pointless for me to post on Unz or anywhere on the net - there is something else I need to be doing, but I'm not quite sure what yet, except that my nature trips are a part of it.

    Paul Kingsnorth makes an excellent point that I had never considered before (I think he got it from Spengler) - that a culture is basically just a Story its members tell themselves. When people no longer believe the Story, that particular culture dies.

    The Woke nonsense may be the last, dying gasp of the Faustian Story - the death knell of the Faustian Story that animated Western culture for perhaps a thousand years.

    What is indisputable, is that Western elites hate the West - this is clearly a dying or dead culture. Woke may not be the "new" cultural synthesis being born, but merely be the death gasp of the old. This seems likely to me.

    But instead of fighting to preserve the dying culture - which never succeeds - one can plant the seeds of the new, as Paul says.

    What defeats death is new birth; not clinging to the old, as Campbell says.

    On the margins, to live new kinds of lives that represent alternatives to the Faustian Story. My nomadic trips out into the great wilderness are perhaps some small part of that.

    And this, surely, is a cheerful outlook :)

    But one should not forget, also, the last small line in the quoted text; first, we must be crucified.

    Replies: @AaronB, @AaronB

    And if the task is to plant the seeds for a new culture, a new way of life, then David Graeber’s new book is surely a sign of the times.

    I started reading it, and am about a quarter through only – it is as all of his books full of little known facts that shed new light on old issues and full of unexpected and interesting perspectives.

    It took a while for the main “point” to emerge, but Graeber is against “determinism” – the idea that social arrangements are merely inevitable responses to environment.

    He demonstrates how for most of prehistory, mankind was extremely flexible in political arrangements – even shifting between political styles seasonally (from egalitarian to hierarchical, from organized into states to loosely organized with no structure), a fact which I found remarkable! – and that the mystery is why we in the modern world have gotten “stuck” in one kind of political organization – so much so that we cannot even imagine alternatives.

    He shows fascinatingly, how the “standard anthropological narrative” we have today was a belated response to what he calls the “indigenous critique” of European society – apparently, the East Coast Woodlands American Indians, when Europeans first met them and tried to missionize them, articulated a well thought out – and devastating – critique of European civilization, which Europeans struggled to answer (and which had a tremendous impact on Enlightenment thinkers), until the Frenchman Turgot came up with the idea to defend European inequality by claiming it was inevitable in complex agricultural states just as equality was inevitable in hunter gathering society. Graeber gives example after example showing neither is true.

    Funnily, the Jesuits at the time did not value liberty or equality at all – they thought both were the mark of the savage 🙂 A point hard for us to understand today.

    I keep on trying to summarize what I’ve read so far, but I keep on getting bogged down and giving up in despair and writing way too much 🙂 It’s impossible for me to summarize the richness of this book and follow it’s often surprising train of thought without writing something far too long and boring.

    All I can say, this book is extremely timely for our times of disintegration and we’ll worth reading!

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @RadicalCenter
    @AaronB

    Well, “Jesuits” would be experts on savagery alright.

  447. @AaronB
    More from the excellent Paul Kingsnorth -

    ......the useful work now seems to me to be that outlined by Campbell: to conquer death by birth. As Simone Weil explained in the book I wrote about last time, the correct response to a rootless, lost or broken society is ‘the growing of roots’ - the name she gave to the final section of her work. Pull up the exhausted old plants if you need to - carefully, now - but if you don’t have some new seed to grow in the bare soil, if you don’t tend it and weed it with love, if you don’t fertilise it and water it and help it grow: well, then your ground will not produce anything good for you. It will choke up with a chaos of thistles and weeds.

    This, in practical terms is, the slow, necessary, sometimes boring work to which I suspect people in our place and time are being called: to build new things, out on the margins. Not to exhaust our souls engaging in a daily war for or against a civilisation that is already gone, but to prepare the seedbed for what might, one day long after us, become the basis of a new culture. To go looking for truth. To light particular little fires - fires fuelled by the eternal things, the great and unchanging truths - and tend their sparks as best we can. To prepare the ground with love for a resurrection of the small, the real and the true.

    But first, we are going to have to be crucified.
     

    I have come to basically the same conclusion this past summer. The time for stupid and pointless internet arguments with the last desperate defenders of an already dead civilization is over.

    I increasingly feel it's pointless for me to post on Unz or anywhere on the net - there is something else I need to be doing, but I'm not quite sure what yet, except that my nature trips are a part of it.

    Paul Kingsnorth makes an excellent point that I had never considered before (I think he got it from Spengler) - that a culture is basically just a Story its members tell themselves. When people no longer believe the Story, that particular culture dies.

    The Woke nonsense may be the last, dying gasp of the Faustian Story - the death knell of the Faustian Story that animated Western culture for perhaps a thousand years.

    What is indisputable, is that Western elites hate the West - this is clearly a dying or dead culture. Woke may not be the "new" cultural synthesis being born, but merely be the death gasp of the old. This seems likely to me.

    But instead of fighting to preserve the dying culture - which never succeeds - one can plant the seeds of the new, as Paul says.

    What defeats death is new birth; not clinging to the old, as Campbell says.

    On the margins, to live new kinds of lives that represent alternatives to the Faustian Story. My nomadic trips out into the great wilderness are perhaps some small part of that.

    And this, surely, is a cheerful outlook :)

    But one should not forget, also, the last small line in the quoted text; first, we must be crucified.

    Replies: @AaronB, @AaronB

    And what will new culture that is birthing itself entail?

    All good and healthy cultures are based in some way on a story of integration – a story of return and a story of home. Whether it’s Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, etc, the central organizing story is one of harmonizing with a sacred order, being connected to and integrated with all of life and existence, and returning to a state of integration which is our true home.

    The Garden of Eden, Taoist and Buddhist non-dualism – they are all stories of integration and return to our true home.

    That too is why a sense of longing and yearning is often at the heart of spiritual poetry and music – and is also the ache in the heart one experiences in a beautiful valley under a full moon. I have long felt it odd that English language poetry and literature seemed to lack that yearning quality I often found in Zen and Japanese lit, as well as German lit – but it makes sense, if the English speaking world is most under the malign spell of Faustian culture.

    For an example of this spiritual yearning in modern music, I recommend the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. While they are in no way religious, and are a modern hipster band, they make some of the most moving music today.

    The Faustian Story, of course, was the exact opposite – humans are completely seperate from nature, above it and outside it, and must dominate it and control it.

    Every spiritual tradition tells us that the pursuit of power and excessive knowledge in order to dominate is the source of our exile from the Garden of Eden.

    It is as if happiness and meaning and the pursuit of power are opposites – I have felt it in my own life. Periods where I have fallen under the spell of power and money, self-aggrandizement and self assertion, have invariably been the emptiest and least satisfying and least happy periods in my life – sterile, empty periods where the magic of life seemed gone forever, however materially successful I was.

    It was always in periods of breakdown, loss, forced humility that the magic and beauty of the world came rushing back into my life – it took a while for my atheist, secular self to grasp that my life was simply affirming the basic message of all spirituality 🙂

    The new culture being born will have an entirely different metaphysics than the dying and dead Faustian culture – it will have a metaphysics of integration and harmony, not domination and seperation.

    But the metaphysics will come later – first, lived life will be different and new.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @AaronB

    I could be wrong, but I think that your yearning to find spiritual paths to lean upon are somewhat unique. When I look around at mostly younger people where I work, I see individuals caught up in materialism and frivolous banter about relationships and plans to visit Mazatlan or Cabo San Lucas, not for spiritual retreats. I guess I blend in there too, being sedated by work projects and soft ambient musical sounds in the background...lunchtime of a half an hour isn't much time to get to know the spiritual make-up of fellow co-workers. I think that the spiritual needs of these young individuals are submerged deep within, hopefully waiting to someday emerge? If not, I don't know what to make of it all?

    Replies: @AaronB

  448. @Dmitry
    @Yevardian


    eally so dire
     
    Well from what perspective? Problem of Germany is mostly (aside from its low fertility and aging) that the country is far too successful, and therefore most of the world wants to live there, and this will only be more in the future.

    There is a reason nobody is trying to go in the other direction from Belarus to Russia or Ukraine. But most of the world is dreaming of living in Germany.

    Anyone lucky enough to get into Germany, can access its excellent healthcare and welfare services, go to university in Germany almost freely, study anything like engineering or computer science - and you have top of the world employers like BMW, Siemens, etc.

    That's also why they should install a highly selective immigration system and electrocuted border fence, as they are such a desirable destination, they are in a position to select the crème de la crème of the workers from most of the world - including most of the rest of Europe. On the other hand, with selective immigration regime e.g. Poland would not be able to select anything near to equivalent high quality of immigrants as Germany could.

    Replies: @Mikel

    most of the world is dreaming of living in Germany.

    I guess it’s true that most of the world would like to live in a country that functions like Germany. But living in Germany itself? I doubt it. The climate, the grey skies, the language, the unfriendly reputation of its people,… if given the choice, most people seeking to emigrate would probably choose a different destination.

    In fact, I guess you didn’t quite have in mind Europeans when you wrote that sentence but all 500+ million inhabitants of the European single market area could live in Germany if they so wished but only a few million have made the move, often with the hope of going back to their countries in the future.

    The UK is a very different case. Not only because of the language, that most people around the world are at least familiar with, but also because of a more welcoming and cosmopolitan reputation. In fact, yesterday I saw a BBC report about the Belarus migrants and an Iraqi guy explained (in English, of course) that he didn’t know anybody in his group that was planning to go to Germany. They were all hoping to cross the EU and make it to the UK. Many in the permanent migrant camps at Calais actually risk their lives to cross the Channel when they could much more easily try to settle in Germany if they really dislike France so much.

    I’ve met a few South Americans who emigrated to Germany but didn’t quite like the experience and moved somewhere else. An Argentinian of half German, half Armenian ancestry told me that he emigrated to Germany during one of the recurrent crises in his country, hoping to make a living in the land of his ancestors, but he didn’t feel welcome and finally decided to try his luck in Chile instead, where I met him.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Mikel


    if given the choice, most people seeking to emigrate would probably choose a different destination.
     
    Germany' percentage of foreign-born inhabitants is about the same as that of the US, it's one of the top destinations for migrants in the world. Given that reality I find the usual bitching and whining about German racism hard to take seriously.
    That being said, I agree that Dmitry's view of Germany is overly rosy, the general culture is stifling and joyless, and there are more attractive countries for skilled professionals (not for "refugees" though).

    Not only because of the language, that most people around the world are at least familiar with, but also because of a more welcoming and cosmopolitan reputation.
     
    Sure, that's very, very nice for immigrants, but it also means white Britons will be a minority in their own country in 40 years, and can't even object to it, because it would be "racist" and against British traditions of tolerance.
    It's also a bit naive to take the official propaganda of the British state about Britain being a multicultural success story at face value, there are huge simmering tensions just below the surface. The relationship between the English and Pakistanis in northern England isn't a friendly one.

    Replies: @Mikel

    , @Dmitry
    @Mikel


    climate, the grey skies
     
    Jobs and economy is the main priority for economic immigration, although there are other attractive things like education, healthcare, welfare, fair legal system, safety, cosmopolitan culture.

    I think climate is not such a priority for most economic immigrants. Much of the young people of Southern Europe are emigrating to Northern Europe, rather than the other way round - and not for the sunny skies.

    -

    From personal sample as an immigrant myself that entered Europe, I certainly would have preferred warm weather, palm trees and beaches. But in the end you look at where there is a possibility to enter a graduate programme or begin a career.


    UK is a very different case. Not only because of the language,
     
    Sure I agree. UK has a strong economy, a lot of growth industries, and general high standard of living. And there are a lot of immigrants, which means it is a friendly and tolerant location to immigrate.

    For the middle class professional immigration (that go to middle class jobs), of course general salaries are often a lot more limited than America, and so you can feel like you are losing money compared to people that were able to work in America.

    For a category of unskilled workers from somewhere like Iraq or Syria (that would likely go to working class jobs), I can imagine these European countries can often better than USA, as Europe has often relatively lower inequality, free healthcare, more civilized political culture, etc.


    met a few South Americans who emigrated to Germany but didn’t quite like the experience
     
    It can be because you are sampling them outside Germany? where they were already filtered for not liking the experience.

    I've met a couple of Latin people who were working in German companies, and it didn't sound so scary. I know one where BMW had paid for their university postgraduate study.

    Replies: @AP, @Mikel

  449. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    I was thinking of it mainly in demographic inputs. In such a rubric, sex ratios might be a problem for certain genres, but maybe, one could make patriarchies or matriarchies and just give them the opposite sex to control. I think it would also be interesting to consider what a justice system would look like, where the rank and file, the cops, and the judges, were fans of each genre.

    But I do like your idea to find ideology in the music. Rap seems to have certain economic ideas, and ideas about women and language. I wonder whether country would be more libertarian or about pulling oneself up by the bootstraps? Soft rock would be about not offending people. Pop maybe about radical feminism.

    What would K-pop and J-pop be? Do they reflect their national systems, or something else? I don't know. Seems almost a contradiction in feminized men (as I think in K-pop) and choreography.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    K-pop & J-pop being part of their national system, indeed.

  450. @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    If you want to see more scary movements of our epoch, Moscow Metro is now installing a live facial recognition system so that the metro knows your face and adds the payment to your card when you approach the entrance. ( https://ria.ru/20211108/litso-1757613837.html )

    Scary thing, is the fact nobody has been protesting this continual digitization, and erosion of the rights we had for generations enjoyed as natural parts of the public space. Digital gulag is already being installed, and that's without even discussing the QR codes that are hopefully only temporary during the pandemic.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-sTDhi4or8

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Ironic given people still wear masks for COVID.

    China is far ahead in facial recognition rollout but they still stick to manual digital payments, for now.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    Computerization of the population in Russia, is like with the spread of HIV, coronavirus and communism - as we say, "slow to saddle, but rides fast"

    If even 10 years ago many people in Russia still did not have internet connection, and yet already in the early 2020s Moscow is becoming the world's first digital concentration camp, where the authorities will have database containing every person's face, and they will be tracking the identity of each individual in public spaces with their network of live facial recognition cameras. They can also process this data in all kinds of ways (real peoples' movements will become like less anonymized versions of "clicks" on a website that you can study in the same ways).

    Even if the QR codes will be only temporary, for Moscow at least there is already something much worse installed.

    The only hope is that this will not extend from Moscow. Perhaps this will be delayed because of the budget situation. Moscow has perpetual unlimited billions of dollars of money to spend on anything it wants, while in the non-Moscow Russia there is often the opposite situation - very limited budgets and often decades of delay for implementation of projects. So perhaps there not be a budget to extend these dystopian camera networks to other areas too soon.

    Although I wouldn't be too optimistic, as it's obviously the self-interest of the authorities, to have such unprecedented technology to track and control the animals in the farm.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  451. @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    I’m not talking about the specifics of who has more points, Trump vs anti-Trump
     
    Well, you did choose to use the pro-Trump riot to illustrate your point. But you are right that the Capitol riot will no doubt be remembered as an event of much more historical importance than the more deadly Antifa riots. However, that in itself may be an illustration of how important traditional media continue being, as they are the ones that ultimately decide what people consider to be more important.

    The Capitol had in fact been assaulted before, once by armed militants in the 70s IIRC. Was this assault more significant than the previous ones? Was any of them more significant than the Antifa riots that left many people dead, livelihoods destroyed, city centers burned and a new era where in some parts of the country certain crimes are no longer prosecuted? Perhaps 1/6 was more important than the aftermath of the BLM riots, I'm not sure. But it's not me who gets to decide that. The decision is taken by the chief executives of TV stations and other mass media through the amount and type of coverage they give to each event.


    Television can prepare wider context or framework for brainwashing, as we see in CNN, Tucker Carlson, etc. But you need the internet to operationalize this.
     
    From where I stand, it is indeed CNN, Fox, NBC and all the rest who create the narrative and incense and radicalize. I see it in people I know personally. Taking advantage of that radicalization by skillful agitators may be done through the internet these days but it wasn't all that different in the days of leaflets, banners and phone calls.

    Where I do see modern social media playing a big role is precisely by amplifying the message of the (left-wing) media and reaching larger audiences than traditional news organizations. When Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Apple, etc promote the very same narratives as NYT, CNN and MSNBC the potential for control of the masses is bigger than before.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @iffen

    How much of rightoid sentiments are stroked and how much is organic? What MSM does for leftoids, memes & forums does for rightoids.

    • Agree: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    When you produce the same soap and need to customize it for different identities of the customers in your market. Put some soap into a pink bottle and add a flower smell, and sell it as "shampoo for women". Put the same soap in the blue bottle, make it smell like cologne, and call it "shampoo for men".

    I think it's a funny story how AT&T owns CNN, which is known for promoting an anti-Trump narrative in American television. While the same executives of AT&T that own CNN, also initiated and fund "One America News Network", whose purpose is to promote the pro-Trump "conservative" narrative in American television. ( https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-oneamerica-att/ )

    , @Mikel
    @Yellowface Anon


    What MSM does for leftoids, memes & forums does for rightoids.
     
    Yes, it's very difficult to escape the tentation to find echo chambers that reaffirm your existing beliefs, wherever you can find them.

    But there's a difference between the echo chamber being the all pervasive MSM + Sillicon Valley + Hollywood + Big Corp and the echo chamber being the much smaller means at the disposal of rightoids. Rightoids have it much harder to spread their message or even to get it themselves.

    In any case, we live in a reality where two different groups of people are everyday going to the cinema to watch two totally different movies but then argue with each other as if the story they have just watched was the same. I think it's useful to make the effort to go and see what movie the other group is watching so that you can have more meaningful conversations. That's why I torture myself everyday with half an hour or more of reading the MSM Narrative. I presume that most people in this blog do the same while it is much rarer to find leftoids with such an inclination.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  452. @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    I’m not talking about the specifics of who has more points, Trump vs anti-Trump
     
    Well, you did choose to use the pro-Trump riot to illustrate your point. But you are right that the Capitol riot will no doubt be remembered as an event of much more historical importance than the more deadly Antifa riots. However, that in itself may be an illustration of how important traditional media continue being, as they are the ones that ultimately decide what people consider to be more important.

    The Capitol had in fact been assaulted before, once by armed militants in the 70s IIRC. Was this assault more significant than the previous ones? Was any of them more significant than the Antifa riots that left many people dead, livelihoods destroyed, city centers burned and a new era where in some parts of the country certain crimes are no longer prosecuted? Perhaps 1/6 was more important than the aftermath of the BLM riots, I'm not sure. But it's not me who gets to decide that. The decision is taken by the chief executives of TV stations and other mass media through the amount and type of coverage they give to each event.


    Television can prepare wider context or framework for brainwashing, as we see in CNN, Tucker Carlson, etc. But you need the internet to operationalize this.
     
    From where I stand, it is indeed CNN, Fox, NBC and all the rest who create the narrative and incense and radicalize. I see it in people I know personally. Taking advantage of that radicalization by skillful agitators may be done through the internet these days but it wasn't all that different in the days of leaflets, banners and phone calls.

    Where I do see modern social media playing a big role is precisely by amplifying the message of the (left-wing) media and reaching larger audiences than traditional news organizations. When Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Apple, etc promote the very same narratives as NYT, CNN and MSNBC the potential for control of the masses is bigger than before.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @iffen

  453. The King of Bhutan has the right idea: charge foreigners for each day they are in the country.

    The West has the wrong idea: pay foreigners for each day they are in the country.

    • Replies: @RadicalCenter
    @songbird

    If they’re foreigners who were legally allowed into the country on a non-permanent basis, then his idea would be foolish.

    Foreigners should NOT lightly or commonly be offered citizenship and political rights, but they can and should be made welcome and treated very well when visiting as tourists, students, or businessmen. It’s the decent thing to do when you invite or let someone in, and it redounds to our own economic and diplomatic (good will) benefit.

    After careful screening, let large numbers of foreigners visit our country, treat them as welcome guests and friends, gladly accept the jobs and tax revenue from the money they spend while here — and then make sure they go home.

    Replies: @songbird

  454. @Dmitry
    @Mikel

    I'm not talking about the specifics of who has more points, Trump vs anti-Trump, but the ability to create this Pokemon GO online game of thousands of people, who are lost in a clue-based online game, and directed at the same time and place, and where this mob seem as if they have been controlled remotely.

    This is the creation by social media, of an internet flashmob, all brainwashed with the same game scenario and online mission - and which can be materialized into a certain place and time, with the contact with reality part of their brain hacked and disengaged enough to make them destroy their lives for the game.

    I'm sure it has happened already before, but January capital building riots will be seen as a historically until then unprecedented step in terms of its scale and its success. Unfortunately, this is likely just the "small beginning".


    TV networks did play a big role in the destructive antifa

     

    I doubt that even the world's most effective television, can materialize or co-ordinate this kind of flashmob. By design, television cannot hack brains with much individual specification (compared to cookies - it also has much wider audience than your particular Facebook or Twitter feed), it cannot find the same vulnerabilities as doesn't have learning feedback of the algorithm from user feedback.

    Television can prepare wider context or framework for brainwashing, as we see in CNN, Tucker Carlson, etc. But you need the internet to operationalize this.


    e Capitol building but it wasn’t particularly violent. They just dissolved themselves

     

    They created thousands of people with no connection to reality, that believe the narrative of an online clue-following game, and successfully were able to use them to break into the parliament building of the world's only superpower . And likely just the beginning of what this technology is capable of doing.

    “mostly peaceful” meme came out straight from TV reporting, that was very sympathetic to the rioters.
     
    The BLM riots were clearly two events - political/peaceful protesters who followed the media narrative about "anti-racism", and pogromists who follow their self-interest to break a shop window and access freely the consumer goods inside.

    Criminals using distraction or absence of police to break the shops, and access free things - it follows their self-interest (you don't require people to replace their self-interest with an online-game), and has been a bit of a folkloric anti-tradition there.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJC9JM_rfxc

    Replies: @Mikel, @Emil Nikola Richard

    They created thousands of people with no connection to reality, that believe the narrative of an online clue-following game, and successfully were able to use them to break into the parliament building of the world’s only superpower . And likely just the beginning of what this technology is capable of doing.

    The information on this topic that I see is highly biased towards the point-of-view that this internet marketing technology is powerful and if you are an advertising buyer you should be spending money on it. I do not have adblock on an old computer for the express purpose of seeing how accurately adsense can pigeon-hole me. It is terrible. I do not now and have never owned a pet. I am male. I consistently get served advertisements for dog and cat crap and women’s clothes.

    The data I have is the capabilities of this technology are wildly exaggerated. I don’t think Cambridge Analytica’s scheme in the 2016 president election moved one electoral vote.

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    I do not have adblock on an old computer for the express purpose of seeing how accurately adsense can pigeon-hole me. It is terrible.
     
    Are you giving it enough data to even have a chance? If AdSense is predicated on getting a good view of your Internet activities, it might do better for people who also don't run adblockers etc., who use GMail, etc. Do you use anti-fingerprinting precautions, like avoiding running JavaScript if at all possible? It just might not be able to connect the dots to whatever dribs and drabs of activity it the Goolag collects about you.

    Also Google != Facebook, it's going to be hard to use Facebook without giving them a lot more information. Although it is amusing to see them getting reamed by the Left for the mere possibility they unwittingly helped Trump.
  455. German_reader says:
    @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    most of the world is dreaming of living in Germany.
     
    I guess it's true that most of the world would like to live in a country that functions like Germany. But living in Germany itself? I doubt it. The climate, the grey skies, the language, the unfriendly reputation of its people,... if given the choice, most people seeking to emigrate would probably choose a different destination.

    In fact, I guess you didn't quite have in mind Europeans when you wrote that sentence but all 500+ million inhabitants of the European single market area could live in Germany if they so wished but only a few million have made the move, often with the hope of going back to their countries in the future.

    The UK is a very different case. Not only because of the language, that most people around the world are at least familiar with, but also because of a more welcoming and cosmopolitan reputation. In fact, yesterday I saw a BBC report about the Belarus migrants and an Iraqi guy explained (in English, of course) that he didn't know anybody in his group that was planning to go to Germany. They were all hoping to cross the EU and make it to the UK. Many in the permanent migrant camps at Calais actually risk their lives to cross the Channel when they could much more easily try to settle in Germany if they really dislike France so much.

    I've met a few South Americans who emigrated to Germany but didn't quite like the experience and moved somewhere else. An Argentinian of half German, half Armenian ancestry told me that he emigrated to Germany during one of the recurrent crises in his country, hoping to make a living in the land of his ancestors, but he didn't feel welcome and finally decided to try his luck in Chile instead, where I met him.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

    if given the choice, most people seeking to emigrate would probably choose a different destination.

    Germany’ percentage of foreign-born inhabitants is about the same as that of the US, it’s one of the top destinations for migrants in the world. Given that reality I find the usual bitching and whining about German racism hard to take seriously.
    That being said, I agree that Dmitry’s view of Germany is overly rosy, the general culture is stifling and joyless, and there are more attractive countries for skilled professionals (not for “refugees” though).

    Not only because of the language, that most people around the world are at least familiar with, but also because of a more welcoming and cosmopolitan reputation.

    Sure, that’s very, very nice for immigrants, but it also means white Britons will be a minority in their own country in 40 years, and can’t even object to it, because it would be “racist” and against British traditions of tolerance.
    It’s also a bit naive to take the official propaganda of the British state about Britain being a multicultural success story at face value, there are huge simmering tensions just below the surface. The relationship between the English and Pakistanis in northern England isn’t a friendly one.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @German_reader


    Given that reality I find the usual bitching and whining about German racism hard to take seriously.
     
    It's been a long time since I last visited Germany and, from reading your comments, it seems to have changed a lot lately. Perhaps the fact of many Germans emigrating to other European countries, especially during the years of high unemployment following the re-unification, has contributed to changing attitudes to migrants.

    But I wasn't really thinking about racism per se. For migrants escaping horrible living conditions, Germans being more racist than other Europeans, which nowadays likely they are not, must not be something of much relevance. In fact, I doubt they typically have any real intention of assimilating and becoming Germans. They've just probably heard of the German perks for migrants and plan on living in their own ethnic enclaves while milking their host country.

    My contention was that Germany can compete with the land of Hollywood or the land of the Big Ben, the Queen and James Bond in the imagination of most people in the world.

    Replies: @German_reader

  456. Somewhere in Japan, an old codger has raised a boar and taught it a multitude of tricks. Shaking “hands.” Lying down. He even rides it sometimes. Meanwhile, wild boar have be known to attack people which suggests that they have the capacity to guard.

    All this makes it evident that we should be breeding pigs to compete with dogs, trying to get pigs to do all the tasks that dogs have been bred to do. While also breeding dogs to do their old tasks better, as well as do newer tasks.

    Think of pigs, like trained Alsatians, running after a perp and jumping up on his back to knock him down, in order to facilitate an arrest. Think of them using their keen scent to track down criminals, and receiving commands by radio. Think of them pulling sleds, like huskies. Fetching dead ducks, guarding sheep, or saving drowning swimmers.

    Wouldn’t it be something to have dogs and pigs working in tandem to chase down Somalis, etc., in Europe, in order to send them back to their natural habitat?

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @songbird


    All this makes it evident that we should be breeding pigs to compete with dogs
     
    Bad idea imo, there's already the argument that one shouldn't eat pigs because of their high intelligence, and if you make them behave like dogs that view will be reinforced. Do you really want to give up pork? That would also be a victory for Islam btw.

    Replies: @songbird, @songbird

  457. @AaronB
    @AaronB

    And what will new culture that is birthing itself entail?

    All good and healthy cultures are based in some way on a story of integration - a story of return and a story of home. Whether it's Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, etc, the central organizing story is one of harmonizing with a sacred order, being connected to and integrated with all of life and existence, and returning to a state of integration which is our true home.

    The Garden of Eden, Taoist and Buddhist non-dualism - they are all stories of integration and return to our true home.

    That too is why a sense of longing and yearning is often at the heart of spiritual poetry and music - and is also the ache in the heart one experiences in a beautiful valley under a full moon. I have long felt it odd that English language poetry and literature seemed to lack that yearning quality I often found in Zen and Japanese lit, as well as German lit - but it makes sense, if the English speaking world is most under the malign spell of Faustian culture.

    For an example of this spiritual yearning in modern music, I recommend the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. While they are in no way religious, and are a modern hipster band, they make some of the most moving music today.

    The Faustian Story, of course, was the exact opposite - humans are completely seperate from nature, above it and outside it, and must dominate it and control it.

    Every spiritual tradition tells us that the pursuit of power and excessive knowledge in order to dominate is the source of our exile from the Garden of Eden.

    It is as if happiness and meaning and the pursuit of power are opposites - I have felt it in my own life. Periods where I have fallen under the spell of power and money, self-aggrandizement and self assertion, have invariably been the emptiest and least satisfying and least happy periods in my life - sterile, empty periods where the magic of life seemed gone forever, however materially successful I was.

    It was always in periods of breakdown, loss, forced humility that the magic and beauty of the world came rushing back into my life - it took a while for my atheist, secular self to grasp that my life was simply affirming the basic message of all spirituality :)

    The new culture being born will have an entirely different metaphysics than the dying and dead Faustian culture - it will have a metaphysics of integration and harmony, not domination and seperation.

    But the metaphysics will come later - first, lived life will be different and new.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I could be wrong, but I think that your yearning to find spiritual paths to lean upon are somewhat unique. When I look around at mostly younger people where I work, I see individuals caught up in materialism and frivolous banter about relationships and plans to visit Mazatlan or Cabo San Lucas, not for spiritual retreats. I guess I blend in there too, being sedated by work projects and soft ambient musical sounds in the background…lunchtime of a half an hour isn’t much time to get to know the spiritual make-up of fellow co-workers. I think that the spiritual needs of these young individuals are submerged deep within, hopefully waiting to someday emerge? If not, I don’t know what to make of it all?

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Mr. Hack

    I hear you.

    But from my experience, there is immense social pressure to "present" oneself as successful and happy and content, but once you get to know people and dig a little deeper, I have found shocking levels of anxiety, depression, and dissatisfaction among nearly everyone I know or meet - to the point where I simply expect every new person I meet to harbor an inner darkness that gets revealed slowly as I am around them more.

    So you have to look past the "Facebook effect".

    Moreover, our culture has no language to articulate spiritual disquiet - depressed and anxious? Why, it must be chemical imbalance not wrong metaphysics and beliefs and lifestyle - and the only "cure" our culture knows to offer is more of the poison; more technology, more control, more materialism, etc.

    So you hardly ever hear people articulate their unease and disquiet in spiritual terms, but rather as nothing a good old shopping spree or a pill can't cure. And people genuinely lack the imagination and boldness to genuinely challenge social consensus.

    But I think there is a huge and enormous "bubble" that is waiting to burst.

    But as I commented above, probably for the near term future the vast majority of people will continue living in the grip of what is by now basically a dead civilization, with no one truly believing anymore in it's premises (science will save us lol), but unable to imagine anything better or different, and with the symptoms of our denied and repressed disease growing ever more extreme, grotesque, and dysfunctional (and I consider this a global phenomenon. China will become sicker and sicker).

    So before the birth of something new, much upheaval and darkness. That's normal, isn't it?

    But for the growing trickle of individuals who see the dead civilization for what it is, and are aware of alternatives, we can, as Kingsnorth says, cease fighting the dead and focus our energies on planting the seeds of a new culture not based on mechanistic thinking.

    At the very least, we can unplug from the matrix and return to the beauty of God's creation. Every week I spend in nature away from modern entertainment and empty technological amusement is a seed planted for a new way of living.

    And of course, spreading word is important - without using coercion or insult or shaming language, as the devotees of the Machine use against "heretics" who they seek to control and dominate, but quietly showing the beauties and satisfactions of a different way of life, demonstrating that it's possible for any of us, that giving up comfort and consumerism isn't catastrophic lol, and at the same time, respecting the choice of anyone who does not wish to follow this emerging path.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  458. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    Somewhere in Japan, an old codger has raised a boar and taught it a multitude of tricks. Shaking "hands." Lying down. He even rides it sometimes. Meanwhile, wild boar have be known to attack people which suggests that they have the capacity to guard.

    All this makes it evident that we should be breeding pigs to compete with dogs, trying to get pigs to do all the tasks that dogs have been bred to do. While also breeding dogs to do their old tasks better, as well as do newer tasks.

    Think of pigs, like trained Alsatians, running after a perp and jumping up on his back to knock him down, in order to facilitate an arrest. Think of them using their keen scent to track down criminals, and receiving commands by radio. Think of them pulling sleds, like huskies. Fetching dead ducks, guarding sheep, or saving drowning swimmers.

    Wouldn't it be something to have dogs and pigs working in tandem to chase down Somalis, etc., in Europe, in order to send them back to their natural habitat?

    Replies: @German_reader

    All this makes it evident that we should be breeding pigs to compete with dogs

    Bad idea imo, there’s already the argument that one shouldn’t eat pigs because of their high intelligence, and if you make them behave like dogs that view will be reinforced. Do you really want to give up pork? That would also be a victory for Islam btw.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader

    Well, there are other avenues of approach, like trying to complete the domestication of silver foxes or restart that of Fuegian dogs, but both have smallish bodies. I don't think they have the same potential as pigs. Since pigs gave been bred to weight, I feel like they have more potential for a variety of shapes and sizes, fit for different tasks, including potentially of riding.

    IMO, pigs are the most remarkable animal for meat. It is like eating the flesh of several different animals, not even counting the different tastes one can achieve with flavored ham. Once, I overheard someone tell a Jew that he "wasn't missing much", and I just barely held back from expressing my strong countervailing opinion.

    Though, personally, I feel frustrated by all this terrible blank-slatism and feel we need to go in the opposite direction. Much as I like eating pig, I would happily give it up for a neo-pigs and neo-dogs and an end to blank-slatism. (If we could breed notably smarter dogs, within a short span of history, think of what a blow that would be to blank-slatism.)

    Anyway, food prohibitions are of marginal value as tools of segregation, when they are organized from the other side. Reform Jews (which I think are the most radical in some ways) happily eat pork and ham. I believe we should transition to our own culturally nativist tools of segregation.

    , @songbird
    @German_reader

    Another shortcoming of food prohibitions is that it did not prevent the immigration of Ethiopians (general societal taboo about pork) to Israel.

    I consider food prohibitions to be old technology for segregation. Good in its day, when people where eating communally and not travelling far, but would be better to use a different system now. Perhaps, one more scientific - a tool not available to the ancient Jews, like genetic distance or ideological tests.

    Also, the indigenous food prohibitions of Europeans aren't discriminatory enough. Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets. Many of the people who ate it did so because they were protein-starved.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader, @Emil Nikola Richard

  459. One benefit that I would offer repatriates to Africa would be the low end model of smart phone from five years ago. (or whenever they pull the production line, or find a cheaper way to make such a product.) I feel like this would be easily affordable. In America, it is not uncommon to see last year or the year before’s model, with 2 gb ram, for \$20 or under.

    I would also offer them a nice pre-fab hut, with solar panels. One of those gas-digesting toilets (one for every four or five huts) and a sort of social security of beans and rice, or the equivalent cost therof.

    A subsidy to Nollywood to provide entertainment and perhaps low-speed internet, if cost feasible. If there was not enough bandwidth for streaming, USB drives could be passed around. We would remove all claims to copyright on African consumption, and pay companies a small fee to patch old games like Super Mario Brothers, in order to make the characters black. For their sanity and our safety, there would be a Great Firewall hiding any hint of the rest of the world.

  460. @A123
    @RadicalCenter


    Judeo-Christian is a rather absurd term — or if it’s not, then perhaps Christianity itself is part of the problem.
     
    Jews & Christians share "Old Testament" values, such as the Ten Commandments. No serious Christian rejects Judeo-Christian (a.k.a. Old Testament) values.

    Perhaps you are onto something:
        • Why is Pope Francis such a bad Christian?
        • As an anti-Semite, has he rejected the Old Testament?

    This would explain why he openly supports anti-Christian SJW values.

    And it’s not just the current pope ... It’s the previous popes, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, etc. You’re either indulging in wishful thinking or dissembling
     
    I am definitely not dissembling.

    God provides Faith. And, Faith provides Hope. I hope that the Catholic Church will reform. What is the difference between "hopeful" and "wishful"? I prefer the former, as it ties to common sense such as, "Hope for the Best. Prepare for the Worst". Prudent contingency planning will require scenarios where the Catholic Church stays rogue or schisms into separate churches.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @RadicalCenter

    Supporting the Catholic Church is supporting evil. You’re supporting the worst while hoping for the best.

    • Replies: @A123
    @RadicalCenter

    I am a Protestant. Thus, obviously not a supporter of the Catholic Church.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  461. @German_reader
    @songbird


    All this makes it evident that we should be breeding pigs to compete with dogs
     
    Bad idea imo, there's already the argument that one shouldn't eat pigs because of their high intelligence, and if you make them behave like dogs that view will be reinforced. Do you really want to give up pork? That would also be a victory for Islam btw.

    Replies: @songbird, @songbird

    Well, there are other avenues of approach, like trying to complete the domestication of silver foxes or restart that of Fuegian dogs, but both have smallish bodies. I don’t think they have the same potential as pigs. Since pigs gave been bred to weight, I feel like they have more potential for a variety of shapes and sizes, fit for different tasks, including potentially of riding.

    IMO, pigs are the most remarkable animal for meat. It is like eating the flesh of several different animals, not even counting the different tastes one can achieve with flavored ham. Once, I overheard someone tell a Jew that he “wasn’t missing much”, and I just barely held back from expressing my strong countervailing opinion.

    Though, personally, I feel frustrated by all this terrible blank-slatism and feel we need to go in the opposite direction. Much as I like eating pig, I would happily give it up for a neo-pigs and neo-dogs and an end to blank-slatism. (If we could breed notably smarter dogs, within a short span of history, think of what a blow that would be to blank-slatism.)

    Anyway, food prohibitions are of marginal value as tools of segregation, when they are organized from the other side. Reform Jews (which I think are the most radical in some ways) happily eat pork and ham. I believe we should transition to our own culturally nativist tools of segregation.

  462. @Mr. Hack
    @AaronB

    I could be wrong, but I think that your yearning to find spiritual paths to lean upon are somewhat unique. When I look around at mostly younger people where I work, I see individuals caught up in materialism and frivolous banter about relationships and plans to visit Mazatlan or Cabo San Lucas, not for spiritual retreats. I guess I blend in there too, being sedated by work projects and soft ambient musical sounds in the background...lunchtime of a half an hour isn't much time to get to know the spiritual make-up of fellow co-workers. I think that the spiritual needs of these young individuals are submerged deep within, hopefully waiting to someday emerge? If not, I don't know what to make of it all?

    Replies: @AaronB

    I hear you.

    But from my experience, there is immense social pressure to “present” oneself as successful and happy and content, but once you get to know people and dig a little deeper, I have found shocking levels of anxiety, depression, and dissatisfaction among nearly everyone I know or meet – to the point where I simply expect every new person I meet to harbor an inner darkness that gets revealed slowly as I am around them more.

    So you have to look past the “Facebook effect”.

    Moreover, our culture has no language to articulate spiritual disquiet – depressed and anxious? Why, it must be chemical imbalance not wrong metaphysics and beliefs and lifestyle – and the only “cure” our culture knows to offer is more of the poison; more technology, more control, more materialism, etc.

    So you hardly ever hear people articulate their unease and disquiet in spiritual terms, but rather as nothing a good old shopping spree or a pill can’t cure. And people genuinely lack the imagination and boldness to genuinely challenge social consensus.

    But I think there is a huge and enormous “bubble” that is waiting to burst.

    But as I commented above, probably for the near term future the vast majority of people will continue living in the grip of what is by now basically a dead civilization, with no one truly believing anymore in it’s premises (science will save us lol), but unable to imagine anything better or different, and with the symptoms of our denied and repressed disease growing ever more extreme, grotesque, and dysfunctional (and I consider this a global phenomenon. China will become sicker and sicker).

    So before the birth of something new, much upheaval and darkness. That’s normal, isn’t it?

    But for the growing trickle of individuals who see the dead civilization for what it is, and are aware of alternatives, we can, as Kingsnorth says, cease fighting the dead and focus our energies on planting the seeds of a new culture not based on mechanistic thinking.

    At the very least, we can unplug from the matrix and return to the beauty of God’s creation. Every week I spend in nature away from modern entertainment and empty technological amusement is a seed planted for a new way of living.

    And of course, spreading word is important – without using coercion or insult or shaming language, as the devotees of the Machine use against “heretics” who they seek to control and dominate, but quietly showing the beauties and satisfactions of a different way of life, demonstrating that it’s possible for any of us, that giving up comfort and consumerism isn’t catastrophic lol, and at the same time, respecting the choice of anyone who does not wish to follow this emerging path.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @AaronB

    Didn't Jesus say all of this quite simply, when tempted by all of the material pleasures that this world has to offer:


    it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

     

    BTW, have you continued following the literary anthropologist that you brought to our attention a few months back, who had converted to Orthodoxy? I wonder how his walk with the Lord is going? Unfortunately, I have forgotten his name?...

    Replies: @German_reader, @AaronB

  463. I also like the idea of giving visas to people who deport X number of undesirables. Eventually, we could turn it into a big game sport, using non-lethal tools and allowing wealthy Chinese to “hunt down” Nigerians, Pakis, Arabs, etc, and sponsoring contests between them, to see how many they can “bag”, and who can “bag” the biggest ones. Allowing them to take pictures with them as trophies, on scales, before agents would see them safely deported away.

    There would be different hunting seasons, for different tools, in order to increase the challenge. Nets one season, man-catching poles another.

    I imagine that they would use baits, like robotic teenage Euro girls that would lure them in.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @songbird

    In time, the British might want to preserve a part of Birmingham (with a much reduced population) as a big game park in order to use man-catching to replace fox-hunting, as an aristocratic sport.

  464. @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    Supporting the Catholic Church is supporting evil. You’re supporting the worst while hoping for the best.

    Replies: @A123

    I am a Protestant. Thus, obviously not a supporter of the Catholic Church.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  465. @AaronB
    @Mr. Hack

    I hear you.

    But from my experience, there is immense social pressure to "present" oneself as successful and happy and content, but once you get to know people and dig a little deeper, I have found shocking levels of anxiety, depression, and dissatisfaction among nearly everyone I know or meet - to the point where I simply expect every new person I meet to harbor an inner darkness that gets revealed slowly as I am around them more.

    So you have to look past the "Facebook effect".

    Moreover, our culture has no language to articulate spiritual disquiet - depressed and anxious? Why, it must be chemical imbalance not wrong metaphysics and beliefs and lifestyle - and the only "cure" our culture knows to offer is more of the poison; more technology, more control, more materialism, etc.

    So you hardly ever hear people articulate their unease and disquiet in spiritual terms, but rather as nothing a good old shopping spree or a pill can't cure. And people genuinely lack the imagination and boldness to genuinely challenge social consensus.

    But I think there is a huge and enormous "bubble" that is waiting to burst.

    But as I commented above, probably for the near term future the vast majority of people will continue living in the grip of what is by now basically a dead civilization, with no one truly believing anymore in it's premises (science will save us lol), but unable to imagine anything better or different, and with the symptoms of our denied and repressed disease growing ever more extreme, grotesque, and dysfunctional (and I consider this a global phenomenon. China will become sicker and sicker).

    So before the birth of something new, much upheaval and darkness. That's normal, isn't it?

    But for the growing trickle of individuals who see the dead civilization for what it is, and are aware of alternatives, we can, as Kingsnorth says, cease fighting the dead and focus our energies on planting the seeds of a new culture not based on mechanistic thinking.

    At the very least, we can unplug from the matrix and return to the beauty of God's creation. Every week I spend in nature away from modern entertainment and empty technological amusement is a seed planted for a new way of living.

    And of course, spreading word is important - without using coercion or insult or shaming language, as the devotees of the Machine use against "heretics" who they seek to control and dominate, but quietly showing the beauties and satisfactions of a different way of life, demonstrating that it's possible for any of us, that giving up comfort and consumerism isn't catastrophic lol, and at the same time, respecting the choice of anyone who does not wish to follow this emerging path.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Didn’t Jesus say all of this quite simply, when tempted by all of the material pleasures that this world has to offer:

    it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

    BTW, have you continued following the literary anthropologist that you brought to our attention a few months back, who had converted to Orthodoxy? I wonder how his walk with the Lord is going? Unfortunately, I have forgotten his name?…

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Mr. Hack


    Unfortunately, I have forgotten his name?…
     
    Unless I'm mistaken that's Paul Kingsnorth whom Aaron was so enthusiastic about in his comments above (at least Kingsnorth is a convert to Orthodoxy, don't think there are many others in Britain/Ireland with such a profile).

    Replies: @songbird

    , @AaronB
    @Mr. Hack

    Yes, I am following that literary anthropologist, and as GR says correctly, he is Paul Kingsnorth, who I quote liberally upthread :)

    Yes, Jesus, and nearly every spiritual tradition, says the same thing - but we always forget it, and we always have to say it again in language suited to our times and our situation.

    The new spirituality that is emerging, will not be anything truly new - it's all been said. They will be ancient truths said in ways people today can relate to and understand.

    When E.F Schumacher wrote is book "Small is Beautiful, Buddhist Economics", someone said he might as well have called it Catholic Economics, as it's basically the teaching if various popes.

    He said yes, but then no one would have read it :)

    This points to a very real truth about spirituality - eventually, the radical message of spirituality gets coopted by the "establishment", and ceases to mean what it did.

    The genuine message of Jesus can liberate us today if we listen to it's original and clear meaning, but over time, the word Jesus and Christianity has come to be associated with things so completely opposite the Sermon on the Mount, and so completely"worldly", that it has become very difficult for most people to achieve genuine spirituality through these terms.

    In America, we are fast approaching a place - if we have not already - where the terms Zen and Buddhism have lost their power to liberate, and have become assimilated to the worldly goals of the establishment.

    I guarantee you, if you inquire into the beliefs of most of the self-professed Christians on this site, you will find them quite remote from the teachings of Jesus. I believe you have has a taste of this recently in the attempt by certain commenters to shame you for not having children and contributing to worldly power and success.

    On the other hand, there is something truly thrilling and revelatory in recovering the radical challenge of true spirituality. When I first discovered that Jesus and Christianity were not merely about family life and being a responsible, sober citizen, but something so much more incredible, I was delighted and astonished.

    When I first discovered just how radical and counter cultural true Zen and Mahayana Buddhism is, and how remote from the banal bourgeois concern with "self-improvement" that it has come to signify in the modern West (meditation will increase your cognitive ability and self control!), I was once again astonished and delighted.

    Humanity has on its possession some truly radical, liberating messages, that have become entirely obscured.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  466. @Mr. Hack
    @AaronB

    Didn't Jesus say all of this quite simply, when tempted by all of the material pleasures that this world has to offer:


    it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

     

    BTW, have you continued following the literary anthropologist that you brought to our attention a few months back, who had converted to Orthodoxy? I wonder how his walk with the Lord is going? Unfortunately, I have forgotten his name?...

    Replies: @German_reader, @AaronB

    Unfortunately, I have forgotten his name?…

    Unless I’m mistaken that’s Paul Kingsnorth whom Aaron was so enthusiastic about in his comments above (at least Kingsnorth is a convert to Orthodoxy, don’t think there are many others in Britain/Ireland with such a profile).

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader

    I rather like Kingsnorth's idea to "free" West Papua. Seems like a safe way to give an outlet to progressives who want to virtue signal, while perhaps simultaneously also gaining mineral concessions.

  467. @songbird
    I also like the idea of giving visas to people who deport X number of undesirables. Eventually, we could turn it into a big game sport, using non-lethal tools and allowing wealthy Chinese to "hunt down" Nigerians, Pakis, Arabs, etc, and sponsoring contests between them, to see how many they can "bag", and who can "bag" the biggest ones. Allowing them to take pictures with them as trophies, on scales, before agents would see them safely deported away.

    There would be different hunting seasons, for different tools, in order to increase the challenge. Nets one season, man-catching poles another.

    I imagine that they would use baits, like robotic teenage Euro girls that would lure them in.

    Replies: @songbird

    In time, the British might want to preserve a part of Birmingham (with a much reduced population) as a big game park in order to use man-catching to replace fox-hunting, as an aristocratic sport.

  468. @Mr. Hack
    @AaronB

    Didn't Jesus say all of this quite simply, when tempted by all of the material pleasures that this world has to offer:


    it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

     

    BTW, have you continued following the literary anthropologist that you brought to our attention a few months back, who had converted to Orthodoxy? I wonder how his walk with the Lord is going? Unfortunately, I have forgotten his name?...

    Replies: @German_reader, @AaronB

    Yes, I am following that literary anthropologist, and as GR says correctly, he is Paul Kingsnorth, who I quote liberally upthread 🙂

    Yes, Jesus, and nearly every spiritual tradition, says the same thing – but we always forget it, and we always have to say it again in language suited to our times and our situation.

    The new spirituality that is emerging, will not be anything truly new – it’s all been said. They will be ancient truths said in ways people today can relate to and understand.

    When E.F Schumacher wrote is book “Small is Beautiful, Buddhist Economics”, someone said he might as well have called it Catholic Economics, as it’s basically the teaching if various popes.

    He said yes, but then no one would have read it 🙂

    This points to a very real truth about spirituality – eventually, the radical message of spirituality gets coopted by the “establishment”, and ceases to mean what it did.

    The genuine message of Jesus can liberate us today if we listen to it’s original and clear meaning, but over time, the word Jesus and Christianity has come to be associated with things so completely opposite the Sermon on the Mount, and so completely”worldly”, that it has become very difficult for most people to achieve genuine spirituality through these terms.

    In America, we are fast approaching a place – if we have not already – where the terms Zen and Buddhism have lost their power to liberate, and have become assimilated to the worldly goals of the establishment.

    I guarantee you, if you inquire into the beliefs of most of the self-professed Christians on this site, you will find them quite remote from the teachings of Jesus. I believe you have has a taste of this recently in the attempt by certain commenters to shame you for not having children and contributing to worldly power and success.

    On the other hand, there is something truly thrilling and revelatory in recovering the radical challenge of true spirituality. When I first discovered that Jesus and Christianity were not merely about family life and being a responsible, sober citizen, but something so much more incredible, I was delighted and astonished.

    When I first discovered just how radical and counter cultural true Zen and Mahayana Buddhism is, and how remote from the banal bourgeois concern with “self-improvement” that it has come to signify in the modern West (meditation will increase your cognitive ability and self control!), I was once again astonished and delighted.

    Humanity has on its possession some truly radical, liberating messages, that have become entirely obscured.

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @AaronB

    I'm not sure, whether you've ever read the short but incredibly insightful essay that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew wrote about how Christians can learn from the Buddhist tradition and Buddhists from the Christian. His seems to be a sincere normative attempt at trying to create a real dialogue between the two faith systems. It's pretty concise but yet very deep in meaning:


    We Christians have a great deal to do to prepare for this encounter. And it is far more interesting than arguing among ourselves.
     


    http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com/2009/11/on-india-and-buddhism-ecumenical.html

    Replies: @AaronB

  469. Et tu, Assad?

    Due to the current critical situation on the Belarus-Poland borders, and since the majority of Cham Wings’ passengers flying to Minsk are of Syrian nationality and that it is difficult for the company to distinguish between passengers flying to Belarus as their final destination, and passengers flying to Belarus as immigrants, Cham Wings Airlines has taken the decision to suspend its flights to Minsk National Airport effective today Saturday 13 November 2021.

    https://chamwings.com/newspost/cham-wings-airlines-suspends-its-flights-to-minsk-belarus/

    Shammout Trading Group is one of Rami Makhlouf’s business fronts, and Shammout runs Cham Wings Airline, which is owned by Rami Makhlouf.

    Sources speak of Shammout’s involvement in aiding the Syrian regime to elude the sanctions, especially in the air transportation field, where Cham Wings Airlines presented the perfect substitute cover for military activities and violations committed by the regime. The company transported military hardware, weapons, and ammunition from Iran, and transported Iranian Revolutionary Guard fighters to Syria, to participate in military operations. Flights were sent on a semi regular basis to al-Najaf Airport in Iraq, to transport Iraqi, Iranian, Afghani, and Pakistani militants.

    https://businessmen.pro-justice.org/en/issam-shammout-2/

  470. @German_reader
    @Mr. Hack


    Unfortunately, I have forgotten his name?…
     
    Unless I'm mistaken that's Paul Kingsnorth whom Aaron was so enthusiastic about in his comments above (at least Kingsnorth is a convert to Orthodoxy, don't think there are many others in Britain/Ireland with such a profile).

    Replies: @songbird

    I rather like Kingsnorth’s idea to “free” West Papua. Seems like a safe way to give an outlet to progressives who want to virtue signal, while perhaps simultaneously also gaining mineral concessions.

    • Agree: Not Raul
  471. @German_reader
    @Matra

    Thorfinnsson reviewed it (according to him it's "an anticommunist American conservative polemic directed against the pro-Soviet foreign policy of the Roosevelt Administration"):
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-159/#comment-4815863

    Replies: @Matra

    Thanks. Thorfinnsson’s review and the comments below by Yevardian correspond with my own impressions from a couple of McMeekin’s interviews. I’ve also just noticed that his last three books are available at my local public library so I’ll just pick it up from there if they get it as, right now, it’s priced at \$50, which is just too much for a book that’s not rare.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Matra

    You can also just pirate it on Library Genesis:
    http://library.lol/main/DEF1852F28B08759EEDBF7A0B6C1A64F
    Haven't read any of McMeekin's books myself, but I get the impression he likes exaggerated, provocative theses (seems also to be the case in his books about the origins of WW1 and the Russian revolution). It's probably a good marketing strategy.

    Replies: @Yevardian

  472. I don’t believe the rather infantile rumors about Biden at the Vatican.

    But I do wonder, if, as some claim, Biden called the Pope, “Satchel Paige” (Negro League baseball-player) and complemented him by saying he was a “great Negro at the time.”

  473. THE United States has reactivated a nuclear unit in Germany for the first time since the Cold War and is armed with “Dark Eagle” long-range hypersonic missiles.

    When fully developed and deployed the rockets will be capable of travelling 4,000mph and could blitz Russia in just 21 minutes and 30 seconds.

    The 56th Artillery Command, based in the Western District of Mainz-Kastel, was officially recommissioned by the US Army this week during a ceremony.

    The decision to reactivate is amid the growing concerns in the Pentagon that Russia has succeeded NATO and the US in creating long-range artillery rockets.

    The Command was first formed in 1942 and fought in Europe during World War II but was deactivated in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union.

    The commanding general of the artillery unit, General Stephen Maranian said the development will “provide the US Army Europe and Africa with significant capabilities in multi-domain operations”.

    It was believed that the US was falling behind in the creation of a hypersonic weapon until last month when it was announced that the US had completed its delivery of the “Dark Eagle”.

    “From a blank piece of paper in March 2019, we, along with our industry partners and joint services, delivered this hardware in just over two years. Now, Soldiers can begin training,” Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood said in a statement.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16695568/us-nuclear-germany-eagle-hypersonic-missiles-moscow/

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @sudden death

    Hypothetical Dr. Strangelove to the rescue again as in good old Cold War times ;)

  474. @AaronB
    @Mr. Hack

    Yes, I am following that literary anthropologist, and as GR says correctly, he is Paul Kingsnorth, who I quote liberally upthread :)

    Yes, Jesus, and nearly every spiritual tradition, says the same thing - but we always forget it, and we always have to say it again in language suited to our times and our situation.

    The new spirituality that is emerging, will not be anything truly new - it's all been said. They will be ancient truths said in ways people today can relate to and understand.

    When E.F Schumacher wrote is book "Small is Beautiful, Buddhist Economics", someone said he might as well have called it Catholic Economics, as it's basically the teaching if various popes.

    He said yes, but then no one would have read it :)

    This points to a very real truth about spirituality - eventually, the radical message of spirituality gets coopted by the "establishment", and ceases to mean what it did.

    The genuine message of Jesus can liberate us today if we listen to it's original and clear meaning, but over time, the word Jesus and Christianity has come to be associated with things so completely opposite the Sermon on the Mount, and so completely"worldly", that it has become very difficult for most people to achieve genuine spirituality through these terms.

    In America, we are fast approaching a place - if we have not already - where the terms Zen and Buddhism have lost their power to liberate, and have become assimilated to the worldly goals of the establishment.

    I guarantee you, if you inquire into the beliefs of most of the self-professed Christians on this site, you will find them quite remote from the teachings of Jesus. I believe you have has a taste of this recently in the attempt by certain commenters to shame you for not having children and contributing to worldly power and success.

    On the other hand, there is something truly thrilling and revelatory in recovering the radical challenge of true spirituality. When I first discovered that Jesus and Christianity were not merely about family life and being a responsible, sober citizen, but something so much more incredible, I was delighted and astonished.

    When I first discovered just how radical and counter cultural true Zen and Mahayana Buddhism is, and how remote from the banal bourgeois concern with "self-improvement" that it has come to signify in the modern West (meditation will increase your cognitive ability and self control!), I was once again astonished and delighted.

    Humanity has on its possession some truly radical, liberating messages, that have become entirely obscured.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I’m not sure, whether you’ve ever read the short but incredibly insightful essay that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew wrote about how Christians can learn from the Buddhist tradition and Buddhists from the Christian. His seems to be a sincere normative attempt at trying to create a real dialogue between the two faith systems. It’s pretty concise but yet very deep in meaning:

    We Christians have a great deal to do to prepare for this encounter. And it is far more interesting than arguing among ourselves.

    http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com/2009/11/on-india-and-buddhism-ecumenical.html

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Mr. Hack

    I'm happy to hear that. I think all spiritual people should learn from each other and be allies.

    I'm not Christian, but I read and learn from Christian writers all the time. I'm currently reading Catholic writer Richard Rohr, who writes about the mystical and non-dualistic tradition in Christianity.

    It always pains me whenever anyone from any tradition insists only theirs has the truth and they have no reason to study or ally with anyone else from any other tradition.

    In today's globalized world, when we have so much more knowledge of the world's spiritual traditions and their similarities, I find it difficult to maintain such an attitude.

  475. @sudden death
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/KS_GRAPHIC_MAP_HYPER_WEAPONS1-v3-1.jpg?strip=all&w=960

    THE United States has reactivated a nuclear unit in Germany for the first time since the Cold War and is armed with "Dark Eagle" long-range hypersonic missiles.

    When fully developed and deployed the rockets will be capable of travelling 4,000mph and could blitz Russia in just 21 minutes and 30 seconds.

    The 56th Artillery Command, based in the Western District of Mainz-Kastel, was officially recommissioned by the US Army this week during a ceremony.

    The decision to reactivate is amid the growing concerns in the Pentagon that Russia has succeeded NATO and the US in creating long-range artillery rockets.

    The Command was first formed in 1942 and fought in Europe during World War II but was deactivated in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union.

    The commanding general of the artillery unit, General Stephen Maranian said the development will "provide the US Army Europe and Africa with significant capabilities in multi-domain operations”.

    It was believed that the US was falling behind in the creation of a hypersonic weapon until last month when it was announced that the US had completed its delivery of the "Dark Eagle".

    “From a blank piece of paper in March 2019, we, along with our industry partners and joint services, delivered this hardware in just over two years. Now, Soldiers can begin training,” Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood said in a statement.
     

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16695568/us-nuclear-germany-eagle-hypersonic-missiles-moscow/

    Replies: @sudden death

    Hypothetical Dr. Strangelove to the rescue again as in good old Cold War times 😉

  476. German_reader says:
    @Matra
    @German_reader

    Thanks. Thorfinnsson's review and the comments below by Yevardian correspond with my own impressions from a couple of McMeekin's interviews. I've also just noticed that his last three books are available at my local public library so I'll just pick it up from there if they get it as, right now, it's priced at $50, which is just too much for a book that's not rare.

    Replies: @German_reader

    You can also just pirate it on Library Genesis:
    http://library.lol/main/DEF1852F28B08759EEDBF7A0B6C1A64F
    Haven’t read any of McMeekin’s books myself, but I get the impression he likes exaggerated, provocative theses (seems also to be the case in his books about the origins of WW1 and the Russian revolution). It’s probably a good marketing strategy.

    • Replies: @Yevardian
    @German_reader

    Despite a few reservations about his prose style, I did find his book on the Russian Revolution to be excellent (I can still easily recommend that book), which then just added to my dissappointment regarding 'Stalin's War'.

    Replies: @German_reader

  477. @Mr. Hack
    @AaronB

    I'm not sure, whether you've ever read the short but incredibly insightful essay that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew wrote about how Christians can learn from the Buddhist tradition and Buddhists from the Christian. His seems to be a sincere normative attempt at trying to create a real dialogue between the two faith systems. It's pretty concise but yet very deep in meaning:


    We Christians have a great deal to do to prepare for this encounter. And it is far more interesting than arguing among ourselves.
     


    http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com/2009/11/on-india-and-buddhism-ecumenical.html

    Replies: @AaronB

    I’m happy to hear that. I think all spiritual people should learn from each other and be allies.

    I’m not Christian, but I read and learn from Christian writers all the time. I’m currently reading Catholic writer Richard Rohr, who writes about the mystical and non-dualistic tradition in Christianity.

    It always pains me whenever anyone from any tradition insists only theirs has the truth and they have no reason to study or ally with anyone else from any other tradition.

    In today’s globalized world, when we have so much more knowledge of the world’s spiritual traditions and their similarities, I find it difficult to maintain such an attitude.

  478. @A123
    @Mr. XYZ


    Please keep in mind, though, that the USSR had to prop up puppet states throughout Eastern Europe, not only in East Germany. This won’t be an issue for Russia since Central Asian autocrats can prop themselves up.
     
    Belarus is much poorer than Russia. If absorbing Belarus was cost effective, Putin would have done it some time ago to keep NATO at bay.

    Can Europe not get gas from elsewhere?
     
    Europe is the best place to obtain gas for Europe. Baltic Pipe 1 ( https://www.baltic-pipe.eu/ ) is fully approved and should go online next year. The BaP1 build is only 20-25% of the capacity of NS2. There is huge interest in additional supply, so any BaP2 project will be much higher capacity.

     
    https://www.baltic-pipe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/baltic-pipe-project-map-1-5-1.jpg
     

    The most important feature of the project is 100% bypass of the most authoritarian SJW territory. This will do much to limit anti-Christian, Elite Globalist meddling and aggression.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Not Raul

    Where will Poland obtain gas for that pipeline?

    • Replies: @A123
    @Not Raul

    From Norway (and possibly the UK).

    PEACE 😇

     
    http://cdn3.volusion.com/mnjxv.acyda/v/vspfiles/photos/MPEM3112017-2.jpg

    , @A123
    @Not Raul

    Below is a closer map for Norwegian fields.

    The Troll field is huge and is expected to be productive for decades.

    The more recent discovery at 35/2-1 (PEON) is "proven", large, but not yet in the pipeline system. (1)

    There is plenty of supply available.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/facts/discoveries/352-1-peon/

     

    https://www.norskpetroleum.no/wp-content/uploads/05-Nordsj%C3%B8N-en-07042020-1000x0-c-default.png

    Replies: @songbird

  479. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Dmitry


    They created thousands of people with no connection to reality, that believe the narrative of an online clue-following game, and successfully were able to use them to break into the parliament building of the world’s only superpower . And likely just the beginning of what this technology is capable of doing.
     
    The information on this topic that I see is highly biased towards the point-of-view that this internet marketing technology is powerful and if you are an advertising buyer you should be spending money on it. I do not have adblock on an old computer for the express purpose of seeing how accurately adsense can pigeon-hole me. It is terrible. I do not now and have never owned a pet. I am male. I consistently get served advertisements for dog and cat crap and women's clothes.

    The data I have is the capabilities of this technology are wildly exaggerated. I don't think Cambridge Analytica's scheme in the 2016 president election moved one electoral vote.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    I do not have adblock on an old computer for the express purpose of seeing how accurately adsense can pigeon-hole me. It is terrible.

    Are you giving it enough data to even have a chance? If AdSense is predicated on getting a good view of your Internet activities, it might do better for people who also don’t run adblockers etc., who use GMail, etc. Do you use anti-fingerprinting precautions, like avoiding running JavaScript if at all possible? It just might not be able to connect the dots to whatever dribs and drabs of activity it the Goolag collects about you.

    Also Google != Facebook, it’s going to be hard to use Facebook without giving them a lot more information. Although it is amusing to see them getting reamed by the Left for the mere possibility they unwittingly helped Trump.

  480. @Not Raul
    @A123

    Where will Poland obtain gas for that pipeline?

    Replies: @A123, @A123

    From Norway (and possibly the UK).

    PEACE 😇

     

  481. @Not Raul
    @A123

    Where will Poland obtain gas for that pipeline?

    Replies: @A123, @A123

    Below is a closer map for Norwegian fields.

    The Troll field is huge and is expected to be productive for decades.

    The more recent discovery at 35/2-1 (PEON) is “proven”, large, but not yet in the pipeline system. (1)

    There is plenty of supply available.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/facts/discoveries/352-1-peon/

     

    • Thanks: Not Raul
    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123


    The Troll field is huge and is expected to be productive for decades.
     
    This also matches my sentiments outside of the petro industry.
  482. @A123
    @Not Raul

    Below is a closer map for Norwegian fields.

    The Troll field is huge and is expected to be productive for decades.

    The more recent discovery at 35/2-1 (PEON) is "proven", large, but not yet in the pipeline system. (1)

    There is plenty of supply available.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/facts/discoveries/352-1-peon/

     

    https://www.norskpetroleum.no/wp-content/uploads/05-Nordsj%C3%B8N-en-07042020-1000x0-c-default.png

    Replies: @songbird

    The Troll field is huge and is expected to be productive for decades.

    This also matches my sentiments outside of the petro industry.

    • LOL: Barbarossa
  483. @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    Ironic given people still wear masks for COVID.

    China is far ahead in facial recognition rollout but they still stick to manual digital payments, for now.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    Computerization of the population in Russia, is like with the spread of HIV, coronavirus and communism – as we say, “slow to saddle, but rides fast”

    If even 10 years ago many people in Russia still did not have internet connection, and yet already in the early 2020s Moscow is becoming the world’s first digital concentration camp, where the authorities will have database containing every person’s face, and they will be tracking the identity of each individual in public spaces with their network of live facial recognition cameras. They can also process this data in all kinds of ways (real peoples’ movements will become like less anonymized versions of “clicks” on a website that you can study in the same ways).

    Even if the QR codes will be only temporary, for Moscow at least there is already something much worse installed.

    The only hope is that this will not extend from Moscow. Perhaps this will be delayed because of the budget situation. Moscow has perpetual unlimited billions of dollars of money to spend on anything it wants, while in the non-Moscow Russia there is often the opposite situation – very limited budgets and often decades of delay for implementation of projects. So perhaps there not be a budget to extend these dystopian camera networks to other areas too soon.

    Although I wouldn’t be too optimistic, as it’s obviously the self-interest of the authorities, to have such unprecedented technology to track and control the animals in the farm.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    That means massive exodus out of Moscow and possibly Petersburg, if the anti-state types wants to "resist" the system.

  484. I wonder how long Europeans eat cheese for. Like it has no expiry date, as years pass? Or with a definite end in sight?

    As an American, I feel like I’ve lost touch with food in a lot of ways. Like, I would have to be without food for a couple of days before I could bring myself to eat jerky or summer sausage. If someone gave it to me, and I couldn’t give it to someone else, I would feed it to a dog.

  485. @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    most of the world is dreaming of living in Germany.
     
    I guess it's true that most of the world would like to live in a country that functions like Germany. But living in Germany itself? I doubt it. The climate, the grey skies, the language, the unfriendly reputation of its people,... if given the choice, most people seeking to emigrate would probably choose a different destination.

    In fact, I guess you didn't quite have in mind Europeans when you wrote that sentence but all 500+ million inhabitants of the European single market area could live in Germany if they so wished but only a few million have made the move, often with the hope of going back to their countries in the future.

    The UK is a very different case. Not only because of the language, that most people around the world are at least familiar with, but also because of a more welcoming and cosmopolitan reputation. In fact, yesterday I saw a BBC report about the Belarus migrants and an Iraqi guy explained (in English, of course) that he didn't know anybody in his group that was planning to go to Germany. They were all hoping to cross the EU and make it to the UK. Many in the permanent migrant camps at Calais actually risk their lives to cross the Channel when they could much more easily try to settle in Germany if they really dislike France so much.

    I've met a few South Americans who emigrated to Germany but didn't quite like the experience and moved somewhere else. An Argentinian of half German, half Armenian ancestry told me that he emigrated to Germany during one of the recurrent crises in his country, hoping to make a living in the land of his ancestors, but he didn't feel welcome and finally decided to try his luck in Chile instead, where I met him.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

    climate, the grey skies

    Jobs and economy is the main priority for economic immigration, although there are other attractive things like education, healthcare, welfare, fair legal system, safety, cosmopolitan culture.

    I think climate is not such a priority for most economic immigrants. Much of the young people of Southern Europe are emigrating to Northern Europe, rather than the other way round – and not for the sunny skies.

    From personal sample as an immigrant myself that entered Europe, I certainly would have preferred warm weather, palm trees and beaches. But in the end you look at where there is a possibility to enter a graduate programme or begin a career.

    UK is a very different case. Not only because of the language,

    Sure I agree. UK has a strong economy, a lot of growth industries, and general high standard of living. And there are a lot of immigrants, which means it is a friendly and tolerant location to immigrate.

    For the middle class professional immigration (that go to middle class jobs), of course general salaries are often a lot more limited than America, and so you can feel like you are losing money compared to people that were able to work in America.

    For a category of unskilled workers from somewhere like Iraq or Syria (that would likely go to working class jobs), I can imagine these European countries can often better than USA, as Europe has often relatively lower inequality, free healthcare, more civilized political culture, etc.

    met a few South Americans who emigrated to Germany but didn’t quite like the experience

    It can be because you are sampling them outside Germany? where they were already filtered for not liking the experience.

    I’ve met a couple of Latin people who were working in German companies, and it didn’t sound so scary. I know one where BMW had paid for their university postgraduate study.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Dmitry


    Sure I agree. UK has a strong economy, a lot of growth industries, and general high standard of living. And there are a lot of immigrants, which means it is a friendly and tolerant location to immigrate.
     
    UK is significantly poorer than Germany, and slightly poorer than France.

    Germany seems like a less interesting, less pleasant and less charming but bigger and more relevant version of Austria or Switzerland. Maybe like America to the UK, if America didn't have its spectacular nature.

    For the middle class professional immigration (that go to middle class jobs), of course general salaries are often a lot more limited than America, and so you can feel like you are losing money compared to people that were able to work in America.
     
    Yes, from a material standpoint America is the best place in the world for professionals with post-graduate education (engineers, physicians, etc.) both in terms of salaries and in terms of lower tax burden (not only income taxes but also VAT).

    Europe has considerable advantages but these have little to do with the political or economic system. Beautiful cities and buildings built before the USA was settled by Europeans, and various fantastic cultural and culinary traditions.

    For a category of unskilled workers from somewhere like Iraq or Syria (that would likely go to working class jobs), I can imagine these European countries can often better than USA, as Europe has often relatively lower inequality, free healthcare, more civilized political culture, etc.
     
    Absolutely. If you are unskilled, uneducated and unambitious the European system is much better than the USA.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    It can be because you are sampling them outside Germany? where they were already filtered for not liking the experience.
     
    Yes, that's possible. Another Argentinian I met some time ago, a German speaker of full German descent, also decided to settle down in Ireland after spending a few years in Germany so it looked to me like a trend that probably reinforced the general impression about Germany that I got when I spent 3 months there in the 80s. Not a particularly joyful country.
  486. @Yellowface Anon
    @Mikel

    How much of rightoid sentiments are stroked and how much is organic? What MSM does for leftoids, memes & forums does for rightoids.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Mikel

    When you produce the same soap and need to customize it for different identities of the customers in your market. Put some soap into a pink bottle and add a flower smell, and sell it as “shampoo for women”. Put the same soap in the blue bottle, make it smell like cologne, and call it “shampoo for men”.

    I think it’s a funny story how AT&T owns CNN, which is known for promoting an anti-Trump narrative in American television. While the same executives of AT&T that own CNN, also initiated and fund “One America News Network”, whose purpose is to promote the pro-Trump “conservative” narrative in American television. ( https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-oneamerica-att/ )

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
  487. @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    Computerization of the population in Russia, is like with the spread of HIV, coronavirus and communism - as we say, "slow to saddle, but rides fast"

    If even 10 years ago many people in Russia still did not have internet connection, and yet already in the early 2020s Moscow is becoming the world's first digital concentration camp, where the authorities will have database containing every person's face, and they will be tracking the identity of each individual in public spaces with their network of live facial recognition cameras. They can also process this data in all kinds of ways (real peoples' movements will become like less anonymized versions of "clicks" on a website that you can study in the same ways).

    Even if the QR codes will be only temporary, for Moscow at least there is already something much worse installed.

    The only hope is that this will not extend from Moscow. Perhaps this will be delayed because of the budget situation. Moscow has perpetual unlimited billions of dollars of money to spend on anything it wants, while in the non-Moscow Russia there is often the opposite situation - very limited budgets and often decades of delay for implementation of projects. So perhaps there not be a budget to extend these dystopian camera networks to other areas too soon.

    Although I wouldn't be too optimistic, as it's obviously the self-interest of the authorities, to have such unprecedented technology to track and control the animals in the farm.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    That means massive exodus out of Moscow and possibly Petersburg, if the anti-state types wants to “resist” the system.

  488. @Dmitry
    @Mikel


    climate, the grey skies
     
    Jobs and economy is the main priority for economic immigration, although there are other attractive things like education, healthcare, welfare, fair legal system, safety, cosmopolitan culture.

    I think climate is not such a priority for most economic immigrants. Much of the young people of Southern Europe are emigrating to Northern Europe, rather than the other way round - and not for the sunny skies.

    -

    From personal sample as an immigrant myself that entered Europe, I certainly would have preferred warm weather, palm trees and beaches. But in the end you look at where there is a possibility to enter a graduate programme or begin a career.


    UK is a very different case. Not only because of the language,
     
    Sure I agree. UK has a strong economy, a lot of growth industries, and general high standard of living. And there are a lot of immigrants, which means it is a friendly and tolerant location to immigrate.

    For the middle class professional immigration (that go to middle class jobs), of course general salaries are often a lot more limited than America, and so you can feel like you are losing money compared to people that were able to work in America.

    For a category of unskilled workers from somewhere like Iraq or Syria (that would likely go to working class jobs), I can imagine these European countries can often better than USA, as Europe has often relatively lower inequality, free healthcare, more civilized political culture, etc.


    met a few South Americans who emigrated to Germany but didn’t quite like the experience
     
    It can be because you are sampling them outside Germany? where they were already filtered for not liking the experience.

    I've met a couple of Latin people who were working in German companies, and it didn't sound so scary. I know one where BMW had paid for their university postgraduate study.

    Replies: @AP, @Mikel

    Sure I agree. UK has a strong economy, a lot of growth industries, and general high standard of living. And there are a lot of immigrants, which means it is a friendly and tolerant location to immigrate.

    UK is significantly poorer than Germany, and slightly poorer than France.

    Germany seems like a less interesting, less pleasant and less charming but bigger and more relevant version of Austria or Switzerland. Maybe like America to the UK, if America didn’t have its spectacular nature.

    For the middle class professional immigration (that go to middle class jobs), of course general salaries are often a lot more limited than America, and so you can feel like you are losing money compared to people that were able to work in America.

    Yes, from a material standpoint America is the best place in the world for professionals with post-graduate education (engineers, physicians, etc.) both in terms of salaries and in terms of lower tax burden (not only income taxes but also VAT).

    Europe has considerable advantages but these have little to do with the political or economic system. Beautiful cities and buildings built before the USA was settled by Europeans, and various fantastic cultural and culinary traditions.

    For a category of unskilled workers from somewhere like Iraq or Syria (that would likely go to working class jobs), I can imagine these European countries can often better than USA, as Europe has often relatively lower inequality, free healthcare, more civilized political culture, etc.

    Absolutely. If you are unskilled, uneducated and unambitious the European system is much better than the USA.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @AP


    poorer than Germany, and slightly poorer than France
     
    I guess it depends what industry you were looking in.

    Germany is very strong for manufacturing, and has something like 80-90% share of industries like - luxury automobiles.

    Of course, France is the world's most successful country in terms of the tourism industry, and this is perhaps relevant for the "unskilled" immigration that is a little too common nowadays.

    UK is the most growth area for high tech in Europe, so it's an optimistic situation for certain kinds of skilled immigration.

    -


    For example, if you look at a metric like "unicorn creation" - creation of "tech companies" (this definition can be a bit ambiguous) with $1 billion or more valuations.

    By 2019, UK is the main unicorn factory in Europe.

    https://i.imgur.com/ISaNWIo.png


    https://i.imgur.com/myCaohB.png


    For example, by 2018.

    Cambridge (city population 125,000 people) had already 5 unicorns, which had far larger valuation, than Paris (population 12 million people - depending how you count)

    Oxford (city population 152,000 people) had already 4 unicorns created in 2018.

    https://i.imgur.com/WbVvmwy.jpg


    And since 2019, it has been going more crazy for London, because of the fintech bubble - I think it a bubble more than boom.

    -

    In terms of "soonicorns" London is also going dominant. https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252501066/UK-tech-sector-grows-tenfold-in-10-years

    "The figures also show that a further 132 companies are now regarded as having the potential to reach unicorn status, up from just 10 in 2010.

    Although the majority of these future unicorns are based in London (83), a number of high-growth scaleups can be found in Cambridgeshire (10), Oxfordshire (11), the North West generally (5), and Scotland (4)."


    Europe has considerable advantages but these have little to do with the political or economic

     

    For younger workers (let's say the 21-40s), which is the majority of immigrants, it is also related to the social life. There's a possibility of social life, and these hubs with a lot of immigrants are more friendly, with a lot of "single people" (in terms of unmarried and still wanting to be social) in this kind of age (21-40).

    unskilled, uneducated and unambitious the European system is much better than the USA
     
    Northern European countries like Sweden or Germany could also be good if you were ambitious. If you consider that university is almost free in Sweden for EU citizens (e.g. unlike in America for American citizens).

    And German companies like BMW seem to be extremely investing for young workers, and are paying people in their graduate programmes to study for postgraduate degrees in expensive universities in other countries (while also receiving some extent of salary as well).

    Imagine if you were a nerdy young person from Iraq or Lebanon, without politically connected parents. A pathway would to try to attain EU citizenship, and then you can go to almost free university in Sweden. Sure, Sweden might appear cold, depressing and rainy, and people are not so friendly, but you would have an opportunity to work in those countries which have some of the highest living standards.

  489. @German_reader
    @songbird


    All this makes it evident that we should be breeding pigs to compete with dogs
     
    Bad idea imo, there's already the argument that one shouldn't eat pigs because of their high intelligence, and if you make them behave like dogs that view will be reinforced. Do you really want to give up pork? That would also be a victory for Islam btw.

    Replies: @songbird, @songbird

    Another shortcoming of food prohibitions is that it did not prevent the immigration of Ethiopians (general societal taboo about pork) to Israel.

    I consider food prohibitions to be old technology for segregation. Good in its day, when people where eating communally and not travelling far, but would be better to use a different system now. Perhaps, one more scientific – a tool not available to the ancient Jews, like genetic distance or ideological tests.

    Also, the indigenous food prohibitions of Europeans aren’t discriminatory enough. Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets. Many of the people who ate it did so because they were protein-starved.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Agreed about the segregation or general identity-building use of those laws, but it isn't the case like, between Jews & Muslims. Here the use of alcohol is one of the defining differences. Probably it is the whole set of cultural markers that work as a whole in creating social distance (not in the COVID sense)

    Something I want to ask the TradCons & racialists: why castes and segregation? As a mystic cardinal principle ("purity"), or that it is some sort of ethno-social inevitability that will occur even when things are left on their own?

    Replies: @Coconuts, @songbird

    , @German_reader
    @songbird


    Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets.
     
    lol, no offense, but this line of comments is a very weird train of thought.
    I like the idea of midget knights riding on pigs in a charge against Muslim migrants, but I'm not sure it's a realistic solution to the immigration problem.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @songbird

    I consider food prohibitions to be old technology for segregation.

    A priest I know told me the logic on pork prohibition was politeness towards the poorest fraction in the society. Sheep and goats eat grass and weeds that people do not eat. Pigs do not eat grass. Pigs eat food that is fit for (very poor) people. Keeping pigs is pretty rude if you have people in the community dying from hunger.

    Dogs presumably work for their supper. : )

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  490. @songbird
    @German_reader

    Another shortcoming of food prohibitions is that it did not prevent the immigration of Ethiopians (general societal taboo about pork) to Israel.

    I consider food prohibitions to be old technology for segregation. Good in its day, when people where eating communally and not travelling far, but would be better to use a different system now. Perhaps, one more scientific - a tool not available to the ancient Jews, like genetic distance or ideological tests.

    Also, the indigenous food prohibitions of Europeans aren't discriminatory enough. Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets. Many of the people who ate it did so because they were protein-starved.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Agreed about the segregation or general identity-building use of those laws, but it isn’t the case like, between Jews & Muslims. Here the use of alcohol is one of the defining differences. Probably it is the whole set of cultural markers that work as a whole in creating social distance (not in the COVID sense)

    Something I want to ask the TradCons & racialists: why castes and segregation? As a mystic cardinal principle (“purity”), or that it is some sort of ethno-social inevitability that will occur even when things are left on their own?

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    Part of it is probably in reaction to the advancing creolisation of Western societies, and the sense that things are only going in one direction; like when you see the demographic projections for places like the UK and France in 60-70 years time and the former white majority is at around 20% of the population, and from observation on the ground these projections seem quite plausible. Also the creolisation seems to be strongly promoted as the goal by the media and parts of the political establishment.

    So you are looking at a future that is either much more Islamic/Middle Eastern, much more black African, or 'urban' societies and cultures wholly modelled by versions of neo-liberalism, and it is not very inspiring, because in terms of values and culture it will be a race to the bottom and may well result in a form of liberal plutocratic techno-dictatorship.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    , @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    but it isn’t the case like, between Jews & Muslims. Here the use of alcohol is one of the defining differences.
     
    probably of all prohibitions, the "sin" ones (ex: Mormons, with drinking and smoking) are the most effective, as they create a cool/uncool schism, for wayward youths.

    look at Greco-Roman, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, etc. dietary customs before Christianity came in to wipe most of them out.
     
    i suspect that the Celts had a taboo against eating dogs, see the death of Cú Chulainn:

    His fate is sealed by his breaking of the geasa (taboos) upon him. Cú Chulainn's geasa included a ban against eating dog meat, but in early Ireland there was a powerful general taboo against refusing hospitality, so when an old crone offers him a meal of dog meat, he has no choice but to break his geis.
     

    Something I want to ask the TradCons & racialists: why castes and segregation?
     
    When I look at Western society today, it is easy for me to see an extreme decline. Not only generationally from the time of my father and grandfather, but also, observationally across my own lifespan. Some of this decline is probably unrelated to diversity, but much/most of it definitely has a strong linkage. (the baleful term "white men" is used now in places that in the '50s were 99+% white.

    All the time I can see diversity and dysfunction increasing. The ideology of diversity seems to obviously be insatiable. I have seen it infiltrate the remotest villages where my ancestors lived, places that were once so isolated that they would capture a pony from the bogs when they needed it, tie a load to a its tail because they lacked any kind of harness, and then set it free again when they were done because they couldn't feed it.

    I genuinely think survival is at stake. But what beyond that? (if that is what you are asking) Diversity lowers standards. Destroys art and beauty and truth. It degrades people, on both sides of the interaction. It distracts from any positive vision for the future, etc. etc.

    BTW, i am not an absolutist. I would not necessarily object to some different people around, but it would have to be like 97% in Europe and with primacy enshrined. And some groups, I would not tolerate one individual from, as they are obviously without benefit.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  491. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    @German_reader

    Another shortcoming of food prohibitions is that it did not prevent the immigration of Ethiopians (general societal taboo about pork) to Israel.

    I consider food prohibitions to be old technology for segregation. Good in its day, when people where eating communally and not travelling far, but would be better to use a different system now. Perhaps, one more scientific - a tool not available to the ancient Jews, like genetic distance or ideological tests.

    Also, the indigenous food prohibitions of Europeans aren't discriminatory enough. Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets. Many of the people who ate it did so because they were protein-starved.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets.

    lol, no offense, but this line of comments is a very weird train of thought.
    I like the idea of midget knights riding on pigs in a charge against Muslim migrants, but I’m not sure it’s a realistic solution to the immigration problem.

    • LOL: Not Raul
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    It isn't about "immigration problem" per se - it is about building barriers between civilizational spaces so that only those who has been mobile in more traditional societies can cross them. It's perennial "Clash of Civilizations" and whatever immediate benefits are rhetorical (not that I fully like the way TradCons put it, since medieval mobility was somewhat higher than they usually imagine). This is why symbolism is the only thing that matters - eating pigs and dogs have no intrinsic ills or health disadvantages. (At least I agree that picture is silly)

    Songbird should look at Greco-Roman, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, etc. dietary customs before Christianity came in to wipe most of them out. Much of what makes Kashrut & Halal dietary laws stand out is specifically Semitic, and you aren't going to apply that onto European peoples if you want more ethnocultural indigenism.

    , @songbird
    @German_reader


    I like the idea of midget knights riding on pigs in a charge against Muslim migrants, but I’m not sure it’s a realistic solution to the immigration problem.
     
    TBH, my dream about pig-riders is really more about Pygmies keeping the Bantu in check. For our friend Muhammad, I had in mind pig-Alsatians. But, if it doesn't appeal to you, there is also the idea of using pig-brained drones.

    But just to ground my ideas about breeding a little: Irish wolfhounds are big dogs, but they are fairly unhealthy animals, short-lived. Size and mass definitely have their advantages though. (Think of a bigger police dog than exists now) I think it would be useful to have a big, healthy "dog." IMO, that might be easier to achieve with pigs, though I am not really certain, as most are quickly slaughtered.

    In general, I believe that there is still enormous potential to be unlocked in plants and animals by breeding. Just take the sense of smell of a dog and pair it with a smarter, longer-lived dog, to reduce the costs of training, and the potentials there (ex. medical diagnosis) would make a lot of our advanced technology look like crap.

    Of course, all this is incidentally related to immigration, and I shoe-horned it in because I thought it was amusing that way.

    Replies: @German_reader

  492. Why do you have to attend meetings in the metaverse, and send your children to study and play in virtual classrooms and VR Chat rooms while wearing VR headsets and plugged into some sensitive interface? Because you can’t go to work at an office, and your children can’t enter a school building or the playground. You and your children don’t have the permissions to be there, or they don’t outright exist – you don’t want to acquire them because it means being tied to the system in another way, or that your caste is just shut out, while the rich and powerful can pick between really seeing others’ faces or not.

    Digitalization is for the plebeians, physicality is for the (lower) aristocracy, while those really at the top is away from this world. Metaverse is one of the scourges of humanity along with some of the other digital “solutions” the WEF tosses around on a daily basis.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    This is already in Russia - the children of the elite (and to some extent their parents, during vacations), are enjoying relatively anonymous life in Europe. Because of the culture of much of the elite is originating from the security services, they are sometimes even living with different names in Europe than in Russia. For the famous examples, the children of Putin or Poroshenko have different names than their family, and probably different names again when they buy properties in Europe.

    On the other hand, the ordinary people are going to try to be completely catalogued all their actions. Although there is a question of state capacity, as for example demographers are saying that the census in Russia this year will overestimate the population by several million people. So perhaps there is some hope to be sceptical how effective these plans might be across the country, when they don't even know the population.


    means massive exodus out of Moscow and possibly Petersburg, if the anti-state types wants to “resist”
     
    I doubt there will be any reaction from the people. As it's not just in Russia, but with people in general - the people in the higher levels seem to be able to take much more than intuitively expected from the people in lower levels, before there is resistance.

    It's a flaw probably of the passivity with human psychology. I even find it strange, that if you even notice in any meeting, that if you are in a leadership position temporarily, people are following what you say to them in robotically passive way.

    Imagine trying to recreate the First World War with cats. You could transport thousands of cats to opposing trenches. But from just hearing the noise, the cats would be far too intelligent to volunteer to climb over the trenches into the killing zone, to volunteer their bodies to be painfully cut into smaller segments by sharp pieces of metal that were flying everywhere in the air of the battlefield at superfast speeds - unlike humans.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  493. @German_reader
    @songbird


    Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets.
     
    lol, no offense, but this line of comments is a very weird train of thought.
    I like the idea of midget knights riding on pigs in a charge against Muslim migrants, but I'm not sure it's a realistic solution to the immigration problem.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird

    It isn’t about “immigration problem” per se – it is about building barriers between civilizational spaces so that only those who has been mobile in more traditional societies can cross them. It’s perennial “Clash of Civilizations” and whatever immediate benefits are rhetorical (not that I fully like the way TradCons put it, since medieval mobility was somewhat higher than they usually imagine). This is why symbolism is the only thing that matters – eating pigs and dogs have no intrinsic ills or health disadvantages. (At least I agree that picture is silly)

    Songbird should look at Greco-Roman, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, etc. dietary customs before Christianity came in to wipe most of them out. Much of what makes Kashrut & Halal dietary laws stand out is specifically Semitic, and you aren’t going to apply that onto European peoples if you want more ethnocultural indigenism.

  494. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Agreed about the segregation or general identity-building use of those laws, but it isn't the case like, between Jews & Muslims. Here the use of alcohol is one of the defining differences. Probably it is the whole set of cultural markers that work as a whole in creating social distance (not in the COVID sense)

    Something I want to ask the TradCons & racialists: why castes and segregation? As a mystic cardinal principle ("purity"), or that it is some sort of ethno-social inevitability that will occur even when things are left on their own?

    Replies: @Coconuts, @songbird

    Part of it is probably in reaction to the advancing creolisation of Western societies, and the sense that things are only going in one direction; like when you see the demographic projections for places like the UK and France in 60-70 years time and the former white majority is at around 20% of the population, and from observation on the ground these projections seem quite plausible. Also the creolisation seems to be strongly promoted as the goal by the media and parts of the political establishment.

    So you are looking at a future that is either much more Islamic/Middle Eastern, much more black African, or ‘urban’ societies and cultures wholly modelled by versions of neo-liberalism, and it is not very inspiring, because in terms of values and culture it will be a race to the bottom and may well result in a form of liberal plutocratic techno-dictatorship.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Coconuts

    I'm not asking the contingent (which is demographics replacement), but the fundamental. I know there is the justification of ethno-cultural self-preservation, but that isn't sufficient.

    , @A123
    @Coconuts


    demographic projections for places like the UK and France in 60-70 years time and the former white majority is at around 20% of the population, and from observation on the ground these projections seem quite plausible.
     
    This trend is artificially made plausible by current SJW migration dogma. Excessive population undercuts the prospects of native citizens via lower wages, higher prices for necessities such as housing. The lack of national cohesion causes government expenditures to rise further complicating the situation.

    The way to stop this artificial trajectory is, ending detrimental Elite Globalist, anti-citizen rule that only benefits of multinational corporations. When citizens receive fair wages and can live a good life on their earnings, natural human behaviour will kick in. There will be more family formation, followed by more native children. As automation increases productivity, less population is required to drive the basic economy.
    ___

    The U.S. can achieve this via MAGA Reindustrialization and Visa Reform/Reduction. South and Central American migrants largely have Christian backgrounds. If the numbers can be reduced, reprogramming them away from Progressive/Communist beliefs can lead to successful assimilation.

    Europe has a more difficult road. The external migration demographics are worse. Plus, there is a huge internal negative from 'Schengen' migration under the failing EU treaty. Excessive intra-EU population shifts, harm the recipient country's citizens. It also distorts the prospects of donor countries by extracting young adults needed for family formation.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
  495. @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    Part of it is probably in reaction to the advancing creolisation of Western societies, and the sense that things are only going in one direction; like when you see the demographic projections for places like the UK and France in 60-70 years time and the former white majority is at around 20% of the population, and from observation on the ground these projections seem quite plausible. Also the creolisation seems to be strongly promoted as the goal by the media and parts of the political establishment.

    So you are looking at a future that is either much more Islamic/Middle Eastern, much more black African, or 'urban' societies and cultures wholly modelled by versions of neo-liberalism, and it is not very inspiring, because in terms of values and culture it will be a race to the bottom and may well result in a form of liberal plutocratic techno-dictatorship.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    I’m not asking the contingent (which is demographics replacement), but the fundamental. I know there is the justification of ethno-cultural self-preservation, but that isn’t sufficient.

  496. Interestingly I think you can also notice some scepticism around creolisation among various Africans who have more developed senses of national or tribal identity, and among Muslim groups who are in the same position.

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Coconuts

    Muslims also have some sense of multi-ethnicism - but then under the supremacy of the Din and the Sharia. African tribes/kingdoms war and hunt each others' men in premodern times and modern civil wars are just those, with guns.

    Not that only Europe is decadent - the entire world is, outside of isolated tribes. Even those "successes", like East Asia, are hollow.

    Replies: @Coconuts

  497. @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    Part of it is probably in reaction to the advancing creolisation of Western societies, and the sense that things are only going in one direction; like when you see the demographic projections for places like the UK and France in 60-70 years time and the former white majority is at around 20% of the population, and from observation on the ground these projections seem quite plausible. Also the creolisation seems to be strongly promoted as the goal by the media and parts of the political establishment.

    So you are looking at a future that is either much more Islamic/Middle Eastern, much more black African, or 'urban' societies and cultures wholly modelled by versions of neo-liberalism, and it is not very inspiring, because in terms of values and culture it will be a race to the bottom and may well result in a form of liberal plutocratic techno-dictatorship.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    demographic projections for places like the UK and France in 60-70 years time and the former white majority is at around 20% of the population, and from observation on the ground these projections seem quite plausible.

    This trend is artificially made plausible by current SJW migration dogma. Excessive population undercuts the prospects of native citizens via lower wages, higher prices for necessities such as housing. The lack of national cohesion causes government expenditures to rise further complicating the situation.

    The way to stop this artificial trajectory is, ending detrimental Elite Globalist, anti-citizen rule that only benefits of multinational corporations. When citizens receive fair wages and can live a good life on their earnings, natural human behaviour will kick in. There will be more family formation, followed by more native children. As automation increases productivity, less population is required to drive the basic economy.
    ___

    The U.S. can achieve this via MAGA Reindustrialization and Visa Reform/Reduction. South and Central American migrants largely have Christian backgrounds. If the numbers can be reduced, reprogramming them away from Progressive/Communist beliefs can lead to successful assimilation.

    Europe has a more difficult road. The external migration demographics are worse. Plus, there is a huge internal negative from ‘Schengen’ migration under the failing EU treaty. Excessive intra-EU population shifts, harm the recipient country’s citizens. It also distorts the prospects of donor countries by extracting young adults needed for family formation.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  498. @songbird
    @German_reader

    Another shortcoming of food prohibitions is that it did not prevent the immigration of Ethiopians (general societal taboo about pork) to Israel.

    I consider food prohibitions to be old technology for segregation. Good in its day, when people where eating communally and not travelling far, but would be better to use a different system now. Perhaps, one more scientific - a tool not available to the ancient Jews, like genetic distance or ideological tests.

    Also, the indigenous food prohibitions of Europeans aren't discriminatory enough. Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets. Many of the people who ate it did so because they were protein-starved.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader, @Emil Nikola Richard

    I consider food prohibitions to be old technology for segregation.

    A priest I know told me the logic on pork prohibition was politeness towards the poorest fraction in the society. Sheep and goats eat grass and weeds that people do not eat. Pigs do not eat grass. Pigs eat food that is fit for (very poor) people. Keeping pigs is pretty rude if you have people in the community dying from hunger.

    Dogs presumably work for their supper. : )

    • Thanks: songbird
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    https://blog.joselito.com/en/why-do-muslims-not-eat-pork/


    For the expert anthropologist, the most valid theory that explains why Jews and Muslims do not eat pork is ecological in nature. Harris considers that the pig was condemned because the breeding of these animals then constituted a threat to the integrity of the natural and cultural ecosystems of the Middle East. These were arid areas where the best adapted animals were ruminants: cattle, sheep and goats. The pig requires fields and rivers, does not produce milk, nor skins, nor is it used to plow or carry loads and also eats the same as man. In short, the pig was presented as a luxury item, a temptation and even a competitor for man.

    The expert explains that as with the taboo that prohibits eating beef in India, the greater the temptation, the greater the need for a divine prohibition . According to the anthropologist ” trying to raise pigs in significant quantities was a bad ecological adaptation. A small-scale production would only increase the temptation. Therefore, it was better to totally ban the consumption of pork ”.
     

    The next part confirms what songbird has said:

    And how is the persistence of this prohibition over time explained? Harris exposes his thesis in a resounding way in the book Cows, pigs, wars and witches : Taboos also fulfill social functions, such as helping people to consider themselves a distinctive community, which would explain the maintenance of ancestral dietary rules to fulfill this function.
     
  499. @Coconuts
    Interestingly I think you can also notice some scepticism around creolisation among various Africans who have more developed senses of national or tribal identity, and among Muslim groups who are in the same position.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Muslims also have some sense of multi-ethnicism – but then under the supremacy of the Din and the Sharia. African tribes/kingdoms war and hunt each others’ men in premodern times and modern civil wars are just those, with guns.

    Not that only Europe is decadent – the entire world is, outside of isolated tribes. Even those “successes”, like East Asia, are hollow.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    That is an interesting question. I had a few ideas... creolisation can be associated with liberalism (c.f. Hume's idea of nation as only a collection of individuals;) scepticism and nominalism. Promoters are often anti-essentialist and may be inclined to deny anything has an identifiable nature; the good is only understood in terms of whatever individual desires happen to be at any given time, the existence of something like the common good is denied or ignored.

    The archetypal form of society it gives rise to is understood as an undifferentiated mass with a persistently low cultural level, crude spirituality (or absence of it), centred around gratification of basic desires and possessing other features of plantation society; high time preference etc. Possibly this is why terms like Brazilification are used as synonymous with creolisation. People generally lack autonomy and self consciousness.

    I've been reading a lot of Charles Maurras lately, and for Maurras:


    Order in the state was akin to beauty in the arts. The laws of beauty were like the laws of life... The good lay not in things but the relation of things, not in the number but in the composition, not in quantity but in quality; it lay in the holy notion of limits.
     
    Maurras had this idea that when a higher level political grouping like a nation managed to persist in existence over time it starts to accumulate a stock of cultural capital that is passed down by inheritance from one generation to the next, and as this is enriched the society becomes more complex and differentiated and is able to realise the higher level virtues of the common good in its own particular way. And things like operation of the intellect beyond instinctive levels and the long term cultivation of a relationship with a specific geography.

    This process is related to fatherhood, long term occupation of territory etc.

    It is observable that the various Muslims nations try to maintain their own special inherited stock of cultural capital and social organisation even within the West.

    Some explanation along these lines may also be why the figure of the US black or black Caribbean is so central in Woke.

    Replies: @A123

  500. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @songbird

    I consider food prohibitions to be old technology for segregation.

    A priest I know told me the logic on pork prohibition was politeness towards the poorest fraction in the society. Sheep and goats eat grass and weeds that people do not eat. Pigs do not eat grass. Pigs eat food that is fit for (very poor) people. Keeping pigs is pretty rude if you have people in the community dying from hunger.

    Dogs presumably work for their supper. : )

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    https://blog.joselito.com/en/why-do-muslims-not-eat-pork/

    For the expert anthropologist, the most valid theory that explains why Jews and Muslims do not eat pork is ecological in nature. Harris considers that the pig was condemned because the breeding of these animals then constituted a threat to the integrity of the natural and cultural ecosystems of the Middle East. These were arid areas where the best adapted animals were ruminants: cattle, sheep and goats. The pig requires fields and rivers, does not produce milk, nor skins, nor is it used to plow or carry loads and also eats the same as man. In short, the pig was presented as a luxury item, a temptation and even a competitor for man.

    The expert explains that as with the taboo that prohibits eating beef in India, the greater the temptation, the greater the need for a divine prohibition . According to the anthropologist ” trying to raise pigs in significant quantities was a bad ecological adaptation. A small-scale production would only increase the temptation. Therefore, it was better to totally ban the consumption of pork ”.

    The next part confirms what songbird has said:

    And how is the persistence of this prohibition over time explained? Harris exposes his thesis in a resounding way in the book Cows, pigs, wars and witches : Taboos also fulfill social functions, such as helping people to consider themselves a distinctive community, which would explain the maintenance of ancestral dietary rules to fulfill this function.

  501. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Agreed about the segregation or general identity-building use of those laws, but it isn't the case like, between Jews & Muslims. Here the use of alcohol is one of the defining differences. Probably it is the whole set of cultural markers that work as a whole in creating social distance (not in the COVID sense)

    Something I want to ask the TradCons & racialists: why castes and segregation? As a mystic cardinal principle ("purity"), or that it is some sort of ethno-social inevitability that will occur even when things are left on their own?

    Replies: @Coconuts, @songbird

    but it isn’t the case like, between Jews & Muslims. Here the use of alcohol is one of the defining differences.

    probably of all prohibitions, the “sin” ones (ex: Mormons, with drinking and smoking) are the most effective, as they create a cool/uncool schism, for wayward youths.

    look at Greco-Roman, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, etc. dietary customs before Christianity came in to wipe most of them out.

    i suspect that the Celts had a taboo against eating dogs, see the death of Cú Chulainn:

    His fate is sealed by his breaking of the geasa (taboos) upon him. Cú Chulainn’s geasa included a ban against eating dog meat, but in early Ireland there was a powerful general taboo against refusing hospitality, so when an old crone offers him a meal of dog meat, he has no choice but to break his geis.

    [MORE]

    Something I want to ask the TradCons & racialists: why castes and segregation?

    When I look at Western society today, it is easy for me to see an extreme decline. Not only generationally from the time of my father and grandfather, but also, observationally across my own lifespan. Some of this decline is probably unrelated to diversity, but much/most of it definitely has a strong linkage. (the baleful term “white men” is used now in places that in the ’50s were 99+% white.

    All the time I can see diversity and dysfunction increasing. The ideology of diversity seems to obviously be insatiable. I have seen it infiltrate the remotest villages where my ancestors lived, places that were once so isolated that they would capture a pony from the bogs when they needed it, tie a load to a its tail because they lacked any kind of harness, and then set it free again when they were done because they couldn’t feed it.

    I genuinely think survival is at stake. But what beyond that? (if that is what you are asking) Diversity lowers standards. Destroys art and beauty and truth. It degrades people, on both sides of the interaction. It distracts from any positive vision for the future, etc. etc.

    BTW, i am not an absolutist. I would not necessarily object to some different people around, but it would have to be like 97% in Europe and with primacy enshrined. And some groups, I would not tolerate one individual from, as they are obviously without benefit.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    You are still saying what is contingent ("diversity" vs societal efficiency).

    Replies: @songbird

  502. @German_reader
    @songbird


    Easy to give up eating dog, when you have access to modern supermarkets.
     
    lol, no offense, but this line of comments is a very weird train of thought.
    I like the idea of midget knights riding on pigs in a charge against Muslim migrants, but I'm not sure it's a realistic solution to the immigration problem.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @songbird

    I like the idea of midget knights riding on pigs in a charge against Muslim migrants, but I’m not sure it’s a realistic solution to the immigration problem.

    TBH, my dream about pig-riders is really more about Pygmies keeping the Bantu in check. For our friend Muhammad, I had in mind pig-Alsatians. But, if it doesn’t appeal to you, there is also the idea of using pig-brained drones.

    But just to ground my ideas about breeding a little: Irish wolfhounds are big dogs, but they are fairly unhealthy animals, short-lived. Size and mass definitely have their advantages though. (Think of a bigger police dog than exists now) I think it would be useful to have a big, healthy “dog.” IMO, that might be easier to achieve with pigs, though I am not really certain, as most are quickly slaughtered.

    In general, I believe that there is still enormous potential to be unlocked in plants and animals by breeding. Just take the sense of smell of a dog and pair it with a smarter, longer-lived dog, to reduce the costs of training, and the potentials there (ex. medical diagnosis) would make a lot of our advanced technology look like crap.

    Of course, all this is incidentally related to immigration, and I shoe-horned it in because I thought it was amusing that way.

    • LOL: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @songbird


    IMO, that might be easier to achieve with pigs, though I am not really certain, as most are quickly slaughtered.
     
    I googled, apparently pigs can get as old as 15-20 years, so they seem to have somewhat longer lifespan than large dogs.
    Smaller dogs of course live longer than large dogs, but I suppose they're less intelligent due to smaller brain size. So I suppose there's something to be said in favour of your idea about breeding pigs for new purposes.

    Replies: @songbird

  503. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    but it isn’t the case like, between Jews & Muslims. Here the use of alcohol is one of the defining differences.
     
    probably of all prohibitions, the "sin" ones (ex: Mormons, with drinking and smoking) are the most effective, as they create a cool/uncool schism, for wayward youths.

    look at Greco-Roman, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, etc. dietary customs before Christianity came in to wipe most of them out.
     
    i suspect that the Celts had a taboo against eating dogs, see the death of Cú Chulainn:

    His fate is sealed by his breaking of the geasa (taboos) upon him. Cú Chulainn's geasa included a ban against eating dog meat, but in early Ireland there was a powerful general taboo against refusing hospitality, so when an old crone offers him a meal of dog meat, he has no choice but to break his geis.
     

    Something I want to ask the TradCons & racialists: why castes and segregation?
     
    When I look at Western society today, it is easy for me to see an extreme decline. Not only generationally from the time of my father and grandfather, but also, observationally across my own lifespan. Some of this decline is probably unrelated to diversity, but much/most of it definitely has a strong linkage. (the baleful term "white men" is used now in places that in the '50s were 99+% white.

    All the time I can see diversity and dysfunction increasing. The ideology of diversity seems to obviously be insatiable. I have seen it infiltrate the remotest villages where my ancestors lived, places that were once so isolated that they would capture a pony from the bogs when they needed it, tie a load to a its tail because they lacked any kind of harness, and then set it free again when they were done because they couldn't feed it.

    I genuinely think survival is at stake. But what beyond that? (if that is what you are asking) Diversity lowers standards. Destroys art and beauty and truth. It degrades people, on both sides of the interaction. It distracts from any positive vision for the future, etc. etc.

    BTW, i am not an absolutist. I would not necessarily object to some different people around, but it would have to be like 97% in Europe and with primacy enshrined. And some groups, I would not tolerate one individual from, as they are obviously without benefit.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    You are still saying what is contingent (“diversity” vs societal efficiency).

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Isn't purity always dualistic? Aren't its positive qualities always contrasts to diversity? I struggle to think of it in other terms, beyond survival and social efficiency (though they both encompass a lot.)

    Guess I could try to force a hypothetical scenario, where I tried to minimize those things. Guaranteed gene survival after mixing paired with some social benefit (say, larger scale cooperation), but I don't believe that is what you are driving at, as that would be a diversity reduction.

  504. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    @German_reader


    I like the idea of midget knights riding on pigs in a charge against Muslim migrants, but I’m not sure it’s a realistic solution to the immigration problem.
     
    TBH, my dream about pig-riders is really more about Pygmies keeping the Bantu in check. For our friend Muhammad, I had in mind pig-Alsatians. But, if it doesn't appeal to you, there is also the idea of using pig-brained drones.

    But just to ground my ideas about breeding a little: Irish wolfhounds are big dogs, but they are fairly unhealthy animals, short-lived. Size and mass definitely have their advantages though. (Think of a bigger police dog than exists now) I think it would be useful to have a big, healthy "dog." IMO, that might be easier to achieve with pigs, though I am not really certain, as most are quickly slaughtered.

    In general, I believe that there is still enormous potential to be unlocked in plants and animals by breeding. Just take the sense of smell of a dog and pair it with a smarter, longer-lived dog, to reduce the costs of training, and the potentials there (ex. medical diagnosis) would make a lot of our advanced technology look like crap.

    Of course, all this is incidentally related to immigration, and I shoe-horned it in because I thought it was amusing that way.

    Replies: @German_reader

    IMO, that might be easier to achieve with pigs, though I am not really certain, as most are quickly slaughtered.

    I googled, apparently pigs can get as old as 15-20 years, so they seem to have somewhat longer lifespan than large dogs.
    Smaller dogs of course live longer than large dogs, but I suppose they’re less intelligent due to smaller brain size. So I suppose there’s something to be said in favour of your idea about breeding pigs for new purposes.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader

    With a little work, I think it would be possible to get something like a wolf or golden retriever to live 20 years. That is about how long what I would call the Methuselah individuals live. And probably, it would be possible to improve their joints, etc.

    But once you got above that to St. Bernard, mastiff, and wolfhound territory, I think it would be very hard, to make a dog live that long, though not necessarily impossible. Likely, you'd have to figure out a way to decrease their maturation rate, as puppies. Still, I think it would be hard to get the joints right, as canids aren't optimized for that size and there have only been few individuals that big, unlike pigs.

    IMO, biggest immediate gain would be to put more effort into breeding these dogs that are able to recognize a lot of objects. I'd really like national resources to be put into breeding programs, but we seem to be too busy paying blacks the Danegeld.

  505. @Yellowface Anon
    @Mikel

    How much of rightoid sentiments are stroked and how much is organic? What MSM does for leftoids, memes & forums does for rightoids.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Mikel

    What MSM does for leftoids, memes & forums does for rightoids.

    Yes, it’s very difficult to escape the tentation to find echo chambers that reaffirm your existing beliefs, wherever you can find them.

    But there’s a difference between the echo chamber being the all pervasive MSM + Sillicon Valley + Hollywood + Big Corp and the echo chamber being the much smaller means at the disposal of rightoids. Rightoids have it much harder to spread their message or even to get it themselves.

    In any case, we live in a reality where two different groups of people are everyday going to the cinema to watch two totally different movies but then argue with each other as if the story they have just watched was the same. I think it’s useful to make the effort to go and see what movie the other group is watching so that you can have more meaningful conversations. That’s why I torture myself everyday with half an hour or more of reading the MSM Narrative. I presume that most people in this blog do the same while it is much rarer to find leftoids with such an inclination.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Mikel


    there’s a difference between the echo chamber being the all pervasive MSM + Sillicon Valley + Hollywood + Big Corp and the echo chamber being the much smaller means at the disposal of rightoids.
     
    It wasn't the case 20 years ago. More like MSM & Hollywood parrot whatever official ideologies that have been selected and curated, Silicon Valley adding their own ones into the mix (partly left & partly right, but shifting left), and then Big Corps either picking the ones that makes the most money, or falling in line with lots of woke ideologies right now, which means they have a chance of recanting when facing the "choice" of go rightoid or go broke/be expropriated.

    Leftoid or rightoid, both are being stroked by different sets of elites and counter-elites in power contests- just that the current elite is leftoid.
  506. @Mikel
    @Yellowface Anon


    What MSM does for leftoids, memes & forums does for rightoids.
     
    Yes, it's very difficult to escape the tentation to find echo chambers that reaffirm your existing beliefs, wherever you can find them.

    But there's a difference between the echo chamber being the all pervasive MSM + Sillicon Valley + Hollywood + Big Corp and the echo chamber being the much smaller means at the disposal of rightoids. Rightoids have it much harder to spread their message or even to get it themselves.

    In any case, we live in a reality where two different groups of people are everyday going to the cinema to watch two totally different movies but then argue with each other as if the story they have just watched was the same. I think it's useful to make the effort to go and see what movie the other group is watching so that you can have more meaningful conversations. That's why I torture myself everyday with half an hour or more of reading the MSM Narrative. I presume that most people in this blog do the same while it is much rarer to find leftoids with such an inclination.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    there’s a difference between the echo chamber being the all pervasive MSM + Sillicon Valley + Hollywood + Big Corp and the echo chamber being the much smaller means at the disposal of rightoids.

    It wasn’t the case 20 years ago. More like MSM & Hollywood parrot whatever official ideologies that have been selected and curated, Silicon Valley adding their own ones into the mix (partly left & partly right, but shifting left), and then Big Corps either picking the ones that makes the most money, or falling in line with lots of woke ideologies right now, which means they have a chance of recanting when facing the “choice” of go rightoid or go broke/be expropriated.

    Leftoid or rightoid, both are being stroked by different sets of elites and counter-elites in power contests- just that the current elite is leftoid.

  507. @German_reader
    @Mikel


    if given the choice, most people seeking to emigrate would probably choose a different destination.
     
    Germany' percentage of foreign-born inhabitants is about the same as that of the US, it's one of the top destinations for migrants in the world. Given that reality I find the usual bitching and whining about German racism hard to take seriously.
    That being said, I agree that Dmitry's view of Germany is overly rosy, the general culture is stifling and joyless, and there are more attractive countries for skilled professionals (not for "refugees" though).

    Not only because of the language, that most people around the world are at least familiar with, but also because of a more welcoming and cosmopolitan reputation.
     
    Sure, that's very, very nice for immigrants, but it also means white Britons will be a minority in their own country in 40 years, and can't even object to it, because it would be "racist" and against British traditions of tolerance.
    It's also a bit naive to take the official propaganda of the British state about Britain being a multicultural success story at face value, there are huge simmering tensions just below the surface. The relationship between the English and Pakistanis in northern England isn't a friendly one.

    Replies: @Mikel

    Given that reality I find the usual bitching and whining about German racism hard to take seriously.

    It’s been a long time since I last visited Germany and, from reading your comments, it seems to have changed a lot lately. Perhaps the fact of many Germans emigrating to other European countries, especially during the years of high unemployment following the re-unification, has contributed to changing attitudes to migrants.

    But I wasn’t really thinking about racism per se. For migrants escaping horrible living conditions, Germans being more racist than other Europeans, which nowadays likely they are not, must not be something of much relevance. In fact, I doubt they typically have any real intention of assimilating and becoming Germans. They’ve just probably heard of the German perks for migrants and plan on living in their own ethnic enclaves while milking their host country.

    My contention was that Germany can compete with the land of Hollywood or the land of the Big Ben, the Queen and James Bond in the imagination of most people in the world.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Mikel


    My contention was that Germany can compete with the land of Hollywood or the land of the Big Ben, the Queen and James Bond in the imagination of most people in the world.
     
    Sure, Germany doesn't have any cultural power, it's pretty boring and intellectually sterile (and as I wrote above, it isn't that attractive for skilled professionals...high taxes, everything is regulated, annoying bureaucracy etc.).
    However, do you really believe that the Iraqis interviewed by the BBC want to go to Britain, because they're such great admirers of parliamentary democracy and love Britain's cultural and literary traditions (is that even likely, given the unhappy history between Britain and Iraq)? I very much doubt that, imo the vast majority of them are likely to do exactly the same as you envisioned for many migrants coming to Germany, that is live in their own ethnic communities and grab as many benefits as they can, while looking down on the natives and playing the racism card for their own advantage. So I think the contrast between Britain and Germany can be exaggerated.
    The US might of course be a special case, I suppose it's possible that at least some immigrants are still attracted by the traditional promise of America as a new world where you can start over, live free and make the most of your talents etc.

    Replies: @Mikel

  508. @Dmitry
    @Mikel


    climate, the grey skies
     
    Jobs and economy is the main priority for economic immigration, although there are other attractive things like education, healthcare, welfare, fair legal system, safety, cosmopolitan culture.

    I think climate is not such a priority for most economic immigrants. Much of the young people of Southern Europe are emigrating to Northern Europe, rather than the other way round - and not for the sunny skies.

    -

    From personal sample as an immigrant myself that entered Europe, I certainly would have preferred warm weather, palm trees and beaches. But in the end you look at where there is a possibility to enter a graduate programme or begin a career.


    UK is a very different case. Not only because of the language,
     
    Sure I agree. UK has a strong economy, a lot of growth industries, and general high standard of living. And there are a lot of immigrants, which means it is a friendly and tolerant location to immigrate.

    For the middle class professional immigration (that go to middle class jobs), of course general salaries are often a lot more limited than America, and so you can feel like you are losing money compared to people that were able to work in America.

    For a category of unskilled workers from somewhere like Iraq or Syria (that would likely go to working class jobs), I can imagine these European countries can often better than USA, as Europe has often relatively lower inequality, free healthcare, more civilized political culture, etc.


    met a few South Americans who emigrated to Germany but didn’t quite like the experience
     
    It can be because you are sampling them outside Germany? where they were already filtered for not liking the experience.

    I've met a couple of Latin people who were working in German companies, and it didn't sound so scary. I know one where BMW had paid for their university postgraduate study.

    Replies: @AP, @Mikel

    It can be because you are sampling them outside Germany? where they were already filtered for not liking the experience.

    Yes, that’s possible. Another Argentinian I met some time ago, a German speaker of full German descent, also decided to settle down in Ireland after spending a few years in Germany so it looked to me like a trend that probably reinforced the general impression about Germany that I got when I spent 3 months there in the 80s. Not a particularly joyful country.

  509. German_reader says:
    @Mikel
    @German_reader


    Given that reality I find the usual bitching and whining about German racism hard to take seriously.
     
    It's been a long time since I last visited Germany and, from reading your comments, it seems to have changed a lot lately. Perhaps the fact of many Germans emigrating to other European countries, especially during the years of high unemployment following the re-unification, has contributed to changing attitudes to migrants.

    But I wasn't really thinking about racism per se. For migrants escaping horrible living conditions, Germans being more racist than other Europeans, which nowadays likely they are not, must not be something of much relevance. In fact, I doubt they typically have any real intention of assimilating and becoming Germans. They've just probably heard of the German perks for migrants and plan on living in their own ethnic enclaves while milking their host country.

    My contention was that Germany can compete with the land of Hollywood or the land of the Big Ben, the Queen and James Bond in the imagination of most people in the world.

    Replies: @German_reader

    My contention was that Germany can compete with the land of Hollywood or the land of the Big Ben, the Queen and James Bond in the imagination of most people in the world.

    Sure, Germany doesn’t have any cultural power, it’s pretty boring and intellectually sterile (and as I wrote above, it isn’t that attractive for skilled professionals…high taxes, everything is regulated, annoying bureaucracy etc.).
    However, do you really believe that the Iraqis interviewed by the BBC want to go to Britain, because they’re such great admirers of parliamentary democracy and love Britain’s cultural and literary traditions (is that even likely, given the unhappy history between Britain and Iraq)? I very much doubt that, imo the vast majority of them are likely to do exactly the same as you envisioned for many migrants coming to Germany, that is live in their own ethnic communities and grab as many benefits as they can, while looking down on the natives and playing the racism card for their own advantage. So I think the contrast between Britain and Germany can be exaggerated.
    The US might of course be a special case, I suppose it’s possible that at least some immigrants are still attracted by the traditional promise of America as a new world where you can start over, live free and make the most of your talents etc.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @German_reader


    do you really believe that the Iraqis interviewed by the BBC want to go to Britain, because they’re such great admirers of parliamentary democracy and love Britain’s cultural and literary traditions
     
    No LOL. I didn't mean that when I mentioned the Queen and the Big Ben.

    The US might of course be a special case, I suppose it’s possible that at least some immigrants are still attracted by the traditional promise of America as a new world where you can start over, live free and make the most of your talents etc.
     
    Yes.

    I could tell quite a few stories about the people I see immigrating to the US, BTW. Only yesterday I had a guy in my house who had been released by the CBP last Monday, after illegally crossing the Rio Grande. He was helping his father, another "asylum seeker", do a plumbing job. These people come here to start working from the get-go, make quite a lot of money (that they spend almost as fast as it comes), and live a paradise life, compared with what they left behind.

    But it's always a challenge working with them. Fortunately, I spent many years in Chile so I know that "I'll come back on Sunday" actually means "I may come back on Sunday, we'll see". Or "I'll be there at 6" actually means "I may or may not not be there but you can be certain that it won't be at 6". And most of all, you need to understand that eventually you may well have to do the job yourself.

    But it is these people who keep a large part of the US economy going right now. I would happily employ a punctual American who understands what "up" and "down" means written on a valve but they are not interested. The few willing to do manual jobs prefer working for a big company with benefits and regular hours.

    The irony is that the US, if it wanted, could easily revert to the old quota system of legal immigration from European countries. There must be lots of Europeans who would be willing to work in the weekends for 35$/hour, which is what I pay. Over the years, I've actually met many Europeans: English, Irish, Dutch, Poles, Spaniards,... who wanted to emigrate to the US but very few made the move. Europeans, in general, are not willing to come here illegally and find the long waiting times and huge paperwork of legal immigration too burdensome. So most of the legal immigration is coming from Asian countries, which is also preferred by the sponsoring companies.

    The US is going to have a big demographic change. It is already happening and I don't see how this can be stopped realistically.

    Replies: @AP

  510. @AP
    @Dmitry


    Sure I agree. UK has a strong economy, a lot of growth industries, and general high standard of living. And there are a lot of immigrants, which means it is a friendly and tolerant location to immigrate.
     
    UK is significantly poorer than Germany, and slightly poorer than France.

    Germany seems like a less interesting, less pleasant and less charming but bigger and more relevant version of Austria or Switzerland. Maybe like America to the UK, if America didn't have its spectacular nature.

    For the middle class professional immigration (that go to middle class jobs), of course general salaries are often a lot more limited than America, and so you can feel like you are losing money compared to people that were able to work in America.
     
    Yes, from a material standpoint America is the best place in the world for professionals with post-graduate education (engineers, physicians, etc.) both in terms of salaries and in terms of lower tax burden (not only income taxes but also VAT).

    Europe has considerable advantages but these have little to do with the political or economic system. Beautiful cities and buildings built before the USA was settled by Europeans, and various fantastic cultural and culinary traditions.

    For a category of unskilled workers from somewhere like Iraq or Syria (that would likely go to working class jobs), I can imagine these European countries can often better than USA, as Europe has often relatively lower inequality, free healthcare, more civilized political culture, etc.
     
    Absolutely. If you are unskilled, uneducated and unambitious the European system is much better than the USA.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    poorer than Germany, and slightly poorer than France

    I guess it depends what industry you were looking in.

    Germany is very strong for manufacturing, and has something like 80-90% share of industries like – luxury automobiles.

    Of course, France is the world’s most successful country in terms of the tourism industry, and this is perhaps relevant for the “unskilled” immigration that is a little too common nowadays.

    UK is the most growth area for high tech in Europe, so it’s an optimistic situation for certain kinds of skilled immigration.

    For example, if you look at a metric like “unicorn creation” – creation of “tech companies” (this definition can be a bit ambiguous) with \$1 billion or more valuations.

    By 2019, UK is the main unicorn factory in Europe.

    For example, by 2018.

    Cambridge (city population 125,000 people) had already 5 unicorns, which had far larger valuation, than Paris (population 12 million people – depending how you count)

    Oxford (city population 152,000 people) had already 4 unicorns created in 2018.

    And since 2019, it has been going more crazy for London, because of the fintech bubble – I think it a bubble more than boom.

    In terms of “soonicorns” London is also going dominant. https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252501066/UK-tech-sector-grows-tenfold-in-10-years

    “The figures also show that a further 132 companies are now regarded as having the potential to reach unicorn status, up from just 10 in 2010.

    Although the majority of these future unicorns are based in London (83), a number of high-growth scaleups can be found in Cambridgeshire (10), Oxfordshire (11), the North West generally (5), and Scotland (4).”

    Europe has considerable advantages but these have little to do with the political or economic

    For younger workers (let’s say the 21-40s), which is the majority of immigrants, it is also related to the social life. There’s a possibility of social life, and these hubs with a lot of immigrants are more friendly, with a lot of “single people” (in terms of unmarried and still wanting to be social) in this kind of age (21-40).

    unskilled, uneducated and unambitious the European system is much better than the USA

    Northern European countries like Sweden or Germany could also be good if you were ambitious. If you consider that university is almost free in Sweden for EU citizens (e.g. unlike in America for American citizens).

    And German companies like BMW seem to be extremely investing for young workers, and are paying people in their graduate programmes to study for postgraduate degrees in expensive universities in other countries (while also receiving some extent of salary as well).

    Imagine if you were a nerdy young person from Iraq or Lebanon, without politically connected parents. A pathway would to try to attain EU citizenship, and then you can go to almost free university in Sweden. Sure, Sweden might appear cold, depressing and rainy, and people are not so friendly, but you would have an opportunity to work in those countries which have some of the highest living standards.

  511. 😁 Weekly Open Thread Humor 😂

    Open the [MORE] tag to see the rest!

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

     

     

     

    [MORE]

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  512. @Yellowface Anon
    Why do you have to attend meetings in the metaverse, and send your children to study and play in virtual classrooms and VR Chat rooms while wearing VR headsets and plugged into some sensitive interface? Because you can't go to work at an office, and your children can't enter a school building or the playground. You and your children don't have the permissions to be there, or they don't outright exist - you don't want to acquire them because it means being tied to the system in another way, or that your caste is just shut out, while the rich and powerful can pick between really seeing others' faces or not.

    Digitalization is for the plebeians, physicality is for the (lower) aristocracy, while those really at the top is away from this world. Metaverse is one of the scourges of humanity along with some of the other digital "solutions" the WEF tosses around on a daily basis.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    This is already in Russia – the children of the elite (and to some extent their parents, during vacations), are enjoying relatively anonymous life in Europe. Because of the culture of much of the elite is originating from the security services, they are sometimes even living with different names in Europe than in Russia. For the famous examples, the children of Putin or Poroshenko have different names than their family, and probably different names again when they buy properties in Europe.

    On the other hand, the ordinary people are going to try to be completely catalogued all their actions. Although there is a question of state capacity, as for example demographers are saying that the census in Russia this year will overestimate the population by several million people. So perhaps there is some hope to be sceptical how effective these plans might be across the country, when they don’t even know the population.

    means massive exodus out of Moscow and possibly Petersburg, if the anti-state types wants to “resist”

    I doubt there will be any reaction from the people. As it’s not just in Russia, but with people in general – the people in the higher levels seem to be able to take much more than intuitively expected from the people in lower levels, before there is resistance.

    It’s a flaw probably of the passivity with human psychology. I even find it strange, that if you even notice in any meeting, that if you are in a leadership position temporarily, people are following what you say to them in robotically passive way.

    Imagine trying to recreate the First World War with cats. You could transport thousands of cats to opposing trenches. But from just hearing the noise, the cats would be far too intelligent to volunteer to climb over the trenches into the killing zone, to volunteer their bodies to be painfully cut into smaller segments by sharp pieces of metal that were flying everywhere in the air of the battlefield at superfast speeds – unlike humans.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    There is already such a deurbanization in the US, because their ideology is rural. Russia probably can come next if the screw is sufficiently tightened.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  513. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    You are still saying what is contingent ("diversity" vs societal efficiency).

    Replies: @songbird

    Isn’t purity always dualistic? Aren’t its positive qualities always contrasts to diversity? I struggle to think of it in other terms, beyond survival and social efficiency (though they both encompass a lot.)

    Guess I could try to force a hypothetical scenario, where I tried to minimize those things. Guaranteed gene survival after mixing paired with some social benefit (say, larger scale cooperation), but I don’t believe that is what you are driving at, as that would be a diversity reduction.

  514. @Yellowface Anon
    @Coconuts

    Muslims also have some sense of multi-ethnicism - but then under the supremacy of the Din and the Sharia. African tribes/kingdoms war and hunt each others' men in premodern times and modern civil wars are just those, with guns.

    Not that only Europe is decadent - the entire world is, outside of isolated tribes. Even those "successes", like East Asia, are hollow.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    That is an interesting question. I had a few ideas… creolisation can be associated with liberalism (c.f. Hume’s idea of nation as only a collection of individuals;) scepticism and nominalism. Promoters are often anti-essentialist and may be inclined to deny anything has an identifiable nature; the good is only understood in terms of whatever individual desires happen to be at any given time, the existence of something like the common good is denied or ignored.

    The archetypal form of society it gives rise to is understood as an undifferentiated mass with a persistently low cultural level, crude spirituality (or absence of it), centred around gratification of basic desires and possessing other features of plantation society; high time preference etc. Possibly this is why terms like Brazilification are used as synonymous with creolisation. People generally lack autonomy and self consciousness.

    I’ve been reading a lot of Charles Maurras lately, and for Maurras:

    Order in the state was akin to beauty in the arts. The laws of beauty were like the laws of life… The good lay not in things but the relation of things, not in the number but in the composition, not in quantity but in quality; it lay in the holy notion of limits.

    Maurras had this idea that when a higher level political grouping like a nation managed to persist in existence over time it starts to accumulate a stock of cultural capital that is passed down by inheritance from one generation to the next, and as this is enriched the society becomes more complex and differentiated and is able to realise the higher level virtues of the common good in its own particular way. And things like operation of the intellect beyond instinctive levels and the long term cultivation of a relationship with a specific geography.

    This process is related to fatherhood, long term occupation of territory etc.

    It is observable that the various Muslims nations try to maintain their own special inherited stock of cultural capital and social organisation even within the West.

    Some explanation along these lines may also be why the figure of the US black or black Caribbean is so central in Woke.

    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @A123
    @Coconuts


    This process is related to fatherhood, long term occupation of territory etc.

    It is observable that the various Muslims nations try to maintain their own special inherited stock of cultural capital and social organisation even within the West.
     
    Your assertion is counter factual. In "The West" repudiation of fatherhood is a core Muslim ​value. The U.S. is a microcosm for examining this phenomenon. Effectively 99%+ of American Muslims are non-White. Look at the facts. The Muslim affiliated race has the lowest connection to fatherhood.

     
    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J3Tp-8t-LyI/TaJcgBfaY9I/AAAAAAAAAKk/jssL71gzTs0/s1600/Percentage_births_to_unwed_mothers.jpg
     

    This pattern is repeated Europe. Muslim "asylum seekers" are the core source of crime:

     
    https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/61C3/production/_103372052_chart-crimevpopulation-oov9n-nc.png
     

    The fact pattern in "The West" is undeniable. Islam is anti-family and anti-fatherhood.

    PEACE 😇
  515. @German_reader
    @songbird


    IMO, that might be easier to achieve with pigs, though I am not really certain, as most are quickly slaughtered.
     
    I googled, apparently pigs can get as old as 15-20 years, so they seem to have somewhat longer lifespan than large dogs.
    Smaller dogs of course live longer than large dogs, but I suppose they're less intelligent due to smaller brain size. So I suppose there's something to be said in favour of your idea about breeding pigs for new purposes.

    Replies: @songbird

    With a little work, I think it would be possible to get something like a wolf or golden retriever to live 20 years. That is about how long what I would call the Methuselah individuals live. And probably, it would be possible to improve their joints, etc.

    But once you got above that to St. Bernard, mastiff, and wolfhound territory, I think it would be very hard, to make a dog live that long, though not necessarily impossible. Likely, you’d have to figure out a way to decrease their maturation rate, as puppies. Still, I think it would be hard to get the joints right, as canids aren’t optimized for that size and there have only been few individuals that big, unlike pigs.

    IMO, biggest immediate gain would be to put more effort into breeding these dogs that are able to recognize a lot of objects. I’d really like national resources to be put into breeding programs, but we seem to be too busy paying blacks the Danegeld.

  516. @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    That is an interesting question. I had a few ideas... creolisation can be associated with liberalism (c.f. Hume's idea of nation as only a collection of individuals;) scepticism and nominalism. Promoters are often anti-essentialist and may be inclined to deny anything has an identifiable nature; the good is only understood in terms of whatever individual desires happen to be at any given time, the existence of something like the common good is denied or ignored.

    The archetypal form of society it gives rise to is understood as an undifferentiated mass with a persistently low cultural level, crude spirituality (or absence of it), centred around gratification of basic desires and possessing other features of plantation society; high time preference etc. Possibly this is why terms like Brazilification are used as synonymous with creolisation. People generally lack autonomy and self consciousness.

    I've been reading a lot of Charles Maurras lately, and for Maurras:


    Order in the state was akin to beauty in the arts. The laws of beauty were like the laws of life... The good lay not in things but the relation of things, not in the number but in the composition, not in quantity but in quality; it lay in the holy notion of limits.
     
    Maurras had this idea that when a higher level political grouping like a nation managed to persist in existence over time it starts to accumulate a stock of cultural capital that is passed down by inheritance from one generation to the next, and as this is enriched the society becomes more complex and differentiated and is able to realise the higher level virtues of the common good in its own particular way. And things like operation of the intellect beyond instinctive levels and the long term cultivation of a relationship with a specific geography.

    This process is related to fatherhood, long term occupation of territory etc.

    It is observable that the various Muslims nations try to maintain their own special inherited stock of cultural capital and social organisation even within the West.

    Some explanation along these lines may also be why the figure of the US black or black Caribbean is so central in Woke.

    Replies: @A123

    This process is related to fatherhood, long term occupation of territory etc.

    It is observable that the various Muslims nations try to maintain their own special inherited stock of cultural capital and social organisation even within the West.

    Your assertion is counter factual. In “The West” repudiation of fatherhood is a core Muslim ​value. The U.S. is a microcosm for examining this phenomenon. Effectively 99%+ of American Muslims are non-White. Look at the facts. The Muslim affiliated race has the lowest connection to fatherhood.

     

     

    This pattern is repeated Europe. Muslim “asylum seekers” are the core source of crime:

     

     

    The fact pattern in “The West” is undeniable. Islam is anti-family and anti-fatherhood.

    PEACE 😇

  517. Since there are historical battle databases and heatmaps, I was thinking that someone ought to try to come up with one for gays and trannies, or for the ideological subversion of sex differences.

    So, for example, find the newspapers/mags that printed editorials that argued for the elimination of beards, and plot them geographically on a map. (suspect within US, most would be in NYC). Find where the big hair bands were first formed, which countries had them, which didn’t. Which places were the first to grant women’s suffrage, which the last. Which the first to allow women in the military, The first to decriminalize homosexuality.

    Would be useful for figuring out what the gayest country was in each decade, as well as to support/disprove theories of social contagion and political power.

    • Thanks: Not Raul
  518. @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    This is already in Russia - the children of the elite (and to some extent their parents, during vacations), are enjoying relatively anonymous life in Europe. Because of the culture of much of the elite is originating from the security services, they are sometimes even living with different names in Europe than in Russia. For the famous examples, the children of Putin or Poroshenko have different names than their family, and probably different names again when they buy properties in Europe.

    On the other hand, the ordinary people are going to try to be completely catalogued all their actions. Although there is a question of state capacity, as for example demographers are saying that the census in Russia this year will overestimate the population by several million people. So perhaps there is some hope to be sceptical how effective these plans might be across the country, when they don't even know the population.


    means massive exodus out of Moscow and possibly Petersburg, if the anti-state types wants to “resist”
     
    I doubt there will be any reaction from the people. As it's not just in Russia, but with people in general - the people in the higher levels seem to be able to take much more than intuitively expected from the people in lower levels, before there is resistance.

    It's a flaw probably of the passivity with human psychology. I even find it strange, that if you even notice in any meeting, that if you are in a leadership position temporarily, people are following what you say to them in robotically passive way.

    Imagine trying to recreate the First World War with cats. You could transport thousands of cats to opposing trenches. But from just hearing the noise, the cats would be far too intelligent to volunteer to climb over the trenches into the killing zone, to volunteer their bodies to be painfully cut into smaller segments by sharp pieces of metal that were flying everywhere in the air of the battlefield at superfast speeds - unlike humans.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    There is already such a deurbanization in the US, because their ideology is rural. Russia probably can come next if the screw is sufficiently tightened.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    Marx was right about there being a global revolution at the very end of bourgeois society. But rather than the proletarian revolt predicted by his historical materialism, since the political energy of socialism was spent in the 20th century with Soviet Union & the Eastern Bloc, there will be a Conservative Revolution outside of the states that had fascist regimes in the 20th century, and especially America.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  519. @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    There is already such a deurbanization in the US, because their ideology is rural. Russia probably can come next if the screw is sufficiently tightened.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Marx was right about there being a global revolution at the very end of bourgeois society. But rather than the proletarian revolt predicted by his historical materialism, since the political energy of socialism was spent in the 20th century with Soviet Union & the Eastern Bloc, there will be a Conservative Revolution outside of the states that had fascist regimes in the 20th century, and especially America.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    What form will the economic and social basis this conservative revolution take? Back-to-the-land movement not unlike the Nazis and libertarians, and then some sort of Neo-Amish mentality - insular and xenophobic, rejecting the most interventional and collectivizing technologies of post-modernity, while returning to a more organic semi-agrarian and small-scale exchange economy. In short, some sort of Neo-Medieval economics, or Archeofuturism without the elite futurism part (this is what transhumanist cores will fulfill as centers of post-modern "progress"). Vaccine passports have only aided them by cutting off the way back to the Old Normal and increasing their resolve to quit the post-modern social system.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Coconuts

  520. @Latw this is my post to the previous thread,

    Right now Putin is very careful and trying to maneuver through all kinds of “obstacles” I was reading on their forums and here is how Russian logic goes: they’re pissed that they’ve been constantly “losing geopolitically” to “stupid Poles and others” with all their massive resources and human capital(yes there’s alot more nuclear scientists/physicists/weapon designers/etc in Russia than Poland) who managed to use the USA to a great advantage(im talking about Brzezinski of course).
    So now their strategy is to wait it out and let it all implode and let the US and its compradors drown and suffocate the “butthurt belt” in neoliberalism, African migrants, Muslims, Jews, homo and trans psyops and hedonism, and other vices and then when the time is right come in and “take what’s theirs”.

    Russians want to “not to make the same mistake like we did after WW2 and allowing you to live because if we let you live another Brzezinski will appear, another Latvian guard will rise, another Stalin(yes they’re pissed at Stalin too I guess because he was needlessly wasting so many talented lives) and that is a danger to Russia itself.

    As for us, we just need to outlive and survive them.

    Recently Turkics have really gotten activated. Pan Turanism and neo Ottomanism is revitalizing. I dont know if its US State dept. pushing it(Russia’s soft underbelly, blah blah) or on their own volition because they smell a weakness in the Great Powers but man do they want to rule and think half of the globe belongs to them and and are really pissed at the whole world for real and perceived injustices.

    Im not putting my chips on them yet but they’re going to be a headache, Russia has lots of those Turkics and while they’re quiet for now they definitely have something else in their hearts. Quite frankly im glad we washed our hands off this Turkic problem. While you dont just give out land like that, let Russia sit and pander to them they’ve done it before for hundreds of years and all those minorities will forever be a burden -not our problem now. If only we could transport all our remaining Muslims somewhere….permanently.

    In coming decades, Central Asia is projected to almost match Russia’s entire population– Russian influence there will be very curtailed if not outright purged. Russians were cucked in the 90’s when Kazakhstan was like half Russian and they let it go what do they expect now? They will slow be pushed out. Instead they take it out on us. To be honest Tolya explained it well here,
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/kyrgyzstan-national-myth/

    Also whats with every 2nd Balt nationalist on twitter being an Islamofascist?I guess it applies more to Estonians than Latvians but it just seems like endless simping for all kinds of Muslims and Turks with no returns whatsoever. It just seems to me they are vicarious living through others just like American boomers live through Israeli nationalism because they cant have their own.
    Is it perhaps Balts realize Protestantism and Catholicism has failed them so they’re searching for something else that can guide their country in the future?(Islam is definitely still kicking but thats because its always supported over Christianity by the whole West). Or is it because Finno Ugrics were associated with Turkics during the 20th century(isnt their DNA similar?) so it makes sense to stick to “rising” races? Allowed to have a seat at the table of BASED TVRAN or as honorary guests and all that?

    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Svidomyatheart

    Hey there,


    So now their strategy is to wait it out and let it all implode and let the US and its compradors drown and suffocate the “butthurt belt” in neoliberalism, African migrants, Muslims, Jews, homo and trans psyops and hedonism, and other vices and then when the time is right come in and “take what’s theirs”.
     
    Yes, this has been their "strategy" for a while. Let it all crumble and then "we'll take what's left over" or even better "they'll come running back to us". A lot of them don't even bother, btw. With the exception of Ukraine, where they might act to destabilize (what their main media channels are now saying about Ukraine is the same they used to say about the Baltics, just on steroids, like, 100x more intense). They keep saying things such as "we need to wait until the hunta collapses and the real, more reasonable Ukrainians come back". A bit delusional. These are the real Ukrainians. Anyway, I wish we could make up with Russia, it is very unseemly to see three East Slavic nations in such antagonism, and ofc the general antagonism with the neighbors, but first Ukrainian service men (and women!) need to stop dying.

    As to hedonism, their population is pretty hedonist themselves. And I wouldn't say Russia is less neoliberal, they don't even have the progressive tax, afaik. What might work in Russia's advance is their relative isolation which could shelter them from the global negatives. If not economically, then at least culturally. Although, their culture is slowly changing, too. It's not like they don't have internet, lol.

    They do have some internal strength, even when Putin is gone, they can create some sort of an "illiberal" government (some kind of an orbanization) or even with a more free system, they still have a strong cultural core and will be able to protect themselves diplomatically, not to mention militarily. The living standards are visibly rising, however, there is gentrification and obviously with that, expectations in terms of political culture are rising, too.


    Russians want to “not to make the same mistake like we did after WW2 and allowing you to live because if we let you live another Brzezinski will appear, another Latvian guard will rise, another Stalin(yes they’re pissed at Stalin too I guess because he was needlessly wasting so many talented lives) and that is a danger to Russia itself.
     
    This isn't in Russia specific, as that is the MO of most somewhat sizable nations or competitor nations. Historically, whites are each other's worst enemies. You have to destroy the other, before he has a chance to proliferate. Except in Russia's case, they also like to integrate and absorb other nations for their benefit. And Russia probably doesn't have the means or energy to destroy everyone around or at least impose their way of thinking. And they see it as "danger to Russia itself", as you said. Because at least in the Nietzschean understanding, any living body that grows will inevitably seek to expand and grow more. Let's say, the Ukes build one rocket. What is keeping them from building another one in a few years? Maybe that's what they fear or are cautious about.

    As for us, we just need to outlive and survive them.
     
    Absolutely agree, we need to take care of our people and work for our people to do well. We will survive.

    Recently Turkics have really gotten activated. Pan Turanism and neo Ottomanism is revitalizing. I dont know if its US State dept. pushing it(Russia’s soft underbelly, blah blah) or on their own volition because they smell a weakness in the Great Powers but man do they want to rule and think half of the globe belongs to them and and are really pissed at the whole world for real and perceived injustices.

     

    We've been living in a multi-polar world for a while now, and this rise of Turkics is one of the "side effects". At least, Ukraine can use it to its advantage in some cases. Yes, they are bold about their grievances. The best is probably to acknowledge those where it is appropriate and where it would help establish friendliness, but not let it go over a certain line.

    In coming decades, Central Asia is projected to almost match Russia’s entire population
     
    That's quite significant, as their population is now 70M which is already a lot. Recently, Patrushev has been making some anti-immigrant noises, but, if nothing really drastic is done, nothing will change because the Russian businesses rely on Central Asians. For now, it looks benign (you can see in some YouTube videos from Russian cafes where the Russian customers are sitting and chilling and Central Asians are serving them very diligently and quietly). What is happening is the Russian business class is stepping over the Russian working class, importing the guest workers. And there are some lucrative schemes involved. If there is drug trade, too, then that's really sad and tragic.

    Also whats with every 2nd Balt nationalist on twitter being an Islamofascist?I guess it applies more to Estonians than Latvians but it just seems like endless simping for all kinds of Muslims and Turks with no returns whatsoever.
     
    I don't know what you have seen, are you talking about nationalist or normie Twitter accounts? But I can guarantee that Latvian nationalists have no idea about Greater Turan and most Estonian ones are ethnonationalist. I know that some of them have sympathies for Hungary. Btw, not sure if you know what Estonians look like, but they don't look Asian. They are tallish, very light on average, with elongated skulls. I have wondered, though, if Finns and Estonians (and partly Latvians because they are partly Finno-Ugric Liv) could use"Uralic" as a racial category to get special status (in the West).

    If you see some Islamo-sympathisers it most likely could be some disgruntled middle age dudes, who can't handle the current system and passive aggressively praise Islam to troll the liberals. They like the more stable structure and more pronounced masculism, I guess, that Islam presents. Which is understandable. However, this could be developed even within the existing Christian or even secular culture. It's easier to yap about this on Twitter, then follow the "straight and narrow" in one's real life, especially when very few others around you are following that as well.

    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
     
    Hahaha, I'd have to look into this Turanism more carefully to answer that. It's a little unusual. :)

    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?
     
    Analyzing Muslim societies might be helpful. Not sure about an alliance, though. :)

    Have a great week!

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Svidomyatheart

    , @Coconuts
    @Svidomyatheart


    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?
     
    The growing size of the Muslim minority seems to be a factor in pushing French politics further right, which is probably the case in other European countries as well, just the numbers in the other places are still smaller so far.

    It's been predicted that Islam may be the stumbling block for Liberalism, the thing it can't successfully co-opt. This could be true, Muslim communities in the West seem to better at successfully protecting their own approach to politics, where the patriarchal family rather than the individual is the basic political unit, and they have their own attitude to economics and education, as the stats Dmitry posted in the other thread about the earnings of British Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims compared to other groups indicated.

    The way they are favoured by progressives (is this something like the Nazi-Soviet pact?) may be enough to allow them to grow in numbers enough to provoke the kind of response now being seen in France, both Muslim growth and counter movements are bad for the future of Liberalism imo.

    Replies: @Svidomyatheart

  521. @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    Marx was right about there being a global revolution at the very end of bourgeois society. But rather than the proletarian revolt predicted by his historical materialism, since the political energy of socialism was spent in the 20th century with Soviet Union & the Eastern Bloc, there will be a Conservative Revolution outside of the states that had fascist regimes in the 20th century, and especially America.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    What form will the economic and social basis this conservative revolution take? Back-to-the-land movement not unlike the Nazis and libertarians, and then some sort of Neo-Amish mentality – insular and xenophobic, rejecting the most interventional and collectivizing technologies of post-modernity, while returning to a more organic semi-agrarian and small-scale exchange economy. In short, some sort of Neo-Medieval economics, or Archeofuturism without the elite futurism part (this is what transhumanist cores will fulfill as centers of post-modern “progress”). Vaccine passports have only aided them by cutting off the way back to the Old Normal and increasing their resolve to quit the post-modern social system.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    It's amazing to see how both elites and populists, and even material conditions, point to far poorer and less secure lives for the next generation. The populists are experimenting with parallel local production and decentralization, away from large-scale, centralized production and distribution. The elites wants this to get people off their "leeching" on surplus resources they are appropriating for themselves, and even encourages that. AaronB might love this, but outside of those who is gaining a survivalist or subsistence mindset, most people wouldn't want to see themselves going back to a medieval-like level of living, even if this means having a more organic existence less entrapped in modern social systems. I'm not ready for this future, I just take my path of least resistance towards being starved to death.

    Replies: @AaronB, @A123

    , @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJvIFOGhba8&t=249s

    You might find this interesting if you are not already familiar with the guy. He has been reading a lot of Thomas Carlyle and Evola.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  522. @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    What form will the economic and social basis this conservative revolution take? Back-to-the-land movement not unlike the Nazis and libertarians, and then some sort of Neo-Amish mentality - insular and xenophobic, rejecting the most interventional and collectivizing technologies of post-modernity, while returning to a more organic semi-agrarian and small-scale exchange economy. In short, some sort of Neo-Medieval economics, or Archeofuturism without the elite futurism part (this is what transhumanist cores will fulfill as centers of post-modern "progress"). Vaccine passports have only aided them by cutting off the way back to the Old Normal and increasing their resolve to quit the post-modern social system.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Coconuts

    It’s amazing to see how both elites and populists, and even material conditions, point to far poorer and less secure lives for the next generation. The populists are experimenting with parallel local production and decentralization, away from large-scale, centralized production and distribution. The elites wants this to get people off their “leeching” on surplus resources they are appropriating for themselves, and even encourages that. AaronB might love this, but outside of those who is gaining a survivalist or subsistence mindset, most people wouldn’t want to see themselves going back to a medieval-like level of living, even if this means having a more organic existence less entrapped in modern social systems. I’m not ready for this future, I just take my path of least resistance towards being starved to death.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon


    AaronB might love this, but outside of those who is gaining a survivalist or subsistence mindset, most people wouldn’t want to see themselves going back to a medieval-like level of living, even if this means having a more organic existence less entrapped in modern social systems. I’m not ready for this future
     
    You seem to have become captured by the modern "endless more" mindset, and to fear "stagnation", and think Taoism - which is pure joy - is the product of "depression (because it doesn't value material progress).

    This is understandable. You are basically running the modernist "Story" in your head - that the purpose of life is endless progress, material comfort, and control. It's extremely hard to break away from it when everyone affirms it.

    But mankind lived for millenia with different Story's, and lived much better. When Europeans, running the modernist Story in their heads, first encountered societies running the older Story, they universally reported they were happier. Most of them came to the conclusion it was the European Story that led, ultimately, to depression.

    Europeans reported that Taoist China was one of the happiest places they had seen. Bertrand Russell wrote a book on how unlike Westerners, Chinese don't seek material and physical progress, but happiness - and achieve it.

    Anyways, my point is this - radically changing our way of life without changing our Story, would indeed be torture and depression - at first. Someone who is captured, trapped, and "possessed", by the "endless more" and "endless control" Story, will find himself depressed in the most beautiful natural setting - at first.

    The philosophy of "endless more" and "progress", is, as a rule, associated with depression - one is miserable now, so salvation is in the future.

    But thanks for reminding me how urgent it is to not simply recommend changes in lifestyle without first explaining the metaphysics - the Story - behind it.

    Metaphysics is key.

    To be sure, I believe that all people who change their lifestyle away from the "endless more" will eventually find it so much more satisfying, and perhaps achieve happiness for the first time in their lives.

    But assisting the shift away from the modern story is key too.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Yellowface Anon

    , @A123
    @Yellowface Anon


    It’s amazing to see how both elites and populists, and even material conditions, point to far poorer and less secure lives for the next generation. The populists are experimenting with parallel local production and decentralization, away from large-scale, centralized production and distribution.
     
    Do not buy into the Prepper lifestyle as an economic prediction. It should be properly understood as a contingency plan if everything goes wrong. While there are a few SHTF Preppers advocating total ultra-local production, very few people believe that will happen. There is no way for each U.S. county to build its own cars. Industrialization means that many goods will be produced in a few central locations

    Stepping back from extremist Leftoid parody mischaracterization is key. One has to look at realistic policies, not fantabulous fictions that will never happen.

    Populism will deliver more secure lives by reducing unnecessary dependency on Trans-Pacific resources. Look at the ships backed up on both sides of the Pacific. Large-scale overseas manufacturing & resourcing is unreliable.

    MAGA Reindustrialization will produce secure jobs for U.S. citizens. Reverse migration will reduce the demand on "safety net" programs. Allowing over inflated housing prices to return to sane values will produce significant improvements in citizen buying power.
    ___

    Populism is much more "secure" than the current Globalism.

    Populism may (or may not) be materially more prosperous. However, Globalism intentionally maximizes poverty via wage suppression. Ending SJW MegaCorporation driven impoverishment, suggests real gains for average citizens are very possible.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
  523. @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    What form will the economic and social basis this conservative revolution take? Back-to-the-land movement not unlike the Nazis and libertarians, and then some sort of Neo-Amish mentality - insular and xenophobic, rejecting the most interventional and collectivizing technologies of post-modernity, while returning to a more organic semi-agrarian and small-scale exchange economy. In short, some sort of Neo-Medieval economics, or Archeofuturism without the elite futurism part (this is what transhumanist cores will fulfill as centers of post-modern "progress"). Vaccine passports have only aided them by cutting off the way back to the Old Normal and increasing their resolve to quit the post-modern social system.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Coconuts

    You might find this interesting if you are not already familiar with the guy. He has been reading a lot of Thomas Carlyle and Evola.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Coconuts

    This really sounds Amish, as in an intentional community separate from "modern" society, this time with the prospect of out-competing the society outside. It feels like intentionally repressing the level of development instead of letting things run their course within the limits of the culture and technology, like in real traditional societies. LARPing instead of the genuine article. Even the Amish just mostly stagnate on the level of the 17th/18th century when their religious identity started to form.

    I am merely describing what populists increasingly feel and lots of economic trends e.g. energy consumption and economic forecasting point to. Sad thing progressives aren't acting fast enough to secure a future for liberalism, and where they can provide us a vision, it's what the WEF wants - elitism not so different from archeofuturism in terms of technological concentration. For myself, I probably won't survive 1 or 2 weeks of tilling my own land, and I don't hope we'll have a full crash back to neo-medievalism that is more and more likely each passing day.

    I think archeofuturism is this but continent-wide, like what the Lenin has expected when staging the October Revolution. But I think the more likely the end will play out like Atlas Shrugged, a slow unraveling because of systemic rot, but then whoever has gone outside the system decide to scavenge the useful parts instead of repairing and rebuilding the ruins. Or maybe a New Right government banning the mass of peasants from re-learning bourgeois lifestyles, like how Nazis wanted the Slavs to be serfs. A pretty grim future, but perhaps the inevitable collapse after 300 years of growth.

    I might just be too depressed when I "turned" pseudo-Taoist - I think while skepticism in some forms of progress is warranted, lack of development means stagnation, and even the society of the Middle Age wasn't that stagnant. The only sure way to reverse progress is to burn and ruin, like what happened at the end of the Roman Empire, otherwise capital and knowledge will still accumulate, but more slowly, and that is already a modest progress. And both the elites and populists want to tear lots of things down because of ideology ("degrowth", "local production", "4IR", etc.)

    Replies: @Dmitry

  524. @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJvIFOGhba8&t=249s

    You might find this interesting if you are not already familiar with the guy. He has been reading a lot of Thomas Carlyle and Evola.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    This really sounds Amish, as in an intentional community separate from “modern” society, this time with the prospect of out-competing the society outside. It feels like intentionally repressing the level of development instead of letting things run their course within the limits of the culture and technology, like in real traditional societies. LARPing instead of the genuine article. Even the Amish just mostly stagnate on the level of the 17th/18th century when their religious identity started to form.

    I am merely describing what populists increasingly feel and lots of economic trends e.g. energy consumption and economic forecasting point to. Sad thing progressives aren’t acting fast enough to secure a future for liberalism, and where they can provide us a vision, it’s what the WEF wants – elitism not so different from archeofuturism in terms of technological concentration. For myself, I probably won’t survive 1 or 2 weeks of tilling my own land, and I don’t hope we’ll have a full crash back to neo-medievalism that is more and more likely each passing day.

    [MORE]

    I think archeofuturism is this but continent-wide, like what the Lenin has expected when staging the October Revolution. But I think the more likely the end will play out like Atlas Shrugged, a slow unraveling because of systemic rot, but then whoever has gone outside the system decide to scavenge the useful parts instead of repairing and rebuilding the ruins. Or maybe a New Right government banning the mass of peasants from re-learning bourgeois lifestyles, like how Nazis wanted the Slavs to be serfs. A pretty grim future, but perhaps the inevitable collapse after 300 years of growth.

    I might just be too depressed when I “turned” pseudo-Taoist – I think while skepticism in some forms of progress is warranted, lack of development means stagnation, and even the society of the Middle Age wasn’t that stagnant. The only sure way to reverse progress is to burn and ruin, like what happened at the end of the Roman Empire, otherwise capital and knowledge will still accumulate, but more slowly, and that is already a modest progress. And both the elites and populists want to tear lots of things down because of ideology (“degrowth”, “local production”, “4IR”, etc.)

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    The sad thing is, that we shouldn't need to become Amish or Haredi. Even such an often negative technology as the internet, can be used by you to e.g. download Shakespeare and Mozart.

    What we need is only a strong regulation to prevent dystopian uses of technology against people. These regulations would need be based on humanist and civilized values, and very deeply installed, and enforced. With this installed, we could then explore technology as much as ever before.

    The problem is even such a small demand, can seem completely utopian and unlikely. And when you see the direction of this year - where QR codes don't even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.

    Replies: @LatW, @Yellowface Anon, @Barbarossa

  525. How much of the craziness in femoids is really just lack of patriarchy/traditional living?

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    This has been asked enough times, and each time it reinforces the conviction in patriarchy.

    It is never the question of which societal arrangement is the best, but how to live best with the current arrangement, whether to live inside or outside.

    Replies: @songbird

  526. @songbird
    How much of the craziness in femoids is really just lack of patriarchy/traditional living?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    This has been asked enough times, and each time it reinforces the conviction in patriarchy.

    It is never the question of which societal arrangement is the best, but how to live best with the current arrangement, whether to live inside or outside.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Even if you take the crazier women, seems like they were more sensible under a more patriarchal system. For example, there was once this study of schizophrenia patients at a hospital in the US, comparing two groups, one from the '30s and one from the '80s.

    30's group were typified by benign religious auditory hallucinations:
    -be a better person
    -live right
    -be good and go to heaven
    -lean on the Lord

    80's group, more secular, and technology based:
    -kill oneself/others
    -set fire to lawn
    -do perverse things

    This is also true when comparing schizophrenia in modern America to parts of the Third World.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  527. @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    It's amazing to see how both elites and populists, and even material conditions, point to far poorer and less secure lives for the next generation. The populists are experimenting with parallel local production and decentralization, away from large-scale, centralized production and distribution. The elites wants this to get people off their "leeching" on surplus resources they are appropriating for themselves, and even encourages that. AaronB might love this, but outside of those who is gaining a survivalist or subsistence mindset, most people wouldn't want to see themselves going back to a medieval-like level of living, even if this means having a more organic existence less entrapped in modern social systems. I'm not ready for this future, I just take my path of least resistance towards being starved to death.

    Replies: @AaronB, @A123

    AaronB might love this, but outside of those who is gaining a survivalist or subsistence mindset, most people wouldn’t want to see themselves going back to a medieval-like level of living, even if this means having a more organic existence less entrapped in modern social systems. I’m not ready for this future

    You seem to have become captured by the modern “endless more” mindset, and to fear “stagnation”, and think Taoism – which is pure joy – is the product of “depression (because it doesn’t value material progress).

    This is understandable. You are basically running the modernist “Story” in your head – that the purpose of life is endless progress, material comfort, and control. It’s extremely hard to break away from it when everyone affirms it.

    But mankind lived for millenia with different Story’s, and lived much better. When Europeans, running the modernist Story in their heads, first encountered societies running the older Story, they universally reported they were happier. Most of them came to the conclusion it was the European Story that led, ultimately, to depression.

    Europeans reported that Taoist China was one of the happiest places they had seen. Bertrand Russell wrote a book on how unlike Westerners, Chinese don’t seek material and physical progress, but happiness – and achieve it.

    Anyways, my point is this – radically changing our way of life without changing our Story, would indeed be torture and depression – at first. Someone who is captured, trapped, and “possessed”, by the “endless more” and “endless control” Story, will find himself depressed in the most beautiful natural setting – at first.

    The philosophy of “endless more” and “progress”, is, as a rule, associated with depression – one is miserable now, so salvation is in the future.

    But thanks for reminding me how urgent it is to not simply recommend changes in lifestyle without first explaining the metaphysics – the Story – behind it.

    Metaphysics is key.

    To be sure, I believe that all people who change their lifestyle away from the “endless more” will eventually find it so much more satisfying, and perhaps achieve happiness for the first time in their lives.

    But assisting the shift away from the modern story is key too.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @AaronB

    This has also given me better insight into why it has been so hard for many to break out of the modernist mindset despite obviously suffering from it.

    Modern life - and the modern Story of locating happiness in the Future - creates depression.

    So YA finds himself, like most moderns, depressed, as he has admitted.

    But even as modernity creates depression, it offers the solution! - happiness is in the "future", you must work for "progress" - the "endless more"!

    It's a kind of genius circular trap. The philosophy of "endless more" both creates depression and presents itself as the "cure" for it!

    It's pure genius in a way :)

    It's an almost complete mind trap. If I believed in demons, I'd say it was the devising of a supernatural demonic intelligence.

    It's also why many think nothing will change without physical collapse - man cannot mentally free himself fr such a psychological trap.

    I, however, don't think so at all - the trap is escapable.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @AaronB

    I've been rethinking all that you've said, from materialism to idealism and to a detached materialism, for something to nothing to transient. I'm just plainly confused, not yet fully leaving modernity behind and not yet fully going to nature, or even knowing if such a nature has ever existed.

    I don't think I'll really be Taoist until older, or the surroundings are less modern. I think a lot of Confucian thoughts since there are lots of political subjects to consider. Whatever way of thinking I end up having, Confucian or Taoist, thank you for helping me out from the dead end of pure modernity.

    Replies: @AaronB

  528. @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon


    AaronB might love this, but outside of those who is gaining a survivalist or subsistence mindset, most people wouldn’t want to see themselves going back to a medieval-like level of living, even if this means having a more organic existence less entrapped in modern social systems. I’m not ready for this future
     
    You seem to have become captured by the modern "endless more" mindset, and to fear "stagnation", and think Taoism - which is pure joy - is the product of "depression (because it doesn't value material progress).

    This is understandable. You are basically running the modernist "Story" in your head - that the purpose of life is endless progress, material comfort, and control. It's extremely hard to break away from it when everyone affirms it.

    But mankind lived for millenia with different Story's, and lived much better. When Europeans, running the modernist Story in their heads, first encountered societies running the older Story, they universally reported they were happier. Most of them came to the conclusion it was the European Story that led, ultimately, to depression.

    Europeans reported that Taoist China was one of the happiest places they had seen. Bertrand Russell wrote a book on how unlike Westerners, Chinese don't seek material and physical progress, but happiness - and achieve it.

    Anyways, my point is this - radically changing our way of life without changing our Story, would indeed be torture and depression - at first. Someone who is captured, trapped, and "possessed", by the "endless more" and "endless control" Story, will find himself depressed in the most beautiful natural setting - at first.

    The philosophy of "endless more" and "progress", is, as a rule, associated with depression - one is miserable now, so salvation is in the future.

    But thanks for reminding me how urgent it is to not simply recommend changes in lifestyle without first explaining the metaphysics - the Story - behind it.

    Metaphysics is key.

    To be sure, I believe that all people who change their lifestyle away from the "endless more" will eventually find it so much more satisfying, and perhaps achieve happiness for the first time in their lives.

    But assisting the shift away from the modern story is key too.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Yellowface Anon

    This has also given me better insight into why it has been so hard for many to break out of the modernist mindset despite obviously suffering from it.

    Modern life – and the modern Story of locating happiness in the Future – creates depression.

    So YA finds himself, like most moderns, depressed, as he has admitted.

    But even as modernity creates depression, it offers the solution! – happiness is in the “future”, you must work for “progress” – the “endless more”!

    It’s a kind of genius circular trap. The philosophy of “endless more” both creates depression and presents itself as the “cure” for it!

    It’s pure genius in a way 🙂

    It’s an almost complete mind trap. If I believed in demons, I’d say it was the devising of a supernatural demonic intelligence.

    It’s also why many think nothing will change without physical collapse – man cannot mentally free himself fr such a psychological trap.

    I, however, don’t think so at all – the trap is escapable.

    • Agree: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @AaronB

    Happiness is a trap. Cultivating contentment is the key to escaping the curse of "always more".
    Modern consumer capitalism is naturally enough diametrically opposed to contentment and creates discontent. This is a feature not a bug.

    It's hard to quantify such things a human happiness, but I strongly suspect that we are collectively less happy than most any time in human history, despite our material progress.

    Not to sound maudlin, but we are surrounded by incredible miracles from birth, sunsets, stars, or water yet people fail to appreciate it all because their wonder has been muzzled and caged. When my 2 year old points and shouts "star! star!" at the night sky he is seeing things as they actually are, not the grown man who can't be bothered to look up.

    Instead of appreciating what we have in front of us, some would rather inhabit some mediated Metaverse. It's incredibly twisted.

  529. Not sure that I believe in the term “suicide by cop.” I suspect the truth really is more like “Darwin Award by cop.”

  530. @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    It's amazing to see how both elites and populists, and even material conditions, point to far poorer and less secure lives for the next generation. The populists are experimenting with parallel local production and decentralization, away from large-scale, centralized production and distribution. The elites wants this to get people off their "leeching" on surplus resources they are appropriating for themselves, and even encourages that. AaronB might love this, but outside of those who is gaining a survivalist or subsistence mindset, most people wouldn't want to see themselves going back to a medieval-like level of living, even if this means having a more organic existence less entrapped in modern social systems. I'm not ready for this future, I just take my path of least resistance towards being starved to death.

    Replies: @AaronB, @A123

    It’s amazing to see how both elites and populists, and even material conditions, point to far poorer and less secure lives for the next generation. The populists are experimenting with parallel local production and decentralization, away from large-scale, centralized production and distribution.

    Do not buy into the Prepper lifestyle as an economic prediction. It should be properly understood as a contingency plan if everything goes wrong. While there are a few SHTF Preppers advocating total ultra-local production, very few people believe that will happen. There is no way for each U.S. county to build its own cars. Industrialization means that many goods will be produced in a few central locations

    Stepping back from extremist Leftoid parody mischaracterization is key. One has to look at realistic policies, not fantabulous fictions that will never happen.

    Populism will deliver more secure lives by reducing unnecessary dependency on Trans-Pacific resources. Look at the ships backed up on both sides of the Pacific. Large-scale overseas manufacturing & resourcing is unreliable.

    MAGA Reindustrialization will produce secure jobs for U.S. citizens. Reverse migration will reduce the demand on “safety net” programs. Allowing over inflated housing prices to return to sane values will produce significant improvements in citizen buying power.
    ___

    Populism is much more “secure” than the current Globalism.

    Populism may (or may not) be materially more prosperous. However, Globalism intentionally maximizes poverty via wage suppression. Ending SJW MegaCorporation driven impoverishment, suggests real gains for average citizens are very possible.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  531. Was Ripley wrong that nuking the site from orbit was “the only way to be sure?”

    Haven’t watched the movie Aliens in a good many years, but the way I remember it, the colony was mainly a bunch of low slung, sturdy-looking buildings, with subterranean levels. The queen liked living at the lowest levels, and xenomorphs had exoskeletons, which probably makes them resistant to radiation.

    Of course, I suppose there is the question of what they can eat when all the humans are dead, but that was never adressed anyway.

    I’m on the verge of calling it an atomophobic film. Reading a summary to refresh my memory, I see that the power plant went into meltdown when the errant shuttle crashed into it. Impossible on a standard US design from the ’60s or ’70s? But maybe, they would have less safety features on a colony world.

  532. @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon


    AaronB might love this, but outside of those who is gaining a survivalist or subsistence mindset, most people wouldn’t want to see themselves going back to a medieval-like level of living, even if this means having a more organic existence less entrapped in modern social systems. I’m not ready for this future
     
    You seem to have become captured by the modern "endless more" mindset, and to fear "stagnation", and think Taoism - which is pure joy - is the product of "depression (because it doesn't value material progress).

    This is understandable. You are basically running the modernist "Story" in your head - that the purpose of life is endless progress, material comfort, and control. It's extremely hard to break away from it when everyone affirms it.

    But mankind lived for millenia with different Story's, and lived much better. When Europeans, running the modernist Story in their heads, first encountered societies running the older Story, they universally reported they were happier. Most of them came to the conclusion it was the European Story that led, ultimately, to depression.

    Europeans reported that Taoist China was one of the happiest places they had seen. Bertrand Russell wrote a book on how unlike Westerners, Chinese don't seek material and physical progress, but happiness - and achieve it.

    Anyways, my point is this - radically changing our way of life without changing our Story, would indeed be torture and depression - at first. Someone who is captured, trapped, and "possessed", by the "endless more" and "endless control" Story, will find himself depressed in the most beautiful natural setting - at first.

    The philosophy of "endless more" and "progress", is, as a rule, associated with depression - one is miserable now, so salvation is in the future.

    But thanks for reminding me how urgent it is to not simply recommend changes in lifestyle without first explaining the metaphysics - the Story - behind it.

    Metaphysics is key.

    To be sure, I believe that all people who change their lifestyle away from the "endless more" will eventually find it so much more satisfying, and perhaps achieve happiness for the first time in their lives.

    But assisting the shift away from the modern story is key too.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Yellowface Anon

    I’ve been rethinking all that you’ve said, from materialism to idealism and to a detached materialism, for something to nothing to transient. I’m just plainly confused, not yet fully leaving modernity behind and not yet fully going to nature, or even knowing if such a nature has ever existed.

    I don’t think I’ll really be Taoist until older, or the surroundings are less modern. I think a lot of Confucian thoughts since there are lots of political subjects to consider. Whatever way of thinking I end up having, Confucian or Taoist, thank you for helping me out from the dead end of pure modernity.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon

    You're very welcome. I too have been helped on the path by countless people I met in my life and travels, and books I've read.

    Modernity wants to monopolize the discussion and disallow any other viewpoint. I think we saw a lot of that on this blog when it was still active. The important thing is to break that monopoly and bring alternatives to light.

    I am confident you will eventually come to a good place, even if it isn't exactly where I am (and there is no reason all alternatives to modernity must be identical).

    I also know this journey has many twists and turns, and much backsliding - two steps forward, one step back. I myself am still continually learning, and continually falling away from what I know to be true.

    After all, we are facing the combined might - the heavy, dragging weight - of the mainstream consensus :) It isn't easy emerging into a new story when everyone around you unthinkingly affirms the old one.

    I also face periods of confusion and uncertainty - but then remember, only fools are "certain" :) Which should tell us something about the "certainty" of the mainstream technocratic consensus, and it's intolerance.

    As for Confucius, I am sometimes too hard on him, but I am actually quite appreciative overall. There is much that is valuable and good in him, and much that is Taoistic in a less radical sense.

    Wherever you end up, good luck on your journey!

  533. @Yellowface Anon
    @AaronB

    I've been rethinking all that you've said, from materialism to idealism and to a detached materialism, for something to nothing to transient. I'm just plainly confused, not yet fully leaving modernity behind and not yet fully going to nature, or even knowing if such a nature has ever existed.

    I don't think I'll really be Taoist until older, or the surroundings are less modern. I think a lot of Confucian thoughts since there are lots of political subjects to consider. Whatever way of thinking I end up having, Confucian or Taoist, thank you for helping me out from the dead end of pure modernity.

    Replies: @AaronB

    You’re very welcome. I too have been helped on the path by countless people I met in my life and travels, and books I’ve read.

    Modernity wants to monopolize the discussion and disallow any other viewpoint. I think we saw a lot of that on this blog when it was still active. The important thing is to break that monopoly and bring alternatives to light.

    I am confident you will eventually come to a good place, even if it isn’t exactly where I am (and there is no reason all alternatives to modernity must be identical).

    I also know this journey has many twists and turns, and much backsliding – two steps forward, one step back. I myself am still continually learning, and continually falling away from what I know to be true.

    After all, we are facing the combined might – the heavy, dragging weight – of the mainstream consensus 🙂 It isn’t easy emerging into a new story when everyone around you unthinkingly affirms the old one.

    I also face periods of confusion and uncertainty – but then remember, only fools are “certain” 🙂 Which should tell us something about the “certainty” of the mainstream technocratic consensus, and it’s intolerance.

    As for Confucius, I am sometimes too hard on him, but I am actually quite appreciative overall. There is much that is valuable and good in him, and much that is Taoistic in a less radical sense.

    Wherever you end up, good luck on your journey!

  534. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    This has been asked enough times, and each time it reinforces the conviction in patriarchy.

    It is never the question of which societal arrangement is the best, but how to live best with the current arrangement, whether to live inside or outside.

    Replies: @songbird

    Even if you take the crazier women, seems like they were more sensible under a more patriarchal system. For example, there was once this study of schizophrenia patients at a hospital in the US, comparing two groups, one from the ’30s and one from the ’80s.

    30’s group were typified by benign religious auditory hallucinations:
    -be a better person
    -live right
    -be good and go to heaven
    -lean on the Lord

    80’s group, more secular, and technology based:
    -kill oneself/others
    -set fire to lawn
    -do perverse things

    This is also true when comparing schizophrenia in modern America to parts of the Third World.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Schizo doesn't afflict just women. But the point that a better cultural grounding improves mental health, is well taken. It is actually a common mental health practitioner advice, but obviously without directly critizing counter-cultures.

    Replies: @songbird

  535. I’d like to see Germany adopt an island solution to the problem of refugees. The Halligen have the right elevation to be an ideal place to house new arrivals. Meanwhile, remote Heligoland might be a nice place to store Somalis, so that others could be threatened with being sent there, if they don’t cooperate in the self-deportation process.

    Of course, my favorite idea is to turn Nord Stream into a sort of Jetson tube, sending them to a transit camp in Siberia, where they would compete the self-deportation process. Seems to me that the Russians would be happy to assist for the right price, if it is technically feasible.

  536. @German_reader
    @Mikel


    My contention was that Germany can compete with the land of Hollywood or the land of the Big Ben, the Queen and James Bond in the imagination of most people in the world.
     
    Sure, Germany doesn't have any cultural power, it's pretty boring and intellectually sterile (and as I wrote above, it isn't that attractive for skilled professionals...high taxes, everything is regulated, annoying bureaucracy etc.).
    However, do you really believe that the Iraqis interviewed by the BBC want to go to Britain, because they're such great admirers of parliamentary democracy and love Britain's cultural and literary traditions (is that even likely, given the unhappy history between Britain and Iraq)? I very much doubt that, imo the vast majority of them are likely to do exactly the same as you envisioned for many migrants coming to Germany, that is live in their own ethnic communities and grab as many benefits as they can, while looking down on the natives and playing the racism card for their own advantage. So I think the contrast between Britain and Germany can be exaggerated.
    The US might of course be a special case, I suppose it's possible that at least some immigrants are still attracted by the traditional promise of America as a new world where you can start over, live free and make the most of your talents etc.

    Replies: @Mikel

    do you really believe that the Iraqis interviewed by the BBC want to go to Britain, because they’re such great admirers of parliamentary democracy and love Britain’s cultural and literary traditions

    No LOL. I didn’t mean that when I mentioned the Queen and the Big Ben.

    The US might of course be a special case, I suppose it’s possible that at least some immigrants are still attracted by the traditional promise of America as a new world where you can start over, live free and make the most of your talents etc.

    Yes.

    I could tell quite a few stories about the people I see immigrating to the US, BTW. Only yesterday I had a guy in my house who had been released by the CBP last Monday, after illegally crossing the Rio Grande. He was helping his father, another “asylum seeker”, do a plumbing job. These people come here to start working from the get-go, make quite a lot of money (that they spend almost as fast as it comes), and live a paradise life, compared with what they left behind.

    But it’s always a challenge working with them. Fortunately, I spent many years in Chile so I know that “I’ll come back on Sunday” actually means “I may come back on Sunday, we’ll see”. Or “I’ll be there at 6” actually means “I may or may not not be there but you can be certain that it won’t be at 6”. And most of all, you need to understand that eventually you may well have to do the job yourself.

    But it is these people who keep a large part of the US economy going right now. I would happily employ a punctual American who understands what “up” and “down” means written on a valve but they are not interested. The few willing to do manual jobs prefer working for a big company with benefits and regular hours.

    The irony is that the US, if it wanted, could easily revert to the old quota system of legal immigration from European countries. There must be lots of Europeans who would be willing to work in the weekends for 35\$/hour, which is what I pay. Over the years, I’ve actually met many Europeans: English, Irish, Dutch, Poles, Spaniards,… who wanted to emigrate to the US but very few made the move. Europeans, in general, are not willing to come here illegally and find the long waiting times and huge paperwork of legal immigration too burdensome. So most of the legal immigration is coming from Asian countries, which is also preferred by the sponsoring companies.

    The US is going to have a big demographic change. It is already happening and I don’t see how this can be stopped realistically.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Mikel


    I could tell quite a few stories about the people I see immigrating to the US, BTW. Only yesterday I had a guy in my house who had been released by the CBP last Monday, after illegally crossing the Rio Grande. He was helping his father, another “asylum seeker”, do a plumbing job. These people come here to start working from the get-go, make quite a lot of money (that they spend almost as fast as it comes), and live a paradise life, compared with what they left behind.
     
    Around here (the Northeast) many of the illegals or semi-legals (they are here legally, but work despite the fact that they are not supposed to) include a lot of Poles and Ukrainians. Some Ukrainian illegals have even arrived through Mexico.

    I've seen though not socialized much with the Polish workers beyond superficial greeting pleasantries (some work for a Ukrainian guy I know). The Ukrainian illegals and semi-legals work 6-7 days per week, several guys sharing a small apartment to make money. Because it is hard to make it to America and this may be their only chance, they stay for several years. Women work as caretakers for old people. Many Ukrainian-Americans have such women caring for their grandparents. They speak the same language, make the same foods, it's a great deal.

    Many of the Ukrainians have families back home. They save what they make, allowing themselves an occasional barbecue and vodka drinking session for entertainment (some also have affairs, celibacy is difficult for people away from home for years). Most of what they earn is sent back to Ukraine. The money results in large houses or is seed money for a business that they start when they return.

    It's a lot easier and better for families to go to Poland or Germany, because then one can visit home regularly and cheaply. But America offers much more money.

    The eastern European workers tend to be honest, very hardworking and competent. Their work is in generally of higher quality than what I have seen of either Latino illegals or of (native) Americans, who often have problems with opioids (so beware of theft, with them).

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Mikel

  537. Some day, I hope that they do a TED talk about physiognomy, or, better yet, turn the whole thing into talks about physiognomy and HBD.

    • LOL: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    I think you will have to do what a lot of rightoids have been clamoring for, sending leftoids to re-education camps. Which is the mirror image of radical Dems calling for Trumpists to be sent to gulag.

    Replies: @songbird

    , @Coconuts
    @songbird

    There is a Russian detective series from a couple of years ago where the lead detective character has perfected Cesare Lombroso's system of physiognomy and always identifies the criminal by studying their facial features and ears.

    I was watching it, not so long after seeing some of Ed Dutton's talks and I thought, this is quite based. Also, when are the BBC going to buy the concept and make a British version?

    Replies: @songbird

  538. @Svidomyatheart
    @Latw this is my post to the previous thread,

    Right now Putin is very careful and trying to maneuver through all kinds of "obstacles" I was reading on their forums and here is how Russian logic goes: they're pissed that they've been constantly "losing geopolitically" to "stupid Poles and others" with all their massive resources and human capital(yes there's alot more nuclear scientists/physicists/weapon designers/etc in Russia than Poland) who managed to use the USA to a great advantage(im talking about Brzezinski of course).
    So now their strategy is to wait it out and let it all implode and let the US and its compradors drown and suffocate the "butthurt belt" in neoliberalism, African migrants, Muslims, Jews, homo and trans psyops and hedonism, and other vices and then when the time is right come in and "take what's theirs".

    Russians want to "not to make the same mistake like we did after WW2 and allowing you to live because if we let you live another Brzezinski will appear, another Latvian guard will rise, another Stalin(yes they're pissed at Stalin too I guess because he was needlessly wasting so many talented lives) and that is a danger to Russia itself.


    As for us, we just need to outlive and survive them.

    Recently Turkics have really gotten activated. Pan Turanism and neo Ottomanism is revitalizing. I dont know if its US State dept. pushing it(Russia's soft underbelly, blah blah) or on their own volition because they smell a weakness in the Great Powers but man do they want to rule and think half of the globe belongs to them and and are really pissed at the whole world for real and perceived injustices.

    Im not putting my chips on them yet but they're going to be a headache, Russia has lots of those Turkics and while they're quiet for now they definitely have something else in their hearts. Quite frankly im glad we washed our hands off this Turkic problem. While you dont just give out land like that, let Russia sit and pander to them they've done it before for hundreds of years and all those minorities will forever be a burden -not our problem now. If only we could transport all our remaining Muslims somewhere....permanently.

    In coming decades, Central Asia is projected to almost match Russia's entire population-- Russian influence there will be very curtailed if not outright purged. Russians were cucked in the 90's when Kazakhstan was like half Russian and they let it go what do they expect now? They will slow be pushed out. Instead they take it out on us. To be honest Tolya explained it well here,
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/kyrgyzstan-national-myth/


    Also whats with every 2nd Balt nationalist on twitter being an Islamofascist?I guess it applies more to Estonians than Latvians but it just seems like endless simping for all kinds of Muslims and Turks with no returns whatsoever. It just seems to me they are vicarious living through others just like American boomers live through Israeli nationalism because they cant have their own.
    Is it perhaps Balts realize Protestantism and Catholicism has failed them so they're searching for something else that can guide their country in the future?(Islam is definitely still kicking but thats because its always supported over Christianity by the whole West). Or is it because Finno Ugrics were associated with Turkics during the 20th century(isnt their DNA similar?) so it makes sense to stick to "rising" races? Allowed to have a seat at the table of BASED TVRAN or as honorary guests and all that?


    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?

    Replies: @LatW, @Coconuts

    Hey there,

    So now their strategy is to wait it out and let it all implode and let the US and its compradors drown and suffocate the “butthurt belt” in neoliberalism, African migrants, Muslims, Jews, homo and trans psyops and hedonism, and other vices and then when the time is right come in and “take what’s theirs”.

    Yes, this has been their “strategy” for a while. Let it all crumble and then “we’ll take what’s left over” or even better “they’ll come running back to us”. A lot of them don’t even bother, btw. With the exception of Ukraine, where they might act to destabilize (what their main media channels are now saying about Ukraine is the same they used to say about the Baltics, just on steroids, like, 100x more intense). They keep saying things such as “we need to wait until the hunta collapses and the real, more reasonable Ukrainians come back”. A bit delusional. These are the real Ukrainians. Anyway, I wish we could make up with Russia, it is very unseemly to see three East Slavic nations in such antagonism, and ofc the general antagonism with the neighbors, but first Ukrainian service men (and women!) need to stop dying.

    As to hedonism, their population is pretty hedonist themselves. And I wouldn’t say Russia is less neoliberal, they don’t even have the progressive tax, afaik. What might work in Russia’s advance is their relative isolation which could shelter them from the global negatives. If not economically, then at least culturally. Although, their culture is slowly changing, too. It’s not like they don’t have internet, lol.

    They do have some internal strength, even when Putin is gone, they can create some sort of an “illiberal” government (some kind of an orbanization) or even with a more free system, they still have a strong cultural core and will be able to protect themselves diplomatically, not to mention militarily. The living standards are visibly rising, however, there is gentrification and obviously with that, expectations in terms of political culture are rising, too.

    [MORE]

    Russians want to “not to make the same mistake like we did after WW2 and allowing you to live because if we let you live another Brzezinski will appear, another Latvian guard will rise, another Stalin(yes they’re pissed at Stalin too I guess because he was needlessly wasting so many talented lives) and that is a danger to Russia itself.

    This isn’t in Russia specific, as that is the MO of most somewhat sizable nations or competitor nations. Historically, whites are each other’s worst enemies. You have to destroy the other, before he has a chance to proliferate. Except in Russia’s case, they also like to integrate and absorb other nations for their benefit. And Russia probably doesn’t have the means or energy to destroy everyone around or at least impose their way of thinking. And they see it as “danger to Russia itself”, as you said. Because at least in the Nietzschean understanding, any living body that grows will inevitably seek to expand and grow more. Let’s say, the Ukes build one rocket. What is keeping them from building another one in a few years? Maybe that’s what they fear or are cautious about.

    As for us, we just need to outlive and survive them.

    Absolutely agree, we need to take care of our people and work for our people to do well. We will survive.

    Recently Turkics have really gotten activated. Pan Turanism and neo Ottomanism is revitalizing. I dont know if its US State dept. pushing it(Russia’s soft underbelly, blah blah) or on their own volition because they smell a weakness in the Great Powers but man do they want to rule and think half of the globe belongs to them and and are really pissed at the whole world for real and perceived injustices.

    We’ve been living in a multi-polar world for a while now, and this rise of Turkics is one of the “side effects”. At least, Ukraine can use it to its advantage in some cases. Yes, they are bold about their grievances. The best is probably to acknowledge those where it is appropriate and where it would help establish friendliness, but not let it go over a certain line.

    In coming decades, Central Asia is projected to almost match Russia’s entire population

    That’s quite significant, as their population is now 70M which is already a lot. Recently, Patrushev has been making some anti-immigrant noises, but, if nothing really drastic is done, nothing will change because the Russian businesses rely on Central Asians. For now, it looks benign (you can see in some YouTube videos from Russian cafes where the Russian customers are sitting and chilling and Central Asians are serving them very diligently and quietly). What is happening is the Russian business class is stepping over the Russian working class, importing the guest workers. And there are some lucrative schemes involved. If there is drug trade, too, then that’s really sad and tragic.

    Also whats with every 2nd Balt nationalist on twitter being an Islamofascist?I guess it applies more to Estonians than Latvians but it just seems like endless simping for all kinds of Muslims and Turks with no returns whatsoever.

    I don’t know what you have seen, are you talking about nationalist or normie Twitter accounts? But I can guarantee that Latvian nationalists have no idea about Greater Turan and most Estonian ones are ethnonationalist. I know that some of them have sympathies for Hungary. Btw, not sure if you know what Estonians look like, but they don’t look Asian. They are tallish, very light on average, with elongated skulls. I have wondered, though, if Finns and Estonians (and partly Latvians because they are partly Finno-Ugric Liv) could use”Uralic” as a racial category to get special status (in the West).

    If you see some Islamo-sympathisers it most likely could be some disgruntled middle age dudes, who can’t handle the current system and passive aggressively praise Islam to troll the liberals. They like the more stable structure and more pronounced masculism, I guess, that Islam presents. Which is understandable. However, this could be developed even within the existing Christian or even secular culture. It’s easier to yap about this on Twitter, then follow the “straight and narrow” in one’s real life, especially when very few others around you are following that as well.

    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?

    Hahaha, I’d have to look into this Turanism more carefully to answer that. It’s a little unusual. 🙂

    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?

    Analyzing Muslim societies might be helpful. Not sure about an alliance, though. 🙂

    Have a great week!

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @LatW


    Central Asians
     
    Mostly, I'm sure, they are not dreaming about living in Russia though. Working in Russia, will be surely mostly a pragmatic resignation for them. In a very long-term view, this could be perhaps temporary immigration, as they will be mostly always dreaming about other options.

    To say brutally, they are in the Russian Federation because of open borders policy, while they can't emigrate to other medium/high income countries. If they had more options, I'm sure they would be mostly emigrating to Western Europe and be in Heidelberg, serving German Reader in the beer hall, for much a higher salary. (As we know how "German roots" Kazakhs have managed such an immigration maneuver).

    Perhaps in some decades, the immigration possibility will change again, and they will be German Reader's future neighbors.

    If you have talked a few minutes with wealthy Central Asian people in London, you know what it seems like their opinions are like about Russia, at least among those which had enough money to buy into London, and were not restricted by the open border option.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @Svidomyatheart
    @LatW


    I don’t know what you have seen, are you talking about nationalist or normie Twitter accounts? But I can guarantee that Latvian nationalists have no idea about Greater Turan and most Estonian ones are ethnonationalist. I know that some of them have sympathies for Hungary. Btw, not sure if you know what Estonians look like, but they don’t look Asian. They are tallish, very light on average, with elongated skulls. I have wondered, though, if Finns and Estonians (and partly Latvians because they are partly Finno-Ugric Liv) could use”Uralic” as a racial category to get special status (in the West).

    If you see some Islamo-sympathisers it most likely could be some disgruntled middle age dudes, who can’t handle the current system and passive aggressively praise Islam to troll the liberals. They like the more stable structure and more pronounced masculism, I guess, that Islam presents. Which is understandable. However, this could be developed even within the existing Christian or even secular culture. It’s easier to yap about this on Twitter, then follow the “straight and narrow” in one’s real life, especially when very few others around you are following that as well.
     
    Ohi know how Baltic people look like, not all subgroups but at least could tell some faces on the first sight phenotypically, ive spent a few months(or years but only checking it now and then? its a waste of time tbh) on Skadi, theapricity, and other anthropology boards.

    Im pretty sure that whole TURAN thing goes back to 19th century theory of how Finnic peoples are related to Turkics.

    I could link here dozens of Balt twitter ultranationalist accounts , (dont want to doxx any though) that promote the "Estlam" thing. They seem to be quite hardcore too not middle aged, more like zoomers. As lame as it sounds twitter is actually perhaps the best medium(that Stormfront-/pol/-UNZ-Salo-Twitter pipeline) if you actually want to learn something quickly just dont get lost in a sea of information.

    And you know this to well yourself we may be well behaved here on the blog but its always ethnic conflict. Ukrainians in the Baltics is probably a mistake too..like that one Latvian politician had said. We're just taking whatever limited resources are left. And those Russians even in your country, sure they are placated and passive by being fed mass entertainment like vidya and porn and decent wages but that can always change.

    Replies: @LatW

  539. https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7220640.html

    Minimum contractual gas flows via the Ukrainian and Belarusian pipelines. It is clear that Gazprom is playing the “wait and see” game to confront the excuses of Eurocrats to delay NS2. The time is on Gazprom side.

    • LOL: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib


    Minimum contractual gas flows via the Ukrainian and Belarusian pipelines. It is clear that Gazprom is playing the “wait and see” game to confront the excuses of Eurocrats to delay NS2. The time is on Gazprom side.
     
    Eurocrats?

    The way to force NS2 approval is running existing pipelines at 100% and showing that supply is insufficient to meet demand. Refusing to move gas via the existing pipeline through Poland proves that NS2 is 100% unnecessary. Gazprom is making Poland stronger and NS2 weaker.

    Time is on Poland's side. Once BalticPipe starts, an idle NS2 will be permanently dead. The clock is running against the axis of Gazprom & German Elites.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    , @sudden death
    @Aedib

    This does not seem very crucial setback, but it will take some additional time for sure. Energy blackmail of core EU by RF is a very good thing in fact, it is needed for sobering up and dumping the illusions about Gazprom supply reliability.


    Germany’s energy regulator on Tuesday suspended the certification process for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the latest setback for the controversial project.

    The pipeline, which was completed earlier this year after months of delays and setbacks amid U.S. sanctions designed to thwart it, needs approval from German authorities before it can be put into use.

    The German regulator said it could not proceed with certification of the pipeline because Nord Stream 2 AG, the Gazprom-controlled company which owns the pipeline, is registered in Switzerland, not Germany.

    “Following a thorough examination of the documentation, the Bundesnetzagentur concluded that it would only be possible to certify an operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if that operator was organised in a legal form under German law,” the regulator said in a statement Tuesday.

    Nord Stream 2 AG has agreed to set up a German subsidiary to govern the German part of the pipeline, the regulator said in its statement.

    “The certification procedure will remain suspended until the main assets and human resources have been transferred to the subsidiary.”

    Once that process is completed, the certification period will resume. Under German law, the regulator has four months to review documentation and make a decision on whether to approve the pipeline.
     

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/16/germany-suspends-nord-stream-2-certification-a75577

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib

  540. @Aedib
    https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7220640.html

    Minimum contractual gas flows via the Ukrainian and Belarusian pipelines. It is clear that Gazprom is playing the “wait and see” game to confront the excuses of Eurocrats to delay NS2. The time is on Gazprom side.

    Replies: @A123, @sudden death

    Minimum contractual gas flows via the Ukrainian and Belarusian pipelines. It is clear that Gazprom is playing the “wait and see” game to confront the excuses of Eurocrats to delay NS2. The time is on Gazprom side.

    Eurocrats?

    The way to force NS2 approval is running existing pipelines at 100% and showing that supply is insufficient to meet demand. Refusing to move gas via the existing pipeline through Poland proves that NS2 is 100% unnecessary. Gazprom is making Poland stronger and NS2 weaker.

    Time is on Poland’s side. Once BalticPipe starts, an idle NS2 will be permanently dead. The clock is running against the axis of Gazprom & German Elites.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • LOL: Aedib
    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    The way to force NS2 approval is running existing pipelines at 100% and showing that supply is insufficient to meet demand. Refusing to move gas via the existing pipeline through Poland proves that NS2 is 100% unnecessary. Gazprom is making Poland stronger and NS2 weaker.
     
    In this thesis, Poland is only strong to the extent it has natural gas to supply westward. To the extent that comes from Gazprom, the latter is still the strong horse.

    One detail I haven't seen emphasized in the recent discussions here on all this: Putin is supposedly saying he'd like to sign long term full supply contracts with Europe. The "we are fulfilling our contracts" thing comes from those sorts of contracts, which here in the US "consumer advocates" and their captured regulatory bodies hate beyond a minimal baseline because when spot market prices go below the contractual ones the consumer loses.

    Except of course the consumer gets totally screwed when spot market prices explode, people in the middle of the US will be paying thousands of dollars over the next decade or so due to the polar vortex plunging down to Texas in February of this year.

    So back to Gasprom, as I understand it it's simply not supplying excess non-contracted gas for the spot market. All other thermal fuel sources including gas production in Europe, LNG imports and evil coal are maxed out, with that side of Eurasia not being able to fill up natural gas reservoirs to their normal levels for winter. Earlier I was reading that included west of Russia Gasprom reservoirs (and US ones aren't in great shape after February).

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib, @sudden death

  541. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Even if you take the crazier women, seems like they were more sensible under a more patriarchal system. For example, there was once this study of schizophrenia patients at a hospital in the US, comparing two groups, one from the '30s and one from the '80s.

    30's group were typified by benign religious auditory hallucinations:
    -be a better person
    -live right
    -be good and go to heaven
    -lean on the Lord

    80's group, more secular, and technology based:
    -kill oneself/others
    -set fire to lawn
    -do perverse things

    This is also true when comparing schizophrenia in modern America to parts of the Third World.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Schizo doesn’t afflict just women. But the point that a better cultural grounding improves mental health, is well taken. It is actually a common mental health practitioner advice, but obviously without directly critizing counter-cultures.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Women have a much higher rate of mood and anxiety disorders, which as I see it, leads them to be exploited by other people, to a higher degree than men.

    Not only true of psychiatrists and psychologists, but I think it is also true of politics. Interesting question if women's influence on politics has become more negative, as modern living has increased their anxiety.

  542. @songbird
    Some day, I hope that they do a TED talk about physiognomy, or, better yet, turn the whole thing into talks about physiognomy and HBD.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Coconuts

    I think you will have to do what a lot of rightoids have been clamoring for, sending leftoids to re-education camps. Which is the mirror image of radical Dems calling for Trumpists to be sent to gulag.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Not sure if the Right has the necessary verbal elan to choreograph struggle sessions, or script show trials. Best bet might be permanent separation. Though, since the Right is more masculine, perhaps a small number could be reformed by physical training - either by being beaten up, or forced to increase their T. Of course, the more humane method might be a social credit system.

    BTW, I have often wondered why the Left targets families. (Ex: NK camps.) Is it because they really, deep at their roots, believe in genetics, or just because it is an effective terror weapon? I don't know.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  543. The only outcome of the new round of lockdowns in Europe is either libertarianism or reactionary politics. Becoming part of the agorist economic network, or a peasant under archeofuturism is now compelling if the alternative is indefinite lockdown for the unvaccinated. The EU is politically sterile but the alternatives will involve much lower living standards for the rest of the century, since there is no way you can go back to the Old Normal, starting from Macron – the ideological alignments have completed their shifts against it.

  544. @LatW
    @Svidomyatheart

    Hey there,


    So now their strategy is to wait it out and let it all implode and let the US and its compradors drown and suffocate the “butthurt belt” in neoliberalism, African migrants, Muslims, Jews, homo and trans psyops and hedonism, and other vices and then when the time is right come in and “take what’s theirs”.
     
    Yes, this has been their "strategy" for a while. Let it all crumble and then "we'll take what's left over" or even better "they'll come running back to us". A lot of them don't even bother, btw. With the exception of Ukraine, where they might act to destabilize (what their main media channels are now saying about Ukraine is the same they used to say about the Baltics, just on steroids, like, 100x more intense). They keep saying things such as "we need to wait until the hunta collapses and the real, more reasonable Ukrainians come back". A bit delusional. These are the real Ukrainians. Anyway, I wish we could make up with Russia, it is very unseemly to see three East Slavic nations in such antagonism, and ofc the general antagonism with the neighbors, but first Ukrainian service men (and women!) need to stop dying.

    As to hedonism, their population is pretty hedonist themselves. And I wouldn't say Russia is less neoliberal, they don't even have the progressive tax, afaik. What might work in Russia's advance is their relative isolation which could shelter them from the global negatives. If not economically, then at least culturally. Although, their culture is slowly changing, too. It's not like they don't have internet, lol.

    They do have some internal strength, even when Putin is gone, they can create some sort of an "illiberal" government (some kind of an orbanization) or even with a more free system, they still have a strong cultural core and will be able to protect themselves diplomatically, not to mention militarily. The living standards are visibly rising, however, there is gentrification and obviously with that, expectations in terms of political culture are rising, too.


    Russians want to “not to make the same mistake like we did after WW2 and allowing you to live because if we let you live another Brzezinski will appear, another Latvian guard will rise, another Stalin(yes they’re pissed at Stalin too I guess because he was needlessly wasting so many talented lives) and that is a danger to Russia itself.
     
    This isn't in Russia specific, as that is the MO of most somewhat sizable nations or competitor nations. Historically, whites are each other's worst enemies. You have to destroy the other, before he has a chance to proliferate. Except in Russia's case, they also like to integrate and absorb other nations for their benefit. And Russia probably doesn't have the means or energy to destroy everyone around or at least impose their way of thinking. And they see it as "danger to Russia itself", as you said. Because at least in the Nietzschean understanding, any living body that grows will inevitably seek to expand and grow more. Let's say, the Ukes build one rocket. What is keeping them from building another one in a few years? Maybe that's what they fear or are cautious about.

    As for us, we just need to outlive and survive them.
     
    Absolutely agree, we need to take care of our people and work for our people to do well. We will survive.

    Recently Turkics have really gotten activated. Pan Turanism and neo Ottomanism is revitalizing. I dont know if its US State dept. pushing it(Russia’s soft underbelly, blah blah) or on their own volition because they smell a weakness in the Great Powers but man do they want to rule and think half of the globe belongs to them and and are really pissed at the whole world for real and perceived injustices.

     

    We've been living in a multi-polar world for a while now, and this rise of Turkics is one of the "side effects". At least, Ukraine can use it to its advantage in some cases. Yes, they are bold about their grievances. The best is probably to acknowledge those where it is appropriate and where it would help establish friendliness, but not let it go over a certain line.

    In coming decades, Central Asia is projected to almost match Russia’s entire population
     
    That's quite significant, as their population is now 70M which is already a lot. Recently, Patrushev has been making some anti-immigrant noises, but, if nothing really drastic is done, nothing will change because the Russian businesses rely on Central Asians. For now, it looks benign (you can see in some YouTube videos from Russian cafes where the Russian customers are sitting and chilling and Central Asians are serving them very diligently and quietly). What is happening is the Russian business class is stepping over the Russian working class, importing the guest workers. And there are some lucrative schemes involved. If there is drug trade, too, then that's really sad and tragic.

    Also whats with every 2nd Balt nationalist on twitter being an Islamofascist?I guess it applies more to Estonians than Latvians but it just seems like endless simping for all kinds of Muslims and Turks with no returns whatsoever.
     
    I don't know what you have seen, are you talking about nationalist or normie Twitter accounts? But I can guarantee that Latvian nationalists have no idea about Greater Turan and most Estonian ones are ethnonationalist. I know that some of them have sympathies for Hungary. Btw, not sure if you know what Estonians look like, but they don't look Asian. They are tallish, very light on average, with elongated skulls. I have wondered, though, if Finns and Estonians (and partly Latvians because they are partly Finno-Ugric Liv) could use"Uralic" as a racial category to get special status (in the West).

    If you see some Islamo-sympathisers it most likely could be some disgruntled middle age dudes, who can't handle the current system and passive aggressively praise Islam to troll the liberals. They like the more stable structure and more pronounced masculism, I guess, that Islam presents. Which is understandable. However, this could be developed even within the existing Christian or even secular culture. It's easier to yap about this on Twitter, then follow the "straight and narrow" in one's real life, especially when very few others around you are following that as well.

    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
     
    Hahaha, I'd have to look into this Turanism more carefully to answer that. It's a little unusual. :)

    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?
     
    Analyzing Muslim societies might be helpful. Not sure about an alliance, though. :)

    Have a great week!

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Svidomyatheart

    Central Asians

    Mostly, I’m sure, they are not dreaming about living in Russia though. Working in Russia, will be surely mostly a pragmatic resignation for them. In a very long-term view, this could be perhaps temporary immigration, as they will be mostly always dreaming about other options.

    To say brutally, they are in the Russian Federation because of open borders policy, while they can’t emigrate to other medium/high income countries. If they had more options, I’m sure they would be mostly emigrating to Western Europe and be in Heidelberg, serving German Reader in the beer hall, for much a higher salary. (As we know how “German roots” Kazakhs have managed such an immigration maneuver).

    Perhaps in some decades, the immigration possibility will change again, and they will be German Reader’s future neighbors.

    If you have talked a few minutes with wealthy Central Asian people in London, you know what it seems like their opinions are like about Russia, at least among those which had enough money to buy into London, and were not restricted by the open border option.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Dmitry


    If you have talked a few minutes with wealthy Central Asian people in London, you know what it seems like their opinions are like about Russia, at least among those which had enough money to buy into London, and were not restricted by the open border option.
     
    I have not had much contact at all. I've encountered one up and comer professional Uzbeki woman (very rare in the West) and a young Kazakh woman that spoke Russian who was a student. Quite positive impressions. Kazakhs strike me as entrepreneurial. How is Uzbek and Tajik work ethic, do you know?
  545. @Yellowface Anon
    @Coconuts

    This really sounds Amish, as in an intentional community separate from "modern" society, this time with the prospect of out-competing the society outside. It feels like intentionally repressing the level of development instead of letting things run their course within the limits of the culture and technology, like in real traditional societies. LARPing instead of the genuine article. Even the Amish just mostly stagnate on the level of the 17th/18th century when their religious identity started to form.

    I am merely describing what populists increasingly feel and lots of economic trends e.g. energy consumption and economic forecasting point to. Sad thing progressives aren't acting fast enough to secure a future for liberalism, and where they can provide us a vision, it's what the WEF wants - elitism not so different from archeofuturism in terms of technological concentration. For myself, I probably won't survive 1 or 2 weeks of tilling my own land, and I don't hope we'll have a full crash back to neo-medievalism that is more and more likely each passing day.

    I think archeofuturism is this but continent-wide, like what the Lenin has expected when staging the October Revolution. But I think the more likely the end will play out like Atlas Shrugged, a slow unraveling because of systemic rot, but then whoever has gone outside the system decide to scavenge the useful parts instead of repairing and rebuilding the ruins. Or maybe a New Right government banning the mass of peasants from re-learning bourgeois lifestyles, like how Nazis wanted the Slavs to be serfs. A pretty grim future, but perhaps the inevitable collapse after 300 years of growth.

    I might just be too depressed when I "turned" pseudo-Taoist - I think while skepticism in some forms of progress is warranted, lack of development means stagnation, and even the society of the Middle Age wasn't that stagnant. The only sure way to reverse progress is to burn and ruin, like what happened at the end of the Roman Empire, otherwise capital and knowledge will still accumulate, but more slowly, and that is already a modest progress. And both the elites and populists want to tear lots of things down because of ideology ("degrowth", "local production", "4IR", etc.)

    Replies: @Dmitry

    The sad thing is, that we shouldn’t need to become Amish or Haredi. Even such an often negative technology as the internet, can be used by you to e.g. download Shakespeare and Mozart.

    What we need is only a strong regulation to prevent dystopian uses of technology against people. These regulations would need be based on humanist and civilized values, and very deeply installed, and enforced. With this installed, we could then explore technology as much as ever before.

    The problem is even such a small demand, can seem completely utopian and unlikely. And when you see the direction of this year – where QR codes don’t even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @LatW
    @Dmitry


    And when you see the direction of this year – where QR codes don’t even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.
     
    The QR codes may stay permanently... it's a possibility, right? And the measures against the unvaccinated and the strife and division are sad to watch, too.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Yellowface Anon, @Mr. Hack

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    Some wrong political decisions has been made in the last 20 or even 50 years that leads to the place we're at now. It might or might not be too late to correct the path back to any "modern" normal especially since so many at the top and at the bottom are veering off that course in their reaction and agendas following these ills. Not so sure if AaronB is right about a Taoist view of accepting a more natural future (I thought about that) - it's a way of coping with decline.

    , @Barbarossa
    @Dmitry

    The core issue to me about technology is that it is inherently a very mediated experience. You are necessarily playing someone else's game because they have set the design and parameters for the platform or interface. This is extremely evident in the case of something like Facebook, but is also true of more benign platforms such as this comment thread.

    I'm playing Ron Unz's game and am content enough to do so, but I am also aware of that fact. In my observation, most people have an extreme lack of awareness of this dynamic, thinking that technology allows them to express themselves while it actually directs and constrains that expression sharply.

    So I am doubtful that regulation could change the dynamic of something like the internet such that I would be pleased with it. And as you say, such an effort to intelligently regulate is nowhere in evidence and will not likely ever be.

    Personally, I keep my internet usage quite curtailed while holding onto self limiting hardware like my flip phone to manage the negative influences. I find the Amish mode of entirely opting out quite wise though. It's hard to only crack Pandora's Box just a little bit!

  546. @Dmitry
    @LatW


    Central Asians
     
    Mostly, I'm sure, they are not dreaming about living in Russia though. Working in Russia, will be surely mostly a pragmatic resignation for them. In a very long-term view, this could be perhaps temporary immigration, as they will be mostly always dreaming about other options.

    To say brutally, they are in the Russian Federation because of open borders policy, while they can't emigrate to other medium/high income countries. If they had more options, I'm sure they would be mostly emigrating to Western Europe and be in Heidelberg, serving German Reader in the beer hall, for much a higher salary. (As we know how "German roots" Kazakhs have managed such an immigration maneuver).

    Perhaps in some decades, the immigration possibility will change again, and they will be German Reader's future neighbors.

    If you have talked a few minutes with wealthy Central Asian people in London, you know what it seems like their opinions are like about Russia, at least among those which had enough money to buy into London, and were not restricted by the open border option.

    Replies: @LatW

    If you have talked a few minutes with wealthy Central Asian people in London, you know what it seems like their opinions are like about Russia, at least among those which had enough money to buy into London, and were not restricted by the open border option.

    I have not had much contact at all. I’ve encountered one up and comer professional Uzbeki woman (very rare in the West) and a young Kazakh woman that spoke Russian who was a student. Quite positive impressions. Kazakhs strike me as entrepreneurial. How is Uzbek and Tajik work ethic, do you know?

  547. @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    The sad thing is, that we shouldn't need to become Amish or Haredi. Even such an often negative technology as the internet, can be used by you to e.g. download Shakespeare and Mozart.

    What we need is only a strong regulation to prevent dystopian uses of technology against people. These regulations would need be based on humanist and civilized values, and very deeply installed, and enforced. With this installed, we could then explore technology as much as ever before.

    The problem is even such a small demand, can seem completely utopian and unlikely. And when you see the direction of this year - where QR codes don't even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.

    Replies: @LatW, @Yellowface Anon, @Barbarossa

    And when you see the direction of this year – where QR codes don’t even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.

    The QR codes may stay permanently… it’s a possibility, right? And the measures against the unvaccinated and the strife and division are sad to watch, too.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @LatW


    QR codes may stay
     
    In every metro station in Moscow, they are installing a live facial recognition system, that scans your face as you go into the door, so you can pay "conveniently" with your face.

    Of course, the narrative doesn't make sense here. Paying for the metro in traditional ways is easy and convenient already, and it's also not like a bank vault - you don't need high tech, high security facial recognition for such a lowcost payment as the metro.

    This is also an expensive system to install and operate for every station. Why would you build this elaborate system to improve "convenience" by using live facial recognition, when the existing system is already convenient and far less intrusive? A narrative about "convenience of payment" is kind of comical.

    The real motive for installing such systems, will be that they want to catalogue everyone's face in the biometric database, and then it will be simple to build a database of everyone's movement.

    The database will automatically compile all the movements of each person in a file, and you can type any name into the database, and there will be a diagram of their movement by day. They have also installed facial recognition for the network of thousands of cameras in the streets, so in the end they can easily build a very effective system.

    So without people protesting, this technology is being installed to build these ex-KGB officers' most utopian dreams.

    To be more optimistic, is that they hopefully only have budget for this in Moscow, where budget is unlimited for everything. They open new metro stations in Moscow every few months. Whereas even in wealthy non-Moscow cities like Ekaterinburg , it can be decades of waiting to open a single new metro station. So people can hope that budget conditions for live facial recognition surveillance will not be comparable outside Moscow.

    Although who knows how the authorities might prioritize these surveillance projects, if they feel it will change the balance of power.


    Uzbek and Tajik work ethic, do you know?

     

    Unfortunately certain ones can be a bit too "entrepreneurial" if judging from the speed of ISIS and Taliban franchises that have been opened,

    Quite positive impressions. Kazakhs
     
    I also have positive impressions. I had an interesting conversation with student a couple of months ago, who definitely wants to emigrate permanently in Western Europe though.

    Replies: @AaronB

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @LatW

    Maybe they'll be repurposed whenever a new pathogen pops up. And more lockdowns, and so on and so forth. Or maybe when lockdowns for "climate emergency" come.

    In a sane world, you will still have vaccine and cure development, but over a longer lead time where the foreseeable issues with the technology & applications are sorted out. This is what vaccine testing is for. You don't impose vaccine mandates for a disease with a relatively low death rate and where most available vaccines only have an EUA, and you don't marginalize those who have decided to use a treatment-based strategy to live with COVID. These are the arguments for being anti-mandavaxx.

    The way contact tracing is done nowadays, by compiling a database of every individual's itineraries, is quite intrusive, but Google already does that when you use GPS on your android phones. Vaccine passports are used for daily life where vaccine cards weren't. I have a vaccine card back from the time I was in school, and it was hand-written, listing all the vaccines I've taken under the mandates. Imagine taking that piece of paper around in 2019, for a meal or on a bus. Who would be obsessed with you immunity to whatever disease? Those are unnecessary complexities grafted on existing economic and social structures for a relatively minor risk, that only serves to alienate. Here, maybe secretly, antivaxxers are happy that being discriminated in their face provides their rationale to quit the system, to quit digitalization and fiat, quit the white market and state authority. And where things can be effective, stops being so.

    None of this is inevitable, not even after 9/11. But we live in a world where elites behave like how Ayn Rand imagined, and we need to cope with the reality, provaxx or antivaxx.

    , @Mr. Hack
    @LatW

    I have some Uzbeki Turks (Meskhetian Turks) that live across the street from me. Very nice and trustworthy people that seem entrepreneurial. They had a business for years where they would buy nice cars at an auction, and then repair them and turn around and sell them for a what I would presume to be a handsome profit. I never saw the old man of the family get underneath the hood of any car and get his fingernails dirty, as the work was done by his young sons. Lately, there has been an abrupt uptake in the number of nice cars that they've been hauling into their driveway. I asked one of the sons, if business had increased as of late, to which he replied that they were no longer involved in the fix-em-up car business. He had decided to become a professional car hauler where he could make a lot of money by just hauling cars around. The job he was going on next was going to pay him $400 for a couple of hours of work.

    I've also known some Bukharin Jews too (also from Uzbekistan). The Meskhetian Turks have nothing on the Bukharin Jews when it comes to entrepreneurial skills. The two groups seem to be on friendly terms, at least in the Phoenix area.

  548. @Mikel
    @German_reader


    do you really believe that the Iraqis interviewed by the BBC want to go to Britain, because they’re such great admirers of parliamentary democracy and love Britain’s cultural and literary traditions
     
    No LOL. I didn't mean that when I mentioned the Queen and the Big Ben.

    The US might of course be a special case, I suppose it’s possible that at least some immigrants are still attracted by the traditional promise of America as a new world where you can start over, live free and make the most of your talents etc.
     
    Yes.

    I could tell quite a few stories about the people I see immigrating to the US, BTW. Only yesterday I had a guy in my house who had been released by the CBP last Monday, after illegally crossing the Rio Grande. He was helping his father, another "asylum seeker", do a plumbing job. These people come here to start working from the get-go, make quite a lot of money (that they spend almost as fast as it comes), and live a paradise life, compared with what they left behind.

    But it's always a challenge working with them. Fortunately, I spent many years in Chile so I know that "I'll come back on Sunday" actually means "I may come back on Sunday, we'll see". Or "I'll be there at 6" actually means "I may or may not not be there but you can be certain that it won't be at 6". And most of all, you need to understand that eventually you may well have to do the job yourself.

    But it is these people who keep a large part of the US economy going right now. I would happily employ a punctual American who understands what "up" and "down" means written on a valve but they are not interested. The few willing to do manual jobs prefer working for a big company with benefits and regular hours.

    The irony is that the US, if it wanted, could easily revert to the old quota system of legal immigration from European countries. There must be lots of Europeans who would be willing to work in the weekends for 35$/hour, which is what I pay. Over the years, I've actually met many Europeans: English, Irish, Dutch, Poles, Spaniards,... who wanted to emigrate to the US but very few made the move. Europeans, in general, are not willing to come here illegally and find the long waiting times and huge paperwork of legal immigration too burdensome. So most of the legal immigration is coming from Asian countries, which is also preferred by the sponsoring companies.

    The US is going to have a big demographic change. It is already happening and I don't see how this can be stopped realistically.

    Replies: @AP

    I could tell quite a few stories about the people I see immigrating to the US, BTW. Only yesterday I had a guy in my house who had been released by the CBP last Monday, after illegally crossing the Rio Grande. He was helping his father, another “asylum seeker”, do a plumbing job. These people come here to start working from the get-go, make quite a lot of money (that they spend almost as fast as it comes), and live a paradise life, compared with what they left behind.

    Around here (the Northeast) many of the illegals or semi-legals (they are here legally, but work despite the fact that they are not supposed to) include a lot of Poles and Ukrainians. Some Ukrainian illegals have even arrived through Mexico.

    I’ve seen though not socialized much with the Polish workers beyond superficial greeting pleasantries (some work for a Ukrainian guy I know). The Ukrainian illegals and semi-legals work 6-7 days per week, several guys sharing a small apartment to make money. Because it is hard to make it to America and this may be their only chance, they stay for several years. Women work as caretakers for old people. Many Ukrainian-Americans have such women caring for their grandparents. They speak the same language, make the same foods, it’s a great deal.

    Many of the Ukrainians have families back home. They save what they make, allowing themselves an occasional barbecue and vodka drinking session for entertainment (some also have affairs, celibacy is difficult for people away from home for years). Most of what they earn is sent back to Ukraine. The money results in large houses or is seed money for a business that they start when they return.

    It’s a lot easier and better for families to go to Poland or Germany, because then one can visit home regularly and cheaply. But America offers much more money.

    The eastern European workers tend to be honest, very hardworking and competent. Their work is in generally of higher quality than what I have seen of either Latino illegals or of (native) Americans, who often have problems with opioids (so beware of theft, with them).

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @AP

    This proves the anti-"illegal" immigration rhetoric is straight from the era of ethnic-based legal immigration. That makes sense if you want to build a relatively homogenous society, instead of heterogenous states like Latin America.

    , @Mikel
    @AP


    Poles and Ukrainians
     
    No, we rarely see that kind of exotic immigrants around here :-)

    But it's true that the few recent European immigrants that you see from time to time in Utah are almost always Eastern Europeans: Ukrainians, Poles and some Bosnians that probably came after the Yugoslav wars. As far as I know, all the Ukrainians and Poles I've met came here legally though. I even know of a Belarusian guy who would love to emigrate to the US and applies to the Green Card visa every year but would never think of coming illegally. He's a professional who leads a decent life with regular vacations in Turkey and Egypt.

    I did notice a couple of waves of Gypsies though, most likely of Romanian origin. They were quite visible, begging at the exit of the stores, but they seem to have moved somewhere else.
  549. @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    The sad thing is, that we shouldn't need to become Amish or Haredi. Even such an often negative technology as the internet, can be used by you to e.g. download Shakespeare and Mozart.

    What we need is only a strong regulation to prevent dystopian uses of technology against people. These regulations would need be based on humanist and civilized values, and very deeply installed, and enforced. With this installed, we could then explore technology as much as ever before.

    The problem is even such a small demand, can seem completely utopian and unlikely. And when you see the direction of this year - where QR codes don't even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.

    Replies: @LatW, @Yellowface Anon, @Barbarossa

    Some wrong political decisions has been made in the last 20 or even 50 years that leads to the place we’re at now. It might or might not be too late to correct the path back to any “modern” normal especially since so many at the top and at the bottom are veering off that course in their reaction and agendas following these ills. Not so sure if AaronB is right about a Taoist view of accepting a more natural future (I thought about that) – it’s a way of coping with decline.

  550. @AP
    @Mikel


    I could tell quite a few stories about the people I see immigrating to the US, BTW. Only yesterday I had a guy in my house who had been released by the CBP last Monday, after illegally crossing the Rio Grande. He was helping his father, another “asylum seeker”, do a plumbing job. These people come here to start working from the get-go, make quite a lot of money (that they spend almost as fast as it comes), and live a paradise life, compared with what they left behind.
     
    Around here (the Northeast) many of the illegals or semi-legals (they are here legally, but work despite the fact that they are not supposed to) include a lot of Poles and Ukrainians. Some Ukrainian illegals have even arrived through Mexico.

    I've seen though not socialized much with the Polish workers beyond superficial greeting pleasantries (some work for a Ukrainian guy I know). The Ukrainian illegals and semi-legals work 6-7 days per week, several guys sharing a small apartment to make money. Because it is hard to make it to America and this may be their only chance, they stay for several years. Women work as caretakers for old people. Many Ukrainian-Americans have such women caring for their grandparents. They speak the same language, make the same foods, it's a great deal.

    Many of the Ukrainians have families back home. They save what they make, allowing themselves an occasional barbecue and vodka drinking session for entertainment (some also have affairs, celibacy is difficult for people away from home for years). Most of what they earn is sent back to Ukraine. The money results in large houses or is seed money for a business that they start when they return.

    It's a lot easier and better for families to go to Poland or Germany, because then one can visit home regularly and cheaply. But America offers much more money.

    The eastern European workers tend to be honest, very hardworking and competent. Their work is in generally of higher quality than what I have seen of either Latino illegals or of (native) Americans, who often have problems with opioids (so beware of theft, with them).

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Mikel

    This proves the anti-“illegal” immigration rhetoric is straight from the era of ethnic-based legal immigration. That makes sense if you want to build a relatively homogenous society, instead of heterogenous states like Latin America.

  551. @LatW
    @Dmitry


    And when you see the direction of this year – where QR codes don’t even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.
     
    The QR codes may stay permanently... it's a possibility, right? And the measures against the unvaccinated and the strife and division are sad to watch, too.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Yellowface Anon, @Mr. Hack

    QR codes may stay

    In every metro station in Moscow, they are installing a live facial recognition system, that scans your face as you go into the door, so you can pay “conveniently” with your face.

    Of course, the narrative doesn’t make sense here. Paying for the metro in traditional ways is easy and convenient already, and it’s also not like a bank vault – you don’t need high tech, high security facial recognition for such a lowcost payment as the metro.

    This is also an expensive system to install and operate for every station. Why would you build this elaborate system to improve “convenience” by using live facial recognition, when the existing system is already convenient and far less intrusive? A narrative about “convenience of payment” is kind of comical.

    The real motive for installing such systems, will be that they want to catalogue everyone’s face in the biometric database, and then it will be simple to build a database of everyone’s movement.

    The database will automatically compile all the movements of each person in a file, and you can type any name into the database, and there will be a diagram of their movement by day. They have also installed facial recognition for the network of thousands of cameras in the streets, so in the end they can easily build a very effective system.

    So without people protesting, this technology is being installed to build these ex-KGB officers’ most utopian dreams.

    To be more optimistic, is that they hopefully only have budget for this in Moscow, where budget is unlimited for everything. They open new metro stations in Moscow every few months. Whereas even in wealthy non-Moscow cities like Ekaterinburg , it can be decades of waiting to open a single new metro station. So people can hope that budget conditions for live facial recognition surveillance will not be comparable outside Moscow.

    Although who knows how the authorities might prioritize these surveillance projects, if they feel it will change the balance of power.

    Uzbek and Tajik work ethic, do you know?

    Unfortunately certain ones can be a bit too “entrepreneurial” if judging from the speed of ISIS and Taliban franchises that have been opened,

    Quite positive impressions. Kazakhs

    I also have positive impressions. I had an interesting conversation with student a couple of months ago, who definitely wants to emigrate permanently in Western Europe though.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Dmitry


    This is also an expensive system to install and operate for every station. Why would you build this elaborate system to improve “convenience” by using live facial recognition, when the existing system is already convenient and far less intrusive? A narrative about “convenience of payment” is kind of comical.
     
    In his post on substack comparing London vs Moscow, Karlin is very excited about this system and gives it as an example of why quality of life is so much better in Moscow.

    Its difficult for us, who are not completely under the spell of technology, to understand why these trivial increases in minor convenience are so exciting.

    But for those who regard technology as a sacred object, it's productions are to be venerated and not subjected to a cost benefit analysis.

    If technology were not a sacred object, and one could think about it objectively, there are already many areas in which technology would be limited - or never invented in the first place - based on a cost benefit analysis.

    So I think you are misunderstanding the modern technocratic mindset - in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must be.

    Whether it benefits humans - or even has any real significance - is of secondary importance. As Jacques Ellis has said, we invented technology, but it has taken over our minds.

    If one wanted to be darkly superstitious, one might wonder if technology is not a kind of "fungus" that has taken over human minds in order to develop and spread itself :)

    But I do agree, that this system easily lends itself to abuse, and will certainly be abused and used for surveillance and control.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Dmitry

  552. @LatW
    @Dmitry


    And when you see the direction of this year – where QR codes don’t even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.
     
    The QR codes may stay permanently... it's a possibility, right? And the measures against the unvaccinated and the strife and division are sad to watch, too.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Yellowface Anon, @Mr. Hack

    Maybe they’ll be repurposed whenever a new pathogen pops up. And more lockdowns, and so on and so forth. Or maybe when lockdowns for “climate emergency” come.

    In a sane world, you will still have vaccine and cure development, but over a longer lead time where the foreseeable issues with the technology & applications are sorted out. This is what vaccine testing is for. You don’t impose vaccine mandates for a disease with a relatively low death rate and where most available vaccines only have an EUA, and you don’t marginalize those who have decided to use a treatment-based strategy to live with COVID. These are the arguments for being anti-mandavaxx.

    The way contact tracing is done nowadays, by compiling a database of every individual’s itineraries, is quite intrusive, but Google already does that when you use GPS on your android phones. Vaccine passports are used for daily life where vaccine cards weren’t. I have a vaccine card back from the time I was in school, and it was hand-written, listing all the vaccines I’ve taken under the mandates. Imagine taking that piece of paper around in 2019, for a meal or on a bus. Who would be obsessed with you immunity to whatever disease? Those are unnecessary complexities grafted on existing economic and social structures for a relatively minor risk, that only serves to alienate. Here, maybe secretly, antivaxxers are happy that being discriminated in their face provides their rationale to quit the system, to quit digitalization and fiat, quit the white market and state authority. And where things can be effective, stops being so.

    None of this is inevitable, not even after 9/11. But we live in a world where elites behave like how Ayn Rand imagined, and we need to cope with the reality, provaxx or antivaxx.

  553. @Aedib
    https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7220640.html

    Minimum contractual gas flows via the Ukrainian and Belarusian pipelines. It is clear that Gazprom is playing the “wait and see” game to confront the excuses of Eurocrats to delay NS2. The time is on Gazprom side.

    Replies: @A123, @sudden death

    This does not seem very crucial setback, but it will take some additional time for sure. Energy blackmail of core EU by RF is a very good thing in fact, it is needed for sobering up and dumping the illusions about Gazprom supply reliability.

    Germany’s energy regulator on Tuesday suspended the certification process for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the latest setback for the controversial project.

    The pipeline, which was completed earlier this year after months of delays and setbacks amid U.S. sanctions designed to thwart it, needs approval from German authorities before it can be put into use.

    The German regulator said it could not proceed with certification of the pipeline because Nord Stream 2 AG, the Gazprom-controlled company which owns the pipeline, is registered in Switzerland, not Germany.

    “Following a thorough examination of the documentation, the Bundesnetzagentur concluded that it would only be possible to certify an operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if that operator was organised in a legal form under German law,” the regulator said in a statement Tuesday.

    Nord Stream 2 AG has agreed to set up a German subsidiary to govern the German part of the pipeline, the regulator said in its statement.

    “The certification procedure will remain suspended until the main assets and human resources have been transferred to the subsidiary.”

    Once that process is completed, the certification period will resume. Under German law, the regulator has four months to review documentation and make a decision on whether to approve the pipeline.

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/16/germany-suspends-nord-stream-2-certification-a75577

    • Replies: @A123
    @sudden death


    This does not seem very crucial setback, but it will take some additional time for sure.
     
    What you are seeing is internal German factionalism:
        • German Greens -- Who want to end hydrocarbon use
        • German Elites -- Who want NS2 to punish Poland

    Give Green focus on Regulatory Authority, it should not be too surprising that key regulators are Green Party acolytes.


    Energy blackmail of core EU by RF is a very good thing in fact, it is needed for sobering up and dumping the illusions about Gazprom supply reliability.
     
    Two problems with this erroneous conclusion:

    -1- Both WEF German Globalists and SJW German Greens despise the German people. Gazprom Elite bludgeoning of innocent Germans, is an ineffective choice. To blackmail, one must threaten something the other party values.

    -2- To those who do care about the innocent, Gazprom is proving itself unreliable by not delivering via the Poland-Belarus pipeline. Gazprom can formally present documented contracts and claim, in a highly legalistic Elite way, that they have "the right to abuse the proletariat". While such legalism may make an impression on their Globalist counterparts, it will do Gazprom Elites no good in terms of public opinion from the proles.
    ____

    There is another possibility that no one is considering:

    Gazprom has been ordered to adopt "play to lose" tactics.

    Christian Russia would gain by backing Christian Poland against SJW Germany. However, NS2 debt is 80-90% with German banks. Pulling out at this late date presents all sorts of financial risk. Maneuvering Germany into killing NS2 leaves creditors pursuing the German government for compensation.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    , @Aedib
    @sudden death

    What Gazprom need is to speed up pipelines to the Asian market. Western “partners” have shown to be unreliable clients: they want to fix quantities, prices and routes, all at the same time. This is not possible in a commoditized market but they are trying hard. The current gas prices they are paying are consequence of this silly behavior. They now are harvesting the consequences of these actions while blaming Russia for their own stupidity. Gazprom should keep sending the minimum agreed quantities while letting the market adjust by prices. Capitalism. Eurocrats seems unable to understand how capitalism work.

    Meanwhile

    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Russias-Biggest-Move-Yet-To-Take-Control-Of-The-European-Gas-Market.html

    Replies: @A123

  554. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    I think you will have to do what a lot of rightoids have been clamoring for, sending leftoids to re-education camps. Which is the mirror image of radical Dems calling for Trumpists to be sent to gulag.

    Replies: @songbird

    Not sure if the Right has the necessary verbal elan to choreograph struggle sessions, or script show trials. Best bet might be permanent separation. Though, since the Right is more masculine, perhaps a small number could be reformed by physical training – either by being beaten up, or forced to increase their T. Of course, the more humane method might be a social credit system.

    BTW, I have often wondered why the Left targets families. (Ex: NK camps.) Is it because they really, deep at their roots, believe in genetics, or just because it is an effective terror weapon? I don’t know.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    If you look at the Nazis, rightoids have the skills, they just don't usually use it. If rightoids want a systemic purge condemning tens of millions, they won't be short of chances to practice them.

    Social credits is probably inevitable, if you have the level of big data tracking and leverage over the whole population. If you are thinking of legacy social media "community" standards and access to various services being cut off, it is up and running. But it will only breed evasion like some other segment of rightoids do with cryptos and blockchains in general, and it can only go so far in a decentralized political structure lots of rightoids want.

  555. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Schizo doesn't afflict just women. But the point that a better cultural grounding improves mental health, is well taken. It is actually a common mental health practitioner advice, but obviously without directly critizing counter-cultures.

    Replies: @songbird

    Women have a much higher rate of mood and anxiety disorders, which as I see it, leads them to be exploited by other people, to a higher degree than men.

    Not only true of psychiatrists and psychologists, but I think it is also true of politics. Interesting question if women’s influence on politics has become more negative, as modern living has increased their anxiety.

  556. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Not sure if the Right has the necessary verbal elan to choreograph struggle sessions, or script show trials. Best bet might be permanent separation. Though, since the Right is more masculine, perhaps a small number could be reformed by physical training - either by being beaten up, or forced to increase their T. Of course, the more humane method might be a social credit system.

    BTW, I have often wondered why the Left targets families. (Ex: NK camps.) Is it because they really, deep at their roots, believe in genetics, or just because it is an effective terror weapon? I don't know.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    If you look at the Nazis, rightoids have the skills, they just don’t usually use it. If rightoids want a systemic purge condemning tens of millions, they won’t be short of chances to practice them.

    Social credits is probably inevitable, if you have the level of big data tracking and leverage over the whole population. If you are thinking of legacy social media “community” standards and access to various services being cut off, it is up and running. But it will only breed evasion like some other segment of rightoids do with cryptos and blockchains in general, and it can only go so far in a decentralized political structure lots of rightoids want.

  557. @sudden death
    @Aedib

    This does not seem very crucial setback, but it will take some additional time for sure. Energy blackmail of core EU by RF is a very good thing in fact, it is needed for sobering up and dumping the illusions about Gazprom supply reliability.


    Germany’s energy regulator on Tuesday suspended the certification process for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the latest setback for the controversial project.

    The pipeline, which was completed earlier this year after months of delays and setbacks amid U.S. sanctions designed to thwart it, needs approval from German authorities before it can be put into use.

    The German regulator said it could not proceed with certification of the pipeline because Nord Stream 2 AG, the Gazprom-controlled company which owns the pipeline, is registered in Switzerland, not Germany.

    “Following a thorough examination of the documentation, the Bundesnetzagentur concluded that it would only be possible to certify an operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if that operator was organised in a legal form under German law,” the regulator said in a statement Tuesday.

    Nord Stream 2 AG has agreed to set up a German subsidiary to govern the German part of the pipeline, the regulator said in its statement.

    “The certification procedure will remain suspended until the main assets and human resources have been transferred to the subsidiary.”

    Once that process is completed, the certification period will resume. Under German law, the regulator has four months to review documentation and make a decision on whether to approve the pipeline.
     

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/16/germany-suspends-nord-stream-2-certification-a75577

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib

    This does not seem very crucial setback, but it will take some additional time for sure.

    What you are seeing is internal German factionalism:
        • German Greens — Who want to end hydrocarbon use
        • German Elites — Who want NS2 to punish Poland

    Give Green focus on Regulatory Authority, it should not be too surprising that key regulators are Green Party acolytes.

    Energy blackmail of core EU by RF is a very good thing in fact, it is needed for sobering up and dumping the illusions about Gazprom supply reliability.

    Two problems with this erroneous conclusion:

    -1- Both WEF German Globalists and SJW German Greens despise the German people. Gazprom Elite bludgeoning of innocent Germans, is an ineffective choice. To blackmail, one must threaten something the other party values.

    -2- To those who do care about the innocent, Gazprom is proving itself unreliable by not delivering via the Poland-Belarus pipeline. Gazprom can formally present documented contracts and claim, in a highly legalistic Elite way, that they have “the right to abuse the proletariat”. While such legalism may make an impression on their Globalist counterparts, it will do Gazprom Elites no good in terms of public opinion from the proles.
    ____

    There is another possibility that no one is considering:

    Gazprom has been ordered to adopt “play to lose” tactics.

    Christian Russia would gain by backing Christian Poland against SJW Germany. However, NS2 debt is 80-90% with German banks. Pulling out at this late date presents all sorts of financial risk. Maneuvering Germany into killing NS2 leaves creditors pursuing the German government for compensation.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    Both WEF German Globalists and SJW German Greens despise the German people. Gazprom Elite bludgeoning of innocent Germans, is an ineffective choice. To blackmail, one must threaten something the other party values.
     
    The high prices of natural gas are already causing a lot of factory production pain, with fertilizer plants just plain shutting down (Haber process, methane provides the hydrogens to attach to nitrogen to make ammonia, this consumes 1-2% of the world's energy budgetm yields aren't going to be great next year). Of course smart companies like BASF have as of late decided to set up new plants in the US.

    Lose enough supply and there will have to be widespread factory shutdowns to conserve gas for power plants and keeping pressure up in the distribution system, and if bad enough the former get shut down enough to force rolling blackouts, don't want to have to relight neighborhoods worth of pilot lights. I'm sure the SJW (German) Greens want all German factories shut down, but the WEF German Globalists?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  558. I just heard some astrologers who say COVID restrictions will start to lessen after May next year. If that really became the case, it could only be because of socio-economic secession and/or violent resistance toppling entire economic and political structures, or making them irrelevant for the majority of the population. And then it would be something like after the end of Rome. Otherwise, the whole authoritarian structure will be here until 2030 at least.

  559. @sudden death
    @Aedib

    This does not seem very crucial setback, but it will take some additional time for sure. Energy blackmail of core EU by RF is a very good thing in fact, it is needed for sobering up and dumping the illusions about Gazprom supply reliability.


    Germany’s energy regulator on Tuesday suspended the certification process for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the latest setback for the controversial project.

    The pipeline, which was completed earlier this year after months of delays and setbacks amid U.S. sanctions designed to thwart it, needs approval from German authorities before it can be put into use.

    The German regulator said it could not proceed with certification of the pipeline because Nord Stream 2 AG, the Gazprom-controlled company which owns the pipeline, is registered in Switzerland, not Germany.

    “Following a thorough examination of the documentation, the Bundesnetzagentur concluded that it would only be possible to certify an operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if that operator was organised in a legal form under German law,” the regulator said in a statement Tuesday.

    Nord Stream 2 AG has agreed to set up a German subsidiary to govern the German part of the pipeline, the regulator said in its statement.

    “The certification procedure will remain suspended until the main assets and human resources have been transferred to the subsidiary.”

    Once that process is completed, the certification period will resume. Under German law, the regulator has four months to review documentation and make a decision on whether to approve the pipeline.
     

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/16/germany-suspends-nord-stream-2-certification-a75577

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib

    What Gazprom need is to speed up pipelines to the Asian market. Western “partners” have shown to be unreliable clients: they want to fix quantities, prices and routes, all at the same time. This is not possible in a commoditized market but they are trying hard. The current gas prices they are paying are consequence of this silly behavior. They now are harvesting the consequences of these actions while blaming Russia for their own stupidity. Gazprom should keep sending the minimum agreed quantities while letting the market adjust by prices. Capitalism. Eurocrats seems unable to understand how capitalism work.

    Meanwhile

    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Russias-Biggest-Move-Yet-To-Take-Control-Of-The-European-Gas-Market.html

    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib


    Gazprom should keep sending the minimum agreed quantities while letting the market adjust by prices. Capitalism.
     
    I agree. Europe should use European gas.

    Once Gazprom stops manipulation that favours Germany, the market will work correctly to develop low cost Norwegian and UK gas supplies. The Eurocrats will suffer at the hands of the market.

    PEACE 😇
  560. @Dmitry
    @LatW


    QR codes may stay
     
    In every metro station in Moscow, they are installing a live facial recognition system, that scans your face as you go into the door, so you can pay "conveniently" with your face.

    Of course, the narrative doesn't make sense here. Paying for the metro in traditional ways is easy and convenient already, and it's also not like a bank vault - you don't need high tech, high security facial recognition for such a lowcost payment as the metro.

    This is also an expensive system to install and operate for every station. Why would you build this elaborate system to improve "convenience" by using live facial recognition, when the existing system is already convenient and far less intrusive? A narrative about "convenience of payment" is kind of comical.

    The real motive for installing such systems, will be that they want to catalogue everyone's face in the biometric database, and then it will be simple to build a database of everyone's movement.

    The database will automatically compile all the movements of each person in a file, and you can type any name into the database, and there will be a diagram of their movement by day. They have also installed facial recognition for the network of thousands of cameras in the streets, so in the end they can easily build a very effective system.

    So without people protesting, this technology is being installed to build these ex-KGB officers' most utopian dreams.

    To be more optimistic, is that they hopefully only have budget for this in Moscow, where budget is unlimited for everything. They open new metro stations in Moscow every few months. Whereas even in wealthy non-Moscow cities like Ekaterinburg , it can be decades of waiting to open a single new metro station. So people can hope that budget conditions for live facial recognition surveillance will not be comparable outside Moscow.

    Although who knows how the authorities might prioritize these surveillance projects, if they feel it will change the balance of power.


    Uzbek and Tajik work ethic, do you know?

     

    Unfortunately certain ones can be a bit too "entrepreneurial" if judging from the speed of ISIS and Taliban franchises that have been opened,

    Quite positive impressions. Kazakhs
     
    I also have positive impressions. I had an interesting conversation with student a couple of months ago, who definitely wants to emigrate permanently in Western Europe though.

    Replies: @AaronB

    This is also an expensive system to install and operate for every station. Why would you build this elaborate system to improve “convenience” by using live facial recognition, when the existing system is already convenient and far less intrusive? A narrative about “convenience of payment” is kind of comical.

    In his post on substack comparing London vs Moscow, Karlin is very excited about this system and gives it as an example of why quality of life is so much better in Moscow.

    Its difficult for us, who are not completely under the spell of technology, to understand why these trivial increases in minor convenience are so exciting.

    But for those who regard technology as a sacred object, it’s productions are to be venerated and not subjected to a cost benefit analysis.

    If technology were not a sacred object, and one could think about it objectively, there are already many areas in which technology would be limited – or never invented in the first place – based on a cost benefit analysis.

    So I think you are misunderstanding the modern technocratic mindset – in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must be.

    Whether it benefits humans – or even has any real significance – is of secondary importance. As Jacques Ellis has said, we invented technology, but it has taken over our minds.

    If one wanted to be darkly superstitious, one might wonder if technology is not a kind of “fungus” that has taken over human minds in order to develop and spread itself 🙂

    But I do agree, that this system easily lends itself to abuse, and will certainly be abused and used for surveillance and control.

    • Agree: sher singh
    • Replies: @AaronB
    @AaronB


    So I think you are misunderstanding the modern technocratic mindset – in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must be.
     
    I was reading about the ancient Babylonian creation myth, in which mankind was created purely in order to be slaves to God - not to enter into a loving relationship with Him.

    It is an ancient conception of the divine, that precedes the Jewish/Christian one, and that arguably is the most popular subconscious notion of the divine held today.

    In the Babylonian creation myth, evil exists in the world prior to humans, and human life is only possible by violently fighting this evil force. Life is combat. Evil is not within you, where it has to be vanquished - it is out there, in the Other. Evil is externalized and materialized.

    Unlike the Bible, where God created a world that is wholly good, and evil entered the world because of man's mistakes, and had no real ontological status.

    Today, we tend to think of this conception as Manichean, but it long predates Mani, and may be the world's oldest - and simplest - myth.

    Walter Wink says of this myth - " The myth of redemptive violence is the simplest, laziest, most exciting, uncomplicated, irrational, and primitive depiction of evil the world has ever known".

    It is the "lowest common denominator" of myths, so to speak. Wink says that despite nominally being Judeo-Christian, the West actually is in the grip of the Babylonian creation myth, that the Bible fought, with it's notion of a one God who created a good world.

    That seems correct to me. Unz Review is obviously inspired entirely by this laziest - but most exciting - of myths, but no less so than Woke crowd. Our entire culture has sunk into the laziest and most undemanding of myths, that the Bible expressly fought, and which all higher religious and metaphysical systems have fought.

    Yet myths, when they grab human minds, are hard to shake loose. It could be that science and rationalism have so stripped our minds of capacity for complexity and nuance, that we are no longer capable of higher myths.

    Replies: @sher singh

    , @Dmitry
    @AaronB


    technology as a sacred
     
    Actually most people who are warning about these things, are workers in the technology industry.

    trivial increases in minor convenience
     
    Which in this example, is just something they say for gullible people. Purpose of the technology is simply to create a database of all individuals and their movements, who will be using these systems.

    Karlin is very excited about this system
     
    If Karlin is excited about a database that will automatically store his public movements in a file, then we should demand that he will post here to explain such sadomasochism.

    Usually he wants to publicly promote the Russian government - I guess he views the state (or pro-state public declarations) as merged to his self-interest or self-identity in some way.

    But there are areas where the interest of the ruling clique and the government they control, and all of the rest of the population, have diverged in a zero-sum way.

    Faking of the coronavirus statistics last year, which has even killed a lot of peoples' old relatives, was an example.

    This surveillance being installed into Moscow, is another example, but here feeling like actual dystopia is arriving, and also sadly reminds about KGB origins of politicians.

    By the way, as counter-example for your hypothesis, Putin doesn't like technology much, and thinks that toy robots purchased on aliexpress are Russian military robots. Of course, he will understands that information increases control and can change the balance of power though.


    in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must
     
    Aside from the Americans, we've been able to develop nuclear weapons, without using them. We've been able to control things like asbestos, even though it was a very financially profitable technology of the 20th century.

    And so it should be the same here. Those of us who work in the technology industry, need to educate more the overall population about these things, and then the public will need to think about the implications. Then to pressure for the political and legal sphere. Perhaps it will be possible in some countries.

  561. @LatW
    @Dmitry


    And when you see the direction of this year – where QR codes don’t even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.
     
    The QR codes may stay permanently... it's a possibility, right? And the measures against the unvaccinated and the strife and division are sad to watch, too.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Yellowface Anon, @Mr. Hack

    I have some Uzbeki Turks (Meskhetian Turks) that live across the street from me. Very nice and trustworthy people that seem entrepreneurial. They had a business for years where they would buy nice cars at an auction, and then repair them and turn around and sell them for a what I would presume to be a handsome profit. I never saw the old man of the family get underneath the hood of any car and get his fingernails dirty, as the work was done by his young sons. Lately, there has been an abrupt uptake in the number of nice cars that they’ve been hauling into their driveway. I asked one of the sons, if business had increased as of late, to which he replied that they were no longer involved in the fix-em-up car business. He had decided to become a professional car hauler where he could make a lot of money by just hauling cars around. The job he was going on next was going to pay him \$400 for a couple of hours of work.

    I’ve also known some Bukharin Jews too (also from Uzbekistan). The Meskhetian Turks have nothing on the Bukharin Jews when it comes to entrepreneurial skills. The two groups seem to be on friendly terms, at least in the Phoenix area.

  562. @AaronB
    @Dmitry


    This is also an expensive system to install and operate for every station. Why would you build this elaborate system to improve “convenience” by using live facial recognition, when the existing system is already convenient and far less intrusive? A narrative about “convenience of payment” is kind of comical.
     
    In his post on substack comparing London vs Moscow, Karlin is very excited about this system and gives it as an example of why quality of life is so much better in Moscow.

    Its difficult for us, who are not completely under the spell of technology, to understand why these trivial increases in minor convenience are so exciting.

    But for those who regard technology as a sacred object, it's productions are to be venerated and not subjected to a cost benefit analysis.

    If technology were not a sacred object, and one could think about it objectively, there are already many areas in which technology would be limited - or never invented in the first place - based on a cost benefit analysis.

    So I think you are misunderstanding the modern technocratic mindset - in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must be.

    Whether it benefits humans - or even has any real significance - is of secondary importance. As Jacques Ellis has said, we invented technology, but it has taken over our minds.

    If one wanted to be darkly superstitious, one might wonder if technology is not a kind of "fungus" that has taken over human minds in order to develop and spread itself :)

    But I do agree, that this system easily lends itself to abuse, and will certainly be abused and used for surveillance and control.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Dmitry

    So I think you are misunderstanding the modern technocratic mindset – in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must be.

    I was reading about the ancient Babylonian creation myth, in which mankind was created purely in order to be slaves to God – not to enter into a loving relationship with Him.

    It is an ancient conception of the divine, that precedes the Jewish/Christian one, and that arguably is the most popular subconscious notion of the divine held today.

    In the Babylonian creation myth, evil exists in the world prior to humans, and human life is only possible by violently fighting this evil force. Life is combat. Evil is not within you, where it has to be vanquished – it is out there, in the Other. Evil is externalized and materialized.

    Unlike the Bible, where God created a world that is wholly good, and evil entered the world because of man’s mistakes, and had no real ontological status.

    Today, we tend to think of this conception as Manichean, but it long predates Mani, and may be the world’s oldest – and simplest – myth.

    Walter Wink says of this myth – ” The myth of redemptive violence is the simplest, laziest, most exciting, uncomplicated, irrational, and primitive depiction of evil the world has ever known”.

    It is the “lowest common denominator” of myths, so to speak. Wink says that despite nominally being Judeo-Christian, the West actually is in the grip of the Babylonian creation myth, that the Bible fought, with it’s notion of a one God who created a good world.

    That seems correct to me. Unz Review is obviously inspired entirely by this laziest – but most exciting – of myths, but no less so than Woke crowd. Our entire culture has sunk into the laziest and most undemanding of myths, that the Bible expressly fought, and which all higher religious and metaphysical systems have fought.

    Yet myths, when they grab human minds, are hard to shake loose. It could be that science and rationalism have so stripped our minds of capacity for complexity and nuance, that we are no longer capable of higher myths.

    • Replies: @sher singh
    @AaronB

    Wrong:

    ਖੰਡਾ ਪ੍ਰਿਥਮੈ ਸਾਜ ਕੈ ਜਿਨ ਸਭ ਸੈਸਾਰੁ ਉਪਾਇਆ ॥
    kha(n)ddaa pirathamai saaj kai jin sabh saisaar upaiaa ||
    At first the Lord created the double-edged sword and then the whole world.

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

  563. @Aedib
    @sudden death

    What Gazprom need is to speed up pipelines to the Asian market. Western “partners” have shown to be unreliable clients: they want to fix quantities, prices and routes, all at the same time. This is not possible in a commoditized market but they are trying hard. The current gas prices they are paying are consequence of this silly behavior. They now are harvesting the consequences of these actions while blaming Russia for their own stupidity. Gazprom should keep sending the minimum agreed quantities while letting the market adjust by prices. Capitalism. Eurocrats seems unable to understand how capitalism work.

    Meanwhile

    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Russias-Biggest-Move-Yet-To-Take-Control-Of-The-European-Gas-Market.html

    Replies: @A123

    Gazprom should keep sending the minimum agreed quantities while letting the market adjust by prices. Capitalism.

    I agree. Europe should use European gas.

    Once Gazprom stops manipulation that favours Germany, the market will work correctly to develop low cost Norwegian and UK gas supplies. The Eurocrats will suffer at the hands of the market.

    PEACE 😇

  564. American SJW/DNC politicians are unhinged (1)

    These People are Not Stable

    Oregon Governor Kate Brown recently dropped all reading, writing and math proficiency standards for high school graduation, because she claimed it was unfair to “people of color” for them to have to pass tests in order to graduate {Go Deep}. Expecting black, brown and latino students to comprehend math and write in coherent sentences is racist – or so goes the policy. Governor Brown also mandated that masks continue be worn indoors and outside regardless of vaccine status (link).

    Historically, there has been a solid argument that leftism is a mental disorder; at least the vast majority of those who espouse leftist worldviews do -indeed- appear to have some cognitive impairment the vast majority of non-leftist people do not relate to. Slowly, as the years have progressed, it is now entirely possible to look at a person and predict their political persuasion.

    The picture below is telling. What is wrong with these people?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/11/15/these-people-are-not-stable/

    Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D)
     

  565. I saw a very good action movie at the cinema yesterday.

    The title in English is Nobody.

    It is a great example if you like that genre (I do in many cases), and I recommend it.

    After and while seeing it, though, I was annoyed by one point.

    The protagonist. Hutch, is originally inspired back to action by an inept home invasion by a Hispanic couple. The few reviews I have read state that the man of the couple has a connection to the ‘Russian’ mafia. That is clearly not the case.

    He just happens to be riding the same bus when a bunch of ‘Russian’ mafia board, and promptly leaves.

    Anyone who reads knows that any such big organised crime groups are run by Israelis from Israel. Almost all of Hutch’s opponents who have speaking parts have heavy, and I suspect in most cases, fake, Russian accents. It is such a bore that even an indy-style action film has to serve up the same kind of villains (except when they were Serbs)for the last over twenty years.

    However, it is a great example of the genre, several very original LOL points. No spoilers. Nobody was a lot of drama and fun, despite the cliched origin of the main villains.

  566. @A123
    @RadicalCenter


    Judeo-Christian is a rather absurd term — or if it’s not, then perhaps Christianity itself is part of the problem.
     
    Jews & Christians share "Old Testament" values, such as the Ten Commandments. No serious Christian rejects Judeo-Christian (a.k.a. Old Testament) values.

    Perhaps you are onto something:
        • Why is Pope Francis such a bad Christian?
        • As an anti-Semite, has he rejected the Old Testament?

    This would explain why he openly supports anti-Christian SJW values.

    And it’s not just the current pope ... It’s the previous popes, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, etc. You’re either indulging in wishful thinking or dissembling
     
    I am definitely not dissembling.

    God provides Faith. And, Faith provides Hope. I hope that the Catholic Church will reform. What is the difference between "hopeful" and "wishful"? I prefer the former, as it ties to common sense such as, "Hope for the Best. Prepare for the Worst". Prudent contingency planning will require scenarios where the Catholic Church stays rogue or schisms into separate churches.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @RadicalCenter, @RadicalCenter

    Anyone who’s sane and self-respecting will immediately reject the disgusting irrational view of “The” old testament that God chose one arrogant in-bred race of people, on one little planet, above all others.

    Sane people, “Christian” or not, will also reject much of the sickening perverse material in “The” old testament. A man having sex with his own daughters, when the daughters know that he is their father, presented in a positive light, yeah those are the good old “Judeo-Christian” values of “the” old testament. More where that came from.

    The OT is a mishmash of sound advice, beautiful peaceful loving philosophy, useful observations about life and human nature — and racial-supremacist garbage, useless genealogies, absurd fairy tales meant to glorify that same race of people, sexual perversion (but then brutal treatment of other perversion, like homosexuality), meandering unclear fluff, and conclusory assertions. It should be embarrassing to pretend that it is uniformly a sensible, morally decent, useful book — or that it is even internally consistent with itself and “the” new testament. But Christians, and worse “Judeo-Christians”, keep on going with the transparent foolishness.

    • Agree: Che Guava
    • Replies: @A123
    @RadicalCenter


    The OT is a mishmash
     
    You are making my points for me. Thanks.

    As I previously stayed, the OT has been edited, translated, further edited, and further translated. Attempting to take everything literally is obviously an error. Any version of any Bible is at best a flawed effort of mankind.

    The values it presents, for example the Ten Commandments, are compelling.

    But Christians, and worse “Judeo-Christians”, keep on going with the transparent foolishness.
     
    The fools are those who deny that Jews and Christians share values rooted in the Old Testament. It takes extreme Anti-Semitism to keep going on with this type of absurdity.

    PEACE 😇
    , @Che Guava
    @RadicalCenter

    Re. OT, it also has old myths from Sumeria, psalms from ancient Egypt, and I like the book of Job, a great tale.

    The Japanese words for OT and NT are better, containing the meaning of 'old covenant' and 'new covenant'.

    As a neo-Marcionite, though, I appreciate the bits of OT that you and I mention, some of the tales of incest, murder, and so within the tribe are entertaining.

    Most Christians have no idea of the Jewish ideas of scripture. They think Torah means OT.

    Of course, it only means the Jewish concoctions of the first five books, concocted centuries (almost half a millenium)later than the versions in the septuagint.

    Jews refer to their version of the OT as the Talnakh, it is even later than the Torah, relative to the septaguint, and has further diversions, mainly to nullify Christian claims of prophecy. I don't have the Jewish version to read, but know that it has major diversions from the septuagint, maybe some novel additions.

    ... and then there are the Talmuds, Jews who believe in these are the majority, and the contents so disgusting that it has been banned several times, but Jewish believers in it are violen'ly opposed to translations. Heard of one recently?

    Any Christian must be aware of this diffusion and reality. Judaism is alien.

    First step, understand that Torah is not OT.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  567. @AaronB
    @AaronB

    And if the task is to plant the seeds for a new culture, a new way of life, then David Graeber's new book is surely a sign of the times.

    I started reading it, and am about a quarter through only - it is as all of his books full of little known facts that shed new light on old issues and full of unexpected and interesting perspectives.

    It took a while for the main "point" to emerge, but Graeber is against "determinism" - the idea that social arrangements are merely inevitable responses to environment.

    He demonstrates how for most of prehistory, mankind was extremely flexible in political arrangements - even shifting between political styles seasonally (from egalitarian to hierarchical, from organized into states to loosely organized with no structure), a fact which I found remarkable! - and that the mystery is why we in the modern world have gotten "stuck" in one kind of political organization - so much so that we cannot even imagine alternatives.

    He shows fascinatingly, how the "standard anthropological narrative" we have today was a belated response to what he calls the "indigenous critique" of European society - apparently, the East Coast Woodlands American Indians, when Europeans first met them and tried to missionize them, articulated a well thought out - and devastating - critique of European civilization, which Europeans struggled to answer (and which had a tremendous impact on Enlightenment thinkers), until the Frenchman Turgot came up with the idea to defend European inequality by claiming it was inevitable in complex agricultural states just as equality was inevitable in hunter gathering society. Graeber gives example after example showing neither is true.

    Funnily, the Jesuits at the time did not value liberty or equality at all - they thought both were the mark of the savage :) A point hard for us to understand today.

    I keep on trying to summarize what I've read so far, but I keep on getting bogged down and giving up in despair and writing way too much :) It's impossible for me to summarize the richness of this book and follow it's often surprising train of thought without writing something far too long and boring.

    All I can say, this book is extremely timely for our times of disintegration and we'll worth reading!

    Replies: @RadicalCenter

    Well, “Jesuits” would be experts on savagery alright.

  568. @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    Anyone who’s sane and self-respecting will immediately reject the disgusting irrational view of “The” old testament that God chose one arrogant in-bred race of people, on one little planet, above all others.

    Sane people, “Christian” or not, will also reject much of the sickening perverse material in “The” old testament. A man having sex with his own daughters, when the daughters know that he is their father, presented in a positive light, yeah those are the good old “Judeo-Christian” values of “the” old testament. More where that came from.

    The OT is a mishmash of sound advice, beautiful peaceful loving philosophy, useful observations about life and human nature — and racial-supremacist garbage, useless genealogies, absurd fairy tales meant to glorify that same race of people, sexual perversion (but then brutal treatment of other perversion, like homosexuality), meandering unclear fluff, and conclusory assertions. It should be embarrassing to pretend that it is uniformly a sensible, morally decent, useful book — or that it is even internally consistent with itself and “the” new testament. But Christians, and worse “Judeo-Christians”, keep on going with the transparent foolishness.

    Replies: @A123, @Che Guava

    The OT is a mishmash

    You are making my points for me. Thanks.

    As I previously stayed, the OT has been edited, translated, further edited, and further translated. Attempting to take everything literally is obviously an error. Any version of any Bible is at best a flawed effort of mankind.

    The values it presents, for example the Ten Commandments, are compelling.

    But Christians, and worse “Judeo-Christians”, keep on going with the transparent foolishness.

    The fools are those who deny that Jews and Christians share values rooted in the Old Testament. It takes extreme Anti-Semitism to keep going on with this type of absurdity.

    PEACE 😇

  569. @songbird
    The King of Bhutan has the right idea: charge foreigners for each day they are in the country.

    The West has the wrong idea: pay foreigners for each day they are in the country.

    Replies: @RadicalCenter

    If they’re foreigners who were legally allowed into the country on a non-permanent basis, then his idea would be foolish.

    Foreigners should NOT lightly or commonly be offered citizenship and political rights, but they can and should be made welcome and treated very well when visiting as tourists, students, or businessmen. It’s the decent thing to do when you invite or let someone in, and it redounds to our own economic and diplomatic (good will) benefit.

    After careful screening, let large numbers of foreigners visit our country, treat them as welcome guests and friends, gladly accept the jobs and tax revenue from the money they spend while here — and then make sure they go home.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @RadicalCenter


    but they can and should be made welcome and treated very well when visiting as tourists, students, or businessmen.
     
    No way that hosting African students is a benefit. Kamala and Obama were both spawned that way. And I have personally known very obnoxious and socially harmful people born in that manner. Meanwhile, thousands of Nigerians in Ireland came as "tourists", really it was just to drop anchor babies. Many of the the 9/11 hijackers were "students." Is welcoming Arabs worth the billions of dollars and hassle that it costs annually?

    IMO, universalism, even at the level of tourism, is a pernicious philosophy. At most, we should be welcoming to civilized people, and this would completely write off many groups. No reason to screen Somalis, nor to allow people to travel to that hellscape.

    Not sure that there is a civilized country with an open travel regime that isn't pozzed.
  570. @RadicalCenter
    @songbird

    If they’re foreigners who were legally allowed into the country on a non-permanent basis, then his idea would be foolish.

    Foreigners should NOT lightly or commonly be offered citizenship and political rights, but they can and should be made welcome and treated very well when visiting as tourists, students, or businessmen. It’s the decent thing to do when you invite or let someone in, and it redounds to our own economic and diplomatic (good will) benefit.

    After careful screening, let large numbers of foreigners visit our country, treat them as welcome guests and friends, gladly accept the jobs and tax revenue from the money they spend while here — and then make sure they go home.

    Replies: @songbird

    but they can and should be made welcome and treated very well when visiting as tourists, students, or businessmen.

    No way that hosting African students is a benefit. Kamala and Obama were both spawned that way. And I have personally known very obnoxious and socially harmful people born in that manner. Meanwhile, thousands of Nigerians in Ireland came as “tourists”, really it was just to drop anchor babies. Many of the the 9/11 hijackers were “students.” Is welcoming Arabs worth the billions of dollars and hassle that it costs annually?

    IMO, universalism, even at the level of tourism, is a pernicious philosophy. At most, we should be welcoming to civilized people, and this would completely write off many groups. No reason to screen Somalis, nor to allow people to travel to that hellscape.

    Not sure that there is a civilized country with an open travel regime that isn’t pozzed.

  571. The #1 rule in American politics is to LARP, until your crew bangs. Both in the establishment, and outside.

  572. @A123
    @sudden death


    This does not seem very crucial setback, but it will take some additional time for sure.
     
    What you are seeing is internal German factionalism:
        • German Greens -- Who want to end hydrocarbon use
        • German Elites -- Who want NS2 to punish Poland

    Give Green focus on Regulatory Authority, it should not be too surprising that key regulators are Green Party acolytes.


    Energy blackmail of core EU by RF is a very good thing in fact, it is needed for sobering up and dumping the illusions about Gazprom supply reliability.
     
    Two problems with this erroneous conclusion:

    -1- Both WEF German Globalists and SJW German Greens despise the German people. Gazprom Elite bludgeoning of innocent Germans, is an ineffective choice. To blackmail, one must threaten something the other party values.

    -2- To those who do care about the innocent, Gazprom is proving itself unreliable by not delivering via the Poland-Belarus pipeline. Gazprom can formally present documented contracts and claim, in a highly legalistic Elite way, that they have "the right to abuse the proletariat". While such legalism may make an impression on their Globalist counterparts, it will do Gazprom Elites no good in terms of public opinion from the proles.
    ____

    There is another possibility that no one is considering:

    Gazprom has been ordered to adopt "play to lose" tactics.

    Christian Russia would gain by backing Christian Poland against SJW Germany. However, NS2 debt is 80-90% with German banks. Pulling out at this late date presents all sorts of financial risk. Maneuvering Germany into killing NS2 leaves creditors pursuing the German government for compensation.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    Both WEF German Globalists and SJW German Greens despise the German people. Gazprom Elite bludgeoning of innocent Germans, is an ineffective choice. To blackmail, one must threaten something the other party values.

    The high prices of natural gas are already causing a lot of factory production pain, with fertilizer plants just plain shutting down (Haber process, methane provides the hydrogens to attach to nitrogen to make ammonia, this consumes 1-2% of the world’s energy budgetm yields aren’t going to be great next year). Of course smart companies like BASF have as of late decided to set up new plants in the US.

    Lose enough supply and there will have to be widespread factory shutdowns to conserve gas for power plants and keeping pressure up in the distribution system, and if bad enough the former get shut down enough to force rolling blackouts, don’t want to have to relight neighborhoods worth of pilot lights. I’m sure the SJW (German) Greens want all German factories shut down, but the WEF German Globalists?

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
    • Troll: A123
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @That Would Be Telling


    I’m sure the SJW (German) Greens want all German factories shut down, but the WEF German Globalists?
     
    The WEF want centralized automation of industries and services that run on renewable energy, and also the subjugation of Russian sovereignty. The 1st objective will require considerable depopulation and impoverishment, sooner or later, in order to rescale resource consumption, and this is why you can find Germans freezing to death in their homes. The 2nd will involve economic pressure by removing Russian sources of revenue, and cutting gas imports helps with the 1st too. Denying gas feedstock to fertilizer production makes good sense if you want to create bottlenecks at critical points of supplies that sustain the current population & economic levels.

    It's Homodomor logic in reverse: instead of confiscating grains to subsidize industry even during widespread crop failures, it is blocking gas imports to penalize industry and creating shutdowns. There were a shortage of grains in Soviet Ukraine but no shortage of gas in Russia at the moment. Stalin acted on the suppliers and Merkel acts on the consumers.
  573. @A123
    @Aedib


    Minimum contractual gas flows via the Ukrainian and Belarusian pipelines. It is clear that Gazprom is playing the “wait and see” game to confront the excuses of Eurocrats to delay NS2. The time is on Gazprom side.
     
    Eurocrats?

    The way to force NS2 approval is running existing pipelines at 100% and showing that supply is insufficient to meet demand. Refusing to move gas via the existing pipeline through Poland proves that NS2 is 100% unnecessary. Gazprom is making Poland stronger and NS2 weaker.

    Time is on Poland's side. Once BalticPipe starts, an idle NS2 will be permanently dead. The clock is running against the axis of Gazprom & German Elites.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling

    The way to force NS2 approval is running existing pipelines at 100% and showing that supply is insufficient to meet demand. Refusing to move gas via the existing pipeline through Poland proves that NS2 is 100% unnecessary. Gazprom is making Poland stronger and NS2 weaker.

    In this thesis, Poland is only strong to the extent it has natural gas to supply westward. To the extent that comes from Gazprom, the latter is still the strong horse.

    One detail I haven’t seen emphasized in the recent discussions here on all this: Putin is supposedly saying he’d like to sign long term full supply contracts with Europe. The “we are fulfilling our contracts” thing comes from those sorts of contracts, which here in the US “consumer advocates” and their captured regulatory bodies hate beyond a minimal baseline because when spot market prices go below the contractual ones the consumer loses.

    Except of course the consumer gets totally screwed when spot market prices explode, people in the middle of the US will be paying thousands of dollars over the next decade or so due to the polar vortex plunging down to Texas in February of this year.

    So back to Gasprom, as I understand it it’s simply not supplying excess non-contracted gas for the spot market. All other thermal fuel sources including gas production in Europe, LNG imports and evil coal are maxed out, with that side of Eurasia not being able to fill up natural gas reservoirs to their normal levels for winter. Earlier I was reading that included west of Russia Gasprom reservoirs (and US ones aren’t in great shape after February).

    • Agree: Aedib
    • Troll: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @That Would Be Telling

    You are missing the Forest for the Trees. Instead of over complexity about storage and legalism about contracts, focus on the key issue.

    Gazprom:
        • Says NS2 is necessary because additional capacity is needed.
        • Proves NS2 is *not* necessary because they cannot even fill existing pipelines.

    Gazprom cannot have it both ways.

    If Gazprom can already meet 100% of their contracts without NS2 what is the justification for NS2?

    The argument for NS2 is that is the only option to deliver enough gas. So, being an unreliable partner (even if technically contractually compliant) by underdelivering via Poland functionally eradicates the justification for NS2.

    PEACE 😇

    , @Aedib
    @That Would Be Telling

    Poland and Ukraine are furiously opposing NS2 because they do no want to lose incomes from toll pipelines. They try to disguise their interests as a holy crusade against the beasts of Moscow but the explanation is way simpler: they were accustomed to get money by doing nothing. Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.

    Replies: @A123, @AP

    , @sudden death
    @That Would Be Telling


    So back to Gasprom, as I understand it it’s simply not supplying excess non-contracted gas for the spot market.
     
    Even if important, this is relatively secondary issue, the main problem is inability or deliberate refusal to fill empty underground gas storage facilities (UGS) of Gazprom in Europe:

    The largest underground gas storage facilities (UGS) of Gazprom in Europe – Rehden and Jemgum in Germany, Haidach in Austria – began to empty and did not switch to the intensive injection mode. Now the stocks there are at a critically low level, despite the president’s instructions to intensively replenish the European storage facilities after the Russian ones are filled.

    According to European UGS operators, Rehden’s reserves are estimated at 9.58 percent; Jemgum (87.4 percent) and Haidach (54.2 percent) are being withdrawn and already pumped out 10 and 6 million cubic meters, respectively. Another storage facility, Bergermeer in the Netherlands, is 30.71 percent full, but selection has begun there too.

    In turn, Gazprom explained that the indicators of net production or injection are biased, since not only the Russian company stores gas in the UGS. At the same time, Kommersant points out, the filling level of the company’s own storage facilities in Europe remains three times lower than the EU average. Thus, it is no longer possible to make up for the lag this year.

    Fitch analyst Dmitry Marinchenko stressed that for this it is necessary to pump at least 5 billion cubic meters of gas. Taking into account that the aggregate maximum design capacity of Rehden, Jemgum, Haidach and Bergermeer for injection is about 80 million cubic meters per day, the Russian monopoly will have to maximize the capacity of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline by the end of the year, but the company has already booked them at a minimum level of up to end of November.
     
    https://pledgetimes.com/gazproms-storage-facilities-in-europe-began-to-empty/

    Низкий уровень запасов в ПХГ создает риски для самого «Газпрома»: ему будет сложно покрыть суточные пики потребления по своим контрактам, поскольку так быстро газ по газопроводам физически поставить невозможно.

    My quick translation:

    The low level of reserves in the UGS creates risks for Gazprom itself: it will be difficult for it to cover daily consumption peaks under its contracts, since it is impossible to physically supply gas through gas pipelines so fast.

     

    https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5066360?from=top_main_3

    Replies: @A123

  574. (1) If you see Joe Biden’s picture on a gas pump these days, it’s not a tribute to his amazingly successful energy policy.

    The stickers — with Biden pointing to the \$3.50 a gallon gas price and saying “I did that!” — are part of a Republican guerrilla campaign to undermine the Democratic administration. They’ve gone viral online.

    And it’s cheap and easy.

    A 100-pack of the stickers is going for just six bucks on Amazon.

    (2) Biden tormented by Republican guerrilla campaign and ‘I did it’ stickers.

    Saul Alinsky: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”

    This is also a good illustration of why Leftoids are so hysterically opposed to successful irony like #LetsGoBrandon. It is a technique that leaves no room for response by humorless, low-IQ yahoos.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/11/15/biden-tormented-by-republican-guerrilla-campaign-and-i-did-it-stickers/

    (2) https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/485584/
    ___________

    Example from Texas:

     

  575. @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    The way to force NS2 approval is running existing pipelines at 100% and showing that supply is insufficient to meet demand. Refusing to move gas via the existing pipeline through Poland proves that NS2 is 100% unnecessary. Gazprom is making Poland stronger and NS2 weaker.
     
    In this thesis, Poland is only strong to the extent it has natural gas to supply westward. To the extent that comes from Gazprom, the latter is still the strong horse.

    One detail I haven't seen emphasized in the recent discussions here on all this: Putin is supposedly saying he'd like to sign long term full supply contracts with Europe. The "we are fulfilling our contracts" thing comes from those sorts of contracts, which here in the US "consumer advocates" and their captured regulatory bodies hate beyond a minimal baseline because when spot market prices go below the contractual ones the consumer loses.

    Except of course the consumer gets totally screwed when spot market prices explode, people in the middle of the US will be paying thousands of dollars over the next decade or so due to the polar vortex plunging down to Texas in February of this year.

    So back to Gasprom, as I understand it it's simply not supplying excess non-contracted gas for the spot market. All other thermal fuel sources including gas production in Europe, LNG imports and evil coal are maxed out, with that side of Eurasia not being able to fill up natural gas reservoirs to their normal levels for winter. Earlier I was reading that included west of Russia Gasprom reservoirs (and US ones aren't in great shape after February).

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib, @sudden death

    You are missing the Forest for the Trees. Instead of over complexity about storage and legalism about contracts, focus on the key issue.

    Gazprom:
        • Says NS2 is necessary because additional capacity is needed.
        • Proves NS2 is *not* necessary because they cannot even fill existing pipelines.

    Gazprom cannot have it both ways.

    If Gazprom can already meet 100% of their contracts without NS2 what is the justification for NS2?

    The argument for NS2 is that is the only option to deliver enough gas. So, being an unreliable partner (even if technically contractually compliant) by underdelivering via Poland functionally eradicates the justification for NS2.

    PEACE 😇

  576. Russia and China could blow up every satellite in orbit, and it would not be 1/100 as dangerous or destructive to global civilization as America’s idolization of gays, trannies, and blacks.

    • Thanks: sher singh
  577. German_reader says:

    https://www.gbnews.uk/news/brexit-eu-very-much-a-project-of-white-privilege-says-government-minister/159569

    In reply, Lord Kamall said: “As someone whose family comes from outside the EU, who has taught in universities and who recognises the great asset that there is and the great advantages that there are in being open to the world, and global Britain, I share her frustration.

    “Yes, we have left the EU, which is very much a project of white privilege, and moved to a more global outlook. It is really important that we now focus on the world generally.”

    That guy has been a member of the “Conservatives” since 1987 and was made a peer last year, having been nominated by Boris Johnson.
    Good to know that Brexit was about standing up to “white privilege”. Not the first time one has heard this interpretation from British politicians either.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader

    Going to go out on a limb and suppose that Jews are the majority funders of the Conservative Party. If not, add in Indians.

    Replies: @German_reader

  578. @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    The way to force NS2 approval is running existing pipelines at 100% and showing that supply is insufficient to meet demand. Refusing to move gas via the existing pipeline through Poland proves that NS2 is 100% unnecessary. Gazprom is making Poland stronger and NS2 weaker.
     
    In this thesis, Poland is only strong to the extent it has natural gas to supply westward. To the extent that comes from Gazprom, the latter is still the strong horse.

    One detail I haven't seen emphasized in the recent discussions here on all this: Putin is supposedly saying he'd like to sign long term full supply contracts with Europe. The "we are fulfilling our contracts" thing comes from those sorts of contracts, which here in the US "consumer advocates" and their captured regulatory bodies hate beyond a minimal baseline because when spot market prices go below the contractual ones the consumer loses.

    Except of course the consumer gets totally screwed when spot market prices explode, people in the middle of the US will be paying thousands of dollars over the next decade or so due to the polar vortex plunging down to Texas in February of this year.

    So back to Gasprom, as I understand it it's simply not supplying excess non-contracted gas for the spot market. All other thermal fuel sources including gas production in Europe, LNG imports and evil coal are maxed out, with that side of Eurasia not being able to fill up natural gas reservoirs to their normal levels for winter. Earlier I was reading that included west of Russia Gasprom reservoirs (and US ones aren't in great shape after February).

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib, @sudden death

    Poland and Ukraine are furiously opposing NS2 because they do no want to lose incomes from toll pipelines. They try to disguise their interests as a holy crusade against the beasts of Moscow but the explanation is way simpler: they were accustomed to get money by doing nothing. Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.

    • Agree: Not Raul
    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib


    ...both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.
     
    Bavarians seek SJW Globalist hegemony. Poland opposes NS2, because they know it will be used as a club against Christianity & national sovereignty.

        • How is it in Russia's interest to strengthen the SJW Hegemon?
        • Is Putin a helpless pawn of Russia's industrialists?

    Explain the long-term *strategy*, not the very short term economics. Anything Gazprom gains today will be ground away in higher costs as SJW EU bureaucrats expand under the control of Elite German Bankers.

    PEACE 😇
    , @AP
    @Aedib


    Poland and Ukraine are furiously opposing NS2 because they do no want to lose incomes from toll pipelines.
     
    Not only that. It also renders Poland and Ukraine (well, not so much Poland, thanks to NATO shield but who knows) subject to invasion with no financial consequences because Russia will no longer need those pipes going through Ukraine to make $$$ off its gas with Europe.

    Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.
     
    Prices aren't going to go down for Europe though.

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib

  579. @German_reader
    https://www.gbnews.uk/news/brexit-eu-very-much-a-project-of-white-privilege-says-government-minister/159569

    In reply, Lord Kamall said: “As someone whose family comes from outside the EU, who has taught in universities and who recognises the great asset that there is and the great advantages that there are in being open to the world, and global Britain, I share her frustration.

    “Yes, we have left the EU, which is very much a project of white privilege, and moved to a more global outlook. It is really important that we now focus on the world generally.”
     
    That guy has been a member of the "Conservatives" since 1987 and was made a peer last year, having been nominated by Boris Johnson.
    Good to know that Brexit was about standing up to "white privilege". Not the first time one has heard this interpretation from British politicians either.

    Replies: @songbird

    Going to go out on a limb and suppose that Jews are the majority funders of the Conservative Party. If not, add in Indians.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @songbird

    I don't know about that, but the treasurer of the Tories is this charming fellow, an actual Israeli (with ties to "organised-crime-connected figures", whatever that means):
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Sheleg
    Safe to say that the Tories are unlikely to enact the kind of policies many Brexit voters want (though given that quite a few Brexiteers seem to be motivated by utterly deranged hatred of continental Europe, many of them might be fine with this "global Britain" nonsense).

    Replies: @Coconuts

  580. @songbird
    Some day, I hope that they do a TED talk about physiognomy, or, better yet, turn the whole thing into talks about physiognomy and HBD.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Coconuts

    There is a Russian detective series from a couple of years ago where the lead detective character has perfected Cesare Lombroso’s system of physiognomy and always identifies the criminal by studying their facial features and ears.

    I was watching it, not so long after seeing some of Ed Dutton’s talks and I thought, this is quite based. Also, when are the BBC going to buy the concept and make a British version?

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Coconuts

    Once saw a Ted Talk by an anatomist about identifying pedophiles. Somewhat to my disappointment, it turned out to be about using veinal patterns of hands as a sort of fingerprint to identify individual perpetrators.

    Replies: @Coconuts

  581. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    @German_reader

    Going to go out on a limb and suppose that Jews are the majority funders of the Conservative Party. If not, add in Indians.

    Replies: @German_reader

    I don’t know about that, but the treasurer of the Tories is this charming fellow, an actual Israeli (with ties to “organised-crime-connected figures”, whatever that means):
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Sheleg
    Safe to say that the Tories are unlikely to enact the kind of policies many Brexit voters want (though given that quite a few Brexiteers seem to be motivated by utterly deranged hatred of continental Europe, many of them might be fine with this “global Britain” nonsense).

    • Agree: Not Raul
    • Thanks: songbird
    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    It's more or less certain, they hardly have any leaders. I think part of the motivation behind the importation of BLM and the decolonisation agenda after the death of Floyd was to counter-act any influence that mass of Brexit voters might have been able to have as well.

    Replies: @German_reader

  582. @Svidomyatheart
    @Latw this is my post to the previous thread,

    Right now Putin is very careful and trying to maneuver through all kinds of "obstacles" I was reading on their forums and here is how Russian logic goes: they're pissed that they've been constantly "losing geopolitically" to "stupid Poles and others" with all their massive resources and human capital(yes there's alot more nuclear scientists/physicists/weapon designers/etc in Russia than Poland) who managed to use the USA to a great advantage(im talking about Brzezinski of course).
    So now their strategy is to wait it out and let it all implode and let the US and its compradors drown and suffocate the "butthurt belt" in neoliberalism, African migrants, Muslims, Jews, homo and trans psyops and hedonism, and other vices and then when the time is right come in and "take what's theirs".

    Russians want to "not to make the same mistake like we did after WW2 and allowing you to live because if we let you live another Brzezinski will appear, another Latvian guard will rise, another Stalin(yes they're pissed at Stalin too I guess because he was needlessly wasting so many talented lives) and that is a danger to Russia itself.


    As for us, we just need to outlive and survive them.

    Recently Turkics have really gotten activated. Pan Turanism and neo Ottomanism is revitalizing. I dont know if its US State dept. pushing it(Russia's soft underbelly, blah blah) or on their own volition because they smell a weakness in the Great Powers but man do they want to rule and think half of the globe belongs to them and and are really pissed at the whole world for real and perceived injustices.

    Im not putting my chips on them yet but they're going to be a headache, Russia has lots of those Turkics and while they're quiet for now they definitely have something else in their hearts. Quite frankly im glad we washed our hands off this Turkic problem. While you dont just give out land like that, let Russia sit and pander to them they've done it before for hundreds of years and all those minorities will forever be a burden -not our problem now. If only we could transport all our remaining Muslims somewhere....permanently.

    In coming decades, Central Asia is projected to almost match Russia's entire population-- Russian influence there will be very curtailed if not outright purged. Russians were cucked in the 90's when Kazakhstan was like half Russian and they let it go what do they expect now? They will slow be pushed out. Instead they take it out on us. To be honest Tolya explained it well here,
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/kyrgyzstan-national-myth/


    Also whats with every 2nd Balt nationalist on twitter being an Islamofascist?I guess it applies more to Estonians than Latvians but it just seems like endless simping for all kinds of Muslims and Turks with no returns whatsoever. It just seems to me they are vicarious living through others just like American boomers live through Israeli nationalism because they cant have their own.
    Is it perhaps Balts realize Protestantism and Catholicism has failed them so they're searching for something else that can guide their country in the future?(Islam is definitely still kicking but thats because its always supported over Christianity by the whole West). Or is it because Finno Ugrics were associated with Turkics during the 20th century(isnt their DNA similar?) so it makes sense to stick to "rising" races? Allowed to have a seat at the table of BASED TVRAN or as honorary guests and all that?


    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?

    Replies: @LatW, @Coconuts

    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?

    The growing size of the Muslim minority seems to be a factor in pushing French politics further right, which is probably the case in other European countries as well, just the numbers in the other places are still smaller so far.

    It’s been predicted that Islam may be the stumbling block for Liberalism, the thing it can’t successfully co-opt. This could be true, Muslim communities in the West seem to better at successfully protecting their own approach to politics, where the patriarchal family rather than the individual is the basic political unit, and they have their own attitude to economics and education, as the stats Dmitry posted in the other thread about the earnings of British Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims compared to other groups indicated.

    The way they are favoured by progressives (is this something like the Nazi-Soviet pact?) may be enough to allow them to grow in numbers enough to provoke the kind of response now being seen in France, both Muslim growth and counter movements are bad for the future of Liberalism imo.

    • Replies: @Svidomyatheart
    @Coconuts

    Of course liberals are going to fail to assimilate Muslims and those other clannish people. It wont be any different whatsoever than what USSR tried to do with its Muslims. They will just revert back to "Muslimness" in a couple of years and liberals will end up with lots of resources wasted.


    I actually like visiting various country twitters just to see what truly goes on inside their heads. Its so easy to get them to reveal their true side if you pick them a little. Muslims from all over the world are still larping about another conquest, Africans are being "transmogrified" and turn into larping "African Americans" in roughly 5 years. Even the Africans that didnt have a concept of a written language or a wheel some 90 years ago seem to want to debate and lay claims on what's not theirs . Expect this all to worsen as US pushes its propaganda all over the world through mass media and as smart phones get cheaper and cheaper.


    Oh if only we behaved more like all those Muslims Caucasians and Jews and less like "Europeans". But then US would probably bomb the shit out of Europe lol.

  583. @AP
    @Mikel


    I could tell quite a few stories about the people I see immigrating to the US, BTW. Only yesterday I had a guy in my house who had been released by the CBP last Monday, after illegally crossing the Rio Grande. He was helping his father, another “asylum seeker”, do a plumbing job. These people come here to start working from the get-go, make quite a lot of money (that they spend almost as fast as it comes), and live a paradise life, compared with what they left behind.
     
    Around here (the Northeast) many of the illegals or semi-legals (they are here legally, but work despite the fact that they are not supposed to) include a lot of Poles and Ukrainians. Some Ukrainian illegals have even arrived through Mexico.

    I've seen though not socialized much with the Polish workers beyond superficial greeting pleasantries (some work for a Ukrainian guy I know). The Ukrainian illegals and semi-legals work 6-7 days per week, several guys sharing a small apartment to make money. Because it is hard to make it to America and this may be their only chance, they stay for several years. Women work as caretakers for old people. Many Ukrainian-Americans have such women caring for their grandparents. They speak the same language, make the same foods, it's a great deal.

    Many of the Ukrainians have families back home. They save what they make, allowing themselves an occasional barbecue and vodka drinking session for entertainment (some also have affairs, celibacy is difficult for people away from home for years). Most of what they earn is sent back to Ukraine. The money results in large houses or is seed money for a business that they start when they return.

    It's a lot easier and better for families to go to Poland or Germany, because then one can visit home regularly and cheaply. But America offers much more money.

    The eastern European workers tend to be honest, very hardworking and competent. Their work is in generally of higher quality than what I have seen of either Latino illegals or of (native) Americans, who often have problems with opioids (so beware of theft, with them).

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Mikel

    Poles and Ukrainians

    No, we rarely see that kind of exotic immigrants around here 🙂

    But it’s true that the few recent European immigrants that you see from time to time in Utah are almost always Eastern Europeans: Ukrainians, Poles and some Bosnians that probably came after the Yugoslav wars. As far as I know, all the Ukrainians and Poles I’ve met came here legally though. I even know of a Belarusian guy who would love to emigrate to the US and applies to the Green Card visa every year but would never think of coming illegally. He’s a professional who leads a decent life with regular vacations in Turkey and Egypt.

    I did notice a couple of waves of Gypsies though, most likely of Romanian origin. They were quite visible, begging at the exit of the stores, but they seem to have moved somewhere else.

  584. @Coconuts
    @songbird

    There is a Russian detective series from a couple of years ago where the lead detective character has perfected Cesare Lombroso's system of physiognomy and always identifies the criminal by studying their facial features and ears.

    I was watching it, not so long after seeing some of Ed Dutton's talks and I thought, this is quite based. Also, when are the BBC going to buy the concept and make a British version?

    Replies: @songbird

    Once saw a Ted Talk by an anatomist about identifying pedophiles. Somewhat to my disappointment, it turned out to be about using veinal patterns of hands as a sort of fingerprint to identify individual perpetrators.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @songbird

    That would be a disappointment, unless maybe there are something like 'pedo patterns' to the veins, where certain configurations of veins are correlated with this kind of offending.

    Replies: @German_reader

  585. @Aedib
    @That Would Be Telling

    Poland and Ukraine are furiously opposing NS2 because they do no want to lose incomes from toll pipelines. They try to disguise their interests as a holy crusade against the beasts of Moscow but the explanation is way simpler: they were accustomed to get money by doing nothing. Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.

    Replies: @A123, @AP

    …both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.

    Bavarians seek SJW Globalist hegemony. Poland opposes NS2, because they know it will be used as a club against Christianity & national sovereignty.

        • How is it in Russia’s interest to strengthen the SJW Hegemon?
        • Is Putin a helpless pawn of Russia’s industrialists?

    Explain the long-term *strategy*, not the very short term economics. Anything Gazprom gains today will be ground away in higher costs as SJW EU bureaucrats expand under the control of Elite German Bankers.

    PEACE 😇

    • Troll: Not Raul
  586. @German_reader
    @songbird

    I don't know about that, but the treasurer of the Tories is this charming fellow, an actual Israeli (with ties to "organised-crime-connected figures", whatever that means):
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Sheleg
    Safe to say that the Tories are unlikely to enact the kind of policies many Brexit voters want (though given that quite a few Brexiteers seem to be motivated by utterly deranged hatred of continental Europe, many of them might be fine with this "global Britain" nonsense).

    Replies: @Coconuts

    It’s more or less certain, they hardly have any leaders. I think part of the motivation behind the importation of BLM and the decolonisation agenda after the death of Floyd was to counter-act any influence that mass of Brexit voters might have been able to have as well.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Coconuts

    Not sure imo there's any deliberate plan behind this, but it's really quite striking that a term like "white privilege" with its origins in US "antiracist" activism can so easily be adopted by a senior Tory figure (ok, the guy is a subcontinental Muslim, so likely to have resentments of his own, but still, quite remarkable). I'm not a fan of the EU in its current form myself, but the monomaniacal anti-EU focus of British right-wingers (?) was probably counter-productive.

    Replies: @A123, @Coconuts

  587. German_reader says:
    @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    It's more or less certain, they hardly have any leaders. I think part of the motivation behind the importation of BLM and the decolonisation agenda after the death of Floyd was to counter-act any influence that mass of Brexit voters might have been able to have as well.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Not sure imo there’s any deliberate plan behind this, but it’s really quite striking that a term like “white privilege” with its origins in US “antiracist” activism can so easily be adopted by a senior Tory figure (ok, the guy is a subcontinental Muslim, so likely to have resentments of his own, but still, quite remarkable). I’m not a fan of the EU in its current form myself, but the monomaniacal anti-EU focus of British right-wingers (?) was probably counter-productive.

    • Agree: Not Raul
    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader

    BoJo is a poor leader for the Tories. As a former London mayor he was compromised before he became PM.

    Hopefully the next leader will be better.
    ____

    America has discovered Asian privilege in Boston: (1)


    NPR deemed Wu's win a 'letdown' for some after she defeated African American candiates

    The article spends much of its length documenting somber reactions to Wu’s victory, with one interviewee admitting they "cried [their] eyes out" because they didn’t know the next time they would see a Black mayor in the city.
    ...
    A third interviewee also said he felt "grief" that a Black candidate "didn’t make the cut."

    The nonprofit media organization laid out polling data of the race, which showed the three Black candidates got three-quarters of the vote in areas with the highest concentrations of people of color, but only won one-quarter of the votes in the whitest areas.
     
    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.foxnews.com/media/npr-slammed-disappointment-boston-asian-mayor
    , @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    It's really surprising the way in which so much of the US stuff has been adopted verbatim, even down to things that are bizarre given the actual context, like BIPOC. It seems to me that it has been able to happen is an indication that Britain is losing a sense of its history; some Conservatives will discuss it in a small way in Youtube videos, and retired academics like David Starkey, but it is marginal compared to adoption of the US concepts.

    There seemed to be a tacit understanding in the couple of years before the referendum that EU migration could be discussed and commented on negatively up to a point, but not the other kinds from outside the EU, because there was still a lot of sensitivity around race issues. .

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  588. @songbird
    @Coconuts

    Once saw a Ted Talk by an anatomist about identifying pedophiles. Somewhat to my disappointment, it turned out to be about using veinal patterns of hands as a sort of fingerprint to identify individual perpetrators.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    That would be a disappointment, unless maybe there are something like ‘pedo patterns’ to the veins, where certain configurations of veins are correlated with this kind of offending.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Coconuts

    There actually are claims that pedophiles are more likely to have "facial anomalies" (and to be left-handed):
    https://www.psypost.org/2015/06/study-pedophiles-more-likely-to-have-physical-irregularities-and-be-left-handed-34990
    Of course difficult to evaluate for a layman if there's anything to such claims (and the implications are disturbing if pedophiles are really "born that way").

    Replies: @songbird


  589. Over the weekend the news broke that certain ILLEGAL aliens families would get \$450,000 PER PERSON or \$1,000,000 PER FAMILY. On Wednesday, 11/4, Biden in a press conference declared that that would not happen. On Thursday, 11/5, the temporary Press Secretary (Jen Psaki out with COVID) at a press conference declared the Dept. of Justice is still negotiating a settlement with the ILLEGALS. Either the litigates are haggling over the payout amount (just not \$450,000 or \$1,000,000) or Biden is as clueless as ever what his own administration is doing.

    Is this a joke? My parents didn’t get any remuneration when they immigrated to the US. In fact, they had to have a sponsor who would pay for any debts that they found themselves obtaining. How times have changed…for the worse! 🙁

    • Replies: @A123
    @Mr. Hack

    Not a joke. (1)


    "The Biden administration is in talks to offer immigrant families that were separated during the Trump administration around $450,000 a person in compensation, according to people familiar with the matter, as several agencies work to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma," the Wall Street Journal reported. "The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering payments that could amount to close to $1 million a family,
     
    The occupied White House keeps trying to deny it. However, Not-The-President Biden is a very unconvincing figure.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2021/11/04/so-are-we-paying-illegal-aliens-450000-or-not-n2598551
  590. @German_reader
    @Coconuts

    Not sure imo there's any deliberate plan behind this, but it's really quite striking that a term like "white privilege" with its origins in US "antiracist" activism can so easily be adopted by a senior Tory figure (ok, the guy is a subcontinental Muslim, so likely to have resentments of his own, but still, quite remarkable). I'm not a fan of the EU in its current form myself, but the monomaniacal anti-EU focus of British right-wingers (?) was probably counter-productive.

    Replies: @A123, @Coconuts

    BoJo is a poor leader for the Tories. As a former London mayor he was compromised before he became PM.

    Hopefully the next leader will be better.
    ____

    America has discovered Asian privilege in Boston: (1)

    NPR deemed Wu’s win a ‘letdown’ for some after she defeated African American candiates

    The article spends much of its length documenting somber reactions to Wu’s victory, with one interviewee admitting they “cried [their] eyes out” because they didn’t know the next time they would see a Black mayor in the city.

    A third interviewee also said he felt “grief” that a Black candidate “didn’t make the cut.”

    The nonprofit media organization laid out polling data of the race, which showed the three Black candidates got three-quarters of the vote in areas with the highest concentrations of people of color, but only won one-quarter of the votes in the whitest areas.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.foxnews.com/media/npr-slammed-disappointment-boston-asian-mayor

  591. @Coconuts
    @songbird

    That would be a disappointment, unless maybe there are something like 'pedo patterns' to the veins, where certain configurations of veins are correlated with this kind of offending.

    Replies: @German_reader

    There actually are claims that pedophiles are more likely to have “facial anomalies” (and to be left-handed):
    https://www.psypost.org/2015/06/study-pedophiles-more-likely-to-have-physical-irregularities-and-be-left-handed-34990
    Of course difficult to evaluate for a layman if there’s anything to such claims (and the implications are disturbing if pedophiles are really “born that way”).

    • Thanks: Coconuts
    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader


    There actually are claims that pedophiles are more likely to have “facial anomalies”
     
    The brain and face are linked. The complexity of one is reflective of the complexity of the other, and malformations in one can be reflective of malformations in the other.

    Don't know if you heard about this study linking the face to political identification:
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-do-you-know/202103/can-selfie-predict-your-politics

    I am a hereditarian. I can see a lot of positives in being able to screen for pedophilia.

    I can even see possible positives in being able to screen for politics. (In theory, you could make unpozzable organizations. Or put kids into a positive education environment that would resonate with them, or help match people romantically into something stable) Though, I suppose it would be likely to be harnessed for sinister purposes, at least, if the Left ever becomes hereditarian. But mostly I don't worry about scenarios like this.

    What does bother me sometimes is that it is hard to know what standard to try to hold people to, if they have a different OS than me. Politically, I believe in standards, so I just can't shrug them away, like some others can. Yet, I often find myself struggling with questions about how to deal with stupid people (I mean like one or two SD below average) or narcissistic people, or people who are natural A-holes.

  592. @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    The way to force NS2 approval is running existing pipelines at 100% and showing that supply is insufficient to meet demand. Refusing to move gas via the existing pipeline through Poland proves that NS2 is 100% unnecessary. Gazprom is making Poland stronger and NS2 weaker.
     
    In this thesis, Poland is only strong to the extent it has natural gas to supply westward. To the extent that comes from Gazprom, the latter is still the strong horse.

    One detail I haven't seen emphasized in the recent discussions here on all this: Putin is supposedly saying he'd like to sign long term full supply contracts with Europe. The "we are fulfilling our contracts" thing comes from those sorts of contracts, which here in the US "consumer advocates" and their captured regulatory bodies hate beyond a minimal baseline because when spot market prices go below the contractual ones the consumer loses.

    Except of course the consumer gets totally screwed when spot market prices explode, people in the middle of the US will be paying thousands of dollars over the next decade or so due to the polar vortex plunging down to Texas in February of this year.

    So back to Gasprom, as I understand it it's simply not supplying excess non-contracted gas for the spot market. All other thermal fuel sources including gas production in Europe, LNG imports and evil coal are maxed out, with that side of Eurasia not being able to fill up natural gas reservoirs to their normal levels for winter. Earlier I was reading that included west of Russia Gasprom reservoirs (and US ones aren't in great shape after February).

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib, @sudden death

    So back to Gasprom, as I understand it it’s simply not supplying excess non-contracted gas for the spot market.

    Even if important, this is relatively secondary issue, the main problem is inability or deliberate refusal to fill empty underground gas storage facilities (UGS) of Gazprom in Europe:

    The largest underground gas storage facilities (UGS) of Gazprom in Europe – Rehden and Jemgum in Germany, Haidach in Austria – began to empty and did not switch to the intensive injection mode. Now the stocks there are at a critically low level, despite the president’s instructions to intensively replenish the European storage facilities after the Russian ones are filled.

    According to European UGS operators, Rehden’s reserves are estimated at 9.58 percent; Jemgum (87.4 percent) and Haidach (54.2 percent) are being withdrawn and already pumped out 10 and 6 million cubic meters, respectively. Another storage facility, Bergermeer in the Netherlands, is 30.71 percent full, but selection has begun there too.

    In turn, Gazprom explained that the indicators of net production or injection are biased, since not only the Russian company stores gas in the UGS. At the same time, Kommersant points out, the filling level of the company’s own storage facilities in Europe remains three times lower than the EU average. Thus, it is no longer possible to make up for the lag this year.

    Fitch analyst Dmitry Marinchenko stressed that for this it is necessary to pump at least 5 billion cubic meters of gas. Taking into account that the aggregate maximum design capacity of Rehden, Jemgum, Haidach and Bergermeer for injection is about 80 million cubic meters per day, the Russian monopoly will have to maximize the capacity of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline by the end of the year, but the company has already booked them at a minimum level of up to end of November.

    https://pledgetimes.com/gazproms-storage-facilities-in-europe-began-to-empty/

    Низкий уровень запасов в ПХГ создает риски для самого «Газпрома»: ему будет сложно покрыть суточные пики потребления по своим контрактам, поскольку так быстро газ по газопроводам физически поставить невозможно.

    My quick translation:

    The low level of reserves in the UGS creates risks for Gazprom itself: it will be difficult for it to cover daily consumption peaks under its contracts, since it is impossible to physically supply gas through gas pipelines so fast.

    https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5066360?from=top_main_3

    • Replies: @A123
    @sudden death

    Thank you for validating my position. Two quotes from your piece are telling.


    Gazprom itself: it will be difficult for it to cover daily consumption peaks under its contracts, since it is impossible to physically supply gas through gas pipelines so fast.
     

    the Russian monopoly will have to maximize the capacity of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline by the end of the year, but [Gazprom] has already booked them at a minimum level of up to end of November.
     
    If Gazprom was operating in a reliable commercial manner it would already be taking steps to maximize delivery to storage in Europe. Whinging about "Contracts" vs. "Spot" is an obvious diversion. Either way, Gazprom's unreliable delivery is turning down guaranteed profit by underfilling Yamal.

    Does Gazprom think it will be rewarded for extortion?

    If so, they are in for a rude awakening. Lying to kidnappers and blackmailers is permitted, even encouraged. Any "deal" based on Gazprom coercion will be repudiated. Perhaps a facade will be allowed, such as staged court ruling.

    Gazprom's profound incompetence has achieved something I thought impossible. Germany & Poland pulling the same direction.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @mal

  593. @Mr. Hack
    https://www.wnd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/toon211105b.jpg

    Over the weekend the news broke that certain ILLEGAL aliens families would get $450,000 PER PERSON or $1,000,000 PER FAMILY. On Wednesday, 11/4, Biden in a press conference declared that that would not happen. On Thursday, 11/5, the temporary Press Secretary (Jen Psaki out with COVID) at a press conference declared the Dept. of Justice is still negotiating a settlement with the ILLEGALS. Either the litigates are haggling over the payout amount (just not $450,000 or $1,000,000) or Biden is as clueless as ever what his own administration is doing.

    Is this a joke? My parents didn't get any remuneration when they immigrated to the US. In fact, they had to have a sponsor who would pay for any debts that they found themselves obtaining. How times have changed...for the worse! :-(

    Replies: @A123

    Not a joke. (1)

    “The Biden administration is in talks to offer immigrant families that were separated during the Trump administration around \$450,000 a person in compensation, according to people familiar with the matter, as several agencies work to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering payments that could amount to close to \$1 million a family,

    The occupied White House keeps trying to deny it. However, Not-The-President Biden is a very unconvincing figure.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2021/11/04/so-are-we-paying-illegal-aliens-450000-or-not-n2598551

  594. @German_reader
    @Coconuts

    Not sure imo there's any deliberate plan behind this, but it's really quite striking that a term like "white privilege" with its origins in US "antiracist" activism can so easily be adopted by a senior Tory figure (ok, the guy is a subcontinental Muslim, so likely to have resentments of his own, but still, quite remarkable). I'm not a fan of the EU in its current form myself, but the monomaniacal anti-EU focus of British right-wingers (?) was probably counter-productive.

    Replies: @A123, @Coconuts

    It’s really surprising the way in which so much of the US stuff has been adopted verbatim, even down to things that are bizarre given the actual context, like BIPOC. It seems to me that it has been able to happen is an indication that Britain is losing a sense of its history; some Conservatives will discuss it in a small way in Youtube videos, and retired academics like David Starkey, but it is marginal compared to adoption of the US concepts.

    There seemed to be a tacit understanding in the couple of years before the referendum that EU migration could be discussed and commented on negatively up to a point, but not the other kinds from outside the EU, because there was still a lot of sensitivity around race issues. .

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Coconuts

    Realistically (given the woke's multicultural premise) Africans should be a smaller component in the mix than Indians & Asians if the vision is "British", and it will have a greater emphasis on "responsibility" to immigrants from the Commonwealth.

    Replies: @Coconuts

  595. @AaronB
    @AaronB


    So I think you are misunderstanding the modern technocratic mindset – in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must be.
     
    I was reading about the ancient Babylonian creation myth, in which mankind was created purely in order to be slaves to God - not to enter into a loving relationship with Him.

    It is an ancient conception of the divine, that precedes the Jewish/Christian one, and that arguably is the most popular subconscious notion of the divine held today.

    In the Babylonian creation myth, evil exists in the world prior to humans, and human life is only possible by violently fighting this evil force. Life is combat. Evil is not within you, where it has to be vanquished - it is out there, in the Other. Evil is externalized and materialized.

    Unlike the Bible, where God created a world that is wholly good, and evil entered the world because of man's mistakes, and had no real ontological status.

    Today, we tend to think of this conception as Manichean, but it long predates Mani, and may be the world's oldest - and simplest - myth.

    Walter Wink says of this myth - " The myth of redemptive violence is the simplest, laziest, most exciting, uncomplicated, irrational, and primitive depiction of evil the world has ever known".

    It is the "lowest common denominator" of myths, so to speak. Wink says that despite nominally being Judeo-Christian, the West actually is in the grip of the Babylonian creation myth, that the Bible fought, with it's notion of a one God who created a good world.

    That seems correct to me. Unz Review is obviously inspired entirely by this laziest - but most exciting - of myths, but no less so than Woke crowd. Our entire culture has sunk into the laziest and most undemanding of myths, that the Bible expressly fought, and which all higher religious and metaphysical systems have fought.

    Yet myths, when they grab human minds, are hard to shake loose. It could be that science and rationalism have so stripped our minds of capacity for complexity and nuance, that we are no longer capable of higher myths.

    Replies: @sher singh

    Wrong:

    ਖੰਡਾ ਪ੍ਰਿਥਮੈ ਸਾਜ ਕੈ ਜਿਨ ਸਭ ਸੈਸਾਰੁ ਉਪਾਇਆ ॥
    kha(n)ddaa pirathamai saaj kai jin sabh saisaar upaiaa ||
    At first the Lord created the double-edged sword and then the whole world.

    ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

  596. I was thinking about why spirituality is so unappealing to the modern mind, and at the same time, why living in a Faustian society seems so promising, but ends up creating such unhappiness.

    From the outside, religion looks like it’s a system to thwart and frustrate human desires, while Faustian society seems like a system to satisfy human desires as much as possible.

    What choice can be easier, right?

    When I first started travelling when younger, to poor countries like India and Cambodia, etc, I generally did not have a lot of money to spend on nice hotels or good restaurants, or I was travelling in remote regions that simply didn’t have good food and lodging.

    I used to lament this fact, and look forward to when I had more money. Sure enough, I started making more money, much more, as everyone does as they grow older, and could now afford to stay in nice hotels and eat at nice restaurants.

    I enjoyed it at first, of course, but soon I found myself looking back nostalgically to the simple but rough times I used to have when travelling. I realized my new comfortable life was actually quite dull, and lacked a certain dimension I couldn’t quite define, and that the happiest moments of my life were spent in some basic room in the mountains of India with no luxuries.

    To the modern mind, asceticism seems insane or delusional – most moderns imagine that ascetics suffer to serve a God that doesn’t exist, so he suffers in vain. It is all just a waste.

    What the modern mind does not know, however, because nothing in the modern world hints at it, is that asceticism actually has a direct and immediate emotional reward. It is, simply, more “fun” than non-stop indulgence in desire.

    But in the modern world, this is only something one can “discover” accidentally, because nothing in modern life hints at this strange truth. Its counterintuitive.

    I was wondering why limiting desire is actually more fun than endlessly indulging it? Well, on the psychological level, our desires are insatiable. Everyone knows this. Our desires have no natural limit.

    Once you open the floodgates, once you recognize no principle of limitation, you basically condemn yourself to perpetual dissatisfaction and restlessness. You are perpetually in a state of “lack”.

    Similarly with self-aggrandizement – the moment you embark on that path, you condemn yourself to be in a state of constantly feeling yourself “inadequate”. To feel oneself as inadequate is to be unhappy.

    Once you concede the principle, that you are not sufficient already, you will never find sufficiency.

    That is why Faustian societies, built around the endless satisfaction of human desire, are breeding grounds for misery and unhappiness.

    What is more, there is a feeling of oppressive bondage in “needing” things – a society that inflames the sense of “need”, increases the general feeling of unfreedom and bondage. To need is to be tied down and held down. Multiply need, as modern society and Faustian society does, and multiply bondage.

    That is why spirituality is so often said to be liberation and lightness from an oppressive and unfree state.

    So what appears to be the frustration of desire, is actually liberation from it’s bondage – and remember, desire can never be satisfied, but always grows larger the more you satisfy it. So satisfying desire without limit, is to condemn oneself to perpetual dissatisfaction and bondage.

    So much for the psychological aspect of it.

    There is another element that one discovers as well, but is less easily defined. The less one “clings” to things, the more life acquires a peculiar dimension of richness and specialness, of “magic”. It’s hard to get claim this, but it’s as if the “beauty” of life opens up to you more and more. It’s as if you are accessing a spiritual dimension that always was obscured to you, that you were always shutting out.

    But how many people today present spirituality and religion as a great adventure, as a journey into magic and richness? Most often, it’s presented as a fear-based God’s “law” that one must observe even if it goes against ones true desire, as a dreary sacrifice.

    Spirituality has a massive PR problem – as our Faustian society declines, and people hunger more and more for alternatives, genuine spirituality will have to do a much better job communicating it’s richness.

    • Agree: mal
    • Thanks: German_reader
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB

    I'm not overly sympathetic to your spiritual concerns, but that is an interesting comment.
    But where do you draw the line? I agree that an obsessive focus on material success or acquiring glory is problematic, but aren't there dangers inherent in asceticism as well, like sinking into total passivity, not cultivating one's talents that could contribute something to society or becoming a misanthropic hermit? Or are you in favour of some form of regulated community life as a safeguard against such dangers, to prevent asceticism from degenerating into autistic selfishness and combine it with some larger purpose (which also brings potential problems of its own, since such a community would have a need of hierarchy, with the attendant risk of abuse of power)?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @AaronB, @Dmitry

  597. @sudden death
    @That Would Be Telling


    So back to Gasprom, as I understand it it’s simply not supplying excess non-contracted gas for the spot market.
     
    Even if important, this is relatively secondary issue, the main problem is inability or deliberate refusal to fill empty underground gas storage facilities (UGS) of Gazprom in Europe:

    The largest underground gas storage facilities (UGS) of Gazprom in Europe – Rehden and Jemgum in Germany, Haidach in Austria – began to empty and did not switch to the intensive injection mode. Now the stocks there are at a critically low level, despite the president’s instructions to intensively replenish the European storage facilities after the Russian ones are filled.

    According to European UGS operators, Rehden’s reserves are estimated at 9.58 percent; Jemgum (87.4 percent) and Haidach (54.2 percent) are being withdrawn and already pumped out 10 and 6 million cubic meters, respectively. Another storage facility, Bergermeer in the Netherlands, is 30.71 percent full, but selection has begun there too.

    In turn, Gazprom explained that the indicators of net production or injection are biased, since not only the Russian company stores gas in the UGS. At the same time, Kommersant points out, the filling level of the company’s own storage facilities in Europe remains three times lower than the EU average. Thus, it is no longer possible to make up for the lag this year.

    Fitch analyst Dmitry Marinchenko stressed that for this it is necessary to pump at least 5 billion cubic meters of gas. Taking into account that the aggregate maximum design capacity of Rehden, Jemgum, Haidach and Bergermeer for injection is about 80 million cubic meters per day, the Russian monopoly will have to maximize the capacity of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline by the end of the year, but the company has already booked them at a minimum level of up to end of November.
     
    https://pledgetimes.com/gazproms-storage-facilities-in-europe-began-to-empty/

    Низкий уровень запасов в ПХГ создает риски для самого «Газпрома»: ему будет сложно покрыть суточные пики потребления по своим контрактам, поскольку так быстро газ по газопроводам физически поставить невозможно.

    My quick translation:

    The low level of reserves in the UGS creates risks for Gazprom itself: it will be difficult for it to cover daily consumption peaks under its contracts, since it is impossible to physically supply gas through gas pipelines so fast.

     

    https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5066360?from=top_main_3

    Replies: @A123

    Thank you for validating my position. Two quotes from your piece are telling.

    Gazprom itself: it will be difficult for it to cover daily consumption peaks under its contracts, since it is impossible to physically supply gas through gas pipelines so fast.

    the Russian monopoly will have to maximize the capacity of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline by the end of the year, but [Gazprom] has already booked them at a minimum level of up to end of November.

    If Gazprom was operating in a reliable commercial manner it would already be taking steps to maximize delivery to storage in Europe. Whinging about “Contracts” vs. “Spot” is an obvious diversion. Either way, Gazprom’s unreliable delivery is turning down guaranteed profit by underfilling Yamal.

    Does Gazprom think it will be rewarded for extortion?

    If so, they are in for a rude awakening. Lying to kidnappers and blackmailers is permitted, even encouraged. Any “deal” based on Gazprom coercion will be repudiated. Perhaps a facade will be allowed, such as staged court ruling.

    Gazprom’s profound incompetence has achieved something I thought impossible. Germany & Poland pulling the same direction.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @mal
    @A123


    Gazprom’s profound incompetence has achieved something I thought impossible. Germany & Poland pulling the same direction.
     
    Gazprom is making mint. Anybody who thinks that high energy prices are hurting Russia is delusional. Any time there's a hostile NS2 announcement and gas prices jump, either Novatek, or Gazprom, or some Russian gas trader are pocketing free $cash. NS2 probably already paid for itself with all the negative publicity lol.
  598. @Aedib
    @That Would Be Telling

    Poland and Ukraine are furiously opposing NS2 because they do no want to lose incomes from toll pipelines. They try to disguise their interests as a holy crusade against the beasts of Moscow but the explanation is way simpler: they were accustomed to get money by doing nothing. Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.

    Replies: @A123, @AP

    Poland and Ukraine are furiously opposing NS2 because they do no want to lose incomes from toll pipelines.

    Not only that. It also renders Poland and Ukraine (well, not so much Poland, thanks to NATO shield but who knows) subject to invasion with no financial consequences because Russia will no longer need those pipes going through Ukraine to make \$\$\$ off its gas with Europe.

    Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.

    Prices aren’t going to go down for Europe though.

    • Replies: @A123
    @AP



    Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.
     
    Prices aren’t going to go down for Europe though
     
    Correct. But, only short term.

    Both Russia & Bavaria will be blacklisted. A European energy solution bypassing both is inevitable. Non-German Europe will create power & fuel for Non-German Europeans.

    PEACE 😇
    , @Aedib
    @AP

    Prices will go down with long terms contracts and gas flowing by secure pipelines no subject to the risk of political disruption (i.e., pipelines not passing through Ukraine). That’s what Bavarian industrialists want. Anyway, some flow will remain passing via Ukraine to Slovakia, Rumania and Czech Republic. That’s was agreed between Putin and Merkel.

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123

  599. @AP
    @Aedib


    Poland and Ukraine are furiously opposing NS2 because they do no want to lose incomes from toll pipelines.
     
    Not only that. It also renders Poland and Ukraine (well, not so much Poland, thanks to NATO shield but who knows) subject to invasion with no financial consequences because Russia will no longer need those pipes going through Ukraine to make $$$ off its gas with Europe.

    Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.
     
    Prices aren't going to go down for Europe though.

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib

    Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.

    Prices aren’t going to go down for Europe though

    Correct. But, only short term.

    Both Russia & Bavaria will be blacklisted. A European energy solution bypassing both is inevitable. Non-German Europe will create power & fuel for Non-German Europeans.

    PEACE 😇

  600. The Rittenhouse trial is approaching its violent culmination: (1)

    Outside the courthouse a mob of pre-staged Black Lives Matter (BLM) and FBI supported ANTIFA agitators are shouting “no justice, no peace” – “if Kenosha don’t get it, burn it down,” and threatening to destroy the city if the jury does not adhere to their demands and convict Kyle Rittenhouse of murder.

    It is interesting how the city of Kenosha did not form a perimeter around the courthouse keeping the mob away from the steps. There is a park across the street which was previously used for protests as the police guarded the building. However, today, for some seemingly curious reason, the local authorities are allowing the protesting mob and their bullhorns to conduct their agitation activity on the steps to the courthouse.

    It may be the best strategic move in history. The SJW Federales are now head-to-head with SJW Antifa. The whole shtick depends on having locals to blame, and the intended scapegoat has opted out.

    While I would prefer a peaceful outcome. The idea of violent Leftoids attacking corrupt Leftoids has a certain poetic justice to it.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/11/16/jury-deliberates-in-kyle-rittenhouse-case-open-discussion-thread/

    • Agree: mal
  601. @A123
    @sudden death

    Thank you for validating my position. Two quotes from your piece are telling.


    Gazprom itself: it will be difficult for it to cover daily consumption peaks under its contracts, since it is impossible to physically supply gas through gas pipelines so fast.
     

    the Russian monopoly will have to maximize the capacity of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline by the end of the year, but [Gazprom] has already booked them at a minimum level of up to end of November.
     
    If Gazprom was operating in a reliable commercial manner it would already be taking steps to maximize delivery to storage in Europe. Whinging about "Contracts" vs. "Spot" is an obvious diversion. Either way, Gazprom's unreliable delivery is turning down guaranteed profit by underfilling Yamal.

    Does Gazprom think it will be rewarded for extortion?

    If so, they are in for a rude awakening. Lying to kidnappers and blackmailers is permitted, even encouraged. Any "deal" based on Gazprom coercion will be repudiated. Perhaps a facade will be allowed, such as staged court ruling.

    Gazprom's profound incompetence has achieved something I thought impossible. Germany & Poland pulling the same direction.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @mal

    Gazprom’s profound incompetence has achieved something I thought impossible. Germany & Poland pulling the same direction.

    Gazprom is making mint. Anybody who thinks that high energy prices are hurting Russia is delusional. Any time there’s a hostile NS2 announcement and gas prices jump, either Novatek, or Gazprom, or some Russian gas trader are pocketing free \$cash. NS2 probably already paid for itself with all the negative publicity lol.

    • Agree: Aedib
  602. @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    It's really surprising the way in which so much of the US stuff has been adopted verbatim, even down to things that are bizarre given the actual context, like BIPOC. It seems to me that it has been able to happen is an indication that Britain is losing a sense of its history; some Conservatives will discuss it in a small way in Youtube videos, and retired academics like David Starkey, but it is marginal compared to adoption of the US concepts.

    There seemed to be a tacit understanding in the couple of years before the referendum that EU migration could be discussed and commented on negatively up to a point, but not the other kinds from outside the EU, because there was still a lot of sensitivity around race issues. .

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Realistically (given the woke’s multicultural premise) Africans should be a smaller component in the mix than Indians & Asians if the vision is “British”, and it will have a greater emphasis on “responsibility” to immigrants from the Commonwealth.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    I think there are all kinds of problems, because the British Empire was such a different entity to the USA, and its component parts are nearly all independent nation states now. Also AFAIK historically the generic US style 'white' and 'black' identities have had no legal existence in any state in Europe, apart from maybe Germany and Italy in the 1930s and early 40s, but they had hardly any non-whites.

  603. @That Would Be Telling
    @A123


    Both WEF German Globalists and SJW German Greens despise the German people. Gazprom Elite bludgeoning of innocent Germans, is an ineffective choice. To blackmail, one must threaten something the other party values.
     
    The high prices of natural gas are already causing a lot of factory production pain, with fertilizer plants just plain shutting down (Haber process, methane provides the hydrogens to attach to nitrogen to make ammonia, this consumes 1-2% of the world's energy budgetm yields aren't going to be great next year). Of course smart companies like BASF have as of late decided to set up new plants in the US.

    Lose enough supply and there will have to be widespread factory shutdowns to conserve gas for power plants and keeping pressure up in the distribution system, and if bad enough the former get shut down enough to force rolling blackouts, don't want to have to relight neighborhoods worth of pilot lights. I'm sure the SJW (German) Greens want all German factories shut down, but the WEF German Globalists?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    I’m sure the SJW (German) Greens want all German factories shut down, but the WEF German Globalists?

    The WEF want centralized automation of industries and services that run on renewable energy, and also the subjugation of Russian sovereignty. The 1st objective will require considerable depopulation and impoverishment, sooner or later, in order to rescale resource consumption, and this is why you can find Germans freezing to death in their homes. The 2nd will involve economic pressure by removing Russian sources of revenue, and cutting gas imports helps with the 1st too. Denying gas feedstock to fertilizer production makes good sense if you want to create bottlenecks at critical points of supplies that sustain the current population & economic levels.

    It’s Homodomor logic in reverse: instead of confiscating grains to subsidize industry even during widespread crop failures, it is blocking gas imports to penalize industry and creating shutdowns. There were a shortage of grains in Soviet Ukraine but no shortage of gas in Russia at the moment. Stalin acted on the suppliers and Merkel acts on the consumers.

  604. Now on a far more interesting subject.

    The Meow Rocket!

    To be fair, I was surprised by the Russian ASAT test. Not because it happened, but that it wasn’t announced or complained about properly.

    The Meow Rocket (A-235 Nudol or derivative) is not a small thing and satellites can see it being launched. Its like an ICBM launch but much faster and with more ‘meow’. Even if Russians didn’t announce it, Americans still should have seen it coming and complained about the launch. But all we got was complaints about the debris some time later.

    As far as debris is concerned, American complaints do have merit. First off, it was an excellent shot with amazing accuracy – 2,000 kg satellite was transformed into 1500+ fragment “space rake” (debris field). To shatter like that, you need to be hit just right, at a speed of 17,000 mph relative to Meow launch site. That satellite was a spy one, with sort of polar orbit of 460 km and 80 degrees inclination (I think ISS is 52 degrees and 420 km).

    Is it a threat to ISS? Maybe, but unlikely. ISS is a serious station that is well monitored and has plentiful fuel to relocate (delivered by Progress freighters and maybe SpaceX these days). ISS has plenty of experience dodging Chinese debris from 2007 so this test shouldn’t be a problem either.

    However, if you operate a fleet of small satellites in Low Earth Obrit, (cough… Starlink… cough…) you are probably celebrating job security for the next decade. Keeping track of thousands of small weak LEO satellites and the “space rake” at the same time is much harder than tracking one powerful object such as ISS. And they don’t have the power of the ISS to dodge.

    So from Pentagon/Skynet perspective, the test is indeed problematic. They are correct in their assessment.

    • Replies: @That Would Be Telling
    @mal


    However, if you operate a fleet of small satellites in Low Earth Obrit, (cough… Starlink… cough…) you are probably celebrating job security for the next decade. Keeping track of thousands of small weak LEO satellites and the “space rake” at the same time is much harder than tracking one powerful object such as ISS.
     
    Everything I've read and double checked just now says Starlink's satellites are way above both, their lowest orbital regime is around 550 km, just above the Hubble Space Telescope, the ISS is 370 to 460 km, and the "space rake" debris field from the Russian ASAT and its target is in the general region of the higher part of ISS, per Wikipedia just now the rake is "between 440 to 520 km." Everything I've ever read says that's also low enough it'll take much less then a decade for drag from the very thin but still significant atmosphere when you're travelling that fast in that region to deorbit most of the debris.

    Another way of putting it is that it's one thing for Russia to hazard the ISS which is near the end of its design life and that Russia has a complicated and no longer profitable relationship with, SpaceX is now delivering cargo and crew to it ending Russia's post Space Shuttle monopoly, very much another to deliberately wipe out any significant portion of Starlink's orbital fleet.

    Replies: @mal

    , @Mitleser
    @mal


    As far as debris is concerned, American complaints do have merit. First off, it was an excellent shot with amazing accuracy – 2,000 kg satellite was transformed into 1500+ fragment “space rake” (debris field). To shatter like that, you need to be hit just right, at a speed of 17,000 mph relative to Meow launch site.
     
    According to the manufacturer, it has less mass than that.

    Масса, кг 1750
     
    https://www.yuzhnoye.com/company/history/electronic-surveillance-spacecraft.html

    And it may have produced less debris than expected.

    However, it has been difficult to grapple with the low debris count number observed by our LeoLabs data relative to the large mass of the Cosmos 1408 satellite (~2,200 kg). Frankly, we expected to see many more fragments by now. As we have watched our own identification and characterization rate start to level off (currently at 250–300 unique fragments from Cosmos 1408), it struck us that there was a simple explanation for all of these quandaries.
     
    Because the ASAT was not so fast?

    If the Russian ASAT impactor approached Cosmos 1408 generally from behind to “rear end” Cosmos 1408 at a relative velocity well below 6 km/s, this would explain both the distribution of posigrade debris and the lower debris count currently observed by LeoLabs. This would also explain the Russian government’s comment this week that debris from the test “would not pose any threat to orbital stations”. What Russia apparently did not know, that breakup modelers are quite aware of, is that non-hypervelocity breakup modeling is very difficult.
     
    https://leolabs-space.medium.com/part-ii-new-observations-on-cosmos-1408-breakup-3d8e5441f720
  605. Favorite video of Meow Rocket.

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @mal

    That's 53T6M short range interceptor. PL-19 is not silo based. It is a mobile TEL based ASAT rocket.

    Replies: @Aedib

  606. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    I was thinking about why spirituality is so unappealing to the modern mind, and at the same time, why living in a Faustian society seems so promising, but ends up creating such unhappiness.

    From the outside, religion looks like it's a system to thwart and frustrate human desires, while Faustian society seems like a system to satisfy human desires as much as possible.

    What choice can be easier, right?

    When I first started travelling when younger, to poor countries like India and Cambodia, etc, I generally did not have a lot of money to spend on nice hotels or good restaurants, or I was travelling in remote regions that simply didn't have good food and lodging.

    I used to lament this fact, and look forward to when I had more money. Sure enough, I started making more money, much more, as everyone does as they grow older, and could now afford to stay in nice hotels and eat at nice restaurants.

    I enjoyed it at first, of course, but soon I found myself looking back nostalgically to the simple but rough times I used to have when travelling. I realized my new comfortable life was actually quite dull, and lacked a certain dimension I couldn't quite define, and that the happiest moments of my life were spent in some basic room in the mountains of India with no luxuries.

    To the modern mind, asceticism seems insane or delusional - most moderns imagine that ascetics suffer to serve a God that doesn't exist, so he suffers in vain. It is all just a waste.

    What the modern mind does not know, however, because nothing in the modern world hints at it, is that asceticism actually has a direct and immediate emotional reward. It is, simply, more "fun" than non-stop indulgence in desire.

    But in the modern world, this is only something one can "discover" accidentally, because nothing in modern life hints at this strange truth. Its counterintuitive.

    I was wondering why limiting desire is actually more fun than endlessly indulging it? Well, on the psychological level, our desires are insatiable. Everyone knows this. Our desires have no natural limit.

    Once you open the floodgates, once you recognize no principle of limitation, you basically condemn yourself to perpetual dissatisfaction and restlessness. You are perpetually in a state of "lack".

    Similarly with self-aggrandizement - the moment you embark on that path, you condemn yourself to be in a state of constantly feeling yourself "inadequate". To feel oneself as inadequate is to be unhappy.

    Once you concede the principle, that you are not sufficient already, you will never find sufficiency.

    That is why Faustian societies, built around the endless satisfaction of human desire, are breeding grounds for misery and unhappiness.

    What is more, there is a feeling of oppressive bondage in "needing" things - a society that inflames the sense of "need", increases the general feeling of unfreedom and bondage. To need is to be tied down and held down. Multiply need, as modern society and Faustian society does, and multiply bondage.

    That is why spirituality is so often said to be liberation and lightness from an oppressive and unfree state.

    So what appears to be the frustration of desire, is actually liberation from it's bondage - and remember, desire can never be satisfied, but always grows larger the more you satisfy it. So satisfying desire without limit, is to condemn oneself to perpetual dissatisfaction and bondage.

    So much for the psychological aspect of it.

    There is another element that one discovers as well, but is less easily defined. The less one "clings" to things, the more life acquires a peculiar dimension of richness and specialness, of "magic". It's hard to get claim this, but it's as if the "beauty" of life opens up to you more and more. It's as if you are accessing a spiritual dimension that always was obscured to you, that you were always shutting out.

    But how many people today present spirituality and religion as a great adventure, as a journey into magic and richness? Most often, it's presented as a fear-based God's "law" that one must observe even if it goes against ones true desire, as a dreary sacrifice.

    Spirituality has a massive PR problem - as our Faustian society declines, and people hunger more and more for alternatives, genuine spirituality will have to do a much better job communicating it's richness.

    Replies: @German_reader

    I’m not overly sympathetic to your spiritual concerns, but that is an interesting comment.
    But where do you draw the line? I agree that an obsessive focus on material success or acquiring glory is problematic, but aren’t there dangers inherent in asceticism as well, like sinking into total passivity, not cultivating one’s talents that could contribute something to society or becoming a misanthropic hermit? Or are you in favour of some form of regulated community life as a safeguard against such dangers, to prevent asceticism from degenerating into autistic selfishness and combine it with some larger purpose (which also brings potential problems of its own, since such a community would have a need of hierarchy, with the attendant risk of abuse of power)?

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    I think his vision is solitary (but not individualistic)

    , @AaronB
    @German_reader

    Thanks.


    like sinking into total passivity, not cultivating one’s talents that could contribute something to society or becoming a misanthropic hermit?
     
    These are very real dangers, and asceticism, like anything, can be pushed too far, where it is no longer itself.

    I think the best guide, as always, is human nature. The real issue, I think, is that our desires not be artificially inflamed. We live in a society designed specifically to do that.

    Here is Christopher Lasch in his book on Progress -

    .

    ...led me back to the eighteenth century, when the founders of modern liberalism began to argue that human wants, being insatiable, required an indefinite expansion of the productive forces necessary to satisfy them. Insatiable desire, formerly condemned as a source of frustration, unhappiness, and spiritual instability, came to be seen as a powerful stimulus to economic development. Instead of disparaging the tendency to want more than we need, liberals like Adam Smith argued that needs varied from one society to another, that civilized men and women needed more than savages to make them comfortable, and that a continual redefinition of their standards of comfort and convenience led to improvements in production and a general increase of wealth. There was no foreseeable end to the transformation of luxuries into necessities. The more comforts people enjoyed, the more they would expect. The elasticity of demand appeared to give the Anglo-American idea of progress a solid foundation that could not be shaken by subsequent events, not even by the global wars that broke out in the twentieth century. Those wars, indeed, gave added energy to economic development.
     
    It's quite monstrous if you think about it, no?

    But human nature is a pretty decent guideline to what we truly need for our happiness and satisfaction, and it is so much less than we are encouraged to believe.

    So instead of a set of rules and formula, it's a question of intuition and introspection, with a certain amount of individual variation thrown in, and attentiveness to how we truly feel, what we truly need and desire.

    Likewise, in the Buddha's time India was awash in extreme and anti social ascetics. He tried their methods for a while, but he found they didn't work. He didn't swing to the opposite and become a hedonist - he chose the "Middle Way".

    He understood in some sense that extreme asceticism is motivated by a desire for "endless more", just like greed and insatiable desire are, and saw the only true escape was through the center.

    Or are you in favour of some form of regulated community life as a safeguard against such dangers, to prevent asceticism from degenerating into autistic selfishness and combine it with some larger purpose (which also brings potential problems of its own, since such a community would have a need of hierarchy, with the attendant risk of abuse of power)?
     
    Not necessarily a community, although those who wish to create one are welcome to.

    But it is historically and scientifically false to say that every community would need a hierarchy. We are conditioned into this view by mainstream assumptions, but it's quite wrong.

    We know of many existing primitive tribes that are egalitarian. I was reading about the Batek of Indonesia recently - they are fascinating, and completely without hierarchy.

    And we know historically of many such groups.

    A community of spiritual people and ascetics would be a voluntary association with no need for hierarchy, where there would be no coercion and people would need to agree with ideas to support them - this isn't some fantasy, but the actual social structure of many existing and historical society.

    We are talking about people who are already operating out of radically different assumptions than the mainstream - who see the need for limiting acquisitiveness and self-aggrandizement - they are unlikely to argue or fight for primacy and similar things.

    But such a "change of heart" is first key.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    draw the line?
     
    This is kind of topic which Buddha called "Middle Way". It's supposedly halfway between ascestism and indulgence. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-024-0852-2_280

    Although by modern standards, Buddha's teachings seem very ascetic, he was reacting to more extreme ascetism of holy men of Ancient India whose lifestyle might include torturing your body, refusing to drink water for days, etc.

    -

    By the way, Aaron B I don't understand if you were claiming that modern people are not involved in asceticism? Much of modern culture involves a kind of self-torturing (and also we have it in our political culture).

    For example, when we stay awake all night working on a project, and go to the office the next day with this bitter adrenaline taste in our mouth from lack of sleep* - these are things that people in older cultures (or perhaps the contemporary Caribbean) might consider a sadomasochistic's torture.

    Similarly think about our education and exam culture. How many children would voluntarily stay hours in the exam room resolving maths problems, which is completely against our instincts to run in the summer air - it's amazing we were trained into such kind of asceticism. And then there is life of those adults who go to work in the military..

    -

    * Also note this sensation in the morning, after lack of sleep, is kind of enjoyable and makes you feel like you are a successful workaholic - especially when combined with coffee. Here is a kind of indulgence in ascetism of the office worker.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader, @AaronB

  607. @German_reader
    @AaronB

    I'm not overly sympathetic to your spiritual concerns, but that is an interesting comment.
    But where do you draw the line? I agree that an obsessive focus on material success or acquiring glory is problematic, but aren't there dangers inherent in asceticism as well, like sinking into total passivity, not cultivating one's talents that could contribute something to society or becoming a misanthropic hermit? Or are you in favour of some form of regulated community life as a safeguard against such dangers, to prevent asceticism from degenerating into autistic selfishness and combine it with some larger purpose (which also brings potential problems of its own, since such a community would have a need of hierarchy, with the attendant risk of abuse of power)?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @AaronB, @Dmitry

    I think his vision is solitary (but not individualistic)

  608. @German_reader
    @AaronB

    I'm not overly sympathetic to your spiritual concerns, but that is an interesting comment.
    But where do you draw the line? I agree that an obsessive focus on material success or acquiring glory is problematic, but aren't there dangers inherent in asceticism as well, like sinking into total passivity, not cultivating one's talents that could contribute something to society or becoming a misanthropic hermit? Or are you in favour of some form of regulated community life as a safeguard against such dangers, to prevent asceticism from degenerating into autistic selfishness and combine it with some larger purpose (which also brings potential problems of its own, since such a community would have a need of hierarchy, with the attendant risk of abuse of power)?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @AaronB, @Dmitry

    Thanks.

    like sinking into total passivity, not cultivating one’s talents that could contribute something to society or becoming a misanthropic hermit?

    These are very real dangers, and asceticism, like anything, can be pushed too far, where it is no longer itself.

    I think the best guide, as always, is human nature. The real issue, I think, is that our desires not be artificially inflamed. We live in a society designed specifically to do that.

    Here is Christopher Lasch in his book on Progress –

    .

    …led me back to the eighteenth century, when the founders of modern liberalism began to argue that human wants, being insatiable, required an indefinite expansion of the productive forces necessary to satisfy them. Insatiable desire, formerly condemned as a source of frustration, unhappiness, and spiritual instability, came to be seen as a powerful stimulus to economic development. Instead of disparaging the tendency to want more than we need, liberals like Adam Smith argued that needs varied from one society to another, that civilized men and women needed more than savages to make them comfortable, and that a continual redefinition of their standards of comfort and convenience led to improvements in production and a general increase of wealth. There was no foreseeable end to the transformation of luxuries into necessities. The more comforts people enjoyed, the more they would expect. The elasticity of demand appeared to give the Anglo-American idea of progress a solid foundation that could not be shaken by subsequent events, not even by the global wars that broke out in the twentieth century. Those wars, indeed, gave added energy to economic development.

    It’s quite monstrous if you think about it, no?

    But human nature is a pretty decent guideline to what we truly need for our happiness and satisfaction, and it is so much less than we are encouraged to believe.

    So instead of a set of rules and formula, it’s a question of intuition and introspection, with a certain amount of individual variation thrown in, and attentiveness to how we truly feel, what we truly need and desire.

    Likewise, in the Buddha’s time India was awash in extreme and anti social ascetics. He tried their methods for a while, but he found they didn’t work. He didn’t swing to the opposite and become a hedonist – he chose the “Middle Way”.

    He understood in some sense that extreme asceticism is motivated by a desire for “endless more”, just like greed and insatiable desire are, and saw the only true escape was through the center.

    Or are you in favour of some form of regulated community life as a safeguard against such dangers, to prevent asceticism from degenerating into autistic selfishness and combine it with some larger purpose (which also brings potential problems of its own, since such a community would have a need of hierarchy, with the attendant risk of abuse of power)?

    Not necessarily a community, although those who wish to create one are welcome to.

    But it is historically and scientifically false to say that every community would need a hierarchy. We are conditioned into this view by mainstream assumptions, but it’s quite wrong.

    We know of many existing primitive tribes that are egalitarian. I was reading about the Batek of Indonesia recently – they are fascinating, and completely without hierarchy.

    And we know historically of many such groups.

    A community of spiritual people and ascetics would be a voluntary association with no need for hierarchy, where there would be no coercion and people would need to agree with ideas to support them – this isn’t some fantasy, but the actual social structure of many existing and historical society.

    We are talking about people who are already operating out of radically different assumptions than the mainstream – who see the need for limiting acquisitiveness and self-aggrandizement – they are unlikely to argue or fight for primacy and similar things.

    But such a “change of heart” is first key.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB


    But human nature is a pretty decent guideline to what we truly need for our happiness and satisfaction
     
    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one's genetic line.

    We know of many existing primitive tribes that are egalitarian. I was reading about the Batek of Indonesia recently – they are fascinating, and completely without hierarchy.
     
    I'm not familiar with them tbh. But iirc there's a debate whether hunter gatherers really lived mostly in egalitarian bands or whether that isn't actually atypical (hunter gatherers who survived until modern times live on more marginal lands than when all of humanity lived in that mode, so the social structure of historical hunter gatherer societies may have been different).
    I don't think those primitive tribes can be described as ascetic though. Hunter gatherer societies typically are very violent, with intense intergroup competition about resources (which includes women captured on raids). Also lots of intragroup competition about status. Every man there is in a constant struggle to prove his worth and pass on his genes. So very different from a genuinely ascetic lifestyle that tries to leave this endless circle of competition behind.

    We are talking about people who are already operating out of radically different assumptions than the mainstream – who see the need for limiting acquisitiveness and self-aggrandizement – they are unlikely to argue or fight for primacy and similar things.
     
    Well, that's not how it was seen in medieval monastic communities, total obedience to the abbot was one of the central duties imposed on monks, as was living according to the rule they had taken a vow on.
    Of course you could argue that this was different, because many monks had entered the monastery as child oblates, so hadn't chosen that life freely, but still, your view strikes me as a bit too optimistic. I'm not sure the kind of community you envision has historically existed (maybe hermits in late antiquity who lived in their own cells and only met for communal prayer and meals?).

    Replies: @AaronB

  609. If you want to understand about the context of British politics, Conservative Party, Boris Johnson, etc, I would recommend to watch more of 20th century documentaries like this, which seemed to transparently present brutal realities more than television of today.

    ^This charming woman at 12:20 )

    UK is a very successful country (and this is continuing https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-169/#comment-5005877 ) , but the priority and results of the success can be distributed as if through an Indian caste system.

    And I predict this will continue with Boris Johnson’s “Global Britain”. It seems like investment probably in UK by 2030 will be very impressive, but of course most of the benefits might be narrowly concentrated.

    Proletariat in the UK are temporarily benefiting from Brexit, as there is now a lower labor supply, and a lot of EU citizens have exited from the UK. Tax and salary situation in the UK is looking pretty good now when you read the figures, especially for low income jobs (which are not taxed).

    However, supply restriction for labor is unlikely to be allowed to continue too long to increase salaries, before there will plans to increase non-EU sources of labor supply. Perhaps they will soon try to increase immigration to the UK from India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Jamaica, etc.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Dmitry

    The comments on that video are good. The guy arguing persuasively that he doesn't want his house knocked down is presumably long gone now.

    , @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    However, supply restriction for labor is unlikely to be allowed to continue too long to increase salaries, before there will plans to increase non-EU sources of labor supply. Perhaps they will soon try to increase immigration to the UK from India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Jamaica, etc.
     
    The new immigration rules they passed following leaving the EU have fewer restrictions and lower thresholds for the movement of workers than the laws in place before Brexit; I remember the Migration Watch lobby group said that they looked as if they had been drawn up by business and corporate interests.

    I suspect they will try to continue to increase the population; a larger workforce, a larger consumer market, the price of housing, other fixed assets will continue to rise and so on.

    The Woke movement can even be useful to business here, as a way of dividing the workforce and controlling discussions of topics like immigration...

    The example of the EU workers was also interesting in that, while discussion about it was ongoing, the number of EU workers in the country was said to be around 3.3 million; then 6 million put in applications for naturalisation and some other quantity (750,000?) left following Brexit. It is strange that the government had so little idea how many people were in the country, also that increasing the population by more than 10% in a decade and a half (if non-EU nationals are added) might have an impact on a referendum vote involving the migration issue.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  610. I sort of like the idea of banning Leftoids from wearing shoes – making that one of the characteristics of their caste.

    Firstly, I think it appeals to many of them. Secondly, I think it would be an interesting experiment. Many say that shoes are too constricting. That we are supposed to feel the ground, and have our toes splay out. That it is good for the posture, for the mood, for the immune system.

    Then, I feel like it could have other positive effects. Possibly, making Leftoids more in favor of law and order – to avoid glass, needles, and human waste and because they could not run as fast. It would also encourage them to re-migrate from Northern states, like Vermont, making them into Rightoid areas.

  611. Russia should send an ultimatum to Youtube: leave the dislike counter alone, bring back video responses, and Stefan Molyneux (not that I am a fan – I always thought he had verbal diarrhea – but I want to see them embarrassed.)

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    If Shamir is to be believed, the ultimatum is already here: Restore Tsargrad TV's channel, adhere to the LGBT propaganda ban, or else be fined daily and have the fines accumulate until it is too costly to continue operations in Russia and YT (and by extension all Google services) must leave the Russian market.

    , @A123
    @songbird


    Russia should send an ultimatum to Youtube: leave the dislike counter alone, bring back video responses
     
    Why would Russia want to make Google/YouTube better? Ultimately anything desecrated by contact with Leftoid Google will be defiled and fall to SJW.

    Is it not better for them to push native platforms?

    https://my.mail.ru/video

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @songbird

  612. @AaronB
    @Dmitry


    This is also an expensive system to install and operate for every station. Why would you build this elaborate system to improve “convenience” by using live facial recognition, when the existing system is already convenient and far less intrusive? A narrative about “convenience of payment” is kind of comical.
     
    In his post on substack comparing London vs Moscow, Karlin is very excited about this system and gives it as an example of why quality of life is so much better in Moscow.

    Its difficult for us, who are not completely under the spell of technology, to understand why these trivial increases in minor convenience are so exciting.

    But for those who regard technology as a sacred object, it's productions are to be venerated and not subjected to a cost benefit analysis.

    If technology were not a sacred object, and one could think about it objectively, there are already many areas in which technology would be limited - or never invented in the first place - based on a cost benefit analysis.

    So I think you are misunderstanding the modern technocratic mindset - in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must be.

    Whether it benefits humans - or even has any real significance - is of secondary importance. As Jacques Ellis has said, we invented technology, but it has taken over our minds.

    If one wanted to be darkly superstitious, one might wonder if technology is not a kind of "fungus" that has taken over human minds in order to develop and spread itself :)

    But I do agree, that this system easily lends itself to abuse, and will certainly be abused and used for surveillance and control.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Dmitry

    technology as a sacred

    Actually most people who are warning about these things, are workers in the technology industry.

    trivial increases in minor convenience

    Which in this example, is just something they say for gullible people. Purpose of the technology is simply to create a database of all individuals and their movements, who will be using these systems.

    Karlin is very excited about this system

    If Karlin is excited about a database that will automatically store his public movements in a file, then we should demand that he will post here to explain such sadomasochism.

    Usually he wants to publicly promote the Russian government – I guess he views the state (or pro-state public declarations) as merged to his self-interest or self-identity in some way.

    But there are areas where the interest of the ruling clique and the government they control, and all of the rest of the population, have diverged in a zero-sum way.

    Faking of the coronavirus statistics last year, which has even killed a lot of peoples’ old relatives, was an example.

    This surveillance being installed into Moscow, is another example, but here feeling like actual dystopia is arriving, and also sadly reminds about KGB origins of politicians.

    By the way, as counter-example for your hypothesis, Putin doesn’t like technology much, and thinks that toy robots purchased on aliexpress are Russian military robots. Of course, he will understands that information increases control and can change the balance of power though.

    in this mindset, if technology exists, it must be used, or if it can be invented, it must

    Aside from the Americans, we’ve been able to develop nuclear weapons, without using them. We’ve been able to control things like asbestos, even though it was a very financially profitable technology of the 20th century.

    And so it should be the same here. Those of us who work in the technology industry, need to educate more the overall population about these things, and then the public will need to think about the implications. Then to pressure for the political and legal sphere. Perhaps it will be possible in some countries.

  613. @German_reader
    @Coconuts

    There actually are claims that pedophiles are more likely to have "facial anomalies" (and to be left-handed):
    https://www.psypost.org/2015/06/study-pedophiles-more-likely-to-have-physical-irregularities-and-be-left-handed-34990
    Of course difficult to evaluate for a layman if there's anything to such claims (and the implications are disturbing if pedophiles are really "born that way").

    Replies: @songbird

    There actually are claims that pedophiles are more likely to have “facial anomalies”

    The brain and face are linked. The complexity of one is reflective of the complexity of the other, and malformations in one can be reflective of malformations in the other.

    Don’t know if you heard about this study linking the face to political identification:
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-do-you-know/202103/can-selfie-predict-your-politics

    I am a hereditarian. I can see a lot of positives in being able to screen for pedophilia.

    I can even see possible positives in being able to screen for politics. (In theory, you could make unpozzable organizations. Or put kids into a positive education environment that would resonate with them, or help match people romantically into something stable) Though, I suppose it would be likely to be harnessed for sinister purposes, at least, if the Left ever becomes hereditarian. But mostly I don’t worry about scenarios like this.

    What does bother me sometimes is that it is hard to know what standard to try to hold people to, if they have a different OS than me. Politically, I believe in standards, so I just can’t shrug them away, like some others can. Yet, I often find myself struggling with questions about how to deal with stupid people (I mean like one or two SD below average) or narcissistic people, or people who are natural A-holes.

  614. @German_reader
    @AaronB

    I'm not overly sympathetic to your spiritual concerns, but that is an interesting comment.
    But where do you draw the line? I agree that an obsessive focus on material success or acquiring glory is problematic, but aren't there dangers inherent in asceticism as well, like sinking into total passivity, not cultivating one's talents that could contribute something to society or becoming a misanthropic hermit? Or are you in favour of some form of regulated community life as a safeguard against such dangers, to prevent asceticism from degenerating into autistic selfishness and combine it with some larger purpose (which also brings potential problems of its own, since such a community would have a need of hierarchy, with the attendant risk of abuse of power)?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @AaronB, @Dmitry

    draw the line?

    This is kind of topic which Buddha called “Middle Way”. It’s supposedly halfway between ascestism and indulgence. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-024-0852-2_280

    Although by modern standards, Buddha’s teachings seem very ascetic, he was reacting to more extreme ascetism of holy men of Ancient India whose lifestyle might include torturing your body, refusing to drink water for days, etc.

    By the way, Aaron B I don’t understand if you were claiming that modern people are not involved in asceticism? Much of modern culture involves a kind of self-torturing (and also we have it in our political culture).

    For example, when we stay awake all night working on a project, and go to the office the next day with this bitter adrenaline taste in our mouth from lack of sleep* – these are things that people in older cultures (or perhaps the contemporary Caribbean) might consider a sadomasochistic’s torture.

    Similarly think about our education and exam culture. How many children would voluntarily stay hours in the exam room resolving maths problems, which is completely against our instincts to run in the summer air – it’s amazing we were trained into such kind of asceticism. And then there is life of those adults who go to work in the military..

    * Also note this sensation in the morning, after lack of sleep, is kind of enjoyable and makes you feel like you are a successful workaholic – especially when combined with coffee. Here is a kind of indulgence in ascetism of the office worker.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    I think what AaronB said about the modern work ethic also involve a form of faith/belief, and only then can hard effort (asceticism) can be applied. Some sort of materialistic asceticism in the more extreme cases.

    , @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    For example, when we stay awake all night working on a project,
     
    But you're doing that for an increase in status, and to gain money for the newest Nike shoes or other consumer goods.
    Similarly, people taking exams generally hope that this will personally benefit them in their future career.
    As for those joining the military, there are of course many different motivations (e.g. patriotism), but a belief that one can improve one's personal status (either in purely material terms, or by gaining prestige and martial glory) is certainly a prominent factor.
    So this is all very different from asceticism in its genuine sense.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @AaronB
    @Dmitry

    As German Reader correctly observes, these aren't really ascetical phenomena - they are examples of short term deprivation in service of the ethos of "endless more", so rather the opposite, if anything.

    Nevertheless, there is a quasi-ascetic streak in the tech industry, exemplified by people like Jack Dorsey and others. But this goes back to the idea that tech is a sacred object, so it's not surprising that it will spawn a kind of religious self sacrifice and dedication.

    As for your remarks about technology in your other comment, it may be that the intention of the crafters of that sinister Moscow facial recognition payment system was to facilitate population surveillance and control, but only in a society like ours, which regards technology as sacred, could they have counted on it being not just accepted, but enthusiastically embraced, as we see Karlin to have done.

    Yes, many of those sounding the alarm about the sinister effects of much modern technology are workers in the field, who often helped develop those technologies. But that doesn't change the basic picture that our society, and particularly the tech field, worships technology as sacred.

    Many tech CEOs admit they limit their children's screen time and social media access - but notably, they don't quit their jobs, and readily work on the next big tech project.

    The enthusiasm about technology simply can't be explained by the trivial increments of convenience and comfort it regularly delivers in dribs and drabs - as has been observed, man does make great efforts and self sacrifice in pursuit of some trivial material end.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  615. @Dmitry
    If you want to understand about the context of British politics, Conservative Party, Boris Johnson, etc, I would recommend to watch more of 20th century documentaries like this, which seemed to transparently present brutal realities more than television of today.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LuuIuXTAlY

    ^This charming woman at 12:20 )

    UK is a very successful country (and this is continuing https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-169/#comment-5005877 ) , but the priority and results of the success can be distributed as if through an Indian caste system.

    And I predict this will continue with Boris Johnson's "Global Britain". It seems like investment probably in UK by 2030 will be very impressive, but of course most of the benefits might be narrowly concentrated.

    Proletariat in the UK are temporarily benefiting from Brexit, as there is now a lower labor supply, and a lot of EU citizens have exited from the UK. Tax and salary situation in the UK is looking pretty good now when you read the figures, especially for low income jobs (which are not taxed).

    However, supply restriction for labor is unlikely to be allowed to continue too long to increase salaries, before there will plans to increase non-EU sources of labor supply. Perhaps they will soon try to increase immigration to the UK from India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Jamaica, etc.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Coconuts

    The comments on that video are good. The guy arguing persuasively that he doesn’t want his house knocked down is presumably long gone now.

  616. @songbird
    Russia should send an ultimatum to Youtube: leave the dislike counter alone, bring back video responses, and Stefan Molyneux (not that I am a fan - I always thought he had verbal diarrhea - but I want to see them embarrassed.)

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    If Shamir is to be believed, the ultimatum is already here: Restore Tsargrad TV’s channel, adhere to the LGBT propaganda ban, or else be fined daily and have the fines accumulate until it is too costly to continue operations in Russia and YT (and by extension all Google services) must leave the Russian market.

    • Thanks: songbird
  617. @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    draw the line?
     
    This is kind of topic which Buddha called "Middle Way". It's supposedly halfway between ascestism and indulgence. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-024-0852-2_280

    Although by modern standards, Buddha's teachings seem very ascetic, he was reacting to more extreme ascetism of holy men of Ancient India whose lifestyle might include torturing your body, refusing to drink water for days, etc.

    -

    By the way, Aaron B I don't understand if you were claiming that modern people are not involved in asceticism? Much of modern culture involves a kind of self-torturing (and also we have it in our political culture).

    For example, when we stay awake all night working on a project, and go to the office the next day with this bitter adrenaline taste in our mouth from lack of sleep* - these are things that people in older cultures (or perhaps the contemporary Caribbean) might consider a sadomasochistic's torture.

    Similarly think about our education and exam culture. How many children would voluntarily stay hours in the exam room resolving maths problems, which is completely against our instincts to run in the summer air - it's amazing we were trained into such kind of asceticism. And then there is life of those adults who go to work in the military..

    -

    * Also note this sensation in the morning, after lack of sleep, is kind of enjoyable and makes you feel like you are a successful workaholic - especially when combined with coffee. Here is a kind of indulgence in ascetism of the office worker.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader, @AaronB

    I think what AaronB said about the modern work ethic also involve a form of faith/belief, and only then can hard effort (asceticism) can be applied. Some sort of materialistic asceticism in the more extreme cases.

  618. Patrushev named the reason for the appearance of new infectious diseases
    The steady trend towards the emergence of new infectious diseases and pandemics was the result of dangerous experiments with viruses, the Secretary of the Security Council said… RIA Novosti, 17.11.2021
    https://aftershock.news/?q=node/1035038

  619. @AP
    @Aedib


    Poland and Ukraine are furiously opposing NS2 because they do no want to lose incomes from toll pipelines.
     
    Not only that. It also renders Poland and Ukraine (well, not so much Poland, thanks to NATO shield but who knows) subject to invasion with no financial consequences because Russia will no longer need those pipes going through Ukraine to make $$$ off its gas with Europe.

    Now both Russia and the Bavarian industrials want to end this.
     
    Prices aren't going to go down for Europe though.

    Replies: @A123, @Aedib

    Prices will go down with long terms contracts and gas flowing by secure pipelines no subject to the risk of political disruption (i.e., pipelines not passing through Ukraine). That’s what Bavarian industrialists want. Anyway, some flow will remain passing via Ukraine to Slovakia, Rumania and Czech Republic. That’s was agreed between Putin and Merkel.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Aedib

    One only can hope that Kremlin gang will succeed in getting physical gas flow shortages to the Western Europe this winter and driving prices further into stratosphere, then at those rates Germans might even postpone domestic nuclear shutdowns ;)


    MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. The suspension of Nord Stream 2 AG certification by the German regulator can result in postponement of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline commissioning until March 2022, sources in the German government told Reuters.

    "I expect that the start of Nord Stream 2 could be delayed until March 2022," a government source told the news agency.
     

    https://tass.com/economy/1362767
    , @A123
    @Aedib

    Prices will go down with long terms contracts and gas flowing by secure pipelines no subject to the risk of SJW German political disruption (e.g. BalticPipe, EastMed). That is what Christian nations including the Visegrád 4, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Austria want. Avoidance of Merkel and her successor.

    This points further at something I have been talking about for some time. While no one can formally leave the EU it is becoming dysfunctional. An irreversible separation is under way between Christian Europe and SJW Europe.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Aedib

  620. @mal
    Favorite video of Meow Rocket.

    https://twitter.com/PSFAERO/status/1460333074995154953?s=20

    Replies: @Aedib

    That’s 53T6M short range interceptor. PL-19 is not silo based. It is a mobile TEL based ASAT rocket.

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Aedib

    Details of modernised 53T6 ( PRS-1M ) missile

    https://armystandard.ru/news/warfare-and-peace/t/20196211110-nV4t9.html

    1 ) PRS-1M Outwardly looks same 53T6 rocket.
    2 ) Uses proven case technology of high-strength steel along with new composite materials with conical charges of solid fuel
    3 ) Has a detachable guided warhead with gas-dynamic steering engines.
    4 ) Internally of PRS-1M is completely changed has a new solid fuel engine which increased accleration to 4 km/sec
    ( ~ Mach 12 ) from 53T6 rocket speed of 3 km/sec ( Mach ~ 9 )
    5 ) The upgraded rocket withstands overload of 300 g - one and a half times more than its predecessor 53T6 rocket, while the on-board missile defense system PRS-1M on a modern electronic component base retains its efficiency.
    6 ) The lethal zone increased in height and range almost one and a half times — the interception of warheads of enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles is confidently carried out at an altitude of much more than 50 km.
    7 ) Carries two type of Warhead Kinetic against single ICBM warheads and Nuclear against multiple warheads.

  621. @Aedib
    @mal

    That's 53T6M short range interceptor. PL-19 is not silo based. It is a mobile TEL based ASAT rocket.

    Replies: @Aedib

    Details of modernised 53T6 ( PRS-1M ) missile

    https://armystandard.ru/news/warfare-and-peace/t/20196211110-nV4t9.html

    1 ) PRS-1M Outwardly looks same 53T6 rocket.
    2 ) Uses proven case technology of high-strength steel along with new composite materials with conical charges of solid fuel
    3 ) Has a detachable guided warhead with gas-dynamic steering engines.
    4 ) Internally of PRS-1M is completely changed has a new solid fuel engine which increased accleration to 4 km/sec
    ( ~ Mach 12 ) from 53T6 rocket speed of 3 km/sec ( Mach ~ 9 )
    5 ) The upgraded rocket withstands overload of 300 g – one and a half times more than its predecessor 53T6 rocket, while the on-board missile defense system PRS-1M on a modern electronic component base retains its efficiency.
    6 ) The lethal zone increased in height and range almost one and a half times — the interception of warheads of enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles is confidently carried out at an altitude of much more than 50 km.
    7 ) Carries two type of Warhead Kinetic against single ICBM warheads and Nuclear against multiple warheads.

    • Thanks: mal
  622. Many rightoids correctly anticipate the outcome of a BLM & woke-dominated society (as opposed to the current situation where they still hide under the wings of the Dems) to be a new caste system where White hetero males are at the lowest untouchable tier and Black trannies are at the highest aristocratic tier. This is the inverse of Indian castes.

    • Agree: Coconuts
    • Thanks: songbird
  623. @mal
    Now on a far more interesting subject.

    The Meow Rocket!


    To be fair, I was surprised by the Russian ASAT test. Not because it happened, but that it wasn't announced or complained about properly.

    The Meow Rocket (A-235 Nudol or derivative) is not a small thing and satellites can see it being launched. Its like an ICBM launch but much faster and with more 'meow'. Even if Russians didn't announce it, Americans still should have seen it coming and complained about the launch. But all we got was complaints about the debris some time later.

    As far as debris is concerned, American complaints do have merit. First off, it was an excellent shot with amazing accuracy - 2,000 kg satellite was transformed into 1500+ fragment "space rake" (debris field). To shatter like that, you need to be hit just right, at a speed of 17,000 mph relative to Meow launch site. That satellite was a spy one, with sort of polar orbit of 460 km and 80 degrees inclination (I think ISS is 52 degrees and 420 km).

    Is it a threat to ISS? Maybe, but unlikely. ISS is a serious station that is well monitored and has plentiful fuel to relocate (delivered by Progress freighters and maybe SpaceX these days). ISS has plenty of experience dodging Chinese debris from 2007 so this test shouldn't be a problem either.

    However, if you operate a fleet of small satellites in Low Earth Obrit, (cough... Starlink... cough...) you are probably celebrating job security for the next decade. Keeping track of thousands of small weak LEO satellites and the "space rake" at the same time is much harder than tracking one powerful object such as ISS. And they don't have the power of the ISS to dodge.

    So from Pentagon/Skynet perspective, the test is indeed problematic. They are correct in their assessment.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling, @Mitleser

    However, if you operate a fleet of small satellites in Low Earth Obrit, (cough… Starlink… cough…) you are probably celebrating job security for the next decade. Keeping track of thousands of small weak LEO satellites and the “space rake” at the same time is much harder than tracking one powerful object such as ISS.

    Everything I’ve read and double checked just now says Starlink’s satellites are way above both, their lowest orbital regime is around 550 km, just above the Hubble Space Telescope, the ISS is 370 to 460 km, and the “space rake” debris field from the Russian ASAT and its target is in the general region of the higher part of ISS, per Wikipedia just now the rake is “between 440 to 520 km.” Everything I’ve ever read says that’s also low enough it’ll take much less then a decade for drag from the very thin but still significant atmosphere when you’re travelling that fast in that region to deorbit most of the debris.

    Another way of putting it is that it’s one thing for Russia to hazard the ISS which is near the end of its design life and that Russia has a complicated and no longer profitable relationship with, SpaceX is now delivering cargo and crew to it ending Russia’s post Space Shuttle monopoly, very much another to deliberately wipe out any significant portion of Starlink’s orbital fleet.

    • Replies: @mal
    @That Would Be Telling

    I looked into it a bit more, you are correct about current Starlink orbital status. They are indeed at about 550 km. However, it appears that the bulk of them will be aimed lower in the near future?

    Phase 2 satellites numbering 7,500 are supposed to go into lower orbits at around 340 km by 2024-2027 timeframe?

    Or did this change too?

    Because by then I would think the rake orbit would decay to about there.

    I'm skeptical about Russia wanting to bomb ISS. Blocking space for LEO constellations (and forcing them to maneuver) is more rational and needed strategy. Maybe not Starlink, but those constellations will cause problems for Russian military and will need to be dealt with. ISS is harmless by comparison.

  624. @Aedib
    @AP

    Prices will go down with long terms contracts and gas flowing by secure pipelines no subject to the risk of political disruption (i.e., pipelines not passing through Ukraine). That’s what Bavarian industrialists want. Anyway, some flow will remain passing via Ukraine to Slovakia, Rumania and Czech Republic. That’s was agreed between Putin and Merkel.

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123

    One only can hope that Kremlin gang will succeed in getting physical gas flow shortages to the Western Europe this winter and driving prices further into stratosphere, then at those rates Germans might even postpone domestic nuclear shutdowns 😉

    MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. The suspension of Nord Stream 2 AG certification by the German regulator can result in postponement of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline commissioning until March 2022, sources in the German government told Reuters.

    “I expect that the start of Nord Stream 2 could be delayed until March 2022,” a government source told the news agency.

    https://tass.com/economy/1362767

  625. The German Young Catholic Community, Katholische junge Gemeinde, which is part of the 660,000-strong German Catholic Youth Organisation, had published a press statement saying it wanted to discuss spelling God with a gender star. “More and more faithful are now put off by the image of a male, patriarchal, white God and they are saying so out loud,” the KjG underlined. The image of a male, white God fell short of the mark and made many young people’s access to God more difficult, the statement said.

    [MORE]

    He found it “positive” that young Christians wanted to discuss God’s image, he told the German daily Weser Kurier. He was continually being told that young people could not imagine God as an old man with a long, white beard, he said. Addressing God as “Father” was above all meant to help describe God’s essence. “It is not meant to designate God’s sex,” he explained

    Already last year (2020), the German Catholic Students’ Association, which is also a member of the BDKJ, decided to use the spelling God* “in order to get away from the old white man with a beard who punishes to a God of diversity”, the association said.

    The bishops did not point out that the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer are “Our Father”.

    https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/14669/german-bishops-rule-that-god-cannot-be-god-

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @songbird

    These young German Catholics don't seem to find it strange that all the source material for the idea of male, patriarchal and 'white' was written down and spread by dusky Meds and Middle Eastern guys.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @songbird

  626. @RadicalCenter
    @A123

    Anyone who’s sane and self-respecting will immediately reject the disgusting irrational view of “The” old testament that God chose one arrogant in-bred race of people, on one little planet, above all others.

    Sane people, “Christian” or not, will also reject much of the sickening perverse material in “The” old testament. A man having sex with his own daughters, when the daughters know that he is their father, presented in a positive light, yeah those are the good old “Judeo-Christian” values of “the” old testament. More where that came from.

    The OT is a mishmash of sound advice, beautiful peaceful loving philosophy, useful observations about life and human nature — and racial-supremacist garbage, useless genealogies, absurd fairy tales meant to glorify that same race of people, sexual perversion (but then brutal treatment of other perversion, like homosexuality), meandering unclear fluff, and conclusory assertions. It should be embarrassing to pretend that it is uniformly a sensible, morally decent, useful book — or that it is even internally consistent with itself and “the” new testament. But Christians, and worse “Judeo-Christians”, keep on going with the transparent foolishness.

    Replies: @A123, @Che Guava

    Re. OT, it also has old myths from Sumeria, psalms from ancient Egypt, and I like the book of Job, a great tale.

    The Japanese words for OT and NT are better, containing the meaning of ‘old covenant’ and ‘new covenant’.

    As a neo-Marcionite, though, I appreciate the bits of OT that you and I mention, some of the tales of incest, murder, and so within the tribe are entertaining.

    Most Christians have no idea of the Jewish ideas of scripture. They think Torah means OT.

    Of course, it only means the Jewish concoctions of the first five books, concocted centuries (almost half a millenium)later than the versions in the septuagint.

    Jews refer to their version of the OT as the Talnakh, it is even later than the Torah, relative to the septaguint, and has further diversions, mainly to nullify Christian claims of prophecy. I don’t have the Jewish version to read, but know that it has major diversions from the septuagint, maybe some novel additions.

    … and then there are the Talmuds, Jews who believe in these are the majority, and the contents so disgusting that it has been banned several times, but Jewish believers in it are violen’ly opposed to translations. Heard of one recently?

    Any Christian must be aware of this diffusion and reality. Judaism is alien.

    First step, understand that Torah is not OT.

    • LOL: A123
    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Che Guava


    Heard of one recently?
     
    Judaism Discovered by Michael Hoffman is the book.

    1. Amazon has stopped carrying it the last time I checked.
    2. It is at least twice as rough reading as Blavatsky Secret Doctrine--Hoffman must have been seriously obsessed doing this.
    3. All those people who claim you are anti-semitic if you denigrate the Talmud? Not one in a thousand of them has read much of it. It is a physical feat like running a marathon or climbing a 20 000 foot mountain to read much Talmud.

    (Hoffman's book is 1100 pages, not large print; I don't think it has any pictures but it has been years since I opened it and it is on the bottom of my least accessed book stacks. It is painful to read.)

    Replies: @Che Guava

  627. @Che Guava
    @RadicalCenter

    Re. OT, it also has old myths from Sumeria, psalms from ancient Egypt, and I like the book of Job, a great tale.

    The Japanese words for OT and NT are better, containing the meaning of 'old covenant' and 'new covenant'.

    As a neo-Marcionite, though, I appreciate the bits of OT that you and I mention, some of the tales of incest, murder, and so within the tribe are entertaining.

    Most Christians have no idea of the Jewish ideas of scripture. They think Torah means OT.

    Of course, it only means the Jewish concoctions of the first five books, concocted centuries (almost half a millenium)later than the versions in the septuagint.

    Jews refer to their version of the OT as the Talnakh, it is even later than the Torah, relative to the septaguint, and has further diversions, mainly to nullify Christian claims of prophecy. I don't have the Jewish version to read, but know that it has major diversions from the septuagint, maybe some novel additions.

    ... and then there are the Talmuds, Jews who believe in these are the majority, and the contents so disgusting that it has been banned several times, but Jewish believers in it are violen'ly opposed to translations. Heard of one recently?

    Any Christian must be aware of this diffusion and reality. Judaism is alien.

    First step, understand that Torah is not OT.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    Heard of one recently?

    Judaism Discovered by Michael Hoffman is the book.

    1. Amazon has stopped carrying it the last time I checked.
    2. It is at least twice as rough reading as Blavatsky Secret Doctrine–Hoffman must have been seriously obsessed doing this.
    3. All those people who claim you are anti-semitic if you denigrate the Talmud? Not one in a thousand of them has read much of it. It is a physical feat like running a marathon or climbing a 20 000 foot mountain to read much Talmud.

    (Hoffman’s book is 1100 pages, not large print; I don’t think it has any pictures but it has been years since I opened it and it is on the bottom of my least accessed book stacks. It is painful to read.)

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Thank you, but AFAIR, from his own Hoffman descritption, is not providing a new translation of either Talmud, but an essay on many parts. I would like to read it some time.

    Replies: @AaronB, @songbird

  628. @That Would Be Telling
    @mal


    However, if you operate a fleet of small satellites in Low Earth Obrit, (cough… Starlink… cough…) you are probably celebrating job security for the next decade. Keeping track of thousands of small weak LEO satellites and the “space rake” at the same time is much harder than tracking one powerful object such as ISS.
     
    Everything I've read and double checked just now says Starlink's satellites are way above both, their lowest orbital regime is around 550 km, just above the Hubble Space Telescope, the ISS is 370 to 460 km, and the "space rake" debris field from the Russian ASAT and its target is in the general region of the higher part of ISS, per Wikipedia just now the rake is "between 440 to 520 km." Everything I've ever read says that's also low enough it'll take much less then a decade for drag from the very thin but still significant atmosphere when you're travelling that fast in that region to deorbit most of the debris.

    Another way of putting it is that it's one thing for Russia to hazard the ISS which is near the end of its design life and that Russia has a complicated and no longer profitable relationship with, SpaceX is now delivering cargo and crew to it ending Russia's post Space Shuttle monopoly, very much another to deliberately wipe out any significant portion of Starlink's orbital fleet.

    Replies: @mal

    I looked into it a bit more, you are correct about current Starlink orbital status. They are indeed at about 550 km. However, it appears that the bulk of them will be aimed lower in the near future?

    Phase 2 satellites numbering 7,500 are supposed to go into lower orbits at around 340 km by 2024-2027 timeframe?

    Or did this change too?

    Because by then I would think the rake orbit would decay to about there.

    I’m skeptical about Russia wanting to bomb ISS. Blocking space for LEO constellations (and forcing them to maneuver) is more rational and needed strategy. Maybe not Starlink, but those constellations will cause problems for Russian military and will need to be dealt with. ISS is harmless by comparison.

  629. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    @German_reader

    Thanks.


    like sinking into total passivity, not cultivating one’s talents that could contribute something to society or becoming a misanthropic hermit?
     
    These are very real dangers, and asceticism, like anything, can be pushed too far, where it is no longer itself.

    I think the best guide, as always, is human nature. The real issue, I think, is that our desires not be artificially inflamed. We live in a society designed specifically to do that.

    Here is Christopher Lasch in his book on Progress -

    .

    ...led me back to the eighteenth century, when the founders of modern liberalism began to argue that human wants, being insatiable, required an indefinite expansion of the productive forces necessary to satisfy them. Insatiable desire, formerly condemned as a source of frustration, unhappiness, and spiritual instability, came to be seen as a powerful stimulus to economic development. Instead of disparaging the tendency to want more than we need, liberals like Adam Smith argued that needs varied from one society to another, that civilized men and women needed more than savages to make them comfortable, and that a continual redefinition of their standards of comfort and convenience led to improvements in production and a general increase of wealth. There was no foreseeable end to the transformation of luxuries into necessities. The more comforts people enjoyed, the more they would expect. The elasticity of demand appeared to give the Anglo-American idea of progress a solid foundation that could not be shaken by subsequent events, not even by the global wars that broke out in the twentieth century. Those wars, indeed, gave added energy to economic development.
     
    It's quite monstrous if you think about it, no?

    But human nature is a pretty decent guideline to what we truly need for our happiness and satisfaction, and it is so much less than we are encouraged to believe.

    So instead of a set of rules and formula, it's a question of intuition and introspection, with a certain amount of individual variation thrown in, and attentiveness to how we truly feel, what we truly need and desire.

    Likewise, in the Buddha's time India was awash in extreme and anti social ascetics. He tried their methods for a while, but he found they didn't work. He didn't swing to the opposite and become a hedonist - he chose the "Middle Way".

    He understood in some sense that extreme asceticism is motivated by a desire for "endless more", just like greed and insatiable desire are, and saw the only true escape was through the center.

    Or are you in favour of some form of regulated community life as a safeguard against such dangers, to prevent asceticism from degenerating into autistic selfishness and combine it with some larger purpose (which also brings potential problems of its own, since such a community would have a need of hierarchy, with the attendant risk of abuse of power)?
     
    Not necessarily a community, although those who wish to create one are welcome to.

    But it is historically and scientifically false to say that every community would need a hierarchy. We are conditioned into this view by mainstream assumptions, but it's quite wrong.

    We know of many existing primitive tribes that are egalitarian. I was reading about the Batek of Indonesia recently - they are fascinating, and completely without hierarchy.

    And we know historically of many such groups.

    A community of spiritual people and ascetics would be a voluntary association with no need for hierarchy, where there would be no coercion and people would need to agree with ideas to support them - this isn't some fantasy, but the actual social structure of many existing and historical society.

    We are talking about people who are already operating out of radically different assumptions than the mainstream - who see the need for limiting acquisitiveness and self-aggrandizement - they are unlikely to argue or fight for primacy and similar things.

    But such a "change of heart" is first key.

    Replies: @German_reader

    But human nature is a pretty decent guideline to what we truly need for our happiness and satisfaction

    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.

    We know of many existing primitive tribes that are egalitarian. I was reading about the Batek of Indonesia recently – they are fascinating, and completely without hierarchy.

    I’m not familiar with them tbh. But iirc there’s a debate whether hunter gatherers really lived mostly in egalitarian bands or whether that isn’t actually atypical (hunter gatherers who survived until modern times live on more marginal lands than when all of humanity lived in that mode, so the social structure of historical hunter gatherer societies may have been different).
    I don’t think those primitive tribes can be described as ascetic though. Hunter gatherer societies typically are very violent, with intense intergroup competition about resources (which includes women captured on raids). Also lots of intragroup competition about status. Every man there is in a constant struggle to prove his worth and pass on his genes. So very different from a genuinely ascetic lifestyle that tries to leave this endless circle of competition behind.

    We are talking about people who are already operating out of radically different assumptions than the mainstream – who see the need for limiting acquisitiveness and self-aggrandizement – they are unlikely to argue or fight for primacy and similar things.

    Well, that’s not how it was seen in medieval monastic communities, total obedience to the abbot was one of the central duties imposed on monks, as was living according to the rule they had taken a vow on.
    Of course you could argue that this was different, because many monks had entered the monastery as child oblates, so hadn’t chosen that life freely, but still, your view strikes me as a bit too optimistic. I’m not sure the kind of community you envision has historically existed (maybe hermits in late antiquity who lived in their own cells and only met for communal prayer and meals?).

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @German_reader


    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.
     
    So, this is the great debate, isn't it.

    There are two narratives; one, that human nature is fundamentally corrupt, and only strict rules and the threat if violence can create any level of order. This is the Hobbesian view, and has always been favored by conservatives. This is the "mainstream consensus" that keeps us enslaved.

    However, to disprove this view, all we have to show is the existence of societies - both historically and today - that don't manifest insatiable desire for status and insatiable greed. And such societies exist in abundance.

    Moreover, Faustian societies are a relatively recent thing historically - the idea that insatiable greed and insatiable desire for status are good things, engines of "progress", and should be encouraged.

    That is a novel phenomena in world history - so clearly, it isn't merely "human nature".

    In David Graeber's new book, he shows that for thousands of years, there existed complex agricultural societies without harsh hierarchies, and not based on insatiable greed or desire for status.

    The "mainstream consensus" wants to convince you it's "human nature" and there is no escape - but that kind of serves the purposes of a narrow elite who exploits everyone else, doesn't it?

    If you look at the myth of the Garden of Eden, human nature originally is innocent and pure, and the Fall is an event in time that corrupts humans and their institutions and lifestyles. I think this encapsulates something we all know, deep down, is true - that's why this myth has been so powerful.

    As for insatiable desire, I know from my own experience that desire waxes and wanes depending on environment. When I am out in nature for extended periods, my desires naturally wane an almost comical point. I am much less hungry and am content with low levels of comfort.

    Back in civilization, I suddenly am full of cravings.

    I’m not familiar with them tbh. But iirc there’s a debate whether hunter gatherers really lived mostly in egalitarian bands or whether that isn’t actually atypical (hunter gatherers who survived until modern times live on more marginal lands than when all of humanity lived in that mode, so the social structure of historical hunter gatherer societies may have been different).
    I don’t think those primitive tribes can be described as ascetic though. Hunter gatherer societies typically are very violent, with intense intergroup competition about resources (which includes women captured on raids). Also lots of intragroup competition about status. Every man there is in a constant struggle to prove his worth and pass on his genes. So very different from a genuinely ascetic lifestyle that tries to leave this endless circle of competition behind
     
    .

    Well, there is a general consensus, that hunter gatherers are egalitarian.

    But yes, there is also a counter narrative, primarily fueled by Chagnon's study of the Yanomami, who he found were exceptionally warlike and aggressive.

    His research has been criticized, and they may not have been as warlike as he claimed.

    But not to get too deeply into that, we know that hunter gatherers can be exceptionally warlike - the American Indians practiced incessant war as a way of life, while other hunter gatherers were pacific, like the mild and peaceful indians Columbus encountered in the Caribbean.

    So there is no "single" typology of hunter gatherers. And yes, contemporary hunter gatherers living on marginal land may well be atypical, that is true - a point that also applies to the Yanomami. But we have a rich historical and archeological record to supplement our picture.

    As Graeber shows, even mamy early complex agricultural societies were often peaceful and egalitarian, while others were not.

    For my purposes, to defeat the pessimistic view that it is "human nature", all I have to show is that for extended periods of time, many human societies were egalitarian and peaceful. And the record shows that.

    The record does not support a "determinist" view - we are far freer than we are taught to think on modern times.

    Also, yes, hunter gatherers are not an example of spiritual ascetics in community - so how much more can we expect from people organizing for spiritual reasons?

    Well, that’s not how it was seen in medieval monastic communities, total obedience to the abbot was one of the central duties imposed on monks, as was living according to the rule they had taken a vow on.
    Of course you could argue that this was different, because many monks had entered the monastery as child oblates, so hadn’t chosen that life freely, but still, your view strikes me as a bit too optimistic. I’m not sure the kind of community you envision has historically existed (maybe hermits in late antiquity who lived in their own cells and only met for communal prayer and meals?).
     
    By the late Middle Ages, monasteries were deeply corrupted state-like institutions - there is a reason Henry VIII abolished them in England.

    Christianity in general, in my view, was only really authentic for a few centuries. When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth, and retained only an echo of it's spirituality (very useful, but no longer the full reality).

    The problem is, "institutions" become corrupted - become about power and money.

    The problem is, our modern Faustian society is built on the principle of encouraging insatiable desire for wealth and status quite explicitly, as that Lasch quote shows. Obviously greed and hierarchy will be extreme in such a society, and obviously it's beneficiaries will want to claim it's merely "human nature" and will seek to popularize and spread throughout the culture a broadly "determinist" view of human possibilities.

    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible "human nature".

    And as Faustian society, like all cultures, begins to lose momentum and collapse, the determinist view will fall with it, and a sense of expanded possibility will return.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123, @Coconuts

  630. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    draw the line?
     
    This is kind of topic which Buddha called "Middle Way". It's supposedly halfway between ascestism and indulgence. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-024-0852-2_280

    Although by modern standards, Buddha's teachings seem very ascetic, he was reacting to more extreme ascetism of holy men of Ancient India whose lifestyle might include torturing your body, refusing to drink water for days, etc.

    -

    By the way, Aaron B I don't understand if you were claiming that modern people are not involved in asceticism? Much of modern culture involves a kind of self-torturing (and also we have it in our political culture).

    For example, when we stay awake all night working on a project, and go to the office the next day with this bitter adrenaline taste in our mouth from lack of sleep* - these are things that people in older cultures (or perhaps the contemporary Caribbean) might consider a sadomasochistic's torture.

    Similarly think about our education and exam culture. How many children would voluntarily stay hours in the exam room resolving maths problems, which is completely against our instincts to run in the summer air - it's amazing we were trained into such kind of asceticism. And then there is life of those adults who go to work in the military..

    -

    * Also note this sensation in the morning, after lack of sleep, is kind of enjoyable and makes you feel like you are a successful workaholic - especially when combined with coffee. Here is a kind of indulgence in ascetism of the office worker.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader, @AaronB

    For example, when we stay awake all night working on a project,

    But you’re doing that for an increase in status, and to gain money for the newest Nike shoes or other consumer goods.
    Similarly, people taking exams generally hope that this will personally benefit them in their future career.
    As for those joining the military, there are of course many different motivations (e.g. patriotism), but a belief that one can improve one’s personal status (either in purely material terms, or by gaining prestige and martial glory) is certainly a prominent factor.
    So this is all very different from asceticism in its genuine sense.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    you’re doing that for an increase in status
     
    It's also not really. You can feel a kind of anti-pleasure, where you feel good about sacrificing your energy to do a good job.

    This is a stereotype of professionalism - when you're doing a good job, just for the motivation of doing a good job. And it's not that uncommon. The capitalists rely and benefit from many of their workers behaving like this to some extent. (Workers who sacrifice against their self-interest for their job, because they want to do a good job).


    So this is all very different from asceticism
     
    I'm not sure it is so different.

    If you think about a Japanese Buddhist monk in relation to their order, and a Japanese salaryman, in relation to his corporation.

    If you think about monks' relation to meditation, and sportsmen's relation to their sports.

    Or classical pianist, practicing alone for 8 hours per day, and an Indian holyman, practising yoga.

    -

    All I mean is that in the modern world, we certainly have a lot of things we are doing with an asceticist point of view.

    I'm not saying the secular equivalents are more healthy, or equally pure, as e.g. Buddhist monk (who is guided by a religious framework). But just that we can often be doing asceticist style of behaviors in a secular context.

  631. @songbird
    Russia should send an ultimatum to Youtube: leave the dislike counter alone, bring back video responses, and Stefan Molyneux (not that I am a fan - I always thought he had verbal diarrhea - but I want to see them embarrassed.)

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    Russia should send an ultimatum to Youtube: leave the dislike counter alone, bring back video responses

    Why would Russia want to make Google/YouTube better? Ultimately anything desecrated by contact with Leftoid Google will be defiled and fall to SJW.

    Is it not better for them to push native platforms?

    https://my.mail.ru/video

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123


    Why would Russia want to make Google/YouTube better?
     
    I don't expect them to comply, but it would be good propaganda for RT, to highlight the lack of freedom of speech in the West.
  632. @Aedib
    @AP

    Prices will go down with long terms contracts and gas flowing by secure pipelines no subject to the risk of political disruption (i.e., pipelines not passing through Ukraine). That’s what Bavarian industrialists want. Anyway, some flow will remain passing via Ukraine to Slovakia, Rumania and Czech Republic. That’s was agreed between Putin and Merkel.

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123

    Prices will go down with long terms contracts and gas flowing by secure pipelines no subject to the risk of SJW German political disruption (e.g. BalticPipe, EastMed). That is what Christian nations including the Visegrád 4, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Austria want. Avoidance of Merkel and her successor.

    This points further at something I have been talking about for some time. While no one can formally leave the EU it is becoming dysfunctional. An irreversible separation is under way between Christian Europe and SJW Europe.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Aedib
    @A123

    I think the wisest option is: Let any country choose the pipeline from where they want to buy gas. The gas market is already commoditized, and this is good.

    Replies: @A123

  633. @A123
    @songbird


    Russia should send an ultimatum to Youtube: leave the dislike counter alone, bring back video responses
     
    Why would Russia want to make Google/YouTube better? Ultimately anything desecrated by contact with Leftoid Google will be defiled and fall to SJW.

    Is it not better for them to push native platforms?

    https://my.mail.ru/video

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @songbird

    Why would Russia want to make Google/YouTube better?

    I don’t expect them to comply, but it would be good propaganda for RT, to highlight the lack of freedom of speech in the West.

  634. Curiously, there were relatively few extinctions of megafauna in Africa at the end of the Pleistocene. (Perhaps, they didn’t have atlatls? Or the scope and size of the continent led to less habitat fragmentation?)

    However, with current population projections for the continent, I think there is a real danger of things like giraffes, chimps, and gorillas being killed off. In order to prevent this tragedy from happening. I propose to move the blacks in the South back to Africa, and take the lions, apes, and elephants in their place. It should be a lot cheaper and safer to maintain them.

  635. @A123
    @Aedib

    Prices will go down with long terms contracts and gas flowing by secure pipelines no subject to the risk of SJW German political disruption (e.g. BalticPipe, EastMed). That is what Christian nations including the Visegrád 4, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Austria want. Avoidance of Merkel and her successor.

    This points further at something I have been talking about for some time. While no one can formally leave the EU it is becoming dysfunctional. An irreversible separation is under way between Christian Europe and SJW Europe.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Aedib

    I think the wisest option is: Let any country choose the pipeline from where they want to buy gas. The gas market is already commoditized, and this is good.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Aedib


    I think the wisest option is: Let any country choose the pipeline from where they want to buy gas. The gas market is already commoditized, and this is good
     
    Give it another decade or two and it might become commoditized. Right now, transport is highly political and non-commodity.

    As I have said many times before. The problem with NS2 is not the purchase of the underlying good (Russian gas). This can be demonstrated by the wholly non-controversial Russia-Hungary deal.

    The issue is that distribution is highly political & weaponizable. Bypassing Poland via NS2 empowers Merkel's SJW totalitarian aggression against Christian Populist democracies.

    Why is Putin giving the gift of political leverage to Elite SJW Globalists that hate him (and Russia's Orthodox Christianity)?

    PEACE 😇
  636. @Aedib
    @A123

    I think the wisest option is: Let any country choose the pipeline from where they want to buy gas. The gas market is already commoditized, and this is good.

    Replies: @A123

    I think the wisest option is: Let any country choose the pipeline from where they want to buy gas. The gas market is already commoditized, and this is good

    Give it another decade or two and it might become commoditized. Right now, transport is highly political and non-commodity.

    As I have said many times before. The problem with NS2 is not the purchase of the underlying good (Russian gas). This can be demonstrated by the wholly non-controversial Russia-Hungary deal.

    The issue is that distribution is highly political & weaponizable. Bypassing Poland via NS2 empowers Merkel’s SJW totalitarian aggression against Christian Populist democracies.

    Why is Putin giving the gift of political leverage to Elite SJW Globalists that hate him (and Russia’s Orthodox Christianity)?

    PEACE 😇

  637. @songbird

    The German Young Catholic Community, Katholische junge Gemeinde, which is part of the 660,000-strong German Catholic Youth Organisation, had published a press statement saying it wanted to discuss spelling God with a gender star. “More and more faithful are now put off by the image of a male, patriarchal, white God and they are saying so out loud,” the KjG underlined. The image of a male, white God fell short of the mark and made many young people’s access to God more difficult, the statement said.
     

    He found it “positive” that young Christians wanted to discuss God’s image, he told the German daily Weser Kurier. He was continually being told that young people could not imagine God as an old man with a long, white beard, he said. Addressing God as “Father” was above all meant to help describe God’s essence. “It is not meant to designate God’s sex,” he explained

    Already last year (2020), the German Catholic Students’ Association, which is also a member of the BDKJ, decided to use the spelling God* “in order to get away from the old white man with a beard who punishes to a God of diversity”, the association said.

    The bishops did not point out that the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer are “Our Father”.
     
    https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/14669/german-bishops-rule-that-god-cannot-be-god-

    Replies: @Coconuts

    These young German Catholics don’t seem to find it strange that all the source material for the idea of male, patriarchal and ‘white’ was written down and spread by dusky Meds and Middle Eastern guys.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Coconuts

    Well, as we also see with Buddhist art - most cultures are imagining and painting the Biblical characters to look like themselves, rather than the Middle East.

    But this is nothing unique to Europeans.

    A strong example where I've seen this, is with Virgin Mary at the Basilica of the Annunciation. A good memory of this Church, is the Chinese style Virgin Mary, which is shown at 1:33 in this video.

    There are also beautiful Japanese and African versions of the Virgin Mary inside the main church building which are not shown in this video, where they portray her as Japanese or African, etc.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4JtRYgJPbA

    , @songbird
    @Coconuts

    They would not like Homer either:

    A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.

  638. @Barbarossa
    @Mr. Hack

    Miroshnichencko is pretty awesome! I just gave some of his stuff a listen and will definitely keep it on rotation. Thanks for the recommendation.

    If you like Roman Miroshnichencko have you ever heard of Plini?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdSMeBrNp4A

    I listen to a fair bit of Prog Rock/Metal stuff and Plini seems a bit like a faster/ harder edged Miroshnichencko.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

    Finally gave a listen to the Pliny album that you recommended, nice stuff. Also, been continuing to listen to PT too. Didn’t know if you aware that this type of music had its roots in the music of Al DiMeola and Jeff Beck, way back when, I call it “wired music”, after the seminal record by Jeff Beck entitled “Wired”. Give it a listen, it was way ahead of its time and other musicians are just catching up:

  639. @Barbarossa
    @Mr. Hack

    Miroshnichencko is pretty awesome! I just gave some of his stuff a listen and will definitely keep it on rotation. Thanks for the recommendation.

    If you like Roman Miroshnichencko have you ever heard of Plini?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdSMeBrNp4A

    I listen to a fair bit of Prog Rock/Metal stuff and Plini seems a bit like a faster/ harder edged Miroshnichencko.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack

    Finally gave a listen to the Pliny album that you recommended, nice stuff. Also, been continuing to listen to PT too. Didn’t know whether you’re aware that this type of music had its roots in the music of Al DiMeola and Jeff Beck, way back when, I call it “wired music”, after the seminal record by Jeff Beck entitled “Wired”. Give it a listen, it was way ahead of its time and other musicians are just catching up:

    • Replies: @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack

    How many years later, and I've still not heard a drummer come close to the intro for 'Led Boots'.

    Ever read the story of the two drummers on Weather Report's 'Black Market'? Tied directly to 'Led Boots'.

    Ever heard a drummer better than Jan Hammer? I haven't. A golden age. Golden.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  640. @Dmitry
    If you want to understand about the context of British politics, Conservative Party, Boris Johnson, etc, I would recommend to watch more of 20th century documentaries like this, which seemed to transparently present brutal realities more than television of today.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LuuIuXTAlY

    ^This charming woman at 12:20 )

    UK is a very successful country (and this is continuing https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-169/#comment-5005877 ) , but the priority and results of the success can be distributed as if through an Indian caste system.

    And I predict this will continue with Boris Johnson's "Global Britain". It seems like investment probably in UK by 2030 will be very impressive, but of course most of the benefits might be narrowly concentrated.

    Proletariat in the UK are temporarily benefiting from Brexit, as there is now a lower labor supply, and a lot of EU citizens have exited from the UK. Tax and salary situation in the UK is looking pretty good now when you read the figures, especially for low income jobs (which are not taxed).

    However, supply restriction for labor is unlikely to be allowed to continue too long to increase salaries, before there will plans to increase non-EU sources of labor supply. Perhaps they will soon try to increase immigration to the UK from India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Jamaica, etc.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Coconuts

    However, supply restriction for labor is unlikely to be allowed to continue too long to increase salaries, before there will plans to increase non-EU sources of labor supply. Perhaps they will soon try to increase immigration to the UK from India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Jamaica, etc.

    The new immigration rules they passed following leaving the EU have fewer restrictions and lower thresholds for the movement of workers than the laws in place before Brexit; I remember the Migration Watch lobby group said that they looked as if they had been drawn up by business and corporate interests.

    I suspect they will try to continue to increase the population; a larger workforce, a larger consumer market, the price of housing, other fixed assets will continue to rise and so on.

    The Woke movement can even be useful to business here, as a way of dividing the workforce and controlling discussions of topics like immigration…

    The example of the EU workers was also interesting in that, while discussion about it was ongoing, the number of EU workers in the country was said to be around 3.3 million; then 6 million put in applications for naturalisation and some other quantity (750,000?) left following Brexit. It is strange that the government had so little idea how many people were in the country, also that increasing the population by more than 10% in a decade and a half (if non-EU nationals are added) might have an impact on a referendum vote involving the migration issue.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    a larger workforce, a larger consumer market
     
    Yes it's not just labor supply, but there is also a desire for a larger market. For people who own, rent or develop property, then there is a benefit from increasing the demand by increasing the population. And for the government, there is benefit of increasing the tax revenue.

    On the other hand, for many workers, it's a benefit to reduce the supply of unskilled labor from EU markets. Brexit will be a benefit for many workers in the short-term, but it's naïve anyone who thinks they will not find other sources for labor.

    -

    When I look at the 2016 discussions, "Global Britain" always seems more related to external policy though. Maybe it's like a meaningless blank paper, everyone is projecting their dreams to.

    It can be sounding like a kind of religious utopian cult slogan, with nothing except emotional content.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHPQFmIBsIA

    Replies: @Dmitry

  641. @Yellowface Anon
    @Coconuts

    Realistically (given the woke's multicultural premise) Africans should be a smaller component in the mix than Indians & Asians if the vision is "British", and it will have a greater emphasis on "responsibility" to immigrants from the Commonwealth.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    I think there are all kinds of problems, because the British Empire was such a different entity to the USA, and its component parts are nearly all independent nation states now. Also AFAIK historically the generic US style ‘white’ and ‘black’ identities have had no legal existence in any state in Europe, apart from maybe Germany and Italy in the 1930s and early 40s, but they had hardly any non-whites.

  642. “The importance of advanced development”: how Russia is developing new missile defense systems, by Nadezhda Alekseeva and Elizaveta Komarova for RT News in Russian, 10/11/2021.

    Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that a new missile defense system, the S-550, may appear in the arsenal of the Russian army. Experts suggest that we can talk about the creation of a new complex, which will use the design developments accumulated in recent years. So, it is possible that the new system will be equipped with a large number of missiles and is designed to repel massive air strikes, analysts say.

    A new missile defense system, the S-550, may appear in service with the Russian army. This was announced by the Minister of Defense of Russia Sergei Shoigu at a conference call with the leadership of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation at the National Center for Defense Management of the Russian Federation.

    Speaking to the leadership of the Russian Armed Forces, Shoigu recalled a series of meetings that President Vladimir Putin held in Sochi in early November with the military command and representatives of the defense industry.

    “Measures were considered to adequately respond to changes in the situation near the Russian borders. Much attention was paid to improving the country’s aerospace defense system. The head of state made a special emphasis on the importance of the advanced development of domestic air defense-missile defense systems, supplies to the armed forces of the S-350, S-500, S-550 systems, ”Sergei Shoigu said.

    The minister did not provide details. According to experts, this statement was the first public mention of the S-550 missile defense system.

    Recall that the S-500 Prometheus anti-aircraft missile system, which was also mentioned in the speech of the head of the Defense Ministry, has already begun to be supplied to the Russian army. Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov told reporters about it in September 2021.

    The production of the S-500 missile defense started in 2019, the complex is a new generation of air defense systems and is capable of striking all existing and promising air and space attack weapons.

    At the same time, the key task of the S-500 will be the destruction of both medium-range ballistic missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles in the final section of the flight path. The complex is also capable of shooting down UAVs and enemy aircraft.

    As the head of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Russian Aerospace Forces Sergey Babakov said earlier , the characteristics laid down by the designers in the S-500 will allow the air defense system to hit not only ballistic and aerodynamic targets, but also hypersonic weapons of all modifications.

    The range of destruction of the S-500 is up to 600 km, the complex is capable of shooting down targets at an altitude of up to 200 km. At the same time, the air defense missile system can form a single information network with other missile defense systems, distributing targets between them in an automatic mode.

    As for the S-350 Vityaz air defense system , the third complex mentioned by Sergei Shoigu, its creation began back in the 1990s due to the need to replace certain modifications of the S-300 complexes. The first working prototype of the anti-aircraft system was shown to the public in 2013 at the Obukhovsky plant in St. Petersburg. State tests of the S-350 missile defense system were completed in the summer of 2019, after which the Ministry of Defense signed a contract for the supply of new army systems.

    “Reflection of massive air attacks”

    According to experts, the S-550 missile defense system, which Sergei Shoigu mentioned in his speech, is unlikely to become a continuation of the Soviet project of the same name, which was developed in the 1980s.

    Then it was about creating a mobile short-range missile defense system capable of hitting ballistic missiles. Work on the complex began in 1981 on the basis of the Almaz Central Design Bureau together with the Novator Design Bureau. Already in 1985, the production of missile defense components was set up, tests of the S-550 were planned to begin in 1990. To comply with the treaty on the limitation of anti-missile defense systems signed by the USSR and the United States in 1972, it was planned to test a stationary version of the ABM. However, it did not come to the implementation of these plans – in 1988 the project was curtailed.

    According to military expert retired colonel Viktor Litovkin, modern missile defense systems continue the technical traditions laid down in the last century, but have already gone very far from their predecessors. Therefore, it is not worth drawing parallels between the Soviet S-550 project and modern developments, the expert noted in a commentary on RT.

    “In the era when the first S-550 was created, there were no such materials as exist today, there were no radar stations that detect targets at great distances. Over the decades, tremendous progress has been made not only in the creation of rocket launchers, but also in metallurgy and materials science. The production of fuel, on-board equipment and so on also developed, ”the expert explained.

    It is not yet known what the S-550 complex, announced by the Minister of Defense, will be, but a parallel can be drawn with the development of the S-300 complex in the form of the S-350 air defense system, Litovkin noted.

    “The S-300 and S-350 differ in that the launcher of the new complex has twice as many guiding missiles. I do not exclude that the S-550 may differ from the S-500 in the same way. The S-500 missile defense missiles can work in space, but do not forget that the system is also designed to work on aviation, hypersonic targets – the operator can choose a missile based on which target needs to be hit. I think that the S-550 complex will have different missiles on the launcher, ”the expert added.

    Military expert Alexei Leonkov adheres to a similar point of view. In an interview with RT, he explained that during the development of the S-500 missile defense system, additional design ideas and technologies could arise – most likely, they will now be implemented in the new S-550 system.

    “Of course, now there is no information about the S-550, but it can be assumed that the ammunition capacity of this complex will be increased at least several times, for example, compared to the S-400 air defense system. Most likely, this complex will be used to repel a massive strike by air attack means – bombers, air and ground-based cruise missiles. I can assume that the new air defense system will specialize precisely in repelling massive air attacks, ”the expert said.

    “For any purpose”

    Note that the predecessor of the S-500 air defense missile system, the S-400 Triumph complex, took up combat duty in 2007. The system is designed to engage any air targets in conditions of intense fire and electronic warfare. The range of destruction of the air defense missile system is up to 250 km for aerodynamic targets, up to 60 km for tactical ballistic targets, the complex can shoot down targets at an altitude of 27 km.

    The S-400 Triumph attracts the interest of foreign buyers – the earlier acquisition of a batch of air defense missile systems by Turkey caused serious contradictions between Ankara and Washington. Recall that the contract for the supply of the first batch of S-400s to the Turkish side was signed by Russia and Turkey in 2017. In 2020, the parties entered into an agreement on the continuation of supplies.

    According to experts, an important advantage of Russian missile defense systems is their versatility in comparison, for example, with their American counterparts.

    “The versatility lies in the fact that our missile defense system can work on any targets, and also launch missiles straight up. For comparison, American complexes start at an angle, and to cover the entire circumference, several launchers need to be deployed in a circle. It is more expensive and less effective, ”said Viktor Litovkin.

    The expert added that this does not replace the need for Russia to constantly expand the arsenal of domestic missile defense systems. The creation of the new C-550 system could be part of this strategy.

    “New complexes are being created because at the same time the means of attack are developing – aviation, ballistic missiles. And so that we are ready to intercept any missile, we need new systems, ”the expert summed up.

  643. @Coconuts
    @songbird

    These young German Catholics don't seem to find it strange that all the source material for the idea of male, patriarchal and 'white' was written down and spread by dusky Meds and Middle Eastern guys.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @songbird

    Well, as we also see with Buddhist art – most cultures are imagining and painting the Biblical characters to look like themselves, rather than the Middle East.

    But this is nothing unique to Europeans.

    A strong example where I’ve seen this, is with Virgin Mary at the Basilica of the Annunciation. A good memory of this Church, is the Chinese style Virgin Mary, which is shown at 1:33 in this video.

    There are also beautiful Japanese and African versions of the Virgin Mary inside the main church building which are not shown in this video, where they portray her as Japanese or African, etc.

    • Thanks: Coconuts
  644. Approximately two months after the election, German coalition take drag on: (1)

    Although Chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz is optimistic about the progress of the coalition talks between the three parties that will make up Germany’s next “traffic light coalition,” there is no clear date on when an agreement could be reached. There are also signs that a number of sticking points are leading to conflict among the coalition party members, which could complicate a final agreement.

    In addition, it is known that in the area of ​​the budget, the FDP wants to see Germany return to the constitutional debt cap soon, which has limited the country’s annual deficit to 0.35% of gross domestic product, unless there is a national crisis. The current government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, has suspended the debt cap to raise billions of euros to support the economy and households hit hard by the coronavirus epidemic.

    Despite the disputes, coalition talks that take weeks or months is nothing new for Germany either. The now caretaker government of Angela Merkel also took a long a time to come together after the previous elections, as her government was sworn in five months after the September 2017 election.

    At a minimum, months to go. At worst, the FDP and Greens will have irreconcilable requirements. Germany needs a strong leader who can sharply turn the country away from Merkel’s catastrophic failures. It does not look like there is any hope for other the weakest government.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/germany/german-traffic-light-coalition-talks-drag-on-over-disputes-on-spending-climate-change/

  645. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    For example, when we stay awake all night working on a project,
     
    But you're doing that for an increase in status, and to gain money for the newest Nike shoes or other consumer goods.
    Similarly, people taking exams generally hope that this will personally benefit them in their future career.
    As for those joining the military, there are of course many different motivations (e.g. patriotism), but a belief that one can improve one's personal status (either in purely material terms, or by gaining prestige and martial glory) is certainly a prominent factor.
    So this is all very different from asceticism in its genuine sense.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    you’re doing that for an increase in status

    It’s also not really. You can feel a kind of anti-pleasure, where you feel good about sacrificing your energy to do a good job.

    This is a stereotype of professionalism – when you’re doing a good job, just for the motivation of doing a good job. And it’s not that uncommon. The capitalists rely and benefit from many of their workers behaving like this to some extent. (Workers who sacrifice against their self-interest for their job, because they want to do a good job).

    So this is all very different from asceticism

    I’m not sure it is so different.

    If you think about a Japanese Buddhist monk in relation to their order, and a Japanese salaryman, in relation to his corporation.

    If you think about monks’ relation to meditation, and sportsmen’s relation to their sports.

    Or classical pianist, practicing alone for 8 hours per day, and an Indian holyman, practising yoga.

    All I mean is that in the modern world, we certainly have a lot of things we are doing with an asceticist point of view.

    I’m not saying the secular equivalents are more healthy, or equally pure, as e.g. Buddhist monk (who is guided by a religious framework). But just that we can often be doing asceticist style of behaviors in a secular context.

  646. @Coconuts
    @songbird

    These young German Catholics don't seem to find it strange that all the source material for the idea of male, patriarchal and 'white' was written down and spread by dusky Meds and Middle Eastern guys.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @songbird

    They would not like Homer either:

    A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.

    • Agree: Coconuts
  647. @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    However, supply restriction for labor is unlikely to be allowed to continue too long to increase salaries, before there will plans to increase non-EU sources of labor supply. Perhaps they will soon try to increase immigration to the UK from India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Jamaica, etc.
     
    The new immigration rules they passed following leaving the EU have fewer restrictions and lower thresholds for the movement of workers than the laws in place before Brexit; I remember the Migration Watch lobby group said that they looked as if they had been drawn up by business and corporate interests.

    I suspect they will try to continue to increase the population; a larger workforce, a larger consumer market, the price of housing, other fixed assets will continue to rise and so on.

    The Woke movement can even be useful to business here, as a way of dividing the workforce and controlling discussions of topics like immigration...

    The example of the EU workers was also interesting in that, while discussion about it was ongoing, the number of EU workers in the country was said to be around 3.3 million; then 6 million put in applications for naturalisation and some other quantity (750,000?) left following Brexit. It is strange that the government had so little idea how many people were in the country, also that increasing the population by more than 10% in a decade and a half (if non-EU nationals are added) might have an impact on a referendum vote involving the migration issue.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    a larger workforce, a larger consumer market

    Yes it’s not just labor supply, but there is also a desire for a larger market. For people who own, rent or develop property, then there is a benefit from increasing the demand by increasing the population. And for the government, there is benefit of increasing the tax revenue.

    On the other hand, for many workers, it’s a benefit to reduce the supply of unskilled labor from EU markets. Brexit will be a benefit for many workers in the short-term, but it’s naïve anyone who thinks they will not find other sources for labor.

    When I look at the 2016 discussions, “Global Britain” always seems more related to external policy though. Maybe it’s like a meaningless blank paper, everyone is projecting their dreams to.

    It can be sounding like a kind of religious utopian cult slogan, with nothing except emotional content.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    2016 discussions, “Global Britain” always seems more related to external policy
     
    "Global Britain" policy presentation Boris Johnson signs in 2016, was prioritizing about Ukraine, and celebrated even the (not honestly described) Nazi-collaborator roots of the Canadian Foreign Minister.

    -

    For the "Global Britain" presentation Boris Johnson writes the introduction for, Ukraine even has a special information box, and is described as a reason to co-ordinate between UK and Canada.

    https://i.imgur.com/IgzQ6yx.jpg

    https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/HJS-Global-Britain-%C2%AD-A-Twenty-first-Century-Vision-Report-A4-web.pdf


    This seems strange, because Ukraine has no practical importance for UK, and even Russia mainly only has moderate importance to the Kingdom as a financial investor in London.


    -

    But maybe they are indeed thinking in a similar way to what we read in these "Global Britain" papers?

    According to The Daily Mail yesterday.

    https://i.imgur.com/wzvTrfF.jpg

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10215039/UK-signs-deal-supply-warships-missiles-Ukraine.html

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP

  648. As AK is not available to “Chan /pol/ meme”, I give you the U.S. House of Representatives.

    This is probably a rhetorical question. How did Leftoids become so grim, joyless, and without humor?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _______________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-censures-rep-gosar-strips-his-committee-seats-over-aoc-anime-video

     

     

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @A123


    You're cartoon anime scares me
     
    Written like that by a Congressman!

    BTW, the Arizona audit of the votes found many irregularities, as expected, but no change in the results. In fact, the recount found a slightly higher advantage for Biden than the official tally. What say you now?

    Replies: @A123, @A123

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    The most based part of Attack on Titan (never watched it but heard of the spoilers thru osmosis) is that instead of the wall being built to fend off the Titans, it is to wall off the statelet where the protags live from the rest of the world. This is because the race inhabiting the statelet aren't normal humans, but those who can transform into the very same Titans themselves without knowing it, and the statelet is what remains of a globe-spanning empire that was defeated in a world war, retreated to the place and then having its inhabitants indoctrinated into thinking themselves as humanity's last holdout.

    I don't think whoever made the meme on /pol/ or Gosar saw the extreme profoundness of the whole thing.

    Replies: @A123

  649. @A123
    As AK is not available to "Chan /pol/ meme", I give you the U.S. House of Representatives.

    This is probably a rhetorical question. How did Leftoids become so grim, joyless, and without humor?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _______________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-censures-rep-gosar-strips-his-committee-seats-over-aoc-anime-video

     

    https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/gosar-posts-anime-attack-760.jpg

     

    https://twitter.com/RepGosar/status/1458093047565197329?s=20

    Replies: @Mikel, @Yellowface Anon

    You’re cartoon anime scares me

    Written like that by a Congressman!

    BTW, the Arizona audit of the votes found many irregularities, as expected, but no change in the results. In fact, the recount found a slightly higher advantage for Biden than the official tally. What say you now?

    • Replies: @A123
    @Mikel



    You’re cartoon anime scares me
     
    Written like that by a Congressman!
     
    (A) Doubtful that the the Congressman created the meme. Such /pol/ errors tend to start with ESL Individuals.

    (B) The panel order for following the OAV/manga is correct Right to Left

    2 ... 1
    4 ... 3

    1 - Gosar attacks
    2 - Gosar dispatches the lesser foe
    3 - Gosar attacks the AOC Titan
    4 - AOC falls

    Someone incompetent would have screwed that up.

    (C) Attack of The Titans is an inspired choice. Season 1 established that Titans gain no nutrition from eating people. They are vicious because they choose to be that way.

    So, if you insist on blaming Gosar for a typo.... You have to recognize his inspiration and accuracy working the source material.


    BTW, the Arizona audit of the votes found many irregularities, as expected, but no change in the results. In fact, the recount found a slightly higher advantage for Biden than the official tally. What say you now?
     
    ROTFLMAO

    I say that you believed Orwellian CNN reporting about Arizona. Reality shows that Biden did not win Arizona (1) (2)


    early voting ballot return envelopes, on which voters were required to sign an affidavit within a signature block. That review revealed more than 17,000 duplicate images of the return envelopes. When the duplicates were eliminated from the review, Ayyadurai’s company, EchoMail, concluded that Maricopa County had recorded more than 6,545 early voting return envelopes than EchoMail determined existed. EchoMail also concluded that another approximately 500 of the envelopes’ affidavits were left blank.

    Ayyadurai also highlighted several implausible statistics, such as that while there was a 52.6 percent increase from 2016 to 2020 in the number of early voting ballots, Maricopa County reported a decrease in signature mismatches of 59.7 percent. “This inverse relationship requires explanation,” the report noted, and then recommended a full audit of the signatures.
     

    With over 100,000 ballots invalidated by the audit, it takes a seriously damaged and irrational mind to attempt to defend an ~10,000 vote margin.

    If your goal was destroying your credibility. Mission Accomplished! You get full marks for highly impressive GW-style self deception.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/07/15/president-donald-trump-responds-to-arizona-senate-hearing-on-maricopa-county-audit/

    (2) https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/27/arizona-2020-vote-audit-finds-potentially-election-shifting-numbers-of-illegal-ballots/

     
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/trump-statement-maricopa-1.jpg

    , @A123
    @Mikel



    You’re cartoon anime scares me
     
    Written like that by a Congressman!
     
    Another possibility.

    Congressman Gosar was intentionally denigrating his foes by depicting them as illiterate. Inaccurate use of the English language is very low-IQ, SJW Leftoid.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  650. Interesting stuff happening in Austria. I wonder if Kurz wasn’t globohomo enough, just half or three-quarters.

  651. @Mikel
    @A123


    You're cartoon anime scares me
     
    Written like that by a Congressman!

    BTW, the Arizona audit of the votes found many irregularities, as expected, but no change in the results. In fact, the recount found a slightly higher advantage for Biden than the official tally. What say you now?

    Replies: @A123, @A123

    You’re cartoon anime scares me

    Written like that by a Congressman!

    (A) Doubtful that the the Congressman created the meme. Such /pol/ errors tend to start with ESL Individuals.

    (B) The panel order for following the OAV/manga is correct Right to Left

    2 … 1
    4 … 3

    1 – Gosar attacks
    2 – Gosar dispatches the lesser foe
    3 – Gosar attacks the AOC Titan
    4 – AOC falls

    Someone incompetent would have screwed that up.

    (C) Attack of The Titans is an inspired choice. Season 1 established that Titans gain no nutrition from eating people. They are vicious because they choose to be that way.

    So, if you insist on blaming Gosar for a typo…. You have to recognize his inspiration and accuracy working the source material.

    BTW, the Arizona audit of the votes found many irregularities, as expected, but no change in the results. In fact, the recount found a slightly higher advantage for Biden than the official tally. What say you now?

    ROTFLMAO

    I say that you believed Orwellian CNN reporting about Arizona. Reality shows that Biden did not win Arizona (1) (2)

    early voting ballot return envelopes, on which voters were required to sign an affidavit within a signature block. That review revealed more than 17,000 duplicate images of the return envelopes. When the duplicates were eliminated from the review, Ayyadurai’s company, EchoMail, concluded that Maricopa County had recorded more than 6,545 early voting return envelopes than EchoMail determined existed. EchoMail also concluded that another approximately 500 of the envelopes’ affidavits were left blank.

    Ayyadurai also highlighted several implausible statistics, such as that while there was a 52.6 percent increase from 2016 to 2020 in the number of early voting ballots, Maricopa County reported a decrease in signature mismatches of 59.7 percent. “This inverse relationship requires explanation,” the report noted, and then recommended a full audit of the signatures.

    With over 100,000 ballots invalidated by the audit, it takes a seriously damaged and irrational mind to attempt to defend an ~10,000 vote margin.

    If your goal was destroying your credibility. Mission Accomplished! You get full marks for highly impressive GW-style self deception.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/07/15/president-donald-trump-responds-to-arizona-senate-hearing-on-maricopa-county-audit/

    (2) https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/27/arizona-2020-vote-audit-finds-potentially-election-shifting-numbers-of-illegal-ballots/

     

  652. @A123
    As AK is not available to "Chan /pol/ meme", I give you the U.S. House of Representatives.

    This is probably a rhetorical question. How did Leftoids become so grim, joyless, and without humor?

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _______________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-censures-rep-gosar-strips-his-committee-seats-over-aoc-anime-video

     

    https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/gosar-posts-anime-attack-760.jpg

     

    https://twitter.com/RepGosar/status/1458093047565197329?s=20

    Replies: @Mikel, @Yellowface Anon

    The most based part of Attack on Titan (never watched it but heard of the spoilers thru osmosis) is that instead of the wall being built to fend off the Titans, it is to wall off the statelet where the protags live from the rest of the world. This is because the race inhabiting the statelet aren’t normal humans, but those who can transform into the very same Titans themselves without knowing it, and the statelet is what remains of a globe-spanning empire that was defeated in a world war, retreated to the place and then having its inhabitants indoctrinated into thinking themselves as humanity’s last holdout.

    I don’t think whoever made the meme on /pol/ or Gosar saw the extreme profoundness of the whole thing.

    • LOL: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @Yellowface Anon

    I only saw the first half of OAV season 1 of Attack on Titan (a.k.a. Attack of the Titans). My analysis fits well with what I have seen.

    If there is an alternate interpretation... I do not have the background to analyze it.

    Occam's Razor suggests that the simple season 1 read is correct. However, I remain open to clarification if such is forthcoming from Rep. Gosar.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  653. @Mikel
    @A123


    You're cartoon anime scares me
     
    Written like that by a Congressman!

    BTW, the Arizona audit of the votes found many irregularities, as expected, but no change in the results. In fact, the recount found a slightly higher advantage for Biden than the official tally. What say you now?

    Replies: @A123, @A123

    You’re cartoon anime scares me

    Written like that by a Congressman!

    Another possibility.

    Congressman Gosar was intentionally denigrating his foes by depicting them as illiterate. Inaccurate use of the English language is very low-IQ, SJW Leftoid.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  654. @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    The most based part of Attack on Titan (never watched it but heard of the spoilers thru osmosis) is that instead of the wall being built to fend off the Titans, it is to wall off the statelet where the protags live from the rest of the world. This is because the race inhabiting the statelet aren't normal humans, but those who can transform into the very same Titans themselves without knowing it, and the statelet is what remains of a globe-spanning empire that was defeated in a world war, retreated to the place and then having its inhabitants indoctrinated into thinking themselves as humanity's last holdout.

    I don't think whoever made the meme on /pol/ or Gosar saw the extreme profoundness of the whole thing.

    Replies: @A123

    I only saw the first half of OAV season 1 of Attack on Titan (a.k.a. Attack of the Titans). My analysis fits well with what I have seen.

    If there is an alternate interpretation… I do not have the background to analyze it.

    Occam’s Razor suggests that the simple season 1 read is correct. However, I remain open to clarification if such is forthcoming from Rep. Gosar.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • LOL: Yellowface Anon
  655. @Mr. Hack
    @Barbarossa

    Finally gave a listen to the Pliny album that you recommended, nice stuff. Also, been continuing to listen to PT too. Didn't know whether you're aware that this type of music had its roots in the music of Al DiMeola and Jeff Beck, way back when, I call it "wired music", after the seminal record by Jeff Beck entitled "Wired". Give it a listen, it was way ahead of its time and other musicians are just catching up:

    https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/music/8/86/919/830/886919830224_2459920.jpg

    https://open.spotify.com/album/0vo9nZNFMaFASINLCzmzcU?si=dyqjogy5TU26s0_C8dEGAA

    Replies: @schnellandine

    How many years later, and I’ve still not heard a drummer come close to the intro for ‘Led Boots’.

    Ever read the story of the two drummers on Weather Report’s ‘Black Market’? Tied directly to ‘Led Boots’.

    Ever heard a drummer better than Jan Hammer? I haven’t. A golden age. Golden.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    If drumming is your thing don't miss listening to "Head for a Backstage Pass". A short gem of funkiness. What great interplay between everybody!

    And "Blue Wind" really not any less spectacular!

    Tell me more about the "story of two drummers"?....

    Replies: @schnellandine

  656. @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack

    How many years later, and I've still not heard a drummer come close to the intro for 'Led Boots'.

    Ever read the story of the two drummers on Weather Report's 'Black Market'? Tied directly to 'Led Boots'.

    Ever heard a drummer better than Jan Hammer? I haven't. A golden age. Golden.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    If drumming is your thing don’t miss listening to “Head for a Backstage Pass”. A short gem of funkiness. What great interplay between everybody!

    And “Blue Wind” really not any less spectacular!

    Tell me more about the “story of two drummers”?….

    • Replies: @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack

    Miss listening to 'Head for Backstage Pass'? LOL. I could dream it. It's tattooed to my soul. That whole album.

    If you first hear Wired after being a Jan Hammer fan, it's almost funny how much it appears that Beck had been taking lessons from Hammer for 3 months prior to recording. Few transformations bear such a mark of influence from one master to another. Beck soaked it all up and spit it back out better than it arrived. Monumental pairing.

    The drummer story for 'Black Market' is a little off because it centers on the arrogance of Narada Walden, but the result is inarguable. I like that he's playing where he is, and that Chester Thompson plays where he does. Basically, Thompson plays from the beginning, through the asymmetric break, and then Walden comes in like fire at the, uh, 'chorus'?

    I like Chester Thompson, so not pleasant to hear Walden strut. Walden wouldn't have appeared so good if Thompson hadn't brought what he did to the beginning. Still, IMO, Walden doesn't get enough credit, so maybe that's why he mouthed off. Seriously, have you ever heard anything like the beginning of 'Led Boots'? Searched on YouTube once to hear people try it, and it was embarrassing. Of course, it's like that for nearly any cover. So great to hear stuff done right. Did you check out that little Japanese girl drummer? She was good until started overplaying constantly. Had an unbelievable groove, and at age 9 or so. Robert Plant was laughing watching her play 'Good Times Bad Times'. She did a worthy 'Uptown Funk', but soon went downhill. Can't bear to see how low she's sunk, so stopped watching.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  657. @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    If drumming is your thing don't miss listening to "Head for a Backstage Pass". A short gem of funkiness. What great interplay between everybody!

    And "Blue Wind" really not any less spectacular!

    Tell me more about the "story of two drummers"?....

    Replies: @schnellandine

    Miss listening to ‘Head for Backstage Pass’? LOL. I could dream it. It’s tattooed to my soul. That whole album.

    If you first hear Wired after being a Jan Hammer fan, it’s almost funny how much it appears that Beck had been taking lessons from Hammer for 3 months prior to recording. Few transformations bear such a mark of influence from one master to another. Beck soaked it all up and spit it back out better than it arrived. Monumental pairing.

    The drummer story for ‘Black Market’ is a little off because it centers on the arrogance of Narada Walden, but the result is inarguable. I like that he’s playing where he is, and that Chester Thompson plays where he does. Basically, Thompson plays from the beginning, through the asymmetric break, and then Walden comes in like fire at the, uh, ‘chorus’?

    I like Chester Thompson, so not pleasant to hear Walden strut. Walden wouldn’t have appeared so good if Thompson hadn’t brought what he did to the beginning. Still, IMO, Walden doesn’t get enough credit, so maybe that’s why he mouthed off. Seriously, have you ever heard anything like the beginning of ‘Led Boots’? Searched on YouTube once to hear people try it, and it was embarrassing. Of course, it’s like that for nearly any cover. So great to hear stuff done right. Did you check out that little Japanese girl drummer? She was good until started overplaying constantly. Had an unbelievable groove, and at age 9 or so. Robert Plant was laughing watching her play ‘Good Times Bad Times’. She did a worthy ‘Uptown Funk’, but soon went downhill. Can’t bear to see how low she’s sunk, so stopped watching.

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    Beck's next album "There and Back" pretty much continued where "Wired" left off. Then there was a live album put out that was a wee bit more sloppy IMHO. Perhaps I'm wrong, as I haven't listened to it in a long, long time. We used to listen to it as cruising music in the candy apple red barracuda. :-)

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  658. @schnellandine
    @Mr. Hack

    Miss listening to 'Head for Backstage Pass'? LOL. I could dream it. It's tattooed to my soul. That whole album.

    If you first hear Wired after being a Jan Hammer fan, it's almost funny how much it appears that Beck had been taking lessons from Hammer for 3 months prior to recording. Few transformations bear such a mark of influence from one master to another. Beck soaked it all up and spit it back out better than it arrived. Monumental pairing.

    The drummer story for 'Black Market' is a little off because it centers on the arrogance of Narada Walden, but the result is inarguable. I like that he's playing where he is, and that Chester Thompson plays where he does. Basically, Thompson plays from the beginning, through the asymmetric break, and then Walden comes in like fire at the, uh, 'chorus'?

    I like Chester Thompson, so not pleasant to hear Walden strut. Walden wouldn't have appeared so good if Thompson hadn't brought what he did to the beginning. Still, IMO, Walden doesn't get enough credit, so maybe that's why he mouthed off. Seriously, have you ever heard anything like the beginning of 'Led Boots'? Searched on YouTube once to hear people try it, and it was embarrassing. Of course, it's like that for nearly any cover. So great to hear stuff done right. Did you check out that little Japanese girl drummer? She was good until started overplaying constantly. Had an unbelievable groove, and at age 9 or so. Robert Plant was laughing watching her play 'Good Times Bad Times'. She did a worthy 'Uptown Funk', but soon went downhill. Can't bear to see how low she's sunk, so stopped watching.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Beck’s next album “There and Back” pretty much continued where “Wired” left off. Then there was a live album put out that was a wee bit more sloppy IMHO. Perhaps I’m wrong, as I haven’t listened to it in a long, long time. We used to listen to it as cruising music in the candy apple red barracuda. 🙂

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mr. Hack

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/1a/af/d91aaf99fa63d857f30af88a57a18563.jpg

    Replies: @Aedib

  659. @Mr. Hack
    @schnellandine

    Beck's next album "There and Back" pretty much continued where "Wired" left off. Then there was a live album put out that was a wee bit more sloppy IMHO. Perhaps I'm wrong, as I haven't listened to it in a long, long time. We used to listen to it as cruising music in the candy apple red barracuda. :-)

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    • Thanks: Aedib, schnellandine
    • Replies: @Aedib
    @Mr. Hack

    What a beauty!

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  660. @German_reader
    @Matra

    You can also just pirate it on Library Genesis:
    http://library.lol/main/DEF1852F28B08759EEDBF7A0B6C1A64F
    Haven't read any of McMeekin's books myself, but I get the impression he likes exaggerated, provocative theses (seems also to be the case in his books about the origins of WW1 and the Russian revolution). It's probably a good marketing strategy.

    Replies: @Yevardian

    Despite a few reservations about his prose style, I did find his book on the Russian Revolution to be excellent (I can still easily recommend that book), which then just added to my dissappointment regarding ‘Stalin’s War’.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Yevardian

    Well, I haven't read it, just saw some reviewers suggesting that he's claiming the Russian revolution was basically a total accident (according to one reviewer due to one day of bad weather). iirc McMeekin was one of the main authorities for AK's posts on the subject which I didn't really find convincing either and whose argument seemed to run along the same lines (really strong position of Russia in early 1917, victory parades in Berlin and Constantinople inevitable...if people hadn't betrayed the tsar and German agent Lenin hadn't undermined the war effort). It just seems very exaggerated to me, like a work where you'd have to double-check constantly that the author isn't trying to tell you total bs (similarly with his book about the origins of WW1 which sounds like the Fischer thesis applied to Russia). Maybe I'll still look at it for myself eventually, but it's pretty far down my reading list.

  661. German_reader says:
    @Yevardian
    @German_reader

    Despite a few reservations about his prose style, I did find his book on the Russian Revolution to be excellent (I can still easily recommend that book), which then just added to my dissappointment regarding 'Stalin's War'.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Well, I haven’t read it, just saw some reviewers suggesting that he’s claiming the Russian revolution was basically a total accident (according to one reviewer due to one day of bad weather). iirc McMeekin was one of the main authorities for AK’s posts on the subject which I didn’t really find convincing either and whose argument seemed to run along the same lines (really strong position of Russia in early 1917, victory parades in Berlin and Constantinople inevitable…if people hadn’t betrayed the tsar and German agent Lenin hadn’t undermined the war effort). It just seems very exaggerated to me, like a work where you’d have to double-check constantly that the author isn’t trying to tell you total bs (similarly with his book about the origins of WW1 which sounds like the Fischer thesis applied to Russia). Maybe I’ll still look at it for myself eventually, but it’s pretty far down my reading list.

  662. @Mr. Hack
    @Mr. Hack

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/1a/af/d91aaf99fa63d857f30af88a57a18563.jpg

    Replies: @Aedib

    What a beauty!

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Aedib

    It started off as my best friend's older brother's car, but was slowly appropriated as Mario's car (Polish not Italian). It was our vehicle of choice, especially on weekends. We started off by cruising the streets of the Twin Cities, but steadily increased our cruising turf from Red Wing in the southeastern part of the state all the way up north to Duluth. Not too many cars that we couldn't overtake with a 383 cubic inch Hemi engine. It included a beautiful Sony sound system where besides Jeff Beck's electrified music, Pink Floyd's classic output could often be heard. Fortunately, college soon curtailed this reckless and hedonistic activity in exchange for books and papers (and Friday night beer quaffing). :-)

    https://youtu.be/otJuTZPTZBQ

  663. @Aedib
    @Mr. Hack

    What a beauty!

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    It started off as my best friend’s older brother’s car, but was slowly appropriated as Mario’s car (Polish not Italian). It was our vehicle of choice, especially on weekends. We started off by cruising the streets of the Twin Cities, but steadily increased our cruising turf from Red Wing in the southeastern part of the state all the way up north to Duluth. Not too many cars that we couldn’t overtake with a 383 cubic inch Hemi engine. It included a beautiful Sony sound system where besides Jeff Beck’s electrified music, Pink Floyd’s classic output could often be heard. Fortunately, college soon curtailed this reckless and hedonistic activity in exchange for books and papers (and Friday night beer quaffing). 🙂

  664. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    But human nature is a pretty decent guideline to what we truly need for our happiness and satisfaction
     
    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one's genetic line.

    We know of many existing primitive tribes that are egalitarian. I was reading about the Batek of Indonesia recently – they are fascinating, and completely without hierarchy.
     
    I'm not familiar with them tbh. But iirc there's a debate whether hunter gatherers really lived mostly in egalitarian bands or whether that isn't actually atypical (hunter gatherers who survived until modern times live on more marginal lands than when all of humanity lived in that mode, so the social structure of historical hunter gatherer societies may have been different).
    I don't think those primitive tribes can be described as ascetic though. Hunter gatherer societies typically are very violent, with intense intergroup competition about resources (which includes women captured on raids). Also lots of intragroup competition about status. Every man there is in a constant struggle to prove his worth and pass on his genes. So very different from a genuinely ascetic lifestyle that tries to leave this endless circle of competition behind.

    We are talking about people who are already operating out of radically different assumptions than the mainstream – who see the need for limiting acquisitiveness and self-aggrandizement – they are unlikely to argue or fight for primacy and similar things.
     
    Well, that's not how it was seen in medieval monastic communities, total obedience to the abbot was one of the central duties imposed on monks, as was living according to the rule they had taken a vow on.
    Of course you could argue that this was different, because many monks had entered the monastery as child oblates, so hadn't chosen that life freely, but still, your view strikes me as a bit too optimistic. I'm not sure the kind of community you envision has historically existed (maybe hermits in late antiquity who lived in their own cells and only met for communal prayer and meals?).

    Replies: @AaronB

    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.

    So, this is the great debate, isn’t it.

    There are two narratives; one, that human nature is fundamentally corrupt, and only strict rules and the threat if violence can create any level of order. This is the Hobbesian view, and has always been favored by conservatives. This is the “mainstream consensus” that keeps us enslaved.

    However, to disprove this view, all we have to show is the existence of societies – both historically and today – that don’t manifest insatiable desire for status and insatiable greed. And such societies exist in abundance.

    Moreover, Faustian societies are a relatively recent thing historically – the idea that insatiable greed and insatiable desire for status are good things, engines of “progress”, and should be encouraged.

    That is a novel phenomena in world history – so clearly, it isn’t merely “human nature”.

    In David Graeber’s new book, he shows that for thousands of years, there existed complex agricultural societies without harsh hierarchies, and not based on insatiable greed or desire for status.

    The “mainstream consensus” wants to convince you it’s “human nature” and there is no escape – but that kind of serves the purposes of a narrow elite who exploits everyone else, doesn’t it?

    If you look at the myth of the Garden of Eden, human nature originally is innocent and pure, and the Fall is an event in time that corrupts humans and their institutions and lifestyles. I think this encapsulates something we all know, deep down, is true – that’s why this myth has been so powerful.

    As for insatiable desire, I know from my own experience that desire waxes and wanes depending on environment. When I am out in nature for extended periods, my desires naturally wane an almost comical point. I am much less hungry and am content with low levels of comfort.

    Back in civilization, I suddenly am full of cravings.

    I’m not familiar with them tbh. But iirc there’s a debate whether hunter gatherers really lived mostly in egalitarian bands or whether that isn’t actually atypical (hunter gatherers who survived until modern times live on more marginal lands than when all of humanity lived in that mode, so the social structure of historical hunter gatherer societies may have been different).
    I don’t think those primitive tribes can be described as ascetic though. Hunter gatherer societies typically are very violent, with intense intergroup competition about resources (which includes women captured on raids). Also lots of intragroup competition about status. Every man there is in a constant struggle to prove his worth and pass on his genes. So very different from a genuinely ascetic lifestyle that tries to leave this endless circle of competition behind

    .

    Well, there is a general consensus, that hunter gatherers are egalitarian.

    But yes, there is also a counter narrative, primarily fueled by Chagnon’s study of the Yanomami, who he found were exceptionally warlike and aggressive.

    His research has been criticized, and they may not have been as warlike as he claimed.

    But not to get too deeply into that, we know that hunter gatherers can be exceptionally warlike – the American Indians practiced incessant war as a way of life, while other hunter gatherers were pacific, like the mild and peaceful indians Columbus encountered in the Caribbean.

    So there is no “single” typology of hunter gatherers. And yes, contemporary hunter gatherers living on marginal land may well be atypical, that is true – a point that also applies to the Yanomami. But we have a rich historical and archeological record to supplement our picture.

    As Graeber shows, even mamy early complex agricultural societies were often peaceful and egalitarian, while others were not.

    For my purposes, to defeat the pessimistic view that it is “human nature”, all I have to show is that for extended periods of time, many human societies were egalitarian and peaceful. And the record shows that.

    The record does not support a “determinist” view – we are far freer than we are taught to think on modern times.

    Also, yes, hunter gatherers are not an example of spiritual ascetics in community – so how much more can we expect from people organizing for spiritual reasons?

    Well, that’s not how it was seen in medieval monastic communities, total obedience to the abbot was one of the central duties imposed on monks, as was living according to the rule they had taken a vow on.
    Of course you could argue that this was different, because many monks had entered the monastery as child oblates, so hadn’t chosen that life freely, but still, your view strikes me as a bit too optimistic. I’m not sure the kind of community you envision has historically existed (maybe hermits in late antiquity who lived in their own cells and only met for communal prayer and meals?).

    By the late Middle Ages, monasteries were deeply corrupted state-like institutions – there is a reason Henry VIII abolished them in England.

    Christianity in general, in my view, was only really authentic for a few centuries. When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth, and retained only an echo of it’s spirituality (very useful, but no longer the full reality).

    The problem is, “institutions” become corrupted – become about power and money.

    The problem is, our modern Faustian society is built on the principle of encouraging insatiable desire for wealth and status quite explicitly, as that Lasch quote shows. Obviously greed and hierarchy will be extreme in such a society, and obviously it’s beneficiaries will want to claim it’s merely “human nature” and will seek to popularize and spread throughout the culture a broadly “determinist” view of human possibilities.

    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible “human nature”.

    And as Faustian society, like all cultures, begins to lose momentum and collapse, the determinist view will fall with it, and a sense of expanded possibility will return.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB


    When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth

     

    That's one way of looking at it. One could also say that it's impossible to organize a society along the lines of the primitive church, with its ambivalent or outright negative view of coercive state power, its pacifism, its ideals of communal property etc. Such views may make sense for a powerless sect thinking the apocalypse is imminent, but for a society trying to secure its existence in a dangerous world where many others don't behave according to such lofty ideals?


    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible “human nature”.

     

    I'm not convinced about the historical existence of those egalitarian societies, but I guess I'll have to look at that book by David Graeber you mentioned. Thanks for the exchange.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AaronB

    , @A123
    @AaronB



    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.
     
    So, this is the great debate, isn’t it.
    ...
    However, to disprove this view, all we have to show is the existence of societies – both historically and today – that don’t manifest insatiable desire for status and insatiable greed. And such societies exist in abundance.

    Moreover, Faustian societies are a relatively recent thing historically – the idea that insatiable greed and insatiable desire for status are good things, engines of “progress”, and should be encouraged.
     
    Two things to think about are population and homogeneity.

    At the level of family or extended family, the genetic theory is peaceful. Even at a tribal level most of the members of the tribe share genes.

    Extend this to modern times and one can find large groups that are peaceful. A near universal trait of these groups is homogeneity. Is Iceland peaceful, because there are no external threats? Or, in a very real sense, everyone is everyone's cousin?

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @AaronB

    , @Coconuts
    @AaronB


    But we have a rich historical and archeological record to supplement our picture.
     
    Genetic evidence would be very useful, trying to find out how males successfully reproduced in each generation. If the society was highly egalitarian, you would expect something closer to male/female parity in this respect.

    Obviously human life starts in conditions of radical inequality (c.f. the one day old child compared to its mother and father) and this is both natural and healthy.

    Replies: @AaronB

  665. The missile defense for Nudoli is uniquely two-stage and solid fuel. At present, Russia has developed new formulations of high-energy mixed formulations of solid rocket fuel. The anti-missile launch from the transport and launch container will be carried out using a powder pressure accumulator, then the first stage solid propellant rocket engine will be launched, then the second stage, and the combat stage at the final section will be guided by shunting engines (according to various sources, or solid propellant rocket engine, or liquid rocket engine). The launch weight of the missile defense is about 10 tons.

    The developed Nudol missile defense system has an order of magnitude better performance than the A-135 Amur missile defense system, developers say. This is a completely new system based on a new element base with very promising features.

    https://www.gazeta.ru/army/2020/06/19/13123189.shtml

    10 tons is in the size of 53T6M and 77-N-6 missiles. This may indicate that Nudol is based on these “sprinters” rather than on the much larger 51T6 Gorgon missile. The modernized version of this last one should go to the third (long exoatmospheric) missile interception echelon.

  666. If they have told us “we’re going to ration oil & have the Green Transition, because Peak Oil has come”, instead of justifying lockdowns for COVID and the Green New Deal for reconstruction & Carbon Zero…

  667. @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    draw the line?
     
    This is kind of topic which Buddha called "Middle Way". It's supposedly halfway between ascestism and indulgence. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-024-0852-2_280

    Although by modern standards, Buddha's teachings seem very ascetic, he was reacting to more extreme ascetism of holy men of Ancient India whose lifestyle might include torturing your body, refusing to drink water for days, etc.

    -

    By the way, Aaron B I don't understand if you were claiming that modern people are not involved in asceticism? Much of modern culture involves a kind of self-torturing (and also we have it in our political culture).

    For example, when we stay awake all night working on a project, and go to the office the next day with this bitter adrenaline taste in our mouth from lack of sleep* - these are things that people in older cultures (or perhaps the contemporary Caribbean) might consider a sadomasochistic's torture.

    Similarly think about our education and exam culture. How many children would voluntarily stay hours in the exam room resolving maths problems, which is completely against our instincts to run in the summer air - it's amazing we were trained into such kind of asceticism. And then there is life of those adults who go to work in the military..

    -

    * Also note this sensation in the morning, after lack of sleep, is kind of enjoyable and makes you feel like you are a successful workaholic - especially when combined with coffee. Here is a kind of indulgence in ascetism of the office worker.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @German_reader, @AaronB

    As German Reader correctly observes, these aren’t really ascetical phenomena – they are examples of short term deprivation in service of the ethos of “endless more”, so rather the opposite, if anything.

    Nevertheless, there is a quasi-ascetic streak in the tech industry, exemplified by people like Jack Dorsey and others. But this goes back to the idea that tech is a sacred object, so it’s not surprising that it will spawn a kind of religious self sacrifice and dedication.

    As for your remarks about technology in your other comment, it may be that the intention of the crafters of that sinister Moscow facial recognition payment system was to facilitate population surveillance and control, but only in a society like ours, which regards technology as sacred, could they have counted on it being not just accepted, but enthusiastically embraced, as we see Karlin to have done.

    Yes, many of those sounding the alarm about the sinister effects of much modern technology are workers in the field, who often helped develop those technologies. But that doesn’t change the basic picture that our society, and particularly the tech field, worships technology as sacred.

    Many tech CEOs admit they limit their children’s screen time and social media access – but notably, they don’t quit their jobs, and readily work on the next big tech project.

    The enthusiasm about technology simply can’t be explained by the trivial increments of convenience and comfort it regularly delivers in dribs and drabs – as has been observed, man does make great efforts and self sacrifice in pursuit of some trivial material end.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @AaronB


    not just accepted, but enthusiastically embrace
     
    People in Russia do not embrace these surveillance policies. They have no knowledge, or if they have knowledge - no choice. There is not exactly much of a bargaining position of normal people in relation to their rulers.

    Karlin to have done.
     
    If he supports automatic recording into a database of peoples' movement by a live biometric system, I cannot give you a defense for such view. I can only oppose such a policy. I could guess it would be only because he wants to market the Russian government. But really he needs to post here to defend himself or explain what he was saying.

    aren’t really ascetical phenomena – they are examples of short term deprivation in service of the ethos of “endless more”
     
    Working hard, because you want to do the job well - this is like a definition of "Zen". Similarly, for motivations in many secular fields e.g. classical musicians, sportsmen, etc.

    It's true that these self-sacrificing behaviors of workers, are often exploited by the capitalists. Workers in the Wal Mart supermarket might be adding extra efforts, simply because they want to do a good job, while the owners of Wal Mart receive the profit from this self-sacrifice.

    But I think this shows how strong the instinct for self-sacrifice and asceticism, is in many people - that it can be a free fuel of extra labor per worker, for the capitalist owners of the means of production.

    The same instinct I have for adding extra hours to my working day, would be the one if I was a monk, of adding extra hours to my prayers, or extra hours of fasting, etc.

    Note that workaholic office plankton, also do things like skipping meals, or eating only when they return home at midnight (as if fasting for Ramadan).

    they don’t quit their jobs, and readily work on the next big tech project.

    The enthusiasm about technology
     

    People who really care about technology, will be looking at the ethical ways to allow it to develop.

    This just like people who care about chemistry, will be concerned about lab safety. If you are concerned about architecture, then you will become interested in building codes. If you are interested in firearms, you should be concerned about firearm safety. People interested in virology, will be concerned and warning you about pandemics.

    Replies: @AaronB

  668. German_reader says:

    Hahaha, Merkel has apparently accepted a “humanitarian corridor” to Germany for migrants in Belarus. Allegedly “only” for 2000 of them, sure, it’s not like there’s a precedent for that kind of thing, lol.
    What a time to be alive, those PiS nationalists with their anti-German hang-ups are doing more for genuine German interests than our own fucking chancellor.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @German_reader

    Information now is changing very fast, Horst Seehofer just denied this in joint German-Polish press conference, so very hard to do any clear final conclusions as the situation is far from finished. At the very least, Merkel is not calling to Poland and not demanding "to stop illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers which violates our fundamental European values”, so that's clearly a plus ;)

    https://twitter.com/pawelpawlowicz/status/1461354191838801935

    Replies: @German_reader

  669. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    @German_reader


    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.
     
    So, this is the great debate, isn't it.

    There are two narratives; one, that human nature is fundamentally corrupt, and only strict rules and the threat if violence can create any level of order. This is the Hobbesian view, and has always been favored by conservatives. This is the "mainstream consensus" that keeps us enslaved.

    However, to disprove this view, all we have to show is the existence of societies - both historically and today - that don't manifest insatiable desire for status and insatiable greed. And such societies exist in abundance.

    Moreover, Faustian societies are a relatively recent thing historically - the idea that insatiable greed and insatiable desire for status are good things, engines of "progress", and should be encouraged.

    That is a novel phenomena in world history - so clearly, it isn't merely "human nature".

    In David Graeber's new book, he shows that for thousands of years, there existed complex agricultural societies without harsh hierarchies, and not based on insatiable greed or desire for status.

    The "mainstream consensus" wants to convince you it's "human nature" and there is no escape - but that kind of serves the purposes of a narrow elite who exploits everyone else, doesn't it?

    If you look at the myth of the Garden of Eden, human nature originally is innocent and pure, and the Fall is an event in time that corrupts humans and their institutions and lifestyles. I think this encapsulates something we all know, deep down, is true - that's why this myth has been so powerful.

    As for insatiable desire, I know from my own experience that desire waxes and wanes depending on environment. When I am out in nature for extended periods, my desires naturally wane an almost comical point. I am much less hungry and am content with low levels of comfort.

    Back in civilization, I suddenly am full of cravings.

    I’m not familiar with them tbh. But iirc there’s a debate whether hunter gatherers really lived mostly in egalitarian bands or whether that isn’t actually atypical (hunter gatherers who survived until modern times live on more marginal lands than when all of humanity lived in that mode, so the social structure of historical hunter gatherer societies may have been different).
    I don’t think those primitive tribes can be described as ascetic though. Hunter gatherer societies typically are very violent, with intense intergroup competition about resources (which includes women captured on raids). Also lots of intragroup competition about status. Every man there is in a constant struggle to prove his worth and pass on his genes. So very different from a genuinely ascetic lifestyle that tries to leave this endless circle of competition behind
     
    .

    Well, there is a general consensus, that hunter gatherers are egalitarian.

    But yes, there is also a counter narrative, primarily fueled by Chagnon's study of the Yanomami, who he found were exceptionally warlike and aggressive.

    His research has been criticized, and they may not have been as warlike as he claimed.

    But not to get too deeply into that, we know that hunter gatherers can be exceptionally warlike - the American Indians practiced incessant war as a way of life, while other hunter gatherers were pacific, like the mild and peaceful indians Columbus encountered in the Caribbean.

    So there is no "single" typology of hunter gatherers. And yes, contemporary hunter gatherers living on marginal land may well be atypical, that is true - a point that also applies to the Yanomami. But we have a rich historical and archeological record to supplement our picture.

    As Graeber shows, even mamy early complex agricultural societies were often peaceful and egalitarian, while others were not.

    For my purposes, to defeat the pessimistic view that it is "human nature", all I have to show is that for extended periods of time, many human societies were egalitarian and peaceful. And the record shows that.

    The record does not support a "determinist" view - we are far freer than we are taught to think on modern times.

    Also, yes, hunter gatherers are not an example of spiritual ascetics in community - so how much more can we expect from people organizing for spiritual reasons?

    Well, that’s not how it was seen in medieval monastic communities, total obedience to the abbot was one of the central duties imposed on monks, as was living according to the rule they had taken a vow on.
    Of course you could argue that this was different, because many monks had entered the monastery as child oblates, so hadn’t chosen that life freely, but still, your view strikes me as a bit too optimistic. I’m not sure the kind of community you envision has historically existed (maybe hermits in late antiquity who lived in their own cells and only met for communal prayer and meals?).
     
    By the late Middle Ages, monasteries were deeply corrupted state-like institutions - there is a reason Henry VIII abolished them in England.

    Christianity in general, in my view, was only really authentic for a few centuries. When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth, and retained only an echo of it's spirituality (very useful, but no longer the full reality).

    The problem is, "institutions" become corrupted - become about power and money.

    The problem is, our modern Faustian society is built on the principle of encouraging insatiable desire for wealth and status quite explicitly, as that Lasch quote shows. Obviously greed and hierarchy will be extreme in such a society, and obviously it's beneficiaries will want to claim it's merely "human nature" and will seek to popularize and spread throughout the culture a broadly "determinist" view of human possibilities.

    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible "human nature".

    And as Faustian society, like all cultures, begins to lose momentum and collapse, the determinist view will fall with it, and a sense of expanded possibility will return.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123, @Coconuts

    When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth

    That’s one way of looking at it. One could also say that it’s impossible to organize a society along the lines of the primitive church, with its ambivalent or outright negative view of coercive state power, its pacifism, its ideals of communal property etc. Such views may make sense for a powerless sect thinking the apocalypse is imminent, but for a society trying to secure its existence in a dangerous world where many others don’t behave according to such lofty ideals?

    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible “human nature”.

    I’m not convinced about the historical existence of those egalitarian societies, but I guess I’ll have to look at that book by David Graeber you mentioned. Thanks for the exchange.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader

    https://mises.org/library/have-anthropologists-overturned-menger

    The best criticism of Adam-Smith-economics is Karl Polanyi The Great Transformation. There is a decent (albeit weird) refutation of Adam-Smith-economics in Anton Chaitkin Who We Are.

    Graeber's books are not compelling. I tried and could not get past a hundred pages. Karl Marx is the only Marxist who can hold my interest. (Polanyi is more of a reformed Marxist the way I read him. If you have not read this book it really is great.) I cannot find the takedown of Graeber with a quick search where the guy has a picture of a reconstructed temple from a mammoth hide which Graeber deigns to parallel with the Great Pyramid of Giza. That one is pretty funny.

    Replies: @AaronB

    , @AaronB
    @German_reader

    Fair enough.

    Graeber says a wealth of new information is pouring in that will revolutionize our understanding of what's socially possible.

    He says most of this stuff has not been tied together yet and fully examined, and his book is one of the first to do so.

    If that's so, then a new source of social transformation will have been opened up that may have revolutionary implications.

    After all, the way Europeans dealt with an earlier shock to their social system, the encounter with indigenous people, was by claiming that inequality and oppression were necessary to have complex, wealthy societies.

    If this proves false, then this "saving the appearances" , which bought a few centuries for the system, is about to break down - which might be cataclysmic.

    Putting aside these far reaching questions, I want to return to the original issue, asceticism.

    Everyone now can embark on the personal adventure of mild asceticism - if we understand that it isn't a sacrifice, but an emotionally rewarding way to live, based on a deep understanding of human nature. And it is indeed am exciting personal adventure, just rarely sold that way :)

    Of course, the System will fight you every step of the way, as it is based on you endlessly consuming. Friends and family, often psychologically identified with the system, will fight you.

    But the rewards will be immediate and self evident - so no one will care :)

    Replies: @German_reader

  670. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth

     

    That's one way of looking at it. One could also say that it's impossible to organize a society along the lines of the primitive church, with its ambivalent or outright negative view of coercive state power, its pacifism, its ideals of communal property etc. Such views may make sense for a powerless sect thinking the apocalypse is imminent, but for a society trying to secure its existence in a dangerous world where many others don't behave according to such lofty ideals?


    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible “human nature”.

     

    I'm not convinced about the historical existence of those egalitarian societies, but I guess I'll have to look at that book by David Graeber you mentioned. Thanks for the exchange.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AaronB

    https://mises.org/library/have-anthropologists-overturned-menger

    The best criticism of Adam-Smith-economics is Karl Polanyi The Great Transformation. There is a decent (albeit weird) refutation of Adam-Smith-economics in Anton Chaitkin Who We Are.

    Graeber’s books are not compelling. I tried and could not get past a hundred pages. Karl Marx is the only Marxist who can hold my interest. (Polanyi is more of a reformed Marxist the way I read him. If you have not read this book it really is great.) I cannot find the takedown of Graeber with a quick search where the guy has a picture of a reconstructed temple from a mammoth hide which Graeber deigns to parallel with the Great Pyramid of Giza. That one is pretty funny.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    Graeber’s books are not compelling. I tried and could not get past a hundred pages.
     
    So interesting - the one quality of Graeber that I would have thought beyond dispute is his entertaining and compulsively readable style.

    I could see people questioning his research, conclusions, or logic, but unreadable?

    I suspect what is actually happening is, you are psychologically identified with and invested in, the System, and find the experience of it's assumptions being questioned disturbing :)

    It's a very interesting phenomena, why people who are exploited by a system defend it and identify with it - you saw this on Steve Sailers blog post on Graeber. The commenters reacted to Graeber with fury and defended the System angrily - yet these are people who have spent the past few years complaining about how the System despises them and exploits them!

    Yet when confronted with the possibility of a non-exploitative system, they reject it furiously - the most they can imagine, is them switching roles with the exploiters lol.

    Truly sad state of affairs, that the System has us in it's mental stranglehold. But then, it's been wisely observed that rulers rule by consent - by convincing the ruled of their "right" to rule, by convincing the exploited they "deserve" to be exploited.

    The British Empire famously kept millions in check with a few thousand soldiers. And that is why social systems expend most of their efforts on justifying the rulers and the system, on convincing the masses it is the best and even the only possible, system.

    I'm the end it's all just a mind-fuck.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  671. @German_reader
    Hahaha, Merkel has apparently accepted a "humanitarian corridor" to Germany for migrants in Belarus. Allegedly "only" for 2000 of them, sure, it's not like there's a precedent for that kind of thing, lol.
    What a time to be alive, those PiS nationalists with their anti-German hang-ups are doing more for genuine German interests than our own fucking chancellor.

    Replies: @sudden death

    Information now is changing very fast, Horst Seehofer just denied this in joint German-Polish press conference, so very hard to do any clear final conclusions as the situation is far from finished. At the very least, Merkel is not calling to Poland and not demanding “to stop illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers which violates our fundamental European values”, so that’s clearly a plus 😉

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Yes, it's been denied, but I'm sceptical, imo something like that is likely, "civil society" in Germany wants it, and it fits the usual mode of German politicians. Schäuble has also come out in favour of letting migrants into the EU to process their asylum applications (totally disingenuous, as if anybody would get deported if his application has been rejected).
    I've seen Putin has now condemned Polish border guards, because they're so cruel to migrant children, lol. Russian propaganda doesn't seem to have advanced much beyond Soviet days, this should end the love affair of Western right-wingers with Russia, if they've got any sense.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Dmitry

  672. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth

     

    That's one way of looking at it. One could also say that it's impossible to organize a society along the lines of the primitive church, with its ambivalent or outright negative view of coercive state power, its pacifism, its ideals of communal property etc. Such views may make sense for a powerless sect thinking the apocalypse is imminent, but for a society trying to secure its existence in a dangerous world where many others don't behave according to such lofty ideals?


    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible “human nature”.

     

    I'm not convinced about the historical existence of those egalitarian societies, but I guess I'll have to look at that book by David Graeber you mentioned. Thanks for the exchange.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AaronB

    Fair enough.

    Graeber says a wealth of new information is pouring in that will revolutionize our understanding of what’s socially possible.

    He says most of this stuff has not been tied together yet and fully examined, and his book is one of the first to do so.

    If that’s so, then a new source of social transformation will have been opened up that may have revolutionary implications.

    After all, the way Europeans dealt with an earlier shock to their social system, the encounter with indigenous people, was by claiming that inequality and oppression were necessary to have complex, wealthy societies.

    If this proves false, then this “saving the appearances” , which bought a few centuries for the system, is about to break down – which might be cataclysmic.

    Putting aside these far reaching questions, I want to return to the original issue, asceticism.

    Everyone now can embark on the personal adventure of mild asceticism – if we understand that it isn’t a sacrifice, but an emotionally rewarding way to live, based on a deep understanding of human nature. And it is indeed am exciting personal adventure, just rarely sold that way 🙂

    Of course, the System will fight you every step of the way, as it is based on you endlessly consuming. Friends and family, often psychologically identified with the system, will fight you.

    But the rewards will be immediate and self evident – so no one will care 🙂

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB


    Everyone now can embark on the personal adventure of mild asceticism
     
    Can you give some examples what this entails? I'm having some difficulty in understanding your concept of asceticism, since it doesn't seem to be based on hermitism, life in a monastic community etc.

    Replies: @AaronB

  673. VIDEO — Final race for the GTLM class — Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

    Corvette wrapped up the Championship last round. They will be moving to GTD PRO for competition in 2022. (1)

    As part of “cost containment”, European series have stated they will not allow full factory backed, all pro GT3 efforts. Reportedly, a number of the big overseas shops are looking at bringing teams over to the U.S. so they can run a proper factory development effort. GTD and GT3 are virtually identical equipment specifications.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.imsa.com/news/2021/11/11/corvette-confirms-gtd-pro-entry-for-2022-customer-gt3-race-car-for-2024/

     

  674. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader

    https://mises.org/library/have-anthropologists-overturned-menger

    The best criticism of Adam-Smith-economics is Karl Polanyi The Great Transformation. There is a decent (albeit weird) refutation of Adam-Smith-economics in Anton Chaitkin Who We Are.

    Graeber's books are not compelling. I tried and could not get past a hundred pages. Karl Marx is the only Marxist who can hold my interest. (Polanyi is more of a reformed Marxist the way I read him. If you have not read this book it really is great.) I cannot find the takedown of Graeber with a quick search where the guy has a picture of a reconstructed temple from a mammoth hide which Graeber deigns to parallel with the Great Pyramid of Giza. That one is pretty funny.

    Replies: @AaronB

    Graeber’s books are not compelling. I tried and could not get past a hundred pages.

    So interesting – the one quality of Graeber that I would have thought beyond dispute is his entertaining and compulsively readable style.

    I could see people questioning his research, conclusions, or logic, but unreadable?

    I suspect what is actually happening is, you are psychologically identified with and invested in, the System, and find the experience of it’s assumptions being questioned disturbing 🙂

    It’s a very interesting phenomena, why people who are exploited by a system defend it and identify with it – you saw this on Steve Sailers blog post on Graeber. The commenters reacted to Graeber with fury and defended the System angrily – yet these are people who have spent the past few years complaining about how the System despises them and exploits them!

    Yet when confronted with the possibility of a non-exploitative system, they reject it furiously – the most they can imagine, is them switching roles with the exploiters lol.

    Truly sad state of affairs, that the System has us in it’s mental stranglehold. But then, it’s been wisely observed that rulers rule by consent – by convincing the ruled of their “right” to rule, by convincing the exploited they “deserve” to be exploited.

    The British Empire famously kept millions in check with a few thousand soldiers. And that is why social systems expend most of their efforts on justifying the rulers and the system, on convincing the masses it is the best and even the only possible, system.

    I’m the end it’s all just a mind-fuck.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @AaronB


    I suspect what is actually happening is, you are psychologically identified with and invested in, the System, and find the experience of it’s assumptions being questioned disturbing
     
    1. you do not know anything about me beyond my twitter-size spittle
    2. ergo you are completely making this up out of what who knows or cares

    Good writers: Polanyi, Dickens, Tolstoy
    These guys suck (as writers): Graeber, Scott Alexander, David Foster Wallace, Curtis Yarvin, Thomas Carlyle
  675. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @German_reader

    Information now is changing very fast, Horst Seehofer just denied this in joint German-Polish press conference, so very hard to do any clear final conclusions as the situation is far from finished. At the very least, Merkel is not calling to Poland and not demanding "to stop illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers which violates our fundamental European values”, so that's clearly a plus ;)

    https://twitter.com/pawelpawlowicz/status/1461354191838801935

    Replies: @German_reader

    Yes, it’s been denied, but I’m sceptical, imo something like that is likely, “civil society” in Germany wants it, and it fits the usual mode of German politicians. Schäuble has also come out in favour of letting migrants into the EU to process their asylum applications (totally disingenuous, as if anybody would get deported if his application has been rejected).
    I’ve seen Putin has now condemned Polish border guards, because they’re so cruel to migrant children, lol. Russian propaganda doesn’t seem to have advanced much beyond Soviet days, this should end the love affair of Western right-wingers with Russia, if they’ve got any sense.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader


    I’ve seen Putin has now condemned Polish border guards, because they’re so cruel to migrant children, lol.
     
    Putin likes to take the piss! One of many reasons he is better than the Donald.

    Replies: @sudden death

    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    Putin has now condemned Polish border

     

    In this case, there is nothing to criticize Putin for inconsistency here, as the Russian border indeed does not behave like the Poland border.

    Putin's policy is to run in Russia the world's largest open borders system, so if nothing else, there is some "moral capital" for him to criticize less liberal border policies of soi-disant liberal Western countries.

    More broadly, Putin is not usually the paragon of liberalism, Christian virtues and political consistency, to say it mildly. But on this narrow topic of immigration, he can present himself as such a paragon, at least to the extent that Russia runs a stricter border exiting, than entering.

    Replies: @German_reader

  676. @AaronB
    @German_reader

    Fair enough.

    Graeber says a wealth of new information is pouring in that will revolutionize our understanding of what's socially possible.

    He says most of this stuff has not been tied together yet and fully examined, and his book is one of the first to do so.

    If that's so, then a new source of social transformation will have been opened up that may have revolutionary implications.

    After all, the way Europeans dealt with an earlier shock to their social system, the encounter with indigenous people, was by claiming that inequality and oppression were necessary to have complex, wealthy societies.

    If this proves false, then this "saving the appearances" , which bought a few centuries for the system, is about to break down - which might be cataclysmic.

    Putting aside these far reaching questions, I want to return to the original issue, asceticism.

    Everyone now can embark on the personal adventure of mild asceticism - if we understand that it isn't a sacrifice, but an emotionally rewarding way to live, based on a deep understanding of human nature. And it is indeed am exciting personal adventure, just rarely sold that way :)

    Of course, the System will fight you every step of the way, as it is based on you endlessly consuming. Friends and family, often psychologically identified with the system, will fight you.

    But the rewards will be immediate and self evident - so no one will care :)

    Replies: @German_reader

    Everyone now can embark on the personal adventure of mild asceticism

    Can you give some examples what this entails? I’m having some difficulty in understanding your concept of asceticism, since it doesn’t seem to be based on hermitism, life in a monastic community etc.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @German_reader

    Sure - it's simple things, but they can have far reaching psychological effects.

    The biggest one is probably food. As one of our primary pleasures, and as something so necessary for our survival, our relationship to food can have surprisingly far reaching psychological effects.

    The American system, of course, encourages an obsession with food, and a consumption pattern that includes limitless quantities and maximizing flavor.

    What I have done lately is most of the week, eat very basic and simple food - use only salt and pepper, and maybe just rice, some veggies, and meat, cheese, or eggs, with usually one indulgence per day. And I don't eat much.

    Then one day out of the week, I'll eat delicious food, with lots of variety, from all world cuisines, and however much I want.

    People today may recommend a diet for health reasons, but no one recommends simple eating, and eating less, for the profound and powerful psychological and spiritual effects, yet it really does have a profound impact on the "quality" of your daily life.

    We are a culture that only values what cam be measured, of course, but the change in "quality" cannot quite be put into words - daily life simply is more "fun" in an indefinable way :)

    Part of it, no doubt, is the sense of adventure - the sense of "precariousness", of perhaps living on the edge (although it isn't truly), and the sense of no longer being "trapped" and pinned down by need.

    Ultimately, over-consumption is fueled by our desire for safety and survival. When you enter a different mindset, where you no longer try so hard to secure these things, life becomes surprisingly more enjoyable.

    Then shelter and comfort - simple, basic beds, small houses etc - who is really happy in these American suburban palaces, in these kings and queens beds with the most luxurious of quilts etc?

    They are so lifeless. A little bit of grime, a little dirt, a little raw earthiness, makes life so much more fascinating, and so much more satisfying. The cleanliness and comfort of modernity is soulless.

    Who knew mere dirt and grime can lend life charm :)

    I once ran into this guy travelling the wild back roads of America in his Jeep Grand Cherokee - he wasn't an ascetic. He owned property, was wealthy, and was very into fitness. But he said that he had no desire to live in a home, and people did not realize how little comfort they really need :)

    Asceticism is dangerous, because it can easily go overboard - once one sees that it's fun :) ) - and become its own kind of greedy and aggressive acquisitiveness. This happens not infrequently.

    It's important to have the right mindset - that of "letting go", of "not clinging", of "surrendering", and not the mindset of "storming heaven and earning fruits for oneself", or the mindset of it being a gloomy sacrifice.

    Replies: @Mikel

  677. @AaronB
    @German_reader


    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.
     
    So, this is the great debate, isn't it.

    There are two narratives; one, that human nature is fundamentally corrupt, and only strict rules and the threat if violence can create any level of order. This is the Hobbesian view, and has always been favored by conservatives. This is the "mainstream consensus" that keeps us enslaved.

    However, to disprove this view, all we have to show is the existence of societies - both historically and today - that don't manifest insatiable desire for status and insatiable greed. And such societies exist in abundance.

    Moreover, Faustian societies are a relatively recent thing historically - the idea that insatiable greed and insatiable desire for status are good things, engines of "progress", and should be encouraged.

    That is a novel phenomena in world history - so clearly, it isn't merely "human nature".

    In David Graeber's new book, he shows that for thousands of years, there existed complex agricultural societies without harsh hierarchies, and not based on insatiable greed or desire for status.

    The "mainstream consensus" wants to convince you it's "human nature" and there is no escape - but that kind of serves the purposes of a narrow elite who exploits everyone else, doesn't it?

    If you look at the myth of the Garden of Eden, human nature originally is innocent and pure, and the Fall is an event in time that corrupts humans and their institutions and lifestyles. I think this encapsulates something we all know, deep down, is true - that's why this myth has been so powerful.

    As for insatiable desire, I know from my own experience that desire waxes and wanes depending on environment. When I am out in nature for extended periods, my desires naturally wane an almost comical point. I am much less hungry and am content with low levels of comfort.

    Back in civilization, I suddenly am full of cravings.

    I’m not familiar with them tbh. But iirc there’s a debate whether hunter gatherers really lived mostly in egalitarian bands or whether that isn’t actually atypical (hunter gatherers who survived until modern times live on more marginal lands than when all of humanity lived in that mode, so the social structure of historical hunter gatherer societies may have been different).
    I don’t think those primitive tribes can be described as ascetic though. Hunter gatherer societies typically are very violent, with intense intergroup competition about resources (which includes women captured on raids). Also lots of intragroup competition about status. Every man there is in a constant struggle to prove his worth and pass on his genes. So very different from a genuinely ascetic lifestyle that tries to leave this endless circle of competition behind
     
    .

    Well, there is a general consensus, that hunter gatherers are egalitarian.

    But yes, there is also a counter narrative, primarily fueled by Chagnon's study of the Yanomami, who he found were exceptionally warlike and aggressive.

    His research has been criticized, and they may not have been as warlike as he claimed.

    But not to get too deeply into that, we know that hunter gatherers can be exceptionally warlike - the American Indians practiced incessant war as a way of life, while other hunter gatherers were pacific, like the mild and peaceful indians Columbus encountered in the Caribbean.

    So there is no "single" typology of hunter gatherers. And yes, contemporary hunter gatherers living on marginal land may well be atypical, that is true - a point that also applies to the Yanomami. But we have a rich historical and archeological record to supplement our picture.

    As Graeber shows, even mamy early complex agricultural societies were often peaceful and egalitarian, while others were not.

    For my purposes, to defeat the pessimistic view that it is "human nature", all I have to show is that for extended periods of time, many human societies were egalitarian and peaceful. And the record shows that.

    The record does not support a "determinist" view - we are far freer than we are taught to think on modern times.

    Also, yes, hunter gatherers are not an example of spiritual ascetics in community - so how much more can we expect from people organizing for spiritual reasons?

    Well, that’s not how it was seen in medieval monastic communities, total obedience to the abbot was one of the central duties imposed on monks, as was living according to the rule they had taken a vow on.
    Of course you could argue that this was different, because many monks had entered the monastery as child oblates, so hadn’t chosen that life freely, but still, your view strikes me as a bit too optimistic. I’m not sure the kind of community you envision has historically existed (maybe hermits in late antiquity who lived in their own cells and only met for communal prayer and meals?).
     
    By the late Middle Ages, monasteries were deeply corrupted state-like institutions - there is a reason Henry VIII abolished them in England.

    Christianity in general, in my view, was only really authentic for a few centuries. When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth, and retained only an echo of it's spirituality (very useful, but no longer the full reality).

    The problem is, "institutions" become corrupted - become about power and money.

    The problem is, our modern Faustian society is built on the principle of encouraging insatiable desire for wealth and status quite explicitly, as that Lasch quote shows. Obviously greed and hierarchy will be extreme in such a society, and obviously it's beneficiaries will want to claim it's merely "human nature" and will seek to popularize and spread throughout the culture a broadly "determinist" view of human possibilities.

    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible "human nature".

    And as Faustian society, like all cultures, begins to lose momentum and collapse, the determinist view will fall with it, and a sense of expanded possibility will return.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123, @Coconuts

    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.

    So, this is the great debate, isn’t it.

    However, to disprove this view, all we have to show is the existence of societies – both historically and today – that don’t manifest insatiable desire for status and insatiable greed. And such societies exist in abundance.

    Moreover, Faustian societies are a relatively recent thing historically – the idea that insatiable greed and insatiable desire for status are good things, engines of “progress”, and should be encouraged.

    Two things to think about are population and homogeneity.

    At the level of family or extended family, the genetic theory is peaceful. Even at a tribal level most of the members of the tribe share genes.

    Extend this to modern times and one can find large groups that are peaceful. A near universal trait of these groups is homogeneity. Is Iceland peaceful, because there are no external threats? Or, in a very real sense, everyone is everyone’s cousin?

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @A123

    Interesting theory, but I do not think it can be supported.

    I think kinship and tribe are purely psychological (or perhaps spiritual) phenomena - in other words, shared genes do not - and have never - "automatically" led to amity and cooperation among people.

    Kinship is a social construct that one must be socialized into.

    The history of Europe - a history of incessant warfare - and the history of endless bloody civil wars, of endless factions and sects in conflict, of harsh hierarchies and extreme exploitation, should make this clears.

    Further, genetic families are not exactly havens of tranquility and cooperation, as any of us who have grown up in a large family know only too well :) (my family had 5 children).

    Sibling rivalry is extremely fierce, and acrimony and all kinds of extremely bitter fighting and feuds are commonplace. Even today, I see how some of my friends kids fight and astounded.

    One of our earliest legends of the Bible, that if Abel and Cain, seems to capture a timeless and recurring human motif.

    I have always found the gene theory puzzling - how much shared DNA is the "cutoff" point for considering someone kin? After all, from one perspective all humanity are kin by DNA. Moreover, humans share over 90% of our DNA with various animals, often as much as 98%!

    In the end, isn't all life one? :) And isn't that the message of spirituality?

    The "cut off" point for who should be considered kin and who shouldn't, seems clearly a matter of judgement and socialization.

    Today, we have examples of homogeneous societies that are violent, like many Arab and Muslim societies, and many diverse societies that are peaceful - Israels Jewish population is ethnically diverse, yet there is very little violence among them.

    It's also important to point out that homogeneous societies are not notably more egalitarian or less exploitative - South Korea is an extremely competitive, hierarchical, and exploitative place, for instance.

    Historically, classes often felt almost like a different ethnic group, despite being United by genes.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

  678. @A123
    @AaronB



    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.
     
    So, this is the great debate, isn’t it.
    ...
    However, to disprove this view, all we have to show is the existence of societies – both historically and today – that don’t manifest insatiable desire for status and insatiable greed. And such societies exist in abundance.

    Moreover, Faustian societies are a relatively recent thing historically – the idea that insatiable greed and insatiable desire for status are good things, engines of “progress”, and should be encouraged.
     
    Two things to think about are population and homogeneity.

    At the level of family or extended family, the genetic theory is peaceful. Even at a tribal level most of the members of the tribe share genes.

    Extend this to modern times and one can find large groups that are peaceful. A near universal trait of these groups is homogeneity. Is Iceland peaceful, because there are no external threats? Or, in a very real sense, everyone is everyone's cousin?

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @AaronB

    Interesting theory, but I do not think it can be supported.

    I think kinship and tribe are purely psychological (or perhaps spiritual) phenomena – in other words, shared genes do not – and have never – “automatically” led to amity and cooperation among people.

    Kinship is a social construct that one must be socialized into.

    The history of Europe – a history of incessant warfare – and the history of endless bloody civil wars, of endless factions and sects in conflict, of harsh hierarchies and extreme exploitation, should make this clears.

    Further, genetic families are not exactly havens of tranquility and cooperation, as any of us who have grown up in a large family know only too well 🙂 (my family had 5 children).

    Sibling rivalry is extremely fierce, and acrimony and all kinds of extremely bitter fighting and feuds are commonplace. Even today, I see how some of my friends kids fight and astounded.

    One of our earliest legends of the Bible, that if Abel and Cain, seems to capture a timeless and recurring human motif.

    I have always found the gene theory puzzling – how much shared DNA is the “cutoff” point for considering someone kin? After all, from one perspective all humanity are kin by DNA. Moreover, humans share over 90% of our DNA with various animals, often as much as 98%!

    In the end, isn’t all life one? 🙂 And isn’t that the message of spirituality?

    The “cut off” point for who should be considered kin and who shouldn’t, seems clearly a matter of judgement and socialization.

    Today, we have examples of homogeneous societies that are violent, like many Arab and Muslim societies, and many diverse societies that are peaceful – Israels Jewish population is ethnically diverse, yet there is very little violence among them.

    It’s also important to point out that homogeneous societies are not notably more egalitarian or less exploitative – South Korea is an extremely competitive, hierarchical, and exploitative place, for instance.

    Historically, classes often felt almost like a different ethnic group, despite being United by genes.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB


    Today, we have examples of homogeneous societies that are violent, like many Arab and Muslim societies
     
    Are they really that homogenous? I thought tribal and clan distinctions were important in many Arab countries. These are people who often marry their cousins after all.
    Anyway, read the first few chapters of Azar Gat, War in human civilization, he explains the sociobiological theory of the role of kinship in war pretty well.
    , @A123
    @AaronB

    One can train a homogeneous group towards hostility. However, trying to train a non-homogeneous group to peacefulness is likely to be futile.

    Yes. Families have internal rivalries, and there is a certain amount of jockeying for position. However, I have not seen families exhibit serious injury or death levels of physical violence. The exceptions are cases driven by outside forces, such as drug addiction.

    It can be hard to distinguish social from non-social impacts. In a homogeneous tribe where everyone is poor, there is no real upside to intra tribal aggression. Internal position can only obtain 'surplus goods'.
    ___

    I concur with GR that Arabia is not homogenous. It is at least as diverse as India, and there is no locked in caste stratification. Each Arab tribe has the opportunity to advance their position at the expense of other Arab factions.

    Palestinian Jews are surrounded by an implacable enemy. Thus, The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend prevails as a necessity for survival. Until the Muslim threat to native Palestinians is permanently pushed back, it is hard to be sure what the outcome will be among native Jewish populations. Because they want different things, direct conflict is unlikely. However, one should anticipate increased friction between the groups once the existential threat diminishes.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @AaronB

  679. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    @A123

    Interesting theory, but I do not think it can be supported.

    I think kinship and tribe are purely psychological (or perhaps spiritual) phenomena - in other words, shared genes do not - and have never - "automatically" led to amity and cooperation among people.

    Kinship is a social construct that one must be socialized into.

    The history of Europe - a history of incessant warfare - and the history of endless bloody civil wars, of endless factions and sects in conflict, of harsh hierarchies and extreme exploitation, should make this clears.

    Further, genetic families are not exactly havens of tranquility and cooperation, as any of us who have grown up in a large family know only too well :) (my family had 5 children).

    Sibling rivalry is extremely fierce, and acrimony and all kinds of extremely bitter fighting and feuds are commonplace. Even today, I see how some of my friends kids fight and astounded.

    One of our earliest legends of the Bible, that if Abel and Cain, seems to capture a timeless and recurring human motif.

    I have always found the gene theory puzzling - how much shared DNA is the "cutoff" point for considering someone kin? After all, from one perspective all humanity are kin by DNA. Moreover, humans share over 90% of our DNA with various animals, often as much as 98%!

    In the end, isn't all life one? :) And isn't that the message of spirituality?

    The "cut off" point for who should be considered kin and who shouldn't, seems clearly a matter of judgement and socialization.

    Today, we have examples of homogeneous societies that are violent, like many Arab and Muslim societies, and many diverse societies that are peaceful - Israels Jewish population is ethnically diverse, yet there is very little violence among them.

    It's also important to point out that homogeneous societies are not notably more egalitarian or less exploitative - South Korea is an extremely competitive, hierarchical, and exploitative place, for instance.

    Historically, classes often felt almost like a different ethnic group, despite being United by genes.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

    Today, we have examples of homogeneous societies that are violent, like many Arab and Muslim societies

    Are they really that homogenous? I thought tribal and clan distinctions were important in many Arab countries. These are people who often marry their cousins after all.
    Anyway, read the first few chapters of Azar Gat, War in human civilization, he explains the sociobiological theory of the role of kinship in war pretty well.

    • Thanks: AaronB
  680. @AaronB
    @A123

    Interesting theory, but I do not think it can be supported.

    I think kinship and tribe are purely psychological (or perhaps spiritual) phenomena - in other words, shared genes do not - and have never - "automatically" led to amity and cooperation among people.

    Kinship is a social construct that one must be socialized into.

    The history of Europe - a history of incessant warfare - and the history of endless bloody civil wars, of endless factions and sects in conflict, of harsh hierarchies and extreme exploitation, should make this clears.

    Further, genetic families are not exactly havens of tranquility and cooperation, as any of us who have grown up in a large family know only too well :) (my family had 5 children).

    Sibling rivalry is extremely fierce, and acrimony and all kinds of extremely bitter fighting and feuds are commonplace. Even today, I see how some of my friends kids fight and astounded.

    One of our earliest legends of the Bible, that if Abel and Cain, seems to capture a timeless and recurring human motif.

    I have always found the gene theory puzzling - how much shared DNA is the "cutoff" point for considering someone kin? After all, from one perspective all humanity are kin by DNA. Moreover, humans share over 90% of our DNA with various animals, often as much as 98%!

    In the end, isn't all life one? :) And isn't that the message of spirituality?

    The "cut off" point for who should be considered kin and who shouldn't, seems clearly a matter of judgement and socialization.

    Today, we have examples of homogeneous societies that are violent, like many Arab and Muslim societies, and many diverse societies that are peaceful - Israels Jewish population is ethnically diverse, yet there is very little violence among them.

    It's also important to point out that homogeneous societies are not notably more egalitarian or less exploitative - South Korea is an extremely competitive, hierarchical, and exploitative place, for instance.

    Historically, classes often felt almost like a different ethnic group, despite being United by genes.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

    One can train a homogeneous group towards hostility. However, trying to train a non-homogeneous group to peacefulness is likely to be futile.

    Yes. Families have internal rivalries, and there is a certain amount of jockeying for position. However, I have not seen families exhibit serious injury or death levels of physical violence. The exceptions are cases driven by outside forces, such as drug addiction.

    It can be hard to distinguish social from non-social impacts. In a homogeneous tribe where everyone is poor, there is no real upside to intra tribal aggression. Internal position can only obtain ‘surplus goods’.
    ___

    I concur with GR that Arabia is not homogenous. It is at least as diverse as India, and there is no locked in caste stratification. Each Arab tribe has the opportunity to advance their position at the expense of other Arab factions.

    Palestinian Jews are surrounded by an implacable enemy. Thus, The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend prevails as a necessity for survival. Until the Muslim threat to native Palestinians is permanently pushed back, it is hard to be sure what the outcome will be among native Jewish populations. Because they want different things, direct conflict is unlikely. However, one should anticipate increased friction between the groups once the existential threat diminishes.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @A123

    Yes, Palestinian Jews will definitely become more fractious if the Arab threat wanes, that's for sure.

    You make good points.

    I think an impartial look at history, shows that genetic similarity does not provide a robust defense against conflict. There may be an effect - but it does not seem hugely significant.

    The Roman Empire was internally peaceful for long periods (pax Romana), while England was riven by internecine conflict until the later 18th century.

    Humans can be divided by a million things. Class, religion, culture, all strike me as at least as important a source of conflict and bloodshed, as genetic dissimilarity.

    This isn't an argument for immigration, btw. And certainly, a healthy country needs a level of unity and cohesiveness.

    Replies: @A123

  681. @AaronB
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    Graeber’s books are not compelling. I tried and could not get past a hundred pages.
     
    So interesting - the one quality of Graeber that I would have thought beyond dispute is his entertaining and compulsively readable style.

    I could see people questioning his research, conclusions, or logic, but unreadable?

    I suspect what is actually happening is, you are psychologically identified with and invested in, the System, and find the experience of it's assumptions being questioned disturbing :)

    It's a very interesting phenomena, why people who are exploited by a system defend it and identify with it - you saw this on Steve Sailers blog post on Graeber. The commenters reacted to Graeber with fury and defended the System angrily - yet these are people who have spent the past few years complaining about how the System despises them and exploits them!

    Yet when confronted with the possibility of a non-exploitative system, they reject it furiously - the most they can imagine, is them switching roles with the exploiters lol.

    Truly sad state of affairs, that the System has us in it's mental stranglehold. But then, it's been wisely observed that rulers rule by consent - by convincing the ruled of their "right" to rule, by convincing the exploited they "deserve" to be exploited.

    The British Empire famously kept millions in check with a few thousand soldiers. And that is why social systems expend most of their efforts on justifying the rulers and the system, on convincing the masses it is the best and even the only possible, system.

    I'm the end it's all just a mind-fuck.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    I suspect what is actually happening is, you are psychologically identified with and invested in, the System, and find the experience of it’s assumptions being questioned disturbing

    1. you do not know anything about me beyond my twitter-size spittle
    2. ergo you are completely making this up out of what who knows or cares

    Good writers: Polanyi, Dickens, Tolstoy
    These guys suck (as writers): Graeber, Scott Alexander, David Foster Wallace, Curtis Yarvin, Thomas Carlyle

  682. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Yes, it's been denied, but I'm sceptical, imo something like that is likely, "civil society" in Germany wants it, and it fits the usual mode of German politicians. Schäuble has also come out in favour of letting migrants into the EU to process their asylum applications (totally disingenuous, as if anybody would get deported if his application has been rejected).
    I've seen Putin has now condemned Polish border guards, because they're so cruel to migrant children, lol. Russian propaganda doesn't seem to have advanced much beyond Soviet days, this should end the love affair of Western right-wingers with Russia, if they've got any sense.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Dmitry

    I’ve seen Putin has now condemned Polish border guards, because they’re so cruel to migrant children, lol.

    Putin likes to take the piss! One of many reasons he is better than the Donald.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Poor Donald "I''m not into golden showers" Trump still can't catch a break :)

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  683. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    Everyone now can embark on the personal adventure of mild asceticism
     
    Can you give some examples what this entails? I'm having some difficulty in understanding your concept of asceticism, since it doesn't seem to be based on hermitism, life in a monastic community etc.

    Replies: @AaronB

    Sure – it’s simple things, but they can have far reaching psychological effects.

    The biggest one is probably food. As one of our primary pleasures, and as something so necessary for our survival, our relationship to food can have surprisingly far reaching psychological effects.

    The American system, of course, encourages an obsession with food, and a consumption pattern that includes limitless quantities and maximizing flavor.

    What I have done lately is most of the week, eat very basic and simple food – use only salt and pepper, and maybe just rice, some veggies, and meat, cheese, or eggs, with usually one indulgence per day. And I don’t eat much.

    Then one day out of the week, I’ll eat delicious food, with lots of variety, from all world cuisines, and however much I want.

    People today may recommend a diet for health reasons, but no one recommends simple eating, and eating less, for the profound and powerful psychological and spiritual effects, yet it really does have a profound impact on the “quality” of your daily life.

    We are a culture that only values what cam be measured, of course, but the change in “quality” cannot quite be put into words – daily life simply is more “fun” in an indefinable way 🙂

    Part of it, no doubt, is the sense of adventure – the sense of “precariousness”, of perhaps living on the edge (although it isn’t truly), and the sense of no longer being “trapped” and pinned down by need.

    Ultimately, over-consumption is fueled by our desire for safety and survival. When you enter a different mindset, where you no longer try so hard to secure these things, life becomes surprisingly more enjoyable.

    Then shelter and comfort – simple, basic beds, small houses etc – who is really happy in these American suburban palaces, in these kings and queens beds with the most luxurious of quilts etc?

    They are so lifeless. A little bit of grime, a little dirt, a little raw earthiness, makes life so much more fascinating, and so much more satisfying. The cleanliness and comfort of modernity is soulless.

    Who knew mere dirt and grime can lend life charm 🙂

    I once ran into this guy travelling the wild back roads of America in his Jeep Grand Cherokee – he wasn’t an ascetic. He owned property, was wealthy, and was very into fitness. But he said that he had no desire to live in a home, and people did not realize how little comfort they really need 🙂

    Asceticism is dangerous, because it can easily go overboard – once one sees that it’s fun 🙂 ) – and become its own kind of greedy and aggressive acquisitiveness. This happens not infrequently.

    It’s important to have the right mindset – that of “letting go”, of “not clinging”, of “surrendering”, and not the mindset of “storming heaven and earning fruits for oneself”, or the mindset of it being a gloomy sacrifice.

    • Thanks: German_reader
    • Replies: @Mikel
    @AaronB

    So, going back to a point you made earlier, why is it so bad that human wants are insatiable?

    Hunger and thirst can only be satiated temporarily but this seems to be a pretty natural arrangement for all animal species. Likewise, sexual desire is never placated, it keeps coming back. But I'm OK with that. I don't find a life of no sexual desire, let alone celibacy, very interesting at all. And I think that you and me will never cease to want to go hiking and explore new natural landscapes.

    In the same vein, I think that wishing to enjoy material goods, as long as it doesn't become one's only purpose in life, is an inevitable and rather benign part of the human nature. We don't know how long we are going to exist and what comes after that so we just want to have it nice while we are here.

    I don't really see a "System" trying to force us to consume against our natural inclinations. Companies certainly compete trying to make us spend as much as possible on their products but they do it knowing how tempting it is indeed for us to want to have more of everything. Ultimately, it is us who decide to spend or not to spend and to use our income as we wish. In modern societies there is no way anyone can force us to consume against our will.

    In summary, I don't think that there is any need to change society or the "system" to solve the problem of how much consumption and how much frugality or even asceticism each of us decides to enjoy. Social pressure, especially from the family, to conform to conventional expectations is a real thing. But perhaps we are living in the best of times to explore and find a personal balance between the advantages of different lifestyles. While advanced societies have accumulated more material wealth than ever before, abandoning the rat race and retiring to nature is almost an established way of life nowadays. There's lots of people doing that in different manners and nobody really cares much. From time to time, I even read on my wife's magazines for women how this or that celebrity has bought a ranch somewhere and lives there (or claims to), away from all mundane matters. Likewise, wherever you go in the world (with the possible exception of North Korea) you're going to find some Westerner who decided to quit his job in his wealthy country and try a different life in a much poorer place.

    One more thing: I've visited quite a few poor countries and I'm not sure that people are happier there. While too much material comfort does clearly nothing to add to one's happiness, living a life of constant scarcity and an uncertain future for you and your closed ones brings very little joy too. Just watch all those masses of people who keep risking everything to try and live in a prosperous country. As I once told you, living on a small farm also allows me to see how difficult the life of our ancestors must have been. I can play to be a homesteader but if a crop fails or my animals lose their offspring, it really means little to me, just a mishap in my hobby. For my forefathers these events would have meant misery if not starvation. Overall, I think I'm happy enough in this society. Is that no a Taoist attitude?

    Replies: @AaronB

  684. @A123
    @AaronB

    One can train a homogeneous group towards hostility. However, trying to train a non-homogeneous group to peacefulness is likely to be futile.

    Yes. Families have internal rivalries, and there is a certain amount of jockeying for position. However, I have not seen families exhibit serious injury or death levels of physical violence. The exceptions are cases driven by outside forces, such as drug addiction.

    It can be hard to distinguish social from non-social impacts. In a homogeneous tribe where everyone is poor, there is no real upside to intra tribal aggression. Internal position can only obtain 'surplus goods'.
    ___

    I concur with GR that Arabia is not homogenous. It is at least as diverse as India, and there is no locked in caste stratification. Each Arab tribe has the opportunity to advance their position at the expense of other Arab factions.

    Palestinian Jews are surrounded by an implacable enemy. Thus, The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend prevails as a necessity for survival. Until the Muslim threat to native Palestinians is permanently pushed back, it is hard to be sure what the outcome will be among native Jewish populations. Because they want different things, direct conflict is unlikely. However, one should anticipate increased friction between the groups once the existential threat diminishes.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @AaronB

    Yes, Palestinian Jews will definitely become more fractious if the Arab threat wanes, that’s for sure.

    You make good points.

    I think an impartial look at history, shows that genetic similarity does not provide a robust defense against conflict. There may be an effect – but it does not seem hugely significant.

    The Roman Empire was internally peaceful for long periods (pax Romana), while England was riven by internecine conflict until the later 18th century.

    Humans can be divided by a million things. Class, religion, culture, all strike me as at least as important a source of conflict and bloodshed, as genetic dissimilarity.

    This isn’t an argument for immigration, btw. And certainly, a healthy country needs a level of unity and cohesiveness.

    • Replies: @A123
    @AaronB


    The Roman Empire was internally peaceful for long periods (pax Romana),
     
    With slavery and gladiatorial blood sport. I am not sure that peaceful really applies to the Pax Romana. Appetite for violence was satiated via other avenues.

    I think an impartial look at history, shows that genetic similarity does not provide a robust defense against conflict. ... Humans can be divided by a million things. Class, religion, culture, all strike me as at least as important a source of conflict and bloodshed, as genetic dissimilarity.
     
    Certainly religion can temporarily damp down differences. Other types of cultural indoctrination can have similar effects. We both observe that external threats can generate a level of cohesiveness.
    ___

    To go back to my original example. Iceland is peaceful with:
      &nbsp • Homogeneous genetics
      &nbsp • Uniform shared culture
      &nbsp • Population less than a million

    The answer will make purists unhappy, but I believe there is no 'single' factor. I (and others) would argue that genetic consistency is critical. However, I concede that is not enough. Harmonious coexistence requires an amalgamation of characteristics, both... Nature & Nurture.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AaronB

  685. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader


    I’ve seen Putin has now condemned Polish border guards, because they’re so cruel to migrant children, lol.
     
    Putin likes to take the piss! One of many reasons he is better than the Donald.

    Replies: @sudden death

    Poor Donald “I”m not into golden showers” Trump still can’t catch a break 🙂

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @sudden death

    That was completely unintentional.

    Did you see the story in newslinks about the D-list celebrity entertainer who was singing backup (I believe some people call it singing although that might be way off) for Rage Against the Machine who pissed on some fan's face from the stage? Aye ^ 7.

    They had her picture. They said it was a she. I don't think bio-females can aim accurately enough to do what was described in the article. I suppose you had to be there but then who in the hell would want to be there?

  686. @sudden death
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Poor Donald "I''m not into golden showers" Trump still can't catch a break :)

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    That was completely unintentional.

    Did you see the story in newslinks about the D-list celebrity entertainer who was singing backup (I believe some people call it singing although that might be way off) for Rage Against the Machine who pissed on some fan’s face from the stage? Aye ^ 7.

    They had her picture. They said it was a she. I don’t think bio-females can aim accurately enough to do what was described in the article. I suppose you had to be there but then who in the hell would want to be there?

  687. @AaronB
    @German_reader


    But the striving for status and success also arises from human nature, and is intimately tied to the biological drive to propagate one’s genetic line.
     
    So, this is the great debate, isn't it.

    There are two narratives; one, that human nature is fundamentally corrupt, and only strict rules and the threat if violence can create any level of order. This is the Hobbesian view, and has always been favored by conservatives. This is the "mainstream consensus" that keeps us enslaved.

    However, to disprove this view, all we have to show is the existence of societies - both historically and today - that don't manifest insatiable desire for status and insatiable greed. And such societies exist in abundance.

    Moreover, Faustian societies are a relatively recent thing historically - the idea that insatiable greed and insatiable desire for status are good things, engines of "progress", and should be encouraged.

    That is a novel phenomena in world history - so clearly, it isn't merely "human nature".

    In David Graeber's new book, he shows that for thousands of years, there existed complex agricultural societies without harsh hierarchies, and not based on insatiable greed or desire for status.

    The "mainstream consensus" wants to convince you it's "human nature" and there is no escape - but that kind of serves the purposes of a narrow elite who exploits everyone else, doesn't it?

    If you look at the myth of the Garden of Eden, human nature originally is innocent and pure, and the Fall is an event in time that corrupts humans and their institutions and lifestyles. I think this encapsulates something we all know, deep down, is true - that's why this myth has been so powerful.

    As for insatiable desire, I know from my own experience that desire waxes and wanes depending on environment. When I am out in nature for extended periods, my desires naturally wane an almost comical point. I am much less hungry and am content with low levels of comfort.

    Back in civilization, I suddenly am full of cravings.

    I’m not familiar with them tbh. But iirc there’s a debate whether hunter gatherers really lived mostly in egalitarian bands or whether that isn’t actually atypical (hunter gatherers who survived until modern times live on more marginal lands than when all of humanity lived in that mode, so the social structure of historical hunter gatherer societies may have been different).
    I don’t think those primitive tribes can be described as ascetic though. Hunter gatherer societies typically are very violent, with intense intergroup competition about resources (which includes women captured on raids). Also lots of intragroup competition about status. Every man there is in a constant struggle to prove his worth and pass on his genes. So very different from a genuinely ascetic lifestyle that tries to leave this endless circle of competition behind
     
    .

    Well, there is a general consensus, that hunter gatherers are egalitarian.

    But yes, there is also a counter narrative, primarily fueled by Chagnon's study of the Yanomami, who he found were exceptionally warlike and aggressive.

    His research has been criticized, and they may not have been as warlike as he claimed.

    But not to get too deeply into that, we know that hunter gatherers can be exceptionally warlike - the American Indians practiced incessant war as a way of life, while other hunter gatherers were pacific, like the mild and peaceful indians Columbus encountered in the Caribbean.

    So there is no "single" typology of hunter gatherers. And yes, contemporary hunter gatherers living on marginal land may well be atypical, that is true - a point that also applies to the Yanomami. But we have a rich historical and archeological record to supplement our picture.

    As Graeber shows, even mamy early complex agricultural societies were often peaceful and egalitarian, while others were not.

    For my purposes, to defeat the pessimistic view that it is "human nature", all I have to show is that for extended periods of time, many human societies were egalitarian and peaceful. And the record shows that.

    The record does not support a "determinist" view - we are far freer than we are taught to think on modern times.

    Also, yes, hunter gatherers are not an example of spiritual ascetics in community - so how much more can we expect from people organizing for spiritual reasons?

    Well, that’s not how it was seen in medieval monastic communities, total obedience to the abbot was one of the central duties imposed on monks, as was living according to the rule they had taken a vow on.
    Of course you could argue that this was different, because many monks had entered the monastery as child oblates, so hadn’t chosen that life freely, but still, your view strikes me as a bit too optimistic. I’m not sure the kind of community you envision has historically existed (maybe hermits in late antiquity who lived in their own cells and only met for communal prayer and meals?).
     
    By the late Middle Ages, monasteries were deeply corrupted state-like institutions - there is a reason Henry VIII abolished them in England.

    Christianity in general, in my view, was only really authentic for a few centuries. When Constantine made Christianity the state religion, it became corrupted by power and wealth, and retained only an echo of it's spirituality (very useful, but no longer the full reality).

    The problem is, "institutions" become corrupted - become about power and money.

    The problem is, our modern Faustian society is built on the principle of encouraging insatiable desire for wealth and status quite explicitly, as that Lasch quote shows. Obviously greed and hierarchy will be extreme in such a society, and obviously it's beneficiaries will want to claim it's merely "human nature" and will seek to popularize and spread throughout the culture a broadly "determinist" view of human possibilities.

    The record shows countless human societies, large and small, and to varying degrees, to have not been based on these do called aspects of irreducible "human nature".

    And as Faustian society, like all cultures, begins to lose momentum and collapse, the determinist view will fall with it, and a sense of expanded possibility will return.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123, @Coconuts

    But we have a rich historical and archeological record to supplement our picture.

    Genetic evidence would be very useful, trying to find out how males successfully reproduced in each generation. If the society was highly egalitarian, you would expect something closer to male/female parity in this respect.

    Obviously human life starts in conditions of radical inequality (c.f. the one day old child compared to its mother and father) and this is both natural and healthy.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Coconuts


    Obviously human life starts in conditions of radical inequality (c.f. the one day old child compared to its mother and father) and this is both natural and healthy.
     
    Sure, and this kind of natural inequality extends into adulthood, and is perfectly normal and healthy.

    I'm certainly not suggesting anything be done to "flatten" the natural diversity of mankind.

    But interestingly enough, egalitarian hunter gatherer societies do not even punish, reprimand, or dominate their children.

    The American Indians were aghast at how harshly Europeans disciplined their children. This childhood training may well be the source of our own desire to dominate and control others as adults.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Coconuts, @Barbarossa

  688. @AaronB
    @AaronB

    This has also given me better insight into why it has been so hard for many to break out of the modernist mindset despite obviously suffering from it.

    Modern life - and the modern Story of locating happiness in the Future - creates depression.

    So YA finds himself, like most moderns, depressed, as he has admitted.

    But even as modernity creates depression, it offers the solution! - happiness is in the "future", you must work for "progress" - the "endless more"!

    It's a kind of genius circular trap. The philosophy of "endless more" both creates depression and presents itself as the "cure" for it!

    It's pure genius in a way :)

    It's an almost complete mind trap. If I believed in demons, I'd say it was the devising of a supernatural demonic intelligence.

    It's also why many think nothing will change without physical collapse - man cannot mentally free himself fr such a psychological trap.

    I, however, don't think so at all - the trap is escapable.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    Happiness is a trap. Cultivating contentment is the key to escaping the curse of “always more”.
    Modern consumer capitalism is naturally enough diametrically opposed to contentment and creates discontent. This is a feature not a bug.

    It’s hard to quantify such things a human happiness, but I strongly suspect that we are collectively less happy than most any time in human history, despite our material progress.

    Not to sound maudlin, but we are surrounded by incredible miracles from birth, sunsets, stars, or water yet people fail to appreciate it all because their wonder has been muzzled and caged. When my 2 year old points and shouts “star! star!” at the night sky he is seeing things as they actually are, not the grown man who can’t be bothered to look up.

    Instead of appreciating what we have in front of us, some would rather inhabit some mediated Metaverse. It’s incredibly twisted.

    • Agree: AaronB
  689. @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    The sad thing is, that we shouldn't need to become Amish or Haredi. Even such an often negative technology as the internet, can be used by you to e.g. download Shakespeare and Mozart.

    What we need is only a strong regulation to prevent dystopian uses of technology against people. These regulations would need be based on humanist and civilized values, and very deeply installed, and enforced. With this installed, we could then explore technology as much as ever before.

    The problem is even such a small demand, can seem completely utopian and unlikely. And when you see the direction of this year - where QR codes don't even seem the worst of it now, might not feel so optimistic that it will be coming.

    Replies: @LatW, @Yellowface Anon, @Barbarossa

    The core issue to me about technology is that it is inherently a very mediated experience. You are necessarily playing someone else’s game because they have set the design and parameters for the platform or interface. This is extremely evident in the case of something like Facebook, but is also true of more benign platforms such as this comment thread.

    I’m playing Ron Unz’s game and am content enough to do so, but I am also aware of that fact. In my observation, most people have an extreme lack of awareness of this dynamic, thinking that technology allows them to express themselves while it actually directs and constrains that expression sharply.

    So I am doubtful that regulation could change the dynamic of something like the internet such that I would be pleased with it. And as you say, such an effort to intelligently regulate is nowhere in evidence and will not likely ever be.

    Personally, I keep my internet usage quite curtailed while holding onto self limiting hardware like my flip phone to manage the negative influences. I find the Amish mode of entirely opting out quite wise though. It’s hard to only crack Pandora’s Box just a little bit!

  690. @Coconuts
    @AaronB


    But we have a rich historical and archeological record to supplement our picture.
     
    Genetic evidence would be very useful, trying to find out how males successfully reproduced in each generation. If the society was highly egalitarian, you would expect something closer to male/female parity in this respect.

    Obviously human life starts in conditions of radical inequality (c.f. the one day old child compared to its mother and father) and this is both natural and healthy.

    Replies: @AaronB

    Obviously human life starts in conditions of radical inequality (c.f. the one day old child compared to its mother and father) and this is both natural and healthy.

    Sure, and this kind of natural inequality extends into adulthood, and is perfectly normal and healthy.

    I’m certainly not suggesting anything be done to “flatten” the natural diversity of mankind.

    But interestingly enough, egalitarian hunter gatherer societies do not even punish, reprimand, or dominate their children.

    The American Indians were aghast at how harshly Europeans disciplined their children. This childhood training may well be the source of our own desire to dominate and control others as adults.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @AaronB

    What I was trying to say was, that it's fortunate you brought up children, because we see that even this extreme state of inequality and dependence does not necessarily lead to domination, and the use of violence and coercion to control.

    Societies that don't practice domination and coercion towards adults, tend not to do so even for the most powerless and smallest among them.

    It is an excellent lesson.

    , @Coconuts
    @AaronB


    What I was trying to say was, that it’s fortunate you brought up children, because we see that even this extreme state of inequality and dependence does not necessarily lead to domination, and the use of violence and coercion to control.
     
    Well no, this state of extreme inequality and dependence mostly doesn't lead to domination, coercion and control. As I said, it is something positive and it produces growth and development in the child and is an expression of love on the part of the adults.

    Not unrelated, we know that when a mother slaps her children it is also natural behaviour, to protect them from the consequences of their lack of knowledge and experience, and to moderate the growth of their instincts towards domination and egoism.

    I don't know if this is really what you meant but the idea that the children of hunter gatherers do not bite, bully and antagonise each other and run unawares into dangerous situations, or that mothers react passively when this stuff happens, would seem implausible.

    Replies: @AaronB

    , @Barbarossa
    @AaronB

    This discipline dynamic that you describe also has something to do with the relative cultural complexities of Euro and Indian society, I think.

    More complex, or "civilized", societies generally require more regimentation, specialization, and exercise of impulse control to function. This would seemingly bleed into child rearing where increased discipline would be seen as desirable to cultivate those behavioral traits.

    In a general sense too more primitive societies have less of a hard delineation between child and adult owing to the fact that they share much more of a common scope of information and action. The modern West has had a high degree of separation between child and adult.

    This is mirrored in a larger societal way in that more complex societies generally require more rules and behavior strictures to function.

    I think that overly punitive parenting can be bad and often counterproductive, but it's not surprising that it would have been in evidence in Euro cultures.

    Replies: @AaronB

  691. @AaronB
    @Coconuts


    Obviously human life starts in conditions of radical inequality (c.f. the one day old child compared to its mother and father) and this is both natural and healthy.
     
    Sure, and this kind of natural inequality extends into adulthood, and is perfectly normal and healthy.

    I'm certainly not suggesting anything be done to "flatten" the natural diversity of mankind.

    But interestingly enough, egalitarian hunter gatherer societies do not even punish, reprimand, or dominate their children.

    The American Indians were aghast at how harshly Europeans disciplined their children. This childhood training may well be the source of our own desire to dominate and control others as adults.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Coconuts, @Barbarossa

    What I was trying to say was, that it’s fortunate you brought up children, because we see that even this extreme state of inequality and dependence does not necessarily lead to domination, and the use of violence and coercion to control.

    Societies that don’t practice domination and coercion towards adults, tend not to do so even for the most powerless and smallest among them.

    It is an excellent lesson.

  692. The latest turn in the scam Rittenhouse trial. (1)

    BREAKING: NBC/MSNBC News BANNED From Kenosha Courthouse

    It looks as if MSNBC and NBC News just got caught possibly trying to doxx the Kyle Rittenhouse jury.

    On Thursday morning, Judge Bruce Schroeder banned NBC and MSNBC from the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and, indeed, the entire courthouse after a man who identified himself as a producer with the networks was caught following the jury bus after deliberations last night.

    The man identified by the judge as James Morrison allegedly followed the bus and ran a red light to stay close in order to contact jurors or get photographs of them

    The bus meets jurors at a specific spot where they can park and jump on the bus, outfitted with darkened or blocked windows, to go the courthouse every day.

    As much as I try to resist Yellowface’s conclusion… Irreversible action against the Lügenpresse is the minimum necessary action to restore anything resembing civilization.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2021/11/18/breaking-nbc-msnbc-news-banned-from-kenosha-courthouse-n1533923

     

  693. @AaronB
    @A123

    Yes, Palestinian Jews will definitely become more fractious if the Arab threat wanes, that's for sure.

    You make good points.

    I think an impartial look at history, shows that genetic similarity does not provide a robust defense against conflict. There may be an effect - but it does not seem hugely significant.

    The Roman Empire was internally peaceful for long periods (pax Romana), while England was riven by internecine conflict until the later 18th century.

    Humans can be divided by a million things. Class, religion, culture, all strike me as at least as important a source of conflict and bloodshed, as genetic dissimilarity.

    This isn't an argument for immigration, btw. And certainly, a healthy country needs a level of unity and cohesiveness.

    Replies: @A123

    The Roman Empire was internally peaceful for long periods (pax Romana),

    With slavery and gladiatorial blood sport. I am not sure that peaceful really applies to the Pax Romana. Appetite for violence was satiated via other avenues.

    I think an impartial look at history, shows that genetic similarity does not provide a robust defense against conflict. … Humans can be divided by a million things. Class, religion, culture, all strike me as at least as important a source of conflict and bloodshed, as genetic dissimilarity.

    Certainly religion can temporarily damp down differences. Other types of cultural indoctrination can have similar effects. We both observe that external threats can generate a level of cohesiveness.
    ___

    To go back to my original example. Iceland is peaceful with:
      &nbsp • Homogeneous genetics
      &nbsp • Uniform shared culture
      &nbsp • Population less than a million

    The answer will make purists unhappy, but I believe there is no ‘single’ factor. I (and others) would argue that genetic consistency is critical. However, I concede that is not enough. Harmonious coexistence requires an amalgamation of characteristics, both… Nature & Nurture.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @A123


    To go back to my original example. Iceland is peaceful with
     
    Have you read the Eddas?

    I suppose some HBD nerd has concocted some scenario where the brute fraction of the gene pool succeeded in destroying all of its cohort.

    https://www.amazon.com/Why-your-axe-bloody-Reading/dp/0198768923

    Replies: @A123

    , @AaronB
    @A123

    Fair enough.

    We both agree that genetic homogeneity is not enough, but I differ in that I think it may have only a modest effect in reducing conflict.

    If we cared, we could probably do a very thorough historical survey and come to some better conclusions, but it would be a large task :)

    Replies: @A123

  694. @A123
    @AaronB


    The Roman Empire was internally peaceful for long periods (pax Romana),
     
    With slavery and gladiatorial blood sport. I am not sure that peaceful really applies to the Pax Romana. Appetite for violence was satiated via other avenues.

    I think an impartial look at history, shows that genetic similarity does not provide a robust defense against conflict. ... Humans can be divided by a million things. Class, religion, culture, all strike me as at least as important a source of conflict and bloodshed, as genetic dissimilarity.
     
    Certainly religion can temporarily damp down differences. Other types of cultural indoctrination can have similar effects. We both observe that external threats can generate a level of cohesiveness.
    ___

    To go back to my original example. Iceland is peaceful with:
      &nbsp • Homogeneous genetics
      &nbsp • Uniform shared culture
      &nbsp • Population less than a million

    The answer will make purists unhappy, but I believe there is no 'single' factor. I (and others) would argue that genetic consistency is critical. However, I concede that is not enough. Harmonious coexistence requires an amalgamation of characteristics, both... Nature & Nurture.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AaronB

    To go back to my original example. Iceland is peaceful with

    Have you read the Eddas?

    I suppose some HBD nerd has concocted some scenario where the brute fraction of the gene pool succeeded in destroying all of its cohort.

    • Troll: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    I was discussing *MODERN* Iceland (circa 2020)

    Your citation is irrelevant as it revolves about:
        • Historical (circa 1280)
        • Norwegian (not Icelandic)

    If you want to make a point, please make it. Off point irrelevancy is of no value.

    PEACE 😇

  695. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @A123


    To go back to my original example. Iceland is peaceful with
     
    Have you read the Eddas?

    I suppose some HBD nerd has concocted some scenario where the brute fraction of the gene pool succeeded in destroying all of its cohort.

    https://www.amazon.com/Why-your-axe-bloody-Reading/dp/0198768923

    Replies: @A123

    I was discussing *MODERN* Iceland (circa 2020)

    Your citation is irrelevant as it revolves about:
        • Historical (circa 1280)
        • Norwegian (not Icelandic)

    If you want to make a point, please make it. Off point irrelevancy is of no value.

    PEACE 😇

  696. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Yes, it's been denied, but I'm sceptical, imo something like that is likely, "civil society" in Germany wants it, and it fits the usual mode of German politicians. Schäuble has also come out in favour of letting migrants into the EU to process their asylum applications (totally disingenuous, as if anybody would get deported if his application has been rejected).
    I've seen Putin has now condemned Polish border guards, because they're so cruel to migrant children, lol. Russian propaganda doesn't seem to have advanced much beyond Soviet days, this should end the love affair of Western right-wingers with Russia, if they've got any sense.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Dmitry

    Putin has now condemned Polish border

    In this case, there is nothing to criticize Putin for inconsistency here, as the Russian border indeed does not behave like the Poland border.

    Putin’s policy is to run in Russia the world’s largest open borders system, so if nothing else, there is some “moral capital” for him to criticize less liberal border policies of soi-disant liberal Western countries.

    More broadly, Putin is not usually the paragon of liberalism, Christian virtues and political consistency, to say it mildly. But on this narrow topic of immigration, he can present himself as such a paragon, at least to the extent that Russia runs a stricter border exiting, than entering.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Putin is not usually the paragon of liberalism, Christian virtues and political consistency
     
    Sure, but his latest comments are pretty stupid as propaganda too, I don't even understand what he's trying to achieve with that...does he think Western liberals will like him for it and drop their anti-Russia attitude (if anything it will achieve the opposite, Putin openly commenting on the issue might well mute any criticism of Poland by Western left-wingers)? And it certainly makes a mockery of the idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia. So imo it betrays a rather deficient understanding of the public in Western states (I suppose that's the target of his statement, I can't imagine the public in Russia genuinely cares about Polish border guards being mean to Kurds and Arabs).

    Replies: @songbird, @Dmitry, @Matra

  697. @AaronB
    @Dmitry

    As German Reader correctly observes, these aren't really ascetical phenomena - they are examples of short term deprivation in service of the ethos of "endless more", so rather the opposite, if anything.

    Nevertheless, there is a quasi-ascetic streak in the tech industry, exemplified by people like Jack Dorsey and others. But this goes back to the idea that tech is a sacred object, so it's not surprising that it will spawn a kind of religious self sacrifice and dedication.

    As for your remarks about technology in your other comment, it may be that the intention of the crafters of that sinister Moscow facial recognition payment system was to facilitate population surveillance and control, but only in a society like ours, which regards technology as sacred, could they have counted on it being not just accepted, but enthusiastically embraced, as we see Karlin to have done.

    Yes, many of those sounding the alarm about the sinister effects of much modern technology are workers in the field, who often helped develop those technologies. But that doesn't change the basic picture that our society, and particularly the tech field, worships technology as sacred.

    Many tech CEOs admit they limit their children's screen time and social media access - but notably, they don't quit their jobs, and readily work on the next big tech project.

    The enthusiasm about technology simply can't be explained by the trivial increments of convenience and comfort it regularly delivers in dribs and drabs - as has been observed, man does make great efforts and self sacrifice in pursuit of some trivial material end.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    not just accepted, but enthusiastically embrace

    People in Russia do not embrace these surveillance policies. They have no knowledge, or if they have knowledge – no choice. There is not exactly much of a bargaining position of normal people in relation to their rulers.

    Karlin to have done.

    If he supports automatic recording into a database of peoples’ movement by a live biometric system, I cannot give you a defense for such view. I can only oppose such a policy. I could guess it would be only because he wants to market the Russian government. But really he needs to post here to defend himself or explain what he was saying.

    aren’t really ascetical phenomena – they are examples of short term deprivation in service of the ethos of “endless more”

    Working hard, because you want to do the job well – this is like a definition of “Zen”. Similarly, for motivations in many secular fields e.g. classical musicians, sportsmen, etc.

    It’s true that these self-sacrificing behaviors of workers, are often exploited by the capitalists. Workers in the Wal Mart supermarket might be adding extra efforts, simply because they want to do a good job, while the owners of Wal Mart receive the profit from this self-sacrifice.

    But I think this shows how strong the instinct for self-sacrifice and asceticism, is in many people – that it can be a free fuel of extra labor per worker, for the capitalist owners of the means of production.

    The same instinct I have for adding extra hours to my working day, would be the one if I was a monk, of adding extra hours to my prayers, or extra hours of fasting, etc.

    Note that workaholic office plankton, also do things like skipping meals, or eating only when they return home at midnight (as if fasting for Ramadan).

    they don’t quit their jobs, and readily work on the next big tech project.

    The enthusiasm about technology

    People who really care about technology, will be looking at the ethical ways to allow it to develop.

    This just like people who care about chemistry, will be concerned about lab safety. If you are concerned about architecture, then you will become interested in building codes. If you are interested in firearms, you should be concerned about firearm safety. People interested in virology, will be concerned and warning you about pandemics.

    • Agree: Coconuts
    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Dmitry


    People who really care about technology, will be looking at the ethical ways to allow it to develop.
     
    So I was reading a bit more about Lewis Mumford's critique of technology, and he apparently came up with this idea he called "biotechnics" which he opposed to "megatechnics".

    Megatechnics is technology for it's own sake, that just grows uncontrollably, whether it serves human ends or not. Mumford believed we currently operate out of this mindset.

    Biotechnics is technology that no longer just mindlessly expands, but is "limited" and serves human ends. In each technical field, we achieve an optimum relative to human interests and human ends, and don't just mindlessly let technology expand or constantly change.

    Of course, it's an excellent idea, and it's quite similar to how traditional societies operated - they all used technology in some form, but in a manner that was human centred, and did not seek to endlessly expand.

    But it is not an idea that is compatible with Faustian culture - looking for ethical ways for technology to develop, is an anti-Faustian principle.

    So we would have to make a major cultural shift to "limit" technology in this way - it would be almost a kind of asceticism :)

    Mumford thought the next stage of culture was indeed towards biotechnics - which would be great.

    However, biotechnics would reduce and limit innovation, inevitably, because we often can't foresee discoveries, and only the unrestrained pursuit of new technology can unlock the full range of what's possible (discoveries in one field, can have revolutionary effects in another).

    And secondly, with technology being placed in a subordinate position, it will no longer be pursued with such zeal and sacrifice. Technology as sacred object might well draw forth sleepless nights of research - technology as merely one object in humanity arsenal of interests, is less likely to do so.

    That the shift has to happen, and indeed is happening, is certain - but we need to be clear about what we are gaining, and what losing.
  698. @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    a larger workforce, a larger consumer market
     
    Yes it's not just labor supply, but there is also a desire for a larger market. For people who own, rent or develop property, then there is a benefit from increasing the demand by increasing the population. And for the government, there is benefit of increasing the tax revenue.

    On the other hand, for many workers, it's a benefit to reduce the supply of unskilled labor from EU markets. Brexit will be a benefit for many workers in the short-term, but it's naïve anyone who thinks they will not find other sources for labor.

    -

    When I look at the 2016 discussions, "Global Britain" always seems more related to external policy though. Maybe it's like a meaningless blank paper, everyone is projecting their dreams to.

    It can be sounding like a kind of religious utopian cult slogan, with nothing except emotional content.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHPQFmIBsIA

    Replies: @Dmitry

    2016 discussions, “Global Britain” always seems more related to external policy

    “Global Britain” policy presentation Boris Johnson signs in 2016, was prioritizing about Ukraine, and celebrated even the (not honestly described) Nazi-collaborator roots of the Canadian Foreign Minister.

    For the “Global Britain” presentation Boris Johnson writes the introduction for, Ukraine even has a special information box, and is described as a reason to co-ordinate between UK and Canada.

    https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/HJS-Global-Britain-%C2%AD-A-Twenty-first-Century-Vision-Report-A4-web.pdf

    This seems strange, because Ukraine has no practical importance for UK, and even Russia mainly only has moderate importance to the Kingdom as a financial investor in London.

    But maybe they are indeed thinking in a similar way to what we read in these “Global Britain” papers?

    According to The Daily Mail yesterday.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10215039/UK-signs-deal-supply-warships-missiles-Ukraine.html

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    Boris Johnson signs in 2016,
     
    * Signs in 2019. Hopefully without too many dreams about the "Great Game".

    “Global Britain” papers?
     
    ?

    "British special forces ready to deploy 600 troops to Ukraine amid Russia invasion fears

    A task force of up to 600 UK troops is ready to deploy in Ukraine. Units from the SAS and Parachute Regiment have been warned they could be sent to the country within hours. Now a British force – consisting of SAS members, the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, medics, engineers, signallers and up to 400 paratroopers from 16 Air Assault Brigade based in Aldershot, Hants – is being set up." https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/british-special-forces-ready-deploy-25453247

    , @AP
    @Dmitry


    “Global Britain” policy presentation Boris Johnson signs in 2016, was prioritizing about Ukraine, and celebrated even the (not honestly described) Nazi-collaborator roots of the Canadian Foreign Minister.
     
    Her grandfather was an editor of the main Ukrainian newspaper under the German occupation. In order to allow his paper to function he had to include a lot of anti-Semitic material. However that was not the paper's purpose. If he was a collaborator, so was any schoolteacher who had to have a portrait of Hitler in the classroom, any physician who also was obligated to treat German soldiers, mailmen who had to deliver German mail, any railway worker who also transported German, any farmer who had to provide some of the food he produced for Germans, etc.

    A relatively balanced article:

    https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/paula-simons-school-of-hate-was-foreign-affairs-minister-chrystia-freelands-grandfather-a-nazi-collaborator
  699. @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    2016 discussions, “Global Britain” always seems more related to external policy
     
    "Global Britain" policy presentation Boris Johnson signs in 2016, was prioritizing about Ukraine, and celebrated even the (not honestly described) Nazi-collaborator roots of the Canadian Foreign Minister.

    -

    For the "Global Britain" presentation Boris Johnson writes the introduction for, Ukraine even has a special information box, and is described as a reason to co-ordinate between UK and Canada.

    https://i.imgur.com/IgzQ6yx.jpg

    https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/HJS-Global-Britain-%C2%AD-A-Twenty-first-Century-Vision-Report-A4-web.pdf


    This seems strange, because Ukraine has no practical importance for UK, and even Russia mainly only has moderate importance to the Kingdom as a financial investor in London.


    -

    But maybe they are indeed thinking in a similar way to what we read in these "Global Britain" papers?

    According to The Daily Mail yesterday.

    https://i.imgur.com/wzvTrfF.jpg

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10215039/UK-signs-deal-supply-warships-missiles-Ukraine.html

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP

    Boris Johnson signs in 2016,

    * Signs in 2019. Hopefully without too many dreams about the “Great Game”.

    “Global Britain” papers?

    ?

    British special forces ready to deploy 600 troops to Ukraine amid Russia invasion fears

    A task force of up to 600 UK troops is ready to deploy in Ukraine. Units from the SAS and Parachute Regiment have been warned they could be sent to the country within hours. Now a British force – consisting of SAS members, the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, medics, engineers, signallers and up to 400 paratroopers from 16 Air Assault Brigade based in Aldershot, Hants – is being set up.” https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/british-special-forces-ready-deploy-25453247

  700. @AaronB
    @German_reader

    Sure - it's simple things, but they can have far reaching psychological effects.

    The biggest one is probably food. As one of our primary pleasures, and as something so necessary for our survival, our relationship to food can have surprisingly far reaching psychological effects.

    The American system, of course, encourages an obsession with food, and a consumption pattern that includes limitless quantities and maximizing flavor.

    What I have done lately is most of the week, eat very basic and simple food - use only salt and pepper, and maybe just rice, some veggies, and meat, cheese, or eggs, with usually one indulgence per day. And I don't eat much.

    Then one day out of the week, I'll eat delicious food, with lots of variety, from all world cuisines, and however much I want.

    People today may recommend a diet for health reasons, but no one recommends simple eating, and eating less, for the profound and powerful psychological and spiritual effects, yet it really does have a profound impact on the "quality" of your daily life.

    We are a culture that only values what cam be measured, of course, but the change in "quality" cannot quite be put into words - daily life simply is more "fun" in an indefinable way :)

    Part of it, no doubt, is the sense of adventure - the sense of "precariousness", of perhaps living on the edge (although it isn't truly), and the sense of no longer being "trapped" and pinned down by need.

    Ultimately, over-consumption is fueled by our desire for safety and survival. When you enter a different mindset, where you no longer try so hard to secure these things, life becomes surprisingly more enjoyable.

    Then shelter and comfort - simple, basic beds, small houses etc - who is really happy in these American suburban palaces, in these kings and queens beds with the most luxurious of quilts etc?

    They are so lifeless. A little bit of grime, a little dirt, a little raw earthiness, makes life so much more fascinating, and so much more satisfying. The cleanliness and comfort of modernity is soulless.

    Who knew mere dirt and grime can lend life charm :)

    I once ran into this guy travelling the wild back roads of America in his Jeep Grand Cherokee - he wasn't an ascetic. He owned property, was wealthy, and was very into fitness. But he said that he had no desire to live in a home, and people did not realize how little comfort they really need :)

    Asceticism is dangerous, because it can easily go overboard - once one sees that it's fun :) ) - and become its own kind of greedy and aggressive acquisitiveness. This happens not infrequently.

    It's important to have the right mindset - that of "letting go", of "not clinging", of "surrendering", and not the mindset of "storming heaven and earning fruits for oneself", or the mindset of it being a gloomy sacrifice.

    Replies: @Mikel

    So, going back to a point you made earlier, why is it so bad that human wants are insatiable?

    Hunger and thirst can only be satiated temporarily but this seems to be a pretty natural arrangement for all animal species. Likewise, sexual desire is never placated, it keeps coming back. But I’m OK with that. I don’t find a life of no sexual desire, let alone celibacy, very interesting at all. And I think that you and me will never cease to want to go hiking and explore new natural landscapes.

    In the same vein, I think that wishing to enjoy material goods, as long as it doesn’t become one’s only purpose in life, is an inevitable and rather benign part of the human nature. We don’t know how long we are going to exist and what comes after that so we just want to have it nice while we are here.

    I don’t really see a “System” trying to force us to consume against our natural inclinations. Companies certainly compete trying to make us spend as much as possible on their products but they do it knowing how tempting it is indeed for us to want to have more of everything. Ultimately, it is us who decide to spend or not to spend and to use our income as we wish. In modern societies there is no way anyone can force us to consume against our will.

    In summary, I don’t think that there is any need to change society or the “system” to solve the problem of how much consumption and how much frugality or even asceticism each of us decides to enjoy. Social pressure, especially from the family, to conform to conventional expectations is a real thing. But perhaps we are living in the best of times to explore and find a personal balance between the advantages of different lifestyles. While advanced societies have accumulated more material wealth than ever before, abandoning the rat race and retiring to nature is almost an established way of life nowadays. There’s lots of people doing that in different manners and nobody really cares much. From time to time, I even read on my wife’s magazines for women how this or that celebrity has bought a ranch somewhere and lives there (or claims to), away from all mundane matters. Likewise, wherever you go in the world (with the possible exception of North Korea) you’re going to find some Westerner who decided to quit his job in his wealthy country and try a different life in a much poorer place.

    One more thing: I’ve visited quite a few poor countries and I’m not sure that people are happier there. While too much material comfort does clearly nothing to add to one’s happiness, living a life of constant scarcity and an uncertain future for you and your closed ones brings very little joy too. Just watch all those masses of people who keep risking everything to try and live in a prosperous country. As I once told you, living on a small farm also allows me to see how difficult the life of our ancestors must have been. I can play to be a homesteader but if a crop fails or my animals lose their offspring, it really means little to me, just a mishap in my hobby. For my forefathers these events would have meant misery if not starvation. Overall, I think I’m happy enough in this society. Is that no a Taoist attitude?

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Mikel

    Well, asceticism doesn't relate to all desire, just a very specific type, what we might call physical desire or desires centred on concern for survival (physically or egoically) - in fact, reducing concern with this order of desire, is precisely what frees us to indulge our desire for beauty and spirituality :)

    You must give in one area, to gain in another, as it were. As all great spiritual masters have found, excessive preoccupation with the "survival complex" of desires obscures the beauty and magic of life, and is the primary human cause of suffering. And a society organized around an excessive concern with the "survival complex" of desires - as I believe Faustian society is - is productive of unhappiness.


    We don’t know how long we are going to exist and what comes after that so we just want to have it nice while we are here.
     
    But my main point is, that you actually may have more "fun" while you are here if you introduce some mild asceticism into your life :) If it isn't fun, don't do it! This is a message largely excluded from the modern conversation, but one that all spiritual explores have found true.

    But if it doesn't make your life more fun, certainly, don't do it.

    I agree with you that we should not eliminate all pleasure from our lives, or all concern with survival. I do admit that asceticism can go too far, and there is nothing wrong with enjoyment so long it is not excessive or obsessive. In fact, it's part of the good life. I do enjoy heartily my day of decadent eating :)

    True asceticism is the "middle way", avoiding extremes, which are just another form of acquisitiveness. But in our society, the "secret" that deprivation may be a joy is rarely told, so perhaps that needs to be emphasized today.

    You make some excellent points about how our society provides a certain measure of freedom to choose and sustain a spiritual lifestyle - I was actually planning on writing about how conditions have slowly changed, making it easier than it has been for a while to pursue alternative lifestyles.

    Nevertheless, I think it remains true that we are a society primarily organized around preoccupation with the wrong kind of desire, and that promotes it's limitless expansion. At the same time, the good news is that we are moving away from the Faustian element in our culture - although this "revolution" is less evident among our elites.

    But I think it's important to provide alternatives to the mainstream ideology, and to provide alternative explanations for human unhappiness. I certainly don't seek to coerce or force anyone into living a specific way - but someone presented only with the mainstream viewpoint, may not realize that many people have found that clinging to material things - to life itself - may become a source of frustration and unhappiness.

    So I guess, I do think currently, our society creates too much pressure to hold certain values, and entirely excludes, or doesn't give enough prominence too, the other set of values - the spiritual - and this fails to answer humanity's deep needs and fails to make a good human life easy to find.

    As for poor countries, the more unstable and poor ones certainly cannot be any fun to live in, but the ones more in the middle generally do create happier people. I have experienced this in India and South East Asia. I read a book once about how the author found an unexpected happiness and zest for life in the slums of Africa and India, and how this flies so much in the face of Western expectations - and I thought, I know just what he means :)

    Many immigrants to the West, and especially American, long to return and report feeling lonely, and alienated by modernity - but the lure of material wealth is strong, however false a promise. It is a trap, but often we don't find out until later.

    . I can play to be a homesteader but if a crop fails or my animals lose their offspring, it really means little to me, just a mishap in my hobby. For my forefathers these events would have meant misery if not starvation.
     
    But at what cost this security? And I am not sure, either, that the very precariousness of their lives, in touch with the raw, elemental facts of life and death, did not give their lives an added beauty and depth that we now lack.

    Security, after all, is something we often don't really want too much of. We go into the wilderness, sometimes, to leave behind the cocoon of security offered by modern life, and it's disconnection from life's elemental forces.

    Overall, I think I’m happy enough in this society. Is that no a Taoist attitude?
     
    No, this actually makes you a better Taoist than me :)

    Ultimately, I am not advocating for anything really extreme - just a less Faustian society, one less focused on endless expansion and the inflaming of the "survival complex" of desires, and one that puts less pressure on people to participate in that, and includes in the cultural landscape alternatives based on spirituality.
  701. @Dmitry
    @AaronB


    not just accepted, but enthusiastically embrace
     
    People in Russia do not embrace these surveillance policies. They have no knowledge, or if they have knowledge - no choice. There is not exactly much of a bargaining position of normal people in relation to their rulers.

    Karlin to have done.
     
    If he supports automatic recording into a database of peoples' movement by a live biometric system, I cannot give you a defense for such view. I can only oppose such a policy. I could guess it would be only because he wants to market the Russian government. But really he needs to post here to defend himself or explain what he was saying.

    aren’t really ascetical phenomena – they are examples of short term deprivation in service of the ethos of “endless more”
     
    Working hard, because you want to do the job well - this is like a definition of "Zen". Similarly, for motivations in many secular fields e.g. classical musicians, sportsmen, etc.

    It's true that these self-sacrificing behaviors of workers, are often exploited by the capitalists. Workers in the Wal Mart supermarket might be adding extra efforts, simply because they want to do a good job, while the owners of Wal Mart receive the profit from this self-sacrifice.

    But I think this shows how strong the instinct for self-sacrifice and asceticism, is in many people - that it can be a free fuel of extra labor per worker, for the capitalist owners of the means of production.

    The same instinct I have for adding extra hours to my working day, would be the one if I was a monk, of adding extra hours to my prayers, or extra hours of fasting, etc.

    Note that workaholic office plankton, also do things like skipping meals, or eating only when they return home at midnight (as if fasting for Ramadan).

    they don’t quit their jobs, and readily work on the next big tech project.

    The enthusiasm about technology
     

    People who really care about technology, will be looking at the ethical ways to allow it to develop.

    This just like people who care about chemistry, will be concerned about lab safety. If you are concerned about architecture, then you will become interested in building codes. If you are interested in firearms, you should be concerned about firearm safety. People interested in virology, will be concerned and warning you about pandemics.

    Replies: @AaronB

    People who really care about technology, will be looking at the ethical ways to allow it to develop.

    So I was reading a bit more about Lewis Mumford’s critique of technology, and he apparently came up with this idea he called “biotechnics” which he opposed to “megatechnics”.

    Megatechnics is technology for it’s own sake, that just grows uncontrollably, whether it serves human ends or not. Mumford believed we currently operate out of this mindset.

    Biotechnics is technology that no longer just mindlessly expands, but is “limited” and serves human ends. In each technical field, we achieve an optimum relative to human interests and human ends, and don’t just mindlessly let technology expand or constantly change.

    Of course, it’s an excellent idea, and it’s quite similar to how traditional societies operated – they all used technology in some form, but in a manner that was human centred, and did not seek to endlessly expand.

    But it is not an idea that is compatible with Faustian culture – looking for ethical ways for technology to develop, is an anti-Faustian principle.

    So we would have to make a major cultural shift to “limit” technology in this way – it would be almost a kind of asceticism 🙂

    Mumford thought the next stage of culture was indeed towards biotechnics – which would be great.

    However, biotechnics would reduce and limit innovation, inevitably, because we often can’t foresee discoveries, and only the unrestrained pursuit of new technology can unlock the full range of what’s possible (discoveries in one field, can have revolutionary effects in another).

    And secondly, with technology being placed in a subordinate position, it will no longer be pursued with such zeal and sacrifice. Technology as sacred object might well draw forth sleepless nights of research – technology as merely one object in humanity arsenal of interests, is less likely to do so.

    That the shift has to happen, and indeed is happening, is certain – but we need to be clear about what we are gaining, and what losing.

  702. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    Putin has now condemned Polish border

     

    In this case, there is nothing to criticize Putin for inconsistency here, as the Russian border indeed does not behave like the Poland border.

    Putin's policy is to run in Russia the world's largest open borders system, so if nothing else, there is some "moral capital" for him to criticize less liberal border policies of soi-disant liberal Western countries.

    More broadly, Putin is not usually the paragon of liberalism, Christian virtues and political consistency, to say it mildly. But on this narrow topic of immigration, he can present himself as such a paragon, at least to the extent that Russia runs a stricter border exiting, than entering.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Putin is not usually the paragon of liberalism, Christian virtues and political consistency

    Sure, but his latest comments are pretty stupid as propaganda too, I don’t even understand what he’s trying to achieve with that…does he think Western liberals will like him for it and drop their anti-Russia attitude (if anything it will achieve the opposite, Putin openly commenting on the issue might well mute any criticism of Poland by Western left-wingers)? And it certainly makes a mockery of the idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia. So imo it betrays a rather deficient understanding of the public in Western states (I suppose that’s the target of his statement, I can’t imagine the public in Russia genuinely cares about Polish border guards being mean to Kurds and Arabs).

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader


    Sure, but his latest comments are pretty stupid as propaganda too, I don’t even understand what he’s trying to achieve with that
     
    Russian and Chinese propaganda is in a historical rut, IMO. Wouldn't surprise me if Iran still does the same thing, only it doesn't get any play.

    What is it based on? Blank-slatism? Or some deep understanding of racial reality and of the deep fissures that diversity causes? Rather, I believe it is more superficial than any of those things. I think it has always been based on reading Western media, feeling what Western media is excited about and trying to exploit it.

    It has recently hit me that that's part of what explains the progressive obsession with Fox News - many progs are so isolated from real Rightoids that what is beamed onto their home television is their main schema of them and so it becomes the target of their ire.

    Personally, in the short term, I think it is weakly positive that Putin, who many Western intellectuals regard as a cold-blooded killer, is parroting their rhetoric. I think it helps show what bullshit it is. Of course, long-term is a different matter. It doesn't seem like strategic planning, but some legacy of Soviet-era tactics. Rather short-sighted for Russia, in particular, but even for China.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    Putin is justified to criticize Poland for anti-humanitarianism or illiberalism, in narrow sense of border policy, as he is himself a supporter of open borders immigration policy, and runs this "liberal" (in the recent sense of the word) policy for decades in Russia on the borders - with not very popular results. So he himself wouldn't behave like Poland, and he has a perfect rating for "liberalism" in this area. There is nothing inconsistent in this narrow sense and he probably just feels that.

    He was saying something like "think of these poor children that Poland is throwing water and tear gas grenades against" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAZL9k-AMc4. )

    In broad sense, his humanitarian concerns are cynical nonsense, of course, as he has policies like bombing in Syria which killed thousands of civilians. It's not exactly the most humanitarian motivated politician. But in a narrow sense of the border policy, then he can feel justified, as he is more "liberal" and humanitarian (in this narrowly defined area), than ostensibly liberal Western countries.


    idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia
     
    It's mutual benefit for the Western right-wing like Boris Johnson to signal against Russia (and vice-versa) , and reality is such a complex relationship. Relation of official London to the Moscow, and vice-versa, is characterized by a sentimental posing on both sides to re-create a "Great Game" conflict from the 19th century.

    Much of Boris Johnson's funding has been from escaping Russian billionaires like Elena Baturina. https://www.france24.com/en/20200726-londongrad-russia-influence-under-the-spotlight-in-britain London is running on both unofficial and semi-official Russian money. The finest houses in London, are owned by still current ruling cliques, sometimes who are (not secretly) informal part of the state capacity. London's main newspaper is owned by an ex-KGB officer.


    -

    Although how serious "Global Britain" will be with its pro-Ukraine policies, is difficult to believe.

    My intuition is that I can't believe Johnson actually cares for Ukraine, any more than he cares for unknown >15 children.

    He says this week that he wants to Germany to cancel Nord Stream 2, while cosplaying in early 19th century clothes. I doubt he would cancel it if he was a German politician; probably standard kind of posing of politicians in former powerful empires (both as in UK and Russia).

    https://twitter.com/AlArabiya_Eng/status/1460789902048743434

    Replies: @LatW, @LatW

    , @Matra
    @German_reader

    I'm sure you will reconsider your criticism of Russian/Soviet-style propaganda when you watch this nuanced piece (allegedly) from Belarus TV last week: Link

    Replies: @Matra, @German_reader

  703. @Mikel
    @AaronB

    So, going back to a point you made earlier, why is it so bad that human wants are insatiable?

    Hunger and thirst can only be satiated temporarily but this seems to be a pretty natural arrangement for all animal species. Likewise, sexual desire is never placated, it keeps coming back. But I'm OK with that. I don't find a life of no sexual desire, let alone celibacy, very interesting at all. And I think that you and me will never cease to want to go hiking and explore new natural landscapes.

    In the same vein, I think that wishing to enjoy material goods, as long as it doesn't become one's only purpose in life, is an inevitable and rather benign part of the human nature. We don't know how long we are going to exist and what comes after that so we just want to have it nice while we are here.

    I don't really see a "System" trying to force us to consume against our natural inclinations. Companies certainly compete trying to make us spend as much as possible on their products but they do it knowing how tempting it is indeed for us to want to have more of everything. Ultimately, it is us who decide to spend or not to spend and to use our income as we wish. In modern societies there is no way anyone can force us to consume against our will.

    In summary, I don't think that there is any need to change society or the "system" to solve the problem of how much consumption and how much frugality or even asceticism each of us decides to enjoy. Social pressure, especially from the family, to conform to conventional expectations is a real thing. But perhaps we are living in the best of times to explore and find a personal balance between the advantages of different lifestyles. While advanced societies have accumulated more material wealth than ever before, abandoning the rat race and retiring to nature is almost an established way of life nowadays. There's lots of people doing that in different manners and nobody really cares much. From time to time, I even read on my wife's magazines for women how this or that celebrity has bought a ranch somewhere and lives there (or claims to), away from all mundane matters. Likewise, wherever you go in the world (with the possible exception of North Korea) you're going to find some Westerner who decided to quit his job in his wealthy country and try a different life in a much poorer place.

    One more thing: I've visited quite a few poor countries and I'm not sure that people are happier there. While too much material comfort does clearly nothing to add to one's happiness, living a life of constant scarcity and an uncertain future for you and your closed ones brings very little joy too. Just watch all those masses of people who keep risking everything to try and live in a prosperous country. As I once told you, living on a small farm also allows me to see how difficult the life of our ancestors must have been. I can play to be a homesteader but if a crop fails or my animals lose their offspring, it really means little to me, just a mishap in my hobby. For my forefathers these events would have meant misery if not starvation. Overall, I think I'm happy enough in this society. Is that no a Taoist attitude?

    Replies: @AaronB

    Well, asceticism doesn’t relate to all desire, just a very specific type, what we might call physical desire or desires centred on concern for survival (physically or egoically) – in fact, reducing concern with this order of desire, is precisely what frees us to indulge our desire for beauty and spirituality 🙂

    You must give in one area, to gain in another, as it were. As all great spiritual masters have found, excessive preoccupation with the “survival complex” of desires obscures the beauty and magic of life, and is the primary human cause of suffering. And a society organized around an excessive concern with the “survival complex” of desires – as I believe Faustian society is – is productive of unhappiness.

    We don’t know how long we are going to exist and what comes after that so we just want to have it nice while we are here.

    But my main point is, that you actually may have more “fun” while you are here if you introduce some mild asceticism into your life 🙂 If it isn’t fun, don’t do it! This is a message largely excluded from the modern conversation, but one that all spiritual explores have found true.

    But if it doesn’t make your life more fun, certainly, don’t do it.

    I agree with you that we should not eliminate all pleasure from our lives, or all concern with survival. I do admit that asceticism can go too far, and there is nothing wrong with enjoyment so long it is not excessive or obsessive. In fact, it’s part of the good life. I do enjoy heartily my day of decadent eating 🙂

    True asceticism is the “middle way”, avoiding extremes, which are just another form of acquisitiveness. But in our society, the “secret” that deprivation may be a joy is rarely told, so perhaps that needs to be emphasized today.

    You make some excellent points about how our society provides a certain measure of freedom to choose and sustain a spiritual lifestyle – I was actually planning on writing about how conditions have slowly changed, making it easier than it has been for a while to pursue alternative lifestyles.

    Nevertheless, I think it remains true that we are a society primarily organized around preoccupation with the wrong kind of desire, and that promotes it’s limitless expansion. At the same time, the good news is that we are moving away from the Faustian element in our culture – although this “revolution” is less evident among our elites.

    But I think it’s important to provide alternatives to the mainstream ideology, and to provide alternative explanations for human unhappiness. I certainly don’t seek to coerce or force anyone into living a specific way – but someone presented only with the mainstream viewpoint, may not realize that many people have found that clinging to material things – to life itself – may become a source of frustration and unhappiness.

    So I guess, I do think currently, our society creates too much pressure to hold certain values, and entirely excludes, or doesn’t give enough prominence too, the other set of values – the spiritual – and this fails to answer humanity’s deep needs and fails to make a good human life easy to find.

    As for poor countries, the more unstable and poor ones certainly cannot be any fun to live in, but the ones more in the middle generally do create happier people. I have experienced this in India and South East Asia. I read a book once about how the author found an unexpected happiness and zest for life in the slums of Africa and India, and how this flies so much in the face of Western expectations – and I thought, I know just what he means 🙂

    Many immigrants to the West, and especially American, long to return and report feeling lonely, and alienated by modernity – but the lure of material wealth is strong, however false a promise. It is a trap, but often we don’t find out until later.

    . I can play to be a homesteader but if a crop fails or my animals lose their offspring, it really means little to me, just a mishap in my hobby. For my forefathers these events would have meant misery if not starvation.

    But at what cost this security? And I am not sure, either, that the very precariousness of their lives, in touch with the raw, elemental facts of life and death, did not give their lives an added beauty and depth that we now lack.

    Security, after all, is something we often don’t really want too much of. We go into the wilderness, sometimes, to leave behind the cocoon of security offered by modern life, and it’s disconnection from life’s elemental forces.

    Overall, I think I’m happy enough in this society. Is that no a Taoist attitude?

    No, this actually makes you a better Taoist than me 🙂

    Ultimately, I am not advocating for anything really extreme – just a less Faustian society, one less focused on endless expansion and the inflaming of the “survival complex” of desires, and one that puts less pressure on people to participate in that, and includes in the cultural landscape alternatives based on spirituality.

  704. @A123
    @AaronB


    The Roman Empire was internally peaceful for long periods (pax Romana),
     
    With slavery and gladiatorial blood sport. I am not sure that peaceful really applies to the Pax Romana. Appetite for violence was satiated via other avenues.

    I think an impartial look at history, shows that genetic similarity does not provide a robust defense against conflict. ... Humans can be divided by a million things. Class, religion, culture, all strike me as at least as important a source of conflict and bloodshed, as genetic dissimilarity.
     
    Certainly religion can temporarily damp down differences. Other types of cultural indoctrination can have similar effects. We both observe that external threats can generate a level of cohesiveness.
    ___

    To go back to my original example. Iceland is peaceful with:
      &nbsp • Homogeneous genetics
      &nbsp • Uniform shared culture
      &nbsp • Population less than a million

    The answer will make purists unhappy, but I believe there is no 'single' factor. I (and others) would argue that genetic consistency is critical. However, I concede that is not enough. Harmonious coexistence requires an amalgamation of characteristics, both... Nature & Nurture.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AaronB

    Fair enough.

    We both agree that genetic homogeneity is not enough, but I differ in that I think it may have only a modest effect in reducing conflict.

    If we cared, we could probably do a very thorough historical survey and come to some better conclusions, but it would be a large task 🙂

    • Replies: @A123
    @AaronB


    We both agree that genetic homogeneity is not enough, but I differ in that I think it may have only a modest effect in reducing conflict.
     
    Hmmm.... the existence of separate genetic pools requires conflict between pools.

    In a hypothetical, purely peaceful society with equal marriage and childbearing opportunities:

    Gen 0 -- 50% A, 50% B
    Gen 1 -- 25% A, 50% AB, 25% B
    Gen 2 -- 6.25% A, 25% AAB, 37.5% AB, 25% ABB, 6.25% B

    Continue with the math for a few more generations and it rapidly approaches a "new" genetic homogeneity. "Pure bloods" will effectively case to exist by Generation 6. Even if you do not believe that genetic consistency is the root cause, it certainly is a symptom.

    This does much to explain why assimilation works. Relatively small numbers of high potential individuals arrive. In a few generations intermarriage incorporates their genetic material into a "new", hopefully slightly improved, genetic homogeneity.
    ____

    Under the genetic model. Built in separation, based on physical characteristics, helps maintain genetic diversity for the species. Humans survive, in part, because genetic diversity prevents mono-genetic extinction events. Incidentally, it also helps resist the expansion of poor cultural choices.

    If you are correct and genetic differentiation is minimal:

    -- Is the future of humanity a uniform "light brownish yellow"?
    -- If we achieve genetic convergence as as species, does that not increase the opportunity for a deadly plague or other mass extinction scenario?

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @AaronB

  705. @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    2016 discussions, “Global Britain” always seems more related to external policy
     
    "Global Britain" policy presentation Boris Johnson signs in 2016, was prioritizing about Ukraine, and celebrated even the (not honestly described) Nazi-collaborator roots of the Canadian Foreign Minister.

    -

    For the "Global Britain" presentation Boris Johnson writes the introduction for, Ukraine even has a special information box, and is described as a reason to co-ordinate between UK and Canada.

    https://i.imgur.com/IgzQ6yx.jpg

    https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/HJS-Global-Britain-%C2%AD-A-Twenty-first-Century-Vision-Report-A4-web.pdf


    This seems strange, because Ukraine has no practical importance for UK, and even Russia mainly only has moderate importance to the Kingdom as a financial investor in London.


    -

    But maybe they are indeed thinking in a similar way to what we read in these "Global Britain" papers?

    According to The Daily Mail yesterday.

    https://i.imgur.com/wzvTrfF.jpg

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10215039/UK-signs-deal-supply-warships-missiles-Ukraine.html

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP

    “Global Britain” policy presentation Boris Johnson signs in 2016, was prioritizing about Ukraine, and celebrated even the (not honestly described) Nazi-collaborator roots of the Canadian Foreign Minister.

    Her grandfather was an editor of the main Ukrainian newspaper under the German occupation. In order to allow his paper to function he had to include a lot of anti-Semitic material. However that was not the paper’s purpose. If he was a collaborator, so was any schoolteacher who had to have a portrait of Hitler in the classroom, any physician who also was obligated to treat German soldiers, mailmen who had to deliver German mail, any railway worker who also transported German, any farmer who had to provide some of the food he produced for Germans, etc.

    A relatively balanced article:

    https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/paula-simons-school-of-hate-was-foreign-affairs-minister-chrystia-freelands-grandfather-a-nazi-collaborator

  706. I think some Taoist (I’m looking at you, AaronB) should come up with a critique of the notion of Will to Power. Not just defending inaction or saying why having Will to Power is bad, but to deconstruct the concept, and not the way Heidegger did it.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon

    It has been done, and I've done it myself here many, many times.

    The emptiness - or better, mistake - of the will to power is the basic, core tenet of every spiritual system.

    Simply, it goes like this; if you see yourself as a seperate, skin encapsulated ego that is disconnected from everything else, then you will feel alienated from life and afraid of death. The universe will not appear benevolent, but life will seem a hostile force trying to kill you at every turn; accumulating power is your only defense.

    There is another, equally important, aspect; feeling seperate, you feel small and inadequate - without value. You can only acquire value, by becoming "more".

    This is basically the condition of the modern world.- built on a basic metaphysical error; the myth of "seperation".

    Behind the bombastic facade of a Nazi Germany, or an aggressive, totalitarian China, or a United States bent on aggressively imposing it's vision on the world - is fear, and a sense of inadequacy.

    Every spiritual tradition tries in some fashion to fight this fear and sense of inadequacy, and this sense of being seperate and alienated.

    So much for the metaphysical underpinning.

    The error of the will to power is something that must be experienced in ones personal life. The "world" tells you that joy and happiness are found in pursuit of power, ego, and control. The modern world is based on this (and isn't it full of joy?)

    Spirituality tells you joy and happiness are found in surrendering these things - in trust (in the universe) rather than control, in powerlessness rather than power, and in connection and interdependence rather than ego seperation.

    Which is correct?

    Well, you just have to experiment and find out for yourself :)

    The beginning of the religious journey for many people, is very often through some misfortune that causes a collapse in their security, and projects of control and ego - they find, to their shock and astonishment, that the world has been so completely wrong - instead of the expected misery at being deprived of what the world insists is essential to us, there is liberation and joy. Happiness is not found where the mainstream tells you it is. This can be a shattering experience - and the first step towards freedom.

    Therefore, often the best thing you can wish for a particularly blind person is the collapse of his fortunes and ego defenses :)

    William James, in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience, documents countless cases of spiritual journeys starting after the collapse of projects of ego, power, control, security, etc.

    Good luck :)

    Replies: @AaronB

  707. ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

  708. • Replies: @LatW
    @sher singh


    the 50th percentile of Iroquois men were as strong in deadlift as the 97th percentile of modern American men
     
    Thanks for posting that graph, however, not sure what to think of that sample -- by 2011, the American male population was already quite diverse. What is the date of the old graph? If it covers the time when most American men were British or German, just remember that today many strongmen come from places like Poland, Lithuania, Scandinavia (Iceland), not just the British Isles, so if men from later waves of immigration had been included, then the whites could possibly compete quite well with the Iroquois.

    Look at Gronkowski, who is Polish, and even Tom Brady who is mostly a mix of Scandinavian and Polish.

    And it's quite believable that Iroquois men were strong, Native Americans (in North America) in general are not tiny. And why is this Twitter poster saying that they didn't have strength training tools, they probably had to lift a lot.

    Of course, he does have a point. If you watch the footage from WW2, you can draw similar comparisons -- see how fit some of the German infantry soldiers were (just how much running they had to do shows what stamina they had, ofc, they were mostly young but still).

  709. @AaronB
    @Coconuts


    Obviously human life starts in conditions of radical inequality (c.f. the one day old child compared to its mother and father) and this is both natural and healthy.
     
    Sure, and this kind of natural inequality extends into adulthood, and is perfectly normal and healthy.

    I'm certainly not suggesting anything be done to "flatten" the natural diversity of mankind.

    But interestingly enough, egalitarian hunter gatherer societies do not even punish, reprimand, or dominate their children.

    The American Indians were aghast at how harshly Europeans disciplined their children. This childhood training may well be the source of our own desire to dominate and control others as adults.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Coconuts, @Barbarossa

    What I was trying to say was, that it’s fortunate you brought up children, because we see that even this extreme state of inequality and dependence does not necessarily lead to domination, and the use of violence and coercion to control.

    Well no, this state of extreme inequality and dependence mostly doesn’t lead to domination, coercion and control. As I said, it is something positive and it produces growth and development in the child and is an expression of love on the part of the adults.

    Not unrelated, we know that when a mother slaps her children it is also natural behaviour, to protect them from the consequences of their lack of knowledge and experience, and to moderate the growth of their instincts towards domination and egoism.

    I don’t know if this is really what you meant but the idea that the children of hunter gatherers do not bite, bully and antagonise each other and run unawares into dangerous situations, or that mothers react passively when this stuff happens, would seem implausible.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Coconuts

    Well, here from an article about American Indians -


    .....And they were also shocked to discover that Indians did not physically punish their children. The Indian young were encouraged to behave properly largely through praise and public rewards for achievement, and were seldom spanked....Nothing shocked the Europeans more than the absence of physical punishment as a means to DISCIPLINE Indian children. Sometimes they were chastised by having a little water thrown in their faces, and there were reports of Creek parents occasionally scratching disobedient children and, along with the Chickasaws, allowing young ones to be beaten by someone outside the household. Nevertheless, corporal punishment was very much the exception rather than the rule, although ridicule or fear of the supernatural might be used to produce obedience. Surely the example of parents, especially warrior-fathers, shunning corporal punishment must have contributed to children, especially sons, mimicking the restraint shown by their elders.
     
    And here from an article on the Batek -

    A striking feature of adult Batek society, and one to which children had to be socialized, was the absence of aggression and violence (K. L. Endicott, 1979; K. M. Endicott, 2013). Writers on nonaggressive and nonviolent societies generally accept that all people, even those living in nonviolent societies, experience aggressive feelings at some point during their lives (see, e.g., Dentan, 1978; Draper, 1978; Marshall, 1976, p. 288’ Montagu 1978). The earliest training in nonaggression that Batek children received took place between the ages of 1 and 2 years. Children of this age who hit out at each other in annoyance or even in the wild animation of play were simply retrieved by their mothers or other adults and separated. This was done without comment from the mothers, who then tried to interest each child in some new activity. With toddlers and older children, parents might explicitly tell them not to annoy each other and might intervene to separate them if necessary. Batek toddlers seemed to have “classic” toddler tendencies. They might act possessively about an object, be it a stick or a portion of food, and might hit others who came too close while they had the object. Children gradually learned to overcome this aggressive possessiveness, however. Parents did not generally admonish children about being possessive, which would have drawn attention to it, but simply ignored it. They said that young children did not know any better, that they were budo’ lagi’, “still ignorant.” Parents seemed to think that children would simply grow out of possessiveness and aggressive behavior. Sometimes they laughed at aggressive behavior, making what seemed important to the child appear to be trivial and amusing. This also served to ease the tension of the situation. Aggression could also be calmed by others distracting the child. If a child was seen to be about to hit someone, others might cry out “ala’!” which roughly means “Hey!” Whatever method was used, no direct comments about the aggressive act or lessons about the right or wrong of the act were made. Parents normally did not punish children for aggressive acts, although very occasionally, one might strike a child to teach her not to hit others. The Batek appeared to think that a better way of handling children’s aggression was to minimize reaction to it and let children learn at their own pace that acting aggressively was just not something people do. As children became more cognizant of adult behavior, they realized that adults did not hit each other or act possessively about food or objects. They also saw that adults vented their anger or frustration verbally rather than physically. The absence of an adult aggression model for Batek children to follow was probably the greatest factor in socializing children to be nonaggressive.
     
    These comparisons are useful to make, because every country has a tendency to think it's practices natural, when often, they may merely be cultural choices.
    I don’t know if this is really what you meant but the idea that the children of hunter gatherers do not bite, bully and antagonise each other

    While children do naturally display some level of aggression, most of this behavior, especially in troublesome form, is learned behavior modeled after the adults.

    The Batek children's games, for instance, were noncompetetive.

    It's what the adults do that the children learn.

  710. @Coconuts
    @AaronB


    What I was trying to say was, that it’s fortunate you brought up children, because we see that even this extreme state of inequality and dependence does not necessarily lead to domination, and the use of violence and coercion to control.
     
    Well no, this state of extreme inequality and dependence mostly doesn't lead to domination, coercion and control. As I said, it is something positive and it produces growth and development in the child and is an expression of love on the part of the adults.

    Not unrelated, we know that when a mother slaps her children it is also natural behaviour, to protect them from the consequences of their lack of knowledge and experience, and to moderate the growth of their instincts towards domination and egoism.

    I don't know if this is really what you meant but the idea that the children of hunter gatherers do not bite, bully and antagonise each other and run unawares into dangerous situations, or that mothers react passively when this stuff happens, would seem implausible.

    Replies: @AaronB

    Well, here from an article about American Indians –

    …..And they were also shocked to discover that Indians did not physically punish their children. The Indian young were encouraged to behave properly largely through praise and public rewards for achievement, and were seldom spanked….Nothing shocked the Europeans more than the absence of physical punishment as a means to DISCIPLINE Indian children. Sometimes they were chastised by having a little water thrown in their faces, and there were reports of Creek parents occasionally scratching disobedient children and, along with the Chickasaws, allowing young ones to be beaten by someone outside the household. Nevertheless, corporal punishment was very much the exception rather than the rule, although ridicule or fear of the supernatural might be used to produce obedience. Surely the example of parents, especially warrior-fathers, shunning corporal punishment must have contributed to children, especially sons, mimicking the restraint shown by their elders.

    And here from an article on the Batek –

    A striking feature of adult Batek society, and one to which children had to be socialized, was the absence of aggression and violence (K. L. Endicott, 1979; K. M. Endicott, 2013). Writers on nonaggressive and nonviolent societies generally accept that all people, even those living in nonviolent societies, experience aggressive feelings at some point during their lives (see, e.g., Dentan, 1978; Draper, 1978; Marshall, 1976, p. 288’ Montagu 1978). The earliest training in nonaggression that Batek children received took place between the ages of 1 and 2 years. Children of this age who hit out at each other in annoyance or even in the wild animation of play were simply retrieved by their mothers or other adults and separated. This was done without comment from the mothers, who then tried to interest each child in some new activity. With toddlers and older children, parents might explicitly tell them not to annoy each other and might intervene to separate them if necessary. Batek toddlers seemed to have “classic” toddler tendencies. They might act possessively about an object, be it a stick or a portion of food, and might hit others who came too close while they had the object. Children gradually learned to overcome this aggressive possessiveness, however. Parents did not generally admonish children about being possessive, which would have drawn attention to it, but simply ignored it. They said that young children did not know any better, that they were budo’ lagi’, “still ignorant.” Parents seemed to think that children would simply grow out of possessiveness and aggressive behavior. Sometimes they laughed at aggressive behavior, making what seemed important to the child appear to be trivial and amusing. This also served to ease the tension of the situation. Aggression could also be calmed by others distracting the child. If a child was seen to be about to hit someone, others might cry out “ala’!” which roughly means “Hey!” Whatever method was used, no direct comments about the aggressive act or lessons about the right or wrong of the act were made. Parents normally did not punish children for aggressive acts, although very occasionally, one might strike a child to teach her not to hit others. The Batek appeared to think that a better way of handling children’s aggression was to minimize reaction to it and let children learn at their own pace that acting aggressively was just not something people do. As children became more cognizant of adult behavior, they realized that adults did not hit each other or act possessively about food or objects. They also saw that adults vented their anger or frustration verbally rather than physically. The absence of an adult aggression model for Batek children to follow was probably the greatest factor in socializing children to be nonaggressive.

    These comparisons are useful to make, because every country has a tendency to think it’s practices natural, when often, they may merely be cultural choices.
    I don’t know if this is really what you meant but the idea that the children of hunter gatherers do not bite, bully and antagonise each other

    While children do naturally display some level of aggression, most of this behavior, especially in troublesome form, is learned behavior modeled after the adults.

    The Batek children’s games, for instance, were noncompetetive.

    It’s what the adults do that the children learn.

  711. @AaronB
    @A123

    Fair enough.

    We both agree that genetic homogeneity is not enough, but I differ in that I think it may have only a modest effect in reducing conflict.

    If we cared, we could probably do a very thorough historical survey and come to some better conclusions, but it would be a large task :)

    Replies: @A123

    We both agree that genetic homogeneity is not enough, but I differ in that I think it may have only a modest effect in reducing conflict.

    Hmmm…. the existence of separate genetic pools requires conflict between pools.

    In a hypothetical, purely peaceful society with equal marriage and childbearing opportunities:

    Gen 0 — 50% A, 50% B
    Gen 1 — 25% A, 50% AB, 25% B
    Gen 2 — 6.25% A, 25% AAB, 37.5% AB, 25% ABB, 6.25% B

    Continue with the math for a few more generations and it rapidly approaches a “new” genetic homogeneity. “Pure bloods” will effectively case to exist by Generation 6. Even if you do not believe that genetic consistency is the root cause, it certainly is a symptom.

    This does much to explain why assimilation works. Relatively small numbers of high potential individuals arrive. In a few generations intermarriage incorporates their genetic material into a “new”, hopefully slightly improved, genetic homogeneity.
    ____

    Under the genetic model. Built in separation, based on physical characteristics, helps maintain genetic diversity for the species. Humans survive, in part, because genetic diversity prevents mono-genetic extinction events. Incidentally, it also helps resist the expansion of poor cultural choices.

    If you are correct and genetic differentiation is minimal:

    Is the future of humanity a uniform “light brownish yellow”?
    — If we achieve genetic convergence as as species, does that not increase the opportunity for a deadly plague or other mass extinction scenario?

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @A123

    I don't see any reason why ethnic groups are likely to coalesce into a brownish mass. Even in countries that we consider homogeneous, like Japan and the old England, very sharply distinct "types" are preserved down the ages.

    So a boring uniformity does not seem to ever truly occur on the generic level. Moreover, new "types" within nations and new ethnic groups are constantly being formed. Israel is a case in point.

    So I agree with you that that happens and will continue to. Which to my mind is kind of cool - why not have new and interesting ethnic groups come into being?

    When I say that from certain perspectives genetic differences are minimal - and between humans and animals too - I'm just illustrating the fact that the boundaries of "group identity" are not objective, but subjective.

    Do we feel kinship with someone who shares 90% of our DNA but not 92%? There seems no objective mechanism here.

    Moreover, I'm nearly certain a blond haired blue eyed Israeli of European origin feels greater genuine kinship with a dark haired dark skinned Moroccan Jew who served in the same Army unit as him, than say, an Englishman and a German man of same race and similar features, and generically closer, who live in different countries.

    There are probably limits to this, and there are no hard rules and each situation is different - but I think for most of history, genetic similarity has not acted as a robust barrier to conflict.

    If you agree with Freud's theory of the narcissism of small differences, brotherly nations seem to have fought each other most fiercely.

    This doesn't mean that a nation should be completely unconcerned about the ethnicity of immigrants, but that the modern obsession with race may be the result of our materialist prejudice, and reluctance in the West to truly give weight to "intangibles" like culture and religion.

  712. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Putin is not usually the paragon of liberalism, Christian virtues and political consistency
     
    Sure, but his latest comments are pretty stupid as propaganda too, I don't even understand what he's trying to achieve with that...does he think Western liberals will like him for it and drop their anti-Russia attitude (if anything it will achieve the opposite, Putin openly commenting on the issue might well mute any criticism of Poland by Western left-wingers)? And it certainly makes a mockery of the idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia. So imo it betrays a rather deficient understanding of the public in Western states (I suppose that's the target of his statement, I can't imagine the public in Russia genuinely cares about Polish border guards being mean to Kurds and Arabs).

    Replies: @songbird, @Dmitry, @Matra

    Sure, but his latest comments are pretty stupid as propaganda too, I don’t even understand what he’s trying to achieve with that

    Russian and Chinese propaganda is in a historical rut, IMO. Wouldn’t surprise me if Iran still does the same thing, only it doesn’t get any play.

    What is it based on? Blank-slatism? Or some deep understanding of racial reality and of the deep fissures that diversity causes? Rather, I believe it is more superficial than any of those things. I think it has always been based on reading Western media, feeling what Western media is excited about and trying to exploit it.

    It has recently hit me that that’s part of what explains the progressive obsession with Fox News – many progs are so isolated from real Rightoids that what is beamed onto their home television is their main schema of them and so it becomes the target of their ire.

    Personally, in the short term, I think it is weakly positive that Putin, who many Western intellectuals regard as a cold-blooded killer, is parroting their rhetoric. I think it helps show what bullshit it is. Of course, long-term is a different matter. It doesn’t seem like strategic planning, but some legacy of Soviet-era tactics. Rather short-sighted for Russia, in particular, but even for China.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @songbird


    but some legacy of Soviet-era tactics
     
    That's probably the main reason, Soviet propaganda was "antiracist" too after all and went on and on about colonial oppression and racism in Western countries ("They're lynching negroes in America").
    And in the official Russian view of WW2 interwar Poland seems to figure as some horrible quasi-fascist state (iirc Putin himself elaborated some time ago on how terribly antisemitic a certain Polish ambassador in the 1930s had been), so I guess painting them today as the same makes sense in the mind of propagandists, all the more so since it seems to fit with the increasingly negative views of Poland among Western shitlibs.
  713. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Che Guava


    Heard of one recently?
     
    Judaism Discovered by Michael Hoffman is the book.

    1. Amazon has stopped carrying it the last time I checked.
    2. It is at least twice as rough reading as Blavatsky Secret Doctrine--Hoffman must have been seriously obsessed doing this.
    3. All those people who claim you are anti-semitic if you denigrate the Talmud? Not one in a thousand of them has read much of it. It is a physical feat like running a marathon or climbing a 20 000 foot mountain to read much Talmud.

    (Hoffman's book is 1100 pages, not large print; I don't think it has any pictures but it has been years since I opened it and it is on the bottom of my least accessed book stacks. It is painful to read.)

    Replies: @Che Guava

    Thank you, but AFAIR, from his own Hoffman descritption, is not providing a new translation of either Talmud, but an essay on many parts. I would like to read it some time.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Che Guava

    You people are so disconnected from reality.

    Here is an online English translation used by Jews, with translation plus commentary.

    https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud

    Any Jewish bookstore will sell you English translations.

    I warn you, though, its not exactly the most exciting reading.

    Replies: @Che Guava

    , @songbird
    @Che Guava

    One point of interest to me is the Jewish account of Jesus and Mary. Many Jews say that those names were very common in the ME and that their account refers to figures from another, later, era. I don't know the merits of the argument one way or another, but I don't believe that is the line Islam takes, in their own divergent story of the two names.

    Replies: @Che Guava

  714. @Che Guava
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Thank you, but AFAIR, from his own Hoffman descritption, is not providing a new translation of either Talmud, but an essay on many parts. I would like to read it some time.

    Replies: @AaronB, @songbird

    You people are so disconnected from reality.

    Here is an online English translation used by Jews, with translation plus commentary.

    https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud

    Any Jewish bookstore will sell you English translations.

    I warn you, though, its not exactly the most exciting reading.

    • Thanks: Emil Nikola Richard
    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @AaronB

    With 'I would like to read', I wasn't referring to a modern sanitised 'translation' of the Talmud, but to Hoffman's writing on the more outre parts of the real thing.

    Replies: @AaronB

  715. Good news on the European gas front: (1)

    The Polish minister for strategic energy infrastructure, Piotr Naimski, stated that the underwater section of the Baltic Pipe has been completed. He emphasized, that this day was a significant step forward in Poland achieving its desire to secure energy independence [from Germany and Russia] in 2022.

    He noted that the pipeline’s capacity will amount to 10 billion cubic meters of gas from Scandinavia per year, which is comparable to the amount of gas Poland is purchasing as part of its multi-annual contract with Russia’s Gazprom, which will expire in December 2022.

    Tomasz Stępień, the CEO of Gaz-System which is responsible for the pipeline’s construction, emphasized that the underwater part of the Baltic Pipe was the section that was most demanding organizationally and technically. He added that this step was completed on schedule.

    “Ahead of us are still some technical and reception tests. We have about a year to conduct these trials, so that we can initiate the commercial gas transfer from Norway to Poland on Oct. 1, 2022,” he said.

    Heading off 100% of potential energy sourcing via hostile Germany is of course key to Poland resistance against SJW Globalist aggression.

    This includes recent pro-Islam developments from the anti-Christian ECJ. (2)

    The Hungarian Parliament passed the so-called “Stop Soros” law in 2018, raising a levy on foreign funding of NGOs and making support of illegal [Muslim] immigration punishable.

    On Tuesday, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said that “we will continue to protect Europe regardless of what the Brussels bubble says.”

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    ______________________

    (1) https://rmx.news/poland/poland-inches-closer-to-energy-independence-after-underwater-section-of-baltic-pipe-completed/

    (2) https://rmx.news/hungary/top-eu-court-raises-soros-backed-ngos-above-the-law-with-latest-ruling-against-hungary/

  716. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    @German_reader


    Sure, but his latest comments are pretty stupid as propaganda too, I don’t even understand what he’s trying to achieve with that
     
    Russian and Chinese propaganda is in a historical rut, IMO. Wouldn't surprise me if Iran still does the same thing, only it doesn't get any play.

    What is it based on? Blank-slatism? Or some deep understanding of racial reality and of the deep fissures that diversity causes? Rather, I believe it is more superficial than any of those things. I think it has always been based on reading Western media, feeling what Western media is excited about and trying to exploit it.

    It has recently hit me that that's part of what explains the progressive obsession with Fox News - many progs are so isolated from real Rightoids that what is beamed onto their home television is their main schema of them and so it becomes the target of their ire.

    Personally, in the short term, I think it is weakly positive that Putin, who many Western intellectuals regard as a cold-blooded killer, is parroting their rhetoric. I think it helps show what bullshit it is. Of course, long-term is a different matter. It doesn't seem like strategic planning, but some legacy of Soviet-era tactics. Rather short-sighted for Russia, in particular, but even for China.

    Replies: @German_reader

    but some legacy of Soviet-era tactics

    That’s probably the main reason, Soviet propaganda was “antiracist” too after all and went on and on about colonial oppression and racism in Western countries (“They’re lynching negroes in America”).
    And in the official Russian view of WW2 interwar Poland seems to figure as some horrible quasi-fascist state (iirc Putin himself elaborated some time ago on how terribly antisemitic a certain Polish ambassador in the 1930s had been), so I guess painting them today as the same makes sense in the mind of propagandists, all the more so since it seems to fit with the increasingly negative views of Poland among Western shitlibs.

  717. Kyle Rittenhouse Acquitted On All Charges

    Kyle Rittenhouse has been acquitted on all charges related to last year’s shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

    The 18-year-old was charged with five felonies; first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

    The jury reached their decision after four days of deliberations, which lasted longer than anyone – including Judge Bruce Schroeder, had expected. It came amid two mistrial requests from the defense over high-definition video evidence which was withheld – possibly unintentionally – by the prosecution. Rittenhouse’s attorneys claimed that an inferior copy of a potentially crucial video could have affected their defense.

    Prosecutors were visibly crestfallen after the verdict was read

    Despite the best efforts of the SJW Islamic Globalists, the system can still protect Judeo-Christian, straight, white men. Of course, charges never should have been brought. Continued MAGA efforts are needed to beat back the horror of The Beast, George IslamoSoros.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rittenhouse-acquitted-all-charges

     

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @A123

    https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1461762957478613006

    Pretty odd, an organization that is supposedly about civil liberties is sad Rittenhouse hasn't been locked away for life.
    I wonder if there will be riots...or does that only happen when some saintly black dies?

    Replies: @A123, @songbird, @Mikel, @Barbarossa, @Svidomyatheart

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @A123

    I am very confused.

    Do we want Antifa to torch Kenosha or do we want them to sit still and be quiet? I suppose the best case scenario is that exactly half of Antifa wants to bomb, burn, kill, and maim and the other half does not and they do one another at the planning sessions.

  718. @A123
    Kyle Rittenhouse Acquitted On All Charges

    Kyle Rittenhouse has been acquitted on all charges related to last year's shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

    The 18-year-old was charged with five felonies; first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

    The jury reached their decision after four days of deliberations, which lasted longer than anyone - including Judge Bruce Schroeder, had expected. It came amid two mistrial requests from the defense over high-definition video evidence which was withheld - possibly unintentionally - by the prosecution. Rittenhouse's attorneys claimed that an inferior copy of a potentially crucial video could have affected their defense.

    Prosecutors were visibly crestfallen after the verdict was read
     
    Despite the best efforts of the SJW Islamic Globalists, the system can still protect Judeo-Christian, straight, white men. Of course, charges never should have been brought. Continued MAGA efforts are needed to beat back the horror of The Beast, George IslamoSoros.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rittenhouse-acquitted-all-charges

     
    https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/ritten.png

    Replies: @German_reader, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Pretty odd, an organization that is supposedly about civil liberties is sad Rittenhouse hasn’t been locked away for life.
    I wonder if there will be riots…or does that only happen when some saintly black dies?

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader

    The ACLU has been against Judeo-Christian values for some time. That they simultaneously call for, defend, and condemn violence is sad but unsurprising.

    If you can find a thread that ties their actions together, you should win a prize. It has nothing to do with Civil Liberties or Constitutional Rights.

    They seem entirely irrational and feeling based to me.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    , @songbird
    @German_reader

    Many years ago, someone handed me a pamphlet featuring different candidates running for an ACLU election, and asked me which one I thought best. From the bios printed in it, they were such a load of obvious degenerates that I refused to endorse one.

    Don't remember all their stories, but one guy was in a wheelchair. And he was saying how he was constantly oppressed. I asked, "How is he oppressed, unless they broke his back?"

    Another guy, I forget whether he was from Eastern Europe and went West, or the reverse, but he basically said, "When I crossed over, I learned that the women liked to fornicate over there too, and that is when I realized they were just like us."

    But it is not completely out of character. Their founder Baldwin seems to have been a pretty odious character. Here are some of his sentiments about the USSR:
    https://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/blog/baldwin.pdf

    , @Mikel
    @German_reader


    I wonder if there will be riots…
     
    I'm surprised that they haven't already begun. But it can't take long before they start. The MSM has been working overtime to inflame tensions by portraying the defendant as a "white supremacist" and are now playing up the card of how different the verdict would have been if he was black. I see that even the BBC on the other side of the Atlantic is giving time to that angle.

    Lets' also remember Big Tech's contribution. Gofundme didn't allow people to donate for Rittenhouse's defense and Twitter censored expressions of sympathy for him.

    All the ingredients are there for a weekend of burning and looting.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yellowface Anon

    , @Barbarossa
    @German_reader

    I'm not sure that anything the ACLU says or does should be surprising at this point. They are a joke.

    , @Svidomyatheart
    @German_reader

    Biden literally endorsed blacks to riot over it. A president(not sure if his senile mind understands all that or if thats just someone else writing the script for him at this point but)

    https://i.imgur.com/3aJnMTp.png


    dont forget what America is, (a german anon wrote this btw)

    https://i.imgur.com/26Hiyq7.png

    Replies: @German_reader

  719. @A123
    Kyle Rittenhouse Acquitted On All Charges

    Kyle Rittenhouse has been acquitted on all charges related to last year's shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

    The 18-year-old was charged with five felonies; first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

    The jury reached their decision after four days of deliberations, which lasted longer than anyone - including Judge Bruce Schroeder, had expected. It came amid two mistrial requests from the defense over high-definition video evidence which was withheld - possibly unintentionally - by the prosecution. Rittenhouse's attorneys claimed that an inferior copy of a potentially crucial video could have affected their defense.

    Prosecutors were visibly crestfallen after the verdict was read
     
    Despite the best efforts of the SJW Islamic Globalists, the system can still protect Judeo-Christian, straight, white men. Of course, charges never should have been brought. Continued MAGA efforts are needed to beat back the horror of The Beast, George IslamoSoros.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rittenhouse-acquitted-all-charges

     
    https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/ritten.png

    Replies: @German_reader, @Emil Nikola Richard

    I am very confused.

    Do we want Antifa to torch Kenosha or do we want them to sit still and be quiet? I suppose the best case scenario is that exactly half of Antifa wants to bomb, burn, kill, and maim and the other half does not and they do one another at the planning sessions.

  720. @German_reader
    @A123

    https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1461762957478613006

    Pretty odd, an organization that is supposedly about civil liberties is sad Rittenhouse hasn't been locked away for life.
    I wonder if there will be riots...or does that only happen when some saintly black dies?

    Replies: @A123, @songbird, @Mikel, @Barbarossa, @Svidomyatheart

    The ACLU has been against Judeo-Christian values for some time. That they simultaneously call for, defend, and condemn violence is sad but unsurprising.

    If you can find a thread that ties their actions together, you should win a prize. It has nothing to do with Civil Liberties or Constitutional Rights.

    They seem entirely irrational and feeling based to me.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  721. @AaronB
    @Coconuts


    Obviously human life starts in conditions of radical inequality (c.f. the one day old child compared to its mother and father) and this is both natural and healthy.
     
    Sure, and this kind of natural inequality extends into adulthood, and is perfectly normal and healthy.

    I'm certainly not suggesting anything be done to "flatten" the natural diversity of mankind.

    But interestingly enough, egalitarian hunter gatherer societies do not even punish, reprimand, or dominate their children.

    The American Indians were aghast at how harshly Europeans disciplined their children. This childhood training may well be the source of our own desire to dominate and control others as adults.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Coconuts, @Barbarossa

    This discipline dynamic that you describe also has something to do with the relative cultural complexities of Euro and Indian society, I think.

    More complex, or “civilized”, societies generally require more regimentation, specialization, and exercise of impulse control to function. This would seemingly bleed into child rearing where increased discipline would be seen as desirable to cultivate those behavioral traits.

    In a general sense too more primitive societies have less of a hard delineation between child and adult owing to the fact that they share much more of a common scope of information and action. The modern West has had a high degree of separation between child and adult.

    This is mirrored in a larger societal way in that more complex societies generally require more rules and behavior strictures to function.

    I think that overly punitive parenting can be bad and often counterproductive, but it’s not surprising that it would have been in evidence in Euro cultures.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Barbarossa

    Yes, this is eventually the defense European thinkers settled upon, that complex societies need different methods.

    But not before Enlightenment thinkers were profoundly disturbed by the vastly greater freedom and happiness of Indian society.

    To my mind, this would be a good reason to not have complex societies, if they are so much less free and happy - but European audiences, at least for the past few hundred years, found this a compelling argument, and seem to have accepted that the loss in freedom and happiness was worth the gain in complexity, wealth, and power.

    Although I'm not sure that's the consensus anymore, now that we're reaching the end of the tether for this Faustian bargain.

    Be that as it may, David Graeber shows in his book that many complex societies existed who were non-coercive and egalitarian, which would be a revolutionary undermining of the main way European thinkers dealt with the challenge of free and happy indigenous societies.

    Graeber says these findings are recent, but overwhelming, and are just beginning to be sifted through and tied together - we shall see.

  722. @German_reader
    @A123

    https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1461762957478613006

    Pretty odd, an organization that is supposedly about civil liberties is sad Rittenhouse hasn't been locked away for life.
    I wonder if there will be riots...or does that only happen when some saintly black dies?

    Replies: @A123, @songbird, @Mikel, @Barbarossa, @Svidomyatheart

    Many years ago, someone handed me a pamphlet featuring different candidates running for an ACLU election, and asked me which one I thought best. From the bios printed in it, they were such a load of obvious degenerates that I refused to endorse one.

    Don’t remember all their stories, but one guy was in a wheelchair. And he was saying how he was constantly oppressed. I asked, “How is he oppressed, unless they broke his back?”

    Another guy, I forget whether he was from Eastern Europe and went West, or the reverse, but he basically said, “When I crossed over, I learned that the women liked to fornicate over there too, and that is when I realized they were just like us.”

    But it is not completely out of character. Their founder Baldwin seems to have been a pretty odious character. Here are some of his sentiments about the USSR:
    https://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/blog/baldwin.pdf

  723. @German_reader
    @A123

    https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1461762957478613006

    Pretty odd, an organization that is supposedly about civil liberties is sad Rittenhouse hasn't been locked away for life.
    I wonder if there will be riots...or does that only happen when some saintly black dies?

    Replies: @A123, @songbird, @Mikel, @Barbarossa, @Svidomyatheart

    I wonder if there will be riots…

    I’m surprised that they haven’t already begun. But it can’t take long before they start. The MSM has been working overtime to inflame tensions by portraying the defendant as a “white supremacist” and are now playing up the card of how different the verdict would have been if he was black. I see that even the BBC on the other side of the Atlantic is giving time to that angle.

    Lets’ also remember Big Tech’s contribution. Gofundme didn’t allow people to donate for Rittenhouse’s defense and Twitter censored expressions of sympathy for him.

    All the ingredients are there for a weekend of burning and looting.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mikel


    All the ingredients are there for a weekend of burning and looting.
     
    High Sat and Sun forecast is 48 degrees and 49 degrees. Autumn football weather. A bit chilly for massive protest though. I'm thinking we are missing one key ingredient but it isn't a deal breaker.

    Replies: @Mikel

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @Mikel

    "Oppress or be oppressed, exterminate or be exterminated" - how did America come to this?

  724. @German_reader
    @A123

    https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1461762957478613006

    Pretty odd, an organization that is supposedly about civil liberties is sad Rittenhouse hasn't been locked away for life.
    I wonder if there will be riots...or does that only happen when some saintly black dies?

    Replies: @A123, @songbird, @Mikel, @Barbarossa, @Svidomyatheart

    I’m not sure that anything the ACLU says or does should be surprising at this point. They are a joke.

  725. @Che Guava
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Thank you, but AFAIR, from his own Hoffman descritption, is not providing a new translation of either Talmud, but an essay on many parts. I would like to read it some time.

    Replies: @AaronB, @songbird

    One point of interest to me is the Jewish account of Jesus and Mary. Many Jews say that those names were very common in the ME and that their account refers to figures from another, later, era. I don’t know the merits of the argument one way or another, but I don’t believe that is the line Islam takes, in their own divergent story of the two names.

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @songbird

    From my own reading, I am very confused by your reply.

    Replies: @songbird

  726. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Putin is not usually the paragon of liberalism, Christian virtues and political consistency
     
    Sure, but his latest comments are pretty stupid as propaganda too, I don't even understand what he's trying to achieve with that...does he think Western liberals will like him for it and drop their anti-Russia attitude (if anything it will achieve the opposite, Putin openly commenting on the issue might well mute any criticism of Poland by Western left-wingers)? And it certainly makes a mockery of the idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia. So imo it betrays a rather deficient understanding of the public in Western states (I suppose that's the target of his statement, I can't imagine the public in Russia genuinely cares about Polish border guards being mean to Kurds and Arabs).

    Replies: @songbird, @Dmitry, @Matra

    Putin is justified to criticize Poland for anti-humanitarianism or illiberalism, in narrow sense of border policy, as he is himself a supporter of open borders immigration policy, and runs this “liberal” (in the recent sense of the word) policy for decades in Russia on the borders – with not very popular results. So he himself wouldn’t behave like Poland, and he has a perfect rating for “liberalism” in this area. There is nothing inconsistent in this narrow sense and he probably just feels that.

    He was saying something like “think of these poor children that Poland is throwing water and tear gas grenades against” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAZL9k-AMc4. )

    In broad sense, his humanitarian concerns are cynical nonsense, of course, as he has policies like bombing in Syria which killed thousands of civilians. It’s not exactly the most humanitarian motivated politician. But in a narrow sense of the border policy, then he can feel justified, as he is more “liberal” and humanitarian (in this narrowly defined area), than ostensibly liberal Western countries.

    idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia

    It’s mutual benefit for the Western right-wing like Boris Johnson to signal against Russia (and vice-versa) , and reality is such a complex relationship. Relation of official London to the Moscow, and vice-versa, is characterized by a sentimental posing on both sides to re-create a “Great Game” conflict from the 19th century.

    Much of Boris Johnson’s funding has been from escaping Russian billionaires like Elena Baturina. https://www.france24.com/en/20200726-londongrad-russia-influence-under-the-spotlight-in-britain London is running on both unofficial and semi-official Russian money. The finest houses in London, are owned by still current ruling cliques, sometimes who are (not secretly) informal part of the state capacity. London’s main newspaper is owned by an ex-KGB officer.

    Although how serious “Global Britain” will be with its pro-Ukraine policies, is difficult to believe.

    My intuition is that I can’t believe Johnson actually cares for Ukraine, any more than he cares for unknown >15 children.

    He says this week that he wants to Germany to cancel Nord Stream 2, while cosplaying in early 19th century clothes. I doubt he would cancel it if he was a German politician; probably standard kind of posing of politicians in former powerful empires (both as in UK and Russia).

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Dmitry


    But in a narrow sense of the border policy, then he can feel justified, as he is more “liberal” and humanitarian (in this narrowly defined area), than ostensibly liberal Western countries.
     
    Well, to what extent is Russia's open border policy humanitarian? It seems that for the most part it's utilitarian (guest workers). It's not humanitarian enough even towards the Russians in the near abroad, Russia has only recently started talking about repatriating them and it's still a question whether enough resources are provided there. Russia is also the heir of the USSR, and the migrants are from former USSR, so it makes sense for Russia to take them under her wing, whereas Poland has nothing to do with the folks who tried to cross illegally.

    Another issue is that those who migrate to Russia hardly receive any welfare (afaik, maybe that has changed recently), while those heading for the EU, while some will be working, many are intending to free load.

    Besides Poland never accepted the obligation to allow anyone who wants on their territory. Poland and the Baltics, unfortunately, do share some of the blame for the Iraq war but that war took place 20 years ago. Putin's bombings in Syria are much more recent. Poland could show some sympathy to the Iraqis and others in the Middle East but they are in no way obligated to accept economic migrants.

    This episode on the border was very sad and tragic. Unfortunately, dragging it out for so many nights was the only way to make the migrants back down, but of course people should've been given relief earlier (and Poland had offered humanitarian aid at the very beginning 6 times but Belarus refused to accept it). But the sanctity of one's borders is above the wellbeing of illegal economic migrants. I know it is cruel but if Poland were to back down it sets a very dangerous precedent the consequences of which cannot be predicted now. Unfortunately, there was a one year old child that died, and this is very tragic, but there should be some responsibility laid on the parents as well as to where they take their child. Most migrants knew very well that they'd be exposed to the elements for long periods of their journey. What I can forgive them is that they probably didn't anticipate what the Eastern European weather can be like. Sleeping on naked ground there is difficult even on summer nights.

    But the biggest question is - why should an open borders policy be regarded as intrinsically "more humane" than safe or even closed borders policy? This kind of an entitled attitude that anyone can live anywhere without going through some kind of a legal process creates a moral hazard.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @LatW
    @Dmitry


    Although how serious “Global Britain” will be with its pro-Ukraine policies, is difficult to believe. My intuition is that I can’t believe Johnson actually cares for Ukraine...
     
    He may care about the geopolitical domino effects from part of Ukraine being taken over by Russia.

    Although it's not clear what the purpose of sending those hundreds of British special forces soldiers might be. It may just as well be a preparation to send them to evacuate the British citizens in case there is a real conflict (because the situation has escalated so much). Let's hope that's not the case and that everyone is working hard behind the scenes to deescalate the situation.
  727. @sher singh
    https://twitter.com/corsair21c/status/1443336173271740416?s=20

    Replies: @LatW

    the 50th percentile of Iroquois men were as strong in deadlift as the 97th percentile of modern American men

    Thanks for posting that graph, however, not sure what to think of that sample — by 2011, the American male population was already quite diverse. What is the date of the old graph? If it covers the time when most American men were British or German, just remember that today many strongmen come from places like Poland, Lithuania, Scandinavia (Iceland), not just the British Isles, so if men from later waves of immigration had been included, then the whites could possibly compete quite well with the Iroquois.

    Look at Gronkowski, who is Polish, and even Tom Brady who is mostly a mix of Scandinavian and Polish.

    And it’s quite believable that Iroquois men were strong, Native Americans (in North America) in general are not tiny. And why is this Twitter poster saying that they didn’t have strength training tools, they probably had to lift a lot.

    Of course, he does have a point. If you watch the footage from WW2, you can draw similar comparisons — see how fit some of the German infantry soldiers were (just how much running they had to do shows what stamina they had, ofc, they were mostly young but still).

  728. @Mikel
    @German_reader


    I wonder if there will be riots…
     
    I'm surprised that they haven't already begun. But it can't take long before they start. The MSM has been working overtime to inflame tensions by portraying the defendant as a "white supremacist" and are now playing up the card of how different the verdict would have been if he was black. I see that even the BBC on the other side of the Atlantic is giving time to that angle.

    Lets' also remember Big Tech's contribution. Gofundme didn't allow people to donate for Rittenhouse's defense and Twitter censored expressions of sympathy for him.

    All the ingredients are there for a weekend of burning and looting.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yellowface Anon

    All the ingredients are there for a weekend of burning and looting.

    High Sat and Sun forecast is 48 degrees and 49 degrees. Autumn football weather. A bit chilly for massive protest though. I’m thinking we are missing one key ingredient but it isn’t a deal breaker.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    High Sat and Sun forecast is 48 degrees and 49 degrees. Autumn football weather. A bit chilly for massive protest though.
     
    Interesting, how the protests were unironically mostly peaceful this time. Just one riot that I know of in Portland and some looting here and there, possibly unrelated to the protests.

    I've seen a couple of people mention the weather factor but perhaps rioting doesn't work so well with a Democratic Presidency and Congress either. Police departments were clearly prepared for unrest though, even in my quiet part of the country.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  729. @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    Putin is justified to criticize Poland for anti-humanitarianism or illiberalism, in narrow sense of border policy, as he is himself a supporter of open borders immigration policy, and runs this "liberal" (in the recent sense of the word) policy for decades in Russia on the borders - with not very popular results. So he himself wouldn't behave like Poland, and he has a perfect rating for "liberalism" in this area. There is nothing inconsistent in this narrow sense and he probably just feels that.

    He was saying something like "think of these poor children that Poland is throwing water and tear gas grenades against" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAZL9k-AMc4. )

    In broad sense, his humanitarian concerns are cynical nonsense, of course, as he has policies like bombing in Syria which killed thousands of civilians. It's not exactly the most humanitarian motivated politician. But in a narrow sense of the border policy, then he can feel justified, as he is more "liberal" and humanitarian (in this narrowly defined area), than ostensibly liberal Western countries.


    idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia
     
    It's mutual benefit for the Western right-wing like Boris Johnson to signal against Russia (and vice-versa) , and reality is such a complex relationship. Relation of official London to the Moscow, and vice-versa, is characterized by a sentimental posing on both sides to re-create a "Great Game" conflict from the 19th century.

    Much of Boris Johnson's funding has been from escaping Russian billionaires like Elena Baturina. https://www.france24.com/en/20200726-londongrad-russia-influence-under-the-spotlight-in-britain London is running on both unofficial and semi-official Russian money. The finest houses in London, are owned by still current ruling cliques, sometimes who are (not secretly) informal part of the state capacity. London's main newspaper is owned by an ex-KGB officer.


    -

    Although how serious "Global Britain" will be with its pro-Ukraine policies, is difficult to believe.

    My intuition is that I can't believe Johnson actually cares for Ukraine, any more than he cares for unknown >15 children.

    He says this week that he wants to Germany to cancel Nord Stream 2, while cosplaying in early 19th century clothes. I doubt he would cancel it if he was a German politician; probably standard kind of posing of politicians in former powerful empires (both as in UK and Russia).

    https://twitter.com/AlArabiya_Eng/status/1460789902048743434

    Replies: @LatW, @LatW

    But in a narrow sense of the border policy, then he can feel justified, as he is more “liberal” and humanitarian (in this narrowly defined area), than ostensibly liberal Western countries.

    Well, to what extent is Russia’s open border policy humanitarian? It seems that for the most part it’s utilitarian (guest workers). It’s not humanitarian enough even towards the Russians in the near abroad, Russia has only recently started talking about repatriating them and it’s still a question whether enough resources are provided there. Russia is also the heir of the USSR, and the migrants are from former USSR, so it makes sense for Russia to take them under her wing, whereas Poland has nothing to do with the folks who tried to cross illegally.

    Another issue is that those who migrate to Russia hardly receive any welfare (afaik, maybe that has changed recently), while those heading for the EU, while some will be working, many are intending to free load.

    Besides Poland never accepted the obligation to allow anyone who wants on their territory. Poland and the Baltics, unfortunately, do share some of the blame for the Iraq war but that war took place 20 years ago. Putin’s bombings in Syria are much more recent. Poland could show some sympathy to the Iraqis and others in the Middle East but they are in no way obligated to accept economic migrants.

    This episode on the border was very sad and tragic. Unfortunately, dragging it out for so many nights was the only way to make the migrants back down, but of course people should’ve been given relief earlier (and Poland had offered humanitarian aid at the very beginning 6 times but Belarus refused to accept it). But the sanctity of one’s borders is above the wellbeing of illegal economic migrants. I know it is cruel but if Poland were to back down it sets a very dangerous precedent the consequences of which cannot be predicted now. Unfortunately, there was a one year old child that died, and this is very tragic, but there should be some responsibility laid on the parents as well as to where they take their child. Most migrants knew very well that they’d be exposed to the elements for long periods of their journey. What I can forgive them is that they probably didn’t anticipate what the Eastern European weather can be like. Sleeping on naked ground there is difficult even on summer nights.

    But the biggest question is – why should an open borders policy be regarded as intrinsically “more humane” than safe or even closed borders policy? This kind of an entitled attitude that anyone can live anywhere without going through some kind of a legal process creates a moral hazard.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    I know it is cruel but if Poland were to back down it sets a very dangerous precedent the consequences of which cannot be predicted now.
     
    I don't think it's cruel, and tbh when I see those videos of those Mideastern men trying to pull down border fortifications, throwing stones at Polish border guards (and if I understand correctly one border guard already suffered a skull fracture) etc., all the while chanting their idiotic "Allahu akbar", I think they can be glad Poland doesn't just use Israeli methods and have snipers shoot the lot of them. The sense of entitlement to other people's countries and resources (most notably to my country) of these migrants is appalling, apart from the children they don't deserve any sympathy, and in any case it's Belarus' responsibility to look after them since Lukashenko deliberately invited them for his political games.
    I agree that Dmitry's comparison with Russia's labor migration from central Asia is misguided, that policy may be detrimental for ordinary Russians, but I very much doubt Russia will just open its borders to anybody from the Islamic world and Africa because of human rights, right to asylum etc. in the foreseeable future.

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

  730. @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    Putin is justified to criticize Poland for anti-humanitarianism or illiberalism, in narrow sense of border policy, as he is himself a supporter of open borders immigration policy, and runs this "liberal" (in the recent sense of the word) policy for decades in Russia on the borders - with not very popular results. So he himself wouldn't behave like Poland, and he has a perfect rating for "liberalism" in this area. There is nothing inconsistent in this narrow sense and he probably just feels that.

    He was saying something like "think of these poor children that Poland is throwing water and tear gas grenades against" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAZL9k-AMc4. )

    In broad sense, his humanitarian concerns are cynical nonsense, of course, as he has policies like bombing in Syria which killed thousands of civilians. It's not exactly the most humanitarian motivated politician. But in a narrow sense of the border policy, then he can feel justified, as he is more "liberal" and humanitarian (in this narrowly defined area), than ostensibly liberal Western countries.


    idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia
     
    It's mutual benefit for the Western right-wing like Boris Johnson to signal against Russia (and vice-versa) , and reality is such a complex relationship. Relation of official London to the Moscow, and vice-versa, is characterized by a sentimental posing on both sides to re-create a "Great Game" conflict from the 19th century.

    Much of Boris Johnson's funding has been from escaping Russian billionaires like Elena Baturina. https://www.france24.com/en/20200726-londongrad-russia-influence-under-the-spotlight-in-britain London is running on both unofficial and semi-official Russian money. The finest houses in London, are owned by still current ruling cliques, sometimes who are (not secretly) informal part of the state capacity. London's main newspaper is owned by an ex-KGB officer.


    -

    Although how serious "Global Britain" will be with its pro-Ukraine policies, is difficult to believe.

    My intuition is that I can't believe Johnson actually cares for Ukraine, any more than he cares for unknown >15 children.

    He says this week that he wants to Germany to cancel Nord Stream 2, while cosplaying in early 19th century clothes. I doubt he would cancel it if he was a German politician; probably standard kind of posing of politicians in former powerful empires (both as in UK and Russia).

    https://twitter.com/AlArabiya_Eng/status/1460789902048743434

    Replies: @LatW, @LatW

    Although how serious “Global Britain” will be with its pro-Ukraine policies, is difficult to believe. My intuition is that I can’t believe Johnson actually cares for Ukraine…

    He may care about the geopolitical domino effects from part of Ukraine being taken over by Russia.

    Although it’s not clear what the purpose of sending those hundreds of British special forces soldiers might be. It may just as well be a preparation to send them to evacuate the British citizens in case there is a real conflict (because the situation has escalated so much). Let’s hope that’s not the case and that everyone is working hard behind the scenes to deescalate the situation.

  731. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @Dmitry


    But in a narrow sense of the border policy, then he can feel justified, as he is more “liberal” and humanitarian (in this narrowly defined area), than ostensibly liberal Western countries.
     
    Well, to what extent is Russia's open border policy humanitarian? It seems that for the most part it's utilitarian (guest workers). It's not humanitarian enough even towards the Russians in the near abroad, Russia has only recently started talking about repatriating them and it's still a question whether enough resources are provided there. Russia is also the heir of the USSR, and the migrants are from former USSR, so it makes sense for Russia to take them under her wing, whereas Poland has nothing to do with the folks who tried to cross illegally.

    Another issue is that those who migrate to Russia hardly receive any welfare (afaik, maybe that has changed recently), while those heading for the EU, while some will be working, many are intending to free load.

    Besides Poland never accepted the obligation to allow anyone who wants on their territory. Poland and the Baltics, unfortunately, do share some of the blame for the Iraq war but that war took place 20 years ago. Putin's bombings in Syria are much more recent. Poland could show some sympathy to the Iraqis and others in the Middle East but they are in no way obligated to accept economic migrants.

    This episode on the border was very sad and tragic. Unfortunately, dragging it out for so many nights was the only way to make the migrants back down, but of course people should've been given relief earlier (and Poland had offered humanitarian aid at the very beginning 6 times but Belarus refused to accept it). But the sanctity of one's borders is above the wellbeing of illegal economic migrants. I know it is cruel but if Poland were to back down it sets a very dangerous precedent the consequences of which cannot be predicted now. Unfortunately, there was a one year old child that died, and this is very tragic, but there should be some responsibility laid on the parents as well as to where they take their child. Most migrants knew very well that they'd be exposed to the elements for long periods of their journey. What I can forgive them is that they probably didn't anticipate what the Eastern European weather can be like. Sleeping on naked ground there is difficult even on summer nights.

    But the biggest question is - why should an open borders policy be regarded as intrinsically "more humane" than safe or even closed borders policy? This kind of an entitled attitude that anyone can live anywhere without going through some kind of a legal process creates a moral hazard.

    Replies: @German_reader

    I know it is cruel but if Poland were to back down it sets a very dangerous precedent the consequences of which cannot be predicted now.

    I don’t think it’s cruel, and tbh when I see those videos of those Mideastern men trying to pull down border fortifications, throwing stones at Polish border guards (and if I understand correctly one border guard already suffered a skull fracture) etc., all the while chanting their idiotic “Allahu akbar”, I think they can be glad Poland doesn’t just use Israeli methods and have snipers shoot the lot of them. The sense of entitlement to other people’s countries and resources (most notably to my country) of these migrants is appalling, apart from the children they don’t deserve any sympathy, and in any case it’s Belarus’ responsibility to look after them since Lukashenko deliberately invited them for his political games.
    I agree that Dmitry’s comparison with Russia’s labor migration from central Asia is misguided, that policy may be detrimental for ordinary Russians, but I very much doubt Russia will just open its borders to anybody from the Islamic world and Africa because of human rights, right to asylum etc. in the foreseeable future.

    • Thanks: LatW
    • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader


    The sense of entitlement to other people’s countries and resources (most notably to my country) of these migrants is appalling, apart from the children they don’t deserve any sympathy, and in any case it’s Belarus’ responsibility to look after them since Lukashenko deliberately invited them for his political games.
     
    Some of their entitlement is just through the roof. Some of those men just don't seem to have much respect for Eastern Europe, they think they have the right to just walk through because "Germany, Germany". Because they were not let in easily, some of them are now saying things like "This is not real Europe (e.g., Poland, Lithuania), Germany is real Europe". Lol. Nevermind that the HDI in some EE countries is pretty high. I hope they don't gang up with Belarus against Poland et al. I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there. It's a pretty tidy country that they could learn to like.

    And is Germany some kind of a cornucopia where rivers of milk flow on the banks of manna and money falls from the sky? I hope they will soon realize that all those resources are created through the hard work of the German people.

    Yes, unfortunately, one Polish border guard had his skull fractured even through the helmet, why should he sustain such a terrible injury on his own soil?

    On the other hand, it seemed that after a couple of cold nights they were broken and some held signs saying "Sorry". And it's the tricky part that children are intermixed there with those entitled guys. I heard one expert call this the "method of Tamerlane", used by Belarusian special forces -- the Mongols were very good at raiding but they still had difficulties charging fortifications so they would use "human shields" made up of captured soldiers who would be driven forward and usually killed first.

    As to the Russian side critiquing the methods of Polish border guards and the "hypocrisy of the Western democracy" in general, it is because they enjoy seeing the West humiliated (especially after the West lectured them about Navalny, etc). It's just they're conflating classic human rights and illegals breaching borders. Russia is very sensitive about its own borders and probably wouldn't tolerate any shenanigans there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    Israeli methods and have snipers
     
    This returns memories of why I found this site and started commenting here.

    I was reading specifically about the border fences in Israel, and finding a very confused article of Sailer that confuses the border fences in Israel. Americans were writing that they should shoot Mexicans, like "Israel does to immigrants".

    Israel's border policy with economic immigrants was relatively "liberal" (in recent sense of word) and behaving like a European country - finding them in the Sinai border where they have technically entered Israeli land, where Bedouin leave them, and then driving them in buses to the centre of the country.

    Some Egyptian border guards were shooting them, while Israel was driving them into the country in a bus.

    This was eventually solved with building a border fence, that means that their feet are not inside the border, and Israel doesn't have to drive them into the country. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-11809957

    But the ones who arrived before the fence and from countries like Sudan and Eritrea are living and working in Israel, and not allowed to be deported by the Israeli law. At some point Israel tried to encourage them to leave, by adding an "illiberal" 6 months of detainment in Holot camp. But this was rejected by the Supreme Court. Nowadays these economic immigrants from Sudan/Eritrea, etc, are much of the restaurant workers and delivery cyclists and they are given access to all the Israeli public amenities like citizens.

    This is Israel, is "quite disappointing" if you want a model of "strict right-wing policy" in many areas, as the Supreme Court is more liberal than e.g. American politics. But at the same time, it's strange that the Western leftists are so angry about it.

    -

    The shooting border with Israel, is not related to immigration - but rather the military border with Hamas on Gaza or Hezbollah on Lebanon. This is equivalent of the DMZ between North and South Korea - but of course a more dangerous and violent situation than the DMZ in terms of the regularity of war.

    Replies: @German_reader

  732. @Barbarossa
    @AaronB

    This discipline dynamic that you describe also has something to do with the relative cultural complexities of Euro and Indian society, I think.

    More complex, or "civilized", societies generally require more regimentation, specialization, and exercise of impulse control to function. This would seemingly bleed into child rearing where increased discipline would be seen as desirable to cultivate those behavioral traits.

    In a general sense too more primitive societies have less of a hard delineation between child and adult owing to the fact that they share much more of a common scope of information and action. The modern West has had a high degree of separation between child and adult.

    This is mirrored in a larger societal way in that more complex societies generally require more rules and behavior strictures to function.

    I think that overly punitive parenting can be bad and often counterproductive, but it's not surprising that it would have been in evidence in Euro cultures.

    Replies: @AaronB

    Yes, this is eventually the defense European thinkers settled upon, that complex societies need different methods.

    But not before Enlightenment thinkers were profoundly disturbed by the vastly greater freedom and happiness of Indian society.

    To my mind, this would be a good reason to not have complex societies, if they are so much less free and happy – but European audiences, at least for the past few hundred years, found this a compelling argument, and seem to have accepted that the loss in freedom and happiness was worth the gain in complexity, wealth, and power.

    Although I’m not sure that’s the consensus anymore, now that we’re reaching the end of the tether for this Faustian bargain.

    Be that as it may, David Graeber shows in his book that many complex societies existed who were non-coercive and egalitarian, which would be a revolutionary undermining of the main way European thinkers dealt with the challenge of free and happy indigenous societies.

    Graeber says these findings are recent, but overwhelming, and are just beginning to be sifted through and tied together – we shall see.

  733. @A123
    @AaronB


    We both agree that genetic homogeneity is not enough, but I differ in that I think it may have only a modest effect in reducing conflict.
     
    Hmmm.... the existence of separate genetic pools requires conflict between pools.

    In a hypothetical, purely peaceful society with equal marriage and childbearing opportunities:

    Gen 0 -- 50% A, 50% B
    Gen 1 -- 25% A, 50% AB, 25% B
    Gen 2 -- 6.25% A, 25% AAB, 37.5% AB, 25% ABB, 6.25% B

    Continue with the math for a few more generations and it rapidly approaches a "new" genetic homogeneity. "Pure bloods" will effectively case to exist by Generation 6. Even if you do not believe that genetic consistency is the root cause, it certainly is a symptom.

    This does much to explain why assimilation works. Relatively small numbers of high potential individuals arrive. In a few generations intermarriage incorporates their genetic material into a "new", hopefully slightly improved, genetic homogeneity.
    ____

    Under the genetic model. Built in separation, based on physical characteristics, helps maintain genetic diversity for the species. Humans survive, in part, because genetic diversity prevents mono-genetic extinction events. Incidentally, it also helps resist the expansion of poor cultural choices.

    If you are correct and genetic differentiation is minimal:

    -- Is the future of humanity a uniform "light brownish yellow"?
    -- If we achieve genetic convergence as as species, does that not increase the opportunity for a deadly plague or other mass extinction scenario?

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @AaronB

    I don’t see any reason why ethnic groups are likely to coalesce into a brownish mass. Even in countries that we consider homogeneous, like Japan and the old England, very sharply distinct “types” are preserved down the ages.

    So a boring uniformity does not seem to ever truly occur on the generic level. Moreover, new “types” within nations and new ethnic groups are constantly being formed. Israel is a case in point.

    So I agree with you that that happens and will continue to. Which to my mind is kind of cool – why not have new and interesting ethnic groups come into being?

    When I say that from certain perspectives genetic differences are minimal – and between humans and animals too – I’m just illustrating the fact that the boundaries of “group identity” are not objective, but subjective.

    Do we feel kinship with someone who shares 90% of our DNA but not 92%? There seems no objective mechanism here.

    Moreover, I’m nearly certain a blond haired blue eyed Israeli of European origin feels greater genuine kinship with a dark haired dark skinned Moroccan Jew who served in the same Army unit as him, than say, an Englishman and a German man of same race and similar features, and generically closer, who live in different countries.

    There are probably limits to this, and there are no hard rules and each situation is different – but I think for most of history, genetic similarity has not acted as a robust barrier to conflict.

    If you agree with Freud’s theory of the narcissism of small differences, brotherly nations seem to have fought each other most fiercely.

    This doesn’t mean that a nation should be completely unconcerned about the ethnicity of immigrants, but that the modern obsession with race may be the result of our materialist prejudice, and reluctance in the West to truly give weight to “intangibles” like culture and religion.

    • Thanks: A123
  734. @German_reader
    @LatW


    I know it is cruel but if Poland were to back down it sets a very dangerous precedent the consequences of which cannot be predicted now.
     
    I don't think it's cruel, and tbh when I see those videos of those Mideastern men trying to pull down border fortifications, throwing stones at Polish border guards (and if I understand correctly one border guard already suffered a skull fracture) etc., all the while chanting their idiotic "Allahu akbar", I think they can be glad Poland doesn't just use Israeli methods and have snipers shoot the lot of them. The sense of entitlement to other people's countries and resources (most notably to my country) of these migrants is appalling, apart from the children they don't deserve any sympathy, and in any case it's Belarus' responsibility to look after them since Lukashenko deliberately invited them for his political games.
    I agree that Dmitry's comparison with Russia's labor migration from central Asia is misguided, that policy may be detrimental for ordinary Russians, but I very much doubt Russia will just open its borders to anybody from the Islamic world and Africa because of human rights, right to asylum etc. in the foreseeable future.

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

    The sense of entitlement to other people’s countries and resources (most notably to my country) of these migrants is appalling, apart from the children they don’t deserve any sympathy, and in any case it’s Belarus’ responsibility to look after them since Lukashenko deliberately invited them for his political games.

    Some of their entitlement is just through the roof. Some of those men just don’t seem to have much respect for Eastern Europe, they think they have the right to just walk through because “Germany, Germany”. Because they were not let in easily, some of them are now saying things like “This is not real Europe (e.g., Poland, Lithuania), Germany is real Europe”. Lol. Nevermind that the HDI in some EE countries is pretty high. I hope they don’t gang up with Belarus against Poland et al. I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there. It’s a pretty tidy country that they could learn to like.

    And is Germany some kind of a cornucopia where rivers of milk flow on the banks of manna and money falls from the sky? I hope they will soon realize that all those resources are created through the hard work of the German people.

    Yes, unfortunately, one Polish border guard had his skull fractured even through the helmet, why should he sustain such a terrible injury on his own soil?

    On the other hand, it seemed that after a couple of cold nights they were broken and some held signs saying “Sorry”. And it’s the tricky part that children are intermixed there with those entitled guys. I heard one expert call this the “method of Tamerlane”, used by Belarusian special forces — the Mongols were very good at raiding but they still had difficulties charging fortifications so they would use “human shields” made up of captured soldiers who would be driven forward and usually killed first.

    As to the Russian side critiquing the methods of Polish border guards and the “hypocrisy of the Western democracy” in general, it is because they enjoy seeing the West humiliated (especially after the West lectured them about Navalny, etc). It’s just they’re conflating classic human rights and illegals breaching borders. Russia is very sensitive about its own borders and probably wouldn’t tolerate any shenanigans there.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there.
     
    If you want my honest opinion, no, don't let any of them settle in your countries, ever, because before you know it, they'll have their entire clan brought over through family reunification, and then you've got a parallel society (sometimes of a downright criminal and parasitical nature) and you'll be lectured all the time by naturalized migrants how your country was always a country of immigration, Islam is part of the national culture now etc., and you can't object to even more immigration, because the topic has become taboo and people are afraid to speak about it for the sake of peace. I know this sounds heartless (and I suppose many Eastern Europeans naively have some sympathy for Mideastern migrants because of their own experience of emigration), but you must never allow any of them (and that very much includes groups like the Kurds who are the darlings of Western media) to gain even the smallest foothold, because it's sure to be abused and once there's a sizeable community it's hard to stop immigration.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Dmitry, @AP

    , @Dmitry
    @LatW


    is very sensitive about its own borders
     
    I'm not defending Putin's comments in a broad sense.

    But in the narrow sense, he is being consistent.

    Russian borders are typically stricter and less "humanitarian" on the non-Russian side, than on the Russian-side.

    For example, the border difficulty for Azerbaijanis is returning from Russia to Azerbaijan, not going from Azerbaijan to Russia.

    While in Russia there are indeed built very "humanitarian", kindly facilities and accommodation on a former children's camp, for the immigrants who are (regularly) waiting due to Azerbaijan.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4HSuoppzwI&t=85s

    Previously they were in tents.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw7z53klJn8


    Recall these are people in Russia trying to enter Azerbaijan. Nothing on the other side of the border, having problems entering Russia.


    heir of the USSR
     
    USSR was one of the most closed border countries in the world including for internal migration of going from one city to another city. So certainly the policy of the USSR has been reversed 180 degrees, even if there is a logic in it.

    But even while UK today prefers immigrants from British Empire places like India/Pakistan/Jamaica/Hong Kong, it's not trying to create a completely open-border zone, where the Jamaican passport has the same rights as the British passport. So with Putin we are going to an almost erase borders, "labor mobility utopia", which is only being resisted by the governments of countries like Uzbekistan (which refuse every year to join, due to their fears of losing their population).


    Russia hardly receive any welfare (afaik, maybe that has changed recently), while those heading for the EU, while some will be working, many are intending to free load.
     
    Of course, the incentives are very different. In Russia, you go to work for the higher (although not so much) salaries, not many will be coming for the hospitals and the state pension.

    Whereas having the right to settle in Germany or Sweden, is an incentive half-way to winning a lottery, for people from collapsing and poor countries.


    open borders policy be regarded as intrinsically “more humane” than safe or even closed
     
    This question applies really to refugees, than economic immigrants.

    If you look in the UN refugee convention which were agreed by 1951, refugee is defined as https://i.imgur.com/bEjDcWi.jpg
    (it's written on page 14)
    https://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b66c2aa10.pdf

    Obviously, the motivation of people trying to go from Belarus to Germany, is already mostly filtering away for economic immigrants, from the refugees. As refugees, would be safe (although relatively poor like almost everyone) in Belarus.


    He may care about the geopolitical domino effects from part of Ukraine being taken over by Russia

     

    He is a very not-serious personality (Wikipedia does not even know how many children he has).

    And in politics and war, this provides him some kind of strategic advantage, as nobody can really know what he thinks.


    sending those hundreds of British special forces soldiers might be. It may just as well be a preparation to send them to evacuate the British citizens in case there is a real conflict

     

    Yesterday he has also sent the British army engineers to build a border fence for Poland. Kind of nominal but maybe practical action.

    https://i.imgur.com/bWmLRnG.jpg


    https://www.thesun.ie/news/7936688/uk-troops-build-polish-belarus-europe/

  735. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @German_reader


    The sense of entitlement to other people’s countries and resources (most notably to my country) of these migrants is appalling, apart from the children they don’t deserve any sympathy, and in any case it’s Belarus’ responsibility to look after them since Lukashenko deliberately invited them for his political games.
     
    Some of their entitlement is just through the roof. Some of those men just don't seem to have much respect for Eastern Europe, they think they have the right to just walk through because "Germany, Germany". Because they were not let in easily, some of them are now saying things like "This is not real Europe (e.g., Poland, Lithuania), Germany is real Europe". Lol. Nevermind that the HDI in some EE countries is pretty high. I hope they don't gang up with Belarus against Poland et al. I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there. It's a pretty tidy country that they could learn to like.

    And is Germany some kind of a cornucopia where rivers of milk flow on the banks of manna and money falls from the sky? I hope they will soon realize that all those resources are created through the hard work of the German people.

    Yes, unfortunately, one Polish border guard had his skull fractured even through the helmet, why should he sustain such a terrible injury on his own soil?

    On the other hand, it seemed that after a couple of cold nights they were broken and some held signs saying "Sorry". And it's the tricky part that children are intermixed there with those entitled guys. I heard one expert call this the "method of Tamerlane", used by Belarusian special forces -- the Mongols were very good at raiding but they still had difficulties charging fortifications so they would use "human shields" made up of captured soldiers who would be driven forward and usually killed first.

    As to the Russian side critiquing the methods of Polish border guards and the "hypocrisy of the Western democracy" in general, it is because they enjoy seeing the West humiliated (especially after the West lectured them about Navalny, etc). It's just they're conflating classic human rights and illegals breaching borders. Russia is very sensitive about its own borders and probably wouldn't tolerate any shenanigans there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

    I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there.

    If you want my honest opinion, no, don’t let any of them settle in your countries, ever, because before you know it, they’ll have their entire clan brought over through family reunification, and then you’ve got a parallel society (sometimes of a downright criminal and parasitical nature) and you’ll be lectured all the time by naturalized migrants how your country was always a country of immigration, Islam is part of the national culture now etc., and you can’t object to even more immigration, because the topic has become taboo and people are afraid to speak about it for the sake of peace. I know this sounds heartless (and I suppose many Eastern Europeans naively have some sympathy for Mideastern migrants because of their own experience of emigration), but you must never allow any of them (and that very much includes groups like the Kurds who are the darlings of Western media) to gain even the smallest foothold, because it’s sure to be abused and once there’s a sizeable community it’s hard to stop immigration.

    • Agree: LatW, utu, songbird
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    Seems like rightoids are coming to the conclusion of mutual exclusion between civilization spheres - only when people of other civilization sphere are subjugated, can they be brought over?

    Replies: @Coconuts

    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    There is no need to add immigrants for Belarus. This is not a country like Germany or Poland.

    As they say, Belarus is already one of the world's most multi-racial countries, with 140 different local nationalities.

    You can see in the photos in their presentation, about the many multi-cultural peoples, which live under the kindly Lukashenko.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA7lbmKnAS0

    Belarus is known as safe haven of traditional brown Middle Eastern people like their Jews, that can teach you about their native Middle Eastern traditions like Humus and their Arabian Dabke
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TW_UekYBAk

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Yahya

    , @AP
    @German_reader

    Christian refugees from the Middle East are okay, for the most part they won't cause problems and will largely assimilate.

    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?

    Replies: @German_reader, @Svidomyatheart

  736. @LatW
    @Svidomyatheart

    Hey there,


    So now their strategy is to wait it out and let it all implode and let the US and its compradors drown and suffocate the “butthurt belt” in neoliberalism, African migrants, Muslims, Jews, homo and trans psyops and hedonism, and other vices and then when the time is right come in and “take what’s theirs”.
     
    Yes, this has been their "strategy" for a while. Let it all crumble and then "we'll take what's left over" or even better "they'll come running back to us". A lot of them don't even bother, btw. With the exception of Ukraine, where they might act to destabilize (what their main media channels are now saying about Ukraine is the same they used to say about the Baltics, just on steroids, like, 100x more intense). They keep saying things such as "we need to wait until the hunta collapses and the real, more reasonable Ukrainians come back". A bit delusional. These are the real Ukrainians. Anyway, I wish we could make up with Russia, it is very unseemly to see three East Slavic nations in such antagonism, and ofc the general antagonism with the neighbors, but first Ukrainian service men (and women!) need to stop dying.

    As to hedonism, their population is pretty hedonist themselves. And I wouldn't say Russia is less neoliberal, they don't even have the progressive tax, afaik. What might work in Russia's advance is their relative isolation which could shelter them from the global negatives. If not economically, then at least culturally. Although, their culture is slowly changing, too. It's not like they don't have internet, lol.

    They do have some internal strength, even when Putin is gone, they can create some sort of an "illiberal" government (some kind of an orbanization) or even with a more free system, they still have a strong cultural core and will be able to protect themselves diplomatically, not to mention militarily. The living standards are visibly rising, however, there is gentrification and obviously with that, expectations in terms of political culture are rising, too.


    Russians want to “not to make the same mistake like we did after WW2 and allowing you to live because if we let you live another Brzezinski will appear, another Latvian guard will rise, another Stalin(yes they’re pissed at Stalin too I guess because he was needlessly wasting so many talented lives) and that is a danger to Russia itself.
     
    This isn't in Russia specific, as that is the MO of most somewhat sizable nations or competitor nations. Historically, whites are each other's worst enemies. You have to destroy the other, before he has a chance to proliferate. Except in Russia's case, they also like to integrate and absorb other nations for their benefit. And Russia probably doesn't have the means or energy to destroy everyone around or at least impose their way of thinking. And they see it as "danger to Russia itself", as you said. Because at least in the Nietzschean understanding, any living body that grows will inevitably seek to expand and grow more. Let's say, the Ukes build one rocket. What is keeping them from building another one in a few years? Maybe that's what they fear or are cautious about.

    As for us, we just need to outlive and survive them.
     
    Absolutely agree, we need to take care of our people and work for our people to do well. We will survive.

    Recently Turkics have really gotten activated. Pan Turanism and neo Ottomanism is revitalizing. I dont know if its US State dept. pushing it(Russia’s soft underbelly, blah blah) or on their own volition because they smell a weakness in the Great Powers but man do they want to rule and think half of the globe belongs to them and and are really pissed at the whole world for real and perceived injustices.

     

    We've been living in a multi-polar world for a while now, and this rise of Turkics is one of the "side effects". At least, Ukraine can use it to its advantage in some cases. Yes, they are bold about their grievances. The best is probably to acknowledge those where it is appropriate and where it would help establish friendliness, but not let it go over a certain line.

    In coming decades, Central Asia is projected to almost match Russia’s entire population
     
    That's quite significant, as their population is now 70M which is already a lot. Recently, Patrushev has been making some anti-immigrant noises, but, if nothing really drastic is done, nothing will change because the Russian businesses rely on Central Asians. For now, it looks benign (you can see in some YouTube videos from Russian cafes where the Russian customers are sitting and chilling and Central Asians are serving them very diligently and quietly). What is happening is the Russian business class is stepping over the Russian working class, importing the guest workers. And there are some lucrative schemes involved. If there is drug trade, too, then that's really sad and tragic.

    Also whats with every 2nd Balt nationalist on twitter being an Islamofascist?I guess it applies more to Estonians than Latvians but it just seems like endless simping for all kinds of Muslims and Turks with no returns whatsoever.
     
    I don't know what you have seen, are you talking about nationalist or normie Twitter accounts? But I can guarantee that Latvian nationalists have no idea about Greater Turan and most Estonian ones are ethnonationalist. I know that some of them have sympathies for Hungary. Btw, not sure if you know what Estonians look like, but they don't look Asian. They are tallish, very light on average, with elongated skulls. I have wondered, though, if Finns and Estonians (and partly Latvians because they are partly Finno-Ugric Liv) could use"Uralic" as a racial category to get special status (in the West).

    If you see some Islamo-sympathisers it most likely could be some disgruntled middle age dudes, who can't handle the current system and passive aggressively praise Islam to troll the liberals. They like the more stable structure and more pronounced masculism, I guess, that Islam presents. Which is understandable. However, this could be developed even within the existing Christian or even secular culture. It's easier to yap about this on Twitter, then follow the "straight and narrow" in one's real life, especially when very few others around you are following that as well.

    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
     
    Hahaha, I'd have to look into this Turanism more carefully to answer that. It's a little unusual. :)

    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?
     
    Analyzing Muslim societies might be helpful. Not sure about an alliance, though. :)

    Have a great week!

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Svidomyatheart

    I don’t know what you have seen, are you talking about nationalist or normie Twitter accounts? But I can guarantee that Latvian nationalists have no idea about Greater Turan and most Estonian ones are ethnonationalist. I know that some of them have sympathies for Hungary. Btw, not sure if you know what Estonians look like, but they don’t look Asian. They are tallish, very light on average, with elongated skulls. I have wondered, though, if Finns and Estonians (and partly Latvians because they are partly Finno-Ugric Liv) could use”Uralic” as a racial category to get special status (in the West).

    If you see some Islamo-sympathisers it most likely could be some disgruntled middle age dudes, who can’t handle the current system and passive aggressively praise Islam to troll the liberals. They like the more stable structure and more pronounced masculism, I guess, that Islam presents. Which is understandable. However, this could be developed even within the existing Christian or even secular culture. It’s easier to yap about this on Twitter, then follow the “straight and narrow” in one’s real life, especially when very few others around you are following that as well.

    Ohi know how Baltic people look like, not all subgroups but at least could tell some faces on the first sight phenotypically, ive spent a few months(or years but only checking it now and then? its a waste of time tbh) on Skadi, theapricity, and other anthropology boards.

    Im pretty sure that whole TURAN thing goes back to 19th century theory of how Finnic peoples are related to Turkics.

    I could link here dozens of Balt twitter ultranationalist accounts , (dont want to doxx any though) that promote the “Estlam” thing. They seem to be quite hardcore too not middle aged, more like zoomers. As lame as it sounds twitter is actually perhaps the best medium(that Stormfront-/pol/-UNZ-Salo-Twitter pipeline) if you actually want to learn something quickly just dont get lost in a sea of information.

    And you know this to well yourself we may be well behaved here on the blog but its always ethnic conflict. Ukrainians in the Baltics is probably a mistake too..like that one Latvian politician had said. We’re just taking whatever limited resources are left. And those Russians even in your country, sure they are placated and passive by being fed mass entertainment like vidya and porn and decent wages but that can always change.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Svidomyatheart


    Im pretty sure that whole TURAN thing goes back to 19th century theory of how Finnic peoples are related to Turkics.
     
    It was developed in Finland as a reaction to the influence of Sweden. I think it may have been a part of the Fennoman movement, the Finnish national revival movement of the 19th century.


    Estlam
     
    From what it looks like, those are young trolls who mix Finno-Ugric mythology with some Muslim aesthetic. Frankly, it might be a parody of Estonian nationalism or humor directed at oneself, I don't think they are real converts. There is a legit nationalist org there with a regional forum which is relatively intellectual, but I don't want to mention it here. One of their liberal politicians criticized this org saying that they "brought Islamic political culture to Estonia" because their rhetoric was too aggressive, too undemocratic. Maybe that's where these jokes come from.

    And you know this to well yourself we may be well behaved here on the blog but its always ethnic conflict. Ukrainians in the Baltics is probably a mistake too..like that one Latvian politician had said.

     

    It was an Estonian politician, but he wasn't against Ukrainians per se, but against Russophones (or anyone for that matter) moving there. He's a purist.

    We’re just taking whatever limited resources are left.
     
    Actually no because the new arrivals are not entitled to much and they actually generate resources in areas where there is a shortage of labor. For instance, in Lithuania growth is again projected at 4% in 2022, so labor will be needed. The only resource that may become limited if many Ukrainians arrived would be quality housing.

    But I understand what you mean, and above all -- Ukrainian patriots don't like it when other countries absorb Ukrainians, in particular Andriy Biletsky mentioned that he is concerned that "Poland is stealing" his people, for example, so I want to be respectful of his position.


    And those Russians even in your country, sure they are placated and passive by being fed mass entertainment like vidya and porn and decent wages but that can always change.
     
    For something to change drastically, the political system would have to change or they would have to be influenced from the outside in a significant way. They themselves would lose out by changing the status quo too much. The Russian population in the Baltics has utterly collapsed. Their birthrate is much lower than what it was in the 1980s. Those children that are born now, when they reach dating age, will have to date Latvians or Estonians in larger numbers and will eventually assimilate. Of course, there will always be a Slavic community, just not as big as before. There is a small trickle of new Slavic migrants but they're younger and more appreciative because they come with a fresh look and want to build their lives. So far the numbers are not that high, so unless the government decides to significantly increase quotas for newcomers, it won't be a big deal. Of course, some Baltic people are purists (just like yourself) so they may not want to accept anyone.
  737. @Coconuts
    @Svidomyatheart


    Do you think Islam/Turanism can solve the problems in your country?
    Do you think an alliance with Muslims will help your country in the future for the coming showdown with Liberalism if that ever happens?
     
    The growing size of the Muslim minority seems to be a factor in pushing French politics further right, which is probably the case in other European countries as well, just the numbers in the other places are still smaller so far.

    It's been predicted that Islam may be the stumbling block for Liberalism, the thing it can't successfully co-opt. This could be true, Muslim communities in the West seem to better at successfully protecting their own approach to politics, where the patriarchal family rather than the individual is the basic political unit, and they have their own attitude to economics and education, as the stats Dmitry posted in the other thread about the earnings of British Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims compared to other groups indicated.

    The way they are favoured by progressives (is this something like the Nazi-Soviet pact?) may be enough to allow them to grow in numbers enough to provoke the kind of response now being seen in France, both Muslim growth and counter movements are bad for the future of Liberalism imo.

    Replies: @Svidomyatheart

    Of course liberals are going to fail to assimilate Muslims and those other clannish people. It wont be any different whatsoever than what USSR tried to do with its Muslims. They will just revert back to “Muslimness” in a couple of years and liberals will end up with lots of resources wasted.

    I actually like visiting various country twitters just to see what truly goes on inside their heads. Its so easy to get them to reveal their true side if you pick them a little. Muslims from all over the world are still larping about another conquest, Africans are being “transmogrified” and turn into larping “African Americans” in roughly 5 years. Even the Africans that didnt have a concept of a written language or a wheel some 90 years ago seem to want to debate and lay claims on what’s not theirs . Expect this all to worsen as US pushes its propaganda all over the world through mass media and as smart phones get cheaper and cheaper.

    Oh if only we behaved more like all those Muslims Caucasians and Jews and less like “Europeans”. But then US would probably bomb the shit out of Europe lol.

  738. @Mikel
    @German_reader


    I wonder if there will be riots…
     
    I'm surprised that they haven't already begun. But it can't take long before they start. The MSM has been working overtime to inflame tensions by portraying the defendant as a "white supremacist" and are now playing up the card of how different the verdict would have been if he was black. I see that even the BBC on the other side of the Atlantic is giving time to that angle.

    Lets' also remember Big Tech's contribution. Gofundme didn't allow people to donate for Rittenhouse's defense and Twitter censored expressions of sympathy for him.

    All the ingredients are there for a weekend of burning and looting.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yellowface Anon

    “Oppress or be oppressed, exterminate or be exterminated” – how did America come to this?

  739. @German_reader
    @LatW


    I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there.
     
    If you want my honest opinion, no, don't let any of them settle in your countries, ever, because before you know it, they'll have their entire clan brought over through family reunification, and then you've got a parallel society (sometimes of a downright criminal and parasitical nature) and you'll be lectured all the time by naturalized migrants how your country was always a country of immigration, Islam is part of the national culture now etc., and you can't object to even more immigration, because the topic has become taboo and people are afraid to speak about it for the sake of peace. I know this sounds heartless (and I suppose many Eastern Europeans naively have some sympathy for Mideastern migrants because of their own experience of emigration), but you must never allow any of them (and that very much includes groups like the Kurds who are the darlings of Western media) to gain even the smallest foothold, because it's sure to be abused and once there's a sizeable community it's hard to stop immigration.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Dmitry, @AP

    Seems like rightoids are coming to the conclusion of mutual exclusion between civilization spheres – only when people of other civilization sphere are subjugated, can they be brought over?

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    What German_reader was writing about how immigration can 'snowball' over time into a much bigger political and social issue is accurate, it also seems to be getting caught up into some wider progressive/anti-progressive political division that is developing in the majority population in many Western countries.

  740. @German_reader
    @A123

    https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1461762957478613006

    Pretty odd, an organization that is supposedly about civil liberties is sad Rittenhouse hasn't been locked away for life.
    I wonder if there will be riots...or does that only happen when some saintly black dies?

    Replies: @A123, @songbird, @Mikel, @Barbarossa, @Svidomyatheart

    Biden literally endorsed blacks to riot over it. A president(not sure if his senile mind understands all that or if thats just someone else writing the script for him at this point but)

    dont forget what America is, (a german anon wrote this btw)

    • Thanks: schnellandine
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Svidomyatheart

    Biden's statement is somewhat mixed imo, at least he's calling for people to stay peaceful (though I find it really irritating that a president even comments like that on a judgement in a criminal trial, imo conflicts with the spirit of rule of law and separation of powers).
    But the fanaticism and vindictiveness of US liberals is really frightening, many of them would clearly have loved to see Rittenhouse locked away for life. Probably goes back a long way (the German anon has a point when he writes how "they killed hundreds of thousands of white men", when you read something like the Battle hymn of the republic or what these radical Republicans were up to in the 1860s, the similarities to today are hard to miss). And yeah, the quasi-religious worship of blacks in the US is pretty grotesque, by any reasonable standards US blacks are a horrible group, given their absurd levels of violent crime (it's unfortunate that this reality is hidden from most people in western Europe due to the extreme bias of the media).

  741. Happy International Men’s Day everyone. Patriarchs are waiting for the day when every day is a men’s day.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Half-suspect that International Men's Day is a conspiracy to demoralize men and keep us locked under a regime of radical feminist matriarchy. Perhaps, it would be better and more to the point, if they had an "International Cuck Day."

  742. @Yellowface Anon
    I think some Taoist (I'm looking at you, AaronB) should come up with a critique of the notion of Will to Power. Not just defending inaction or saying why having Will to Power is bad, but to deconstruct the concept, and not the way Heidegger did it.

    Replies: @AaronB

    It has been done, and I’ve done it myself here many, many times.

    The emptiness – or better, mistake – of the will to power is the basic, core tenet of every spiritual system.

    Simply, it goes like this; if you see yourself as a seperate, skin encapsulated ego that is disconnected from everything else, then you will feel alienated from life and afraid of death. The universe will not appear benevolent, but life will seem a hostile force trying to kill you at every turn; accumulating power is your only defense.

    There is another, equally important, aspect; feeling seperate, you feel small and inadequate – without value. You can only acquire value, by becoming “more”.

    This is basically the condition of the modern world.- built on a basic metaphysical error; the myth of “seperation”.

    Behind the bombastic facade of a Nazi Germany, or an aggressive, totalitarian China, or a United States bent on aggressively imposing it’s vision on the world – is fear, and a sense of inadequacy.

    Every spiritual tradition tries in some fashion to fight this fear and sense of inadequacy, and this sense of being seperate and alienated.

    So much for the metaphysical underpinning.

    The error of the will to power is something that must be experienced in ones personal life. The “world” tells you that joy and happiness are found in pursuit of power, ego, and control. The modern world is based on this (and isn’t it full of joy?)

    Spirituality tells you joy and happiness are found in surrendering these things – in trust (in the universe) rather than control, in powerlessness rather than power, and in connection and interdependence rather than ego seperation.

    Which is correct?

    Well, you just have to experiment and find out for yourself 🙂

    The beginning of the religious journey for many people, is very often through some misfortune that causes a collapse in their security, and projects of control and ego – they find, to their shock and astonishment, that the world has been so completely wrong – instead of the expected misery at being deprived of what the world insists is essential to us, there is liberation and joy. Happiness is not found where the mainstream tells you it is. This can be a shattering experience – and the first step towards freedom.

    Therefore, often the best thing you can wish for a particularly blind person is the collapse of his fortunes and ego defenses 🙂

    William James, in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience, documents countless cases of spiritual journeys starting after the collapse of projects of ego, power, control, security, etc.

    Good luck 🙂

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @AaronB

    So, the root of the will to power, is a Story; mankind is seperate from Nature, and the interdependence of all things does not exist.

    The result is an unhappy and dissatisfied way of life, competition and the depletion of resources, and a civilization rapidly moving towards collapse and dystopia.

    The way out - The Way Home - is to change the Story. We are not merely our skin encapsulated egos, we are an integral part of Nature, and interdependent with all life and matter.

    As the old Story collapses, the new one will begin to emerge, at first on the margins.

  743. @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon

    It has been done, and I've done it myself here many, many times.

    The emptiness - or better, mistake - of the will to power is the basic, core tenet of every spiritual system.

    Simply, it goes like this; if you see yourself as a seperate, skin encapsulated ego that is disconnected from everything else, then you will feel alienated from life and afraid of death. The universe will not appear benevolent, but life will seem a hostile force trying to kill you at every turn; accumulating power is your only defense.

    There is another, equally important, aspect; feeling seperate, you feel small and inadequate - without value. You can only acquire value, by becoming "more".

    This is basically the condition of the modern world.- built on a basic metaphysical error; the myth of "seperation".

    Behind the bombastic facade of a Nazi Germany, or an aggressive, totalitarian China, or a United States bent on aggressively imposing it's vision on the world - is fear, and a sense of inadequacy.

    Every spiritual tradition tries in some fashion to fight this fear and sense of inadequacy, and this sense of being seperate and alienated.

    So much for the metaphysical underpinning.

    The error of the will to power is something that must be experienced in ones personal life. The "world" tells you that joy and happiness are found in pursuit of power, ego, and control. The modern world is based on this (and isn't it full of joy?)

    Spirituality tells you joy and happiness are found in surrendering these things - in trust (in the universe) rather than control, in powerlessness rather than power, and in connection and interdependence rather than ego seperation.

    Which is correct?

    Well, you just have to experiment and find out for yourself :)

    The beginning of the religious journey for many people, is very often through some misfortune that causes a collapse in their security, and projects of control and ego - they find, to their shock and astonishment, that the world has been so completely wrong - instead of the expected misery at being deprived of what the world insists is essential to us, there is liberation and joy. Happiness is not found where the mainstream tells you it is. This can be a shattering experience - and the first step towards freedom.

    Therefore, often the best thing you can wish for a particularly blind person is the collapse of his fortunes and ego defenses :)

    William James, in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience, documents countless cases of spiritual journeys starting after the collapse of projects of ego, power, control, security, etc.

    Good luck :)

    Replies: @AaronB

    So, the root of the will to power, is a Story; mankind is seperate from Nature, and the interdependence of all things does not exist.

    The result is an unhappy and dissatisfied way of life, competition and the depletion of resources, and a civilization rapidly moving towards collapse and dystopia.

    The way out – The Way Home – is to change the Story. We are not merely our skin encapsulated egos, we are an integral part of Nature, and interdependent with all life and matter.

    As the old Story collapses, the new one will begin to emerge, at first on the margins.

  744. @LatW
    @German_reader


    The sense of entitlement to other people’s countries and resources (most notably to my country) of these migrants is appalling, apart from the children they don’t deserve any sympathy, and in any case it’s Belarus’ responsibility to look after them since Lukashenko deliberately invited them for his political games.
     
    Some of their entitlement is just through the roof. Some of those men just don't seem to have much respect for Eastern Europe, they think they have the right to just walk through because "Germany, Germany". Because they were not let in easily, some of them are now saying things like "This is not real Europe (e.g., Poland, Lithuania), Germany is real Europe". Lol. Nevermind that the HDI in some EE countries is pretty high. I hope they don't gang up with Belarus against Poland et al. I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there. It's a pretty tidy country that they could learn to like.

    And is Germany some kind of a cornucopia where rivers of milk flow on the banks of manna and money falls from the sky? I hope they will soon realize that all those resources are created through the hard work of the German people.

    Yes, unfortunately, one Polish border guard had his skull fractured even through the helmet, why should he sustain such a terrible injury on his own soil?

    On the other hand, it seemed that after a couple of cold nights they were broken and some held signs saying "Sorry". And it's the tricky part that children are intermixed there with those entitled guys. I heard one expert call this the "method of Tamerlane", used by Belarusian special forces -- the Mongols were very good at raiding but they still had difficulties charging fortifications so they would use "human shields" made up of captured soldiers who would be driven forward and usually killed first.

    As to the Russian side critiquing the methods of Polish border guards and the "hypocrisy of the Western democracy" in general, it is because they enjoy seeing the West humiliated (especially after the West lectured them about Navalny, etc). It's just they're conflating classic human rights and illegals breaching borders. Russia is very sensitive about its own borders and probably wouldn't tolerate any shenanigans there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

    is very sensitive about its own borders

    I’m not defending Putin’s comments in a broad sense.

    But in the narrow sense, he is being consistent.

    Russian borders are typically stricter and less “humanitarian” on the non-Russian side, than on the Russian-side.

    For example, the border difficulty for Azerbaijanis is returning from Russia to Azerbaijan, not going from Azerbaijan to Russia.

    While in Russia there are indeed built very “humanitarian”, kindly facilities and accommodation on a former children’s camp, for the immigrants who are (regularly) waiting due to Azerbaijan.

    Previously they were in tents.

    Recall these are people in Russia trying to enter Azerbaijan. Nothing on the other side of the border, having problems entering Russia.

    heir of the USSR

    USSR was one of the most closed border countries in the world including for internal migration of going from one city to another city. So certainly the policy of the USSR has been reversed 180 degrees, even if there is a logic in it.

    But even while UK today prefers immigrants from British Empire places like India/Pakistan/Jamaica/Hong Kong, it’s not trying to create a completely open-border zone, where the Jamaican passport has the same rights as the British passport. So with Putin we are going to an almost erase borders, “labor mobility utopia”, which is only being resisted by the governments of countries like Uzbekistan (which refuse every year to join, due to their fears of losing their population).

    Russia hardly receive any welfare (afaik, maybe that has changed recently), while those heading for the EU, while some will be working, many are intending to free load.

    Of course, the incentives are very different. In Russia, you go to work for the higher (although not so much) salaries, not many will be coming for the hospitals and the state pension.

    Whereas having the right to settle in Germany or Sweden, is an incentive half-way to winning a lottery, for people from collapsing and poor countries.

    open borders policy be regarded as intrinsically “more humane” than safe or even closed

    This question applies really to refugees, than economic immigrants.

    If you look in the UN refugee convention which were agreed by 1951, refugee is defined as
    (it’s written on page 14)
    https://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b66c2aa10.pdf

    Obviously, the motivation of people trying to go from Belarus to Germany, is already mostly filtering away for economic immigrants, from the refugees. As refugees, would be safe (although relatively poor like almost everyone) in Belarus.

    He may care about the geopolitical domino effects from part of Ukraine being taken over by Russia

    He is a very not-serious personality (Wikipedia does not even know how many children he has).

    And in politics and war, this provides him some kind of strategic advantage, as nobody can really know what he thinks.

    sending those hundreds of British special forces soldiers might be. It may just as well be a preparation to send them to evacuate the British citizens in case there is a real conflict

    Yesterday he has also sent the British army engineers to build a border fence for Poland. Kind of nominal but maybe practical action.

    https://www.thesun.ie/news/7936688/uk-troops-build-polish-belarus-europe/

  745. @German_reader
    @LatW


    I know it is cruel but if Poland were to back down it sets a very dangerous precedent the consequences of which cannot be predicted now.
     
    I don't think it's cruel, and tbh when I see those videos of those Mideastern men trying to pull down border fortifications, throwing stones at Polish border guards (and if I understand correctly one border guard already suffered a skull fracture) etc., all the while chanting their idiotic "Allahu akbar", I think they can be glad Poland doesn't just use Israeli methods and have snipers shoot the lot of them. The sense of entitlement to other people's countries and resources (most notably to my country) of these migrants is appalling, apart from the children they don't deserve any sympathy, and in any case it's Belarus' responsibility to look after them since Lukashenko deliberately invited them for his political games.
    I agree that Dmitry's comparison with Russia's labor migration from central Asia is misguided, that policy may be detrimental for ordinary Russians, but I very much doubt Russia will just open its borders to anybody from the Islamic world and Africa because of human rights, right to asylum etc. in the foreseeable future.

    Replies: @LatW, @Dmitry

    Israeli methods and have snipers

    This returns memories of why I found this site and started commenting here.

    I was reading specifically about the border fences in Israel, and finding a very confused article of Sailer that confuses the border fences in Israel. Americans were writing that they should shoot Mexicans, like “Israel does to immigrants”.

    Israel’s border policy with economic immigrants was relatively “liberal” (in recent sense of word) and behaving like a European country – finding them in the Sinai border where they have technically entered Israeli land, where Bedouin leave them, and then driving them in buses to the centre of the country.

    Some Egyptian border guards were shooting them, while Israel was driving them into the country in a bus.

    This was eventually solved with building a border fence, that means that their feet are not inside the border, and Israel doesn’t have to drive them into the country. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-11809957

    But the ones who arrived before the fence and from countries like Sudan and Eritrea are living and working in Israel, and not allowed to be deported by the Israeli law. At some point Israel tried to encourage them to leave, by adding an “illiberal” 6 months of detainment in Holot camp. But this was rejected by the Supreme Court. Nowadays these economic immigrants from Sudan/Eritrea, etc, are much of the restaurant workers and delivery cyclists and they are given access to all the Israeli public amenities like citizens.

    This is Israel, is “quite disappointing” if you want a model of “strict right-wing policy” in many areas, as the Supreme Court is more liberal than e.g. American politics. But at the same time, it’s strange that the Western leftists are so angry about it.

    The shooting border with Israel, is not related to immigration – but rather the military border with Hamas on Gaza or Hezbollah on Lebanon. This is equivalent of the DMZ between North and South Korea – but of course a more dangerous and violent situation than the DMZ in terms of the regularity of war.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry

    Yes, I didn't mean to suggest Israel shoots illegal immigrants, but they did employ a lot of lethal force a few years ago when Palestinians tried to storm the border in Gaza, doing things like setting car tires on fire and the like. Personally I didn't have that much of a problem with Israeli actions in this case (though some killings may have been excessive). But given the aggressive behaviour of the migrants on the Polish border I don't agree with you that the situations aren't comparable at all.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  746. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    Israeli methods and have snipers
     
    This returns memories of why I found this site and started commenting here.

    I was reading specifically about the border fences in Israel, and finding a very confused article of Sailer that confuses the border fences in Israel. Americans were writing that they should shoot Mexicans, like "Israel does to immigrants".

    Israel's border policy with economic immigrants was relatively "liberal" (in recent sense of word) and behaving like a European country - finding them in the Sinai border where they have technically entered Israeli land, where Bedouin leave them, and then driving them in buses to the centre of the country.

    Some Egyptian border guards were shooting them, while Israel was driving them into the country in a bus.

    This was eventually solved with building a border fence, that means that their feet are not inside the border, and Israel doesn't have to drive them into the country. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-11809957

    But the ones who arrived before the fence and from countries like Sudan and Eritrea are living and working in Israel, and not allowed to be deported by the Israeli law. At some point Israel tried to encourage them to leave, by adding an "illiberal" 6 months of detainment in Holot camp. But this was rejected by the Supreme Court. Nowadays these economic immigrants from Sudan/Eritrea, etc, are much of the restaurant workers and delivery cyclists and they are given access to all the Israeli public amenities like citizens.

    This is Israel, is "quite disappointing" if you want a model of "strict right-wing policy" in many areas, as the Supreme Court is more liberal than e.g. American politics. But at the same time, it's strange that the Western leftists are so angry about it.

    -

    The shooting border with Israel, is not related to immigration - but rather the military border with Hamas on Gaza or Hezbollah on Lebanon. This is equivalent of the DMZ between North and South Korea - but of course a more dangerous and violent situation than the DMZ in terms of the regularity of war.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Yes, I didn’t mean to suggest Israel shoots illegal immigrants, but they did employ a lot of lethal force a few years ago when Palestinians tried to storm the border in Gaza, doing things like setting car tires on fire and the like. Personally I didn’t have that much of a problem with Israeli actions in this case (though some killings may have been excessive). But given the aggressive behaviour of the migrants on the Polish border I don’t agree with you that the situations aren’t comparable at all.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    Yes Israel can be used as an example of a country which combines violent brutality in some areas (prison for secular people who do not join the army, drone strikes on Gaza), although with strange kinds of liberalism in others, and it has a relatively stable English democracy and legal system.

    But I was always wondering how conservative American Sailer readers will use Israel as an example for anything they would want in their own country - life in Israel is like their worst nightmare in most ways, living among people at war with each other, and surrounded by immigrants.

    Israel is more like a signal of dystopia, from their preferences.

    Those conservative Americans find it difficult enough with coreligious immigrants like Mexicans. Imagine trying to do any Israeli style policies like adding a Christian religious criteria "Law of return" to increase Christian citizenship to the promised "holyland" of the USA, to try to avoid being drowned by a rapidly growing Muslim population.

    On the other hand, if you like the problems of mixing of divergent (sometimes warring) peoples thrown close together. Then Israel can give you this.

    Replies: @German_reader

  747. @German_reader
    @LatW


    I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there.
     
    If you want my honest opinion, no, don't let any of them settle in your countries, ever, because before you know it, they'll have their entire clan brought over through family reunification, and then you've got a parallel society (sometimes of a downright criminal and parasitical nature) and you'll be lectured all the time by naturalized migrants how your country was always a country of immigration, Islam is part of the national culture now etc., and you can't object to even more immigration, because the topic has become taboo and people are afraid to speak about it for the sake of peace. I know this sounds heartless (and I suppose many Eastern Europeans naively have some sympathy for Mideastern migrants because of their own experience of emigration), but you must never allow any of them (and that very much includes groups like the Kurds who are the darlings of Western media) to gain even the smallest foothold, because it's sure to be abused and once there's a sizeable community it's hard to stop immigration.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Dmitry, @AP

    There is no need to add immigrants for Belarus. This is not a country like Germany or Poland.

    As they say, Belarus is already one of the world’s most multi-racial countries, with 140 different local nationalities.

    You can see in the photos in their presentation, about the many multi-cultural peoples, which live under the kindly Lukashenko.

    Belarus is known as safe haven of traditional brown Middle Eastern people like their Jews, that can teach you about their native Middle Eastern traditions like Humus and their Arabian Dabke

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Dmitry

    I wonder if they are categorising the single Irishman who lives in Belarus as one of these 140 national ethnic minority groups?

    , @Yahya
    @Dmitry


    Belarus is known as safe haven of traditional brown Middle Eastern people like their Jews, that can teach you about their native Middle Eastern traditions like Humus and their Arabian Dabke

     

    That Belarusian Dabke dance was pretty lousy. They're going to need to import more Middle Easterners to teach them how to do it properly.

    This is the way it should be done:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg35ccIXMlM&ab_channel=BaladiCenter

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJbcF71cyYw&ab_channel=oushaq

  748. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Putin is not usually the paragon of liberalism, Christian virtues and political consistency
     
    Sure, but his latest comments are pretty stupid as propaganda too, I don't even understand what he's trying to achieve with that...does he think Western liberals will like him for it and drop their anti-Russia attitude (if anything it will achieve the opposite, Putin openly commenting on the issue might well mute any criticism of Poland by Western left-wingers)? And it certainly makes a mockery of the idea that Western right-wing parties could have a genuinely positive relationship with Russia. So imo it betrays a rather deficient understanding of the public in Western states (I suppose that's the target of his statement, I can't imagine the public in Russia genuinely cares about Polish border guards being mean to Kurds and Arabs).

    Replies: @songbird, @Dmitry, @Matra

    I’m sure you will reconsider your criticism of Russian/Soviet-style propaganda when you watch this nuanced piece (allegedly) from Belarus TV last week: Link

    • Replies: @Matra
    @Matra

    Oops. That link has no subtitles but I think you get the gist of it. Just looking at his face you know it is going to be retarded 1970s Soviet level propaganda. In the subtitled version (which I assumed to be accurate and not a joke, though I don't know for sure) he was going on about poor refugee children dying of thirst due to the Polish fascists. Quite entertaining.

    , @German_reader
    @Matra

    iirc I had already seen that a few days ago, disturbing. I wonder what its intended audience is, if anything deranged clips like that should lend support to the view that a hard line is needed against Belarus.

    Replies: @Matra

  749. German_reader says:
    @Svidomyatheart
    @German_reader

    Biden literally endorsed blacks to riot over it. A president(not sure if his senile mind understands all that or if thats just someone else writing the script for him at this point but)

    https://i.imgur.com/3aJnMTp.png


    dont forget what America is, (a german anon wrote this btw)

    https://i.imgur.com/26Hiyq7.png

    Replies: @German_reader

    Biden’s statement is somewhat mixed imo, at least he’s calling for people to stay peaceful (though I find it really irritating that a president even comments like that on a judgement in a criminal trial, imo conflicts with the spirit of rule of law and separation of powers).
    But the fanaticism and vindictiveness of US liberals is really frightening, many of them would clearly have loved to see Rittenhouse locked away for life. Probably goes back a long way (the German anon has a point when he writes how “they killed hundreds of thousands of white men”, when you read something like the Battle hymn of the republic or what these radical Republicans were up to in the 1860s, the similarities to today are hard to miss). And yeah, the quasi-religious worship of blacks in the US is pretty grotesque, by any reasonable standards US blacks are a horrible group, given their absurd levels of violent crime (it’s unfortunate that this reality is hidden from most people in western Europe due to the extreme bias of the media).

  750. @Matra
    @German_reader

    I'm sure you will reconsider your criticism of Russian/Soviet-style propaganda when you watch this nuanced piece (allegedly) from Belarus TV last week: Link

    Replies: @Matra, @German_reader

    Oops. That link has no subtitles but I think you get the gist of it. Just looking at his face you know it is going to be retarded 1970s Soviet level propaganda. In the subtitled version (which I assumed to be accurate and not a joke, though I don’t know for sure) he was going on about poor refugee children dying of thirst due to the Polish fascists. Quite entertaining.

  751. @Matra
    @German_reader

    I'm sure you will reconsider your criticism of Russian/Soviet-style propaganda when you watch this nuanced piece (allegedly) from Belarus TV last week: Link

    Replies: @Matra, @German_reader

    iirc I had already seen that a few days ago, disturbing. I wonder what its intended audience is, if anything deranged clips like that should lend support to the view that a hard line is needed against Belarus.

    • Replies: @Matra
    @German_reader

    I don't know who the intended audience is but when the Malaysian airliner was shot down over Ukraine the Russian TV propaganda was so mind-bogglingly stupid I wondered why the Russians were burying themselves by propagating such nonsense. Then I came here to Unz and discovered most of the commenters believed them. Though I suspect many just pretended to believe them out of spite towards the US or something like that.

    Replies: @German_reader, @utu

  752. @German_reader
    @Dmitry

    Yes, I didn't mean to suggest Israel shoots illegal immigrants, but they did employ a lot of lethal force a few years ago when Palestinians tried to storm the border in Gaza, doing things like setting car tires on fire and the like. Personally I didn't have that much of a problem with Israeli actions in this case (though some killings may have been excessive). But given the aggressive behaviour of the migrants on the Polish border I don't agree with you that the situations aren't comparable at all.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    Yes Israel can be used as an example of a country which combines violent brutality in some areas (prison for secular people who do not join the army, drone strikes on Gaza), although with strange kinds of liberalism in others, and it has a relatively stable English democracy and legal system.

    But I was always wondering how conservative American Sailer readers will use Israel as an example for anything they would want in their own country – life in Israel is like their worst nightmare in most ways, living among people at war with each other, and surrounded by immigrants.

    Israel is more like a signal of dystopia, from their preferences.

    Those conservative Americans find it difficult enough with coreligious immigrants like Mexicans. Imagine trying to do any Israeli style policies like adding a Christian religious criteria “Law of return” to increase Christian citizenship to the promised “holyland” of the USA, to try to avoid being drowned by a rapidly growing Muslim population.

    On the other hand, if you like the problems of mixing of divergent (sometimes warring) peoples thrown close together. Then Israel can give you this.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Israel is more like a signal of dystopia, from their preferences.
     
    There's a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish ones (even if in reality that has been exploited by people from Russia with only minor Jewish ancestry), with a general consensus that maintaining a Jewish majority in the country should be the goal of policy. Something like that would be unthinkable in Western Europe or the US today, where the expression of ethnonational sentiment of the white native majorities is suppressed by the state and existing immigration policies will make those former majorities into minorities within just a few decades (in Germany you're basically declared an enemy of the constitution and put under surveillance by the domestic security service, if you state that Germany is the historic homeland of ethnic Germans and should be preserved as such, and it's not much different in Britain or France).
    And that doesn't even go into things like Israel's settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.
    But we've had that discussion before, and for some strange reason you always try to obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people, and how it's totally at odds with what racist Europeans and Americans would want. So there's not much point to this discussion and I have no great interest in repeating it.

    Replies: @A123, @Coconuts, @Dmitry

  753. @German_reader
    @Matra

    iirc I had already seen that a few days ago, disturbing. I wonder what its intended audience is, if anything deranged clips like that should lend support to the view that a hard line is needed against Belarus.

    Replies: @Matra

    I don’t know who the intended audience is but when the Malaysian airliner was shot down over Ukraine the Russian TV propaganda was so mind-bogglingly stupid I wondered why the Russians were burying themselves by propagating such nonsense. Then I came here to Unz and discovered most of the commenters believed them. Though I suspect many just pretended to believe them out of spite towards the US or something like that.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Matra


    Then I came here to Unz and discovered most of the commenters believed them.
     
    I saw people on the German internet who believed all that stuff about the "Spanish air traffic controller" etc., so it definitely had some resonance.
    But as a false flag conspiracy theory it at least had some internal logic to it. "Fascist Poland being cruel to refugees" is much dumber, the people who believe that kind of thing in Western countries aren't suddenly going to turn into friends of Belarus and Russia.
    , @utu
    @Matra

    "Then I came here to Unz and discovered most of the commenters believed them." - including the owner.

  754. @German_reader
    @LatW


    I hope this could be settled peacefully, without ill feelings from the Mideasterners, some of them would like to stay in Belarus, as I said above, they could easily disperse there.
     
    If you want my honest opinion, no, don't let any of them settle in your countries, ever, because before you know it, they'll have their entire clan brought over through family reunification, and then you've got a parallel society (sometimes of a downright criminal and parasitical nature) and you'll be lectured all the time by naturalized migrants how your country was always a country of immigration, Islam is part of the national culture now etc., and you can't object to even more immigration, because the topic has become taboo and people are afraid to speak about it for the sake of peace. I know this sounds heartless (and I suppose many Eastern Europeans naively have some sympathy for Mideastern migrants because of their own experience of emigration), but you must never allow any of them (and that very much includes groups like the Kurds who are the darlings of Western media) to gain even the smallest foothold, because it's sure to be abused and once there's a sizeable community it's hard to stop immigration.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Dmitry, @AP

    Christian refugees from the Middle East are okay, for the most part they won’t cause problems and will largely assimilate.

    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AP


    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?
     
    At the border? No idea.
    But make no mistake, as sad as their fate in their homeland may be, they're definitely not desirable immigrants (basically just another group of clannish Mideasterners with a penchant for honor killings).
    Mideastern Christians might be an exception (though I still wouldn't recommend large-scale settlement of them to any Eastern European country).

    Replies: @AP

    , @Svidomyatheart
    @AP

    Are you sure about that whole assimilation thing? Here are some 2017 stats of the "Christians(and Muslims i suppose) from the Caucauses". And Georgians, Azeris and Armenians are supposedly the most cultured of the bunch.

    Georgians alone are taking their share of doing almost as much crime as Russians but the thing is Russians make up what? 12-17%?(it mustve dropped from 17% due to war but its still probably somewhere around 12%). Thing is ALL those 5 ethnicities combined are maybe 1-3% at best.
    And just Azeris+Moldovans(gypsies basically) also are around 700+.


    https://imgur.com/a/wBLq81j

    Replies: @AP

  755. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    Yes Israel can be used as an example of a country which combines violent brutality in some areas (prison for secular people who do not join the army, drone strikes on Gaza), although with strange kinds of liberalism in others, and it has a relatively stable English democracy and legal system.

    But I was always wondering how conservative American Sailer readers will use Israel as an example for anything they would want in their own country - life in Israel is like their worst nightmare in most ways, living among people at war with each other, and surrounded by immigrants.

    Israel is more like a signal of dystopia, from their preferences.

    Those conservative Americans find it difficult enough with coreligious immigrants like Mexicans. Imagine trying to do any Israeli style policies like adding a Christian religious criteria "Law of return" to increase Christian citizenship to the promised "holyland" of the USA, to try to avoid being drowned by a rapidly growing Muslim population.

    On the other hand, if you like the problems of mixing of divergent (sometimes warring) peoples thrown close together. Then Israel can give you this.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Israel is more like a signal of dystopia, from their preferences.

    There’s a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish ones (even if in reality that has been exploited by people from Russia with only minor Jewish ancestry), with a general consensus that maintaining a Jewish majority in the country should be the goal of policy. Something like that would be unthinkable in Western Europe or the US today, where the expression of ethnonational sentiment of the white native majorities is suppressed by the state and existing immigration policies will make those former majorities into minorities within just a few decades (in Germany you’re basically declared an enemy of the constitution and put under surveillance by the domestic security service, if you state that Germany is the historic homeland of ethnic Germans and should be preserved as such, and it’s not much different in Britain or France).
    And that doesn’t even go into things like Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.
    But we’ve had that discussion before, and for some strange reason you always try to obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people, and how it’s totally at odds with what racist Europeans and Americans would want. So there’s not much point to this discussion and I have no great interest in repeating it.

    • Agree: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader

    Every nation should have migration policies rooted in maintaining national stability. The Israeli rules are merely common sense. Europe & the U.S. are the ones that have flawed immigration rules, directly leading to lack of national cohesion. Of course, Globalists gain by undermining nations, so this is a Feature not a Bug.


    There’s a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish one
     
    The Muslim Occupiers of Judea & Samaria made a concerted effort to breed their way to demographic victory. It is hardly surprising that indigenous Jews responded with demographics. Not only is migration restricted, Ultra-Orthodox families tend to be quite large.

    While necessary, the increasing % of Ultra-Orthodox will present a serious challenge a few generations down the line. There is a real chance that Israel will need to adopt some Federalistic concepts to formally establish 'states' with different local laws and regulations.

    And that doesn’t even go into things like Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.
     
    In 1947-48 Muslim (primarily Jordanian) forces ethnically cleansed Judea & Samaria. The result was Apartheid Islamic occupation & rule.

    Indigenous Palestinian Jews are inevitably returning to Judea, the religious homeland of Judaism. The need to recover stolen territory is not merely Nationalist. Reclaiming holy lands is a religious duty.

    ...obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people,
     
    You are correct that Israel has a top level uniform national culture based on the need for security, due to 70+ years of unprovoked hostility from their neighbors.

    However, there are distinctions between Palestinian Jews.

     
    https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/03/PF_2016.03.08_israel-03-06_FT.png
     

    While there are pockets of 'wokism', they exist only in very secular areas. Most notably in and around Tel Aviv. Unlike Europe and the U.S., these venues seem quite contained. I suspect there are commonly accepted "unwritten rules" about what is permitted where. The need for national security prevents major factions from picking internal fights. Fringe agitators may be loud, but they obviously have little support.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

    , @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    I think in France if you advocate for what they call 'biological racism' you will run into problems with the law, but if you promote something like integral nationalism it is okay and easier to evade issues with the laws against racism. This is how Zemmour says the things he does and mostly has got away with it. Maybe it is because there populations have always been more racially mixed, but in the Mediterranean countries brands of strong 'traditionalist' (anti-liberal) civic nationalism seem to have been more dominant, and it is probably one reason the far-right is still closer to the political and cultural mainstream.

    For example, Zemmour wrote this as the blurb to one of his books, which was a best seller a couple of years ago:

    (It starts with a paragraph about how France was used to imposing her values on a world swooning when presented with such marvels and then...)


    Not only is she no longer capable of it, France is compelled to swallow values and ways of living that are at the antipodes of what she has constructed over the centuries.

    Our political, economic, administrative, media, intellectual and artistic elites, the inheritors of May '68, celebrate it. They call on France to adapt herself to the new values.

    They spit on her tomb and stamp on her smoking corpse. They derive social and financial gratification from the fact. They have fragmented the people by depriving it of its national memory via deculturation, at the same time as breaking its unity via immigration. All of them stand as false, affected, mocking onlookers as France is struck down and believe they are writing, with a weary, disdainful air, the 'final pages of the history of France'.

    Today this vast subversive project is reaching it's limit, the veil is torn...
     

    If you were a major journalist with your own TV show I doubt you could get away with stuff like this in the UK, it sounds like it would be even harder in Germany (the parts about Holocaust narratives and US affiliated French Zionist lobbies and their role in deculturation would probably be problematic, as one example).

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    only immigrants they desire are Jewish
     
    Israel is in a partially not frozen civil war between its Jewish and Muslim population, where the Muslim population is growing fast.

    The immigration policy is the same as USA saying it desires Christian immigrants (if it was in a civil war between Muslims and Christians) - i.e. wanting to import Mexicans and Africans, etc.

    If I explained this on the Sailer forum, they would claim that "Jews are not the same as Mexicans. Mexicans have drug gangs, etc".

    But the Mizrachi Jews that Israel has imported to the largest group, were not more modernized than Mexicans.

    And the drug gangs are enough to scare the Mexicans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_mafia#In_Mexico


    maintaining a Jewish majority in the country should be the goal of policy. Something like that would be unthinkable in Western Europe

     

    But except for the Balkans and Northern Ireland, nowhere in Europe has been a recent civil war between the religions, while Israel is most "hot" warzone of any developed country, and the war is not ending anytime soon. Although in Northern Ireland, the number of people in the different religions is still seen as determining who will win the conflict.

    -

    This kind of solution to the war, isn't analogous to what those conservative Americans, who want to shoot Mexican Christian immigrants, desire exactly though.

    Israelis are converting former animist peoples in India as "Lost Tribes" of Judaism, and then after the Haredi rabbis accept their conversion, they settle them in Israeli borders as religious nationalists.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmp8s-Ir5hM


    nacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people,

     

    Because its context is the peace-process since Oslo, rather than a model of "nationalist policy", which people that don't understand the region seem to promote.

    Arafat and PA said they accept the two-state solution as an interim stage, where the subsequent goal afterwards will still continue to be "from the river to the sea,”

    Netanyahu's policy for not a "nationalism" context, but trying to win the war against the Palestinians. PA says it is negotiating for sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza, but it will recognize Israel as an interim stage in the negotiation.

    If Israel formally defines itself as a Jewish state, then it strengthens sub-clause of the peace-process, as the Palestinian they would have to recognize the two-state solution as a final stage, rather than the interim stage where they would recognize Israel, but not Israel as the Jewish part of the two states.

    Of course, otherwise, this law would just be a useless piece of paper (there is no benefit there). But for Netanyahu, believes it strengthens his position in relation to the PA.


    Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people, and how it’s totally at odds with what racist Europeans and Americans would want
     
    Which is the simple reality, even with the "Jewish side" - it's a multi-cultural, multi-racial chaos, discounting the other side of the war there.

    If you want to talk about "Israel in the Western discourse", then perhaps there can be some point to claiming it is what "what racist Europeans and Americans would want". But this is only because the Western media and left have projected the concepts of what ever they oppose onto it. So if you invert those, then you have whatever the left opposes - it's what the right desires. You're talking about these projections of Western thought, which is not related to any realities about life there.

    Replies: @German_reader

  756. German_reader says:
    @AP
    @German_reader

    Christian refugees from the Middle East are okay, for the most part they won't cause problems and will largely assimilate.

    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?

    Replies: @German_reader, @Svidomyatheart

    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?

    At the border? No idea.
    But make no mistake, as sad as their fate in their homeland may be, they’re definitely not desirable immigrants (basically just another group of clannish Mideasterners with a penchant for honor killings).
    Mideastern Christians might be an exception (though I still wouldn’t recommend large-scale settlement of them to any Eastern European country).

    • Replies: @AP
    @German_reader


    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?

    At the border? No idea.
     

    I was wondering about in Germany. Presumably due to the sheer number of Iraqis there must be a substantial number of Yazidis. Theirs is a strange religion. I was curious if they are as troublesome as the Muslims.

    But make no mistake, as sad as their fate in their homeland may be, they’re definitely not desirable immigrants (basically just another group of clannish Mideasterners with a penchant for honor killings).
     
    I didn't know they engaged in honor killings.

    Mideastern Christians might be an exception (though I still wouldn’t recommend large-scale settlement of them to any Eastern European country).
     
    They are a clannish market minority, though because they don't have their own state they do not have dual loyalties. The ones I have known in the USA tend to be like Italian or Greek Americans, even though they aren't Europeans but Semites. The ones from Iraq call themselves Chaldeans rather than Arabs, and consider themselves to be the original Babylonians who were swamped by the dirty, stupid, and evil Arabs. The Christians from Lebanon think of themselves as descendants of the original Phoenicians, who were also swamped by the stupid and dirty Arab invaders.

    The clannishness and market savviness of these Middle Eastern Christians could mean that they become a financial elite, as has happened in Mexico, Argentina and Columbia. Although they share the same religion and intermarry very readily (especially with blondes) so within a couple generations this would just be Poles with exotic last names.

    In general, I oppose mass immigration to any European country; European countries should basically just be ethnic homelands. It's not the New World.

    Replies: @German_reader

  757. German_reader says:
    @Matra
    @German_reader

    I don't know who the intended audience is but when the Malaysian airliner was shot down over Ukraine the Russian TV propaganda was so mind-bogglingly stupid I wondered why the Russians were burying themselves by propagating such nonsense. Then I came here to Unz and discovered most of the commenters believed them. Though I suspect many just pretended to believe them out of spite towards the US or something like that.

    Replies: @German_reader, @utu

    Then I came here to Unz and discovered most of the commenters believed them.

    I saw people on the German internet who believed all that stuff about the “Spanish air traffic controller” etc., so it definitely had some resonance.
    But as a false flag conspiracy theory it at least had some internal logic to it. “Fascist Poland being cruel to refugees” is much dumber, the people who believe that kind of thing in Western countries aren’t suddenly going to turn into friends of Belarus and Russia.

  758. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Israel is more like a signal of dystopia, from their preferences.
     
    There's a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish ones (even if in reality that has been exploited by people from Russia with only minor Jewish ancestry), with a general consensus that maintaining a Jewish majority in the country should be the goal of policy. Something like that would be unthinkable in Western Europe or the US today, where the expression of ethnonational sentiment of the white native majorities is suppressed by the state and existing immigration policies will make those former majorities into minorities within just a few decades (in Germany you're basically declared an enemy of the constitution and put under surveillance by the domestic security service, if you state that Germany is the historic homeland of ethnic Germans and should be preserved as such, and it's not much different in Britain or France).
    And that doesn't even go into things like Israel's settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.
    But we've had that discussion before, and for some strange reason you always try to obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people, and how it's totally at odds with what racist Europeans and Americans would want. So there's not much point to this discussion and I have no great interest in repeating it.

    Replies: @A123, @Coconuts, @Dmitry

    Every nation should have migration policies rooted in maintaining national stability. The Israeli rules are merely common sense. Europe & the U.S. are the ones that have flawed immigration rules, directly leading to lack of national cohesion. Of course, Globalists gain by undermining nations, so this is a Feature not a Bug.

    There’s a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish one

    The Muslim Occupiers of Judea & Samaria made a concerted effort to breed their way to demographic victory. It is hardly surprising that indigenous Jews responded with demographics. Not only is migration restricted, Ultra-Orthodox families tend to be quite large.

    While necessary, the increasing % of Ultra-Orthodox will present a serious challenge a few generations down the line. There is a real chance that Israel will need to adopt some Federalistic concepts to formally establish ‘states’ with different local laws and regulations.

    And that doesn’t even go into things like Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.

    In 1947-48 Muslim (primarily Jordanian) forces ethnically cleansed Judea & Samaria. The result was Apartheid Islamic occupation & rule.

    Indigenous Palestinian Jews are inevitably returning to Judea, the religious homeland of Judaism. The need to recover stolen territory is not merely Nationalist. Reclaiming holy lands is a religious duty.

    …obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people,

    You are correct that Israel has a top level uniform national culture based on the need for security, due to 70+ years of unprovoked hostility from their neighbors.

    However, there are distinctions between Palestinian Jews.

     

     

    While there are pockets of ‘wokism’, they exist only in very secular areas. Most notably in and around Tel Aviv. Unlike Europe and the U.S., these venues seem quite contained. I suspect there are commonly accepted “unwritten rules” about what is permitted where. The need for national security prevents major factions from picking internal fights. Fringe agitators may be loud, but they obviously have little support.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @A123


    The Israeli rules are merely common sense.
     
    I agree. Disagree somewhat with your interpretation of the Israel/Palestine conflict, but I don't care that much tbh, just wanted to explain to Dmitry why some Westerners are envious of Israel and its national culture. I'll leave discussion of the Israel/Palestine conflict to others.

    Replies: @A123

    , @Dmitry
    @A123

    For example, many conservative Americans complain about Haredi Jews conquering some small place in New Jersey, and imposing their customs there.

    But Haredi Jews in America do not live from taxpayers, burn US flags, and shut down roads when they talk about conscripting them.

    On the other hand, Haredi Jews will be climbing to 10% of the population in Israel, many burn Israeli flags, live from taxpayers, and shut down roads when they talk about conscripting them.

    -

    So I'm pretty sure living in Israel would be close to the dystopian nightmare for many American conservative nationalists, who complain about "Mexicans not learning English" and the "foreign customs".

    Colin Kaepernick maybe doesn't stand at the national anthem. But in Jerusalem you have such relations to the authorities from the fastest growing part of the Jewish population.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAjqugdmj8c

    I still think Israel will be able to manage and develop successfully (if it can maintain the democracy and stable legal framework), but you receive one of the strongest dose of crazy chaos of divergent groups there of most any country.

    On the other hand, Israel is kind of nice, if you enjoy things like multiculturalism, as you can see all kinds of strange and exotic nationalities there. It's also positive from the point of view of people who like liberal welfare states with universal healthcare, (recent) investment in public transport, and strong labor unions.

    Of course, it's also a positive model for people that like militaristic places, with patriotic young people walking with assault rifles.


    Nationalist. Reclaiming holy lands is a religious duty.
     
    Yes the thinking there is religious more than nationalist. Even the secular Jews, to the extent they are Zionists, are adopting a millenarian religious attitude. Secular Zionism is a very recently secularized part of their religious prophecy. It's still a religiously motivated population there.

    are pockets of ‘wokism’, they exist only in very secular areas. Most notably in and around Tel Aviv.
     
    A lot of Israel's middle class would love to be woke in terms of social liberalism, although they are being rejected by the international woke movement because of the military war they are part of. Things like feminism, LGBT and environmentalism, are very fashionable among middle class section of the population.

    A hero of this crazy new government (that combines religious nationalists, with liberals, and support from an Islamist party) is their disabled Minister of Energy.

    They are leading in wokeness for areas which don't go too much into topics of religion and the military conflict.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl2cGD6YLSY

    Replies: @A123

  759. @Matra
    @German_reader

    I don't know who the intended audience is but when the Malaysian airliner was shot down over Ukraine the Russian TV propaganda was so mind-bogglingly stupid I wondered why the Russians were burying themselves by propagating such nonsense. Then I came here to Unz and discovered most of the commenters believed them. Though I suspect many just pretended to believe them out of spite towards the US or something like that.

    Replies: @German_reader, @utu

    “Then I came here to Unz and discovered most of the commenters believed them.” – including the owner.

  760. @A123
    @German_reader

    Every nation should have migration policies rooted in maintaining national stability. The Israeli rules are merely common sense. Europe & the U.S. are the ones that have flawed immigration rules, directly leading to lack of national cohesion. Of course, Globalists gain by undermining nations, so this is a Feature not a Bug.


    There’s a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish one
     
    The Muslim Occupiers of Judea & Samaria made a concerted effort to breed their way to demographic victory. It is hardly surprising that indigenous Jews responded with demographics. Not only is migration restricted, Ultra-Orthodox families tend to be quite large.

    While necessary, the increasing % of Ultra-Orthodox will present a serious challenge a few generations down the line. There is a real chance that Israel will need to adopt some Federalistic concepts to formally establish 'states' with different local laws and regulations.

    And that doesn’t even go into things like Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.
     
    In 1947-48 Muslim (primarily Jordanian) forces ethnically cleansed Judea & Samaria. The result was Apartheid Islamic occupation & rule.

    Indigenous Palestinian Jews are inevitably returning to Judea, the religious homeland of Judaism. The need to recover stolen territory is not merely Nationalist. Reclaiming holy lands is a religious duty.

    ...obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people,
     
    You are correct that Israel has a top level uniform national culture based on the need for security, due to 70+ years of unprovoked hostility from their neighbors.

    However, there are distinctions between Palestinian Jews.

     
    https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/03/PF_2016.03.08_israel-03-06_FT.png
     

    While there are pockets of 'wokism', they exist only in very secular areas. Most notably in and around Tel Aviv. Unlike Europe and the U.S., these venues seem quite contained. I suspect there are commonly accepted "unwritten rules" about what is permitted where. The need for national security prevents major factions from picking internal fights. Fringe agitators may be loud, but they obviously have little support.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

    The Israeli rules are merely common sense.

    I agree. Disagree somewhat with your interpretation of the Israel/Palestine conflict, but I don’t care that much tbh, just wanted to explain to Dmitry why some Westerners are envious of Israel and its national culture. I’ll leave discussion of the Israel/Palestine conflict to others.

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader


    I agree. .... just wanted to explain to Dmitry why some Westerners are envious of Israel and its national culture
     
    Israel is not a perfect culture, but it certainly has huge advantages over Europe & the U.S. They have sane migration policy. They use schools to teach patriotism and build societal cohesion.

    Heck.... Their schools actually teach, unlike Baltimore. (1)

    A Baltimore high school student failed all but three classes over four years and almost graduated near the top half of his class with a 0.13 GPA, according to a local report
    ...
    France's son failed 22 classes and was late or absent 272 days over his first three years of high school. Only one teacher requested a parent-teacher conference, but France said that didn't happen. Despite this, her son still ranked 62nd in his class out of 120 total students.
     
    Can you imagine the Israeli public reaction to a school that delivers a 0.13 GPA? Yes. There is a Muslim underclass with lower academic capability. However, no parent on any side would tolerate a failure of that magnitude.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.foxnews.com/us/baltimore-student-fails-classes-top-half
  761. The prosecutor in the Rittenhouse trial should probably win Sleazeball of the Year Award. (I am also suggesting that there should be such an award.)

    • Replies: @A123
    @songbird

    😁 Rittenhouse Humor😂

    Amazing that every Hollywood Leftoid has exactly the same tweet.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/compass.jpg

     

    https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/11/Screen-Shot-2021-11-17-at-11.23.50-AM.png

     

    https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/11/Screen-Shot-2021-11-19-at-11.51.23-AM.png

    Replies: @songbird

  762. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Israel is more like a signal of dystopia, from their preferences.
     
    There's a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish ones (even if in reality that has been exploited by people from Russia with only minor Jewish ancestry), with a general consensus that maintaining a Jewish majority in the country should be the goal of policy. Something like that would be unthinkable in Western Europe or the US today, where the expression of ethnonational sentiment of the white native majorities is suppressed by the state and existing immigration policies will make those former majorities into minorities within just a few decades (in Germany you're basically declared an enemy of the constitution and put under surveillance by the domestic security service, if you state that Germany is the historic homeland of ethnic Germans and should be preserved as such, and it's not much different in Britain or France).
    And that doesn't even go into things like Israel's settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.
    But we've had that discussion before, and for some strange reason you always try to obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people, and how it's totally at odds with what racist Europeans and Americans would want. So there's not much point to this discussion and I have no great interest in repeating it.

    Replies: @A123, @Coconuts, @Dmitry

    I think in France if you advocate for what they call ‘biological racism’ you will run into problems with the law, but if you promote something like integral nationalism it is okay and easier to evade issues with the laws against racism. This is how Zemmour says the things he does and mostly has got away with it. Maybe it is because there populations have always been more racially mixed, but in the Mediterranean countries brands of strong ‘traditionalist’ (anti-liberal) civic nationalism seem to have been more dominant, and it is probably one reason the far-right is still closer to the political and cultural mainstream.

    For example, Zemmour wrote this as the blurb to one of his books, which was a best seller a couple of years ago:

    (It starts with a paragraph about how France was used to imposing her values on a world swooning when presented with such marvels and then…)

    Not only is she no longer capable of it, France is compelled to swallow values and ways of living that are at the antipodes of what she has constructed over the centuries.

    Our political, economic, administrative, media, intellectual and artistic elites, the inheritors of May ’68, celebrate it. They call on France to adapt herself to the new values.

    They spit on her tomb and stamp on her smoking corpse. They derive social and financial gratification from the fact. They have fragmented the people by depriving it of its national memory via deculturation, at the same time as breaking its unity via immigration. All of them stand as false, affected, mocking onlookers as France is struck down and believe they are writing, with a weary, disdainful air, the ‘final pages of the history of France’.

    Today this vast subversive project is reaching it’s limit, the veil is torn…

    If you were a major journalist with your own TV show I doubt you could get away with stuff like this in the UK, it sounds like it would be even harder in Germany (the parts about Holocaust narratives and US affiliated French Zionist lobbies and their role in deculturation would probably be problematic, as one example).

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    in France if you advocate for what they call ‘biological racism’ you will run into problems with the law, but if you promote something like integral nationalism it is okay and easier to evade issues with the laws against racism.
     
    I'm not sure the distinction is drawn that clearly. Sure, Zemmour certainly allows for the possibility of assimilation (given his own background it would be strange if he didn't). But on the other hand, some of his statements seem to be pretty explicit in their references to ethnicity:
    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Zemmour#Grand_remplacement,_immigration,_islam
    He speaks about the great replacement, uses a term like Français de souche (which may not be totally closed, I think in the understanding of most Frenchmen it would include the descendants at least of European immigrants like Italians, Poles etc., but it definitely has ethnocultural connotations) and asks whether young Frenchmen should become a minority in the country of their ancestors (if it were just about republican values, that statement wouldn't make much sense imo). To me it doesn't sound that different from what the identitarians have been saying, and they were banned in France a few months ago.
    Zemmour himself is on trial right now for hate speech:
    https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211117-hate-speech-trial-for-french-far-right-pundit-zemmour
    So I'm a bit skeptical whether France with its republican ideology is in reality that different from other western European countries. The issues seem similar to me, as often there is a huge gap between the official ideology and what many people are actually thinking. But I admit my understanding of French politics is limited, so I may not get all the nuances.

    Replies: @Coconuts

  763. @songbird
    The prosecutor in the Rittenhouse trial should probably win Sleazeball of the Year Award. (I am also suggesting that there should be such an award.)

    Replies: @A123

    😁 Rittenhouse Humor😂

    Amazing that every Hollywood Leftoid has exactly the same tweet.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

     

     

    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123

    I still wonder what would have happened to Rittenhouse, if he wasn't so baby-faced. Imagine if he were forty and had a scar on his face.

    In a sane world, there would have been negative career consequences for pointing a gun at the jury.

    Wonder what the going rate for the Kaepernick-themed tweet was. The older I get, the more convinced I am that Geordi's character on TNG was evil. Basically, they saw Levar Burton in Roots and thought it would be good to use him to color signal, to subvert ideas about the intelligence of blacks. Whoopi (though I am no fan of hers) tells a funny story about how she got the job, after hearing from Burton that he got a part.

  764. @German_reader
    @A123


    The Israeli rules are merely common sense.
     
    I agree. Disagree somewhat with your interpretation of the Israel/Palestine conflict, but I don't care that much tbh, just wanted to explain to Dmitry why some Westerners are envious of Israel and its national culture. I'll leave discussion of the Israel/Palestine conflict to others.

    Replies: @A123

    I agree. …. just wanted to explain to Dmitry why some Westerners are envious of Israel and its national culture

    Israel is not a perfect culture, but it certainly has huge advantages over Europe & the U.S. They have sane migration policy. They use schools to teach patriotism and build societal cohesion.

    Heck…. Their schools actually teach, unlike Baltimore. (1)

    A Baltimore high school student failed all but three classes over four years and almost graduated near the top half of his class with a 0.13 GPA, according to a local report

    France’s son failed 22 classes and was late or absent 272 days over his first three years of high school. Only one teacher requested a parent-teacher conference, but France said that didn’t happen. Despite this, her son still ranked 62nd in his class out of 120 total students.

    Can you imagine the Israeli public reaction to a school that delivers a 0.13 GPA? Yes. There is a Muslim underclass with lower academic capability. However, no parent on any side would tolerate a failure of that magnitude.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.foxnews.com/us/baltimore-student-fails-classes-top-half

  765. @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    There is no need to add immigrants for Belarus. This is not a country like Germany or Poland.

    As they say, Belarus is already one of the world's most multi-racial countries, with 140 different local nationalities.

    You can see in the photos in their presentation, about the many multi-cultural peoples, which live under the kindly Lukashenko.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA7lbmKnAS0

    Belarus is known as safe haven of traditional brown Middle Eastern people like their Jews, that can teach you about their native Middle Eastern traditions like Humus and their Arabian Dabke
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TW_UekYBAk

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Yahya

    I wonder if they are categorising the single Irishman who lives in Belarus as one of these 140 national ethnic minority groups?

  766. German_reader says:
    @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    I think in France if you advocate for what they call 'biological racism' you will run into problems with the law, but if you promote something like integral nationalism it is okay and easier to evade issues with the laws against racism. This is how Zemmour says the things he does and mostly has got away with it. Maybe it is because there populations have always been more racially mixed, but in the Mediterranean countries brands of strong 'traditionalist' (anti-liberal) civic nationalism seem to have been more dominant, and it is probably one reason the far-right is still closer to the political and cultural mainstream.

    For example, Zemmour wrote this as the blurb to one of his books, which was a best seller a couple of years ago:

    (It starts with a paragraph about how France was used to imposing her values on a world swooning when presented with such marvels and then...)


    Not only is she no longer capable of it, France is compelled to swallow values and ways of living that are at the antipodes of what she has constructed over the centuries.

    Our political, economic, administrative, media, intellectual and artistic elites, the inheritors of May '68, celebrate it. They call on France to adapt herself to the new values.

    They spit on her tomb and stamp on her smoking corpse. They derive social and financial gratification from the fact. They have fragmented the people by depriving it of its national memory via deculturation, at the same time as breaking its unity via immigration. All of them stand as false, affected, mocking onlookers as France is struck down and believe they are writing, with a weary, disdainful air, the 'final pages of the history of France'.

    Today this vast subversive project is reaching it's limit, the veil is torn...
     

    If you were a major journalist with your own TV show I doubt you could get away with stuff like this in the UK, it sounds like it would be even harder in Germany (the parts about Holocaust narratives and US affiliated French Zionist lobbies and their role in deculturation would probably be problematic, as one example).

    Replies: @German_reader

    in France if you advocate for what they call ‘biological racism’ you will run into problems with the law, but if you promote something like integral nationalism it is okay and easier to evade issues with the laws against racism.

    I’m not sure the distinction is drawn that clearly. Sure, Zemmour certainly allows for the possibility of assimilation (given his own background it would be strange if he didn’t). But on the other hand, some of his statements seem to be pretty explicit in their references to ethnicity:
    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Zemmour#Grand_remplacement,_immigration,_islam
    He speaks about the great replacement, uses a term like Français de souche (which may not be totally closed, I think in the understanding of most Frenchmen it would include the descendants at least of European immigrants like Italians, Poles etc., but it definitely has ethnocultural connotations) and asks whether young Frenchmen should become a minority in the country of their ancestors (if it were just about republican values, that statement wouldn’t make much sense imo). To me it doesn’t sound that different from what the identitarians have been saying, and they were banned in France a few months ago.
    Zemmour himself is on trial right now for hate speech:
    https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211117-hate-speech-trial-for-french-far-right-pundit-zemmour
    So I’m a bit skeptical whether France with its republican ideology is in reality that different from other western European countries. The issues seem similar to me, as often there is a huge gap between the official ideology and what many people are actually thinking. But I admit my understanding of French politics is limited, so I may not get all the nuances.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    It seems to me he is partly channeling these two guys, but in an updated or actualised way:

    « depuis Barrès et Maurras, aucun autre intellectuel, journaliste ou écrivain, n’avait eu ce statut de passeur des idées d’extrême droite auprès d’un très large lectorat »

    As far as I know at least, he has been in court a few times already for making racist statements but so far has avoided being convicted. Given his profile and the current polling it seems unlikely he is going to be banned at the moment. Whereas in the UK I think he would have been completely cancelled years ago.

    I was thinking about the ideology of the right in France rather than the formal institutions of the Republic itself, because this tendency waxes and wanes in terms of how politically influential it is at any given time, but there has always been a place within it for the more robust forms of 'civic nationalism' (they do somewhat redefine the distinction between civic and ethno-nationalism) . I suppose it derives from the influence of things like integral nationalism in the past:

    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalisme_int%C3%A9gral#Nationalisme_int%C3%A9gral_et_national-socialisme

    I believe you can see something similar in the Spanish and Italian right as well.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @German_reader

  767. @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    Seems like rightoids are coming to the conclusion of mutual exclusion between civilization spheres - only when people of other civilization sphere are subjugated, can they be brought over?

    Replies: @Coconuts

    What German_reader was writing about how immigration can ‘snowball’ over time into a much bigger political and social issue is accurate, it also seems to be getting caught up into some wider progressive/anti-progressive political division that is developing in the majority population in many Western countries.

  768. @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    There is no need to add immigrants for Belarus. This is not a country like Germany or Poland.

    As they say, Belarus is already one of the world's most multi-racial countries, with 140 different local nationalities.

    You can see in the photos in their presentation, about the many multi-cultural peoples, which live under the kindly Lukashenko.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA7lbmKnAS0

    Belarus is known as safe haven of traditional brown Middle Eastern people like their Jews, that can teach you about their native Middle Eastern traditions like Humus and their Arabian Dabke
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TW_UekYBAk

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Yahya

    Belarus is known as safe haven of traditional brown Middle Eastern people like their Jews, that can teach you about their native Middle Eastern traditions like Humus and their Arabian Dabke

    That Belarusian Dabke dance was pretty lousy. They’re going to need to import more Middle Easterners to teach them how to do it properly.

    This is the way it should be done:

  769. @German_reader
    @AP


    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?
     
    At the border? No idea.
    But make no mistake, as sad as their fate in their homeland may be, they're definitely not desirable immigrants (basically just another group of clannish Mideasterners with a penchant for honor killings).
    Mideastern Christians might be an exception (though I still wouldn't recommend large-scale settlement of them to any Eastern European country).

    Replies: @AP

    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?

    At the border? No idea.

    I was wondering about in Germany. Presumably due to the sheer number of Iraqis there must be a substantial number of Yazidis. Theirs is a strange religion. I was curious if they are as troublesome as the Muslims.

    But make no mistake, as sad as their fate in their homeland may be, they’re definitely not desirable immigrants (basically just another group of clannish Mideasterners with a penchant for honor killings).

    I didn’t know they engaged in honor killings.

    Mideastern Christians might be an exception (though I still wouldn’t recommend large-scale settlement of them to any Eastern European country).

    They are a clannish market minority, though because they don’t have their own state they do not have dual loyalties. The ones I have known in the USA tend to be like Italian or Greek Americans, even though they aren’t Europeans but Semites. The ones from Iraq call themselves Chaldeans rather than Arabs, and consider themselves to be the original Babylonians who were swamped by the dirty, stupid, and evil Arabs. The Christians from Lebanon think of themselves as descendants of the original Phoenicians, who were also swamped by the stupid and dirty Arab invaders.

    The clannishness and market savviness of these Middle Eastern Christians could mean that they become a financial elite, as has happened in Mexico, Argentina and Columbia. Although they share the same religion and intermarry very readily (especially with blondes) so within a couple generations this would just be Poles with exotic last names.

    In general, I oppose mass immigration to any European country; European countries should basically just be ethnic homelands. It’s not the New World.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AP


    Presumably due to the sheer number of Iraqis there must be a substantial number of Yazidis. Theirs is a strange religion. I was curious if they are as troublesome as the Muslims.
     
    Germany actually seems to have the biggest diaspora population of them (about 200 000).
    tbh I can't say with 100% certainty how bad they really are in Germany. There were a few cases in recent years of Yazidi families killing daughters for disobeying the family and having sexual relations with non-Yazidis (traditionally they're strictly endogamous, and have a strong us vs them mentality, due to their persecution by Muslims).
    This case was especially shocking:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzu_%C3%96zmen
    Yazidi girl is in love with a Russian-German man, gets kidnapped by five of her siblings and is executed with two shots to the head.
    I can't claim to know how common the mindset leading to something like this still is, some "experts" claim most Yazidis in Germany have become totally modern in the last 20 years and left their old ideas behind. Who knows.
    The only Yazidi public figures I know of in Germany are two annoying women, Ronai Chaker and Düzen Tekkal. The one is a minor presence on semi-right-wing Twitter, mostly because she hates Muslims for what they have done to her people (obviously she doesn't like real German nationalists either). Tekkal is a CDU member who loves Angela Merkel and has founded a project called "German dream", which is all about promoting Germany as a country of immigration (she too thinks people like me are basically just the same as Islamist head-choppers, both enemies of the open society).

    The ones from Iraq call themselves Chaldeans rather than Arabs, and consider themselves to be the original Babylonians who were swamped by the dirty, stupid, and evil Arabs. The Christians from Lebanon think of themselves as descendants of the original Phoenicians
     
    I understand, and I agree with you that Mideastern Christians should get sympathy and assistance. I'm not a big fan of mass immigration in any case (and it's pretty appalling if all Christian communities in the Mideast have to leave), but obviously they would be way less of a problem for (post-)Christian Europe than Muslims.

    Replies: @AP

  770. @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    in France if you advocate for what they call ‘biological racism’ you will run into problems with the law, but if you promote something like integral nationalism it is okay and easier to evade issues with the laws against racism.
     
    I'm not sure the distinction is drawn that clearly. Sure, Zemmour certainly allows for the possibility of assimilation (given his own background it would be strange if he didn't). But on the other hand, some of his statements seem to be pretty explicit in their references to ethnicity:
    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Zemmour#Grand_remplacement,_immigration,_islam
    He speaks about the great replacement, uses a term like Français de souche (which may not be totally closed, I think in the understanding of most Frenchmen it would include the descendants at least of European immigrants like Italians, Poles etc., but it definitely has ethnocultural connotations) and asks whether young Frenchmen should become a minority in the country of their ancestors (if it were just about republican values, that statement wouldn't make much sense imo). To me it doesn't sound that different from what the identitarians have been saying, and they were banned in France a few months ago.
    Zemmour himself is on trial right now for hate speech:
    https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211117-hate-speech-trial-for-french-far-right-pundit-zemmour
    So I'm a bit skeptical whether France with its republican ideology is in reality that different from other western European countries. The issues seem similar to me, as often there is a huge gap between the official ideology and what many people are actually thinking. But I admit my understanding of French politics is limited, so I may not get all the nuances.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    It seems to me he is partly channeling these two guys, but in an updated or actualised way:

    « depuis Barrès et Maurras, aucun autre intellectuel, journaliste ou écrivain, n’avait eu ce statut de passeur des idées d’extrême droite auprès d’un très large lectorat »

    As far as I know at least, he has been in court a few times already for making racist statements but so far has avoided being convicted. Given his profile and the current polling it seems unlikely he is going to be banned at the moment. Whereas in the UK I think he would have been completely cancelled years ago.

    I was thinking about the ideology of the right in France rather than the formal institutions of the Republic itself, because this tendency waxes and wanes in terms of how politically influential it is at any given time, but there has always been a place within it for the more robust forms of ‘civic nationalism’ (they do somewhat redefine the distinction between civic and ethno-nationalism) . I suppose it derives from the influence of things like integral nationalism in the past:

    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalisme_int%C3%A9gral#Nationalisme_int%C3%A9gral_et_national-socialisme

    I believe you can see something similar in the Spanish and Italian right as well.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Coconuts

    I see on Wikipedia that Zemmour has actually been convicted once in 2011 for 'justifying an illegal discriminatory practice' and has a case before the ECHR at the moment, besides the other acquittals.

    , @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    I believe you can see something similar in the Spanish and Italian right as well.
     
    I don't know about Italy. Obviously there were serious tensions between Nazis and fascists, but the fascists still enacted race laws of their own (and not just because of the German alliance). Unlike France which has seen heavy immigration since the 19th century, Italy has also become a country of immigration really only within the last few decades. So apart from some Jews (not that numerous in Italy), Albanians and Slavs (who faced oppression) there weren't really any ethnic minorities or immigrant communities in the strict sense, the issue was more the North-South divide and regionalism.
    Can't really comment on Spain (but it too has only become a country of immigration quite recently).
    As for Maurras, I only know the bare outlines of his thought (monarchism, and iirc a focus on Catholicism, despite not being a genuine believer himself and actually coming into conflict with the church). It's interesting that he so strongly rejected Nazi racial mysticism, but I'd have to read more to really understand his reasoning (would he have been thrilled at the immigration of millions of Arabs and Africans and seen that as fulfillment of France's civilisational mission?).
  771. German_reader says:
    @AP
    @German_reader


    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?

    At the border? No idea.
     

    I was wondering about in Germany. Presumably due to the sheer number of Iraqis there must be a substantial number of Yazidis. Theirs is a strange religion. I was curious if they are as troublesome as the Muslims.

    But make no mistake, as sad as their fate in their homeland may be, they’re definitely not desirable immigrants (basically just another group of clannish Mideasterners with a penchant for honor killings).
     
    I didn't know they engaged in honor killings.

    Mideastern Christians might be an exception (though I still wouldn’t recommend large-scale settlement of them to any Eastern European country).
     
    They are a clannish market minority, though because they don't have their own state they do not have dual loyalties. The ones I have known in the USA tend to be like Italian or Greek Americans, even though they aren't Europeans but Semites. The ones from Iraq call themselves Chaldeans rather than Arabs, and consider themselves to be the original Babylonians who were swamped by the dirty, stupid, and evil Arabs. The Christians from Lebanon think of themselves as descendants of the original Phoenicians, who were also swamped by the stupid and dirty Arab invaders.

    The clannishness and market savviness of these Middle Eastern Christians could mean that they become a financial elite, as has happened in Mexico, Argentina and Columbia. Although they share the same religion and intermarry very readily (especially with blondes) so within a couple generations this would just be Poles with exotic last names.

    In general, I oppose mass immigration to any European country; European countries should basically just be ethnic homelands. It's not the New World.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Presumably due to the sheer number of Iraqis there must be a substantial number of Yazidis. Theirs is a strange religion. I was curious if they are as troublesome as the Muslims.

    Germany actually seems to have the biggest diaspora population of them (about 200 000).
    tbh I can’t say with 100% certainty how bad they really are in Germany. There were a few cases in recent years of Yazidi families killing daughters for disobeying the family and having sexual relations with non-Yazidis (traditionally they’re strictly endogamous, and have a strong us vs them mentality, due to their persecution by Muslims).
    This case was especially shocking:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzu_%C3%96zmen
    Yazidi girl is in love with a Russian-German man, gets kidnapped by five of her siblings and is executed with two shots to the head.
    I can’t claim to know how common the mindset leading to something like this still is, some “experts” claim most Yazidis in Germany have become totally modern in the last 20 years and left their old ideas behind. Who knows.
    The only Yazidi public figures I know of in Germany are two annoying women, Ronai Chaker and Düzen Tekkal. The one is a minor presence on semi-right-wing Twitter, mostly because she hates Muslims for what they have done to her people (obviously she doesn’t like real German nationalists either). Tekkal is a CDU member who loves Angela Merkel and has founded a project called “German dream”, which is all about promoting Germany as a country of immigration (she too thinks people like me are basically just the same as Islamist head-choppers, both enemies of the open society).

    The ones from Iraq call themselves Chaldeans rather than Arabs, and consider themselves to be the original Babylonians who were swamped by the dirty, stupid, and evil Arabs. The Christians from Lebanon think of themselves as descendants of the original Phoenicians

    I understand, and I agree with you that Mideastern Christians should get sympathy and assistance. I’m not a big fan of mass immigration in any case (and it’s pretty appalling if all Christian communities in the Mideast have to leave), but obviously they would be way less of a problem for (post-)Christian Europe than Muslims.

    • Replies: @AP
    @German_reader


    There were a few cases in recent years of Yazidi families killing daughters for disobeying the family and having sexual relations with non-Yazidis (traditionally they’re strictly endogamous, and have a strong us vs them mentality, due to their persecution by Muslims).
    This case was especially shocking:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzu_%C3%96zmen
     
    Thank you. There should be not be any of them coming to Europe.

    I’m not a big fan of mass immigration in any case (and it’s pretty appalling if all Christian communities in the Mideast have to leave), but obviously they would be way less of a problem for (post-)Christian Europe than Muslims.
     
    At the very least they would probably oppose Muslim immigration, though their numbers would have to be controlled so they don't take over too much prior to their assimilation.

    Replies: @German_reader

  772. @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    It seems to me he is partly channeling these two guys, but in an updated or actualised way:

    « depuis Barrès et Maurras, aucun autre intellectuel, journaliste ou écrivain, n’avait eu ce statut de passeur des idées d’extrême droite auprès d’un très large lectorat »

    As far as I know at least, he has been in court a few times already for making racist statements but so far has avoided being convicted. Given his profile and the current polling it seems unlikely he is going to be banned at the moment. Whereas in the UK I think he would have been completely cancelled years ago.

    I was thinking about the ideology of the right in France rather than the formal institutions of the Republic itself, because this tendency waxes and wanes in terms of how politically influential it is at any given time, but there has always been a place within it for the more robust forms of 'civic nationalism' (they do somewhat redefine the distinction between civic and ethno-nationalism) . I suppose it derives from the influence of things like integral nationalism in the past:

    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalisme_int%C3%A9gral#Nationalisme_int%C3%A9gral_et_national-socialisme

    I believe you can see something similar in the Spanish and Italian right as well.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @German_reader

    I see on Wikipedia that Zemmour has actually been convicted once in 2011 for ‘justifying an illegal discriminatory practice’ and has a case before the ECHR at the moment, besides the other acquittals.

  773. @Svidomyatheart
    @LatW


    I don’t know what you have seen, are you talking about nationalist or normie Twitter accounts? But I can guarantee that Latvian nationalists have no idea about Greater Turan and most Estonian ones are ethnonationalist. I know that some of them have sympathies for Hungary. Btw, not sure if you know what Estonians look like, but they don’t look Asian. They are tallish, very light on average, with elongated skulls. I have wondered, though, if Finns and Estonians (and partly Latvians because they are partly Finno-Ugric Liv) could use”Uralic” as a racial category to get special status (in the West).

    If you see some Islamo-sympathisers it most likely could be some disgruntled middle age dudes, who can’t handle the current system and passive aggressively praise Islam to troll the liberals. They like the more stable structure and more pronounced masculism, I guess, that Islam presents. Which is understandable. However, this could be developed even within the existing Christian or even secular culture. It’s easier to yap about this on Twitter, then follow the “straight and narrow” in one’s real life, especially when very few others around you are following that as well.
     
    Ohi know how Baltic people look like, not all subgroups but at least could tell some faces on the first sight phenotypically, ive spent a few months(or years but only checking it now and then? its a waste of time tbh) on Skadi, theapricity, and other anthropology boards.

    Im pretty sure that whole TURAN thing goes back to 19th century theory of how Finnic peoples are related to Turkics.

    I could link here dozens of Balt twitter ultranationalist accounts , (dont want to doxx any though) that promote the "Estlam" thing. They seem to be quite hardcore too not middle aged, more like zoomers. As lame as it sounds twitter is actually perhaps the best medium(that Stormfront-/pol/-UNZ-Salo-Twitter pipeline) if you actually want to learn something quickly just dont get lost in a sea of information.

    And you know this to well yourself we may be well behaved here on the blog but its always ethnic conflict. Ukrainians in the Baltics is probably a mistake too..like that one Latvian politician had said. We're just taking whatever limited resources are left. And those Russians even in your country, sure they are placated and passive by being fed mass entertainment like vidya and porn and decent wages but that can always change.

    Replies: @LatW

    Im pretty sure that whole TURAN thing goes back to 19th century theory of how Finnic peoples are related to Turkics.

    It was developed in Finland as a reaction to the influence of Sweden. I think it may have been a part of the Fennoman movement, the Finnish national revival movement of the 19th century.

    [MORE]

    Estlam

    From what it looks like, those are young trolls who mix Finno-Ugric mythology with some Muslim aesthetic. Frankly, it might be a parody of Estonian nationalism or humor directed at oneself, I don’t think they are real converts. There is a legit nationalist org there with a regional forum which is relatively intellectual, but I don’t want to mention it here. One of their liberal politicians criticized this org saying that they “brought Islamic political culture to Estonia” because their rhetoric was too aggressive, too undemocratic. Maybe that’s where these jokes come from.

    And you know this to well yourself we may be well behaved here on the blog but its always ethnic conflict. Ukrainians in the Baltics is probably a mistake too..like that one Latvian politician had said.

    It was an Estonian politician, but he wasn’t against Ukrainians per se, but against Russophones (or anyone for that matter) moving there. He’s a purist.

    We’re just taking whatever limited resources are left.

    Actually no because the new arrivals are not entitled to much and they actually generate resources in areas where there is a shortage of labor. For instance, in Lithuania growth is again projected at 4% in 2022, so labor will be needed. The only resource that may become limited if many Ukrainians arrived would be quality housing.

    But I understand what you mean, and above all — Ukrainian patriots don’t like it when other countries absorb Ukrainians, in particular Andriy Biletsky mentioned that he is concerned that “Poland is stealing” his people, for example, so I want to be respectful of his position.

    And those Russians even in your country, sure they are placated and passive by being fed mass entertainment like vidya and porn and decent wages but that can always change.

    For something to change drastically, the political system would have to change or they would have to be influenced from the outside in a significant way. They themselves would lose out by changing the status quo too much. The Russian population in the Baltics has utterly collapsed. Their birthrate is much lower than what it was in the 1980s. Those children that are born now, when they reach dating age, will have to date Latvians or Estonians in larger numbers and will eventually assimilate. Of course, there will always be a Slavic community, just not as big as before. There is a small trickle of new Slavic migrants but they’re younger and more appreciative because they come with a fresh look and want to build their lives. So far the numbers are not that high, so unless the government decides to significantly increase quotas for newcomers, it won’t be a big deal. Of course, some Baltic people are purists (just like yourself) so they may not want to accept anyone.

  774. German_reader says:
    @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    It seems to me he is partly channeling these two guys, but in an updated or actualised way:

    « depuis Barrès et Maurras, aucun autre intellectuel, journaliste ou écrivain, n’avait eu ce statut de passeur des idées d’extrême droite auprès d’un très large lectorat »

    As far as I know at least, he has been in court a few times already for making racist statements but so far has avoided being convicted. Given his profile and the current polling it seems unlikely he is going to be banned at the moment. Whereas in the UK I think he would have been completely cancelled years ago.

    I was thinking about the ideology of the right in France rather than the formal institutions of the Republic itself, because this tendency waxes and wanes in terms of how politically influential it is at any given time, but there has always been a place within it for the more robust forms of 'civic nationalism' (they do somewhat redefine the distinction between civic and ethno-nationalism) . I suppose it derives from the influence of things like integral nationalism in the past:

    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalisme_int%C3%A9gral#Nationalisme_int%C3%A9gral_et_national-socialisme

    I believe you can see something similar in the Spanish and Italian right as well.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @German_reader

    I believe you can see something similar in the Spanish and Italian right as well.

    I don’t know about Italy. Obviously there were serious tensions between Nazis and fascists, but the fascists still enacted race laws of their own (and not just because of the German alliance). Unlike France which has seen heavy immigration since the 19th century, Italy has also become a country of immigration really only within the last few decades. So apart from some Jews (not that numerous in Italy), Albanians and Slavs (who faced oppression) there weren’t really any ethnic minorities or immigrant communities in the strict sense, the issue was more the North-South divide and regionalism.
    Can’t really comment on Spain (but it too has only become a country of immigration quite recently).
    As for Maurras, I only know the bare outlines of his thought (monarchism, and iirc a focus on Catholicism, despite not being a genuine believer himself and actually coming into conflict with the church). It’s interesting that he so strongly rejected Nazi racial mysticism, but I’d have to read more to really understand his reasoning (would he have been thrilled at the immigration of millions of Arabs and Africans and seen that as fulfillment of France’s civilisational mission?).

  775. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Israel is more like a signal of dystopia, from their preferences.
     
    There's a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish ones (even if in reality that has been exploited by people from Russia with only minor Jewish ancestry), with a general consensus that maintaining a Jewish majority in the country should be the goal of policy. Something like that would be unthinkable in Western Europe or the US today, where the expression of ethnonational sentiment of the white native majorities is suppressed by the state and existing immigration policies will make those former majorities into minorities within just a few decades (in Germany you're basically declared an enemy of the constitution and put under surveillance by the domestic security service, if you state that Germany is the historic homeland of ethnic Germans and should be preserved as such, and it's not much different in Britain or France).
    And that doesn't even go into things like Israel's settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.
    But we've had that discussion before, and for some strange reason you always try to obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people, and how it's totally at odds with what racist Europeans and Americans would want. So there's not much point to this discussion and I have no great interest in repeating it.

    Replies: @A123, @Coconuts, @Dmitry

    only immigrants they desire are Jewish

    Israel is in a partially not frozen civil war between its Jewish and Muslim population, where the Muslim population is growing fast.

    The immigration policy is the same as USA saying it desires Christian immigrants (if it was in a civil war between Muslims and Christians) – i.e. wanting to import Mexicans and Africans, etc.

    If I explained this on the Sailer forum, they would claim that “Jews are not the same as Mexicans. Mexicans have drug gangs, etc”.

    But the Mizrachi Jews that Israel has imported to the largest group, were not more modernized than Mexicans.

    And the drug gangs are enough to scare the Mexicans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_mafia#In_Mexico

    maintaining a Jewish majority in the country should be the goal of policy. Something like that would be unthinkable in Western Europe

    But except for the Balkans and Northern Ireland, nowhere in Europe has been a recent civil war between the religions, while Israel is most “hot” warzone of any developed country, and the war is not ending anytime soon. Although in Northern Ireland, the number of people in the different religions is still seen as determining who will win the conflict.

    This kind of solution to the war, isn’t analogous to what those conservative Americans, who want to shoot Mexican Christian immigrants, desire exactly though.

    Israelis are converting former animist peoples in India as “Lost Tribes” of Judaism, and then after the Haredi rabbis accept their conversion, they settle them in Israeli borders as religious nationalists.

    nacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people,

    Because its context is the peace-process since Oslo, rather than a model of “nationalist policy”, which people that don’t understand the region seem to promote.

    Arafat and PA said they accept the two-state solution as an interim stage, where the subsequent goal afterwards will still continue to be “from the river to the sea,”

    Netanyahu’s policy for not a “nationalism” context, but trying to win the war against the Palestinians. PA says it is negotiating for sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza, but it will recognize Israel as an interim stage in the negotiation.

    If Israel formally defines itself as a Jewish state, then it strengthens sub-clause of the peace-process, as the Palestinian they would have to recognize the two-state solution as a final stage, rather than the interim stage where they would recognize Israel, but not Israel as the Jewish part of the two states.

    Of course, otherwise, this law would just be a useless piece of paper (there is no benefit there). But for Netanyahu, believes it strengthens his position in relation to the PA.

    Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people, and how it’s totally at odds with what racist Europeans and Americans would want

    Which is the simple reality, even with the “Jewish side” – it’s a multi-cultural, multi-racial chaos, discounting the other side of the war there.

    If you want to talk about “Israel in the Western discourse”, then perhaps there can be some point to claiming it is what “what racist Europeans and Americans would want”. But this is only because the Western media and left have projected the concepts of what ever they oppose onto it. So if you invert those, then you have whatever the left opposes – it’s what the right desires. You’re talking about these projections of Western thought, which is not related to any realities about life there.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    If Israel formally defines itself as a Jewish state, then it strengthens sub-clause of the peace-process, as the Palestinian they would have to recognize the two-state solution as a final stage, rather than the interim stage where they would recognize Israel, but not Israel as the Jewish part of the two states.
     
    Sorry, Dmitry, but imo this is all convoluted nonsense (and save that stuff about two-state solution, everybody knows it's off the table now and that Israel will never tolerate a viable Palestinian state). If Israel isn't meant to be a Jewish national state, but merely some multicultural civic nationalism project (because that's what you seem to be implying), what exactly is its point? If it isn't about maintaining a national home where Jews are the majority and will continue to be the majority, Israeli Jews could just save themselves all the effort and sacrifice they have to go through and move en masse to America.
    I really get the impression you don't understand the mindset of nationalists at all (and many, maybe most Israelis obviously are nationalists, even if with some somewhat unusual features due to the religious aspects of Zionism).
    In any case, I'd rather end this discussion, like I wrote above Israel isn't really that high among my interests.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  776. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    only immigrants they desire are Jewish
     
    Israel is in a partially not frozen civil war between its Jewish and Muslim population, where the Muslim population is growing fast.

    The immigration policy is the same as USA saying it desires Christian immigrants (if it was in a civil war between Muslims and Christians) - i.e. wanting to import Mexicans and Africans, etc.

    If I explained this on the Sailer forum, they would claim that "Jews are not the same as Mexicans. Mexicans have drug gangs, etc".

    But the Mizrachi Jews that Israel has imported to the largest group, were not more modernized than Mexicans.

    And the drug gangs are enough to scare the Mexicans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_mafia#In_Mexico


    maintaining a Jewish majority in the country should be the goal of policy. Something like that would be unthinkable in Western Europe

     

    But except for the Balkans and Northern Ireland, nowhere in Europe has been a recent civil war between the religions, while Israel is most "hot" warzone of any developed country, and the war is not ending anytime soon. Although in Northern Ireland, the number of people in the different religions is still seen as determining who will win the conflict.

    -

    This kind of solution to the war, isn't analogous to what those conservative Americans, who want to shoot Mexican Christian immigrants, desire exactly though.

    Israelis are converting former animist peoples in India as "Lost Tribes" of Judaism, and then after the Haredi rabbis accept their conversion, they settle them in Israeli borders as religious nationalists.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmp8s-Ir5hM


    nacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people,

     

    Because its context is the peace-process since Oslo, rather than a model of "nationalist policy", which people that don't understand the region seem to promote.

    Arafat and PA said they accept the two-state solution as an interim stage, where the subsequent goal afterwards will still continue to be "from the river to the sea,”

    Netanyahu's policy for not a "nationalism" context, but trying to win the war against the Palestinians. PA says it is negotiating for sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza, but it will recognize Israel as an interim stage in the negotiation.

    If Israel formally defines itself as a Jewish state, then it strengthens sub-clause of the peace-process, as the Palestinian they would have to recognize the two-state solution as a final stage, rather than the interim stage where they would recognize Israel, but not Israel as the Jewish part of the two states.

    Of course, otherwise, this law would just be a useless piece of paper (there is no benefit there). But for Netanyahu, believes it strengthens his position in relation to the PA.


    Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people, and how it’s totally at odds with what racist Europeans and Americans would want
     
    Which is the simple reality, even with the "Jewish side" - it's a multi-cultural, multi-racial chaos, discounting the other side of the war there.

    If you want to talk about "Israel in the Western discourse", then perhaps there can be some point to claiming it is what "what racist Europeans and Americans would want". But this is only because the Western media and left have projected the concepts of what ever they oppose onto it. So if you invert those, then you have whatever the left opposes - it's what the right desires. You're talking about these projections of Western thought, which is not related to any realities about life there.

    Replies: @German_reader

    If Israel formally defines itself as a Jewish state, then it strengthens sub-clause of the peace-process, as the Palestinian they would have to recognize the two-state solution as a final stage, rather than the interim stage where they would recognize Israel, but not Israel as the Jewish part of the two states.

    Sorry, Dmitry, but imo this is all convoluted nonsense (and save that stuff about two-state solution, everybody knows it’s off the table now and that Israel will never tolerate a viable Palestinian state). If Israel isn’t meant to be a Jewish national state, but merely some multicultural civic nationalism project (because that’s what you seem to be implying), what exactly is its point? If it isn’t about maintaining a national home where Jews are the majority and will continue to be the majority, Israeli Jews could just save themselves all the effort and sacrifice they have to go through and move en masse to America.
    I really get the impression you don’t understand the mindset of nationalists at all (and many, maybe most Israelis obviously are nationalists, even if with some somewhat unusual features due to the religious aspects of Zionism).
    In any case, I’d rather end this discussion, like I wrote above Israel isn’t really that high among my interests.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    convoluted nonsense (and save that stuff about two-state solution,
     
    Except there is nothing convoluted if you are in Israel, as the main topic is the war with the Palestinians, and whether this would continue after there is a Palestinian state.

    This is simply what they (where the Jewish majority is mix of divergent immigrant groups) are concerned with there. They aren't an old European country, being flooded with immigrants. They are multiethnic religious determined immigrants living in a warzone with the group they may or may not have displaced.

    This is what Netanyahu's speeches are about, when he doesn't talk about Iran.

    Strongest supporter of the Jewish state law was actually Naftali Bennett, who is the current (first religious) Prime Minister in Israel.

    And he later criticizes the law, because it doesn't include Druze. That Druze, are a loyalist Arab population in Israel that support the Jewish side of the war.

    The concern if you are in Israel and a supporter of Zionism, is the question of loyalism - and you would love to flood more immigrants if you believe they will be loyalists that integrate with the Jewish side of the war.

    https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/bennett-jewish-nation-state-law-harms-druze-563370


    you don’t understand the mindset of nationalists at all (and many, maybe most Israelis obviously are nationalists, even if with some somewhat unusual features due to the religious aspects of Zionism).

     

    Nationalism is a different movement in countries where the population were occupied (as in 19th century Czech Republic, Poland, etc), from where they were occupiers.

    In an imperialist culture like Russia, when we talk about "nationalists", we are referring to people who oppose immigration, and want a primarily the native slavic (i.e. white) peoples' country, and often oppose imperialism (as well as usually believing in conspiracy theories).


    -


    When you talk about Israel, which began as a project for Jews to live without foreigners occupying them - but where Jews are a religious category, and it has become a religious war during the 20th century (of now multi-racial Jewish population) with the Arabs that also live there.

    If there will be a religious war between Islam and Christians in Europe, then there are some analogies.

    Israel has maybe the most nationalists, but they are movements like "religious nationalists" that don't map to European nationalism.

    Religious nationalists in Israel are creating violent manifestations as nationalists in Russia, where religious nationalists in Israel attack Palestinians (as nationalists in Russia attack immigrants from Caucasus or Central Asia).

    But the multi-racial attitude of religious nationalists in Israel, would be considered as a nightmare by nationalists in Russia. As the religious nationalists, are "racists" according to religious criteria that is determined by who they believe has a "Jewish soul" - and they believe "Jewish soul" is separate from the body.

    -


    For example, the religious nationalist section of Israel's education system, adopts the third world immigrant groups to increase its size.

    I think this immigration and adoption by the religious nationalist sector, is positive for Israel's society. But a stereotypical "Russian nationalist" would not be fan of this kind of religious nationalism that has recruits from the immigrants that come from third world countries.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDddVrzIFAs

    I'm not saying Israel is not an interesting study for nationalism. If you wrote a history of nationalism, Israel will be one of the larger chapters. I just can't imagine it can be very attractive for the Steve Sailer kind of audience.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  777. @A123
    @German_reader

    Every nation should have migration policies rooted in maintaining national stability. The Israeli rules are merely common sense. Europe & the U.S. are the ones that have flawed immigration rules, directly leading to lack of national cohesion. Of course, Globalists gain by undermining nations, so this is a Feature not a Bug.


    There’s a strong nationalist discourse in Israel, they enacted a law just a few years ago that literally defines Israel as the historical homeland and national home of the Jewish people, and the only immigrants they desire are Jewish one
     
    The Muslim Occupiers of Judea & Samaria made a concerted effort to breed their way to demographic victory. It is hardly surprising that indigenous Jews responded with demographics. Not only is migration restricted, Ultra-Orthodox families tend to be quite large.

    While necessary, the increasing % of Ultra-Orthodox will present a serious challenge a few generations down the line. There is a real chance that Israel will need to adopt some Federalistic concepts to formally establish 'states' with different local laws and regulations.

    And that doesn’t even go into things like Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories which are manifestly a colonization project driven by ethnonationalist considerations.
     
    In 1947-48 Muslim (primarily Jordanian) forces ethnically cleansed Judea & Samaria. The result was Apartheid Islamic occupation & rule.

    Indigenous Palestinian Jews are inevitably returning to Judea, the religious homeland of Judaism. The need to recover stolen territory is not merely Nationalist. Reclaiming holy lands is a religious duty.

    ...obfuscate that reality and go on and on how Israel is totally multicultural and multiracial, with so many brown people,
     
    You are correct that Israel has a top level uniform national culture based on the need for security, due to 70+ years of unprovoked hostility from their neighbors.

    However, there are distinctions between Palestinian Jews.

     
    https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/03/PF_2016.03.08_israel-03-06_FT.png
     

    While there are pockets of 'wokism', they exist only in very secular areas. Most notably in and around Tel Aviv. Unlike Europe and the U.S., these venues seem quite contained. I suspect there are commonly accepted "unwritten rules" about what is permitted where. The need for national security prevents major factions from picking internal fights. Fringe agitators may be loud, but they obviously have little support.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry

    For example, many conservative Americans complain about Haredi Jews conquering some small place in New Jersey, and imposing their customs there.

    But Haredi Jews in America do not live from taxpayers, burn US flags, and shut down roads when they talk about conscripting them.

    On the other hand, Haredi Jews will be climbing to 10% of the population in Israel, many burn Israeli flags, live from taxpayers, and shut down roads when they talk about conscripting them.

    So I’m pretty sure living in Israel would be close to the dystopian nightmare for many American conservative nationalists, who complain about “Mexicans not learning English” and the “foreign customs”.

    Colin Kaepernick maybe doesn’t stand at the national anthem. But in Jerusalem you have such relations to the authorities from the fastest growing part of the Jewish population.

    I still think Israel will be able to manage and develop successfully (if it can maintain the democracy and stable legal framework), but you receive one of the strongest dose of crazy chaos of divergent groups there of most any country.

    On the other hand, Israel is kind of nice, if you enjoy things like multiculturalism, as you can see all kinds of strange and exotic nationalities there. It’s also positive from the point of view of people who like liberal welfare states with universal healthcare, (recent) investment in public transport, and strong labor unions.

    Of course, it’s also a positive model for people that like militaristic places, with patriotic young people walking with assault rifles.

    Nationalist. Reclaiming holy lands is a religious duty.

    Yes the thinking there is religious more than nationalist. Even the secular Jews, to the extent they are Zionists, are adopting a millenarian religious attitude. Secular Zionism is a very recently secularized part of their religious prophecy. It’s still a religiously motivated population there.

    are pockets of ‘wokism’, they exist only in very secular areas. Most notably in and around Tel Aviv.

    A lot of Israel’s middle class would love to be woke in terms of social liberalism, although they are being rejected by the international woke movement because of the military war they are part of. Things like feminism, LGBT and environmentalism, are very fashionable among middle class section of the population.

    A hero of this crazy new government (that combines religious nationalists, with liberals, and support from an Islamist party) is their disabled Minister of Energy.

    They are leading in wokeness for areas which don’t go too much into topics of religion and the military conflict.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Dmitry


    On the other hand, Haredi Jews will be climbing to 10% of the population in Israel, many burn Israeli flags, live from taxpayers, and shut down roads when they talk about conscripting them.
     
    One water truck? That's it? One? You can tell that Haredi are not doing anything dangerous and the government does not want to escalate. Are they channeling Ghandi?

    Compare that to the violence of Antifa in America. Armed combatants using terror style improvised weapons. Massive property destruction, Portland (by itself) suffered ~$20MM in damage.



    https://youtu.be/Ama3bKTitHo

    This is not to say that differences do not exist. It may yet be possible to fix the mandatory service problem by bringing Ultra-Orthodox conscripts into dedicated units. There are all sorts of effort intensive tasks, such as monitoring and repairing barriers that are very necessary and avoid the interactions (e.g. reporting to female officers) that create distress.

    Bottom line, the issues in Israel are currently small. Especially when compared to BLM/Antifa in the U.S. or Muslim controlled "no-go" riot zones in France.

    you receive one of the strongest dose of crazy chaos of divergent groups there of most any country.

    On the other hand, Israel is kind of nice, if you enjoy things like multiculturalism, as you can see all kinds of strange and exotic nationalities there.
     
    You will find very convergent monoculture on critical issues. Beliefs about key policies, such as national security, are consistent across 90%+ of Jewish leadership and population. There are superficial differences, such as cuisine, that have returned from the diaspora. However, all of these are lightly tacked onto very uniform core.

    You have to seek out the ultra-left, aging wingnuts of Labour/Gesher to find a Jewish group that campaigns on security capitulation. These socialists are the last gasp of the failed leadership that surrendered the Temple Mount to Muslim occupation.

    Things like feminism, LGBT and environmentalism, are very fashionable among middle class section of the population. A hero of this crazy new government (that combines religious nationalists, with liberals, and support from an Islamist party) is their disabled Minister of Energy.
     
    Fashionable is another word for transitory. Fashions regularly change. Israel has a track record of strong female leaders, so it is less "feminist" than might appear at first glance. They are not into preferential treatment, they go head to head with the guys and bludgeon them.

    The convergent center of Israeli politics scores 80-90 (of 120) seats. The current coalition exists only to be "Not Netanyahu". It has no rational policy and is limping from issue to issue. It could blow up at any moment, and that could return Bibi to leadership.

    PEACE 😇
  778. I think with Italy a certain level of historical diversity is visible by looking at the appearance of people; the larger number of Arab looking people you find in Sicily compared to the higher number of blonds in the North (Austrian/French influences, and further back) and this was likely to be a factor behind both the regionalism and why it took some time before Mussolini became interested in race issues. In the late 20s he was still saying things like race is 9/10ths spirit, 1/1oth biology, you see this kind of thing in Gentile as well in this period.

    …would he have been thrilled at the immigration of millions of Arabs and Africans and seen that as fulfillment of France’s civilisational mission?

    Pretty much certainly not, Maurras was hostile to the 19th century European immigration into France (he coined and populised the term métèque for foreigners living in France) and one of the reasons that it took him a long time to accept the Republican colonial expansion was concern that it would lead to mass immigration into France from the colonies. I find his thought interesting, some of it seems unusual nowadays (or outright strange; the strong anti-German positions) and it’s very rooted in Scholastic/Catholic philosophy and political thinking. I came across it via Dr. Salazar, once you read into Maurras the influence on Salazar and Portuguese right wing thinking in the 20s and 30s seems really clear, though it looks like there hasn’t been a massive amount of research into this topic. I hadn’t been aware either of how much he wrote, or how extensive the influence of Action Francaise on the French cultural/political scene was.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    In the late 20s he was still saying things like race is 9/10ths spirit, 1/1oth biology, you see this kind of thing in Gentile as well in this period.
     
    Yes, there was a certain radicalization of fascist racial thought in the late 1930s. The war against Ethiopia seems to have played a big role. I vaguely recall having read something along the lines that fascists were bitter about the uncooperative attitude of Ethiopian elites, as if their civilisational mission had been rejected (they then sent out murder squads against those very elites). But in any case I don't think Italy in the first half of the 20th century really fits anything that would today be understood as civic nationalism.

    Pretty much certainly not, Maurras was hostile to the 19th century European immigration into France (he coined and populised the term métèque for foreigners living in France)
     
    For all practical purposes that doesn't really seem to be that different from an explicitly ethnocentric position (métèque as a term is pretty revealing, since in ancient Athens metics didn't have political rights, and the general view is that the Athenians were pretty ethnocentric, with restrictive citizenship laws and a myth about their autochthonous origin).
    But I'd have to read more about Maurras, his thought seems to have been complex and not easy to understand by the categories of today.

    some of it seems unusual nowadays (or outright strange; the strong anti-German positions
     
    I think in attenuated form it's probably still there on the French right. I was amused when I read that in the 1930s Maurras hoped for an anti-German alliance of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal...reminded me of the "Latin alliance" Marion Maréchal has proposed.

    Replies: @songbird, @Coconuts

  779. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    If Israel formally defines itself as a Jewish state, then it strengthens sub-clause of the peace-process, as the Palestinian they would have to recognize the two-state solution as a final stage, rather than the interim stage where they would recognize Israel, but not Israel as the Jewish part of the two states.
     
    Sorry, Dmitry, but imo this is all convoluted nonsense (and save that stuff about two-state solution, everybody knows it's off the table now and that Israel will never tolerate a viable Palestinian state). If Israel isn't meant to be a Jewish national state, but merely some multicultural civic nationalism project (because that's what you seem to be implying), what exactly is its point? If it isn't about maintaining a national home where Jews are the majority and will continue to be the majority, Israeli Jews could just save themselves all the effort and sacrifice they have to go through and move en masse to America.
    I really get the impression you don't understand the mindset of nationalists at all (and many, maybe most Israelis obviously are nationalists, even if with some somewhat unusual features due to the religious aspects of Zionism).
    In any case, I'd rather end this discussion, like I wrote above Israel isn't really that high among my interests.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    convoluted nonsense (and save that stuff about two-state solution,

    Except there is nothing convoluted if you are in Israel, as the main topic is the war with the Palestinians, and whether this would continue after there is a Palestinian state.

    This is simply what they (where the Jewish majority is mix of divergent immigrant groups) are concerned with there. They aren’t an old European country, being flooded with immigrants. They are multiethnic religious determined immigrants living in a warzone with the group they may or may not have displaced.

    This is what Netanyahu’s speeches are about, when he doesn’t talk about Iran.

    Strongest supporter of the Jewish state law was actually Naftali Bennett, who is the current (first religious) Prime Minister in Israel.

    And he later criticizes the law, because it doesn’t include Druze. That Druze, are a loyalist Arab population in Israel that support the Jewish side of the war.

    The concern if you are in Israel and a supporter of Zionism, is the question of loyalism – and you would love to flood more immigrants if you believe they will be loyalists that integrate with the Jewish side of the war.

    https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/bennett-jewish-nation-state-law-harms-druze-563370

    you don’t understand the mindset of nationalists at all (and many, maybe most Israelis obviously are nationalists, even if with some somewhat unusual features due to the religious aspects of Zionism).

    Nationalism is a different movement in countries where the population were occupied (as in 19th century Czech Republic, Poland, etc), from where they were occupiers.

    In an imperialist culture like Russia, when we talk about “nationalists”, we are referring to people who oppose immigration, and want a primarily the native slavic (i.e. white) peoples’ country, and often oppose imperialism (as well as usually believing in conspiracy theories).

    When you talk about Israel, which began as a project for Jews to live without foreigners occupying them – but where Jews are a religious category, and it has become a religious war during the 20th century (of now multi-racial Jewish population) with the Arabs that also live there.

    If there will be a religious war between Islam and Christians in Europe, then there are some analogies.

    Israel has maybe the most nationalists, but they are movements like “religious nationalists” that don’t map to European nationalism.

    Religious nationalists in Israel are creating violent manifestations as nationalists in Russia, where religious nationalists in Israel attack Palestinians (as nationalists in Russia attack immigrants from Caucasus or Central Asia).

    But the multi-racial attitude of religious nationalists in Israel, would be considered as a nightmare by nationalists in Russia. As the religious nationalists, are “racists” according to religious criteria that is determined by who they believe has a “Jewish soul” – and they believe “Jewish soul” is separate from the body.

    For example, the religious nationalist section of Israel’s education system, adopts the third world immigrant groups to increase its size.

    I think this immigration and adoption by the religious nationalist sector, is positive for Israel’s society. But a stereotypical “Russian nationalist” would not be fan of this kind of religious nationalism that has recruits from the immigrants that come from third world countries.

    I’m not saying Israel is not an interesting study for nationalism. If you wrote a history of nationalism, Israel will be one of the larger chapters. I just can’t imagine it can be very attractive for the Steve Sailer kind of audience.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    This is what Netanyahu’s speeches are about, when he doesn’t talk about Iran.

     

    Here is what he said when he announced the proposal in 2014 - the war context is not "convoluted", and not so relevant to Western discussions about nationalism.

    Westerners, and Western journalism (especially New York Times, etc) try to project their own local debates about immigration and racism (and probably slavery), onto a very different context in the Middle East.

    But the Netanyahu's purpose for the "Jewish National State Law" is a response to the Palestinian Authority's demands, and part of the war that is not exactly frozen between these sides.

    Netanyahu's favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution. So his raising of preconditions in the peace talks was this.

    "JERUSALEM (Reuters), MAY 1, 2014 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he would seek a new law declaring Israel a Jewish state, striking back against a Palestinian refusal to recognize that status in now-collapsed peace talks.

    “I will promote a Basic Law that will define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said in a speech in Tel Aviv that alluded to Palestinian rejection of his demand to recognize Israel as such in the U.S.-backed negotiations."

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-jewish-netanyahu-idUSBREA400EP20140501

    Replies: @German_reader

  780. @German_reader
    @AP


    Presumably due to the sheer number of Iraqis there must be a substantial number of Yazidis. Theirs is a strange religion. I was curious if they are as troublesome as the Muslims.
     
    Germany actually seems to have the biggest diaspora population of them (about 200 000).
    tbh I can't say with 100% certainty how bad they really are in Germany. There were a few cases in recent years of Yazidi families killing daughters for disobeying the family and having sexual relations with non-Yazidis (traditionally they're strictly endogamous, and have a strong us vs them mentality, due to their persecution by Muslims).
    This case was especially shocking:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzu_%C3%96zmen
    Yazidi girl is in love with a Russian-German man, gets kidnapped by five of her siblings and is executed with two shots to the head.
    I can't claim to know how common the mindset leading to something like this still is, some "experts" claim most Yazidis in Germany have become totally modern in the last 20 years and left their old ideas behind. Who knows.
    The only Yazidi public figures I know of in Germany are two annoying women, Ronai Chaker and Düzen Tekkal. The one is a minor presence on semi-right-wing Twitter, mostly because she hates Muslims for what they have done to her people (obviously she doesn't like real German nationalists either). Tekkal is a CDU member who loves Angela Merkel and has founded a project called "German dream", which is all about promoting Germany as a country of immigration (she too thinks people like me are basically just the same as Islamist head-choppers, both enemies of the open society).

    The ones from Iraq call themselves Chaldeans rather than Arabs, and consider themselves to be the original Babylonians who were swamped by the dirty, stupid, and evil Arabs. The Christians from Lebanon think of themselves as descendants of the original Phoenicians
     
    I understand, and I agree with you that Mideastern Christians should get sympathy and assistance. I'm not a big fan of mass immigration in any case (and it's pretty appalling if all Christian communities in the Mideast have to leave), but obviously they would be way less of a problem for (post-)Christian Europe than Muslims.

    Replies: @AP

    There were a few cases in recent years of Yazidi families killing daughters for disobeying the family and having sexual relations with non-Yazidis (traditionally they’re strictly endogamous, and have a strong us vs them mentality, due to their persecution by Muslims).
    This case was especially shocking:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzu_%C3%96zmen

    Thank you. There should be not be any of them coming to Europe.

    I’m not a big fan of mass immigration in any case (and it’s pretty appalling if all Christian communities in the Mideast have to leave), but obviously they would be way less of a problem for (post-)Christian Europe than Muslims.

    At the very least they would probably oppose Muslim immigration, though their numbers would have to be controlled so they don’t take over too much prior to their assimilation.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AP


    At the very least they would probably oppose Muslim immigration
     
    Depends, if they become assimilated into left-wing culture that might not necessarily be the case, e.g. in Germany there's a prominent journalist named Dunya Hayali, who always goes on and on about evil right-wingers and hits all the usual pro-immigration notes. The dumber sort of right-wingers often mistake her for a Muslim, but in fact she comes from a family of Iraqi Christians. She's also a lesbian. So you could say a case of successful assimilation into German decadence...
    But in general you're probably right, given their experiences in their native countries Mideastern Christians probably have a more realistic view of Islam and its dangers.

    Replies: @AP

  781. @Dmitry
    @A123

    For example, many conservative Americans complain about Haredi Jews conquering some small place in New Jersey, and imposing their customs there.

    But Haredi Jews in America do not live from taxpayers, burn US flags, and shut down roads when they talk about conscripting them.

    On the other hand, Haredi Jews will be climbing to 10% of the population in Israel, many burn Israeli flags, live from taxpayers, and shut down roads when they talk about conscripting them.

    -

    So I'm pretty sure living in Israel would be close to the dystopian nightmare for many American conservative nationalists, who complain about "Mexicans not learning English" and the "foreign customs".

    Colin Kaepernick maybe doesn't stand at the national anthem. But in Jerusalem you have such relations to the authorities from the fastest growing part of the Jewish population.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAjqugdmj8c

    I still think Israel will be able to manage and develop successfully (if it can maintain the democracy and stable legal framework), but you receive one of the strongest dose of crazy chaos of divergent groups there of most any country.

    On the other hand, Israel is kind of nice, if you enjoy things like multiculturalism, as you can see all kinds of strange and exotic nationalities there. It's also positive from the point of view of people who like liberal welfare states with universal healthcare, (recent) investment in public transport, and strong labor unions.

    Of course, it's also a positive model for people that like militaristic places, with patriotic young people walking with assault rifles.


    Nationalist. Reclaiming holy lands is a religious duty.
     
    Yes the thinking there is religious more than nationalist. Even the secular Jews, to the extent they are Zionists, are adopting a millenarian religious attitude. Secular Zionism is a very recently secularized part of their religious prophecy. It's still a religiously motivated population there.

    are pockets of ‘wokism’, they exist only in very secular areas. Most notably in and around Tel Aviv.
     
    A lot of Israel's middle class would love to be woke in terms of social liberalism, although they are being rejected by the international woke movement because of the military war they are part of. Things like feminism, LGBT and environmentalism, are very fashionable among middle class section of the population.

    A hero of this crazy new government (that combines religious nationalists, with liberals, and support from an Islamist party) is their disabled Minister of Energy.

    They are leading in wokeness for areas which don't go too much into topics of religion and the military conflict.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl2cGD6YLSY

    Replies: @A123

    On the other hand, Haredi Jews will be climbing to 10% of the population in Israel, many burn Israeli flags, live from taxpayers, and shut down roads when they talk about conscripting them.

    One water truck? That’s it? One? You can tell that Haredi are not doing anything dangerous and the government does not want to escalate. Are they channeling Ghandi?

    Compare that to the violence of Antifa in America. Armed combatants using terror style improvised weapons. Massive property destruction, Portland (by itself) suffered ~\$20MM in damage.

    This is not to say that differences do not exist. It may yet be possible to fix the mandatory service problem by bringing Ultra-Orthodox conscripts into dedicated units. There are all sorts of effort intensive tasks, such as monitoring and repairing barriers that are very necessary and avoid the interactions (e.g. reporting to female officers) that create distress.

    Bottom line, the issues in Israel are currently small. Especially when compared to BLM/Antifa in the U.S. or Muslim controlled “no-go” riot zones in France.

    you receive one of the strongest dose of crazy chaos of divergent groups there of most any country.

    On the other hand, Israel is kind of nice, if you enjoy things like multiculturalism, as you can see all kinds of strange and exotic nationalities there.

    You will find very convergent monoculture on critical issues. Beliefs about key policies, such as national security, are consistent across 90%+ of Jewish leadership and population. There are superficial differences, such as cuisine, that have returned from the diaspora. However, all of these are lightly tacked onto very uniform core.

    You have to seek out the ultra-left, aging wingnuts of Labour/Gesher to find a Jewish group that campaigns on security capitulation. These socialists are the last gasp of the failed leadership that surrendered the Temple Mount to Muslim occupation.

    Things like feminism, LGBT and environmentalism, are very fashionable among middle class section of the population. A hero of this crazy new government (that combines religious nationalists, with liberals, and support from an Islamist party) is their disabled Minister of Energy.

    Fashionable is another word for transitory. Fashions regularly change. Israel has a track record of strong female leaders, so it is less “feminist” than might appear at first glance. They are not into preferential treatment, they go head to head with the guys and bludgeon them.

    The convergent center of Israeli politics scores 80-90 (of 120) seats. The current coalition exists only to be “Not Netanyahu”. It has no rational policy and is limping from issue to issue. It could blow up at any moment, and that could return Bibi to leadership.

    PEACE 😇

  782. @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    convoluted nonsense (and save that stuff about two-state solution,
     
    Except there is nothing convoluted if you are in Israel, as the main topic is the war with the Palestinians, and whether this would continue after there is a Palestinian state.

    This is simply what they (where the Jewish majority is mix of divergent immigrant groups) are concerned with there. They aren't an old European country, being flooded with immigrants. They are multiethnic religious determined immigrants living in a warzone with the group they may or may not have displaced.

    This is what Netanyahu's speeches are about, when he doesn't talk about Iran.

    Strongest supporter of the Jewish state law was actually Naftali Bennett, who is the current (first religious) Prime Minister in Israel.

    And he later criticizes the law, because it doesn't include Druze. That Druze, are a loyalist Arab population in Israel that support the Jewish side of the war.

    The concern if you are in Israel and a supporter of Zionism, is the question of loyalism - and you would love to flood more immigrants if you believe they will be loyalists that integrate with the Jewish side of the war.

    https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/bennett-jewish-nation-state-law-harms-druze-563370


    you don’t understand the mindset of nationalists at all (and many, maybe most Israelis obviously are nationalists, even if with some somewhat unusual features due to the religious aspects of Zionism).

     

    Nationalism is a different movement in countries where the population were occupied (as in 19th century Czech Republic, Poland, etc), from where they were occupiers.

    In an imperialist culture like Russia, when we talk about "nationalists", we are referring to people who oppose immigration, and want a primarily the native slavic (i.e. white) peoples' country, and often oppose imperialism (as well as usually believing in conspiracy theories).


    -


    When you talk about Israel, which began as a project for Jews to live without foreigners occupying them - but where Jews are a religious category, and it has become a religious war during the 20th century (of now multi-racial Jewish population) with the Arabs that also live there.

    If there will be a religious war between Islam and Christians in Europe, then there are some analogies.

    Israel has maybe the most nationalists, but they are movements like "religious nationalists" that don't map to European nationalism.

    Religious nationalists in Israel are creating violent manifestations as nationalists in Russia, where religious nationalists in Israel attack Palestinians (as nationalists in Russia attack immigrants from Caucasus or Central Asia).

    But the multi-racial attitude of religious nationalists in Israel, would be considered as a nightmare by nationalists in Russia. As the religious nationalists, are "racists" according to religious criteria that is determined by who they believe has a "Jewish soul" - and they believe "Jewish soul" is separate from the body.

    -


    For example, the religious nationalist section of Israel's education system, adopts the third world immigrant groups to increase its size.

    I think this immigration and adoption by the religious nationalist sector, is positive for Israel's society. But a stereotypical "Russian nationalist" would not be fan of this kind of religious nationalism that has recruits from the immigrants that come from third world countries.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDddVrzIFAs

    I'm not saying Israel is not an interesting study for nationalism. If you wrote a history of nationalism, Israel will be one of the larger chapters. I just can't imagine it can be very attractive for the Steve Sailer kind of audience.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    This is what Netanyahu’s speeches are about, when he doesn’t talk about Iran.

    Here is what he said when he announced the proposal in 2014 – the war context is not “convoluted”, and not so relevant to Western discussions about nationalism.

    Westerners, and Western journalism (especially New York Times, etc) try to project their own local debates about immigration and racism (and probably slavery), onto a very different context in the Middle East.

    But the Netanyahu’s purpose for the “Jewish National State Law” is a response to the Palestinian Authority’s demands, and part of the war that is not exactly frozen between these sides.

    Netanyahu’s favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution. So his raising of preconditions in the peace talks was this.

    “JERUSALEM (Reuters), MAY 1, 2014 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he would seek a new law declaring Israel a Jewish state, striking back against a Palestinian refusal to recognize that status in now-collapsed peace talks.

    “I will promote a Basic Law that will define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said in a speech in Tel Aviv that alluded to Palestinian rejection of his demand to recognize Israel as such in the U.S.-backed negotiations.”

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-jewish-netanyahu-idUSBREA400EP20140501

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Netanyahu’s favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution.
     
    The idea that someone like Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian state is absurd, his entire political career was about destroying the very possibility of such an outcome. I make no value judgement about that (maybe he's even right from an Israeli perspective), but taking anything he says about the two-state solution at face value (instead of merely a tactical manoeuvre, designed not least for consumption abroad) is naive.
    Anyway, we'd better end this. I hope I'm not getting across as mean or overly harsh to you, that's not my intention.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @A123

  783. @A123
    @songbird

    😁 Rittenhouse Humor😂

    Amazing that every Hollywood Leftoid has exactly the same tweet.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/compass.jpg

     

    https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/11/Screen-Shot-2021-11-17-at-11.23.50-AM.png

     

    https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/11/Screen-Shot-2021-11-19-at-11.51.23-AM.png

    Replies: @songbird

    I still wonder what would have happened to Rittenhouse, if he wasn’t so baby-faced. Imagine if he were forty and had a scar on his face.

    [MORE]

    In a sane world, there would have been negative career consequences for pointing a gun at the jury.

    Wonder what the going rate for the Kaepernick-themed tweet was. The older I get, the more convinced I am that Geordi’s character on TNG was evil. Basically, they saw Levar Burton in Roots and thought it would be good to use him to color signal, to subvert ideas about the intelligence of blacks. Whoopi (though I am no fan of hers) tells a funny story about how she got the job, after hearing from Burton that he got a part.

  784. You should see the replies to this.

    Some people don’t have a sense of humor.

  785. It’s fascinating how much European establishment parties have changed from 2015 to 2021. Sure, there are still ideological diehards but if you compare to 2015, it was messianic.

    The problem is that many of these liberal Western European countries spent a good part of the previous decade preaching the virtues of unlimited refugee migration. As German_reader pointed out, more than 70% of Syrians are on welfare. I doubt the numbers are much different in other parts of Europe.

    So the establishment knows that this virtue-signalling is costly, but openly admitting you were wrong risks delegitimising your authority and boosting your rivals. So the solution they’ve settled on is to make a quiet departure and hope nobody notices the shift.

    Still, this is only the beginning. Outside of Eastern Asia, the prospects for the “emerging markets” are quite poor. Nigeria is rapidly devolving into a fiefdom of criminal gangs. Ethiopia is in a de facto civil war. Afghanistan is a mess, but a highly fertile one. Pakistan is only surviving due to IMF loans and even China don’t want to bail them out anymore. Egypt is barely holding on due to a tinpot dictator.

    Even formerly stable countries like Iran are destroyed by US sanctions – pushed by the Israel lobby – just as the Syrian war was largely the making of Israel and its Gulf allies. Israel is using its golem USA to do its bidding and the EU, meek and useless as always, blindly follows. A large reason for the previous decade’s refugee flows were the destruction of Israel’s enemies in the MENA region. But nobody is willing to say this, because it would expose Israel’s deeply negative role in the region and how it uses the US to achieve those ends.

    But even if the EU were to diverge from Israel/US policy and try to stabilise countries like Iran (which hosts millions of Afghan refugees), that won’t do much in the long term. There are too many very large and poor countries whose prospects are dim. Economic forces have a life of their own, and the scenes we saw on the eastern borders of the EU are likely to be multiplied manifold.

    Another big problem is that many countries in the 3rd world are essentially fake constructs. Iraq is barely holding on. Aforementioned Ethiopia is a patchwork of ethnicities with little in common. Even Turkey is rapidly diversifying, with millions of Arabs and Afghans now in the country, together with a fast-growing Kurdish minority (25% and rising).

    People talk about diversity in Europe, but the real tinderboxes are in the 3rd world. They can explode at any time, and it doesn’t take much for either external or internal forces to light the match.

    • Replies: @A123
    @papers

    The #1 source of problems in the MENA region is Iran, and its brain dead servitor lap dog the United Nations.

    Hamas and UNRWA provoke futile violence against indigenous Palestinian Jews. The minimum necessary security response to that Iranian aggression creates all sorts of difficulty for the Muslim civilians. The worst damage has been done in Gaza where Iranian Hamas stole concrete and pipe that should have been used to maintain water services. As a result, Iran destroyed the fresh water aquifer under Gaza.

    Iranian Hezbollah crippled Lebanon by involving it in an unnecessary conflict with Palestinian Jews. The Nasrallah-Shima blast at the Beirut Port was caused by explosives stored in Hezbollah Munitions Depot #12. Hundreds killed, thousands injured, tens of thousands homeless. Khamenei's interference turned Lebanon into a failed state headed towards partition.

    The Iranian Theocracy has also damaged natural resources in Iran. (1)


    Thousands gathered in central Isfahan, outraged over government mismanagement which has allowed a key river to dry up completely. "Footage broadcast by state television and dozens of videos circulating on social media on Friday showed a sea of farmers and other people standing on a huge barren strip of dirt where the major Zayandeh Rud River used to flow, near the iconic Khaju Bridge in Isfahan province," Al Jazeera reports.
     
    it looks like a long overdue counter revolution by the Iranian people is finally coming. How much longer will they put up with sociopath Khamenei's endless string of failures?

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iranians-hold-huge-anti-government-protest-after-key-river-completely-dries


    https://twitter.com/BahmanKalbasi/status/1461659470778572801?s=20

    Replies: @songbird

  786. @AP
    @German_reader

    Christian refugees from the Middle East are okay, for the most part they won't cause problems and will largely assimilate.

    Does anyone know if the Yazidis caused problems?

    Replies: @German_reader, @Svidomyatheart

    Are you sure about that whole assimilation thing? Here are some 2017 stats of the “Christians(and Muslims i suppose) from the Caucauses”. And Georgians, Azeris and Armenians are supposedly the most cultured of the bunch.

    Georgians alone are taking their share of doing almost as much crime as Russians but the thing is Russians make up what? 12-17%?(it mustve dropped from 17% due to war but its still probably somewhere around 12%). Thing is ALL those 5 ethnicities combined are maybe 1-3% at best.
    And just Azeris+Moldovans(gypsies basically) also are around 700+.

    View post on imgur.com

    • Replies: @AP
    @Svidomyatheart

    I was discussing Christian Arabs from Iraq (and Lebanon). They don’t have a reputation for criminality, at least in the USA.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Svidomyatheart

  787. What makes Christian Middle Easterners more preferable immigrants than Muslims? Religion?

    • Replies: @Yahya
    @Yellowface Anon


    What makes Christian Middle Easterners more preferable immigrants than Muslims? Religion?

     

    Aside from cultural-religious differences in outlook and behavior, its been observed by many that Christian Middle Easterners are a cut above their Muslim counterparts in the brains department. Greg Cochran suggested they average similar IQs to Europeans:

    gcochran9 says:
    June 8, 2016 at 10:53 am
    The Jews always had low status in the Byzantine Empire.
    I don’t consider selective attrition impossible, but since know that there are endogamous ethnoreligious groups in the Middle East that sure seem to be as bright as the European average (Maronites, Assyrian Christians, etc), that were hill farmers rather than some sort of commercial elite, and that differ genetically from the general population of the Middle East (more like the Middle East used to be), maybe we don’t need two explanations when one (some groups simply stayed the same) will do.
     
    They seem to do as well as their European counterparts in the US and Latin America. For example, Arab-American (63% of whom are Christians) median household income is roughly 10% higher than the American average. 40% of Arab-Americans have a college degree, compared to 24% for Americans at large. Some prominent Arab Christians in the US include Nicolas Nassim Taleb (author/intellctual), Edward Said (author/intellectual), Mitch Daniels (governor, author), Elias Chorey (Nobel Prize chemist), Micheal DeBakey (eminent surgeon), Joe Jumail (billionaire lawyer), George Joseph (billionaire entrepreneur), Joseph Mack (CEO of Morgan Stanley) etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_Americans

    Part of their outsized success can be explained by the selective nature of the American immigration system. However, Christian Arabs in Latin America, most of whom are descendants of 20th century Levantine peasants, have risen to become market-dominant minorities and political elites of Latin American societies:

    * Abdala Bucaram (Lebanese origin), former President of Ecuador
    * Alberto Dahik (Lebanese origin), former Vice President of Ecuador
    * Antonio Saca (Palestinian origin), current President of El Salvador
    * Jamil Mahuad (Lebanese origin), former President of Ecuador
    * Carlos Menem (Syrian origin), former President of Argentina (a convert from Islam to Catholicism)
    * Said Musa (Palestinian origin), current Prime Minister of Belize
    * Julio Cesar Turbay (Lebanese origin), former President of Colombia
    * Carlos Slim (Lebanese origin.), former richest man in the world

    This isn't to say Muslim Arabs are completely devoid of intellect or achievements (Steve Jobs, possibly the greatest businessman of our age, was born to a Syrian Muslim father. Ahmad Zuewil, an Egyptian Muslim, won the Noble Prize for Chemistry etc.); just that Arab Christians tend to average out better.

    Several factors could explain these differences in achievement:

    (A) Cousin marriage - lower rates of cousin marriage among Christians than Muslims. Cousin marriage is a key depressor of Muslim IQ in the Middle East; to the effect of 5-10 points. OTOH, only one generation without cousin marriage can remove the delirious effects of inbreeding. As the ME undergoes a demographic transition, this should sort itself out within a generation (less cousins means less cousin marriage).

    (B) Jizya-based selection - Jizya head tax encouraged lower-status Christians to convert to Islam; leaving only a residue of elites which today comprise the majority of Arab Christians. Greg Clark demonstrated this process in effect with regards to the Copts of Egypt, in The Son Also Rises:


    Saleh shows that in Egypt, Coptic Christians, who formed the vast majority of Egyptian society on the eve of the Arab Muslim conquest, selectively converted to Islam in the centuries following the Arab conquest of 641 CE. He finds evidence that under the pressure of the jizya, the poorest Copts converted to Islam: the conversion rate was greater in areas where heavier taxes were imposed. Moreover, in areas where the conversion rate was highest, the remaining Coptic population was more elite by the nineteenth century.
     
    (C) Cultural values - more stress on worldly achievement among Christians. Islamic doctrine is famously fatalistic (leave it to Allah), doesn’t put much stress on worldly success, preferring success in the hereafter. To the extent that Muslims can accomplish things, it’s to the extent they’ve distanced themselves from the normative Islamic outlook.

    (D) Different genotypes - slightly different genotypes, mostly due to lower rates of sub-Saharan (SSA) admixture in Christians than in Muslims. The impact of this is more significant in Egypt than in the Levant. Egyptian Muslims are enriched for 10-20% (depending on region) SSA ancestry, whereas Levantine Muslims only ~5-7%. Christians also have less Arabian admixture (though exact percentages are difficult to ascertain). OTOH, Muslim Arabs (particularly in the upper class) also have more European (~8%) admixture from Slavs and Caucasian slaves; so the effect in sum of differing genotypes on IQ is probably minimal.

  788. @songbird
    @Che Guava

    One point of interest to me is the Jewish account of Jesus and Mary. Many Jews say that those names were very common in the ME and that their account refers to figures from another, later, era. I don't know the merits of the argument one way or another, but I don't believe that is the line Islam takes, in their own divergent story of the two names.

    Replies: @Che Guava

    From my own reading, I am very confused by your reply.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Che Guava

    Wikipedia seems to give a summary of it, though it looks complicated:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_the_Talmud

    I don't know which side to take. Some of the references seem very specific to me, but I do recall that the Carthaginians, with whom many Jews claim kinship (whether rightly or wrongly, I don't know), had very few names.

    And then, there is the argument that it has been censored, and the references intentionally obfuscated.

    Replies: @Che Guava

  789. @AaronB
    @Che Guava

    You people are so disconnected from reality.

    Here is an online English translation used by Jews, with translation plus commentary.

    https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud

    Any Jewish bookstore will sell you English translations.

    I warn you, though, its not exactly the most exciting reading.

    Replies: @Che Guava

    With ‘I would like to read’, I wasn’t referring to a modern sanitised ‘translation’ of the Talmud, but to Hoffman’s writing on the more outre parts of the real thing.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Che Guava

    The link I gave is what modern orthodox Jews actually use today. So this is Jewish culture now, as are the English editions you can order online from Jewish bookstores, whose customers are Jews.

    Don't worry, in this version you will absolutely find unkind things said about gentiles and things that will offend modern liberal sensitivities. It's not an expurgated version (I don't believe expurgated versions exist anymore).

    You will also, and this is never mentioned on Unz, find extremely kind things said about gentiles and converts and things like that.

    You will also find modern commentary that provides historical context.

    It's a compendium of folkore and sayings over many centuries. It will have many contradictions - making it rather easy to cherry pick.

    But mostly, it is an agonizingly boring and dry legalistic book of wrangling over legal minutiae and fine detail. It has some genuine wisdom and spirituality, but that isn't its main point.

    As far as I understand, there were some nasty things said about Jesus and Christians that in the Middle Ages were a source of scandal, so were removed and circulated separately. I believe these have been restored - they are not so shocking today, and form less than a tenth of a percent of the book..

    Christianity isn't a major topic in the Talmud. Mostly it is a "world" of fine detail, that if one wants, one can shut oneself into and construct an alternate reality with rules that govern every aspect of life, however small.

    It's not at all my cup of tea, but some people seem to find their life's contentment in it.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Dmitry

  790. @Che Guava
    @AaronB

    With 'I would like to read', I wasn't referring to a modern sanitised 'translation' of the Talmud, but to Hoffman's writing on the more outre parts of the real thing.

    Replies: @AaronB

    The link I gave is what modern orthodox Jews actually use today. So this is Jewish culture now, as are the English editions you can order online from Jewish bookstores, whose customers are Jews.

    Don’t worry, in this version you will absolutely find unkind things said about gentiles and things that will offend modern liberal sensitivities. It’s not an expurgated version (I don’t believe expurgated versions exist anymore).

    You will also, and this is never mentioned on Unz, find extremely kind things said about gentiles and converts and things like that.

    You will also find modern commentary that provides historical context.

    It’s a compendium of folkore and sayings over many centuries. It will have many contradictions – making it rather easy to cherry pick.

    But mostly, it is an agonizingly boring and dry legalistic book of wrangling over legal minutiae and fine detail. It has some genuine wisdom and spirituality, but that isn’t its main point.

    As far as I understand, there were some nasty things said about Jesus and Christians that in the Middle Ages were a source of scandal, so were removed and circulated separately. I believe these have been restored – they are not so shocking today, and form less than a tenth of a percent of the book..

    Christianity isn’t a major topic in the Talmud. Mostly it is a “world” of fine detail, that if one wants, one can shut oneself into and construct an alternate reality with rules that govern every aspect of life, however small.

    It’s not at all my cup of tea, but some people seem to find their life’s contentment in it.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @AaronB

    About Hoffman's book:

    1. he rotten-apple-picks every nasty thing he could find that denigrates the gentiles;
    2. he footnotes chapter and verse and if he says it is in there verbatim that seems reliable;

    AND

    3. even with the Talmud-for-dummies-summary-style this book is dreadful dull. I ran out of gas trying to make it half way. I am certain I did not get to page 550; this is a couple years ago but I estimate I got to page 300 before I decided that was more than enough. I had only read 10 or 20 pages of it before I decided I was going to go for maybe half! From page 11 or 21 to my end I was serious about my intention of getting to p. 550.

    Perhaps only a crazy person could have written Hoffman's book.

    Replies: @AaronB

    , @Dmitry
    @AaronB

    If you are interested in (Middle Eastern) religions or religious topics, you can learn Hebrew and read original texts. It's becoming so much more easy to learn nowadays, with the apps and YouTube.

    In the 20th century, even some secular English politicians like Enoch Powell, were reading Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. And there was no YouTube and duolingo then.

    "The greatest endeavour of Powell's later years was The Evolution of the Gospel (1994), his new translation of and commentary on the Gospel according to St John. His Aramaic, his Greek and his Hebrew all came into play here." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-enoch-powell-1143867.html


    legalistic book of wrangling over legal minutiae
     
    Because the project was to derive all the rules for living, from the Bible.

    If they believe the Bible texts were really from god (as Jewish cults had then in Babylonian Exile, and continued for centuries later), then the judgement of your soul in relation to god, depends on doing this work correctly. It becomes like aviation safety, or bridge engineering.

    It's not different than if Harry Potter fans, believed J.K. Rowling transcribed sacred text from the gods. Then the important thing is to understand how you should live, according to what can derived from such stories as "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban".

    Stories itself are quite ambiguous, so there would be more than enough space for centuries of arguments and controversies, if there exist sufficiently motivated cults that believe it is a holy text.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AaronB

  791. @Svidomyatheart
    @AP

    Are you sure about that whole assimilation thing? Here are some 2017 stats of the "Christians(and Muslims i suppose) from the Caucauses". And Georgians, Azeris and Armenians are supposedly the most cultured of the bunch.

    Georgians alone are taking their share of doing almost as much crime as Russians but the thing is Russians make up what? 12-17%?(it mustve dropped from 17% due to war but its still probably somewhere around 12%). Thing is ALL those 5 ethnicities combined are maybe 1-3% at best.
    And just Azeris+Moldovans(gypsies basically) also are around 700+.


    https://imgur.com/a/wBLq81j

    Replies: @AP

    I was discussing Christian Arabs from Iraq (and Lebanon). They don’t have a reputation for criminality, at least in the USA.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @AP

    With apologies for repeating myself so much (you could write a lot of my comments using a bot), because in USA there is often selective immigration regime (e.g. HB-1 visa) in relation to distant countries.

    You usually have a lot less problems when there is selective immigration, than open borders. It's one of the more simple and unarguable lessons (US should cancel its visa lottery).

    The effect of the filter applied at immigration, much more noticeable than any features of the base population that is being filtered.

    So (excluding part of the public which arrive from the Baltic states), Russians in countries like UK and Ireland, are mostly middle class nerds. While Poles in the UK, including a lot of drunks, rednecks, criminals, etc. Of course, the national data for countries (Poland vs Russian Federation) would imply the opposite - but among the immigrant community, you are looking more at the effect of the filter that was applied to enter the country than something about the base population.

    Replies: @AP

    , @Svidomyatheart
    @AP

    I mean like German_Reader said those Iraq and Lebanese Christians may possibly even more clannish than the ones I listed above due to the hostile environment they have to navigate through and survive. And add to the fact that Armenians, Georgians and Azeris were once a part of the USSR with its whole friendship of nations crap and multiculturalism which weakens nations(but it wasnt as practiced there).

    That just means once again there will be various clandestine underground economies springing up and high end jobs being siphoned off to various unscrupulous and nepotistic clan members (as if right now we arent neofeudal latifundia literally owned and operated by various robber barons) . So you want even more robber barons? But yes they're definitely better than the other guys who threaten to cut your head off at the slightest provocation.
    Anyways its going to be like Jews in middle ages when Poland invited them in and gave them all the keys to the castle. Living off your back. I personally dont find the prospects of us turned into brothel+neofeudal latifundia very exciting.

    Replies: @AP

  792. @Yellowface Anon
    What makes Christian Middle Easterners more preferable immigrants than Muslims? Religion?

    Replies: @Yahya

    What makes Christian Middle Easterners more preferable immigrants than Muslims? Religion?

    Aside from cultural-religious differences in outlook and behavior, its been observed by many that Christian Middle Easterners are a cut above their Muslim counterparts in the brains department. Greg Cochran suggested they average similar IQs to Europeans:

    gcochran9 says:
    June 8, 2016 at 10:53 am
    The Jews always had low status in the Byzantine Empire.
    I don’t consider selective attrition impossible, but since know that there are endogamous ethnoreligious groups in the Middle East that sure seem to be as bright as the European average (Maronites, Assyrian Christians, etc), that were hill farmers rather than some sort of commercial elite, and that differ genetically from the general population of the Middle East (more like the Middle East used to be), maybe we don’t need two explanations when one (some groups simply stayed the same) will do.

    They seem to do as well as their European counterparts in the US and Latin America. For example, Arab-American (63% of whom are Christians) median household income is roughly 10% higher than the American average. 40% of Arab-Americans have a college degree, compared to 24% for Americans at large. Some prominent Arab Christians in the US include Nicolas Nassim Taleb (author/intellctual), Edward Said (author/intellectual), Mitch Daniels (governor, author), Elias Chorey (Nobel Prize chemist), Micheal DeBakey (eminent surgeon), Joe Jumail (billionaire lawyer), George Joseph (billionaire entrepreneur), Joseph Mack (CEO of Morgan Stanley) etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_Americans

    Part of their outsized success can be explained by the selective nature of the American immigration system. However, Christian Arabs in Latin America, most of whom are descendants of 20th century Levantine peasants, have risen to become market-dominant minorities and political elites of Latin American societies:

    * Abdala Bucaram (Lebanese origin), former President of Ecuador
    * Alberto Dahik (Lebanese origin), former Vice President of Ecuador
    * Antonio Saca (Palestinian origin), current President of El Salvador
    * Jamil Mahuad (Lebanese origin), former President of Ecuador
    * Carlos Menem (Syrian origin), former President of Argentina (a convert from Islam to Catholicism)
    * Said Musa (Palestinian origin), current Prime Minister of Belize
    * Julio Cesar Turbay (Lebanese origin), former President of Colombia
    * Carlos Slim (Lebanese origin.), former richest man in the world

    This isn’t to say Muslim Arabs are completely devoid of intellect or achievements (Steve Jobs, possibly the greatest businessman of our age, was born to a Syrian Muslim father. Ahmad Zuewil, an Egyptian Muslim, won the Noble Prize for Chemistry etc.); just that Arab Christians tend to average out better.

    Several factors could explain these differences in achievement:

    (A) Cousin marriage – lower rates of cousin marriage among Christians than Muslims. Cousin marriage is a key depressor of Muslim IQ in the Middle East; to the effect of 5-10 points. OTOH, only one generation without cousin marriage can remove the delirious effects of inbreeding. As the ME undergoes a demographic transition, this should sort itself out within a generation (less cousins means less cousin marriage).

    (B) Jizya-based selection – Jizya head tax encouraged lower-status Christians to convert to Islam; leaving only a residue of elites which today comprise the majority of Arab Christians. Greg Clark demonstrated this process in effect with regards to the Copts of Egypt, in The Son Also Rises:

    Saleh shows that in Egypt, Coptic Christians, who formed the vast majority of Egyptian society on the eve of the Arab Muslim conquest, selectively converted to Islam in the centuries following the Arab conquest of 641 CE. He finds evidence that under the pressure of the jizya, the poorest Copts converted to Islam: the conversion rate was greater in areas where heavier taxes were imposed. Moreover, in areas where the conversion rate was highest, the remaining Coptic population was more elite by the nineteenth century.

    (C) Cultural values – more stress on worldly achievement among Christians. Islamic doctrine is famously fatalistic (leave it to Allah), doesn’t put much stress on worldly success, preferring success in the hereafter. To the extent that Muslims can accomplish things, it’s to the extent they’ve distanced themselves from the normative Islamic outlook.

    (D) Different genotypes – slightly different genotypes, mostly due to lower rates of sub-Saharan (SSA) admixture in Christians than in Muslims. The impact of this is more significant in Egypt than in the Levant. Egyptian Muslims are enriched for 10-20% (depending on region) SSA ancestry, whereas Levantine Muslims only ~5-7%. Christians also have less Arabian admixture (though exact percentages are difficult to ascertain). OTOH, Muslim Arabs (particularly in the upper class) also have more European (~8%) admixture from Slavs and Caucasian slaves; so the effect in sum of differing genotypes on IQ is probably minimal.

    • Thanks: German_reader
  793. @Che Guava
    @songbird

    From my own reading, I am very confused by your reply.

    Replies: @songbird

    Wikipedia seems to give a summary of it, though it looks complicated:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_the_Talmud

    I don’t know which side to take. Some of the references seem very specific to me, but I do recall that the Carthaginians, with whom many Jews claim kinship (whether rightly or wrongly, I don’t know), had very few names.

    And then, there is the argument that it has been censored, and the references intentionally obfuscated.

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @songbird

    Songbird,

    You are one of the better commenters here at times. Not one of the dull shrieking newbs.

    You should know never to trust English-language Wikipedia on any topic where there is a control faction. In the case of the original Wikipedia, the main control faction was and is Jewish. There are others, with some (certain cult religions, some pop culture, anarchism, some fan bullshit)having much overlap with that.

    Japanese Wikipedia is different, except with copy translated articles.

    If you don't understand that it is not reliable on anything much, except maths and science (as opposed to bullshit Science, from people who hate science), you need to think a little more.

    Replies: @songbird

  794. German_reader says:
    @AP
    @German_reader


    There were a few cases in recent years of Yazidi families killing daughters for disobeying the family and having sexual relations with non-Yazidis (traditionally they’re strictly endogamous, and have a strong us vs them mentality, due to their persecution by Muslims).
    This case was especially shocking:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzu_%C3%96zmen
     
    Thank you. There should be not be any of them coming to Europe.

    I’m not a big fan of mass immigration in any case (and it’s pretty appalling if all Christian communities in the Mideast have to leave), but obviously they would be way less of a problem for (post-)Christian Europe than Muslims.
     
    At the very least they would probably oppose Muslim immigration, though their numbers would have to be controlled so they don't take over too much prior to their assimilation.

    Replies: @German_reader

    At the very least they would probably oppose Muslim immigration

    Depends, if they become assimilated into left-wing culture that might not necessarily be the case, e.g. in Germany there’s a prominent journalist named Dunya Hayali, who always goes on and on about evil right-wingers and hits all the usual pro-immigration notes. The dumber sort of right-wingers often mistake her for a Muslim, but in fact she comes from a family of Iraqi Christians. She’s also a lesbian. So you could say a case of successful assimilation into German decadence…
    But in general you’re probably right, given their experiences in their native countries Mideastern Christians probably have a more realistic view of Islam and its dangers.

    • Replies: @AP
    @German_reader


    Depends, if they become assimilated into left-wing culture that might not necessarily be the case, e.g. in Germany there’s a prominent journalist named Dunya Hayali, who always goes on and on about evil right-wingers and hits all the usual pro-immigration notes. The dumber sort of right-wingers often mistake her for a Muslim, but in fact she comes from a family of Iraqi Christians. She’s also a lesbian. So you could say a case of successful assimilation into German decadence…
     
    Yes, this is certainly the danger. Sadly, the fault here lies with the host culture for making this sort of a thing a model towards which to assimilate.

    In the USA, the Iraqi Christians vote Trump and Republican:

    https://www.ozy.com/news-and-politics/the-pro-trump-middle-east-voters-who-could-swing-michigan/396956/

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/despite-deportation-campaign-michigan-iraqi-christians-still-backing-trump
  795. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    This is what Netanyahu’s speeches are about, when he doesn’t talk about Iran.

     

    Here is what he said when he announced the proposal in 2014 - the war context is not "convoluted", and not so relevant to Western discussions about nationalism.

    Westerners, and Western journalism (especially New York Times, etc) try to project their own local debates about immigration and racism (and probably slavery), onto a very different context in the Middle East.

    But the Netanyahu's purpose for the "Jewish National State Law" is a response to the Palestinian Authority's demands, and part of the war that is not exactly frozen between these sides.

    Netanyahu's favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution. So his raising of preconditions in the peace talks was this.

    "JERUSALEM (Reuters), MAY 1, 2014 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he would seek a new law declaring Israel a Jewish state, striking back against a Palestinian refusal to recognize that status in now-collapsed peace talks.

    “I will promote a Basic Law that will define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said in a speech in Tel Aviv that alluded to Palestinian rejection of his demand to recognize Israel as such in the U.S.-backed negotiations."

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-jewish-netanyahu-idUSBREA400EP20140501

    Replies: @German_reader

    Netanyahu’s favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution.

    The idea that someone like Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian state is absurd, his entire political career was about destroying the very possibility of such an outcome. I make no value judgement about that (maybe he’s even right from an Israeli perspective), but taking anything he says about the two-state solution at face value (instead of merely a tactical manoeuvre, designed not least for consumption abroad) is naive.
    Anyway, we’d better end this. I hope I’m not getting across as mean or overly harsh to you, that’s not my intention.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian
     
    I agree certainly that he is probably against it (as I watched interviews with him in the 1970s, and I believe he doesn't change all that much since then (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1c-DSZ_l9Q.).

    But if he believed it would provide security, he would accept it. Because Israelis' motive is related to the military conflict. That is what Netanyahu is interested in - the war (even his brother was killed in this war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonatan_Netanyahu ). Israeli settlement pattern itself is military (they allow building settlements in the Jordan Valley to stop military supplies, and certain highpoints).

    Ariel Sharon went halfway to two-state solution when he exited Gaza in 2005. Between 1967-2005, Gaza was an Israeli occupied territory, with a lot of Jewish settlers there.

    After they exit in 2005, Gaza has become one of the world's worst warzones. So there was a disaster.

    I think the same would happen with the West Bank, and it would collapse Israel's economy. Even East Jerusalem would probably be supporting Hamas ( https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/why-is-hamas-popular-in-jerusalem-analysis-685596 )

    But if Israel controls Jordan Valley and strategic highpoints, it's possible they could give a two-state solution with landswaps, in which they would still be able to have some security. In the current Israel government, Naftali Bennett opposes a Palestinian state, but the rest of the government coalition government supports it. When Yair Lapid is Prime Minister in 2023, there could be an opportunity for the land-swaps proposal.

    A more utopian solution for all sides, would be Jordan would have West Bank and Egypt would control Gaza. But Jordan and Egypt have low state capacity, and I would predict these places would probably be like the FARC controlled parts of Colombia.

    we’d better end this. I hope I’m not getting across as mean or overly harsh to you, that’s not my intention.

     

    Don't worry I know I'm scrolling the forum like a sad lonely soul looking for people to talk about Israel with. And I need to add something in the comment that you will disagree with, to keep you going.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @A123
    @German_reader



    Netanyahu’s favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution.
     
    The idea that someone like Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian state is absurd, his entire political career was about destroying the very possibility of such an outcome
     
    I would phrase it slightly differently -- Fatah & Hamas destroyed the very possibility of a two-state solution. Netanyahu (and other Israeli leaders) are responding to intransigence from the other side.

    That being said, your top level conclusion is correct. All of the parties on the ground understand that the two-state concept will not bring peace. The verbiage still exists only as pablum to placate external parties.

    PEACE 😇
  796. German_reader says:
    @Coconuts
    I think with Italy a certain level of historical diversity is visible by looking at the appearance of people; the larger number of Arab looking people you find in Sicily compared to the higher number of blonds in the North (Austrian/French influences, and further back) and this was likely to be a factor behind both the regionalism and why it took some time before Mussolini became interested in race issues. In the late 20s he was still saying things like race is 9/10ths spirit, 1/1oth biology, you see this kind of thing in Gentile as well in this period.

    ...would he have been thrilled at the immigration of millions of Arabs and Africans and seen that as fulfillment of France’s civilisational mission?
     
    Pretty much certainly not, Maurras was hostile to the 19th century European immigration into France (he coined and populised the term métèque for foreigners living in France) and one of the reasons that it took him a long time to accept the Republican colonial expansion was concern that it would lead to mass immigration into France from the colonies. I find his thought interesting, some of it seems unusual nowadays (or outright strange; the strong anti-German positions) and it's very rooted in Scholastic/Catholic philosophy and political thinking. I came across it via Dr. Salazar, once you read into Maurras the influence on Salazar and Portuguese right wing thinking in the 20s and 30s seems really clear, though it looks like there hasn't been a massive amount of research into this topic. I hadn't been aware either of how much he wrote, or how extensive the influence of Action Francaise on the French cultural/political scene was.

    Replies: @German_reader

    In the late 20s he was still saying things like race is 9/10ths spirit, 1/1oth biology, you see this kind of thing in Gentile as well in this period.

    Yes, there was a certain radicalization of fascist racial thought in the late 1930s. The war against Ethiopia seems to have played a big role. I vaguely recall having read something along the lines that fascists were bitter about the uncooperative attitude of Ethiopian elites, as if their civilisational mission had been rejected (they then sent out murder squads against those very elites). But in any case I don’t think Italy in the first half of the 20th century really fits anything that would today be understood as civic nationalism.

    Pretty much certainly not, Maurras was hostile to the 19th century European immigration into France (he coined and populised the term métèque for foreigners living in France)

    For all practical purposes that doesn’t really seem to be that different from an explicitly ethnocentric position (métèque as a term is pretty revealing, since in ancient Athens metics didn’t have political rights, and the general view is that the Athenians were pretty ethnocentric, with restrictive citizenship laws and a myth about their autochthonous origin).
    But I’d have to read more about Maurras, his thought seems to have been complex and not easy to understand by the categories of today.

    some of it seems unusual nowadays (or outright strange; the strong anti-German positions

    I think in attenuated form it’s probably still there on the French right. I was amused when I read that in the 1930s Maurras hoped for an anti-German alliance of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal…reminded me of the “Latin alliance” Marion Maréchal has proposed.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader


    the general view is that the Athenians were pretty ethnocentric
     
    Always thought that is what Xenophon's name implied.
    , @Coconuts
    @German_reader


    The war against Ethiopia seems to have played a big role.
     
    I started thinking about this as well after finishing my last post, given the resources they invested in Italian East Africa, the pacification campaigns and so on, more attention would be drawn to a topic like this as any observable racial differences between Italians would be very small compared to those between Italians and Ethiopians.

    But in any case I don’t think Italy in the first half of the 20th century really fits anything that would today be understood as civic nationalism.
     
    It seems like nowadays civic nationalism is mostly understood as a brand of individualist liberal democratic politics, and these other older types of nationalism reject that whole framework. I think with both this early Fascism and Maurras, the liberal democratic political system in itself is seen as a major root problem (it will be more likely to cause large scale immigration and/or the exaggerated power of foreign minorities in the state), so they approach things from a different angle.

    But I’d have to read more about Maurras, his thought seems to have been complex and not easy to understand by the categories of today.

     

    This is true, only the French seem to read him now and the influence of the Maurrasian tradition in Portugal seems to be completely dead. One of the interesting things is the unusual combination of arguments he uses for integral nationalism and monarchy, using an updated and enriched version of the old Aristotleian tradition (he adds positivist elements from Comte, and various other French social thinkers I wasn't aware of), relating to issues like cultural enrichment, community, freedom and autonomy. At the moment these feel more relevant than they might have done even a couple of years ago.

    I think in attenuated form it’s probably still there on the French right.
     
    It is, I heard a talk the other night about Germany that had some of this perspective.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  797. @papers
    It's fascinating how much European establishment parties have changed from 2015 to 2021. Sure, there are still ideological diehards but if you compare to 2015, it was messianic.

    The problem is that many of these liberal Western European countries spent a good part of the previous decade preaching the virtues of unlimited refugee migration. As German_reader pointed out, more than 70% of Syrians are on welfare. I doubt the numbers are much different in other parts of Europe.

    So the establishment knows that this virtue-signalling is costly, but openly admitting you were wrong risks delegitimising your authority and boosting your rivals. So the solution they've settled on is to make a quiet departure and hope nobody notices the shift.

    Still, this is only the beginning. Outside of Eastern Asia, the prospects for the "emerging markets" are quite poor. Nigeria is rapidly devolving into a fiefdom of criminal gangs. Ethiopia is in a de facto civil war. Afghanistan is a mess, but a highly fertile one. Pakistan is only surviving due to IMF loans and even China don't want to bail them out anymore. Egypt is barely holding on due to a tinpot dictator.

    Even formerly stable countries like Iran are destroyed by US sanctions - pushed by the Israel lobby - just as the Syrian war was largely the making of Israel and its Gulf allies. Israel is using its golem USA to do its bidding and the EU, meek and useless as always, blindly follows. A large reason for the previous decade's refugee flows were the destruction of Israel's enemies in the MENA region. But nobody is willing to say this, because it would expose Israel's deeply negative role in the region and how it uses the US to achieve those ends.

    But even if the EU were to diverge from Israel/US policy and try to stabilise countries like Iran (which hosts millions of Afghan refugees), that won't do much in the long term. There are too many very large and poor countries whose prospects are dim. Economic forces have a life of their own, and the scenes we saw on the eastern borders of the EU are likely to be multiplied manifold.

    Another big problem is that many countries in the 3rd world are essentially fake constructs. Iraq is barely holding on. Aforementioned Ethiopia is a patchwork of ethnicities with little in common. Even Turkey is rapidly diversifying, with millions of Arabs and Afghans now in the country, together with a fast-growing Kurdish minority (25% and rising).

    People talk about diversity in Europe, but the real tinderboxes are in the 3rd world. They can explode at any time, and it doesn't take much for either external or internal forces to light the match.

    Replies: @A123

    The #1 source of problems in the MENA region is Iran, and its brain dead servitor lap dog the United Nations.

    Hamas and UNRWA provoke futile violence against indigenous Palestinian Jews. The minimum necessary security response to that Iranian aggression creates all sorts of difficulty for the Muslim civilians. The worst damage has been done in Gaza where Iranian Hamas stole concrete and pipe that should have been used to maintain water services. As a result, Iran destroyed the fresh water aquifer under Gaza.

    Iranian Hezbollah crippled Lebanon by involving it in an unnecessary conflict with Palestinian Jews. The Nasrallah-Shima blast at the Beirut Port was caused by explosives stored in Hezbollah Munitions Depot #12. Hundreds killed, thousands injured, tens of thousands homeless. Khamenei’s interference turned Lebanon into a failed state headed towards partition.

    The Iranian Theocracy has also damaged natural resources in Iran. (1)

    Thousands gathered in central Isfahan, outraged over government mismanagement which has allowed a key river to dry up completely. “Footage broadcast by state television and dozens of videos circulating on social media on Friday showed a sea of farmers and other people standing on a huge barren strip of dirt where the major Zayandeh Rud River used to flow, near the iconic Khaju Bridge in Isfahan province,” Al Jazeera reports.

    it looks like a long overdue counter revolution by the Iranian people is finally coming. How much longer will they put up with sociopath Khamenei’s endless string of failures?

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iranians-hold-huge-anti-government-protest-after-key-river-completely-dries

    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123


    it looks like a long overdue counter revolution by the Iranian people is finally coming.
     
    They don't have the age pyramid necessary for revolution.
  798. @A123
    @papers

    The #1 source of problems in the MENA region is Iran, and its brain dead servitor lap dog the United Nations.

    Hamas and UNRWA provoke futile violence against indigenous Palestinian Jews. The minimum necessary security response to that Iranian aggression creates all sorts of difficulty for the Muslim civilians. The worst damage has been done in Gaza where Iranian Hamas stole concrete and pipe that should have been used to maintain water services. As a result, Iran destroyed the fresh water aquifer under Gaza.

    Iranian Hezbollah crippled Lebanon by involving it in an unnecessary conflict with Palestinian Jews. The Nasrallah-Shima blast at the Beirut Port was caused by explosives stored in Hezbollah Munitions Depot #12. Hundreds killed, thousands injured, tens of thousands homeless. Khamenei's interference turned Lebanon into a failed state headed towards partition.

    The Iranian Theocracy has also damaged natural resources in Iran. (1)


    Thousands gathered in central Isfahan, outraged over government mismanagement which has allowed a key river to dry up completely. "Footage broadcast by state television and dozens of videos circulating on social media on Friday showed a sea of farmers and other people standing on a huge barren strip of dirt where the major Zayandeh Rud River used to flow, near the iconic Khaju Bridge in Isfahan province," Al Jazeera reports.
     
    it looks like a long overdue counter revolution by the Iranian people is finally coming. How much longer will they put up with sociopath Khamenei's endless string of failures?

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iranians-hold-huge-anti-government-protest-after-key-river-completely-dries


    https://twitter.com/BahmanKalbasi/status/1461659470778572801?s=20

    Replies: @songbird

    it looks like a long overdue counter revolution by the Iranian people is finally coming.

    They don’t have the age pyramid necessary for revolution.

  799. @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    In the late 20s he was still saying things like race is 9/10ths spirit, 1/1oth biology, you see this kind of thing in Gentile as well in this period.
     
    Yes, there was a certain radicalization of fascist racial thought in the late 1930s. The war against Ethiopia seems to have played a big role. I vaguely recall having read something along the lines that fascists were bitter about the uncooperative attitude of Ethiopian elites, as if their civilisational mission had been rejected (they then sent out murder squads against those very elites). But in any case I don't think Italy in the first half of the 20th century really fits anything that would today be understood as civic nationalism.

    Pretty much certainly not, Maurras was hostile to the 19th century European immigration into France (he coined and populised the term métèque for foreigners living in France)
     
    For all practical purposes that doesn't really seem to be that different from an explicitly ethnocentric position (métèque as a term is pretty revealing, since in ancient Athens metics didn't have political rights, and the general view is that the Athenians were pretty ethnocentric, with restrictive citizenship laws and a myth about their autochthonous origin).
    But I'd have to read more about Maurras, his thought seems to have been complex and not easy to understand by the categories of today.

    some of it seems unusual nowadays (or outright strange; the strong anti-German positions
     
    I think in attenuated form it's probably still there on the French right. I was amused when I read that in the 1930s Maurras hoped for an anti-German alliance of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal...reminded me of the "Latin alliance" Marion Maréchal has proposed.

    Replies: @songbird, @Coconuts

    the general view is that the Athenians were pretty ethnocentric

    Always thought that is what Xenophon’s name implied.

  800. @AaronB
    @Che Guava

    The link I gave is what modern orthodox Jews actually use today. So this is Jewish culture now, as are the English editions you can order online from Jewish bookstores, whose customers are Jews.

    Don't worry, in this version you will absolutely find unkind things said about gentiles and things that will offend modern liberal sensitivities. It's not an expurgated version (I don't believe expurgated versions exist anymore).

    You will also, and this is never mentioned on Unz, find extremely kind things said about gentiles and converts and things like that.

    You will also find modern commentary that provides historical context.

    It's a compendium of folkore and sayings over many centuries. It will have many contradictions - making it rather easy to cherry pick.

    But mostly, it is an agonizingly boring and dry legalistic book of wrangling over legal minutiae and fine detail. It has some genuine wisdom and spirituality, but that isn't its main point.

    As far as I understand, there were some nasty things said about Jesus and Christians that in the Middle Ages were a source of scandal, so were removed and circulated separately. I believe these have been restored - they are not so shocking today, and form less than a tenth of a percent of the book..

    Christianity isn't a major topic in the Talmud. Mostly it is a "world" of fine detail, that if one wants, one can shut oneself into and construct an alternate reality with rules that govern every aspect of life, however small.

    It's not at all my cup of tea, but some people seem to find their life's contentment in it.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Dmitry

    About Hoffman’s book:

    1. he rotten-apple-picks every nasty thing he could find that denigrates the gentiles;
    2. he footnotes chapter and verse and if he says it is in there verbatim that seems reliable;

    AND

    3. even with the Talmud-for-dummies-summary-style this book is dreadful dull. I ran out of gas trying to make it half way. I am certain I did not get to page 550; this is a couple years ago but I estimate I got to page 300 before I decided that was more than enough. I had only read 10 or 20 pages of it before I decided I was going to go for maybe half! From page 11 or 21 to my end I was serious about my intention of getting to p. 550.

    Perhaps only a crazy person could have written Hoffman’s book.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    I have seen people, on this site, simply make up quotes from the Talmud and provide footnotes. Finding the quote improbable, I would check it out, and find it simply didn't exist or was distorted.

    People with an agenda, not infrequently do this. In Ron Unz's recent piece on the Liberty incident, he asserts that the New York Times reported Israel mass killed Egyptian prisoners of war in 67.

    Finding this improbable, and thinking I surely would have heard of this, I looked it up. Sure enough, the NYTimes published an article well after the war, in the 90s I think, quoting Egyptian officials claiming they unearthed indeterminate mass graves of 30 people or so near El Arish in the Sinai, with the Egyptians suggesting it possibly might have been graves of prisoners of war killed by the local Israeli unit.

    There followed a rather nuanced examination of the issue, with the local Yugoslavian UN forces claiming it's unlikely as they would have heard of massacres and they didn't it.

    Anyways, point is, people with agendas make things up and heavily distort.

    I've never read the Hoffman book, and it may be accurate, but I doubt it provides relevant historical context, as it sounds like a book with an agenda, and not a balanced piece of reporting.

    Anyways, I'm not denying there are things in the Talmud about gentiles, and how to interact and deal with them, that are morally objectionable. There certainly are, and I have seen them - for instance, if a gentile gives you back the wrong change accidentally, you don't have to correct him, but you do if it's a Jew.

    That's not exactly a high level of ethics, even if the historical context is communal conflict. And there are certainly insulting things about gentiles (altho also kind things).

    But there is nothing particularly lurid or horrific, as is claimed on Unz. Just typical ethnocentric nonsense (with the occasional commendable rising above this limited view).

    As for not wanting to slog through such tedious minutuae of the Talmud, I can well understand that.

  801. @AP
    @Svidomyatheart

    I was discussing Christian Arabs from Iraq (and Lebanon). They don’t have a reputation for criminality, at least in the USA.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Svidomyatheart

    With apologies for repeating myself so much (you could write a lot of my comments using a bot), because in USA there is often selective immigration regime (e.g. HB-1 visa) in relation to distant countries.

    You usually have a lot less problems when there is selective immigration, than open borders. It’s one of the more simple and unarguable lessons (US should cancel its visa lottery).

    The effect of the filter applied at immigration, much more noticeable than any features of the base population that is being filtered.

    So (excluding part of the public which arrive from the Baltic states), Russians in countries like UK and Ireland, are mostly middle class nerds. While Poles in the UK, including a lot of drunks, rednecks, criminals, etc. Of course, the national data for countries (Poland vs Russian Federation) would imply the opposite – but among the immigrant community, you are looking more at the effect of the filter that was applied to enter the country than something about the base population.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Dmitry

    Sure, but despite filters Muslim refugees in the USA have been more troublesome than Christian refugees from Muslim countries.

    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven't heard of them causing any problems. However, Muslims have been violently persecuting Christian converts from Islam, in Europe:

    https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/report-persecution-of-christian-refugees-in-germany/

    The Christian refugees involved in the survey indicated that they had suffered from persecution both at the hands of fellow refugees and through hostel security staff. Some 75% stated that this had happened repeatedly. Persecution was suffered in the following ways (with the number of people affected in brackets):

    Insults (96)
    Bodily harm (86)
    Death threats – also towards family (73)
    Very loud religious music or prayer (62)
    In addition there were physical attacks in the form of punches, spitting, pushing and sexual abuse.

    :::::::::::::

    It is unfortunate that no European country, if it was going to accept refugees, would at least require conversion to Christianity and disavowal of Islam as a prerequisite for acceptance into the country. This would probably cut down the number of refugees considerably, and would filter out most of the bad elements. Of course most of Europe (including, seemingly, many of its Churches) has largely gone post-Christian so it would be silly to think of the idea.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Thulean Friend

  802. @Yellowface Anon
    Happy International Men's Day everyone. Patriarchs are waiting for the day when every day is a men's day.

    Replies: @songbird

    Half-suspect that International Men’s Day is a conspiracy to demoralize men and keep us locked under a regime of radical feminist matriarchy. Perhaps, it would be better and more to the point, if they had an “International Cuck Day.”

  803. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Netanyahu’s favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution.
     
    The idea that someone like Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian state is absurd, his entire political career was about destroying the very possibility of such an outcome. I make no value judgement about that (maybe he's even right from an Israeli perspective), but taking anything he says about the two-state solution at face value (instead of merely a tactical manoeuvre, designed not least for consumption abroad) is naive.
    Anyway, we'd better end this. I hope I'm not getting across as mean or overly harsh to you, that's not my intention.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @A123

    Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian

    I agree certainly that he is probably against it (as I watched interviews with him in the 1970s, and I believe he doesn’t change all that much since then (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1c-DSZ_l9Q.).

    But if he believed it would provide security, he would accept it. Because Israelis’ motive is related to the military conflict. That is what Netanyahu is interested in – the war (even his brother was killed in this war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonatan_Netanyahu ). Israeli settlement pattern itself is military (they allow building settlements in the Jordan Valley to stop military supplies, and certain highpoints).

    Ariel Sharon went halfway to two-state solution when he exited Gaza in 2005. Between 1967-2005, Gaza was an Israeli occupied territory, with a lot of Jewish settlers there.

    After they exit in 2005, Gaza has become one of the world’s worst warzones. So there was a disaster.

    I think the same would happen with the West Bank, and it would collapse Israel’s economy. Even East Jerusalem would probably be supporting Hamas ( https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/why-is-hamas-popular-in-jerusalem-analysis-685596 )

    But if Israel controls Jordan Valley and strategic highpoints, it’s possible they could give a two-state solution with landswaps, in which they would still be able to have some security. In the current Israel government, Naftali Bennett opposes a Palestinian state, but the rest of the government coalition government supports it. When Yair Lapid is Prime Minister in 2023, there could be an opportunity for the land-swaps proposal.

    A more utopian solution for all sides, would be Jordan would have West Bank and Egypt would control Gaza. But Jordan and Egypt have low state capacity, and I would predict these places would probably be like the FARC controlled parts of Colombia.

    we’d better end this. I hope I’m not getting across as mean or overly harsh to you, that’s not my intention.

    Don’t worry I know I’m scrolling the forum like a sad lonely soul looking for people to talk about Israel with. And I need to add something in the comment that you will disagree with, to keep you going.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Don’t worry I know I’m scrolling the forum like a sad lonely soul looking for people to talk about Israel with.
     
    There's a lot of content on UR about Israel, maybe you should try commenting on one of Philip Giraldi's pieces. I'm sure you'll find people there who enjoy discussing Israel, lol.
    Anyway, I disagree with your interpretation, but the issue doesn't interest me much, so I'll leave it at that.
  804. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian
     
    I agree certainly that he is probably against it (as I watched interviews with him in the 1970s, and I believe he doesn't change all that much since then (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1c-DSZ_l9Q.).

    But if he believed it would provide security, he would accept it. Because Israelis' motive is related to the military conflict. That is what Netanyahu is interested in - the war (even his brother was killed in this war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonatan_Netanyahu ). Israeli settlement pattern itself is military (they allow building settlements in the Jordan Valley to stop military supplies, and certain highpoints).

    Ariel Sharon went halfway to two-state solution when he exited Gaza in 2005. Between 1967-2005, Gaza was an Israeli occupied territory, with a lot of Jewish settlers there.

    After they exit in 2005, Gaza has become one of the world's worst warzones. So there was a disaster.

    I think the same would happen with the West Bank, and it would collapse Israel's economy. Even East Jerusalem would probably be supporting Hamas ( https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/why-is-hamas-popular-in-jerusalem-analysis-685596 )

    But if Israel controls Jordan Valley and strategic highpoints, it's possible they could give a two-state solution with landswaps, in which they would still be able to have some security. In the current Israel government, Naftali Bennett opposes a Palestinian state, but the rest of the government coalition government supports it. When Yair Lapid is Prime Minister in 2023, there could be an opportunity for the land-swaps proposal.

    A more utopian solution for all sides, would be Jordan would have West Bank and Egypt would control Gaza. But Jordan and Egypt have low state capacity, and I would predict these places would probably be like the FARC controlled parts of Colombia.

    we’d better end this. I hope I’m not getting across as mean or overly harsh to you, that’s not my intention.

     

    Don't worry I know I'm scrolling the forum like a sad lonely soul looking for people to talk about Israel with. And I need to add something in the comment that you will disagree with, to keep you going.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Don’t worry I know I’m scrolling the forum like a sad lonely soul looking for people to talk about Israel with.

    There’s a lot of content on UR about Israel, maybe you should try commenting on one of Philip Giraldi’s pieces. I’m sure you’ll find people there who enjoy discussing Israel, lol.
    Anyway, I disagree with your interpretation, but the issue doesn’t interest me much, so I’ll leave it at that.

  805. @Dmitry
    @AP

    With apologies for repeating myself so much (you could write a lot of my comments using a bot), because in USA there is often selective immigration regime (e.g. HB-1 visa) in relation to distant countries.

    You usually have a lot less problems when there is selective immigration, than open borders. It's one of the more simple and unarguable lessons (US should cancel its visa lottery).

    The effect of the filter applied at immigration, much more noticeable than any features of the base population that is being filtered.

    So (excluding part of the public which arrive from the Baltic states), Russians in countries like UK and Ireland, are mostly middle class nerds. While Poles in the UK, including a lot of drunks, rednecks, criminals, etc. Of course, the national data for countries (Poland vs Russian Federation) would imply the opposite - but among the immigrant community, you are looking more at the effect of the filter that was applied to enter the country than something about the base population.

    Replies: @AP

    Sure, but despite filters Muslim refugees in the USA have been more troublesome than Christian refugees from Muslim countries.

    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems. However, Muslims have been violently persecuting Christian converts from Islam, in Europe:

    https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/report-persecution-of-christian-refugees-in-germany/

    The Christian refugees involved in the survey indicated that they had suffered from persecution both at the hands of fellow refugees and through hostel security staff. Some 75% stated that this had happened repeatedly. Persecution was suffered in the following ways (with the number of people affected in brackets):

    Insults (96)
    Bodily harm (86)
    Death threats – also towards family (73)
    Very loud religious music or prayer (62)
    In addition there were physical attacks in the form of punches, spitting, pushing and sexual abuse.

    :::::::::::::

    It is unfortunate that no European country, if it was going to accept refugees, would at least require conversion to Christianity and disavowal of Islam as a prerequisite for acceptance into the country. This would probably cut down the number of refugees considerably, and would filter out most of the bad elements. Of course most of Europe (including, seemingly, many of its Churches) has largely gone post-Christian so it would be silly to think of the idea.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @AP

    Yes but immigrants in Europe, are often not exactly a filtered immigration.

    Look at Pakistan's immigration in the UK. Pakistan is itself an undeveloped third world country. But majority of Pakistan's immigrants in the UK are peasants from the poorest, most religious, regions of Pakistan ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mirpuris )

    So they are not just third world immigrants, but immigrants from the poorest, most tribal and religious parts of those third world country.

    I think it is interesting, because the only person from Pakistan I have ever talked with, was a wealthy secular hipster, who loves trance music. Pakistan's elite "aristocracy" can seem very different from what you can read about those immigrants from tribal hinterland.

    -

    I wonder where much of the Algerians in France, are coming from. It's not probably not the secularized polite society. They and Chechens walking around Dijon with guns.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ5pb0IS7V0


    Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems

     

    It would remove or reduce the Islamism problem. But you should still study carefully the population, and filter them for the only the most educated, secularized, and Europeanized population.

    For example, in Maaloula in Syria, are Aramaic Christians.

    But Syria is a third world warzone, so even if you have a filter against Islamists by only selecting Aramaic Christians, the population might not be quite what you want to live in polites streets of Oxford or Heidelberg. (Immigration officials would ideally study YouTube as well and avoid the person with an axe).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5qM3phrFr8

    This is when talking about elite first world countries, who can choose immigrants from anywhere in the world. When you can choose from the most polite people in the world, then you are in the position to be fussy. America is an example of a country which can in theory be very fussy about its immigration. Same with countries like Germany, Sweden or UK.

    Sweden could add a filter that you need >1500 SAT test results for immigration there, and they will still receive far immigration application than they need.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AP

    , @Thulean Friend
    @AP


    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems.
     
    We have plenty of them, and we had them long before the 2015 crisis. Prior to 2015, most of Södertälje's immigrants were Christian MENA folks. Many were Assyrian but also many Christian Arabs.

    Södertälje was known even back then as a place with high crime levels, rapes etc. I have personal experience with Christian Arabs. I never faced any violence, possibly because I towered over all of them, but I did find them duplicitous. Often initially pleasant and ingratiating, the moment they found out they could not gain an advantage is when the mask dropped. I have not seen that kind of behaviour from e.g. black immigrants.

    Anecdotally, I've heard bad things about the Lebanese diaspora in Australia concerning crime and most of them are Christian, too. I agree with Dmitry's observation that American conditions are unique and not replicable to other parts of the world, except perhaps Latinx America which also has many Christian Arabs but you rarely hear about crime from them. (OTOH that is easier to disguise given the high native crime propensity).

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry, @AP

  806. @AaronB
    @Che Guava

    The link I gave is what modern orthodox Jews actually use today. So this is Jewish culture now, as are the English editions you can order online from Jewish bookstores, whose customers are Jews.

    Don't worry, in this version you will absolutely find unkind things said about gentiles and things that will offend modern liberal sensitivities. It's not an expurgated version (I don't believe expurgated versions exist anymore).

    You will also, and this is never mentioned on Unz, find extremely kind things said about gentiles and converts and things like that.

    You will also find modern commentary that provides historical context.

    It's a compendium of folkore and sayings over many centuries. It will have many contradictions - making it rather easy to cherry pick.

    But mostly, it is an agonizingly boring and dry legalistic book of wrangling over legal minutiae and fine detail. It has some genuine wisdom and spirituality, but that isn't its main point.

    As far as I understand, there were some nasty things said about Jesus and Christians that in the Middle Ages were a source of scandal, so were removed and circulated separately. I believe these have been restored - they are not so shocking today, and form less than a tenth of a percent of the book..

    Christianity isn't a major topic in the Talmud. Mostly it is a "world" of fine detail, that if one wants, one can shut oneself into and construct an alternate reality with rules that govern every aspect of life, however small.

    It's not at all my cup of tea, but some people seem to find their life's contentment in it.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Dmitry

    If you are interested in (Middle Eastern) religions or religious topics, you can learn Hebrew and read original texts. It’s becoming so much more easy to learn nowadays, with the apps and YouTube.

    In the 20th century, even some secular English politicians like Enoch Powell, were reading Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. And there was no YouTube and duolingo then.

    “The greatest endeavour of Powell’s later years was The Evolution of the Gospel (1994), his new translation of and commentary on the Gospel according to St John. His Aramaic, his Greek and his Hebrew all came into play here.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-enoch-powell-1143867.html

    legalistic book of wrangling over legal minutiae

    Because the project was to derive all the rules for living, from the Bible.

    If they believe the Bible texts were really from god (as Jewish cults had then in Babylonian Exile, and continued for centuries later), then the judgement of your soul in relation to god, depends on doing this work correctly. It becomes like aviation safety, or bridge engineering.

    It’s not different than if Harry Potter fans, believed J.K. Rowling transcribed sacred text from the gods. Then the important thing is to understand how you should live, according to what can derived from such stories as “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”.

    Stories itself are quite ambiguous, so there would be more than enough space for centuries of arguments and controversies, if there exist sufficiently motivated cults that believe it is a holy text.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    even some secular English politicians like Enoch Powell
     
    Powell was a Christian. A lot of people would say a bad Christian, because of his English nationalism and his "uncharitable" views on immigration. But as far as you can look into people's souls, there's no doubt he was a believer. When he was writing about the NT, he was commenting on his own faith and tradition, it wasn't just some hobby.
    , @AaronB
    @Dmitry

    I speak basic, low level Hebrew. I left Israel when I was 11 or 12. My Hebrew has significantly degraded since then, because I rarely practice, but I have the basic foundation and understand a fair amount when I watch Hebrew TV shows today.

    If I am to learn another language, it would be classical Chinese so I can read my favorite poetry and philosophical texts in the original :) or it would be Japanese - I've actually picked up a certain amount of Japanese just watching anime lol :)


    Because the project was to derive all the rules for living, from the Bible.
     
    More or less, yes. I guess it can be compared to building a fantasy world, like Tolkien inventing Elvish etc.

    Personally, I think this misses the spiritual heart of religion. People get caught up in legalism. That's always been a danger of Judaism.

    But many people find living in this imaginative works to be deeply satisfying, and who am I to say otherwise. To each his own.

    I prefer nature and the great wilderness :)
  807. @German_reader
    @AP


    At the very least they would probably oppose Muslim immigration
     
    Depends, if they become assimilated into left-wing culture that might not necessarily be the case, e.g. in Germany there's a prominent journalist named Dunya Hayali, who always goes on and on about evil right-wingers and hits all the usual pro-immigration notes. The dumber sort of right-wingers often mistake her for a Muslim, but in fact she comes from a family of Iraqi Christians. She's also a lesbian. So you could say a case of successful assimilation into German decadence...
    But in general you're probably right, given their experiences in their native countries Mideastern Christians probably have a more realistic view of Islam and its dangers.

    Replies: @AP

    Depends, if they become assimilated into left-wing culture that might not necessarily be the case, e.g. in Germany there’s a prominent journalist named Dunya Hayali, who always goes on and on about evil right-wingers and hits all the usual pro-immigration notes. The dumber sort of right-wingers often mistake her for a Muslim, but in fact she comes from a family of Iraqi Christians. She’s also a lesbian. So you could say a case of successful assimilation into German decadence…

    Yes, this is certainly the danger. Sadly, the fault here lies with the host culture for making this sort of a thing a model towards which to assimilate.

    In the USA, the Iraqi Christians vote Trump and Republican:

    https://www.ozy.com/news-and-politics/the-pro-trump-middle-east-voters-who-could-swing-michigan/396956/

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/despite-deportation-campaign-michigan-iraqi-christians-still-backing-trump

    • Thanks: German_reader
  808. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @AaronB

    If you are interested in (Middle Eastern) religions or religious topics, you can learn Hebrew and read original texts. It's becoming so much more easy to learn nowadays, with the apps and YouTube.

    In the 20th century, even some secular English politicians like Enoch Powell, were reading Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. And there was no YouTube and duolingo then.

    "The greatest endeavour of Powell's later years was The Evolution of the Gospel (1994), his new translation of and commentary on the Gospel according to St John. His Aramaic, his Greek and his Hebrew all came into play here." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-enoch-powell-1143867.html


    legalistic book of wrangling over legal minutiae
     
    Because the project was to derive all the rules for living, from the Bible.

    If they believe the Bible texts were really from god (as Jewish cults had then in Babylonian Exile, and continued for centuries later), then the judgement of your soul in relation to god, depends on doing this work correctly. It becomes like aviation safety, or bridge engineering.

    It's not different than if Harry Potter fans, believed J.K. Rowling transcribed sacred text from the gods. Then the important thing is to understand how you should live, according to what can derived from such stories as "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban".

    Stories itself are quite ambiguous, so there would be more than enough space for centuries of arguments and controversies, if there exist sufficiently motivated cults that believe it is a holy text.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AaronB

    even some secular English politicians like Enoch Powell

    Powell was a Christian. A lot of people would say a bad Christian, because of his English nationalism and his “uncharitable” views on immigration. But as far as you can look into people’s souls, there’s no doubt he was a believer. When he was writing about the NT, he was commenting on his own faith and tradition, it wasn’t just some hobby.

  809. @AP
    @Dmitry

    Sure, but despite filters Muslim refugees in the USA have been more troublesome than Christian refugees from Muslim countries.

    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven't heard of them causing any problems. However, Muslims have been violently persecuting Christian converts from Islam, in Europe:

    https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/report-persecution-of-christian-refugees-in-germany/

    The Christian refugees involved in the survey indicated that they had suffered from persecution both at the hands of fellow refugees and through hostel security staff. Some 75% stated that this had happened repeatedly. Persecution was suffered in the following ways (with the number of people affected in brackets):

    Insults (96)
    Bodily harm (86)
    Death threats – also towards family (73)
    Very loud religious music or prayer (62)
    In addition there were physical attacks in the form of punches, spitting, pushing and sexual abuse.

    :::::::::::::

    It is unfortunate that no European country, if it was going to accept refugees, would at least require conversion to Christianity and disavowal of Islam as a prerequisite for acceptance into the country. This would probably cut down the number of refugees considerably, and would filter out most of the bad elements. Of course most of Europe (including, seemingly, many of its Churches) has largely gone post-Christian so it would be silly to think of the idea.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Thulean Friend

    Yes but immigrants in Europe, are often not exactly a filtered immigration.

    Look at Pakistan’s immigration in the UK. Pakistan is itself an undeveloped third world country. But majority of Pakistan’s immigrants in the UK are peasants from the poorest, most religious, regions of Pakistan ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mirpuris )

    So they are not just third world immigrants, but immigrants from the poorest, most tribal and religious parts of those third world country.

    I think it is interesting, because the only person from Pakistan I have ever talked with, was a wealthy secular hipster, who loves trance music. Pakistan’s elite “aristocracy” can seem very different from what you can read about those immigrants from tribal hinterland.

    I wonder where much of the Algerians in France, are coming from. It’s not probably not the secularized polite society. They and Chechens walking around Dijon with guns.

    Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems

    It would remove or reduce the Islamism problem. But you should still study carefully the population, and filter them for the only the most educated, secularized, and Europeanized population.

    For example, in Maaloula in Syria, are Aramaic Christians.

    But Syria is a third world warzone, so even if you have a filter against Islamists by only selecting Aramaic Christians, the population might not be quite what you want to live in polites streets of Oxford or Heidelberg. (Immigration officials would ideally study YouTube as well and avoid the person with an axe).

    This is when talking about elite first world countries, who can choose immigrants from anywhere in the world. When you can choose from the most polite people in the world, then you are in the position to be fussy. America is an example of a country which can in theory be very fussy about its immigration. Same with countries like Germany, Sweden or UK.

    Sweden could add a filter that you need >1500 SAT test results for immigration there, and they will still receive far immigration application than they need.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    For example, in Maaloula in Syria, are Aramaic Christians.

    But Syria is a third world warzone, so even if you have a filter against Islamists by only selecting Aramaic Christians, the population might not be quite what you want to live in polites streets of Oxford or Heidelberg. (Immigration officials would ideally study YouTube as well).
     
    What's so bad about that video with those Aramaic Christians? It just looks like some kind of festival. Maybe a bit loud by European standards, but I don't see any aggression or anything else that would indicate these people are dangerous.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @AP
    @Dmitry

    I agree with German Reader. The Aramaic festival is primitive and loud, but there is nothing crazy about it. Women are dressed normally, not covered up. I imagine when Portugal or Gree e were as poor 50 years ago one could see similar scenes there.

    Here is a rural party of Ukrainian highlanders from the Carpathians (it takes about a minute to get going), there is more dancing:

    https://youtu.be/TfjI1lPp808

    Replies: @Dmitry

  810. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @AP

    Yes but immigrants in Europe, are often not exactly a filtered immigration.

    Look at Pakistan's immigration in the UK. Pakistan is itself an undeveloped third world country. But majority of Pakistan's immigrants in the UK are peasants from the poorest, most religious, regions of Pakistan ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mirpuris )

    So they are not just third world immigrants, but immigrants from the poorest, most tribal and religious parts of those third world country.

    I think it is interesting, because the only person from Pakistan I have ever talked with, was a wealthy secular hipster, who loves trance music. Pakistan's elite "aristocracy" can seem very different from what you can read about those immigrants from tribal hinterland.

    -

    I wonder where much of the Algerians in France, are coming from. It's not probably not the secularized polite society. They and Chechens walking around Dijon with guns.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ5pb0IS7V0


    Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems

     

    It would remove or reduce the Islamism problem. But you should still study carefully the population, and filter them for the only the most educated, secularized, and Europeanized population.

    For example, in Maaloula in Syria, are Aramaic Christians.

    But Syria is a third world warzone, so even if you have a filter against Islamists by only selecting Aramaic Christians, the population might not be quite what you want to live in polites streets of Oxford or Heidelberg. (Immigration officials would ideally study YouTube as well and avoid the person with an axe).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5qM3phrFr8

    This is when talking about elite first world countries, who can choose immigrants from anywhere in the world. When you can choose from the most polite people in the world, then you are in the position to be fussy. America is an example of a country which can in theory be very fussy about its immigration. Same with countries like Germany, Sweden or UK.

    Sweden could add a filter that you need >1500 SAT test results for immigration there, and they will still receive far immigration application than they need.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AP

    For example, in Maaloula in Syria, are Aramaic Christians.

    But Syria is a third world warzone, so even if you have a filter against Islamists by only selecting Aramaic Christians, the population might not be quite what you want to live in polites streets of Oxford or Heidelberg. (Immigration officials would ideally study YouTube as well).

    What’s so bad about that video with those Aramaic Christians? It just looks like some kind of festival. Maybe a bit loud by European standards, but I don’t see any aggression or anything else that would indicate these people are dangerous.

    • Agree: AP
    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    Maaloula looks like third world, rural, Arab tribal life, in a country which is a warzone (this probably why there is an axe).

    As a tourist, we would enjoy this tribal festival. AaronB will be here to say that tribal life, is happier than our modern, secular society.

    But it is the opposite of correct social background for immigration to developed modern secular society, where everything relies on democracy, anti-corruption, politeness, etc.

    That said, if you applied filter (like >1500 SAT score to select the rural nerds), it might be ok, and you can find with other filters the rural third world people who want to be turn themselves into modern Europeans. In every school of Maaloula, there is a probably one or two polite, introverted, nerdy kids, that would be perfect for Heidelberg.

    By selecting Christians, you would filter against the problem of immigrants connected to global Islamism. But even in the Middle East, not all the massacres and interethnic violence is even Islamist. Tribal conflicts and massacres are features of all the religions in the region. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre

    Replies: @German_reader

  811. @mal
    Now on a far more interesting subject.

    The Meow Rocket!


    To be fair, I was surprised by the Russian ASAT test. Not because it happened, but that it wasn't announced or complained about properly.

    The Meow Rocket (A-235 Nudol or derivative) is not a small thing and satellites can see it being launched. Its like an ICBM launch but much faster and with more 'meow'. Even if Russians didn't announce it, Americans still should have seen it coming and complained about the launch. But all we got was complaints about the debris some time later.

    As far as debris is concerned, American complaints do have merit. First off, it was an excellent shot with amazing accuracy - 2,000 kg satellite was transformed into 1500+ fragment "space rake" (debris field). To shatter like that, you need to be hit just right, at a speed of 17,000 mph relative to Meow launch site. That satellite was a spy one, with sort of polar orbit of 460 km and 80 degrees inclination (I think ISS is 52 degrees and 420 km).

    Is it a threat to ISS? Maybe, but unlikely. ISS is a serious station that is well monitored and has plentiful fuel to relocate (delivered by Progress freighters and maybe SpaceX these days). ISS has plenty of experience dodging Chinese debris from 2007 so this test shouldn't be a problem either.

    However, if you operate a fleet of small satellites in Low Earth Obrit, (cough... Starlink... cough...) you are probably celebrating job security for the next decade. Keeping track of thousands of small weak LEO satellites and the "space rake" at the same time is much harder than tracking one powerful object such as ISS. And they don't have the power of the ISS to dodge.

    So from Pentagon/Skynet perspective, the test is indeed problematic. They are correct in their assessment.

    Replies: @That Would Be Telling, @Mitleser

    As far as debris is concerned, American complaints do have merit. First off, it was an excellent shot with amazing accuracy – 2,000 kg satellite was transformed into 1500+ fragment “space rake” (debris field). To shatter like that, you need to be hit just right, at a speed of 17,000 mph relative to Meow launch site.

    According to the manufacturer, it has less mass than that.

    Масса, кг 1750

    https://www.yuzhnoye.com/company/history/electronic-surveillance-spacecraft.html

    And it may have produced less debris than expected.

    However, it has been difficult to grapple with the low debris count number observed by our LeoLabs data relative to the large mass of the Cosmos 1408 satellite (~2,200 kg). Frankly, we expected to see many more fragments by now. As we have watched our own identification and characterization rate start to level off (currently at 250–300 unique fragments from Cosmos 1408), it struck us that there was a simple explanation for all of these quandaries.

    Because the ASAT was not so fast?

    If the Russian ASAT impactor approached Cosmos 1408 generally from behind to “rear end” Cosmos 1408 at a relative velocity well below 6 km/s, this would explain both the distribution of posigrade debris and the lower debris count currently observed by LeoLabs. This would also explain the Russian government’s comment this week that debris from the test “would not pose any threat to orbital stations”. What Russia apparently did not know, that breakup modelers are quite aware of, is that non-hypervelocity breakup modeling is very difficult.

    https://leolabs-space.medium.com/part-ii-new-observations-on-cosmos-1408-breakup-3d8e5441f720

  812. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    Netanyahu’s favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution.
     
    The idea that someone like Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian state is absurd, his entire political career was about destroying the very possibility of such an outcome. I make no value judgement about that (maybe he's even right from an Israeli perspective), but taking anything he says about the two-state solution at face value (instead of merely a tactical manoeuvre, designed not least for consumption abroad) is naive.
    Anyway, we'd better end this. I hope I'm not getting across as mean or overly harsh to you, that's not my intention.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @A123

    Netanyahu’s favorite topic is that the Palestinian Authority would only accept the two-state solution, as an interim solution.

    The idea that someone like Netanyahu would ever accept a sovereign Palestinian state is absurd, his entire political career was about destroying the very possibility of such an outcome

    I would phrase it slightly differently — Fatah & Hamas destroyed the very possibility of a two-state solution. Netanyahu (and other Israeli leaders) are responding to intransigence from the other side.

    That being said, your top level conclusion is correct. All of the parties on the ground understand that the two-state concept will not bring peace. The verbiage still exists only as pablum to placate external parties.

    PEACE 😇

  813. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    For example, in Maaloula in Syria, are Aramaic Christians.

    But Syria is a third world warzone, so even if you have a filter against Islamists by only selecting Aramaic Christians, the population might not be quite what you want to live in polites streets of Oxford or Heidelberg. (Immigration officials would ideally study YouTube as well).
     
    What's so bad about that video with those Aramaic Christians? It just looks like some kind of festival. Maybe a bit loud by European standards, but I don't see any aggression or anything else that would indicate these people are dangerous.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    Maaloula looks like third world, rural, Arab tribal life, in a country which is a warzone (this probably why there is an axe).

    As a tourist, we would enjoy this tribal festival. AaronB will be here to say that tribal life, is happier than our modern, secular society.

    But it is the opposite of correct social background for immigration to developed modern secular society, where everything relies on democracy, anti-corruption, politeness, etc.

    That said, if you applied filter (like >1500 SAT score to select the rural nerds), it might be ok, and you can find with other filters the rural third world people who want to be turn themselves into modern Europeans. In every school of Maaloula, there is a probably one or two polite, introverted, nerdy kids, that would be perfect for Heidelberg.

    By selecting Christians, you would filter against the problem of immigrants connected to global Islamism. But even in the Middle East, not all the massacres and interethnic violence is even Islamist. Tribal conflicts and massacres are features of all the religions in the region. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    In every school of Maaloula, there is a probably one or two polite, introverted, nerdy kids, that would be perfect for Heidelberg.
     
    You have some overly romantic ideas about Heidelberg.
    Anyway, from my perspective the potential danger of Mideastern Christian immigrants is that they might join left-wing antiracist rackets and agitate against the native population. Or engage in nepotistic practices. So like with all immigration there might be dangers, and I dislike mass immigration in any case. But I think AP is right on a fundamental level. At least I have never heard of Mideastern Christians committing the kind of vicious crimes against Germans or other Europeans which you'd have no trouble finding for members of many Muslim immigrant communities. And obviously the cultural shift produced even by Mideastern Christians would be less harsh than that by Islamic immigration. So I think there's a real difference.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  814. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @AaronB

    About Hoffman's book:

    1. he rotten-apple-picks every nasty thing he could find that denigrates the gentiles;
    2. he footnotes chapter and verse and if he says it is in there verbatim that seems reliable;

    AND

    3. even with the Talmud-for-dummies-summary-style this book is dreadful dull. I ran out of gas trying to make it half way. I am certain I did not get to page 550; this is a couple years ago but I estimate I got to page 300 before I decided that was more than enough. I had only read 10 or 20 pages of it before I decided I was going to go for maybe half! From page 11 or 21 to my end I was serious about my intention of getting to p. 550.

    Perhaps only a crazy person could have written Hoffman's book.

    Replies: @AaronB

    I have seen people, on this site, simply make up quotes from the Talmud and provide footnotes. Finding the quote improbable, I would check it out, and find it simply didn’t exist or was distorted.

    People with an agenda, not infrequently do this. In Ron Unz’s recent piece on the Liberty incident, he asserts that the New York Times reported Israel mass killed Egyptian prisoners of war in 67.

    Finding this improbable, and thinking I surely would have heard of this, I looked it up. Sure enough, the NYTimes published an article well after the war, in the 90s I think, quoting Egyptian officials claiming they unearthed indeterminate mass graves of 30 people or so near El Arish in the Sinai, with the Egyptians suggesting it possibly might have been graves of prisoners of war killed by the local Israeli unit.

    There followed a rather nuanced examination of the issue, with the local Yugoslavian UN forces claiming it’s unlikely as they would have heard of massacres and they didn’t it.

    Anyways, point is, people with agendas make things up and heavily distort.

    I’ve never read the Hoffman book, and it may be accurate, but I doubt it provides relevant historical context, as it sounds like a book with an agenda, and not a balanced piece of reporting.

    Anyways, I’m not denying there are things in the Talmud about gentiles, and how to interact and deal with them, that are morally objectionable. There certainly are, and I have seen them – for instance, if a gentile gives you back the wrong change accidentally, you don’t have to correct him, but you do if it’s a Jew.

    That’s not exactly a high level of ethics, even if the historical context is communal conflict. And there are certainly insulting things about gentiles (altho also kind things).

    But there is nothing particularly lurid or horrific, as is claimed on Unz. Just typical ethnocentric nonsense (with the occasional commendable rising above this limited view).

    As for not wanting to slog through such tedious minutuae of the Talmud, I can well understand that.

  815. German_reader says:
    @Dmitry
    @German_reader

    Maaloula looks like third world, rural, Arab tribal life, in a country which is a warzone (this probably why there is an axe).

    As a tourist, we would enjoy this tribal festival. AaronB will be here to say that tribal life, is happier than our modern, secular society.

    But it is the opposite of correct social background for immigration to developed modern secular society, where everything relies on democracy, anti-corruption, politeness, etc.

    That said, if you applied filter (like >1500 SAT score to select the rural nerds), it might be ok, and you can find with other filters the rural third world people who want to be turn themselves into modern Europeans. In every school of Maaloula, there is a probably one or two polite, introverted, nerdy kids, that would be perfect for Heidelberg.

    By selecting Christians, you would filter against the problem of immigrants connected to global Islamism. But even in the Middle East, not all the massacres and interethnic violence is even Islamist. Tribal conflicts and massacres are features of all the religions in the region. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre

    Replies: @German_reader

    In every school of Maaloula, there is a probably one or two polite, introverted, nerdy kids, that would be perfect for Heidelberg.

    You have some overly romantic ideas about Heidelberg.
    Anyway, from my perspective the potential danger of Mideastern Christian immigrants is that they might join left-wing antiracist rackets and agitate against the native population. Or engage in nepotistic practices. So like with all immigration there might be dangers, and I dislike mass immigration in any case. But I think AP is right on a fundamental level. At least I have never heard of Mideastern Christians committing the kind of vicious crimes against Germans or other Europeans which you’d have no trouble finding for members of many Muslim immigrant communities. And obviously the cultural shift produced even by Mideastern Christians would be less harsh than that by Islamic immigration. So I think there’s a real difference.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    potential danger of Mideastern Christian im
     
    It is just a standard issue of immigration from third world to first world.

    If you filter a lot (like America has with certain regions) for suitabilities requirements for the new country, then probably the results can be good. If not, then it's often inevitably will be like in Europe.

    If you're a wealthy country like Germany, UK or Sweden, then half of the world dreams of living in your country, and you could be fussy with economic immigration, and filter for accepting only the "most perfect economic immigrants" from any region like you are an employer choosing the best job applications.

    -

    This is all separate from the refugee topic (which is important and the world should surely build a special territory to save people who need that help).


    Mideastern Christians would be less harsh than that by Islamic immigration
     
    Sure, if you compare unfiltered Islamic, vs Christian, immigration - then with the former, you add an additional problem of Islamism.

    Islamic terrorism is one of the main problems in Europe, so I would add much more filters on any immigration from Islamic countries.

    But people in the first world, still complain about immigration from Christian third/second world. Trump's main election was about building walls to prevent open borders immigration from the most Catholic regions.

    The largest immigration in USA is from Mexico, which is largest population of Catholics, ahead of Philippines and Brazil. Problem for Americans is the Mexican immigration is not very filtered. On the other hand, Indians and Chinese going to America are probably very filtered people, and will be mostly going to the middle class.

    https://i.imgur.com/d0CFQOv.jpg

    First lesson here is about filtering your immigration, and avoiding open borders. Although authorities in Russia and EU, will probably never try to learn this. (In America, maybe).

    Replies: @Coconuts

  816. @Dmitry
    @AaronB

    If you are interested in (Middle Eastern) religions or religious topics, you can learn Hebrew and read original texts. It's becoming so much more easy to learn nowadays, with the apps and YouTube.

    In the 20th century, even some secular English politicians like Enoch Powell, were reading Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. And there was no YouTube and duolingo then.

    "The greatest endeavour of Powell's later years was The Evolution of the Gospel (1994), his new translation of and commentary on the Gospel according to St John. His Aramaic, his Greek and his Hebrew all came into play here." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-enoch-powell-1143867.html


    legalistic book of wrangling over legal minutiae
     
    Because the project was to derive all the rules for living, from the Bible.

    If they believe the Bible texts were really from god (as Jewish cults had then in Babylonian Exile, and continued for centuries later), then the judgement of your soul in relation to god, depends on doing this work correctly. It becomes like aviation safety, or bridge engineering.

    It's not different than if Harry Potter fans, believed J.K. Rowling transcribed sacred text from the gods. Then the important thing is to understand how you should live, according to what can derived from such stories as "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban".

    Stories itself are quite ambiguous, so there would be more than enough space for centuries of arguments and controversies, if there exist sufficiently motivated cults that believe it is a holy text.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AaronB

    I speak basic, low level Hebrew. I left Israel when I was 11 or 12. My Hebrew has significantly degraded since then, because I rarely practice, but I have the basic foundation and understand a fair amount when I watch Hebrew TV shows today.

    If I am to learn another language, it would be classical Chinese so I can read my favorite poetry and philosophical texts in the original 🙂 or it would be Japanese – I’ve actually picked up a certain amount of Japanese just watching anime lol 🙂

    Because the project was to derive all the rules for living, from the Bible.

    More or less, yes. I guess it can be compared to building a fantasy world, like Tolkien inventing Elvish etc.

    Personally, I think this misses the spiritual heart of religion. People get caught up in legalism. That’s always been a danger of Judaism.

    But many people find living in this imaginative works to be deeply satisfying, and who am I to say otherwise. To each his own.

    I prefer nature and the great wilderness 🙂

  817. @Dmitry
    @AP

    Yes but immigrants in Europe, are often not exactly a filtered immigration.

    Look at Pakistan's immigration in the UK. Pakistan is itself an undeveloped third world country. But majority of Pakistan's immigrants in the UK are peasants from the poorest, most religious, regions of Pakistan ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mirpuris )

    So they are not just third world immigrants, but immigrants from the poorest, most tribal and religious parts of those third world country.

    I think it is interesting, because the only person from Pakistan I have ever talked with, was a wealthy secular hipster, who loves trance music. Pakistan's elite "aristocracy" can seem very different from what you can read about those immigrants from tribal hinterland.

    -

    I wonder where much of the Algerians in France, are coming from. It's not probably not the secularized polite society. They and Chechens walking around Dijon with guns.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ5pb0IS7V0


    Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems

     

    It would remove or reduce the Islamism problem. But you should still study carefully the population, and filter them for the only the most educated, secularized, and Europeanized population.

    For example, in Maaloula in Syria, are Aramaic Christians.

    But Syria is a third world warzone, so even if you have a filter against Islamists by only selecting Aramaic Christians, the population might not be quite what you want to live in polites streets of Oxford or Heidelberg. (Immigration officials would ideally study YouTube as well and avoid the person with an axe).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5qM3phrFr8

    This is when talking about elite first world countries, who can choose immigrants from anywhere in the world. When you can choose from the most polite people in the world, then you are in the position to be fussy. America is an example of a country which can in theory be very fussy about its immigration. Same with countries like Germany, Sweden or UK.

    Sweden could add a filter that you need >1500 SAT test results for immigration there, and they will still receive far immigration application than they need.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AP

    I agree with German Reader. The Aramaic festival is primitive and loud, but there is nothing crazy about it. Women are dressed normally, not covered up. I imagine when Portugal or Gree e were as poor 50 years ago one could see similar scenes there.

    Here is a rural party of Ukrainian highlanders from the Carpathians (it takes about a minute to get going), there is more dancing:

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @AP


    rural party of Ukrainian highlanders

     

    Well even rural Ukraine is (mostly) a modernized, European population.

    But if you use open border immigration policy between Ukraine and Germany, it would still create many problems, and I'm sure Germans will be complaining about e.g. "thousands of drunks from Ukraine rolling on the side of the street".

    If you filtered immigration program from Ukraine (let's a few thousand people per year are selected on various suitability criteria), then it would likely be great for Germany, and Germans would be talking about "polite, intelligent Ukrainian immigrants".

    Filtering is the key in this topic. Religion can be one useful filter you use (although probably not politically acceptable in certain European countries), but I don't think it would be sufficient for itself to remove the downsides of the immigration.

    Sicilians were Catholic immigrants in the USA (obviously removing any problems of Islamism), but American borders were too open to filter local culture like mafia groups, and this created significant problems for American society until the late 20th century.


    when Portugal or Greece were as poor 50 years ago one could see similar scenes
     
    Sure, this is probably true. But in many other ways I think there is maybe around a century of difference in cultural modernization between Portugal/Greece, and the Middle Eastern countries. For an immigration policy from the Middle East to Europe, it's probably wise to add a lot of additional filters.

    Replies: @AP

  818. https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7236414.html

    As expected, the “managerial abilities” of Chubais results in another catastrophe (again). I can´t understand why the presence of this kind of neoliberal parasites is allowed in the Russian state.

  819. @AP
    @Dmitry

    Sure, but despite filters Muslim refugees in the USA have been more troublesome than Christian refugees from Muslim countries.

    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven't heard of them causing any problems. However, Muslims have been violently persecuting Christian converts from Islam, in Europe:

    https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/report-persecution-of-christian-refugees-in-germany/

    The Christian refugees involved in the survey indicated that they had suffered from persecution both at the hands of fellow refugees and through hostel security staff. Some 75% stated that this had happened repeatedly. Persecution was suffered in the following ways (with the number of people affected in brackets):

    Insults (96)
    Bodily harm (86)
    Death threats – also towards family (73)
    Very loud religious music or prayer (62)
    In addition there were physical attacks in the form of punches, spitting, pushing and sexual abuse.

    :::::::::::::

    It is unfortunate that no European country, if it was going to accept refugees, would at least require conversion to Christianity and disavowal of Islam as a prerequisite for acceptance into the country. This would probably cut down the number of refugees considerably, and would filter out most of the bad elements. Of course most of Europe (including, seemingly, many of its Churches) has largely gone post-Christian so it would be silly to think of the idea.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Thulean Friend

    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems.

    We have plenty of them, and we had them long before the 2015 crisis. Prior to 2015, most of Södertälje’s immigrants were Christian MENA folks. Many were Assyrian but also many Christian Arabs.

    Södertälje was known even back then as a place with high crime levels, rapes etc. I have personal experience with Christian Arabs. I never faced any violence, possibly because I towered over all of them, but I did find them duplicitous. Often initially pleasant and ingratiating, the moment they found out they could not gain an advantage is when the mask dropped. I have not seen that kind of behaviour from e.g. black immigrants.

    Anecdotally, I’ve heard bad things about the Lebanese diaspora in Australia concerning crime and most of them are Christian, too. I agree with Dmitry’s observation that American conditions are unique and not replicable to other parts of the world, except perhaps Latinx America which also has many Christian Arabs but you rarely hear about crime from them. (OTOH that is easier to disguise given the high native crime propensity).

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Thulean Friend


    Anecdotally, I’ve heard bad things about the Lebanese diaspora in Australia concerning crime and most of them are Christian, too.
     
    According to Wikipedia it's about 50% Christian and 40% Muslim (rest secular or unknown). Apparently the Christians have a much longer presence, with the Muslims arriving only in large numbers in the 1970s:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Australians#Second_wave_of_migration
    The perpetrators of the most notorious crimes committed by Lebanese in Australia were Muslim:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_gang_rapes

    Hard to evaluate of course without more statistics or some personal insight (maybe Yevardian can tell us something about Australian conditions).

    , @Dmitry
    @Thulean Friend


    initially pleasant and ingratiating, the moment they found out they could not gain an advantage is when the mask
     
    Lol this is such a stereotypical Arabian/Middle Eastern street culture. They are unfriendly, then very friendly (probably when they want to have money from you), then unfriendly.

    Even in Israel (where there has been rapid modernization of the population), I'm pretty sure I experienced traditional Arab Jewish restaurant workers are like this. I was writing to Utu from Israel. https://www.unz.com/akarlin/thought-for-food/#comment-2197795

    Of course, it is neither good or bad. It's just a traditional style of people in some regions of the Middle East.

    But if you an Oxford or Heidelberg, and like to preserve the traditional image of "polite atmosphere" and high manner of people, then it's probably not ideal to recruit for new customer service workers in the Middle East (unless they were filtered to be especially compatible or wanting to adapt).

    Neither would it be so good for traditional Japanese manners of Kyoto probably if a community of English football hooligans was relocating there.

    Desirable countries for immigration should be fussy about who they accept, as they can choose from half of the world.

    , @AP
    @Thulean Friend


    I agree with Dmitry’s observation that American conditions are unique and not replicable to other parts of the world, except perhaps Latinx America which also has many Christian Arabs but you rarely hear about crime from them. (OTOH that is easier to disguise given the high native crime propensity).
     
    America got plenty of poor uneducated Christian Arabs from Lebanese villages and Assyrians. They never got a reputation of being dangerous. Of course, white Americans are much more prone to crime than are Swedes, and America has the context of much more dangerous subpopulations, so perhaps the Arab Christians have gone unnoticed. I wonder if the crime rate in Södertälje was high by Swedish standards but no worse than in any working class white part of America.
  820. German_reader says:
    @Thulean Friend
    @AP


    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems.
     
    We have plenty of them, and we had them long before the 2015 crisis. Prior to 2015, most of Södertälje's immigrants were Christian MENA folks. Many were Assyrian but also many Christian Arabs.

    Södertälje was known even back then as a place with high crime levels, rapes etc. I have personal experience with Christian Arabs. I never faced any violence, possibly because I towered over all of them, but I did find them duplicitous. Often initially pleasant and ingratiating, the moment they found out they could not gain an advantage is when the mask dropped. I have not seen that kind of behaviour from e.g. black immigrants.

    Anecdotally, I've heard bad things about the Lebanese diaspora in Australia concerning crime and most of them are Christian, too. I agree with Dmitry's observation that American conditions are unique and not replicable to other parts of the world, except perhaps Latinx America which also has many Christian Arabs but you rarely hear about crime from them. (OTOH that is easier to disguise given the high native crime propensity).

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry, @AP

    Anecdotally, I’ve heard bad things about the Lebanese diaspora in Australia concerning crime and most of them are Christian, too.

    According to Wikipedia it’s about 50% Christian and 40% Muslim (rest secular or unknown). Apparently the Christians have a much longer presence, with the Muslims arriving only in large numbers in the 1970s:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Australians#Second_wave_of_migration
    The perpetrators of the most notorious crimes committed by Lebanese in Australia were Muslim:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_gang_rapes

    Hard to evaluate of course without more statistics or some personal insight (maybe Yevardian can tell us something about Australian conditions).

  821. @German_reader
    @Dmitry


    In every school of Maaloula, there is a probably one or two polite, introverted, nerdy kids, that would be perfect for Heidelberg.
     
    You have some overly romantic ideas about Heidelberg.
    Anyway, from my perspective the potential danger of Mideastern Christian immigrants is that they might join left-wing antiracist rackets and agitate against the native population. Or engage in nepotistic practices. So like with all immigration there might be dangers, and I dislike mass immigration in any case. But I think AP is right on a fundamental level. At least I have never heard of Mideastern Christians committing the kind of vicious crimes against Germans or other Europeans which you'd have no trouble finding for members of many Muslim immigrant communities. And obviously the cultural shift produced even by Mideastern Christians would be less harsh than that by Islamic immigration. So I think there's a real difference.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    potential danger of Mideastern Christian im

    It is just a standard issue of immigration from third world to first world.

    If you filter a lot (like America has with certain regions) for suitabilities requirements for the new country, then probably the results can be good. If not, then it’s often inevitably will be like in Europe.

    If you’re a wealthy country like Germany, UK or Sweden, then half of the world dreams of living in your country, and you could be fussy with economic immigration, and filter for accepting only the “most perfect economic immigrants” from any region like you are an employer choosing the best job applications.

    This is all separate from the refugee topic (which is important and the world should surely build a special territory to save people who need that help).

    Mideastern Christians would be less harsh than that by Islamic immigration

    Sure, if you compare unfiltered Islamic, vs Christian, immigration – then with the former, you add an additional problem of Islamism.

    Islamic terrorism is one of the main problems in Europe, so I would add much more filters on any immigration from Islamic countries.

    But people in the first world, still complain about immigration from Christian third/second world. Trump’s main election was about building walls to prevent open borders immigration from the most Catholic regions.

    The largest immigration in USA is from Mexico, which is largest population of Catholics, ahead of Philippines and Brazil. Problem for Americans is the Mexican immigration is not very filtered. On the other hand, Indians and Chinese going to America are probably very filtered people, and will be mostly going to the middle class.

    First lesson here is about filtering your immigration, and avoiding open borders. Although authorities in Russia and EU, will probably never try to learn this. (In America, maybe).

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    If you’re a wealthy country like Germany, UK or Sweden, then half of the world dreams of living in your country, and you could be fussy with economic immigration, and filter for accepting only the “most perfect economic immigrants” from any region like you are an employer choosing the best job applications.
     
    This is only if the immigration policy is quite rational though, and has clear objectives. At various times UK immigration policy seems to have been determined by quite strange criteria, especially after 1997. I have read various bits and pieces (in mainstream sources) suggesting that there was a conscious policy of using immigration to modify British culture and identity, and that lobby groups within the Labour Party also had influence in easing restrictions in ways that would benefit their own communities (probably including Pakistanis from Mirpur that you mentioned earlier).

    I think all these issues have become aggravated since the arrival of the Woke movement, previously looking at problems with the integration of, say Pakistani Muslims, with reference to the particular cultural and economic background they are coming from would probably have been easier. Now these problems will more likely be ascribed to white supremacy and systemic racism, which is a vague substitute.

  822. @Thulean Friend
    @AP


    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems.
     
    We have plenty of them, and we had them long before the 2015 crisis. Prior to 2015, most of Södertälje's immigrants were Christian MENA folks. Many were Assyrian but also many Christian Arabs.

    Södertälje was known even back then as a place with high crime levels, rapes etc. I have personal experience with Christian Arabs. I never faced any violence, possibly because I towered over all of them, but I did find them duplicitous. Often initially pleasant and ingratiating, the moment they found out they could not gain an advantage is when the mask dropped. I have not seen that kind of behaviour from e.g. black immigrants.

    Anecdotally, I've heard bad things about the Lebanese diaspora in Australia concerning crime and most of them are Christian, too. I agree with Dmitry's observation that American conditions are unique and not replicable to other parts of the world, except perhaps Latinx America which also has many Christian Arabs but you rarely hear about crime from them. (OTOH that is easier to disguise given the high native crime propensity).

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry, @AP

    initially pleasant and ingratiating, the moment they found out they could not gain an advantage is when the mask

    Lol this is such a stereotypical Arabian/Middle Eastern street culture. They are unfriendly, then very friendly (probably when they want to have money from you), then unfriendly.

    Even in Israel (where there has been rapid modernization of the population), I’m pretty sure I experienced traditional Arab Jewish restaurant workers are like this. I was writing to Utu from Israel. https://www.unz.com/akarlin/thought-for-food/#comment-2197795

    Of course, it is neither good or bad. It’s just a traditional style of people in some regions of the Middle East.

    But if you an Oxford or Heidelberg, and like to preserve the traditional image of “polite atmosphere” and high manner of people, then it’s probably not ideal to recruit for new customer service workers in the Middle East (unless they were filtered to be especially compatible or wanting to adapt).

    Neither would it be so good for traditional Japanese manners of Kyoto probably if a community of English football hooligans was relocating there.

    Desirable countries for immigration should be fussy about who they accept, as they can choose from half of the world.

  823. @Thulean Friend
    @AP


    I suppose at least some Christian refugees from Iraq have made it to Europe. I haven’t heard of them causing any problems.
     
    We have plenty of them, and we had them long before the 2015 crisis. Prior to 2015, most of Södertälje's immigrants were Christian MENA folks. Many were Assyrian but also many Christian Arabs.

    Södertälje was known even back then as a place with high crime levels, rapes etc. I have personal experience with Christian Arabs. I never faced any violence, possibly because I towered over all of them, but I did find them duplicitous. Often initially pleasant and ingratiating, the moment they found out they could not gain an advantage is when the mask dropped. I have not seen that kind of behaviour from e.g. black immigrants.

    Anecdotally, I've heard bad things about the Lebanese diaspora in Australia concerning crime and most of them are Christian, too. I agree with Dmitry's observation that American conditions are unique and not replicable to other parts of the world, except perhaps Latinx America which also has many Christian Arabs but you rarely hear about crime from them. (OTOH that is easier to disguise given the high native crime propensity).

    Replies: @German_reader, @Dmitry, @AP

    I agree with Dmitry’s observation that American conditions are unique and not replicable to other parts of the world, except perhaps Latinx America which also has many Christian Arabs but you rarely hear about crime from them. (OTOH that is easier to disguise given the high native crime propensity).

    America got plenty of poor uneducated Christian Arabs from Lebanese villages and Assyrians. They never got a reputation of being dangerous. Of course, white Americans are much more prone to crime than are Swedes, and America has the context of much more dangerous subpopulations, so perhaps the Arab Christians have gone unnoticed. I wonder if the crime rate in Södertälje was high by Swedish standards but no worse than in any working class white part of America.

  824. Rivian has had a higher market cap than Volkswagen. Lucid above Ford.

    This is the crazy bubble in the stock market, probably caused by too many retail investors trying to find the next Tesla. Considering the bubble with cryptocurrencies (whose real value is even less), then it’s not too surprising I guess.

    At least Rivian has a factory and a nice design for a product. Some plans for new factories. https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/355696/report-ev-start-rivian-plotting-ps1bn-uk-factory-near-bristol Maybe after a few decades growth, they could be deserving the current stock market valuation above Volkswagen.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    A rough but decent indicator of overvaluation would be (market cap)/(production volume) that is weighed by the type of autos (personal, trucks, etc.)

    https://www.oica.net/wp-content/uploads/World-Ranking-of-Manufacturers-1.pdf

    Tesla was #43 in 2017 and it can barely get into top 25 if you project 2021 volume into 2017 rankings.

    https://electrek.co/2021/10/20/tesla-achieves-annual-run-rate-1-million-electric-cars/

    Replies: @Dmitry

  825. @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    In the late 20s he was still saying things like race is 9/10ths spirit, 1/1oth biology, you see this kind of thing in Gentile as well in this period.
     
    Yes, there was a certain radicalization of fascist racial thought in the late 1930s. The war against Ethiopia seems to have played a big role. I vaguely recall having read something along the lines that fascists were bitter about the uncooperative attitude of Ethiopian elites, as if their civilisational mission had been rejected (they then sent out murder squads against those very elites). But in any case I don't think Italy in the first half of the 20th century really fits anything that would today be understood as civic nationalism.

    Pretty much certainly not, Maurras was hostile to the 19th century European immigration into France (he coined and populised the term métèque for foreigners living in France)
     
    For all practical purposes that doesn't really seem to be that different from an explicitly ethnocentric position (métèque as a term is pretty revealing, since in ancient Athens metics didn't have political rights, and the general view is that the Athenians were pretty ethnocentric, with restrictive citizenship laws and a myth about their autochthonous origin).
    But I'd have to read more about Maurras, his thought seems to have been complex and not easy to understand by the categories of today.

    some of it seems unusual nowadays (or outright strange; the strong anti-German positions
     
    I think in attenuated form it's probably still there on the French right. I was amused when I read that in the 1930s Maurras hoped for an anti-German alliance of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal...reminded me of the "Latin alliance" Marion Maréchal has proposed.

    Replies: @songbird, @Coconuts

    The war against Ethiopia seems to have played a big role.

    I started thinking about this as well after finishing my last post, given the resources they invested in Italian East Africa, the pacification campaigns and so on, more attention would be drawn to a topic like this as any observable racial differences between Italians would be very small compared to those between Italians and Ethiopians.

    But in any case I don’t think Italy in the first half of the 20th century really fits anything that would today be understood as civic nationalism.

    It seems like nowadays civic nationalism is mostly understood as a brand of individualist liberal democratic politics, and these other older types of nationalism reject that whole framework. I think with both this early Fascism and Maurras, the liberal democratic political system in itself is seen as a major root problem (it will be more likely to cause large scale immigration and/or the exaggerated power of foreign minorities in the state), so they approach things from a different angle.

    But I’d have to read more about Maurras, his thought seems to have been complex and not easy to understand by the categories of today.

    This is true, only the French seem to read him now and the influence of the Maurrasian tradition in Portugal seems to be completely dead. One of the interesting things is the unusual combination of arguments he uses for integral nationalism and monarchy, using an updated and enriched version of the old Aristotleian tradition (he adds positivist elements from Comte, and various other French social thinkers I wasn’t aware of), relating to issues like cultural enrichment, community, freedom and autonomy. At the moment these feel more relevant than they might have done even a couple of years ago.

    I think in attenuated form it’s probably still there on the French right.

    It is, I heard a talk the other night about Germany that had some of this perspective.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    with Italy a certain level of h

     

    Nationalism which emerged in 19th century Italy, was also unification and partly modernization project, led from North West areas which had recently been independent from France (Mazzini and Verdi born in the French Empire).

    It focused in some sense on homogenizing differences across Italy, and modernization from the North. I guess some of these aspects were in the subsequent century found in almost a parody - Mussolini.

    This "unification" form of nationalism can go to opposite positions in areas like language policy, from the "separatist" nationalism like we see in Ukraine, Scotland, Catalonia, etc where there is such focus on emphasizing of local differences and old rural traditions. ​ For example, in Italian nationalism focused on creating a national language, and removing the local languages.


    Italians and Ethiopians
     
    And Italy's defeat, has contributes to creating a very strong nationalist identity in Ethiopia.

    But in Eritrea, it seems like they are still simple Italophiles , who are proud of their pasta and expresso.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svezgqe5fOA


    UK immigration policy seems to have been determined by quite strange criteria, especially after
     
    This is offtopic, but I enjoyed a video about tourism in 1970s London, where the people were very fussy about tourists, while at the same time cynically happy about the money coming to them.

    London was being flooded then with the Western European tourism waves.

    It's after the economic miracles in Western Europe, and so many young people of Western Europe had excess money to go to London, to enjoy their pre-Harry Potter anglomania. At that time, I guess everyone in Europe was still obsessed with the Beatles, and London was extremely fashionable.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgmr3GQHU7c


    In the 1970s, London is flooded with Western European tourism. In the 1980s, with Japanese tourism. In the 2000s, with Russian tourism (finally, sadly delayed).

    But how wonderful it would be to have a time machine for a week, for a vacation in 1970s London.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Coconuts

  826. @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    potential danger of Mideastern Christian im
     
    It is just a standard issue of immigration from third world to first world.

    If you filter a lot (like America has with certain regions) for suitabilities requirements for the new country, then probably the results can be good. If not, then it's often inevitably will be like in Europe.

    If you're a wealthy country like Germany, UK or Sweden, then half of the world dreams of living in your country, and you could be fussy with economic immigration, and filter for accepting only the "most perfect economic immigrants" from any region like you are an employer choosing the best job applications.

    -

    This is all separate from the refugee topic (which is important and the world should surely build a special territory to save people who need that help).


    Mideastern Christians would be less harsh than that by Islamic immigration
     
    Sure, if you compare unfiltered Islamic, vs Christian, immigration - then with the former, you add an additional problem of Islamism.

    Islamic terrorism is one of the main problems in Europe, so I would add much more filters on any immigration from Islamic countries.

    But people in the first world, still complain about immigration from Christian third/second world. Trump's main election was about building walls to prevent open borders immigration from the most Catholic regions.

    The largest immigration in USA is from Mexico, which is largest population of Catholics, ahead of Philippines and Brazil. Problem for Americans is the Mexican immigration is not very filtered. On the other hand, Indians and Chinese going to America are probably very filtered people, and will be mostly going to the middle class.

    https://i.imgur.com/d0CFQOv.jpg

    First lesson here is about filtering your immigration, and avoiding open borders. Although authorities in Russia and EU, will probably never try to learn this. (In America, maybe).

    Replies: @Coconuts

    If you’re a wealthy country like Germany, UK or Sweden, then half of the world dreams of living in your country, and you could be fussy with economic immigration, and filter for accepting only the “most perfect economic immigrants” from any region like you are an employer choosing the best job applications.

    This is only if the immigration policy is quite rational though, and has clear objectives. At various times UK immigration policy seems to have been determined by quite strange criteria, especially after 1997. I have read various bits and pieces (in mainstream sources) suggesting that there was a conscious policy of using immigration to modify British culture and identity, and that lobby groups within the Labour Party also had influence in easing restrictions in ways that would benefit their own communities (probably including Pakistanis from Mirpur that you mentioned earlier).

    I think all these issues have become aggravated since the arrival of the Woke movement, previously looking at problems with the integration of, say Pakistani Muslims, with reference to the particular cultural and economic background they are coming from would probably have been easier. Now these problems will more likely be ascribed to white supremacy and systemic racism, which is a vague substitute.

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
  827. @Coconuts
    @German_reader


    The war against Ethiopia seems to have played a big role.
     
    I started thinking about this as well after finishing my last post, given the resources they invested in Italian East Africa, the pacification campaigns and so on, more attention would be drawn to a topic like this as any observable racial differences between Italians would be very small compared to those between Italians and Ethiopians.

    But in any case I don’t think Italy in the first half of the 20th century really fits anything that would today be understood as civic nationalism.
     
    It seems like nowadays civic nationalism is mostly understood as a brand of individualist liberal democratic politics, and these other older types of nationalism reject that whole framework. I think with both this early Fascism and Maurras, the liberal democratic political system in itself is seen as a major root problem (it will be more likely to cause large scale immigration and/or the exaggerated power of foreign minorities in the state), so they approach things from a different angle.

    But I’d have to read more about Maurras, his thought seems to have been complex and not easy to understand by the categories of today.

     

    This is true, only the French seem to read him now and the influence of the Maurrasian tradition in Portugal seems to be completely dead. One of the interesting things is the unusual combination of arguments he uses for integral nationalism and monarchy, using an updated and enriched version of the old Aristotleian tradition (he adds positivist elements from Comte, and various other French social thinkers I wasn't aware of), relating to issues like cultural enrichment, community, freedom and autonomy. At the moment these feel more relevant than they might have done even a couple of years ago.

    I think in attenuated form it’s probably still there on the French right.
     
    It is, I heard a talk the other night about Germany that had some of this perspective.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    with Italy a certain level of h

    Nationalism which emerged in 19th century Italy, was also unification and partly modernization project, led from North West areas which had recently been independent from France (Mazzini and Verdi born in the French Empire).

    It focused in some sense on homogenizing differences across Italy, and modernization from the North. I guess some of these aspects were in the subsequent century found in almost a parody – Mussolini.

    This “unification” form of nationalism can go to opposite positions in areas like language policy, from the “separatist” nationalism like we see in Ukraine, Scotland, Catalonia, etc where there is such focus on emphasizing of local differences and old rural traditions. ​ For example, in Italian nationalism focused on creating a national language, and removing the local languages.

    Italians and Ethiopians

    And Italy’s defeat, has contributes to creating a very strong nationalist identity in Ethiopia.

    But in Eritrea, it seems like they are still simple Italophiles , who are proud of their pasta and expresso.

    UK immigration policy seems to have been determined by quite strange criteria, especially after

    This is offtopic, but I enjoyed a video about tourism in 1970s London, where the people were very fussy about tourists, while at the same time cynically happy about the money coming to them.

    London was being flooded then with the Western European tourism waves.

    It’s after the economic miracles in Western Europe, and so many young people of Western Europe had excess money to go to London, to enjoy their pre-Harry Potter anglomania. At that time, I guess everyone in Europe was still obsessed with the Beatles, and London was extremely fashionable.

    In the 1970s, London is flooded with Western European tourism. In the 1980s, with Japanese tourism. In the 2000s, with Russian tourism (finally, sadly delayed).

    But how wonderful it would be to have a time machine for a week, for a vacation in 1970s London.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    I guess some of these aspects were in the subsequent century found in almost a parody – Mussolini.
     
    https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=fI3CCyVH&id=ACF7C7693DBCB4A11BA5261C2DD079F8D98276EA&thid=OIP.fI3CCyVHXHSZN4x0gI1ECgAAAA&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.chisholm-poster.com%2flarge%2fCL58736.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.7c8dc20b25475c7499378c74808d440a%3frik%3d6naC2fh50C0cJg%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0%26sres%3d1%26sresct%3d1%26srh%3d798%26srw%3d563&exph=430&expw=303&q=Mussolini+si+poster&simid=607997395955814778&FORM=IRPRST&ck=90A6D454EF250C2636D43D55AEB9A6ED&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

    Gentile says this about the Fascist nation: '...Not a race, nor a geographically defined region, but a people, historically perpetuating itself; a multitude unified by an idea and imbued with the will to live, the will to power, self-consciousness, personality.'

    As you wrote, you can see the origins of this in the Risorgimento era, I think there was also a general European preoccupation in the 1920s and 30s with collective unity and progress through struggle, and it was the beginning of a 'great age' for the state.

    The other separatist kind of nationalism from Scotland, Ukraine etc. seems to be the 'next generation', a kind of reaction to the centralisation and unitary tendencies of the previous decades, where people are asking for more local decision making and/or to regain national independence.


    But in Eritrea, it seems like they are still simple Italophiles , who are proud of their pasta and expresso.
     
    That video is curious.

    AFAIK Eritreans are mostly Muslims, and had a lot of wars with the Christian Ethiopians even before the Italians occupied their territories. They were also an Italian colony for a lot longer and Eritreans provided the elite troops of Italy's Royal Colonial Troops. I became quite interested in Italian East Africa at one time after reading a book about the fall of the colony in 1941, and the battle of Kheren, where the Italian Eritreans fought with the British Indian Army for control of the heights. In the period before the internet was as rich in resources this used to happen to me sometimes, if there was an obscure historical subject that it was quite hard to find information on in the UK.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP

    , @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    But how wonderful it would be to have a time machine for a week, for a vacation in 1970s London.
     
    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+betjeman+metroland&&view=detail&mid=6DA48691A9866CA509296DA48691A9866CA50929&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djohn%2Bbetjeman%2Bmetroland%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

    This is an interesting documentary by the great John Betjeman about the architecture and cultural landmarks of the various London suburbs that made up 'Metroland', it was made in about 1973 or 4.

    Despite the tourists London would probably seem much more empty at that time, you notice when watching documentaries or TV programs filmed there in the 70s. Betjeman made another film based on his verse autobiography called 'Summoned by Bells' where he walks around the houses he lived in as a child in the 1900s and onto Hampstead Heath, it looks as quiet as the place I live at the moment. I was born in the early 80s and have somehow started to remember more about the feel of that era lately, though I didn't get a chance to see London till the mid 90s. Now I am also regretting that my parents sold my grandparents' house in the early 2010s, before that it had last been decorated in around 1980 and had cool 1940s and 50s furniture and a homemade kitchen.

  828. @AP
    @Dmitry

    I agree with German Reader. The Aramaic festival is primitive and loud, but there is nothing crazy about it. Women are dressed normally, not covered up. I imagine when Portugal or Gree e were as poor 50 years ago one could see similar scenes there.

    Here is a rural party of Ukrainian highlanders from the Carpathians (it takes about a minute to get going), there is more dancing:

    https://youtu.be/TfjI1lPp808

    Replies: @Dmitry

    rural party of Ukrainian highlanders

    Well even rural Ukraine is (mostly) a modernized, European population.

    But if you use open border immigration policy between Ukraine and Germany, it would still create many problems, and I’m sure Germans will be complaining about e.g. “thousands of drunks from Ukraine rolling on the side of the street”.

    If you filtered immigration program from Ukraine (let’s a few thousand people per year are selected on various suitability criteria), then it would likely be great for Germany, and Germans would be talking about “polite, intelligent Ukrainian immigrants”.

    Filtering is the key in this topic. Religion can be one useful filter you use (although probably not politically acceptable in certain European countries), but I don’t think it would be sufficient for itself to remove the downsides of the immigration.

    Sicilians were Catholic immigrants in the USA (obviously removing any problems of Islamism), but American borders were too open to filter local culture like mafia groups, and this created significant problems for American society until the late 20th century.

    when Portugal or Greece were as poor 50 years ago one could see similar scenes

    Sure, this is probably true. But in many other ways I think there is maybe around a century of difference in cultural modernization between Portugal/Greece, and the Middle Eastern countries. For an immigration policy from the Middle East to Europe, it’s probably wise to add a lot of additional filters.

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @AP
    @Dmitry


    For an immigration policy from the Middle East to Europe, it’s probably wise to add a lot of additional filters.
     
    To repeat myself, immigration to Europe from anywhere should be minimal and of small enough extent that the newcomers can be absorbed without changing the host culture much, if at all. European countries should be homelands for European peoples; they should not be globalized melting pots. The world is a better place with real diversity - a real Germany, Poland, Spain, etc.

    My point was simply that Christian Arabs are mostly harmless; if one were to accept them as refugees, the risks are fairly low.
  829. Trump seems to me more like Muhammad, an oligarch who passed as a “social reformer” that actually strengthened the existing economic order by offering the masses an false religious-ideological alternative, than a true populist like Jesus that aimed to overthrow and replace both. But there can only be one Christ, one Son of God…

    • LOL: sher singh
    • Troll: A123
    • Replies: @sher singh
    @Yellowface Anon

    Asian christians are trash no wonder you hate Sikhi..
    You're basically a dung beetle :shrug:

  830. @Dmitry
    Rivian has had a higher market cap than Volkswagen. Lucid above Ford.

    https://twitter.com/alvinfoo/status/1461885721774592009

    This is the crazy bubble in the stock market, probably caused by too many retail investors trying to find the next Tesla. Considering the bubble with cryptocurrencies (whose real value is even less), then it's not too surprising I guess.

    At least Rivian has a factory and a nice design for a product. Some plans for new factories. https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/355696/report-ev-start-rivian-plotting-ps1bn-uk-factory-near-bristol Maybe after a few decades growth, they could be deserving the current stock market valuation above Volkswagen.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    A rough but decent indicator of overvaluation would be (market cap)/(production volume) that is weighed by the type of autos (personal, trucks, etc.)

    https://www.oica.net/wp-content/uploads/World-Ranking-of-Manufacturers-1.pdf

    Tesla was #43 in 2017 and it can barely get into top 25 if you project 2021 volume into 2017 rankings.

    https://electrek.co/2021/10/20/tesla-achieves-annual-run-rate-1-million-electric-cars/

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    Lol look at Tesla's P/E ratio today - 383. Although being a successful and innovative car company, in terms of its stock Tesla is like a culturally established Pachinko game. People are throwing money on, to ride the irrational exuberance.

    -


    But look at cryptocurrencies, which have a market cap at $3 trillion, but their only underlying value is some not interesting open source software, a currently viable use for money laundering, and an extremely viable use for gambling.

    Cryptocurrencies don't have so much intrinsic value (gambling and money laundering are big business, and cryptocurrency is useful for that, but one cryptocurrency will do it as well as another). However, you can say the same about a poker game.

    Probably the concept of valuation is misapplied for describing money people use for gambling. When you throw money in the centre of the table in poker game, we don't say the game is "overvalued". Underlying value of the poker game will never match to the money being played on it. But people will continue to enjoy throwing their money on the table and exchanging it between each other in a zero-sum way.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  831. @Dmitry
    @AP


    rural party of Ukrainian highlanders

     

    Well even rural Ukraine is (mostly) a modernized, European population.

    But if you use open border immigration policy between Ukraine and Germany, it would still create many problems, and I'm sure Germans will be complaining about e.g. "thousands of drunks from Ukraine rolling on the side of the street".

    If you filtered immigration program from Ukraine (let's a few thousand people per year are selected on various suitability criteria), then it would likely be great for Germany, and Germans would be talking about "polite, intelligent Ukrainian immigrants".

    Filtering is the key in this topic. Religion can be one useful filter you use (although probably not politically acceptable in certain European countries), but I don't think it would be sufficient for itself to remove the downsides of the immigration.

    Sicilians were Catholic immigrants in the USA (obviously removing any problems of Islamism), but American borders were too open to filter local culture like mafia groups, and this created significant problems for American society until the late 20th century.


    when Portugal or Greece were as poor 50 years ago one could see similar scenes
     
    Sure, this is probably true. But in many other ways I think there is maybe around a century of difference in cultural modernization between Portugal/Greece, and the Middle Eastern countries. For an immigration policy from the Middle East to Europe, it's probably wise to add a lot of additional filters.

    Replies: @AP

    For an immigration policy from the Middle East to Europe, it’s probably wise to add a lot of additional filters.

    To repeat myself, immigration to Europe from anywhere should be minimal and of small enough extent that the newcomers can be absorbed without changing the host culture much, if at all. European countries should be homelands for European peoples; they should not be globalized melting pots. The world is a better place with real diversity – a real Germany, Poland, Spain, etc.

    My point was simply that Christian Arabs are mostly harmless; if one were to accept them as refugees, the risks are fairly low.

    • Agree: Mr. Hack, RadicalCenter
  832. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), that Biden in the past praised its competency, has blown a hole in Biden’s claim that his Build Back Better(BBB) spending bill “will not cost the American tax payer one cent”. The CBO has reported that the BBB bill will cost \$367 billion above anticipated tax revenues. So much for Biden telling the truth, and instead, furthering inflationary pressure and a socialist agenda.

    Make no mistake, the cranking up of gasoline prices is intentional. Progressives want to force us into higher priced electric cars or pressure us into mass transit. The wealthy will be able to afford the higher costs, but for low to middle income families, the choices will be real and painful.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Mr. Hack

    What future does rightoids want after Biden & the Dems are out of office? Permanent Trumpist industrial isolationism or permanent TradCon neo-medievalism? Judging from the trauma from the COVID Agenda & BBB I guess it will be the 2nd. I think many will think in terms of "neo-Amish vs techno-communism" & "draught animals vs electric cars & solar energy" 10 years from now, since the middle ground of a mixed capitalist economy balanced between individualistic & collectivistic tendencies, & petrol autos are being stamped out from both sides. You are either enslaved by collectivist technologies, or living freely on a near-medieval lifestyle. How a lot of rightoids react to the kind of Green state capitalism, by reverting to a local subsistence mentality, is literally archeofuturist, but with them playing the serf part and pretending to be victimized. Good for spirituality & ideologically self-legitimized, but much poorer. But that is built in Romano-Christian eschatology anyway, and so outside of a change in worldview, it probably can't be escaped.

    I'm seriously reading Michael Hudson's works and we don't have to come to this.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @RadicalCenter
    @Mr. Hack

    They ARE deadly poison-spewing machines.

    But the transition away from burning filthy fossil fuels in our vehicles needs to be realistic: slow and gradual enough that we don’t damage the economy and destroy jobs. Also slow and gradual enough that a lot bigger percentage of people can afford to buy a plug-in hybrid or all-electric vehicle than can afford one today.

    You’re absolutely right, though, that they want to force us to stay home or use constantly surveilled mass transit. Mass transit which they will eventually deny to “unvaxxed” people, i.e. people who exercise their right to choose not to get these unnecessary, unduly dangerous, and sometimes counterproductive injections.

  833. @AP
    @Svidomyatheart

    I was discussing Christian Arabs from Iraq (and Lebanon). They don’t have a reputation for criminality, at least in the USA.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Svidomyatheart

    I mean like German_Reader said those Iraq and Lebanese Christians may possibly even more clannish than the ones I listed above due to the hostile environment they have to navigate through and survive. And add to the fact that Armenians, Georgians and Azeris were once a part of the USSR with its whole friendship of nations crap and multiculturalism which weakens nations(but it wasnt as practiced there).

    That just means once again there will be various clandestine underground economies springing up and high end jobs being siphoned off to various unscrupulous and nepotistic clan members (as if right now we arent neofeudal latifundia literally owned and operated by various robber barons) . So you want even more robber barons? But yes they’re definitely better than the other guys who threaten to cut your head off at the slightest provocation.
    Anyways its going to be like Jews in middle ages when Poland invited them in and gave them all the keys to the castle. Living off your back. I personally dont find the prospects of us turned into brothel+neofeudal latifundia very exciting.

    • Agree: RadicalCenter
    • Replies: @AP
    @Svidomyatheart


    I mean like German_Reader said those Iraq and Lebanese Christians may possibly even more clannish than the ones I listed above due to the hostile environment they have to navigate through and survive
     
    In the USA they have behaved like Italians and basically just assimilated, while retaining family recipes and ethnic churches. They often own restaurants and may be more commercial (owning shops). They very frequently marry blond people, lots of intermarriage with Irish. They are typically Trump supporting “nativists.”

    fact that Armenians, Georgians and Azeris were once a part of the USSR
     
    These people have been exposed to Soviet demoralization which has amplified their worst qualities, particularly criminality and corruption. Diaspora Armenians in the USA sometimes complain about their Soviet co-ethnics in the way ethnic Slavs complain about them in the USSR. This is probably not true of those from Iraq or Syria.

    The large medieval Armenian community in Lviv did not have a bad reputation; it mostly just assimilated over time.

    Anyways its going to be like Jews in middle ages when Poland invited them in and gave them all the keys to the castle
     
    Intermarriage would be much higher than among Jews, who retained purity over centuries. They would be marrying Poles every generation. Within two generations it would just be Poles with exotic surnames.
  834. @Mr. Hack
    https://ic-cdn.flipboard.com/foxnews.com/c1f30ee1b4704a597da5202aedd6405fccf229f2/_large.webp

    The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), that Biden in the past praised its competency, has blown a hole in Biden's claim that his Build Back Better(BBB) spending bill "will not cost the American tax payer one cent". The CBO has reported that the BBB bill will cost $367 billion above anticipated tax revenues. So much for Biden telling the truth, and instead, furthering inflationary pressure and a socialist agenda.

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/15834619_web1_web_rmz-nov16.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1

    Make no mistake, the cranking up of gasoline prices is intentional. Progressives want to force us into higher priced electric cars or pressure us into mass transit. The wealthy will be able to afford the higher costs, but for low to middle income families, the choices will be real and painful.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @RadicalCenter

    What future does rightoids want after Biden & the Dems are out of office? Permanent Trumpist industrial isolationism or permanent TradCon neo-medievalism? Judging from the trauma from the COVID Agenda & BBB I guess it will be the 2nd. I think many will think in terms of “neo-Amish vs techno-communism” & “draught animals vs electric cars & solar energy” 10 years from now, since the middle ground of a mixed capitalist economy balanced between individualistic & collectivistic tendencies, & petrol autos are being stamped out from both sides. You are either enslaved by collectivist technologies, or living freely on a near-medieval lifestyle. How a lot of rightoids react to the kind of Green state capitalism, by reverting to a local subsistence mentality, is literally archeofuturist, but with them playing the serf part and pretending to be victimized. Good for spirituality & ideologically self-legitimized, but much poorer. But that is built in Romano-Christian eschatology anyway, and so outside of a change in worldview, it probably can’t be escaped.

    I’m seriously reading Michael Hudson’s works and we don’t have to come to this.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Yellowface Anon

    US society is way too large for the majority to revert to any sort of "back to nature" lifestyle that you seem to be envisioning. If it were possible, the tent people that we see dotting our urban and even rural landscapes would already be embracing it. The hippie movement of the 1960's was the closest that we've seen this society embrace these sorts of ideals, and we all know how that ended up. The current lot of green communists are way to lazy to get off their sofas and revert to any sort of real society based on agricultural norms. If they want to test drive any such model, they should move to Ukraine and observe it firsthand, including all of the backbreaking work required to live this way. Or, even the backwoods and jungles of Costa Rica, where the last remnants of the hippie movement and communal living can still be seen. It's all a nostalgic and romantic view of society not based in reality.

    https://uploads2.wikiart.org/images/grant-wood/american-gothic-1930.jpg!Large.jpg

    Bye bye gothic dreams of Americana! :-)

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Emil Nikola Richard

  835. Remember both BLM & some forms of White Nationalism suck

  836. @Svidomyatheart
    @AP

    I mean like German_Reader said those Iraq and Lebanese Christians may possibly even more clannish than the ones I listed above due to the hostile environment they have to navigate through and survive. And add to the fact that Armenians, Georgians and Azeris were once a part of the USSR with its whole friendship of nations crap and multiculturalism which weakens nations(but it wasnt as practiced there).

    That just means once again there will be various clandestine underground economies springing up and high end jobs being siphoned off to various unscrupulous and nepotistic clan members (as if right now we arent neofeudal latifundia literally owned and operated by various robber barons) . So you want even more robber barons? But yes they're definitely better than the other guys who threaten to cut your head off at the slightest provocation.
    Anyways its going to be like Jews in middle ages when Poland invited them in and gave them all the keys to the castle. Living off your back. I personally dont find the prospects of us turned into brothel+neofeudal latifundia very exciting.

    Replies: @AP

    I mean like German_Reader said those Iraq and Lebanese Christians may possibly even more clannish than the ones I listed above due to the hostile environment they have to navigate through and survive

    In the USA they have behaved like Italians and basically just assimilated, while retaining family recipes and ethnic churches. They often own restaurants and may be more commercial (owning shops). They very frequently marry blond people, lots of intermarriage with Irish. They are typically Trump supporting “nativists.”

    fact that Armenians, Georgians and Azeris were once a part of the USSR

    These people have been exposed to Soviet demoralization which has amplified their worst qualities, particularly criminality and corruption. Diaspora Armenians in the USA sometimes complain about their Soviet co-ethnics in the way ethnic Slavs complain about them in the USSR. This is probably not true of those from Iraq or Syria.

    The large medieval Armenian community in Lviv did not have a bad reputation; it mostly just assimilated over time.

    Anyways its going to be like Jews in middle ages when Poland invited them in and gave them all the keys to the castle

    Intermarriage would be much higher than among Jews, who retained purity over centuries. They would be marrying Poles every generation. Within two generations it would just be Poles with exotic surnames.

  837. @Yellowface Anon
    @Mr. Hack

    What future does rightoids want after Biden & the Dems are out of office? Permanent Trumpist industrial isolationism or permanent TradCon neo-medievalism? Judging from the trauma from the COVID Agenda & BBB I guess it will be the 2nd. I think many will think in terms of "neo-Amish vs techno-communism" & "draught animals vs electric cars & solar energy" 10 years from now, since the middle ground of a mixed capitalist economy balanced between individualistic & collectivistic tendencies, & petrol autos are being stamped out from both sides. You are either enslaved by collectivist technologies, or living freely on a near-medieval lifestyle. How a lot of rightoids react to the kind of Green state capitalism, by reverting to a local subsistence mentality, is literally archeofuturist, but with them playing the serf part and pretending to be victimized. Good for spirituality & ideologically self-legitimized, but much poorer. But that is built in Romano-Christian eschatology anyway, and so outside of a change in worldview, it probably can't be escaped.

    I'm seriously reading Michael Hudson's works and we don't have to come to this.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    US society is way too large for the majority to revert to any sort of “back to nature” lifestyle that you seem to be envisioning. If it were possible, the tent people that we see dotting our urban and even rural landscapes would already be embracing it. The hippie movement of the 1960’s was the closest that we’ve seen this society embrace these sorts of ideals, and we all know how that ended up. The current lot of green communists are way to lazy to get off their sofas and revert to any sort of real society based on agricultural norms. If they want to test drive any such model, they should move to Ukraine and observe it firsthand, including all of the backbreaking work required to live this way. Or, even the backwoods and jungles of Costa Rica, where the last remnants of the hippie movement and communal living can still be seen. It’s all a nostalgic and romantic view of society not based in reality.

    Bye bye gothic dreams of Americana! 🙂

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Mr. Hack

    I don't think most rightoids ultimately want to reject industrialism (me neither, since I won't survive in such a neo-medieval system either), but it represents an increasing segment of the movement, who embraces means of self-sufficiency e.g. planting their own gardens & artisanry. Eventually, it will gain its own logic and ideological legitimation, something like what AaronB muses daily or the thinking that is prevalent in agrarian-survivalist blogs.

    One of the poisons of ideological Americanization is "anyone left of the deep Right = commie" based on the assumption that any left-wing swing in policies will inevitably radicalize, and hence create economic disruption. This isn't helped by how Globalist elites embrace left-wing rhetoric while push thru their own centralizing agendas, which would actually be oligarchic state capitalism.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack


    Or, even the backwoods and jungles of Costa Rica, where the last remnants of the hippie movement and communal living can still be seen.
     
    Is The Farm in Tennessee defunct? I have not seen that report.

    Here it says they still have 200 occupants:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_(Tennessee)#Recent_status

    and a long long ways from by the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  838. @Yellowface Anon
    Trump seems to me more like Muhammad, an oligarch who passed as a "social reformer" that actually strengthened the existing economic order by offering the masses an false religious-ideological alternative, than a true populist like Jesus that aimed to overthrow and replace both. But there can only be one Christ, one Son of God...

    Replies: @sher singh

    Asian christians are trash no wonder you hate Sikhi..
    You’re basically a dung beetle :shrug:

  839. @Mr. Hack
    @Yellowface Anon

    US society is way too large for the majority to revert to any sort of "back to nature" lifestyle that you seem to be envisioning. If it were possible, the tent people that we see dotting our urban and even rural landscapes would already be embracing it. The hippie movement of the 1960's was the closest that we've seen this society embrace these sorts of ideals, and we all know how that ended up. The current lot of green communists are way to lazy to get off their sofas and revert to any sort of real society based on agricultural norms. If they want to test drive any such model, they should move to Ukraine and observe it firsthand, including all of the backbreaking work required to live this way. Or, even the backwoods and jungles of Costa Rica, where the last remnants of the hippie movement and communal living can still be seen. It's all a nostalgic and romantic view of society not based in reality.

    https://uploads2.wikiart.org/images/grant-wood/american-gothic-1930.jpg!Large.jpg

    Bye bye gothic dreams of Americana! :-)

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Emil Nikola Richard

    I don’t think most rightoids ultimately want to reject industrialism (me neither, since I won’t survive in such a neo-medieval system either), but it represents an increasing segment of the movement, who embraces means of self-sufficiency e.g. planting their own gardens & artisanry. Eventually, it will gain its own logic and ideological legitimation, something like what AaronB muses daily or the thinking that is prevalent in agrarian-survivalist blogs.

    One of the poisons of ideological Americanization is “anyone left of the deep Right = commie” based on the assumption that any left-wing swing in policies will inevitably radicalize, and hence create economic disruption. This isn’t helped by how Globalist elites embrace left-wing rhetoric while push thru their own centralizing agendas, which would actually be oligarchic state capitalism.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Yellowface Anon

    I don't think that a great portion of those Americans that practice domestic gardening do so out of economic necessity, as did their not too distant ancestors. Most, I presume do it out of feelings of providing themselves with a higher grade, minimally pesticided (I may have just invented a word) produce. I know a bit about this topic, having had several good-sized (by American standard, not Ukrainian ones) gardens during my lifetime. It's hard work, but ultimately satisfying as my friend Peter Ostroushko once said, picking a ripe tomato from his "hriadka" in one hand, and a salt shaker in the other.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    , @sudden death
    @Yellowface Anon


    ...represents an increasing segment of the movement, who embraces means of self-sufficiency e.g. planting their own gardens & artisanry. Eventually, it will gain its own logic and ideological legitimation, something like what AaronB muses daily or the thinking that is prevalent in agrarian-survivalist blogs.
     
    btw, nothing is more self sufficient than having your own personal wind&solar power source, preferably powerful enough to cover all home utilities needs+being able to power your own electric car for movement. Traditional engine cars are opposite of self sufficiency&decentralization in such context, so conservative opposition to renewables is quite mindboggling, but this clearly not the only instance of them being utterly confused&disoriented.

    Replies: @A123

  840. Singapore would not have tolerated this guy in Waukesha or the ones in Kenosha.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @songbird

    I've been reading a list of LKY's quotes on race. Two of the funniest are these:


    Any doctor will tell you in our hospitals, that even if you just touch an Indian with an injection he is howling. The Chinaman isn’t. He has got a very high tolerance for pain …
     

    When doing a project [the British] would put the Chinese in the middle and put the Indians at the side, and the Indians were expected to keep the pace of the Chinese. And there was a hell of a problem, because one Chinese would carry one pole with two wicker baskets of earth, whereas two Indians would carry one pole with one wicker basket between them. So it’s one quarter. Now that’s culture. Maybe it has to do with genetic characteristics, I’m not sure.
     
    https://lkyonrace.wordpress.com/
    But I am afraid the list isn't comprehensive and misses some of the more interesting ones.
  841. @Yellowface Anon
    @Mr. Hack

    I don't think most rightoids ultimately want to reject industrialism (me neither, since I won't survive in such a neo-medieval system either), but it represents an increasing segment of the movement, who embraces means of self-sufficiency e.g. planting their own gardens & artisanry. Eventually, it will gain its own logic and ideological legitimation, something like what AaronB muses daily or the thinking that is prevalent in agrarian-survivalist blogs.

    One of the poisons of ideological Americanization is "anyone left of the deep Right = commie" based on the assumption that any left-wing swing in policies will inevitably radicalize, and hence create economic disruption. This isn't helped by how Globalist elites embrace left-wing rhetoric while push thru their own centralizing agendas, which would actually be oligarchic state capitalism.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

    I don’t think that a great portion of those Americans that practice domestic gardening do so out of economic necessity, as did their not too distant ancestors. Most, I presume do it out of feelings of providing themselves with a higher grade, minimally pesticided (I may have just invented a word) produce. I know a bit about this topic, having had several good-sized (by American standard, not Ukrainian ones) gardens during my lifetime. It’s hard work, but ultimately satisfying as my friend Peter Ostroushko once said, picking a ripe tomato from his “hriadka” in one hand, and a salt shaker in the other.

    • Agree: sher singh, A123
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Mr. Hack

    I actually meant homesteading. Sorry for the poor choice of word.

    , @A123
    @Mr. Hack

    I concur.

    Yellowface has some bizarre beliefs about "Rightoids" that do not actually exist in America. There are hard core SHTF Peppers, but their numbers are tiny.

    In the real world, main street Americans are nowhere near that extreme. MAGA Reindustrialization is about increasing U.S. manufacturing, and thus employment. Ending exploitation of U.S. citizens does it imply any form of hyper-localism.

    I wonder if Yellowface is intentionally TROLLING. If not, he is catastrophicially misinformed.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  842. @Mr. Hack
    @Yellowface Anon

    US society is way too large for the majority to revert to any sort of "back to nature" lifestyle that you seem to be envisioning. If it were possible, the tent people that we see dotting our urban and even rural landscapes would already be embracing it. The hippie movement of the 1960's was the closest that we've seen this society embrace these sorts of ideals, and we all know how that ended up. The current lot of green communists are way to lazy to get off their sofas and revert to any sort of real society based on agricultural norms. If they want to test drive any such model, they should move to Ukraine and observe it firsthand, including all of the backbreaking work required to live this way. Or, even the backwoods and jungles of Costa Rica, where the last remnants of the hippie movement and communal living can still be seen. It's all a nostalgic and romantic view of society not based in reality.

    https://uploads2.wikiart.org/images/grant-wood/american-gothic-1930.jpg!Large.jpg

    Bye bye gothic dreams of Americana! :-)

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Or, even the backwoods and jungles of Costa Rica, where the last remnants of the hippie movement and communal living can still be seen.

    Is The Farm in Tennessee defunct? I have not seen that report.

    Here it says they still have 200 occupants:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_(Tennessee)#Recent_status

    and a long long ways from by the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    I think that going from "half a million strong" to possibly 200 commune greenies is a good enough definition of "defunct" as any. I do know that a lot of very strange things were going on in the late 60's and 70's in these communal farm clans. A friend of mine from college, a Ukrainian-American, actually packed up his belongings and guitar and headed out West somewhere to one of these "paradise on earth" encampments, never to be seen or heard from again. There were a lot of stories circulating like this...

    https://youtu.be/ch6yn_toTbI
    Clip taken from cultural icon film "Easy Rider".

    Not many happy faces can be seen at this gathering for Thanksgiving?....

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  843. @Mr. Hack
    @Yellowface Anon

    I don't think that a great portion of those Americans that practice domestic gardening do so out of economic necessity, as did their not too distant ancestors. Most, I presume do it out of feelings of providing themselves with a higher grade, minimally pesticided (I may have just invented a word) produce. I know a bit about this topic, having had several good-sized (by American standard, not Ukrainian ones) gardens during my lifetime. It's hard work, but ultimately satisfying as my friend Peter Ostroushko once said, picking a ripe tomato from his "hriadka" in one hand, and a salt shaker in the other.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    I actually meant homesteading. Sorry for the poor choice of word.

  844. @Mr. Hack
    @Yellowface Anon

    I don't think that a great portion of those Americans that practice domestic gardening do so out of economic necessity, as did their not too distant ancestors. Most, I presume do it out of feelings of providing themselves with a higher grade, minimally pesticided (I may have just invented a word) produce. I know a bit about this topic, having had several good-sized (by American standard, not Ukrainian ones) gardens during my lifetime. It's hard work, but ultimately satisfying as my friend Peter Ostroushko once said, picking a ripe tomato from his "hriadka" in one hand, and a salt shaker in the other.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @A123

    I concur.

    Yellowface has some bizarre beliefs about “Rightoids” that do not actually exist in America. There are hard core SHTF Peppers, but their numbers are tiny.

    In the real world, main street Americans are nowhere near that extreme. MAGA Reindustrialization is about increasing U.S. manufacturing, and thus employment. Ending exploitation of U.S. citizens does it imply any form of hyper-localism.

    I wonder if Yellowface is intentionally TROLLING. If not, he is catastrophicially misinformed.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  845. I stopped agreeing with the his critique on social “diversity” since it is only limited to a diversity of superficial cultural expression of a social unit under a liberal capitalist economic system especially of the woke-American form, and then he brings forth a totally Americanized conception of political existence (“muh constitutionalism, muh Bill of Rights”). No other modes of diversity like Singapore, the Ottomans, or even Imperial China & Islam (where relative cultural uniformity conceals massive differences in regional outlook)

  846. @songbird
    Singapore would not have tolerated this guy in Waukesha or the ones in Kenosha.

    Replies: @songbird

    I’ve been reading a list of LKY’s quotes on race. Two of the funniest are these:

    [MORE]

    Any doctor will tell you in our hospitals, that even if you just touch an Indian with an injection he is howling. The Chinaman isn’t. He has got a very high tolerance for pain …

    When doing a project [the British] would put the Chinese in the middle and put the Indians at the side, and the Indians were expected to keep the pace of the Chinese. And there was a hell of a problem, because one Chinese would carry one pole with two wicker baskets of earth, whereas two Indians would carry one pole with one wicker basket between them. So it’s one quarter. Now that’s culture. Maybe it has to do with genetic characteristics, I’m not sure.

    https://lkyonrace.wordpress.com/
    But I am afraid the list isn’t comprehensive and misses some of the more interesting ones.

  847. @Yellowface Anon
    @Mr. Hack

    I don't think most rightoids ultimately want to reject industrialism (me neither, since I won't survive in such a neo-medieval system either), but it represents an increasing segment of the movement, who embraces means of self-sufficiency e.g. planting their own gardens & artisanry. Eventually, it will gain its own logic and ideological legitimation, something like what AaronB muses daily or the thinking that is prevalent in agrarian-survivalist blogs.

    One of the poisons of ideological Americanization is "anyone left of the deep Right = commie" based on the assumption that any left-wing swing in policies will inevitably radicalize, and hence create economic disruption. This isn't helped by how Globalist elites embrace left-wing rhetoric while push thru their own centralizing agendas, which would actually be oligarchic state capitalism.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

    …represents an increasing segment of the movement, who embraces means of self-sufficiency e.g. planting their own gardens & artisanry. Eventually, it will gain its own logic and ideological legitimation, something like what AaronB muses daily or the thinking that is prevalent in agrarian-survivalist blogs.

    btw, nothing is more self sufficient than having your own personal wind&solar power source, preferably powerful enough to cover all home utilities needs+being able to power your own electric car for movement. Traditional engine cars are opposite of self sufficiency&decentralization in such context, so conservative opposition to renewables is quite mindboggling, but this clearly not the only instance of them being utterly confused&disoriented.

    • Agree: sher singh
    • Replies: @A123
    @sudden death


    nothing is more self sufficient than having your own personal wind&solar power source,
     
    There is nothing self sufficient about wind & solar:

    -- Expensive to purchase
    -- Needs high tech replacement parts for generation
    -- Intermittent source, needs storage
    -- High density storage, such as Lithium batteries are expensive
    -- Need high-tech replacement parts for storage

    To be self sufficient, one needs an easily repaired generator. And, to avoid storage, it needs to run versus actual demand. Hydrocarbon fueled solutions fit these requirements.

    Choose a locally available fuel (liquid or gas) for cost-effective electricity. Or, wood burning for maximum self sufficiency. (1)

    Although thermoelectric modules are roughly three times less efficient than solar PV panels, thermoelectric stoves provide a more reliable electricity supply because their power production is less dependent on the weather, the seasons, and the time of the day. In jargon, thermoelectric stoves have a higher “net capacity factor” than solar PV panels.

    Even if a stove is only used for cooking and hot water production, these daily household activities still guarantee a reliable power output, no matter the climate. Furthermore, the power production of a thermoelectric stove matches very well with the power demand of householders: the times when the stove is used, are commonly also the times when most electricity is used. Solar panels, on the other hand, produce little or no electricity when household demand peaks.
     
    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/05/thermoelectric-stoves-ditch-the-solar-panels.html

    Replies: @sudden death

  848. @sudden death
    @Yellowface Anon


    ...represents an increasing segment of the movement, who embraces means of self-sufficiency e.g. planting their own gardens & artisanry. Eventually, it will gain its own logic and ideological legitimation, something like what AaronB muses daily or the thinking that is prevalent in agrarian-survivalist blogs.
     
    btw, nothing is more self sufficient than having your own personal wind&solar power source, preferably powerful enough to cover all home utilities needs+being able to power your own electric car for movement. Traditional engine cars are opposite of self sufficiency&decentralization in such context, so conservative opposition to renewables is quite mindboggling, but this clearly not the only instance of them being utterly confused&disoriented.

    Replies: @A123

    nothing is more self sufficient than having your own personal wind&solar power source,

    There is nothing self sufficient about wind & solar:

    — Expensive to purchase
    — Needs high tech replacement parts for generation
    — Intermittent source, needs storage
    — High density storage, such as Lithium batteries are expensive
    — Need high-tech replacement parts for storage

    To be self sufficient, one needs an easily repaired generator. And, to avoid storage, it needs to run versus actual demand. Hydrocarbon fueled solutions fit these requirements.

    Choose a locally available fuel (liquid or gas) for cost-effective electricity. Or, wood burning for maximum self sufficiency. (1)

    Although thermoelectric modules are roughly three times less efficient than solar PV panels, thermoelectric stoves provide a more reliable electricity supply because their power production is less dependent on the weather, the seasons, and the time of the day. In jargon, thermoelectric stoves have a higher “net capacity factor” than solar PV panels.

    Even if a stove is only used for cooking and hot water production, these daily household activities still guarantee a reliable power output, no matter the climate. Furthermore, the power production of a thermoelectric stove matches very well with the power demand of householders: the times when the stove is used, are commonly also the times when most electricity is used. Solar panels, on the other hand, produce little or no electricity when household demand peaks.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/05/thermoelectric-stoves-ditch-the-solar-panels.html

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @A123

    Leaving aside the question of current prices of additional tech equipment, which is needed for harnessing any energy source, no matter renewable or hydrocarbon, the main principle here is you don't have to buy or make wind&solar energy, it is itself free, even if the main pain in the ass of it being intermittent remains.

    You can't really get or make our own personal hydrocarbon fuel source, you have to buy or at least grow it, so any self sufficiency goes out of the window in principle. Of course, radical self sufficiency is hardly possible in practice during modern times and conditions, unless you are some naked jungle dweller tarzan at inhabitable island, but that is besides the point ;)

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

  849. @A123
    @sudden death


    nothing is more self sufficient than having your own personal wind&solar power source,
     
    There is nothing self sufficient about wind & solar:

    -- Expensive to purchase
    -- Needs high tech replacement parts for generation
    -- Intermittent source, needs storage
    -- High density storage, such as Lithium batteries are expensive
    -- Need high-tech replacement parts for storage

    To be self sufficient, one needs an easily repaired generator. And, to avoid storage, it needs to run versus actual demand. Hydrocarbon fueled solutions fit these requirements.

    Choose a locally available fuel (liquid or gas) for cost-effective electricity. Or, wood burning for maximum self sufficiency. (1)

    Although thermoelectric modules are roughly three times less efficient than solar PV panels, thermoelectric stoves provide a more reliable electricity supply because their power production is less dependent on the weather, the seasons, and the time of the day. In jargon, thermoelectric stoves have a higher “net capacity factor” than solar PV panels.

    Even if a stove is only used for cooking and hot water production, these daily household activities still guarantee a reliable power output, no matter the climate. Furthermore, the power production of a thermoelectric stove matches very well with the power demand of householders: the times when the stove is used, are commonly also the times when most electricity is used. Solar panels, on the other hand, produce little or no electricity when household demand peaks.
     
    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/05/thermoelectric-stoves-ditch-the-solar-panels.html

    Replies: @sudden death

    Leaving aside the question of current prices of additional tech equipment, which is needed for harnessing any energy source, no matter renewable or hydrocarbon, the main principle here is you don’t have to buy or make wind&solar energy, it is itself free, even if the main pain in the ass of it being intermittent remains.

    You can’t really get or make our own personal hydrocarbon fuel source, you have to buy or at least grow it, so any self sufficiency goes out of the window in principle. Of course, radical self sufficiency is hardly possible in practice during modern times and conditions, unless you are some naked jungle dweller tarzan at inhabitable island, but that is besides the point 😉

    • LOL: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @sudden death


    You can’t really get or make our own personal hydrocarbon fuel source
     
    Wood comes from trees. Trees can be cut down with axes. Mankind has had personal hydrocarbon fuel in wood (and charcoal) for thousands of years.

    wind&solar energy, it is itself free, even if the main pain in the ass of it being intermittent remains.
     
    The real pain is when it breaks. Can you repair a solar cell? I can repair an axe.

    radical self sufficiency is hardly possible in practice during modern times and conditions,
     
    On this point I concur. Even the most determined SHTF Peppers rely on stockpiling pharmaceuticals.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    , @Yellowface Anon
    @sudden death

    Which is why they are going to have a medieval level of tech.

  850. @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    A rough but decent indicator of overvaluation would be (market cap)/(production volume) that is weighed by the type of autos (personal, trucks, etc.)

    https://www.oica.net/wp-content/uploads/World-Ranking-of-Manufacturers-1.pdf

    Tesla was #43 in 2017 and it can barely get into top 25 if you project 2021 volume into 2017 rankings.

    https://electrek.co/2021/10/20/tesla-achieves-annual-run-rate-1-million-electric-cars/

    Replies: @Dmitry

    Lol look at Tesla’s P/E ratio today – 383. Although being a successful and innovative car company, in terms of its stock Tesla is like a culturally established Pachinko game. People are throwing money on, to ride the irrational exuberance.

    But look at cryptocurrencies, which have a market cap at \$3 trillion, but their only underlying value is some not interesting open source software, a currently viable use for money laundering, and an extremely viable use for gambling.

    Cryptocurrencies don’t have so much intrinsic value (gambling and money laundering are big business, and cryptocurrency is useful for that, but one cryptocurrency will do it as well as another). However, you can say the same about a poker game.

    Probably the concept of valuation is misapplied for describing money people use for gambling. When you throw money in the centre of the table in poker game, we don’t say the game is “overvalued”. Underlying value of the poker game will never match to the money being played on it. But people will continue to enjoy throwing their money on the table and exchanging it between each other in a zero-sum way.

    • Agree: Not Raul
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    Most of that valuation come from memes & promises of a decentralized world.

  851. @sudden death
    @A123

    Leaving aside the question of current prices of additional tech equipment, which is needed for harnessing any energy source, no matter renewable or hydrocarbon, the main principle here is you don't have to buy or make wind&solar energy, it is itself free, even if the main pain in the ass of it being intermittent remains.

    You can't really get or make our own personal hydrocarbon fuel source, you have to buy or at least grow it, so any self sufficiency goes out of the window in principle. Of course, radical self sufficiency is hardly possible in practice during modern times and conditions, unless you are some naked jungle dweller tarzan at inhabitable island, but that is besides the point ;)

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

    You can’t really get or make our own personal hydrocarbon fuel source

    Wood comes from trees. Trees can be cut down with axes. Mankind has had personal hydrocarbon fuel in wood (and charcoal) for thousands of years.

    wind&solar energy, it is itself free, even if the main pain in the ass of it being intermittent remains.

    The real pain is when it breaks. Can you repair a solar cell? I can repair an axe.

    radical self sufficiency is hardly possible in practice during modern times and conditions,

    On this point I concur. Even the most determined SHTF Peppers rely on stockpiling pharmaceuticals.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  852. Wood comes from trees. Trees can be cut down with axes. Mankind has had personal hydrocarbon fuel in wood (and charcoal) for thousands of years.

    Wood is a renewable biofuel, but at least in my homeland of Lithuania, it is illegal to just go and chop wood with axe into state or private forests, unless it is your own forest (maybe in USA it is different?), so the point about buying or growing wood remains.

    • Replies: @A123
    @sudden death

    In much of the U.S. wood is cheap (occasionally free) if you put in the labor to salvage and cut it. Trees are a renewable resource that can be used with minimal technology.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  853. There must be some opposite corollary to Manifest Destiny – surely, Divine Will has circumscribed sub-Sahara with barriers to show us that sub-Saharans were not meant to be let loose on the outside world.

    -Only around 2% of its landmass islands and peninsulas, compared to 1/3 of Europe’s.
    -shallow coastal waters, few harbors, or navigable rivers
    -shorter coastline than Europe, though it is a much bigger continent
    -Sahara Desert to the north
    -horrible tropical diseases endemic

  854. CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Westinghouse Electric Company and Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear utility of Ukraine, signed a contract in Kyiv, Ukraine, today outlining the details of their agreement to bring Westinghouse AP1000® reactors to Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant. This agreement initiates engineering and procurement of long-lead items for the first Westinghouse AP1000 unit at the Khmelnytskyi site. The signing ceremony was attended by Ukraine Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, and United States Charge d’affaires to Ukraine, Kristina Kvien.

    “The Agreement signed with partners from Westinghouse opens a new stage in the development of Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector. Construction of new power units is essential for energy independence of our country. Moreover, we are becoming the driving force that will pave the way for Europe to carbon neutrality. Energoatom, in cooperation with our American partners, is ready to make the green transition to clean and affordable energy,” said Petro Kotin, Acting President of NNEGC Energoatom.

    In August it was announced that Energoatom had selected Westinghouse AP1000 technology for its long-term goals to develop new nuclear power plants in Ukraine. The exclusive agreement provides that Westinghouse and Energoatom will pursue AP1000 reactor projects to help the country reach decarbonization and its energy security goals. The AP1000 plant is a proven Gen III+ reactor. It has unique fully passive safety systems, modularized standard design, high operability performance and load following capability. The AP1000 projects will provide Energoatom and Ukraine with substantial economic and localization benefits through the construction and operating life of each reactor.

    https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211122006244/en/Westinghouse-Electric-Company-and-Energoatom-Sign-Contract-for-First-AP1000-Unit-in-Ukraine

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @sudden death

    This could be the best type of counterargument to tuckercarlsonish questions about the need of USA support of Ukraine instead of RF, besides abstract geopolitics&democracy - it is protection of American export business, technologies, manufacturing and jobs ;)

  855. @sudden death

    CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Westinghouse Electric Company and Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear utility of Ukraine, signed a contract in Kyiv, Ukraine, today outlining the details of their agreement to bring Westinghouse AP1000® reactors to Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant. This agreement initiates engineering and procurement of long-lead items for the first Westinghouse AP1000 unit at the Khmelnytskyi site. The signing ceremony was attended by Ukraine Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, and United States Charge d’affaires to Ukraine, Kristina Kvien.

    "The Agreement signed with partners from Westinghouse opens a new stage in the development of Ukraine's nuclear energy sector. Construction of new power units is essential for energy independence of our country. Moreover, we are becoming the driving force that will pave the way for Europe to carbon neutrality. Energoatom, in cooperation with our American partners, is ready to make the green transition to clean and affordable energy," said Petro Kotin, Acting President of NNEGC Energoatom.

    In August it was announced that Energoatom had selected Westinghouse AP1000 technology for its long-term goals to develop new nuclear power plants in Ukraine. The exclusive agreement provides that Westinghouse and Energoatom will pursue AP1000 reactor projects to help the country reach decarbonization and its energy security goals. The AP1000 plant is a proven Gen III+ reactor. It has unique fully passive safety systems, modularized standard design, high operability performance and load following capability. The AP1000 projects will provide Energoatom and Ukraine with substantial economic and localization benefits through the construction and operating life of each reactor.
     
    https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211122006244/en/Westinghouse-Electric-Company-and-Energoatom-Sign-Contract-for-First-AP1000-Unit-in-Ukraine

    Replies: @sudden death

    This could be the best type of counterargument to tuckercarlsonish questions about the need of USA support of Ukraine instead of RF, besides abstract geopolitics&democracy – it is protection of American export business, technologies, manufacturing and jobs 😉

  856. @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    with Italy a certain level of h

     

    Nationalism which emerged in 19th century Italy, was also unification and partly modernization project, led from North West areas which had recently been independent from France (Mazzini and Verdi born in the French Empire).

    It focused in some sense on homogenizing differences across Italy, and modernization from the North. I guess some of these aspects were in the subsequent century found in almost a parody - Mussolini.

    This "unification" form of nationalism can go to opposite positions in areas like language policy, from the "separatist" nationalism like we see in Ukraine, Scotland, Catalonia, etc where there is such focus on emphasizing of local differences and old rural traditions. ​ For example, in Italian nationalism focused on creating a national language, and removing the local languages.


    Italians and Ethiopians
     
    And Italy's defeat, has contributes to creating a very strong nationalist identity in Ethiopia.

    But in Eritrea, it seems like they are still simple Italophiles , who are proud of their pasta and expresso.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svezgqe5fOA


    UK immigration policy seems to have been determined by quite strange criteria, especially after
     
    This is offtopic, but I enjoyed a video about tourism in 1970s London, where the people were very fussy about tourists, while at the same time cynically happy about the money coming to them.

    London was being flooded then with the Western European tourism waves.

    It's after the economic miracles in Western Europe, and so many young people of Western Europe had excess money to go to London, to enjoy their pre-Harry Potter anglomania. At that time, I guess everyone in Europe was still obsessed with the Beatles, and London was extremely fashionable.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgmr3GQHU7c


    In the 1970s, London is flooded with Western European tourism. In the 1980s, with Japanese tourism. In the 2000s, with Russian tourism (finally, sadly delayed).

    But how wonderful it would be to have a time machine for a week, for a vacation in 1970s London.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Coconuts

    I guess some of these aspects were in the subsequent century found in almost a parody – Mussolini.

    https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=fI3CCyVH&id=ACF7C7693DBCB4A11BA5261C2DD079F8D98276EA&thid=OIP.fI3CCyVHXHSZN4x0gI1ECgAAAA&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.chisholm-poster.com%2flarge%2fCL58736.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.7c8dc20b25475c7499378c74808d440a%3frik%3d6naC2fh50C0cJg%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0%26sres%3d1%26sresct%3d1%26srh%3d798%26srw%3d563&exph=430&expw=303&q=Mussolini+si+poster&simid=607997395955814778&FORM=IRPRST&ck=90A6D454EF250C2636D43D55AEB9A6ED&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

    Gentile says this about the Fascist nation: ‘…Not a race, nor a geographically defined region, but a people, historically perpetuating itself; a multitude unified by an idea and imbued with the will to live, the will to power, self-consciousness, personality.’

    As you wrote, you can see the origins of this in the Risorgimento era, I think there was also a general European preoccupation in the 1920s and 30s with collective unity and progress through struggle, and it was the beginning of a ‘great age’ for the state.

    The other separatist kind of nationalism from Scotland, Ukraine etc. seems to be the ‘next generation’, a kind of reaction to the centralisation and unitary tendencies of the previous decades, where people are asking for more local decision making and/or to regain national independence.

    But in Eritrea, it seems like they are still simple Italophiles , who are proud of their pasta and expresso.

    That video is curious.

    AFAIK Eritreans are mostly Muslims, and had a lot of wars with the Christian Ethiopians even before the Italians occupied their territories. They were also an Italian colony for a lot longer and Eritreans provided the elite troops of Italy’s Royal Colonial Troops. I became quite interested in Italian East Africa at one time after reading a book about the fall of the colony in 1941, and the battle of Kheren, where the Italian Eritreans fought with the British Indian Army for control of the heights. In the period before the internet was as rich in resources this used to happen to me sometimes, if there was an obscure historical subject that it was quite hard to find information on in the UK.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    That video is curious.

     

    It's a YouTuber I'm addicted to watching called Drew Binsky. He is infamous as a naive tourist, for going to totalitarian dictatorships (Eritrea, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc), and talking about how wonderful it is there.

    But he is probably being accurate for his own experiences, as dictatorships can be some of the easier places for tourists.

    From what I have read, Eritrea is currently viewed as "North Korea of Africa", and much of its young men have escaped from there to avoid decades of conscription in the army.

    Its dictator Afwerki apparently keeps its main cities, as some of the most well behaved and ordered placein Africa, while in the hinterland it is mostly sitll mud huts

    Of course, we would expect this, as a very stereotypical dictators' behavior in relation to cities.

    I believe Mussolini has invested a lot in Eritrea, so surely there must be some interesting Italian fascist architecture .

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+betjeman+metroland&&view=detail&mid=6DA48691A9866CA509296DA48691A9866CA50929&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djohn%2Bbetjeman%2Bmetroland%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

    This is an interesting documentary
     

    Thanks. From skimming this documentary, it looks like it is reporting about utopian upper class areas though?

    But common story of London, like Convent Garden or central London, was capitalism depopulating residential areas in postwar years, where people had been living for generations, and convert them into commercial areas or office building. Many of these central areas in London would have been more crowded with residential living and community, than we see now.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fctBVjvoDFY


    born in the early 80s

     

    Lol you are another just youth (millennial), like most of us here.

    Maybe Philip Owen, if he returns, can probably remember everything, and write about his memories of 1940s London.


    remember more about the feel of that era lately, though I didn’t get a chance to see
     
    Lol me as well. It's a new kind of alienation - I feel more emotional to times from before I was born, and thousands of kilometres away, than to the current decade of this century.

    Some might say it was an argument for re-carnation and past lives, but really it's just because the second half of the 20th century had a lot more cool things.

    I was born in the early 1990s. I would say my "home decade" culturally feels like the 1990s. But even 1970s/1980s culture feels more like "home", than later than 2010s culture.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Coconuts

    , @AP
    @Coconuts


    AFAIK Eritreans are mostly Muslims, and had a lot of wars with the Christian Ethiopians
     
    This discussion inspired some internet reading. Eritrea is evenly split between Christians and Muslims (whereas Ethiopia is only about 1/3 Muslim). Eritrea's president is an Eritrean Orthodox Christian.
  857. @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    with Italy a certain level of h

     

    Nationalism which emerged in 19th century Italy, was also unification and partly modernization project, led from North West areas which had recently been independent from France (Mazzini and Verdi born in the French Empire).

    It focused in some sense on homogenizing differences across Italy, and modernization from the North. I guess some of these aspects were in the subsequent century found in almost a parody - Mussolini.

    This "unification" form of nationalism can go to opposite positions in areas like language policy, from the "separatist" nationalism like we see in Ukraine, Scotland, Catalonia, etc where there is such focus on emphasizing of local differences and old rural traditions. ​ For example, in Italian nationalism focused on creating a national language, and removing the local languages.


    Italians and Ethiopians
     
    And Italy's defeat, has contributes to creating a very strong nationalist identity in Ethiopia.

    But in Eritrea, it seems like they are still simple Italophiles , who are proud of their pasta and expresso.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svezgqe5fOA


    UK immigration policy seems to have been determined by quite strange criteria, especially after
     
    This is offtopic, but I enjoyed a video about tourism in 1970s London, where the people were very fussy about tourists, while at the same time cynically happy about the money coming to them.

    London was being flooded then with the Western European tourism waves.

    It's after the economic miracles in Western Europe, and so many young people of Western Europe had excess money to go to London, to enjoy their pre-Harry Potter anglomania. At that time, I guess everyone in Europe was still obsessed with the Beatles, and London was extremely fashionable.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgmr3GQHU7c


    In the 1970s, London is flooded with Western European tourism. In the 1980s, with Japanese tourism. In the 2000s, with Russian tourism (finally, sadly delayed).

    But how wonderful it would be to have a time machine for a week, for a vacation in 1970s London.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Coconuts

    But how wonderful it would be to have a time machine for a week, for a vacation in 1970s London.

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+betjeman+metroland&&view=detail&mid=6DA48691A9866CA509296DA48691A9866CA50929&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djohn%2Bbetjeman%2Bmetroland%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

    This is an interesting documentary by the great John Betjeman about the architecture and cultural landmarks of the various London suburbs that made up ‘Metroland’, it was made in about 1973 or 4.

    Despite the tourists London would probably seem much more empty at that time, you notice when watching documentaries or TV programs filmed there in the 70s. Betjeman made another film based on his verse autobiography called ‘Summoned by Bells’ where he walks around the houses he lived in as a child in the 1900s and onto Hampstead Heath, it looks as quiet as the place I live at the moment. I was born in the early 80s and have somehow started to remember more about the feel of that era lately, though I didn’t get a chance to see London till the mid 90s. Now I am also regretting that my parents sold my grandparents’ house in the early 2010s, before that it had last been decorated in around 1980 and had cool 1940s and 50s furniture and a homemade kitchen.

  858. @Dmitry
    @Yellowface Anon

    Lol look at Tesla's P/E ratio today - 383. Although being a successful and innovative car company, in terms of its stock Tesla is like a culturally established Pachinko game. People are throwing money on, to ride the irrational exuberance.

    -


    But look at cryptocurrencies, which have a market cap at $3 trillion, but their only underlying value is some not interesting open source software, a currently viable use for money laundering, and an extremely viable use for gambling.

    Cryptocurrencies don't have so much intrinsic value (gambling and money laundering are big business, and cryptocurrency is useful for that, but one cryptocurrency will do it as well as another). However, you can say the same about a poker game.

    Probably the concept of valuation is misapplied for describing money people use for gambling. When you throw money in the centre of the table in poker game, we don't say the game is "overvalued". Underlying value of the poker game will never match to the money being played on it. But people will continue to enjoy throwing their money on the table and exchanging it between each other in a zero-sum way.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Most of that valuation come from memes & promises of a decentralized world.

  859. @sudden death
    @A123

    Leaving aside the question of current prices of additional tech equipment, which is needed for harnessing any energy source, no matter renewable or hydrocarbon, the main principle here is you don't have to buy or make wind&solar energy, it is itself free, even if the main pain in the ass of it being intermittent remains.

    You can't really get or make our own personal hydrocarbon fuel source, you have to buy or at least grow it, so any self sufficiency goes out of the window in principle. Of course, radical self sufficiency is hardly possible in practice during modern times and conditions, unless you are some naked jungle dweller tarzan at inhabitable island, but that is besides the point ;)

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

    Which is why they are going to have a medieval level of tech.

  860. Perhaps, the first step to “abolish the Fed’ would be to turn it into a soy-eating caste.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    100% soy reserves.

    Modern Meaty Theory.

  861. @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    I guess some of these aspects were in the subsequent century found in almost a parody – Mussolini.
     
    https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=fI3CCyVH&id=ACF7C7693DBCB4A11BA5261C2DD079F8D98276EA&thid=OIP.fI3CCyVHXHSZN4x0gI1ECgAAAA&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.chisholm-poster.com%2flarge%2fCL58736.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.7c8dc20b25475c7499378c74808d440a%3frik%3d6naC2fh50C0cJg%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0%26sres%3d1%26sresct%3d1%26srh%3d798%26srw%3d563&exph=430&expw=303&q=Mussolini+si+poster&simid=607997395955814778&FORM=IRPRST&ck=90A6D454EF250C2636D43D55AEB9A6ED&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

    Gentile says this about the Fascist nation: '...Not a race, nor a geographically defined region, but a people, historically perpetuating itself; a multitude unified by an idea and imbued with the will to live, the will to power, self-consciousness, personality.'

    As you wrote, you can see the origins of this in the Risorgimento era, I think there was also a general European preoccupation in the 1920s and 30s with collective unity and progress through struggle, and it was the beginning of a 'great age' for the state.

    The other separatist kind of nationalism from Scotland, Ukraine etc. seems to be the 'next generation', a kind of reaction to the centralisation and unitary tendencies of the previous decades, where people are asking for more local decision making and/or to regain national independence.


    But in Eritrea, it seems like they are still simple Italophiles , who are proud of their pasta and expresso.
     
    That video is curious.

    AFAIK Eritreans are mostly Muslims, and had a lot of wars with the Christian Ethiopians even before the Italians occupied their territories. They were also an Italian colony for a lot longer and Eritreans provided the elite troops of Italy's Royal Colonial Troops. I became quite interested in Italian East Africa at one time after reading a book about the fall of the colony in 1941, and the battle of Kheren, where the Italian Eritreans fought with the British Indian Army for control of the heights. In the period before the internet was as rich in resources this used to happen to me sometimes, if there was an obscure historical subject that it was quite hard to find information on in the UK.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP

    That video is curious.

    It’s a YouTuber I’m addicted to watching called Drew Binsky. He is infamous as a naive tourist, for going to totalitarian dictatorships (Eritrea, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc), and talking about how wonderful it is there.

    But he is probably being accurate for his own experiences, as dictatorships can be some of the easier places for tourists.

    From what I have read, Eritrea is currently viewed as “North Korea of Africa”, and much of its young men have escaped from there to avoid decades of conscription in the army.

    Its dictator Afwerki apparently keeps its main cities, as some of the most well behaved and ordered placein Africa, while in the hinterland it is mostly sitll mud huts

    Of course, we would expect this, as a very stereotypical dictators’ behavior in relation to cities.

    I believe Mussolini has invested a lot in Eritrea, so surely there must be some interesting Italian fascist architecture .

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+betjeman+metroland&&view=detail&mid=6DA48691A9866CA509296DA48691A9866CA50929&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djohn%2Bbetjeman%2Bmetroland%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

    This is an interesting documentary

    Thanks. From skimming this documentary, it looks like it is reporting about utopian upper class areas though?

    But common story of London, like Convent Garden or central London, was capitalism depopulating residential areas in postwar years, where people had been living for generations, and convert them into commercial areas or office building. Many of these central areas in London would have been more crowded with residential living and community, than we see now.

    born in the early 80s

    Lol you are another just youth (millennial), like most of us here.

    Maybe Philip Owen, if he returns, can probably remember everything, and write about his memories of 1940s London.

    remember more about the feel of that era lately, though I didn’t get a chance to see

    Lol me as well. It’s a new kind of alienation – I feel more emotional to times from before I was born, and thousands of kilometres away, than to the current decade of this century.

    Some might say it was an argument for re-carnation and past lives, but really it’s just because the second half of the 20th century had a lot more cool things.

    I was born in the early 1990s. I would say my “home decade” culturally feels like the 1990s. But even 1970s/1980s culture feels more like “home”, than later than 2010s culture.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    I believe Mussolini has invested a lot in Eritrea, so surely there must be some interesting Italian fascist architecture .
     
    I remember that I have seen the famous 'Cinema Impero' before, and one of the old Eritreans was trying to sell Drew Binsky a Fascist coin. Apparently there are lots of 1930s Italian buildings in Asmara and it is a Unesco heritage site; that video has got me reading about Eritrea again. It is an unusual country, but, yes you wouldn't know the government has such a hard reputation from the Youtube, with the gelato and lasagne it all looks quite jolly.

    Thanks. From skimming this documentary, it looks like it is reporting about utopian upper class areas though?
     
    He mostly focuses on some of the elite houses and then the 1930s classic Southern middle class suburbs along what used to be the Metropolitan Railway, looking at this kind of architecture and lifestyle was one of his popular themes. People could observe how these aspirational populations were living, though Betjeman himself also strongly disliked modern developments after the 1950s, when the urban terraced houses were demolished and people were placed in tower-blocks.


    Many of these central areas in London would have been more crowded with residential living and community, than we see now.
     
    You see this often in books and even on TV made before the 1980s, when there may be prostitutes or very poor people living in small badly maintained flats in houses now worth £3,000,000+, this made London more normal compared to the rest of the country, sometimes even more seedy and less desirable. Now this is harder to imagine.

    The BBC recently finished a nice radio crime drama about this theme that had about 70 hour long episodes and followed an East-End criminal family from the 1940s until the early 2000s, where they make money as slum landlords, then dubious London property developments in the 1980s, become part of the government and end up in Russia in the 90s buying up former Soviet state industries.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    Lol you are another just youth (millennial), like most of us here.
     
    I am some months over 40 now, so I can finally claim to be middle aged. My wife has the optimistic Belarusian outlook and life expectancy expectations so to her I am definitively middle aged.

    Lol me as well. It’s a new kind of alienation – I feel more emotional to times from before I was born, and thousands of kilometres away, than to the current decade of this century.
     

    It is a strange phenomena, I find my sister is falling into it as well. It is something I expected might happen when I was around 60 or older (this would follow the pattern of the past) but onset is apparently much earlier.

    Maybe it is related to the mushrooming of social media and online space in the 2010s, with higher levels of homogenisation and globalisation. It feels like things were slower before that and experiences had more space to develop.

  862. @songbird
    Perhaps, the first step to "abolish the Fed' would be to turn it into a soy-eating caste.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    100% soy reserves.

    Modern Meaty Theory.

    • LOL: songbird
  863. @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    I guess some of these aspects were in the subsequent century found in almost a parody – Mussolini.
     
    https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=fI3CCyVH&id=ACF7C7693DBCB4A11BA5261C2DD079F8D98276EA&thid=OIP.fI3CCyVHXHSZN4x0gI1ECgAAAA&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.chisholm-poster.com%2flarge%2fCL58736.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.7c8dc20b25475c7499378c74808d440a%3frik%3d6naC2fh50C0cJg%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0%26sres%3d1%26sresct%3d1%26srh%3d798%26srw%3d563&exph=430&expw=303&q=Mussolini+si+poster&simid=607997395955814778&FORM=IRPRST&ck=90A6D454EF250C2636D43D55AEB9A6ED&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

    Gentile says this about the Fascist nation: '...Not a race, nor a geographically defined region, but a people, historically perpetuating itself; a multitude unified by an idea and imbued with the will to live, the will to power, self-consciousness, personality.'

    As you wrote, you can see the origins of this in the Risorgimento era, I think there was also a general European preoccupation in the 1920s and 30s with collective unity and progress through struggle, and it was the beginning of a 'great age' for the state.

    The other separatist kind of nationalism from Scotland, Ukraine etc. seems to be the 'next generation', a kind of reaction to the centralisation and unitary tendencies of the previous decades, where people are asking for more local decision making and/or to regain national independence.


    But in Eritrea, it seems like they are still simple Italophiles , who are proud of their pasta and expresso.
     
    That video is curious.

    AFAIK Eritreans are mostly Muslims, and had a lot of wars with the Christian Ethiopians even before the Italians occupied their territories. They were also an Italian colony for a lot longer and Eritreans provided the elite troops of Italy's Royal Colonial Troops. I became quite interested in Italian East Africa at one time after reading a book about the fall of the colony in 1941, and the battle of Kheren, where the Italian Eritreans fought with the British Indian Army for control of the heights. In the period before the internet was as rich in resources this used to happen to me sometimes, if there was an obscure historical subject that it was quite hard to find information on in the UK.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @AP

    AFAIK Eritreans are mostly Muslims, and had a lot of wars with the Christian Ethiopians

    This discussion inspired some internet reading. Eritrea is evenly split between Christians and Muslims (whereas Ethiopia is only about 1/3 Muslim). Eritrea’s president is an Eritrean Orthodox Christian.

    • Thanks: Coconuts
  864. https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/futurists-have-their-heads-in-the
    My single prediction: quasi-TradCon rightoids will overrun the place and make all of those predictions moot. After that, a neo-medieval millennia.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    Dug this gem out, the essay that plants the seeds of a Butlerian Jihad:

    https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/the-semantic-apocalypse

    My biggest solace is that it just takes a weary literary critic to take all those AIs down.

    Replies: @AaronB

  865. @Yellowface Anon
    https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/futurists-have-their-heads-in-the
    My single prediction: quasi-TradCon rightoids will overrun the place and make all of those predictions moot. After that, a neo-medieval millennia.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Dug this gem out, the essay that plants the seeds of a Butlerian Jihad:

    https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/the-semantic-apocalypse

    My biggest solace is that it just takes a weary literary critic to take all those AIs down.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon

    Thanks, I find this deeply hopeful :)

    It all hinges on what you think the "valuable" component of being human is.

    In one line of thought, "accomplishment" is what gives humans value. So if AI can write poetry, or play chess, then that "devalues" humans.

    In another line of thought - the Zen line - life itself, concrete experience, is what gives human life value.

    It's interesting that people are finding it "depressing" that machines can accomplish as much, or more, than humans - this is the end of the line, of course, for Faustian thinking, where human "power" is the point of life.

    Faustian value systems ends in dying from it's own internal consistency pushed to it's natural conclusion - power is what gives humans value, but this power is best exemplified in creating something that has even more power, thus rendering humans ultimately valueless :)

    Thus is finally, at the end of it's tether, exposed the nihilism at the core of the Faustian attitude to life, or any philosophy that locates value in power.

    To truly understand where a philosophy will lead you, you must push it to it's ultimate consistency.

    This is one more nail in the Faustian coffin - when people become depressed and dispirited that machines can outcompete them, they will be forced to come face to face with the nihilism at the core of any philosophy that human life derives it's value from its power.

    And so AI may exist to teach humanity the emptiness of a philosophy of power, and that makes me deeply hopeful :)

    Replies: @AaronB

  866. Lukashenko managed to do a great service for us afterall – finally some kind of hard border is appearing instead of open spaces at former Soviet inner borders:

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @sudden death

    Just goes to show you that billions of dollars need not be spent to put up effective border walls to keep illegal aliens out. Where are all of the European lefties? Why aren't they protesting? Weren't they all on the anti-Trump and border wall bandwagon not too long ago?

  867. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack


    Or, even the backwoods and jungles of Costa Rica, where the last remnants of the hippie movement and communal living can still be seen.
     
    Is The Farm in Tennessee defunct? I have not seen that report.

    Here it says they still have 200 occupants:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_(Tennessee)#Recent_status

    and a long long ways from by the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I think that going from “half a million strong” to possibly 200 commune greenies is a good enough definition of “defunct” as any. I do know that a lot of very strange things were going on in the late 60’s and 70’s in these communal farm clans. A friend of mine from college, a Ukrainian-American, actually packed up his belongings and guitar and headed out West somewhere to one of these “paradise on earth” encampments, never to be seen or heard from again. There were a lot of stories circulating like this…

    Clip taken from cultural icon film “Easy Rider”.

    Not many happy faces can be seen at this gathering for Thanksgiving?….

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack

    Have you read Ted Kaczynski's book?

    https://www.amazon.com/Technological-Slavery-Theodore-Kaczynski/dp/1944228012/

    It's pretty good but for Thanksgiving I think I will be thankful for power and sanitary hot and cold running water.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  868. @sudden death
    Lukashenko managed to do a great service for us afterall - finally some kind of hard border is appearing instead of open spaces at former Soviet inner borders:


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mlBLpowVk4&t=3s

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Just goes to show you that billions of dollars need not be spent to put up effective border walls to keep illegal aliens out. Where are all of the European lefties? Why aren’t they protesting? Weren’t they all on the anti-Trump and border wall bandwagon not too long ago?

  869. @Mr. Hack
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    I think that going from "half a million strong" to possibly 200 commune greenies is a good enough definition of "defunct" as any. I do know that a lot of very strange things were going on in the late 60's and 70's in these communal farm clans. A friend of mine from college, a Ukrainian-American, actually packed up his belongings and guitar and headed out West somewhere to one of these "paradise on earth" encampments, never to be seen or heard from again. There were a lot of stories circulating like this...

    https://youtu.be/ch6yn_toTbI
    Clip taken from cultural icon film "Easy Rider".

    Not many happy faces can be seen at this gathering for Thanksgiving?....

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    Have you read Ted Kaczynski’s book?

    It’s pretty good but for Thanksgiving I think I will be thankful for power and sanitary hot and cold running water.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Yes, we should all be thankful for something! And in my neck oft the woods you can pick up a nice Jennie - O frozen turkey, any size, for free by buying $100 worth of food - not a hard barrier to reach in this day and age. :-)

    I have many unread books lying on my bookshelves yet waiting to be read. Why would I want to include Kaczynski's book to that list?

    https://thecouponproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/WinCO.jpg

    Replies: @songbird, @Emil Nikola Richard

  870. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack

    Have you read Ted Kaczynski's book?

    https://www.amazon.com/Technological-Slavery-Theodore-Kaczynski/dp/1944228012/

    It's pretty good but for Thanksgiving I think I will be thankful for power and sanitary hot and cold running water.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Yes, we should all be thankful for something! And in my neck oft the woods you can pick up a nice Jennie – O frozen turkey, any size, for free by buying \$100 worth of food – not a hard barrier to reach in this day and age. 🙂

    I have many unread books lying on my bookshelves yet waiting to be read. Why would I want to include Kaczynski’s book to that list?

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Mr. Hack

    Difficult to find a big turkey over here. Small ones, yes. People with extra freezer space are putting them away for Christmas.

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack


    Why would I want to include Kaczynski’s book to that list?
     
    Ted Kaczynski may well go down as a seminal figure in the history of the 20th C Western Civilization.

    1. He was brilliant. In the Alston Chase biography (another book well worth reading) he quotes one of the people on Ted's PhD thesis committee. He said the dissertation was as good as any he had ever seen. U. Michigan was a top program in the world at the time. Ted was a winner.

    2. The book linked is quite well written. Anybody who wants to go back to the garden and wants rational reason can do no better.

    3. Fellow went bug nuts when he wasn't writing this so it's also a great cautionary tale.

    But to each fellow his own taste!
  871. @Mr. Hack
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Yes, we should all be thankful for something! And in my neck oft the woods you can pick up a nice Jennie - O frozen turkey, any size, for free by buying $100 worth of food - not a hard barrier to reach in this day and age. :-)

    I have many unread books lying on my bookshelves yet waiting to be read. Why would I want to include Kaczynski's book to that list?

    https://thecouponproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/WinCO.jpg

    Replies: @songbird, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Difficult to find a big turkey over here. Small ones, yes. People with extra freezer space are putting them away for Christmas.

  872. @sudden death

    Wood comes from trees. Trees can be cut down with axes. Mankind has had personal hydrocarbon fuel in wood (and charcoal) for thousands of years.
     
    Wood is a renewable biofuel, but at least in my homeland of Lithuania, it is illegal to just go and chop wood with axe into state or private forests, unless it is your own forest (maybe in USA it is different?), so the point about buying or growing wood remains.

    Replies: @A123

    In much of the U.S. wood is cheap (occasionally free) if you put in the labor to salvage and cut it. Trees are a renewable resource that can be used with minimal technology.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  873. I feel sorry for China. (almost)

    At a certain point, China decided it needed to prove to the West – and itself – and it could beat the West at it’s own game. (All countries felt this way).

    Yet just as it is reaching parity with the West, the West no longer cares about the game. The West is transitioning out of a Faustian and techno-progressive mindset.

    I used to feel that it was such a disappointment that China could not resist the Faustian and techno-progressive mindset. With it’s glorious Taoist past, so deeply embedded in it’s psyche, I would have thought China most likely to mount a successful resistance.

    Yet I now see that it was good that China also couldn’t resist. Had China alone resisted, it would have grown unbearably arrogant – and that would have negated any spiritual benefit. It was necessary for all of mankind to undergo this trial – and emerge from it on the other side.

    When modern China collapses from the stresses of the Faustian and techno-progressive mindset, which is not far off, it will emerge humbled and human, no better or worse than anyone else, and ready to truly take up it’s ancient spirituality again.

    Aldous Huxley, before he became a mystic, said how insane it was was that the West was sharing all it’s technology, especially it’s war making technology, with the rest of the world.

    Yet had the West retained unrivalled superiority, and held the world in bondage, it would have grown unbearably arrogant and never been able to experience spiritual renewal, which is now genuinely on the horizon.

    It is truly a fascinating thing – what civilization ever willingly gave away all it’s advantages, gained at such sacrifice and cost, to everyone else?

    It is as if, technology had a force and spirit of its own – it wanted to spread across the world.

    It is as if the entire world had to undergo this trial.

    • Disagree: German_reader
    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @AaronB

    I have been watching an old BBC Brave New World lately.

    It is pretty good. An odd point, I saw it when very young, see it again as older, alphas, betas, gammas (especially the same man and woman playing the same in many places, very great concept and very well played), and epsilons.

    I have watched it thrice lately, I can't see a delta. Anyone else who has watched it, does a delta appear anywhere?

    I watched an action movie today, Gentlemen, not great, not bad, but had a nice touch, the movie is full of villains, but the Jewish one threatens his takeover target with 'Mossad Crabs', both the use of the word and that they (and their boss )are taken down is great fun.

  874. @songbird
    @Che Guava

    Wikipedia seems to give a summary of it, though it looks complicated:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_the_Talmud

    I don't know which side to take. Some of the references seem very specific to me, but I do recall that the Carthaginians, with whom many Jews claim kinship (whether rightly or wrongly, I don't know), had very few names.

    And then, there is the argument that it has been censored, and the references intentionally obfuscated.

    Replies: @Che Guava

    Songbird,

    You are one of the better commenters here at times. Not one of the dull shrieking newbs.

    You should know never to trust English-language Wikipedia on any topic where there is a control faction. In the case of the original Wikipedia, the main control faction was and is Jewish. There are others, with some (certain cult religions, some pop culture, anarchism, some fan bullshit)having much overlap with that.

    Japanese Wikipedia is different, except with copy translated articles.

    If you don’t understand that it is not reliable on anything much, except maths and science (as opposed to bullshit Science, from people who hate science), you need to think a little more.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Che Guava


    Japanese Wikipedia is different, except with copy translated articles.
     
    Thanks for the tip.

    Once had high hopes for the Wikipedia competitor Infogalactic, but a lot of it seems to be copy and paste.

    Replies: @Che Guava

  875. Yet more bad news for sociopath Khamenei’s aggression against his neighbors: (1)

    Chaos in Iraq
    Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr calls for disarming pro-Iranian militias.

    The attempted assassination of Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi on the morning of November 7, 2021, is a reminder that chaos and violence in Iraq has not abated. Three explosive laden drones targeted Kadhimi’s residence of which only one actually hit the target; the other two were intercepted and shot down by the Iraqi security forces. Al-Kadhimi himself was not hurt. In an online video Kadhimi called the attack on him “cowardly aggression,” and pointed out to the would be assassins that, “Cowardly rocket and drone attacks don’t build homelands and don’t build a future.”

    There is little doubt as to who the attackers happened to be…they were the Iranian sponsored militias and their supporters who refused to accept the October 10, 2021 parliamentary election results. The election results showed significant losses for the political alliance that comprised the pro-Iranian, Shiite-led Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

    Khamenei is not wanted in Iraq.
        Khamenei is not wanted in Lebanon.
            Khamenei is not wanted in Syria.

    And, most importantly — Khamenei is not wanted in Iran.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/chaos-iraq-doesnt-stop-joseph-puder/

    • LOL: Che Guava
    • Troll: Yellowface Anon
  876. @Yellowface Anon
    @Yellowface Anon

    Dug this gem out, the essay that plants the seeds of a Butlerian Jihad:

    https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/the-semantic-apocalypse

    My biggest solace is that it just takes a weary literary critic to take all those AIs down.

    Replies: @AaronB

    Thanks, I find this deeply hopeful 🙂

    It all hinges on what you think the “valuable” component of being human is.

    In one line of thought, “accomplishment” is what gives humans value. So if AI can write poetry, or play chess, then that “devalues” humans.

    In another line of thought – the Zen line – life itself, concrete experience, is what gives human life value.

    It’s interesting that people are finding it “depressing” that machines can accomplish as much, or more, than humans – this is the end of the line, of course, for Faustian thinking, where human “power” is the point of life.

    Faustian value systems ends in dying from it’s own internal consistency pushed to it’s natural conclusion – power is what gives humans value, but this power is best exemplified in creating something that has even more power, thus rendering humans ultimately valueless 🙂

    Thus is finally, at the end of it’s tether, exposed the nihilism at the core of the Faustian attitude to life, or any philosophy that locates value in power.

    To truly understand where a philosophy will lead you, you must push it to it’s ultimate consistency.

    This is one more nail in the Faustian coffin – when people become depressed and dispirited that machines can outcompete them, they will be forced to come face to face with the nihilism at the core of any philosophy that human life derives it’s value from its power.

    And so AI may exist to teach humanity the emptiness of a philosophy of power, and that makes me deeply hopeful 🙂

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @AaronB

    With regards to poetry, they are symbols pointing towards lived experience. They are not the experience itself.

    Machines are manipulating human symbols. Machines cannot on their own discover what symbols point to lived human experience.

    But once told, they can discover several more permutations that, based off the original input, also meaningfully refer to lived human experience.

    That shouldn't be surprising. Any line of poetry will have several subtle permutations. This is mere pattern finding.

    But as Goethe said, theory (intellection), is dull and gray, and life itself is green and glowing :) (or something like that).

    A line of poetry is not beautiful - the experience it points to, but can never fully capture, us beautiful.

    If AI makes us lose our fascinating with mete intellection, mere pattern finding, and turn once more to green life, to concrete experience, then Faustian culture will have come to it's natural end :)

    In Zen, language itself, intellection itself, is suspect. If we can now be weaned off that somewhat, them things are developing nicely.

  877. @Mr. Hack
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Yes, we should all be thankful for something! And in my neck oft the woods you can pick up a nice Jennie - O frozen turkey, any size, for free by buying $100 worth of food - not a hard barrier to reach in this day and age. :-)

    I have many unread books lying on my bookshelves yet waiting to be read. Why would I want to include Kaczynski's book to that list?

    https://thecouponproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/WinCO.jpg

    Replies: @songbird, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Why would I want to include Kaczynski’s book to that list?

    Ted Kaczynski may well go down as a seminal figure in the history of the 20th C Western Civilization.

    1. He was brilliant. In the Alston Chase biography (another book well worth reading) he quotes one of the people on Ted’s PhD thesis committee. He said the dissertation was as good as any he had ever seen. U. Michigan was a top program in the world at the time. Ted was a winner.

    2. The book linked is quite well written. Anybody who wants to go back to the garden and wants rational reason can do no better.

    3. Fellow went bug nuts when he wasn’t writing this so it’s also a great cautionary tale.

    But to each fellow his own taste!

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
  878. @Che Guava
    @songbird

    Songbird,

    You are one of the better commenters here at times. Not one of the dull shrieking newbs.

    You should know never to trust English-language Wikipedia on any topic where there is a control faction. In the case of the original Wikipedia, the main control faction was and is Jewish. There are others, with some (certain cult religions, some pop culture, anarchism, some fan bullshit)having much overlap with that.

    Japanese Wikipedia is different, except with copy translated articles.

    If you don't understand that it is not reliable on anything much, except maths and science (as opposed to bullshit Science, from people who hate science), you need to think a little more.

    Replies: @songbird

    Japanese Wikipedia is different, except with copy translated articles.

    Thanks for the tip.

    Once had high hopes for the Wikipedia competitor Infogalactic, but a lot of it seems to be copy and paste.

    • Agree: Che Guava
    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @songbird

    There was also, for English, the one founded by co-founded by Wikipedia's co-founder, Larry Sanger. I can't even remember the name of it now.

    I find from searching in English, there are a few small wiki sites that have reliable and interesting info.

    Japanese wiki is different because it is more conservative, and also allows deep detail on, e.g., train and tram lines (my favourite part)and Gundam series. That (Gundam)was one of the funniest scandals, many at the Finance Ministry were spending most of their working time adding to and fighting over the Gundam articles, they were using IP addresses instead of logging in, so another fan who was irritated by them tracked down the address range, told a journalist.

  879. Soon “dollar” stores will go the way of “five and dime” stores:
    https://www.businessinsider.com/dollar-tree-ditches-one-dollar-items-2021-11

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @songbird

    We have 100 yen shops. The same things in Australia, I hear, are and have long been in two dollar shops. That is much over two hundred yen.

    That may be out of date, based on report from a retired division manager, more than ten years ago. Likely worse now.

    Replies: @songbird

  880. @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon

    Thanks, I find this deeply hopeful :)

    It all hinges on what you think the "valuable" component of being human is.

    In one line of thought, "accomplishment" is what gives humans value. So if AI can write poetry, or play chess, then that "devalues" humans.

    In another line of thought - the Zen line - life itself, concrete experience, is what gives human life value.

    It's interesting that people are finding it "depressing" that machines can accomplish as much, or more, than humans - this is the end of the line, of course, for Faustian thinking, where human "power" is the point of life.

    Faustian value systems ends in dying from it's own internal consistency pushed to it's natural conclusion - power is what gives humans value, but this power is best exemplified in creating something that has even more power, thus rendering humans ultimately valueless :)

    Thus is finally, at the end of it's tether, exposed the nihilism at the core of the Faustian attitude to life, or any philosophy that locates value in power.

    To truly understand where a philosophy will lead you, you must push it to it's ultimate consistency.

    This is one more nail in the Faustian coffin - when people become depressed and dispirited that machines can outcompete them, they will be forced to come face to face with the nihilism at the core of any philosophy that human life derives it's value from its power.

    And so AI may exist to teach humanity the emptiness of a philosophy of power, and that makes me deeply hopeful :)

    Replies: @AaronB

    With regards to poetry, they are symbols pointing towards lived experience. They are not the experience itself.

    Machines are manipulating human symbols. Machines cannot on their own discover what symbols point to lived human experience.

    But once told, they can discover several more permutations that, based off the original input, also meaningfully refer to lived human experience.

    That shouldn’t be surprising. Any line of poetry will have several subtle permutations. This is mere pattern finding.

    But as Goethe said, theory (intellection), is dull and gray, and life itself is green and glowing 🙂 (or something like that).

    A line of poetry is not beautiful – the experience it points to, but can never fully capture, us beautiful.

    If AI makes us lose our fascinating with mete intellection, mere pattern finding, and turn once more to green life, to concrete experience, then Faustian culture will have come to it’s natural end 🙂

    In Zen, language itself, intellection itself, is suspect. If we can now be weaned off that somewhat, them things are developing nicely.

  881. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mikel


    All the ingredients are there for a weekend of burning and looting.
     
    High Sat and Sun forecast is 48 degrees and 49 degrees. Autumn football weather. A bit chilly for massive protest though. I'm thinking we are missing one key ingredient but it isn't a deal breaker.

    Replies: @Mikel

    High Sat and Sun forecast is 48 degrees and 49 degrees. Autumn football weather. A bit chilly for massive protest though.

    Interesting, how the protests were unironically mostly peaceful this time. Just one riot that I know of in Portland and some looting here and there, possibly unrelated to the protests.

    I’ve seen a couple of people mention the weather factor but perhaps rioting doesn’t work so well with a Democratic Presidency and Congress either. Police departments were clearly prepared for unrest though, even in my quiet part of the country.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel

    Maybe the bleeding hearts finally get it? Nah, it's probably the weather...

    https://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/cb112121dAPC20211120064504.jpg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @A123

  882. @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    That video is curious.

     

    It's a YouTuber I'm addicted to watching called Drew Binsky. He is infamous as a naive tourist, for going to totalitarian dictatorships (Eritrea, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc), and talking about how wonderful it is there.

    But he is probably being accurate for his own experiences, as dictatorships can be some of the easier places for tourists.

    From what I have read, Eritrea is currently viewed as "North Korea of Africa", and much of its young men have escaped from there to avoid decades of conscription in the army.

    Its dictator Afwerki apparently keeps its main cities, as some of the most well behaved and ordered placein Africa, while in the hinterland it is mostly sitll mud huts

    Of course, we would expect this, as a very stereotypical dictators' behavior in relation to cities.

    I believe Mussolini has invested a lot in Eritrea, so surely there must be some interesting Italian fascist architecture .

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+betjeman+metroland&&view=detail&mid=6DA48691A9866CA509296DA48691A9866CA50929&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djohn%2Bbetjeman%2Bmetroland%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

    This is an interesting documentary
     

    Thanks. From skimming this documentary, it looks like it is reporting about utopian upper class areas though?

    But common story of London, like Convent Garden or central London, was capitalism depopulating residential areas in postwar years, where people had been living for generations, and convert them into commercial areas or office building. Many of these central areas in London would have been more crowded with residential living and community, than we see now.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fctBVjvoDFY


    born in the early 80s

     

    Lol you are another just youth (millennial), like most of us here.

    Maybe Philip Owen, if he returns, can probably remember everything, and write about his memories of 1940s London.


    remember more about the feel of that era lately, though I didn’t get a chance to see
     
    Lol me as well. It's a new kind of alienation - I feel more emotional to times from before I was born, and thousands of kilometres away, than to the current decade of this century.

    Some might say it was an argument for re-carnation and past lives, but really it's just because the second half of the 20th century had a lot more cool things.

    I was born in the early 1990s. I would say my "home decade" culturally feels like the 1990s. But even 1970s/1980s culture feels more like "home", than later than 2010s culture.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Coconuts

    I believe Mussolini has invested a lot in Eritrea, so surely there must be some interesting Italian fascist architecture .

    I remember that I have seen the famous ‘Cinema Impero’ before, and one of the old Eritreans was trying to sell Drew Binsky a Fascist coin. Apparently there are lots of 1930s Italian buildings in Asmara and it is a Unesco heritage site; that video has got me reading about Eritrea again. It is an unusual country, but, yes you wouldn’t know the government has such a hard reputation from the Youtube, with the gelato and lasagne it all looks quite jolly.

    Thanks. From skimming this documentary, it looks like it is reporting about utopian upper class areas though?

    He mostly focuses on some of the elite houses and then the 1930s classic Southern middle class suburbs along what used to be the Metropolitan Railway, looking at this kind of architecture and lifestyle was one of his popular themes. People could observe how these aspirational populations were living, though Betjeman himself also strongly disliked modern developments after the 1950s, when the urban terraced houses were demolished and people were placed in tower-blocks.

    Many of these central areas in London would have been more crowded with residential living and community, than we see now.

    You see this often in books and even on TV made before the 1980s, when there may be prostitutes or very poor people living in small badly maintained flats in houses now worth £3,000,000+, this made London more normal compared to the rest of the country, sometimes even more seedy and less desirable. Now this is harder to imagine.

    The BBC recently finished a nice radio crime drama about this theme that had about 70 hour long episodes and followed an East-End criminal family from the 1940s until the early 2000s, where they make money as slum landlords, then dubious London property developments in the 1980s, become part of the government and end up in Russia in the 90s buying up former Soviet state industries.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    hard reputation from the Youtube, with the gelato
     
    He also claim countries like Syria and Pakistan as a kind of paradise, at least for tourists. But perhaps this is what should be expected from professional tourists.

    It's a sign of expertise in your profession, when you discover most things in life are counter-intuitive, and that you view everything through the glasses of your profession.

    He was finding that Pakistani people give you things for free. It's kind of counter-intuitive things you can expect when you developed professional (in this case professional tourist) knowledge.

    Of course, this doesn't make life in Pakistan anymore easier, but from the purely touristic perspective (which he presents the world using) I don't think he is falsifying his presentations. Similarly, if he has this ultra-enthusiastic and naive personality, then doesn't mean he is falsifying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWeWxl7ruGE.


    strange phenomena, I find my sister is falling into it as well. It is something I expected might happen when I was around 60 or older
     
    It's also especially easier to alienate yourself, because of smart televisions.

    So now you can watch 1970s television like it is a live presentation. Old television is far more relaxing and beautiful, than modern television. But it creates a very alienating sense in you, when you stop watching and suddenly realize you are living decades and political systems years too far into the future. It has the shock in unconscious mind of awakening from a dream.

    Extremely strong way to have this if you are from the postsoviet sphere, is playing multi-hour wonderful Soviet broadcasting on your television, and imagine it is winter 1978, that Pugacheva is brilliant young woman singer (2:51:30), Kobzon doesn't need a wig, beautiful Valentina Tolkunova (23:00 & 39:00) is still alive and hasn't died, Lyudmila Senchina (2:29:00) is still alive, etc.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hm2s9-v1Sg

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Mr. Hack

  883. @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    That video is curious.

     

    It's a YouTuber I'm addicted to watching called Drew Binsky. He is infamous as a naive tourist, for going to totalitarian dictatorships (Eritrea, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc), and talking about how wonderful it is there.

    But he is probably being accurate for his own experiences, as dictatorships can be some of the easier places for tourists.

    From what I have read, Eritrea is currently viewed as "North Korea of Africa", and much of its young men have escaped from there to avoid decades of conscription in the army.

    Its dictator Afwerki apparently keeps its main cities, as some of the most well behaved and ordered placein Africa, while in the hinterland it is mostly sitll mud huts

    Of course, we would expect this, as a very stereotypical dictators' behavior in relation to cities.

    I believe Mussolini has invested a lot in Eritrea, so surely there must be some interesting Italian fascist architecture .

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+betjeman+metroland&&view=detail&mid=6DA48691A9866CA509296DA48691A9866CA50929&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djohn%2Bbetjeman%2Bmetroland%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

    This is an interesting documentary
     

    Thanks. From skimming this documentary, it looks like it is reporting about utopian upper class areas though?

    But common story of London, like Convent Garden or central London, was capitalism depopulating residential areas in postwar years, where people had been living for generations, and convert them into commercial areas or office building. Many of these central areas in London would have been more crowded with residential living and community, than we see now.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fctBVjvoDFY


    born in the early 80s

     

    Lol you are another just youth (millennial), like most of us here.

    Maybe Philip Owen, if he returns, can probably remember everything, and write about his memories of 1940s London.


    remember more about the feel of that era lately, though I didn’t get a chance to see
     
    Lol me as well. It's a new kind of alienation - I feel more emotional to times from before I was born, and thousands of kilometres away, than to the current decade of this century.

    Some might say it was an argument for re-carnation and past lives, but really it's just because the second half of the 20th century had a lot more cool things.

    I was born in the early 1990s. I would say my "home decade" culturally feels like the 1990s. But even 1970s/1980s culture feels more like "home", than later than 2010s culture.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Coconuts

    Lol you are another just youth (millennial), like most of us here.

    I am some months over 40 now, so I can finally claim to be middle aged. My wife has the optimistic Belarusian outlook and life expectancy expectations so to her I am definitively middle aged.

    Lol me as well. It’s a new kind of alienation – I feel more emotional to times from before I was born, and thousands of kilometres away, than to the current decade of this century.

    It is a strange phenomena, I find my sister is falling into it as well. It is something I expected might happen when I was around 60 or older (this would follow the pattern of the past) but onset is apparently much earlier.

    Maybe it is related to the mushrooming of social media and online space in the 2010s, with higher levels of homogenisation and globalisation. It feels like things were slower before that and experiences had more space to develop.

  884. Probably not very practical, but would be interesting to bring back giant beavers and attempt to use them as a military weapon, air dropping them behind enemy lines to build giant dams and interrupt enemy supplies, with flooding.

  885. @Mikel
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    High Sat and Sun forecast is 48 degrees and 49 degrees. Autumn football weather. A bit chilly for massive protest though.
     
    Interesting, how the protests were unironically mostly peaceful this time. Just one riot that I know of in Portland and some looting here and there, possibly unrelated to the protests.

    I've seen a couple of people mention the weather factor but perhaps rioting doesn't work so well with a Democratic Presidency and Congress either. Police departments were clearly prepared for unrest though, even in my quiet part of the country.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Maybe the bleeding hearts finally get it? Nah, it’s probably the weather…

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mr. Hack

    https://explorevenango.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04-Rit-Justice-2-LI-1080-1024x731.jpg

    , @Mikel
    @Mr. Hack

    Whatever the reasons, it's good to see that the US is not as close to a civil confrontation as it looked at times last year.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    , @A123
    @Mr. Hack

    😁Open Thread Humor😂

    use the [MORE] tag to see the rest.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

    https://media.patriots.win/post/0aG7g24i.jpeg

     

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9DuzBBt_81Q/YWorUbMgQ-I/AAAAAAAA_qU/iHw_14DuPgwmp8Q2fu-UyKpvl0sNoZxuwCLcBGAsYHQ/s246/113756741_10160048692257625_3464928667014681189_n.jpg



     

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ls8d2ugkLpE/YZQxqNzNn4I/AAAAAAAAz6Y/69INiP4C_oQ7UbjWivZ7aVofGGQ52uDrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s868/12.png

     

    https://i.imgur.com/pqfFRWA.jpg

     

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e3NjSNrFuKY/YZWHJkfm5DI/AAAAAAAAz8c/sjf7tRowlJIRbFJeqzhrNbJL9y0zOlxIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/816.jpeg

     

    https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/11/IMG_4107.jpg

     

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pl6uYOqRUuw/YZLvSuDZPOI/AAAAAAAAz4c/0YxDd3CDEY4BpdlwU06csiDIQpmXP2I7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s960/917.jpeg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  886. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel

    Maybe the bleeding hearts finally get it? Nah, it's probably the weather...

    https://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/cb112121dAPC20211120064504.jpg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @A123

  887. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel

    Maybe the bleeding hearts finally get it? Nah, it's probably the weather...

    https://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/cb112121dAPC20211120064504.jpg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @A123

    Whatever the reasons, it’s good to see that the US is not as close to a civil confrontation as it looked at times last year.

    • Agree: Not Raul
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Mikel

    It's a Civil Cold War, Civil Hybrid War instead of one fought with militias.

  888. @Mikel
    @Mr. Hack

    Whatever the reasons, it's good to see that the US is not as close to a civil confrontation as it looked at times last year.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    It’s a Civil Cold War, Civil Hybrid War instead of one fought with militias.

  889. Fully support the decision by Barbados to drop the pozzed British monarchy.

    Would be an epic troll if they picked another British family to be their regents.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Barbados is 90% Black.

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Barbados is 90% Black and getting rid of the White Queen is one of the most woke thing they have done so far.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @songbird, @A123

  890. @songbird
    Fully support the decision by Barbados to drop the pozzed British monarchy.

    Would be an epic troll if they picked another British family to be their regents.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Yellowface Anon

    Barbados is 90% Black.

  891. https://intellectualinting.substack.com/p/dems-are-probably-toast-in-22

    How we highly education news obsessed Front row types think about politics is almost entirely divorced from how most people think about politics. Which is rarely. Most people in the Back row treat elections like most Front row people treat the NFL. As something in the background that doesn’t impact them. Sure they might tune into the Super Bowl, because everyone else does, but they don’t have a huge stake in it. Sure they might have a team they root for, but they are just watching, not playing. So why care too much.

    National politics rarely touches them, not in a dramatic way at least, beyond screwing them over. Like the roads still being all messed up, factories still closing, drugs still filling their town, and taxes still going up. Doesn’t matter who is in power. Bush, Clinton, Bush again, Obama. Their life keeps going on, mostly as a series of obstacles and dramas to overcome. So both parties are equally corrupt, equally indifferent to them, and largely inter-changeable. Same shit, different asshole. That is why the largest voting block in the country is non-voters.

  892. @songbird
    Fully support the decision by Barbados to drop the pozzed British monarchy.

    Would be an epic troll if they picked another British family to be their regents.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Yellowface Anon

    Barbados is 90% Black and getting rid of the White Queen is one of the most woke thing they have done so far.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    Is it woke or is it ethno-nationalist?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    , @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    Barbados is 90% Black
     
    I realize that, which is why I was going to suggest that they be ruled by local mulattoes, rather than distant ones (though technically Harry's line probably won't take the throne.) Or that they pick a Euro from among their 3.5%, but then I considered that if they returned to the source, not only would they have a a bigger pool to draw from, but it would be a good troll.

    Though in all seriousness, I do agree with you - it is about race. Still, I believe it is a net, albeit tiny, reduction in wokeness. Pity, that it won't result in the Commonwealth being dissolved. What a crazy piece of wokeness that organization is!

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    , @A123
    @Yellowface Anon

    Another reason why America needs to resist sociopath Khamenei's senseless aggression (1)


    DoJ Charges 2 Iranians With Election Meddling

    "This indictment details how two Iran-based actors waged a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the DoJ's National Security Division.

    "The allegations illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public. The Department is committed to exposing and disrupting malign foreign influence efforts using all available tools, including criminal charges," Olsen said.
     
    "As alleged, Kazemi and Kashian were part of a coordinated conspiracy in which Iranian hackers sought to undermine faith and confidence in the U.S. presidential election," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.

    "Working with others, Kazemi and Kashian accessed voter information from at least one state's voter database, threatened U.S. voters via email, and even disseminated a fictitious video that purported to depict actors fabricating overseas ballots. The United States will never tolerate any foreign actors' attempts to undermine our free and democratic elections. As a result of the charges unsealed today, and the concurrent efforts of our U.S. government partners, Kazemi and Kashian will forever look over their shoulders as we strive to bring them to justice," Williams said
     

     
    When will you accept the painfully obvious reality that the Ayatollahs started this fight.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    ______________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-charges-2-iranians-posing-proud-boys-election-meddling

     

    https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/iranian%20fbi.jpg

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

  893. Something to anger all those anti-Jewish rightoids here: Most of Central-Eastern Europe’s economy was owned by Jews before WWII. After the Holocaust (or whatever happened in WWII that removed much of the Jewish population), Stalinists showed up to take over the economic vacuum. The main exception was Hungary where the Stalinists were also Jewish.

    • Troll: A123
    • Replies: @HenryBaker
    @Yellowface Anon

    Huh? What is supposed to make people angry about these well-known facts?

  894. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Barbados is 90% Black and getting rid of the White Queen is one of the most woke thing they have done so far.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @songbird, @A123

    Is it woke or is it ethno-nationalist?

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Coconuts

    Both.

  895. @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    Is it woke or is it ethno-nationalist?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Both.

    • Agree: Coconuts
  896. Proof of my point on neo-medievalism vs Globalism, part kasdhsahkujfsh:

    https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2021/10/normalcy-migration/

    “historical normalcy”

  897. Question for the sexists ITT: do you think a 130 IQ woman wil, on average, be more childish than a 90-100 IQ man? That is to say, more impressionable, conformist, unprincipled, etc.

  898. @Yellowface Anon
    Something to anger all those anti-Jewish rightoids here: Most of Central-Eastern Europe's economy was owned by Jews before WWII. After the Holocaust (or whatever happened in WWII that removed much of the Jewish population), Stalinists showed up to take over the economic vacuum. The main exception was Hungary where the Stalinists were also Jewish.

    Replies: @HenryBaker

    Huh? What is supposed to make people angry about these well-known facts?

  899. @songbird
    @Che Guava


    Japanese Wikipedia is different, except with copy translated articles.
     
    Thanks for the tip.

    Once had high hopes for the Wikipedia competitor Infogalactic, but a lot of it seems to be copy and paste.

    Replies: @Che Guava

    There was also, for English, the one founded by co-founded by Wikipedia’s co-founder, Larry Sanger. I can’t even remember the name of it now.

    I find from searching in English, there are a few small wiki sites that have reliable and interesting info.

    Japanese wiki is different because it is more conservative, and also allows deep detail on, e.g., train and tram lines (my favourite part)and Gundam series. That (Gundam)was one of the funniest scandals, many at the Finance Ministry were spending most of their working time adding to and fighting over the Gundam articles, they were using IP addresses instead of logging in, so another fan who was irritated by them tracked down the address range, told a journalist.

    • LOL: songbird
  900. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel

    Maybe the bleeding hearts finally get it? Nah, it's probably the weather...

    https://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/cb112121dAPC20211120064504.jpg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @A123

    😁Open Thread Humor😂

    use the [MORE] tag to see the rest.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

     

    [MORE]

     

     

     

     

     

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @A123

    The upside down Bulls logo indicates that the robot might even be a Roman Catholic, or even a Freemason? :-)

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/CrossOfSalem.svg/220px-CrossOfSalem.svg.png

    "The Cross of Salem, also known as a pontifical cross because it is carried before the Pope, is similar to a patriarchal cross, but with an additional crossbar below the main crossbar, equal in length to the upper crossbar. It is also similar to the Eastern Cross. Also used by the supreme leadership of Scottish and York Rite Freemasonry.[1]"

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  901. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Barbados is 90% Black and getting rid of the White Queen is one of the most woke thing they have done so far.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @songbird, @A123

    Barbados is 90% Black

    I realize that, which is why I was going to suggest that they be ruled by local mulattoes, rather than distant ones (though technically Harry’s line probably won’t take the throne.) Or that they pick a Euro from among their 3.5%, but then I considered that if they returned to the source, not only would they have a a bigger pool to draw from, but it would be a good troll.

    Though in all seriousness, I do agree with you – it is about race. Still, I believe it is a net, albeit tiny, reduction in wokeness. Pity, that it won’t result in the Commonwealth being dissolved. What a crazy piece of wokeness that organization is!

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    A Black country getting rid of its major legacy of colonialism and the "enabler" of slavery is nothing if not woke. It's national-level virtue signaling for every other state rep at the Commonwealth. I suggest Jamaica to follow suit.

    Caribbean Blacks' demographics are just a few years behind Puerto Rico's curve, btw. Hopefully without sending 100,000s of emigrants like Puerto Rico has done.

    Replies: @songbird, @Coconuts

  902. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Barbados is 90% Black and getting rid of the White Queen is one of the most woke thing they have done so far.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @songbird, @A123

    Another reason why America needs to resist sociopath Khamenei’s senseless aggression (1)

    DoJ Charges 2 Iranians With Election Meddling

    “This indictment details how two Iran-based actors waged a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the DoJ’s National Security Division.

    “The allegations illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public. The Department is committed to exposing and disrupting malign foreign influence efforts using all available tools, including criminal charges,” Olsen said.

    “As alleged, Kazemi and Kashian were part of a coordinated conspiracy in which Iranian hackers sought to undermine faith and confidence in the U.S. presidential election,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.

    “Working with others, Kazemi and Kashian accessed voter information from at least one state’s voter database, threatened U.S. voters via email, and even disseminated a fictitious video that purported to depict actors fabricating overseas ballots. The United States will never tolerate any foreign actors’ attempts to undermine our free and democratic elections. As a result of the charges unsealed today, and the concurrent efforts of our U.S. government partners, Kazemi and Kashian will forever look over their shoulders as we strive to bring them to justice,” Williams said

    When will you accept the painfully obvious reality that the Ayatollahs started this fight.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    ______________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-charges-2-iranians-posing-proud-boys-election-meddling

     

    • LOL: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    What does Iranians have to do with Blacks down in Barbados?

    Which side did these 2 Iranians pick (presumably under the direction of the state)?

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-iranian-nationals-charged-cyber-enabled-disinformation-and-threat-campaign-designed


    In October 2020, members of the conspiracy, claiming to be a “group of Proud Boys volunteers,” sent Facebook messages and emails (the “False Election Messages”) to Republican Senators, Republican members of Congress, individuals associated with the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, White House advisors, and members of the media. The False Election Messages claimed that

    the Democratic Party was planning to exploit “serious security vulnerabilities” in state voter registration websites to “edit mail-in ballots or even register non-existent voters.”
     
    The False Election Messages were accompanied by a video (the “False Election Video”) carrying the Proud Boys logo, which purported, via simulated intrusions and the use of State-1 voter data, to depict an individual hacking into state voter websites and using stolen voter information to create fraudulent absentee ballots through the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) for military and overseas voters.[1]
    Also in October 2020, the conspirators engaged in an online voter intimidation campaign involving the dissemination of a threatening message (the “Voter Threat Emails”), purporting to be from the Proud Boys, to tens of thousands of registered voters, including some voters whose information the conspiracy had obtained from State-1’s website. The emails were sent to registered Democrats and threatened the recipients with physical injury if they did not change their party affiliation and vote for President Trump.
     

    Replies: @A123

  903. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    Barbados is 90% Black
     
    I realize that, which is why I was going to suggest that they be ruled by local mulattoes, rather than distant ones (though technically Harry's line probably won't take the throne.) Or that they pick a Euro from among their 3.5%, but then I considered that if they returned to the source, not only would they have a a bigger pool to draw from, but it would be a good troll.

    Though in all seriousness, I do agree with you - it is about race. Still, I believe it is a net, albeit tiny, reduction in wokeness. Pity, that it won't result in the Commonwealth being dissolved. What a crazy piece of wokeness that organization is!

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    A Black country getting rid of its major legacy of colonialism and the “enabler” of slavery is nothing if not woke. It’s national-level virtue signaling for every other state rep at the Commonwealth. I suggest Jamaica to follow suit.

    Caribbean Blacks’ demographics are just a few years behind Puerto Rico’s curve, btw. Hopefully without sending 100,000s of emigrants like Puerto Rico has done.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Jamaicans are so woke, wanting reparations, I am surprised they did not do it first. I imagine PNG, or one of those Pacific Islands where they worship (the unwoke) Prince Philip as a god, as being the last hold-out.

    , @Coconuts
    @Yellowface Anon

    Within wokeness it is probably better to keep the queen as head of state, then to identify this as a manifestation of systemic oppression and request reparations and that say, Jamaica and Barbados, should lead modifications in the culture of the UK to save the UK population from its own unconscious racism.

    Getting rid of the queen as head of state is good from a straight forward nationalist or ethno-nationalist point of view, but it does make the break in relationship and cutting of the connection clear. This is something that could also be better from the British point of view, and may reduce the possibility for immigration, so that means it won't be as popular with the woke white and black people in the UK.

  904. @A123
    @Yellowface Anon

    Another reason why America needs to resist sociopath Khamenei's senseless aggression (1)


    DoJ Charges 2 Iranians With Election Meddling

    "This indictment details how two Iran-based actors waged a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the DoJ's National Security Division.

    "The allegations illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public. The Department is committed to exposing and disrupting malign foreign influence efforts using all available tools, including criminal charges," Olsen said.
     
    "As alleged, Kazemi and Kashian were part of a coordinated conspiracy in which Iranian hackers sought to undermine faith and confidence in the U.S. presidential election," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.

    "Working with others, Kazemi and Kashian accessed voter information from at least one state's voter database, threatened U.S. voters via email, and even disseminated a fictitious video that purported to depict actors fabricating overseas ballots. The United States will never tolerate any foreign actors' attempts to undermine our free and democratic elections. As a result of the charges unsealed today, and the concurrent efforts of our U.S. government partners, Kazemi and Kashian will forever look over their shoulders as we strive to bring them to justice," Williams said
     

     
    When will you accept the painfully obvious reality that the Ayatollahs started this fight.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    ______________________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-charges-2-iranians-posing-proud-boys-election-meddling

     

    https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/iranian%20fbi.jpg

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    What does Iranians have to do with Blacks down in Barbados?

    Which side did these 2 Iranians pick (presumably under the direction of the state)?

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-iranian-nationals-charged-cyber-enabled-disinformation-and-threat-campaign-designed

    In October 2020, members of the conspiracy, claiming to be a “group of Proud Boys volunteers,” sent Facebook messages and emails (the “False Election Messages”) to Republican Senators, Republican members of Congress, individuals associated with the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, White House advisors, and members of the media. The False Election Messages claimed that

    the Democratic Party was planning to exploit “serious security vulnerabilities” in state voter registration websites to “edit mail-in ballots or even register non-existent voters.”

    The False Election Messages were accompanied by a video (the “False Election Video”) carrying the Proud Boys logo, which purported, via simulated intrusions and the use of State-1 voter data, to depict an individual hacking into state voter websites and using stolen voter information to create fraudulent absentee ballots through the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) for military and overseas voters.[1]
    Also in October 2020, the conspirators engaged in an online voter intimidation campaign involving the dissemination of a threatening message (the “Voter Threat Emails”), purporting to be from the Proud Boys, to tens of thousands of registered voters, including some voters whose information the conspiracy had obtained from State-1’s website. The emails were sent to registered Democrats and threatened the recipients with physical injury if they did not change their party affiliation and vote for President Trump.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Yellowface Anon


    Which side did these 2 Iranians pick
     
    They, like you, picked team #NeverTrump. Khamenei wanted the weakest possible leader, Not-The-President Biden. That is pretty obvious from the context.

    What does Iranians have to do with Blacks down in Barbados?
     
    As a cowardly TROLL, you did not respond to my original message. I understand your TROLL fear. To help you get better, I had to randomly pick one of your messages for response.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  905. @Yellowface Anon
    @A123

    What does Iranians have to do with Blacks down in Barbados?

    Which side did these 2 Iranians pick (presumably under the direction of the state)?

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-iranian-nationals-charged-cyber-enabled-disinformation-and-threat-campaign-designed


    In October 2020, members of the conspiracy, claiming to be a “group of Proud Boys volunteers,” sent Facebook messages and emails (the “False Election Messages”) to Republican Senators, Republican members of Congress, individuals associated with the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, White House advisors, and members of the media. The False Election Messages claimed that

    the Democratic Party was planning to exploit “serious security vulnerabilities” in state voter registration websites to “edit mail-in ballots or even register non-existent voters.”
     
    The False Election Messages were accompanied by a video (the “False Election Video”) carrying the Proud Boys logo, which purported, via simulated intrusions and the use of State-1 voter data, to depict an individual hacking into state voter websites and using stolen voter information to create fraudulent absentee ballots through the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) for military and overseas voters.[1]
    Also in October 2020, the conspirators engaged in an online voter intimidation campaign involving the dissemination of a threatening message (the “Voter Threat Emails”), purporting to be from the Proud Boys, to tens of thousands of registered voters, including some voters whose information the conspiracy had obtained from State-1’s website. The emails were sent to registered Democrats and threatened the recipients with physical injury if they did not change their party affiliation and vote for President Trump.
     

    Replies: @A123

    Which side did these 2 Iranians pick

    They, like you, picked team #NeverTrump. Khamenei wanted the weakest possible leader, Not-The-President Biden. That is pretty obvious from the context.

    What does Iranians have to do with Blacks down in Barbados?

    As a cowardly TROLL, you did not respond to my original message. I understand your TROLL fear. To help you get better, I had to randomly pick one of your messages for response.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  906. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    A Black country getting rid of its major legacy of colonialism and the "enabler" of slavery is nothing if not woke. It's national-level virtue signaling for every other state rep at the Commonwealth. I suggest Jamaica to follow suit.

    Caribbean Blacks' demographics are just a few years behind Puerto Rico's curve, btw. Hopefully without sending 100,000s of emigrants like Puerto Rico has done.

    Replies: @songbird, @Coconuts

    Jamaicans are so woke, wanting reparations, I am surprised they did not do it first. I imagine PNG, or one of those Pacific Islands where they worship (the unwoke) Prince Philip as a god, as being the last hold-out.

    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon
  907. @A123
    @Mr. Hack

    😁Open Thread Humor😂

    use the [MORE] tag to see the rest.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

     

    https://media.patriots.win/post/0aG7g24i.jpeg

     

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9DuzBBt_81Q/YWorUbMgQ-I/AAAAAAAA_qU/iHw_14DuPgwmp8Q2fu-UyKpvl0sNoZxuwCLcBGAsYHQ/s246/113756741_10160048692257625_3464928667014681189_n.jpg



     

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ls8d2ugkLpE/YZQxqNzNn4I/AAAAAAAAz6Y/69INiP4C_oQ7UbjWivZ7aVofGGQ52uDrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s868/12.png

     

    https://i.imgur.com/pqfFRWA.jpg

     

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e3NjSNrFuKY/YZWHJkfm5DI/AAAAAAAAz8c/sjf7tRowlJIRbFJeqzhrNbJL9y0zOlxIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/816.jpeg

     

    https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/11/IMG_4107.jpg

     

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pl6uYOqRUuw/YZLvSuDZPOI/AAAAAAAAz4c/0YxDd3CDEY4BpdlwU06csiDIQpmXP2I7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s960/917.jpeg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    The upside down Bulls logo indicates that the robot might even be a Roman Catholic, or even a Freemason? 🙂

    “The Cross of Salem, also known as a pontifical cross because it is carried before the Pope, is similar to a patriarchal cross, but with an additional crossbar below the main crossbar, equal in length to the upper crossbar. It is also similar to the Eastern Cross. Also used by the supreme leadership of Scottish and York Rite Freemasonry.[1]”

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack

    Do you think this fellow is a good example Slavic American?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0DW9m0q6sI

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  908. Does the fact that Greta Thunberg and Kyle Rittenhouse were born on the same day have some strange numerological significance?

  909. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    A Black country getting rid of its major legacy of colonialism and the "enabler" of slavery is nothing if not woke. It's national-level virtue signaling for every other state rep at the Commonwealth. I suggest Jamaica to follow suit.

    Caribbean Blacks' demographics are just a few years behind Puerto Rico's curve, btw. Hopefully without sending 100,000s of emigrants like Puerto Rico has done.

    Replies: @songbird, @Coconuts

    Within wokeness it is probably better to keep the queen as head of state, then to identify this as a manifestation of systemic oppression and request reparations and that say, Jamaica and Barbados, should lead modifications in the culture of the UK to save the UK population from its own unconscious racism.

    Getting rid of the queen as head of state is good from a straight forward nationalist or ethno-nationalist point of view, but it does make the break in relationship and cutting of the connection clear. This is something that could also be better from the British point of view, and may reduce the possibility for immigration, so that means it won’t be as popular with the woke white and black people in the UK.

  910. Wonder if anyone ever studied the proliferation of du vs. Sie to address parental units in West and East Germany. Perhaps, there will come a time when Euros return to the old forms of address.

  911. Anyone change their mind about Luka after he told the BBC that they should be worshiping Belorussians and that he was going to liquidate the NGOs?

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    High-level troll.

    , @Coconuts
    @songbird

    The most interesting part was when he seemed to be criticising Trump and Brexit; Luka aligns himself with the liberal establishment in the West...

    Replies: @songbird

  912. @songbird
    Anyone change their mind about Luka after he told the BBC that they should be worshiping Belorussians and that he was going to liquidate the NGOs?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Coconuts

    High-level troll.

    • Agree: songbird
  913. @songbird
    Anyone change their mind about Luka after he told the BBC that they should be worshiping Belorussians and that he was going to liquidate the NGOs?

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Coconuts

    The most interesting part was when he seemed to be criticising Trump and Brexit; Luka aligns himself with the liberal establishment in the West…

    • LOL: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @songbird
    @Coconuts

    I felt like they were worried when he starting talking about how Brexit was a prelude to the UK being absorbed by the US.

  914. @songbird
    Soon "dollar" stores will go the way of "five and dime" stores:
    https://www.businessinsider.com/dollar-tree-ditches-one-dollar-items-2021-11

    Replies: @Che Guava

    We have 100 yen shops. The same things in Australia, I hear, are and have long been in two dollar shops. That is much over two hundred yen.

    That may be out of date, based on report from a retired division manager, more than ten years ago. Likely worse now.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Che Guava

    Been really amazed that they managed to continue on for this long in the US. IMO, it is a wonder of modern logistics and outsourcing. They were still making a profit - just wanted to protect their margin.

    Though the quality and quantity of stuff inside them has definitely fallen off markedly. Twenty years ago, you could get some pretty good stuff inside them. Much less so today.

    Replies: @Che Guava, @Che Guava

  915. @Coconuts
    @songbird

    The most interesting part was when he seemed to be criticising Trump and Brexit; Luka aligns himself with the liberal establishment in the West...

    Replies: @songbird

    I felt like they were worried when he starting talking about how Brexit was a prelude to the UK being absorbed by the US.

  916. @Che Guava
    @songbird

    We have 100 yen shops. The same things in Australia, I hear, are and have long been in two dollar shops. That is much over two hundred yen.

    That may be out of date, based on report from a retired division manager, more than ten years ago. Likely worse now.

    Replies: @songbird

    Been really amazed that they managed to continue on for this long in the US. IMO, it is a wonder of modern logistics and outsourcing. They were still making a profit – just wanted to protect their margin.

    Though the quality and quantity of stuff inside them has definitely fallen off markedly. Twenty years ago, you could get some pretty good stuff inside them. Much less so today.

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @songbird

    This may be irrevant.

    You must know that 'songbird' was the nickname of the traitor McCaine while in prison, and being an arsehole, he became 100% traitor.

    Replies: @songbird

    , @Che Guava
    @songbird

    Are they still dollar shops in the U.S.?

    Replies: @songbird

  917. @AaronB
    I feel sorry for China. (almost)

    At a certain point, China decided it needed to prove to the West - and itself - and it could beat the West at it's own game. (All countries felt this way).

    Yet just as it is reaching parity with the West, the West no longer cares about the game. The West is transitioning out of a Faustian and techno-progressive mindset.

    I used to feel that it was such a disappointment that China could not resist the Faustian and techno-progressive mindset. With it's glorious Taoist past, so deeply embedded in it's psyche, I would have thought China most likely to mount a successful resistance.

    Yet I now see that it was good that China also couldn't resist. Had China alone resisted, it would have grown unbearably arrogant - and that would have negated any spiritual benefit. It was necessary for all of mankind to undergo this trial - and emerge from it on the other side.

    When modern China collapses from the stresses of the Faustian and techno-progressive mindset, which is not far off, it will emerge humbled and human, no better or worse than anyone else, and ready to truly take up it's ancient spirituality again.

    Aldous Huxley, before he became a mystic, said how insane it was was that the West was sharing all it's technology, especially it's war making technology, with the rest of the world.

    Yet had the West retained unrivalled superiority, and held the world in bondage, it would have grown unbearably arrogant and never been able to experience spiritual renewal, which is now genuinely on the horizon.

    It is truly a fascinating thing - what civilization ever willingly gave away all it's advantages, gained at such sacrifice and cost, to everyone else?

    It is as if, technology had a force and spirit of its own - it wanted to spread across the world.

    It is as if the entire world had to undergo this trial.

    Replies: @Che Guava

    I have been watching an old BBC Brave New World lately.

    It is pretty good. An odd point, I saw it when very young, see it again as older, alphas, betas, gammas (especially the same man and woman playing the same in many places, very great concept and very well played), and epsilons.

    I have watched it thrice lately, I can’t see a delta. Anyone else who has watched it, does a delta appear anywhere?

    I watched an action movie today, Gentlemen, not great, not bad, but had a nice touch, the movie is full of villains, but the Jewish one threatens his takeover target with ‘Mossad Crabs’, both the use of the word and that they (and their boss )are taken down is great fun.

  918. @songbird
    @Che Guava

    Been really amazed that they managed to continue on for this long in the US. IMO, it is a wonder of modern logistics and outsourcing. They were still making a profit - just wanted to protect their margin.

    Though the quality and quantity of stuff inside them has definitely fallen off markedly. Twenty years ago, you could get some pretty good stuff inside them. Much less so today.

    Replies: @Che Guava, @Che Guava

    This may be irrevant.

    You must know that ‘songbird’ was the nickname of the traitor McCaine while in prison, and being an arsehole, he became 100% traitor.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Che Guava


    You must know that ‘songbird’ was the nickname of the traitor McCaine while in prison
     
    Actually, I didn't know that.

    I'm only very vaguely aware of the allegations about McCain, when he was a POW. Though, he seemed such a scoundrel that I can easily believe the preponderance of them. Still, I don't know enough about Vietnam to be able to verify their scope. (Some say that the info he gave was so important that it resulted in the end of the bombing campaign of North Vietnam.)

    I think Trump was essentially right when he said being shot down doesn't make one a hero.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Che Guava

  919. @Mr. Hack
    @A123

    The upside down Bulls logo indicates that the robot might even be a Roman Catholic, or even a Freemason? :-)

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/CrossOfSalem.svg/220px-CrossOfSalem.svg.png

    "The Cross of Salem, also known as a pontifical cross because it is carried before the Pope, is similar to a patriarchal cross, but with an additional crossbar below the main crossbar, equal in length to the upper crossbar. It is also similar to the Eastern Cross. Also used by the supreme leadership of Scottish and York Rite Freemasonry.[1]"

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    Do you think this fellow is a good example Slavic American?

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Why do you ask? The comment you're replying to do has nothing to do with Republican politicians in Arizona? But, yes I think that Mark Brnevich is a good conservative Republican attorney general. He seems sincere and principled no matter what his ethnicity might be. BTW, growing up in Minnesota, one of my close friends was of 'Luxembourgian" ancestry and his surname was "Burnevik", very similar don't you think?

  920. What a disappointment Michael Hudson turned out to be.

    I was very excited when he started criticizing the rent-seeking economy of the US, and thought perhaps here is someone who genuinely supports fairness and equality.

    But he appears to have become a partisan for China, whose people are in significantly greater economic slavery than the US, and whose political system is significantly more unfree.

    China has a truly Dickensian 996 work culture, where people are essentially economic slaves to the System. In the US, if you are willing to live simply, you can join the gig economy, work little, and have considerable leisure time and economic freedom.

    China, also, is essentially similar in outlook and values to America – anyone who has not grasped that yet is either an idiot, or a shill.

    Partisan thinkers are truly the worst type – what we need is someone who doesn’t merely advocate for one side in a conflict, but a truly philosophic intelligence who takes a truly comprehensive view of the situation.

    When economic thinkers begin appearing who condemn both the US and China, we will know that the System of slavery they both represent is beginning to crumble.

    It’s interesting that recently the wonders of the Chinese system – or perhaps I should say the wonders of the Chinese version of American exploitative capitalism – is no longer featured so prominently on Unz.

    I guess it’s becoming harder and harder to maintain. The latest news out of China, that a prominent tennis star has vanished and is now languishing in a dungeon for accusing a government official of sexually attacking her, is probably not helping the attempt to present Chinese authoritarianism in a benign light.

  921. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack

    Do you think this fellow is a good example Slavic American?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0DW9m0q6sI

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Why do you ask? The comment you’re replying to do has nothing to do with Republican politicians in Arizona? But, yes I think that Mark Brnevich is a good conservative Republican attorney general. He seems sincere and principled no matter what his ethnicity might be. BTW, growing up in Minnesota, one of my close friends was of ‘Luxembourgian” ancestry and his surname was “Burnevik”, very similar don’t you think?

  922. Some news for A123:

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader


    Iran's Basij has unveiled a new mobile video game about saving George Floyd from being murdered by police.
     
    This is 100% consistent with what I have said.

    The Woke Basij supports BLM, as they are both Islamic organizations. It is unsurprising that they created an anti-White "SJW Martyr" game idolizing a violent black man who died of a self inflicted overdose.

    What is next for the Woke Basij? Will they endorse the murder of 6 innocents at a predominantly Christian holiday parade?

    The SJW Islamic attack in Waukesha is very similar to the 2016 Berlin Christmas Market Massacre (1). In both cases, authorities knew that the individual was dangerous. However, nothing was done to protect native citizens because Muslims are a privileged group under SJW dogma.
    ____

    Hopefully, this is changing Europe. Sending Jihad invaders via Belarus to assault the EU border with Poland (and Lithuania) has backfired. There is now momentum towards a "Stay in Mexico" style asylum process.

    BoJo is in serious trouble with his own supporters and may face a "No Confidence" vote. He has embraced the gonzo-phweet Climate Cooling/Warming/Change agenda and had been unable to stem illegal Channel crossings. His gaffes also seem to be getting worse. (2)


    The latest questioning of Mr Johnson’s political fate come after a disastrous speech before the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Monday, in which the Conservative leader quoted Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin to promote his radical green agenda.

    The mainstream media and punditry decided to focus on some of the stranger aspects of the speech, however, including Johnson’s seemingly inexplicable use of a rambling Peppa Pig anecdote.
     

    The Tories desperately need a more competent leader. Although to give credit where it is due... BoJo is much more lucid than Not-The-President Biden. Apparently, medical staff were not allowed to administer a "cognitive exam" as part of his physical. (3)

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    ______________________

    (1) https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-terror-attack-germany-grapples-with-unanswered-questions-two-years-on/a-46802429

    (2) https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/11/25/boris-in-trouble-tory-mps-make-no-confidence-push-against-pm/

    (3) https://summit.news/2021/11/25/former-obama-doctor-white-house-is-doing-everything-they-can-to-hide-bidens-obvious-cognitive-decline/

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  923. The cold snap will test Germany and the other parts of Europe’s energy systems already under stress due to the lowest natural gas stockpiles since 2013. There appears to be no relief in dwindling gas flows into the continent as German energy regulators decided to suspend the Nord Stream 2 pipeline certification process last week. With every hiccup the Russian to German pipeline faces, natural gas prices increase, forcing power prices higher. There’s also the issue that more power generation has to be diverted from alternative energy sources to fossil fuels due to unreliability:

    “Wind generation and temperatures below the seasonal norm are increasing gas-for-power and heating demand; this provides bullish pressure to day-ahead contract,” Inspired Energy said in a report.

    Europe is staring into a perfect storm of forces that could spark a winter of discontent and continue socio-economic chaos on the continent. EU politicians won’t publicly say, but they need Putin’s gas to avert an energy crisis this coming winter that could sweep many politicians out of power due to uncontrollable energy inflation.

    By Zerohedge.com

    Winter is coming

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Aedib

    Is this really a big deal though?

    Modern people have become accustomed to heating their homes to summer temperatures in winter.

    I remember my high school teacher once with an air of great fanfare and mystery asking the class what climate zone we lived in (New York). We all scrambled to give the correct answer, the temperate zone, to which he replied wrong! We live in the tropical zone, because our houses are heated to summer temps in winter.

    If people in Europe heat their homes to only say the 50s Fahrenheit, and wear sweaters, thick socks, and the like at home, and drink warm beverages, I suspect they will find it a surprisingly cozy and enjoyable experience :)

    While not exactly comfortable, plenty of people do winter camping in below freezing temps - it's quite survivable, and today there is no shortage of extremely warm coats and blankets and the like.

    The Japanese don't use central heating, but only space heaters, and huddle around the heater for warmth under blankets - they reportedly enjoy the experience.

    In other words, this may be another imaginary problem of the modern world - like the "crisis" of declining wages meaning people can no longer buy a TV set for every room and must make do with only one car.

    I think the danger here is that Europeans discover they never needed all that power and heat in the winter to begin with :)

    That might suck for the Russians.

    Replies: @German_reader

  924. @Aedib

    The cold snap will test Germany and the other parts of Europe's energy systems already under stress due to the lowest natural gas stockpiles since 2013. There appears to be no relief in dwindling gas flows into the continent as German energy regulators decided to suspend the Nord Stream 2 pipeline certification process last week. With every hiccup the Russian to German pipeline faces, natural gas prices increase, forcing power prices higher. There's also the issue that more power generation has to be diverted from alternative energy sources to fossil fuels due to unreliability:

    "Wind generation and temperatures below the seasonal norm are increasing gas-for-power and heating demand; this provides bullish pressure to day-ahead contract," Inspired Energy said in a report.

    Europe is staring into a perfect storm of forces that could spark a winter of discontent and continue socio-economic chaos on the continent. EU politicians won't publicly say, but they need Putin's gas to avert an energy crisis this coming winter that could sweep many politicians out of power due to uncontrollable energy inflation.

    By Zerohedge.com
     
    Winter is coming

    Replies: @AaronB

    Is this really a big deal though?

    Modern people have become accustomed to heating their homes to summer temperatures in winter.

    I remember my high school teacher once with an air of great fanfare and mystery asking the class what climate zone we lived in (New York). We all scrambled to give the correct answer, the temperate zone, to which he replied wrong! We live in the tropical zone, because our houses are heated to summer temps in winter.

    If people in Europe heat their homes to only say the 50s Fahrenheit, and wear sweaters, thick socks, and the like at home, and drink warm beverages, I suspect they will find it a surprisingly cozy and enjoyable experience 🙂

    While not exactly comfortable, plenty of people do winter camping in below freezing temps – it’s quite survivable, and today there is no shortage of extremely warm coats and blankets and the like.

    The Japanese don’t use central heating, but only space heaters, and huddle around the heater for warmth under blankets – they reportedly enjoy the experience.

    In other words, this may be another imaginary problem of the modern world – like the “crisis” of declining wages meaning people can no longer buy a TV set for every room and must make do with only one car.

    I think the danger here is that Europeans discover they never needed all that power and heat in the winter to begin with 🙂

    That might suck for the Russians.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB

    lol. The issue is there might well be a large-scale blackout this winter, lasting at least a week, maybe longer...which means no lighting, no heating, no running water, no telephone communications, and no shopping for food and water. Obviously that would kill hundreds, if not thousands of people. Couple that with the Corona situation (which is pretty bad in Germany and Austria at least, with "elites" becoming completely unhinged and now moving towards mandatory vaccination for everybody), and you've got a recipe for a real disaster.

    Replies: @AaronB

  925. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    @Aedib

    Is this really a big deal though?

    Modern people have become accustomed to heating their homes to summer temperatures in winter.

    I remember my high school teacher once with an air of great fanfare and mystery asking the class what climate zone we lived in (New York). We all scrambled to give the correct answer, the temperate zone, to which he replied wrong! We live in the tropical zone, because our houses are heated to summer temps in winter.

    If people in Europe heat their homes to only say the 50s Fahrenheit, and wear sweaters, thick socks, and the like at home, and drink warm beverages, I suspect they will find it a surprisingly cozy and enjoyable experience :)

    While not exactly comfortable, plenty of people do winter camping in below freezing temps - it's quite survivable, and today there is no shortage of extremely warm coats and blankets and the like.

    The Japanese don't use central heating, but only space heaters, and huddle around the heater for warmth under blankets - they reportedly enjoy the experience.

    In other words, this may be another imaginary problem of the modern world - like the "crisis" of declining wages meaning people can no longer buy a TV set for every room and must make do with only one car.

    I think the danger here is that Europeans discover they never needed all that power and heat in the winter to begin with :)

    That might suck for the Russians.

    Replies: @German_reader

    lol. The issue is there might well be a large-scale blackout this winter, lasting at least a week, maybe longer…which means no lighting, no heating, no running water, no telephone communications, and no shopping for food and water. Obviously that would kill hundreds, if not thousands of people. Couple that with the Corona situation (which is pretty bad in Germany and Austria at least, with “elites” becoming completely unhinged and now moving towards mandatory vaccination for everybody), and you’ve got a recipe for a real disaster.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @German_reader

    Plenty of countries have blackouts, and there are areas with no electricity.

    Is our civilization truly so fragile that a single week of blackout thousands of people would die? If so, that's absolutely insane. How do people go camping for a week? This may shock you, but people go camping for months :)

    Not a single person need die. A weeks worth of water is easy to save beforehand, likewise food. I'm also not sure why you couldn't shop for food - certainly dry foods are not a problem, and cold air can provide refrigeration.

    But is the likely gas shortage quite so severe? So far all I've heard is that the cost of heating will go way up.

    If you approach this with the right mindset, this can be like a fun camping adventure :)

    In mid-December, I will start driving out West, in the cold of winter. I'm heading to family in California for Christmas, then out into the wilderness areas. My route goes across the frozen mid-northern section of the country (I-80). When I hit Wyoming, temps will be well below freezing. I plan on spending 4-5 days in Utah and Wyoming camping in my car and exploring, not staying in a hotel once - I won't freeze to death, trust me :)

    I understand the trepidation for a modern city dweller - the first time I slept outside in below freezing temps, I was quite nervous. It's a fascinating experience - you feel the real hostility of cold air, of am environment that can kill you, for the first time. You aren't in your smug, warm little home-cave.

    But you quickly get used to it. Our ancestors lived this way for generations.

    As for Corona, I truly feel sorry for you guys and what the German and Austrian governments seem to be doing. It's truly insane and horrific. I hear people are getting arrested for going outside more than the once per day permitted, they are contemplating as you say forced vaccinations (!), and segregation of the non-vaccinated. I hear Australia s now putting the infected - and even anyone just had contact with the infected - into internment camps (!)

    These are Chinese-level methods, and is one of the reasons I was ringing the alarm so much about our elites - including this site - seeking to hold China up so much as an example of technocratic efficiency. It's truly dystopian.

    I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I am happy that I am in America during this dark time - at the end of the day, American freedom and rebelliousness really did shine through more so than any other place. That's something.

    Of course, I shouldn't congratulate myself, as America may well yet end up going down the dark path with this Covid thing too.

    But good luck.

    Replies: @German_reader

  926. Brief comments on Russia, from tsarist era until now, by Chinese political scientist Zheng Yongnian.

  927. @German_reader
    @AaronB

    lol. The issue is there might well be a large-scale blackout this winter, lasting at least a week, maybe longer...which means no lighting, no heating, no running water, no telephone communications, and no shopping for food and water. Obviously that would kill hundreds, if not thousands of people. Couple that with the Corona situation (which is pretty bad in Germany and Austria at least, with "elites" becoming completely unhinged and now moving towards mandatory vaccination for everybody), and you've got a recipe for a real disaster.

    Replies: @AaronB

    Plenty of countries have blackouts, and there are areas with no electricity.

    Is our civilization truly so fragile that a single week of blackout thousands of people would die? If so, that’s absolutely insane. How do people go camping for a week? This may shock you, but people go camping for months 🙂

    Not a single person need die. A weeks worth of water is easy to save beforehand, likewise food. I’m also not sure why you couldn’t shop for food – certainly dry foods are not a problem, and cold air can provide refrigeration.

    But is the likely gas shortage quite so severe? So far all I’ve heard is that the cost of heating will go way up.

    If you approach this with the right mindset, this can be like a fun camping adventure 🙂

    In mid-December, I will start driving out West, in the cold of winter. I’m heading to family in California for Christmas, then out into the wilderness areas. My route goes across the frozen mid-northern section of the country (I-80). When I hit Wyoming, temps will be well below freezing. I plan on spending 4-5 days in Utah and Wyoming camping in my car and exploring, not staying in a hotel once – I won’t freeze to death, trust me 🙂

    I understand the trepidation for a modern city dweller – the first time I slept outside in below freezing temps, I was quite nervous. It’s a fascinating experience – you feel the real hostility of cold air, of am environment that can kill you, for the first time. You aren’t in your smug, warm little home-cave.

    But you quickly get used to it. Our ancestors lived this way for generations.

    As for Corona, I truly feel sorry for you guys and what the German and Austrian governments seem to be doing. It’s truly insane and horrific. I hear people are getting arrested for going outside more than the once per day permitted, they are contemplating as you say forced vaccinations (!), and segregation of the non-vaccinated. I hear Australia s now putting the infected – and even anyone just had contact with the infected – into internment camps (!)

    These are Chinese-level methods, and is one of the reasons I was ringing the alarm so much about our elites – including this site – seeking to hold China up so much as an example of technocratic efficiency. It’s truly dystopian.

    I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but I am happy that I am in America during this dark time – at the end of the day, American freedom and rebelliousness really did shine through more so than any other place. That’s something.

    Of course, I shouldn’t congratulate myself, as America may well yet end up going down the dark path with this Covid thing too.

    But good luck.

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AaronB


    I’m also not sure why you couldn’t shop for food – certainly dry foods are not a problem
     
    Because supply chains for supermarkets will break down in case of a blackout, and anything that's in them will be gone pretty soon (maybe looted). And it will take at least 2-3 weeks until at least the most basic articles are available again.
    And yeah, there are official recommendations that one ought to have sufficient food and water for at least two weeks, and I've tried to make sure I always have at least enough bottled water at hand, have also bought canned beans and the like (theoretically one could also buy a camping stove, but I have no experience with that and don't really feel inclined to try it). But I think it's safe to surmise most people won't be prepared for such an emergency, and for some it may not realistically be possible, e.g. aged or sick people who are dependent on help.

    I won’t freeze to death, trust me
     
    You could get eaten by bears though (maybe some of them have read your comments on UR and are already waiting for you).

    at the end of the day, American freedom and rebelliousness really did shine through more so than any other place.
     
    I still think a lot of the anti-vaxxers both in the US and in Europe are downright retarded (especially if they're over 60). However I have to admit this very idea of mandatory vaccination is some truly dystopian authoritarian bullshit. There's also talk of another lockdown lasting months. In hindsight some of the people warning Corona would be used to create a permanent emergency regime may not have been quite as crazy as I initially thought.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @AaronB

  928. German_reader says:
    @AaronB
    @German_reader

    Plenty of countries have blackouts, and there are areas with no electricity.

    Is our civilization truly so fragile that a single week of blackout thousands of people would die? If so, that's absolutely insane. How do people go camping for a week? This may shock you, but people go camping for months :)

    Not a single person need die. A weeks worth of water is easy to save beforehand, likewise food. I'm also not sure why you couldn't shop for food - certainly dry foods are not a problem, and cold air can provide refrigeration.

    But is the likely gas shortage quite so severe? So far all I've heard is that the cost of heating will go way up.

    If you approach this with the right mindset, this can be like a fun camping adventure :)

    In mid-December, I will start driving out West, in the cold of winter. I'm heading to family in California for Christmas, then out into the wilderness areas. My route goes across the frozen mid-northern section of the country (I-80). When I hit Wyoming, temps will be well below freezing. I plan on spending 4-5 days in Utah and Wyoming camping in my car and exploring, not staying in a hotel once - I won't freeze to death, trust me :)

    I understand the trepidation for a modern city dweller - the first time I slept outside in below freezing temps, I was quite nervous. It's a fascinating experience - you feel the real hostility of cold air, of am environment that can kill you, for the first time. You aren't in your smug, warm little home-cave.

    But you quickly get used to it. Our ancestors lived this way for generations.

    As for Corona, I truly feel sorry for you guys and what the German and Austrian governments seem to be doing. It's truly insane and horrific. I hear people are getting arrested for going outside more than the once per day permitted, they are contemplating as you say forced vaccinations (!), and segregation of the non-vaccinated. I hear Australia s now putting the infected - and even anyone just had contact with the infected - into internment camps (!)

    These are Chinese-level methods, and is one of the reasons I was ringing the alarm so much about our elites - including this site - seeking to hold China up so much as an example of technocratic efficiency. It's truly dystopian.

    I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I am happy that I am in America during this dark time - at the end of the day, American freedom and rebelliousness really did shine through more so than any other place. That's something.

    Of course, I shouldn't congratulate myself, as America may well yet end up going down the dark path with this Covid thing too.

    But good luck.

    Replies: @German_reader

    I’m also not sure why you couldn’t shop for food – certainly dry foods are not a problem

    Because supply chains for supermarkets will break down in case of a blackout, and anything that’s in them will be gone pretty soon (maybe looted). And it will take at least 2-3 weeks until at least the most basic articles are available again.
    And yeah, there are official recommendations that one ought to have sufficient food and water for at least two weeks, and I’ve tried to make sure I always have at least enough bottled water at hand, have also bought canned beans and the like (theoretically one could also buy a camping stove, but I have no experience with that and don’t really feel inclined to try it). But I think it’s safe to surmise most people won’t be prepared for such an emergency, and for some it may not realistically be possible, e.g. aged or sick people who are dependent on help.

    I won’t freeze to death, trust me

    You could get eaten by bears though (maybe some of them have read your comments on UR and are already waiting for you).

    at the end of the day, American freedom and rebelliousness really did shine through more so than any other place.

    I still think a lot of the anti-vaxxers both in the US and in Europe are downright retarded (especially if they’re over 60). However I have to admit this very idea of mandatory vaccination is some truly dystopian authoritarian bullshit. There’s also talk of another lockdown lasting months. In hindsight some of the people warning Corona would be used to create a permanent emergency regime may not have been quite as crazy as I initially thought.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    The whole picture falls together and tells people to get self-sufficient to ride out economic failure & the COVID agenda. As I said - Neo-medievalism is the wave of the future.

    Not sure how to do that in Germany now that there's no Nazi lebensraum settler colonialism. Germany can't feed its current population even with industrial agriculture.

    BTW, how does hardcore antivaxxers cope with universal vaccine mandates? How will the state deal with them? I'm afraid the worst antivaxx fear - concentration camps for the unvaccinated - is going to be vindicated.

    Replies: @German_reader, @RadicalCenter

    , @AaronB
    @German_reader

    I think you're being too alarmist. There may, tragically, be a few marginal cases, but I think the majority will not be severely affected.

    Be that as it may, I think for the majority of people it can be a moment of realization, that the bloated modern lifestyle isn't as necessary as once thought.

    Obviously, the elites want you to consume as much as possible and be as addicted to superfluous comfort as possible, and to make society ever more technological - all trends are in that direction - so they will do everything in their power to "frame" it as a catastrophe, so you become ever more infantilized and dependent on the System.

    See, you can't break free of your shackles! You don't want to go back to medievalism do you?

    This is to be expected.

    But with the proper mindset, this can be a watershed moment where you realize you are not nearly as dependent on the System as they want you to believe, and the scaremongering voice are just designed to keep you in shackles.


    You could get eaten by bears though (maybe some of them have read your comments on UR and are already waiting for you).
     
    Ha! Any bear that reads UR, is welcome to my worthless carcass :)

    I think they'll all be hibernating by then, though, sadly.


    In hindsight some of the people warning Corona would be used to create a permanent emergency regime may not have been quite as crazy as I initially thought.
     
    Yes, the problem with the crazy people with their silly depopulation claims is that they sense and intuit something really sinister about this whole Covid thing and our technocratic reaction to it - and they are quite correct - but they discredit themselves by going to absurd extremes.

    In traditional cultures, crazy people were often considered seers and prophets and accorded a measure of respect - often, to see a truth that doesn't fit your cultures mold, you have to already be standing outside the normal assumptions and blind spots of your culture.

    We should listen more to our crazy people, they probably sense something, but understand too their exact version will likely contain gross distortions and fantastical elements that reflect the truth as through a refracted glass.

  929. Almost too good to be true:

    Germany should not grant the Nord Stream 2 pipeline regulatory approval and resist Russian “blackmail” on energy prices, Annalena Baerbock, the co-chair of the German Green party, said in an interview published on Wednesday by the Funke media group.

    “We can’t allow ourselves to be blackmailed” by Russia, Baerbock said, adding that Moscow plays a “poker game” and is partly responsible for the high gas prices in Europe. “Gas deliveries have been driven down considerably”, she said.

    This is a situation “intentionally brought about” in order to “force the rapid commissioning of Nord Stream 2”, Baerbock concluded.

    The green co-leader also believes that providing Nord Stream 2 with a regulatory approval would be contrary to European rules. The Nord Stream 2 AG company, which will own and operate the pipeline, is wholly owned by Russian giant Gazprom, which goes against the EU’s gas directive. “As long as that is one and the same corporation, the operating permit must not be granted,” Baerbock argues. The Bundesnetzagentur, the German infrastructure regulator, will make the final call on the matter.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/baerbock-against-operating-permit-for-nord-stream-2/

    But the latest from TASS gives hope that it is indeed truth 😉

    MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. The appointment of Annalena Baerbock as Germany’s foreign minister would be damaging for the nation’s ties with Russia, said Vladislav Belov, a prominent researcher of Germany at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

    Baerbock, a co-chair of Germany’s Alliance 90/The Greens party, lacks the experience and skills to direct the country’s foreign policy, Belov, deputy director at the academy’s Institute of Europe, said in an interview with TASS.

    ‘’She’s absolutely a bad fit,’’ he said. If she gets the role ‘’the bilateral dialog between Russia and Germany will unquestionably suffer,’’ Belov added.

    ‘’She’s no diplomat, is ill-versed in foreign policy and hostile toward Russia,’’ he went on to say.

    Even so, it’s not just the Foreign Ministry that defines Germany’s foreign policy, Belov said. There are other agencies involved such as the Federal Chancellery and more ministries, including the Economy Ministry, he said.

    With Baerbock at the helm of the Foreign Ministry, the policy of Transatlanticism could become more pronounced while there wouldn’t be ‘’strategic imbalances’’ in favor of the US, Belov said.

    The Bild newspaper on Wednesday reported that representatives of Alliance 90/The Greens party will head the Foreign Ministry and the newly created Economy and Climate Ministry in Germany’s future coalition government.

    https://tass.com/politics/1365765

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Baerbock's party and its sympathizers in the media bear a large share of the responsibility for Germany giving up nuclear power, which created the current level of energy dependence on Russia.
    As for Baerbock herself, she's absolutely braindead, the sort of person whose rise to power should raise serious questions about the viability of representative democracy. She'd be nothing without her party. Also strongly woke. So I don't know if people in the Baltics should be happy about people like her running Germany just out of anti-Russian spite. The kind of Germany Baerbock's standing for might lecture you on homos and refugees, but don't think it would be able or willing to really help you, should Russia ever move against the territorial integrity of the Baltic states.

    Replies: @sudden death

  930. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    Almost too good to be true:

    Germany should not grant the Nord Stream 2 pipeline regulatory approval and resist Russian "blackmail" on energy prices, Annalena Baerbock, the co-chair of the German Green party, said in an interview published on Wednesday by the Funke media group.

    "We can't allow ourselves to be blackmailed" by Russia, Baerbock said, adding that Moscow plays a "poker game" and is partly responsible for the high gas prices in Europe. "Gas deliveries have been driven down considerably", she said.

    This is a situation "intentionally brought about" in order to "force the rapid commissioning of Nord Stream 2", Baerbock concluded.

    The green co-leader also believes that providing Nord Stream 2 with a regulatory approval would be contrary to European rules. The Nord Stream 2 AG company, which will own and operate the pipeline, is wholly owned by Russian giant Gazprom, which goes against the EU's gas directive. "As long as that is one and the same corporation, the operating permit must not be granted," Baerbock argues. The Bundesnetzagentur, the German infrastructure regulator, will make the final call on the matter.
     

    https://www.politico.eu/article/baerbock-against-operating-permit-for-nord-stream-2/

    But the latest from TASS gives hope that it is indeed truth ;)


    MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. The appointment of Annalena Baerbock as Germany’s foreign minister would be damaging for the nation’s ties with Russia, said Vladislav Belov, a prominent researcher of Germany at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

    Baerbock, a co-chair of Germany’s Alliance 90/The Greens party, lacks the experience and skills to direct the country’s foreign policy, Belov, deputy director at the academy’s Institute of Europe, said in an interview with TASS.

    ‘’She’s absolutely a bad fit,’’ he said. If she gets the role ‘’the bilateral dialog between Russia and Germany will unquestionably suffer,’’ Belov added.

    ‘’She’s no diplomat, is ill-versed in foreign policy and hostile toward Russia,’’ he went on to say.

    Even so, it’s not just the Foreign Ministry that defines Germany’s foreign policy, Belov said. There are other agencies involved such as the Federal Chancellery and more ministries, including the Economy Ministry, he said.

    With Baerbock at the helm of the Foreign Ministry, the policy of Transatlanticism could become more pronounced while there wouldn’t be ‘’strategic imbalances’’ in favor of the US, Belov said.

    The Bild newspaper on Wednesday reported that representatives of Alliance 90/The Greens party will head the Foreign Ministry and the newly created Economy and Climate Ministry in Germany’s future coalition government.
     

    https://tass.com/politics/1365765

    Replies: @German_reader

    Baerbock’s party and its sympathizers in the media bear a large share of the responsibility for Germany giving up nuclear power, which created the current level of energy dependence on Russia.
    As for Baerbock herself, she’s absolutely braindead, the sort of person whose rise to power should raise serious questions about the viability of representative democracy. She’d be nothing without her party. Also strongly woke. So I don’t know if people in the Baltics should be happy about people like her running Germany just out of anti-Russian spite. The kind of Germany Baerbock’s standing for might lecture you on homos and refugees, but don’t think it would be able or willing to really help you, should Russia ever move against the territorial integrity of the Baltic states.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @German_reader


    Baerbock’s party and its sympathizers in the media bear a large share of the responsibility for Germany giving up nuclear power, which created the current level of energy dependence on Russia.
     
    Oh yeah, no doubt they are largely responsible for this, but so far there were no real negative consequences for this nonsense in Germany as during previous decade natgas prices were relatively low and "reliable" Gazprom was not leaving storages empty before winter, but if there will be electricity blackouts and gas shortages in practice, then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO² ;)

    The kind of Germany Baerbock’s standing for might lecture you on homos and refugees, but don’t think it would be able or willing to really help you, should Russia ever move against the territorial integrity of the Baltic states.
     

    Obviously truth, but it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @Mitleser

  931. @Che Guava
    @songbird

    This may be irrevant.

    You must know that 'songbird' was the nickname of the traitor McCaine while in prison, and being an arsehole, he became 100% traitor.

    Replies: @songbird

    You must know that ‘songbird’ was the nickname of the traitor McCaine while in prison

    Actually, I didn’t know that.

    I’m only very vaguely aware of the allegations about McCain, when he was a POW. Though, he seemed such a scoundrel that I can easily believe the preponderance of them. Still, I don’t know enough about Vietnam to be able to verify their scope. (Some say that the info he gave was so important that it resulted in the end of the bombing campaign of North Vietnam.)

    I think Trump was essentially right when he said being shot down doesn’t make one a hero.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @songbird

    Ron Unz has written a terrific article with so many details most people should skim in places on the fraudulence of John McCain.

    , @Che Guava
    @songbird

    Songbird is, regardless of McCain, a good uname.

    You should however, read his incompetence and treachery.

    The least, when taking off from his carrier, he used afterburners when he wasn't supposed to.

    He also opened fire on deck of the ship he was based on, IIRC, didn't kill anyone, but only by good luck of the crew.

    After the Viets rescued him following a crash, he made speeches to his fellow Ps of W on behalf of the Viets.

    If you hadn't heard of it, I recommend looking it up, others have more details and better descriptions.

  932. @songbird
    @Che Guava


    You must know that ‘songbird’ was the nickname of the traitor McCaine while in prison
     
    Actually, I didn't know that.

    I'm only very vaguely aware of the allegations about McCain, when he was a POW. Though, he seemed such a scoundrel that I can easily believe the preponderance of them. Still, I don't know enough about Vietnam to be able to verify their scope. (Some say that the info he gave was so important that it resulted in the end of the bombing campaign of North Vietnam.)

    I think Trump was essentially right when he said being shot down doesn't make one a hero.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Che Guava

    Ron Unz has written a terrific article with so many details most people should skim in places on the fraudulence of John McCain.

    • Thanks: songbird
  933. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Baerbock's party and its sympathizers in the media bear a large share of the responsibility for Germany giving up nuclear power, which created the current level of energy dependence on Russia.
    As for Baerbock herself, she's absolutely braindead, the sort of person whose rise to power should raise serious questions about the viability of representative democracy. She'd be nothing without her party. Also strongly woke. So I don't know if people in the Baltics should be happy about people like her running Germany just out of anti-Russian spite. The kind of Germany Baerbock's standing for might lecture you on homos and refugees, but don't think it would be able or willing to really help you, should Russia ever move against the territorial integrity of the Baltic states.

    Replies: @sudden death

    Baerbock’s party and its sympathizers in the media bear a large share of the responsibility for Germany giving up nuclear power, which created the current level of energy dependence on Russia.

    Oh yeah, no doubt they are largely responsible for this, but so far there were no real negative consequences for this nonsense in Germany as during previous decade natgas prices were relatively low and “reliable” Gazprom was not leaving storages empty before winter, but if there will be electricity blackouts and gas shortages in practice, then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO² 😉

    The kind of Germany Baerbock’s standing for might lecture you on homos and refugees, but don’t think it would be able or willing to really help you, should Russia ever move against the territorial integrity of the Baltic states.

    Obviously truth, but it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death


    then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO²
     
    I have my doubts about that, the anti-nuclear movement was one of the core pillars of Green ideology for 30 years, and the end of nuclear power was one of the Greens' biggest victories, reinforcing the perception that they're the party of progress and the future. A party as highly ideological as the Greens isn't just going to reduce their political capital by throwing away that myth, it would after all be an admission that their anti-nuclear scare-mongering which garnered them so much support was wrong all along.
    Anyway, we'll see, but I expect Baerbock and her ilk just to mindlessly increase tensions with Russia, without coming up with any real concept of how to deal with the consequences.
    , @LatW
    @sudden death


    it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.
     
    Well, what is quite unique about her is that, unlike a typical leftist politician, she supports NATO's eastward expansion, a broader EU Eastern partnership and some kind of a "post-pacifist" foreign policy (would be interesting to explore her ideas there). So her rhetoric might be a little heavier on that side than the previous German one (it's a kind of a new thing to which I was alluding to above - the German coalitions are more "diverse" now so the Greens are showing a slightly different position than the traditional Social Democrats, I mean, she's very far from someone like what Shroeder used to be, right? It's almost as if the Greens have taken the place of the old Atlanticists). What is important is that this rhetoric or even potential policy is backed up by something tangible or at least some kind of a capability, if it is just words, then it is in fact not that desirable, especially in the current situation. What NATO needs now is not additional agitation against Russia, but strengthening and consolidation, implying very real capability to defend itself (with the goal to stabilize the neighborhood).

    Of course, it would be interesting to explore where her apprehension of Russia stems from. To what extent it is ideological and to what extent geopolitical or even some primal / historic German fear/dislike/competitiveness of Russia.

    There is not much that can be done about her "wokeness" and we have to work with what we have. For the Baltic States in particular, it may be advisable to divert the agenda from "refugees" etc., to, let's say, the environment. The Baltic States, along with Denmark, have the highest levels of renewable energy sources so maybe that could be a focus, along with the ecological problems in the Baltic sea. One could also argue that we lack the resources to integrate the "refugees" (for instance, in Sweden they receive all kinds of counseling, etc). Other excuses, etc. Ofc, "hybrid attack" from the East. A lot can be done to divert the agenda with her towards less "woke" items. Once you talk about the main issues, there is very little time left for gays and "refugees".

    What will be more crucial though is the relationship with Poland, as there is way more animosity there than with the Baltic States (which don't really have the institutional problems that Poland is criticized for and don't have anywhere the same weight -- in fact, it would be smarter for the Baltic States to side with Poland but that's a lot to ask of their politicians who will always try to be more amicable towards Germany). Usually, if there are issues, they are worse with the closer neighbors (similar as you can see for Russia as well).

    In case of Poland, if Baerbock wants to argue, let's say, some kind of a more common EU policy vis a vis Russia and China, Poland may actually propose to build that on principles of parity or equality among Germany, France and Poland so as to give Poland a larger role and to elevate Poland in the EU politics and thus maybe even globally a little.

    Btw, she used to be a competitive gymnast. This speaks well for her discipline, stamina.

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW

    , @Mitleser
    @sudden death


    Oh yeah, no doubt they are largely responsible for this, but so far there were no real negative consequences for this nonsense in Germany
     
    Except much increased prices for electricity.

    https://1-stromvergleich.com/medien/strompreisentwicklung-2018.png


    then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO²
     
    It would not matter.
    German nuclear phase-out is almost complete.
    Half of the remaining six reactors will be shut down next month, the rest at the end of the next year.

    Replies: @sudden death

  934. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @German_reader


    Baerbock’s party and its sympathizers in the media bear a large share of the responsibility for Germany giving up nuclear power, which created the current level of energy dependence on Russia.
     
    Oh yeah, no doubt they are largely responsible for this, but so far there were no real negative consequences for this nonsense in Germany as during previous decade natgas prices were relatively low and "reliable" Gazprom was not leaving storages empty before winter, but if there will be electricity blackouts and gas shortages in practice, then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO² ;)

    The kind of Germany Baerbock’s standing for might lecture you on homos and refugees, but don’t think it would be able or willing to really help you, should Russia ever move against the territorial integrity of the Baltic states.
     

    Obviously truth, but it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @Mitleser

    then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO²

    I have my doubts about that, the anti-nuclear movement was one of the core pillars of Green ideology for 30 years, and the end of nuclear power was one of the Greens’ biggest victories, reinforcing the perception that they’re the party of progress and the future. A party as highly ideological as the Greens isn’t just going to reduce their political capital by throwing away that myth, it would after all be an admission that their anti-nuclear scare-mongering which garnered them so much support was wrong all along.
    Anyway, we’ll see, but I expect Baerbock and her ilk just to mindlessly increase tensions with Russia, without coming up with any real concept of how to deal with the consequences.

  935. @sudden death
    @German_reader


    Baerbock’s party and its sympathizers in the media bear a large share of the responsibility for Germany giving up nuclear power, which created the current level of energy dependence on Russia.
     
    Oh yeah, no doubt they are largely responsible for this, but so far there were no real negative consequences for this nonsense in Germany as during previous decade natgas prices were relatively low and "reliable" Gazprom was not leaving storages empty before winter, but if there will be electricity blackouts and gas shortages in practice, then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO² ;)

    The kind of Germany Baerbock’s standing for might lecture you on homos and refugees, but don’t think it would be able or willing to really help you, should Russia ever move against the territorial integrity of the Baltic states.
     

    Obviously truth, but it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @Mitleser

    it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.

    Well, what is quite unique about her is that, unlike a typical leftist politician, she supports NATO’s eastward expansion, a broader EU Eastern partnership and some kind of a “post-pacifist” foreign policy (would be interesting to explore her ideas there). So her rhetoric might be a little heavier on that side than the previous German one (it’s a kind of a new thing to which I was alluding to above – the German coalitions are more “diverse” now so the Greens are showing a slightly different position than the traditional Social Democrats, I mean, she’s very far from someone like what Shroeder used to be, right? It’s almost as if the Greens have taken the place of the old Atlanticists). What is important is that this rhetoric or even potential policy is backed up by something tangible or at least some kind of a capability, if it is just words, then it is in fact not that desirable, especially in the current situation. What NATO needs now is not additional agitation against Russia, but strengthening and consolidation, implying very real capability to defend itself (with the goal to stabilize the neighborhood).

    Of course, it would be interesting to explore where her apprehension of Russia stems from. To what extent it is ideological and to what extent geopolitical or even some primal / historic German fear/dislike/competitiveness of Russia.

    There is not much that can be done about her “wokeness” and we have to work with what we have. For the Baltic States in particular, it may be advisable to divert the agenda from “refugees” etc., to, let’s say, the environment. The Baltic States, along with Denmark, have the highest levels of renewable energy sources so maybe that could be a focus, along with the ecological problems in the Baltic sea. One could also argue that we lack the resources to integrate the “refugees” (for instance, in Sweden they receive all kinds of counseling, etc). Other excuses, etc. Ofc, “hybrid attack” from the East. A lot can be done to divert the agenda with her towards less “woke” items. Once you talk about the main issues, there is very little time left for gays and “refugees”.

    What will be more crucial though is the relationship with Poland, as there is way more animosity there than with the Baltic States (which don’t really have the institutional problems that Poland is criticized for and don’t have anywhere the same weight — in fact, it would be smarter for the Baltic States to side with Poland but that’s a lot to ask of their politicians who will always try to be more amicable towards Germany). Usually, if there are issues, they are worse with the closer neighbors (similar as you can see for Russia as well).

    In case of Poland, if Baerbock wants to argue, let’s say, some kind of a more common EU policy vis a vis Russia and China, Poland may actually propose to build that on principles of parity or equality among Germany, France and Poland so as to give Poland a larger role and to elevate Poland in the EU politics and thus maybe even globally a little.

    Btw, she used to be a competitive gymnast. This speaks well for her discipline, stamina.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    Of course, it would be interesting to explore where her apprehension of Russia stems from. To what extent it is ideological
     
    It's totally ideological, it's just the usual mindless Western shitlib talking points ("Putin is trying to destroy our wonderful democracies, funding right-wing parties, the enemies of open societies" etc.), there's nothing deeper here, certainly not any conception of German national interest, and also certainly not any real interest in or sympathy for Eastern European nations.
    It's not unusal either, the Greens today are the Atlanticist war party, and have been so since the Kosovo war. Here's an interview with Green politician Franziska Brantner, I've linked to it before, because it's such a fine specimen how these people think, how utterly deluded they are (Brantner even goes so far as to suggest there should have been a military intervention to topple Assad's government in Syria):
    https://www.zeit.de/politik/2021-03/usa-transatlantic-relations-franziska-brantner-stephen-wertheim-english?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
    However it's just hot air, the idea of Greens building up German military power again is absurd, they're the antinational party par excellence who basically hate Germany and want to utterly wreck in its traditional form, therefore they will always be suspicious of any genuinely patriotic types going to the army, and probably try to purge the army of any suspected right-wingers. Their leaders are often shrill women like Baerbock, and even the men like Robert Habeck who are old enough to still have fallen under conscription usually haven't served in the army (Habeck, as was typical for West German bourgeois types since the 1980s, did substitute service instead, looking after spastics). They're certainly not going to bring back conscription either, since it would hurt their electoral chances with students (all the more so since conscription would probably affect women as well nowadays, given all the equality nonsense).
    I guess they could form an army of Arabs and Africans though, lol, after all they'll bring a few million more of them to Germany in coming years.


    Btw, she used to be a competitive gymnast. This speaks well for her discipline, stamina.
     
    She's dumb as shit, big mistake to expect anything of substance from her.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @LatW
    @LatW


    Ofc, “hybrid attack” from the East.
     
    Geez, picture how different Baerbock and Lukashenko are... like from two different worlds entirely.
  936. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    I’m also not sure why you couldn’t shop for food – certainly dry foods are not a problem
     
    Because supply chains for supermarkets will break down in case of a blackout, and anything that's in them will be gone pretty soon (maybe looted). And it will take at least 2-3 weeks until at least the most basic articles are available again.
    And yeah, there are official recommendations that one ought to have sufficient food and water for at least two weeks, and I've tried to make sure I always have at least enough bottled water at hand, have also bought canned beans and the like (theoretically one could also buy a camping stove, but I have no experience with that and don't really feel inclined to try it). But I think it's safe to surmise most people won't be prepared for such an emergency, and for some it may not realistically be possible, e.g. aged or sick people who are dependent on help.

    I won’t freeze to death, trust me
     
    You could get eaten by bears though (maybe some of them have read your comments on UR and are already waiting for you).

    at the end of the day, American freedom and rebelliousness really did shine through more so than any other place.
     
    I still think a lot of the anti-vaxxers both in the US and in Europe are downright retarded (especially if they're over 60). However I have to admit this very idea of mandatory vaccination is some truly dystopian authoritarian bullshit. There's also talk of another lockdown lasting months. In hindsight some of the people warning Corona would be used to create a permanent emergency regime may not have been quite as crazy as I initially thought.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @AaronB

    The whole picture falls together and tells people to get self-sufficient to ride out economic failure & the COVID agenda. As I said – Neo-medievalism is the wave of the future.

    Not sure how to do that in Germany now that there’s no Nazi lebensraum settler colonialism. Germany can’t feed its current population even with industrial agriculture.

    BTW, how does hardcore antivaxxers cope with universal vaccine mandates? How will the state deal with them? I’m afraid the worst antivaxx fear – concentration camps for the unvaccinated – is going to be vindicated.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Yellowface Anon


    How will the state deal with them?
     
    So far the talk is of fines, excluding unvaccinated from social life, even making them lose their jobs etc. It's far from clear of course, if any of that could actually be enforced, imo it's an insane idea, sure to heighten polarization.
    I doubt Buchenwald and Dachau will be re-opened for the unvaccinated, though it would be darkly funny if the federal republic did something like that.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    , @RadicalCenter
    @Yellowface Anon

    Mass disobedience is overdue. The governments are the ones using violence and the threat of violence, as well as the threat of impoverishment and starvation. There is no moral or lawful obligation to obey aggressors and enslavers.

  937. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @sudden death


    it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.
     
    Well, what is quite unique about her is that, unlike a typical leftist politician, she supports NATO's eastward expansion, a broader EU Eastern partnership and some kind of a "post-pacifist" foreign policy (would be interesting to explore her ideas there). So her rhetoric might be a little heavier on that side than the previous German one (it's a kind of a new thing to which I was alluding to above - the German coalitions are more "diverse" now so the Greens are showing a slightly different position than the traditional Social Democrats, I mean, she's very far from someone like what Shroeder used to be, right? It's almost as if the Greens have taken the place of the old Atlanticists). What is important is that this rhetoric or even potential policy is backed up by something tangible or at least some kind of a capability, if it is just words, then it is in fact not that desirable, especially in the current situation. What NATO needs now is not additional agitation against Russia, but strengthening and consolidation, implying very real capability to defend itself (with the goal to stabilize the neighborhood).

    Of course, it would be interesting to explore where her apprehension of Russia stems from. To what extent it is ideological and to what extent geopolitical or even some primal / historic German fear/dislike/competitiveness of Russia.

    There is not much that can be done about her "wokeness" and we have to work with what we have. For the Baltic States in particular, it may be advisable to divert the agenda from "refugees" etc., to, let's say, the environment. The Baltic States, along with Denmark, have the highest levels of renewable energy sources so maybe that could be a focus, along with the ecological problems in the Baltic sea. One could also argue that we lack the resources to integrate the "refugees" (for instance, in Sweden they receive all kinds of counseling, etc). Other excuses, etc. Ofc, "hybrid attack" from the East. A lot can be done to divert the agenda with her towards less "woke" items. Once you talk about the main issues, there is very little time left for gays and "refugees".

    What will be more crucial though is the relationship with Poland, as there is way more animosity there than with the Baltic States (which don't really have the institutional problems that Poland is criticized for and don't have anywhere the same weight -- in fact, it would be smarter for the Baltic States to side with Poland but that's a lot to ask of their politicians who will always try to be more amicable towards Germany). Usually, if there are issues, they are worse with the closer neighbors (similar as you can see for Russia as well).

    In case of Poland, if Baerbock wants to argue, let's say, some kind of a more common EU policy vis a vis Russia and China, Poland may actually propose to build that on principles of parity or equality among Germany, France and Poland so as to give Poland a larger role and to elevate Poland in the EU politics and thus maybe even globally a little.

    Btw, she used to be a competitive gymnast. This speaks well for her discipline, stamina.

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW

    Of course, it would be interesting to explore where her apprehension of Russia stems from. To what extent it is ideological

    It’s totally ideological, it’s just the usual mindless Western shitlib talking points (“Putin is trying to destroy our wonderful democracies, funding right-wing parties, the enemies of open societies” etc.), there’s nothing deeper here, certainly not any conception of German national interest, and also certainly not any real interest in or sympathy for Eastern European nations.
    It’s not unusal either, the Greens today are the Atlanticist war party, and have been so since the Kosovo war. Here’s an interview with Green politician Franziska Brantner, I’ve linked to it before, because it’s such a fine specimen how these people think, how utterly deluded they are (Brantner even goes so far as to suggest there should have been a military intervention to topple Assad’s government in Syria):
    https://www.zeit.de/politik/2021-03/usa-transatlantic-relations-franziska-brantner-stephen-wertheim-english?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
    However it’s just hot air, the idea of Greens building up German military power again is absurd, they’re the antinational party par excellence who basically hate Germany and want to utterly wreck in its traditional form, therefore they will always be suspicious of any genuinely patriotic types going to the army, and probably try to purge the army of any suspected right-wingers. Their leaders are often shrill women like Baerbock, and even the men like Robert Habeck who are old enough to still have fallen under conscription usually haven’t served in the army (Habeck, as was typical for West German bourgeois types since the 1980s, did substitute service instead, looking after spastics). They’re certainly not going to bring back conscription either, since it would hurt their electoral chances with students (all the more so since conscription would probably affect women as well nowadays, given all the equality nonsense).
    I guess they could form an army of Arabs and Africans though, lol, after all they’ll bring a few million more of them to Germany in coming years.

    Btw, she used to be a competitive gymnast. This speaks well for her discipline, stamina.

    She’s dumb as shit, big mistake to expect anything of substance from her.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader


    Brantner
     
    Judging from parts of that interview, she seems to be scared of an authoritarian arising in Germany even more so than she dislikes foreign dictators. It's kind of like when US SWPLs are afraid of the everpresent "white supremacists". The ironic part is that a hypothetical German authoritarian would probably be more benign and "liberal" than even some Slavic or Arab dictator. And, of course, she wants US present in Germany because otherwise a real nationalism could arise in Germany and her ideology would go out the window. At least the far left parts of it.

    probably try to purge the army of any suspected right-wingers
     
    Unfortunately, this phenomenon happens not just in Germany. Most armies try to keep their soldiers apolitical, so the right wingers are regarded as "the enemy within". Thankfully not everyone is purged.

    So if the Greens are talking about some post-pacifist foreign policy, that needs to be backed up by something tangible. Are they hoping to rely only on the US military and NATO?

    after all they’ll bring a few million more of them to Germany in coming years.
     

    Is their immigration policy completely crazy or are they talking about some kind of a managed immigration? Of course, even if it's managed according to their ideas, it's still bad. A few million in a few years is just an insanely large number...

    She’s dumb as shit, big mistake to expect anything of substance from her.
     
    She doesn't appear to be an intellectual. What I meant was that people who have done competitive sports are quite driven, which she obviously is, given that she was a candidate for the Chancellor, she might be driven in her current post, too, or at least able to hold her ground, just not in the ways you might like (furthering her own ideology). My point was more that it's a good quality to have for a person, maybe not in this case for Germany.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mitleser

  938. German_reader says:
    @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    The whole picture falls together and tells people to get self-sufficient to ride out economic failure & the COVID agenda. As I said - Neo-medievalism is the wave of the future.

    Not sure how to do that in Germany now that there's no Nazi lebensraum settler colonialism. Germany can't feed its current population even with industrial agriculture.

    BTW, how does hardcore antivaxxers cope with universal vaccine mandates? How will the state deal with them? I'm afraid the worst antivaxx fear - concentration camps for the unvaccinated - is going to be vindicated.

    Replies: @German_reader, @RadicalCenter

    How will the state deal with them?

    So far the talk is of fines, excluding unvaccinated from social life, even making them lose their jobs etc. It’s far from clear of course, if any of that could actually be enforced, imo it’s an insane idea, sure to heighten polarization.
    I doubt Buchenwald and Dachau will be re-opened for the unvaccinated, though it would be darkly funny if the federal republic did something like that.

    • Thanks: Yellowface Anon
    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    Heard that some quarantine camps have been built that can be quickly repurposed for exactly this scenario. Political suicide indeed... (and they can no longer say anything about Uyghurs in Xinjiang when they're doing exactly that!)

  939. @LatW
    @sudden death


    it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.
     
    Well, what is quite unique about her is that, unlike a typical leftist politician, she supports NATO's eastward expansion, a broader EU Eastern partnership and some kind of a "post-pacifist" foreign policy (would be interesting to explore her ideas there). So her rhetoric might be a little heavier on that side than the previous German one (it's a kind of a new thing to which I was alluding to above - the German coalitions are more "diverse" now so the Greens are showing a slightly different position than the traditional Social Democrats, I mean, she's very far from someone like what Shroeder used to be, right? It's almost as if the Greens have taken the place of the old Atlanticists). What is important is that this rhetoric or even potential policy is backed up by something tangible or at least some kind of a capability, if it is just words, then it is in fact not that desirable, especially in the current situation. What NATO needs now is not additional agitation against Russia, but strengthening and consolidation, implying very real capability to defend itself (with the goal to stabilize the neighborhood).

    Of course, it would be interesting to explore where her apprehension of Russia stems from. To what extent it is ideological and to what extent geopolitical or even some primal / historic German fear/dislike/competitiveness of Russia.

    There is not much that can be done about her "wokeness" and we have to work with what we have. For the Baltic States in particular, it may be advisable to divert the agenda from "refugees" etc., to, let's say, the environment. The Baltic States, along with Denmark, have the highest levels of renewable energy sources so maybe that could be a focus, along with the ecological problems in the Baltic sea. One could also argue that we lack the resources to integrate the "refugees" (for instance, in Sweden they receive all kinds of counseling, etc). Other excuses, etc. Ofc, "hybrid attack" from the East. A lot can be done to divert the agenda with her towards less "woke" items. Once you talk about the main issues, there is very little time left for gays and "refugees".

    What will be more crucial though is the relationship with Poland, as there is way more animosity there than with the Baltic States (which don't really have the institutional problems that Poland is criticized for and don't have anywhere the same weight -- in fact, it would be smarter for the Baltic States to side with Poland but that's a lot to ask of their politicians who will always try to be more amicable towards Germany). Usually, if there are issues, they are worse with the closer neighbors (similar as you can see for Russia as well).

    In case of Poland, if Baerbock wants to argue, let's say, some kind of a more common EU policy vis a vis Russia and China, Poland may actually propose to build that on principles of parity or equality among Germany, France and Poland so as to give Poland a larger role and to elevate Poland in the EU politics and thus maybe even globally a little.

    Btw, she used to be a competitive gymnast. This speaks well for her discipline, stamina.

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW

    Ofc, “hybrid attack” from the East.

    Geez, picture how different Baerbock and Lukashenko are… like from two different worlds entirely.

  940. I like the idea of putting all migrants in Europe on a diet of Brussels sprouts, until they agree to return. Sprouts being, I believe, the only fully indigenous domesticated vegetable in Europe.
    ______
    What to make of this idea that chikan is most common in Japan, of all countries? Seems totally incredible. Number of reported cases don’t seem super high, though there seem to be various surveys that put it pretty high. I’m leaning towards the idea that it is part of a globohomo psyop to try to turn Japan into a more feminist country.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Complaining about Chikan is basically #metoo, Japanese version. Some form of physical contact between riders is inevitable if you have fully packed commuter trains, and that fuels salarymans' fantasies.

    Replies: @songbird

  941. @songbird
    I like the idea of putting all migrants in Europe on a diet of Brussels sprouts, until they agree to return. Sprouts being, I believe, the only fully indigenous domesticated vegetable in Europe.
    ______
    What to make of this idea that chikan is most common in Japan, of all countries? Seems totally incredible. Number of reported cases don't seem super high, though there seem to be various surveys that put it pretty high. I'm leaning towards the idea that it is part of a globohomo psyop to try to turn Japan into a more feminist country.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Complaining about Chikan is basically #metoo, Japanese version. Some form of physical contact between riders is inevitable if you have fully packed commuter trains, and that fuels salarymans’ fantasies.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    Don't know how much importance to place on it (whether it is a big thing or not, as I can't read Japanese), but I thought it was really fascinating that there appears to be this movement called #WeToo in Japan. Like, it is modified version of #MeToo, to try to circumvent the local social norms and to try to subvert a more Confucian mindset.
    https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/-metoo-becomes-wetoo-in-victim-blaming-japan

  942. @German_reader
    @Yellowface Anon


    How will the state deal with them?
     
    So far the talk is of fines, excluding unvaccinated from social life, even making them lose their jobs etc. It's far from clear of course, if any of that could actually be enforced, imo it's an insane idea, sure to heighten polarization.
    I doubt Buchenwald and Dachau will be re-opened for the unvaccinated, though it would be darkly funny if the federal republic did something like that.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Heard that some quarantine camps have been built that can be quickly repurposed for exactly this scenario. Political suicide indeed… (and they can no longer say anything about Uyghurs in Xinjiang when they’re doing exactly that!)

  943. @German_reader
    @LatW


    Of course, it would be interesting to explore where her apprehension of Russia stems from. To what extent it is ideological
     
    It's totally ideological, it's just the usual mindless Western shitlib talking points ("Putin is trying to destroy our wonderful democracies, funding right-wing parties, the enemies of open societies" etc.), there's nothing deeper here, certainly not any conception of German national interest, and also certainly not any real interest in or sympathy for Eastern European nations.
    It's not unusal either, the Greens today are the Atlanticist war party, and have been so since the Kosovo war. Here's an interview with Green politician Franziska Brantner, I've linked to it before, because it's such a fine specimen how these people think, how utterly deluded they are (Brantner even goes so far as to suggest there should have been a military intervention to topple Assad's government in Syria):
    https://www.zeit.de/politik/2021-03/usa-transatlantic-relations-franziska-brantner-stephen-wertheim-english?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
    However it's just hot air, the idea of Greens building up German military power again is absurd, they're the antinational party par excellence who basically hate Germany and want to utterly wreck in its traditional form, therefore they will always be suspicious of any genuinely patriotic types going to the army, and probably try to purge the army of any suspected right-wingers. Their leaders are often shrill women like Baerbock, and even the men like Robert Habeck who are old enough to still have fallen under conscription usually haven't served in the army (Habeck, as was typical for West German bourgeois types since the 1980s, did substitute service instead, looking after spastics). They're certainly not going to bring back conscription either, since it would hurt their electoral chances with students (all the more so since conscription would probably affect women as well nowadays, given all the equality nonsense).
    I guess they could form an army of Arabs and Africans though, lol, after all they'll bring a few million more of them to Germany in coming years.


    Btw, she used to be a competitive gymnast. This speaks well for her discipline, stamina.
     
    She's dumb as shit, big mistake to expect anything of substance from her.

    Replies: @LatW

    Brantner

    Judging from parts of that interview, she seems to be scared of an authoritarian arising in Germany even more so than she dislikes foreign dictators. It’s kind of like when US SWPLs are afraid of the everpresent “white supremacists”. The ironic part is that a hypothetical German authoritarian would probably be more benign and “liberal” than even some Slavic or Arab dictator. And, of course, she wants US present in Germany because otherwise a real nationalism could arise in Germany and her ideology would go out the window. At least the far left parts of it.

    probably try to purge the army of any suspected right-wingers

    Unfortunately, this phenomenon happens not just in Germany. Most armies try to keep their soldiers apolitical, so the right wingers are regarded as “the enemy within”. Thankfully not everyone is purged.

    So if the Greens are talking about some post-pacifist foreign policy, that needs to be backed up by something tangible. Are they hoping to rely only on the US military and NATO?

    after all they’ll bring a few million more of them to Germany in coming years.

    Is their immigration policy completely crazy or are they talking about some kind of a managed immigration? Of course, even if it’s managed according to their ideas, it’s still bad. A few million in a few years is just an insanely large number…

    She’s dumb as shit, big mistake to expect anything of substance from her.

    She doesn’t appear to be an intellectual. What I meant was that people who have done competitive sports are quite driven, which she obviously is, given that she was a candidate for the Chancellor, she might be driven in her current post, too, or at least able to hold her ground, just not in the ways you might like (furthering her own ideology). My point was more that it’s a good quality to have for a person, maybe not in this case for Germany.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    Are they hoping to rely only on the US military and NATO?
     
    I think ultimately that's what it will come down to, I don't think the next government will in any way be able to really re-build German military power (though they might make some noise in that direction, and do more farcical stuff like sending ships to East Asia, as Sudden Death has mentioned...as if that would impress the Chinese, lol).
    I think there would also be little support among the German public for really building up independent capabilities for credible European defense. tbh much of the German public is infantile and mentally living in a fantasy world, where moralizing and virtue-signaling (like in giving away the entire country to 3rd world immigrants) are the supreme virtues, while defining own interests and defending them with hard power is anathema.

    Is their immigration policy completely crazy or are they talking about some kind of a managed immigration? Of course, even if it’s managed according to their ideas, it’s still bad. A few million in a few years is just an insanely large number…
     
    Well, millions from outside the EU did come during the late Merkel era, so it's hardly unprecedented, and for the Greens that was just the beginning. Their position is basically "Let everyone come, don't deport anybody". Of course that was already the de facto policy under Merkel, but the next government is set to increase incentives even more, e.g. they intend to make naturalization easier (possible to get it after only five or even three years of residency, and children of anybody who has had legal residency for five years will automatically become German citizens...that means children born to all the "refugees" who have entered since 2014 will get German citizenship, no matter how much of a burden their families are), make holding dual or multiple citizenships the norm, support the NGOs "rescuing" migrants in the Mediterranean, widen family reunification etc., also even more repression against any right-wing dissent and more support from the state for "antiracist" civil society projects. And even the bourgeois money-grubbers from the FDP want 500 000 immigrants a year btw. So I don't think I'm being hyperbolic. But your question indicates to me that the character of the Greens and what they are about (basically an insane anti-German sect) isn't widely understood outside of Germany.

    What I meant was that people who have done competitive sports are quite driven
     

    She's driven in the sense that she's a great example for the Dunning-Kruger-effect, as someone who has unfortunately never been told that her opinions are worthless and she's too stupid for any position of responsibility.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @Mitleser
    @LatW


    given that she was a candidate for the Chancellor, she might be driven in her current post, too, or at least able to hold her ground, just not in the ways you might like (furthering her own ideology).
     
    She became the Green chancellor candidate instead of the more qualified male co-leader of the Greens because she is the top woman in a feminist party.

    For people who are opposed Greens she is not that bad because as the top candidate of her party, her incompetence and dishonesty ensured that her party underperformed in the last federal election.
  944. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Complaining about Chikan is basically #metoo, Japanese version. Some form of physical contact between riders is inevitable if you have fully packed commuter trains, and that fuels salarymans' fantasies.

    Replies: @songbird

    Don’t know how much importance to place on it (whether it is a big thing or not, as I can’t read Japanese), but I thought it was really fascinating that there appears to be this movement called #WeToo in Japan. Like, it is modified version of #MeToo, to try to circumvent the local social norms and to try to subvert a more Confucian mindset.
    https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/-metoo-becomes-wetoo-in-victim-blaming-japan

  945. @German_reader
    @AaronB


    I’m also not sure why you couldn’t shop for food – certainly dry foods are not a problem
     
    Because supply chains for supermarkets will break down in case of a blackout, and anything that's in them will be gone pretty soon (maybe looted). And it will take at least 2-3 weeks until at least the most basic articles are available again.
    And yeah, there are official recommendations that one ought to have sufficient food and water for at least two weeks, and I've tried to make sure I always have at least enough bottled water at hand, have also bought canned beans and the like (theoretically one could also buy a camping stove, but I have no experience with that and don't really feel inclined to try it). But I think it's safe to surmise most people won't be prepared for such an emergency, and for some it may not realistically be possible, e.g. aged or sick people who are dependent on help.

    I won’t freeze to death, trust me
     
    You could get eaten by bears though (maybe some of them have read your comments on UR and are already waiting for you).

    at the end of the day, American freedom and rebelliousness really did shine through more so than any other place.
     
    I still think a lot of the anti-vaxxers both in the US and in Europe are downright retarded (especially if they're over 60). However I have to admit this very idea of mandatory vaccination is some truly dystopian authoritarian bullshit. There's also talk of another lockdown lasting months. In hindsight some of the people warning Corona would be used to create a permanent emergency regime may not have been quite as crazy as I initially thought.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @AaronB

    I think you’re being too alarmist. There may, tragically, be a few marginal cases, but I think the majority will not be severely affected.

    Be that as it may, I think for the majority of people it can be a moment of realization, that the bloated modern lifestyle isn’t as necessary as once thought.

    Obviously, the elites want you to consume as much as possible and be as addicted to superfluous comfort as possible, and to make society ever more technological – all trends are in that direction – so they will do everything in their power to “frame” it as a catastrophe, so you become ever more infantilized and dependent on the System.

    See, you can’t break free of your shackles! You don’t want to go back to medievalism do you?

    This is to be expected.

    But with the proper mindset, this can be a watershed moment where you realize you are not nearly as dependent on the System as they want you to believe, and the scaremongering voice are just designed to keep you in shackles.

    You could get eaten by bears though (maybe some of them have read your comments on UR and are already waiting for you).

    Ha! Any bear that reads UR, is welcome to my worthless carcass 🙂

    I think they’ll all be hibernating by then, though, sadly.

    In hindsight some of the people warning Corona would be used to create a permanent emergency regime may not have been quite as crazy as I initially thought.

    Yes, the problem with the crazy people with their silly depopulation claims is that they sense and intuit something really sinister about this whole Covid thing and our technocratic reaction to it – and they are quite correct – but they discredit themselves by going to absurd extremes.

    In traditional cultures, crazy people were often considered seers and prophets and accorded a measure of respect – often, to see a truth that doesn’t fit your cultures mold, you have to already be standing outside the normal assumptions and blind spots of your culture.

    We should listen more to our crazy people, they probably sense something, but understand too their exact version will likely contain gross distortions and fantastical elements that reflect the truth as through a refracted glass.

  946. @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    I believe Mussolini has invested a lot in Eritrea, so surely there must be some interesting Italian fascist architecture .
     
    I remember that I have seen the famous 'Cinema Impero' before, and one of the old Eritreans was trying to sell Drew Binsky a Fascist coin. Apparently there are lots of 1930s Italian buildings in Asmara and it is a Unesco heritage site; that video has got me reading about Eritrea again. It is an unusual country, but, yes you wouldn't know the government has such a hard reputation from the Youtube, with the gelato and lasagne it all looks quite jolly.

    Thanks. From skimming this documentary, it looks like it is reporting about utopian upper class areas though?
     
    He mostly focuses on some of the elite houses and then the 1930s classic Southern middle class suburbs along what used to be the Metropolitan Railway, looking at this kind of architecture and lifestyle was one of his popular themes. People could observe how these aspirational populations were living, though Betjeman himself also strongly disliked modern developments after the 1950s, when the urban terraced houses were demolished and people were placed in tower-blocks.


    Many of these central areas in London would have been more crowded with residential living and community, than we see now.
     
    You see this often in books and even on TV made before the 1980s, when there may be prostitutes or very poor people living in small badly maintained flats in houses now worth £3,000,000+, this made London more normal compared to the rest of the country, sometimes even more seedy and less desirable. Now this is harder to imagine.

    The BBC recently finished a nice radio crime drama about this theme that had about 70 hour long episodes and followed an East-End criminal family from the 1940s until the early 2000s, where they make money as slum landlords, then dubious London property developments in the 1980s, become part of the government and end up in Russia in the 90s buying up former Soviet state industries.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    hard reputation from the Youtube, with the gelato

    He also claim countries like Syria and Pakistan as a kind of paradise, at least for tourists. But perhaps this is what should be expected from professional tourists.

    It’s a sign of expertise in your profession, when you discover most things in life are counter-intuitive, and that you view everything through the glasses of your profession.

    He was finding that Pakistani people give you things for free. It’s kind of counter-intuitive things you can expect when you developed professional (in this case professional tourist) knowledge.

    Of course, this doesn’t make life in Pakistan anymore easier, but from the purely touristic perspective (which he presents the world using) I don’t think he is falsifying his presentations. Similarly, if he has this ultra-enthusiastic and naive personality, then doesn’t mean he is falsifying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWeWxl7ruGE.

    strange phenomena, I find my sister is falling into it as well. It is something I expected might happen when I was around 60 or older

    It’s also especially easier to alienate yourself, because of smart televisions.

    So now you can watch 1970s television like it is a live presentation. Old television is far more relaxing and beautiful, than modern television. But it creates a very alienating sense in you, when you stop watching and suddenly realize you are living decades and political systems years too far into the future. It has the shock in unconscious mind of awakening from a dream.

    Extremely strong way to have this if you are from the postsoviet sphere, is playing multi-hour wonderful Soviet broadcasting on your television, and imagine it is winter 1978, that Pugacheva is brilliant young woman singer (2:51:30), Kobzon doesn’t need a wig, beautiful Valentina Tolkunova (23:00 & 39:00) is still alive and hasn’t died, Lyudmila Senchina (2:29:00) is still alive, etc.

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Dmitry


    Valentina Tolkunova (23:00 & 39:00)
     
    Wrongly located timestamp brackets - 23:00 Senchina, 39:00 beautiful Tolkunova (died long ago now).
    , @Mr. Hack
    @Dmitry


    It’s also especially easier to alienate yourself, because of smart televisions.

    So now you can watch 1970s television like it is a live presentation. Old television is far more relaxing and beautiful, than modern television. But it creates a very alienating sense in you, when you stop watching and suddenly realize you are living decades and political systems years too far into the future. It has the shock in unconscious mind of awakening from a dream.
     
    I've said this before, and you only seem to reaffirm this, that film, TV, old musical representations etc are the closest thing that we'll experience that is like a time machine, especially on these new flat screen 4K TV's. After a somewhat unceremonial Thanksgiving dinner last night, although replete with most of the traditional culinary delights, we lounged on our leather sofas and watched a very good (in my opinion) fantasy type of film entitled "The Game" starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. Have you seen it, what do you think? I find it to be excellent escapism type fare.

    https://youtu.be/dLauqDChQGs
  947. @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    hard reputation from the Youtube, with the gelato
     
    He also claim countries like Syria and Pakistan as a kind of paradise, at least for tourists. But perhaps this is what should be expected from professional tourists.

    It's a sign of expertise in your profession, when you discover most things in life are counter-intuitive, and that you view everything through the glasses of your profession.

    He was finding that Pakistani people give you things for free. It's kind of counter-intuitive things you can expect when you developed professional (in this case professional tourist) knowledge.

    Of course, this doesn't make life in Pakistan anymore easier, but from the purely touristic perspective (which he presents the world using) I don't think he is falsifying his presentations. Similarly, if he has this ultra-enthusiastic and naive personality, then doesn't mean he is falsifying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWeWxl7ruGE.


    strange phenomena, I find my sister is falling into it as well. It is something I expected might happen when I was around 60 or older
     
    It's also especially easier to alienate yourself, because of smart televisions.

    So now you can watch 1970s television like it is a live presentation. Old television is far more relaxing and beautiful, than modern television. But it creates a very alienating sense in you, when you stop watching and suddenly realize you are living decades and political systems years too far into the future. It has the shock in unconscious mind of awakening from a dream.

    Extremely strong way to have this if you are from the postsoviet sphere, is playing multi-hour wonderful Soviet broadcasting on your television, and imagine it is winter 1978, that Pugacheva is brilliant young woman singer (2:51:30), Kobzon doesn't need a wig, beautiful Valentina Tolkunova (23:00 & 39:00) is still alive and hasn't died, Lyudmila Senchina (2:29:00) is still alive, etc.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hm2s9-v1Sg

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Mr. Hack

    Valentina Tolkunova (23:00 & 39:00)

    Wrongly located timestamp brackets – 23:00 Senchina, 39:00 beautiful Tolkunova (died long ago now).

  948. India plans to ban private cryptocurrencies.

    “India to ban private cryptocurrencies and launch official digital currency” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/24/india-to-ban-private-cryptocurrencies-and-launch-official-digital-currency

    This isn’t necessarily a problem for private cryptocurrencies, except that it might mean more people will be sceptical of their cultic marketing claims that they would become some future kind of currency.

    People still play online Poker, and exchange money between each other in zero-sum way, even when nobody believes that online Poker will be a future currency. It will be the same for cyptocurrency.

    Although cryptocurrency relies a little on the cultic marketing about being a “future currency”, to introduce new customers and their fresh money to its gambling pleasures, and increasing new customers is part of what causes the inflation of their value (although it is also movement of existing in and out customers between different brands of “cryptocurrency”, or real cash, which causes the price movements).

    So even if the utopian marketing about “future world currency” is undermined by loss of markets like India, people will still be able to enjoy playing the private cryptocurrency “timing game” between each other according to its price changes.

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @Dmitry

    One of the bigger appeals of crypto (or silver/gold/barter) is to exit any upcoming or potential CBDC system.

    It's exactly because cryptos are illegal, that attracts marginalized groups who live and od business outside the law or formal institutions anyway.

  949. @Dmitry
    India plans to ban private cryptocurrencies.


    "India to ban private cryptocurrencies and launch official digital currency" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/24/india-to-ban-private-cryptocurrencies-and-launch-official-digital-currency

    This isn't necessarily a problem for private cryptocurrencies, except that it might mean more people will be sceptical of their cultic marketing claims that they would become some future kind of currency.

    People still play online Poker, and exchange money between each other in zero-sum way, even when nobody believes that online Poker will be a future currency. It will be the same for cyptocurrency.

    Although cryptocurrency relies a little on the cultic marketing about being a "future currency", to introduce new customers and their fresh money to its gambling pleasures, and increasing new customers is part of what causes the inflation of their value (although it is also movement of existing in and out customers between different brands of "cryptocurrency", or real cash, which causes the price movements).

    So even if the utopian marketing about "future world currency" is undermined by loss of markets like India, people will still be able to enjoy playing the private cryptocurrency "timing game" between each other according to its price changes.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    One of the bigger appeals of crypto (or silver/gold/barter) is to exit any upcoming or potential CBDC system.

    It’s exactly because cryptos are illegal, that attracts marginalized groups who live and od business outside the law or formal institutions anyway.

  950. @Dmitry
    @Coconuts


    hard reputation from the Youtube, with the gelato
     
    He also claim countries like Syria and Pakistan as a kind of paradise, at least for tourists. But perhaps this is what should be expected from professional tourists.

    It's a sign of expertise in your profession, when you discover most things in life are counter-intuitive, and that you view everything through the glasses of your profession.

    He was finding that Pakistani people give you things for free. It's kind of counter-intuitive things you can expect when you developed professional (in this case professional tourist) knowledge.

    Of course, this doesn't make life in Pakistan anymore easier, but from the purely touristic perspective (which he presents the world using) I don't think he is falsifying his presentations. Similarly, if he has this ultra-enthusiastic and naive personality, then doesn't mean he is falsifying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWeWxl7ruGE.


    strange phenomena, I find my sister is falling into it as well. It is something I expected might happen when I was around 60 or older
     
    It's also especially easier to alienate yourself, because of smart televisions.

    So now you can watch 1970s television like it is a live presentation. Old television is far more relaxing and beautiful, than modern television. But it creates a very alienating sense in you, when you stop watching and suddenly realize you are living decades and political systems years too far into the future. It has the shock in unconscious mind of awakening from a dream.

    Extremely strong way to have this if you are from the postsoviet sphere, is playing multi-hour wonderful Soviet broadcasting on your television, and imagine it is winter 1978, that Pugacheva is brilliant young woman singer (2:51:30), Kobzon doesn't need a wig, beautiful Valentina Tolkunova (23:00 & 39:00) is still alive and hasn't died, Lyudmila Senchina (2:29:00) is still alive, etc.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hm2s9-v1Sg

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Mr. Hack

    It’s also especially easier to alienate yourself, because of smart televisions.

    So now you can watch 1970s television like it is a live presentation. Old television is far more relaxing and beautiful, than modern television. But it creates a very alienating sense in you, when you stop watching and suddenly realize you are living decades and political systems years too far into the future. It has the shock in unconscious mind of awakening from a dream.

    I’ve said this before, and you only seem to reaffirm this, that film, TV, old musical representations etc are the closest thing that we’ll experience that is like a time machine, especially on these new flat screen 4K TV’s. After a somewhat unceremonial Thanksgiving dinner last night, although replete with most of the traditional culinary delights, we lounged on our leather sofas and watched a very good (in my opinion) fantasy type of film entitled “The Game” starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. Have you seen it, what do you think? I find it to be excellent escapism type fare.

  951. @songbird
    @Che Guava


    You must know that ‘songbird’ was the nickname of the traitor McCaine while in prison
     
    Actually, I didn't know that.

    I'm only very vaguely aware of the allegations about McCain, when he was a POW. Though, he seemed such a scoundrel that I can easily believe the preponderance of them. Still, I don't know enough about Vietnam to be able to verify their scope. (Some say that the info he gave was so important that it resulted in the end of the bombing campaign of North Vietnam.)

    I think Trump was essentially right when he said being shot down doesn't make one a hero.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Che Guava

    Songbird is, regardless of McCain, a good uname.

    You should however, read his incompetence and treachery.

    The least, when taking off from his carrier, he used afterburners when he wasn’t supposed to.

    He also opened fire on deck of the ship he was based on, IIRC, didn’t kill anyone, but only by good luck of the crew.

    After the Viets rescued him following a crash, he made speeches to his fellow Ps of W on behalf of the Viets.

    If you hadn’t heard of it, I recommend looking it up, others have more details and better descriptions.

  952. @songbird
    @Che Guava

    Been really amazed that they managed to continue on for this long in the US. IMO, it is a wonder of modern logistics and outsourcing. They were still making a profit - just wanted to protect their margin.

    Though the quality and quantity of stuff inside them has definitely fallen off markedly. Twenty years ago, you could get some pretty good stuff inside them. Much less so today.

    Replies: @Che Guava, @Che Guava

    Are they still dollar shops in the U.S.?

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Che Guava


    Are they still dollar shops in the U.S.?
     
    At the moment, I would basically say so.

    I mean that there are stores where like 95% of their stock items can still be bought for $1. Though, not fully certain that there are any where the number remains 100%. "Dollar Tree" is a big chain that maintains a formula like 95% (for the moment, about to change.) I guess some things are still a good deal, but my understanding is that there has been a major contraction this year. Like, I heard in January you could buy like 48 plastic spoons for $1, but it has since become 24.

    And elsewhere the meaning of "dollar" in a store's name has generally been eroded, and other chains with like "Family Dollar" or "Dollar General" seem to have many items that are $5-10 dollars, or more.

    Replies: @Che Guava

  953. AaronB would be delighted to hear how industrial civilization ends: a world war with nuclear MADs to wipe countries off the map, and then several EMP pulses to wipe out the basis of industrial civilization, ensuring that all our descendants will only have a medieval level of technology because of a lack of energy sources to progress further, for eternity.

    The risk of this accumulates over time, instead of occasionally occurring with threats of war. We have crossed a threshold where a large part of global elites are actively planning for a smaller scale in human development, and mutual aggression and threats to annihilation between superpowers become more explicit than ever. That is the threshold where we value death over life.

    The only alternatives to that is either empty techno-affluence, enslavement to a hundred post-modern forces, or meeting the Devil we have created with our technologies – maybe a timely euthanasia will be the best outcome for this world.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    @Yellowface Anon


    maybe a timely euthanasia will be the best outcome for this world.
     
    Things look very grim from a materialist perspective, don't they.

    The less intelligent materialists become techno-utopians, the more intelligent and insightful materialists develop despair.

    The optimism of the techno-utopian strikes anyone with more intelligence and insight as shallow and superficial, that is true.

    But if one still remains stuck in the materialist paradigm, there is no other course but despair. That is why in much of the 20th century, many of the brightest minds of Europe were in state of pessimism and despair.

    They saw the futility and hopelessness of technological civilization - the destruction it was all tending to - but could not see a way out.

    But there is a way out, a way back to hope...

    But that involves finally understanding materialism is a trap, a prison, that it simply isn't true.

    Good luck - I hope you eventually find your way out of the trap of materialism and despair. That you already see through the shallow optimism of the techno-utopians means one dead-end you have already transcended.
    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Yellowface Anon

    The nuclear bomb engineers built a clock showing it was one minute to midnight fifty years ago. If you look at newslinks you will see posted:

    1. in China they made it against the law to act like Kardashians;
    2. corporation profits 3rd quarter 2021 are an ALL TIME RECORD.

    I am sympathetic to billions of people not doing so hot but most people reading this board are able to finagle a decent standard of living from trickle down economics system.

    (I would not make any detail plans on great-grand-children legacy but who has ever done that any where any when?)

  954. Somehow missed comeback of the Anti-Comintern several weeks ago 🙂

    The German navy frigate Bayern docked in Tokyo on Friday, with Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi declaring the first visit by a German warship in two decades to be an important demonstration of the security ties that bind the two nations.

    The Bayern, which left Germany in August and is on a seven-month deployment, conducted exercises in waters off Tokyo on Thursday with vessels and aircraft from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force. The vessel is scheduled to remain in Tokyo until November 12.

    Kishi held talks with General Eberhard Zorn on Friday morning, with Germany’s top military commander stating that the deployment of the Bayern “is part of the demonstration of our Indo-Pacific guidelines.”

    https://www.dw.com/en/german-warship-visits-japan-for-first-time-in-20-years/a-59732267

    • Replies: @songbird
    @sudden death

    Bayern: 138.85 m long,

    Arabs own nine megayachts that are longer. Meanwhile, Russian oligarchs own five. Must be at least 20 with a wider beam. Of course, the Chinese, so far as I know, are too class-conscious to own any that are larger, but it would probably still sink, if rammed by Jack Ma's.

  955. @Yellowface Anon
    AaronB would be delighted to hear how industrial civilization ends: a world war with nuclear MADs to wipe countries off the map, and then several EMP pulses to wipe out the basis of industrial civilization, ensuring that all our descendants will only have a medieval level of technology because of a lack of energy sources to progress further, for eternity.

    The risk of this accumulates over time, instead of occasionally occurring with threats of war. We have crossed a threshold where a large part of global elites are actively planning for a smaller scale in human development, and mutual aggression and threats to annihilation between superpowers become more explicit than ever. That is the threshold where we value death over life.

    The only alternatives to that is either empty techno-affluence, enslavement to a hundred post-modern forces, or meeting the Devil we have created with our technologies - maybe a timely euthanasia will be the best outcome for this world.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Emil Nikola Richard

    maybe a timely euthanasia will be the best outcome for this world.

    Things look very grim from a materialist perspective, don’t they.

    The less intelligent materialists become techno-utopians, the more intelligent and insightful materialists develop despair.

    The optimism of the techno-utopian strikes anyone with more intelligence and insight as shallow and superficial, that is true.

    But if one still remains stuck in the materialist paradigm, there is no other course but despair. That is why in much of the 20th century, many of the brightest minds of Europe were in state of pessimism and despair.

    They saw the futility and hopelessness of technological civilization – the destruction it was all tending to – but could not see a way out.

    But there is a way out, a way back to hope…

    But that involves finally understanding materialism is a trap, a prison, that it simply isn’t true.

    Good luck – I hope you eventually find your way out of the trap of materialism and despair. That you already see through the shallow optimism of the techno-utopians means one dead-end you have already transcended.

  956. @German_reader
    Some news for A123:
    https://twitter.com/Seamus_Malek/status/1463559413348933633

    Replies: @A123

    Iran’s Basij has unveiled a new mobile video game about saving George Floyd from being murdered by police.

    This is 100% consistent with what I have said.

    The Woke Basij supports BLM, as they are both Islamic organizations. It is unsurprising that they created an anti-White “SJW Martyr” game idolizing a violent black man who died of a self inflicted overdose.

    What is next for the Woke Basij? Will they endorse the murder of 6 innocents at a predominantly Christian holiday parade?

    The SJW Islamic attack in Waukesha is very similar to the 2016 Berlin Christmas Market Massacre (1). In both cases, authorities knew that the individual was dangerous. However, nothing was done to protect native citizens because Muslims are a privileged group under SJW dogma.
    ____

    Hopefully, this is changing Europe. Sending Jihad invaders via Belarus to assault the EU border with Poland (and Lithuania) has backfired. There is now momentum towards a “Stay in Mexico” style asylum process.

    BoJo is in serious trouble with his own supporters and may face a “No Confidence” vote. He has embraced the gonzo-phweet Climate Cooling/Warming/Change agenda and had been unable to stem illegal Channel crossings. His gaffes also seem to be getting worse. (2)

    The latest questioning of Mr Johnson’s political fate come after a disastrous speech before the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Monday, in which the Conservative leader quoted Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin to promote his radical green agenda.

    The mainstream media and punditry decided to focus on some of the stranger aspects of the speech, however, including Johnson’s seemingly inexplicable use of a rambling Peppa Pig anecdote.

    The Tories desperately need a more competent leader. Although to give credit where it is due… BoJo is much more lucid than Not-The-President Biden. Apparently, medical staff were not allowed to administer a “cognitive exam” as part of his physical. (3)

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    ______________________

    (1) https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-terror-attack-germany-grapples-with-unanswered-questions-two-years-on/a-46802429

    (2) https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/11/25/boris-in-trouble-tory-mps-make-no-confidence-push-against-pm/

    (3) https://summit.news/2021/11/25/former-obama-doctor-white-house-is-doing-everything-they-can-to-hide-bidens-obvious-cognitive-decline/

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @A123


    Iran’s Basij has unveiled a new mobile video game about saving George Floyd from being murdered by police.
     
    China does similar things, occasionally blasting America for it's hypocritical "racism" or what have you. It's just 100% trolling of America on the part of Iran or China. I guarantee that neither one gives two craps about Floyd or American blacks writ large, but they do enjoy a chance to try to kick America in the nuts.
  957. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @German_reader


    Brantner
     
    Judging from parts of that interview, she seems to be scared of an authoritarian arising in Germany even more so than she dislikes foreign dictators. It's kind of like when US SWPLs are afraid of the everpresent "white supremacists". The ironic part is that a hypothetical German authoritarian would probably be more benign and "liberal" than even some Slavic or Arab dictator. And, of course, she wants US present in Germany because otherwise a real nationalism could arise in Germany and her ideology would go out the window. At least the far left parts of it.

    probably try to purge the army of any suspected right-wingers
     
    Unfortunately, this phenomenon happens not just in Germany. Most armies try to keep their soldiers apolitical, so the right wingers are regarded as "the enemy within". Thankfully not everyone is purged.

    So if the Greens are talking about some post-pacifist foreign policy, that needs to be backed up by something tangible. Are they hoping to rely only on the US military and NATO?

    after all they’ll bring a few million more of them to Germany in coming years.
     

    Is their immigration policy completely crazy or are they talking about some kind of a managed immigration? Of course, even if it's managed according to their ideas, it's still bad. A few million in a few years is just an insanely large number...

    She’s dumb as shit, big mistake to expect anything of substance from her.
     
    She doesn't appear to be an intellectual. What I meant was that people who have done competitive sports are quite driven, which she obviously is, given that she was a candidate for the Chancellor, she might be driven in her current post, too, or at least able to hold her ground, just not in the ways you might like (furthering her own ideology). My point was more that it's a good quality to have for a person, maybe not in this case for Germany.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mitleser

    Are they hoping to rely only on the US military and NATO?

    I think ultimately that’s what it will come down to, I don’t think the next government will in any way be able to really re-build German military power (though they might make some noise in that direction, and do more farcical stuff like sending ships to East Asia, as Sudden Death has mentioned…as if that would impress the Chinese, lol).
    I think there would also be little support among the German public for really building up independent capabilities for credible European defense. tbh much of the German public is infantile and mentally living in a fantasy world, where moralizing and virtue-signaling (like in giving away the entire country to 3rd world immigrants) are the supreme virtues, while defining own interests and defending them with hard power is anathema.

    Is their immigration policy completely crazy or are they talking about some kind of a managed immigration? Of course, even if it’s managed according to their ideas, it’s still bad. A few million in a few years is just an insanely large number…

    Well, millions from outside the EU did come during the late Merkel era, so it’s hardly unprecedented, and for the Greens that was just the beginning. Their position is basically “Let everyone come, don’t deport anybody”. Of course that was already the de facto policy under Merkel, but the next government is set to increase incentives even more, e.g. they intend to make naturalization easier (possible to get it after only five or even three years of residency, and children of anybody who has had legal residency for five years will automatically become German citizens…that means children born to all the “refugees” who have entered since 2014 will get German citizenship, no matter how much of a burden their families are), make holding dual or multiple citizenships the norm, support the NGOs “rescuing” migrants in the Mediterranean, widen family reunification etc., also even more repression against any right-wing dissent and more support from the state for “antiracist” civil society projects. And even the bourgeois money-grubbers from the FDP want 500 000 immigrants a year btw. So I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic. But your question indicates to me that the character of the Greens and what they are about (basically an insane anti-German sect) isn’t widely understood outside of Germany.

    What I meant was that people who have done competitive sports are quite driven

    She’s driven in the sense that she’s a great example for the Dunning-Kruger-effect, as someone who has unfortunately never been told that her opinions are worthless and she’s too stupid for any position of responsibility.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader


    But your question indicates to me that the character of the Greens and what they are about (basically an insane anti-German sect) isn’t widely understood outside of Germany.
     
    Obviously it is known that they are insane and can do damage, it is just a question to what extent they're capable of doing damage once they received executive power. It's obvious they and their voters live in their own heads. It's this typical Western middle class thinking where they will promote woke ideas but will not themselves suffer from them (they will not be living in those diverse neighbors or marry truly diverse, etc, they can have a lesbian or Asian friend but won't have a black or Arab son in law, that sort of thing).

    When you call them anti-German, understand that in their mind "Germanness" is exactly what they're doing, the new German identity. It's crazy and sad.

    If they will want to develop any "post-pacifict" military, it probably won't be a real German military, but some sort of enhanced European forces.

    Those are very large numbers even for Germany's size.

    Btw, back in the old days (and during the Joschka Fischer days) they used to be full of Stasi agents.

    Not that much is known about the new Chancellor's ideas on immigration. He may be a little bit more pragmatic than the Greens. However, if they have already put something in the coalition agreement about accepting all those millions, then it's not good at all.

    Replies: @German_reader

  958. @Yellowface Anon
    AaronB would be delighted to hear how industrial civilization ends: a world war with nuclear MADs to wipe countries off the map, and then several EMP pulses to wipe out the basis of industrial civilization, ensuring that all our descendants will only have a medieval level of technology because of a lack of energy sources to progress further, for eternity.

    The risk of this accumulates over time, instead of occasionally occurring with threats of war. We have crossed a threshold where a large part of global elites are actively planning for a smaller scale in human development, and mutual aggression and threats to annihilation between superpowers become more explicit than ever. That is the threshold where we value death over life.

    The only alternatives to that is either empty techno-affluence, enslavement to a hundred post-modern forces, or meeting the Devil we have created with our technologies - maybe a timely euthanasia will be the best outcome for this world.

    Replies: @AaronB, @Emil Nikola Richard

    The nuclear bomb engineers built a clock showing it was one minute to midnight fifty years ago. If you look at newslinks you will see posted:

    1. in China they made it against the law to act like Kardashians;
    2. corporation profits 3rd quarter 2021 are an ALL TIME RECORD.

    I am sympathetic to billions of people not doing so hot but most people reading this board are able to finagle a decent standard of living from trickle down economics system.

    (I would not make any detail plans on great-grand-children legacy but who has ever done that any where any when?)

  959. • Replies: @sudden death
    @Aedib

    It is certainly possible in practice to replace natgas with biomass for central heating in smaller countries, but the situation about really bigger scale replacement is not very clear yet, there simply might not be enough of that biomass alone if multimillion countries will use it:


    Lithuania serves as an example of achieving energy independence from an import monopoly of expensive natural gas over a short period of time. For long years Lithuania has been paying the highest price in Europe for gas supplied by Gazprom’s monopoly. In Lithuania, the share of district heating generated from biomass increased from 2 percent in 2004 up to 68 percent in 2018. Lithuania has enough resources to have 100 per cent bio-fuel-based heating without causing negative environmental impact.
     
    https://lsta.lt/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/kuras-1024x590.jpg

    https://lsta.lt/en/about-dh-sector/

    Replies: @Aedib

  960. Serious manufacturing giants in Germany should not suffer very much though:

    Among these economic players whose ability to anticipate the situation calls out, the German chemical company BASF (incidentally one of Gazprom’s main European partners) seems to have known since June 2021 Russian plans to reduce the volume of gas. natural available for EU customers in the second half of 2021.

    According to our sources, the German company was aware of the situation and then decided to purchase additional volumes and fully fill its own in-house gas storage facilities with natural gas in Ludwigshafen and Schwarzheide.

    As a result, BASF was able to minimize its potential losses and not being forced to buy natural gas at the current market price, the prices of which have soared. In the context of the known information, it can be assumed that the Russian giant has agreed with other German partners to limit their business volume. In the crosshairs of this suspicion, national champions across the Rhine like E.ON or VNG. Gazprom would have intentionally reduced the volume of natural gas transported, for pressure purposes, and not because of a cyclical situation as claimed by the Russian company.

    As a reminder, Gazprom’s strategy is pushing its end customers to show an interest in the Nord Stream 2 solution, the final validation of which is the subject of intense political negotiations between Moscow and several EU countries, while the sources of already existing alternative supplies (NS1, Yamal in Ukraine, Turkish Stream) are deliberately under-exploited.

    Another sign of the Russian game, Gazprom is the only company which has not reconstituted its gas storage facilities during the summer period when suppliers increase their gas purchases in order to increase their stocks. According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, the gas storage facilities owned by Gazprom are therefore only 18% full.

    https://www.opinion-internationale.com/2021/11/22/energie-les-relais-allemands-de-la-strategie-de-gazprom-pour-faire-flamber-le-gaz_96623.html

    Autotranslation above

    • Replies: @A123
    @sudden death


    Serious manufacturing giants in Germany should not suffer very much though:

    Among these economic players whose ability to anticipate the situation calls out, the German chemical company BASF ... decided to purchase additional volumes and fully fill its own in-house gas storage facilities with natural gas in Ludwigshafen and Schwarzheide.
     

     
    Short-term -- BASF has inventory on-hand.

    Long-term -- Germany's incoming "Traffic Light" coalition is making extreme and highly unrealistic statements: (1)

    The three parties aiming to form the next German government just announced one of the most ambitious transitions away from fossil fuels in the world.

    But there’s a dirty reality to Wednesday’s headline pledges of “ideally” :

        • Ending coal use by 2030,
        • Scrapping combustion engine cars by 2035


    Aligning all government policies with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees — Germany will continue to rely on natural gas and nuclear power for many years. The coalition agreement among the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens lays out the priorities for the next German government, and climate is key.
     
    The highest electricity price in Europe will be driven further upwards by the Green Party. This. Reduced manufacturing activity and job losses seem sure to result from this self inflicted error.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.politico.eu/article/the-catch-with-germanys-green-transition-transformation-coalition/
  961. @Che Guava
    @songbird

    Are they still dollar shops in the U.S.?

    Replies: @songbird

    Are they still dollar shops in the U.S.?

    At the moment, I would basically say so.

    I mean that there are stores where like 95% of their stock items can still be bought for \$1. Though, not fully certain that there are any where the number remains 100%. “Dollar Tree” is a big chain that maintains a formula like 95% (for the moment, about to change.) I guess some things are still a good deal, but my understanding is that there has been a major contraction this year. Like, I heard in January you could buy like 48 plastic spoons for \$1, but it has since become 24.

    And elsewhere the meaning of “dollar” in a store’s name has generally been eroded, and other chains with like “Family Dollar” or “Dollar General” seem to have many items that are \$5-10 dollars, or more.

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    @songbird

    Thank you.

    I never buy plastic spoons, wash them. Sometimes plastic cups for fireworks or flower viewing. Since those things don't exist any more, and if only a few people, I would take glasses wrapped in paper, I didn't really notice.

    You are correct on reduced volumes or numbers on a few items, but I cannot recall exactly which I have noticed right now.

  962. @A123
    @German_reader


    Iran's Basij has unveiled a new mobile video game about saving George Floyd from being murdered by police.
     
    This is 100% consistent with what I have said.

    The Woke Basij supports BLM, as they are both Islamic organizations. It is unsurprising that they created an anti-White "SJW Martyr" game idolizing a violent black man who died of a self inflicted overdose.

    What is next for the Woke Basij? Will they endorse the murder of 6 innocents at a predominantly Christian holiday parade?

    The SJW Islamic attack in Waukesha is very similar to the 2016 Berlin Christmas Market Massacre (1). In both cases, authorities knew that the individual was dangerous. However, nothing was done to protect native citizens because Muslims are a privileged group under SJW dogma.
    ____

    Hopefully, this is changing Europe. Sending Jihad invaders via Belarus to assault the EU border with Poland (and Lithuania) has backfired. There is now momentum towards a "Stay in Mexico" style asylum process.

    BoJo is in serious trouble with his own supporters and may face a "No Confidence" vote. He has embraced the gonzo-phweet Climate Cooling/Warming/Change agenda and had been unable to stem illegal Channel crossings. His gaffes also seem to be getting worse. (2)


    The latest questioning of Mr Johnson’s political fate come after a disastrous speech before the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Monday, in which the Conservative leader quoted Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin to promote his radical green agenda.

    The mainstream media and punditry decided to focus on some of the stranger aspects of the speech, however, including Johnson’s seemingly inexplicable use of a rambling Peppa Pig anecdote.
     

    The Tories desperately need a more competent leader. Although to give credit where it is due... BoJo is much more lucid than Not-The-President Biden. Apparently, medical staff were not allowed to administer a "cognitive exam" as part of his physical. (3)

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    ______________________

    (1) https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-terror-attack-germany-grapples-with-unanswered-questions-two-years-on/a-46802429

    (2) https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/11/25/boris-in-trouble-tory-mps-make-no-confidence-push-against-pm/

    (3) https://summit.news/2021/11/25/former-obama-doctor-white-house-is-doing-everything-they-can-to-hide-bidens-obvious-cognitive-decline/

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    Iran’s Basij has unveiled a new mobile video game about saving George Floyd from being murdered by police.

    China does similar things, occasionally blasting America for it’s hypocritical “racism” or what have you. It’s just 100% trolling of America on the part of Iran or China. I guarantee that neither one gives two craps about Floyd or American blacks writ large, but they do enjoy a chance to try to kick America in the nuts.

    • Agree: Yellowface Anon
  963. @Aedib
    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Why-Is-Ukraine-Ignoring-Its-Massive-Bioenergy-Potential.html

    Interesting.

    Replies: @sudden death

    It is certainly possible in practice to replace natgas with biomass for central heating in smaller countries, but the situation about really bigger scale replacement is not very clear yet, there simply might not be enough of that biomass alone if multimillion countries will use it:

    Lithuania serves as an example of achieving energy independence from an import monopoly of expensive natural gas over a short period of time. For long years Lithuania has been paying the highest price in Europe for gas supplied by Gazprom’s monopoly. In Lithuania, the share of district heating generated from biomass increased from 2 percent in 2004 up to 68 percent in 2018. Lithuania has enough resources to have 100 per cent bio-fuel-based heating without causing negative environmental impact.

    https://lsta.lt/en/about-dh-sector/

    • Agree: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Aedib
    @sudden death

    The problem of woodchips is that combustion is not very clean but this is a very minor nuisance for a country like Ukraine. It can be an interesting solution to down gas demand to the “evil Muscovite Mongols” and can alleviate the budget tightness.
    Let greens from Western Europe worry about combustion cleanness. For Ukraine is much more pressing to generate heat & power. It is a very interesting alternative to coal.

  964. @sudden death
    Serious manufacturing giants in Germany should not suffer very much though:

    Among these economic players whose ability to anticipate the situation calls out, the German chemical company BASF (incidentally one of Gazprom's main European partners) seems to have known since June 2021 Russian plans to reduce the volume of gas. natural available for EU customers in the second half of 2021.

    According to our sources, the German company was aware of the situation and then decided to purchase additional volumes and fully fill its own in-house gas storage facilities with natural gas in Ludwigshafen and Schwarzheide.

    As a result, BASF was able to minimize its potential losses and not being forced to buy natural gas at the current market price, the prices of which have soared. In the context of the known information, it can be assumed that the Russian giant has agreed with other German partners to limit their business volume. In the crosshairs of this suspicion, national champions across the Rhine like E.ON or VNG. Gazprom would have intentionally reduced the volume of natural gas transported, for pressure purposes, and not because of a cyclical situation as claimed by the Russian company.

    As a reminder, Gazprom's strategy is pushing its end customers to show an interest in the Nord Stream 2 solution, the final validation of which is the subject of intense political negotiations between Moscow and several EU countries, while the sources of already existing alternative supplies (NS1, Yamal in Ukraine, Turkish Stream) are deliberately under-exploited.

    Another sign of the Russian game, Gazprom is the only company which has not reconstituted its gas storage facilities during the summer period when suppliers increase their gas purchases in order to increase their stocks. According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, the gas storage facilities owned by Gazprom are therefore only 18% full.
     

    https://www.opinion-internationale.com/2021/11/22/energie-les-relais-allemands-de-la-strategie-de-gazprom-pour-faire-flamber-le-gaz_96623.html

    Autotranslation above

    Replies: @A123

    Serious manufacturing giants in Germany should not suffer very much though:

    Among these economic players whose ability to anticipate the situation calls out, the German chemical company BASF … decided to purchase additional volumes and fully fill its own in-house gas storage facilities with natural gas in Ludwigshafen and Schwarzheide.

    Short-term — BASF has inventory on-hand.

    Long-term — Germany’s incoming “Traffic Light” coalition is making extreme and highly unrealistic statements: (1)

    The three parties aiming to form the next German government just announced one of the most ambitious transitions away from fossil fuels in the world.

    But there’s a dirty reality to Wednesday’s headline pledges of “ideally” :

        • Ending coal use by 2030,
        • Scrapping combustion engine cars by 2035

    Aligning all government policies with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees — Germany will continue to rely on natural gas and nuclear power for many years. The coalition agreement among the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens lays out the priorities for the next German government, and climate is key.

    The highest electricity price in Europe will be driven further upwards by the Green Party. This. Reduced manufacturing activity and job losses seem sure to result from this self inflicted error.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.politico.eu/article/the-catch-with-germanys-green-transition-transformation-coalition/

  965. @German_reader
    @LatW


    Are they hoping to rely only on the US military and NATO?
     
    I think ultimately that's what it will come down to, I don't think the next government will in any way be able to really re-build German military power (though they might make some noise in that direction, and do more farcical stuff like sending ships to East Asia, as Sudden Death has mentioned...as if that would impress the Chinese, lol).
    I think there would also be little support among the German public for really building up independent capabilities for credible European defense. tbh much of the German public is infantile and mentally living in a fantasy world, where moralizing and virtue-signaling (like in giving away the entire country to 3rd world immigrants) are the supreme virtues, while defining own interests and defending them with hard power is anathema.

    Is their immigration policy completely crazy or are they talking about some kind of a managed immigration? Of course, even if it’s managed according to their ideas, it’s still bad. A few million in a few years is just an insanely large number…
     
    Well, millions from outside the EU did come during the late Merkel era, so it's hardly unprecedented, and for the Greens that was just the beginning. Their position is basically "Let everyone come, don't deport anybody". Of course that was already the de facto policy under Merkel, but the next government is set to increase incentives even more, e.g. they intend to make naturalization easier (possible to get it after only five or even three years of residency, and children of anybody who has had legal residency for five years will automatically become German citizens...that means children born to all the "refugees" who have entered since 2014 will get German citizenship, no matter how much of a burden their families are), make holding dual or multiple citizenships the norm, support the NGOs "rescuing" migrants in the Mediterranean, widen family reunification etc., also even more repression against any right-wing dissent and more support from the state for "antiracist" civil society projects. And even the bourgeois money-grubbers from the FDP want 500 000 immigrants a year btw. So I don't think I'm being hyperbolic. But your question indicates to me that the character of the Greens and what they are about (basically an insane anti-German sect) isn't widely understood outside of Germany.

    What I meant was that people who have done competitive sports are quite driven
     

    She's driven in the sense that she's a great example for the Dunning-Kruger-effect, as someone who has unfortunately never been told that her opinions are worthless and she's too stupid for any position of responsibility.

    Replies: @LatW

    But your question indicates to me that the character of the Greens and what they are about (basically an insane anti-German sect) isn’t widely understood outside of Germany.

    Obviously it is known that they are insane and can do damage, it is just a question to what extent they’re capable of doing damage once they received executive power. It’s obvious they and their voters live in their own heads. It’s this typical Western middle class thinking where they will promote woke ideas but will not themselves suffer from them (they will not be living in those diverse neighbors or marry truly diverse, etc, they can have a lesbian or Asian friend but won’t have a black or Arab son in law, that sort of thing).

    When you call them anti-German, understand that in their mind “Germanness” is exactly what they’re doing, the new German identity. It’s crazy and sad.

    If they will want to develop any “post-pacifict” military, it probably won’t be a real German military, but some sort of enhanced European forces.

    Those are very large numbers even for Germany’s size.

    Btw, back in the old days (and during the Joschka Fischer days) they used to be full of Stasi agents.

    Not that much is known about the new Chancellor’s ideas on immigration. He may be a little bit more pragmatic than the Greens. However, if they have already put something in the coalition agreement about accepting all those millions, then it’s not good at all.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    If they will want to develop any “post-pacifict” military, it probably won’t be a real German military
     
    I looked up the coalition treaty of SPD, Greens and FDP, to see for myself what they're saying about the Bundeswehr:
    https://www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag/Koalitionsvertrag_2021-2025.pdf
    It's on p. 148-150. It's mostly just superficial waffle, the only really concrete things I could take away from it is that they intend to decide on a replacement for the Tornado fighter aircraft, and to acquire armed drones for the Bundeswehr. There's also some vague stuff about making military service more attractive, but no real proposals or targets at all.


    Btw, back in the old days (and during the Joschka Fischer days) they used to be full of Stasi agents.
     
    I don't know about Stasi agents (definitely possible though), but quite a few from the founding generation were indeed active in weird Maoist and other far left sects during the 1970s. The most egregious case is probably Joscha Schmierer, head of the Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland, who made a friendly visit to the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s. He got a nice job in the foreign office under Fischer and is probably drawing a handsome pension for it.
    Of course that's ancient history in a way, but still kind of telling.

    Replies: @songbird, @LatW, @LatW

  966. GR has made me really excited about blackouts.

    What is it, like 39 countries connected to the same grid? And when it goes down, what will happen? Most cell towers will go down immediately. Followed by some that will stay on for like two hours. Anyone with a Tesla will be fucked. In the Alps, they will close all the tunnels. The autobahn, which typically has no breakdown lanes will become completely clogged, as people flee their cars.

    I have heard that even cash won’t work, as stores work on some central system connected by the internet to verify prices.

    Two-thirds don’t have food for more than one week, with half of those only having enough for three or four days. If you are above the sixth floor in an apartment, the water will stop. Indeed, the sewer will also stop, and the migrants will be drowning in their own waste, without heat or food, as the new bioweapon is released. They will go on the warpath, almost instantly, magnifying their low status.

    And the ideological villainization of nuclear means that there are nobody is on the nuclear career track. They could not turn on a dime, even if they wanted to.

    And Poland is more than doubling the size of its military, some say to 250,000, others to 300,000. It could walk in straight to Brussels, especially with the cooperation of police instituting local lockdowns. And if the Swiss, with their supplies, call up all their males and march East.

    Together, they might give a new meaning to the term “blackout.”

    • Replies: @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Will Poland do that instead of staying put?

    Anyway, I was thinking of attacks on electric grids in a war and concluded that it wouldn't be recoverable without massive external aid. They will go straight from electricity to animal power. It feels like the Morgenthau Plan again.

    Replies: @songbird

  967. @sudden death
    @Aedib

    It is certainly possible in practice to replace natgas with biomass for central heating in smaller countries, but the situation about really bigger scale replacement is not very clear yet, there simply might not be enough of that biomass alone if multimillion countries will use it:


    Lithuania serves as an example of achieving energy independence from an import monopoly of expensive natural gas over a short period of time. For long years Lithuania has been paying the highest price in Europe for gas supplied by Gazprom’s monopoly. In Lithuania, the share of district heating generated from biomass increased from 2 percent in 2004 up to 68 percent in 2018. Lithuania has enough resources to have 100 per cent bio-fuel-based heating without causing negative environmental impact.
     
    https://lsta.lt/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/kuras-1024x590.jpg

    https://lsta.lt/en/about-dh-sector/

    Replies: @Aedib

    The problem of woodchips is that combustion is not very clean but this is a very minor nuisance for a country like Ukraine. It can be an interesting solution to down gas demand to the “evil Muscovite Mongols” and can alleviate the budget tightness.
    Let greens from Western Europe worry about combustion cleanness. For Ukraine is much more pressing to generate heat & power. It is a very interesting alternative to coal.

  968. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @German_reader


    But your question indicates to me that the character of the Greens and what they are about (basically an insane anti-German sect) isn’t widely understood outside of Germany.
     
    Obviously it is known that they are insane and can do damage, it is just a question to what extent they're capable of doing damage once they received executive power. It's obvious they and their voters live in their own heads. It's this typical Western middle class thinking where they will promote woke ideas but will not themselves suffer from them (they will not be living in those diverse neighbors or marry truly diverse, etc, they can have a lesbian or Asian friend but won't have a black or Arab son in law, that sort of thing).

    When you call them anti-German, understand that in their mind "Germanness" is exactly what they're doing, the new German identity. It's crazy and sad.

    If they will want to develop any "post-pacifict" military, it probably won't be a real German military, but some sort of enhanced European forces.

    Those are very large numbers even for Germany's size.

    Btw, back in the old days (and during the Joschka Fischer days) they used to be full of Stasi agents.

    Not that much is known about the new Chancellor's ideas on immigration. He may be a little bit more pragmatic than the Greens. However, if they have already put something in the coalition agreement about accepting all those millions, then it's not good at all.

    Replies: @German_reader

    If they will want to develop any “post-pacifict” military, it probably won’t be a real German military

    I looked up the coalition treaty of SPD, Greens and FDP, to see for myself what they’re saying about the Bundeswehr:
    https://www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag/Koalitionsvertrag_2021-2025.pdf
    It’s on p. 148-150. It’s mostly just superficial waffle, the only really concrete things I could take away from it is that they intend to decide on a replacement for the Tornado fighter aircraft, and to acquire armed drones for the Bundeswehr. There’s also some vague stuff about making military service more attractive, but no real proposals or targets at all.

    Btw, back in the old days (and during the Joschka Fischer days) they used to be full of Stasi agents.

    I don’t know about Stasi agents (definitely possible though), but quite a few from the founding generation were indeed active in weird Maoist and other far left sects during the 1970s. The most egregious case is probably Joscha Schmierer, head of the Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland, who made a friendly visit to the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s. He got a nice job in the foreign office under Fischer and is probably drawing a handsome pension for it.
    Of course that’s ancient history in a way, but still kind of telling.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader

    Always thought that the Stasi were more like working-class people, and for the most part not very ideologically motivated.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @LatW
    @German_reader


    There’s also some vague stuff about making military service more attractive, but no real proposals or targets at all.
     
    Well, at least they mentioned that a reserve is important. Very little indeed, barely two pages. Clearly they're not very interested in it at all.



    Nothing about the actual troops but a whole sentence about "Extremistinnen" (it's funny how they separate the genders and put female first, at least they're not using some gender neutral term, lol). So gefährliche diese Extremistinnen sind.. :)

    made a friendly visit to the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s
     
    Grotesque.

    Btw, it's good that they're planning to build 400K new apartments. I guess those will be needed if they want to import those 500K "refugees". (sarc)
    , @LatW
    @German_reader


    the coalition treaty
     
    So, German_reader, what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?

    Replies: @LatW, @German_reader, @songbird

  969. @sudden death
    Somehow missed comeback of the Anti-Comintern several weeks ago :)

    The German navy frigate Bayern docked in Tokyo on Friday, with Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi declaring the first visit by a German warship in two decades to be an important demonstration of the security ties that bind the two nations.

    The Bayern, which left Germany in August and is on a seven-month deployment, conducted exercises in waters off Tokyo on Thursday with vessels and aircraft from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force. The vessel is scheduled to remain in Tokyo until November 12.

    Kishi held talks with General Eberhard Zorn on Friday morning, with Germany's top military commander stating that the deployment of the Bayern "is part of the demonstration of our Indo-Pacific guidelines."
     
    https://www.dw.com/en/german-warship-visits-japan-for-first-time-in-20-years/a-59732267

    Replies: @songbird

    Bayern: 138.85 m long,

    Arabs own nine megayachts that are longer. Meanwhile, Russian oligarchs own five. Must be at least 20 with a wider beam. Of course, the Chinese, so far as I know, are too class-conscious to own any that are larger, but it would probably still sink, if rammed by Jack Ma’s.

  970. @German_reader
    @LatW


    If they will want to develop any “post-pacifict” military, it probably won’t be a real German military
     
    I looked up the coalition treaty of SPD, Greens and FDP, to see for myself what they're saying about the Bundeswehr:
    https://www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag/Koalitionsvertrag_2021-2025.pdf
    It's on p. 148-150. It's mostly just superficial waffle, the only really concrete things I could take away from it is that they intend to decide on a replacement for the Tornado fighter aircraft, and to acquire armed drones for the Bundeswehr. There's also some vague stuff about making military service more attractive, but no real proposals or targets at all.


    Btw, back in the old days (and during the Joschka Fischer days) they used to be full of Stasi agents.
     
    I don't know about Stasi agents (definitely possible though), but quite a few from the founding generation were indeed active in weird Maoist and other far left sects during the 1970s. The most egregious case is probably Joscha Schmierer, head of the Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland, who made a friendly visit to the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s. He got a nice job in the foreign office under Fischer and is probably drawing a handsome pension for it.
    Of course that's ancient history in a way, but still kind of telling.

    Replies: @songbird, @LatW, @LatW

    Always thought that the Stasi were more like working-class people, and for the most part not very ideologically motivated.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @songbird

    I doubt that tbh. I know little about the issue, but even Germany's federal centre for political education (which nowadays also publishes crt stuff and the like) estimates there were 3000 to 3500 West German spies for the DDR in the 1980s, about two thirds of them acting for ideological reasons:
    https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/deutsche-geschichte/stasi/222253/spionage
    And generally there was certainly a lot of Stasi infiltration in West Germany. There was even direct influence on West German politics on some occasions. In 1972 CDU leader Rainer Barzel almost succeeded in toppling Brandt and becoming chancellor, but he didn't get enough votes, because the Stasi had bribed two Christian Democrat members of the Bundestag.
    Probably also lots of other strange stuff we'll never know of.

    Replies: @songbird

  971. Paris’ fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral risks resembling a “politically correct Disneyland” under controversial plans for its renovation seen by the Daily Telegraph.

    Critics have warned that the world-famous cathedral will be turned into an “experimental showroom” under plans to dramatically change the inside of the medieval building.

    Under the proposed changes, confessional boxes, altars and classical sculptures will be replaced with modern art murals, and new sound and light effects to create “emotional spaces”.

    There will be themed chapels on a “discovery trail”, with an emphasis on Africa and Asia, while quotes from the Bible will be projected onto chapel walls in various languages, including Mandarin.

    The final chapel on the trail will have a strong environmental emphasis.

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/church-wreckovators-plan-notre-dame-de-paris-attack/

    Reminds me, as a young wiseacre, on a tour of a nuclear power plant, I once stuck my posterior inside the cutout for a speaker to mute it, since I thought the dumb, loud voice was a profanation.

    But maybe it won’t come to pass as the archbishop has sent a resignation letter to the Pope, due to a separate scandal.

  972. @German_reader
    @LatW


    If they will want to develop any “post-pacifict” military, it probably won’t be a real German military
     
    I looked up the coalition treaty of SPD, Greens and FDP, to see for myself what they're saying about the Bundeswehr:
    https://www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag/Koalitionsvertrag_2021-2025.pdf
    It's on p. 148-150. It's mostly just superficial waffle, the only really concrete things I could take away from it is that they intend to decide on a replacement for the Tornado fighter aircraft, and to acquire armed drones for the Bundeswehr. There's also some vague stuff about making military service more attractive, but no real proposals or targets at all.


    Btw, back in the old days (and during the Joschka Fischer days) they used to be full of Stasi agents.
     
    I don't know about Stasi agents (definitely possible though), but quite a few from the founding generation were indeed active in weird Maoist and other far left sects during the 1970s. The most egregious case is probably Joscha Schmierer, head of the Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland, who made a friendly visit to the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s. He got a nice job in the foreign office under Fischer and is probably drawing a handsome pension for it.
    Of course that's ancient history in a way, but still kind of telling.

    Replies: @songbird, @LatW, @LatW

    There’s also some vague stuff about making military service more attractive, but no real proposals or targets at all.

    Well, at least they mentioned that a reserve is important. Very little indeed, barely two pages. Clearly they’re not very interested in it at all.

    [MORE]

    Nothing about the actual troops but a whole sentence about “Extremistinnen” (it’s funny how they separate the genders and put female first, at least they’re not using some gender neutral term, lol). So gefährliche diese Extremistinnen sind.. 🙂

    made a friendly visit to the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s

    Grotesque.

    Btw, it’s good that they’re planning to build 400K new apartments. I guess those will be needed if they want to import those 500K “refugees”. (sarc)

  973. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    @German_reader

    Always thought that the Stasi were more like working-class people, and for the most part not very ideologically motivated.

    Replies: @German_reader

    I doubt that tbh. I know little about the issue, but even Germany’s federal centre for political education (which nowadays also publishes crt stuff and the like) estimates there were 3000 to 3500 West German spies for the DDR in the 1980s, about two thirds of them acting for ideological reasons:
    https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/deutsche-geschichte/stasi/222253/spionage
    And generally there was certainly a lot of Stasi infiltration in West Germany. There was even direct influence on West German politics on some occasions. In 1972 CDU leader Rainer Barzel almost succeeded in toppling Brandt and becoming chancellor, but he didn’t get enough votes, because the Stasi had bribed two Christian Democrat members of the Bundestag.
    Probably also lots of other strange stuff we’ll never know of.

    • Thanks: songbird
    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader


    estimates there were 3000 to 3500 West German spies for the DDR in the 1980s, about two thirds of them acting for ideological reasons:
     
    Quite a different category? Or maybe we are defining the term differently. I was thinking "Stasi agent" in the sense of "FBI agent", meaning something like "career officer." And I was thinking of East Germany as a field. Maybe, they applied ideological tests to foreign agents? I did once read a book about the Stasi, but afraid it was many years ago, and I'm about the opposite of an eidetic, so I won't claim authority. (Don't quote me, but I think most recruits came from Hauptschulen)

    It was certainly an interesting system, and it is a shame that so many of the records were burned.

    I wonder whether they may have accidentally increased the TFR of any intellectuals by preventing their kids from going to university. But I suppose the general system was a bigger drag.

    Interestingly, there seem to be a lot of single mothers on benefits in East Germany. (Though I believe some of these are technically not single mothers in reality). I suppose it must have started even before reunification. If I am not mistaken East Germany has higher TFR, even though it has a older average age. (but the difference is in single mothers)

    Replies: @German_reader

  974. @German_reader
    @songbird

    I doubt that tbh. I know little about the issue, but even Germany's federal centre for political education (which nowadays also publishes crt stuff and the like) estimates there were 3000 to 3500 West German spies for the DDR in the 1980s, about two thirds of them acting for ideological reasons:
    https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/deutsche-geschichte/stasi/222253/spionage
    And generally there was certainly a lot of Stasi infiltration in West Germany. There was even direct influence on West German politics on some occasions. In 1972 CDU leader Rainer Barzel almost succeeded in toppling Brandt and becoming chancellor, but he didn't get enough votes, because the Stasi had bribed two Christian Democrat members of the Bundestag.
    Probably also lots of other strange stuff we'll never know of.

    Replies: @songbird

    estimates there were 3000 to 3500 West German spies for the DDR in the 1980s, about two thirds of them acting for ideological reasons:

    Quite a different category? Or maybe we are defining the term differently. I was thinking “Stasi agent” in the sense of “FBI agent”, meaning something like “career officer.” And I was thinking of East Germany as a field. Maybe, they applied ideological tests to foreign agents? I did once read a book about the Stasi, but afraid it was many years ago, and I’m about the opposite of an eidetic, so I won’t claim authority. (Don’t quote me, but I think most recruits came from Hauptschulen)

    It was certainly an interesting system, and it is a shame that so many of the records were burned.

    I wonder whether they may have accidentally increased the TFR of any intellectuals by preventing their kids from going to university. But I suppose the general system was a bigger drag.

    Interestingly, there seem to be a lot of single mothers on benefits in East Germany. (Though I believe some of these are technically not single mothers in reality). I suppose it must have started even before reunification. If I am not mistaken East Germany has higher TFR, even though it has a older average age. (but the difference is in single mothers)

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @songbird


    I was thinking “Stasi agent” in the sense of “FBI agent”, meaning something like “career officer.”
     
    Sorry, I misunderstood. I don't really know much about the social origins of Stasi officers tbh.

    Interestingly, there seem to be a lot of single mothers on benefits in East Germany.
     
    Communism destroys bourgeois norms, and East Germany also suffered substantial brain drain both before 1961 and after reunification, so those left behind are even more proletarianized.
  975. BTW, I wonder how much organizational leakage one could prevent with physiognomy or genetic tests.

    Cutoffs for genetic distance likely would have prevented a lot of big leaks.

    The Stasi records were probably a treasure trove of HBD.

  976. @German_reader
    @LatW


    If they will want to develop any “post-pacifict” military, it probably won’t be a real German military
     
    I looked up the coalition treaty of SPD, Greens and FDP, to see for myself what they're saying about the Bundeswehr:
    https://www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag/Koalitionsvertrag_2021-2025.pdf
    It's on p. 148-150. It's mostly just superficial waffle, the only really concrete things I could take away from it is that they intend to decide on a replacement for the Tornado fighter aircraft, and to acquire armed drones for the Bundeswehr. There's also some vague stuff about making military service more attractive, but no real proposals or targets at all.


    Btw, back in the old days (and during the Joschka Fischer days) they used to be full of Stasi agents.
     
    I don't know about Stasi agents (definitely possible though), but quite a few from the founding generation were indeed active in weird Maoist and other far left sects during the 1970s. The most egregious case is probably Joscha Schmierer, head of the Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland, who made a friendly visit to the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s. He got a nice job in the foreign office under Fischer and is probably drawing a handsome pension for it.
    Of course that's ancient history in a way, but still kind of telling.

    Replies: @songbird, @LatW, @LatW

    the coalition treaty

    So, German_reader, what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?

    • Replies: @LatW
    @LatW

    And another interesting proposal -- to open visa free travel to Russians under 25. Not sure if that would be just Germany or all of the EU. Probably just Germany.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @German_reader
    @LatW


    what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?
     
    I'm opposed to both. Might seem puritanical, but it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don't think it should be legalized.
    I also don't think youths should be allowed to vote, if anything the voting age should be raised to 25 or so (though the bigger problem in Germany is the huge cohorts of pensioners and their voting behaviour...SPD only won the election, because they gained a lot of support among voters over 60).

    Don't agree with all the pro-LBGTQ+ stuff either. They even want to look into making surrogacy legal; also plans for changing one's legal gender easier (apparently without any stringent evaluation, based just on stated self-perception), with punishments for anybody revealing the original gender...and health insurance companies (at least the public ones, there's a two-tiered system in Germany) have to pay fully for transitioning. Funnily enough they also want to look into banning conversion therapies (attempts to turn homos into heteros) even for adults. So potentially you could end up with a situation, where public health insurance companies have to pay for radical, irreversible surgeries, maybe even on youths, based just on claims about "real" gender identity which aren't allowed to be questioned...while any attempts to change homosexual orientation, even when requested by adults, could be a criminal offense. Totally logical...
    And of course homos mustn't be banned from donating blood either.

    to open visa free travel to Russians under 25. Not sure if that would be just Germany or all of the EU.
     
    I don't have much of an opinion on that, though I find it a bit weird, given that Russian intelligence probably committed a murder in Berlin in 2019 (not that I have any sympathy for the victim who was some dodgy Caucasus type, possibly an Islamist, but still, if anything, such incidents would call for somewhat more stringent travel controls).
    lol though at the "under 25" part, I guess they think youths are so impressionable they'll be convinced by the superiority of Germany's wonderful system and want to re-create it in Russia.

    Replies: @LatW, @songbird, @Dmitry

    , @songbird
    @LatW


    reducing the voting age to 16
     
    Wonder whether this has been a serious proposal anywhere that there isn't a massive migrant youth cohort.
  977. @LatW
    @German_reader


    the coalition treaty
     
    So, German_reader, what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?

    Replies: @LatW, @German_reader, @songbird

    And another interesting proposal — to open visa free travel to Russians under 25. Not sure if that would be just Germany or all of the EU. Probably just Germany.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @LatW

    It's sounds like a nice policy, that could stop punishing citizens, for the relations between their stupid governments.

    Although the first thing I think, is that Germany would be flooded with more prostitutes from Russia, that would work without paperwork in Germany as a kind high income supplement. As a result, they will be checking everyone more in the airport, and you could have a more stressful situation for Russian tourists. Currently, the Schengen visa is already simple enough.

    Even with the strict visa situation with USA. I heard from some who had stayed in Miami, and he said in the vacations a surprising is to see so many young woman compatriots, who are "tourists", who seemed to be obviously not the relevant socioeconomic class to be living in Miami.

    So even with the tourist visa, Florida is being flooded with prostitutes, who come for a few months as "tourists" for the high level of profits there.

    And visa-free between countries with such different income levels, will make this even more streamlined. Visa-free is more simply "yes" policy choice between countries with similar income levels. That is, for Germany and Japan to have visa-free between each other. Or for USA and Canada to have visa-free between each other.

    Replies: @LatW, @RadicalCenter

  978. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @German_reader


    the coalition treaty
     
    So, German_reader, what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?

    Replies: @LatW, @German_reader, @songbird

    what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?

    I’m opposed to both. Might seem puritanical, but it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don’t think it should be legalized.
    I also don’t think youths should be allowed to vote, if anything the voting age should be raised to 25 or so (though the bigger problem in Germany is the huge cohorts of pensioners and their voting behaviour…SPD only won the election, because they gained a lot of support among voters over 60).

    Don’t agree with all the pro-LBGTQ+ stuff either. They even want to look into making surrogacy legal; also plans for changing one’s legal gender easier (apparently without any stringent evaluation, based just on stated self-perception), with punishments for anybody revealing the original gender…and health insurance companies (at least the public ones, there’s a two-tiered system in Germany) have to pay fully for transitioning. Funnily enough they also want to look into banning conversion therapies (attempts to turn homos into heteros) even for adults. So potentially you could end up with a situation, where public health insurance companies have to pay for radical, irreversible surgeries, maybe even on youths, based just on claims about “real” gender identity which aren’t allowed to be questioned…while any attempts to change homosexual orientation, even when requested by adults, could be a criminal offense. Totally logical…
    And of course homos mustn’t be banned from donating blood either.

    to open visa free travel to Russians under 25. Not sure if that would be just Germany or all of the EU.

    I don’t have much of an opinion on that, though I find it a bit weird, given that Russian intelligence probably committed a murder in Berlin in 2019 (not that I have any sympathy for the victim who was some dodgy Caucasus type, possibly an Islamist, but still, if anything, such incidents would call for somewhat more stringent travel controls).
    lol though at the “under 25” part, I guess they think youths are so impressionable they’ll be convinced by the superiority of Germany’s wonderful system and want to re-create it in Russia.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader


    I’m opposed to both. Might seem puritanical, but it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don’t think it should be legalized.
     
    It's not puritanical at all. I agree, it's just caution - why be lax about something when you don't have to be? Once you allow for something like that, you won't be able to bring it back to normalcy. Cannabis is already used casually without much in terms of legal consequences, but you're right that it has a strong effect on one's psyche, it also makes one lazy and careless. For medical purposes, if there's a cancer patient that might benefit from it, that's one thing, but that's not who they had in mind when they proposed this. It was meant to increase the general laxity. On the West coast US where it was recently legalized, nothing bad has really happened, but Americans have more space and they are more atomized, plus they are already on all kinds of prescription drugs, so probably not the best example to draw from for Central Europeans. Not sure if the Dutch are the best example here either.

    Also, don't you think it's kind of odd to put an issue like cannabis so high on the agenda, almost as high as energy, digitalization, Covid, etc., especially during a time when there is so much uncertainty in the world and there are more pressing issues. Seems like a pretty trivial issue that they are trying to advance for pseudo-ideological reasons.


    I also don’t think youths should be allowed to vote, if anything the voting age should be raised to 25 or so (though the bigger problem in Germany is the huge cohorts of pensioners and their voting behaviour…SPD only won the election, because they gained a lot of support among voters over 60).
     
    The problem today is that the youth matures very slowly. Even by 25 not everyone is mature. But it's also true that the elderly cohort of voters is getting a little oppressive, and there is a lot at stake for the young which they don't get to have a say over. Then again, why lower it by two years from 18 which is quite young to 16 which is just an adolescent? Clearly, their ideology is all about empowering the children and taking away authority from the parents, but this almost reeks a bit of all that lowering of the age of consent stuff.


    They even want to look into making surrogacy legal
     
    They should pause on that. I mean, it's clear where it's going... to enable middle age faggots to play daddy. Informal surrogacy to help out a female friend or sister.... maybe. But that's not what the intention is. The intention here is to create a kind of a semi-anonymous conveyor system for that. It was brought up in Lettland some 15 years ago and immediately shut down without further discussion. German (or Lettisch) women should not be vessels for that. What would end up happening is probably foreign women would mostly sign up for it. In general, it just devalues the whole idea of motherhood and there have been quite a few attacks on motherhood lately.

    also plans for changing one’s legal gender easier (apparently without any stringent evaluation, based just on stated self-perception)
     
    Yes, they will now have the Selbstbestimmungsgesetz, the self-determination law. Imagine, voting at 16 and a self-determination law. Wow. I wonder how that's going to end.

    and health insurance companies (at least the public ones, there’s a two-tiered system in Germany) have to pay fully for transitioning.
     

    Going to be a bit pricey, no? I'm sure someone's going to make money off of that. The most tragic thing will be when young daughters will ask to be mutilated. That's hard to even picture...

    So if you you count all of these things together, this turns into not just a normal "social democrat" program, but a very radical, transformative leftist program. This will embolden others to follow suit.


    Re: visa free for under 25 Russians.
     
    Most Northern Russian youths are quite pleasant and well behaved. I guess the idea is to open up to them and make them enjoy and love Germany. It could work to some extent.

    This is interesting and new, however, since, afaik, Russians have never had a visa free in the EU countries. With some caution it might be ok? Then again, not sure how one could control the clandestine types.

    As to the youths from the Caucasus, the Georgians are ok. But you're right about the Chechens, some might be a bit cray cray. The usual. Also, the Caucasians will hit on your women hard. Some women might find them charming, but it's very risky.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @songbird
    @German_reader


    it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don’t think it should be legalized.
     
    Don't believe it should be legalized either (except in designated population sinks, designed for shitlibs), but I believe that the best, current evidence indicates that the idea that it causes schizophrenia is wrong.

    Classic case of correlation being mistaken for causation. Youth with schizo genes are more often risk takers, that is where it comes from.

    https://psychcentral.com/news/2013/12/10/harvard-marijuana-doesnt-cause-schizophrenia#2
    , @Dmitry
    @German_reader


    schizophrenia, so I don’t think it should be legalized
     
    1. Food with high fat ratios, can cause obesity. Food with high sugar, can cause diabetes. Insufficient sleep, elevates risk for cancer. So the government can set rules about your sleeping schedule?

    It's a question about who is the executive for decisions which effect only the person (doesn't bypass harm principle). Of course, the executive for such decisions has to be the adult. You should not outsource these decisions (whether to eat food with high fat, or sleep enough hours, or smoke cannabis), to some politicians and laws.

    The role of government in this area, should be to provide accurate information and safety guidelines, so people can decide in a mature way.

    2. Cannabis does not "cause schizophrenia" in healthy people (it's not like "smoking causes cancer"). Evidence is rather that people who are already predisposed to develop schizophrenia, can be triggered by use of cannabis.

    Many other things also trigger schizophrenia in these people, such as life events. Here the role of regulation should to be find people with predisposition to schizophrenia, rather than to ban "normal people" (i.e. the majority of the population who can never develop schizophrenia, regardless of life events, cannabis use, etc).

    If 99% of people can use a substance with no effect on their probability to develop schizophrenia, and 1% might have the genetic predisposition for schizophrenia can be triggered (greatly elevate their risk for developing schizophrenia). Then the issue is to screen those 1% who have the predisposition for schizophrenia. (Among such people with predispositions for schizophrenia, can likely be triggered by many other things as well).

    This screening is also the approach for many other recommendations. For example, people with certain genetic profile, will have greatly higher risk of certain types of cancer when they drink alcohol. These people need to be screened, so they can avoid alcohol. But among people with other profiles, moderate alcohol use can on average seem to e.g. increase life expectancy.


    want to look into making surrogacy legal;
     
    It's not realistic to complain about this at the same as complaining about below replacement fertility rate. (Complaining about below replacement fertility rate in developed countries is something common on this forum, although I'm not saying it is something you have written).

    In engineering design, you call these things "constraints". If you want to reduce e.g. fall of fertility rate, then there are options like introducing surrogacy. In the end you see what are your priorities, as reality is decisions between things which often inversely correlate.

  979. @songbird
    GR has made me really excited about blackouts.

    What is it, like 39 countries connected to the same grid? And when it goes down, what will happen? Most cell towers will go down immediately. Followed by some that will stay on for like two hours. Anyone with a Tesla will be fucked. In the Alps, they will close all the tunnels. The autobahn, which typically has no breakdown lanes will become completely clogged, as people flee their cars.

    I have heard that even cash won't work, as stores work on some central system connected by the internet to verify prices.

    Two-thirds don't have food for more than one week, with half of those only having enough for three or four days. If you are above the sixth floor in an apartment, the water will stop. Indeed, the sewer will also stop, and the migrants will be drowning in their own waste, without heat or food, as the new bioweapon is released. They will go on the warpath, almost instantly, magnifying their low status.

    And the ideological villainization of nuclear means that there are nobody is on the nuclear career track. They could not turn on a dime, even if they wanted to.

    And Poland is more than doubling the size of its military, some say to 250,000, others to 300,000. It could walk in straight to Brussels, especially with the cooperation of police instituting local lockdowns. And if the Swiss, with their supplies, call up all their males and march East.

    Together, they might give a new meaning to the term "blackout."

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon

    Will Poland do that instead of staying put?

    Anyway, I was thinking of attacks on electric grids in a war and concluded that it wouldn’t be recoverable without massive external aid. They will go straight from electricity to animal power. It feels like the Morgenthau Plan again.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    It is more of a dream than a prediction.

    Though, without the muddying factor of nuclear weapons, I would be 100% certain at this point that Eastern Europe will invade Westerm. I think the West has zero will to fight, or maybe to put it more accurately, less will, too many domestic problems taking resources that would normally go to the army.

    It may still happen, eventually, with non-nuclear countries being the combatants, and nuclear countries threatening to nuke each other, if they intervene too much.

    No doubt in my mind that at this point many natives would welcome Eastern Europeans as liberators.
    ______
    Who will be the first to cross the commenting Kármán (Karlin?) line this time? (get to #1000)

    Replies: @A123

  980. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    @German_reader


    estimates there were 3000 to 3500 West German spies for the DDR in the 1980s, about two thirds of them acting for ideological reasons:
     
    Quite a different category? Or maybe we are defining the term differently. I was thinking "Stasi agent" in the sense of "FBI agent", meaning something like "career officer." And I was thinking of East Germany as a field. Maybe, they applied ideological tests to foreign agents? I did once read a book about the Stasi, but afraid it was many years ago, and I'm about the opposite of an eidetic, so I won't claim authority. (Don't quote me, but I think most recruits came from Hauptschulen)

    It was certainly an interesting system, and it is a shame that so many of the records were burned.

    I wonder whether they may have accidentally increased the TFR of any intellectuals by preventing their kids from going to university. But I suppose the general system was a bigger drag.

    Interestingly, there seem to be a lot of single mothers on benefits in East Germany. (Though I believe some of these are technically not single mothers in reality). I suppose it must have started even before reunification. If I am not mistaken East Germany has higher TFR, even though it has a older average age. (but the difference is in single mothers)

    Replies: @German_reader

    I was thinking “Stasi agent” in the sense of “FBI agent”, meaning something like “career officer.”

    Sorry, I misunderstood. I don’t really know much about the social origins of Stasi officers tbh.

    Interestingly, there seem to be a lot of single mothers on benefits in East Germany.

    Communism destroys bourgeois norms, and East Germany also suffered substantial brain drain both before 1961 and after reunification, so those left behind are even more proletarianized.

  981. @German_reader
    @LatW


    what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?
     
    I'm opposed to both. Might seem puritanical, but it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don't think it should be legalized.
    I also don't think youths should be allowed to vote, if anything the voting age should be raised to 25 or so (though the bigger problem in Germany is the huge cohorts of pensioners and their voting behaviour...SPD only won the election, because they gained a lot of support among voters over 60).

    Don't agree with all the pro-LBGTQ+ stuff either. They even want to look into making surrogacy legal; also plans for changing one's legal gender easier (apparently without any stringent evaluation, based just on stated self-perception), with punishments for anybody revealing the original gender...and health insurance companies (at least the public ones, there's a two-tiered system in Germany) have to pay fully for transitioning. Funnily enough they also want to look into banning conversion therapies (attempts to turn homos into heteros) even for adults. So potentially you could end up with a situation, where public health insurance companies have to pay for radical, irreversible surgeries, maybe even on youths, based just on claims about "real" gender identity which aren't allowed to be questioned...while any attempts to change homosexual orientation, even when requested by adults, could be a criminal offense. Totally logical...
    And of course homos mustn't be banned from donating blood either.

    to open visa free travel to Russians under 25. Not sure if that would be just Germany or all of the EU.
     
    I don't have much of an opinion on that, though I find it a bit weird, given that Russian intelligence probably committed a murder in Berlin in 2019 (not that I have any sympathy for the victim who was some dodgy Caucasus type, possibly an Islamist, but still, if anything, such incidents would call for somewhat more stringent travel controls).
    lol though at the "under 25" part, I guess they think youths are so impressionable they'll be convinced by the superiority of Germany's wonderful system and want to re-create it in Russia.

    Replies: @LatW, @songbird, @Dmitry

    I’m opposed to both. Might seem puritanical, but it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don’t think it should be legalized.

    It’s not puritanical at all. I agree, it’s just caution – why be lax about something when you don’t have to be? Once you allow for something like that, you won’t be able to bring it back to normalcy. Cannabis is already used casually without much in terms of legal consequences, but you’re right that it has a strong effect on one’s psyche, it also makes one lazy and careless. For medical purposes, if there’s a cancer patient that might benefit from it, that’s one thing, but that’s not who they had in mind when they proposed this. It was meant to increase the general laxity. On the West coast US where it was recently legalized, nothing bad has really happened, but Americans have more space and they are more atomized, plus they are already on all kinds of prescription drugs, so probably not the best example to draw from for Central Europeans. Not sure if the Dutch are the best example here either.

    Also, don’t you think it’s kind of odd to put an issue like cannabis so high on the agenda, almost as high as energy, digitalization, Covid, etc., especially during a time when there is so much uncertainty in the world and there are more pressing issues. Seems like a pretty trivial issue that they are trying to advance for pseudo-ideological reasons.

    I also don’t think youths should be allowed to vote, if anything the voting age should be raised to 25 or so (though the bigger problem in Germany is the huge cohorts of pensioners and their voting behaviour…SPD only won the election, because they gained a lot of support among voters over 60).

    The problem today is that the youth matures very slowly. Even by 25 not everyone is mature. But it’s also true that the elderly cohort of voters is getting a little oppressive, and there is a lot at stake for the young which they don’t get to have a say over. Then again, why lower it by two years from 18 which is quite young to 16 which is just an adolescent? Clearly, their ideology is all about empowering the children and taking away authority from the parents, but this almost reeks a bit of all that lowering of the age of consent stuff.

    [MORE]

    They even want to look into making surrogacy legal

    They should pause on that. I mean, it’s clear where it’s going… to enable middle age faggots to play daddy. Informal surrogacy to help out a female friend or sister…. maybe. But that’s not what the intention is. The intention here is to create a kind of a semi-anonymous conveyor system for that. It was brought up in Lettland some 15 years ago and immediately shut down without further discussion. German (or Lettisch) women should not be vessels for that. What would end up happening is probably foreign women would mostly sign up for it. In general, it just devalues the whole idea of motherhood and there have been quite a few attacks on motherhood lately.

    also plans for changing one’s legal gender easier (apparently without any stringent evaluation, based just on stated self-perception)

    Yes, they will now have the Selbstbestimmungsgesetz, the self-determination law. Imagine, voting at 16 and a self-determination law. Wow. I wonder how that’s going to end.

    and health insurance companies (at least the public ones, there’s a two-tiered system in Germany) have to pay fully for transitioning.

    Going to be a bit pricey, no? I’m sure someone’s going to make money off of that. The most tragic thing will be when young daughters will ask to be mutilated. That’s hard to even picture…

    So if you you count all of these things together, this turns into not just a normal “social democrat” program, but a very radical, transformative leftist program. This will embolden others to follow suit.

    Re: visa free for under 25 Russians.

    Most Northern Russian youths are quite pleasant and well behaved. I guess the idea is to open up to them and make them enjoy and love Germany. It could work to some extent.

    This is interesting and new, however, since, afaik, Russians have never had a visa free in the EU countries. With some caution it might be ok? Then again, not sure how one could control the clandestine types.

    As to the youths from the Caucasus, the Georgians are ok. But you’re right about the Chechens, some might be a bit cray cray. The usual. Also, the Caucasians will hit on your women hard. Some women might find them charming, but it’s very risky.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    Seems like a pretty trivial issue that they are trying to advance for pseudo-ideological reasons.
     
    Sure, but much of German society is just infantile, apparently there still are far too many people who have it too good. And there's no serious debate at all about national interests and how to deal with risks and threats, instead everything gets moralized to an absurd degree, coupled with a bizarre hubris, as if Germany could somehow save the world through its example.
    I agree with your points. I have a very negative view myself of surrogacy (even if they claim in the coalition treaty they would limit it to "altrustic" surrogacy, so presumably not done as a commercial transaction), also of the entire transsexual movement (dangerous fad imo, especially if it concerns teenagers who are doing irreversible damage to their bodies). But that's what's seen as progressive nowadays (and not just among the Greens, the "liberal" FDP is also pretty bad, their youth section has come up with such brilliant proposals as decriminalizing incest).
  982. @sudden death
    @German_reader


    Baerbock’s party and its sympathizers in the media bear a large share of the responsibility for Germany giving up nuclear power, which created the current level of energy dependence on Russia.
     
    Oh yeah, no doubt they are largely responsible for this, but so far there were no real negative consequences for this nonsense in Germany as during previous decade natgas prices were relatively low and "reliable" Gazprom was not leaving storages empty before winter, but if there will be electricity blackouts and gas shortages in practice, then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO² ;)

    The kind of Germany Baerbock’s standing for might lecture you on homos and refugees, but don’t think it would be able or willing to really help you, should Russia ever move against the territorial integrity of the Baltic states.
     

    Obviously truth, but it is also nothing new than it was before, this stance regarding Baltics security situation and probable modern German involvement was not any different previously too.

    Replies: @German_reader, @LatW, @Mitleser

    Oh yeah, no doubt they are largely responsible for this, but so far there were no real negative consequences for this nonsense in Germany

    Except much increased prices for electricity.

    then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO²

    It would not matter.
    German nuclear phase-out is almost complete.
    Half of the remaining six reactors will be shut down next month, the rest at the end of the next year.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Mitleser

    If that electricity price graph is not inflation adjusted, then it can be seen how that was not painful enough, cause minimum/average wages and/or various social handouts probably nominally got bigger enough too in those twenty years to cover that doubling in monthly electrical bill for an ordinary green voter.


    Half of the remaining six reactors will be shut down next month, the rest at the end of the next year.
     
    So in theory at least those 3 remaining could be extended, if situation got bad enough this winter regarding overall grid stability.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mitleser

  983. @LatW
    @German_reader


    Brantner
     
    Judging from parts of that interview, she seems to be scared of an authoritarian arising in Germany even more so than she dislikes foreign dictators. It's kind of like when US SWPLs are afraid of the everpresent "white supremacists". The ironic part is that a hypothetical German authoritarian would probably be more benign and "liberal" than even some Slavic or Arab dictator. And, of course, she wants US present in Germany because otherwise a real nationalism could arise in Germany and her ideology would go out the window. At least the far left parts of it.

    probably try to purge the army of any suspected right-wingers
     
    Unfortunately, this phenomenon happens not just in Germany. Most armies try to keep their soldiers apolitical, so the right wingers are regarded as "the enemy within". Thankfully not everyone is purged.

    So if the Greens are talking about some post-pacifist foreign policy, that needs to be backed up by something tangible. Are they hoping to rely only on the US military and NATO?

    after all they’ll bring a few million more of them to Germany in coming years.
     

    Is their immigration policy completely crazy or are they talking about some kind of a managed immigration? Of course, even if it's managed according to their ideas, it's still bad. A few million in a few years is just an insanely large number...

    She’s dumb as shit, big mistake to expect anything of substance from her.
     
    She doesn't appear to be an intellectual. What I meant was that people who have done competitive sports are quite driven, which she obviously is, given that she was a candidate for the Chancellor, she might be driven in her current post, too, or at least able to hold her ground, just not in the ways you might like (furthering her own ideology). My point was more that it's a good quality to have for a person, maybe not in this case for Germany.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mitleser

    given that she was a candidate for the Chancellor, she might be driven in her current post, too, or at least able to hold her ground, just not in the ways you might like (furthering her own ideology).

    She became the Green chancellor candidate instead of the more qualified male co-leader of the Greens because she is the top woman in a feminist party.

    For people who are opposed Greens she is not that bad because as the top candidate of her party, her incompetence and dishonesty ensured that her party underperformed in the last federal election.

  984. @LatW
    @German_reader


    the coalition treaty
     
    So, German_reader, what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?

    Replies: @LatW, @German_reader, @songbird

    reducing the voting age to 16

    Wonder whether this has been a serious proposal anywhere that there isn’t a massive migrant youth cohort.

  985. @German_reader
    @LatW


    what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?
     
    I'm opposed to both. Might seem puritanical, but it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don't think it should be legalized.
    I also don't think youths should be allowed to vote, if anything the voting age should be raised to 25 or so (though the bigger problem in Germany is the huge cohorts of pensioners and their voting behaviour...SPD only won the election, because they gained a lot of support among voters over 60).

    Don't agree with all the pro-LBGTQ+ stuff either. They even want to look into making surrogacy legal; also plans for changing one's legal gender easier (apparently without any stringent evaluation, based just on stated self-perception), with punishments for anybody revealing the original gender...and health insurance companies (at least the public ones, there's a two-tiered system in Germany) have to pay fully for transitioning. Funnily enough they also want to look into banning conversion therapies (attempts to turn homos into heteros) even for adults. So potentially you could end up with a situation, where public health insurance companies have to pay for radical, irreversible surgeries, maybe even on youths, based just on claims about "real" gender identity which aren't allowed to be questioned...while any attempts to change homosexual orientation, even when requested by adults, could be a criminal offense. Totally logical...
    And of course homos mustn't be banned from donating blood either.

    to open visa free travel to Russians under 25. Not sure if that would be just Germany or all of the EU.
     
    I don't have much of an opinion on that, though I find it a bit weird, given that Russian intelligence probably committed a murder in Berlin in 2019 (not that I have any sympathy for the victim who was some dodgy Caucasus type, possibly an Islamist, but still, if anything, such incidents would call for somewhat more stringent travel controls).
    lol though at the "under 25" part, I guess they think youths are so impressionable they'll be convinced by the superiority of Germany's wonderful system and want to re-create it in Russia.

    Replies: @LatW, @songbird, @Dmitry

    it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don’t think it should be legalized.

    Don’t believe it should be legalized either (except in designated population sinks, designed for shitlibs), but I believe that the best, current evidence indicates that the idea that it causes schizophrenia is wrong.

    Classic case of correlation being mistaken for causation. Youth with schizo genes are more often risk takers, that is where it comes from.

    https://psychcentral.com/news/2013/12/10/harvard-marijuana-doesnt-cause-schizophrenia#2

  986. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    Will Poland do that instead of staying put?

    Anyway, I was thinking of attacks on electric grids in a war and concluded that it wouldn't be recoverable without massive external aid. They will go straight from electricity to animal power. It feels like the Morgenthau Plan again.

    Replies: @songbird

    It is more of a dream than a prediction.

    Though, without the muddying factor of nuclear weapons, I would be 100% certain at this point that Eastern Europe will invade Westerm. I think the West has zero will to fight, or maybe to put it more accurately, less will, too many domestic problems taking resources that would normally go to the army.

    It may still happen, eventually, with non-nuclear countries being the combatants, and nuclear countries threatening to nuke each other, if they intervene too much.

    No doubt in my mind that at this point many natives would welcome Eastern Europeans as liberators.
    ______
    Who will be the first to cross the commenting Kármán (Karlin?) line this time? (get to #1000)

    • LOL: LatW
    • Replies: @A123
    @songbird


    Eastern Europe will invade Western. I think the West has zero will to fight, or maybe to put it more accurately, less will, too many domestic problems taking resources that would normally go to the army.
     
    Merkel's SJW Globalist leadership has been catastrophe for all of Europe, both East & West.

    Populism is rising everywhere. Italy and Austria are likely to side with the Visegrád 4 in any conflict. The Yellow Vest movement and Zemmour's candidacy show that France is headed that way too.

    If a fight starts, it presents an opportunity to grab land and revise borders. Would Denmark and/or UK help the "East" to obtain parts of Belgium and Germany?

    As appealing as that may sound, I doubt intra-European hostility will escalate to large scale armed conflict in our lifetime. Too many people remember the lesson of GW Bush -- The Peace is often harder than the War.
    _____

    The better option is targeting Corporate SJW Elites. German banking overlords wield power directly via the ECB and indirectly via Brussels. However, it only works because people submit and behave like Sheeple. All it really takes is non cooperation. Hungary and Poland show that sovereignty can successfully defy authoritarian EU Elites.

    Imagine what would happen if Italy says, "No More!" All they have to do is start printing their sovereign currency, the Euro €. There is no response available to the ECB. The most they can do is impose fines. Those are meaningless when Italy can print new currency to pay them.

    It would be entertaining if Italy became a debt free nation overnight by redeeming all of their outstanding bonds with newly created € currency. Other periphery EZ nations that suffer under Frankfurt's ECB Austerity would join in too. Let Loose the Dogs of War Devaluation!

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @songbird

  987. How much would it have affected the timeline (US/Soviet) of the development of the bomb, if the US had merely eliminated people who liked jazz during the vetting process?

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @songbird

    Good idea!

    https://youtu.be/43QpMQbj974

    , @Mr. Hack
    @songbird

    You were hoping for a quicker timeline? Those who liked jazz music were statistically more apt to work at a slower pace?.........

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @songbird

    Zero.

    There were hundreds of people on the inside who thought a fission bomb duopoly was a much better idea. Maybe even Franklin Roosevelt himself although most of those accusations are controversial. All the true facts are classified for another fifty years over and over again like Mickey Mouse's copyright.

    Replies: @songbird

  988. @songbird
    How much would it have affected the timeline (US/Soviet) of the development of the bomb, if the US had merely eliminated people who liked jazz during the vetting process?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Good idea!

    • LOL: songbird
  989. @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon

    It is more of a dream than a prediction.

    Though, without the muddying factor of nuclear weapons, I would be 100% certain at this point that Eastern Europe will invade Westerm. I think the West has zero will to fight, or maybe to put it more accurately, less will, too many domestic problems taking resources that would normally go to the army.

    It may still happen, eventually, with non-nuclear countries being the combatants, and nuclear countries threatening to nuke each other, if they intervene too much.

    No doubt in my mind that at this point many natives would welcome Eastern Europeans as liberators.
    ______
    Who will be the first to cross the commenting Kármán (Karlin?) line this time? (get to #1000)

    Replies: @A123

    Eastern Europe will invade Western. I think the West has zero will to fight, or maybe to put it more accurately, less will, too many domestic problems taking resources that would normally go to the army.

    Merkel’s SJW Globalist leadership has been catastrophe for all of Europe, both East & West.

    Populism is rising everywhere. Italy and Austria are likely to side with the Visegrád 4 in any conflict. The Yellow Vest movement and Zemmour’s candidacy show that France is headed that way too.

    If a fight starts, it presents an opportunity to grab land and revise borders. Would Denmark and/or UK help the “East” to obtain parts of Belgium and Germany?

    As appealing as that may sound, I doubt intra-European hostility will escalate to large scale armed conflict in our lifetime. Too many people remember the lesson of GW Bush — The Peace is often harder than the War.
    _____

    The better option is targeting Corporate SJW Elites. German banking overlords wield power directly via the ECB and indirectly via Brussels. However, it only works because people submit and behave like Sheeple. All it really takes is non cooperation. Hungary and Poland show that sovereignty can successfully defy authoritarian EU Elites.

    Imagine what would happen if Italy says, “No More!” All they have to do is start printing their sovereign currency, the Euro €. There is no response available to the ECB. The most they can do is impose fines. Those are meaningless when Italy can print new currency to pay them.

    It would be entertaining if Italy became a debt free nation overnight by redeeming all of their outstanding bonds with newly created € currency. Other periphery EZ nations that suffer under Frankfurt’s ECB Austerity would join in too. Let Loose the Dogs of War Devaluation!

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123

    The lockdown in Austria makes me think that they are a bit woker than some have recently proposed.
    ______
    @Mr. Hack: ( I want to preserve the honor of #1000 for someone else)
    LOL. Actually, I was wondering if the jazzophiles speeded up US development by potentially being more creative, and speeded up Soviet development, by leaking secrets.

    I think nuclear weapons have been a mixed development. Probably led to less war, but maybe that is actually a bad thing? As there is less room for societal correction.

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

  990. @songbird
    How much would it have affected the timeline (US/Soviet) of the development of the bomb, if the US had merely eliminated people who liked jazz during the vetting process?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack, @Emil Nikola Richard

    You were hoping for a quicker timeline? Those who liked jazz music were statistically more apt to work at a slower pace?………

  991. @A123
    @songbird


    Eastern Europe will invade Western. I think the West has zero will to fight, or maybe to put it more accurately, less will, too many domestic problems taking resources that would normally go to the army.
     
    Merkel's SJW Globalist leadership has been catastrophe for all of Europe, both East & West.

    Populism is rising everywhere. Italy and Austria are likely to side with the Visegrád 4 in any conflict. The Yellow Vest movement and Zemmour's candidacy show that France is headed that way too.

    If a fight starts, it presents an opportunity to grab land and revise borders. Would Denmark and/or UK help the "East" to obtain parts of Belgium and Germany?

    As appealing as that may sound, I doubt intra-European hostility will escalate to large scale armed conflict in our lifetime. Too many people remember the lesson of GW Bush -- The Peace is often harder than the War.
    _____

    The better option is targeting Corporate SJW Elites. German banking overlords wield power directly via the ECB and indirectly via Brussels. However, it only works because people submit and behave like Sheeple. All it really takes is non cooperation. Hungary and Poland show that sovereignty can successfully defy authoritarian EU Elites.

    Imagine what would happen if Italy says, "No More!" All they have to do is start printing their sovereign currency, the Euro €. There is no response available to the ECB. The most they can do is impose fines. Those are meaningless when Italy can print new currency to pay them.

    It would be entertaining if Italy became a debt free nation overnight by redeeming all of their outstanding bonds with newly created € currency. Other periphery EZ nations that suffer under Frankfurt's ECB Austerity would join in too. Let Loose the Dogs of War Devaluation!

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

    Replies: @songbird

    The lockdown in Austria makes me think that they are a bit woker than some have recently proposed.
    ______
    : ( I want to preserve the honor of #1000 for someone else)
    LOL. Actually, I was wondering if the jazzophiles speeded up US development by potentially being more creative, and speeded up Soviet development, by leaking secrets.

    I think nuclear weapons have been a mixed development. Probably led to less war, but maybe that is actually a bad thing? As there is less room for societal correction.

    • Agree: sher singh
    • Replies: @A123
    @songbird


    The lockdown in Austria makes me think that they are a bit woker than some have recently proposed.
     
    Austria leans towards Populism when looking at migration: (1)

    Last week, a proposal by former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (of the Freedom Party) to deport refugees rejected by Austria to Serbia became public. The target group for the plan was defined as "foreign nationals residing illegally in Austria who have been granted a legally binding return decision, provided that deportation to the country of origin is not possible and the foreigner has sufficient ties to the Republic of Serbia." This latter criterion can be fulfilled simply "by having fled via the Western Balkans route through Serbia."

    Karl Nehammer, the current ÖVP interior minister, indicated he intends to continue with the arrangement, which was signed with Serbia in April 2019. The Serbian Interior Ministry has since said, however, that the agreement is "unrealistic," due, in part, to overcrowding in existing camps.
     
    Many of the problems in Austria (and Italy) are related to "formal" coalition political structures. OVP+FPO is the strongest pairing, but it is short of 50% (2). This leads to odd groupings required to meet rules based thresholds.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.dw.com/en/austria-persists-with-relentless-hard-line-on-asylum-seekers/a-53232600

    (2) https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/austria/

    Replies: @songbird

    , @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    No war 99% of the time, and then 1% to send us back to the Middle Ages.

    Replies: @songbird

  992. @songbird
    How much would it have affected the timeline (US/Soviet) of the development of the bomb, if the US had merely eliminated people who liked jazz during the vetting process?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mr. Hack, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Zero.

    There were hundreds of people on the inside who thought a fission bomb duopoly was a much better idea. Maybe even Franklin Roosevelt himself although most of those accusations are controversial. All the true facts are classified for another fifty years over and over again like Mickey Mouse’s copyright.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    There were hundreds of people on the inside who thought a fission bomb duopoly was a much better idea.
     
    All jazz aficionados, I am afraid! (Apologies to Mr. Hack)

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  993. @Mitleser
    @sudden death


    Oh yeah, no doubt they are largely responsible for this, but so far there were no real negative consequences for this nonsense in Germany
     
    Except much increased prices for electricity.

    https://1-stromvergleich.com/medien/strompreisentwicklung-2018.png


    then all those greens might suddenly remember about nuclear power plants emitting near-zero CO²
     
    It would not matter.
    German nuclear phase-out is almost complete.
    Half of the remaining six reactors will be shut down next month, the rest at the end of the next year.

    Replies: @sudden death

    If that electricity price graph is not inflation adjusted, then it can be seen how that was not painful enough, cause minimum/average wages and/or various social handouts probably nominally got bigger enough too in those twenty years to cover that doubling in monthly electrical bill for an ordinary green voter.

    Half of the remaining six reactors will be shut down next month, the rest at the end of the next year.

    So in theory at least those 3 remaining could be extended, if situation got bad enough this winter regarding overall grid stability.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death


    cause minimum/average wages and/or various social handouts probably nominally got bigger enough too in those twenty years to cover that doubling in monthly electrical bill for an ordinary green voter.
     
    Green voters aren't dependent on social handouts, they're an economically privileged class. Not because they contribute so much to the economy as entrepeneurs, but because many of them are civil servants and other state employees with secure income (there were polls before the last elections which showed around 32% of civil servants intended to vote for the Greens, that's almost 20% more than what the Greens got in the elections). So they can afford their lofty virtue signalling.
    , @Mitleser
    @sudden death

    Electricity prices increased much more than other prices (in 2000-2018).

    Electricity price increase rate: 111%

    Total price increase rate: 29%

    https://www.finanzen-rechner.net/inflationsrechner.php

    For the average Green voter, it is easier to tolerate that than the average German voter as they are better off.


    So in theory at least those 3 remaining could be extended, if situation got bad enough this winter regarding overall grid stability.
     
    Maybe, maybe not. You have to ask the owners whether they can do that or need to shut down reactors for a while for a longer overhaul.
  994. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @Mitleser

    If that electricity price graph is not inflation adjusted, then it can be seen how that was not painful enough, cause minimum/average wages and/or various social handouts probably nominally got bigger enough too in those twenty years to cover that doubling in monthly electrical bill for an ordinary green voter.


    Half of the remaining six reactors will be shut down next month, the rest at the end of the next year.
     
    So in theory at least those 3 remaining could be extended, if situation got bad enough this winter regarding overall grid stability.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mitleser

    cause minimum/average wages and/or various social handouts probably nominally got bigger enough too in those twenty years to cover that doubling in monthly electrical bill for an ordinary green voter.

    Green voters aren’t dependent on social handouts, they’re an economically privileged class. Not because they contribute so much to the economy as entrepeneurs, but because many of them are civil servants and other state employees with secure income (there were polls before the last elections which showed around 32% of civil servants intended to vote for the Greens, that’s almost 20% more than what the Greens got in the elections). So they can afford their lofty virtue signalling.

  995. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @German_reader


    I’m opposed to both. Might seem puritanical, but it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don’t think it should be legalized.
     
    It's not puritanical at all. I agree, it's just caution - why be lax about something when you don't have to be? Once you allow for something like that, you won't be able to bring it back to normalcy. Cannabis is already used casually without much in terms of legal consequences, but you're right that it has a strong effect on one's psyche, it also makes one lazy and careless. For medical purposes, if there's a cancer patient that might benefit from it, that's one thing, but that's not who they had in mind when they proposed this. It was meant to increase the general laxity. On the West coast US where it was recently legalized, nothing bad has really happened, but Americans have more space and they are more atomized, plus they are already on all kinds of prescription drugs, so probably not the best example to draw from for Central Europeans. Not sure if the Dutch are the best example here either.

    Also, don't you think it's kind of odd to put an issue like cannabis so high on the agenda, almost as high as energy, digitalization, Covid, etc., especially during a time when there is so much uncertainty in the world and there are more pressing issues. Seems like a pretty trivial issue that they are trying to advance for pseudo-ideological reasons.


    I also don’t think youths should be allowed to vote, if anything the voting age should be raised to 25 or so (though the bigger problem in Germany is the huge cohorts of pensioners and their voting behaviour…SPD only won the election, because they gained a lot of support among voters over 60).
     
    The problem today is that the youth matures very slowly. Even by 25 not everyone is mature. But it's also true that the elderly cohort of voters is getting a little oppressive, and there is a lot at stake for the young which they don't get to have a say over. Then again, why lower it by two years from 18 which is quite young to 16 which is just an adolescent? Clearly, their ideology is all about empowering the children and taking away authority from the parents, but this almost reeks a bit of all that lowering of the age of consent stuff.


    They even want to look into making surrogacy legal
     
    They should pause on that. I mean, it's clear where it's going... to enable middle age faggots to play daddy. Informal surrogacy to help out a female friend or sister.... maybe. But that's not what the intention is. The intention here is to create a kind of a semi-anonymous conveyor system for that. It was brought up in Lettland some 15 years ago and immediately shut down without further discussion. German (or Lettisch) women should not be vessels for that. What would end up happening is probably foreign women would mostly sign up for it. In general, it just devalues the whole idea of motherhood and there have been quite a few attacks on motherhood lately.

    also plans for changing one’s legal gender easier (apparently without any stringent evaluation, based just on stated self-perception)
     
    Yes, they will now have the Selbstbestimmungsgesetz, the self-determination law. Imagine, voting at 16 and a self-determination law. Wow. I wonder how that's going to end.

    and health insurance companies (at least the public ones, there’s a two-tiered system in Germany) have to pay fully for transitioning.
     

    Going to be a bit pricey, no? I'm sure someone's going to make money off of that. The most tragic thing will be when young daughters will ask to be mutilated. That's hard to even picture...

    So if you you count all of these things together, this turns into not just a normal "social democrat" program, but a very radical, transformative leftist program. This will embolden others to follow suit.


    Re: visa free for under 25 Russians.
     
    Most Northern Russian youths are quite pleasant and well behaved. I guess the idea is to open up to them and make them enjoy and love Germany. It could work to some extent.

    This is interesting and new, however, since, afaik, Russians have never had a visa free in the EU countries. With some caution it might be ok? Then again, not sure how one could control the clandestine types.

    As to the youths from the Caucasus, the Georgians are ok. But you're right about the Chechens, some might be a bit cray cray. The usual. Also, the Caucasians will hit on your women hard. Some women might find them charming, but it's very risky.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Seems like a pretty trivial issue that they are trying to advance for pseudo-ideological reasons.

    Sure, but much of German society is just infantile, apparently there still are far too many people who have it too good. And there’s no serious debate at all about national interests and how to deal with risks and threats, instead everything gets moralized to an absurd degree, coupled with a bizarre hubris, as if Germany could somehow save the world through its example.
    I agree with your points. I have a very negative view myself of surrogacy (even if they claim in the coalition treaty they would limit it to “altrustic” surrogacy, so presumably not done as a commercial transaction), also of the entire transsexual movement (dangerous fad imo, especially if it concerns teenagers who are doing irreversible damage to their bodies). But that’s what’s seen as progressive nowadays (and not just among the Greens, the “liberal” FDP is also pretty bad, their youth section has come up with such brilliant proposals as decriminalizing incest).

  996. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @songbird

    Zero.

    There were hundreds of people on the inside who thought a fission bomb duopoly was a much better idea. Maybe even Franklin Roosevelt himself although most of those accusations are controversial. All the true facts are classified for another fifty years over and over again like Mickey Mouse's copyright.

    Replies: @songbird

    There were hundreds of people on the inside who thought a fission bomb duopoly was a much better idea.

    All jazz aficionados, I am afraid! (Apologies to Mr. Hack)

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @songbird

    Did somebody contrive a personality questionnaire and query the musical preferences of these individuals? Did these same individuals score any less in regards to their appreciation of classical music? Ethnic music? Undoubtedly all of these people were high IQ individuals, so are we to surmise that smart people in general greatly appreciate jazz music? What's your point? I would have guessed that most high IQ individuals value classical music at the top of the totem pole. I do remember, however, a vocal participant here at UNZ who had a descriptor at the bottom of all of his comments that emphatically stated that he was a MENSA tested genius (Over 130) who was a devotee of jazz music?...

    So far, as of August 2021, it appears that higher IQ Croatian kids prefer instrumental music (doesn't delineate between the different types) over music that includes vocal singing. What about all of those seemingly high IQ aficionados of classical opera? https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-21493-001

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/music-music-bro_country-orchestras-musicians-music_snobs-tcnn929_low.jpg

    Replies: @songbird

  997. @sudden death
    @Mitleser

    If that electricity price graph is not inflation adjusted, then it can be seen how that was not painful enough, cause minimum/average wages and/or various social handouts probably nominally got bigger enough too in those twenty years to cover that doubling in monthly electrical bill for an ordinary green voter.


    Half of the remaining six reactors will be shut down next month, the rest at the end of the next year.
     
    So in theory at least those 3 remaining could be extended, if situation got bad enough this winter regarding overall grid stability.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mitleser

    Electricity prices increased much more than other prices (in 2000-2018).

    Electricity price increase rate: 111%

    Total price increase rate: 29%

    https://www.finanzen-rechner.net/inflationsrechner.php

    For the average Green voter, it is easier to tolerate that than the average German voter as they are better off.

    So in theory at least those 3 remaining could be extended, if situation got bad enough this winter regarding overall grid stability.

    Maybe, maybe not. You have to ask the owners whether they can do that or need to shut down reactors for a while for a longer overhaul.

  998. Wouldn’t be surprised if Putin knew a few Greens from his days in the KGB.

    It is commonly rumored that he got his first car from the Baader-Meinhof Gang. (They used to lift cars and send them East)

  999. @songbird
    @A123

    The lockdown in Austria makes me think that they are a bit woker than some have recently proposed.
    ______
    @Mr. Hack: ( I want to preserve the honor of #1000 for someone else)
    LOL. Actually, I was wondering if the jazzophiles speeded up US development by potentially being more creative, and speeded up Soviet development, by leaking secrets.

    I think nuclear weapons have been a mixed development. Probably led to less war, but maybe that is actually a bad thing? As there is less room for societal correction.

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

    The lockdown in Austria makes me think that they are a bit woker than some have recently proposed.

    Austria leans towards Populism when looking at migration: (1)

    Last week, a proposal by former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (of the Freedom Party) to deport refugees rejected by Austria to Serbia became public. The target group for the plan was defined as “foreign nationals residing illegally in Austria who have been granted a legally binding return decision, provided that deportation to the country of origin is not possible and the foreigner has sufficient ties to the Republic of Serbia.” This latter criterion can be fulfilled simply “by having fled via the Western Balkans route through Serbia.”

    Karl Nehammer, the current ÖVP interior minister, indicated he intends to continue with the arrangement, which was signed with Serbia in April 2019. The Serbian Interior Ministry has since said, however, that the agreement is “unrealistic,” due, in part, to overcrowding in existing camps.

    Many of the problems in Austria (and Italy) are related to “formal” coalition political structures. OVP+FPO is the strongest pairing, but it is short of 50% (2). This leads to odd groupings required to meet rules based thresholds.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.dw.com/en/austria-persists-with-relentless-hard-line-on-asylum-seekers/a-53232600

    (2) https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/austria/

    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123

    Half-suspect that Kurz resigning was neo-liberalism consolidating its power. Not that Kurz was based, but maybe a tiny bit more middle of the road.
    _____
    Rap segregation (into Zones of Rap located Equatorially) would have prevented the tragedy at Waukesha.

  1000. @German_reader
    @LatW


    what do you think about the other prominent talking points here such as the legalization of cannabis and reducing the voting age to 16?
     
    I'm opposed to both. Might seem puritanical, but it is pretty likely cannabis can cause schizophrenia, so I don't think it should be legalized.
    I also don't think youths should be allowed to vote, if anything the voting age should be raised to 25 or so (though the bigger problem in Germany is the huge cohorts of pensioners and their voting behaviour...SPD only won the election, because they gained a lot of support among voters over 60).

    Don't agree with all the pro-LBGTQ+ stuff either. They even want to look into making surrogacy legal; also plans for changing one's legal gender easier (apparently without any stringent evaluation, based just on stated self-perception), with punishments for anybody revealing the original gender...and health insurance companies (at least the public ones, there's a two-tiered system in Germany) have to pay fully for transitioning. Funnily enough they also want to look into banning conversion therapies (attempts to turn homos into heteros) even for adults. So potentially you could end up with a situation, where public health insurance companies have to pay for radical, irreversible surgeries, maybe even on youths, based just on claims about "real" gender identity which aren't allowed to be questioned...while any attempts to change homosexual orientation, even when requested by adults, could be a criminal offense. Totally logical...
    And of course homos mustn't be banned from donating blood either.

    to open visa free travel to Russians under 25. Not sure if that would be just Germany or all of the EU.
     
    I don't have much of an opinion on that, though I find it a bit weird, given that Russian intelligence probably committed a murder in Berlin in 2019 (not that I have any sympathy for the victim who was some dodgy Caucasus type, possibly an Islamist, but still, if anything, such incidents would call for somewhat more stringent travel controls).
    lol though at the "under 25" part, I guess they think youths are so impressionable they'll be convinced by the superiority of Germany's wonderful system and want to re-create it in Russia.

    Replies: @LatW, @songbird, @Dmitry

    schizophrenia, so I don’t think it should be legalized

    1. Food with high fat ratios, can cause obesity. Food with high sugar, can cause diabetes. Insufficient sleep, elevates risk for cancer. So the government can set rules about your sleeping schedule?

    It’s a question about who is the executive for decisions which effect only the person (doesn’t bypass harm principle). Of course, the executive for such decisions has to be the adult. You should not outsource these decisions (whether to eat food with high fat, or sleep enough hours, or smoke cannabis), to some politicians and laws.

    The role of government in this area, should be to provide accurate information and safety guidelines, so people can decide in a mature way.

    2. Cannabis does not “cause schizophrenia” in healthy people (it’s not like “smoking causes cancer”). Evidence is rather that people who are already predisposed to develop schizophrenia, can be triggered by use of cannabis.

    Many other things also trigger schizophrenia in these people, such as life events. Here the role of regulation should to be find people with predisposition to schizophrenia, rather than to ban “normal people” (i.e. the majority of the population who can never develop schizophrenia, regardless of life events, cannabis use, etc).

    If 99% of people can use a substance with no effect on their probability to develop schizophrenia, and 1% might have the genetic predisposition for schizophrenia can be triggered (greatly elevate their risk for developing schizophrenia). Then the issue is to screen those 1% who have the predisposition for schizophrenia. (Among such people with predispositions for schizophrenia, can likely be triggered by many other things as well).

    This screening is also the approach for many other recommendations. For example, people with certain genetic profile, will have greatly higher risk of certain types of cancer when they drink alcohol. These people need to be screened, so they can avoid alcohol. But among people with other profiles, moderate alcohol use can on average seem to e.g. increase life expectancy.

    want to look into making surrogacy legal;

    It’s not realistic to complain about this at the same as complaining about below replacement fertility rate. (Complaining about below replacement fertility rate in developed countries is something common on this forum, although I’m not saying it is something you have written).

    In engineering design, you call these things “constraints”. If you want to reduce e.g. fall of fertility rate, then there are options like introducing surrogacy. In the end you see what are your priorities, as reality is decisions between things which often inversely correlate.

  1001. @A123
    @songbird


    The lockdown in Austria makes me think that they are a bit woker than some have recently proposed.
     
    Austria leans towards Populism when looking at migration: (1)

    Last week, a proposal by former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (of the Freedom Party) to deport refugees rejected by Austria to Serbia became public. The target group for the plan was defined as "foreign nationals residing illegally in Austria who have been granted a legally binding return decision, provided that deportation to the country of origin is not possible and the foreigner has sufficient ties to the Republic of Serbia." This latter criterion can be fulfilled simply "by having fled via the Western Balkans route through Serbia."

    Karl Nehammer, the current ÖVP interior minister, indicated he intends to continue with the arrangement, which was signed with Serbia in April 2019. The Serbian Interior Ministry has since said, however, that the agreement is "unrealistic," due, in part, to overcrowding in existing camps.
     
    Many of the problems in Austria (and Italy) are related to "formal" coalition political structures. OVP+FPO is the strongest pairing, but it is short of 50% (2). This leads to odd groupings required to meet rules based thresholds.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
    _____________________

    (1) https://www.dw.com/en/austria-persists-with-relentless-hard-line-on-asylum-seekers/a-53232600

    (2) https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/austria/

    Replies: @songbird

    Half-suspect that Kurz resigning was neo-liberalism consolidating its power. Not that Kurz was based, but maybe a tiny bit more middle of the road.
    _____
    Rap segregation (into Zones of Rap located Equatorially) would have prevented the tragedy at Waukesha.

  1002. @LatW
    @LatW

    And another interesting proposal -- to open visa free travel to Russians under 25. Not sure if that would be just Germany or all of the EU. Probably just Germany.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    It’s sounds like a nice policy, that could stop punishing citizens, for the relations between their stupid governments.

    Although the first thing I think, is that Germany would be flooded with more prostitutes from Russia, that would work without paperwork in Germany as a kind high income supplement. As a result, they will be checking everyone more in the airport, and you could have a more stressful situation for Russian tourists. Currently, the Schengen visa is already simple enough.

    Even with the strict visa situation with USA. I heard from some who had stayed in Miami, and he said in the vacations a surprising is to see so many young woman compatriots, who are “tourists”, who seemed to be obviously not the relevant socioeconomic class to be living in Miami.

    So even with the tourist visa, Florida is being flooded with prostitutes, who come for a few months as “tourists” for the high level of profits there.

    And visa-free between countries with such different income levels, will make this even more streamlined. Visa-free is more simply “yes” policy choice between countries with similar income levels. That is, for Germany and Japan to have visa-free between each other. Or for USA and Canada to have visa-free between each other.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Dmitry


    It’s sounds like a nice policy, that could stop punishing citizens, for the relations between their stupid governments.
     
    Well, sort of, many Russians support the policies of their government. But you're right that it's not good to punish the young for that.


    Although the first thing I think, is that Germany would be flooded with more prostitutes from Russia, that would work without paperwork in Germany as a kind high income supplement. As a result, they will be checking everyone more in the airport, and you could have a more stressful situation for Russian tourists.
     
    Well, maybe Russian girls shouldn't be the only ones to blame there, it takes two, but ofc they shouldn't be doing that (it could break up families). It would be a large number of people taken altogether so there might be some negatives, but probably more positives. As I said, the Russian youth are quite attractive, both women and men, women no longer dress as flashy as before and the younger men are well groomed. I watched a bit of the Alye Parusa show from St Pete and it was great to see how neatly and almost modestly dressed they were. Very different from "Miami style" actually. :)

    The only issue really is Ukraine. It would be great to have Russian youth around, but when you think that Ukrainian youth are dying in the trenches in the meanwhile, it makes it very sad.

    Btw, do you think the older Putinists would get ticked off that there would be such an age limit? LOL
    , @RadicalCenter
    @Dmitry

    At least most Russian prostitutes will look better than “our” “Vice-President” and our other hookers.

  1003. @songbird
    @A123

    The lockdown in Austria makes me think that they are a bit woker than some have recently proposed.
    ______
    @Mr. Hack: ( I want to preserve the honor of #1000 for someone else)
    LOL. Actually, I was wondering if the jazzophiles speeded up US development by potentially being more creative, and speeded up Soviet development, by leaking secrets.

    I think nuclear weapons have been a mixed development. Probably led to less war, but maybe that is actually a bad thing? As there is less room for societal correction.

    Replies: @A123, @Yellowface Anon

    No war 99% of the time, and then 1% to send us back to the Middle Ages.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @Yellowface Anon


    No war 99% of the time, and then 1% to send us back to the Middle Ages.
     
    Could happen. If we still had an economic system similar to 1900, I would say definitely not, things were too decentralized, too much animal power and people on farms. Not enough dysgenics. But now? I am not too sure.
    _____
    Is it true that Stockholm smells because of migrants relieving themselves everywhere? Can Thulean confirm? (That is the rumor that I heard.)
  1004. https://mishtalk.com/economics/bidens-bank-regulatory-nominee-espouses-helicopter-money-and-praises-the-old-ussr
    https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3715735

    On the liability side of the ledger, the Article envisions the complete migration of demand deposit accounts to the Fed’s balance sheet and explores the full range of new, more direct and flexible, monetary policy tools enabled by this shift. On the asset side, it advocates a comprehensive qualitative restructuring of the Fed’s investment portfolio, which would maximize its capacity to channel credit to productive uses in the nation’s economy. This compositional overhaul of the Fed’s balance sheet would fundamentally alter the operations and systemic footprints of private banks, funds, derivatives dealers, and other financial institutions and markets. Analyzing these structural implications, the Article shows how the proposed reforms would make the financial system less complex, more stable, and more efficient in serving the long-term needs of the American people.

    This is why people buy crypto. Running away from a centralized new financial system, and its implications for dissent. Running away from confiscations!

    This will also imply every major economy going CBDC, since the dollar is #1 reserve currency. Exactly some of you have warned us about.

  1005. @Dmitry
    @LatW

    It's sounds like a nice policy, that could stop punishing citizens, for the relations between their stupid governments.

    Although the first thing I think, is that Germany would be flooded with more prostitutes from Russia, that would work without paperwork in Germany as a kind high income supplement. As a result, they will be checking everyone more in the airport, and you could have a more stressful situation for Russian tourists. Currently, the Schengen visa is already simple enough.

    Even with the strict visa situation with USA. I heard from some who had stayed in Miami, and he said in the vacations a surprising is to see so many young woman compatriots, who are "tourists", who seemed to be obviously not the relevant socioeconomic class to be living in Miami.

    So even with the tourist visa, Florida is being flooded with prostitutes, who come for a few months as "tourists" for the high level of profits there.

    And visa-free between countries with such different income levels, will make this even more streamlined. Visa-free is more simply "yes" policy choice between countries with similar income levels. That is, for Germany and Japan to have visa-free between each other. Or for USA and Canada to have visa-free between each other.

    Replies: @LatW, @RadicalCenter

    It’s sounds like a nice policy, that could stop punishing citizens, for the relations between their stupid governments.

    Well, sort of, many Russians support the policies of their government. But you’re right that it’s not good to punish the young for that.

    Although the first thing I think, is that Germany would be flooded with more prostitutes from Russia, that would work without paperwork in Germany as a kind high income supplement. As a result, they will be checking everyone more in the airport, and you could have a more stressful situation for Russian tourists.

    Well, maybe Russian girls shouldn’t be the only ones to blame there, it takes two, but ofc they shouldn’t be doing that (it could break up families). It would be a large number of people taken altogether so there might be some negatives, but probably more positives. As I said, the Russian youth are quite attractive, both women and men, women no longer dress as flashy as before and the younger men are well groomed. I watched a bit of the Alye Parusa show from St Pete and it was great to see how neatly and almost modestly dressed they were. Very different from “Miami style” actually. 🙂

    The only issue really is Ukraine. It would be great to have Russian youth around, but when you think that Ukrainian youth are dying in the trenches in the meanwhile, it makes it very sad.

    Btw, do you think the older Putinists would get ticked off that there would be such an age limit? LOL

  1006. @Yellowface Anon
    @songbird

    No war 99% of the time, and then 1% to send us back to the Middle Ages.

    Replies: @songbird

    No war 99% of the time, and then 1% to send us back to the Middle Ages.

    Could happen. If we still had an economic system similar to 1900, I would say definitely not, things were too decentralized, too much animal power and people on farms. Not enough dysgenics. But now? I am not too sure.
    _____
    Is it true that Stockholm smells because of migrants relieving themselves everywhere? Can Thulean confirm? (That is the rumor that I heard.)

  1007. @songbird
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    There were hundreds of people on the inside who thought a fission bomb duopoly was a much better idea.
     
    All jazz aficionados, I am afraid! (Apologies to Mr. Hack)

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Did somebody contrive a personality questionnaire and query the musical preferences of these individuals? Did these same individuals score any less in regards to their appreciation of classical music? Ethnic music? Undoubtedly all of these people were high IQ individuals, so are we to surmise that smart people in general greatly appreciate jazz music? What’s your point? I would have guessed that most high IQ individuals value classical music at the top of the totem pole. I do remember, however, a vocal participant here at UNZ who had a descriptor at the bottom of all of his comments that emphatically stated that he was a MENSA tested genius (Over 130) who was a devotee of jazz music?…

    So far, as of August 2021, it appears that higher IQ Croatian kids prefer instrumental music (doesn’t delineate between the different types) over music that includes vocal singing. What about all of those seemingly high IQ aficionados of classical opera? https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-21493-001

    • Thanks: songbird
    • Replies: @songbird
    @Mr. Hack


    Did somebody contrive a personality questionnaire and query the musical preferences of these individuals?
     
    Too overt. You would have had to ask their friends what clubs they went to, look at what records they had, or what radio station they were tuned to. But I construct it as a hypothetical - they didn't have the foresight to do it, and thus there is a North Korea, Vietnam fell to the Communists, and Eastern Europe remained under the yoke of the USSR for some decades. (But who knows if it was not for the best?)

    Undoubtedly all of these people were high IQ individuals, so are we to surmise that smart people in general greatly appreciate jazz music? What’s your point? I would have guessed that most high IQ individuals value classical music at the top of the totem pole
     
    Feynman seemed to like bongo music (which I conflate with jazz, due to its Afro roots) and Tuvan throat-singing (which I suspect shows an affinity for improvisation, much like jazz) - and he was always breaking into safes at Los Alamos! And I believe he once borrowed the car of one the spies, to visit his wife in hospital. Afraid the rest of my speculations are somewhat more calumnious.

    Without access to the FBI files, we may never know how true they are...

  1008. @Mr. Hack
    @songbird

    Did somebody contrive a personality questionnaire and query the musical preferences of these individuals? Did these same individuals score any less in regards to their appreciation of classical music? Ethnic music? Undoubtedly all of these people were high IQ individuals, so are we to surmise that smart people in general greatly appreciate jazz music? What's your point? I would have guessed that most high IQ individuals value classical music at the top of the totem pole. I do remember, however, a vocal participant here at UNZ who had a descriptor at the bottom of all of his comments that emphatically stated that he was a MENSA tested genius (Over 130) who was a devotee of jazz music?...

    So far, as of August 2021, it appears that higher IQ Croatian kids prefer instrumental music (doesn't delineate between the different types) over music that includes vocal singing. What about all of those seemingly high IQ aficionados of classical opera? https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-21493-001

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/music-music-bro_country-orchestras-musicians-music_snobs-tcnn929_low.jpg

    Replies: @songbird

    Did somebody contrive a personality questionnaire and query the musical preferences of these individuals?

    Too overt. You would have had to ask their friends what clubs they went to, look at what records they had, or what radio station they were tuned to. But I construct it as a hypothetical – they didn’t have the foresight to do it, and thus there is a North Korea, Vietnam fell to the Communists, and Eastern Europe remained under the yoke of the USSR for some decades. (But who knows if it was not for the best?)

    Undoubtedly all of these people were high IQ individuals, so are we to surmise that smart people in general greatly appreciate jazz music? What’s your point? I would have guessed that most high IQ individuals value classical music at the top of the totem pole

    Feynman seemed to like bongo music (which I conflate with jazz, due to its Afro roots) and Tuvan throat-singing (which I suspect shows an affinity for improvisation, much like jazz) – and he was always breaking into safes at Los Alamos! And I believe he once borrowed the car of one the spies, to visit his wife in hospital. Afraid the rest of my speculations are somewhat more calumnious.

    Without access to the FBI files, we may never know how true they are…

    • LOL: Mr. Hack
  1009. I noticed that this comment-thread had passed 1,000 comments and was getting sluggish to load, so I just created a new one for all of you, relocating a few of the last comments over there to get things started:

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-170/

    • Thanks: A123, sudden death, Dmitry
  1010. @Yellowface Anon
    @German_reader

    The whole picture falls together and tells people to get self-sufficient to ride out economic failure & the COVID agenda. As I said - Neo-medievalism is the wave of the future.

    Not sure how to do that in Germany now that there's no Nazi lebensraum settler colonialism. Germany can't feed its current population even with industrial agriculture.

    BTW, how does hardcore antivaxxers cope with universal vaccine mandates? How will the state deal with them? I'm afraid the worst antivaxx fear - concentration camps for the unvaccinated - is going to be vindicated.

    Replies: @German_reader, @RadicalCenter

    Mass disobedience is overdue. The governments are the ones using violence and the threat of violence, as well as the threat of impoverishment and starvation. There is no moral or lawful obligation to obey aggressors and enslavers.

  1011. @songbird
    @Che Guava


    Are they still dollar shops in the U.S.?
     
    At the moment, I would basically say so.

    I mean that there are stores where like 95% of their stock items can still be bought for $1. Though, not fully certain that there are any where the number remains 100%. "Dollar Tree" is a big chain that maintains a formula like 95% (for the moment, about to change.) I guess some things are still a good deal, but my understanding is that there has been a major contraction this year. Like, I heard in January you could buy like 48 plastic spoons for $1, but it has since become 24.

    And elsewhere the meaning of "dollar" in a store's name has generally been eroded, and other chains with like "Family Dollar" or "Dollar General" seem to have many items that are $5-10 dollars, or more.

    Replies: @Che Guava

    Thank you.

    I never buy plastic spoons, wash them. Sometimes plastic cups for fireworks or flower viewing. Since those things don’t exist any more, and if only a few people, I would take glasses wrapped in paper, I didn’t really notice.

    You are correct on reduced volumes or numbers on a few items, but I cannot recall exactly which I have noticed right now.

  1012. @Mr. Hack
    https://ic-cdn.flipboard.com/foxnews.com/c1f30ee1b4704a597da5202aedd6405fccf229f2/_large.webp

    The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), that Biden in the past praised its competency, has blown a hole in Biden's claim that his Build Back Better(BBB) spending bill "will not cost the American tax payer one cent". The CBO has reported that the BBB bill will cost $367 billion above anticipated tax revenues. So much for Biden telling the truth, and instead, furthering inflationary pressure and a socialist agenda.

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/15834619_web1_web_rmz-nov16.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1

    Make no mistake, the cranking up of gasoline prices is intentional. Progressives want to force us into higher priced electric cars or pressure us into mass transit. The wealthy will be able to afford the higher costs, but for low to middle income families, the choices will be real and painful.

    Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @RadicalCenter

    They ARE deadly poison-spewing machines.

    But the transition away from burning filthy fossil fuels in our vehicles needs to be realistic: slow and gradual enough that we don’t damage the economy and destroy jobs. Also slow and gradual enough that a lot bigger percentage of people can afford to buy a plug-in hybrid or all-electric vehicle than can afford one today.

    You’re absolutely right, though, that they want to force us to stay home or use constantly surveilled mass transit. Mass transit which they will eventually deny to “unvaxxed” people, i.e. people who exercise their right to choose not to get these unnecessary, unduly dangerous, and sometimes counterproductive injections.

  1013. @Dmitry
    @LatW

    It's sounds like a nice policy, that could stop punishing citizens, for the relations between their stupid governments.

    Although the first thing I think, is that Germany would be flooded with more prostitutes from Russia, that would work without paperwork in Germany as a kind high income supplement. As a result, they will be checking everyone more in the airport, and you could have a more stressful situation for Russian tourists. Currently, the Schengen visa is already simple enough.

    Even with the strict visa situation with USA. I heard from some who had stayed in Miami, and he said in the vacations a surprising is to see so many young woman compatriots, who are "tourists", who seemed to be obviously not the relevant socioeconomic class to be living in Miami.

    So even with the tourist visa, Florida is being flooded with prostitutes, who come for a few months as "tourists" for the high level of profits there.

    And visa-free between countries with such different income levels, will make this even more streamlined. Visa-free is more simply "yes" policy choice between countries with similar income levels. That is, for Germany and Japan to have visa-free between each other. Or for USA and Canada to have visa-free between each other.

    Replies: @LatW, @RadicalCenter

    At least most Russian prostitutes will look better than “our” “Vice-President” and our other hookers.

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