Managed to dig out good part of the bulbous thingy. It's still stuck. #Evergiven #SuezCanal #Suez pic.twitter.com/zbeD59LA6V

— Guy With The Digger At Suez Canal (@SuezDiggerGuy) March 25, 2021

I think Americans who want to travel back in time and tell plantation owners to “pick their own cotton” are missing the real thrust of history.

If the US had somehow magically been prevented from having slavery, then we would have still imported millions of Africans to show that we are better than white Brazilians, or South Africans. It would not have prevented the Civil War at all, just made it happen with atomics.

Humor for the open thread. Open [MORE] for additional pics.

PEACE 😇

I thought the Chinese were propping up Turkey’s economy. David Goldman said that was the case a couple of years ago.

Biden was asked by a “reporter” whether N. Korea is the most challenging foreign-policy conundrum. Because Biden’s answer consisted solely of “Yes,” (as he told Putin, he is “busy”) I will helpfully expand. Kim and his inner circle have over 100 personal cheerleaders, as we saw at the Olympics. They also have the Traffic Ladies (retirement age is 26). This unprecedented factor complicates the mental state of the leaders. and how the U.S. should think about them.

Perhaps, Japan should try it to draw out the Hikikomori.

Maybe people can try to use sources that are not paywalled here?

Mostly white Europe has failed to vaccinanate its people at half the rate of the 40% black and Hispanic USA.

White nationalists, how do you cope with this troubling fact?

Would an Ireland that is not pozzed in exchange for a standard of living comparable to Eamon de Valera’s times be a good trade? That should still be above what the North Korean countryside has.

Without a doubt. IMO, better dirt floors in parts of the country than poz. Attracting international capital was one of Ireland’s biggest mistakes ever.

I am not a white nationalist. I am a non-participant-observer. I have a friend who works in the american medical complex who maybe maintains the friendship only because she has pity on me her token deplorable friend. Like every white American has one token black friend except we could be distant cousins if we looked at our completely populated ancestor trees to four levels. She got the vaccination. Horrible immune system reaction for the better part of seven days. And she has the second shot scheduled.

I am going to get vaccinated if and when the SWAT team shows up at my front door with guns and needle drawn and not before. Diversity is what makes our country what it is!

This has already been covered in previous OTs. The short answer is that Europe believed the nonsense about the “international rules-based system” propaganda, whereas the Angloids just instituted de facto export bans on all vaccine production.

Here is a snapshot of the largest producers of vaccines. Much more supply is in the pipeline but all countries will need to share. It is essential to vaccinate the most vulnerable in the world *now* for the benefit of everyone. The pandemic is not over until it is over everywhere pic.twitter.com/udBMkw6Pnl

— Gita Gopinath (@GitaGopinath) March 26, 2021

Meanwhile, the Angloid press has been running a nonstop propaganda campaign about supposed European “incompetence” (understood in technical, rather than political, terms) when the reality is much simpler: naïvité.

I don’t hate Angloids for being ruthless. I hate European leaders for being craven, submissive and pathetic creatures constantly crawling under the diktat of what the US wants it to do. We’re seeing the same thing with the intentional self-detonation of the EU-China investment deal. Europe is just a remote-controlled collection of subcolonial puppet states. Cowardice has to be punished, so I feel no sympathy, just disgust.

Re: sanctions of Russia. There are good reasons to suggest that any “crippling” sanctions would mostly backfire on Western financial institutions. Russia has done a decent job de-risking their foreign debt contracts; in some instances even re-writing the terms from scratch, such as giving flexibility to pay back in rubles at prevailing market exchange rates even when the debt was taken in CHF, EUR or USD.

I would not wager on major sanctions being imposed for these and other reasons. In the event that I am wrong, it is unlikely that the effects will be as harsh as many seem to presuppose.

I’m a little confused with your point, but with the plantation economy, as far as I recall, they only used Africans because it was more profitable (initially) then Europeans (initially.) If there was some law against slavery though, I don’t think they would have even considered importing millions of Africans. They would likely have been forced to double-down on poor Irish and Indentured Brits.

Anyhow, what would FOLLOW that, assuming the normal course of history…is hard to say. I don’t actually know when African migrants started being a thing…did we ever see real numbers of them before the 2000s?

Comical idea though: American Plantation Lords import massive amounts of Malay
and Indian workers, inspired by experience of Dutch and British plantations in the Indies.

Alt. More likely timeline: MAYAN CHICANOS EVERYWHERE.

Thank God for all those Black and Hispanic doctors and medical distributors for bringing about the joys of this little experiment in non-Emperor approved gene-therapy.

Oh, wait a minute…a society with a large slave class can function fine so long as its smart-fraction and elites can accomplish what they set out to do. Still, it doesn’t make it good.

Anyhow, sarcasm aside, what is troubling about this anyway?

Yes, but, if you look at the chart, EU produced fewer vaccines than India. It even had a shittier ratio of imports to exports. EU is looking mad incompetent right now and white nationalists are angry and looking for an answer from their mentors as to why this is happening. And where all the Asian women at.

white nationalists are angry and looking for an answer from their mentors as to why this is happening

Proof link please.

Thanks.

It normally takes a couple of years minimum to develop a decent novel vaccine. And sometimes it just doesn’t work. Great that we had these Big Pharma stakhanovites in 2020, otherwise we would already all be dead of Covid by now…

A well deserved sarcastic reply:

https://www.rt.com/russia/519345-belarus-trolls-us-embassy/

I don’t hate Angloids for being ruthless. I hate European leaders for being craven, submissive and pathetic creatures constantly crawling under the diktat of what the US wants it to do.

“European leaders” have been running a non-stop campaign to discredit the non-profit AZ jab and trying to get the WHO to ban it, and when that failed they are now trying to impose an export ban on AZ, the vaccine they tried to say is unsafe and that they didn’t want. And you call Anglos ruthless!

No whataboutism on Assange and Milosevic:

https://www.rferl.org/a/kremlin-wont-react-plea-navalny-release/31171122.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-navalny-prison-ordeal-memories-magnitsky-death/31171498.html

If the RNA vaccine were any good, you would be able to identify vaccinated people using an antibody test, as it is done for hepatitis or measles. The current wave of vaccination is merely a contest in dick length. Amerikanski Nigro Kizzmekia made vaccines first, German Turk made it second, Joos vaccinated first, limies also diluted their doses etc.

Well, suck my medium-size Romanian dick. Corona is following its course undeterred, and is naturally waning in a country where 10% oficially had it and spring has arrived. Talk to us next November anyway.

When you have a hard core of anti-establishment, libertarian types who understands the risk of testing out gene therapy for a barely lethal virus, and (possibly rightly) suspect vaccination is the road to the Great Reset’s techno-serfdom.

Sorry I transposed the two regions. Anyway, you see, whites are further down the road of disenfranchisement on their own lands, and the disenfranchised will never trust what the upcoming top-down order offers, so it is natural the higher the share of whites, the higher extent vaccine refusal might be. Europe has its own healthy load of left-wing anti-establishment types and they often see eye to eye with the American dissident Right, and anti-Gates-vaxx is one of them.

f the RNA vaccine were any good, you would be able to identify vaccinated people using an antibody test

So that’s exactly how it is

So what are the chances that GM will pull out of Russia, or the Hilton Hotel Leningradskaya or Mariott Grand Aurora gets a name change? Are there any 4 or 5 star domestic hotel chains? All of the luxury hotel chains in Russia seems to be foreign like Sokos, Hilton, or Le Meridien.

As cryptocurrencies come into wider usage, they will come into the same reporting necessities as regular currencies for things like anti-money laundering, terrorist financing etc.

You suggested that you’d like to continue discussing “reforms in the Western world” that we began in the last open thread, #145:

Exactly what types of reforms do you see occurring in the Western world? Has this process already started?

Yes it has already started and is currently ongoing. There are many aspects in the recent evolution of Western societies that point to this. It’s a long topic, better discussing it on the next open thread.

Sounds like this is a topic that you’ve though a lot about – here’s your chance to expound on it.

Karl Denninger has the real scoop on the COVID-19 business:

https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=241875

Karl is rapidly becoming my favorite blogger, comparable to AlFin,

On the Donbass thread we have started a conversation about Western economic and social reforms that according to my humble opinion have been many years in preparation, but have only been put forward starting last year, during the early stages of the Covid pandemics.

I believe (quite subjectively) that the end goal of these social and economic changes is to attempt a restoration of the leading role of the globalized Western capitalism in the World economic affairs and of the Atlanticist networks on the World political stage.

Commenter JL asked me if this didn’t look like some sort of “Western Perestroika ” that will end in the same inglorious way as the last ditch effort to reform the Soviet regime and its system of alliances. I believe that the West is indeed in a somewhat similar situation, that its ideological and economic foundations are severely damaged and in need of a serious repair and upgrade. But the situation in today’s globalized West is of course completely different from the Soviet Union back in the 80ies.

As AP and I both replied, we think both economic and social systems are very different. I also have the impression that cultural code and Zeitgeist cannot be directly compared. And yet there is a feeling of déjà vu for those who have lived under the final decades of the Soviet regime and who now live in the West, the impression that the system is ongoing a deep and radical transition to something unknown. A transition that might end up badly.

This is something people of Soviet background talk about in my circle. And even native Westerners sometimes offer similar opinions. As one of my French friends, an investment banker, a man my age (mid 40ies) who is somewhat familiar with today’s RusFed, but did not live in USSR, told me last week: “This era feels like the last drops of economic and political sanity circling the drain”. I believe my parents might have felt something similar in the late Brezhnev era, at least that was the impression that comes from reading Soviet dissidents of that period.

Mr Hack has asked whether I could describe why I think “Western Perestroika ” was already underway. I replied that it is a long discussion and it’s better be done on an open thread. Given the nature of the topic it might go in different strange directions and become actually lost in a heap of disorganized information and opinions.

Again, this feeling or impression is very subjective and might be completely wrong. Perhaps the globalized West is doing alright, NATO and its allies will continue to rule the global defense and warfare scene, while Western corporate interests will just keep on dominating the global markets. If I am wrong, then there is nothing to discuss and I apologize for wasting your time with a useless comment.

But if you also feel something similar, then I would like to know your thoughts about it.

Do any of you know what the deal is with the iron cage or plexiglass box they put defendants in at trials in Russia/FSU?

Specifically, I am curious if it goes back to the imperial era, or if it was a Soviet innovation. In any case, as an Anglo-Saxon, I find it prejudicial, in the legal sense. How can the defendant not appear guilty if he is stuck in a cage like an ape at a 19th century zoo?

Lots of between-nation variation in attitudes here. Perhaps the Russian mind is not as worried about punishing the innocent. Interestingly, in the Netherlands and at least some Scandinavian countries, defendants are in many/most cases not publicly identified. They find it an intrusion of privacy/presumption of innocence that American law always names the defendant.

If there was some law against slavery though, I don’t think they would have even considered importing millions of Africans.

That’s an interesting distinction – a law against slavery, rather than a law against the slave trade (which ended up being violated.) Would it have worked? I’m not sure, perhaps, a law against blacks.

Alt. More likely timeline: MAYAN CHICANOS EVERYWHERE.

Perhaps, but when they built the Panama Canal, I think most of the low-skilled labor was black, imported from places like Jamaica, and the locals did very little, if any, of the grunt work. For a time, black slaves even had a niche appeal among Indians and Chinese.

But my overall point is this: slavery doesn’t seem to explain the presence of blacks in Europe. I would say that there was enough information available to Europeans – certainly by the timeline of Ireland – for them to understand that it was a bad idea to allow blacks to come. But that did not stop them – and we haven’t come to the full population explosion of Africa, yet. It seems likely that more are coming.

From the ground level here in the US, things really do look quite shakened up, from the strange presidential election that ended in quite visible violence, to the unfettered violent street protests last summer, to the continual acts of public violence experienced in centers of commerce today, and all of this framed by a background of the still viable pandemic threat. It does appear at times that the Federal government is trying to use the pandemic and its effects to its own advantage, to try and instill control of the country, that does appear to be coming apart at the seams. To no avail though really, the American crowds have shown much disdain for any attempts to reel them in, throughout the whole pandemic. The far right seems as emboldened as ever, and somewhere in the back of this all lurks the “Orange Man”, who seems to still be siting in a viable position to run next time around.

All of this doesn’t even begin to belie the fate of the country as the real effects of a long drawn out recession are bound to take hold…

When you watch the news, you really do wonder how long will Biden be able to last, stumbling about on various stages and stairs. How long till we are really exposed to the vagaries of a Harris presidency? Lots and lots of uncertainty out there, that doesn’t bid well for the markets at all….the whole world is not for the better by any of this.

…Perhaps the globalized West is doing alright, NATO and its allies will continue to rule the global defense and warfare scene, while Western corporate interests will just keep on dominating the global markets.

The globalised West is still doing better than other parts of the world. But like an ageing runner carrying a heavy, messy backpack with faster runners on its toes, and a steep hill coming up. The Western mind is cloudy, confused and unable to handle changing realities. Instead of dropping the unnecessary burdens, they want to pause the race and forbid cameras. The West has increasingly embraced censorship and that shows fear because no self-confident culture censors.

There is a logic in this approach: any “reforms” require that that the rest of the world stays still. It also requires an elite rejuvenation in every sense of the world. Instead a 78-old feeble grandpa, a post-menopausal grouch Merkel, and a weirdo who is married to his elderly aunt. That goes across the society elites: Hollywood is literally brain-dead, academia stuck in a paper shuffle and perks, corporations blackmailed into tribute payments to deranged angry groups. Below it is an ethnic mess with elderly boomers dreaming of cheap service labor and migrants looking for handouts and revenge.

The fact that it is unsustainable doesn’t mean that it will collapse, the Pisa Tower is still standing. Maybe in a few years the elderly will die off and there will be a revival, but each year the numbers get worse. Washington has just issued $2 trillion in fiat “wealth”, millions are still coming in thry unguarded borders, young people cannot afford to start families, the rentier class is locking themselves in gated enclaves. In major cities the dysfunction is visible (but thank god there is still a hill in El Paso where a few lucky ones can hide, as AP so poignantly argues).

W all know what would have to be done, but it’s unpleasant for people who make decisions. It is a lot easier to dream off shooting the runners who are catching up. The problem is in its current state, West is likely to miss. And the runners also have weapons.

(If you have a better idea, share it.)

dunno i’m a serb (not white!)

I think the bigger danger than GRBs is the Earth’s magnetic field shifting.

If it happens the wrong way, it could focus a lot of ultraviolet on some normally productive area of crops, like the American Mid West.

I heard what I thought was a rather amusing theory the other day: Republicans will get in again, and America’s problems will be solved by elections – because it will cause the Left to go even crazier, totally destabilizing the country, until it breaks apart into more functional units.

Let me hasten to add that I do not believe it will happen.

We seldom agree, but I agree with you here.

One question – back to some exchanges we had: do you see the central role that the older generations and their in-retrospect selfish choices have played?

They had a great thing going, they decided to lock in personal gains in jobs, assets, real estate, sinecures, and screw the next generation by open borders, pyramid asset schemes, massive increase in education-housing costs, insane personal liberalism.

Sure, the younger people too often embraced it and made it worse, but the process was started by Boomers and Silents and they are the ones who benefitted: open borders, gender madness, racial kow-towing, degenerate culture. Young have few choices: massive migration has destroyed labor markets and pyramid asset schemes created a no-win situation. So escaping to uber-liberalism, or in some cases assh..le libertarianism, is easier than dealing with economic reality.

Or do you still defend what your generation did to the coming generations? We all know that eating your young is the worst crime for anyone to commit.

Quite honestly, I disagree with you here on the bulk of your viewpoints. Firstly, it’s been my experience to note that the overwhelming majority of American parents love their offspring and try to help them as much as they can, whether that be financially, including the financing of education, helping out with car loan payments, etc etc., or even lending moral support. In the past, it was rare to see children living at home past the age of 20, unlike in Europe where the extended family thing is more engrained as the norm and multi-generational living is not uncommon, although this is fast changing in the US too. But let’s look at your points more closely:

They had a great thing going, they decided to lock in personal gains in jobs, assets, real estate, sinecures, and screw the next generation by open borders, pyramid asset schemes, massive increase in education-housing costs, insane personal liberalism.

This is quite a simplistic way of looking at things, and it doesn’t help that you’ve lopped a lot of things together that really deserve separate analysis. Most people by the time that they hit their 50’s are getting quite fond of looking to the future, when they can slow down and exit the workplace rat race. There really aren’t a whole lot of employees in their 60’s hanging around anymore. As far as “locking in gains” as far as assets, real estate and sinecures are concerned, what would you suggest? You spend your whole life working hard and squirreling away some funds to help you in retirement, and then what are you supposed to do? “You can’t take it with you” and certainly any remainding funds and assets after you make the big exit will end up being bequeathed to close family members and possibly friends. That’s the way that it should be?

You can’t really go and blame the working folks of the country that big banks and Wall Street have managed to put their kids into a terrible financial mess by instituting unreasonable college loans that cover the cost of outlandishly high school tuitions costs? This is the kind of issue that should belong to the Democratic party, but as they’re in bed with these Wall Street financial banks, we’ll have to see where this all goes.

the process was started by Boomers and Silents and they are the ones who benefitted: open borders, gender madness, racial kowtowing, degenerate culture.

Again, I think that you’re over generalizing here again. If you’re against these “social justice” and liberal value oriented issues, you have a choice of voting for somebody more conservative, more Republican if you will. The country is pretty surely divided on these sots of issue, and as many (if not more) boomers that may have started off as lefties, have migrated slowly but surely to the right. I see this trend solidly continuing. The Left are the ones promoting open borders, the surest way to increase their membership head count.

Funnily enough, the new black muppets on Sesame Street who are being used to indoctrinate toddlers to worship blacks are lighter-skinned than the reconstruction of Cheddar Man.

America’s problems will be solved by elections – because it will cause the Left to go even crazier,

The question is, “Will the GOP’s transformation to MAGA Populism succeed?”

At this point it looks fairly promising. GOP(e) Swamp creatures like Liz Cheney will face well funded Primary challenges. (1)

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has seen her political support completely collapse in Wyoming as solid majorities of both Republicans and all voters in the state want her out of office, a new poll shows.

Only 10 percent of GOP voters, and 13 percent of all voters, say they would vote to reelect her, and she trails by more than 30 points—54 percent to 21 percent—against state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, who has announced a campaign against her since her impeachment vote.

Due to the 2-party nature of the U.S. system — MAGA support for Workers pushes the anti-Worker U.S. Chamber of Commerce [USCoC] and international MegaCorporations into the DNC.

Bernie Sanders & The Squad hand-in-hand with the USCoC. No tent is big enough to make that combination work. Terms like schism and “Circular Firing Squad” spring to mind.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://sbynews.com/2021/01/30/poll-liz-cheneys-political-support-collapses-in-wyoming-as-primary-challenger-takes-double-digit-lead/

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So, what do you believe?

First, a generalization is inevitable in a blog discussion. Second, “loving one’s children” and other emotional excuses are irrelevant in the context what has been happening in the economy. Both in US, and also in Europe, a bit later, but very similar.

The traditional Republican party is an open-borders party even more than an average Democrat. They are obsessed with cheap labor, have been since Reagan, and are at the forefront of bringing in as many migrants as they can behind a smoke-screen of “shortage of labor“. Mainstream right-wing parties in Europe are exactly the same: Merkel and Macron and centre-right, BoJo is an open borders fanatic, he just doesn’t like too many Poles. You can expect Senate Republicans to join the deranged liberals in opening the borders more, amnesty, etc…there is no political solution because people in power want open borders and deracinated impoverished working class. Even Trump was wishy-washy and did less than he could.

The generations that voted these people into power is responsible. It is evasive to say “Wall Street bankers screw the kids”, etc…the situation today exists because it was consciously created by a ruling class that was elected and kept in power. They couldn’t do it e.g. after WWII in either Europe or US. In a democracy you cannot escape responsibility.

The problem in US is a growing gap between what elderly made and had to spend (basically free education and cheap housing) and what the younger generation is facing. The elderly fixed the labor market by bringing tens of millions additional migrants. With increased supply of labor (on all levels, from dishwashers to engineers) incomes predictably stagnated and costs went up. In Europe something similar has happened and the social programs have been heavily used to bring in more migrants – e.g. free housing for migrant “families” means less housing or more cost for the locals.

You like to celebrate the “high-education” migrants. Do you realize that they received their education at home for free and arrive in the West (US) with no debts or obligations? The local young people have enormous debts and often responsibility for ageing parents. The migrants leave that at home and eventually bring their old relatives in order to put them on free medical care and social programs since they are technically “indigent”. (Only on California there are 1 million elderly Third Wold migrants on Medicare who were brough by their kids. Do the numbers and consider who is paying for it.)

There are nuances. But that is the general picture: a (Boomer) generation that optimized all for themselves and screwed the next generations. The fact that they will give it up at the end is irrelevant, it doesn’t work that way. There is a large number of overpaid Boomers who sit in their sinecures from universities to government.

Good intentions and “loving children” is fine, but by any standard the Boomer+ older generation screwed their children. In a democracy, they are also responsible and not “Wall Street”. There is often a terrible price to pay for evil, let’s see if it happens.

There has been a lot of turnover in Republican ranks, hasn’t there? Though, I admit to being something of a skeptic.

Hate to say it, but I think the most likely scenario is a long decline – like maybe for a hundred years or more. Brazil del Norte. I think the reason that polarization won’t pull the US apart is that secession can’t be grassroots, it needs to involve elite defection, and there aren’t any economic incentives for any of them to defect, unlike in the Soviet Union.

50 years out, I could potentially see Chinese people fleeing to China and whites trying to flee to Eastern Europe, in large numbers.

On the other hand, the US could be made a lot more functional with certain political changes. Maybe, they could happen, if King Dollar croaks? Or if DeFi allows for enough tax avoidance? But I’m not sure.

By the time masses of Africans started to arrive in Europe, Europe (and the world) was in the grip of a blankslatist ideology.

I think a war could hasten its demise. Otherwise I agree, and hopefully there’ll be no war.

So Visegrad countries are the most deadly in the world for coronavirus in terms of officially reported deaths (ignoring postsoviet space countries, where daily reported deaths have been so vastly underreported as to be almost meaningless).

So, the lesson is that this what happens with combination lack of strict enough lockdowns and perhaps populations’ individual disobedience, and lack of intelligent policies like installation of indoor ventilation and PPE (e.g. Japan).

At least, Hungary has a fast vaccination. But vaccination had to be combined with a strict lockdown (or obedient population and intelligent ventilation policies, like in Japan) while you are doing it, and in Hungary and Israel are both an example where they have failed to enforce strict enough lockdown during the vaccination campaign. As a result of the lack of strict lockdown, Hungary and Israel had both the highest amount of their deaths synchronous with their rapid vaccination campaign.

Mr Hack has asked whether I could describe why I think “Western Perestroika ” was already underway.

Nah, Biden is no Gorbachev. He is a Kerensky – a fossil of the old order to be swept away in order to make way for global glorious revolution. Once Mensheviks and right deviationists have been dealt with, President WASBAPPIN will be able to accomplish what Trotsky couldn’t.

lack of strict lockdown,

Well I wrote this part unclearly. There is of lack of sufficiently strict and early, lockdown, during the vaccination campaigns.

Lebanon is experiencing this kind of archetypical “currency crisis”, where you have falling (unofficial) local currency value, and a rapid inflation for imported products.

This perhaps is reminiscent economic problems to 1997 in the Asian tiger economies, 1998 in the Russian Federation, and in 2002 in Argentina? And it’s one of the reasons why a government should focus on food security as a kind of minimax for the worst case situation of such financial crisis.

Brawls in shops as Lebanon’s financial meltdown hits supply of food

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The collapse of Lebanon’s currency has forced many grocery shops to temporarily shut within the last 24 hours, raising fears that a country reliant on imports could soon face shortages of food.

Food shops around the country were locking their doors, halting online deliveries or restricting customers’ orders. Others stayed open, but could not say for how long.

“There’s a big possibility we will close if it stays like this. I don’t know where will we get supplies, and no one is helping us,” said Beirut grocer Mohieldin Fayed, who has kept his shop open.

The pound tumbled to 15,000 to the dollar on Tuesday, losing a third of its value in the last two weeks. It has now sunk by 90% since late 2019.

“If this persists, things will start to disappear, traders will prioritise what to get,” said Hani Bohsali, head of the foodstuffs importers syndicate. “We’ll have to buy less, in variety and quantity, because we can’t find the money.”

He estimated the country has roughly two months of supplies, while it was getting more and more difficult for importers to obtain the dollars they need to keep buying.

The economy’s collapse has pushed much of the population into poverty and poses the biggest threat to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Social media users have been sharing videos of supermarket brawls, such as a fight between a man and a woman trying to buy powdered milk. Prices of many consumer goods such as diapers or cereals have nearly tripled during the crisis.

Nabil Fahed, head of the syndicate of supermarket owners, said some of the shops that had shut on Tuesday reopened on Wednesday after replenishing stocks. But he said permanent closures would happen if no exchange stability was reached.

“What we’re afraid of is that these eventually turn from temporary closures … that it becomes final because it is a dire situation, their capital is being eroded and they don’t have money to pay for goods.”

The vice president of Lebanon’s bakeries’ syndicate said bakeries were supplying the country with bread for now, but could not do so indefinitely without a solution. Lebanon imports almost all of its wheat.

“If we continue at this pace, in the end we will reach a forced closure until the exchange rate stabilises,” Ali Ibrahim, who tried to resign from his position two weeks ago because of the dire situation, said in a statement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-crisis-economy-idUSKBN2B929I

President WASBAPPIN will be able to accomplish what Trotsky couldn’t.

Simultaneous nuclear strikes against all nations in the world?

All of this doesn’t even begin to belie the fate of the country as the real effects of a long drawn out recession are bound to take hold…

It is hard to say whether the West will end up in a recession, I think there is no more economic normalcy left, any prognostication is difficult. Perhaps people knowledgeable in economic forecasting could chime in and share how they see the future economic activity unfolding.

About the political polarization, it is indeed evident that there is nearly no common ground left. I would like to add that it is perhaps due as much to the to the influence of legacy mass media as the impact of the social media, the blogosphere etc. There is an enormous quantity of information, but it is quite contradictory and extreme. It is not really amenable to analysis or reflection, it is emotive and not rational. A lot of it is near the levels of click bite, some is outright manipulation of public opinion. This is an important aspect of our situation: we have an excess of information, but a lot of it is useless or outright misleading.

But perhaps these are symptoms of a deeper social malaise?

I agree with much of what you wrote, but I am frankly not sure whether we really know what has to be done. We experience the symptoms of the manifold decline of our societies, we see its impact around us and even in our circles, but we have no consensus about how to deal with these changes, much of which are hardly positive.

The political polarization that Mr Hack has mentioned and the low quality of the torrent of information that is pouring 24/7 on the Western middle class, makes any mindful discussion of solutions to the crisis nearly impossible. The solutions offered on both extremes are hardly realistic.

make way for global glorious revolution

What would be the ideological justification this time?

what Trotsky couldn’t

Trotsky did not have teh internets, big data and deep learning. TPTB now have all of this and more.

(I know that you’re kidding…)

Most infectious diseases vary in lethality by ethnicity. Doesn’t this fit the global pattern best?

I’m guessing that the long term effects of a recession appearing, after all that the US (and the world) has been through in 2020, is still to be felt based on what transpired historically in 2008 and its resulting economic slowdown. Perhaps the generous pandemic relief checks sent out to many has temporarily slowed down this worsening situation?

Somehow though, I think that we’ve averted discussing the “reforms” of the Western world, that I think you ascribe to the Atlanticist juggernaut and lynchpin in Washington DC? 🙂

You can expect Senate Republicans to join the deranged liberals in opening the borders more, amnesty, etc…there is no political solution because people in power want open borders and deracinated impoverished working class. Even Trump was wishy-washy and did less than he could.

Trump came to power largely on a platform to tighten up the borders. It’s yet to be seen how much mileage and real impetus meaningful border control issues will play in future Republican politics. Certainly, a lot in states that share a border with Mexico. This issue is far from resolved yet, and big business may not have the last word here. Many voters hold strong anti open border viewpoints, and taxpayers don’t always feel burdened to bail out every Tom, Dick and Harry that crosses the border.

For every war hawk, I think there is a buffer of a couple of less crazy people. At least, enough to prevent a bigger war – Iran-level and above. Very few people are crazy enough to want to go to war with China over someone else’s offshore mineral rights or over Taiwan.

I give serious war a very low probability. The trend has been to less boots on the ground, less economic restructuring for war. Ultimately, a more soy-infested US will probably become more aggressive with its rhetoric, but less able to project power.

The one unknown is ethnic animus. Suppose Kamala is commander-in-chief, during a tense situation, and she wants to try to use the US as a golem to punish China? I don’t say it will happen – I think she is more of a cosmopolitan hustler – but I’d lower the DEFCON level by half a point.

The purifying fires of anti-fascism. That SaveIdlib hashtag crowd may not run on logic and rationality (Al Qaeda office in Idlib is probably not too keen on transgender rights), but they make up for it with zeal. I have a feeling we will see a lot of that getting promoted in upcoming years.

A world that doesn’t have a weekend gay parade in every country is a world that doesn’t need to exist.

He’s gotten banned fwiw. I guess he’s a bit too fun for the powers that be.

What would be the ideological justification this time?

Same as always – Global Absolute Empire based on a confederate structure, led by a progressive revolutionary vanguard, where each individual confederate is guaranteed to be weaker than the revolutionary core, making resistance futile.

Trotsky did not have teh internets, big data and deep learning. TPTB now have all of this and more.

(I know that you’re kidding…)

Only partially. I don’t like it, but our friendly overlords know what they are doing.

He got banned because he was boiling that frog too fast, frog was getting uncomfortable and getting second thoughts. Same with Trump – Trump was too honest and that just won’t do.

our friendly overlords know what they are doing

I believe they (unfortunately?) indeed know what needs to be done. And I think think that this time it is not only addressing some social, economic and geopolitical aspects in need of (urgent?) change. The environmental aspects and human biology are also targeted for an adjustment. This is what I am mostly worried about, but perhaps I shouldn’t worry and learn to love the Green New Great Reset…

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/buttigieg-says-white-house-is-weighing-mileage-levy-to-fund-infrastructure.html

There has been a lot of turnover in Republican ranks, hasn’t there? Though, I admit to being something of a skeptic.

I am mildly optimistic. However, it is a “2 steps forward, 1 step back” change process.

I thought the MAGA party was committed to protecting female athletes. Then Gov. Noem caved for no apparent reason. (1)

We are extremely disappointed to see Gov. Noem break her word on this critical legislation,” Terry Schilling president of the American Principles Project (APP) said in a statement. “Gov. Noem’s veto would scrap the vast majority of the bill text and would strip protections for female athletes in collegiate sports in the state. Additionally, it would eliminate all reasonable enforcement mechanisms, neutering the legislation so much as to render it meaningless.”

The GOP(e) Swampies are going to fight as long as they can. The Uniparty gives them cash & prestige that they do not want to lose.

My biggest concern is redistricting. MAGA won at the state level, and they should be able to use that to take control of the House. I suspect theoretically Red states, like Georgia, will intentionally throw away that advantage. Swampies will attempt to create safe Uniparty GOP(e) seats and fragile MAGA districts.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/03/20/betrayal-noem-neutered-bill-protecting-womens-sports-n1433936

Somehow though, I think that we’ve averted discussing the “reforms” of the Western world, that I think you ascribe to the Atlanticist juggernaut and lynchpin in Washington DC?

I think we should first define what “Atlanticist ” means. In my opinion it is not an ideological, but first and foremost an economic and financial alignment.

Only partially. I don’t like it, but our friendly overlords know what they are doing.

I don’t think they do, having some acquaintance with the higher rungs of governance. I think the truth is that there’s no coherent “plan”; certainly there’s coordination of language and a lot of other fakeness like the “build back better” and coordinated messaging. But I think, much like how Soros organized his destruction largely through donations and sabotage, its not really a master plan as much as well-funded effort to encourage the ill nature of modernity and maximize it. Its more skating the waves and guiding them, I feel, more than a specific cabal truly creating the waves of poz.

But in practice, government is increasingly staffed by some combination of amoral strivers, nepotistic appointees and a particular brand of dysfunction that ultimately encourages spoils-seeking. And spoils seekers are more like carrion eaters than masterminds, they either don’t care or are blindly unaware that their activity promotes the very collapse of the system that gives them their gains. For the former, they may simply be seeking to steal as much as possible before the system collapse: they are parasites who’ll find a new host. For the latter, they’re like parasites who’ll die with the host, but can’t realize it.

And that’s why I think in many ways, its worse than thinking that there’s actually a plan. There’s no plan and no reason. We’ll suffer not for great meaning or against powerful hosts, but because of the collective petty machinations of little napoleons for status, because of the whims of the powerful and mentally ill, and for the infinite disgruntlements of an ideological bourgeoisie that hate their families and find mean in the religion of wokeness, who’ll plunge us all into ugliness and darkness, so they can forget for a little moment of the ugliness of themselves and the self-hate that they in their more lucid moments, realize that they deserve because of how damned they are.

It is through their own little personal hells that they open portals for the demons, even if it destroys them too.

I did actually look up the term recently (Atlanticist) and it seemed to give a greater weight to NATO involvement. But however you define it, I was interested in following up on your statement regarding impending “reforms in the western world”. I thought that you had something on your mind that you wanted to discuss in a longer fashion? Perhaps, I misread you?….

I’ve come to realize that I find the voice of a tranny even more disturbing than the sight of one.

Quite remarkable. We are used to thinking of our eyes as the sieve of all physiognomy, but we should not forget the power of our ears.

I recall reading an old sci-fi story where they created a duplicate of murdered man, from recordings of the sound of his voice.

I don’t feel it personally but I didn’t live through perestroika. My wife did, she sees changes here but they are in some sense the opposite of perestroika, which involved a sense of openness while in the West there is in contrast a sort of Puritanical closing up. People in the USSR stopped getting cancelled as the Soviet system teetered on the edge, whereas cancellation is beginning in the USA. If one wants to be a pessimist, this suggests that instead of the beginning of Perestroika and pending collapse, we are witnessing the dawn of a stifling and stagnant Brezhnev era as corrupt corporate bureaucracies under senile semi-leadership consolidate their grip over an increasingly cynical but still-wealthy population going about its business. In which case, Perestroika happens in 20 years and collapse in 30. The Boomers will die peacefully in their prosperity – sorry, Beckow. We in the next generation will have a nasty old age.

I am not so pessimistic but if I were, that is what I would expect to happen.

I do agree that modern Westerners have in common with late-period Soviets, a sense of dissatisfaction with how things are:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/341675/satisfaction-continues-improve-march.aspx

Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. continued to improve in March, as 32% say they are satisfied with the direction of the country. This is the second monthly increase Gallup has recorded after the measure fell to its lowest point in nearly a decade in January. Still, Americans are more than twice as likely to report being dissatisfied with the country’s direction (67%).

::::::::::::::

Now some quick musings about several key differences between the USA and the end-stage USSR:

1. USSR was poor by Western standards and getting poorer and falling further behind. In contrast, USA and EU are the richest places on Earth.

2. When Soviet system collapsed, the collapse didn’t harm other places, they prospered. If USA/EU go down everyone will go down with them. Is Russia going to be able to buy Chinese stuff to replace what the USA/EU had been buying? And who will buy Russian gas and oil if neither EU or China (due to collapse in trade with the now-collapsed USA/EU) need it anymore?

3. When Soviet financial system collapsed, people lost their life savings. If the US financial system collapses, a lot of people will lose a lot of savings. But also, a lot of people won’t have to be making payments on their SUVs and homes anymore. And no defunct bank will take them from the hundreds of millions.

Even if one didn’t hear about Saudi Arabia allowing Netflix to stream gay shows, I think that the construction of the Abraj Al Bait would probably be a strong sign of poz in Islam and in particular in Saudi Arabia.

Would the zoning laws of NYC have allowed such a complex to be built as close to Central Park as it is to the Kaaba? A while back, I made an argument about how I thought that Christianity had lost something from the modern ease of travel, making pilgrimage much easier and hermitage much more difficult.

BASED

Maybe. I guess incompetence and a plan to keep confederates weak would look rather similar. United States would just be another confederate in the grand scheme of things, to be kept weakened accordingly.

I mean, why did Soros fund all those district attorneys in the liberal states? Why was he playing catch and release with BLM/antifa during riots? I mean, murder rate skyrocketed in liberal cities, and they were supposed to be Soros’ allies – heavily Democratic strongholds. It’s a rather mean thing to do to your friends. Was he not planning on burning liberal cities down or was he incompetent and didn’t see it coming?

Maybe, but I find it hard to believe. It seems to me that liberal cities got too powerful and needed to be cut down to size. It was nothing personal, just keeping another confederate weak. Even if those confederates are nominally pro-Soros.

Same thing with trannies. Overlords know that designer babies and other bioengineering will become a thing in not too distant future, but instead of promoting this from a position of strength and glory, they introduce those concepts from a position of weakness and basically advertise chemical castration. Everything to keep people going that route weak.

Same with environment. Energy security and environmental concerns are serious issues, and again the overlords are pushing weaker solutions (such as renewables).

EU is a bureaucratic mess for that reason as well. All to keep them below potential.

I bet once space exploration kicks off for real, Greenpeace will discover space turtles and place then on endangered species (they will be so endangered nobody will ever see one) list and that will be used to set up barriers as to where and how you can explore.

It’s not that the World Economic Forum crowd is stupid, they fancy themselves quite progressive and they have some good ideas and they do understand social pain points. But desire to control things drives them to promote weakness and rationing rather than human glory and that is frustrating. Even when they are on the right side of history.

Or maybe they are just coasting and seeing how many social experiments they can pull off before things become unglued and fall apart. But at this point, my bet is still on weakening the confederates.

Murderous car thief at crash site laments separation from phone (still in trashed car) while shattered victim motionless on concrete—at 1:09 in this sickening document. Thought I was jaded, but guess not. Unfiltered psychopathy.

Appalling footage of the carjacking near Nationals Park in Washington D.C. on Tuesday that resulted in the death of Pakistani immigrant & Uber Eats driver Mohammad Anwar. The teenage girls who police say used a Taser to steal the car face murder charges.https://t.co/mOPnrLBf0t

— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) March 27, 2021

No you didn’t misread me. I disagree completely with Mr Chieh and I believe that there’s an attempt at reforming global Capitalism and that these reforms have been long in preparation. But first we need to understand why the people who are involved with the reform process believe that it is necessarily.

They don’t do it for fun, because they are particularly evil or because they believe in some idiotic ideology. They are doing it because they probably believe that they have no choice and that without these reforms the future of the whole civilization, the human species and probably the biosphere will be very bleak. That we are facing a collapse of our civilization and that they must prevent it. What they are working towards is a future that they see as a lesser evil, or perhaps a greater good.

All the political shenanigans and slogans of wokness and pozz are in my opinion a useful distraction to keep the masses busy with idiotic and meaningless illusions, while serious people (political grown-ups) are taking the indispensable decisions.

That’s what I believe is happening. I also believe that these people will probably fail, because they are attempting something unprecedented and extremely hard to achieve. Namely, in this very generation, before 2050 or so, they want to completely transform human civilization forever. Not only the West, but the World.

I know that it sounds crazy, but this is what think is happening. Of course I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone thinks that I have some mental problem caused by reading too many conspiracy theories online. I have no problem with anyone thinking that what I write is crazy, everyone is free to believe what they feel most appropriate, we still live in a (mostly) free society, for a time at least.

🙂

Well, if the USA/West go down now China (which per capita is till much poorer than the USA) will never get its money back and it will also lose its biggest customer (Russians and poor Africans won’t be buying all the stuff Americans will stop buying). Given the domino effect and the fact that the USA (unlike the USSR in 1985) is currently far richer than any other major country, a collapsed America, even if its fall will be greater than others’ decline, will probably still be richer than the rest of the world.

I suppose not much will change in Africa, it will be as poor as ever, it will stop getting aid but that won’t matter much in the long run. Maybe the more developed Latin American countries and Russia will be in a closer position to the USA.

:::::::::

Of course, if we are entering not perestroika but the Brezhnev era, and perestroika will start in 25 years (and collapse in 30), things may be different then. China will need the US/West less, Russia other areas will develop further, etc. In 30 years, an American collapse may not be as bad for everyone else as it would be now or in 5 years.

This is why the comments need a, “Sexy,” button.

But desire to control things drives them to promote weakness and rationing rather than human glory and that is frustrating.

I think they simply believe that they have no other option left, that every other probable development is either a dead end or an outright catastrophe. You have mentioned Space exploration, I believe that one of the pieces of the puzzle is that we will probably be not ready for a massive space exploration program for at least a couple more generations. If we keep business as usual during that period we will screw up the biosphere beyond repair and make our very biological survival as a technological civilization very uncertain. To jump start this type of Space program, we require a World Government and a totalitarian system. To survive as a civilization until we get to acquire the ressources from our solar system we need to cut the consumption of the global (mostly Western) middle class. We need to reorient completely the Capitalist system towards producing long term strategic outcomes instead of short term gains. This is our global Perestroika: an attempt to ensure our survival as technological civilization until we reach the Space Age.

I’m sure the God-Machine will take this into consideration in regards to humanity.

Wonder if there could be some selection bias here. I mean, how cucked do you have to be to be a Serb taking an implicit bias test on race? Germany and Sweden: maybe, they are forcing students to take it? To mix with the cucks? And in Eastern and Southern Europe: perhaps, they had to pay people to take it?

If the reforms go as planned, the globalized West will not collapse, but the World in which our children will live in a generation will be a completely different environment. If the reforms fail, then what AP described will probably happen on a global scale reaching a degree where the global economy becomes dysfunctional, the technological civilization fails to a much lower level of sophistication, leading to a neo-Malthusian age that you have described in your writings. If the reforms fail, Soviet Perestroika ‘s outcomes might well seem a walk in a park and a joyful picnic.

stagnant Brezhnev era as corrupt

America’s situation is quite different, as usual. Soviet Union in the 1970s, was internally seeming to people, to be a functional, prosocial and optimistic time, while America in the 2020s, loves to portray itself as a dysfunctional and crazy country, always looking for the next zombie apocalypse. On the other hand, Soviet Union in the 1970s, was economically very vulnerable to the commodity cycle, while the economy of America’s bourgeoisie in the 2020s is much more diversified.

However, note that America’s situation in the 2020s, is very similar to America’s situation in the 1970s, or in the 1920s.

America was for at least the last century and half, always an internally dysfunctional, weird, and crazy society, which has the ability to romanticize its own weirdness (even Capone’s Chicago became romantic, by the 1950s). But America’s bourgeoisie is an economically diversified and well insulated one, and even a collapse of GDP by 30% in the 1930s, could hardly weaken their control of the country.

Westerners have in common with late-period Soviets, a sense of dissatisfaction with how things are:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/341675/satisfaction-continues-improve-march.aspx

Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. continued to improve in March

That’s another opposite situation of the USA to the USSR, or even Russian Federation.

America’s national personality is somewhere between narcissistic and histrionic personality disorder, as it has been for more than a century. Compare American media reports about coronavirus, with the situation in Russia.

In America, the reports are gratuitously obsessed about their own incompetence, and histrionically portraying the coronavirus as the next apocalypse, or at least scenario from a Hollywood disaster film. Whereas, by contrast, in the Russian media, everything is stable, calm and the authorities are in control.

–

Technological progress will drive the same alienation and psychological discomfort to all countries of the world, but Americans are the best self-dramaticizing hysteria about this process of alienation, as in everything else, while in Russia it’s almost in the opposite mentality to America’s one (at least to the extent the authorities are in control of communication).

Maybe, the whole point of promoting trannies is to throw ugliness into the face of people until they become so disgusted that they willingly accept eugenics.

I’m not a Serb, but if I had to guess.

1. Trolling.

2. What Dark Skin means to them.

[MORE]

Have you seen 1970s American comedy films like Network (Teleset)?

Most of the same cultural topics that we associated with America of the 2020s, were not any different than those contained in such films satirizing the dysfunctions of 1970s America. *

Some have a teleological view that the cultural madnesses of America today, must result in an exciting ending or conclusion.

But 1970s America had almost exactly the same madnesses, of 2020s America, and that is probably going to be in the 2070s in a modified form.

–

* For example, the satirical speech about the dehumanizing effect of television, which was passed to computers and the internet

The success of Trump’s style of populist rhetoric with a gullible American public..

The oligarch’s speech about globalization and the inexistence of nations, etc.

And satire about Black Lives Matter’s corporatism (the same groups were there in the 1970s in America)

Serbs recognize they are POC oppressed by American imperialism.

The end of 70ies was a tough time in US. Tough times were back in 2008, they would’ve been back earlier if not for the demise of the Eastern Block. Capitalism is an inherently unstable and dehumanizing system, that is one of the reasons that the political grown-ups have decided to rein it in and reform it. Many of these people are not American and US is not be all end all for them. They have a broader outlook and a long term vision. They want a unified World.

So if many of the current day memes are just “useful distractions” then what are the real “reforms” that you think that they may be implementing in order to create a society that includes “the lesser evil or greater good” So far, your “conspiracy theory seems relatively benign, notheing that would even make for a decent plot for a new James bond picture.

BTW, there’s no need for you to be self depracatory, for it’s clear that you’re a very intelligent, well read indicidual, who basis his opinions of history, economics and science. Besides, who doesn’t love the latest and greatest conspiracy theory anyways! Did you read Giraldi’s recent piece where he dismantles (supports?) the notion of a “Deep State’? 🙂

If you look at 4 states on Mexico border, 3 have moved left in the last 10 years: California, N Mexico and Arizona. Texas is the last hold-out. It is also very likely that business interests will not allow another tighten-the-border candidate to be nominated.

You are welcome to be an optimist, but it doesn’t look good.

Arizona, is not a decidely Democratic state, and will be up or contention for some time yet. I’m not sure about New Mexico. California is probably lost to the left, however, is paying and will continue to pay for this by a large exodus of discontents (both rich and poor). California has indeed crossed the Rubricon. 🙁

Unfortunately, we don’t execute minors in the United States, so these two will probably cause more problems in the future.

I think I first saw it in the case of Andrei Chikatilo, a serial killer, and I assumed it was to protect him from the families of the victims (who were also present in the courtroom).

I actually think defendants’ privacy should be protected the European way. However, once they are sentenced (and the verdict became final), this protection should be withdrawn, and the personal data as well as high resolution photos and videos (where he would be asked if he feels shame for being a criminal) should be published for anyone to see.

implementing in order to create a society that includes “the lesser evil or greater good”

They would basically need to reform global capitalism to make it more environmentally sustainable. To get there they would need to drastically lower global consumption and redirect the productive processes towards more long term objectives. Also, they have probably as a goal to complete the current technological transition trends in automation and AI, biotechnology and bioengineering, renewable energy and new nuclear energy technologies. While doing this they would also need to prevent the techno-Singularity and rule out the Accelerationist evolution described by Nick Land. Finally they need to complete globalization and balance regional, geopolitical and global governance.

Deep State

Any functional complex technological society must have a Deep State. Especially if it is a democratic society. Inside its social otganisation some people are bound to draw plans and make decisions without being constrained by the electoral cycles and social preferences of the voters. Deep State is only a problem if it is too corrupt and self-serving. But one of the goals of current reforms is also to curtail global corruption and ensure a higher level of financial compliance, decision-taking transparency and overall rule of law. People must get ready to live in a total awareness society where the decision makers know all they need to know about any member of the society and any anti-social activity can be prevented and/or corrected.

These people look like a perfect illustration of the mix of “neolithic Anatolian agriculturalists ” and “ancient European Cro-Magnon hunters gatherers”.

A beautiful phenotype.

the victory of Ngannou against Miocic in UFC last night might be the begin of a quite boring century in sports – at least in many disciplines. While African TFR of course might actually fall down by 2100, up to then Subsaharan Africans will rise their share of the world population very fast and substantial. Under these conditions a non-West-African heavyweight boxing champion, MMA Champion, best soccer player, best football player etc. is hard to imagine.

The non-crazy people didn’t prevent the Soleimani assassination. The Iranian answer could have killed American servicemen, in which case Trump might not have been in a position to de-escalate. I believe the chances of something similar happening are not zero.

There is another factor. If there are local wars in which America’s adversaries gain ground in easy victories (like a Blitzkrieg in Taiwan), then they might get emboldened and try to replicate the success elsewhere. The American establishment might get nervous and respond forcefully, and without considering giving a way out without a loss of face. (They no longer try to placate their enemies.) This could result in dangerous situations.

I think overall the chances of a big war over the next couple decades are relatively small (10-20% maybe?), but certainly not zero.

Peaceful Carjacking Gone Bad, Random, probably Poverty, and Society, claim another victim.

“They don’t do it for fun, because they are particularly evil or because they believe in some idiotic ideology. They are doing it because they probably believe that they have no choice and that without these reforms the future of the whole civilization, the human species and probably the biosphere will be very bleak. That we are facing a collapse of our civilization and that they must prevent it.”

It’s very late in the day…

In the early ’70s, computer modelling suggested that the externalities of industrial civilization (pollution, resource depletion) would by the early 2000s accumulate to the point that they would render industrial civilization unsupportable if “business as usual” continued.

http://www.donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Limits-to-Growth-digital-scan-version.pdf

Jimmy Carter seemed to have been a believer, putting on a sweater rather than dialing up the thermostat, and putting solar panels on the White House roof. And he made speeches about it.

Then we elected Ronnie on a platform of Laissez le bon temp rouler! and all that was just deleted from the culture, save for a few fringes.

Then we got to the early 2000s, and discover that history has tracked pretty close to the base “business as usual” case of the “Limits to Growth” modelling.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/limits-to-growth-was-right-new-research-shows-were-nearing-collapse

So what could have been a moderate, well-lubricated process evolving over time is gonna be recklessly fast, enormously costly in both financial and human terms, and perilous beyond belief.

China will never get its money back and it will also lose its biggest customer

The money lost will be trivial in the grand scheme of things. Britain never “got back” the money it spent on the Napoleonic wars, but it didn’t matter as it got so developed that it could easily pay back those debts. For comparison, Britain’s debt levels reached something like double of annual GDP (it spent even more than that, but much of it was covered by tax revenue), whereas current Chinese losses would be a fraction of that. Similarly, China doesn’t really need customers. It needs to sell enough to cover its raw material and technology imports, but obviously after the fall of the West there’d be no more technology left to import, so it’s just going to be China importing raw materials and delivering its manufactured goods in exchange. Okay, a little bit more if there’s tourism. Raw materials producers (and perhaps tourist destinations) will be enough.

I don’t really think the West’s fall is that imminent, just I don’t think it’d be so bad for China if it happened right now.

I partially agree. The Limits to Growth rapport was only partially right. It is true that we live in a finite environment, but technology allows for a more thorough exploitation of its ressources so the limits are enlarged by technological progress. If we still used the technology of 1972, we would have already collapsed as a civilization. But we became technologically more advanced and avoided the collapse.

I don’t really think the West’s fall is that imminent, just I don’t think it’d be so bad for China if it happened right now.

The West will not fall if it transforms itself. But if it doesn’t succeed in its transformation, then China will eventually impose OBOR as the new economic framework and will lead the world into a capitalism with Chinese characteristics.

一山不容二虎

Related:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/biden-invites-vladimir-putin-and-xi-jinping-to-climate-summit.html

But we became technologically more advanced and avoided the collapse.

You misspelled “delayed” above.

Along with technological advancement, what I think the neocons & Cheneys (two different but cooperative political phenomena) were banking on was the disintegration and de-industrialization of both the Warsaw Pact and Soviet successor states, allowing the new oligarch class there to sell their newly acquired assets for scrap & offshore the proceeds to the Anglosphere’s shadow banking system. Their fate would be impoverished, depopulated natural resource appendages for the Anglosphere. And so the combined Baltics have gone from 8m to 6m, with deaths exceeding births by 1.7 to 1; Ukraine from 52m to 43m (including Crimea), with deaths exceeding births by 2.1 to 1; Romania from 23m to 19m, with deaths exceeding births by 1.66 to 1; and Bulgaria going from 8.6m to 6.9m, with deaths exceeding births by 1.8 to 1. By comparison, Russia and Belarus are a fair bit healthier demographically.

The reason for the Anglosphere’s incandescent hatred of Putin is that he disrupted this cozy little plan by jailing Khodorkovsky while breaking the independent political power of the oligarchs & insisted on being negotiated with, not dictated to.

A very small minority of trials in Russia are in front of a jury. Its the judge deciding the case so there is absolutely nobody for the “cage” to be prejudicial to. The process is absolutely normal.

Our media is also able to report nearly anything they want about the case and evidence when legal proceedings start exactly because only the judge decides the verdict ….. for UK media they can’t report anything on any case when legal actions start.

South Africa doesn’t do trial by jury because obviously the racial factor in defendant and jury composition would be controversial and a prejudicing factor in every trial. You are correct in that South Africa’s legal system is Anglo-Saxon and I don’t think they use cages during legal sessions.

Israel I suppose is western…… wasn’t Eichmann on trial in a glass cage? Nearly all the main “sensational” trials in Russia have been done without a jury, although I think they are going to have more of them, – so I can’t say what the exact procedure on not prejudicing a jury trial is….. they are so rare I don’t know anybody who has even got asked to be on one!

As far as I know – UK courts do not allow cameras in, so I’m no sure at all if they don’t use plexiglass boxes

I don’t think we might really sustain several centuries under a technological stagnation scenario without a population collapse. In fact I don’t think that at the present level of technological complexity and the current Western capitalist socioeconomic system, we can handle any long term stagnation. A significant period of stagnation would inevitably turn into decline ending with a collapse to a lower level of economic, social and technological organization. Perhaps this is what our benevolent overlords are trying to prevent.

Also, stock market gains or losses appraisal are possibly not the best tool of environmental and socioeconomic prognostication.

Related:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-china-sign-major-25-year-strategic-cooperation-agreement/

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Belt-and-Road/Turkey-Iran-Pakistan-rail-link-to-China-s-Belt-and-Road

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/3/26/biden-suggests-creating-initiative-to-rival-chinas-belt-and-road

The reason for the Anglosphere’s incandescent hatred of Putin is that he disrupted this cozy little plan by jailing Khodorkovsky while breaking the independent political power of the oligarchs & insisted on being negotiated with, not dictated to.

Putin would have done a perfect job if not for the fact that under his watch the Russian elites, including his close circle, have plundered Russia as well and transferred substantial proportion of the proceeds to the said Anglosphere.

Finally! 🙂

Putin would have done a perfect job if not for the fact that under his watch the Russian elites, including his close circle, have plundered Russia as well and transferred substantial proportion of the proceeds to the said Anglosphere.

I’d be the last to deny that plunder has continued. It is diminished though, and investment in Russia has increased. For one example, the Russian armed forces are no longer “ruins and debris” but possess a powerful, usable, and hence extremely credible conventional deterrent threat to go along with the traditional nuclear deterrent, whose credibility was always undermined by the staggering collateral damage totally out of proportion to the value of any political objective that would be the consequence of its actual employment

Serbs recognize they are POC oppressed by American imperialism.

I prefer to think that they are feeding-in false information in order to be chosen as the new enforcers of our PC overlords, before ultimately turning on them.

These newer video games that have branching moral paths – I think the right decision is to choose the most pozzed path, and then wait for your results to be tabulated, so that you will be awarded position after the Great Reset, and be able to be part of the fifth column, when the time finally comes.

The way I see it, we already passed the Iran test.

People like McCain and Bolton have croaked or lost influence. And Iran is kind of a special case – the most dangerous, as there is an established history of antagonism. And less of a tendency to hit the brakes, since its economy isn’t anywhere as close to big as China’s.

After all the BLM riots, I think people in charge will be cautious about sending troops overseas and losing their pacification capacity at home.

To jump start this type of space program, we require a World Government and a totalitarian system.

This doesn’t make intuitive sense to me. The European Enlightenment and subsequent world colonisation happened not despite, but arguably because of fierce inter-state competition. The late 19th century was arguably the most innovative period in human history and it coincided with the peak of Great Power competition. It ultimately ended in a disaster on the continent, but whatever else one might say, it certainly didn’t slow down innovation.

Moreover, your argument ignores the fundamental garrulous nature of humanity. During uncontested US primacy, the world could afford to pretend to care about international co-operation because there was only a single hegemon in the system. It shaped global institutions and everyone played along because there was literally no alternative.

Now we’re seeing a situation with at least two, and potentially three (India) hegemons in a few decades time. China has made it abundantly clear it will not be subservient to US diktat the way a colonised continent like Europe has become. India is trending the same direction. This throws up obvious co-ordination problems in the way of your argument. The US does not like to share the crown, and its competitors have no plan to give up their rightful place (as they see it).

This world will not be conducive to a world government. Is that a problem for innovation? History tells us otherwise.

As usual, an excellent, perceptive comment from you. The supposed decline of America is much overdone by panicking conservatives. Lots of people underestimate the deep patriotism that Americans have, and I was guilty of this too a few years ago. No longer.

The deranged Russiagate and now Red China/Yellow Peril 2.0 scares prove that even “liberal” Americans are perfectly content turning into insanely zealous nationalists on a dime if they feel their national security is threatened in any way (even if imagined). This is not a country prone to breaking up any time soon. Asabiyyah is not an issue here.

Most of the cultural pathologies are coming from a neoliberal bugman class that is unrepresentative of the nation but has a very loud megaphone to propagandise their nonsense.

At any rate, they don’t even believe their own propaganda when their politicians actually get to rule.

"I can say quite clearly, don't come over." – @POTUS pic.twitter.com/awzbolMzU6

— U.S. Embassy Haiti (@USEmbassyHaiti) March 24, 2021

(5) Turkey’s lira is collapsing again. Sovereign default? Probably not – still has ample reserves (on paper). But interesting developments nonetheless.

[MORE]

One might apply this to the internal situation as well.

Just as international unity does not lead to innovation, excessive internal unity within a society likewise leads to stagnation.

The 19th century was also a period of great internal social division and of competing value systems and philosophies.

Nietzsche studied Greek culture and concluded that humanity reaches new heights only through fierce competition – he believed it was the Greek institution of the ‘agon’ that led to Greece becoming so much greater than its neighbors, who stressed unification, harmony, and central authority.

Heraclitus said war is the father of all things- obviously meaning competition and strife among divided factions leads humanity to create and adapt.

It is common here to mock the slogan that diversity is our strength, but it is true in a very real sense.

In America, might not the Indian, Chinese, Jewish, and White communities compete with each other in a friendly rivalry to outdo, out-excel, and out-achieve each other and leading America as a whole to new discoveries and creations? A sort of modern Greek agon?

Social rivalry need not be racial, but a healthy society needs a certain level of social division and strife. Competition between factions leads to innovation. Of course, too much strife becomes chaos and disintegration- but without risk and danger there is nothing great.

People are too afraid of division and strife. Nietzsche suggested the yearning for harmony and peace is the sign of decadence and exhaustion. All autocratic regimes are really decadent in their fear of competition.

Conservatives are by nature fearful creatures- that is why they wish to conserve and arrest change. They fear strife and desire peace and harmony.

Even the Woke ideology, in its insanity and aggression, is a stimulus towards the development of alternative and better philosophies, and a wake up call out of dull complacency.

Kant was famously roused from his dogmatic slumber by Hume, whose skeptical philosophy he found repellent and a challenge.

I sometimes get the sense that the commentators here are a bunch of exhausted and weary old souls.

From a Buddhist/Taoist perspective, of course, I am not interested in national greatness or technological innovation, although I find it easy to enter into the mindset of “worldly” achievement and understand what factors and conditions lead to its attainment (perhaps my lack of emotional involvement makes me more objective).

What does worry me is the conservative fear-based desire to impose a stultifying and dreary unity on life and tightly control everything, eliminating risk, adventure, diversity of lifestyle and thought, and freedom. This suppression of the abundance of nature is anti-Tao.

Of course, the mainstream Left exhibits similar tendencies.

The discussion started on the Donbass Thread when I wrote that I don’t see a direct military confrontation between China and the globalized West before the globalized West completes the reforms that have been started last year during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemics. I was then asked if these reforms might end up as badly as the Perestroika did and what I thought the nature of these reforms was.

I think I clearly explained what these reforms were in my opinion and expressed from the very beginning of the discussion on this thread that I did not believe that the globalized West will succeed in its transformation. My pessimistic opinion is not due to some anti-Western bias, but the fact that the reforms are unprecedented in both scope and intensity. I agree with the commentor rkka that much time has been lost (an entire generation after the fall of the Eastern Block was force-fed capitalist triomphalisme) and that the price to pay will be now higher than in the 1980ies.

Moreover, if you follow the exchange of comments, you will easily see that I believe the Great New Green Reset, or the Westerstroika (bwahahaha) is strongly motivated by the Chinese ascendancy and the impetus placed upon the containment of the OBOR/BRI by the globalized West. I believe that a form of convergence will be tentatively offered to the CCP based upon the “common environmental safety” or whatever they will invent as a justification. I have also written, that the Chinese will most probably not buy into that.

Finally, the last important aspect of the Westerstroika is an increased control upon the scope, the aim and the intensity of technological innovation. I believe that it is motivated by the desire of TPTB to prevent the techno-Singularity. Of course, competition increases innovation, there is no possible doubt about it, but an incresed innovation will strengthen Landian Accelerationism, it will end up with a techno-Singularity and trigger dramatic consequences for humankind.

That is why I have written that the failure of the Westerstroika would be way more terrible than the demise of the Soviet Union. Quite ironic that a generation after the terrible events of the early 90ies in my native land we find ourselves in even more dire straits, facing an even more complex conundrum. A problem delayed is a problem neglected, a problem neglected is a failure in making. Sad that the pain we have endured then was largely in vain. This is of course the end result of stupidity of both elites and the masses worldwide. And stupidity must be punished. And punished it will be.

Its interesting how an attitude can mean one thing on one level and its opposite on another level.

If your values are worldly success, greatness, and achievement, then the avoidance of strife, division, competition, and the desire for peace, harmony, and unity, both internally and externally, signifies weakness, decadence, exhaustion.

However, that you desire worldly success or greatness signifies you are excessively concerned with control of your environment and survival, and are motivated by fear – and thus signify weakness, exhaustion, lack of exuberance 🙂 And that you cannot see past appearances.

(From a Buddhist/Taoist perspective).

And so – avoidance of strife and competition can signify either fear and weakness or exuberance and fearlessness 🙂

Sort of like, as I read somewhere, the exact same gene can do one thing in one context and something else in another.

The world is so much more uncanny than our everyday philosophies.

The contention is good, but all 3 states have moved more liberal-left. My point is that open borders have consequences. It takes a few years, but things change…

How about the 1 million California Medicare elderly who never worked in US? (Official website number.) There are a few million more in India, Pakistan (see Sailer’s piece today)… itching to get that long-postponed knee surgery for free in US. The young people often with no insurance are paying for it. Trump talked, but did nothing about it.

Who among older voters thought this was a good idea? It just happened? Or Wall Street?

There are solutions, in both Europe and N America:
– stop the massive inflow of migrants, incl. family reunifications, etc…
– fix the infrastructure
– manage work by limiting hours to 24-32 hours/week
– provide basic social guarantees to all citizens (health, education, pensions) – yes, “socialism”
– avoid wars.

It will not be done because groups that control all governing bodies are heavily invested in preserving the current set-up: business would see increase in costs and inflation, parasitic officials would not get rewarded by the oligarchs, ethnic lobbies would lose power, investments would tank, old people would get less, warmongers put on ice…so we might have to wait until the numbers get so out-of-whack that the system collapses. That could take decades, and it won’t be pleasant.

Remember that there was a losing side in the election that Hitler won…how bad did they have to be to lose to Hitler?

All my favourite people are commenting in this thread. Happy passover by the way!

The revolution which began in Europe is now slowly traversing across the Atlantic. If even America, ground zero for car-centric NIMBY:ism, can return to sanity then there are no limits to progress.

Someone in the other thread was complaining about Google distorting search results.

One interesting example a friend of mine (tennis fan) told me is that whenever he searches for ATP Miami, he always only gets the WTA results. He has never been interested in it, and he has never heard of anyone who was. Certainly it’s difficult to imagine anyone who is more interested in it than in men’s tennis. I guess Google is being feminist here.

I believe the Great New Green Reset, or the Westerstroika (bwahahaha) is strongly motivated by the Chinese ascendancy and the impetus placed upon the containment of the OBOR/BRI by the globalized West. I believe that a form of convergence will be tentatively offered to the CCP based upon the “common environmental safety” or whatever they will invent as a justification.

Climate change policies may have a geopolitical angle, but I think you underestimate the internal will of the Chinese to deal with these problems, including by collaborating with others. This is not solely Xi’s own pet project. One of the most influential Chinese documentaries during the last decade was Under the Dome. There is a genuine popular groundswell of support inside China.

The Indians recently announced that they are aiming to go net-zero a full decade before China, despite being significantly less developed (and thus needing more energy as they grow). In brief, I think this is your Russian perspective distorting your lens here. Russia, like Australia, is notoriously “climate-skeptical” and tend to view climate policies cynically and defensively.

Finally, the last important aspect of the Westerstroika is an increased control upon the scope, the aim and the intensity of technological innovation. I believe that it is motivated by the desire of TPTB to prevent the techno-Singularity. Of course, competition increases innovation, there is no possible doubt about it, but an incresed innovation will strengthen Landian Accelerationism, it will end up with a techno-Singularity and trigger dramatic consequences for humankind.

They can try to control whatever they like, it won’t make a damn difference. We have a saying in Sweden: teknik slår alltid politik. I think any English speaker can understand the gist of it. We at least seem to agree that the world is not going to slow down in innovation any time soon and that concepts like “techno-malthusianism” are garbage and laughable.

While I agree that a singularity would have dramatic consequences, I don’t see how it would necessary be bad. Evolution is constant, and being limited to 80-120 years is intensely boring. I want to learn new things at 800 years, let alone 8000. We can’t get there without essentially shedding our biological constraints (bodies), which requires radical new technologies and a fundamental end to homo sapiens. That’s not to be feared, merely the next step in the long arch of history.

Remember that there was a losing side in the election that Hitler won…how bad did they have to be to lose to Hitler?

Adolf & the Nazis never won any election. What brought The Mustache to power was the machinations of the German Center-Right.

First came Bruning’s “Austerity” response to the Creditanstalt crisis, which impoverished & radicalized the German working & middle class voter:

https://www.nber.org/papers/w24106

The Nazi vote rocketed up, as desperate people looked for simple answers.

Then these same Center-Right politicians convinced Hindenburg to name Adolf chancellor, then granted him dictatorial power by a 4/5 majority vote, including every single national political party in favor, except the Social Democrats (the KPD having already been banned).

So it was the German Center-Right who paved Adolf’s path to power, then handed him dictatorship. And he rewarded them handsomely.

…Bruning’s “Austerity”…which impoverished & radicalized the German working & middle class voter

Right, that looks familiar, today the West is ruled by a bunch of “Brunings”. Mistakes and self-serving behavior are what decides elections. In the election, Nazis came in first, and had a majority with their allies.

That’s what winning an election means. You are hiding that reality behind minutia.

If Jews never got to the West or to Europe other than in very very very tiny numbers (for whatever reason), what groups would see the most gains in terms of term output as they take up the slack? French? Germans? Britons? Italians would be even more influential in the 16th century? As for eastern Europe, Baltic Germans would be even more dominant in Russia if Jews were not around. Note that Episcopalian whites ( a nice proxy for upper class Northern Europeans) have a slightly higher IQ than Jews, although the personality tends to be more agreeable and less argumentative.

That’s what winning an election means. You are hiding that reality behind minutia.

Yes. Mussolini said that Fascism is more properly called Corporatism, for it is the merger of state & corporate power. Variations of this is now the main model of governance, with the corporations/oligarchs mostly owning the politics.

In PRC & Russia, the state owns the corporations/oligarchs more than the reverse, though in Yeltsin’s Russia, the Seven Bankers did own the government..

I believe we might indeed have either a techno-Singularity with an uncontrolled Accelerationism or a Malthusian future with an exhausted technological progress. Both are dangerous for the future of our species. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the Fermi paradox: socioeconomic bottlenecks. Our best bet would be to wisely avoid both extremes and attempt to move forward in a measured and thoughtful manner. We need to avoid conflit and achieve a balance. Future can wait.

In PRC & Russia, the state owns the corporations/oligarchs more than the reverse

Some version of Green Corporativism / Environmental Solidarism will probably also be the end of a successful Westerstroika.

I agree that technological innovation is the primary driver of the social change. I don’t deny climate change, but I don’t believe human impact is significant compared to solar activity cycles and perhaps other geophysical phenomena. If the Chinese and Indians converge with the West on the environmental agenda, then we might have a possible common ground to move forward together and avoid violent competition that might be detrimental for everyone in the medium/long term.

In the past, I thought it might be a good idea if we taxed pozzed movies, but, perhaps, there is a better solution… What if we just mandated that the protagonists eat bugs on screen?

Completely retarded and false you double-dealing idiot.

1. How many hundreds of billions are in government reserves, to be used in crisis, the National projects and the rebuilding of the country in the last 20 years? And a cretin like you is talking about “plunder”. This is not like Saudi Arabia, where there is an extremely small elite in a much smaller country in population, most of the skilled labour or specialist work is foreign, most of the unskilled or manual work is also foreign,oil extraction costs are much lower than in RF, domestic consumption of oil is much lower, majority of the local woman don’t work…….. in KSA they can accumulate big reserves, build stuff AND plunder the country

2. Khodorkovsky, Gusinsky and Berezovsky were 3 of the most sinister, powerful and richest oligarchs – prosecuting these swines and (partially) seizing their assets….. resulted in a massive western PR effort against Russia to intimidate western public and western investors away from. Russia , 2 of them the west prevented from getting extradited to Russia, $100 billion of russian money could be potentially seized by the west if their corrupt legal system judges in favour of Yukos. That’s just from 3 oligarchs ( who are just western middlemen)……. how can state pursue all the other main oligarchs and not come to some agreement with them in these circumstances you idiot?

In addition the west and has also allowed many,many other criminal, corrupt officials and businessmen to become fugitives over there since the time of Kho/Gu/Berez….. the Chelyabinsk ex governor one of the latest examples

As for the state “oligarchs”, for which of them can you cite underperforming share price, low contribution to state budget/ unofficial state projects and general bad performance to call “plunder” you faggot?Name one. Very silly

Trillions of dollars stolen from Russia in 90s /early 2000s to be given to the west………..
situation non-comparable now.

Another idea to fight political correctness might be to bring back minstrel shows, but instead of using blackface, just hire dark non-Africans to play Africans: Dravidians, Papuans, etc.

Isn’t hat a bit fatalistic? As if human beings had no impact at all on the outcome of the evolution of their own civilization.

OTOH the Fermi paradox probably holds true because the immense majority of intelligent species in our galaxy probably do not manage to become spacefaring as they get crushed between the extremes of technological progress gone awry and an extreme biosphere degradation à la Обитаемый остров / Жук в муравейнике. There are many possible dead-ends for potentially a very low number of positive outcomes. Also we probably have a limited period of time to “graduate ” and get our “spacefaring credentials ” before we lose the pace of progress and perhaps die-out.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/18/toxic-chemicals-health-humanity-erin-brokovich

Commenter Levtraro has mentioned a couple of times a “segregated governance ” of sorts. Perhaps it would allow to concentrate innovation and keep it under control in some hi-tech smart city enclaves, while a large proportion of humanity would live more or less in a late nineteenth or early twentieth century fashion, distributed across small / medium size agricultural communities (possibly like the Amish or Mennonite). Maybe that would be a way to hedge for the existential risks.

CNN says it was an accident.

Police said the girls, 13 and 15, assaulted an Uber Eats driver with a Taser while carjacking him, which led to an accident in which he was fatally injured. https://t.co/N6RpLoTu8x

— CNN (@CNN) March 27, 2021

White mass murderers never get wounded by the police and rarely even get prosecuted pic.twitter.com/vK5JOEfNak

— Michael Malice (@michaelmalice) March 24, 2021

I’m absolutely astonished by that article. There seems to be no cure for the Russian delusion that they have to sell ruble-denominated bonds to foreigners to finance their own government’s operations. Literally the only thing accomplished by this is giving away rubles to foreigners in the form of interest, incidentally creating downward pressure on the ruble as the interest on the bonds is sold for other currencies, which the Russian central bank then has to counteract. In other words, Russia both gives away free money to countries that hate Russia and are dedicated to destroying Russia, and provides the tools for financial speculation against the ruble. This kind of child-like ignorance and naivité is why the West continues to run rings around Russia. As for the article you linked to, imagine writing something that complex and ambitious on the basis of a mistaken premise.

Yes, you are perceptive as usual. American complaints are a lot of drama and not new.

However the wide-ranging moralistic crackdown is fairly new. there was somewhat of a parallel with abolitionism in the 1920s but that was also an era of widespread and acceptable flaunting of those rules. The present moralizing seems more pervasive and restrictive.

This map makes suggests that what is measured is not racism, but exposure to black people. States with more blacks score higher, those with less score lower. I don’t think white people from New Jersey and Mississippi are equally racist.

In Europe in contrast, places with fewer black people score as more racist.

Adolf & the Nazis never won any election. What brought The Mustache to power was the machinations of the German Center-Right.

He clearly won the election according to normal rules of multiparty parliamentary elections. His party won the most votes under generally honest conditions and was able to form the government with its coalition partners. Largest party and percentage support in the last free German election:

Nazis got 37.3% of the vote.

In 2017 Merkel got 33% of the vote, and in 2009 she got 34% of the vote, less than Hitler got in March 1932. Will you claim Merkel didn’t win those elections?

People must get ready to live in a total awareness society where the decision makers know all they need to know about any member of the society and any anti-social activity can be prevented and/or corrected.

That’s not why the decision makers want the control. They want the control so they can do all the great drugs and perverted sex. What you are describing is more cover story than anything else. Anti-social activity is fine if you are on the top of the pyramid. In fact it is almost the whole point.

FWIW, largest party doesn’t *automatically* mean winning the elections. Just ask Benjamin Netanyahu in 2009 and Nuri al-Maliki in 2010. However, Yes, Hitler was in the best position to form a governing coalition in Germany after the German elections of 1932 so long as the German Communists refused to cooperate in forming a unified anti-Nazi front with the other German political parties. Had the German Communists indeed been willing to form such a unified anti-Nazi front, though, then things would have been much different.

Was greater exposure to black people also what caused Southern whites in the US to support anti-miscegenation laws until at least the 1960s?

The main reasons for Merkel’s dominance is her success against her rivals within the CDU und the decline of the SPD, until recently the only serious rival of the CDU on federal level.
Merkel “won” in 2009 and 2017 because the SPD performed even worse, losing a third of their voters between 2005-2009 and never fully recovering.
Merkel’s only huge victory in a federal election was in 2013.

In regards to intelligence augmentation, why exactly is it so crucial for Russia to develop such technology itself? After all, even if other countries such as China will develop this technology first/in place of Russia, won’t Russia still be able to purchase this technology from them later on?

This would be similar to a biosingularity. Initially, gametogenesis + IVF + embryo selection will likely primarily be one in wealthy countries, but eventually, it will also spread to poorer countries due to lower costs and possibly also noblesse oblige on the part of wealthier countries to help out their poorer brethren.

I don’t buy into any AGI scenario. In fact, I think we’re already in another AI “winter”. All of this current AI hoohaa is based on multi-layered neuronets, a technology actually invented in 1986! It was only around 2010 or so that semiconductor hardware had advanced to the point where people could start playing around with these deep layered neuronets.

Bio-engineering is a complete different story. I think the next 50 plus years will be bio-engineering years just like the last 50 years have been semiconductors/computers/IT. However, I still do not believe we will get massive increases in human IQ. Developments will be more incremental.

The EU itself passed the AZ vaccine as safe and effective. Other For Profit vaccine companies are the places to look for the criticisms which are very similar to those levelled against Sputnik V. By the way, the Astra part is Swedish.

GM has pulled out of Russia.

I’ve done a lot of work on hotels in Russia. There are no real hotel chains in Russia due to:
Hotels were mostly privatized by extablishment.
Soviet Hotels were mixed grades so no star ratings.

There are new individual Russian owned establishments that meet 4 or 5 star levels and are not branded but they don’t operate in chains or even franchises. Up to 2014 they sold out anyway. Also, by franchising to an international brand, the hotel operators (usually not the same as the owners) get access to training for their staff. There was a huge shortage of competent hotel staff, especially managers. So foreign brands were preferred. The best hotels were sold out after 2014 as there was not so much competition and every large city was accomodatin teams of auditors from the Central Bank and teams from the Investigative Committee looking into local FSB corruption.

See also: "Trust in traditional media has declined to an all-time low….For the first time ever, fewer than half of all Americans have trust in traditional media…56% of Americans agree with the statement that "Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people." pic.twitter.com/V2iMwL18Bi

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 28, 2021

Media trust over time. This might look like a sudden massive fall in 2021 but it’s really just a return to the trend. The increase between 2015 and 2019 was mostly because of political polarization. With Biden being President now you can’t pretend CNN and NBC is the #Resistance anymore.

Who among older voters thought this was a good idea? It just happened? Or Wall Street?

In its desire to fill supposed future vacancies in the job market, America’s elites (read Wall Street) have opened the floodgates to open borders policies. How wold you answer your own question?

..Had the German Communists indeed been willing to form such a unified anti-Nazi front, though, then things would have been much different.

Are you sure anyone asked them?

I also believe we should focus on enhancing our own genetics. We get an exponentially increasing amount of genomic data, it is only a matter of time before we can optimize our genetic information.

OTOH, who really knows what lurks in the deepest layers of the cyberspace. Peehaps the AGI is already around and acting without us even noticing it.

If they wanted to offer coalition negotiation terms, they were welcome to do so by sending messages to the other German political parties, no? AFAIK, Stalin told the German Communists not to cooperate with the other German political parties because he believed that having Hitler come to power in Germany would be better for the Soviet Union’s interests. Biggest and bloodiest miscalculation EVER!

Let me correct that:

In its desire to lower average incomes of Americans, the globalised elites opened the floodgates and opened borders. Many among the older generation saw it as an opportunity to make money in stocks, real estate, etc… so they voted for the open-borders elites again and again. Until the flood reached them, and by then it was too late…

Is that about right?

…If they wanted to offer coalition negotiation terms, they were welcome to do so by sending messages to the other German political parties…

In other words, no. Thanks for confirming.

German Centre-Right and other parties preferred Nazis to Communists. And you talk about a bloody miscalculation…do you guys with affinity for Nazis ever think logically, or is it all just emotional hatred?

However, Yes, Hitler was in the best position to form a governing coalition in Germany after the German elections of 1932 so long as the German Communists refused to cooperate in forming a unified anti-Nazi front with the other German political parties.

Including the far right German nationalist Party that went into coalition with the Nazis? Or the Roman Catholic Party?

The main reasons for Merkel’s dominance is her success against her rivals within the CDU und the decline of the SPD, until recently the only serious rival of the CDU on federal level.

Yes, this explains why she won. So?

Merkel “won” in 2009 and 2017 because the SPD performed even worse, losing a third of their voters between 2005-2009 and never fully recovering.

Why quotes around won? She won, for whatever reason. People often won because the opponent screws up. Biden “Won” because Trump botched Covid. So? He still won.

Hitler’s Nazis won the 1932 multiparty election by the German people; his party got the most votes with 37% of the vote. He got a higher percentage of the votes than did Merkel in 2 of the last 3 elections, than David Cameron (but less than Teresa May or Boris Johnson) in British elections, more than Trudeau in the last Canadian election, etc. It was a fairly solid victory by the standards of multiparty parliamentary elections.

Enhancing our genetics is really about enhancing cognitive ability and executive function. These are really the only traits that really matter. Cognitive ability is likely based on thousand genes and executive function even more. This is way beyond the capabilities of CRISPR. We need whole chromosome synthesis to make this a reality. That is probably 20 years off. If you want to describe it in “Star Trek” future history terms, it means Khan and his ilk are born during the 2040’s and take power in their respective countries around 2070 or so, making the Eugenics Wars in the late 21st century rather than last 20th century. Seriously though, the whole chromosome synthesis is necessary to significantly improve these traits and that is some time off from now.

BTW, curing aging does not require this kind of technology at all as aging is not “genetic” at all. This is the reason why most of us life extensionist types really don’t care about “germline gene therapy”. We’re not interested in genetically designing other humans. We seek only to fix ourselves.

I doubt that any single voter was ever convinced that by voting for any specific candidate that was a proponent of open borders their 401(k) account would grow to unimaginable levels. Add in the propostion that somebody would vote for and elite candidate in order to lower their own or anybody elses average income, and you have developed a really fantastic conspirac y theory.

I do, however, remember the late 90’s and early 00’s when the dot.com mania including the ever increasing values of technology stocks fueled a massive buyoff of overly inflated stocks with unsustainable P/E ratios. Everybody thought that they would become millionaires by investing 10k in a technology mutual fund – what ever happened to that dream? 🙂

Not sure if the DNVP were *far*-right, but Yes, possibly even them and definitely the Catholic Center Party. Maybe the Nazis and the DNVP can both be excluded, but I’ll need to take a look at the exact electoral math. But the Catholic Center Party would definitely have to participate in such a coalition.

I looked at the figures for November 1932:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_1932_German_federal_election

Social Democrats: 121 seats
Communists: 100 seats
Center Party: 70 seats

That’s already 291 seats out of the necessary 293 seats necessary for a majority. A couple of additional seats should easily be found. For instance, the Bavarian People’s Party, the Bavarian branch of the Center Party, had 20 seats. That would push the coalition up to 311 seats. The moderate right-wing German People’s Party had 11 seats, thus pushing the coalition up to 322 seats. And of course there were some additional parties with five seats or less.

So, Yes, very doable with the cooperation of the Catholic Center Party, even without the DNVP.

I wonder if hyphenated US presidential administrations will become the norm going forward.

Our best bet would be to wisely avoid both extremes and attempt to move forward in a measured and thoughtful manner. We need to avoid conflit and achieve a balance.

Putting aside your fears of the singularity, and my enthusiastic embrace of it, there could be more socially acceptable paths:

https://mobile.twitter.com/aubreydegrey/status/1371196809595346950

I don’t know nearly as much about anti-aging as de Grey does, but even his skeptics have acknowledged that advancements in the field of anti-aging have been substantial over the past decade – and there’s no sign of things slowing down. If his predictions are borne out to be true, then we could possibly get something both of us would like: I would get the longetivity aspect, but you would get the avoidance of the shedding the biological constraints, and we would still (at least outwardly) remain homo sapiens.

(I am somewhat skeptical that remaining confined to our biological constraints can truly take us to the next level, but perhaps de Grey’s future is a middle-ground that can be accepted by all, reasonable, sides).

Some good news on space radiator chillers which are a civilization critical technology for any meaningful space based electricity generation.

На территории конгрессно-выставочного комплекса гостиницы «Космос» 23-26 марта 2021 года проходит XXIV Московский международный Салон изобретений и инновационных технологий «Архимед». В этом году Центр Келдыша (входит в состав Госкорпорации «Роскосмос») представит опытный образец излучателя устройства сброса тепла в космическое пространство.

Изобретение предназначено для системы терморегулирования космических аппаратов. Излучатель имеет увеличенную эффективность сброса тепла и при этом повышенную степень защиты трубки с теплоносителем от метеоритов и космического мусора.

https://www.roscosmos.ru/30464/

At an international expo ‘Archimedes’ in Moscow Keldysh Center (Russian research institute) demonstrated experimental device for radiation of waste heat into space. Device is dedicated to thermal regulation of spacecraft. I’m not sure if it’s a panel or fiber based one, or maybe even a droplet (panel is worst, fiber is OK, droplet is the future).

And speaking of the devil, it looks like Russians solved the droplet dispersion problem back in 2017. This guy solved it, to be exact.

Topic starts at around 6:20. To recap for non Russian speakers. Any moron can build a nuclear reactor and launch it into space, its easy to do. So why then the largest single power unit in space is about 20 kW? Because while producing electricity in space is easy, dissipating waste heat is not. Space is like a giant thermos that insulates well. The only way to get rid of heat is through radiation. Conventional way is radiator panels, but it’s extremely inefficient as their size requirement grows two orders of magnitude faster with power level increase. Past few hundred kW, those panels will weigh more than all the rest of the spacecraft put together.

To improve heat radiation efficiency, we must move from 2D panel to 3D geometry. Hence the droplets, as small droplets maximize surface area to volume (mass) ratio. This will allow for orders of magnitude lighter cooling systems and therefore high power output (nuclear reactors are very light compared to the weight of the cooling system they require). The droplets are made as you pass diffusion pump oil through an atomizer basically.

However, there is a problem. Small droplets accumulate static charge by picking up free electrons from space. This causes them to repel from each other and that makes collecting them back after they cooled off very difficult, and this results in coolant mass loss. That was the problem with Kaplya-2 experiment on the International Space Station back in 2014. There were a number of proposals put forward (external electromagnetic fields, plasma feed to neutralize the droplets etc) but they are all cumbersome, unreliable, or require expendable materials which makes them unsuitable for years long operation.

A simple, robust, and permanent solution to the problem is to illuminate the droplets with UV light at around 140 nm wavelength. This will trigger photoelectric effect that will kick off the excess electrons from the droplet. Unlike external electric field, there is no danger of over-ionizing the droplets and stripping too many electrons which will cause the same repulsion problem. No complex control is needed. All it takes is about a dozen UV lamps and those will condition the droplets for easy collection and minimize coolant losses.

That is actually very very clever.

The end goal is to normalize the coming drop in living standards for Westerners. A westerner is willing to accept a reduction in his life style if it means staying online. To remain in that niche bubble/echo chamber. And the lure is going to get much more intense. True targeted entertainment. Beyond deepfakes, neural networks, procedural generation, and VR. Distractions of a higher order that these weak ass children of today, with their vagina-like fear over a nothing flu, will never be able to overcome.

Look at the wealth bitcoin projects. The wholesale acceptance of illusion over reality. Making an ERC20 token is literally nothing but copy/pasting some open source script in Solidity. And with that alone you can go out there and scam someone out of hard earned cash to buy your nothing-coin. People want to believe the illusion.

And thats all this is. Forcing the weak minded to accept illusion as reality. And its working. Soon the two minutes of hate for Putin will come after the national anthem in schools.

Was the 1930s German Communist Party Stalinist? That would make it no less incompatible with the Catholic Party as with the Nazi Party.

Late reply. Finally someone who can see eye-to-eye with me, even tho I see WEF in a much worse light.
Here is the only economic forecaster you need. https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/

I just replied to an older post with the link to Martin Armstrong’s site, and what you said in the post appears inevitable to him. He has no idea about technological level, but he implies the West falling to Third World levels of economic development, and that he blames the WEF.

This is part of the WEF strategy with the added benefit of pod people having reduced resource/energy consumption.

This is incredible, thank you.

I call this the digitalization of the Real. I did not mention it in my comments because I do not want to discuss it here or anywhere else. I believe it to be a highly sensitive and perhaps an outright dangerous topic.

Blaming the WEF is pointless. If it weren’t they, then it would be some other group of people. Our technological development has reached certain milestones and as a civilization we will have to go through certain bottlenecks.

During the neolithic revolution, only a minority of population initially embraced agriculture. Their offspring represent today the overwhelming majority of humanity. The future belongs to those who survive and reproduce.

If someone fails to reproduce, just because they have been too easily distracted by latest technology developments and societal trends, then they are obviously subpar on mental realization level and unfit for what is coming next. Despite what many believe, evolutionary selection is ongoing, but it is becoming more psychologically and cognitively oriented.

We need to be unfazed to survive the current Eon.

Two Minutes of Hate (1984)

digatilization of the real – worth watching!

Thanks for this update.

I thought nuclear power in space means thermoelectric generators using thermocouples and the heat generated by the decay of Pu 238 not miniaturized nuclear reactors as in no fission reaction takes place only radioactive decay.

Has this changed?

I don’t know about the four Visegrad countries, but they had similar incidence to Romania.

In April 2020, Romania had one of the toughest curfews imaginable, resulting in few cases. The military used helicopters and armored cars. It was just absurd:

Now, it’s time for retribution. People won’t stay locked for another year, and immunity is nowhere near the US/UK levels.

There’s nothing wrong with thermoelectric generators and indeed they are a preferred solution up to 500 kW or so based on the power/mass ratio.

However, they are only like 5% efficient, and if you want more than 500 kW of power, conventional turbine designs are a way to go. At high power levels, weight and complexity of turbine will be worth 25%+ conversion efficiency. Megawatt+ sized reactors will need to be turbine based just like they are on Earth.

Has any turbine ever generated power for a spacecraft in space?

In addition would not the solid state design of thermoelectrics make them inherently much more reliable especially since maintenance and repair is not practically possible for deep space probes.

Voyager is still working after almost 50 years..I doubt a turbine with zero maintenance will reliably keep producing power for so long.

Has any turbine ever generated power for a spacecraft in space?

No, to the best of my knowledge.

In addition would not the solid state design of thermoelectrics make them inherently much more reliable especially since maintenance and repair is not practically possible for deep space probes.

That is correct, which is why thermoelectrics are currently the go to technology.

Voyager is still working after almost 50 years..I doubt a turbine with zero maintenance will reliably keep producing power for so long.

Voyager puts out on the order of 100W power. Yes, those RTGs are extremely reliable, but 100W is not good enough.

Reliability for the turbine is the reason why TEM project is taking decades – the eager beavers at Rosatom are spinning those at 60,000 rpm to test for longevity. It is a serious roadblock to get 10 year operational life at those speeds but there are reasons to be optimistic. The payoff – 1MW+ electric power at 25%+ efficiency is well worth the effort. But yeah, its not easy, very time consuming, and a serious risk.

Digitalisation will go beyond just ideological and political manipulation. It will blur the boundaries between the physical realm and the digital, simulated, virtual experience. This digital, simulated experience will become more important than the physical one for a great many people. People will be more attached to their online personality than their physical self. They will massively trade the hardships of physical existence for the instant gratification of the virtual world. It is already happening.

What exactly are you getting at? If it’s already happening, can you point to an example or two?

Well, the flesh puppet could be seen as just an interface for interacting with the meatworld for the digital soul. The finger is not the mind, it is just a means of manipulating the world.